Are you emulating your ascendant more & more?

About the Ascendant :

Some say that as we grow older, we emulate more and more the characteristics of our Ascendant whereas others say that, au contraire (throw a little french in there!) people, needing less and less the 'mask' of the ascendant, will tend to embody more and more their Sun sign.

So which is it? The Ascendant or the Sun Sign?

Personally, I can't quite figure out which way I'm going, but then again I'm a Pisces Ascendant! LOL

What about you?

Maggie

I have to agree with you, Maggie, but maybe it is just that we Pisces Ascendants are on the upswing? I'm an Aries, Pisces rising. I have to say I was much more fiery, hot headed, impulsive and (of course) always right in my youth. I haven't exactly gone "fishy-washy" in my maturity but maybe the natural process of aging has helped me control the ram and embrace the fish a bit. It does sort of feel like I'm just one sign off from the rest of the universe sometimes, but I like to embrace that difference in point of view.

I think age has a lot to do with embracing both the traits of the ascendant and the sun sign. Age has a way of tempering extremes and allowing a bit of everything, at least that is how I feel about it. Nothing set in stone anymore, no more absolutes.

Marcia959 said:

I'm an Aries, Pisces rising. I have to say I was much more fiery, hot headed, impulsive and (of course) always right in my youth. I haven't exactly gone "fishy-washy" in my maturity but maybe the natural process of aging has helped me control the ram and embrace the fish a bit.

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It's very interesting that you should mention this. I have the Moon + Venus in Aries and I sometime think that it overshadows any shred of Pisces Ascendant I may have!

Maggie

balenciaga said:

I think age has a lot to do with embracing both the traits of the ascendant and the sun sign. Age has a way of tempering extremes and allowing a bit of everything, at least that is how I feel about it. Nothing set in stone anymore, no more absolutes.

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Yes, I agree.

My mother has a Capricorn sun with a Sagittarius Ascendant, and I find that as she grows older, she has achieved a very nice balance between those 2 signs. I love it!

BTW, I hope you had a fantastic Venus/pluto week end!

Maggie

I have Aries sun, and the people who know me well say I'm an Aries to a T, yet the people that don't know me very well I feel see the Aquarius rising. That's the mask alright. I usually will present myself as a bit...quiet and aloof. But when spoken to am very chatty, and I think most people view me as intelligent (well, at least I'd like to think that haha). I can see that I'm definitely becoming more of my rising, as humanitarian issues/helping others are becoming a central focus to me. Lately, I've also been trying to contain the rather negative characteristics of my sun sign.

We do change during our lives. However the Sun Sign/Ascendant dichotomy is too simplistic.

To use an analogy, suppose you are intending to travel from Paris to Rome. You have a photo of your departure site in Paris and a map. Once you are on your journey and ask 'Where am I?' looking at your photo of Paris is of little help. Instead you consult your map based on your departure point and if you're very sophisticated, you consult that modern oracle, the GPS.

Now think of your natal chart as roughly the equivalent of the photo of Paris and the road map. (It's analogous NOT identical) You need an equivalent of the GPS, and that's where other charts such as Solar Returns, Secondary Progressions come in.

Taking Secondary Progressions as an example, your Sun moves at approximately one degree each year. So on average most people will find their Sun in the next sign by the time they are 16, and eveyone will have their Sun in the next sign by the time they are in their early thirties.

There's some debate about whether the balance between natal Sun and Progressed Sun but general agreement that the Progressed Sun affects the way in which the Sun expresses itself in our lives.

In the same way the Ascendant also Progresses through the signs, again there are several ways of calculating the rate of progression and the obvious debate about how the change of sign affects our natal Ascendant.

Now I was born with Sun in the last degree of Libra, by the time I was three months old my secondary progressed Sun was at 0 degrees Scorpio and currently its 1 degree Capricorn. So I have a meld of Libra base with over layers of Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn. I could debate how relevant Scorpio and Sagittarius are to me now, but I have at least had those as phases.

If I look at my directed Ascendant, I find it's in Libra - (and with Saturn in exaltation conjunct the directed Ascendant).

We don't so much grow from Sun to Ascendant as find that both 'grow' over our lives and take on new subtleties. For much of our work we don't try and disentangle this change, as we would end up with far too many charts to handle. What we do is to use the natal, progressed and Return charts for a particular period we're interested in.

I thought that the ascendant shows how we are perceived by other people. Or is that where your moon is? I get confused, since my moon and ascendant are the same sign.

In my experience, the ascendant does become stronger with age. I am a Libra with an ascendant in Cancer. I've been giving up the "balance" thing and becoming more and more like the "crab" people. Weird...

The Ascendant has a lot to say about how we operate in the world as well as how we are perceived - that's because its ruler plays a central role in our natal charts. So if your Ascendant is Pisces, then Jupiter is its ruler, and where Jupiter is placed in the chart, and in what state it is, is important throughout your life, either as a challenge or as a help.

For instance, my Ascendant is in Gemini. Its ruler is Mercury, which is my case is in the 11th house, in detriment and fall (in Pisces), and combust (too close to the sun) as well as retrograde. So in a poor state. Mercury is a challenge to me - and because it rules my Ascendant, it is a challenge that carries through right into how I come across to others and how I position myself in the world, operate in it, fail or succeed in it.

As I grow older, I "manage" it better - but if you see my other thread (on weaknesses) you will see it IS a challenge. And I can't just drop it, it doesn't go away - I have to face it.

I think we grow more into all parts of our charts as we grow older, and also, we start to see where we've failed to take opportunities, or allowed weaknesses to prevail; but also where we've strengthened some positives.

Kilted Kat said:

I thought that the ascendant shows how we are perceived by other people. Or is that where your moon is? I get confused, since my moon and ascendant are the same sign.

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Well the modern view is that it's the way (the 'mask') you project to others and therefore it is how others see you.

More traditionally the Ascendant and first House describes you physically, in that concrete sense it's literally how others see you. Your 'psychology' is shown by your temperament which has a large dose of the Ascendant in it.