1st

What we are looking for is what is looking.  --St FrancisTake a few seconds to imagine how existence in the womb might f

What we are looking for is what is looking. --St Francis

Take a few seconds to imagine how existence in the womb might feel. Floating rhythmically in the waters of life – there is no sense of an individual or separate identity, no awareness of body, feelings or mind as distinct from anything else. Dreamily immersed in a primal paradise, there is only unity or oneness with the rest of creation. The universe is the self, and the self is the universe.

Birth rather dramatically jolts us out of this realm of oceanic totality. Being born means ‘taking on’ a body, and heralds the self as a unique and distinct individual. On the basis of this moment, the birthchart is drawn and our journey through the houses begins.

Marking the cusp of the 1st house, the Ascendant shows the exact degree of the zodiacal sign which is rising over the eastern horizon at the time of birth. Coincident with the first independent breath we take, the Ascendant and 1st house proclaim the beginning of a cycle, the initial step or stage in the process of Becoming.

Whatever is born at a moment in time reflects the qualities of that moment. The Ascending sign comes into light and distinguishes itself from darkness at the same time that we emerge from the dark, hidden, and undifferentiated environment of the mother’s womb. In other words, the Ascendant appears as we appear, and its qualities reflect both who we are and how we meet life.

The sign of the Ascendant symbolizes a particular facet of the totality of life which literally seeks ‘em-bodiment’ through what is being born at that moment. Because the Ascendant corresponds with the initial ‘flash’ or ‘hit’ of our individual existence, it also impresses itself deeply into the psyche as ‘that which life is all about’. We attribute to life the qualities of the sign on the Ascendant or any planets nearby. It is the lens through which we perceive existence, the focus we bring into life, the way we ‘bracket’ the world. And since we see the world in this way, we invariably act and behave in accordance with our vision. What’s more, life obliges our expectations and reflects our own point of view back to us.

Let us pause and consider this concept for a moment. How we perceive the world (our lens) will influence both the way we relate to it as well as what is fed back to us. By consciously or unconsciously ‘choosing’ certain possible interpretations of situations or people’s action and behaviour (while disregarding other ways of assessing the same circumstances), we organize our experience of life according to what we have elected to see. The Ascendant, which is the first notion of life we form at birth, describes something about this sorting out and selection process. Reflecting the inborn image we have of life, the sign on the Ascendant colours our view of existence. If we have on red glasses, the world looks red and we will act accordingly. We may act very differently if we see a blue world through our lenses.

First house

For example, if Sagittarius is rising, we will perceive a world of many exciting options and possibilities which invite us to explore and grow. If Capricorn is rising, however, we will view the world through a narrower lens of fear, doubt and hesitation. The same opportunities for expansion which stimulate and excite the Sagittarius rising into action may provoke the Capricorn rising into a state of dread and apprehension. When presented with a new possibility the Sagittarius Ascendant will exclaim, ‘Great, when do I start?’ When presented with the same possibility, the Capricorn Ascendant will shudder and drone, ‘Must I do it? I know I really should. Am I good enough? Oh, what a big responsibility!’*

We ‘dream the world up’ according to the sign on the Ascendant, and then we enact the dream. It is both the maze we create, and, at the same time, the way out of the maze. For instance, those with Aries rising interpret the world as a place in which action and decisiveness are prerequisites, and then they proceed to act decisively. Those with Gemini rising create a world in which acquiring knowledge and understanding is necessary and then they endeavour to try to figure life out. In this sense, the sign on the Ascendant is both what we are looking for and what is doing the looking. A more detailed description of each Ascendant is found in Chapter 17.

The sign on the Ascendant or any planet near the cusp of the 1st house often describes the individual’s experience of his or her birth. For example, Saturn on the Ascendant or Capricorn rising may signify delayed, extended or difficult births. Mars or Aries there seems to plunge into life head-first as if it is eager to ‘get out there and get on with things’. Many births with Pluto rising or Scorpio ascending involve a close life-and-death struggle, with the mother or the infant in great danger during the delivery. Regression and rebirthing therapists who also work with astrology confirm the correlation between the sign or planet on the Ascendant and the birth experience.

More broadly, the Ascendant and 1st house denote our relationship to the archetype of Initiation itself. The rising sign not only describes something about the actual birth, but also the inborn expectations and images we have whenever we have to ‘get something started’. The Ascendant suggests the fashion or manner by which we will enter into different phases or aspects of life. Anytime we experience something akin to a birth, each time we embrace a new area, facet or level of experience, the qualities of the Ascendant and 1st house are evoked. Each new beginning resonates with the qualities of earlier new beginnings, reawakening similar issues and associations. Capricorn or Saturn rising, for example, hesitates and holds back not just with the actual birth but with any transition into a new phase of life.

The style in which we meet life in general is shown by the Ascendant and 1st house. The image which comes to mind is that of a bird pecking itself out of an egg. We can ‘hatch’ into things in different ways. A Cancer rising bird knows it has to hatch, cracks the shell, and then decides it’s safer in the egg it knows. The Taurus rising bird will be slow to hatch but, once the process is begun, will carry it through in a determined and steady fashion. The Leo rising bird will wait until the conditions are suitable to make a dramatic, noble or dignified entrance, exhibiting itself proudly to the world. As an exercise, the reader might try imagining how the other rising signs ‘hatch’ into life or approach different phases of experience.

The Ascendant may be the way we hatch but what we grow into is the Sun sign. In other words, the Ascendant is the path leading to the Sun. For instance, a woman with the Sun in Aries and Virgo rising might discover her ability to initiate, lead and inspire (Aries) through developing Virgo qualities – such as the measuring of her energy in a focused and precise manner. A man with the Sun in Pisces and Libra rising may discover his way of healing and serving others (Pisces) through an important one-to-one relationship or artistic endeavour (Libra). The Ascendant flowers into the Sun. Or, as Liz Greene expresses it, the Sun is the kind of hero we are, but the Ascendant is the quest on which we must embark. The Sun is why we are here; the Ascendant is how we get there.

The signs and planets in the 1st house indicate the kinds of functions which will be most valuable in the process of realizing our own unique identity. These are the tasks that we need to fulfil in order to more wholly unravel who we are. We cannot be complete until we have recognized, explored and developed these qualities. In this respect, it is useful to bear in mind that the signs and planets (in any house) can be compared to a lift in a department store. The lift can let us off at the first floor for women’s shoes, the second floor for men’s clothes, or go directly to the restaurant at the top. Similarly, Mars or Aries, for instance, can, on one level, signify impulsiveness and rashness, while on another, courage and bravery. As we expand our awareness, it is possible to shift and change levels, to move from one form of expression of the sign or planet to another. Such shifting of levels may need to be experienced with all the placements in the chart, but it is especially fruitful to experiment in this way with the energies in the 1st house – the area of the chart so crucial to self-discovery.

Along with the 3rd, 4th and 10th houses, the 1st house denotes something about the atmosphere in the early environment. We normally encounter the placements in the 1st house in the highly formative early years of life. For instance, if Jupiter is there, the person may change countries shortly after birth. With Saturn, there may be a sense of hardship or restriction during infancy. Because 1st house energies are met and awakened so early in life, we form a close identification with the archetypes which the planets and signs there represent. Make a small scratch in the bark of a sapling, and once grown, the tree has an enormous cut in it.

Conversely, 1st house energies could describe the effect our ‘arrival on the scene’ produces on others. With Uranus or Aquarius there, for example, our arrival may signify disruption and change. With Pluto or Scorpio there, our birth may coincide with a major crisis of reorientation for those around us. We bring any sign or planet in the 1st house along with us wherever we go. This is not surprising since this house is naturally associated with the cardinal and fiery sign of Aries and the planet Mars. Cardinal fire represents a principle which radiates out into life. In general, the attributes of any sign or planet in the 1st house are somehow amplified by being in that position, as if the volume of their ‘tone’ has been raised. If 1st house energies are not obvious in the person, then something else in the chart is probably hampering their expression, and this blockage should be examined.

Since the sign on the Ascendant has such a great influence on the manner in which we meet life, the qualities of this sign will be reflected and embodied to some degree in our overall physical appearance and countenance. Many astrologers claim the ability to rectify an uncertain birth-time by assessing which Ascending sign correlates to the person’s shape and looks. However, it is an over-simplification to assign bodily appearance to the Ascendant alone. The whole chart is lived and expressed through the body, and therefore many different factors in the birth map are concretized in the physiognomy.

Geoffrey Dean’s Recent Advances in Natal Astrology recounts some of the studies which have been conducted on the relationship between placements in the chart and physical appearance. The American astrologer Zipporah Dobyns believes that the position of the ruler of the Ascendant (the planet which rules the sign on the 1st house cusp) is more important in this respect than the sign in which the Ascendant is placed. The German astrologer, Edith Wangemann, reports a correlation between the Ascendant sign and ruler with the shape of the head, forehead, and bones around the eyebrows.

March and McEvers, authors of The Only Way to Learn Astrology Vol. 3, include an interesting chapter on ‘Looking for Physical Appearance’. They feel the crucial factors are the sign on the Ascendant, planets in the 1st and 12th houses within 8 or 9 degrees of the Ascendant, the placement of the ruler of the Ascendant, the Sun sign, and planets near the MC.

Obviously, correlating physical appearance with the chart is quite complex. Nonetheless, some of the possible physical manifestations are given in Chapter 17.

In general, when assessing any of the workings of the Ascendant, a number of factors needs to be considered: the sign on the Ascendant; the ruling planet – its sign, house and aspects; planets near the Ascendant; and aspects to the Ascendant itself. An explanation of these factors is found on pages 125-6.

At the moment of birth, a physical embodiment of one of the myriad possibilities of life rises out of the unbounded matrix of being. As beautiful as this may sound, we are in fact not born with the comprehension of ourselves as separate and individual entities; nor do we arrive with an awareness of ourselves as some manifestation of universal spirit, or as an expression of one of the many faces of what some term God. However, it is through developing the sign on the Ascendant and planets in the 1st house that we will become not only more aware of who we are as unique individuals, but also more conscious of our relation to the greater whole of which we are a part. The next eleven houses describe further stages in that journey.