greybeard
Well-known member
The Ascendant – that point along the ecliptic that intersects the eastern horizon of the place of birth, where any body (star or planet) will be exactly on the horizon if exactly on the ecliptic – is the point where the invisible becomes visible. It is a point of conscious manifestation, of self-awareness... awareness of an individuality and separateness from other manifest beings, awareness of being aware. This is the self as distinct from all other selves. Our relationships with these other beings are shown at the Descendant, whether they are in conflict or are complementary. Here is where outer meets inner and the clash creates a conscious being. Our inner self shines through this portal to the outer world, our vision of that outer world is seen through this lens. The Ascendant and the First House must be considered in any question because it is the point through which all of our creative inner energies must pass on their way into the outer world or through which they are first recognized and acted upon as they enter into our consciousness. This is a point of manifestation where the self meets and interacts with manifest reality. It is “I AM.”
In this regard, a careful examination of the Ascendant is necessary to understanding the life because this is the point where destiny is created as the fruits of our own actions and the impingement of the external. It must always be involved in any sort of manifestation. Because this is the point of all beginnings – the solar day begins here – and the final outcome of anything is always subject to the conditions of its beginning, birth or inception, the Ascendant conditions and is in its turn conditioned by the events, both inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, spiritual or material that occur at this point where our being is made manifest, where we project our inner self into the world at large and know ourselves.
The close examination will include many factors, which when the significance of each factor, taken separately, is understood and its relative power of expression through the Ascendant is weighed and balanced, the synthesis of these factors will show what sort of tools are available to the self in its struggle to be, and whether they work smoothly or disruptively. Among these factors is the zodiacal sign on the horizon of birth, which sets the tone of the life. Any planet inhabiting the First House – especially if near the rising degree, and preferably in the same term may act powerfully in the personality. Close aspects, major and minor, to the horizon support or weaken our position in the world around us. The orb of each aspect assists in gauging relative strength of expression. Conditioning of the aspecting planets should be carefully examined. The conditioning and aspects to the lord of the horoscope, the domicile ruler of the Rising Degree, must always be given importance and power. Moon is always operative through the Ascendant; she is the goddess of substance and form; she is the energy that substantiates us as we meet the transient events of each passing moment. The bound ruler of the rising degree has sway there as does the exaltation lord. The almuten of the rising degree must be taken into account.
This multiplication of factors should cause no confusion. On the contrary, what it does is provide discrete units of information regarding the native, which when put in the hopper and thoroughly mixed give us a very detailed and accurate portrait of the person and the life.
Weighing and balancing involves not only gauging the relative probable strength of expression through the Ascendant (First House) of planets aspecting or holding some dignity in it, but also includes making judgment of the quality of the influences, whether harmonious or disruptive. In performing this investigation of qualities, strengths, weaknesses, skills and talents, and the general traits of the personality we will also have studied many if not most of the planets through the nexus of the Ascendant – which is its function, to serve as a connection, a concentration of energies from two different realms where they collide and are transformed into manifest being. Here, at the Ascendant, is the creative impulse, the Let there be...! It is the First Breath, Prana.
We can see that the Ascendant provides us with the way in. If the Ascendant is the Beginning, it makes good sense to begin our investigation and interpretation of any chart at this point, the Horoskopos. By entering the chart through this gateway to the inner self, by carefully considering each of the various discrete factors that influence its operation, we will very quickly see the chart as a whole.
The Ascendant shows our role in life. Jung calls it the persona, which was the role of the actors on the Greek stage and the mask they wore to depict that role. It describes our horizons in life, our perceptions and perspectives. Here we get a first glimpse of “what is coming up in life,” and see hints of the destiny and issues the native will meet.
With its correspondence to the “first years of life,” or early childhood, we also see those accidents of destiny that most powerfully and deeply affect us and form our being. The Ascendant is accidental in nature. The sign on the Ascendant imbues it (it being the Ascendant and what it represents) with an essential quality, according to the nature of the sign and the condition of its lord, but the Ascendant itself is adventitious, depends on the winds of fortune. Like the other Angles of the chart, it is a point of crisis, of change, a turning point; the life hinges upon it.
Our constitution is described and prescribed at the Ascendant. The constitution embraces not only the body but also the psychological makeup of a person. The Ascendant is our appearance, both our appearance as a new star and the state, condition, manner, impressions, style and circumstances of our being, which can be characterized as psychosomatic. Both mind and body are depicted here, dependent on all of the internal factors found dispersed through the whole chart and brought to manifestation at the Ascendant. Sixth House anxiety or Second House financial setbacks find their way to the Ascendant, always. Energies from within must and will find an outlet, an expression either direct or sublimated, and it will emerge at the Ascendant.
The Ascendant, our manifest personality at the juncture of the inner and outer worlds, is in a constant state of flux, of change. We may in one moment be consumed by anger, by joy or ecstasy; our attention may now be drawn to caring for our children, then be turned toward matters of career or artistic expression, or putting out a fire in the kitchen. The Ascendant (persona) is the mechanism whereby our self-interest is served. It protects our secret and vulnerable inner self from the onslaughts of the outer world, and entices the outer world into its service. It adapts itself to the fleeting circumstances of our existence. The adaptations may be quite successful in some instances and less so in others. The Ascendant is a process which continues its constant change throughout our lives while at the same time displaying a wonderful sort of consistency.
Not so long ago I was reunited with a brother-and-sister-in-law whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to in twenty years; it might as well have been yesterday, for they were the same people I had known two decades earlier, equally predictable in their behaviors and manners. Yet they had passed through so many experiences in the interim, experiences that of necessity changed them, or perhaps more accurately, made them more of what they always were as potentiality became manifest reality.
The Ascendant is our identity, the manifest reality of our being, the fact of our lives. A person studying astrology with an eye to self-understanding would do well to begin at the Beginning, and study the Ascendant with all the factors that affect it.
In this regard, a careful examination of the Ascendant is necessary to understanding the life because this is the point where destiny is created as the fruits of our own actions and the impingement of the external. It must always be involved in any sort of manifestation. Because this is the point of all beginnings – the solar day begins here – and the final outcome of anything is always subject to the conditions of its beginning, birth or inception, the Ascendant conditions and is in its turn conditioned by the events, both inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, spiritual or material that occur at this point where our being is made manifest, where we project our inner self into the world at large and know ourselves.
The close examination will include many factors, which when the significance of each factor, taken separately, is understood and its relative power of expression through the Ascendant is weighed and balanced, the synthesis of these factors will show what sort of tools are available to the self in its struggle to be, and whether they work smoothly or disruptively. Among these factors is the zodiacal sign on the horizon of birth, which sets the tone of the life. Any planet inhabiting the First House – especially if near the rising degree, and preferably in the same term may act powerfully in the personality. Close aspects, major and minor, to the horizon support or weaken our position in the world around us. The orb of each aspect assists in gauging relative strength of expression. Conditioning of the aspecting planets should be carefully examined. The conditioning and aspects to the lord of the horoscope, the domicile ruler of the Rising Degree, must always be given importance and power. Moon is always operative through the Ascendant; she is the goddess of substance and form; she is the energy that substantiates us as we meet the transient events of each passing moment. The bound ruler of the rising degree has sway there as does the exaltation lord. The almuten of the rising degree must be taken into account.
This multiplication of factors should cause no confusion. On the contrary, what it does is provide discrete units of information regarding the native, which when put in the hopper and thoroughly mixed give us a very detailed and accurate portrait of the person and the life.
Weighing and balancing involves not only gauging the relative probable strength of expression through the Ascendant (First House) of planets aspecting or holding some dignity in it, but also includes making judgment of the quality of the influences, whether harmonious or disruptive. In performing this investigation of qualities, strengths, weaknesses, skills and talents, and the general traits of the personality we will also have studied many if not most of the planets through the nexus of the Ascendant – which is its function, to serve as a connection, a concentration of energies from two different realms where they collide and are transformed into manifest being. Here, at the Ascendant, is the creative impulse, the Let there be...! It is the First Breath, Prana.
We can see that the Ascendant provides us with the way in. If the Ascendant is the Beginning, it makes good sense to begin our investigation and interpretation of any chart at this point, the Horoskopos. By entering the chart through this gateway to the inner self, by carefully considering each of the various discrete factors that influence its operation, we will very quickly see the chart as a whole.
The Ascendant shows our role in life. Jung calls it the persona, which was the role of the actors on the Greek stage and the mask they wore to depict that role. It describes our horizons in life, our perceptions and perspectives. Here we get a first glimpse of “what is coming up in life,” and see hints of the destiny and issues the native will meet.
With its correspondence to the “first years of life,” or early childhood, we also see those accidents of destiny that most powerfully and deeply affect us and form our being. The Ascendant is accidental in nature. The sign on the Ascendant imbues it (it being the Ascendant and what it represents) with an essential quality, according to the nature of the sign and the condition of its lord, but the Ascendant itself is adventitious, depends on the winds of fortune. Like the other Angles of the chart, it is a point of crisis, of change, a turning point; the life hinges upon it.
Our constitution is described and prescribed at the Ascendant. The constitution embraces not only the body but also the psychological makeup of a person. The Ascendant is our appearance, both our appearance as a new star and the state, condition, manner, impressions, style and circumstances of our being, which can be characterized as psychosomatic. Both mind and body are depicted here, dependent on all of the internal factors found dispersed through the whole chart and brought to manifestation at the Ascendant. Sixth House anxiety or Second House financial setbacks find their way to the Ascendant, always. Energies from within must and will find an outlet, an expression either direct or sublimated, and it will emerge at the Ascendant.
The Ascendant, our manifest personality at the juncture of the inner and outer worlds, is in a constant state of flux, of change. We may in one moment be consumed by anger, by joy or ecstasy; our attention may now be drawn to caring for our children, then be turned toward matters of career or artistic expression, or putting out a fire in the kitchen. The Ascendant (persona) is the mechanism whereby our self-interest is served. It protects our secret and vulnerable inner self from the onslaughts of the outer world, and entices the outer world into its service. It adapts itself to the fleeting circumstances of our existence. The adaptations may be quite successful in some instances and less so in others. The Ascendant is a process which continues its constant change throughout our lives while at the same time displaying a wonderful sort of consistency.
Not so long ago I was reunited with a brother-and-sister-in-law whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to in twenty years; it might as well have been yesterday, for they were the same people I had known two decades earlier, equally predictable in their behaviors and manners. Yet they had passed through so many experiences in the interim, experiences that of necessity changed them, or perhaps more accurately, made them more of what they always were as potentiality became manifest reality.
The Ascendant is our identity, the manifest reality of our being, the fact of our lives. A person studying astrology with an eye to self-understanding would do well to begin at the Beginning, and study the Ascendant with all the factors that affect it.
