Yes, the other houses derive from the Ascendant, that is, the house structure of the chart originates there and is determined by the rising degree.
In calculating a chart "by hand", from tables, the first thing calculated is the RAMC, which gives the MC. From that the Ascendant is derived, dependent on latititude of birth place.
These two points (they are axes -- meridian and horizon) then allow calculation of the derived houses, using the house system of our choice. But they are derivatives determined by longitude and latitude of birth.
If the Ascendant is the Point of All Beginnings [Daybreak, First Breath, Invisible (Unconscious) to Visible (Conscious)], then it follows that all the other houses begin here. Life begins here. The outcome of all things is dependent on the conditions at Inception. Therefore, as the ancients said, the Ascendant is the Point of Destiny.
The zodiac represents the life cycle, the processes of life as it develops from Emergence (Aries) to Death and Rebirth (Pisces). Pisces is where "Except a corn of wheat falleth into the ground and die, it abdeth alone; but if die, it bringeth forth much fruit" takes place. Pisces is death of the ego, that act of "self-sacrifice" that makes possible the rebirth of self at Aries. The wheel of the zodiac is the life cycle, in order as a process, and if the Ascendant is the beginning of our manifest physical life, then it follows that the rest of the houses proceed from it, in order, and the house are thus determined by it.
The answer is within you. The Virgo Ascendant produces the Leo 12th house. Each horoscope is different. It is the lord of the sign on a house cusp that is most powerfully determinant in affairs of the house. The sign sets the tone of the house; the lord disposes that house and its affairs and outcome. (v. "dispose", "disposition" in Mr. Webster's masterpiece.) This according to the intrinsic nature, conditioning, aspects, etc of the lord.
Interception (in quadrant house systems) does not impair the house structure. It describes an anomalous state of affairs. The anomaly is between signs (cosmic, essential) and houses (mundane, accidental). It is a shifting of essential qualities from their normal area of expression. Interception implies some form of abnormality (not necessarily the hunchback, or Siamese twins...but something deviating from normality in some way.) The word interception means "being cut off from its normal or intended course." We might also use words like "enclosed", "contained", "shut in", "included"....to describe an intercepted sign and its content. It has no normal means of natural outward expression and must resort to secondary avenues. It is highly subjective, turned inward because cut off from its normal flow. It is a symbol of disruption. The meaning of an intercepted sign in actual practice can quite often be seen in a striking and very literal fashion in the life as lived; it is usually seen as house-specific.
The Ascendant is the Point of Manifestation. It is the place where the "inner self" (the psychological-spiritual complex described by the solar system as an interrelated whole) meets the "outer world" (at our horizon). All four angles have this inner-outer function, but the Ascendant is the primary symbol of the "self" as made manifest.
Life is a mystery. I'm old and each day discover facets of self (through living and through my horoscopic charting) that are new to my consciousness. In age I have learned not to get excited; things will come to us in their due time. My vision of who I was, who I am, and who I will be continues to unfold and change. Life is an adventure. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? I'll find that out tomorrow. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
The Sun is the center of the solar system (universe). All things revolve around it. Its symbol is a circle (Spirit) with a dot at center (point of manifestation). In the horoscope the Sun is the Spirit, our central Purpose. But notice that the Ascendant determines his house...the angle of incidence of his rays. This brings the Spirit-Purpose down to Earth. The planets in a chart describe the arrangement of energies; the Ascendant describes their particular manifestation. Houses describe surroundiing circumstances, the milieu through which the essential energies will be made manifest.
Two people born at exactly the same time contain exactly the same arrangement of internal energies. But if born at different places, the circumstances they encounter will be different, their lives different, the expression of those energies different. A hydrogen bomb dropped on Hiroshima is horribly destructive; dropped on the Sun, it foms part of a wonderfully creative process. The houses are foundational in astrology; that's why time of birth is the primary consideration in casting and delineating a chart.
I am a proponent of the "What you see is what you get" school of astrology. If the chart seems disharmonious, you get disharmony in the life. If there is a preponderance of Fire and a Fiery Ascendant, it would seem (other things being equal) that the expression of the Fiery inner nature would express more harmoniously than through an Earthy Ascendant.
I think students too often get lost in Astrology, and forget, or overlook, the fact that astrology is all about Real Life, Real People...and Common Sense. Simplify. Look at the chart not as some mysterious occult conundrum (which it is), but as a Map (which it is) of a person and their life. Join the Boy Scouts and learrn to read a map.
Suppose: Venus is lord of the horoscope (it represents the person of the native). Venus is found in the 4th House, between Uranus on one hand and Mars on the other, in close aspect. I would not hesitate to tell the Native "During your childhood you were surrounded by violence." Period. No ifs, ands or buts. What you see is what you get.
The Ascendant has an almost exact fit with Jung's persona. That's where the rubber meets the road. It's where spirit (which has no "reality"; it's intangible) becomes "real". But the persona is a construct, is constantly changing and adapting, is ephemeral. The Sun burns steady, is eternal. So that is the difference between Aries and Virgo. Virgo is the chariot. Aries is the driver.
