Finding Your Footing Pt. 2: “‘The Big Three’ Makes Less Sense Than You Think”

Last time I addressed what I consider the elephant in the room: the imperfect and chaotic classroom that is the internet. To summarize — learning astrology on the internet is okay, but unless you focus on select sources and follow up consistently, it’s extremely difficult to get much perspective about the underlying structure of astrology, or the various schools of thought that coexist within astrology, and thus, more often than not, an auto-didactic internet astrology will be a hodgepodge or an incomplete patchwork.

This time I’d like to address a specific topic that confused me for far too long. It was only when I got a much greater perspective about the origins of astrology and its development in modern times that I was able to articulate what had confused me so much in the first place. This will not be an exhaustive exploration of this subject, but hopefully it will be useful for breaking through the confusion that I’m certain plagues a huge number of astrology beginners (and even intermediates).

“THE BIG THREE” MAKES LESS SENSE THAN YOU THINK

If you’ve just started studying astrology, you’ve probably come across the popular conception of “the big three”: the Sun, the Moon and the Rising. These are the signs that supposedly describe the fundamental pieces of the personality. When I say “supposedly,” my intention is not to denigrate the importance of these placements. If you spend some time with astrology, comparing patterns of personality with these three placements, it’s pretty undeniable that these are usually the most prominent signs which mark a person’s perceivable character. But in our emphasis on this grouping, an important qualification is often overlooked, especially in the beginner stage: the big three is only an informal class of placements — they are not three points in one structural or systematic conceptual framework.

In the first astrology book I ever bought (FYI, it was not the only astrology book I ever needed), the Sun and Moon were compared to Freud’s ego and id, respectively. In other words, the conscious, rational mind (Sun), and the instinctual unconscious (Moon). The rising sign (or ascendant) was then introduced as the sign which represents the self as it interfaces with the outer world. Alternatively, the rising sign was described as a mask, a constellation of habits and patterns which greet the world upon first encounter. This mask might obscure the true nature of the face, and yet it reflects a certain innate truth of the individual nonetheless. In this introductory section, there was some reference to the fact that the Ascendant is the sign which was rising (or ascending) over the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, but it was only clarified much later that the rising sign belongs to an entirely different system from planets: the houses. So why was the concept of the Ascendant introduced alongside the 10 major “planets,” or celestial bodies?

Over time, I was able to make sense of this trio of placements, but I still remember the initial confusion that it sparked. I remember because it’s the same confusion I always encounter in a friend whenever I try to quickly explain what the big three represent and how they differ. The Ascendant represents the self. But so does the Sun, it’s just a different part of the self — the conscious will, if you will, the part of us that acts with intention and likes to be recognized. And the moon, yes, also an aspect of the self, albeit an even more hidden part. If we’re talking about the other planets and what they represent in the personality…well, heck, each of those also represents a significant aspect of the self. Even the term “self” is remarkably loaded and hard to pin down, especially if you dive into broader spiritual and philosophical concepts about individual vs. collective consciousness. When applying astrology in this modern psychological context of character analysis, surely every single point of interest reflects some aspect of the self. What, then, distinguishes the Ascendant?

Ultimately, there’s only one way to properly perceive the rising sign. In order to be understood, it must be liberated from the domain of the planets. It can’t be grouped with these other placements without causing some significant confusion. To truly grasp this its nature, we must turn to the system known as “houses.”

THE ASCENDANT & THE HOUSES

Why is the Ascendant so often introduced alongside the major planets? Because it is a truly essential component of the chart, without which the character/personality assessment will be plainly incomplete, but astrology writers are hesitant to overload the beginner with a whole new layer so early in the process. When you’re still wrapping your head around signs (how we divide the sky), and planets (the things in the sky), it’s hard to make sense of houses, and thus, the Ascendant. So they tuck it in with these things we’re already familiar with, at least in passing. And in order to stress its importance, they compare it to the Sun and the Moon. But in reality, the Ascendant is not any more especially related to the Sun and the Moon than it is to Mercury or Saturn.

Let’s clarify what it is. The ascendant degree marks the line of the eastern horizon in the exact moment of birth (or the snapshot of any chart, whatever its use). The horizon line’s passage through the signs reflects the daily rotation of the earth, moving through all the signs in approximately 24 hours. This is called primary motion. Step one is to not confuse the earth’s rotation with its yearlong orbit, seen clearly in the Sun’s passage through the twelve signs. Since the signs move clockwise around the earth (as represented in a wheel chart), the sign on the eastern horizon is “rising,” whereas the sign on the western horizon is setting. Thus, sunrise occurs each morning when the Sun meets the ascendant degree and rises over the horizon.

Symbolically, this horizon line has come to signify many things. In a natal chart, it can be seen as the point which symbolizes a person coming into their own being — their first breath, that first moment of individual experience separate from the mother. It is extremely specific, not just to the hour but the minute, not just to the timezone but the longitude and latitude. (This is the reason astrologers want you to find your birth certificate, and not just ask your Mom approximately what time she thinks you were born.) The sign in which the ascendant degree falls is known as your rising sign. This point, marking the exact moment of your birth, represents you, and you are colored by the qualities of the rising sign.

Is your head spinning? Good, that means you’re learning something new! And if you already know this, good for you.

So why is the Ascendant so different from the celestial bodies? One, it’s not a luminous thing floating in the sky, it’s just a point on a representative wheel designed by human beings, though it does represent a moving point with real physical significance. Pretty different. Two, it’s the only thing in the chart that specifically represents you and only you. The Sun can represent you, a part of you that’s particularly radiant and willful; but it can also represent other things and people, like your father, or the president of your country (a total fucking asshole!), or a heroic archetype. The Moon can represent you, a part of you that seeks comfort and nourishment and attempts to fulfill your physical and emotional needs, but it can also represent a caring figure in your life, or any number of other things. In the astrological system, the Sun, Moon and planets have intrinsic qualities which root their meanings as symbols of the self, as well as external forces which appear in a human life, bridging the inner and outer worlds. The Ascendant, on the other hand, will never represent your Mom or your Dad, or your nurturing friend or the president; its sole purpose is to represent you.

And what about the houses? The houses, like the signs, are a system which divide the chart into twelve subsections. However, whereas the signs are a fixed framework dividing the sky itself, anchored by the solstices or the fixed stars (depending on which zodiac you’re using), the houses shift throughout the day, following the movement of the ascendant degree. The signs are relatively eternal from our point of view, but the houses are specific to the particular snapshot you happen to be looking at, whether it’s a birth chart or just the positions of the transiting planets at a given time and place. In other words, the Ascendant and the houses are a way to contextualize your viewpoint, your life, in all this grandiosity of planets moving through signs. When we overlay the signs with the houses, we generate a specific astrological map relevant to a human life or a human concern.

The entirety of the first house represents you, your way of being and interacting with the world, your habits and your physical characteristics. You embody the qualities of the rising sign and the planet which rules that sign. Moreover, the placement of that ruler (or dispositor) will give us more information about you and how you operate. The other houses represent everything else in your life: your possessions, your siblings, your parents, your children, your boss, your romantic partner, your inheritance, your religion, your career, your friends, and the disturbing things that keep you up at night. Given that there are eleven houses which are meant to cover every possible subject that you could ever encounter in your life, each house covers a variety of different figures, scenarios, and psychological considerations. To borrow a favorite word of the author Richard Tarnas, the houses, like the signs and planets, are multivalent — having many applications, interpretations, meanings, or values.

We would need much more time to take a detailed look at the houses, and I dare not broach the subject of house division (where we draw the lines between the twelve houses, and how they correspond with the signs). But there is one more aspect of houses which I need to bring into this discussion to fully illustrate their significance. The Ascendant is just one of four important points which anchor the house system. There are four houses which describe the most important considerations of any life, which are perfectly summarized by my teacher Austin Coppock: the first house (“Who are you?”), the fourth house (“Where do you come from?”), the seventh house (“Who are you with?”), and the 10th house (“What do you do?”). Those houses are typically derived from or linked with four important points: the Ascendant, the IC (Imum Coeli), the Descendant, and the Midheaven or MC (Medium Coeli). These are known as the four angles, and they correspond with the eastern horizon, the bottom of the sky (under the earth), the western horizon, and the middle of the sky (the “highest” point above). It is within this system that the Ascendant represents you, in relation to your roots and family origins (the IC), your one-on-one relationships (the Descendant), and your reputation in work and public life (the Midheaven).

And it’s with the addition of the concept of the four angles that we start to understand the true significance of the Ascendant and the houses. Imagine that the sky is a giant spinning wheel, like in the game show Wheel of Fortune. Near the moment of your birth, the wheel slows down and finally lands on a particular point. The spinning wheel has no real starting point or end point, but fortune has decreed that this particular prize or penalty be bestowed upon the spinner. Likewise, in astrology, the Zodiac has no true starting point or end point. In a birth chart, the Ascendant marks the point where the wheel landed at the moment of birth, a point which will determine so much about the course of the life and the person’s interaction with all the forces outside of their self — a point which will thus define the self.

If you are new to astrology, this was probably not a sufficient introduction to the houses. You probably need a visual aid to fully grasp the system and how it interacts with the signs. And encountering this explanation may have generated more questions than it answered. Again, I say, good! This means you’re learning. The only thing I really hope to accomplish here is to reiterate that the Ascendant does not belong in a list of planetary placements, and the common habit of including it in that context is one of those simplifying conveniences which ultimately stunt the learning and growth of a nascent astrologer. You may be somewhat more advanced in your understanding of astrology, and yet continue to group the Ascendant among those placements without realizing it; after all, the primacy of the “big three” is reinforced on a daily basis. If so, it’s likely that you are continuing to compare things which don’t truly belong together, even if just unconsciously, like a mild background hum of interference and confusion. It’s not that the Ascendant is less or more important than the Sun or the Moon. Like the Sun and the Moon, it gives us important information about our identity. But on a fundamental level, it speaks to a different aspect of astrology’s functioning, posing a central question: How do I relate to these symbolically charged spheres in the sky, and what do they represent in my life?

- Mercurius George