One of my pet peeves is when people ask me to guess their sign after finding out what I do. Somewhere along the way, the popular image of divination has derived into a type of fortune telling which is synonymous with booths and caravans. Even though the public idea is slowly evolving, this is still an annoying request.

But it’s not the request itself which annoys me, it’s the common misconception that it is your Sun sign which can be seen. Before the 19th century, if someone would ask about your star sign, you would answer with the Ascendant, which is the constellation rising on the east at the minute you were born. The degree of this Ascendant changes every few minutes. This is why people born in the same day can have wildly different personalities and fates.

During the 19th and 20th century there was an astrological revival mainly led by Alan Leo (heh), who in an attempt to simplify the system came up with some concepts which unfortunately stuck, among others counting planets = signs, or signs = houses.

While the Sun does show our identity and will, it’s that part of us which decides things, but it is not our point of interfacing with reality.

In Greek thought, the soul (here not seen as something which can be saved, but rather the animating intellect, or in other words, consciousness) entered the body at the moment of birth. Gestation was seen as the time of building, while birth was the launching of a ship when the captain gets on and navigates. Mind you, the captain is not the same as the shipowner, but the one who steers the ship.

It is through the Eastern constellation that the captain embarks, it is the Ascendant that shows both the physical constitution given by the Earth, and the mental inclinations given by the sky.

Since every sign has a ruling planet, it is the ruler of the Ascendant which becomes the captain. It is through this sign and the ruler, that the ship is represented. The rest of the crew has other responsibilities, they are in charge of how we learn, how we feel, how we get angry, how we think and all the combinations in between, but the captain and its location will show towards which topics our lives will navigate towards.

The Sun sign can be the same as the Ascendant, however this only happens for people born at sunrise, which are usually known as “double x” of whatever sign they are.

Similarly, if someone has a stellium – a group of 3 or more planets together – then it’s that sign which will be obvious first glance.

So keep this in mind when you read interpretations, and since you’re here find your Ascendant in the other blog posts and see how much that rings your interior bells.