Hi Elsa,
Sun vs Rising. Which is more important or are they equal? How important is reading “transits, charts, etc…” of your Rising sign, natal planets?
When reading astrological reports, a person is usually referenced to her/his rising and or natal planets. I always read my rising sign monthly, along with my sun sign. How does one bring what’s in the charts together and make it work?
I’m Libra with Cancer rising. Which of the two is more important?
Horoscope Reader
United States
Hi, Reader.
A lot of people are confused by this. I think I can sort it for you. The sun and the rising sign are completely different things.
The Sun represents your life force. It describes your creative self and your vocation. People who live their sun know that they are vitally alive and shining in the world.
The rising sign shows your first handshake. It’s how you present yourself to people. It also determines timing in your life.
To understand, just imagine a child, shining in first grade and then elementary school and then middle school and beyond. Later they might shine at work or in their marriage. It’s the same life force, see? But the life itself, unfolds. Each life in it’s own way!
As you can see, these things can’t be compared. People get confused due to the way horoscopes are written.
You’re told to read for your rising sign, because most horoscopes are written using a solar chart. That is, the writer uses the sun sign as the rising sign as if they were one in the same.
This method has obvious limitations but when you’re trying to write for ALL Aries (or whatever sign) in the world, it’s the best method we’ve got.
To better understand this, don’t miss this post – Live Your Sun, Satisfy Your Moon
You can get your Natal Chart Report here.
What is your Sun / Rising combo. Can you see how they work together?
Hi Elsa,
Wonderful topic.
I am Aries with Libra rising. Difficult combo, to say the least, this Sun – Asc opposition. It sometimes feels like I can only be one of the two, even for years… What you say about “living one’s Sun and shining as a result” is a great way to understand if you are on the right track or not…
Can you please elaborate a bit more on the connection of the Ascendant with the issue of “timing” that you reffered to?
Thank you very much.
I’ll add my two cents. Timing… meaning the Ascendant( Rising Sign) starts the chart. So when you read a Solar chart lets say for an Aries Sun, you are reading where the planet falls according to that, rather than where it truly falls, if you were to use your true Ascendant or Rising sign. Lets say Mars in Pisces is the example. SO in the Solar chart Mars would be placed in the 12th house. But you actually have a Cancer Rising, Hence the true transit of Mars in Pisces for you would be the 9th house. The two houses very different reads. So you can see why the Solar Chart cannot be considered an accurate forecast on timing of events and such.
Hope it helps. This is a good place to start to study Astrology so that the basic understanding comes forth and leads you to the next level!
Thank you wildstarz1!
I was trying to figure out in what sense timing was mentioned… your answer is pretty straightforward and well understood.
Regards,
Spark
Hi Spark
Thanks …
I probably didn’t use the proper verbiage. It was a crazy day. Very much like the transits of the day suggest. Start. Stop, and a surprise punch or two.
I was in the middle of work and then home with the broken gas burner and then at the vets with the cat who now has asthma. Ugh
But I had a couple of
minutes with a cup of tea. Lol
I remember the frustration at times on certain topic when you first begin to put the pieces together. So I thought I’d try to give an understanding of it.
The solar reading is very generalized. Better to use your rising. But then there are exceptions to the rules when you do not use equal house systems. You can have an intercepted house, which then also puts the transiting planets into yet a different house. So, it’s best to get your own individual chart and then you can see where the transits of the week/month fit into your own individual chart. Elsa does these!
Dear Wildstarz1,
Your description was well written, don’t worry. I have been studying astrology on my own for the last couple of years, so it was easy for me to grasp what you were saying, once the context (at least, your context) of timing was there. And it makes sense.
This is a very interesting blog, by the way.
Since this Sun vs Asc issue is important to me, especially with the current position of the Nodes, I’ll see what more I can find from previous posts, regarding the Asc.
I also read the article regarding living our Sun and satisfying our Moon – so enlightening.
Many thanks once again.
Pisces Sun, Sag AC – I’m a double escape artist, that’s how it works for me 😀
Jupiter is good!
can you please elaborate yourself. I would like to know the nature of Pisces Sun and Sag ASC. Do you feel communication problem?? Do you like open communication or not?
well, communication is mostly a Mercury topic, but as it is never far from the Sun, mine is also in Pisces, too close actually… I don’t have a problem with open communication (that’s my Sag AC, I’m normally pretty blunt) but I rather don’t really listen to the words people are saying, mostly I can just feel how they feel and what’s in their minds, so I guess, for the outer world it can be misleading how I communicate and there are only a very few people who can really understand me
I also wonder how to take into account your progressed sun…
Your rising sign also gets progressed too, right? So, how do your regular Sun/rising signs come into play with your progressed Sun/rising signs?
Yes, in your pr chart your rising sign, sun, faster moving planets like the moon, Mercury, Venus, will move but not as fast as they do normally. They all move but Uranus, Pluto, Neptune are slow anyway. I’m natally a Virgo AC/Aqua sun. My pr chart (I’m almost 50) is Libra AC/Pisces sun. I like it!
I am Cancer/Cancer Rising so easy for me. I have learned to live my Sun, satisfy my Moon. Cancer Sun/Sagittarius Moon. I have a home and I travel. Could not live without either one of these things. I have always thought I would love to be the vagabond traveling the world without a care…but that Sun always pulls me back to a home base. Once I learned to balance the two life is so much better.
Thanks to Horoscope Reader for the question. Your “Live your Sun, Satisfy your Moon” post from years earlier continues to be the most informative bits of astrology for me. Over time, that means more and different things. As character development is not static, I love that you include in your post today how Vedic Astrology focuses on the importance of the Moon’s influence rather than the Sun’s.
Both your posts flesh out the wholeness that makes for a juicier (and sometimes messy) life. I appreciate juicy and value it has my aging Scorpio Sun placement, which has been tempered greatly with the 2.5 yrs of Saturn’s hammer. My Capricorn Moon (practical and solitary in the 12th House) needs and wants the stability of a cave. As you wrote in one of those two posts Elsa, learning to find happiness when the Sun craves attention and applause at the same time that the Moon needs to duck-and-cover has for me been a lifetime journey.
That’s probably why I appreciate so much the focus of Vedic astrology and that of my Hawaiian culture which attends to the Moon and her cycles for timing and sustainability.
As an Aquarius sun Virgo rising you would think I spend all my time in soup kitchens and at political rallies. No. I serve through my writing, at my blog and in my books. I do want to start volunteering this year.
Haha! We are always Aquas no matter what lipsick you put on us!
Yes indeed! Love my M.A.C. and Lime Crime.
Cancer sun, Capricorn Rising. I’m not sure how I see how they work together. I see how they divide me. Child/adult, mother/father, what I know/what I feel. Then again, I also have a Cancer moon, and Saturn conjunct my Sun. These two factors must weigh in?
I’ve got Taurus Sun and Pisces rising. I think they go together pretty well. They both like to relax with some wine or beer!
Seriously, I think the Pisces makes me more open to possibility and change, and more imaginative than Taurus otherwise would be. And Taurus makes me more practical and determined than Pisces otherwise would be. I can be visionary and pragmatic, and the pragmatism makes it easier for me to convince others to pursue ideals.
I’ll admit I don’t really know how to “live my sun.” Act more like a Taurus? Pursue a more Taurean occupation? Eat more?
Eat more! Ha. Yes, eat more steak and ice cream, drink more scotch, smoke cigars and avoid the gym. LOL.
Replace cigars with pastries and I’m already doing a bang-up job of living my Sun!
I actually used to love the gym but lately it’s been impossible to drag myself there.
How about by championing your values (Venus, ruler of Taurus) and not budging on what you find unacceptable (Taurus is fixed)?
Taurus and Pisces are sextiled, earth to water. They work well together! Earth + water = mud, right? And mud is fertile stuff!! *grins*
Taurus sun, Capricorn Rising. I need to lighten up and not be so serious. I think i tend to juggle between the Capricorn and Taurus, I find it difficult to distinguish at times as both strong Earth. I have sun square moon(Aquarius)which is a bit trying.
I have an opposition so yes, I see how they work, because they flip flop. With Pluto on my ASC… extremely so.
Mine are both in the same sign, so I do feel them a lot; even though I do have it hard sometimes it actually feels right. I’ve been told by many people they can see I’m not trying to pretend anyone else – I guess that’s a good thing, or maybe it just means it’s not that easy to hide a double Scorp, haha.
I’m Virgo AC, WITH a Virgo stellium. I’m an Aquarius sun by the skin of my teeth. I have no fire, more earth, two lumbering planets in water (Neptune and Saturn). I feel my earth a lot. Water a bit and I’m comfortable with water signs. But at the end of the day and underneath all the dirt and mutability, I’m a freedom-loving, kooky Aquarius who loves to let others live but with the stubbornness of the fixed signs.
My sun and moon and asc are the same sign, scorpio. I can not possibly know the difference.
Virgo Sun conjunct Pluto. Taurus ASC, Scorpio moon. I have commitment phobia. I surprised when my friends told me I’m stubborn !!! I thought I’m the most accommodated and adjustable one.
Cancer sun and Scorpio rising here. Too watery, it is hard to stay afloat and keep from drowning. Neptune is conjunct ascendant so I guess I would be invisible water. Saturn is in Pisces so there is more invisibility there I guess. It is strang to be unseen and unheard. I have sort of gotten used to this.
Notwithstanding the importance of the sun and moon, I still need very much to live and satisfy my ascendant. Even my career is ruled by my ascendant, as are my hobbies (although the writing and research come from my sun and third house moon). Perhaps it’s because I have two planets and my south node conjoining the ascendant within a degree, and my chart ruler is the most aspected planet of my chart? Do others feel like a blend of the three?
Cap Sun, Aqua Rising. I feel most like a Cap. I kind of look like a cross between Cap/Aqua in appearance. I have no idea how to really get into the feel of Aquarius!!
Aquarius doesnt feel! Haha
What can you do if you don’t know the time you were born? I feel I’ll never know which directions and lessons I should be learning and following (being a novice in astrology) I have sun in Pisces and always been in denial at how important the rising sign is. I try and live by treating others the way they would want to be treated, but I still feel lost at finding my true potential in order to be a better person. Anyone know a good physic that can take me back to my birth?lol
My Gemini Sun makes me agile, witty and quick thinking but I seem calm, collected and elegant and some times a little spacy with Pisces Rising. I get comments on my eyes all the time.
Leo Sun with Aries rising. One of my biggest lessons to date is if I want something, I do it myself. It served me well!
You all are forgetting the aspects to those planets. If your sun is weakened by negative aspects to other planets then its difficult to be your true “sun” self. Same goes for your ascendant.
Disagree. Every harsh aspect has a high side. But you have to be willing to overcome the difficulties in your life.
If you avoid this, then your avoidance is the problem.