Factors Related to the Rising Sign

The Rising Sign or Ascendant is the point in the sky coming up over the horizon at the time of your birth. It changes signs every two hours because there are twelve astrological signs and twenty four hours in the day.

It is sort of the position of the Earth in your chart. There are three primary personal points in the chart: The Sun, the Moon and your Rising Sign.

The Rising Sign rules your physical appearance, how other people "see you" and your future. Some sources say your Moon sign is your past and thus more influential in childhood, and your Rising Sign is more influential as you get older because it's your future or the energy you are evolving towards in life.

If you want to use astrology to try to figure out your best looks, you need an accurate chart, including time of birth, and you should be looking primarily at factors impacting the Rising Sign.

Here are some things to look for:

1. What sign is it? 

There are twelve signs. Each is associated with a different part of the body, different colors and other things that may give you clues to what will work best for you. 

My Rising Sign is Aries. It's ruled by Mars and I tend to not wear jewelry, perhaps because Mars is associated with iron rather than with the kind of metals from which jewelry is typically made.

Aries rules the face, head and hair and some sources list other things like the brain or blood. For purposes of this site, it rules what your face, head and hair look like and I have difficult, interesting hair with a life and mind of its own.

Without going on at length, assume that I have hair like Madonna: It grows in brunette, usually is some shade of blonde (but not because I dye it). 

2. What's the ruler of that sign and where is it located in your chart?

As noted above, Mars is the ruler of Aries. My Mars is found in Virgo, an Earth sign. For that and other reasons, a lot of earthy colors work for me and my wardrobe trends towards a lot of dark, earthy colors.

3. Are there any planets strongly aspecting it?

I have three planets very strongly aspecting my Rising Sign and each of these influences what works for me style wise. It also probably is why I tend to stand out and attract attention without meaning to do so. 

I'm "eye catching" and I don't specifically mean that I'm pretty. I'm distinctive and people notice me and even when I try to go unnoticed, well, I'm not very good at that.

Generally speaking, you are looking for any planet at or near the same degree of your Rising Sign. 

So if your Rising Sign is at five degrees, look for all planets between two and eight degrees of any sign.

Some people use a seven to ten degree orb. That's how far the planet can be from exact, so they might tell you "25 degrees to fifteen degrees." I'm not a fan of that system.

There are lesser known aspects, like the quintile (one fifth of the circle) which is 72 degrees and the septile (one seventh of the circle) which is 51 degrees and some odd minutes. If you use a ten degree orb, you would say a sextile (one sixth of the circle or 60 degrees) is anywhere from fifty to seventy degrees which will mischaracterize planets in quintile or septile and lump them in with the much more well known sextile.

The type of aspect influences HOW two planets interact. Some aspects are high energy and these are typically called "negative" or "hard" aspects in traditional astrology. Some aspects are more harmonious and are typically called "positive" aspects in traditional astrology.

High energy isn't all bad and I will note that you can destroy a bridge by setting up harmonic waves that grow stronger over time until it falls apart. For now, just know that the type of aspect influences how things interrelate BUT if you are new to astrology the most important detail is that two things interrelate and you can look up information on the things that aspect your Rising Sign because their colors or the metals or body parts they rule etc. can give you clues to what works best for you.

Those things will be a big deal for your appearance, whether for good or for bad and sometimes both.

Mars and Aries (both are the God of war, just one is Greek and the other Roman) also rule cuts, including surgery. I am on the one hand covered in scars and on the other hand have had incredibly good luck with minor surgery for medical reasons on my neck and face improving my appearance though it wasn't sought for cosmetic reasons.

I had a sebaceous cyst removed from my face after nine years because it began to grow and a large mole removed from my neck because it began to grow and they biopsied it for cancer. The scars are nearly invisible and even people who knew me before and after had trouble finding them.

4. Are there any planets in the First House?

The Rising Sign is the start of the First House and there are myriad house systems. I used the Placidus House System which varies the size of houses as you move away from the equator.

But as a quick and dirty rule of thumb, you are looking for planets no more than thirty degrees after the exact degree of your Rising Sign. The chart should list house positions for all planets, whatever system is used.

The planets in the First House will significantly impact your appearance. Read up on them AND the sign they are in because planets in the First House can be in the next sign after your Rising Sign.

5. Lesser influences.

You can look at things like what house is a planet in that is impacting your Rising Sign. The energy of the First House roughly corresponds to the first sign of Aries, the Second House roughly corresponds to the second sign of Taurus and so forth and you can look up what the houses cover as well.

You can also just look up every planet and the sign it is in.

I have a planet in every water sign though they don't strongly or directly connect to my Rising Sign and I look fine in a variety of watery colors, like blues, greens and purples. I more strongly trend towards wearing stuff that corresponds to my Aries Rising Sign and the planets that strongly aspect it, but it's nice that many shades of blue are fine because it's a common color and I am not constrained to "Oh, only one or two shades of blue look okay on me and the rest are awful."

I knew someone who was very beautiful and looked like her skin turned green when she was in dark purple clothes. This in spite of the dark purple clothes being borrowed from a relative with very similar skin tone who looked terrific in dark purple.

Being beautiful doesn't mean any color works for you.