The Rising Signs as Archetypal Life Paths
Different astrologers will use different house systems to delineate which planets and signs fall in which houses, the size of the house, and its significance in the life of the native. With the renaissance of ancient and Hellenistic astrology in the last decade, whole sign houses have gained popularity. In whole sign houses, the sign on the Ascendant sets the sign of the first house, and then each house ‘receives’ an entire sign, progressing in zodiacal order from the first house to the twelfth. If you would like to learn more about this house system, its history, and reemergence, Chris Brennan’s Astrology Podcast has a wonderful episode you can listen to here. I use this house system in my practice and find its elegance and simplicity to be invaluable.
I was struck early on in my study of astrology that one of the implications of using a whole sign house system is that there become twelve possible charts (with regards to houses and signs) rather than an indefinite number of possible combinations. What I mean is that if the houses entirely contain the signs, then every Aries rising will have Taurus rule the second house, Gemini the third, etc. Every Leo rising will have Aquarius rule the seventh house, and Pisces the eighth. In a quadrant house system, one in which the sizes of houses vary wildly, there is not this consistency because the house boundary can fall anywhere within a sign or even swallow entire signs. The whole sign house system’s deviation from the quadrant house system simplifies the possible chart layouts, offering a kind of pattern, one in which twelve archetypal life paths emerge.
In some ways, the rising sign becomes less personally significant in this view, because part of what it means to be of a certain rising sign is also to have the other signs in specific houses. For example, could we understand say, Pisces in the second house as a core feature of Aquarius risings? Is there something essential to the life path of a Taurus rising that is expressed by the fact that each of them have Capricorn in the 9th? It becomes the same thing to say that someone has Virgo in the 11th as to say they are a Scorpio rising.
Obviously, there continues to be nuance and variation given to the significance of each house and sign due to planets within that sign and the configuration of the chart with regards to placements and aspects. However, seeing the twelve rising signs as not isolated within the first house, but actually delineating the other areas of life as well adds depth to our understanding of that Ascendant sign and the life of the natives in tutelage to it.
In service to this idea, I will be creating a releasing here on the blog and on my Youtube Channel a series of posts and videos discussing each rising sign, not as merely pertaining to the topics of the first house, but how the other areas of life are signified as well. I will release each video while the sun visits that sign.
