Due to popular ‘pop’ astrology many people believe that they are just the Sun sign. Furthermore, some people believe they are either the sun sign or ascendant sign. These beliefs stem from a grand misunderstanding of astrology.

Let’s go right back to thousands of years ago. Astrology was implemented to help people live in more harmony with their environment. To this day we have records showing Egyptian astrology linking up cosmic signs to weather, harvest of crops, wars, plagues and famine. It was useful to have ‘signs’ to foretell probably events to come, in order to safe guard and take some precautionary action. These signs were often seen in the skies. Instead of watching ‘screens’ on televisions, cellphones, laptops or other smart digital gadgets, people watched the ‘screens’ of the sky.

As time went on, more powerful people used astrology to help them stay in positions of power or gain greater power. It is no fictional fairy tale,  and in bygone days great emperors, kings and queens had advisory councils. Astrologers often formed part of this council. The astrologers of those times spent years and years studying and going through initiations. They were among the few that could read and interpret the omens of the sky. These astrologers were great advisors and most probably had a tremendous influence over those in power.

They helped plan harvests, plan alliances, to even plan wars and overall helped keep the kingdoms prospering and safe. Later on, astrologers also began to use astrology on personal levels, this was often requested for people in power. For example, the king would have a chart drawn up (based on his time of birth). This would reveal some insight into his destiny as king.

Through time, horary astrology became fashionable. This was when astrologers became more accessible to the public and the public could ask astrologers questions. These questions varied wide and far, such as to ‘will my wife have a son?’ or ‘did my cow get sold by my neighbour?’

Through all these times though astrology was largely banished as evil, most noteworthy by the Christian Church. In the early 1900s astrology tried to become more acceptable and slowly horoscopes became more fashionable. This gave the huge impression that we are basically our sun sign. Now with more knowledge being accessible the public are aware there is also an ascendant sign. You may sometimes notice that your ascendent sign, may be more accurate in describing you.

Let’s clear up some points.

A birth chart represents the whole of you. Each planet has something to reveal. Each planets position and all the house positions. The first house is also known as the ascendant. The ascendant is not a planet.

Your sun sign (the sun is considered as a planet in astrology) represents your will, your soul, your vital force.

Your ascendant represents your body, personality and character. Often times we learn characteristic traits and personality traits from our early childhood. Some are innately inherited.

Yet let’s not forget the Moon. Now the Moon represents your emotions. More often than not, we tend to make decisions and act in line with our emotional state.

Let’s say you have a Libra sun, Aries Moon and Cancer ascendant. Here the person may really wish to live peacefully. However, the Aries Moon shows this person may have some really passionate emotion outbursts and even some need to express emotions physically.  However, there is also a Cancer ascendant.

Briefly, this person tends to display a passive personality that is acutely sensitive. It may get a bit more interesting. It could be that Jupiter is in the Cancer ascendant. Well, this person may have a larger body. With nothing blocking this energy it becomes apparent, this person will have a generous and loving personality. Or let’s imagine rather that Saturn is in the ascendant. This changes the profile to a person who needs time to get to know you before they trust you. The body will not be so large and in fact might be lean. Then compounded to this, we need to know what other planets aspect the first house (ascendant) as this will add some distinctive characteristics. What sign are the planets in and what is their state. Planets influence each other, by enhancing or restricting each other’s qualities or ‘power to act’. Planets that support each other are considered ‘friends’.

So just knowing you Sun, Moon and ascendant sign is not enough. To get really technical, remember there are 30 degrees in each zodiac sign. Each degree of each sign is also unique. For example, a Moon at 5 degrees of Libra could be slightly different to 6 degrees to a Moon at 6 degrees of Libra. Each degree has a special meaning or ‘tone of quality’.

For some light-hearted humour enjoy chatting about your Sun, Moon and ascendant sign. Yet remember that is only the tip of the iceberg. Astrology is an in-depth field of study. The accuracy of astrology is dependent on the accuracy of the astrologer to decipher and interpret the whole chart.

By

Anastacia Sampson