You may have heard astrologers talk about your rising sign (ascendant), and wondered what it actually is. Is it the same as your sun sign? And why does it matter? I’ll try to explain it here as simply and as visually as I can, so it stops being a mystery.

What is the rising sign?

The rising sign is a position on the eastern horizon. Picture the horizon: this is the spot where the Sun comes up.

So what is the rising sign in astrology? Imagine a little further. Picture the constellations of all 12 signs up in the sky. Now turn to face the eastern horizon again. Whichever sign’s constellation is sitting on the horizon, that’s your rising sign.

Is the rising sign the same as the sun sign?

By my own definition, your sun sign is the sign that matches the time of year (the day and month) you were born. For example, if you were born between 22 December and 20 January, your sun sign is Capricorn. The sun sign comes from looking at the position of the equinox point against the constellations in the sky (more on how the signs are divided by date).

But because the rising sign is read from the constellation on the horizon, it may not match your sun sign. That position changes all the time, because the Earth keeps turning. So to find your rising sign, you also need your time of birth to get it right.

Let’s look at an example. The pictures below are birth charts, which some of you may have seen before. The left side is east, point A is the rising sign and ⊙ is the Sun.

These charts are for someone born on 10 January 1957, so their sun sign is Capricorn.

The first chart is for 06:00. Here the rising sign is in Capricorn (♑).

The rising sign at 06:00

The second chart is for 10:00. Now the sign has moved from Capricorn to Pisces (♓) (but point A, the rising sign, stays in the same place).

The rising sign at 10:00

So even on the same day, a different time gives a different rising sign. If you want to know your rising sign precisely, you need your exact time of birth too.

(Some of you may have gone for a reading, or for a ritual to ward off bad luck, and couldn’t remember your time of birth. If the astrologer wrote it down as 06:00, you can quietly assume your rising sign and your sun sign may be the same sign.)

So why does it matter?

In astrology it matters a lot, because it’s the point that describes you yourself. Most astrology readings look at how points relate to each other, such as the angle between the rising sign and Saturn, or where the planets sit in the signs. If the rising sign is set wrong, every relationship between the planets in your chart will be wrong too. (Don’t worry, though. Astrologers check the rising sign before every reading to make sure you really have the right one, especially for anyone born on the cusp between two signs.)

And for tarot? The rising sign does play some part in a tarot reading, but not all of it. For a personal, one-to-one reading, in my opinion you barely need the rising sign at all. But for monthly readings by sign, using the rising sign makes the reading more specific to each person. It covers not just your birth date but your rising sign as well.

So whether or not you know your rising sign, you can still use your sun sign for a tarot reading.

I hope this post makes the rising sign a bit clearer for a lot of you.