The Rising Sign - Welcome To Your Life

You might also like

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 425

1

THE RISING SIGN


WELCOME TO YOUR LIFE

BY
WAYMAN STEWART
2

Copyright © 2019 By Wayman Stewart

No part of this book may be used or reproduced without credit to the author

No part of this book may be distributed without the author’s involvement


3

INTRODUCTION 4

ARIES RISING 11

TAURUS RISING 45

GEMINI RISING 77

CANCER RISING 110

LEO RISING 144

VIRGO RISING 176

LIBRA RISING 208

SCORPIO RISING 242

SAGITTARIUS RISING 276

CAPRICORN RISING 309

AQUARIUS RISING 343

PISCES RISING 375

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 410


4

INTRODUCTION

In astrology, there’s no one placement that’s necessarily the most important placement. You
are the sum of all of your chart’s placements and they all affect you in different ways and on
various levels. But, the Rising sign is the placement that determines how your entire chart
unfolds. Your Rising sign is the sign that’s on the 1st House cusp of your chart. So, if you, for
instance, have Virgo on your 1st House cusp, your Rising sign is Virgo (“Ascendant” is
synonymous with “Rising” or “Rising sign” in astrology, so you would also be known as a Virgo
Ascendant). Unless you have a planet or two on the cusp of another sign in your chart, the
Rising sign is the only sign in your chart that’s dependent on the time you were born; the
moment your life began. As a result, you can look to your Rising sign to tell you a lot about how
your life unfolds: what role you play in life, the outlook you have, and the experiences and
circumstances that are thrust upon you.
In this sense, your Rising sign shows how you’re a product of your environment. We all are,
to some extent, and this placement says a lot about the kind of early environment you dealt
with. The first several years of life are heavily influenced by the Ascendant, to the point where
the experiences, attitudes, and behaviors that are represented by the sign it’s in become deeply
conditioned within us. It then becomes an instinctual way of being, responding, and dealing
with life. It becomes the very life we live, in ways that are often outside of our control. We
don’t have to try to be our Rising sign, as it’s one of the placements in our birth chart that we
just express very automatically and naturally. Much like breathing, we just do it.
Through our Ascendant, we develop and express our own perspective. Representative of our
individuality, it shows how we innately see ourselves. While it is a role in life that we have
learned to assume from the beginning, it is such an ingrained part of us that it just is who we
are. Despite popular belief, it’s not a “mask” that just gets taken on and off. Your Rising sign is
not just evident to those who are meeting you for the first time. Instead of solely being a first
impression we make on others (even though it definitely is), it’s an impression that we are
continually making on people, whether we’ve just met them or have known them for years or
our whole lives. We are always acting like our Ascendant, to some degree or another. Around
5

people we know better or are intimate with, we will regularly turn down its expression some for
the sake of the other planets in our chart. But, the energy is always present.
This is because it has a lot to do with our presence. Your aura, the energy you give off and
the way you carry yourself, is represented by your Rising sign. It also describes certain qualities
about your appearance. I’m not a believer in getting overly specific about people’s physical
traits when it comes to the Rising sign. At a certain point, it does come down to genetics. But,
there will always be certain physical attributes that someone has that correlates with their
Rising sign in some distinct or undeniable fashion. Usually, you can look to the figure(s)
symbolized or related to the Rising sign as well as the planet that rules the Rising to observe
this. For instance, Aquarius is heavily associated with aliens, which gives Aquarius Rising people
an appearance of an extraterrestrial creature, in the best way, through a large, alien-like head
or other charmingly unusual features. The sign’s primary ruler is electrifying, uncontrollable
Uranus and you can see the planet’s effect in the Aquarius Rising’s wild eyes or hard-to-tame
hair.
Elements of our personalities also have a sway over our appearance because this is just how
and who we appear to be. The Rising sign is who you are but in a generalized, exterior sense.
When you look at your Sun sign, you see the core of who you are. It’s the innermost self while
the Ascendant is the most obvious self. The simplest, most direct part of our being, the best
way to figure out someone else’s Rising sign is to ask yourself what’s the first thing you think of
when you think of them. Better yet, what’s the first word they’d use to describe themselves?
Since the Rising sign is the first foot we put forward – in life, in our development, in new
situations, in any given situation – it makes sense that it’s the quality that we immediately
assign to ourselves (this is also influenced by aspects to the Ascendant but we are just talking
about the sign right now). It makes sense, then, that this is the 1st House of our chart. It’s
what we do 1st as well as the 1st way we see ourselves. Since we’re more comfortable with our
Rising sign than our Sun sign early in life, this has a literal connotation, as well.
All the house cusps that follow play different roles in how the Rising sign expresses itself. But,
it all goes back to this point. Once I started really studying the effect of the signs on the house
cusp, it’s amazing how much it all contributes to the manifestation of the Ascendant.
Traditionally, each house cusp is going to go in the natural sequence of the signs, starting with
the sign that is on the 1st House cusp. The order of the signs is as follows: Aries, Taurus,
6

Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Once
you get to the end, you come back to the beginning. So, to continue with the above example, if
Aquarius is on the 1st House cusp, Pisces is on the 2nd, Aries is on the 3rd, Taurus is on the
4th, etc. This is how your chart will proceed in the Placidus house system (the most common
house system and the one that I rely on) if you have the traditional line-up, as well as in Equal
House. The latter is a less common option that leaves no room for interceptions, which is what
happens when a sign is essentially “buried” in a house due to the specific time and place a
person was born and how the stars aligned at that specific coordinate. With interceptions also
come duplications, making a sign’s presence doubled. For instance, in the above example, if
Pisces was intercepted in the 1st, it wouldn’t be on the 2nd House cusp. Aries would then be on
the 2nd House cusp and possibly duplicated on the 3rd House cusp. Then, Taurus would follow
on the 4th House cusp.
Now, if you are new to this, do not let any of that confuse you or overwhelm you, as it’s easy
to feel that way when faced with all of this astrological info. None of that matters when it
comes to this book because I will be interpreting every Rising sign based on the traditional
house cusp line-up. Of course, some of you who use Placidus and have interceptions will say,
“Well, what about my chart? Does it still apply to me?” You will be surprised to know that it still
will apply to you. The influence may not be as overwhelming as if you had that house cusp line-
up. But, it will still be felt because, as I said, every traditionally placed house cusp explains so
much about the Rising sign.
Also, I should remind people that every house in your chart is important, not just the ones
with planets in them. Every sign on the house cusp is ruled by a particular planet in your chart.
So, it is still speaking through you, in some vital way. Paying attention to all of your chart’s
house cusps leads to a deeper, richer understanding of astrology, helping you understand
certain elements of your life or your personality that you didn’t quite comprehend before.
I will spend each chapter and each section explaining the effect of every house cusp and every
sign. But, here is a crash course for you, before you get started:

THE HOUSES
1ST HOUSE: Demeanor, behavior, appearance, aura. Your role in life. Your outlook and
individual perspective. The conditioning of your first several years. Your life story/how your life
7

unfolds. The circumstances thrust upon you. (The sign on the 1st House cusp is known as the
Ascendant. The chart ruler is the planet or planets that rule that sign).
2ND HOUSE: Security, both internal and financial. Your self-esteem and how to work on it and
build it. How to manifest money. The kind of income you’ll enjoy and earn the most in.
3RD HOUSE: Comprehension skills. Your ability to communicate. The mentality/mindset.
Duality/ambiguity within oneself. Grade school years. Bond with siblings/cousins.
4TH HOUSE: Personal history. Upbringing and childhood. The kind of background you come
from. Family bond/relationship. Role within the family and in chosen/created families. How you
are to live with. Private self. What makes you feel safe and supported. (The sign on the 4th
House cusp is known as the Nadir. Contrary to popular belief, this house doesn’t represent your
mother or your father unless ruled by Cancer or Capricorn)
5TH HOUSE: Self-expression. How you come from the heart. How you live in the moment.
Creativity and talent. Specialness and charisma. Passion/romance/dating. Giving your heart to
someone. Bond with children and the kind of children you’ll have.
6TH HOUSE: Productivity and efficiency. How you get to work. How you engage in
counterproductive patterns. Health issues. Improving your health. Problem solving.
7TH HOUSE: Dynamics in partnerships. Close friends. Romantic partners. Important people in
your life. The kind of close friend/romantic partner you are. Your influence on others and vice
versa. The “other half” of you. Projection. Mutual satisfaction in relationships. (The sign on the
7th House cusp is known as the Descendant)
8TH HOUSE: Emotional issues. The unresolved ways in which you’ve been scarred or
traumatized. Your inner darkness. Destruction of yourself or others. The family cycle/curse.
Your inner power. Healing. Sexual intimacy. Sexual issues and sexual healing.
9TH HOUSE: Beliefs. Personal growth and discovery. The path that you’re meant to be on. Your
sense of what is right and what isn’t. Freedom. Exploration. College years/leaving the home.
10TH HOUSE: Goals in life. What makes you feel most accomplished. What pushes you out of
your comfort zone. Coming of age. Adulthood. Your calling. Your profession. Public self/image.
What the world expects of you. Strategy for success. Reputation. Limits/burdens of public
perception. (The sign on the 10th House cusp is known as the Midheaven. Contrary to popular
belief, this house does not represent the mother or the father unless it is ruled by Cancer or
Capricorn)
8

11TH HOUSE: What you’re distanced from personally. What happens for you unexpectedly,
randomly, or uncontrollably. Sense of worldly idealism. Your ability to create change or make a
difference in the world. Your place or lack thereof within your social world. Feelings of not being
accepted by peers. Friends, in general, and acquaintances. How you are as an overall friend or
acquaintance. Your social patterns.
12TH HOUSE: Secret inner life. The things you repress. The things you feel haunted or
overwhelmed by. Pain and suffering. Inner peace. What you have to both feel and let go of.
Connection to all of humanity. Connection to a Higher Power. Spirituality. Selfless and charitable
moments. Artistic inclinations.

SIGNS ON THE HOUSE CUSPS


ARIES: You are very concerned with getting what you want in this house. Putting oneself first in
this area of life. Desire. Conflict. Anger. Ruled by Mars.
TAURUS: You must have patience in this area of life because it takes time. Finding security and
stability in this house. Consistency. Ease and simplicity. Fixity. Ruled by Venus.
GEMINI: You experience opposing sides of yourself in this house. You seek to communicate and
learn in this area of life. Changeability. Logic. Search for stimulation. Ruled by Mercury.
CANCER: You get what you need emotionally in this house. An area of life where you require
support or comfort. Your relationship with your mother. Dealing with and expressing feelings.
Ruled by the Moon.
LEO: You are capable of shining in this house. It’s an area of life where you can feel alive and
confident. Developing a sense of self. Expressing yourself. Taking charge. Ruled by the Sun.
VIRGO: You have a need to fix whatever this area of life is. Correcting mistakes and solving
problems in this house. Sense of order. Practicality. Humility. Ruled by Mercury.
LIBRA: Your relationships are dominated by the concerns of this house. An area of life where
you learn how to connect and reciprocate love. Personal appeal and influence. Harmony.
Balance. Ruled by Venus.
SCORPIO: This area of life is experienced in extremes. Things are volatile and intense in this
house but that also leads to deep inner transformation. Soul-searching. Going from darkness to
the light. Empowerment. Ruled by Pluto (primarily; Mars is co-ruler).
9

SAGITTARIUS: In this area of life, you pursue freedom and truth. The matters of this house are
taken to excess but also can lead to very beneficial outcomes. Sense of adventure. Exploration.
Positive energy/outlook. Ruled by Jupiter.
CAPRICORN: The matters of this house are a source of great difficulty. An area of life where
struggles happen but we learn to overcome and find strength and purpose. Your relationship
with your father. Achievement. Wisdom gained over time. Ruled by Saturn.
AQUARIUS: Things in this area of life will never occur “normally”. We gain an unusual yet
unique, independent and objective view in regard to this house. Detachment. Chaos. An ability
to help others and bring about major change. Ruled by Uranus (primarily; Saturn is co-ruler).
PISCES: There is significant confusion toward this area of life. We often neglect the matters of
this house but can find great healing and peace through them, as well. Compassion for others.
Spirituality and intuitiveness. Dreams. Uncertainty and going with the flow. Ruled by Neptune
(primarily; Jupiter is co-ruler).

The chart ruler – the planet(s) that rule the sign on your 1st House cusp – is also something
that you need to look out to specifically see what themes, patterns, experiences, and traits are
dominating your life. The sign, house placement, and aspects of your chart ruler will tell you so
much. Say you’re a Libra Rising. Venus is your chart ruler, then. Let’s say you have Venus in the
10th in the sign of Cancer, making a trine to your Pluto and a square to your Moon and your
Ascendant. Venus is all about love, relating and connecting to others, attractiveness. Venus
both in Cancer and making a square to the Moon, Cancer’s ruling planet, indicate how much
you live out your nurturing side. This is your way of loving people: protecting them, supporting
them, being sensitive to them. Venus is in a trine to Pluto, giving you a deep desire to connect
intensely to someone else. So, relationships throughout your life will definitely be highly
passionate, at times complex and volatile.
Venus is in the 10th, which means that you’ll use your very sympathetic, intimate form of love
to make a name for yourself. You will feel very beloved by the public, widely known and
revered for your attractiveness, kindness, grace, etc. All those Venusian qualities. But, Venus’
square to the Ascendant shows how hard it is for you to feel loved and appreciated, even
though you constantly are. This makes you try very hard to be likable and to make a very
pleasant, favorable impression on people. Maybe you pour it in a bit too thick, working too hard
10

(10th House) to gain that popularity or admiration. This reflects a certain neediness or
vulnerability (Venus in Cancer and square the Moon) within you that you have to work on, lest
it cause you plenty of trust issues or a fear of being abandoned or betrayed (Venus trine Pluto).
All of these traits and issues will be very evident in your life, more so than if you had these
Venus placements yet it wasn’t your chart ruler.
In your astrological studies, you’ll find that the sign, house placement, and aspects that your
chart ruler is in will be the most undeniable and obvious elements of your life and your nature. I
have seen a bit of debate take place about the chart ruler, as if this indicates a planet in your
chart that has the most dominant influence but doesn’t rule your Rising sign. While it’s true
that, in certain calculations, your “most dominant” planet may not even be the one that rules
your 1st House, this doesn’t mean that the aforementioned planet is your chart ruler. The chart
ruler has to be the planet ruling your 1st because it determines every other house placement in
your chart. So, how could that not be the chart’s ruler? You’d have a completely different chart
without it.
The chart that you have is what makes you uniquely you and this is always something to be
celebrated. In my opinion, the best thing about astrology is the opportunity it provides to learn
more about yourself and grow into the person that you’re supposed to be. It’s how I’ve
benefited from astrology and I hope this book does the same for you.

WAYMAN
11

ARIES RISING

ARIES ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


The way you live your life is by meeting it head on. Grabbing the bull by the horns in all that
you do, you’re self-motivated, bold, and dynamic. Having an Aries Rising makes you this force
to be reckoned with. Your life story is all about the challenges that you have been faced with
and how you have conquered them. It’s about being a winner. It’s why you’re someone who
doesn’t take kindly to losing. In your mind, it’s virtually inconceivable. You’re not a loser. You
see yourself as someone who emerges victoriously from any situation. Because of this, you are
very eager to throw yourself into whatever circumstances come your way. Believing you will
come out on top means that you’re not someone who shirks from much of anything. As an Aries
Ascendant, there is a fearlessness to all that you do.
Many people with this Rising sign are going to fit the typical description of being brash, ballsy,
and fiery; the kind of person who walks into a room and owns it. But, anyone with any Rising
sign is capable of being shy or more introverted, including Aries Risings. Still, even if you deal
with a certain shyness or prefer to keep to yourself, you will overcompensate for that by
covering it up with some kind of bravado. You definitely don’t like people to know when you’re
feeling scared or insecure or for people to think that you’re someone who can go
unacknowledged. Instead, you want to make it clear that you can hold your own and that you
won’t back down from anything or anyone. Some people with their Ascendant in Aries are more
aggressive in this sense than others. But, you all have this daring, dynamic quality to you that
makes it clear that you’re your own person and will do what you want to do.
It’s due to Mars, the planet of action, being the ruler of Aries. Therefore, Mars is your chart
ruler, indicating that your individual narrative is all about how you take action. When something
happens, what are you going to do about it? Mars is essentially the planet that symbolizes the
Ascendant, as a whole. The Ascendant is right at home in the sign of Aries because that’s what
the Rising sign is all about. It’s your life, so how are you going to live it? What actions are you
going to take to be an individual and to live the life you want? You spend your life happily
blazing your own trail, often leaving other people behind in your dust, because you are so
focused on what you want to do. This, of course, is the drawback of this influence. You’re

ARIES RISING
12

sometimes just too focused on yourself and what you’re doing that you don’t take enough time
to stop and think of other people.
As much as the selfish streak in Aries is maligned (and it can be destructive or obnoxious if it
goes unmanaged), you usually don’t mean any harm when you’re only thinking of yourself.
You’re like an eternal child, in that sense. The Rising sign is very much conditioned in us during
the first several years of our lives, where we’re truly at our most selfish but when we’re not
doing any of that out of malice. It’s all just to fully experience ourselves and our feelings,
thoughts, and desires. In that stage of life, we’re simply exploring and discovering what we
want, what our personal boundaries are, what is best for us. But, being an Aries Rising means
that you never fully leave that period of life. You remain an eternal six-year-old in so many
ways. While this can give you a certain innocence and a real authenticity of expression, it also
makes you all too prone to the tantrums, misguided behavior, impulsivity, and other
embarrassing qualities that children can display.
A very common trait of this Rising sign is having people around you be mortified with your
behavior while also often being simultaneously amused or entertained, like adults are around
children who are doing or saying the darndest things. As a result, you may regularly feel like
you’re being treated like a child, which can also cause feelings of being a bad boy or a bad girl.
Aries Rising people do have a naughty or mischievous charm and, depending on your Mars, you
can have this aura to you that makes you come off as a troublemaker or even downright
dangerous. You live for danger, the thrill of teetering on the edge, doing or saying things you
shouldn’t do or say, taking wild risks and letting things work out however they’re going to work
out. Being a risk-taker makes life much more exciting and you really feel like that’s what life is
all about. Your life actually unfolds in many ways that force you to take risks, to live very much
in the moment and not stress too much about what will happen. After all, you’re a survivor and
you have this outlook that can turn anything that happens into a win for you.
Since you remain childlike throughout your life, there is this thread of consistency throughout
your life’s story. You are most likely exactly the same as you were when you were a kid. As an
adult, you still feel as uncensored, as free, as startlingly direct as you felt during the early years
of your life. Such a temperament really allowed you to fend for yourself and take what was
yours. With the Rising sign representing how you came into this world and the kind of
environment you existed in, there was something about your birth that made you seem like an

ARIES RISING
13

unstoppable force. Whether it was through a pregnancy that nobody was ready for at all or a
birth process that had you coming out like a runaway train, it was always clear that you were
on your way whether people could handle it or not.
From an early age, you may have been seen as someone who wasn’t the easiest person to
handle. Many Aries Rising children have such a high level of energy that they tire most of the
people around them out very easily, whether that’s adults or other kids. It could have gotten to
the point where you were misdiagnosed as having some sort of behavioral disorder. You may
have a certain hyperactivity to you but that’s because you’ve always been so driven and
dynamic. From the beginning, you have had a very powerful urge to let off steam. This gives
you a particularly aggressive side and while you were growing up, it was all too easy for you to
either push someone else’s buttons or for them to push yours. Getting into a lot of fights as a
child is a typical pattern, whether that’s rough-housing with your siblings or talking back to
adults or butting heads with classmates so hard that it turned into physical fighting.
There is always some sort of feisty streak within the Aries Ascendant and it means that
conflict occurs in your life very easily. Instead of avoiding said conflict, you walk right into it. At
times, this is accidental, as you are simply being yourself but end up pissing people off,
somehow or someway. Within your family, you may have been seen as the source of many of
the conflicts and fights that occurred. Maybe you felt frustrated with your family very easily and
quickly, especially with the siblings who you could have a constantly combative rivalry with.
Also, it was second-nature for you to start things with other people, whether that meant
stepping on their toes, arguing for the sake of arguing, or stirring the pot somehow. You’ve
always felt that things are too boring without a certain amount of conflict. However, if you take
this outlook too far, you will go through life being this antagonist who is willfully, gleefully
making life more troublesome for the target of your rage, competitiveness, or aggression.
In truth, you can identify with being the villain. Aries Rising people typically see themselves
as jerks, people who aren’t nice or likable, and can play that role accordingly. Sometimes, this is
a result of you taking the reactions of others to you more personally than you should. Although
you can easily rub someone the wrong way, it doesn’t make you a terrible person. You often
can’t help yourself in terms of this compulsion to create or amplify conflict with other people.
You do it without really thinking. However, this is sometimes a sign that your aggression is
being misdirected. Believe it or not, there is positive and negative aggression. The negative kind

ARIES RISING
14

just makes you constantly angry and frustrated or the asshole who causes problems for others.
But, positive aggression simply makes you a driven, determined individual, a go-getter who
knows what they want and devotes all their energy to getting it. There are plenty of people
with this placement who fit the latter description because they are aware of how to channel
their anger into something productive. Even if you are often more of the former, you’re still this
awesome go-getter. So, direct more of your energy toward meaningful goals and pursuits.
What you want out of life is characterized by your Mars. The house placement of your Mars,
in particular, will indicate your style of getting what you want. If you have Mars in the 5th, you
will be a very confident go-getter who knows how to use their charisma, their talent, their
passion to get what they want. Mars being in the 7th House indicates a more balanced force to
be reckoned with who understands how much can be achieved alongside another person. When
you look at the house placement of your Mars, you’ll see how you will blaze that individualized
trail of yours. The sign Mars is in and the aspects it’s making will further flesh out the story,
telling you your full potential in terms of winning at the game of life.
In the process, you’ll also be expressing another Mars quality: assertiveness. It’s something
that, on some level, you’ve always understood. But, that doesn’t mean that you always get it
right. It just means that you’re quick to assert yourself. That also makes you quick to offend
people or make it all about you or lose your temper. Having a quick temper and going off on
other people readily is a pretty universal Aries Rising trait. However, not all tempers are the
same. The way you get angry and express it is characterized by your Mars. For many of you, it
will be an explosive, in-your-face kind of anger that you easily move past. But, you might not
necessarily scream or raise your voice. You could just spit out very cutting remarks or become
really brutally honest or get so emotionally worked up that you melt down. In any case, you let
people know that you’re not having it. Being so upfront can throw some people off yet you
always feel like it’s better to get it all out there than bottle it up or, worse, be fake about it.
People can call you many things but they would never be able to call you insincere or
inauthentic. You just don’t have it within you to be fake. You’re probably convinced that this is a
quality that makes you unlikable and that only makes you double down and insist on being your
raw, unvarnished self. It’s true that this is another reason why you can be a bit abrasive or hard
to take. Saying the hell with social niceties, you are prone to making statements and facial
expressions that cut through any put-upon politeness. If you don’t like someone, you’ll straight

ARIES RISING
15

up tell them. If you disagree with something, you aren’t going to sugarcoat it. However, what
you sometimes may not understand is that this can be your greatest charm. As long as you’re
not being blatantly rude, people will respond very well to your sensible directness. They’ll
always know where they stand with you and will see you as a very real, genuine individual.
What you see is really what you get with an Aries Rising. You have no time for games,
beating around the bush, or pretending like you’re alright with what’s going on when you’re
not. If you see this more so as being straightforward and authentic, instead of thinking of
yourself as mean, impolite, or abrasive, then you will just be someone who is brave enough to
be themselves. You demand that people either take you as you are or not at all. It’s something
that gives you this fierce aura. In some way, you are just this bad-ass. It may be because you
live your life so fully, never afraid to go after what you want when others are too busy second-
guessing themselves. It could be because you’re highly individualized, always insisting on being
on your own path and living your life according to your approval alone. It also might be
because you are what could be called a savage, capable of totally putting someone in their
place or striking back ferociously whenever they think they can try you.
Always ready for a challenge, you even have the appearance of a fierce warrior. Your default
expression may not be entirely welcoming, sometimes scaring people off or making them wary
of approaching you. Essentially, you may always look pissed off, even when you’re not.
However, there is also this freshness and, dare I say, even innocence to your aura. This is one
of the more youthful Rising signs and your ability to welcome each new day like an exciting
adventure means that there’s always something childlike about your way of being. Yet, like a
child, you are very easily on the defense when it comes to new people. It goes back to your
warrior spirit, as you see yourself as being surrounded by opponents. So, your first reaction is
“what do you want from me?” You prefer to get right to the point of the interaction between
you and the other person and then keep it moving. Therefore, unless you’re in a situation that
specifically involves interacting with other people, you focus on yourself and your affairs.
It’s very noticeable, in fact, how much you can be wrapped up in yourself. You don’t notice
much of what’s going on around you unless it’s directly affecting you. This puts quite a barrier
between you and other people. Interestingly, although you’re such a straight-up, genuine
individual, you’re also not the most accessible. You do, sometimes, have to stop and realize that
you’re not giving other people enough of your time and energy. A negative trait you display is a

ARIES RISING
16

real unawareness of how your actions are affecting others. Being as unapologetic and
uncompromising as you are doesn’t help the situation. It’s not all about you and your needs.
However, an unacknowledged trait of the Aries Rising is the ability to be a real hero for
someone else. Since you feel braver and bolder than many people, you are capable of swooping
in and saving the day with your various displays of strength.
Since Mars is a masculine energy, you have a particularly masculine temperament. Men with
this Rising sign are typically macho. Whether they are total bros who exhibit the “boys will be
boys” attitude (for better or for worse) or dominant alpha males who kick ass and take names,
they thrive on being men’s men. Meanwhile, the women with this placement express their inner
yang very strongly. Fiercely in charge of their lives, they’re unable to play the damsel-in-distress
routine and have bigger balls than many of the men around them. This masculinity can be
displayed in both sexes through a strong musculature that is very natural and easily built. Just a
few sessions in the gym can have you looking very ripped and you probably see results easier
than most when it comes to working out.
Your active nature also manifests physically through how profusely you sweat, which means
warm months and stuffy rooms can be particularly annoying for you, and how red you get when
you’re doing something active. In fact, turning red is a defining trait of this Rising sign and you
experience those physical flare-ups whenever you get angry, as well. Even if you’re a dark-
skinned person of color, you will still feel yourself getting red-hot. Your body temperature is
probably just a bit warmer than the average person’s. You’ve got to watch that temper and
make sure you’re not getting worked up all the time. Issues with anger commonly manifests
with this Rising sign as intense headaches and migraines. Aries rules the head, after all, and
many of you will have a large head or forehead. You can also walk or move in a way that
makes your head jut out, a lot like the Ram that symbolizes Aries.
Being the human version of the Ram is why you may feel like a devilish individual, with your
own set of horns, and why you navigate your surroundings in a way that’s not entirely
considerate of others. You’re that person who simply yet brusquely walks through a crowd, with
that determined march of yours and without much of an “excuse me” (if you say it at all). The
way you see it, other people are in your way and they need to watch out. Because of this
attitude, most people will naturally move out of your way in many senses. This only reinforces
your perspective of the world being yours for the taking. Because you’ve got places to go and

ARIES RISING
17

things to do, a certain impatience characterizes your demeanor. You can talk quickly, walk
quickly, interrupt, cut off conversations to do something else. But, your energy can also throw
people off in a good way. The Aries Rising attractiveness is of the very striking variety, with a
look that makes people sit back and say “wow”. Since you’re such an individual and put yourself
out there without hesitation, you always stand out from the crowd.
TAURUS ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
With Taurus sitting on your 2nd House cusp, you have the potential to develop and express
an exceptional kind of self-esteem. Being so self-reliant, so intent on being your own person,
means that you can be highly comfortable in your own skin and secure in yourself. However,
this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to work toward that level of self-worth. The 2nd House in
our chart shows how we all have to work toward healthy self-esteem. Having Taurus here
means that you won’t be truly at ease with and secure in yourself until you become comfortable
with anything requiring plenty of time and consistent effort. After all, it takes plenty of time and
consistent effort to build yourself up and value yourself. So, if you don’t value that kind of work,
then you won’t be able to truly value yourself.
This placement indicates just how much your impatience can contribute to a lot of instability
in your life. Your default mode is an immediate-gratification mindset that makes you want what
you want and want it yesterday. While it’s good that you don’t like to waste time, that you like
to deal with and experience things directly and quickly, it can cause you to live at a pace that’s
too fast for your own good. Then, you fail to show appreciation for things. This can mean not
appreciating the good things that are coming your way because you’re too focused on what you
want and have yet received. As we already discussed, you absolutely hate to lose, so you can
exhibit a kind of short-sightedness that makes you feel like you’re losing when you’re really not.
You could actually get what you want if you just took a breath and take the necessary steps
you need to get it or sit back and let it come to you.
The same issue will be experienced when it comes to money. You might be so intent on going
out and grabbing the money that you want that you make a lot of hasty financial choices that
lead to disaster. You can struggle to simply enjoy your money, always feeling like it’s not
enough and that you need more. Not appreciating what you already have because you want
more leads to a perennial cycle where it seems like you never have enough money. But, in
truth, you may have everything you need financially. You’re just not grateful enough for it. This

ARIES RISING
18

lack of gratitude on a financial level stems from not being grateful for everything else in your
life. Your capacity for selfishness means that other people in your life can feel as if nothing is
ever enough for you and that you don’t take the time to appreciate them enough.
All of this makes you perpetually frustrated, which is what’s more comfortable for you. Taurus
ruling the 2nd House means that you can express a significant discomfort with what’s nice,
easy, and comfortable. You feel like there always needs to be some sort of fight or challenge,
which prevents you from mellowing out or being able to relax. When you can’t take it easy on a
personal level, you will experience money problems that make it hard for you to take it easy
financially. You must realize that money is an energy that comes into your life when you are
willing to find great pleasure in it and use it to live a simpler, happier life. But, you cannot adopt
this mindset until you develop enough contentment and peace of mind. In short, you’ve got to
learn how to chill out a bit.
You’ll always be this fiery individual yet it’s also possible for you to calm down some. This is
when the Aries Rising person matures, going from the very combative firecracker type to the
one who is more driven, fearless, and authentic, expressing that inner fire in a more grounded
manner. There comes a time when the temper tantrums and the playground fights no longer
really work for you. You can’t be an explosive child for forever. The more stable you become
temperamentally, the more stable your finances will be. You’ll realize how good you feel when
you’re solid and able to enjoy a certain calm. Then, you will be financially solid, capable of
manifesting money into your life in a very consistent, easy fashion.
You also have to understand the value of patience in order to do this. Good money doesn’t
just come your way overnight. It takes a lot of time to build the income that you want. So, you
have to develop a different strategy and understand that impatiently demanding what you want
all the time isn’t going to get you where you want to go, money-wise. This creates an internal
change that can make you more reasonable and less worked-up over personal inconveniences,
which you experience in a more dramatic fashion than most people. What is a small roadblock
to others is a complete annoyance to you. While you will always be impatient, to some degree,
you have to sublimate that energy so it’s not creating more roadblocks for you. In certain
situations, it’s not only important to wait but it’s necessary. You can’t be in a long line and then
just march your way up to the front (Aries Risings tend to be shameless line-cutters). You’ve
got to stand there and wait. You’ll eventually get to the front.

ARIES RISING
19

Trusting that what you want is coming will give you the ability to make good money. No
matter what your financial situation is, you must see yourself as simply waiting in line for the
income you desire. You will get there eventually. Not living so compulsively in the now will
prevent you from being too agitated at your current financial circumstance and can also stop
you from making bad choices when it comes to money. Whenever your impulsive side is taking
over, you will be so intent on treating yourself that you spend money that should be going to
your necessities before your treats. You definitely yearn to live the good life. However, you
have to stop and make sure that you have what it takes to live it. Basically, this placement is
asking for the utmost practicality from you in terms of money. Don’t spend what you don’t
have. Plan for a secure future. Enjoy your money and buy nice things but within reason and
once the necessities are taken care of. If you are being impractical, unbalanced, or foolish with
your finances, it will be increasingly difficult for you to achieve any sort of stability.
All of this is going to make you feel very stable within yourself. The only way you can like
your financial station in life is if you like yourself. Venus ruling the 2nd House here is asking for
really solid self-esteem from you. Yes, you have a strong sense of individuality. Yes, you have
this take-me-or-leave-me personality that isn’t very concerned with what people think. But, do
you really like yourself? You might be surprised at the answer, especially if you catch yourself
throwing self-induced jabs about what a terrible person you are. Believing you’re not easy to
love only makes this difficult. You have to acknowledge why and how you should be loved.
Building yourself up by appreciating the good things about you is the key to understanding your
worth. Then, you will be able to build yourself up on an amazing level in terms of what you
have. At the end of the day, what you will always have is you. Being so self-possessed can
allow you to remain undeterred in the face of people who don’t value or appreciate you. They
can’t take your love for you away from yourself once it is really solid.
In terms of what you do for money, it definitely needs to be something you enjoy. The 2nd
House tells all of us how we will most enjoy making money. With Taurus, its ruling sign, in this
house, you make the most money simply at whatever makes you happy. But, you might also be
happiest just making a lot of money. Your ability to focus primarily on the “income” part of your
form of income is very pragmatic. You will also display a wonderful sense of money
management and investment, which could end up becoming your way of making money. Which
fields or ventures will be lucrative and which won’t is something you just innately understand.

ARIES RISING
20

You know what’s valuable and what’s not. You also have the potential to turn virtually anything
into a lucrative enterprise. The possibilities for this could range from starting your own business
and making a very steady income from it to getting into the arts and finding a way to be
financially stable while doing it.
GEMINI ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
Not many people can keep up with you for long because of how quick you are. Gemini in the
3rd House means that you have a highly active mind, full of ever-changing ideas. This is why
you’re so impulsive. As soon as an idea takes hold of you, you go after it. Then, once your mind
changes, you go after that other idea. That allows you to keep things exciting but it can also
get exhausting, even for you. You know how restless, how easily bored you are. One part of
you may be annoyed at these traits but another part of you indulges in them, sometimes just to
spite that other part of you.
Being so capable of changeability means that people never really know what they’re going to
get out of you. Spontaneous to a fault, this doesn’t just translate into your actions but your
words. When you have something to say, you say it. But, saying whatever comes into your
head is sometimes not the best thing to do. Although you come off as blunt, you also know
what you’re doing. You can execute an amazing offense and will often say these brutally honest
things as a way to throw people off their game. Aries Rising people can be equally tactical and
in-the-moment. You might portray yourself as someone who’s not much of a thinker but
Mercury ruling the 3rd House here proves that to not be true. It’s just that you feel like the best
way to win the game is to make people think you’re not as bright as you are or to not exactly
let them know what your thought process is.
This placement means that you excel at communicating because you understand how to get
your point across very clearly. You enter into any conversation with an objective, focused on
what needs to be said and how to say it. People don’t walk away from talks with you confused
or unclear on where you stand on something. Gemini on the 3rd House cusp can make you
openly share your ideas and thoughts to the point of being very talkative. But, true to the
duality of the 3rd House, another part of you can be very much in-your-head. Again, you do like
keeping to yourself and this makes you absorbed in your own thoughts a lot. You also need to
feel like you’re thinking things through yourself. So, you will think and think about something

ARIES RISING
21

until you understand it completely. Then, you will talk about it with others yet from the stance
of “here are the facts” instead of “what do you think about this?”
You have the potential to bounce off of people well and feed on their ideas. However, it must
be in a situation where a lot of spitballing is going on. Any circumstance where you can be the
proverbial teacher and get the feedback from your students on something or create a
discussion with them will be very stimulating and fulfilling to you. Being the leader is something
you relish, so educating people is something that comes naturally to you. Conversations can
also be a source of education for you. Believe it or not, you have what it takes to be an
excellent leader, as long as you focus and don’t let yourself get distracted. At the end of the
day, you’re a completely present person and this keeps you mentally engaged.
The 3rd House defines how we experienced grade school. Gemini in the 3rd produces many
excellent students. Your competitive nature could’ve driven your academic performance. But,
this may not have just been about beating your classmates. You love learning because of the
inherent challenge that’s involved in it. That’s why the test-taking and the answering of
questions could’ve been particularly satisfying for you. Yet, there was the flip side to you in
school: the smart alec or the troublemaker. You might have been a nerd trapped in a rebel’s
body or a studious kid who was a hellraiser in between classes. Getting into plenty of mischief
defined your time in school. But, you were so shrewd and slick that you usually got away with
it. What helped you was having a partner-in-crime who would take the fall for you, cover for
you, or aid you in your little games, easily talked into them by you.
This isn’t to say that you went through grade school unscathed, either. Whenever you did
actually land in hot water, it was typically because of your mouth, whether that meant talking
back to teachers or authorities, showing an inability to shut up when you should shut up, or
trash-talking your classmates. Being the pot stirrer that you are, you have always had an
intelligent understanding of what kind of reaction you can get out of others by saying
something. However, one part of your brain is very shrewd and calculating while another side
to your thinking is simply very random and scattered. So, you’re just as likely to blurt out the
wrong things, wording things horribly or showing bad timing, pissing people off without even
intending to. It’s a pattern that kept things interesting for you at school. Sometimes, you were
actually looking for trouble. Other times, you just stumbled into it. Either way, you’ve always
had your wits about you and could quickly end a situation as soon as it started.

ARIES RISING
22

Things have always been just as all over the place between you and your siblings. It’s rare,
though not impossible, to be an only child with Gemini in the 3rd House and, even if you are,
you’ll definitely have a beloved cousin that’s like a brother or sister. This placement bestows
upon you a brother or sister who feels like some sort of evil twin or weird doppleganger. Your
sibling could also feel that way about you. Like twins, you have these distinct similarities and
stark differences, at the same time. The relationship is probably very chaotic. When it’s good,
it’s truly amazing and when it’s bad, it’s the worst. Plenty of jealousy, arguing, dishonesty,
criticizing, or gossiping can occur, as well as this annoying, sometimes eerie sense that they’re
trying to take over your life and be you, particularly if they’re of the same gender. But, this
most likely doesn’t put a wedge between you. In fact, it only fuels the love that’s there.
More than is typical, you exist in this crazy grey area with your sibling(s) where it seems like
you’re lifelong nemeses but you’d really do anything for one another. The tension is just how
you express your affection. You are capable of talking everything out with them, including all
the thoughts that people think that you shouldn’t say. You would rather get all of that out there
without having to worry about offending them or taking it personally. It doesn’t really matter to
you if they get it or not because, being your opposite and all, you often expect them not to get
it. Regardless, you still manage to come to an understanding, even if you want to kill them. You
are very comfortable with the “rivalry” part of sibling rivalry because, of course, you always
need to feel like you’re competing against someone.
CANCER ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
With the 4th House representing one’s upbringing and the relationship with the family, having
Cancer on the 4th House cusp can create a lot of closeness between you and your loved ones.
As self-reliant as you are, you still know that you can always turn to them for true support
whenever you need it. If you ever go through life feeling like you can’t, it will be deeply
upsetting for you. This private version of you requires plenty of comfort and care. It goes to
show just how much you are like a child. You loudly protest “I can do it, I can do it”, hell-bent
on proving how independent you are, that you’re a big boy or girl. But, taking on life as
vigorously as you do gets exhausting, after a while, and leaves you all too vulnerable to some
form of hurt or another. When you fall down and hurt yourself, you will cry out for the loving
embrace of those who you call family.

ARIES RISING
23

Your mother will most likely provide the most loving embrace in your family. We look to our
Cancer house to tell us about our relationship with our maternal figure. Cancer being in its own
house indicates that you and your Mom have a very close, very loving bond. It’s not to say that
you two can’t have your issues or that she necessarily gets everything right. But, even when
there is tension or difficulty there, you easily move past it or get over it because you depend so
much on your mother’s support. You know that, at the end of the day, she’ll always be there for
you because that’s how it’s always been. Cancer in the 4th usually leads to a childhood that is
very mother-dominated. In a lot of cases, this is because the mother is a single mother and,
therefore, the only parent you can turn to. Even in a situation with two parents, the bond you
feel with your mother is much stronger and closer.
Our 4th House also tells us the role that our family has always needed us to play. The Moon
ruling the 4th can go one of two ways. You might have always been seen as the baby of your
family. Maybe this is because you were actually the youngest child and you were always doted
on, spoiled, somewhat coddled. But, regardless of your birth order, you could still be the one
who needs the most care. Again, like a demanding child, you may think of yourself as so
independent, not needing anyone else, while not fully recognizing just how needy you can be.
The other possibility is that you were always expected to mother everyone. You may have
played the role of the Mom in order to emulate your mother, especially if you have younger
siblings. But, you may mother everyone in your family because they’re the needy ones. This can
even extend to your bond with your own mother, who can sometimes be the one who’s in need
of caregiving. Who’s the mom and who’s the child?
All of this can give you a very complicated sense of family and support. While you may
secretly love being taken care of or providing that nurturing for others, you also easily feel
weighed down and frustrated by it. You never want someone to cramp your style and, at times,
it can feel as if your family does this. Such an attitude can extend toward anyone who you’re
living with. You hesitate to become too dependent on anyone and you’re highly self-protective,
to the point of sometimes being ridiculously defensive. You have a much stronger than average
fear of getting hurt because you equate that with losing. But, being so impetuous, so willing to
throw yourself into the game of life, means that you inevitably get hurt anyway. It’s just not
something you can avoid if you plan on living to the fullest.

ARIES RISING
24

At the same time, you can create the safe space you need for yourself to retreat to and heal.
Any great athlete who winds up hurt has to sit a couple games out in order to recuperate. With
your incredibly active nature, it’s sometimes hard for you to stop, relax, and rest. But, having
that time of doing nothing but reflecting or being surrounded by loved ones is truly necessary
for you. In order to feel at home with yourself, you just need to know what and where your
home is. Cherish the supportive connection you have with your loved ones without worrying
about it being corny or making you weak. It’s only when people enter this inner sanctum of
yours that they discover that somewhat mushy side of you. Capable of being very sentimental
and highly family-oriented, you really need to feel like you’re in the midst of one big, happy
family to be okay, reflecting that childlike side of you.
It’s important for you to also remain aware of how you can become too stuck in inner-child
mode, as well. This doesn’t just mean exhibiting emotionally regressive behavior like your
famous tantrums or your clueless self-absorption. It also means falling back on those old
patterns from childhood too easily. You’re here to be who you want to be and do what you
want to do. So, don’t fall into the trap of just being that person your family needed you to be.
This is a way that you actually may not be paying proper attention to your own needs, instead
directing that energy toward supporting your loved ones or making them feel good, which
creates an inner frustration that will eventually lead to an explosion.
Such a mentality should particularly apply to you and your mother’s relationship. You’ll always
be her child but you’re not a child anymore. Aries Rising people can be more emotionally
overwhelmed by their mothers than they realize or care to admit. If she smothers you,
overprotects you, or somehow makes you feel like you’re responsible for her well-being, give
yourself some necessary space. If not, you’ll just revert back to being eight years old, living out
the same old patterns. In the family you create as an adult, you have to focus on not repeating
the negative parts of your family history and your childhood. This could mean stepping back to
realize that you’re becoming your Mom in terms of how you treat your children, spouse, or
other loved ones. Take the good from your connection with her and use that to build your
family while also remembering that you’re an adult now and you can have the kind of home
that truly caters to and fulfills your individual needs.
This placement also shows how highly emotional you can be. The house that’s ruled by the
Moon in our chart tells us how we process and deal with our feelings. With the Moon here,

ARIES RISING
25

you’re very private about what you feel because you don’t like exposing any perceived
weaknesses. But, you’re also very sensitive and take things really personally. It’s why you can
be so quick to react, with such a hair-trigger temper. You are just very raw, letting your
emotions flow freely. It’s another way that you exhibit your authenticity. In your personal life,
there are no pretenses and no emotional buffering. You remain a child forever in this sense
because you never lose that ability to just be completely upfront about what it is that you’re
feeling. You’ll find that those emotions are so strong that they inevitably end up spilling out
while you’re outside of your safe space, which is why you’ll feel the need to retreat to it so
quickly whenever you’re in a certain mood or going through something emotionally.
LEO IN THE 5TH HOUSE
If the 5th House is our personal charisma and our ability to shine, having Leo here means
that you shine very brightly and powerfully. You are blessed with enormous charisma because
you have the self-awareness to know who you are and the self-confidence to freely express that
sense of self. You always express yourself from the heart and it’s another quality that
contributes to your personal authenticity. People will just be enthralled by you and it helps that
you have some sort of standout talent that draws this audience your way. Whatever you’re
good at, you truly put your own individualized stamp on it. Leo in the 5th House is why you
cannot help but stand out from the crowd. Nobody can really do what you do like you do it and
this is something that puts you in your own league.
Thanks to your cocksure attitude, you can become good at something simply because you
want to be good at it. The thing that fuels your particular creative talent is your sheer strength
of will. Even if you’re not the most technically proficient at whatever you do, you will still shine
in it and gain plenty of fans because there is something so unique about your creative
endeavors. You’re living proof that, sometimes, talent is more of an attitude than a fact. If you
completely believe in yourself and your ability to wow people, you will gain that validation no
matter what you do. Still, no matter your level of talent, you’re not going to want to get out on
your chosen stage and make a fool of yourself. You have plenty of pride when it comes to your
creativity and it prevents you from embarrassing yourself by doing something that you’re truly
not good at. In fact, you often times don’t want to do something if you don’t think you’re good
at it, even if it’s a seemingly fun game, only highlighting your competitive mindset.

ARIES RISING
26

Having this great force of personality is something that’s been evident ever since you were a
child. Even if you were somewhat shy or reserved, you still exhibited a very vibrant, expressive,
colorful nature as a kid. Leo on the 5th House cusp makes one’s experience of childhood –
particularly the early years – especially enjoyable and fun. From early on, you developed and
displayed this attention-getting quality and had a life force within you that could not be
contained. This actually could’ve become a problem, as your self-expression might have been
deemed too dramatic, over-the-top, or scene-stealing. Eventually, you found an outlet for this
through some form of creativity or by knowing when and how to court an audience. In the
process, you cultivated a sense of self that could never be truly quieted, suppressed, or
daunted. You came to see yourself as a force of nature and grew to be unconcerned with the
commotion your actions caused because, in the end, you were just being yourself.
Your strong leadership qualities also displayed themselves during this time. The Sun ruling
the 5th meant that you’ve always seen yourself as the leader, probably opting out of Follow the
Leader as a kid if you weren’t the one who was being followed. You hate taking orders, in any
sense. You have such a strong vision for things and set out to create situations in your life
according to said vision. It’s something that can make you quite a handful in romantic
circumstances because you may become very dominant and insist things go how you want
them to go. Your love interests will soon come to realize that they’re not dating or wooing just
anyone. You can be a full-on diva in love, whether male or female, expecting to be given the
utmost attention and affection. If you don’t get it, you’ll demand it until you do. Yet, you’re also
very prideful when it comes to heart. So, when you feel like you’re not being treated with
enough respect or appreciation by a lover, you’ll quickly withdraw that big, generous heart of
yours. Although you’re open-hearted and loving, you also fully believe that anyone who doesn’t
return your affections in the same measure must be some sort of idiot.
As a result, you’re determined to move on when it comes to romantic situations that aren’t
serving you. The good thing is that you get involved with so many people with Leo planets or a
strong Sun who are highly romantic and very expressive in love. You need that intense passion
between you and someone else. But, you just should make sure that it doesn’t become
unnecessarily dramatic. That’s hard to avoid, though, because you are a drama king or drama
queen, at heart. Let’s just say that, when you went through adolescence, it was with a truly

ARIES RISING
27

melodramatic flair and you still carry that over into your love affairs now. You never fully grow
up and this is what can make you feel very connected to children.
If and when you have kids, they will have some prominent Leo influence or an angular Sun
that makes them just as dramatic, colorful, creative, and charismatic as you were as a child.
You will fully encourage the expression of their powerful personalities and that will extend to
the talents that they show off to the world. However, because of your own amazing star power,
they may always feel like they’re fighting to get out of your shadow. If you don’t check yourself,
your hammy ways may cause you to even be a scene stealer with your own child. It’s this kind
of attitude that can make just as many Aries Risings not want children. The idea of not being
the center of your life, of having to put your own desires aside for someone else, may be too
much for you to deal with. You might not grow out of your self-centeredness enough to have
kids of your own and, honestly, realizing that is a good thing.
VIRGO ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
It’s fitting that you have Virgo in the 6th because you’re someone who truly does not like to
waste time. You can be wonderfully productive because of this, understanding what activities
and methods are useless and which ones will actually be fruitful or constructive. You’re all about
getting to point A to point B in the best way possible, which leads to great efficiency. But, this
can also become too much of a good thing. Maybe you become so focused on being efficient
that you don’t realize that something that seems to be inefficient or wasteful to you will actually
help you get things done. You have to just manage the frustration that comes so easily to you
and make sure that the plan you’re following is actually the best plan. It’s very common for
those with their Ascendant in Aries to just jump into things, very eager to get to work but not
aware of the fact that the situation isn’t actually going to work out.
And when things don’t work out, you get stressed out. This is a placement that can lead to a
lot of nervous tension. Not knowing how to relax keeps you in a state where you’re just going
and going and going. Utterly convinced that you’re the Energizer Bunny, what you may not
realize is how unhealthy and unproductive all of this non-stop busyness becomes. The point of
work is that it has to stop, at some point. You’ve got to clock off. However, it’s typical for Aries
Risings to work high-pressure jobs or do some form of self-employment where the work seems
to never end. You believe that you can take all of this on, thriving on working at such a
breakneck pace. But, your nervous system will eventually be in shambles if you continue like

ARIES RISING
28

that. It can also be the source of health issues that you never slow down to truly address. You
are that person who will never call in sick, who will work through the flu if you have to, seeing
your sickness as a mere annoyance that has to go away. But, it simply persists.
You also have quite a type-A energy to you. Far from lazy, you set very high standards for
yourself and expect to consistently meet them. This brand of perfectionism also extends toward
the people that you work with or those in your life that you judge for somehow being
incompetent, unreliable, or sloppy. Your way of letting them know this is definitely not unlike
someone’s boss humiliating them or chastising them for their poor work performance. But, you
may believe you’re justified because it really does feel like people are always letting you down.
Another source of your anger can be this belief that everything around you is a mess or not up
to par and that it’s up to you to fix everything. You try to be superhuman and take on way too
much, unwilling to admit that, sometimes, not even you can reach your high standards.
Virgo being on the 6th House cusp means knowing what to do with your dissatisfaction. What
really needs to be fixed and what doesn’t? Since Mercury is the ruler of Virgo, you’ll find that a
lot of your ways of thinking need to be improved upon in order for you to healthier and more
productive. Thinking that you’re surrounded by idiots who are always making mistakes or that
it’s up to you to keep everything on track is what will make situations more stressful for you.
Also, thinking that the only way to be productive is to always be busy soon becomes
counterproductive. Instead of being fueled by your nervous energy, you have to know when to
turn it on and turn it off. Your nerves can be sublimated effectively into hard work. But, if you
don’t know when to stop working or analyzing or trying to fix things, then you will either feel
like everyone’s getting on your nerves or be the one who gets on everyone else’s nerves.
Slowing down some will allow you to tend to your health more, to know how to recognize the
physical signs that are telling you to “clock off.” It’s tough for you to just lay around and do
nothing but taking that time to recover whenever you’re sick will only make you more equipped
to get back to work. Yet, those with this placement can also have exceptionally good health, to
the point of rarely, if ever, getting sick or being able to recuperate from any sort of illness
within a very short time. You are too eager to get back to work or to stay busy to let any sort of
illness keep you down. Also, you will find that exercise is a fantastic outlet for you. It may curb
some of your workaholic tendencies because it will allow you to take that intense energy you
direct into your work and channel it into the gym. Being a total gym lover will be the result and

ARIES RISING
29

it’ll just be another part of your amazingly consistent daily routine that keeps you feeling like
you are using your time very wisely.
LIBRA ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
In spite of your legendary self-involvement, you are far more capable of thinking of other
people than you realize. With a Libra Descendant, you will discover that side of yourself through
the close, important relationships in your life. In general, you see yourself as this warrior, this
lone wolf who doesn’t depend on anybody. However, you lean on other people more than you
think. Why? Well, doing it all on your own gets exhausting. There are times where you are
inevitably going to hit a wall and realize that you’re not superhuman, after all. This is when you
are going to need other people to help you out. There is also this strong yearning for
connection inside of you. Sooner or later, you will recognize that collecting all of these various
little trophies in life doesn’t mean as much if you can’t share and celebrate that with other
people who love and appreciate you.
Libra in the 7th draws very loving, thoughtful individuals into your life. You will very regularly
be best friends or romantic partners with someone who has planets in Libra, an angular Venus,
or even placements in their 7th. This will be someone who knows how to be considerate of
other people and see things from another perspective. They can also be a truly calming
influence on you. Sometimes, the reason why the Aries Rising individual mellows out is because
they have a calm, cool-headed, objective companion in their life who helps them become
mellower. That is, if you’re able to truly appreciate the balance these people can bring into your
life. If not, you can just see them as being too nice or somehow inauthentic. Unfortunately, if
you don’t have inner balance, you become one of those people who thinks “keeping it real”
means being an asshole. If so, you will then have issues when it comes to the diplomacy of
these people.
However, everyone does have to experience a really unsatisfying, maybe even downright
awful, relationship that reflects their 7th House’s dynamics so they know what they do and
don’t want in a partnership. So, having Libra here means that you definitely can get involved
with people who fake their way through your relationship. They may only tell you what they
think you want to hear or spend so much time trying to keep the peace or please you that they
can never assert themselves. Sometimes, this influence involves dealing with total pushovers or
those who are very superficial and only care about the shallow parts of companionship, like

ARIES RISING
30

looks. You might also have a bad experience with highly manipulative people who exert their
influence over you so effectively that you don’t even know what’s happening until it’s too late.
But, sometimes, we’re simply projecting the negative qualities of our 7th House on to other
people because we’re unable to deal with them. Make no mistake: the Descendant is a part of
you. It’s not easy for you to admit that you’re not as big and as bad as you’d like everyone to
think that you are. Those with this Rising sign exemplify fearlessness not being an absence of
fear but being afraid and doing it anyway. The thing is that you can seriously convince yourself
that you’re never afraid, that you live your life on your own terms so unapologetically that you
don’t care what people think. Sure, you do have a real boldness to you. But, it would be a lie to
say that you’re that unaffected by others’ reactions to you. Feeling like people are going to
dislike you or have a problem with you, no matter what you do, can eventually get to you and
(gasp) even affect your decision making.
You can be blustering or full of bravado but, underneath all of that, there is a sweetness to
you. Part of that is because you’re the eternal child. No matter how much of a ruckus a child
makes or how bad they may seem, if you speak unkindly to them or make them feel like you
don’t like them, they’re deeply affected by that. You’re the same way. But, unable to own that
part of yourself that just wants to be loved, you can put that on to the people that you’re
connected to. It will be true that they just want to be loved, as well, so it’s easy for you to do
this. Also, your compulsion to save the day for other people means that whenever you see
someone who needs you to valiantly act on their behalf, you will. Once you get to know
someone and let them into your life, you are quick to stand up for them, encourage them, help
them get what they want. If you were just a selfish jerk, you wouldn’t do any of those things.
Since you feel like such a complete person, you feel an equal and opposite yearning to
somehow complete other people. Libra Descending compels you to fill in the gaps for others
that they cannot fill themselves. You very frequently get involved with those who are co-
dependent, who don’t have their own identity, or who spend a lot of time trying to make other
people feel complete. So, this creates a dynamic where you become enmeshed. It’s the part of
relationships that can make you recoil, horrified at the negation of your individuality. But, you
will overcome this feeling of resistance by making your partnerships a “one plus one equals
two” situation. You cannot be too absorbed in yourself that you fail to be present and really
connect. Making it all about you will definitely cause your bond with these very fair-minded

ARIES RISING
31

people to fail. However, you also cannot seek a sense of completion in someone else or let
someone who is an incomplete person distort your sense of wholeness.
Many people can relate to the notion of being single (and feeling alone) for so long that when
someone good comes along, they totally throw themselves into the relationship. This has
defined too many of your romantic pairings and can also definitely characterize close friendships
or business partnerships. You two may do everything together. On one hand, it’s always nice to
have company, so you’ll enjoy it. On the other hand, you can begin to feel as if you’re not your
own person anymore. Balance is so important in so many ways in your companionships and one
way this manifests is balancing out your time together. Having an equal amount of time apart
will help you maintain that healthy amount of centering within yourself and will show you that
you don’t need to be dragged down by co-dependents who cannot do the same.
Ideally, Venus ruling your 7th will allow you to forge and sustain a bond with people that’s
about being as lovely to one another as you can. As an individual, on your own, it’s all about
fighting the good fight. When you have to join forces with someone else, you must always be
willing to call a truce when necessary. It’s not defeat because you need to turn the situation
into a win-win. It’s a tough compromise for you but having very thoughtful people in your life
will help you stop and think more about how to successfully relate to others. Sometimes,
harmony will get you want you want better and easier than force. This will show you your
potential for being a more palatable person. You will be particularly impressed by your partners’
looks, charm, likability, people skills, etc.
But, you are capable of expressing all of those traits. While you may not always show that
kinder, softer nature, when you’re in a relationship, you are smooth, sophisticated, nice, and
even reasonable in your dealings. Once you’ve gotten close to someone, it’s like you’ve already
secured the prize. So, you feel like you don’t have to try too hard. With the competitive element
out of the equation, you’re free to just love the other person and treat them well. However,
your desire to get what you want can gain the upper hand and make you the manipulative one
who is always striving to subtly influence the other person. But, in many ways, you can do it for
their own good, especially when you realize all of the subtle ways that they gently yet firmly
pushed you in a certain direction for your own good.
SCORPIO ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP

ARIES RISING
32

The emotional issues (8th House) can be so intense that they are downright terrifying
(Scorpio). You have some mighty demons to wrestle with and this is part of the reason why
you’re such a fighter. With Scorpio in the 8th House, you are meant to face the deepest,
darkest emotions inside of yourself and come out on the other side. While doing so, you will
seriously transform yourself. But, dealing with all of that interior stuff can feel like a very
overwhelming, daunting task. You may be harboring so much anger, resentment, bitterness,
obsession, and jealousy, as well as all sorts of complicated secrets, that you don’t really know
where to even start.
You might have some serious emotional trauma that you’ve been through and that you
struggle to fully understand or come to terms with. Scorpio ruling its own house, the 8th House,
indicates that you have been through some psychologically painful experiences that have really
cut you deep. This can include being abused in any sort of way, having a toxic person
constantly controlling you and keeping you under their thumb, coming face to face with death,
whether it’s near-death experiences or losing loved ones tragically or at an early age, or
experiencing devastating losses that make you feel like nowhere is safe. In any case, this
placement shows that you’ve been scarred in life due to situations that have made you feel
scarily out of control. As a result, your way of dealing with this trauma is to resolve to always
be in control of what’s happening.
Secretly, you can be a major control freak, always wanting to know the in’s and out’s of a
circumstance so you’re never caught off guard. The idea that someone or something out there
is threatening your existence is what keeps you in fighting mode. It also fuels your aggression.
The Aries Rising anger can easily go from a cute, spirited feistiness to a troubling sort of rage
that seeks to burn the entire house down. The fact that you’re still in the house as it’s burning
down may either escape you or be something that you simply shrug at. Your self-
destructiveness can come out in a dramatic fashion, making you cut off your own nose just to
spite your face. It’s all to maintain control because you feel like, even if you’re messing up your
life, you’d rather be the one doing it than someone else.
With Pluto ruling your 8th House, being overly secretive, paranoid, and guarded is also an
expression of your shadow side. You go to a really dark place when you feel like everything is a
battle. Convinced that everyone is out to get you, you keep your cards painfully close to the
vest. That way, no one can use your perceived weaknesses against you. But, it can make it

ARIES RISING
33

hard for people to achieve real intimacy with you. Since the 8th House shows the kind of
“emotional inheritance” we’re dealing with from our families, I think that there is something
particularly turbulent that’s been passed down the Aries Rising family line. There has been this
long cycle in your family of hurt people hurting other people or being unable to really let
someone in because of how they’ve been hurt. But, who’s going to stop the cycle?
Your unresolved pain can also make its way into your sexual life. The issues you experience
in sexual intimacy can have to do with being unable to really share yourself with the other
person. It’s when your selfishness can take a turn for the worst. So, you may not open up
about your deeper sexual feelings, your strongest sexual desires, because you’re somehow
either scared of the other person being unable to understand them or you’re scared that they
will understand and, therefore, have a stronger access to you via this intimacy. Some of you
may actually hold off from sex for very long periods of time due to this fear of being deeply
known. But, just as many of you can go the other way and have a lot of sex without any
emotional connection, acting on your desires like some ruthless animal. A certain cruelty may
also emerge in the bedroom that makes you a sadist who somehow gets off on denying the
other person sexual pleasure or inflicting pain on them without much of a safe word.
You have to figure out where your sadism comes from, as it can permeate your life in a way
that makes you truly mean or vicious to other people. Do you somehow think you’re an awful
person because you were made to feel that way? At some point in your life, you will be treated
very awfully by someone else and will learn how to fight your way out of that. But, in the
process, you will come to see enemies all around you who need to be annihilated, even when
they mean you no harm and just want to be close to you. Seeing real intimacy and connection
as a threat is something you have to work through. The 8th House shows us how to conquer
our emotional issues and a fundamental mistrust of others is what you need to overcome.
Your greatest power stems from knowing that you can be powerful without being destructive.
You have to stop seeing yourself as this antagonist to others as well as not focus too much on
the villains in your life in order to find inner healing. This shows you that the best way to be a
fierce warrior is to just fight without obsessing over the fight or how to defend yourself against
any and every possible attack. You will have real enemies out there, like everyone else, but you
give them way too much power if you fixate on them or let them get under your skin.
Unknowingly, you let them win by annihilating yourself with all of that undirected rage,

ARIES RISING
34

resentment, jealousy, or obsessiveness. You will always have a raw intensity to you that can
strike out formidably against your foes and take them out. But, you have to know how to
manage that so you’re not lashing out at people, wildly and viciously, for no good reason.
Know what territory is safe and how to relax into it. This ends the cycle of pain that you come
from, showing you that being badly hurt in life doesn’t mean that you have to go around
hurting everyone else. It also doesn’t mean that everyone is out to hurt you. Let those old
demons rest enough for you to really build trust with other people. This creates true intimacy
between you and others, which will enrich your sex life for the better. You need to truly let your
sexual partner in to avoid the extremes of totally withholding yourself sexually or going from
one bedroom romp to the next with no feelings invested. Those strong feelings of yours actually
need to be channeled into sex in order for you to feel more balanced. Sex is a cathartic, intense
release for you that will inevitably allow you to explore that darker side of yours. You want the
sex to be on the rougher side and you may find that getting out feelings of anger or aggression
through sex is often necessary for you. If you hurt your partner a bit sexually, but in a totally
consensual way and with boundaries, you may release enough of your inner darkness to
prevent you from truly hurting them emotionally.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
Sagittarius in the 9th House shows how much you will believe that you are in the right. This is
the house of Sagittarius, meaning that your convictions in life are so strong that you can believe
that there is no possible way that they are wrong. Aries is quite notorious for an ability to admit
that they’re wrong. You always think that you’re doing the right thing. It’s why you have the
courage to take giant leaps when other people are too scared to even take the first step. But,
it’s also what can give you a misguided notion that you’re on the right path when you’re not or
that your good intentions can make up for your poor application or disastrous results.
However, being the survivor that you are, you know how to bounce back from virtually
anything. You aren’t going to waste time with regret or a “could’ve, should’ve, would’ve” sort of
mentality. What’s done is done and you move on to the next thing. With this ability to let the
chips fall however they fall, you’re blessed with an adventurous attitude. A real risk taker, you
don’t let the possibility of things not working out deter you. In fact, you go through life truly
convinced that things are going to work out in your favor. It’s a mindset that stems from a
certain naivete. But, it keeps you moving because you throw yourself into these situations with

ARIES RISING
35

such a positive attitude. Yes, if and when it doesn’t work out, you’re disappointed, sometimes
downright bewildered that things didn’t turn out to your advantage. Still, you will pick up the
pieces and move on, refusing to let a negative outcome get you down or hold you back.
Jupiter serving as the ruler of the 9th House here means that you will come to see everything
as a learning and growing experience. Because of this, you will want to do it all and make sure
you’re living to the fullest. It’s very easy for you to “do the most” because you believe that
upping the ante will only enhance the positivity of a situation. After all, you’re likelier to get
lucky if you bet bigger at the blackjack table. You’re also equally likely to lose more. That’s the
nature of the risk! However, it’s sometimes hard for you to understand when to hold and when
to fold. Never wanting to be some sort of coward or someone who plays it safe, you will take
one chance after the next. This can be because you’re too cocky about the odds being in the
favor or it could be because you simply don’t care if everything blows up in your face. Our
Sagittarius house is where we can go too far and you can easily go too far when it comes to
pushing your luck. You’ll end up pushing yourself right over the edge. Yet, somehow, you
always manage to land on your feet.
It’s because you know how to turn your losses into wins, whether that means using a
negative outcome as an opportunity for something more positive or as a way to become
smarter, stronger, or develop a better approach. The 9th House defines the experiences we had
during our college years that liberated us and opened up a new world for us. Sagittarius in the
9th means that the late teens and early twenties were a time for you to do it all and without
being limited. Being as headstrong as you are meant that you always felt like other people were
trying to hold you back or keep you down. But, the freedom of your passage into adulthood
allowed you to totally do whatever you wanted, without anyone stopping you. While in college
or out of the house, you might have been wild and unfettered, partying a lot, doing it up, and
not worrying too much about responsibility.
However, we all do need some limitations and this is hard for you to wrap your head around.
You can’t literally do whatever you want, whenever you want, all the time. If so, you’ll end up
in one disaster after the next. This probably happened during this time of your life. Maybe you
got arrested or acted irresponsibly to the point of messing up your life or did terribly in school.
Hopefully, these experiences helped you grow by showing you that if you think you can live
without any limitation at all, things will eventually backfire on you.

ARIES RISING
36

It’s more important for you to understand how to believe in something very strongly,
including yourself, but also how to know how much to bet on said situation. You’re a very
opinionated person yet you cannot be so invested in your opinions that you don’t stop to realize
just how much you also have to learn. College could’ve taught you this, which is why it’s so
important for those of you with this placement to, at least, go for a year or two. Even if you
don’t finish, you will still grow enormously as a person due to your time in school. This means
understanding that there is still so much you don’t know. Traveling abroad during/for college
can be a major part of this, showing you that there’s such a bigger culture out there than
yours. Some Aries Risings actually end up moving to another country altogether during their
late teens or early twenties, causing the culture shock to be an ongoing experience. Also, of
course, the process of engaging in discussions with teachers and classmates will help in this
regard. You must learn how to be firm in your own views while still being broad-minded enough
to understand others’ views. In the process, you will come to realize truly why you believe what
you believe, instead of just insisting on it to be right.
CAPRICORN ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
Having the Midheaven in Capricorn makes you destined to achieve exceptional things. On
some level, you know this because you know what a singular individual you are. But, the sheer
level of dedication, grit, presentability, and responsibility that are required of you to accomplish
all that you’re meant to accomplish will really test you. The 10th House shows us how we are
pulled out of our comfort zone to achieve our own form of greatness. With the 10th House in
Capricorn, you are seriously pulled out of your comfort zone through a search for success that
demands plenty of patience and perseverance from you. As an immediate-gratification seeker
who all too easily acts on impulse, you find playing the long game particularly difficult. But, you
have to develop a sense of self-control and a dutiful awareness of your position in the world in
order to get anywhere. You cannot be consumed by frustrations when your goals can’t be
achieved in the quickest manner possible or when you are met with one setback after the next
or face authority figures, colleagues, and co-workers who make it hard for you to rise up the
ranks. These are all only challenges meant to be conquered.
In some way, your father will serve as an example of this. With the Capricorn house
symbolizing the bond with the paternal figure, you might have a Dad who is highly successful
and renowned. However, it didn’t come easily. He had to work and work and push and push

ARIES RISING
37

until he got there. Maybe he also had some huge early success but then experienced a major
fall from grace and had to pick himself back up and work his way to the top again. The opposite
effect can also occur. You might have a father who just failed to be successful at anything and
is more of a laughingstock than an example to be proud of. His struggles and failures could be
all too well known to the world, to the point where he has a bad reputation or is shunned
somehow by many. Whether you have a father figure who is very accomplished businessman or
the lowly failure, his image and what he’s done in his career will have a way of hanging over
your head that may seem inescapable, foreboding, or burdensome.
This might begin in high school, which is when our Midheaven starts fully expressing itself.
People will know you very much as your father’s child, whether that meant that you were a very
successful chip off the block, like him, or whether they projected many of his negative
attributes on to you. Many Aries Risings can have a Dad who serves as a constant guide for
them throughout their career, to the point of becoming very controlling. It also may just seem
that way. Ever since your young adulthood, others think that your father plays a huge role in
your success, even when he hasn’t, sometimes to your annoyance. On the flip side, you
could’ve put all of the effort you could into trying to not end up like your father. This was more
so the case if he had a negative public image or if there was something about him that you just
couldn’t respect or connect to. Even if you admired him very much, his influence could’ve begun
to feel very stifling. So, you embarked on a quest to assume control over your path.
However, this quest is far from easy. The house Saturn rules is where we struggle the most
and you will experience many hardships when it comes to achieving your life goals and being
somebody out in the world. It can feel as if you’re met with one hurdle after the next. In spite
of the fact that you’re this force to be reckoned with, it’s enough to get you down after a while.
Although you don’t feel like a failure, you can experience a position in society that makes you
feel like one, even if you’re seemingly successful. You might not be working the job you truly
want to work, that really feels important and purposeful. You also could be so busy working and
intensely striving for your goals that you focus way more on the setbacks and the negative
experiences than the successes you’ve accumulated.
Capricorn in the 10th also brings an enormous amount of pressure when it comes to living up
to the world’s demands and expectations. It requires you to cultivate the right kind of image for
yourself that will make you someone that people can take seriously and respect. Because of

ARIES RISING
38

that, you will be forced to button up a bit and not just be this raw bundle of energy. Knowing
how to be seen as a true professional – someone reliable, effective, solid – is what leads to the
most recognition for you. The brand you cultivate for yourself is as a sophisticated or classy
person, someone to be looked up to as an example, or someone who has a very savvy business
sense. In the end, knowing your brand only allows you to be more individualized out in the
world. It will show you the unique way you can make your stamp on society and succeed.
Until you get it just right, you can deal with a slew of criticism and judgment from the public.
Capricorn on the Midheaven shows that you will go through a period in your life receiving a ton
of “publicity” that isn’t exactly positive. Many people will turn their nose up at you, questioning
your talents, background, integrity, image, choices. It can feel as if you’re never doing anything
right. But, it’s by enduring that negativity that you will develop the strength that you need to
truly face the world. You will grow up significantly and understand that it’s more important to
just do your work and commit to your goals than to try to win any popularity contests. Although
you should aim to be taken seriously, you also shouldn’t take the public’s view of you all that
seriously. If you do, you’re in for a lot of unhappiness. In the end, you have to remember that
what they’re responding to is merely your image and your work. They don’t know you
personally, so you don’t have to take any of it personally.
Passing this test will allow you to take more and more charge of your path. You’ll be unhappy
in subservient positions or in a career that doesn’t allow you to assume some sort of control.
But, you should also know that you can’t just walk into a place and automatically become the
boss. You’ve got to really work your way up. You’ll be faced with difficult bosses – sometimes
because they’re oppressive and, other times, because they’re really incompetent – who do all
they can to hinder your progress, frustrate you, or break you down. But, knowing how to stand
up to them and bide your time until you can either get out or surpass them is what will keep
you going throughout your career. Such negative experiences of being under some boss’ thumb
is what can compel you to be your own boss. Going into business for yourself, in some way, is
an ideal career choice for the Capricorn Midheaven. You need firm sense of autonomy that
allows you to make your own rules, instead of suffering under someone else’s.
This placement is the archetype of the mogul and the entrepreneur. You will get very far in
life if you start your own business, in whatever field you deem to be important and worth the
effort. It’s definitely not easy to start your own business but no achievement in your career will

ARIES RISING
39

be rewarding if it’s easy. Such experiences will just strengthen your mettle and hone your
focus. Soon, you’ll be known as someone who’s all about their business, to the point where
you’re more interested in being professional than popular. Having a bunch of people in your
public sphere trash you or give you such a hard time will only reinforce this strategy. Unless the
Moon, Venus, or Neptune aspect your Midheaven, you won’t be very interested in playing nice
in front of the world. Instead, you will want to roll up your sleeves and get the job done.
But, this focus on the bottom line must be about integrity and efficiency, instead of some sort
of ruthlessness. You’re capable of stopping at nothing to succeed and such an attitude will soon
backfire on you. Your success must come through hard work, dedication, maturity, and wisely
yet scrupulously calculated choices, not a greedy, take-no-prisoners form of capitalism. If you
engage in that, it’ll only be a matter of time until you’re exposed for that. It’s true that,
sometimes, you will form connections with people that are largely convenient for your career.
That doesn’t necessarily make you some sort of terrible person, though. Capricorn Midheaven
people have to watch out for making moves and engaging with the world in a way that is solely
meant to enhance or cater to their image. If you do, people could try to expose you as some
sort of a fake, as someone who’s all image and artifice. Of course, that couldn’t be more
ridiculous to you, as you think you’re nothing but authentic. However, if your choices become
too deliberate or premeditated, then that’s all people will be able to see in you.
The more you accomplish in life, the more you’ll usurp your father. One of your greatest
goals is to get to a point where no one can compare you to him again, either because you’re
way more successful than he could ever be or because you’re so fully in control of your path
that he no longer has an influence. You might find that there is plenty of unresolved anger or
frustration behind this yearning, though, maybe because you somehow felt like he wasn’t
enough of a father to you or treated you like someone to constantly be managed. When you’ve
gotten to a place where you’ve truly become your own person in the world, you hopefully can
let that go. In the end, you’re meant to be the Dad for the world. After all, you have such a
masculine energy to you! Being the boss and setting the rules and guidelines for other people is
how you’ll be able to play out that paternal role and, luckily, just about any career gives you the
opportunity to do that. Your potential for success is tremendous. You just have to put in the
necessary time and the work.
AQUARIUS ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP

ARIES RISING
40

Since you have Aquarius on your 11th House cusp, you very much feel like an individual. It’s
just that you may not feel like you’re that strange or unusual of a person. Whatever is in the
11th in our chart is what we are objectively aware of but not very personally connected to.
Having Aquarius in the 11th can, therefore, make you disconnected from this sense of being
weird or out of the ordinary. Instead, you feel like the way you are is either very sane or
relatively normal. But, you are always surprised by how much you stick out like a sore thumb,
by how much you find it hard to fit in. Being treated like an outcast, a misfit, or even a pariah
when you don’t think you’re doing anything wrong is the effect of this placement. The more you
try to belong socially, the more alienated and misunderstood you will feel.
This is why you ultimately have zero interest in fitting in. Growing up, your extraordinary
nature always made you feel out-of-place. You’re so committed to being an original, defiantly
and uncompromisingly you, and people have never known exactly what to do with you because
of that. Uranus ruling the 11th indicates that you struggle or feel awkward in social situations
where everyone else is striving to fit in or cares too much about others’ approval. Naturally,
then, you’ve always felt rather socially awkward in a lot of social situations. At some point in
your life, you come to accept that you will never really be like the rest of your peers. Even with
a group of friends, you always feel like the one who is unlike the others. But, this gives you that
amazing sense of independence. You’re too free to crave some sort of group affiliation or social
acceptance at large. Instead, you’re more than happy to do your own thing.
Feeling so different is what gives you the ability to make a major difference in the world. You
know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong. Depending on the aspects to your Uranus, this
could’ve led to some bullying or meanness from your peers that you had to fight back against.
So, you’re willing to fight for anyone who has felt on the outskirts, relegated to the margins,
gravitating toward any cause that focuses on such people. While doing so, you will still display a
disinterest in joining the rest of “the people.” You have a vague, distant interest in most people
that doesn’t go beyond social affiliation. Even then, you will keep them at arm’s length. You
already know what happens when you try to find your way into a social group or community.
You’d rather reject the community, instead. But, still, you remain a part of it in your way of
rallying people when needed, connecting those socially who wouldn’t connect otherwise, and
being an all-around cool friend to have.

ARIES RISING
41

It’s hard to convince you, though, that so many of your peers and friends see you as the
definition of cool. Your total unwillingness to conform and carefree sense of individuality make
you a rather untouchable figure in your social world. People will want to be like you but will
consistently fail trying because there’s definitely only one you. Friends and acquaintances will
feel the unique, electric impact of your presence whenever you’re around. But, you won’t be
around for long, as you will unfailingly detach from social obligations to be by yourself and do
what you want to do. Sometimes, it can come off as rather cold and like you don’t have much
of a team spirit. You do and you don’t. You’re an excellent friend to other people, capable of
giving them the same space and freedom to be themselves that you demand from others. Yet,
you can insist on your freedom to the point where you disappoint others who want you to be
more involved. The irony is that, when you try to be very involved, most people will become
unreliable or a no-show. At times, it feels like your friends are the ones who distance
themselves from you, which makes you only more intent on being a lone wolf.
Yet, social events and situations can surprise you without how connected they make you feel
to everyone else. Without realizing it, or even wanting to admit it, you can find yourself
enjoying being a part of the group. You should sometimes let people welcome you into the fold.
Insisting on your fierce individualism only makes people yearn to include you more, especially
since you seem like you have so much to offer. Knowing what you can bring to the collective
also takes shape on more societal levels. You can go through much of your life being that
classic person who doesn’t care much about politics, paying sole attention to what’s affecting
you personally, until you have a major epiphany and realize that politics is always personally
affecting you. Going from someone who barely keeps up with the news to a person who is
always volunteering for organizations, engaging in marches, or fundraising for politicians will be
a part of your journey of learning that it’s not all about you.
Still, things have an unusual way of happening to you that not many people can relate to.
Aquarius in the 11th is a big part of why you love living on the edge. Truly wild and unexpected
things are always happening to you. Whenever you try to control things is when they become
increasingly unpredictable. Also, being faced with situations that are very stable and
conventional can make you go wilder and wilder, unable to deal with things being too peaceful
and settled. Ironically, the wilder and crazier you feel, the more stable your circumstances will
end up being. Your strong sense of uniqueness means that you cannot force yourself to color

ARIES RISING
42

inside the lines. Even when you try, it always has a way of not working out, pushing you to be
the out-there individual you were meant to be.
PISCES ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP
You have a very sensitive side to you that you do a good job of concealing, so much so that
you often hide it from yourself. That’s the way the 12th House works. In our chart, it represents
an entire vault of secrets that we might not even want to fully explore. So, with Pisces in the
12th, you keep your high level of sensitivity a secret. It’s so much easier for you to maintain
this stance of being such a bad-ass, of being so concerned with yourself that you can come off
as too self-involved or even insensitive. But, this is to give you a protective skin against the
world. You know how cruel people can be and how much they can solely be out for themselves.
Seeing life as a man-eat-man sort of experience, you keep any fragility that you feel hidden so
that you can survive and not get taken advantage of. The unfortunate result is that it can end
up hardening you in a way that creates a profound dissatisfaction within.
The mean streak that you can exhibit is sometimes to prevent yourself from being the next
target. You don’t just strike back whenever you’re crossed. You can strike to prevent the other
person from even thinking of crossing you. Hurting other people’s feelings may not be
something you worry much about. Even if you do, you’re often convinced that they’re just being
whiny or taking things too personally. Your ability to push buttons is well-known and it can
sometimes seem like you want to hurt the other person or don’t care if you do. If they can’t
take the heat, get out of the kitchen. But, this callousness makes you increasingly unaware of
how you’re also burning yourself. Repressing your sensitivity causes you to remain disconnected
from the pain, sadness, or guilt you feel whenever someone else is hurting. An unconscious
part of you knows how deeply you suffer whenever another person suffers. So, you try to cut
yourself off from those feelings in order to survive, believing it’s either you or them.
Another effect of Pisces ruling the 12th House is that you’ve experienced and witnessed
human cruelty and insensitivity so horribly that you’ve shut down emotionally. The truth is that,
beyond your brash exterior, you’re very emotional and vulnerable, like that metaphorical child.
But, you can also go to enormous lengths to hide that vulnerability from other people, not
wanting to be the next victim of what you see as a selfish, unfeeling world. Those emotions
don’t just go away, though. You are constantly being overwhelmed by your emotions, which is
why you go from zero to sixty so quickly. This influence makes you someone who feels

ARIES RISING
43

everything deeply and it gets to a point where it’s too much to handle. So you will either put up
a tough front to avoid facing it or you will become very withdrawn to process everything.
Neptune serving as the ruler of the 12th House is also the reason why you are so prone to
being caught up in your own world. You’re a loner simply because you enjoy being alone. It
doesn’t scare you or make you uncomfortable or anxious like many people. Instead, it brings
you great peace. You finally get to stop, to rest, to not have to worry about defending yourself
against this person and that person. Your softer side comes out in solitude. For instance, you
may not seem like much of a crier but you can find yourself retiring to your room after a hard
day and just bawling your eyes out. Very few people will know this, though. That gives you a
certain feeling of peace because you don’t have to keep your guard up around potential
attackers. However, it also is an increasingly isolating thing because it means that some of the
deepest things you experience and feel are kept hidden from everyone else.
Such isolationism is why you can have such a hunger for recognition and to be an individual.
You simultaneously want to separate yourself from humanity, easily feeling drained or
overwhelmed by people, and believe that you need to stand out so you’re not forgotten. In
some deep part of yourself, you can feel invisible and unacknowledged, like nobody really cares
about you. This is what drives some of that callousness that you’re prone to engaging in. If no
one cares for you, then why do you have to care for others? But, the truth is that there’s a lot
of inner hurt and pain behind that way of thinking. You just have to let yourself feel it. In spite
of being so present, so in-the-moment, there is a lot that you’re actually trying to escape from
and run away from. Usually, this has to do with things you cannot control, like overwhelming
events or emotional states that confuse, paralyze, or terrify you.
We look to the 12th House to tell us what we have to let go of, in many respects. With Pisces
on the 12th House cusp, you’re being asked to let go of all of the pain and suffering you’ve
accumulated over your time. It’s not just the pain and suffering you’ve been through, as well.
It’s the hurt and the confusion that other people have endured. Aries Rising people tend to
have a strong allergy to anyone who acts like a victim or is very self-pitying. But, you don’t
realize that this is because you’re deeply affected by these people. You don’t want to be them.
The last thing you want is to be a victim. But, we’ve all been victims, in some way or at some
point. Being a victim means just experiencing hurt. You don’t have to remain a victim, of

ARIES RISING
44

course. That’s something you’ll definitely insist upon. However, you also shouldn’t totally deny
anyone’s victimization, including yours, because of how uncomfortable it makes you.
People regularly claim, for instance, that those who had a bad childhood have no excuse to
still be destructive as adults and blame it on their childhood. Well, that’s one way of looking at
it and you may agree. But, sometimes, people can’t move out of that psychological state. It
would be great if everyone could take the actions needed to consistently become better people
and move beyond their past hurt. However, that’s just not the case, not even, on occasion, for
the proactive people who claim that they are much more than their past. Sometimes, all you
can do is just feel whatever you’re feeling, which could involve a lot of unresolved hurt.
Sometimes, people can’t get out of that cycle of suffering because of their own unconscious
problems. When you endure a lot of suffering due to your unresolved or unacknowledged
emotions and come out on the other side of that, you’ll fully understand that.
The 12th House is about the suffering we can all go through, in some sense, and with Pisces
here, it’s especially intense and profound. You’re meant to acknowledge that pain and release
it, at the same time. We should feel whatever is in our 12th House without personally
identifying with it. No, you’re not meant to be some poor, unfortunate soul. But, you are meant
to experience periods of being downtrodden, disoriented and lost, caught up in your own Greek
tragedy, in order to have empathy for those who are going through or have been through the
same thing. This can help you get over some of your selfishness because you’ll realize that we
all go through the same things. We all cut when we bleed and no one’s hurt should be
dismissed. Through this awakening, you’ll simultaneously heal yourself, finally releasing your
suppressed inner pain, and understand how to heal other people.
Neptune as your 12th House ruler is another reason why you’re meant to be a heroic figure.
You can truly save people from their pain; that is, if they want you to. The more spiritually
aware you are, the more you’ll feel compelled to do this. It will be quite a redemption story for
you, as well. After exhibiting a bullying, mean-spirited, or vulture-like attitude at some point in
your life, you’ll stop once you fully realize how much you’ve been creating more pain in the
world. But, you’ll also have the perspective of the victimizer, knowing that most people only
hurt others because of how much they’ve been hurt in life. We’re all just in need of a lot of
healing! So, you can display great compassion to those who’ve hurt, often times by swooping in
to defend them or help them get out of a bad situation, as well as to those who are hurting

ARIES RISING
45

other people, understanding that they’re really just lost, in the end. Having the lust for life that
you possess means that you’ve lived a ton of different lives, from many different perspectives,
whether you realize it or not, and this only further connects you with humanity.
The purpose of this placement is for you to be very sensitive and empathetic to others while
maintaining a thick skin and not expecting most people to be overly compassionate to you.
Instead, you’re meant to find that through your relationship with your Higher Power. You will
feel very unconditionally loved by this Higher Power, which gives you the ability to present
yourself in such a take-me-or-leave-me fashion to the rest of the world. Your spiritual life is
where you can go to find great forgiveness, understanding, and peace. Astrology can provide
you with a sense of compassion for yourself through this awareness of all of your sometimes
hidden dimensions via your birth chart. When you’re able to totally forgive yourself for all of
your flaws, you will show that same level of forgiveness to others. It’s why so many Aries Rising
people are so willing to move on from squabbles and can ultimately see the best in people,
even when the same people drive them crazy or are unable to be a part of their lives anymore.
All of that time you will spend alone, in your own world, can lead to an exceptionally rich
imagination. It’s what can draw you into the arts. Being artistic gives you the healthy sense of
escape that you are yearning for, as well as an opportunity to express that vulnerability that
you keep so well-guarded in everyday life. You will not only love being able to act out various
fantasies but to become different people. Although you generally have a very strong identity,
you possess an equal compulsion to take on different personalities. You’re not always as sure of
yourself as you’d like to think. Going back to the child metaphor, your self-concept is strong and
distinct yet still not fully formed. This is why children are so capable of becoming completely
immersed in their fantasy worlds, to the point of totally believing them. So, if you are an artist,
you have the potential to totally absorb your audience into your work right with you, allowing
them to access something truly magical and out-of-this-world.
Outside of your artistic life, you have to watch out for the same problem, becoming totally
myopic or dangerously unrealistic in your endeavors. Yet, it can also become an asset when it
allows you to get what you want through complete visualization and faith. You can truly will
something into existence just because you feel it and believe it so vividly on the inside.
Obviously, this can have positive or negative effects. One positive effect is not only how you
can manifest your desires so readily but awaken the dreams of other people to the point where

ARIES RISING
46

they feel able to manifest what they want. While others are busy moping around, unsure of if
they can do it, you simply dare them to dream. “Why can’t you do it?”, you ask, opening the
same infinite door of fantasies for themselves that you do for yourself.

ARIES RISING
47

TAURUS RISING

TAURUS ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


When you have a Taurus Ascendant, life is a very pleasing experience. That’s not to say that
everything is great all the time in your life. You’re just living out a narrative that compels you to
experience as much loveliness as you can. It’s also not just a matter of experiencing it. You
want to attract all of that loveliness your way and you do so effortlessly. Your role in life is of
someone who is truly content. So, you possess an instinct for being as content as you can be.
This outlook allows you to appreciate life and all that you have more than the average person.
It is true that Taurus Rising people define themselves by what they own. However, contrary to
stereotypical profiles, this does not necessarily make you materialistic or consumerist, although
the potential is definitely there for you to display these traits. You just have an individual
perspective that is focused on things of value.
Your most important and valuable possession, besides the money you make or the house you
own or the clothes you wear, should be yourself. You have the ability to be exceptionally self-
possessed, understanding your innate value and insisting on it. Not every Taurus Rising
individual has this attitude, though. Some of you have to spend your life working toward that
mindset and will find yourselves in circumstances that force you to know your worth. The Rising
sign tells us how life unfolds for us and the kinds of situations that we are naturally thrust into.
If you don’t have self-esteem that is healthy and solid enough, you’ll be thrown into situations
where you are being devalued and diminished somehow. This will force you to break out of
those circumstances through a growing awareness of what you’re worth. Other Taurus Risings,
who naturally have a stronger sense of self-worth, will conversely find themselves in situations
where they are being constantly built up, appreciated, and loved. Regardless, with this
Ascendant, your circumstances in life very directly correlate to your level of self-esteem.
Venus is the ruling planet of Taurus, making this beautiful planet your chart ruler. Venus’
expression in Taurus is quite different than how it manifests via Libra, the other sign that it
rules. Venus is about love and when expressed through relational, interpersonal Libra, it’s all
about the love that you’re experiencing with other people and how reciprocal and mutually
fulfilling it is. When Venus expresses itself through earthy Taurus, however, it focuses on the
most practical form of love that there is: self-love. Having Venus as your chart ruler means that

TAURUS RISING
48

you have to consistently ground yourself throughout life by loving yourself. And while having
the planet of attraction as your chart ruler does mean that you will have plenty of admirers, just
like your Libra Rising brothers and sisters, it all comes down to how much you’re loving and
valuing yourself. Your life is a clear example of “if you don’t love yourself, how can you love
anyone else?” You’re here to build yourself up and become increasingly comfortable in your
own skin, understanding that all your happiness in life starts with self-love.
Again, this is easier for some people with this Ascendant than others. It all depends on what
Venus is doing in your chart. You can look at the house placement of your Venus to see the
area in life that will allow you to build your self-worth. Do you have Venus in the 3rd? This
means that developing your communication skills, your listening abilities, and your overall
mental prowess will be the source of your self-worth. You will love yourself when you recognize
how interesting and engaging you are, when you’re able to value your curiosity and eagerness
to learn. Maybe you have Venus in the 4th House. This will manifest as a deep love of your safe
space, your private life, where you come from. The connection you form with your family will be
a very significant key to your self-esteem. Then, you look at the sign that Venus is in to tell you
your motivation for building yourself up in this area of life and the aspects your Venus is making
to see how this happiness is going to be pursued and expressed.
Those with harsh aspects to their Venus are much likelier to end up in those situations where
they’re not being truly valued but, instead, unappreciated, diminished, and even torn down.
Making sure that you’re living a life that supports stable self-esteem will be crucial because it
leads to a life that is as stable as it can be. Carving out that stability for yourself means
everything because you ultimately define yourself through how secure your life feels. But, that
outer security won’t really happen until the inner security is firmly established. The more
comfortable you are in your own skin, the more comfortable your life will be. This is a level of
happiness that won’t just be achieved overnight. Taurus’ house in our birth chart is where
things take the longest. Having Taurus as your Ascendant means that, in general, things will
take a long time to happen for you. What will make you happiest (symbolized by your Venus’
house placement) will come to you very slowly yet it will be so sweet when it finally arrives. You
are so used to things in your life taking their sweet time to happen and this is one of the
reasons why you’re such a patient person.

TAURUS RISING
49

We look at the Rising sign to tell us how we came into the world and the early environment
that shaped us. Your arrival into your family may have seemed like it was a long time coming,
which is why it’s quite common for Taurus Risings to have parents who had to wait until they
were a bit older to have children. Your birth process may have also taken forever. In any case,
it seemed like you were determined to just take your time getting here. Once you finally arrive,
there is this stabilizing or calming influence that you have on your environment. Unless other
influences in your chart got in the way, you weren’t a very rambunctious child. You didn’t cause
a lot of problems, unless it was in terms of your famous obstinacy. Instead, you took on this
role, from the beginning, as the one who had to keep everything grounded and easy. In some
cases, this is due to you being born into an environment that was nice and easy, with a family
that was generally well-functioning and stable. But, depending on your Venus, your early
environment may have been anything but stable, which is why you felt so compelled to be a
necessary calming influence.
Taurus Rising children are really sweet and level-headed. If you have siblings, you might have
seemed like the most sensible, reasonable one out of all of them. This conditions you to be the
kind of individual who levels other people out. Usually, you do so with the intent of making
things easier for them, to help them be happier people. Once you learned how to do this, early
in life, it became deeply ingrained in you and something you carried with you throughout life. In
any situation, you are the classic voice of reason or the one who knows how to calm people
down, especially when things get difficult or they’re going through a crisis. You have the ability
to be a real rock for other people because you have such a steadiness to you that makes them
feel like they can count on you. Overall, there is something distinctly reliable and consistent
about you. With your very simple and even-keeled temperament, people always know what
they’re going to get out of you, which is what leads to your notorious predictability.
You’re a real creature of habit because you know what you like and you stick with it. Why
change it up when it’s all working so well? But, your Achilles’ heel is often that you don’t realize
that things aren’t working as well as you think they are. Too focused on the happiness and
stability you are always striving to create and maintain, you see change as a threat to all that
you’ve built. This is when you dig in your heels and refuse to budge. In spite of how reasonable
you are, once you get into that state of total stubbornness, there is no reasoning with you. This
is because you feel like you are doing the most reasonable thing, so there’s no point in listening

TAURUS RISING
50

to anyone else. What every Taurus Rising needs to realize, though, is that cultivating a bit more
flexibility will actually lead to even greater happiness for themselves. You have to learn to
accept more of what’s outside of your comfort zone.
Therefore, you have this nature that makes you both easygoing and rigid, pleasure-loving yet
sometimes stuck in the mud. You always proceed with caution, which is why you move so
slowly and carefully through life. In any given situation, you watch your step because you don’t
want to make the wrong move and throw yourself off-balance. Having such a cautious outlook
is what makes many Taurus Risings rather shy or reserved. Although you’re a very pleasant
person who makes a lovely impression on other people, you are also very hesitant whenever
you’re faced with someone or something new. You need plenty of time to get comfortable with
what’s new or to decide if you’re even going to be comfortable with this unfamiliar factor.
Needing to be eased toward new people or into new situations is what can make you downright
awkward, at times. You never want anything to be rushed and whenever you feel that hasty
kind of pressure, you’re paralyzed, unsure of what move to make or what to say.
Yet, you’re not someone to outwardly panic often. Even when you’re feeling terrified,
anxious, or uncertain, you have a way of coming off as totally at peace, which is accentuated
by the fact that your default facial expression is serene and laidback. You also aren’t going to
let yourself be flustered, thrown-off, or pressured by other people’s activity. It’s why you can
spot the Taurus Rising individual by how they seem to be the calm in the middle of whatever
storm they are in. A complete commotion can be going on around you and you will insist on
going at your moderate pace. In any sort of noisy or hectic setting, you can provide people with
a peaceful refuge, like sitting in a corner of a loud bar with someone else and making them
forget about all of the other noise that’s happening. However, this doesn’t mean that you never
get worked up or never freak out. You have a temper that can be truly terrible when sufficiently
provoked and can also find yourself having a complete meltdown after keeping it together for a
very long time. These moments usually happen after an extended build-up. But, when you do
finally lose it, you can bring the whole house down with you.
Taurus is represented by the Bull and you are the human embodiment of this animal, in how
steady and easy you are until someone makes you “see red.” Your patience isn’t infinite and
there’s only so much you can take. If someone is waving that proverbial red flag in front of you
for too long, you will charge straight ahead with tremendous force. Like the Bull, there is

TAURUS RISING
51

something sturdy about your physicality. Both sexes tend to have more “meat on their bones”,
with the women being curvier and the men being naturally stocky. It’s rare to see a total skinny
mini with this placement. But, even then, there will just be something “substantial” about how
you’re built and you may even find yourself feeling and looking better when your body is a bit
thicker. Some Taurus Risings can struggle to navigate their environment because of how much
their physicality takes over. This turns you into a classic Bull in a china shop, clumsily knocking
into or dropping things, which only further highlights your charming awkwardness.
Interestingly, there is also a real gracefulness to you that either emerges with time to
overcome that awkward side or sits right in juxtaposition to it. Due to your innate carefulness,
the way that you move has a deliberate grace to it. You exude a kind of elegance that is never
pretentious or snobbish. It just seems completely natural, stemming from how geared you are
toward all that is beautiful, easy, and even luxurious. Living the high life comes very
instinctively to Taurus Rising people. You have a high appreciation of money and the finer
things in life. It’s very common for those with this placement to come from a very comfortable
background, either middle-class or even upper-class, in some cases. You might even be a part
of an old-money sort of lineage. Even if that’s not true of your early life, you will definitely strive
to be as financially comfortable as you can as an adult. You gravitate toward luxury and wealth
because a significant part of you just feels like you deserve it.
If taken too far, it can lead to the greed and materialism of Taurus lore. Yet, so many of you
are so likely to avoid that consumerist, superficial route and express your Venusian energy in a
beautifully earthy way. You feel a very deep connection to the physical realm and this actually
makes many Taurus Risings real hippies or tree-huggers. You absolutely relish being out in
nature, bonding with Mother Nature and all of the Elements. This can even take on a very
spiritual dimension. Although you’re so pragmatic, you also can be really New Age. A strong
belief in manifestation exists somewhere inside of you. Spending so much of your life attracting
material blessings your way, often without effort, you instinctively master the Law of Attraction
and naturally understand that gratitude for what you have only leads to more gratitude.
Through such an attitude, you build the life for yourself that will make you happy.
Since you’re so profoundly connected to your five senses, you have a way of fully activating
other people’s physical senses through your sheer presence. One tell-tale sign of a Taurus
Rising is their voice. Taurus rules the throat and having this Ascendant gives you a very distinct

TAURUS RISING
52

voice, in some sense. Whether it’s deep and husky or a melodic sing-song, your speaking voice
always stands out and gets plenty of compliments. The fact that you speak so deliberately and
slowly only allows people to enjoy that instrument of yours even more. Naturally, it’s likely that
you have an equally lovely singing voice. Even if you can’t sing like a pro, you still probably can
hold enough of a tune to excel at karaoke. There are other ways that you physically captivate
people. Taurus Risings typically smell really great. A lot of you never leave the house without
applying your signature cologne or perfume. But, you also just have a very naturally appealing
scent. It’s so powerful that people may be able to sniff you out and find you.
It also should go without saying that this is one of the most attractive Rising signs, thanks to
the rulership of Venus. However, your attractiveness is not just about beauty. It’s about the
sensuality that you effortlessly exude, through the way you carry yourself, your alluring voice,
the way your mere touch affects people. Just a hug or a rub on the back from you has a huge
sway over others. Your sensual aura is warm and inviting, only accentuating your earthy
appeal. Yet, unlike Libra Rising, it may take some effort for you to learn how to truly appreciate
the attention you get. Your Venusian beauty stems from something very internal and self-
oriented, which can make it hard for you to understand what others are responding to.
You’re also not as likely to primp and preen in front of the mirror. Being all about comfort can
make it easy for you to walk out of the house without combing your hair or to just throw on
some old clothes and call it a day. However, you have a way of making the no-effort look for
you, with your loveliness shining through just as strongly. And when you clean up, you clean up
exceptionally well. It’s all just down to how you feel about yourself. If you feel good, then
you’re going to look good, no matter what. Venus is a feminine energy yet with it being
internalized and brought down to earth via Taurus, it leads both sexes with this placement to
go through the process of recognizing how their beauty depends on their self-worth, not being
attached to the idealized ways of looking good that society enforces. Like everything in life, it all
comes down to how much you value yourself.
GEMINI ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
The 2nd House shows what we spend a great deal of our lives uncomfortable with and how
that leads to both an inner and outer insecurity that we have to work through. Having the 2nd
House in Gemini means that you are not exactly comfortable with flexibility. You know what you
like and absolutely stick to it. Although you think this serves you well, it actually prevents you

TAURUS RISING
53

from experiencing true security in life. You might only feel secure when everything is reliable or
the same, making it particularly hard for you to adjust to all of the variables in life. What is
sometimes an admirable steadiness in the face of instability can then just turn into a total
unwillingness to adapt to the inevitable changes in life.
With the 2nd House, that internal discomfort turns into material discomfort. It’s what can
cause you to hold on very tightly to your money and not accept any changes in your financial
situation. Sure, it’s nice to aim for stability. But, not everything can remain the same. Dealing
with finances when they’re in flux is especially hard for you and it may only tighten your vise
grip over your goodies. There is a definite possessive streak within the Taurus Ascendant. Yet,
you just need to stop and ask yourself if you are possessing the object or if the object is
possessing you. The flip side to your insistence on stability is that you don’t feel truly stable
unless your material existence is. During these moments, you need to stop and turn inward,
recognizing that you’re not as centered as you think you are.
Striving so much for consistency can eventually lead to a notable inconsistency. Nobody is the
same way absolutely all the time. Even though you like to think that this is true for you because
you’re that simple, having Gemini on the 2nd House cusp means that you will actually be more
comfortable with yourself if you are not so rigid in your self-expression. You cannot settle for
being one-note or doing the same thing repeatedly. If you do, you will eventually hit this
plateau, personally and financially, that makes it hard for you to fully enjoy life and experience
all of the pleasure and comfort you can because you’re limiting yourself to one track or one way
of doing things.
Allowing yourself to be more versatile, to embrace your inner contradictions, will help you feel
better about yourself. You will realize that there is no one way to be in order to be of value.
You can express one side of yourself and then an entirely different part of yourself and they are
both valuable. Also, even though you like being this solid space for other people to lean on, you
don’t have to keep yourself so stuck in that role that you can’t break away when necessary.
Believing that you always need to be counted on and dependable is what will ultimately lead to
you feeling insecure because no human can be that present literally all the time. You’re not
some object, some toy, that exists merely for other people’s comfort and amusement. It’s okay
for you to have and embrace other qualities that are sometimes the complete opposite of the
energy that people find comforting and pleasing.

TAURUS RISING
54

You also have to know that, thanks to Gemini’s dual nature, you aren’t always going to feel
good about yourself. Through this influence, you will spend a lot of time veering from high self-
esteem to a lack of self-worth, loving yourself gloriously and then being totally fed-up with
yourself. It’s okay to exist in this ambiguous state. One is fueled by the other. If you didn’t have
those moments where you didn’t like or value yourself, how would you know how important it is
to like and value yourself? Also, the reverse may be true. You might spend a great deal of your
life more comfortable with diminishing yourself and not knowing your worth, even though there
is this other palpable side to you that will keep telling you how much you’re worth it. Listening
to that inner voice and turning this concept of self-love into a value system will allow you to see
that there’s always an alternative to not feeling very good about yourself.
In the process, you will learn that there is always an alternative when it comes to making
money. You have to see money as an energy that comes into your life when you are open-
minded and willing to be versatile. Mercury ruling the 2nd House will give you a wide range of
ideas when it comes to making money and you will find that, as long as you follow up on your
curiosity in this regard, these ideas come to fruition in a very lucrative way. It’s when you’re not
open to various ideas and sticking with the same old thing that you limit your financial
potential. As a result, you may end up working multiple jobs or dabbling in many different
forms of income. Whatever you’re interested in will be what pays off for you in literal terms.
Therefore, if you’re working a job that you find dull and unengaging, you will remain in a place
where you’re making just enough to get by while not growing much, income-wise. The 2nd
House tells us how we can enjoy making money and with this placement, you enjoy making
money the most when it is ever-interesting and keeps you on your toes.
You are also very interested in money and in making it. Mercury’s rulership here shows why
you are so practical-minded, why money can constantly be on your mind. Essentially, you have
a mind that is geared toward being the most secure and comfortable you can be. So, you will
possess a natural comprehension when it comes to money. Once you’re able to really grasp the
power of manifestation, which is something you always innately understand yet may not be
able to articulate, your intelligence when it comes to money will strengthen. You can
concentrate on the energy of the mind, how it goes in and out of your life, and the ways to
manage it best. Because of this, you will feel most secure and comfortable when you value and
appreciate your brainpower. Any job that lets you show people that you have something

TAURUS RISING
55

between your ears can be a great source of security and you may particularly enjoy writing as a
form of income. Since you see yourself as such a simple person, you have to put in the effort to
recognize how smart or willing to learn you can be. Yet, your mental abilities have a highly
practical effect on your life, allowing you to remain in a state of abundance.
CANCER ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
You have a very sensitive or intuitive way of comprehending things, thanks to Cancer being in
the 3rd. Processing information on an instinctual level, it can be hard for you to explain just
why you know something and how. But, if you trust that instinct, you’re usually right. Even
though you’re intuitive, it’s in a logical manner. You have a strong need to make sense of
whatever it is that you’re feeling, which compels you to think about your emotions a lot. This is
why your mind operates in such a sensitive way. However, thanks to the contradictory nature of
the 3rd House, you also want to distance yourself from those feelings and detach from them. In
a way, it calms you down to clearly comprehend what it is that you’re experiencing emotionally
because it prevents those feelings from overwhelming you. Most of the time, anyway.
Though you will come off as highly reasonable, there is this switch that gets flipped within
you that makes your emotions totally overwhelm your reasoning. The fact that you’re always
reasoning through or with your feelings means that they can sometimes completely consume
your sense of logic. This is what happens when you finally lose it after keeping your cool for so
long. Yet, this is why you possess a strong need to talk through your feelings. You know that if
you are unable to communicate your emotions, they will eventually take over and spill out. So,
logically understanding them often prevents that from happening. Because of this, you may be
able to verbalize a lot of what you’re feeling in a very clear, concise fashion. On the flip side,
you might have a hard time putting those feelings into words. Still, you need to feel as if you
have the support of someone else who is just willing to listen or who may be able to talk you
through those emotions.
With the Moon, Cancer’s planet, ruling your 3rd House, this defines a huge part of your
relationship with your mother. You have a mother figure who is very talkative or very
intellectual or both. She provided you with support by helping you rationally comprehend your
emotions and share them through an open dialogue. This all depends on the aspects to your
Moon, though. You might have a Mom who has always encouraged you to share and open up
to her or you could have a maternal parent who minimizes your feelings because they’re not

TAURUS RISING
56

logical and sometimes even discourages a real dialogue from happening. In the latter case, you
can shut down altogether and have a hard time expressing your emotions until you flip and
they all come spilling out in a very surprising way. In the former situation, you will learn
through your mother how beneficial it is to really talk your issues out with someone else.
This influence also leads to a mother who is not the easiest person to pin down. It’s very
common to see Taurus Risings who are born to parents that are somehow flighty, unreliable, or
unpredictable, which instills a sense of individuality within you in terms of being a much more
solid and present person. In negative cases, the Mom is here today, gone tomorrow. Generally,
she may say one thing one day and the complete opposite the next. This is often due to her
being an over-thinker and changing her mind so easily. You have always been kept on your
toes by your mother yet it may lead to a feeling that her support is sometimes frivolous or
inconsistent. There may also be times where she just seems detached and not altogether
present emotionally. But, you probably learned to take her as she comes and goes, realizing
that her changeability or fickleness didn’t indicate a lack of love or concern.
Your way of conversing with people is always sort of motherly or caring, because of this. You
know you’re a Taurus Rising when you can just talk to people and it has a soothing effect on
them. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter what you’re saying. People just feel that there is
something sympathetic, sweet, or concerned behind it. This is true in many cases. But, other
times, it’s because you’re all too used to conversations with others being emotionally charged.
So, you enter into these talks with people prepared to comfort them. When it comes down to it,
you know just what to say to make someone else feel better.
Who is going to make you feel better, though? With Cancer in the 3rd, you must truly seek
these kinds of exchanges out, aware that you need to communicate your emotions in a sensible
way in order to receive support. Due to the duality here, you can go either way with this. You
might act like you don’t have any feelings, too afraid of not being understood or listened to, or
you could become so consumed by those emotions that you don’t know when to stop talking
about them. Veering back and forth between the two is common, depending on your state of
mind and the kind of mental and emotional connection you feel you have with someone else.
But, neither stance is particularly healthy or balanced. Sometimes, you have to just turn inward
and listen to your own emotional rhythm. Are you able to understand what’s going on with you?
If so, you may need time to just talk through it with yourself (a journal is hugely helpful when it

TAURUS RISING
57

comes to that). Are you lacking clarity in what’s going on with you? This is when it’ll be more
helpful to seek the understanding of someone else, realizing that they may help you
comprehend what you’re going through in a way that you couldn’t.
Throughout your grade school years, it was always clear how much you cared. Maybe it was
because you were a kind, comforting classmate to your peers, serving as a source of support to
many. At this age, you came to realize just how many people would gravitate toward you as
someone to lean on. Such understanding may have also extended toward teachers. But, you
were probably very influenced by a few particularly maternal teachers who made it clear how
much they cared for you. Receiving plenty of support in the classroom is how you excelled.
Feeling like the school system didn’t care about you was enough to make you not want to try.
You had to really warm up to the classroom setting. But, the more comfortable you were, the
more you communicated. Due to this, you always went through a gamut of emotions when the
semester or school year ended, feeling so emotionally attached to the classroom, your teacher,
and your fellow students that it felt like home. Yet, you also became used to developing that
feeling in many educational settings, creating a wide range of strong emotional connections
while at school.
You also had to be emotionally invested in whatever you were learning in order to be good at
it. Never taking information in just for the sake of it, it had to touch you deeply for you to
maintain an interest in it. This is why, as an adult, you simply know what you know without
understanding why. Whenever you learn or comprehend something, it speaks to you on a very
unconscious level. Yet, it has to activate your unconscious in order for you to take it in.
Otherwise, it just leaves you cold. This is why you unfortunately can come off as being a bit
slower. But, this isn’t an indicator of your intelligence. It just means that you need plenty of
time to take things in and let them sink in. You sometimes don’t know how to respond in
conversations until you’ve given yourself a lot of time to ponder it, meaning that you may not
come up with the best responses until after the fact. Yet, other times, when you’re in the right
mood or frame of mind, you can respond immediately.
It is also often dependent on your comfort level with the person. The less your guard is up
with them, the more voluble you are. It’s why you may barely talk around people you don’t
know and not be able to stop talking around those you’re familiar with. You can see this
dynamic in your bond with your siblings. Cancer on the 3rd House cusp typically leads to a

TAURUS RISING
58

particularly strong emotional bond with one’s brother or sister. There tends to be a moodiness
that gets accentuated when you’re together. Yet, you don’t mind when they are being kind of
crazy or vice versa because you understand each other on a deep level. In the family, you may
be each other’s greatest source of support. This has something to do with your mother and the
fact that she often seemed too preoccupied or in her own head to give you as much attention
as you wanted. So, you put a lot of effort into taking care of each other. It also should be said
that, with this placement, the Mom feels more like a sister than a mother, much of the time. So,
you and your siblings have always taken care of each other because, as much as you love her,
your mother may seem more like a life-long babysitter than a serious parental figure.

LEO ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP


Due to having this Leo Nadir, you grew up feeling rather special, in some sense. So, you feel
most at home when you’re receiving adulation, attention, and positive reinforcement. This is
part of what compels you to seek out the appreciation of others throughout life. You can do this
because you seek to be built up and cherished and also because, on some level, you feel like
you deserve such special treatment. This is the version of you that only comes out behind
closed doors because you’d rather people focus on the more grounded, low-key part of you. It’s
why you, at times, deflect or downplay some of the attention and admiration you receive. You
don’t want a lot of people to know how hungry for that praise you really are. But, when
someone enters your inner sanctum, they come in contact with this side of you.
Your upbringing and your connection to your family is represented by the 4th House. With
the 4th House in Leo, the sign of pride and awesomeness and royalty, you may come from a
very distinguished background. It’s why some of you had particularly privileged upbringings,
growing up with only the best of the best. Even if that wasn’t the case, you still felt like you
were of royal blood for some vital reason. Maybe you did come from a long line of very special,
exalted people who were treated like kings and queens, due to their fame or their talent, or
who were actual royalty. The notion that your family name and lineage were glorious was
conditioned within you. Also, you might just come from a family of very proud people. No
matter their station in life, they have always been able to carry themselves like they were of a

TAURUS RISING
59

special pedigree. This rubbed off on you, to the point of making you the most exalted member
of your family of origin.
Commonly, the Leo Nadir suggests that you go on to be famous on some level that either
eclipses your other loved ones or that they could not achieve. It was always like that, to some
degree, making you seem like the star of the household. Such a position may have gone to
your head. It’s no secret that you can be very self-indulgent and this may stem from an
upbringing where you were very used to getting your way. Yet, this placement also indicates
that you have always ruled the roost when it comes to your family with the intent of taking care
of all of them. From an early age, you figured that if everything went the way you envisioned,
then everyone would be alright. So, it’s no surprise that you’ve turned out to simultaneously be
an amazingly steady source of support for others and totally obstinate in a way that tries their
patience.
This carries over into your adult life and you might have to remember that your home is not a
fascist state. You can project your bond with your family unto anyone else that you live with or
let into your private life, meaning that you try to dominate them, too. Although you are a very
warm, fun-loving person to live with, you also can be overbearing, if you’re not careful. History
ends up repeating itself as you try to make everything in the home revolve around you, like it
somehow did while you were growing up. But, this also means that the spoiled, self-absorbed,
or demanding behavior you’ve always displayed, to some degree, with your family ends up
happening again with anyone else who is in your inner sanctum. The fact that you can
dramatize these domestic events, to the point where you’re making so much into a big deal,
doesn’t help you in terms of exhausting loved ones.
It’s particularly difficult for you to break out of those old patterns, though, because you feel
innately defined by them. The Sun indicates your sense of self and having it as the ruler of the
4th means that you have gained so much of your sense of self through your personal history,
your family, the ways things were growing up. If you are not constantly playing that role that
you always played with your loved ones, then who are you? This placement gives you the will
to keep things how they are because, in the process, you will be able to remain the person
you’ve always been. The 4th House is our comfort zone, in many ways, and Leo being on the
4th House cusp means that you act out and identify with your comfort zone far more than you
should, sometimes. You need to know when to outgrow it.

TAURUS RISING
60

That means knowing when to outgrow behavior that is best left in your childhood. Behind
closed doors, you are just a big kid and while this contributes to your love of pleasure and a
good time, it can also become very tiring to others. In your private life, your temper tantrums,
demands to get your way, and your heightened sense of drama will just make other people feel
like they have to take care of you somehow. You need a lot of attention to feel safe and
supported and, sometimes, the people you love and call family won’t be able to provide all of it.
At the root of all of this outrageous behavior is a very powerful yearning for love. Your need to
be loved is the foundation of so much that you do. Just remember that reverting too often to
childish ways to get it is not the way to go.
The plus side is how affectionate and generously loving you are to whoever you really care
about. Leo in the 4th symbolizes the warmth that you have that takes a while for people to fully
experience. After all, you are a cautious character and much of this is because you don’t want
to deal with the hurt of not getting that love you’re looking for in return. So, you wait and wait
until someone has proved themselves enough, until you feel like they will meet your
expectations and give you the support you need. It’s just important to remember that you
cannot force them to do so.
You need a rather regulated home life where you know what to expect, where there is a
certain consistency or reliability because everyone is playing their part. As dedicated as you are
to your part, you need an equal amount of investment from others in order to feel truly at
home with them. Just like you didn’t just come from any old family, you don’t want a home life
that’s just any old home. You want there to be as much love as possible and for the bond
between you and your loved ones to be truly special and amazing. As a result, you can regularly
feel let down by anyone that you call family because they’re not making you or the environment
feel special enough. Sometimes, you’ve got to retreat and make yourself feel awesome. The
reason why you’re here is to build yourself up. So, there will be times where you don’t get
enough affirmation from your family because you have to get it from within. It doesn’t mean
that they don’t love you or care enough about you. What it means is that you need to take
more time to love and care about yourself.
VIRGO ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
The 5th House tells us who we need to be to shine brightly in life. Having Virgo in the 5th
means that you simply need to work as hard as you can in order to develop your star power.

TAURUS RISING
61

You gain recognition and develop your talent the old-fashioned way: through sheer dedication
and work ethic. The expression of your creativity is very practical and also analytical. Whenever
you’re living in the moment, you convey strong common sense and observational skills without
inhibition. Your sense of spontaneity, however, doesn’t make you too spontaneous because
Virgo is this methodical sort of energy. Ironically, you feel most alive and have the most fun
when you are counting all of the steps toward something. At heart, you are a very measured,
meticulous sort of person, which is what fuels your innate sense of caution.
Whatever you’re good at, it’s surely not going to be some “natural talent.” Instead, you will
work at it and work at it until you feel like you are up to par. You can be very hard on yourself
in terms of your abilities because you set a rather high standard. Although you do have this
reputation for being lazy, when your heart is involved in something, you are anything but lazy.
This is what allows you to excel and shine at just about any job that you really invest your
energy into. Constantly emerging as the Employee of the Month is part of what keeps your
pockets lined. Virgo on the 5th House cusp actually allows you to have plenty of fun when
you’re working. Getting to work is a good time for you, whether that means turning in a hard
day’s work on the job or tending to all of the little daily things and practical essentials that
make your life function. It’s no wonder, though, that your self-expression can cause you to be
seen by some as sort of “boring.” You find the fun in the mundane things many detest.
The charisma that you develop, in the process, is of someone who is very much level-headed
and who has both of their feet on the ground. Mercury ruling the 5th House shows that there
will be a real shrewdness underlying that practicality. In truth, Taurus Risings are smarter than
they often get credit for. Negatively, you can get labeled as simple-minded or basic. But, at
heart, you clearly understand things that other people don’t notice and grasp, usually because
of that major simplicity of yours. Being able to pare things down to the basics so well is a talent
of yours that regularly reveals how well your mind works. You can come to a conclusion or dish
out a solution that other people didn’t really think of before because it was so simple yet it will
make such sense or be a rather intelligent thing to say. Getting validation (5th House) for your
intelligence (Virgo) usually occurs when you just remain humble and modest. When you make a
big deal out of your brainpower, you don’t get as much attention for it.
Acutely understanding how to make things work is an ability you’ve displayed since childhood.
As a kid, your self-expression may have been so technical, analytical, or precise that people

TAURUS RISING
62

around you often got exhausted by your over-thinking or your need to have everything be
correct. Maybe, somewhere along the way as you grew up, you began to stifle that very critical
energy. We can all turn the volume down on our 5th House in order to grow up. Yet, the
qualities of our 5th House are very vital qualities that we should never lose, only learning how
to manage and temper them. When channeled well, your highly detailed, methodical manner
will allow you to create all that you’re looking to create in life, having a very clear vision of
something and then turning it into a reality. You will do so no matter how long it takes because
when you really have a passion for something, you put in a tireless amount of effort until it
becomes totally tangible.
This placement also means that, as a child, you dramatized or amplified all of the times that
you didn’t get things right. Feeling like so much of the validation you received was based on
doing things correctly, being incorrect was really a blow to your self-worth. You still can feel
that way now and will see this trait reflected in your children, if and when you have them. They
will very likely have Virgo planets or a pronounced Mercury, making them very hard on
themselves or prone to over-thinking things for the sake of correctness or rationality. You will
have to teach them how to calm down, let go of their anxiety, and focus more on what they are
doing right. In doing so, you will be reminding your inner child to do the same. You are capable
of forging a relationship with your kids where everything is very clear-cut, including the
communication between you. Knowing how to straighten them out without making them feel
overly criticized will be crucial. They will be diligent, bright, and aim to be on top of things. Yet,
they will require your assistance on a regular basis when it comes to knowing how they need to
improve and how to be healthier, more efficient versions of themselves.
You take a very similar stance when it comes to romance. The 5th House tells us how we go
about matters of the heart. Yet, with Virgo here, your sense of passion is very watchful and
practical. You aren’t one to totally jump into a love affair until you know that everything that’s
happening meets your specific expectations. But, you shouldn’t take this attitude too far. If you
do, then you can easily meet a great person who is right in front of you because they don’t
meet all the criteria. The teenaged version of you had a definite checklist about what you did
and didn’t want in a love interest and this attitude has continued into your adult life. Because of
your inner adolescent, you can make too big of a deal of a lover’s flaws or mistakes. It’s not the
end of the world if they don’t measure up this way or that way! Still, giving your heart to

TAURUS RISING
63

someone else is something you will put a lot of effort into and you need to know that your love
interest will work on it just as much. Luckily, you will have some passionate encounters with
those who have planets in Virgo and who will be able to meet you at that level. You just have
to give in to it, without criticizing it, knowing that whatever problems need to be solved can be
solved and that the little things that sometimes bother you aren’t really that important.
LIBRA ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
Your sense of productivity can be very dependent on other people. With Libra on the 6th
House cusp, you feel most efficient when you are working in tandem with someone else. In
spite of how determined and hard-working you are, there is also a very indolent side to you.
Having someone to give you a push toward a busier or more constructive direction is what
often allows you to get the most done. But, is it as effective as you think it is? The 6th House
shows us what is also counterproductive about our daily routines. Depending so much on
someone else to help you or influence you in terms of your work can obviously cause you to hit
a wall. It can not only become co-dependent, making it hard for you to function without the
other person, but particularly stressful.
You strongly feel the influence of other person in your day-to-day routine. Although you can
benefit from this influence, a major part of you tries to resist it. The more someone is urging
you to get it together or get busy, the more you can sink into the spot you’re in and refuse.
Your stubbornness is obviously at play, in these moments, and it only creates more stress for
the other person. Being more thoughtful about how your particular methods are not really
helping someone else is crucial with this placement. With this being your Libra house, it shows
how you are in partnerships. In any sort of close relationship, you could end up becoming dead
weight or too much work because you’re not willing to truly compromise with the other person.
The less you compromise, the less you and the other person will be able to get done.
It should also be said that you can find yourself in partnerships where you’re the one doing
all of the work, causing the other person to stress you out, in the process. The fact that you are
such a steady comfort for others is what can make people put too much of a burden on you
and expect you to do a lot, if not all, of the work. Obviously, such unions can’t last for very
long. The strength of any partnership in your life depends on how much both people are willing
to put in the necessary effort. All of this is not just about day-to-day things and chores,
although much of it will be based in that practicality. It’s also about just how much someone

TAURUS RISING
64

else is willing to see improving the partnership, as a whole, as a task that is necessary. Of
course, we all need someone who is willing to do that, to some degree or another. Love (Libra)
is work (6th House). But, that sentiment is especially true for you. The issues of our 6th House
can manifest physically and you can find yourself getting sick or having physical issues that are
the result of unresolved problems within your important relationships.
However, it definitely goes both ways. You have to be willing to resolve these problems, as
well. Your natural-born obstinacy make you very resistant to changing your ways as a partner.
Now, of course, we just discussed your Virgo in the 5th and how it makes you so geared toward
correcting things in your love affairs. But, the thing is that you are often only willing to do that
if you’re the one insisting on the changes and the correctness. If you are displaying such
selfishness in your relationships, refusing to truly reflect enough to see what you need to work
on that you may not be seeing, then they won’t work out. Sometimes, you will require someone
else’s perspective to show you what needs to be improved or straightened out in your life.
Striving to do this for other people yet not receiving the same kind of constructive feedback will
prevent your relationships from being based on true equality.
By accepting the point of view of someone else, you can pinpoint obvious issues and their
solutions, which you never would’ve saw before because of your total resistance to change. An
important person in life can really help you do away with habits that prevent you from being as
healthy or as productive as you could be. Accept the changes and the relationship will achieve a
greater balance. Yet, you also need to surround yourself with people who are willing to do the
same. This will take a great deal of stress off of you, which will help resolve the health
problems that make you feel physically unbalanced. You strive to live this easy life and life is
ultimately much easier when everyone is helping everyone else and doing their part.
SCORPIO ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
Though you strive to live the simplest, easiest life you can, your Scorpio Descendant
consistently pulls you into very intense and complicated partnerships. The influence of other
people, as we’ve already seen, can have a really transformative impact on you. But, the
transformation that Scorpio requires of us is often a painful one that allows us to hopefully
become stronger. With Scorpio in the 7th House, this process of pain and transformation will be
experienced in close friendships, romantic unions, or any other crucial connection or important
one-on-one bond in your life. You are always attracting people into your life who have a lot of

TAURUS RISING
65

emotional baggage or who have plenty of psychological scars that serve as evidence of what
they’ve been through in life. Pretty soon, you can end up with psychological scars of your own if
the person you’re involved with isn’t living consciously enough.
Being closely connected to very destructive individuals is the unfortunate result of this
placement. We all have to experience some sort of bad relationship, via our 7th House, that
shows us what we don’t want from other people. But, for you, it can seem as if bad
relationships are just the norm. Since you’re so drawn to people with Scorpio placements or a
heavily emphasized Pluto influence, these individuals, if unevolved, can be seriously hurtful,
manipulative, toxic, or even abusive and you put up with this unhealthy dynamic for way too
long. It’s hard for many people to get out of toxic partnerships but it’s especially difficult for
you. Your way of resisting change and hanging on to things for too long means that you usually
don’t know when to kick these terrible people to the curb. You just let them stick around and do
harm to you, which shows your own destructive side. You’re self-destructive when you let
people into your life who are intent on destroying you and don’t care about the damage.
Yet, this also exposes the dark side of yourself. The 7th House describes what we attract into
our lives because it represents an unacknowledged part of ourselves. Having the 7th House in
Scorpio, you attract such danger, such darkness, your way because it’s a part of you that you
may not be entirely owning. You’re not nearly as easygoing and uncomplicated as you think you
are. Although you know how to remain calm and centered, there is a huge reservoir of deeper
emotions inside of you. Feeling like you have to stifle that inner intensity in order to keep
everything even-keeled only causes that energy to become stronger and stronger. You are then
able to project that on to the people you surround yourself with. They have such a powerful
energy that magnetizes and mystifies you. By diving into their emotional depths, you will also
be diving into your own.
This is why a part of you doesn’t want to give up these partnerships with destructive people.
You need to discover that side of yourself through them and you do so, no matter how painful
it is. Having a Scorpio Descendant means that you’re almost guaranteed to be put through the
emotional ringer, at some point in your life, by someone who claims to love you but is only
hurting you. This may be through various forms of abuse, constant cheating, total emotional
volatility, or by being really obsessive, controlling, and jealous. There are definitely cases where
the other person isn’t some demonic presence in your life. But, betray them in any way and

TAURUS RISING
66

their evil side can come out full force, through schemes for revenge or a real ruthlessness
toward you. In the process of getting to know the darkness within these people, you see the
darkness within yourself: your potential to be highly emotionally overwhelming, to have a very
manipulative or controlling presence in someone’s life, to strike back viciously whenever you
feel hurt or betrayed, even in certain situations where that wasn’t the other person’s intention.
It is by going through this mutual psychological roller-coaster that you come to understand
what you’re capable of. You also have to know what the other person is capable of. Keeping
someone in your life who you know is just going to cause you pain is something you really have
to grow out of. It doesn’t help that these companions will exert such a powerful emotional hold
over you, to the point where it feels like they’ve cast some sort of evil or scary spell. But, you
are strong enough to break that spell. In fact, you can cast spells of your own! Your exceptional
attractiveness makes you highly magnetic, on both romantic and platonic levels. You are
capable of drawing whatever kind of energy into your life that you focus on. If you keep
focusing on toxic people, that’s who you’ll get. But, if you focus on people who you can create
an empowering dynamic with, that is who you’ll attract toward you.
Knowing how to eliminate certain relationships from your life is a major way that you move
toward empowerment in this life. You find your inner power by being in interpersonal situations
where someone was determined to make you feel powerless. Also, you should know that it can
go both ways. Your potential for creating highly manipulative games to play with others, as
some sort of power struggle, should never be underestimated. If you lack awareness of your
dark side, it creates a deadly cocktail of insecurity, obsession, resentment, secrecy, and
instability that causes you to wreak havoc in someone else’s life. But, being aware of this
potential within you allows you to take that energy and transform it into a positive form of
power. If you can influence and impact someone that negatively (to the point where they’re still
not over you or still haven’t forgiven you), imagine how positively you could affect them.
At this level of awareness, you will have what it takes to truly transform someone else’s life.
This occurs when you let someone transform your life, for better or for worse. Going to Hell and
back with a companion can make the relationship stronger or it can simply make you stronger,
compelling you to get out and totally change your approach to partnerships. You can only bring
your best to the table as a close friend or a romantic partner if you are deeply aware of your
emotional issues and seriously striving to overcome them. You also have to be quite all-or-

TAURUS RISING
67

nothing when it comes to only letting people into your life who are willing to do the same.
Putting up with toxic characters who will never change drags you down even more than it
would drag the next person because your partnerships have to revolve around change.
But, it’s not about changing the other person, either. It’s about being with someone who is
willing to change and embarking on your personal transformation right along with them. Then,
the intense passion that you can experience with someone else is intimate instead of
tumultuous, profound instead of destabilizing. Even in platonic unions, you are seeking
something intoxicating with the other person that allows you to become consumed with each
other in the best way. Scorpio in the 7th shows that you can’t truly feel a connection with
another person unless there is some element of obsession there. Obsession can be a positive
thing, so long as you are not totally exhausting each other. That intensity from them reaffirms
to you that they’re present. Yet, in spite of the intimacy that goes on, you will never totally
know the other person. They will be an eternal mystery to you, in some way, and they will be
able to say the same about you. There are so many secrets and complexities lurking
underneath your calm exterior and you will only give some of them away to the lucky few.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
The emotional issues that you struggle with in life have to do with a lack of freedom or
opportunities. Sagittarius’ placement on the 8th House cusp indicates that you feel scarred in
life because you feel like you weren’t given as many options. You also can experience a sense
of not being allowed to express your truth. Being conditioned to adhere to the status quo and
not rock the boat makes it hard for you to speak your uninhibited truth. Whenever you do, it
will always feel like you’ve gone too far, to the point of exposing something really forbidden or
taboo. You possess extreme opinions because they are so often bottled up and when you
express these opinions, they can offend, wound, and even devastate whoever is on the
receiving end of them.
Sagittarius in the 8th symbolizes painful experiences in your life that made you feel like you
couldn’t experience all that you were meant to. There was some sense of trauma you dealt with
that created a sense of being trapped or weighed down by something that made it hard to
move forward in life. In a lot of cases, it could mean some loss or emotional problem that you
haven’t processed. We receive an abundance of the experiences that are represented by the
house Sagittarius rules in our chart. With it governing the house of loss, pain, and trauma, you

TAURUS RISING
68

may have dealt with a major death at an early age or experienced people dying all around you
at some point in life. You also might have survived a ton of abuse that you never really took the
time to understand. In terms of these losses or pains, you tried your hardest to just move on
from them, to the point of running away from the true emotions involved. But, they just end up
relentlessly haunting you. The reason why you may never feel free is because you have a very
hard time being free of the trauma you are always trying to outrun.
As far as unhealthy family patterns, this behavior can repeat throughout the generations in
your family. One person after the next trying so hard to run away from the painful things
they’ve been through that they aren’t able to totally process and move on from it. Inheriting
this emotionally, you can completely believe you’re doing the right thing. After all, isn’t it better
to forget about those awful things and be happy? Well, in spite of your good intentions, you are
paving your own road to Hell. You go to extremes through the belief that running away from
your pain is the right thing. It causes you to have a very obsessive, intense notion that you are
in the right when it comes to many other subjects. What you may fail to recognize is the deep
resentment that is driving such heavy self-righteousness. Feeling like fate is always trying to
force itself upon you, thanks to the painful experiences you’ve had, you take it upon yourself to
remain in control of the direction you’re going in. Realizing that you’re headed down the wrong
path is hard to do when you never think you’re wrong.
We can also experience our 8th House’s unresolved issues through sex and the physical
intimacy in our lives. It explains the emotional problems that are underlining the unsatisfying or
unfulfilling sex we’re having. With Jupiter, Sagittarius’ planet, as the ruler of your 8th, many of
your sexual issues boil down to something deeply insatiable inside of you. It can seem like you
can never get enough, which leads you to go from one partner to the next. After all, you are so
sensual and that gives you a huge appetite for sex that can let you shrug it off as just being
sex. An unwillingness to go any deeper with your sexual partner will have you easily feeling
trapped if the relationship gets too intimate. When it does, you feel like you’re going to
inevitably lose them, bringing more negative energy into your life that you have to run. You
also can have such rigid notions about how sex should be had that you’re not willing enough to
explore the other person’s desires. It becomes all about exploring yours.
In the 8th House, we also see what we need to eliminate from our lives to empower
ourselves. Sagittarius in the 8th means that you must eliminate any unnecessary running that

TAURUS RISING
69

prevents you from facing the real truth about what you’re feeling. An inability to express your
truth makes you feel powerless. But, you need to stop and recognize that you’re the one who’s
limiting yourself. If you just faced your deeper emotions instead of seeing them as no big deal,
you would discover an incredible inner truth that allows everything else to make so much more
sense. Getting down to that level of fierce honesty is when you’re most powerful. Your honesty
can easily become very brutal and that’s just a part of your dark side that you have to accept. It
doesn’t mean that the only way you can express your beliefs is to be really harsh and hurtful.
On some level, you may want others to experience the same pain you felt when you were
faced with some unavoidable truths in life: that you can lose people you love dearly, that you
can search and search for happiness and never really find it. You’re only so insistent on being
right because the thought of being wrong is excruciating. It brings you face to face with
everything you’re trying to move past. Yet, it’s by being in the wrong that you’ll reach a state of
profound truth. You’ll see how the mistakes you’ve made have only made you stronger. All that
you’ve been through hasn’t killed you physically and, in spite of what you may think, it won’t kill
you emotionally, either. So, you have a chance to achieve tremendous growth through
everything you’ve been through in life. No experience is all good or all bad. It’s all a part of one
intense adventure that is meant to emotionally enrich you. Adopting this attitude is how you
find true freedom in life and you can’t do so if you’re too busy being rigid and narrow-minded.
Broadening your mind with the intent of transforming on a deep level will also translate into
sex. You might have to slow down and recognize that the intimacy you’re trying to run from
isn’t so bad. The only actual trap is your belief that someone getting to know you more deeply
is a trap. It sends you off in search of one conquest after the next, which soon becomes very
stagnant and unfulfilling. You need to welcome the new experiences that an enriching, fulfilling
sexual life can bring you. Therefore, Sagittarius in the 8th means that you will create sexual
healing with your partner by being fully willing to explore all of their desires. They could
introduce you to new, wonderful things and give you a whole new perspective when it comes to
sex. But, you also have the opportunity to be sexually healing toward them by giving them a
brand new attitude in the bedroom. All of this is going to depend on real honesty, though. It
may be uncomfortable or even hurtful, at times, but you both have to constantly tell the truth
in order to fulfill each other’s deepest passions.

TAURUS RISING
70

CAPRICORN ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP


Difficulty is a major key to your personal growth. More than the next person, you learn the
most from hardships, the times where things did not come easily to you. Capricorn’s placement
in your 9th House indicates that you’re on a path in life that is filled with one obstacle after the
next. Enduring such a rocky journey is something that forces you to grow because it shows you
that life is not all about taking it easy. Sometimes, you’ve got to do it the hard way. You will
eventually come to believe in the importance of trials and tribulations, knowing from experience
how much it builds character. But, that sense of conviction doesn’t develop overnight. It usually
happens once you’ve faced and overcome enough hurdles, realizing how much is possible in life
when you have more than enough perseverance.
Capricorn is also a sign of integrity and having it ruling your 9th means that you will develop
a strong belief, throughout life, in the importance of integrity. You can’t seek shortcuts with the
aim of getting lucky or having a smoother path. Sure, that may work for other people but it’s
not going to work for you. Neither will striving to get to the top in ways that are unscrupulous
or reflective of poor moral character. You are being asked to embark on a rather old-fashioned
journey where the only things that gets you to a place of success are sheer hard work and
dedication. Achieving things honestly is going to be crucial. When you scheme, cheat, lie, or
fake it, you aren’t going to get much of anywhere. Even if you do, the victory will be hollow and
short-lived. Instead, you will manifest your karma, quickly getting knocked off the top position,
if you ever make it there, either by being exposed for your amorality or dealing with a massive
failure or setback that forces you to start from scratch.
These experiences can make you feel like you have very limited opportunities. That’s not
true. You just have to limit your strategies for success, making sure that you’re not resorting to
the dishonest, unsavory, lazy, or ineffectual approaches that other people engage in to get
ahead. You’re being held to a different moral standard because, ultimately, it all goes back to
valuing yourself. Knowing you’re a person of worth will help you resist any path that isn’t worth
your respect or your time. Since our Capricorn house symbolizes our bond with our father, you
might have learned this through your Dad’s example. Some Taurus Risings have a father figure
who is a truly upstanding citizen who has always remained on the right path throughout life.
Meanwhile, some of you may deal with the kind of father who goes the complete opposite
route, living a life of dishonesty and misguidedness that inevitably catches up with him.

TAURUS RISING
71

So, many of your beliefs about success are instilled within you by your father, inadvertently or
intentionally on his part. Did he go about it respectably or was he nothing but a wayward soul?
Having a father figure who is like a human rolling stone that gathers no moss is often the result
of Saturn ruling the 9th House. Even if he was successful and relatively present, it may have
always felt like he was constantly off somewhere else. He could’ve traveled a lot or lived far
away from you, maybe in another country. He also might have just been a restless spirit,
somehow unfulfilled by the life that he had. That constant search for more achievement, more
recognition, or more respect became instilled within you, making you feel like what you
accomplished was never enough. You needed more.
This is why your journey in life can be a hard one. You make it harder by not being grateful
enough for all that you’ve achieved. You’re not just working hard for that success. Capricorn in
the 9th shows that you are manifesting plenty of opportunities for success your way through
the right attitude. The wrong attitude just causes many blockages to arise, which then creates a
negative belief system. Constantly feeling limited, like you are getting little to nothing in return
for your hard work and all the efforts you’re making are going unrewarded, will just cause that
sense of stagnation to continue. It may even turn into a feeling of bad luck. But, you have what
it takes to turn all of your luck around. You just need the discipline to do so.
As a Taurus Rising, you need to live your life with a constant sense of appreciation and
gratitude. Remembering this will allow you to remain grateful for all the hard times you’ve
endured. Any lemons that you are given can be turned into sweet lemonade. It’s all just a
matter of perspective. Learning this and believing this will cause a new surge of positive energy
to flow through your life. You’ll be able to see the upside in any difficulty that you experience,
which sometimes makes them feel like they’re not difficulties at all. Having this conviction
allows you to move through hard times that would crush other people with a steady, patient
sense of determination. At the end of the day, you’re quite a tough cookie. But, you display this
attitude because of how you learn to be increasingly unfazed by those tough times.
Things may get harder for you during your college years or the time you left home. Your late
teens and early twenties were when things got serious. College may have been very tough for
you, requiring you to buckle down in ways that you may not have been able to handle. Also, it
felt like the freedom that everyone else was experiencing had its definite limits for you. Getting
yourself into a seriously sticky situation because you behaved too wildly or irresponsibly scared

TAURUS RISING
72

you straight, to the point where you grew wary about exactly what you could and couldn’t do.
Capricorn in the 9th teaches you that freedom comes with responsibility. Sure, you were out of
the house. Yet, everything was falling on you in a new way. College itself came with a lot of
pressure, which caused you to either struggle through the experience or drop out.
This influence often indicates a real yearning to go back to school, either to finish your
degree or to get another one. Through the hardships you endure on your journey, you know
that there is always more for you to learn. So, you will welcome more college experiences,
especially since that means that you’ll be expected to really get down to work. Once you find
your purpose in life, what you’re really meant to do as a profession, you feel a great sense of
meaningfulness. In order to find that purpose and achieve anything in it, you have to work your
tail off. This is why hardships end up inspiring you. Dedication and perseverance just make life
more meaningful for you. As a result, you can go through hardships and move forward, only
feeling positively affected by them and able to achieve tremendous success, in the long run.
You’ll soon realize that difficult situations don’t hold you back but a negative attitude does.
AQUARIUS ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
You aren’t going to achieve your full potential in life unless you veer off the beaten path. In
order to have true, satisfying success, you must pursue goals that are unconventional or out of
the norm. The Aquarius Midheaven means that, by having these kinds of goals and aspirations,
you will carve out a place for yourself in the world as someone who is just different. There is a
certain wildness or weirdness to your path to success that may be hard for you to identify with,
since you see yourself as someone who goes down the straight and narrow path. But, there will
be all sorts of unexpected events and crazy breakthroughs that you experience that lead you
toward becoming who you are supposed to be in society. The key is embracing that craziness
and also the sense of chaos that comes with it.
Understanding and accepting chaos is an ultimate goal of yours in life, largely because of how
much you stick to what is stable and comfortable. Being in a career that is constantly
destabilizes you, in some way, because of its unpredictable nature will be what pulls you out of
your comfort zone. Aquarius in the 10th also means that you have to be willing to dedicate
yourself to your calling in life, regardless of what people think. Sometimes, you won’t get the
attention and approval that you’re so used to getting via your Leo Nadir. In fact, there will be
times where you’re written off, misunderstood, underrated, and even ridiculed. But, you have to

TAURUS RISING
73

stick with it, knowing that you are simply ahead of everyone else in terms of your readiness for
success. Aquarius is the “ahead of its time” sign and you can exhibit this in your professional
and public existence by having a high awareness of all that you’re going to achieve in the
future, even if your present circumstances don’t look too promising.
The reverse can also happen, though. You might find yourself totally thrust into a career that
ends up being your calling and everyone else can see it but you. Then, once you become
successful, you come to understand the world’s perception of you. But, you’re not meant to
have too firm of a grasp on that public perception. You must display a certain detachment from
the world’s expectations of you. With your obstinacy, that can be rather easy to develop,
making you very intent on doing what you want to do, regardless of people’s judgments. This
side of you began fully emerging in your teenage years. Maybe you felt out-of-step with how
the world saw you or what people wanted you to do. You could’ve been seen as weird by your
peers, even if you didn’t think what you were doing was so strange. Alternately, you might have
seemingly fit into your peer group while feeling like a true misfit and experiencing a growing
sense of alienation from everyone else.
So, you began to see that your place in the world depended on going against people’s
perceptions of you to embark on a unique path that was more about your approval than
others’. Constant validation, whether you always received it or always searched for it, was such
a major part of your childhood, due to the Leo Nadir. But, the Midheaven tells us how we’re
supposed to grow up. For you, entering adulthood means accepting that you’re not going to get
everyone’s approval and using that awareness to go against the grain in very notable ways. In
fact, it’s when you’re trying to fit in, be normal, or gain plenty of praise and popularity that you
end up floundering professionally. You’re most successful when you don’t care what other
people think, using this sense of freedom to make a name for yourself.
Your unusualness becomes a calling card and you’ll soon find out that, even though many
people won’t “get it”, you’ll have many champions in the world who see you as a real breath of
fresh air. Any public or professional role that takes advantage of your uniqueness, putting it
right out there for everyone to see, will gain you plenty of recognition. Oddly enough, the
weirder you are out in the world, the more respect you gain. On a personal level, you’re very
sensible and stable. But, when you have to represent yourself in your field or in the public, you
tap into something stranger inside of yourself. It’s like you’ve been underplaying and keeping

TAURUS RISING
74

calm for too long and you just need to go wild. Still, there is a certain coolness to your public
self, which also has to do with how cerebral you will come off as. Being known for your brainy
qualities, your original intellect and out-of-the-box way of thinking, takes you to the top.
Any career where you can freely experiment, express your unconventional yearnings and
qualities, and be recognized as a brilliant mind will be right up your alley. This can lead you
toward various scientific fields. Whatever you do with your life must be undertaken with a kind
of scientific or even sociological approach. You will relish any profession that involves the study
or understanding of human nature. You’re going to be known for your ability to be “one of the
people” and connect unpretentiously with your fellow man. As a result, you can find the
collaborative or communal qualities of your professional efforts getting more attention, at times,
than your individual contribution. At times, this can feel like a burden or a limitation, as if you
can’t get anywhere in life without constantly bringing other people recognition. In the end, that
is very true. You must take that on as a sense of duty, developing an awareness of everyone’s
contribution that makes everyone feel important and you look like a real team player.
The 10th House tells you what your strategy needs to be in order to succeed. With this
placement, you need to collaborate with people strategically and deliberately. Do a lot of
networking and make sure that the group you’re working with is comprised of strong players. If
you deliberately set out to bring out the best in other people, then you’ll achieve the most in
life. You also need to make it your goal to create and forge a real sense of community. When
you resist that challenge, then you will fail to see how all of these social connections and
friendships can translate into success for everyone in your chosen field. Many of your friends
may do what you do professionally or you could end up making a ton of friends in your chosen
field. Regardless, you have to know that you can’t do it alone.
Your calling can end up being something really out-there or you can engage with the world in
a very out-there way that might make it hard for you to be taken seriously. There are times
where you need to realize that being weird for the sake of being weird won’t accomplish much.
You have to be offbeat and odd in a respectable sense that a lot of people can co-sign.
Surrounding yourself with equally respectable people can help you significantly in that regard.
Yet, at the end of the day, there will always be a certain independence to how you make it in
the world. You don’t do well with bosses who are oppressive and narrow-minded. If necessary,
you’ll be your own boss or create a leadership position for yourself where you can be in charge

TAURUS RISING
75

of a team with the intent of creating good vibes for everyone. If and when you end up being in
charge, you will insist upon an atmosphere of equality in the workplace, letting everyone know
that no one is better or more important than anyone else. A lifetime of building self-esteem will
make you secure enough in yourself to display that attitude.
PISCES ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
With the 11th House showing us the qualities or experiences we feel detached from, you may
not personally feel like the most sensitive individual. Yet, you display a very high awareness of
all of the energies around you. Undeniably very sensual in nature, you use all of your powerful
senses to pick up on the energy in your environment in sometimes odd or surprising fashion.
You might not know how you’re picking up on or sensing all of this. You just are! Since you
have to maintain a certain objectivity toward and distance from your 11th House qualities,
Pisces in the 11th means that you must know how to perceive all of this energy without
personally taking it all on. When you do this, you become increasingly overwhelmed. Craving
peace and ease, you can’t handle everybody’s energy coming at you at once. Still, you do need
to remain aware of all of the vibes in the air and know that this state of consciousness puts you
in a unique position to help other people.
Your form of idealism stems from feeling like we should all strive to be kind and empathetic
toward one another. You are very affected by insensitivity, coldness, and cruelty in the world
and will dedicate yourself to any ideals or causes that allow you to provide those who have
been hurt, discarded, or made to feel invisible with great healing. Pisces on the 11th House
cusp shows how much you can get invested in some cause that helps people who are deemed
pathetic, lost, or even hopeless. So, your way of making a difference in the world is through
real compassion. But, this can be something that makes you feel out-of-place within your social
realm. You are going to be frequently faced with a lack of compassion from others in various
social circumstances that makes you feel awkward or causes you to distance yourself.
Feeling like you’re misunderstood or don’t fit in can also stem from a feeling of being invisible
and unacknowledged. Being so calm and low-key makes it very easy for you to get lost in a
crowd and, sometimes, you want to. Even if you’re well-known socially, you don’t want to be
known. You want to keep a vital part of yourself hidden from your peers and even from many
of your friends because you fear being targeted, taken advantage of, or victimized by them.
Unfortunately, this fear turns into a reality on a regular basis whenever you’re faced with no-

TAURUS RISING
76

good friends and acquaintances who do nothing but suck you dry. As a peer and an ally, you’re
a real giver in a selfless sense, not concerned about what you’re going to get in return. But, you
have to know how much this attracts vultures who feel like they can just feed off of you as
much as they want and then fly off.
Neptune’s rulership here leads to plenty of confusion when it comes to your social life. You
are constantly believing that certain people are your friends when they really aren’t. These so-
called buddies end up being very deceitful, leaving you totally thrown for a loop when you learn
their true colors. Also, you may not know what’s really going on in certain friendships, believing
that something terrible is happening between you and someone else when it isn’t or failing to
really remain present and in-touch with a friend who needed you. When the reality of these
situations come knocking, you may just totally disappear to deal with it all. You will go through
many periods of going off-the-grid, sometimes to the point of turning your phone off or
changing your number. You reach a certain threshold where you’re too tired, too drained,
where you’ve given too much to people or have gotten your feelings hurt too many times.
Then, you completely withdraw in order to cope, intent on finding and maintaining your
serenity. When you show up again, it can be as if nothing happened. Much to your dismay, that
may be because some people barely even noticed you were gone.
While you are overlooked by some of your peers, you can be put on a pedestal and outright
exalted by just as many of them, if not more. The sense of social confusion that Pisces in the
11th bestows also happens whenever your peers are projecting tons of things on to you that
aren’t very true or are, in some cases, totally off the mark. Many of these projections may be
really positive in nature. You are idealized in your social world because of how empathetic of a
friend you are and how you are willing to forget yourself in order to provide this healing to
others. If you’re looking for healing from your peer group and your social world, it will be hard
to find. You will constantly end up feeling alone, forgotten, or mistreated if you do. However,
when you focus solely on bringing healing to others, you’ll unexpectedly find yourself coming
across your own guardian angels in your community. Out of nowhere, people can show up to
soothe you, put themselves in your shoes, and ease your loneliness, reminding you that you
matter just as much as everyone else.

TAURUS RISING
77

ARIES ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP


It is quite scary or overwhelming for you to ponder the true depths of your desires. Aries
being located in the 12th House indicates that you keep your greatest passions hidden from
most people, including yourself. This is what allows you to appear to be so mellow, so even-
keeled and patient. You may not realize how much you burn, deep down inside, to get what
you want and how aggressive you are capable of being. If you do, it is something you can push
to the back of your mind. The destructive, sometimes tragic element of the 12th House stems
from how hard we can try to repress its qualities. That energy doesn’t go anywhere. It either all
comes spilling out after long bouts of repression or it becomes a complete preoccupation that
you totally internalize and retreat from everyone else to deal with.
Since Aries is on the 12th House cusp of your chart, you are either totally suppressing your
rage or feeling utterly consumed by it. The first option causes that slow yet devastating build-
up of anger that you’re so known for. You spend a lot of time pretending like all is fine and that
you’re in such an easygoing state when you’re actually becoming increasingly agitated. This is
hard for you to recognize until you can’t take it anymore and you completely lose it. It’s quite a
sight to see a Taurus Ascendant in an explosive state, screaming and carrying on, because it so
rarely happens. But, when it does, instead of checking in with yourself and asking why you’re
so intensely angry about what’s going on, you just forget about it and the cycle continues. If
you’re not careful, this is a pattern that get so bad that it causes you to strike out violently
when mad, especially if your Mars has some tense aspects. Yes, mild-mannered old you. Since
you’re so physical and so connected to your body, there is a downright animalistic side of you
that can emerge through violent rage, making fist fights, punching walls, or throwing and
breaking things a common occurrence whenever you’re worked up.
The opposite end of the spectrum here causes you to know how incredibly frustrated you are
yet still feel the compulsion to keep it all under wraps. So, you isolate yourself from other
people to deal with it. In your space of solitude, you feel comfortable enough to rant endlessly,
to smash things, to scream at the top of your lungs. Yet, being too wrapped up in your anger
brings out that nasty, green-eyed jealousy that you are capable of displaying. You constantly
find yourself coveting what other people have, to sometimes Biblical proportions that make you
want to destroy your neighbor to get what’s theirs. This resentful sense that you don’t get what
you want, that you’re not allowed to truly assert yourself or get mad because you have to be

TAURUS RISING
78

the voice of reason, causes you to become deeply selfish on the inside. You start seeing things
in terms of what you already have and what you should have, even if it’s someone else’s. You
start thinking only of yourself, just because you feel like a victim of selfish behavior.
Also, you are ferociously possessive and this influence takes you over the emotional edge in
that way. You feel like what’s yours is absolutely yours because you need to maintain that
sense of security and make sure that no one takes what you’ve earned. Directing that
possessiveness toward anything and anyone you feel an attachment toward, you lash out
whenever there’s a threat. It’s often well-hidden but the way that you feel like you utterly own
people can be incredibly primitive. When it comes to a significant other, you might as well club
them over the head and drag them back into your cave, making sure that no one so much as
looks at them. Of course, this all comes from a place of insecurity. You feel a constant sense of
loss or confusion when it comes to what you have or what you want, which causes you to have
a total meltdown or freak-out whenever those things can be taken away.
The best way to look at your 12th House is that you cannot identify with or hold on to what
resides there. It’s a house that’s all about fluid, elusive feeling. You have to feel and
acknowledge what is represented by your 12th and then release it. Having Aries in the 12th
means feeling and acknowledging your anger, then letting it go. You’re not meant to be this
constantly angry, worked-up person. Whenever you go inside of yourself and dwell on all of
your frustrations or all of the ways in which you’ve been thwarted, beaten, or one-upped, then
you will just remain in this cycle of pain and suffering. Also, when you are unable to recognize
and express the rage inside of you, you’ll go through plenty of pain and suffering. We all get
mad and we all have felt a strong urge to get what we want. These feelings and states only
make you human. Therefore, instead of letting that anger completely possess you, you should
see it as something that connects you with all of your fellow human beings.
Aries is a selfish energy, which can be a healthy selfishness or the thoughtless variety. It can,
therefore, disorient you when you realize just how ruthless you are when you want something,
how eager you are to go in for the kill. But, when consciously expressed, this hidden selfishness
can actually provide you with significant healing. You find your inner peace by having the space
in your life where you only worry about yourself. Your spiritual life will help you develop this
state of consciousness. Getting into meditation can be so beneficial for you because you can
block everything out and only focus on you. Yet, you will need your spirituality (12th House) to

TAURUS RISING
79

provide you with plenty of motivation (Aries). So, visualizing what you want and developing the
ability to manifest it will bring you plenty of peace. You’ll come to understand that the Universe
wants you to get exactly what you want. When you’re frustrated and resentful because you
haven’t gotten it yet, when you’re competitive with other people that you perceive as the
winners to your loser, you’ll stand in the way of what you want. But, when you clearly identify
your desires and then release them, they will come to you through perfect timing.
Being into astrology can allow you to see just how you stand in your way and how you can
use the strengths of your birth chart to live the life that you truly want. After all, you’re meant
to be a master manifester. So, you cannot let yourself be consumed by impatience. Yet, you’re
in the position to understand the impatience and frustration of your fellow man. Mars ruling the
12th gives you the ability to be selfless or charitable by motivating other people to be their best
selves and live their best lives. You can’t do this for them, though, until you do it for yourself.
Finding your own peace allows you to be a healing influence and help others find their peace.
Forgetting about unnecessary battles in order to win the bigger war is what keeps you
motivated. However, you can express all of that aggression and anger you feel internally
through anything artistic. If you have talents in the arts, you’ll be able to create another
Universe that allows you to be as raw, fierce, and animalistic as you want. You may be bolder
and braver in this transcendent part of your life than in your everyday existence and can use art
as a specific way to let off a lot of steam. When you’re lost in these dreams and fantasies, you
are able to take anything and anyone head-on.

TAURUS RISING
80

GEMINI RISING

GEMINI ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


You are here to learn as much as you can. In the process of learning of all of this information,
you want to take it and communicate it in your own distinct way. As a Gemini Ascendant, your
narrative in life is that of both the student and the teacher, which should not be surprising as
there is an innate duality that characterizes your path and your nature. Born with an open mind
and an active intellect, you live your life by absorbing as much information as possible. This
means that you never want to be bored and have an attention-deficit approach to life that
leaves you bouncing one from subject or thing to the next. After all, what student only takes
just one class? Life is one big school for you and you strive to take all of the classes you can.
Truly versatile in your disposition, you are never just one thing. You are, at least, two things
at once, if not three or more. This is also how you express the teacher part of your personality.
You acquire such a wide range of information that you feel the need to impart to other people.
Being in your presence is a real learning experience, sometimes because many people have to
learn how to keep up with you. Notoriously changeable and hard to pin down, you can very
easily leave people not knowing whether they are coming or going. To be fair, sometimes, you
don’t even know whether you’re coming or going. Your quicksilver ways are not all that
intentional or deliberate. It’s just an instinctive part of you. Prone to saying and doing one thing
one day and then saying or doing the complete opposite the next, your behavior is highly
dependent on your present state of mind; as in within the past five minutes.
This is all due to Mercury, Gemini’s ruling planet, being your chart ruler. Mercury is
representative of the mind and this says a lot about how you operate and function. The mind is
always changing. We can have one thought and then a completely different thought and then
revert back to the previous thought and then get off track and then get back to what we were
previously thinking. Such a train of thought can occur within several minutes or less. What I
just described is exactly how you behave. Some people can find themselves dizzy due to how
much you zig-zag through conversations and situations. But, even though this can exhaust and
annoy some, you’re not trying to get on their nerves (well, sometimes). Being a child of
Mercury, you really just cannot help yourself. It makes total sense that the word “mercurial” is

GEMINI RISING
81

rooted in the name of your ruling planet and means changeable, flighty, hard to keep up with.
While it might be a bit too much for certain people, it is undeniable that you are a fascinating
individual to be around. There’s never a dull moment with you!
But, not all Gemini Rising messengers were born the same. We all are going to differ in
certain ways from people who have the same Ascendant as we do because we all have different
influences in our chart that are going to impact our self-expression and way of being. But, you
probably differ from other people with your Rising sign more than any other placement except
for Aquarius Risings, who are all such one-of-a-kind individuals that there’s no way two can be
the exact same. For you, it’s more about the particular schism in your nature. If there are times
where you can’t even seem to behave like yourself, then it goes without saying that you’re not
going to behave like each other. No two Gemini Risings share the same duality. It’s all
dependent on how your mind works and the essential contradictions within you that you are
forever striving to process.
Mercury’s house placement says a lot about what you’re going to be most interested in,
throughout your life. Having Mercury in the 7th House, for instance, shows that the bulk of your
curiosity is going to be directed toward other people. It emerges through your close
partnerships with others and what you can learn about them and, consequently, about yourself.
This can cause you to dabble in many different relationships, especially romantically, to become
a better student in interpersonal dynamics. Maybe you have Mercury in the 5th House. This
means that you will spend your life most interested in what you’re passionate about. You will
also have an avid interest in being special, using your ever-active mind to constantly learn
about new ventures and then become talented in them. So, your form of mercurial dabbling will
stem from being multitalented, as well as having multiple romantic interests who will
consistently make you feel special. Your Mercury sign indicates why you want to learn about
your chosen subject and Mercury’s aspects will tell you how to remain interested in it.
Although you are so scatterbrained, you will find that most of your mental energy will be
dedicated to your subject of choice. You’ll always have space in your brain to spare when it
comes to all kinds of information, including your good friend’s job, gossip about acquaintances,
random trivia, the lives of reality stars, classic works of literature, scientific studies, etc. But,
you have a way of totally switching off when something stops catching your attention. In any
given situation, you need to remain stimulated and engaged or else your focus will go

GEMINI RISING
82

elsewhere (and your focus, unless your Mercury is in a Fixed sign, already isn’t the best to
begin with). Sometimes, Gemini Rising people can come off as if they’re bored with you and
ready to change the subject or talk to someone else. It’s undeniably true that you are very
easily bored. But, as the saying goes, the only truly bored people are boring people. Since you
see yourself as anything but boring, you should aim to figure out what’s interesting about
everything you come across, even something you’ve written off very quickly or hastily because
it failed to keep your attention. You’ll be surprised at what you learn!
The environment you were born into was a whirlwind, to some degree or another. Your
conception and birth may have felt like that. It all happened so quickly. One moment, you’re
not here and then, all of a sudden, you were! Commonly, Gemini Rising babies are either quick
births or they arrive in a completely surprising way, like being premature or born on a day that
was most certainly not planned. This style of arrival prepares everyone for you to be this little
gust of wind that rushes in and out of situations in a startling way. It might have gotten to a
point where you were hard to manage. This placement doesn’t just give you an active mind. It
allows you to activate the minds of everyone else around you. Forced to keep up with your
ever-changing behavior or conversation, you can evoke over-thinking, worked nerves, and even
anxiety in some people. At an early age, this may have made you seem troublesome and you
could’ve been falsely labeled as having some kind of personality disorder when you really just
needed a way to communicate everything that was going on with you.
A lot of children with this Rising sign can be very talkative, to the point where they never
seem to stop. This made you that classic child who never stopped asking questions, with
“why?” being your go-to response for most things. It all just came down to your curiosity and
your eagerness to learn more. However, talking all the time and being very outgoing is quite a
stereotype of this placement. There are also Gemini Risings who have always been quieter or
more to themselves. Such a demeanor does not stop your highly active mind, however. Your
mind never shut off and you also asked your fair share of questions on an ongoing basis, while
growing up. But, they were probably deeper and more thought-provoking. Whether you were a
busybody kid or a serious thinker, it was clear how bright you were. School was an outlet for all
of that intellectual energy and one that you most likely excelled at.
Gemini is the sign of siblings and this makes one’s brother(s) or sister(s) a more influential
part of one’s early years than the average person. It’s rare to see an only child with this

GEMINI RISING
83

Ascendant and, even so, you probably had cousins that you felt a brotherly or sisterly closeness
to and camaraderie with (in fact, most Gemini Risings tend to have a very special bond with
their cousins, as well, because the more, the merrier). With Gemini being symbolized by the
Twin, you probably had a proverbial or actual twin of your own growing up. If your brother or
sister wasn’t your literal twin, it was hard to tell because you two acted like you were. But,
somehow, you served as the inverse of your sibling. You were truly the yin to their yang,
exhibiting all of the traits that they didn’t or couldn’t. If they were really loud, you were more
reserved. If they were more of an introvert, you were the life of the party and if they rebelled,
you were the good one. Vice versa, vice versa. This contributed not only to your willingness to
play out different parts of yourself but to be the opposing force to someone else.
Such an attitude plays out all the time in conversation. You have a habit of taking the
opposite stance to someone else’s, in a Devil’s Advocate sense, just to throw some different
ideas out there. Aquarius Rising people can be contrary in order to rebel and be different and
those with a Libra Rising can simply provide alternate ideas to make sure things are fair and
balanced. You differ from the other Air Risings in that you are simply saying whatever you’re
saying to make sure things aren’t boring. People will soon come to realize that, much of the
time, you’re just talking and you shouldn’t be taken very seriously. Your whole aura is so
brotherly or sisterly that people will come to regard you as a sometimes exasperating but
ultimately funny and fascinating sibling. There’s a mischievous air about you and whenever you
are stirring things up, you usually just see it as hilarious. You’ll know you’re talking to the right
person when they can just roll with it, right along with you, and keep it light.
There will be some people, however, who see this behavior as evidence that you’re full of hot
air. Let’s be honest: you’re an expert bullshitter. You know how to say something you don’t
mean at all and make it sound like you really mean it, as well as let statements come flying out
of your mouth that you’re simply saying for the fun of it. While this reveals you to be an
excellent everyday sort of comedian, it also can make you something of a fraud. The thing is
that you may not even argue much with this. Due to your awareness of your duality, you know
that you’re never exactly what you seem. Sometimes, you’ll lie, you’ll invent, you’ll agree with
someone when you actually completely disagree, you’ll make plans and then totally disregard
them. All of this doesn’t mean that you’re this horrible person that Gemini gets a reputation for
being. It’s just due to you seeing virtually everything you say as an idea. To you, ideas are in

GEMINI RISING
84

passing, in flux, they come and go. You never get attached to any particular idea, just like you
never get attached to anything you say. This seems totally logical and natural to you, even
when it pisses other people off.
You know the effect this has on people but you do it anyway. To be fair, you can’t help
yourself all that much. It’s just who you are, an ingrained instinct. But, that doesn’t stop some
people from seeing you as fake, two-faced, or a phony. Unfortunately, you may not always
make the best impression because people either don’t know if they should buy what you’re
selling or they end up totally buying into what you present, only to feel disappointed or
betrayed when the “other you” comes out. Your Jekyll-Hyde transformations are legendary.
Depending on your Mercury, it can make you abruptly moody, mean, fragile, aloof, passionate,
loud, laidback, or tense when you were just presenting yourself as the total opposite trait.
While some find this shady or head-spinning, it is just due to your understanding of all of your
varieties. You feel like consistency is overrated. We all have contradictions and inconsistencies.
You’re just a lot more honest about yours, feeling no need to remain attached to one way of
being. Anything but one-note, this is the kind of behavior that, even when frustrating or
alienating, makes people want to learn a lot more about you.
Sure, there are many Gemini Rising people that can cause a lot of trouble through their
various personalities. You definitely don’t mind not being “good”, even if your slightly more
dominant personality is more of a do-gooder. But, soon enough, people will come to realize that
you’re not all that bad, either. Seeing life through a perspective of ambiguity, you carve out
your individuality by embracing the shades of grey that you’re capable of; the state of
sometimes being good and sometimes being bad but ultimately just being a person. It’s all
debatable, isn’t it? One person’s hero can be another person’s villain. The fact that you’re, at
least, upfront about your messy behavior can be refreshing to many. You may be confusing and
questionable, you may do or say particularly problematic things, but at least you’re not boring.
Any situation can definitely seem more exciting and interesting because you’re there. You
have this “buzz” around you that is unmistakable. Whether you’re the motormouth type or more
of a listener and an observer, you definitely know how to get people talking about you.
Sometimes, that’s all that you care about. Since you see yourself as an object of fascination,
you find it natural for people to chatter about you, whether it’s positive or negative. Unless you
have a lot of Water energy in your chart, you’re not going to take any gossip or judgments

GEMINI RISING
85

about you too seriously or to heart. In fact, you’ll end up seeing the humor in some of it. You
know you’re a Gemini Rising when someone can mock or insult you and you can turn it right
back around and make it into a hilarious joke, as your quick wit is such a dominant trait. There
isn’t a ton of shame in your game because you will share just about anything about yourself.
It’s all just information, so you see it as fair game. As much as you can get side-eyed for
gossiping about people, you’re the first person to spill your own tea. You figure that if you beat
them to the punch by telling your business, they’ll have nothing to use against you.
This “too-much-information” approach stems from the fact that once you get going, in terms
of talking, you sometimes don’t know when to stop. Instead of thinking before you speak or
thinking after you speak, you have a way of thinking while you speak that turns your
conversations into one long stream-of-consciousness. Even though you have a way with words,
you definitely have awkward or head-scratching moments on a regular basis due to your
tangents, rants, rambles, pauses, stutters, or monologues. With Gemini ruling the hands, you
most likely talk with your hands in a noticeable way that is compulsive and hard to help. There
is also something distinctive about your hands. They might always be cut and manicured, they
could be soft and smooth, or particularly large or small. It doesn’t help that you’re always
fidgeting. Messing with your hair non-stop, constantly shifting in your seat, biting your nails, or
any other nervous tics will make it clear just how hard it is for you to fully sit still.
It goes back to how you are always thinking. That quality of yours is especially visible, as you
will always seem like you’re thinking about something else in the moment, either because
you’re bored with what’s happening now or because you’re lost in your thoughts. Your eyes can
shift from engaged to indifferent, excited to cold, within a moment. Your facial expressions are
just as quick and changeable. Overall, your appearance is always changing. Seeing as how
you’re the Twin, you’re also like your own twin. Gemini Rising people can look like two different
people, depending on their haircut, their outfit, the lighting, or even the angle you’re looking at
them from. You have the same view of yourself, often feeling like looking at a picture of you is
like looking at somebody else.
This duality allows you to take many risks in terms of your look, as there are various styles of
hair and dress that you can pull off effortlessly. For example, regardless of your gender, you
can go from a more masculine or feminine look. Men with this placement pull off long hair well
while the women can rock a short-cropped cut very easily. Then, you can totally change it up. It

GEMINI RISING
86

all stems from your whimsical temperament. Such a carefree, light-hearted attitude is what
allows you to maintain that very youthful aura (this is one of the best-aging Rising signs,
usually looking much younger than they are). Like a big kid, you approach everything full of
fleeting, momentary ideas that you are totally interested in at the moment and then soon forget
about or get over.
CANCER ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
Becoming comfortable with your emotions and needs is the key to security for you. With
Cancer in the 2nd, you will build yourself up and value yourself (2nd House) by learning to be
emotionally available and aware (Cancer). You are a much more cerebral person who can have
a certain discomfort with the realm of emotions. When you feel something, you can
automatically rationalize it or explain it away. But, this creates internal insecurities that then
contribute to financial insecurities in your life. Being unable to give yourself what you need
emotionally means that you will have a hard time meeting your financial needs.
Supporting yourself financially can be a challenge. It might seem like there is always
uncertainty surrounding the practical needs that you have. The thing is that you may have a
hard time seeing your basic needs as being important. Living so much in your head detaches
you from the physical to the point where you may think it doesn’t even matter. So, during a
significant part of your life, having enough money to put a roof over your head, clothes on your
back, or food on the table can be a struggle. The fact that you don’t worry enough about these
necessities as you should makes it even harder to take care of them. This goes back to the fact
that you aren’t worrying enough about your emotional needs.
Following the rational route to the point where you ignore your gut will cause you to also
ignore what you intuitively know and understand about money, whether that means
manifesting it or managing it. Much of this stems from your relationship with your mother
figure, which is what is represented by the Cancer house in our birth chart. The Moon, Cancer’s
planet, ruling your 2nd House indicates that you probably grew up learning a lot about how to
be stable and live a good life from your Mom. In many cases, there is something particularly
comforting and cozy about your mother, making you feel more secure around her. She may be
very grounded and knows how to take care of all of the basics in a way that supported you.
However, you might not fully appreciate your mother’s influence until a bit later in life. More
than the next person, the values that she taught you do not fully sink in and take hold until

GEMINI RISING
87

you’re an adult and realize how much more stable you are when you remember those values.
Your mother figure was very practical and money was a very significant theme with her, in
some sense. She might have made a lot of it to the point of being the breadwinner, especially if
she had to financially support you on her own. She could’ve come from a moneyed background
or was just well-off enough to live a good life. In certain cases, money is a negative factor in
this relationship, either because she was too fixated on it or used it as a means to be
possessive of you or keep you attached to her.
As a result, you have all of these feelings and needs when it comes to money that you have
to work out. Are you ignoring that instinct you possess for making good money and managing it
well, inherited from your Mom? Do you have some negative attitudes about money that have
been conditioned in you that you must consciously work through? Whatever the case is, valuing
that need for security will allow you to value your deeper needs, in general. Letting your
emotions flow and acknowledging their importance will create the right kind of cash flow in your
life, allowing you to acknowledge the importance of money, as well. Being able to support
yourself, emotionally and financially, will boost and maintain your self-esteem. Valuing how
your mother has supported you, appreciating the good things that have come from this
relationship, will show you that it’s okay to admit you have needs. Many Gemini Risings can go
through life keeping their mother at a bit of an emotional distance until they realize just how
much they need her and how much she keeps them on solid ground.
Money is an energy that comes into your life when you admit to needing it and put yourself in
the vulnerable space to receive it. That requires you to accept your vulnerability, as a whole,
instead of remaining detached and logical or laughing things off. You can only do that for so
long and then those true feelings of yours will bubble up. The way this happens is through your
financial patterns. You’re very prone to engaging in retail therapy on a bad day. During a rough
period in your life, your spending habits can become increasingly irrational if you’re not aware
of it. Treating yourself go from a happy luxury to a desperate compulsion, revealing just how
much you need to feel better. Making yourself feel better emotionally first will help you
maintain more control over your spending.
Since money is so tied to your emotions, you will make the most money doing something that
is very emotionally charged. You’ll be happiest at a job that serves as an emotional outlet.
Making money in something that helps other people express and work out their emotions is also

GEMINI RISING
88

going to be a good fit for you. Since the Moon is that caregiving energy, you also can find
financial security doing something that involves taking care of children or animals. On the job
market, people will really value your attunement to others’ needs and your feelings, which
means that remaining connected to your emotions will pay off for you in so many ways.

LEO ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP


With Leo in the 3rd, your mind works in the most colorful ways. Leo’s lively, expressive
energy combines with the comprehensive and communicative powers of the 3rd House to make
you an ever-interesting speaker and larger-than-life kind of thinker. The house where we have
Leo is where we really come alive. For you, that’s in conversation, when ideas are being
exchanged, or even when you’re just thinking. Although you will love to gab or, at least, come
off as very good at it, you are able to enjoy yourself just as much when you’re sitting around
and having a dialogue with yourself or reading a book. Anything that engages your mind is a
good time to you. The 3rd House is the house of Gemini and it makes such sense for you to
have the Sun, the planet of the self, ruling this territory. You just are this great thinker.
Whatever your conversational style is, you put your own distinct stamp on it. Few people can
come up with the phrases, comebacks, insights, quips, and questions that you do. You shine
whenever you’re communicating because you have your own special way of doing it. Again,
every Gemini Rising is different when it comes to how they verbally and mentally engage.
Whether you are engaging in rapid-fire banter that makes others laugh, having intellectual
discussions and pontifications, or saying all sorts of random and off-the-wall stuff, you know
how to use your words to make an impression. It may sometimes get to the point where you’re
more focused on that than anything. There is the potential for you to be wrapped up in what
you think and what you have to say, to the point where you’re not paying as much attention to
others as they think. You’re sometimes good at pretending like you’re listening, as you can pick
up on just enough about what the other person is saying to keep up and respond. But, their
speech becomes increasingly distant noise as you get lost in your own thoughts.
The potential self-absorption of Leo being located in the house of the mind shows how easy it
is for you to get stuck in your head. Those thoughts and ideas of yours are often louder than
everyone else’s, which is why it’s often so easy for you to wow people with your speech. There

GEMINI RISING
89

are times where you’re a bit rehearsed or where you’re engaging in bits and just waiting for the
person on the receiving end to laugh or to be taken aback by your intelligence. Those
responses do give you confidence. But, of course, you can’t make that your sole motivation for
communicating with others.
Sometimes, you do just love the drama that can occur when people get together and talk. A
pot-stirrer of the first order, you know just how to rile someone up with a certain idea or certain
information. Then, you sit back with your popcorn and watch the show. This is one way that
the inherent duality of the 3rd House plays out. There will be times where you want theatricality
in your discussions with others through very exciting, fascinating, lively exchanges, putting
yourself at the center stage position. There will, however, be other times where you just want
to be in the audience and watch other people for your entertainment, even if it means things
get kind of messy. A part of you loves drama and another part of you feels the need to distance
yourself from it. You’re an expert at playing “who me?” whenever someone tries to call you out
for your instigating. Often times, you genuinely don’t see anything wrong with this because,
again, it’s better than boredom.
Things you say that you think aren’t that big of a deal can actually be quite a big deal. Any
sort of gossip you repeat falls into this category. One of the reasons why you can be seen as
two-faced is that you know how to process information from such a dramatically different point
of view that you truly become another person. It’s why you can accidentally repeat things told
to you in confidence. You might need to verbalize the information to someone else in order to
awaken that other perspective of yours. You live too much for other people’s business, at times,
even if you think you don’t. Remember that curiosity killed the cat. So, such behavior can cause
unintended drama in your life.
Also, things you say that you think are a big deal may not actually be that important. You
may have to remind yourself of that whenever you’re going into detail about random or trivial
stuff that no one but you is interested in. The good thing about this influence is that it allows
you to bring any conversation to life. So, you can bestow your interest on to someone who is
convinced that what they have to say isn’t that interesting. This does require you to get out of
your own head and not be too distracted by your thoughts. Learning how to do this will then
give you the energy to shine a light on other people. The flip side of your personality is that you
are an excellent listener and when you make it your intent to truly talk to people, not at them

GEMINI RISING
90

or near them, then you will be even more of an impressive conversationalist.


Grade school was most likely the time of your life, due to this placement. You’re one of those
people who actually really enjoyed school. There were two sides to this, of course, because you
absolutely loved to learn and you also relished the social aspects of school. You probably stood
out in the class as a big personality or someone who was special. Well-known by teachers and
classmates, there was always a dramatic flair to you as a student. Your presence or absence
was always felt, probably because you were so expressive, colorful, and funny. Potentially, you
were the class clown who got sent to the principal’s office or detention on a regular basis. In
some way, you were no stranger to trouble, maybe by breaking the dress code with dramatic
outfits or skipping classes. Still, your duality displayed itself in the fact that you were still very
nice, got along well with the teachers who were always punishing you, or managed to also get
good grades and show that you had a brain.
Even if you weren’t popular back then, you were still memorable. So much of your personality
from those years has remained the same, showing how you’ll always be the eternal student.
You also developed a great deal of your personality in relation to your sibling. As I mentioned
before, your bond with your brother or sister (or someone who was like your brother or sister)
came to define a lot about your personality. You always felt set up to be their opposite in some
distinct fashion. This greatly developed your self-expression because you learned that you could
always present someone with new, fresh ideas or perspectives in order to prevent things from
being stale. Either your sibling’s influenced rubbed off heavily on you or you influenced them
very strongly (or both). The sibling rivalry can be particularly powerful, even into adulthood,
with one or both of you fighting to shine in your own right and not just be their brother or
sister. But, there is also the potential for enormous warmth and encouragement between you.
This dualistic blend of both competition and confidence-boosting helps you both develop your
respective talents and shine.
VIRGO ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
You are more of a serious thinker than many people know, thanks to Virgo being in the 4th
House. Although you generally seem flighty and scattered, to the point of coming off as rather
airheaded to some, you do know how to put your mind to good use. Virgo is ruled by Mercury,
just like Gemini, but it’s a more pragmatic, analytical expression of Mercury. So, behind closed
doors, you have a more substantial thought process. You feel safest and most at home when

GEMINI RISING
91

there is a lot of problem-solving going on. Needing a great amount of clarity and logic in your
personal life, this is one area in your life where you actually don’t want things to be messy or
confusing. Instead, you need things to be in order. This can be taken quite literally, as you
might be a neat freak or require things to be a highly specific way in your home. But, more so,
it means that you follow a certain schedule, routine, or plan in your private sphere that makes
you feel like everything is together.
This is a pattern you’re repeating from your upbringing. Having a Virgo Nadir means that you
come from a family and a background that was regimented, rational, and practical. You might
have had a highly scheduled childhood, with everything planned and organized, or it felt like
everything in your home had to be correct and clean, including you. Interestingly, you may
come from a family that is more straitlaced or proper and even strict. You probably fell in line a
lot of the time all while insisting on coloring outside the lines out of the house. Everywhere else,
you could be a mess. But, once you got home, you had to straighten up and fly right.
This might be a big part of why you’re so dualistic. Something about your home life may have
stifled you. Your relationship with your family could even be the source of significant nervous
energy or anxiety. As much as you love them, you may frequently feel judged or criticized by
them. Yet, the 4th House describes the role that our family has always needed us to play. So,
you could constantly be the “project” that your family members are working on: helping you get
healthier, get a better job, giving you a makeover, cleaning up the messes in your life. One
reason why you’re so all over the place is because you have come to rely on your family to talk
some sense into you. This might also just come down to rationalizing things and talking things
through. A problem you’re having can feel like such a giant headache until you discuss it with
someone in your family and they help you find clarity and keep your feet on the ground.
This could also go the other way, making you the one who is constantly talking sense into
your family members. You are so logical, after all, and your ability to provide people with an
opposing perspective is something that your loved ones come to lean on. In times of negativity,
when they’re complaining about this or that or unable to overcome a personal problem, you can
help them figure out what their options are and what effective actions they can take to fix their
issue. In fact, it can get to the point where you feel an ongoing compulsion to fix your loved
ones. Depending on your Mercury, maybe your loved ones always have some sort of mess
they’re dealing with and that you have to clean up. This could be why you don’t care as much

GEMINI RISING
92

about being problematic in your own life because you put enough effort into your loved ones’
problems. Since this is such a comfort zone for you, it ends up repeating with anyone that you
live with or create a sense of family with. They are always coming to you with something to fix
or you are constantly interfering because you feel like they’re doing things wrong and need
your help. Either way, it becomes exhausting.
We reflect and find comfort through our 4th House. With this influence, you have to be able
to take the time to reflect upon your own problems and figure out what you need to fix in your
own life, which might include a desire to fix things for everyone else. It could also have to do
with feeling like there’s something deep within you that needs to be corrected. In some
negative cases, your upbringing made you feel like you were just a constant problem. Maybe
this is why you tried so hard to be good for your family because you always felt like there was
something you weren’t doing correctly. Such judgment has rubbed off on you to the point
where, in these moments where you’re supposed to feel safe and comfortable, you can’t give
yourself a break. Your mind can’t shut off and you’re too preoccupied with your mistakes and
flaws. A deep acceptance of those mistakes and flaws is required to overcome this.
The good thing about having Virgo on the Nadir is that you’re rooted in humility. As brainy
and cerebral as Gemini can be, it’s not a sign that’s known for being a know-it-all. In fact, you
are highly aware that there is so much you don’t know, that there are so many times where
you’re not correct. This is also why you’re capable of completely owning your questionable
behavior. A part of you is very open to being questioned because, at least, you’re making
people think. Also, people’s questioning of you makes you think and ponder the reasons why
you do what you do. Even if you don’t necessarily get an answer, you constantly engage in this
analysis because you’re as curious about yourself as you are everything else. Because of all of
this, when someone enters this inner sanctum, they’re seeing a warts-and-all version of
yourself. While you generally may seem like a walking migraine to some, those who know you
on this very personal, private level will come to realize that all of your flaws have a certain
charm because, deep down, you don’t believe that you have it all together. Not even close.
LIBRA ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
At heart, you are just someone who loves to connect. You live for relating to people, sharing
with people, and finding common ground. This is due to Libra being in your 5th. Libra’s house
in the chart represents how we go about partnerships and forge connections with others. The

GEMINI RISING
93

5th House is the house of self-expression, meaning that who you essentially are is someone
who partners and connects. You have a spontaneous ability to see things from another person’s
point of view and provide them with perspective, understanding, levity, or even affection. It’s
no wonder why you’re so good at talking to people and also getting them to open up. Your
inner light stems from your ability to create an equal and opposite reaction in other people.
Often times, you are capable of fully shining a light on them, making them feel special enough
to shine it back to you, creating a truly reciprocal bond.
The fact that you can just do this in the moment means that you’re capable of bonding with
so many people. You have a talent for this, which is why most Gemini Rising people find social
events, on some level, fun. You know how to make people you just met feel really special and
can have them feeling like they’ve known you forever. Since your creative energy stems from
connecting with others, whatever you’re good at is going to allow you to be highly relatable and
accessible to other people. You gain validation through how much you appeal to others and
how you can make them feel like they know you. In whatever creative endeavor you embark
on, you have the ability to cultivate a wonderful, lively relationship with your audience.
Your personal relationships will also drive your creativity. Having a particular muse really
helps you bring your projects to life and you can also serve as someone else’s muse. Your
creative efforts can become especially artistic, since Libra is such an artsy sign. But, whatever
talent you have, it will either rub off very significantly on someone else or be a large result of
another person’s influence on you. While you can shine strongly enough to bring out the best in
a creative partner, you may find that a certain creative partner in your life really brings out the
best in you, to the point of totally elevating your game. Living life as the Twin means that you
can spend a lot of time constantly being one of two parts. You are your own two-parter, for
sure, but this also definitely extend to the unions with others you create.
Whatever relationships you have in your life, they are either very much or very little of your
doing. Your potential to be both highly influential and highly influenced has been evident since
childhood. Your form of self-expression back then was totally geared toward being popular,
adored, and in great company. For some of you, it was noticeably hard for you to be alone as a
kid, to the point where you reacted very strongly whenever faced with solitude. You may have
succumbed to a lot of peer pressure, happily jumping off the bridge with your other friends, or
you could have been the one convincing everyone else to jump off the bridge. In any case, you

GEMINI RISING
94

became labeled as too manipulative, too impressionable, or lacking in a firm identity of your
own. However, dismissing these traits as merely childish or silly prevents you from freely
expressing your creativity and having a good time. You’re meant to be both the highly flexible
sidekick as well as the unstoppable charmer. Taking pride in these qualities is what allows you
to shine in what you do, understanding just how to bring people in and keep them hooked.
You have the same approach to romance. Venus ruling your 5th House can actually give you
a very romantic side, truly in love with love. But, you’re usually more in love with the idea, or
should I say the ideal, of love than actual love. Your sense of passion causes you to idealize
whatever is happening between you and your love interest, to the point where you come to
believe that you’re actually together when you’re really not. The 5th House is more about
dating while Libra represents commitment. So, you’re very susceptible to getting into situations
where you do everything that a couple does while not actually being a couple. While this is
sometimes the other person’s fault for leading you on somehow or being insincere, you can
dramatize the love affair in ways that make you either totally believe that this is the love of your
life or make someone believe that you’re the love of their life.
Ultimately, you have a very indecisive heart, unsure of if you want to stay or go. You’re also
going to get romantically involved with really indecisive lovers, who will very often have
placements in Libra or an active 7th House, causing them to strongly seek out a commitment
but then not be sure if they actually want one. A lot of the time, you will feel like everything is
fine so long as you don’t have “the talk”. Once you start trying to define what the love affair is,
things can get ruined. This is because the pressure can evoke indecision in either of you. Also,
it’s just really nice for you to be able to experience that strong connection with someone else
without worrying about where it’s going to go. I don’t think this is a necessarily bad stance to
take, just as long as you’re both aware, at the end of the day, that you’re only having fun.
Don’t give your heart to someone expecting more than they can or want to give.
Libra on the 5th House cusp gives you a special ability to relate to children, as well. You’ll find
that kids just adore you and will admire you a lot. Typically, you will know how to get on their
level and connect with them like they’re equals. If and when you have kids of your own, this
will be a defining part of your relationship. Making sure the relationship with your children is
mutually satisfying is going to be very important for you. The kind of mother or father who
gives their child choices and options, you want them to feel like their input is valued. However,

GEMINI RISING
95

since your child will have some significant Libra or 7th House influence, it can be particularly
hard for them to make a choice. Their total openness to what someone else wants will reflect
the boy or girl inside of you, the way you were as a kid.
This does leave room for you to exert your manipulations over them. However, be aware that
they will be just as manipulative. Charming, sweet, thoughtful, and notably good with people,
you may have to make sure that they’re not exerting their influence too much over you, lest
you get wrapped around their little finger. Teaching your kids manners will be exceptionally
important to you. Not finding demanding, aggressive behavior remotely tolerable or acceptable
in children, you refuse to raise a little brat. But, your child will naturally be likable, level-headed,
and very easy to deal with. In the end, you do spoil them quite a bit yet only when they’re on
good behavior, bartering with them in this fashion.

SCORPIO ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP


You feel like the only way you can be productive is by going all in. Scorpio is a sign of
extremes and with it placed in the house of work ethic and problem solving, it shows that when
you have a task that must be tackled, you will do so wholeheartedly. You could be
compensating for the fact that you’re so scattered and find it hard to focus. Knowing that you
will simply get distracted if you don’t give something your absolute all, when you need to roll up
your sleeves and get something done, you will do it intensely. It’s like you’re summoning
something from deep within yourself to complete the task. But, with Scorpio in the 6th, your
obsession with what you have to finish or solve can become counterproductive. It gets to a
point where it’s stress-inducing because it just consumes you and pushes you too hard.
Throwing yourself so totally into what you’re working on shows how much you invest your
time and effort into what you’re engaged in. You do require a certain passionate interest in
whatever tasks or problems arise. This is why there are some things that you just know you’re
not going to get done because you don’t care remotely about them. Is this the best way to go
about that, though? You might not feel strongly about it until you’ve procrastinated and put it
off so long that it’s created a major crisis. Then, all of a sudden, you have to pull out all of the
steps to get it done. Meanwhile, you may spend too much of your energy absorbed in

GEMINI RISING
96

something that you’re trying too hard to get right or that you’re so obsessed with that it leaves
room for nothing else.
This applies to any problem you face or any part of your routine. You either become
completely preoccupied with it or you have no energy for it at all. Although both approaches
can wreak havoc on your day-to-day existence, you often seem unbothered by it. Intense
anxiety provides you with the excitement you seek and you have a way of thriving on it.
However, the detrimental effects can also be felt physically. You can be struck with intense
illnesses or bouts of sickness that doctors can’t explain, that medicine cannot seem to cure, or
that is relentless and just doesn’t go away. This poor state of physical health is tied to the
destructive daily habits you engage in, which end up destroying your health.
Insisting that you’ve got things under control and that you’re not too stressed out, all while
the stress is gradually eating away at you, some sort of dramatically nerve-wracking issue or
major health problem usually needs to occur for you to stop and make a massive change. A
scary or threatening situation that occurs because of ongoing procrastination, complete physical
exhaustion, an ailment or sickness that totally prevents you from working or taking on so much
work that it’s truly impossible to do it all can all serve as catalysts for you to transform your
methods. Pluto ruling your 6th means being so all-or-nothing is sometimes not as effective as
you think it is. Things do not have to be that black-or-white for you to get them done.
It will be important for you to truly, seriously assess what is going wrong and what needs to
be fixed. Doing this on a merely practical level won’t help. You’ve got to do some soul-
searching. Having this profound feeling that something needs to be fixed and you don’t know
why can cause you to unconsciously create crises to fix. You’re that person who thrives on
having to work intensely at the last minute to meet a deadline. But, if you just didn’t put it off
until then, you wouldn’t have to work at such an extreme pace. The solutions to your problems
are much more psychologically oriented. Again, sometimes, you really like creating messy,
anxiety-ridden situations for yourself and it becomes quite masochistic after a while. Also, you
must dig deep emotionally to truly deal with your stress and all the terrifying thoughts that
come with it; thoughts of never doing anything right, of being useless, of so much in your life
being unfixable. Bottling all of that up only pushes you to closer and closer to a nervous
breakdown. Acknowledging your unresolved fears and complexes will help you understand why
your approach to productivity is so compulsive or obsessive.

GEMINI RISING
97

You’re most efficient when you understand what you have the power to fix and what you
don’t. This will prevent you from anxiously trying to control what you can’t control and then not
putting any effort into the things you can control. Scorpio in the 6th gives you the ability to be a
formidable problem solver because you’ll be able to gauge what’s happening on a deeper level.
Sometimes, we don’t do everything on our to-do list because we have some emotional work we
need to do that is blocking or undermining our physical work. So, recognizing how you’re
dropping the ball on your issues psychologically will show you the ways in which you’re being
unproductive in terms of your practical issues. As far as your health goes, you will be amazed at
how psychosomatic so much of it is. Your inner turmoil is the source and when you figure out
how to release a lot of that energy, so many of these unrelenting health problems will be
released, as well. But, it’s important for you to know how to be in control of your health without
being too fixated on it. A non-stop obsession with exercise or eating right can end up having
the opposite effect. Always be aware of the underlying stress you can put on yourself.

SAGITTARIUS ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP


More than the next person, you require relationships with people who are good influences
and who are going to bring something good into your life. Due to your aforementioned
openness to both the good and the bad that resides within you, you are looking for closeness
with someone who is less ambiguous. We attract the qualities of our 7th House into our lives,
without even trying, often because we’re projecting them on to other people. With Sagittarius
on the 7th House cusp, it is hard for you to see this upstanding goodness and righteousness
inside of yourself. The manipulative, mercurial traits you see in yourself make it hard for you to
believe that you’re someone who does the right thing. This is why you are so drawn toward
people who seem to have that strong moral fiber and sense of conviction.
Yet, you will constantly attract situations into your life where your morality is called into
questioned and you’re asked to stand for something. Often times, it will be through these
companions of yours, who will typically have Sagittarius energy in their chart, an angular
Jupiter, or even a strong 9th House. These people will want to know if you stand for anything
at all. If you don’t, they firmly believe that you can fall for anything. That is quite evident in

GEMINI RISING
98

terms of how easily influenced and impressionable you are. You know that about yourself,
which is what draws you toward close friends, romantic partners, or any other one-on-one
partners who have much stronger opinions and more of an ability to remain on their own path.
But, you’re so drawn to this energy in them because it reflects a side of you that you may not
be fully aware of or connected to.
You’re such a thinker and a logical individual. So, you already know what’s right and what
isn’t. You don’t have to be told because rationality dictates that certain answers are undeniably
correct. As open-minded as you are, it would be plain foolish to entertain the thought of two
plus two equaling five. Your Sagittarius Descendant represents a part of you that knows you’re
in the right, in many ways, and insists on it. Not only that but, when in this mindset, you will do
and say whatever you can to get the other person on your side, which is part of the motivation
behind your famous ability to influence people. Being around and connected to people who also
know how to spread the word and get others to believe in what they believe in awakens that
part of you.
The positive energy of Sagittarius indicates how much this dynamic that you’ll form together
can be for the sake of uplifting or enlightening one another. You will be able to share
perspectives in ways that can help the other look on the bright side, believe in themselves, and
know that anything is possible. This actually takes you outside the purely rational realm and
into the philosophical. Having such an active mind means that you’re interested in more than
just facts and data. You want your mind to be truly expanded and your partner can help you do
so. But, in the process, they might begin insisting too much on their form of thinking.
Sometimes, their positivity means that they believe they are positively right, with no if’s, and’s,
or but’s. This will start to irk you because you are that eternal child who loves asking “why?”
and when you’re not allowed to question the other person’s thinking, you balk.
You will probably have to go through a negative experience or two in life of being close to
someone who was so obnoxiously opinionated and so self-righteous that it was like being
preached at constantly and told what to think. Pretty soon, you may wonder if you’ve gotten
into a relationship or joined some sort of organized religion. The holier-than-thou attitude can
particularly rub you the wrong way as you believe that you’re someone who doesn’t pretend to
be above any certain sin. However, since you’re so changeable, there is this part of you that
can definitely insist on no perceived naysaying. Well-aware of everyone’s dirt, you do believe

GEMINI RISING
99

that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. But, sometimes, you might see it as stone-
throwing when they’re actually just calling you out when needed.
Also, when that flip side of you comes out, anything is possible. You’re very capable of going
into complete hypocrite mode by claiming that you never said or did something that you
definitely said and did or displaying a wild double standard, conveniently forgetting about your
own behavior. And when you get called out on it, your conveniently poor memory can make
you double-down and insist you’re right. Yet, you get so aggravated when you feel like
someone else is doing that to you! In the end, you will both need to knock one another off of
your high horses from time to time. The success of your relationships relies primarily on
complete honesty, more so than most of us. You have to be able to get to a level with someone
that is downright brutally honest, telling them all the ways you think they’re wrong, even if
they’re totally convinced they’re right. You might not fully convince them but they will still
respect your honesty. Candor goes a very long way in your partnerships if you have Sagittarius
in the 7th. So, your regular trick of being full of hot air will not work.
You will luckily be able to move on easily from disagreements in these partnerships, thanks to
your forward-moving, positive-thinking companion. This prevents you from dwelling on things
unnecessarily, shifting your thoughts to more positive ones. But, the downside is that this
person may be too quick to move on from you altogether, particularly in a romantic situation.
Free, untamed, and uninterested in looking back, if they feel like they’ve outgrown you or the
dynamic is meaningless or a trap, then they will venture off toward greener pastures,
sometimes quite unceremoniously. The fact that it can take a long time to actually even pin
them down to a commitment makes such a casual departure even more upsetting. You can also
experience this with close friends. Yet, this also serves as a reflection of how easy it is for you
to move on from people, especially whenever you feel bored.
Hopefully, though, you forge relationships with people who can stick around. Sometimes, if
they believe that it had grown meaningless, it’s more of a reflection of them than you. Yet,
people will seek inspiration from you, due to you seeming so bright, interesting, and exciting.
Not only can you provide it to them but you can receive it from them. The best relationships for
you are the ones that feel full of one lesson after the next. You are drawn to people who have a
certain sage-like wisdom, who have had many experiences or adventures in life that have
allowed them to grow and to discover greater meaning. They can impart this knowledge to you

GEMINI RISING
100

very generously. It just has to feel like an equal effort. If not, you will feel like you’re stuck with
some bloviating philosopher or guru. It’s important to get in touch with the “other half” of you
that is quite the philosopher or guru. You’ve learned a lot in this life, on a more intellectual
level. That combined with your openness to experience gives you plenty of knowledge of your
own to impart to someone else.
Relationships are always going to be a source of growth for you. This manifests in multiple
ways. You can come to look at every partnership in your life, past or present, as a growing and
learning experience. Even if it was negative, you can turn it around into a positive, recognizing
that you learned a lot about what you didn’t want in a relationship or more about yourself
through that situation. But, in many cases, even when it ends, there is something positive
about it all. The other person may just decide to up and leave yet there is usually some sense
of closure there. Maybe you left on good terms or decided to reconcile yet not reunite.
Sometimes, you have to be the one who does this to someone else, in order to remove yourself
from a stagnant situation. Gemini Rising people take a highly philosophical stance toward
partnerships, thanks to Jupiter ruling the 7th. You have to know how the union fits into the big
picture of your life and the reasons why things happened between you two, from start to finish.
It all becomes a part of your journey through life. That wisdom that stems from knowing that
some people are only in your life for certain seasons is symbolized by this influence. It’s why
you can move on from people very easily, regardless of the feelings involved. You will find
yourself experiencing consistent growth through these partnerships, if you have the right
attitude. Sometimes, it’s because you come across people with the right attitude toward life
who benevolently influence you. Being the total thinker you are makes you quite a skeptic. Yet,
you need to be able to really believe in someone to get close to them. Having a companion that
gives you hope – in themselves, in you, the relationship, or life, in general – is what brings out
your inner optimism.
You might become so consumed with this belief in other people that you find yourself
constantly searching for someone else to invest your hopes in. Romantically, this causes you to
go from one relationship to the next, virtually running toward the next commitment. Leaving a
string of exes in your wake is often the result. You don’t mean to be a heartbreaker but leaving
with such a lack of regret when it comes to partnerships can turn you into one. Your yearning
for close friendship can even be insatiable, compelling you to have one best friend after

GEMINI RISING
101

another. Don’t go too far in this search for companionship that you forget to truly learn from
the people you’ve left behind. If not, you will simply find yourself making the same mistakes,
again and again and again, believing that you’re just freely seeking connection when you’re
actually seeking it insatiably.
CAPRICORN ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
Your emotional baggage is particularly heavy, weighing you down to such a degree that it is
hard for you to even deal with it. Capricorn’s house placement in our chart tells us where we
will experience a lot of struggles and difficulties. For you, with Capricorn in the 8th, it’s a
struggle to confront and conquer your psychological issues. Spending so much time keeping
things light prevents you from being able to effectively delve into your darkness. But, learning
how to do so allows you to develop amazing inner strength. The process of introspection and
psychological transformation is something you must fully dedicate yourself toward.
Capricorn in the 8th indicates that you have such serious emotional scars and wounds that it
is very difficult to process it all. Where do you even begin? A lot of people with this influence
had to deal with some really scary or really traumatizing situations at a certain point in life,
usually a rather early, ill-equipped age. There could’ve been a major death in your early years
that totally rocked your foundation. You might have witnessed a lot of toxicity or abuse or you
also could have been on the receiving end of terrible abuse that lead to a real loss of
innocence. If so, there was something about your abuser that made you feel like they exerted a
real power and control over you. Maybe this is because they are always haunting you and
you’ve never been able to get them from under your skin. It also could be because they actually
held some position of control over your life, making it an even more painful cycle.
Unfortunately, this combination means that this person may be your father figure. Many
people with Saturn as their 8th House ruler suffer at the hands of a father who is emotionally,
physically, verbally, or sexually abusive. This terrible feeling that you cannot escape him and his
influence, that he is always going to torment you on some level, breeds both great fear and
great resentment. Of course, this is not always the case. Sometimes, it’s actually the father who
has been abused, at some point in his life. Learning to survive his abuser and, hopefully, rid
himself of their influence, he serves as an example of incredible power and survival skill. At the
same time, he can be plagued by demons, by a darkness within that is hard for him to escape
or control, because of all that he’s been through. This influence eventually rubs off on you.

GEMINI RISING
102

For some people with this placement, it’s not a matter of processing and surviving abuse. It’s
about being forced to confront the dark side of yourself and, often times, through the father’s
influence. As loving as a bond as you may have, he can also be a controlling, overbearing, or
overly intense presence in your life. He brings out the worst in you like few people do and vice
versa. A dark side within in you that can be controlling and overbearing or difficult to a very
destructive degree. Then, we meet the Gemini Rising’s evil twin. But, you are being asked to
take true responsibility for your dark side, which isn’t exactly easy for you to do. It’s much
easier for you to forgo all accountability for your destructive compulsions. Sometimes, your Dad
gets the blame, since you’re so used to him bringing your inner demon right to the surface. You
might also direct the blame toward whatever else you’ve been through in life. At other times,
you’ll just shrug and believe that the damage you’ve caused isn’t that serious.
Learning to take your shadowy energy seriously is the purpose of Capricorn in the 8th. Sure,
you’ve inherited a lot of it from your father figure, either due to what he’s put you through or
what he’s been through himself in life. But, you need to find your strength by taking ownership
of it. If you reflect on it, you’ll find that this is an ugly part of your family cycle. This ongoing
pattern, throughout the generations, of not taking responsibility for one’s emotional damage. It
stems from this feeling of having no control. Many of your family members have felt their sense
of control in life undermined by someone who abused their power over them, possibly their
father, as well. You will be deeply impacted by that at some point in your life, not necessarily
just by your father but by anyone who seems to exert an unhealthy control over you.
If you’re not careful, you can be consumed by darkness by compulsively, obsessively seeking
control and then lording it over other people. In your sexual life, you can engage in a lot of
rules and withholding in order to maintain that sense of control. Manipulating or keeping a tight
rein on your sexual partner means that you can be just as rigid in how you connect with them.
It can be very hard for you to let go sexually. You are often keeping some sort of wall up that
prevents the other person from deeply connecting with you. It all can feel like too much and
you get scared of someone else knowing that intimate side of you because you feel like that’ll
allow them to control you. Because of this, you struggle with many sexual inhibitions and
blockages. A part of you can totally slut-shame yourself or other people, which makes it hard
for easy, relaxing intimacy to occur. As a result, you deal with a lot of sexual frustration. It may
emerge as a relentless desire for sex yet a constant feeling of dissatisfaction with it.

GEMINI RISING
103

In order to empower yourself and transform from within, you must eliminate anything or
anyone in your life that encourages a lack of accountability. You’re at your most powerful when
you develop the maturity and wisdom to take responsibility for your worst self. Gemini Risings
can gleefully let their darker selves run free, either unaware of the damage or unconcerned
with it. But, your power stems from assuming true ownership and control of those inner
demons. It won’t be easy and it will require you to actually dig deep within yourself and admit
to what’s there, instead of downplaying it or ignoring it. You also have to reach a state where
you realize that you’re an adult and you don’t get to blame anyone anymore. This can definitely
include your father. Whatever has happened between you and him, you need to allow healing
to now occur. In doing so, you’ll be able to break the familial cycle that many of your loved
ones who have been victimized, controlled, or overwhelmed by a damaged father figure have
put themselves through. Not taking ownership of your baggage allows you to remain under
Dad’s thumb in a way that reinforces a lot of your emotional repression.
Handling your dark side effectively means not repressing all of it and also not letting it all
loose indiscriminately. Capricorn in the 8th indicates that you have a major dark side and
there’s just no getting around that. Often times, you will struggle with it so much that you
wonder if you’re just an evil or terrible person. But, your willingness to put the work into
conquering it is what determines that. You can acknowledge that your inner demons will always
be there and even let them out, at times, because not doing so makes the internal pressure too
intense. Yet, you need to be able to do so consciously and creatively, releasing that dark energy
for the sake of healing. You can’t be destructive for the sake of being destructive. That’s when
karma will come back around to you in the nastiest of ways. You’re often good at getting out of
the intensely sticky situations you create. But, that can’t work forever. So, maintaining a
stronger command over your dark compulsions is crucial.
Eventually, you can develop such a strong understanding of that shadowy self (or selves) you
possess that you will know exactly what you’re doing whenever you’re doing it. Becoming that
psychologically aware is what gives you strength in life. You need to use your rational prowess
to comprehend where your rage, your trust issues, your despair, or your resentment stem from.
Figuring out the very painful source of these emotional problems will allow you to see that even
though you’ve been badly scarred in life, you don’t have to remain damaged. You can work
(Capricorn) through those deeper issues (8th House) to the point where you become an

GEMINI RISING
104

example of successfully surviving psychological damage. This can, in the end, be one of your
greatest achievements. You must dedicate yourself to the light but with the intent of shining a
light on your inner darkness and transforming it. Believe that you only went through what you
went through in order to become a stronger, wiser individual.
You’ll also come to realize that a lot of your sexual issues stem from the unresolved emotional
issues you have. Once you begin doing that healing psychological work, you will also begin the
path of sexual healing. Whatever struggles you experience as far as being sexually satisfied or
achieving and maintaining intimacy with a sexual partner will be a direct reflection of your
trauma, in some way or another. Any resentments you are still harboring toward your abuser
create barriers between you and your sexual partner. So, you will, again, need to take
responsibility for that and make the effort to break down those barriers. Because of all of this,
you will find that you take sex very seriously. You didn’t do all of this inner work just to have
mediocre sex with just anybody. This placement does usually mean that you often have to
reserve your sexual energy for someone you’re committed to. You can learn the hard way that
casual flings can easily trigger your issues because not enough solid trust is established. Also,
irresponsible or careless sexual actions, like unprotected sex or cheating, can have some
particularly painful or difficult consequences for you, which is something you’re innately aware
of. At the same time, you should avoid any slut-shaming of yourself. If you just want to get
laid, that’s fine, too, as long as it’s honest and you know what you’re getting yourself into.

AQUARIUS ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP


What do you really believe in? What do you stand for? Not knowing the answer to this is what
makes you seem inconsistent, flaky, and maybe even somewhat amoral to some people. But,
having Aquarius in the 9th House means that you are actually meant to be detached from
strictly personal beliefs. This placement indicates a total openness to everyone’s beliefs,
understanding that your convictions are just one of many. There is this wonderfully
nonjudgmental side to you that shows such an avid interest in everyone’s walk of life, no matter
how different it is from yours or from other people’s. In the end, what you really believe is that

GEMINI RISING
105

everyone should believe what they want. You allow everyone to be on the journey that they’re
on and walk the path that they want. Who are you to interfere?
Because of this, you want the same freedom in return. It’s why you cannot be bothered with
people’s disapproval of your inconsistency. You’re on a journey (9th House) that is always
unpredictable (Aquarius). So, you find a sense of inspiration and positivity in being able to
embrace something new, something different, something unexpected. It doesn’t matter if what
you do or say throws someone else for a loop. To you, switching things up so radically only
makes your path more meaningful and exciting. Forget others’ opinions! Your personal growth
stems from caring less and less what people think. There is this side to you that is so easily
influenced and that never wants to be uninteresting to other people. So, you can spend a
certain part of your life concentrating greatly on others’ approval. This is until you take a step
back and remember that you are interesting, you are smart, and you have your own mind. You
don’t need anyone telling you what to think or what to do.
This process of discovery and exploration makes you increasingly independent. A lot of
Gemini Risings spend their early lives attached at the hip to people, always needing someone to
bounce their ideas off of or constantly feeling compelled to be the listener. But, you need to go
on a journey that gives you a greater distance from people, in a good way, that lets you listen
primarily to yourself. Instead of just getting swept up in other people’s ideas, insist on your own
ideas. Believe that you are right and don’t let anyone change your mind. Aquarius in the 9th
House shows you how good you actually are at changing other people’s minds. You need to
take the far-out ideas that you’re capable of and use them to broaden others’ perspectives.
It sometimes gets you down when you realize how narrow-minded some people can be and
how quickly they can write others off. But, focusing on that will only cause you to manifest
these situations. Often times, you’ll be the target. Offbeat Uranus ruling your 9th indicates that
you have to go through experiences in life of being misunderstood, alienated, or ostracized in
order to grow. It might not make much sense to you because you know that you’re bright and a
great communicator. Why aren’t they getting it? Usually, it’s because they are way behind you
and have yet to catch up. When you truly believe that you’re capable of a brilliant, high-level
understanding of others, you’ll see that it’s a part of your path to not exactly be understood, to
be rather ahead of your time. But, remaining positively focused on your ideas and concepts and
how meaningful they are to you is what allows you to manifest positive change.

GEMINI RISING
106

You will then come to believe that it’s not only important to be different but to make a
difference in the world. Being the high-level thinker you are sets you apart from other people
and can give you understanding of things that they lack. This placement shows that you will
soon move beyond just seeking the rational knowledge that comes from a book. You will yearn
for the knowledge that stems from all sorts of experiences. Being able to experience other
people’s journeys, particularly those who are different from you, will be particularly inspiring.
You will learn a lot from seeing life from their perspective and use that knowledge to bring
about change in the world. Avoiding ignorance or closed-mindedness is what guides you
through life, showing you all the ways you can see the meaning in someone else’s experience
and then help uplift them and enhance their journey in whatever you can.
Therefore, you will explore all things political, taking an avid interest in what’s going on in the
world when you previously may have just been concerned with random, superficial things
happening in your own backyard. Being broadly connected to the plight of all people is what
feels so right to you. Yet, since you develop this detachment from what you personally think is
right or wrong, you will still display that open-mindedness in a way that allows you to welcome
many different political stances, even if you believe it’s wrong or that they’re ill-informed. This
kind of attitude is what allows you to have friends of all walks of life. You’re truly interested in
everyone and show little to no discrimination as far as who accompanies you on your path. Yet,
you are also quite inclined to leave people behind who cannot keep up. Your journey involves a
ton of constant change and you know not everyone can handle that.
With Aquarius in the 9th, your college years were rather wild and wacky. You’ve always been
rather off-the-wall but going off to college or leaving home gave you a sense of freedom that
compelled you to defiantly do whatever you wanted to do. You engaged in many crazy
adventures that regularly turned your life upside down. If in school, you might have found it
hard to really stick to your class schedule. But, as erratic as your attendance or involvement
may have been, you knew how to turn it around at the 11th hour, unexpectedly acing tests and
passing classes. Enjoying the independent thinking that came with higher education, you may
have believed that you didn’t really need to go to class every day and listen to your professor in
order to understand everything that was going on. The thing is that this was often right. This
conviction may have developed to the point where you became so detached from a need to be
in class that you took a lengthy hiatus or dropped out altogether.

GEMINI RISING
107

A great deal of your time in these years were spent making lots of new friendships. You were
popular on campus, to some degree, because you were willing to spread yourself around to all
sorts of people. Joining clubs and organizations is either a total preoccupation of yours during
this time or something that you rebel against. In the latter case, you felt like you were growing
into too much of an individualist to become such a joiner. With this stance, you sometimes
sought to even free yourself from social events or friendships that became too limiting and
binding. In the former case, you discovered an amazing sense of community that you wanted to
constantly explore. Being a part of a group where you feel like everyone is coming together for
a united reason brings greater meaning into your life. It’s just necessary for you to also
maintain your individuality enough so you don’t let these groups of people take you totally off-
path or lead you down the wrong path.
PISCES ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
The Pisces Midheaven indicates that knowing exactly what you want to do with your life is a
real challenge. After all, you’re full of so many ideas and easily go in so many different
directions. Things are never exactly clear in the house where we have Pisces. So, having Pisces
in the 10th shows that you struggle to have a clear sense of purpose in life. But, in the end,
being able to face and move through the unknown and achieve great things anyway is how you
will become successful in life. You are better off in a career that does not require some rigid or
overly specific course to recognition and accomplishment. Letting go and going with the flow
are the strategies that will help you get ahead in life.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t work hard or that you should take the whole flowing with
the currents approach to an extreme. If you do, then you will find yourself completely lost at
sea. The visionary element of Pisces means that you have the power to truly visualize what you
believe you should and can accomplish in life. Then, you let go of said vision and let it come
about, leaving much of it up to the Universe. Yes, this is a challenge for someone as rational
and left-brained as you. Pisces on the 10th House cusp is the opposite influence of your Virgo
Nadir, which can cause you to over-think and over-analyze. Moving out of your comfort zone
means moving into the more right-brained form of thinking. All you have to do is breathe, trust
your intuition, and know that sending your intentions out into the Universe will help you very
significantly in terms of your success.

GEMINI RISING
108

You will be drawn toward careers that involve fantasy and imagination as well as anything
that is spiritual, intuitively based, or humane. So, you can carve out great success, for example,
as an artist of any kind, some sort of spiritual guide or teacher for others, or a veterinarian.
Regardless of what you do with your life, you must approach your goals with that sense of
dreaminess, humanity, and sensitivity. As you make your way through adulthood, you’ll realize
that this is how you establish a place for yourself in society. During your teenage years, you
might have been surprised to realize how sensitive, empathetic, or even fragile and vulnerable
many people viewed you as. Being so cool-headed and cerebral, you may not identify with
being all that sympathetic or emotionally driven. Yet, this is an expectation that the world will
put on you that you have to work with. Coming of age also showed you that people were
determined to project a lot on you. Nebulous Neptune ruling the 10th House evokes a very wide
range of responses in people, meaning that many different people will see you in many
different ways, to the point where it’s all confusing.
You exist as this blank canvas out in the world and people paint whatever color(s) they want
on to you. This placement is another indicator of the Gemini Rising multifacetedness. It gets to
the point where it’s not just duality or inconsistency but a complete inability to be limited to one
trait. Seen as sweet, rude, gifted, mediocre, inaccessible, relatable, vulnerable, guarded, and
everything else you can think of, you gain recognition for being this total chameleon. People in
your public and professional life will only see what they want to see in you. Is this frustrating?
Definitely, to some extent. But, you can utilize this blank-canvas image in order to become
whoever you need to become to succeed. It’s what makes you highly adaptable in the
workplace, even in situations where you don’t know what you’re doing at all or feel very
uncomfortable or unsure of yourself. You can totally convince people of the opposite. Creating
whatever illusion you need to create in order to succeed and gain respect, you get ahead in this
world through an endless slew of magic tricks.
Any respectable magician never reveals their tricks. Yet, people out in the world can
inevitably end up feeling like you have too many of those tricks up your sleeve. Gaining a
negative reputation as deceptive does come with the territory of this Midheaven. You do have
to watch out for being overly manipulative and presenting yourself in a way that is nothing but
smoke and mirrors. While it’s not your fault that you essentially understand the smoke and
mirrors that are involved in everyone’s branding and career profile, you shouldn’t rely on that to

GEMINI RISING
109

the point where you’re flat-out lying to the world. You also need to watch out for lying to
yourself. That deliberate deception can turn back around you, causing you to believe that you
really want to achieve things that you don’t want to achieve at all. You might go too far in the
process of morphing into your image of a successful person, to the point where you have
gotten completely lost in the act, forgetting what your true aspirations are.
Pisces in the 10th indicates how equipped you are to turn your dreams into something real.
You just have to have complete faith in those dreams and in the process of achieving them. The
challenges that will come your way can have to do with feeling disillusioned or as if your efforts
and achievements are constantly being overlooked, neglected, and forgotten about. You will
experience a significant amount of pain, even suffering, as you rise to the top because it will
you constantly feel unsure of how to make it in this harsh world. You find healing when success
finally comes along, which means that you need to have faith that this success will come in
order to restore your inner peace.
At some point, you won’t even be all that invested in achieving success because you’ll know
that it’s always bittersweet. For you, there is always some form of pain or sadness or confusion
that accompanies success. Sacrifices have to be made, rather selflessly and sometimes
excruciatingly. There have to be times where you feel like you’re getting nowhere and nothing
is happening. You can also have the best intentions in your public and professional life yet be
consistently misrepresented and projected on negatively. Also, the world can just be plain
mean. Dealing with the cruelties of those who just want you to suffer doesn’t make pursuing
and achieving success any easier. This whole process should serve to sensitize you a lot more,
as you can generally go through life as if you’re so unaffected by things. In fact, you can be
one of those people who scoffs at those deemed “too sensitive”. Yet, suffering great pain in the
process of trying to make it in the world will develop and strengthen your empathy, leading you
toward careers where your aim is to put yourself in others’ shoes or alleviate their suffering.
ARIES ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Conflict comes your way in the most random or unexpected fashion. You might think that
you’re just minding your own business when, out of nowhere, you’re in some sort of fight with
someone or you’ve pissed somebody off. You also can find yourself expressing frustration with
people in the same unpredictable way, as much as you try to be cool and logical about things.
You feel an individual sense of detachment (11th House) from strong conflict (Aries). But, as

GEMINI RISING
110

we’ve stated before, you definitely are capable of stirring the pot. You do so and then you act
like you didn’t do it. In your defense, taking the initiative to make sure that people vent their
frustrations with one another, all while not getting personally involved, is what you’re supposed
to be doing, thanks to Aries being in your 11th House. While you don’t feel like a particularly
angry or aggressive individual, you can find yourself constantly surrounded by that anger and
aggression. You have an objective understanding of the competitions and disagreements that
occur between others and play an outside role of turning up the heat or cooling things down.
It should be said that you only get away with it when it’s not your problem. When you
instigate in terms of your personal concerns, you’ll just create a giant mess for yourself that is
hard to get out of. Aries on the 11th House cusp is like being a sports coach on the sidelines,
except you’re coaching for both teams. You have a big-picture awareness of the “plays” both
teams are making and you make various calls in order to throw them into the game and see
who wins. Since you’re everyone’s coach, you can’t go around losing it because one team
scored and another didn’t. It’s about everyone scoring. Some people may be frustrated by how
you appear to not pick teams but, the way you see it, everyone is entitled to their own
touchdown. This is the form of idealism you develop in life, which allows you to be devoted to
any sort of cause that will help people win at life and be more motivated.
As a friend and an ally, you can be both a champion for the person as well as a great source
of frustration for them. In your social world, you get on some people’s last nerves or push their
buttons very easily. But, often times, this is accidental. As much as you may instigate things on
purpose, there are also many times where you start a fight with someone unintentionally.
Navigating your social world is like walking through a mine field. You never know when the next
explosion is going to happen. It can make you feel socially awkward to be in situations where
there is a lot of fighting; sometimes, that is. Other times, you feel out-of-place socially when
people are not getting enough off of their chest. Mars ruling the 11th means that you are
exceptionally assertive, to the point where it can cause many differences between you and your
peers. After all, you’re such a communicator and you don’t like to hold back when you feel like
you have something to say. It’s also a matter of you sometimes not realizing that what you’re
saying is as offensive, confrontational, or antagonistic as it comes off.
The more you think you’re releasing your anger and asserting yourself in reasonable, civil
ways, the more you will end up clashing with people in your community who find you rude,

GEMINI RISING
111

obnoxious, or a shit-starter. However, whenever you feel like you are being all of those things,
you will navigate social conflicts and confrontations well. Also, keep in mind that how much you
can talk behind people’s backs, break promises, or seem indifferent to their problems can
inadvertently anger your friends and acquaintances. Sometimes, it seems like these clashes are
happening all of a sudden when, really, you’re instigating more than you think.
You’ll probably find yourself in many “frenemy” situations where you are cool with them one
week and can’t stand them the next week. But, a part of you likes these kinds of social bonds.
You’d rather fight with a friend and get it all out and then make up than pretend like
everything’s fine all of the time. However, you do have many good qualities to you as a friend,
of course. You have an ability to make any of your buddies feel like they can do whatever they
want to do, whether that’s in terms of pursuing certain goals and passions or just living their life
as they see fit. Far from a judgmental friend, you love it when your pal is operating very much
on their terms, regardless of their mistakes or bad decisions. In fact, you are, at times,
encouraging these bad decisions. While you love to observe social mischief, you can get into
plenty of it yourself. You will insist on doing what you want, as well, regardless of your peers’
opinions; another quality that can make you scandalous or infamous. Sometimes, you’re more
concerned with your social enjoyment than everyone else’s. While you do care for your friends,
you’re perfectly fine not spending time with them or seeing them for certain periods or breaking
away at any social event to do your own thing.
TAURUS ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP
Stability feels particularly elusive when you have Taurus on the 12th House cusp. At the same
time, you have such a profound yearning for it that you don’t totally understand. Sometimes,
you don’t even want to acknowledge those feelings. You see yourself as someone who just
bounces around from one thing to the next. After a while, this prevents you from having
something solid to hold on to. So, you harbor many secret feelings and fears in regard to not
knowing what or who is reliable and substantial in life, including yourself. There are a lot of
insecurities within that you have to consciously confront and deal with. If not, you will
continually feel like you’re caught up in a whirlwind with no time to stop and breathe.
You might repress that craving for a stable life, becoming increasingly scatterbrained and
inconsistent, as a result. While it’s not a bad thing that you embrace your contradictions and
have a wide variety of interests, it also puts you in a position where you feel less and less solid

GEMINI RISING
112

within yourself. Being a different person all of the time can make it hard to know what’s
valuable about you. If you don’t have a stable, consistent center, how do you develop your
worth? A feeling that you’re actually worthless then develops that makes you try on one
personality after the next in order to figure out what’s valuable about you. Asking yourself who
you need to be in order to be worth something, you’ll eventually become so consumed by those
insecurities that they all spill out, revealing how desperately unstable and unhappy you really
are, on the inside.
Taurus in the 12th also means that you can retreat deeply inside of yourself in order to gain
peace and comfort. It’s as if you’re not just escaping the world but escaping all of those selves
that make it hard for you to feel centered and grounded. But, you might get too comfortable
withdrawing, not wanting to come back out because your inner life is too cozy. It becomes
compulsive, making you feel like the only way that you can chill out is to disconnect from
everything and everyone. You then become overly attached to solitude because of how much it
blocks out all of the noise. This is when you see the Gemini Rising individual avoiding people, in
spite of their highly communicative and sociable ways. There are times where you just don’t
want to text anyone back or have to talk much to anyone as it all feels too exhausting.
Indulging (Taurus) in this aloneness (12th House) may bring you pleasure and ease on a
certain level but it also leaves you stuck in one spot, which you also can’t stand. Then, you start
being driven crazy by some “fear of missing out” or a sense that there are so many other things
that you should be doing. But, you should take a break because doing a bunch of things has
completely wrecked your nervous system. However, taking too much of a break bores you to
the point of wanting to jump out of a window. Yet, it’s the only way you can find silence. Is
silence overrated? Ahhh! This house is about pain and suffering and you put yourself through a
cycle of it by either completely refusing to slow down, which leads to some kind of breakdown,
or slowing down to the point where you feel absolutely stuck and bored. To work through this,
you need to acknowledge that yearning for a certain kind of stability is just what makes you
human. All human beings have some need for peace, for something solid and secure to hang
on to, for moments of simplicity and comfort. So, acknowledging this allows you to feel at one
with your fellow man.
Taurus’ placement here in the 12th is asking you to feel that yearning for centeredness and
then let it go. You do have a deep-seated fear of being or becoming boring, which causes you

GEMINI RISING
113

to neglect and ignore all the little things in life that would ground you if you just took a minute
to stop. You will significantly heal yourself and find inner peace if you shift your consciousness
to recognize that, sometimes, a constant pursuit of excitement and stimulation isn’t as
interesting as you think it is. You are shattering the illusion of what’s dull and what’s
interesting. There is such a rich energy to those very still, quiet, grounded moments of life, to
the physical world and all of its pleasures, and if you actually let yourself be happily immersed
in that part of life, you’ll be amazed at how endlessly fascinating it all is.
This also means truly connecting to your body, instead of just being this talking head, and
allowing yourself to fully experience your breath, your physicality, and the moments where your
body is telling you “no.” Listening, even when your mind is telling you “yes”, will save you a lot
of headaches and nervous tensions. There is a great deal of consistency to your physical self
and life, as well. So, you have to let go of the absolute notion that constancy is something to be
avoided. Knowing that something can be counted on and turned to shows that it’s worth
valuing. Therefore, knowing that, as long as you’re alive and blessed with all of your faculties,
you can count on your breath, your body, and your senses. That shows you how valuable you
are. You’re valuable simply because you’re here. Compulsively adopting all of these
personalities is a way of not being here and, consequently, only perpetuates your suffering.
Since Venus rules this house, learning to love the very center of who you are is what brings
you serenity. But, you’re also not meant to personally identify with whatever is in the 12th
House. You will always be this multifaceted individual who can’t just be one thing. This is why a
lot of your self-love will stem from having a spiritual anchor that is that one thing you know you
can always turn to and count on. Having faith that your Higher Power is a solid presence that
will constantly be there in order to love and appreciate you helps you feel a lot more stable and
secure in such a crazily hectic world. Also, there is a consistency to astrology, in particular. You
have the birth chart that you have for the rest of your life and you will be able to use astrology
as a reliable foundation whenever you need to be at peace or remind yourself of your value.
Understanding how to ground other people, soothe and calm them down, will be an expression
of selflessness or charity for you. And in terms of art, any artistic abilities you display will help
build you up and keep you centered. Telling stories or creating characters that are about finding
peace in a world that’s anything but can provide you with a sense of escape, as will creating a
beautiful Universe through your art that you rely upon for consistent comfort.

GEMINI RISING
114

CANCER RISING

CANCER ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


Life is a particularly emotionally charged experience for you. As a Cancer Rising, you are far
more easily swayed by your emotions, moods, needs, and sentiments than many people. You’re
a very soulful individual and you approach life from a very gut-felt stance. This ability to follow
your gut is what defines your narrative, to a large degree. You listen to that deep, intuitive
inner voice that you have and do so automatically, without much thought. Some folks have to
be reminded to listen to their gut. For you, it’s something that just comes very naturally. While
this means that you are exceptionally in tune with yourself and your environment, it also
indicates that there will be many instances where you emotionally go off the rails because
you’re so inclined to act on whatever it is that you’re feeling.
Those with their Ascendant in Cancer are also particularly receptive to what other people
around them are feeling. In any given situation, you are responsive and supportive, picking up
on the emotions and needs of others and doing your best to make them feel comfortable. You
are like a walking safe space for other people because you know what to do to make them feel
a strong sense of support. There’s just something about your overall demeanor that encourages
people to let their guard down. Getting others to spill emotionally is something that you thrive
on because you have such a strong need to be needed. Your temperament makes you a real
caregiver and that nurturing, encouraging attitude emerges full force whenever there is
someone in need. The thing is, though, that your nurturing manner is often prevalent
regardless of whether or not the person actually needs you. It’s hard for you to conceive of the
notion of people not needing you and, as a result, you may unconsciously force your caregiving
on to others. This is also due to you feeling, like some concerned yet annoying parent, that you
know what’s best for the other person.
Interestingly, there are two ways that the Cancer Rising energy can play out. It can make you
the ever-protective nurturer of other people. However, there is another side of you that can just
be a big baby, no matter how old you get. Quickly consumed by your emotions and often crying
out, in some fashion, for your needs to be met, your role in life may regularly be the one that
others rush toward to take care of. This dynamic is particularly visible whenever you’re around

CANCER RISING
115

any of your family or loved ones. We should remember that Cancer is ruled by the Moon, the
planet which represents, among other things, your childhood experiences and how you are
around family, as a result. The Moon is also how you acknowledge, process, and express your
emotions and the things that you need in order to feel emotionally secure. Having the Moon as
your chart ruler indicates that you are living a life that is very dominated by this yearning for
emotional security, which is why you’re so intent on putting your feelings out there and getting
the support you need from others in response.
You should look to the Moon in your birth chart to see just how you do this. The house that
your Moon is in will tell you what area of life you are the neediest or most reactive in. Do you
have the Moon in your 10th House? Then, you take a lot of things very personally when it
comes to your career and your public image/role. You really need a great deal of support from
the public for your endeavors and you would be happiest in a profession that gives you the
space that you need to fully emotionally react; an emotional outlet of sorts. On the other hand,
if you have the Moon in the 4th House, the opposite house, you are most vulnerable when it
comes to your family and your most personal affairs. Your way of emotionally reacting and
getting your needs met, more than the average person, will be very much based off of what
was conditioned within you as a child, to the point where it’s extremely hard for you to move
beyond that way of responding to things.
The sign and the aspects of your Moon tell a further story, indicating what exactly it is that
you need in this area of life (the sign) and how you go about pursuing it and expressing it (the
aspects). Cancer Risings are truly vivid embodiments of their Moon signs and, in many ways,
will seem like textbook examples of that energy. It’s part of what makes you such a raw and
vulnerable individual because the Moon represents our innermost feelings. But, you are wearing
those feelings right on your sleeve, sometimes even when you don’t want to. You might veer
back and forth between being highly self-protective and then not having a guard up at all. This
will depend on your environment, of course, and who’s around you. Like most children are
rather withdrawn, at first, around people they don’t know until they feel safe around them, you
have a certain shyness or guardedness to you that prevents you from really feeling and being
comfortable around someone new until you know that they’re okay.
You always want to feel at home and having this Rising sign shows that the home
atmosphere of your early environment is what you are constantly striving to recreate; for better

CANCER RISING
116

or for worse. The first several years of your life were when the notion of what family is and
what a home is were profoundly instilled within you. Many Cancer Ascendants come into a
family that is a very traditional brood somehow, seeming to offer you all that you would need in
terms of parental figures, environment, family values, etc. This all depends on your Moon,
though, as you also could’ve been brought into a family that was the alternative to what was
traditional, to some degree or another, but still had a lot of love. Since Cancer is tied with
nostalgia, you may know the story of your birth so well because the memories surrounding it
are constantly retold, down to the details, getting to the point where it’s almost a fable.
The entry of a Cancer Rising into a family is almost legendary, as if you were the missing
piece of the unit and everything became complete when you were born. So, unsurprisingly,
many of you with this Rising sign tend to be the youngest child (or, at least, one of the
youngest) of the family. You’re a highly nostalgic person and cherish all the memories
associated with your childhood. Memory is tied to the Moon, after all, and you may have many
memories that go surprisingly far back, even to the first couple years of your life. We are all
totally dominated by our unconscious self until we’re about five, which is why most people don’t
start forming a lot of day-to-day memories of their lives until that age. But, since the Moon is
the unconscious, you probably have much more of a memory of those earliest years than most.
Highly affected by the notion of family, you found your role in life by doing all that you could
to make sure that your family was intact. This is what awakens those premature nurturing
instincts. No matter what your place in the birth order, as a child, you found someone to take
care of, even if that meant younger extended relatives and family friends or pets. Being so
sentimental and swayed by emotion, you just wanted to make sure that everyone else around
you was feeling okay. Because of this, you also made it very clear whenever you weren’t feeling
okay. All children do yet you did on a level where everything had to stop. Depending on what’s
going on with your Moon, you may have thrown massive tantrums or had relentless crying fits
or came down with non-stop verbal diarrhea until your needs were acknowledged and met. It’s
this pattern that gets you that reputation among your loved ones for being coddled, spoiled, or
indulged, which is a notion that many other people will share about you as your life goes on.
Yet, you really couldn’t help yourself, as you were naturally moodier and more emotionally
uninhibited than most children.

CANCER RISING
117

Your mother and how she handled you is a primary driving force behind this behavior. The
house Cancer’s in says a lot about your bond with your mother figure. With this placement, this
bond is much more influential than the next person’s. You are undeniably your mother’s child
and can’t get away from that truth. Many Cancer Risings act a lot like their mothers from a very
early age while some of you don’t really begin becoming your Mom until adulthood settles in.
But, you come to define a lot of yourself through her influence. This can be difficult to process,
though, because not everyone with this placement will have great relationships with their
mothers. Some of you grew up being exceptionally close to and connected to your maternal
parent while others felt much more of a strain with the mother that still hangs over your head
in just about everything that you do.
If you feel very positively connected to your mother, then you will take on many of her
attributes, primarily by giving people the same kind of nurturing and protecting that she gave
you. Once you have children, this can become painfully obvious, as you dote on and give your
child support in ways that sound awfully familiar. Even before you become a parent, you echo
your Mom’s supportiveness in how you care for your loved ones. But, it is also possible that you
need to step back and recognize when you’re repeating some of your mother’s not-so-great
qualities, such as her ways of being overprotective, manipulative, or emotionally exhausting.
After all, as great of a mother as she is, she still has her flaws! A very common trait here is that
it can be incredibly hard for the Cancer Rising person to recognize the imperfections in their
mother, instead just seeing her as an amazing example. But, having this view of her prevents
you from really growing up. There comes a time where we all have to acknowledge our
mother’s flaws and how she maybe didn’t give us everything we needed in the way she needed
to, even if she was a great Mom. This allows us to give that support to ourselves.
When your neediness and moodiness become problematic, it’s an expression of those issues
with your mother that you need to deal with. If you’re too busy pretending like she’s Mother
Teresa, all while not understanding the problems you’ve had with her, then you will simply act
out those unresolved emotions and needs in some unsavory ways. Emotionally regressive,
immature, or stunted behavior is the result. But, this can also happen if you’re too busy
resenting your mother. Some Cancer Risings go to the other extreme and spend all their time
holding everything their mother figure did against her, well into adulthood. This mindset means
that you’re still looking to be mothered and get what you always needed. To overcome that,

CANCER RISING
118

you have to remember that your Mom truly did the best she could, whatever that was, and
that, no matter what, you have to move on and be an adult now. You have to nurture yourself.
This also goes for the types that are too dependent on or enmeshed with their Mom. You very
likely grew up feeling closer to your mother figure than anyone else in your family. In terms of
the influence of the father, it could’ve been diminished through too many differences or
conflicts between you two, a lack of involvement on his part or just him not being around
altogether. So, it’s understandable that you can be so hung up on your Mom because, in many
ways, she was all that you had. But, you should also remember that you always have yourself.
Being so family-oriented gives you this aura of someone who is family-friendly. Typically, the
Cancer Rising individual comes off as the boy or girl next door type. Some of the more
energetic or lively ones can seem so wholesome and pure that it’s like they stepped right out of
a Disney movie, which only adds to that childlike vibe. There is something sweet and
comforting about you. Anyone who dates you will know that you are definitely the kind that can
be taken home to meet the folks. In fact, except in dramatic cases, those with this Ascendant
usually get along exceptionally well with their partner’s or spouse’s family. You feel like part of
the family very quickly, even in the initial dating phases. You can also forge that kind of
connection with your friends’ family members. People who don’t even know you that well can
feel like they already know you. Blessed (or cursed) with one of those “familiar faces”, you
might constantly have people mistaking you for someone that they know. This just goes to
show how much people feel connected to you or want to get to know you better, in a way
that’s similar to Libra Rising but somehow more up-close and personal.
Yet, you will keep some sort of guard up until you feel safe. Again, how you do so depends
on your Moon sign. Whether that means being quiet, becoming talkative, having a poker face,
or acting very politely, there’s always some sort of “cover” to you that is fueled by your hidden
fear of the situation you’re in. Due to your rather primal demeanor, you are kind of like an
animal in how you can automatically respond with fear to what is unknown or unexpected,
including new people. Because of the various defenses that Cancer Risings can assume, some
are more obviously shy than others. But, that is always some part of the impression you give
off, without even realizing it. To compensate for this, there are those of you who come off as
quite tough, only to be revealed to have a much softer side, in the end. Cancer’s mascot is the
Crab and the animal’s literal hard shell and soft interior manifests on a more metaphorical level

CANCER RISING
119

with Cancer Rising people. You’re simultaneously very vulnerable while also learning to not be
too eager to put yourself in a vulnerable position, after one too many times of being hurt. Since
your gentleness or sensitivity is so evident, you do need to protect yourself.
The softness of this energy has some literal translations in terms of appearance. Cancer rules
the stomach and you may naturally have more of a tummy or a belly than a stomach, although
some of you can have effortless washboard abs (speaking of which, frequent stomachaches are
almost always a sign of an emotional problem for you). You have a baby face that will make
you appear much younger than you are for a lot of your life and your skin can be particularly
soft and well-moisturized. Staying hydrated and moisturized can be an unconscious
preoccupation with you, as if you are that Crab who just washed up on to the shore, away from
their natural habitat. In terms of personality, the nurturing, responsive air you possess does
make you particularly feminine. Women with a Cancer Ascendant have very strong maternal
instincts, mothering everyone within a three mile radius. If you’re a man, you’re just as
maternal and, of course, dealing with your high sensitivity in the face of gender stereotypes
may either be challenge or reinforce your notion of who you are. Being so dominated by these
ever-cycling moods and having a fine-tuned intuition that never lies to you is another example
of your highly expressed feminine side.
Your complex responses to things are written all over your face. You convey your emotions
without saying a word because your face is so expressive. Finding yourself crying at the drop of
a hat is also something that can happen. It’s very much outside of your control and you may
even look like you’re about to cry when you’re not. Constantly in introspective mode, dealing
with one mood after the next, you sometimes just seem more upset about something than you
really are. Yet, you are always on the look-out for if someone else is upset. “Are you okay?” is
your go-to phrase and you usually know what’s bothering someone without them even telling
you, especially if you know them well enough. Always picking up on subtle vibes and cues, you
are equally subtle in your manner. You know how to read a room and act accordingly. Often
times, you’re reading people without them even knowing it, as you have an excellent peripheral
gaze that helps you look at people without really looking at them. Sometimes, this comes out in
conversation, especially if you’re upset about something, only revealing how scared or unsafe
you can feel and how much comfort you need. Your air of comfort also extends to how you
dress, meaning that you have zero issue with old clothes and sweatpants, leggings, or even

CANCER RISING
120

pajamas can be a regular part of your attire in the outside world. Since this is what you typically
wear around the house, it only reflects how you’re happiest when you’re at home.
LEO ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
You can experience a significant discomfort when it comes to standing out as your own
person. After all, being so family-oriented means that you can feel more defined by being a
(insert your family name), preventing you from developing your individuality. With Leo on the
2nd House cusp, that strong sense of individuality is the key to your self-esteem. You learn how
to build yourself up when you learn what is awesome about you and you alone. In the process,
you will figure out how to create the awesome lifestyle for yourself that you were meant to
have. The 2nd House is also the house of money and how we manifest it into our lives due to
our value of ourselves. Without valuing a strong sense of self, you won’t be able to make the
money that you were meant to make as an individual. Money will come in, sure, but it won’t be
a life-enhancing amount of money that makes you feel special.
Embracing that specialness is how you develop your manifestation powers. Before then, you
can settle for a humdrum existence where you are just making money in a way that is not
particularly notable or spectacular. Your lifestyle, when you’re not truly secure in yourself, can
cause you to just blend in with everyone else. Maybe you feel like making more money than
you are now is striving to be fancier or better than you really are and, on some level, you shy
away from it. This will happen when you’re shying away from special attention, in general, or
when you think you don’t deserve accolades or recognition. Leo in the 2nd House means that
your self-worth depends on how well you receive accolades or recognition. This also involves
receiving such attention graciously, without letting ego get the upper hand. Any harsh aspects
to your Sun can make it hard for you to not have a distorted sense of self, which means that
your self-worth becomes distorted and creates more instability that you intend.
Leo is the sign of the will. It’s ruled by the Sun, which represents our conscious awareness.
Whatever house the Sun is ruling in our chart is what we will really identify with. Having the
Sun ruling your 2nd means that you feel this sense of identification with being a person of
security. Your strong family values means that you do express a palpable willpower when it
comes to obtaining and maintaining security. By recognizing this about yourself, you will come
to understand and appreciate your will. You’ll know that whatever comfortable life you want,
you can have it if you truly let yourself want it. You cannot get too distracted by your loved

CANCER RISING
121

ones’ wants. Ultimately, if you are striving to provide security for yourself, you’ll be able to
provide greater security for them. Wanting the best for yourself means wanting the best for
your loved ones. This translates on both material and personal levels, as it will allow you to
empower those who you call family because you know how to empower yourself.
Money is an energy that comes into your life when you accept just how great it can make you
feel. You should not let your ego depend too much on what you own and earn. Going to this
extreme will just cause you to continue to feel insecure on the inside. It’s when you receive
material blessings with an attitude that you deserve such goodness (not out of entitlement but
simply out of a desire to be at your best) that you will reap the most. Cancer Rising people
actually have a very powerful way with money, second only to Taurus Rising. Your Leo house is
one of your chart’s two power houses (along with your Scorpio house) and with it in the 2nd
House, you can express great determination when it comes to creating the secure lifestyle that
you want. You also will know how to manage money through this sheer will to make it all work
and remain comfortable. Some with this Rising sign can dramatize their financial situations
because of this determination to be secure. This will leave you feeling financially lacking or poor
when you’re really not. These situations may also show you how to develop greater confidence
in your money managing and manifesting abilities. Money is simply meant to be made. So, set
out to make it and you will eventually get what you want.
Valuing your individuality is lucrative for you because you will be happiest pursuing forms of
income that have to do with your own special, individual creativity. There is a powerful creative
streak within you yet you will need enough self-assurance to put yourself out there and trust
that your efforts will be applauded and acknowledged. Making money in a way that allows you
to gain plenty of praise for your creative talents will be very enjoyable for you. Such jobs will
involve a lot of self-promotion, which is why you’ll find both inner and outer security by letting
yourself shine and be noticed. Also, expressing and utilizing leadership skill will pay off in a
literal sense for you. Getting comfortable implementing your own unique vision of things,
instead of the ways things have always been within your family, will be required for you to
excel as a leader. This will also mean knowing when to assume control of situations and not
just passively let them happen.
VIRGO ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP

CANCER RISING
122

The 3rd House indicates how your mind functions and comprehends things. With Virgo on the
3rd House cusp, you have a mind that over-analyzes things. It’s no secret that you can dwell
and dwell on whatever information comes your way, not simply processing it but brooding over
it. You are known for fretting and worrying over little details, as well, which stems from that
general yearning of yours to feel safe. You want to feel like everything is going to be taken care
of, which causes your mind to go into overdrive to make sure that all of the bases are covered.
In fact, there might be some issues in terms of anxiety that you deal with because of this. It all
goes back to how you can be consumed with a sense of fear and need to be reassured that
everything is going to be okay. Having actual proof, physical evidence, that things are going to
turn out fine is what soothes those tensions of yours the most.
A lot of your worrying has to do with the well-being of other people, particularly those who
emotionally depend on you or who you come to emotionally depend on. Virgo in the 3rd
indicates that you have a style of communication that can induce nervousness or worry in other
people because you’re so busy stressing over all of the little things. Like that overworked
mother who just wants to get everything right, you zero in on what isn’t working and what
needs to be fixed. You can also do that whether the other person asks for it or not. Your
tendency to be interfering stems from this placement because it makes you feel like you have
the correct answers when other people do not. So, you become critical, judgmental, or
worrisome in regards to their choices because you feel like they’re not doing it right.
In spite of how annoying this can be, you are usually just trying to help! The 3rd House’s
contradictory nature applies here in terms of how constructive your ideas and thoughts can be
toward loved ones and also how much you can pick them apart through those same ideas and
thoughts. You veer from being a helper to a nag, especially when the other person feels like
they can handle it just fine on their own. Regardless of whether they’re right about that or not,
it will ease both your mind and theirs if you learn how to just let them be, sometimes, and not
get in the way. Sometimes, you have to let someone you care for fall and pick themselves back
up, figuring out the most effective route of action on their own.
Yet, since you are so parental in your nature, you are always there to teach people what is
helpful and not helpful, practical and incorrect. After all, we have the opportunity to learn so
much about what works and what doesn’t work from our caregivers. You are always playing
this role in life, which means that you have a lot to teach people. Sometimes, this can be

CANCER RISING
123

intentional, as you strive to provide your loved ones with clarity on what they’re doing wrong.
Other times, you can be an inadvertent teacher, showing them what not to do through your
example. I also think you’re aware of this dualistic dynamic. You know how much you can instill
this sense of correctness in people and also how you are able to show them what is incorrect
through your many mistakes and flaws. But, since you care so much about how you’re affecting
the people you love, you will exhibit a tremendous amount of anxiety in regards to those
mistakes and flaws. You’re better off when you just take a deep breath and do the best that
you can, instead of trying to get it right all of the time.
Ultimately, you’re able to converse with people in a way that provides them with greater
clarity. You have strong observational skills which not only sharpen your intuition but help you
understand all of the nuances of the people around you. When something is off with something,
you’ll just know. It’s why the people you love can’t really deceive you in terms of what they
really need and feel. Understanding the various in’s and out’s of what’s going on around you
allows you to give people exactly what they need or to know that something is out of whack
about your environment. Taking information in with such an awareness for detail is what makes
you feel deeply connected to your loved ones. Your specific, fine-tuned sense of comprehension
is what blesses you with an excellent memory, undeniable instincts, and an ability to know just
where someone else is coming from.
You also strive to communicate with people by really working things out with them. You’re
not content to just let problems between you and loved ones remain unresolved. Instead, you
will focus your mental energy on solving these issues, clearly asking the other person what they
need from you and pinpointing just what you need to work on and why. This is what makes
people walk away from conversations with you feeling like you really care and that you’re
putting in the effort to help maintain their well-being and safety. You just need to watch out for
the half of your brain that can become too preoccupied with what you need to work on. This
makes you fixate on what you’re doing wrong so much that you feel like you’re not doing much
right. Sometimes, what you really need is the assistance and practical advice of your loved
ones. You can get so wrapped up in the issues at hand that you don’t see the solutions. The
support of someone who cares for you, who lovingly helps you figure out how you’re messing
up and how to fix it, will make things a lot less stressful. It’s why the give and take of emotional
support in your life truly has to be equal.

CANCER RISING
124

Your grade school experience was probably that of someone who did all that they were
supposed to do yet still felt like they were falling short. The time you spent in school, growing
up, made you hyper-aware of all of the ways you could mess up. Experiencing a huge amount
of anxiety and nervous energy in the classroom or around classmates is also common when you
have Virgo in the 3rd House. Mercury rules Virgo and this might have made it hard for you to
really speak up then. Conversely, it could have also made you highly critical of all that was
going on around you at school; not just the doings of your fellow pupils but also your teachers.
Yet, you were just trying to help. The hard work involved in school was something that you
gravitated toward because you were always striving to be better in terms of your schoolwork
and your tests. In the process, you could’ve emerged as a real helper to other people, possibly
to a stress-inducing degree. This placement can definitely produce a child who is always doing
other kids’ homework for them or who is the teacher’s assistant/teacher’s pet in a way that
makes you a target for others. But, few could fault just how effectively you handled all of your
tasks and you consequently emerged as a tutor or counselor of sorts for the other students.
The same stance can be taken with your siblings. The influence of Virgo’s expression of
Mercury governing the 3rd House means that you may have always been in your brother or
sister’s ear with the intent of helping them out. But, sometimes, you did more harm than good
because you became overly critical or you provided them with ideas that ultimately proved to
be less effective. In general, it’s very hard for you to accept that the advice you give to others
doesn’t work very well and this is a pattern that’s really evident with your sibling (or any of your
cousins, if you’re an only child). It can definitely go both ways, though. Sometimes, they don’t
know when to stop providing the form of nagging that they see as helping. However, at some
point in life, either you provide your sibling with all the tools they need to improve themselves
or they are able to do that for you. In many cases, you’ll both do so for each other, showing
that, beneath that nitpicking dynamic, there is a very loving relationship at play. However, it’s
also possible that your brother or sister never makes the effort to improve, which only brings
constant stress into your life because you just don’t know how to help them. In this instance,
taking enough of a step back so they don’t worry you too much is crucial.
LIBRA ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
Seeing how you are this domestic sort of individual, you strive for the happiest, most
harmonious home life you can have. But, are you truly giving what you’re receiving, in that

CANCER RISING
125

regard? When do you start assessing the underlying issues of the private relationships that you
have with others? Libra being located on your chart’s 4th House cusp indicates that your way of
going about all partnerships (Libra) stems from what has been deeply conditioned within you
from childhood (4th House). You relate to and connect to people the way that your family
taught you. We all have lingering things from our upbringing that affect our relationships but
that is exceptionally true for you. Since the 4th House is where history repeats itself, you
unconsciously repeat so much of your childhood through the partnerships you form as an adult.
It’s something you must become aware of in order to let the best love into your life.
Your Libra Nadir means that the way you give and receive love is almost completely defined
by what your family taught you about love. But, a lot of this can be based on a sense of
idealism that is ultimately unfair or unbalanced. You see many Cancer Risings that come from a
very picturesque family situation where they had to act like everything was fine. In order for
everyone to be convinced that you were all one big, happy family, there could be no fighting or
disagreeing. This is something you internalized so deeply that you took on the role in your
family as the peacemaker, the people-pleaser, the one who made sure that everyone was
alright. You also gravitate toward that role in your family if everything wasn’t fine on the
homefront. The complete opposite example of the home life can be seen where there was
actually a lot of fighting and conflict yet you saw it as your place to make sure that everyone
got along. Either way, a major complex was instilled within you, making you hyper-concerned
with everyone loving everyone. Any sort of rifts in the family affected you profoundly, meaning
that being a child of divorce can leave you with a serious sense of incompletion.
You have carried this with you into adulthood, which is why you are so highly sensitive to any
sort of discord within your personal life. On the surface, you’re a seemingly easy person to live
with. But, deep down, you are internalizing all of the conflict that you feel between you and the
other person yet are unable to confront or handle for very long. Our Libra house shows how we
go about partnerships. With Libra in the 4th, you are really self-protective with people that you
love because you are always worried about somebody getting hurt and the perfect balance and
harmony that you need being disturbed. This causes you to compulsively sweep things under
the rug until you absolutely can’t anymore, leading to very emotionally messy situations, or to
react very intensely in the face of any evidence that someone is displeased with you. It’s

CANCER RISING
126

sometimes hard for you to know exactly where those patterns are coming from. But, you need
to look no further than your familial background to understand that.
It’s really hard for many Cancer Rising people to admit that something in their childhood just
wasn’t right or was somehow unfulfilling. But, insisting that you had the perfect upbringing or
such amazing parents who did no wrong causes you to totally gloss over the real issues and
unfulfilled needs of your past. As a result, you will continue to totally gloss over the real issues
and unfulfilled needs that keep arising in your present, in the other relationships in your life.
Another reason why you spend so much time protecting your heart is that you expect anyone
you love to treat you like your family has always treated you. This could mean expecting them
to just pretend like everything is fine, when they actually have a need to be much more honest
and directly confront things or projecting the resentments you have toward your loved ones on
to them in a way that they don’t entirely understand. Either mindset is a reason for you to take
the time to understand the false ideas about love that you gained from your past so you don’t
let them dominate your current life.
This placement also shows just how much you reserve your love for your nearest and
dearest. Although people will feel like they can easily get to know you, you do have plenty of
defenses and it takes a long time for you to really let someone into your heart. Therefore, the
romance in your life is going to have to progress with great gentleness, tenderness, and care.
You can only love someone when you feel truly safe with them. Your Libra Nadir indicates that
there is a private version of you, that not everyone gets to see, that is more loving,
affectionate, or connected than they may realize. Since you have that defensiveness about you,
you’re prone to engaging in various patterns that will keep people at bay and that can also
prevent people from knowing just how sensitive you are. But, behind closed doors, your true
kindness and grace emerge.
You just have to make sure that you’re receiving an equal amount of comfort and care, which
will be highly important to you. In fact, you may spend a bit more time than necessary
pondering the ways in which someone you love is not doing things for you in the way that
you’re doing things for them. Needing to be appreciated by your loved ones so badly is what
can easily throw you off balance because you can come to believe that you’re not getting any
appreciation in return. Sometimes, it’s just your insecurities at play. You also have to remember
that in order to get the appreciation you want from the person you love, you have to tell them

CANCER RISING
127

what you need from them! Spending so much time focusing on others’ needs only leaves you in
a vulnerable position where they’re not focusing as much, if at all, on your needs.
But, you need to be careful and make sure that you’re not doing that to others, being so
needy or insecure that you’re not truly catering to their needs very much. You might not be
quite as reciprocal and fair in your dealings with your loved ones as you think you are.
Understanding this requires plenty of reflection, an equal awareness of what you’re feeling and
what they’re feeling. Striking this balance in a healthy way with your family helps you strike it
with everyone else. Again, it all goes back to your family! In terms of the other relationships in
your life, you really can use your family as a barometer. Bringing a significant other home to
meet the folks is more crucially important to you than most. You need to see how well they
mesh with your family. Usually, you’ll be attracted to romantic partners who vitally remind you
of your family in how they relate to you. Your family’s approval is everything to you in terms of
significant others, which is why any conflicts between them and your partner will be deeply
upsetting to you. Sometimes, you do need to listen to them in terms of realizing that someone
isn’t good for you. In other instances, you may need to remember that you’re an adult and that
you can have whoever you want to have in your life, regardless of what they think.
SCORPIO ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
It should go without saying that you’re a very complicated person. The 5th House represents
how we express ourselves from the heart. Having Scorpio in the 5th means that your heartfelt
self-expression is multilayered and raw. Since you’re so emotionally charged and aware, there is
a certain intensity to you and you come alive when you are expressing yourself in this intense
manner. You live in the moment by digging deep within yourself, which means that your sense
of spontaneity depends on being very introspective. This is what allows you to express your
feelings so readily and to act out your moods so organically. At heart, things aren’t so simple
and easy for you. But, you’d rather be caught up in an emotional mess than exist at a boring,
superficial level.
Your highly emotional nature can, of course, also become troublesome. We look at our
Scorpio house in our birth chart to see where we experience a lot of volatility, instability, and
even trauma. I think that there are a lot of unprocessed emotions that you possess that need to
be sorted out because not doing so only leads to immense pain and non-stop drama. You have
a particularly hard time letting go of hurts that you’ve endured in the past. This is because,

CANCER RISING
128

even when you’re existing in the moment, you’re always reflecting on what has happened
before. You’re notorious for living in the past, to a degree that keeps you stuck on hurtful
situations and exchanges that other people have long since let go of or forgotten about. It’s
also not as easy as saying “just get over it.” You feel things deeply and then continue to carry
those feelings with you. Sometimes, you’re just inviting more hurt into your life by dwelling on
those painful things. You actually have a rather masochistic manner of creating painful dramas
that you can be at the center of because it allows you to feel something.
This is why it’s crucial for you to have a creative outlet for those intense emotions. All Water
Risings need that, for various reasons, because you’re all so driven by your feelings. In your
case, those strong emotions will truly eat you alive, from the inside out, if you don’t find a way
to release them. But, this is also what makes you come on strong emotionally: your penchant
for letting it all hang out in terms of what you’re feeling. Some may find this exhausting,
draining, smothering, or even vaguely scary. Yet, it’s also something that gains you just as
much validation. It can be hard to feel that way because it just seems like you are consistently
met with people who cannot go to that emotional level with you. When you are able to channel
your emotions into something creative, you will understand how you can hone and focus those
powerful feelings in a way that garners others’ recognition and applause.
At some point in life, you do have to realize how destructive it can be to let yourself get so
consumed by that emotional intensity. In terms of how you expressed yourself as a child, it
may have been to a degree that many people could not handle. After all, not everyone is
comfortable with strong, uninhibited emotional expression. So, you probably faced some form
of stifling, as you grew up, that made you feel like you had to hide a lot of what you were
feeling. It’s better to think of it as merely turning down the volume on your emotions, when
needed. Those feelings still exist and not letting them out in the most conscious fashion will
cause them to become increasingly bottled up. Soon enough, they will push you to
psychological extremes. This is when your moods get the best of you, making you highly
irrational or driving you to leave complete wreckage in your path, simply because of how you
were feeling in the moment. It’s also something that, on some level, can make you terrified of
your own emotions and the effect of them.
Cancer Rising individuals definitely have an uncanny power over other people in terms of how
you can bring out certain feelings in them. You are the living embodiment of the Moon, capable

CANCER RISING
129

of compelling others to emotional extremes, as well. Scorpio in the 5th House shows you how
you can harness that emotional power, hopefully for good. It’s another placement that shows
how artistic you can be, as you’re truly reaching inside of your soul in order to create something
magical and amazing for your audience. Your creative talents are fueled by your profound,
intuitive understanding of both what’s inside you and what’s happening around you. Whatever
you’re good at is on account of the power of your perceptions and your passions.
With this influence, you are just as intensely passionate in terms of romance. Your ability to
go to extremes can have you hold off and hold off, protecting your heart fiercely, until you
meet someone who you have that incredible chemistry with. Once you feel that deep
connection, you can totally throw yourself into it. Pluto ruling the 5th indicates love affairs that
are typically very dramatic, to a heartbreaking extent. It’s almost as if you want your heart
broken by someone else because at least then you’ll be feeling something strongly. Such an
attitude will also cause you to stir up drama or ruin things in matters of the heart because you
don’t trust it when it’s all going too well. Ever since you were a teenager, you lived out your
romantic escapades with a sense of Greek tragedy. It’s hard for you to be half-hearted or
moderate in love and this constantly attracts lovers your way who will do nothing but hurt you
with their psychological extremities. So, you experience this major emotional roller coaster that
you hopefully learn, at some point, to get off of.
You’re capable of giving your heart to someone else with one hundred and ten percent
commitment. Frivolous dating and casual sex do not appeal much to you, which is something
that can make you feel highly vindictive or deeply betrayed whenever a love interest has let you
down with their half-heartedness or lack of commitment. In these instances, you may either
lash out viciously or become totally guarded in order to protect yourself against this person who
you now cannot trust. But, sometimes, you have to just stop and realize that you’re making
love more dramatic than it needs to be, which attracts these people your way who are just
going to hurt you. You’re going to feel a strong chemistry with those who have Scorpio planets
or a strong Pluto influence, who know how to go to those deep places that make you feel really
loved. A very powerful connection has to be present or else you won’t bother.
You create an equally powerful bond with your children, for better or for worse. Having a child
is something that makes you fully realize your power because you clearly understand just how
strong of an emotional influence you have over them (and, subsequently, other people). It’s

CANCER RISING
130

just important that you make sure you don’t misuse this power. This is when you become the
mom or dad who is highly manipulative, who engages in all sorts of mind games or power plays
in order to maintain their influence over their child. What you’ll soon come to realize, though, is
that your son or daughter is not one to be trifled with. You’ll have a child who is either blessed
with placements in Scorpio or an angular Pluto. They will be so powerful in nature that they can
end up having some sort of uncanny, mysterious influence over you, especially in how they can
use their perceptiveness and rawness to provoke many strong reactions in you. How and why?
Well, your child will be an enigma. So, you’ll feel like you never truly know them.
Your offspring will be extra-sensitive to any covert power games and will refuse, subtly or
openly, to be controlled. Your relationship with them can easily be very intense and volatile,
especially if they feel like you’re not being real with them somehow. In short, you may be,
sometimes, be frightened of your own child. But, this will only reinforce their sense of secrecy.
Their way of hiding and internalizing their very complex feelings, which they will also probably
need some creative outlet for, reflects your own inner child. If you cannot handle their deepest
emotions, it just means that you cannot handle your own. Being as insightful as they are, your
child will innately know this and can serve as a primary catalyst for your deeper emotional
awareness, only proving to you how formidable they are.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
Sagittarius in the 6th shows how you are prone to putting way too much on your plate. Your
sense of what is productive and what isn’t compels you to take on as much as you can because
you feel like it’s up to you to do it all. Thus, you become like an overworked parent, working
hard all day and then coming home to not have a moment’s rest. You do it for the sake of your
loved ones because you feel like it’s what’s best for them. But, you also have to remind yourself
that your belief in being excessively busy is something that becomes counterproductive, after a
while. It not only has obvious negative effects on you. It also leads you to believe (Sagittarius)
that you always have to be on top of everything (6th House).
We’ve already noted that being a Cancer Rising can mean living in a state of constant worry.
Sagittarius’ energy represents a goodness in our lives and with it being in the house of
problem-solving, you might feel like worrying all the time is a good thing because, at least, it
allows you to be prepared if some issue does arise with someone that you care about. You’re
more than eager to jump in when a problem with a loved one presents itself. But, when does it

CANCER RISING
131

end? There might be more problems to solve than you can handle, especially since you see
yourself as the one who is always keeping your family together. While you’re so busy doing
that, who is keeping you together? Sometimes, no one, including yourself.
It’s not like you’re exactly faultless, in this regard. Going back to the parent metaphor (which
is obviously literal if you’re actually a parent), you’re so good at making the ones in your care
believe that everything is covered that it seems like you’re not stressed and not exhausted.
Everything is fine! In spite of your overall moodiness, you do have a strong tendency to also act
like it’s all good for the sake of your loved ones. Meanwhile, you are gradually wearing yourself
out and you might not even know it. Even getting constantly sick, which is a sign, with Jupiter
ruling the 6th, that you are tiring yourself out, doesn’t slow you down. You keep pushing
through all of that because you don’t want to disappoint your loved ones, because you know
how much they’re counting on you. Yet, everyone has their limit and it’s important for you to
recognize this without feeling bad for taking some necessary time out or off.
The house cusp that we have Sagittarius on is the area in life that we can proceed in without
limitations. Obviously, working yourself without limit takes a massive toll on you. It’s important
for you to be really honest with yourself about what you can and can’t handle. If not, you will
eventually get to a point where you are so overwhelmingly stressed and worn out that you find
it really hard to do much of anything. It’s okay to hit a wall or to admit that you don’t really
know what you’re doing. It doesn’t make you less useful to the people that you love!
Sagittarius on the 6th House cusp can definitely be the source of that yearning you have to
always be of use to loved ones. As I said before, you really need to be needed and it’s hard for
you to accept the notion of people you care for doing things without your help. It’s another
reason why you can be so interfering and give such unsolicited assistance to other people on a
constant basis. You care and you mean well but you shouldn’t force that on to others, either.
Sometimes, what people really need is their space or a break from you. Don’t take it personally.
In the end, you feel most effective when you’re uplifting other people and one of the best ways
to do that can be to give them the freedom to handle things on their own. You’ve got to know
when to nurture and when to let people be autonomous and solve things for themselves.
Ultimately, it will inspire more goodwill between you and your loved ones because it will show
them that you trust and believe in them enough to let them tackle their issues themselves.

CANCER RISING
132

Accepting an “empty nest” will then give you more energy to tackle your issues, which you
can happily let remain unresolved for the sake of dealing with others’ problems. But, how can
you really take good care of others when you can’t take good care of yourself? So, this
placement is asking you to figure out what’s unhealthy, unproductive, or inefficient about what
you’re doing and how you can move beyond such patterns. It’s asking you to tackle your
problems with a positive attitude and not wallow in them; a less-than-favorable trait of the
Cancer Rising. Instead of just remaining stuck in your feelings about it all, know that there is
always something constructive you can do about whatever is plaguing you. This may involve
health problems that would be so easily solved if you just, you know, took your medicine or
exercised more and any other issues in your life that you’re too busy complaining about to
really fix. It’s much easier to jump in and try to fix what’s going wrong with your loved ones
because this gives you the ability to keep outrunning your problems. It’s when you
constructively and honestly face your issues that you will truly be able to move forward in life.
CAPRICORN ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
Due to your Capricorn Descendant, it’s certainly not easy for you to form and maintain
relationships with other people. You will experience a lot of struggles in your close partnerships
and it will constantly seem as if this is happening to you as some formof punishment. The 7th
House shows us what kind of interpersonal circumstances we attract our way. Having Capricorn
on the 7th House cusp means that you attract these difficult situations with other people into
your life and it can make relationships feel really tiresome, exhausting, or burdensome.
However, patterns of projection are also represented by this house, which means that it is very
easy for you to believe that the difficulties in your partnerships are primarily the other person’s
fault when, in actuality, you’re probably giving as good as you’re getting.
Having this influence does compel many of you to get involved with close friends, romantic
partners, or anyone else who you have an important, one-on-one bond with who make things
much harder than they need to be. These people might be very shut-down emotionally and
have a tough time truly connecting. They could also be particularly hard on you, to the point
where it feels like they never give you a break or are intent on making you feel bad about
yourself. It can be hard to feel the love from these folks when all you’re getting is criticism,
judgment, or a sense of disappointment from them. Also, you may form connections with
people who make things much harder for you in the sense of requiring you to carry them on

CANCER RISING
133

their backs. Maybe they’re underemployed or always struggling, in some regard, to find success
and need a lot of guidance from you, which you, as the caregiver you are, readily provide.
That doesn’t mean that you happily provide for the other person, though. The alternate view
of this dynamic is that you might be the one who is making things more difficult in the
partnership. Maybe you’re actually the one who is always struggling, who always feels like a
failure and is constantly turning to your companion for some sort of guidance. Also, even
though you appear to be so emotionally available or accessible, you’re not as easy to get to
know once someone tries to get to know you. You’re so protective of yourself that you can build
this wall around yourself to prevent others from truly getting close. Then, you’re the one who is
shut-down emotionally. Unfortunately, you may not even realize this about yourself and put this
all on the other person, who will have enough tendencies toward seeming (or being) distant,
unavailable, or unresponsive that it’s easy to blame it all on them.
Since you will attract so many people with Capricorn planets or an angular Saturn into your
life, many of them will all too willingly take the blame for what’s occurring between the two of
you, to the point where you get to avoid true responsibility for your actions in the relationship.
It also should be said that, in some situations, when it seems like your companion is being
mean to you, they are actually giving you some needed tough-love and asking you to be
accountable for your actions. Since you can be quite childlike in your ways, you are being
demanded, through your relationship, to take real responsibility for what you’ve done, whether
that means how you’ve treated the other person or who you let into your life.
Much more than the average person, your relationship with your father plays a huge role in
how you go about relationships. The Capricorn house in a person’s birth chart tells us a great
deal about their bond with their Dad. Ultimately, that dynamic gets constantly recreated in your
bonds with other people. Capricorn Descending means that you may have a father figure who
you experienced a certain co-dependency with. Maybe you felt like he was supposed to
complete you, making up for the lacking or missing parts of yourself. Feeling like your father
was so strong and capable in ways that you weren’t instills this belief that you have to seek out
other people whose strengths compensated for your weaknesses. This is when you see the
Cancer Rising who is looking for some sort of father figure in the people they get close to.
That might also be because your father was somehow absent or unavailable and you didn’t
have a chance to create a strong union with him during your formative years. Feeling like that

CANCER RISING
134

paternal energy was missing in your life, you sought out to find that in other people who could
provide for you, guide you, and teach you how to be better. Yet, you can easily project that
father complex on to the other person by deeply resenting them for trying to keep you in line or
telling you when you’re in the wrong. Just wanting to be nurtured and supported, you then
come to believe that anything less than tenderness and gentleness from someone else is a sign
that they don’t care about you. In response, you become increasingly distant from them until
the relationship just crumbles before your eyes.
It is true, however, that you can be very attracted to people who actually are emotionally
unavailable, uncaring, or very harsh toward you because you experienced the same dynamic
with your father. You have to watch out for becoming your father in these relationships, as
well. This means that, if you had a Dad that wasn’t really there, you may fail to be there for the
people you claim to care about. Even though you seem to be emotionally present, something
about you has checked out. It’s like the parent who comes home every day and goes through
all the motions of parenting while not truly connecting with their family. Those who had fathers
that weren’t present in some way can also become highly dutiful toward the people they’re
close to in order to compensate for that. But, this ends up wearing you down, putting all the
pressure on you to make sure the partnership is a success. If you assume this attitude, you will
just attract people who will only let you down and make you feel like it’s all your fault.
Capricorn in the 7th House’s influence is usually divided into those two camps: those who
take no actual responsibility for their part in their relationships and those that feel like the
burden is theirs and theirs alone to bear. This placement is all about a balanced sense of
responsibility in these unions with others. You need people who are going to really step up to
the plate, who you can definitely count on, and you also need to be that person who can
seriously step up to the plate and be counted on. Like everything in the 7th House, it has to go
both ways. Do not let someone into your life who is only going to provide you with a heavy
burden to bear. If they are bringing too much negativity and stress your way, then the
partnership simply isn’t working. Also, know that refusing to own up to more negative, stressful
side of yourself only puts a heavy burden on someone else because they have to take
responsibility for things you should be owning. You need to be wise enough to recognize the
influence your actions are having on others. Admitting that there are distinct times where you’re

CANCER RISING
135

not as supportive or as sensitive as you think you are is a crucial part of getting better at
relationships.
Wherever Capricorn is in our chart is where we experience the most difficulties. The 7th
House is how we get to know the “other half” of ourselves, as well as the various people in our
lives who serve as our other halves. It’s very hard for you to deal with the difficult traits of
others or of yourself. You’d rather just be totally comfortable and not have your sensitivities be
offended. But, in the process of getting to know someone, you’re going to see traits in them
that you don’t entirely like or agree with. Accepting this without putting unnecessary distance
between you two is how you succeed at partnerships. However, you will have some rite of
passage kind of relationship in your life with someone who is nearly impossible to deal with.
You can adopt an attitude that makes you stick with it through all these hard times because you
don’t want to fail at relationships. You find security in them. Yet, you can’t find that security
with someone who you can’t find much compromise or harmony with.
Knowing what kind of people to invest your time and effort in should then make you strive to
be the kind of person that others will want to invest their time and effort in. If you want to
attract the right kind of person, you need to be the right kind of person. This means that you
need to put all of the necessary work into your relationships, without running away when things
get tough. You also need to be fully aware of the difficult traits within yourself that can prevent
other people from having or maintaining much happiness with you. Just because you have
these less-than-favorable qualities does not mean you’re not deserving of love or that the other
person isn’t going to want to be with you. Even if some relationships in your life don’t work out,
you’ve got to know what to take ownership of and what the other person is responsible for. It’s
not even about blaming. It’s just about accountability. Sometimes, a person’s reaction to you is
just a projection and what they really think of themselves. But, you should remember this
during times when someone has a valid issue with you and you’re glossing over it, minimizing
it, or putting it all on them. Saturn ruling your 7th indicates how much you can truly grow up
through challenges you experience alongside other people. You will learn how to deal with
others as wisely as you can and choosing to only deal with wise individuals who use their
strength and maturity to help make the relationship better.
AQUARIUS ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP

CANCER RISING
136

Since Aquarius is an energy of detachment and objectivity, we feel a certain distance from
whatever is represented by our birth chart’s Aquarius house. The 8th House is the house of
your psychological baggage. Therefore, when you have Aquarius located in the 8th, you
experience that sense of distance from your emotional issues. A part of you knows that you
have them but you also may not care much about digging into them or resolving them. Such an
attitude can stem from your eagerness to feel safe and supported amongst your loved ones. If
you admit to and confront the underlying issues that are going on in the home, you risk being
misunderstood, alienated, and even ostracized by those that you call family. The thing is that
the emotional scars you deal with have a lot to do with those feelings of being misunderstood,
alienated, or ostracized. The only way for you to process them honestly is to disturb the status
quo and change how these familial interactions unfold.
Aquarius on the 8th House cusp means that you’ve experienced something painful or
traumatic in your life that made you feel like you didn’t belong where you were supposed to
belong. Again, that can definitely apply to your family situation. There was this subtle yet
palpable sense that you didn’t react to and process things like everyone else, which often made
you feel alone or unfairly judged. You also might’ve been told outright that there was
something about you that was too different and that you needed to do away with that quality to
conform to your family’s values. Many Cancer Risings grow up feeling misunderstood yet in a
way that they couldn’t articulate. A part of you was too afraid of being exiled from the family by
receiving their disapproval, so you did what you could to fit right in.
There is this secret, hidden part of you, however, that feels very angry or resentful because
of this. You’ve developed this dark or self-destructive side that makes you rebel in the face of
other people’s expectations. It’s an expression of the unresolved pain you’ve felt due to stifling
your individuality to fit in with your family. You have an intensely unpredictable side to you that
can make you downright unstable. This is evident through your ever-changing moods and the
irrational spells that you indulge in that you, on some level, just know will turn everything
upside down. Bottling up your inner chaos only causes it to come out in very tumultuous ways
that can shock or surprise others. Yet, you tend to see it as not that big of a deal. Aquarius in
the 8th gives you a destructive pattern of normalizing what is unhealthy and unstable and then
believing what is healthy and stable is actually abnormal.

CANCER RISING
137

This is a pattern that has passed down to you through your family. So many people within
your family line have displayed an often hidden yet deep-seated dysfunction, making others
believe that they are perfectly “normal” when they are anything but. Instead of changing things
in their lives that would have made them stronger, better, more enriched people, they
embraced an instability that they had no real rhyme or reason to it. You can see this emotional
inheritance in your own life as you proceed to be unstable without really understanding or
acknowledging why. Deep down, a part of you may not even want much actual closeness with
someone else because, due to your past experience, you believe that they’d want to change
something about you in order to be connected to you. As a result, a very cold side of you
emerges that makes you almost hell-bent on avoiding deeper intimacy with someone.
This is yet another influence that displays how ironic it is that you can appear to be such a
vulnerable, intimacy-seeking person when you, in the end, spend a lot of time distancing
yourself from others. You can see that in how you go about sexual intimacy, as well. You might
be physically present but very emotionally distant, unable to create a deeper connection. Your
unstable side also manifests in your sex life, which causes you to go from being very celibate to
very promiscuous, with either approach keeping you from getting too emotionally involved with
anyone. Uranus ruling the 8th also gives you sexual desires that can be peculiar or odd. You
definitely have this “freaky” side to you that you simultaneously want to indulge in and feel is
unacceptable. Sometimes, you may freely express these sexual feelings to your partner, only to
feel harshly judged by their negative response. Other times, you can keep it all hidden, which
prevents you from having that real connection with the other person.
The 8th House tells us how we find and express our power. So, you’re most powerful, with
Aquarius in the 8th, when you embrace those seemingly unacceptable parts of yourself. You
have to eliminate anything in your life that makes you believe that your deeper feelings and
desires are too weird or unacceptable to deal with. That could include dynamics within your
family that have always forced you to toe the party line. You are your own person and they
don’t get to decide what you feel. This influence is all about psychological breakthroughs and
you will experience many in your life that can really illuminate these hidden emotions that
you’ve always had but that you’ve been too busy judging to accept. You need to transform your
notion of what is normal and what is abnormal. That can help you see your family situation with

CANCER RISING
138

newly insightful eyes, understanding how these destructive patterns have been normalized for
you and how you can normalize feelings and perceptions that were once deemed as off-limits.
Aquarius is both about individuality and how you can use your individuality to help others.
With this energy, you have to be willing to be unique enough to break the family cycle and
know how much this will end up helping your loved ones. You will exhibit great power when
you are objectively aware of your own issues and can use that scientific insight to help those
you love through their issues. You can be the one who liberates other people from their long-
held dysfunction. Doing this allows you to take on the roles of both therapist and patient. This
means going through enough therapy to help others work out their psychological baggage.
But, you may not even need to go to actual therapy to do so. Your intuition is so powerful
that you can deeply understand what’s going on with you in a way that feels downright logical.
So, you can exhibit an introspective nature in a very independent way, which is why it’ll be
crucial for you to have time alone to process things. Whenever you are in one of your moods,
you are known for distancing yourself from others until you’ve figured it all out. It’s just
important for you to want to make an emotional change, to know that simply letting your
unstable emotions run rampant, without understanding the source of it all, helps no one,
including yourself.
Yet, this placement also shows just how healing it will be for you to completely accept your
inner chaos, objective enough to know what you need to work on while still just letting yourself
be, with no judgment. You will experience this on a sexual level, as well. Your sexual desires
will be very unpredictable and you just need to go with that. It’s also going to be important for
you to have a space of intimacy with someone else who strives to actually understand you and
won’t dismiss you with judgment. This will make you increasingly open about your sexual
feelings, not worrying if they’re too strange or if they’re going to scare the other person away.
In fact, you can end up helping your partner open up enough to admit to the sexual feelings
and desires that they have that they might not have admitted to themselves or to anyone else
due to a fear that other people would judge them or wouldn’t understand.

PISCES ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP

CANCER RISING
139

Your journey through life is so intuitive that it reaches a particularly spiritual level. Pisces on
the 9th House cusp is an indicator of how much you will achieve personal growth in life through
a form of spirituality. You are being asked, through this influence, to develop a sense of faith
that puts you in a position of surrender. Doing so will require a belief that everything is going to
work out because it is being taken care of by the Higher Power. You can go through life feeling
like you are meant to take care of everything because you’re the caregiver. But, you’re only
human and there is only so much you can do! When you release control and leave it up to the
Universe, you will manifest wonderful things for both you and the people you care for. Thanks
to having Virgo in the 3rd, your mindset gears you toward being a total worrier. The 9th House,
however, represents your higher mind and you will go to truly transcendental levels of thinking
when you recognize when it’s time to stop worrying and just go with the flow.
With the Ascendant in Cancer, there is already something very fluid about the way you are
and how you live your life. You will soon learn that amazing things happen for you when you
enter that state of fluidity. There can be strength in a certain amount of passivity and you are
going to be thrown into various experiences that show you how beneficial it can be to simply
react or to dream and drift. You have what it takes to completely visualize what you want to
experience and then bring it to life. See the image in your head and then let it go, totally
trusting that the Universe will make it happen. Since this is the house of beliefs, however, you
may end up believing too much in being passive and just going along with the flow of things. It
can get to the point where you can’t develop an individual locus of control. Instead, someone or
something other than yourself always gets the blame or the glory.
At times, you can go through your life path feeling invisible or unacknowledged. Being so
intuitive, you see things that other people cannot see. Because of this, you will develop this
conviction that you are connected to mystical, enigmatic, hard-to-explain phenomenon that
many people don’t even know exists. But, spending so much time exploring and discovering
what is unseen can easily make you feel unseen. With the 9th House representing our truth,
your truth is connected to something vast and universal that some people just can’t
acknowledge or understand. While this can be very painful, it also sends you off on a very
solitary, very internal path. Pisces in the 9th means that you are supposed to freely explore all
that is inside of you, usually alone, and to never judge what you find within.

CANCER RISING
140

Therefore, you are liberated by introspection and you will, then, express your introspective
urges without much, if any, limitation. It can get to the point where you are completely, utterly
absorbed in your inner life, becoming increasingly disconnected from what’s going on around
you. As caring as you are, there are many times where you are so caught up in your own
emotions that you don’t realize what else is happening. But, you do so because you feel so
connected to those emotions of other people. Everything you’re discovering emotionally inside
of yourself is something that anyone has felt, at any given moment. This is what leads you to
believe that you’re never alone, even though you may spend a lot of time alone. You will come
to always feel connected not only to your fellow man but to the Universe that you feel is always
protecting and supporting you, even in times where it feels like others don’t see what you’re
going through or are unable to understand it.
With Neptune being the archetype of selflessness, it makes sense that you believe so much in
exhibiting an unselfish sort of concern for other people. You do have the capacity to be highly
sympathetic and caring. But, this is where you get confused because you will, in turn, believe
that nobody should ever be selfish when it comes to you, especially given how much you do for
others. Is that really selflessness, though? Thanks to this influence, you’re very capable of
inflicting major guilt trips on other people, often to make them feel wrong for any feelings
they’re expressing that make you feel like you’re in the wrong. Always insisting that you’re so
sensitive gives you a belief that you’re doing the right thing. Yet, your sense of right and wrong
(9th House) gets very easily confused (Pisces). Deep down, you may know you’re in the wrong
about something, all while projecting it on to the other person and turning on the tears or
giving them a sob story. You’ll often get the intended response of sympathy from them, which
serves as reaffirmation to you that you’re a good person who deserves to be cared for. But,
obviously, it’s not so good to be so manipulative or avoidant of blame.
Also, if you are so focused on making people feel sorry for you, you’ll manifest circumstances
that keep you in the state of the victim. A part of you does this because you also believe that
you learn so much through your own suffering and pain. Yet, it becomes a cycle that you get
stuck in because all that suffering and pain just reinforces your belief that you’re a victim, only
attracting more tragedy. Something helpful you must remember is the difference between
sympathy and empathy. You often exhibit more of the former than the latter, uplifting people

CANCER RISING
141

and providing them with this healing energy because you, on some level, feel pity for them.
Then, you turn around and want people to pity you, believing that anything else is negativity.
Empathy differs from sympathy because it’s just about seeing the humanity in someone else
and understanding them emotionally. If you can seek to be emotionally understood without
being pitied or coddled, you won’t let your personal feelings stand in the way of you truly
emotionally understanding someone else. After all, their truth and your truth are one. Denying
them their truthful emotional expression because it seems to limit your own is not the moral
code of selflessness you believe you’re living by. There are certain illusions about right or wrong
that you need to dispel. It’s not wrong for them to feel however they feel, even if it seemingly
puts you at a disadvantage. In the end, it’s not all about you and you will be free from your
pain in life when you see how positive the expression of true empathy is.
The time that you go off to college or leave home is when you’re able to discover what
empathy for everyone else really means. Putting your family first can actually become a
hindrance if it means that you’re devoting so much of your emotional energy to those who
you’re most comfortable with that you don’t feel much for anyone else. Also, the interesting
thing about Cancer Rising people is that you can be very sensitive but not quite as sensitive as
you think you are. Sometimes, you’re most sensitive to your own emotions. Even when you’re
responding to someone else with support, it’s just because it’s your go-to emotional reaction.
So, finding your freedom in the world means understanding how to move beyond your personal
feelings and truly feel what other people are feeling. During your late teens and early twenties,
you can feel this ability developing to the point where you have some seriously psychic
experiences. Coming in contact with what’s otherworldly and beyond this physical realm in a
downright spooky way can also come to define this era of your life.
Maybe you also grew into a more charitable person during these years, extending your care
beyond your loved ones and to humanity as a whole. Yet, since you are on this journey to
explore your inner world, you might have spent a lot of time alone in this time of your life,
which became a long-running pattern. Getting lost in your fantasies, dreams, or spiritual life is
enough of an adventure for you, meaning that you’re always going on these explorations that
few people really know about. It can seem as if you are doing nothing when, in reality (or
beyond this reality), you are exploring and discovering so many uncharted territories. You just
need to make sure, when it comes to your physical explorations, you aren’t letting those flights

CANCER RISING
142

of fancy confuse and misdirect you. Sure, not all who wander are lost. But, you can end up
getting seriously lost if you don’t know how to simultaneously be intuitive while having a clear
awareness of where you’re going.
ARIES ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
Finding your strength and courage is an ongoing goal in life for you, thanks to your Aries
Midheaven. You are also going to be able to parlay that aspiration into a career of some sort.
Not only do what you want to do something with your life that requires you to be bold and
brave, you also want to pursue your calling in life with boldness and bravery. This is due, in
large part, to how you deal with fear or insecurity on a regular basis. Even though you may not
personally identify with being this warrior type, your place out in the world will require you to
be a warrior, in some way. In the process, you will come to understand that being courageous
doesn’t necessarily mean not being afraid. It means being afraid but doing what you have to
do, anyway.
So, when it comes to your goals in life, your profession, or your public endeavors, if you’re
scared to do it, that means that you have to do it. In the 10th House, we are asked to face
some sort of challenge and conquer it. But, with Mars, Aries’ ruling planet, ruling your 10th
House, you are definitely going to have to face some challenges head-on. You’re also most
likely going to have to do it on your own. Learning how to go at it alone, how to pursue
something without much approval or help from others, will show you how amazing you can be
when you are simply relying on yourself. It’s so much easier for you to turn to your loved ones
for comfort or encouragement and with your Nadir in Libra, you can readily fall into co-
dependent patterns while doing so. But, having Aries on the Midheaven is all about being
independent, blazing your own trail in life and not asking anyone permission to do so.
While adopting and cultivating this public self, you can discover desires and passions that you
didn’t even know you had before. This awareness began developing around the time you
entered high school. Your teenage years were a period in your life where it was more crucial for
you than the next kid to develop a greater sense of agency. Individuating yourself became a
very important focus, which may’ve helped you finally stand out from your family, as did
becoming more of a leader. Your journey through adulthood involves understanding the
importance of assertiveness, something you began realizing from an early age. The 10th House
shows the world’s expectations of us and how we can utilize those expectations to get ahead.

CANCER RISING
143

Aries in the 10th means that the world expects you to be strong, assertive, and individualistic
and that you have to express that inner fire in order to gain people’s recognition and respect.
Therefore, any line of work that either puts you out there on the line or requires you to be
self-reliant is going to be the right choice for you. Making a career out of being self-employed is
a great choice for those with this Midheaven, as you will consistently be forced to show plenty
of initiative and independence through such work. You’re also well-suited for any sort of
leadership position on the job, as you feel very accomplished whenever you can just strike out
and take action and have other people follow suit. Jobs that are highly competitive can also
bring out the best in you, requiring you to hustle as hard as you can to stand out and be a
winner, as well as anything that is particularly athletic or physical.
The 10th House shouldn’t be used as a rigid career guide because it’s not one size fits all. For
you, that’s especially true. Don’t let me or anyone else tell you what you should be achieving in
life. Do it your own way! This will be especially important when it comes to your family. They
have such a tremendous influence in your life but this is the one area where you’re going to
have to forget about their approval. In some cases, those with their Ascendant in Cancer
shouldn’t even expect much support from their families in terms of their career. You have to be
willing to fight for what you want to do in the world, not letting anyone else dictate what those
goals should be. By doing so, you will be defining your true desires and passions as an
individual and pursuing them. That’s what’s most important, in the end. This placement is
urging you to be truly, fully passionate about your career. If you’re not going after your actual
passion in life, you will feel unfulfilled, unrecognized, and unsuccessful.
That strong sense of passion will also characterize your reputation and image. There are
many Aries Midheaven people who are viewed as real hotheads by the public. Focusing so
much on being assertive, on getting things off your chest, can easily lead to a public self that is
always butting heads with others. Sometimes, you become so highly defensive that you end up
going on the offense. But, seeing yourself as a sensitive or caring soul, you might find it hard to
reconcile your sense of self with the explosive firecracker that the world sees. It’s necessary to
recognize when you’re maybe taking it too far or pushing too many buttons. Then, this sense of
recurring conflict out in the world starts to feel like a trap, like you’re being restricted by this
role of the fighter. You’re always going to be known for that, which is why it’s better to be
known as a fighter in a positive sense.

CANCER RISING
144

This is when you see the person with this Midheaven who gains high esteem and recognition
for being a trailblazer, a person of fierce action, someone who is passionate about their singular
vision and will do what it takes to make it happen. You’ve got to develop your aggression and
then channel it largely into the pursuit of your goals, instead of the pursuit of conflict in your
public or professional life. Risk-taking will be a part of the process, which you’ll find increasingly
thrilling and invigorating. Although you generally like to play it safe, making it your strategy to
take deliberate or calculated risks will bring you a great amount of professional satisfaction.
Your competitive approach to your calling in life can also lead you to not only consistently come
in first place but be the first person to do a number of things in your field. It’s also very
common for you to be the first, and possibly the only one, to achieve certain things within your
family. Regardless of the outcome, establishing a strong sense of individuality will be one of
your greatest accomplishments in life.
TAURUS ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Although you may not feel like a particularly stable person, you still have a way of
experiencing a great deal of security and consistency in your life. Taurus in the 11th House
means that you are personally detached from a feeling of stability, which is explained by how
moody and emotionally reactive you are. It’s also frustrating for you to attempt to ground and
calm yourself because the more you do, the more bothered and upset by all the variables of life
you become. Only when you take the focus off of yourself and strive to ground and calm other
people down do you feel a sense of serenity and ease. This shows that you are objectively
aware of the importance of peace, even if you often lack a personal sense of peace. Because of
this, you have developed a form of idealism in life that makes you feel like you should be
stabilizing others and acting as their emotional anchor.
You will thrive on any sort of cause or form of activism in the world that simply makes people
feel better and more solid, whether that means providing material resources for those who do
not have it or enhancing the self-worth of other people. Having personal security is something
that regularly feels like it’s not your doing. It’s like you’re still a child being taken care of by
your parents, provided with all the nice, comforting things you need, except that you’re an adult
now and that security has a way of happening very randomly in your life. A boost in income can
occur out of nowhere for you, as can a new job or a promotion or an access to the finer things
in life. You might be regularly yet unexpectedly gifted with material possessions or resources

CANCER RISING
145

and you have to remain open to it all. It’s another way that you live your life being cared for. If
you fail to recognize the physical blessings that are coming your way, as well as the ones you
already have, you won’t be able to manifest much, feeling increasingly broke or hard-up.
Focusing on enhancing other people’s quality of lives will also enhance your own. You do this
through your friendships and social connections. The 11th House indicates how we socially
connect but also how we can feel socially disconnected or unaccepted. Taurus on the 11th
House cusp means that you feel distinctly awkward or out-of-place in social situations where
people are being diminished and devalued. Loving Venus is the ruler of Taurus, which shows
how alienated you are in the face of people being treated like they are worthless or undeserving
of appreciation. So, you are exceptionally kind and loving, which is something that you can use
in order to make a difference. You’ll be able to do this because that quality of yours makes you
feel different from others. Even when you’ve been faced with a lack of kindness and
appreciation, you know that everyone deserves to be treated kindly and to be appreciated. This
is the kind of friend you are to others, always there to make them feel worthwhile.
The house where we have Taurus, however, is the house that takes the longest time to come
to fruition. For you, it takes a long time to develop social bonds. Friendship is not just a
passing, frivolous thing for you. You want friends who are truly substantial and who will last the
long haul. It’s why you stick to your very familiar people so much and have a hard time moving
outside of that group. So, this is another thing that makes you distance yourself from other
people socially: not knowing them for long enough or not feeling comfortable around them.
There are the exceptions where you feel such a comfort around this new acquaintance that you
already know that they are going to end up a very long-term friend. But, how long-term? It’s
particularly difficult for you to let go of friendships because once you make a friend, you hold
on to them very tightly. You may be very possessive, having a hard time accepting them
spending time with other people, or you could just be so loyal-to-a-fault that you don’t know
when to end a friendship that has obviously run its course.
There is a common pattern here of the Cancer Rising remaining friends with someone that
they have clearly outgrown and that they may not even enjoy hanging out with anymore. But,
your loyalty keeps you going back to them. However, continuing to remain attached to them
causes the situation to become increasingly troublesome. Sticking around when you clearly
don’t have anything in common anymore or when they’re not even a good friend, you’ll find

CANCER RISING
146

that something unexpected will always occur in these situations to end the friendship. This is
often to remind you of your value as a friend and to not waste the effort on someone you
shouldn’t be in your life anymore. With Taurus in the 11th, you are far more valued by your
peers than you realize. They know they can always count on you for a kind word, a good time,
or needed comfort. You provide other people with a certain “social security”, serving as a
reliable, calming ally, and you need, sometimes, step back and recognize how loved by the
people you really are.
GEMINI ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP
Being the highly reflective individual you are, there is so much that you’re thinking that
people can only guess at. The 12th House represents our secret inner world and with Mercury,
Gemini’s planet, ruling this territory, you have a wealth of secret thoughts and ideas that you
often don’t share with others. This could be because you have a hard time articulating your
thoughts and ideas. You’re far more intuitive than you are intellectual. So, you sometimes lack a
sense of clarity when it comes to how you’re processing things. You may not even know what’s
really on your mind, sometimes. We can hide our 12th House qualities from ourselves just as
much as we hide them from others, maybe even more. Gemini on the 12th House cusp
indicates that there is an element of your inner monologue that you can find deeply
unacceptable, shameful, or confusing, so you often try to block out all of that noise.
Gemini is a dualistic energy, always bestowing the house it rules with a contradictory or
paradoxical quality. With it being in the 12th, it’s like you have this hidden evil twin that you
can’t bear to deal with. That other person is the one thinking all of those terrible things, not
you! But, if you fail to integrate both sides of your brain, you will let all of that mental energy
build and build until it comes out in a devastating manner. There are definite times where you
can switch into being a completely different person, usually when you’ve become so consumed
by one of your moods or are going off the rails in a very irrational moment. You internalize your
understanding of things so deeply and so unconsciously that it goes beyond logic. Yet, when all
that you’ve internalized comes spilling, it won’t make much sense to others or to you.
A part of you doesn’t want to directly come out and say what you’re thinking, so you drop all
sorts of covert hints so people get the message. You may believe that you’re communicating
clearly but you’re really not. Other people should not be expected to read your mind! Feeling
that they should “just know” what’s going on with you because they know you so well isn’t fair,

CANCER RISING
147

largely because you often don’t even fully understand what’s going on with you. Cancer Rising
individuals do excel at nonverbal communication yet may believe that their body language,
facial expressions, constant hints, and other subtleties are conveying their message loudly
enough. Then, when people don’t get it, you become even more frustrated and retreat within
yourself even more, causing the cycle of confusion to continue.
On some level, it’s like you want to deceive others, like you don’t want to be entirely honest
in your communication. Mercury’s expression of Gemini, after all, is the trickster. It’s obvious
how manipulative you can be, even if you think you’re hiding it well. Some part of you wants to
trip people up, to have them not give the right answer, because that means that they won’t be
able to completely understand you. Again, we see the complaint of those with this Rising sign of
being misunderstood. But, do you want to be understood? Internalizing so many of your true
thoughts, to the point where it even leaves you in a tailspin, indicates otherwise.
Although Gemini in the 12th may lead to a lot of quietness and awkward silence in some, you
are also capable of total verbal diarrhea. But, there is usually something destructive about it, as
you might talk and talk without realizing that the other person isn’t connected or interested or
you could end up revealing things that you’re not supposed to, about others or about yourself,
while blabbering on. Either way, it leads to a feeling that people don’t want to engage with you
when you speak. This influence can also make it hard to be recognized for your intelligence.
You might not even understand how smart you are, seeing as how you’re so instinctual. But,
this is what causes you to turn inward and do a lot of reflecting in order to develop and
strengthen your comprehensive skills. You also may be that person who spends a lot of alone
time practicing conversations or redoing conversations you’ve already had, imagining yourself
saying something else that makes you sound smarter, wittier, or more interesting. But, such
patterns make you so caught up in a deeply internalized form of communication that when it
comes time to actually speak to others, in reality, it never turns out how you imagined.
However, that’s such a human thing. The 12th House shows us how we discover our oneness
with our fellow human beings. With Gemini in the 12th, you know how painful, sad, or
confusing it is to feel like you don’t have a voice or like you can’t use it correctly. We have all
struggled, at some point or to some degree, to communicate well with others and allow
ourselves to be heard and understood. Going through the suffering you’ve been through, in this
regard, will help you develop an empathy for others who have felt the same way. Lacking

CANCER RISING
148

clarity causes you great pain but once you find your inner peace, you’ll gain a newfound level of
clarity by seeing how well you comprehend information on multiple levels: intellectually,
emotionally and intuitively. All of the information you absorb is processed with a profound form
of logic that isn’t exactly logic but still feels clear as day. Trying to convey this to others who
don’t have the same level of comprehension is tough, which is why you should strive more to
understand other people than to be totally understood yourself.
This is where the selfless aspect of the 12th comes into play. You make an excellent listener,
capable of sitting back and just letting someone completely spill, rarely, if ever, saying a word
in the process. You can take in everything that the person is saying, as well as what they’re not
saying, and provide them with a higher understanding of their situation, which is a skill you can
channel into any selfless act or charitable service. This is how the duality of Gemini works
benevolently in this house. It’s how you know something’s wrong with someone, whether they
tell you directly or whether they deny it or don’t even open their mouths. You possess a deep
comprehension of the facts of any situation, even though you won’t, and aren’t meant to, see
yourself as a very cerebral type.
We suffer when we become personally attached to what’s in our 12th. When you dwell on all
of your thoughts, you feel overwhelmed and isolated, often because you have to be alone with
your thoughts to sort them out. Instead, you have to just acknowledge whatever it is you’re
thinking and then release it, allowing you to continue to go with the flow of life and not be an
over-thinker. Accepting all of your thoughts unconditionally is the only way to release them.
You struggle with the “devil on one shoulder, angel on the other” syndrome that makes you
think the most horrible things and then, suffering from deep guilt over those awful or upsetting
thoughts, strive to control your thought process more. But, doing that will only exacerbate that
devilish inner voice. You have to, again, realize how human this is and develop the kind of
spiritual relationship with your Higher Power or the Universe that shows you that you’re not
your thoughts. Meditating works absolute wonders for you, in this regard, showing you how to
acknowledge your thoughts without identifying with them or getting attached to them.
Ultimately, you will learn how to transcend those thoughts and, as a result, find inner peace.
You will also feel great inner peace and healing by knowing that the Higher Power knows
everything you’ve ever thought and loves you anyway. So, you don’t have to lock away all of
those thoughts out of fear of being exposed. Studying astrology and learning all about your

CANCER RISING
149

birth chart can also go a long way in helping you accept your inner paradoxes. You can see how
these varying parts of you come together in a manner that sometimes doesn’t make complete
sense but ultimately does. Channeling your internal monologue into something artistic will also
give you that sense of healing. Any form of creative writing, in particular, can provide you with
great transcendence. The day-to-day world easily makes you feel like you’re not listened to or
like you can’t communicate everything you want to, out of fear of being misunderstood. But,
you will carve out a newfound voice for yourself as a writer, expressing all of those hidden
thoughts in a way that reflects the hidden thoughts within all of us.

CANCER RISING
150

LEO RISING

LEO ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


Life is one big performance when you have a Leo Ascendant. But, this doesn’t necessarily
mean that you’re putting anything on or faking your way through life. Any great performer will
tell you that authenticity is the key behind whatever performance they are giving. So, you live
your life with that sense of authenticity, striving to be true to yourself. It’s just that you’re going
to be yourself at your fullest capacity. Being a Leo Ascendant means living out loud and you will
find that, in some way or another, you’re forced to do so. You cannot go through life hiding
your light under a bushel. Either you will feel helplessly compelled to show everyone what
you’ve really got, jumping out from the wings and on to center stage, or you will find yourself
pushed into that spotlight in some way that is out of your control. You’re living a narrative that
is about being a star and you’re either going to be truly convinced that you’re that special or
you’re going to need people to keep telling you you’re special until you believe it. Since the Sun
is the ruling planet of Leo, whichever category you fall into is going to depend on what’s going
on with the Sun in your birth chart, as it’s your chart ruler.
This big, bright planet has a powerful light that is felt from very far away and people can say
the same thing about you. However, your tremendous presence does not have to make you a
stage hog or a flagrant extrovert. There is a certain stereotypical notion that Leo Risings are all
giant show-offs who obviously love attention. While you can definitely see that energy in some
people with this placement, there are just as many who are more low-key, introverted, even
reserved. (Any Rising sign can be shy and any Rising sign can be outgoing, so don’t let the
cookbooks fool you) If you fit that bill, this doesn’t mean that you don’t still have that fiery
energy inside of you. It’s going to emerge but will probably channel itself largely into your
creativity or any sort of leadership position; two roles that people with a Leo influence will
avidly fill. It’s like those stories of entertainers who strive to be unnoticed a party, keeping to
themselves, yet who become so larger-than-life and commanding when they step on-stage. If
you’re more on the shy or quiet side, you will know how to “turn it on” whenever you have to
express your special talent or be in charge of something.
But, even if you don’t go looking for attention, you will find it wherever you go. After all, even
though your energy may require an on switch, you will still have that undeniable “it factor”

LEO RISING
151

about you. Leo Ascendant is one of the most magnetic Rising signs and you don’t have to do
much of anything to get people to notice you. In fact, since the Ascendant is what comes so
automatically to us, you’ll probably find that people notice you more when you don’t try to get
their attention. Does a superstar have to go around demanding attention? No. They attract it as
soon as they walk into a room. Yet, you will either be the kind of superstar who relishes all the
attention, getting as much publicity as you can, or who feels like it’s all a bit too much and
wishes they could have a lower profile. Well, you may say the latter but it’s not entirely
believable. You thrive off of being in the center of things. It’s your birthright. It’s the way life
has always been for you. What would the Sun do if the other planets weren’t revolving around
it? Somehow, you’re always keeping everything in your environment pulled into your orbit.
This is how it’s been for you since the beginning. Leo Rising people are often born into
situations where there is no one else competing with them for attention. In terms of siblings,
you may have been an only child or significantly younger or older than the others. Even if there
wasn’t that much of an age gap, you still definitely had an “era” of your own, a time where you
were getting all the love and affection from your parents. Even on the day you were born,
everything might have been set aside for that special day. Babies with this Rising sign may have
been very premeditated births or had everyone rallying around them, waiting for them to come.
The day may have been dramatic, in some sense, and you were most certainly the star of the
show; the role you’ve been conditioned to play.
As a child, you may have spent a lot of time entertaining your family with your various
abilities and personality traits. You’ve always had plenty of personality, even if you were shy or
reserved. Leo is such a colorful and expressive sign and this meant that you held back even less
than most children did. Leo is also the sign of the child and being a kid was a particularly
magical time for you. More than the next person, you really treasure your childhood years and
there’s a part of you that never leaves them. You’ll probably, throughout your life, have amused
family members notice and point out that you’re the exact same person now, as an adult, as
you were when you were a kid. Our personalities crystallize after our first several years and, to
some degree, we’re all pretty much the same person, then and now. But, it’s something that’s
very pronounced with Leo Rising people. A relative may be telling a story about you when you
were eight years old and it sounds like something you could’ve done or said yesterday.

LEO RISING
152

Because of this, there is a part of you that never entirely grows up. While this can be an
endearing and lovely thing, it also means that, well, you never totally grow up. You’re all too
prone to childish temper tantrums, major moments of brattiness, a real naivete about certain
things, or an innocent yet frustrating self-absorption. Like the big kid that you are, you never
stop seeing life in terms of you and how things are affecting you. It gets to the point where it’s
hard for you to see beyond that and think of how you’re affecting others. This doesn’t negate
the fact that you have a wonderfully generous, big-hearted side and a real loyalty to people.
These are your redeeming qualities and they keep the people in your life loving you whenever
you’re being spoiled or self-centered. Kids really don’t mean any harm when they have these
moments, after all. But, the reality is that you are still an adult and you should maintain some
self-awareness in these moments where you’re completely taking over or burning other people
without much of a thought.
You’re truly here to develop self-awareness, since you are ruled by the Sun. This planet, in
astrology, tells us who we really are and how to develop our sense of self. So, your life is very
much geared toward self-actualization. Although you have to “find yourself”, like we all do, you
are already so connected to yourself. The only thing about yourself you have to discover is that,
when it comes to you, you’ve really already discovered it all. This will also help you avoid self-
obsession, which is a byproduct of the Leo Rising placement, when unbalanced. Depending on
your Sun’s sign, house placement, and aspects, you may express this obsession with the self by
being relentlessly introspective, stuck in your head and with your thoughts all day long, overly
preoccupied with your passions and desires, or fixating too much on your achievements and
goals. Take a look at the house your Sun sign is in, particularly, to understand where your self-
focus lies, whether that means becoming the best partner you can be (Sun in the 7th) or feeling
at home with yourself (Sun in the 4th) or knowing your worth (Sun in the 2nd).
It’s a major reason why you have such presence. You are so determined to understand why
you’re here, to fully live out your destiny, that any time you are anywhere, your whole being
just screams, “I’m here!” You might not realize that this draws so much attention your way
because it’s so instinctual. It’s not to say that you don’t or can’t care about other people. It’s
just that, in the end, it’s your world, it’s your story, and everyone else is simply a character in it.
The supporting characters and the auxiliary roles do also matter. But, everything is tied to and
comes back to the central protagonist, which is you.

LEO RISING
153

As a result, you live out your Sun sign in grand style (Leo Risings typically look and act just
like their Sun signs). You fully commit to whatever “genre” your story is, whether it’s a drama
or a comedy, a serious art piece or a fun blockbuster. But, let’s face it, there is always some
element of drama in whatever you do. Leo Rising people are highly expressive and have
colorful, powerful responses to whatever they are dealing with. Your facial expressions are very
animated, seeming to happen in Technicolor. It’s truly like you are acting in a movie, at all
times, ever-aware of where the “camera” is. A lot of Leo Risings are actual actors or
performers, which makes this even more compulsive. In fact, such extensive self-awareness can
easily lead to self-consciousness, which you can try hard to cover up or compensate for.
You always feel like you have to put on a show for other people, like it’s your role to
constantly entertain. Sometimes, you may not even realize that people don’t care that much
about what you’re doing and aren’t going to stop liking you if you don’t give them a show. That
kind of thinking can be hard for both the highly outgoing and the more contained types with
this placement. Both types feel like they’re disappointing to others when they’re not “on”. At
this level, you start pushing yourself into a dramatic role that isn’t really you. But, you always
feel like you; just different volumes of yourself. People are constantly surprised to meet a
version of you that is unlike your on-stage self. Just like the quiet ones can be surprisingly
outgoing, aggressive, or assertive in certain situations, the bolder ones have another side to
them that is not quite as self-assured or out-there as people may assume they are.
But, again, it’s true for everyone that we all have different sides to ourselves in different
situations. We’re all performers, in some way or another. Leo Risings just live out that truth in a
more archetypal sort of way. What you have in common with your opposite, Aquarius Risings, is
that you both, through your very strong expressions of individuality, depict something that is
very human and universal. With Aquarius Rising, they are the universal ones, feeling such a
sense of connection with all people that they carve out a very unique role for themselves as the
person who constantly defies categorization. For you, it’s the opposite. You take a highly
personal approach, figuring out what’s truly special about you, and this allows you to connect
with something really human. It’s like the writer who tells his or her story through a novel or
poetry and ends up expressing something everyone can relate to, attracting fame and success
in the process. This is what makes you so popular and beloved. Through your compelling desire
to be completely you, to show your light to the world, you awaken a light in everyone else.

LEO RISING
154

Those with a Leo Ascendant appear to have a literal light about them. There is something
very “glowy” about your appearance. If you’re white, you probably won’t be pale or porcelain.
There is something tawny and golden about you, especially since you’ll love being in the sun in
the warm months. This is an outdoorsy Rising sign that loves to live fully and, also, there are
obvious correlations due to the astrological Sun being your chart ruler. But, this placement also
makes you especially sensitive to the sun, which is something to watch out for. Avoid constant
sunbathing or time in the tanning booth, especially since you’ll find that you have a natural
glow about you that, most likely, prevents any pastiness. Meanwhile, if you’re a person of color,
that solar influence makes your skin tone always pop and, in a good way, shine. There is such a
warmth to your appearance that enhances the beauty of your complexion, only increasing your
sense of confidence and the grandness of your presence.
The animal mascot for Leo is the lion and this is what leads to a prominent mane of hair for
both sexes. A dead give-away for a Leo Rising is the hair. There’s always something distinctive
about the hair, whether it’s through bold hair styles, dramatic wigs, or amazing length or
volume. You can have a huge preoccupation with your hair, always playing with it
unconsciously or focusing on it largely during your extensive time in the mirror. Also, more than
the next person, a major haircut is a real rebirth for you. If you’re a man, you take after the
male lion in temperament: seemingly laidback and easygoing until you remind others of how
ferocious you can be, usually when you’ve been pushed or challenged. Leo Rising women tend
to be more openly aggressive or assertive, like the lioness, the huntresses who take on life with
a real go-getter’s spirit. For both sexes, there will always be some “pride” you’re in charge of,
whether that’s socially, on the job, or in the home. Leo Risings all have their own mode of
attack and this can involve making people feel comfortable or even like they’re the ones in
control, only to soon remind them of your fierceness or dominance when they make a wrong
move.
With this Rising sign, you have to remember to be a humble or grounded king or queen. You
cannot rule with some insatiable lust for power, like an unreasonable dictator or fearsome bully,
or you’ll find that you end up ruining the pride lands. Having a bossy streak comes with the
territory of being a Leo Rising. The word bossy can have a negative connotation but it’s really
just an expression of leadership abilities. But, you must assume the lead in a way that will be
beneficial to others; the benevolent dictator. You really can’t help yourself and you easily wind

LEO RISING
155

up inserting yourself into situations and, subtly or not so subtly, telling people what to do. Even
your tone of voice can be more commanding than you often intend for it to be. You’ve
displayed this trait since you were a kid. Although life is not one big game of “follow the
leader”, you definitely have what it takes to be an exceptional leader. You just need an area of
your life to channel a lot of that into. You require a respective kingdom or queendom where
things can go the way that you want; not out of an imperious demand to get what you want
but due to, again, that need to bestow your powerful light on to everyone else.
It’s like you’re always wearing some sort of invisible crown. (I’m willing to bet that a part of
you will really come alive if you ever dress up like a king or queen for Halloween or have to play
one in an acting role) Many Leo Risings have amazing posture because of this, as if they are
always standing up straight to keep their crown from falling. But, others can go the other way,
constantly slouching or bending over, as if the crown is too heavy for their head or is about to
fall off. Even then, with bad posture, you still manage to look regal. You might want to sit up
straight more, though, because the body part Leo rules is the back. So, you could end up
experiencing major back pain as life goes on if you don’t develop the right posture. But, mostly,
you should sit the way you want to sit. Nobody orders the king or queen around, after all. Your
identity in life is based on being firmly in charge of your own narrative.
VIRGO ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
Because you are, in some way, a grandiose sort of person, it is hard for you to live on a
smaller scale. This is why Virgo is on your 2nd House cusp. The 2nd House represents what we
learn to value throughout life and how this gives us a sense of security. Virgo is a sign of
humility and self-discipline. As a result, you’re not someone who is exactly comfortable living
within or even below your means. You want the best of everything and you’re most likely
allergic to any sort of penny pinching. However, even though you don’t have time to be or feel
broke, your over-the-top approach can easily take you in that direction. Without enough
humility and healthy self-criticism, which is what Virgo represents, you will fail to realize why
and how you need to ground yourself and reel it in some.
This doesn’t just have to do with money. The 2nd House indicates our sense of financial and
internal comfort. So, you can also display a real discomfort when it comes to analyzing and
correcting yourself. It’s funny because you may spend a lot of time navel-gazing while not truly
understanding what you need to do to change your patterns and habits. Maybe a part of you

LEO RISING
156

does see a need for that but you resist it. This is because admitting that you need to change
can feel like admitting some sort of weakness. You can have a particularly hard time
acknowledging that you’re wrong or owning up to certain faults and mistakes. Being criticized
(Virgo) makes you feel especially insecure (2nd House) and you cover up these feelings of
inadequacy with bluster, bravado, or arrogance.
So, this is a bit of a contradictory placement because it means that building strong self-
esteem requires moving beyond your pride, which, for those with this Ascendant, is usually an
overcompensation for a shaky sense of self-worth. You’ve got to know that you will be on much
more solid ground when you learn when to sit down and be humble. After all, you know what
they say: pride goes before a fall. If you haven’t taken the time to properly criticize your actions
or patterns, whether that’s in general or in terms of how you deal with money, you will find
your empire crumbling down before you know it.
This also means being willing to take all the necessary steps to build that empire for yourself.
Feeling like royalty causes you to have an automatic expectation to be at the top, to have the
best and live an awesome life. But, you’re going to have to work to get there. Many Leo
Risings, as determined and enterprising as they are, can resent the process of working their
way up to the top. Again, this is why humility is so valuable to you. People are born into royalty,
yes, but it takes a long time to actually reach the throne. You’ve got to be willing to take all the
necessary little steps, to plot things out and not cut any corners, in order to have the amazing
life that you want. Ironically, though, you will probably feel more secure when you aren’t aiming
overly high. Learning how to be content with more simplicity will actually make you feel more
comfortable, within and without. In general, it’s hard for the Fire Risings to learn how to live
within or even intentionally below their means but doing so usually leads to a better quality of
life. It slows you down and teaches you to appreciate the little things.
It's also a matter of you experiencing great insecurity when your standards are too high.
There is definitely a perfectionist streak within you and when taken too far, it wrecks your self-
esteem. You can be plagued with this notion that you’re supposed to get everything right,
which is what makes you silence or ignore anyone who dares to disagree or dissent. While you
put on a brave face, you can beat yourself up on the inside for any perceived mistakes. Virgo’s
perfectionism is best expressed in a balanced way. So, with Virgo in the 2nd, you’ve got to work
hard without working yourself into the ground, strive to pull things off effectively while not

LEO RISING
157

expecting yourself to be superhuman. Don’t buy into the hype of your superstardom to the
point where you let all the pressure of greatness get to you. Everyone slips up and makes
mistakes and it doesn’t make you any less fabulous.
The 2nd House teaches us how to manifest money into our lives. For many of us, that is a
particularly metaphysical or spiritual lesson. But, for you, it is highly practical. Money is an
energy that comes into your life simply when you work for it. You’ve got to truly earn whatever
you have. Yes, you are great at what you do. But, talent and charisma must be backed up by a
serious work ethic. The less effort and time you put into your work, the less money you will
make. But, as long as you remain hardworking and on top of things, all the money you need
will flow in your direction. You can also develop a surprising ability to manage your finances and
your possessions with technical precision. Believe it or not, due to the fact that the 2nd House
works differently for everyone, budgeting is not for everyone. Some people are meant to deal
with their money more loosely or intuitively. However, budgeting is truly made for you, even if
you feel the complete opposite. You’ll groan and gripe, at first, but you’ll soon excel at it,
handling all of the details of your financial situation with great clarity and organization. It’s
when you don’t think at all about saving or planning financially that you have no money. This
influence means being disciplined with your money attracts much more of it.
Learning to value precision and the details will also literally pay off in terms of your form of
income. Your leadership skills can be supported by an eye for detail and an ability to keep
things in order. You might end up in a job where you have to handle a lot of little things
yourself or keep everything on track and make sure people don’t mess up. You make the most
money in a humble situation or, at least, when you maintain that humility when it comes to the
work. However, Virgo is also such a versatile sign when it comes to working. Therefore, you
really have the ability to make good money at just about any job you set out to do. Also, your
creative talents will yield income when you strive to master the technical aspects of them and
don’t just rest on your natural ability. Innate talent and charisma will only get you so far. You
have to really work at it and remain humble in order for that creativity to make you money.
LIBRA ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
You have an absolute way with words, thanks to Libra being on the 3rd House cusp. You
know how to charm, how to influence, how to say all of the right things and it’s all just a
natural comprehensive skill of yours. Whatever house cusp Libra rules indicates how we will go

LEO RISING
158

about relationships and bond with others. Libra ruling the 3rd means that you understand how
to connect just through the right idea or turn of phrase. It’s part of what makes you so loved
and admired. Yet, this can easily become manipulative, as well. You enter into conversations
with others (3rd House) with the intent of influencing them (Libra). Now, this influence can be
good or bad. It all depends on what intention is behind them.
Leo Risings have the potential to be bad influences, even though they may convince
themselves that they’re doing what’s best for others. It may just be what’s best for you. This is
something else that can turn you into quite a tyrant, if you’re not careful. Libra can have a hard
time with boundaries and with it being here in the 3rd, you may not establish solid boundaries
between your mind and someone else’s. Basically, you spend a lot of time thinking and
speaking for other people. The 3rd House is how we find our voice and you love using your
leadership skills to say what other people are thinking or cannot say. At the same time, you can
manipulate people into agreeing with you. You’re highly convincing and persuasive. So, most
people will either not notice or find themselves willingly going along with you.
You do have the potential to be an amazing influence on others, as well. Just a compliment,
a kind word from you, is powerful enough to make anyone’s day. But, there is an inherent
duality to the 3rd House and this gets reinforced when Libra is here. You can simultaneously
mean it and not mean it, say something nice to someone only to contradict it in your head or
confess to someone else that you weren’t serious soon after. It’s a pattern that became instilled
within you during your grade school years, which is what the 3rd House symbolizes. Many Leo
Risings go through school feeling and being very popular, with a glorious kind of social impact
and status. But, even if you weren’t prom king or queen, you were still at the head of whatever
social circle you were in. So, you became very used to mediating everything, making sure
everyone was okay, being very well-liked. Yet, you also could’ve used your people-skills to
become a real Regina George, with a cunning charm that ensured your dominance.
It’s also very common to see students with Venus ruling the 3rd who weren’t as “book
smart” as they were “people smart”. Whether or not you got good grades, your major interest
during this time was the in’s and out’s of all of your fellow students and even your teachers.
You learned a lot about how to navigate the traits, needs, responses, patterns, and wants of
other people. Like any great actor, you have a strong comprehension (3rd House) of your fellow
man (Libra). This carries over into your relationships now as an adult, including your romantic

LEO RISING
159

ones. The house where we have Libra on the cusp tells us how we go about romance and love.
You are an expert at knowing how to communicate with your significant other or good friend.
Yet, you will also feel this constant sense of ambivalence in terms of what you want and what
they want. This reveals the paradox within Leo Rising of being both a fierce boss, in charge of
their own life, and a people-pleaser who is eager for others’ approval.
This is what makes you very influenced by other people’s thinking, in your own way. You
simultaneously are thinking of what you’re feeling and what they’re feeling, what works best for
you and what works best for them. What do you do? Do you bend over backwards to make
them happy or do you say to “hell with it” and do your own thing? You’ll find yourself swinging
back and forth between the two. As much of a leader as you are, the pressure to please gives
you an indecisive side. This also stems from the fact that you were so beloved in school. A lot
of people with this placement had very few, if any, of their classmates say anything negative
about them. Others who were little despots just rarely experienced anyone saying it to their
face because they wouldn’t dare. So, again, you’re not used to dissent.
It’s also very true that any sort of positive feedback makes your day. The fact that you are
such a sucker for flattery and compliments causes you to be surprisingly easy to manipulate,
just as easily as you manipulate other people. The solution to all of this is to find some way to
truly meet in the middle, to make sure that communication is occurring in your relationships so
both people are pleased. It must be a sincere happiness, as well, not just telling people what
they want to hear or insisting that they do the same for you. Although you may not like it, your
partner sharing their thoughts in a not-so-pleasant way is actually an opportunity for you to be
happier with one another by working it all out.
With the 3rd House also symbolizes the relationship with one’s siblings, there is usually a
bond that is very close and loving with a particular sibling. Even if you’re an only child, you will
grow up feeling really close to a dear cousin who is like a brother or sister to you. The
aforementioned patterns of one influencing the other and getting a lot of positive reinforcement
from each other will be a prevalent part of the relationship. You always know you can turn to
this brother or sister to feel good about yourself. It’s a bond that can be more special and
understanding than the others in your family and you may have grown up being attached at the
hip. In fact, this sibling relationship can easily become co-dependent if you don’t remember to
be your own people. You’re two halves of the same brain, for better or for worse.

LEO RISING
160

SCORPIO ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP


It’s not surprising, due to having Scorpio on the 4th House cusp, that Leo Risings have this
natural flair for drama. In fact, it’s a characteristic that can easily veer from harmless
entertainment to unhealthy and self-destructive. You have all of this intense passion that you
have to release creatively and it can come from a dark place. The 4th House shows our
upbringing and our bond with the family. There is regularly something troubled or tragic in that
department with Pluto ruling the 4th. You might have experienced some form of abuse in the
home or a cherished family member, usually a parent or sibling, may have died during your
childhood. In some way, the home life feels volatile, scary, and unsafe, leading you to become
all too familiar, at an early age, with the darker elements of life that cannot be controlled.
Because of the trauma, the grief, the pain you don’t know what to do with, you become a
volatile force within the family. There was something emotionally intense and combustible
about you, growing up, and hopefully you had loved ones who could give you the resources to
process it all. In many cases, the Scorpio Nadir child learns this very much on their own,
especially if the family is the source of pain. Not all people with this placement come from a
toxic family. But, the ones who do can feel such a deep resentment toward them, a love-hate
attachment that is exacerbated by the fact that they have been conditioned to not talk about
what goes on behind closed doors. With this influence, the private becomes deeply private. In
this case, it gets to a point where contact must be limited or cut off for your own sanity.
However, you may have a very emotionally rich, intimate relationship with your family that
allows you to feel like you can go deep with them and with yourself. Maybe witnessing the
trauma they’ve been through, the losses they’ve endured, or knowing how they have come
from their own serious pain (having parents who were abused is a common theme here) helps
you feel like these deeper, more complicated feelings will be understood. Still, you’ve always
remained a mystery to your loved ones because while you may share important things with
them, if they’re offering you healthy support, you’re certainly not going to share everything with
them. Scorpio in the 4th ensures that you always have your secrets and this is something
anyone who lives with you notices. You’re not as easy to get to know as your sunny, smiley,
happy-go-lucky exterior leads people to believe. You’re much more complex than that.
You feel like you’ve had to go through a lot of your pain by yourself, in the past, and develop
the emotional resources to do so. But, you should not be hanging on to that pain. Leave it

LEO RISING
161

behind you or else it will keep repeating. The 4th House is how our history repeats itself and
since you’re all too familiar with life-or-death emotional stakes, you easily recreate these
situations in your adult life. You can feel like you somehow need (4th House) drama (Scorpio)
because, if you don’t have it, things in your life will be way too boring. It’s true that you want
an existence that is anything but boring. However, you must remember the difference between
healthy passion and upsetting drama. Creativity offers you the catharsis you need to deal with
your demons. Just don’t feel like you need your demons to exist. What you need is healing.
When you find your healing, you find an amazing inner power that you’ve really always had.
This influence is part of why you can be so dominant, so comfortable in control of things.
Whatever rules our 4th House is who our family has always needed us to be. So, you felt, with
all of the tumult or pain going on in your home, that your loved ones needed you to assume
control in some way. The way you did it was more emotional, more about an understanding of
the intense psychological dynamics at play. To this day, you retain this uncanny sort of
influence over your loved ones. You may have spent some time using it to provoke them, to
unsettle them, or to control them somehow. But, you also have the ability to really heal them
and help them move into the light; that is, if they truly want to.
You also felt the need to be in control of things because your childhood was so unstable.
Privately, you can be an outright control freak if you don’t watch yourself. This can also involve
who you let into your inner sanctum. You don’t find it easy to trust people within this safe space
of yours. Your family doesn’t even entirely know you and they’ve been around your whole life.
So, old friends who turn into family or significant others will really have to take their time
unraveling all of your emotional layers. Any sort of betrayal is not taken kindly at all by you and
you’re very watchful, in that way. Keeping with the superstar theme here, you’re like a celebrity
who fiercely guards their private life, drafting up plenty of non-disclosure agreements and not
wanting any sordid details to get out there. Since your private life is spicy in many ways, from
dramatic confrontations to dirty family secrets to raw or taboo explorations of your sexuality,
you feel like you have a lot that you need to keep quiet.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
The 5th House is the house of talent and creative ability; the house that Leo naturally rules.
Therefore, it makes sense that Jupiter is the ruler of this house in the Leo Rising chart. With
Sagittarius on the 5th House, you possess an excessive kind of creativity. It seems like

LEO RISING
162

everything you touch has a way of turning to gold. This gives you an enormous yearning to
share your creative talents and projects with as many people as you can. You will not be
content with a small little following, either. You want an audience (5th House) that’s as large
(Sagittarius) as it can possibly be. But, the house Sagittarius rules in our chart tells us how we
can go too far. So, this is where the compulsive attention-seeking and the out-of-control ego of
Leo legend comes into play. You have to just trust that you’re good, that you’re awesome,
without having to be constantly told that you are and without letting all of that go to your head.
Once you believe a lot of your own hype, creative greatness can easily become tiresome
pretension, making your projects and endeavors one big ego stroke.
Still, this placement indicates how much you can believe in your greatness. The 5th House
does tell us who we are, at heart. With this influence, you are a believer, at heart; someone
with an abundance of faith. Much of that faith will extend toward yourself and your ability to
wow and impress people. It also helps that you’re likely good at a wide range of things.
Sagittarius, after all, doesn’t like limitations. So, once you’ve conquered one creative area,
you’re going to want to explore another one. You believe you will be amazing at whatever you
do. How openly you profess that will depend on the state of your Jupiter. Even if you don’t truly
believe in yourself when you’re starting out at something, you will totally fake it til make you it.
The thing is that your level of positivity causes all the positive reinforcement you need to
manifest. The more you’re applauded, the more you will excel. So, it’s like you make yourself
talented at something just through sheer faith.
However, it’s also possible that so much of your talent is very innate and effortless. This is
why so many Leo Risings gravitate toward the visual and performing arts. You feel blessed in
this department; gifted to do this for some reason. You received a lot of praise for your talents
as a child, as the 5th House represents our self-expression as children and adolescents.
Sagittarius on the 5th means that you were the kind of kid who was irrepressible. This could’ve
been because you couldn’t help but dive right into what you were good at and enjoy the
admiration from those watching. It also means that you may have been seen as being too
much as a kid. You were too over-the-top for some (too talkative, sassy, silly, smart for your
own good, etc) and had a hard time containing yourself due to an excess of energy. That
energy was creativity and it could’ve taken you to find your true talent to understand that.

LEO RISING
163

While your creative outlets are a way for you to uninhibitedly express yourself, you can still
feel a sense of self-consciousness due to that experience of being labeled as “extra” when you
saw nothing wrong with your behavior. In fact, this is why some more withdrawn Leo Risings
report being more extroverted or out-there as children. But, what you need to do is not worry
about being too much for anyone. This is an energy that fuels your greatness and the loving
applause of your audience will remind you of that. You cannot afford to let your special self be
or remain bottled up or silenced or, worse, repressed. Leo Rising is about self-expression, not
self-suppression. In order to stay positive, you must completely express yourself, without
holding back. Having that creative place in your life where you can be totally free and
uninhibited can help you do this while living a bit more in moderation elsewhere. But, even
then, you cannot limit your creativity to those projects and outlets. Creativity is involved in
everything we do and you should understand that better than anyone. So, in every moment,
you need to express yourself as honestly and as freely as you want to.
When you have children yourself, you will be re-living that experience of being stifled by
people around you as a child through them. Your child will very likely have a strong Sagittarius
or Jupiter influence, making them an absolute handful but one who means well, just like you as
a kid. It’s up to you to give them the proper freedom to really express themselves and to
always encourage their gifts and enthusiasms. In fact, more than any other great parent, you
will be the biggest cheerleader for your child and their greatness. You have what it takes to
make a truly excellent parent because of your love of children and your ability to get on their
level. As stated before, you are always going to be this big kid. It’s why you have such a
yearning to have kids and feel your life being amazingly enhanced once you do.
Very rarely do you see a Leo Rising who doesn’t want kids and even if that’s true, in spite of
how annoying this cliché is to those who don’t want to parent, they definitely can end up
changing their minds. It’s clear how good you are with kids before you even have them, as you
end up being the aunt, uncle, cousin, or family friend that all the little ones love. Once you have
your own, you will be very playful and fun as a mom or dad, readily spoiling your little rascal(s),
but you will also lay down the law when needed. After all, you are still a bossy one. You will
come to believe that it is possible to have an easygoing bond with your children while still
letting them know who is in charge.

LEO RISING
164

In terms of things you never outgrow, you also can remain firmly in the adolescent stage
throughout your adult life. You still feel the passionate rush of crushes and dates and all of that,
to the point where you become a schoolgirl or schoolboy in the face of a love interest. With the
5th House representing romance, Sagittarius’ placement here reveals you to be a total,
unabashed romantic. Not only are you highly passionate but you really believe in love. This
sense of faith can remain very intact, no matter what disappointments or heartbreaks you
experience along the way. This house is “the love you give” and you give your love very freely,
generous with your affections and lacking in any regret in your romantic choices.
While this can, yes, easily lead to disaster, you bounce back from all of those situations with a
positive heart. This causes you to draw Jupiter- and Sagittarius-influenced people as lovers who
have a lot to teach you about matters of the heart. Maybe their flightiness and total love of
freedom shows you that passion does not easily last. But, you can also be drawn toward love
affairs with veritable gurus of love who are able to expand your notion of what’s possible when
you love someone else. It also should be mentioned, though, that the flip side of this energy is
feeling easily trapped within any sort of romantic situation, running for the hills when it gets too
serious, or knowing that you have so many options romantically that you don’t have to settle on
just one person. As open-hearted as you are, you very readily play the role of the heartbreaker,
knowing what a commodity you are in the dating pool, how many options you have, and
exploring as many situations as possible. It’s when a romantic situation doesn’t suffocate you or
comes back gloriously into your life, by kismet, that you know it’s right for you.
CAPRICORN ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
You are an absolute taskmaster, with Capricorn as the ruler of your 6th House. Whenever you
have a task to complete, you will go about it with a masterful sort of discipline. You feel like you
cannot be effective and productive if you don’t have that sense of duty and diligence. This is
what makes you the leader you are. At the end of the day, you are reliable, solid in your word,
and will always come through when you say you will. If you’re unable to do so, you will feel
particularly terrible and beat yourself up over it. The 6th House also shows how we can be
counterproductive in our daily lives and with Capricorn here, any sort of harsh judgment will do
that for you. It’s important that you know how to exert a certain control over your life without
feeling like you have to control absolutely everything or else.

LEO RISING
165

The house that Capricorn rules in the birth chart indicates one’s relationship with their father
figure. Those who have Capricorn in the 6th, then, have a bond with their Dad that instills a
certain perfectionism within them. Commonly, the father was a strict disciplinarian, someone
who enforced very specific, often rigid, rules that had to be followed or else. There is something
about the relationship that is stressful and anxiety-inducing, especially with you worrying, at
any moment, about not doing the right thing. Leo is a sign that, at its worst, can show the
detrimental effects of the patriarchy. This is one example of that: a patriarch who made you
feel like you were never good enough or truly correct; the kind of parent who singled out the
B+ you got on your report card, dissatisfied, all while ignoring the multiple A’s you got in other
classes. “Work harder” was the constant message.
However, there are positive cases where the father figure was simply a hard-working person
who did not browbeat the child. Still, being the performer that you are, you still sensed his
desire for nothing less than excellence from you and you broke your back trying to deliver that
to him. Maybe he focused more on telling you what you could improve, in a helpful way, but
you took it as him being displeased with you, especially since he rarely gave you direct praise.
He might not have always told you how proud he was because he couldn’t express his feelings
well. Also, he could’ve been under a lot of stress himself and you internalized and mimicked
that in your own developing routines. Alternately, you see the very messy, inefficient father
figure who gave you little, if any, standards or discipline to follow at all. Therefore, you had to
set your own standards. Maybe a sense of pride set in because you felt like you had to do
better than he did, especially if you’re male, and so you couldn’t accept any form of mediocrity
from yourself at all. Therefore, you learned to browbeat yourself (or, possibly, others that you
feel are not operating up to par).
In any case, there is an echo here of the lesson with Virgo in the 2nd. You have to learn what
standards to set for yourself, to avoid unnecessary anxiety and to not ignore what you do well
to focus on what you don’t do right. The opposite can also be true, especially due to your ego,
and you can be too afraid of being criticized, thanks to the harsh impact of feeling judged by
Dad or being subjected to the poor judgment that you feel he gets. Instead, you just have to
focus on the work you’re doing and the process of accomplishing it. See it all from start to finish
and don’t worry too much about what mistake has been made or how better you could have

LEO RISING
166

done it. You have way more insecurities than you would like people to know but it is only
through constructive criticism of the self that you will be able to handle and overcome them.
The house cusp Capricorn is on tells us our struggles and how we will find our purpose by
conquering said struggles. This influence, then, is like intense stage fright. The anxiety that sets
in when you worry about going out there and screwing up paralyzes you or creates a self-
fulfilling prophecy that makes you eventually fail. Any ongoing physical illness or health
problems you have will also very much stem from deep-seated worries about everything you
have to control or get right. But, when you understand and work through all of this, you will
know that you are an excellent manager and can control all the controllable variables very
effectively. Worrying about every little thing will just trip you up. All you can do is plan for the
desired outcome and put in the necessary work. So, it is your purpose to be in control, to keep
things in check, which can extend to you keeping a detailed planner or a calendar, having a
diligent work-out routine, or being the one that sets the schedule or makes the rules.
Again, any sort of career that involves details and organization will suit you very well because
you will come to understand how good you are at handling these things. The fact that your
father may not have recognized this or that he wasn’t so good at organization doesn’t have to
keep standing in your way. Instead, remember that you are the one in charge now and you
have to assess every situation and figure out what is constructive and helpful according to your
own judgment, not anyone else’s. When you assume control over your daily existence in this
way, it will curb your anxiety and improve your health. Not negatively anticipating others’
judgments manages or eliminates your unneeded nerves.
AQUARIUS ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
With your Aquarius Descendant, you are more unconventional and harder to pin down than
you may realize. When people connect to you or get close to you, a side of you is revealed that
is particularly unpredictable, liable to do or say just about anything. There is already quite an
outrageous side of you that you get out through your respective performances, metaphorical or
literal. But, that part of you is following a certain script. You are so accustomed to saying your
lines and hitting your marks, so to speak, that you have this other side to you that wants to
totally improvise. Due to being so strong-willed, you have an unconscious compulsion to break
all the rules. This sometimes makes it hard for others to get close to you because the “rules”
that you’re breaking are often times their expectations of you that they deem to be normal and

LEO RISING
167

reasonable. But, you’re not looking for close friendships and romantic partnerships that come
with many expectations. You want an anything-goes kind of bond.
As a result, you will attract a lot of rebellious, free-spirited, or nonconforming types into your
sphere. The 7th House shows us the kinds of individuals we draw toward us and the
experiences we have in relationships because of that. With Aquarius in the 7th, your most
important relationships will be with those who have placements in Aquarius or Uranus on the
angles or in their angular houses. These people will have the kind of madcap energy that you
enjoy in others. The less expectations someone has of you, the closer you feel to them. Another
part of having Uranus ruling the 7th is that you look for people who are highly independent and
need their own space and freedom, which is a defining trait of Uranian and Aquarian people.
You don’t want a best friend or a significant other who is going to cling to you and any other
one-on-one connection in your life has to be fueled by that same sense of distinct personal
space. It’s crucial that you feel like your own individual with your own breathing room.
An interesting dynamic occurs as you get closer to someone. Instead of heating up, you cool
down. The passionate, enthusiastic, or temperamental aspect of your Leo Rising is set aside for
a more logical, cool-headed, and even nonchalant approach. You’re already so used to having
so many admirers and fans. The notion of being loved is something you pursue, in a general
sense. But, when it comes to sharing your life with someone or letting them into your life, you
don’t make a big deal out of the whole thing. You already know you’re loved and prefer to just
let the relationship unfold however it’s going to unfold. It’s a true 180 because you spend a lot
of time demanding attention or putting yourself in situations where you get a lot of attention.
However, when it comes to one-on-one time, you don’t need their eyes on you constantly. It’s a
good thing you don’t, too, because the people who are in your life can live in their head a lot or
be very preoccupied in a detached sort of way.
It should be said, however, that many people have to learn how to express their Descendant
in partnerships. It doesn’t come naturally for everyone. So, as a Leo Ascendant, you may
instinctively balk at the aloof ways of your various companions, believing that it means that
they don’t care or that you’re not important to them. Now, it’s true that many with this
placement have to endure a pivotal relationship or two in their lives with someone who is like a
total robot, unable to deal with their feelings at all, and who is unpredictable to a highly
unstable degree. Getting out of these relationships will show you that you want partners with a

LEO RISING
168

certain cool yet who are not flat-out cold, who keep things exciting without completely pushing
it to the edge. However, sometimes, when you are assigning these negative traits to the other
person, they are actually the traits that you are expressing, without realizing it. Aquarius in the
7th House means you may project your overly cerebral and chaotic traits on to someone in your
life, not knowing that you’re the one who is the destabilizing, distancing influence.
The 7th House is, after all, how we influence other people and you’re able to do this by
turning someone’s world completely upside down. The source of this is your innate flair for
drama. You write the script and then you flip it. You introduce all sorts of wild plot twists into
your partnerships, constantly throwing the other person for a loop. A lot of this will be a catch-
me-if-you-can sort of game, preventing someone from getting too attached to you. Frequently
cancelling plans, saying all sorts of shocking or outlandish things, or running very hot-and-cold
in terms of romantic commitment are all ways to alienate the other person so they don’t come
too close. In truth, a part of you is afraid that when someone sees your wacky or quirky side,
you’ll just be misunderstood and written off. After all, you can be too driven by other people’s
approval. But, you attract wacky, quirky people who definitely know what it’s like to be
misunderstood. Not worrying about their approval actually deepens the connection because
they will be more drawn to you when you don’t really care what they think.
Somehow, this may be easier for you to achieve in friendships than in romance. Aquarius is
the sign of friendship and you make for a really excellent friend, the BFF that everyone wants.
You’re capable of uplifting and cheering on your friends, no matter what. Given your stage-hog
tendencies, this may be a bit surprising. But, when you really care for a friend, you never let
any ego or pettiness get in the way of supporting them. Friendship must be the basis of all of
your relationships, including business partnerships and romantic connections. The latter is
where it gets tricky, though, because it’s hard to establish that kind of a dynamic in love affairs.
You have to expect the unexpected in terms of romance.
Dating in a conventional way will be very unsatisfying and unsuccessful for you. You’ll
constantly find yourself enduring many crazy stops and starts as well as a constant inability to
label what’s going on. A common pattern for Leo Risings is being with someone for a while who
they do everything with that you’d do with a romantic partner but who doesn’t want to call it
that or say that they’re dating. If you try and overexert your will in this way, you will make it all
worse, especially since it will make them feel suffocated. Your relationships are not a space for

LEO RISING
169

petty drama. Instead, you have to take it for what it is, letting it all just happen and allowing
yourself to receive the love from the person however he or she gives it to you. This may also
mean reasonably accepting the ego-bruising truth that he or she just isn’t into you, letting such
situations end amicably instead of allowing your pride to get the upper hand.
Since they will be so defiant, not pressuring them into anything is the key to their
commitment. In fact, you’ve got to set any sort of bossiness aside in these partnerships. You
cannot focus on being in control, especially since you will have very defiant people around you
who will just rebel or maybe even bail entirely if you try to put demands on them. But, the
thing is that you really do not want to be imposed upon, either, within your relationships. You
want to feel truly free with the other person and you need someone who will just let you be
your own person. Also, this shared sense of freedom can lead to friendships that turn into
romances, another very frequent pattern with this placement. This is because an insistence on
that raw passion stresses you out and bogs you down, after a while. Instead, you need shared
interests and a meeting of the minds to make it work long-term with a lover. That’s why it’s
often better to be friends first or begin in a highly casual or even non-physical sort of way.
Having a strong intellectual connection with a partner is very important. It shows you how
brilliant you can be. You might see yourself as a superficial thinker, much more likely to read a
gossip blog than a great book. This is what makes you so attracted to genius or intellectual
types. But, you discover your own inner brilliance through their brilliant thinking. You can
actually help fuel many of their innovative or out-there ideas. Being so creative makes you
highly inventive and you’re more than capable of hitting the ball back to the other person in
numerous interesting ways. This keeps the both of you on your toes and means that you carve
out your own very unique bond that no one else can really understand but you two.
PISCES ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
The 8th House represents our emotional issues and having Pisces here means that it’s very
hard for you to figure out all of your baggage. This influence is another reason why Leo Risings
can be prone to avoiding introspection. It also indicates how healing (Pisces) this process of
introspection (8th House) will be for you, reflecting and supporting your Scorpio Nadir in this
sense. Masking everything with bravado can make it hard to understand where your deep-
seated pain comes from or to even acknowledge that it’s there. And when your ego gets out of
control, you are prone to being flat-out delusional. Our dark side is symbolized by this house

LEO RISING
170

and Neptune ruling your 8th means that your shadow side emerges by making you highly
disconnected from the reality of what’s going on, all to support the fantasies that seemingly
protect you from your pain but are actually fueling it.
Once you figure out where this pain comes from, it can shatter certain illusions in your life.
Pisces in the 8th is indicative of a heavy emotional load that you took on for someone else in
the past. Due to the fact that your upbringing wasn’t exactly stable or serene, you were a
witness to the loss, grief, abuse, or sadness of a loved one and suffered from a profound sense
of guilt because of this. You felt their pain so deeply, as if it were your own, and this could’ve
led to significant self-torment. Your traumas are simultaneously yours and not yours, especially
since you were probably hurting just as much as your loved one or suffering in the same way.
Since the 8th House also shows long-held family issues, there can be a real legacy of loss and
suffering in your family. But, due to our tendencies to avoid or neglect the matters of the house
cusp that Pisces is on, you also felt like you had to brush all of that under the rug somehow.
You learned how to put a smile on your face or pretend like everything was fine. This becomes
extreme enough to turn into delusion, which eventually has a destructive effect on your life.
You also can run away from your deeper, darker emotions because they seem so
overwhelming. It’s like a Pandora’s Box that you don’t want to open. All of this rage,
resentment, self-pity, bitterness, melancholy, or fear come rushing out and it feels like there is
no end in sight to all of it. Such a vast, rich inner life is a part of what fuels your creative gifts.
But, it can also eat you alive, especially if you are unable to channel it well. Pisces in the 8th
shows just how much you can get completely absorbed in your own little world, whether by
being obsessed with your fantasies and fictions or diving so deeply into your emotions that you
can’t find your way back to the surface. It takes up a lot of your energy and it’s why you’re
capable of being quite self-centered, as well as draining others who don’t want to be completely
sucked into your world.
You’re just as capable of totally consuming someone else in a sexual sense. Being as
passionate and intense as you are, you like to virtually go to another realm with your sexual
partner. However, you are especially sensitive about sharing your sexual fantasies with them.
The 8th House represents not only sex but the problems that can occur in sexual intimacy. So,
you might isolate yourself from your partner by not truly sharing your desires. The thing is that
you are often not entirely aware of what those deeper desires are. You can get so swept up in

LEO RISING
171

the other person’s desires and fantasies and then you end up getting lost in them and feeling
vaguely, inexplicably dissatisfied. Either that or you feel a certain bliss or satisfaction in the
bedroom, showing a strong disconnect from your unhappy, neglected sexual partner.
Pisces in the 8th House shows that you find your power through your expression of empathy
and fantasy. It’s why being a performer will be such a cathartic experience for you. But, outside
of your possible artistic life, you harbor a sense of paranoia and terror about being enmeshed
and engulfed by someone else. It stems from the trauma in life that made you feel like you
were living out someone else’s emotions and responsible for them somehow. It easily sucks you
into toxic situations or makes you secretly tortured by your own guilt and even instills a certain
self-contempt. This is why many Leo Risings are certainly not as confident as they would like
everyone to always think. These negative emotions become a sort of addiction, especially for
the Shakespearean drama of it all. But, staying stuck in this psychological place is a very
destructive pattern that must be released.
Alternately, you will also need to release any sort of delusions you are harboring that are
preventing you from understanding what’s really going on in your life. Ignoring the reality of
your situation pushes you to and over the emotional edge. You’re powerful when you’re
allowing all of your emotions to flow and be expressed without judgment or repression. This
state of flow will also involve knowing when to let these feelings go so they are not forever
haunting you. Your demons are like scary ghosts from the past and the thing is that these
ghosts often have nothing to do with you. It’s like moving into a haunted house and being
terrorized by spirits who suffered long before and who have nothing to do with you. You’ve got
to learn how to sage your metaphorical house and keep those evil spirits away.
At the same time, you express your power by being able to understand the unfinished
emotional business of other entities. Metaphorically or literally, you know how to handle what is
dead or dying, what needs to be healed or brought to a close. Once you understand that in
your own life, whether that’s through dealing with your own grief over someone or a pain you
still haven’t processed or gotten over, you will have a powerfully healing touch in others’ lives.
It’s a deeply intuitive knowing that no one can take from you because it’s so internal. Your
compassion can be concealed or expressed secretively, as it makes you feel less in control or
open to being taken advantage of. A situation where a toxic emotional vampire totally sucks
you dry will leave a real scar. Because of this, a part of you goes off the deep end by

LEO RISING
172

dramatically playing the victim or giving your emotional or material resources without any
boundaries. But, that will always be a shadow side to you that you have to manage.
You’re just as capable of being selfless in a sexual sense but must make sure that you’re
experiencing as much sexual healing as you are giving to your partner. You have to strive to
remain present with them, instead of drifting off to your own fantasy land during sex. This may
be resolved through a lot of solitary sexy time where you explore your fantasies through
masturbation or watching porn. Being alone allows you to process so many of your emotions, in
general, including sexual feelings. This way, you won’t be so overwhelmed or confused during
the act. Pisces in the 8th does give you the ability to keenly understand higher dimensions on a
sexual level. You will feel many of your emotions in ways that channel something divine and
being sexually intimate with someone else gives you a real opportunity to transcend.
ARIES ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
Aries being the ruler of your 9th House, the house of beliefs, is what gives you the gusto to
totally go after what you want in life. Aries is the sign of action, initiative, and motivation.
Therefore, you are someone who has real faith in the choices they make and who is truly
convinced that they will get what they want. Whenever you have a particular desire or objective
in mind, it’s not a matter of if you will get it but when and how. If you take this attitude too far,
however, it can lead to a real entitlement streak. Our Aries house is where we only think of
ourselves. So, while you’re on this amazing journey toward becoming increasingly proactive and
driven, you can forget that there are other people involved or that they are pursuing or wanting
the same things that you are. Such an attitude knocks others right out of the running.
However, this influence shouldn’t lead to being a sore loser, unless your Mars is very
negatively aspected. Instead, you must always take every loss and turn it into an opportunity.
In fact, you might be one of those people who never thinks in terms of losing. No matter what,
you believe that you’ve won and that you’re in the right. The 9th House describes what we can
manifest and this never-say-die sort of attitude is what manifests so many victories for you. In
the end, it’s the sheer act of being courageous enough to do it that makes you feel like a
winner. The prize you can obtain by winning is a destination but the process of pursuing the
prize is the journey. So, you have to focus on the journey of it all.
This is what forces you to grow as a person because you can be so prideful and have such a
big yet fragile ego that you can’t stand to be in situations where you will look bad or end up in

LEO RISING
173

second-place. I stated earlier that you have the potential (9th House) to not be a sore loser but
that doesn’t mean that you won’t be one. The 9th House is how we grow and with Aries in the
9th, you have to grow as a person by taking risks. Those with their Ascendant in Leo can spend
a part of their lives only taking risks when they expect to emerge victorious or gain the
applause of other people. Being in a situation where you possibly or likely won’t get that
approval is terrifying or paralyzing, whether you admit to it or not. Because of this, you are
going to have to embark on experiences that teach you how to be brave, knowing that
fearlessness does not necessarily mean not being afraid. It also means being scared or being
aware that others may not approve but doing it anyway.
It’s a quality within you that starts fully expressing itself in college or, if you didn’t go to
school, the age that you left home. Experiencing newfound freedom and this new environment
caused you to move away from the crowd-pleasing patterns that your Libra in the 3rd House
influence instilled within you during your grade school years. It stopped being about popularity
as much for you during this time. After all, being the figurative or literal homecoming queen or
prom king didn’t mean anything once you hit your college campus. But, not having to protect
your social status so much became liberating. Once you tasted the freedom of owning your
desires, you moved to a new phase. You began to discover (9th House) that you could truly do
what you wanted to do (Aries), not worrying about whether everyone would still like you. A new
kind of assertiveness emerged, as a result. It’s not that you were necessarily a pushover before.
But, being a monarch means being concerned with everyone else in your territory. Mars ruling
the 9th brings learning experiences your way to teach you how to be more of a trailblazer, at
times more concerned with yourself and not with who’s following you or not.
This reinforces the inner courage that you will find becoming more and more prevalent. It’s a
common theme in a Leo Rising’s life. You spend so much of your early life pretending to be
brave and self-assured when you’re actually not. A part of you knows that and would love to
finally find that courage one day. So, the Aries in the 9th House influence is like the Cowardly
Lion’s trip to Oz, a search for true bravery that causes you to discover that it’s already within
you. Your experiences in college, in your late teens and early twenties, can involve making a
bold, life-changing decision that not everyone is going to like or agree with, getting into
arguments or even physical fights in a way that you hadn’t before, and becoming increasingly
independent or self-starting. While some of your newfound actions and desires may amplify

LEO RISING
174

your knack for self-absorption, it’s generally a good thing. You’ve got to be on your own
singular path and makes no apologies for it.
TAURUS ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
Creating solid ground for yourself and keeping both feet on it is how you will succeed in life.
Your Taurus Midheaven indicates that you are aiming for ultimate stability and security and that
accomplishing your goals will make you feel especially stable and secure. You are also
introduced to a sense of peace and contentment when you are able to be successful in your
professional and public endeavors. Due to your Scorpio Nadir, you come from such a turbulent
background and it’s something, unfortunately, that you can never forget. This is why you’re
striving to be much happier in life as an adult. Haven’t you been through enough? You must
know that you deserve to be at peace and to really love yourself. Venus represents self-esteem
and with Venus as the ruler of the 10th, knowing that you can carve out a career and a station
in society that brings you happiness is something that will continually raise your self-worth.
It's also important for you to not make your self-esteem too dependent on what you are or
aren’t achieving, either. The 10th House will always challenge us and take us out of our comfort
zones, in a way. As a Leo Ascendant, you are such a passionate, fired-up person that it is a
challenge for you to express the slowed-down, measured energy of Taurus on the 10th House
cusp. You will have to learn patience, caution, level-headedness, and deliberateness in order to
get ahead in the world. These qualities will also be expected of you by the world. Something
about your public self will either really put people at ease or make you seem like someone who
lives a life of ease and comfort, even luxury. We can’t forget that Taurus is the money sign and
regardless of your financial station in life, the easy quality of life that comes from being
financially well-off heavily defines your image.
Many Taurus Midheaven people come off as being wealthier or more financially comfortable
than they really are while some are known for having a luxurious life. You are all about
presenting yourself in the most fabulous way you can and this affects you by making people
think you’re living the high life. This is seen as early as the teenage years, which is when the
Midheaven first becomes fully realized. As a teenager, you may have gotten annoyed by
constant talk of the money your family had, the cars that were driven, the house that you lived
in. This may have attracted green-eyed jealousy from peers but also could’ve made others more
attracted to you, wanting your fabulousness to rub off on them.

LEO RISING
175

Again, this is another sign that you were probably very well-liked and popular during this
adolescent phase. You came to realize how pleasurable the world found you and how you could
project an easygoing, earthy, sensual energy for maximum effect, keeping peers and even
teachers pleased, comfortable, and feeling very drawn to you. This extends into adulthood, as
you will gain a lot of notice for your attractiveness as well as the appeal of your lifestyle. Being
known for a lovely, distinct speaking voice, a sexy comfort in your own skin, or living really well
all become ways for you to be thought well of, no matter what’s going on in your personal life.
Since things are always sort of tumultuous for you privately, you strategically project a kind of
happiness or fabulousness to the public that prevent others from knowing that.
Learning how successful you are when you project or create comfort is a part of your journey
through adulthood. In many ways, the Midheaven is how we become grown-ups, not just due
to career success or recognition but also through a dedication to some sense of duty. You will
come to realize that you have to be at ease with others as well as yourself. There are too many
people in the world who are poor, insecure, unhappy with themselves and their lives. So, you
find your place in society by being someone who can show others just how content they can be
and how happily they can live. You might end up in a line of work that specifically involves
managing finances and be very happy doing such a thing. It’s interesting because you do have
to love what you’re doing for work, with this influence. But, you also must come to realize that
you can possess a very simple love of any kind of work that leads to stability.
Money will definitely be a deciding factor in your choice of career, more than the next person,
yet you will be able to make good money in a way you enjoy, even if the work is seemingly
boring. Unless other aspects to the Midheaven interfere, you will be perfectly fine doing work
that is very routine because that makes you feel stabilized by what you’re doing. The challenge
here is to avoid the constant drama you naturally indulge in and to go about your work in a way
that is notably undramatic. Venus as the 10th House ruler is an excellent indicator of having a
career in the arts. (This placement can go either way, leading to a very safe, practical
profession or a very artistic one) However, while an artistic career can give you an outlet for
your dramatics, your approach to the work needs to be very level-headed and reasonable. It
means not being an outrageous or tortured Method actor but someone who simply shows up to
set, says their lines, and enjoys the food at the craft service table while off-camera.

LEO RISING
176

Speaking of which, a career in the culinary industry would also be perfect for you. Anything
that involves making people feel good or bringing them a certain beauty, pleasure, or comfort is
your true calling. You are meant to stabilize the world and this can involve enhancing the worth
or lifestyle of others. Going back to money, you may do something with your life that helps
provide materially for those who are lacking in finances or dealing with poverty. You could also
be a make-up artist or do people’s hair, finding great purpose in making people look good and,
thus, feel better about themselves. You’ll be able to effectively raise others’ self-esteem when
you understand how to raise and maintain your own. Knowing what you’re worth (Taurus) is a
real achievement (10th House) for you, not only in terms of your professional income but how
you feel about yourself. In order to receive positive recognition, you must love yourself.
This leads to the Leo Rising who is widely known for being in love with themselves but in the
positive way. Still, vanity, greed, or self-indulgence could become a negative part of your
reputation, if you’re not careful. You’re just used to a steady amount of admiration or security
in your public and professional life. So, it is hard to not be self-indulgent. There will be certain
repercussions, though, if you’re not truly comfortable in your skin. Everyone will know it and
the insecurity will be transparent and hard for others to respect, which will certainly hurt your
ego. It’s why you will have to work so hard on developing true self-worth. You’ve got to give
yourself security before you seek it from society. Understanding that will make you a very
stable presence in the world. Your career success as well as the quality of your work will be
amazingly consistent. People in your work life will always know they can rely on you.
GEMINI ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the planet which symbolizes the intellect. With Gemini on the
cusp of the 11th House, which shows what we’re detached from, a lot of Leo Risings do not feel
all that intellectual. You do have a certain intelligence to you, though, but it is unique and it is
hard to label it or put it in a box. The 11th House does not operate in a supposedly normal way.
Therefore, with this influence, it’s your mental prowess that’s outside of the norm. Growing up,
you will probably feel like you don’t learn things like everyone else. You might not be able to
apply your brainpower in a way that gets you all A’s or is understood by your teachers. The
thing is that when you are trying to be smart or rational, you somehow feel like you’re coming
up short. It’s when you aren’t trying to be a brainiac that you end up expressing ideas,
thoughts, and concepts that really wow and connect well with other people.

LEO RISING
177

This is how the dualistic nature of Gemini expresses itself here in the 11th House. You’re very
intelligent in regards to something random, specific to you, or not taken too seriously by many.
You have some sort of surprising reservoir of knowledge and insight about a particularly colorful
topic, whether that’s pop culture, movies, fashion, video games, or metaphysics. You can come
off as an intellectual lightweight in many respects while being a true genius in whatever your
area of interest is. You must be truly intrigued with something in order to fully understand and
absorb a lot of information about it. This assimilation of data and facts and ideas occurs in a
way that surprises even you. You just know a lot about your particular area of interest, due to
that wild curiosity about it as well as your belief that it’s not a smarty-pants kind of subject.
When you’re faced with something obviously intellectual, your mind just seems to shut off.
It’s why, in school, you probably excelled the most in subjects that you simply saw as fun and
entertaining and didn’t think too much of. But, in spite of not being all that book-smart, your
smarts develop in other ways. As I said before, this could have a lot to do with people. The
11th House is the house of “the people” and you’re intelligent when it comes to dealing with
groups of people. It’s a major interpersonal skill that allows you to succeed as a leader,
wrangling everyone together through shared ideas and communication and giving unheard
people a voice, and to understand how to use humor and verbal flair to successfully network.
However, this house also shows ways in which we feel unaccepted socially and Gemini in the
11th means that you can endure some social struggles because of how exceptionally you think
and communicate. Many people in your social world won’t be on the same level as you as far as
verbalizing things well, being funny, or keeping people engaged. This leaves you in awkward
situations where you’re doing all the talking or others don’t get your sense of humor. Being in
boring social settings is what will make you feel out of place.
This is why your intelligence expresses itself in a way that doesn’t exactly seem to benefit
you. When you’re quicker, funnier, more interesting than many people, it can be alienating, like
being a celebrity who’s so used to talk-show banter and doing entertaining interviews that it’s
hard to adjust to regular conversations. But, you’re incapable of having normal chats with other
people. Instead, you are meant to be different by having this unique way with words. This leads
you to make a difference through your communication skills. Whenever any sort of social
message needs to be put out there, you’re just the person for it. You know how to reach the
people (11th House) through your speech (Gemini). So, any cause that would specifically

LEO RISING
178

involve providing people with ideas that could change their lives or speaking out on certain
issues would be the right fit for you.
You’re fully capable of doing this for your friends, as well. You’re the kind of acquaintance
and ally who can change someone’s thinking or keep things fresh in their lives. Your particular
form of logic is best utilized for the sake of bettering things for other people. When you try to
be logical about your personal matters, it never really works. You are so passionate, after all.
But, you are surprisingly rational whenever you have to help someone else out, whether that’s
a fellow human in need or a friend who is also in need. Friends and acquaintances can realize
how silly or stupid certain things they are doing or saying are when you provide your input. But,
more positively, you just provide friendly feedback. This is also another influence that shows
that you always know what to say and it usually is a great service to the other person.
However, you often are surprised when you say these things that resonate so well for the
other person. It’s never something you can plan and you’re best at giving friends advice when
you aren’t trying to give good advice. Sometimes, you are a bit of a troublemaker; again, a
potential bad influence. You find it very easy to put ideas into people’s heads and you also
know how to stir the pot but then act like you didn’t do it. It’s usually for the drama of it all and
it happens whenever you feel bored with what’s going on. Though you’re generally a great
friend, you’re not the most consistent one, as your social patterns are very on and off. When
you’re on, it’s great but when you’re off, it’s almost as if you don’t know the person.
I think part of this stems from not really wanting to be grouped in with the commoners so
much. Although one part of you is eager to interest, laugh with, and chat with those in your
social world, another part of you doesn’t want anyone getting too familiar. A partial aversion to
situations that are very group-driven also stems from like feeling you’re losing a sense of
yourself in them or aren’t getting enough attention. You definitely have periods of not wanting
to talk to anyone, as well, usually after having engaged in too much of a social whirlwind. Your
calendar gets too full for your liking, at times. More than the average person, you end up
committing to way more things socially than you want to. It all sounds nice at the time and
then you suddenly want to get out of it or become uninterested.

CANCER ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP

LEO RISING
179

Few people, if any, know just how unsafe and uncared for you can feel. You’ll also spend a
great deal of your life keeping this secret from yourself, oblivious to all of the unresolved needs
and emotions inside of you. Cancer ruling the 12th House, the house of secrets and one’s inner
realm, means that your feelings can be so deeply internalized that expressing them and
acknowledging them completely overwhelms you. There is a lot of evidence here that being a
Leo Ascendant involves working through emotional repression, knowing how you hide your
vulnerabilities and weaknesses to you confidently face the world.
Doing so is an unhealthy way of being that is only going to contribute to constant self-
sabotage. Feelings do not just go away. Instead, when your emotions are ignored, that energy
turns into something else, often something destructive and undermining. It’s the driving force
behind your dramatic episodes or temper tantrums. Though you easily ignore the reality of your
feelings, you’re not exactly unemotional. You have a great deal of passion and live very much
from your heart. Like the big kid that you are, it is hard for you to manage those emotions or to
even know or explain why you’re feeling the way you do. Then, your emotional energy comes
out explosively, childishly, or pridefully, turning you into a spoiled brat or a big baby. It’s
interesting to watch someone with this Rising sign transform before your eyes from a capable,
self-assured leader to a child who is throwing an angry fit or calling out for Mommy.
Having major mommy issues comes with this placement because the house that Cancer rules
describes our relationship with our mom and how we experienced her. The 12th House always
creates some suffering and pain in regards to whatever energy is in it. With the Moon as the
12th House ruler, Leo Risings have endured a deep-seated pain or suffering because of their
mothers. In many cases, it’s because the mother is mentally ill. Her behavior can be extremely
manipulative or highly delusional. A classic example is the Mom who plays the martyr,
victimizing herself somehow through the usage of guilt, lies, or projection, acting like a savior
for the child when she’s really a nightmare. However, there are also many examples where the
bond between the mother and child is just a very sensitive, empathetic one. More often than
not, this leads to a dynamic where you felt unconditionally loved by her and where she did
actually exhibit genuine selflessness and compassion for you.
Yet, in this instance, there was some way that the mother figure suffered and went through a
lot of pain. You picked up on a lot of that and internalized it, maybe feeling like it was your fault
and like you should be a savior to her. Whether you had a mentally sick Mom who put all of her

LEO RISING
180

issues on to you or you had a very sad, helpless, or physically ill Mom who you tried very hard
to heal, you effectively became a mother to your own mother. In the process, like a good mom,
you put aside your own needs in order to take care of someone else. All of this happened at a
time where you weren’t truly conscious of what was happening, either. Later on in life, it only
makes the unconscious realm a very disorienting, confusing place that you’d rather avoid.
You would rather live life according to your own will and the decisions you make yourself.
When it comes to feelings, we really don’t decide to have them. They just happen. This is
where you get all tied up, though, because in your ongoing performance, you’re always trying
to summon up certain emotions that you think you should be having. You write a certain script
for yourself and tell yourself when and how to react. It reinforces how manipulative you can be
without realizing it. But, trying to manipulate your emotions makes it harder and harder to
actually feel them. It’s like you’re always acting out your circumstances and not truly feeling
them. You’re terrified of doing away with your script and allowing yourself to completely feel
whatever comes up because you think it won’t fit the character you’ve already created or the
genre that you’re in. If you think you’re in a drama, it’s hard to let yourself be truly happy. If
you think your life is a comedy, you struggle to admit to how fearful or sad you can be.
So, these emotions just get stuffed down and since you don’t know how to take good care of
yourself, you never really deal with them. Then, you wonder why you feel so unprotected and
like you don’t have a true safe space to go to. There is a deep sense that all is not well with
you, just like you intuitively always knew that your mother was unwell in some way. Because of
this, you can go to the other extreme and completely immerse yourself in all of those painful
emotions. However, you also experience torment when you do this because you get so wrapped
up in the drama of your emotional life that you lose touch with reality. The 12th House shows
us what we feel like we can’t obtain in our real, day-to-day lives, leading to deep
disappointment. So, it feels like, even when you do express your emotions, you never truly
receive comfort. You’re written off as immature, a drama queen, only thinking of yourself. This
reinforces your feeling that you can only find comfort deep within, turning you inward again
and causing you to dwell on your emotions, continuing the cycle.
Therefore, you will go through life suffering from both suppressed emotions and draining
emotional states, both of which will drive you to troubling irrationality. The way out of such
suffering is to totally feel what you feel and then release it. This will involve whatever feelings

LEO RISING
181

you have toward your mother. In fact, this is where it has to start. In some way, some sort of
illusion about her has to shatter. This often means realizing that she was not the Holy Mother,
some all-nurturing goddess who can do no wrong. Neither you nor Aquarius Risings (who have
Capricorn on the 12th, symbolizing the father) benefit from worshipping your respective parents
as not seeing them very clearly only creates pain in your life. But, this often has to happen until
you’re then disillusioned. This may involve realizing that your mother is abusive or toxic, in
some sense, or that, even if she did a wonderful job, she still has plenty of faults and issues
that you haven’t been seeing, often due to persistent delusion.
Although you love your Mom dearly and feel a deep connection with her, you also may have
never gotten the mothering from her you truly needed. Cancer in the 12th is also indicative, in
some cases, of losing the mother at some point in childhood, either due to death or
abandonment. So, you must come to terms with that feeling of lack in your life. This can be
resolved by turning to the true Goddess for your mothering. Seeing Mother Nature or Gaia or
whatever feminine deity or source you feel connected to as your real mother will alleviate any
feelings of resentment, abandonment, loss, or confusion you may feel because of your
relationship with your physical mother. This is something that will also allow you to feel a sense
of Divine Protection, having faith that every move you make is being supported, like you’re
always being watched over by an endlessly loving, caring force.
In doing so, you will understand how to let go of a physical safe space, knowing that your
safety is of a more spiritual or metaphysical variety. You will also release your neediness,
knowing that you already have everything that you need. Your needs do matter. It’s just that
when you’re preoccupied with your personal needs, they’re never going to be met. We must
express our 12th House with a sense of oneness, making it not just about us but about all living
beings. So, you’re always going to be disappointed when you aggressively try to gain people’s
support, often labeled demanding or self-absorbed for doing so. But, your resulting insistence
comes from a place of hurt. When you heal that hurt, you’ll soon realize that all of humanity
(12th House) experience unresolved or unmet needs (Cancer) that require support. Being able
to resolve or met their emotional needs will then support your own.
You might not recognize how much you really need to be there for other people in this
selfless kind of way. But, you are able to do so through a few transcendent and compassionate
means. You can engage in anything charitable that specifically caters to people without any

LEO RISING
182

sense of home or support, like helping the homeless or underprivileged children. You can
develop a strong spiritual life that makes you feel very in tune with the needs and feelings of
other people, like understanding how to best support someone else through a knowledge of
their birth chart. Also, of course, you will be able to create art that really moves people
emotionally and expresses the hidden emotions within themselves that they cannot express.
With the Moon ruling the 12th House, you have the ability to understand where anyone is
coming from emotionally without exactly knowing why and this can go beyond words. Being
able to sense the emotions of your various scene partners so well will allow them to fully
express what they’re feeling. You have a way of encouraging that, without even realizing it.
This can especially come into play whenever you become a parent. At the same time, you need
to make sure you’re giving yourself enough time alone to work through and address your
emotions. You also must remember that whenever you’re fixating on these feelings, they just
magnify and become messier and messier. They are best expressed through taking care of
others, practicing your spirituality or being artistic. Once you’re able to acknowledge these
feelings without being weighed down by them, you will remain the dignified, regal king or
queen, avoiding any sort of outrageous emotional episodes that aren’t befitting of royalty.

LEO RISING
183

VIRGO RISING

VIRGO ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


When you have a Virgo Ascendant, life is a series of constant problems that need to be
solved. This is why you exhibit such a skill for analysis, order, and reasoning. You really put the
“critical” in critical thinking, which is what leads to the famous reputation of being a nag,
nitpicky, or overly judgmental. It’s true that to be a Virgo Rising is to be a perfectionist. Such
perfectionism can be expressed in a harsh manner but it will manifest differently for everyone.
You might be the type who is openly dissatisfied with your environment and the people in it on
a regular basis. But, you may also be the kind who more so internalizes this dissatisfaction,
directing it toward the self. Even the ones with this placement who are busy criticizing others
will spend just as much time, if not more, criticizing themselves. Ultimately, your narrative is
one of improvement, particularly improvement of the self. As a result, you may need to realize
that what truly needs to improve is the way in which you try to improve yourself.
Basically, it’s the classic story of the rigid perfectionist who learns not to set overly high
standards and put themselves through the ringer so much. This will also manifest in terms of
your work ethic. You feel very defined by the quality of work you put out there, the level of
your output and the standard at which you are operating on the job. So, a lot of Virgo Risings
end up being workaholics or prioritizing their work life first. A great deal of your well-being is
going to depend on how things are going for you in your work life. You are far more sensitive
to stress than most people yet it’s something that you’re so used to living with. You’re a
worrier, an over-thinker, someone who wants things to be perfect. Instinctively, without even
realizing it, you are always straightening things out. You compulsively do this with a lot of little
things, running behind people to turn off the light they didn’t turn off or make sure a door is
locked. This also extends to bigger things. Since you are playing the role of the problem solver
in life, you are always anticipating some sort of problem that is going to arise.
It’s very common for those with this Rising sign to suffer from significant anxieties and
nervous tension, although many of them will conceal this with a contained, collected exterior.
Not only are you constantly worrying about what can go wrong, you can easily create problems
for you to worry about and fix. You will most likely go through a significant part of your life

VIRGO RISING
184

thriving on stress, intentionally or unconsciously. It’s as if you’re always waiting for the other
shoe to drop. It’s an outlook that makes many Virgo Ascendants control freaks, in some way.
You might try to control everything because you believe that something is going to happen to
screw everything up and you want to be prepared or because you innately feel like you do the
job better than everyone else. Your overall identity is that of a particularly competent person
and it can leave you seeing yourself as a sensible, self-disciplined person just trying to make
sure you’re living in a fully functioning world.
However, it should be said that the stereotype of Virgo being a total neat freak, wanting
everything in a certain place, or very in control of their life does not always apply. There are
certain Virgo Rising folks who are far messier and unorganized than this placement would seem
to suggest. But, make no mistake, all people with this Ascendant have a strong sense of order
that they live by. It’s just a matter of whether it’s physical order or mental order. Mercury is the
ruling planet of Virgo and, with this placement, it’s your chart ruler. Mercury happens to rule
both Gemini and Virgo and expresses itself rather differently in each. Through Virgo, the planet
of intellect is earthy, practical, and disciplined. The Virgo flavor of Mercury will lead toward a lot
of thinking when it comes to one’s work life, routine, health, and physical space and/or a great
deal of thought in terms of being level-headed, helpful, and pragmatic.
So, if you happen to be a total slob, you are living out your ruling planet in a more mentally
practical way: giving good advice, knowing all the facts, analyzing information, and, again,
coming up with solutions. You might not want to clean your room or may not get where you’re
going on time but you still make a ton of sense and have a mind that is substantial and worth
respecting. If you’re the other type, you will operate like a machine, with an uncanny ability to
be consistently productive, get to places exactly on time (without being too early or too late),
and keep all the little systems in your life running efficiently. This placement can manifest in
striking extremes, in this sense. But, either way, you will be someone that people seek out for a
commonsense perspective and for a certain kind of clarity and effectiveness.
With the Rising sign telling one how they came into the world, you may have been a
particularly planned baby, to the point where everything was made sure to be on track and on
schedule for your entrance. The day of your birth could have been either a day where
everything ran like clockwork or where things were totally stressful and anxiety-inducing. Either
way, you came into an environment that made you feel like things had to operate in a

VIRGO RISING
185

regimented fashion. You either outwardly embraced that, becoming the little boy or girl who
always had all of their ducks in a row, or you resisted something about the system you were in
because you somehow knew of a better, more functional way to live, even if it didn’t seem like
it to others.
Regardless, you always have responded very well to discipline. A lot of Virgo Rising people
are real goody two-shoes when they’re children and if you have siblings, this is something that
made you stand out from them. Having brothers or sisters who are too busy rebelling to a
startling degree or disappointing the parents greatly or making foolish choices is a common
theme here. So, you developed your sense of individuality by being the child who did everything
right: getting all A’s, staying on your teachers’ good side, doing all of your chores correctly. You
were a real model student or child, something you share in common with many Capricorn
Risings. It is possible to see someone with this influence who colored more outside of the lines.
But, even if there are placements in your chart that represent a certain rebellion or defiant
rage, you still didn’t stray too far. You might not have exactly listened to your parents while still
getting excellent grades all the time or impressing bosses at your first job.
There is always some sort of straitlaced streak within the Virgo Ascendant individual that is
undeniable. It makes sense because Mercury is the ruling planet here. Logic is logic. Two plus
two equals four, not five. So, in many ways, you always want to make sure that what you’re
doing is adding up. This will lead you down a path in life where you’re doing what’s most
reasonable and rational or making rather conventional decisions. It’s also quite obvious
whenever you see someone with a Virgo Rising who is trying hard to convince people that
they’re not some sort of square or lame person. You feel pretty boring as an individual and this
is something that you will either go with and accept, living your basic little life happily, or you
will compensate for this by trying to convince other people that you’re not uncool. But, it’s
usually pretty transparent, like a narc trying really hard to convince the group that they’re not a
narc. Even if you have a strong Uranus, there’s only so much rule-breaking you can do.
However, whatever your rules are depends on the state of your Mercury. Look at the house
that Mercury is in to tell you what sense of order you will diligently follow. Do you have Mercury
located in the 6th House of your chart? Then, you will be especially rule-oriented, sticking to
your little systems and routines with great discipline because you know how much all of it
works. Conversely, Mercury being placed in the 12th House of the chart would mean that you

VIRGO RISING
186

follow the guidelines of your intuition and your spiritual compass, to the letter, making you
somewhat looser or harder to understand in how you operate. In any case, you are living with a
strong sense of logic that you always stick to, which is why you are so quick to poke holes in
any information you’re faced with. A born skeptic, you know when something doesn’t add up
and you will persist and persist until you either get the right answer or you come to the
conclusion that it’s all nonsense.
Being such a thinker gives you a nerdy side that is wonderfully charming and appealing. You
might be a nerd for cinema, comic books, literature, science, or history (or multiple subjects,
since you’re so studious). But, no matter what, you’ll have some sort of vast reservoir of
information at your disposal. With Virgo Rising, you live to be an expert in something, which
gives you that very practical application of your intellect. This is no airhead personality, like the
Gemini Rising can be unfortunately typed as, with its constant flitting from one superficial thing
to the next. You’re a solid intellectual in a way that demands some sort of respect. It’s why you
can rock a pair of glasses better than most people. Instead of feeling insecure or less attractive,
glasses will probably only enhance your physical appearance. The nerd look is a real aesthetic
for you and a more confident person with this placement can really embody the hot hipster or
the sexy librarian in their glasses, sometimes wearing specs just to wear them.
Yet, there will always be a humility to your demeanor and appearance which will be
accentuated by glasses. On some level, you are modest and don’t need a great deal of
attention. Some Virgo Risings are quite obviously shy and some don’t necessarily feel a shyness
but more of a reserve or a very low-key attitude. Low-maintenance and grounded, you actually
require little to function, in spite of how critical and fussy you can be (just one example of
Virgo’s inherent duality). There will be something rather plain and understated about you,
whether that’s your style or how you present yourself or your temperament. However, this
plainness should not be seen as a negative, as Virgo is one of the lovelier signs.
Something about you always looks clean and healthy, as if you’ve just stepped out of the
shower. Virgo is also represented by the Virgin but, of course, don’t take this literally. In fact,
this placement is very sensual with surprisingly strong physical desires underneath the modest
appearance. However, it does lend your appearance a kind of innocence. You’re always getting
your proverbial cherry popped, due to your visible shyness or skepticism in new experiences.
Your aura of purity only adds to the earthy beauty you’re capable of. But, it’s something that’s

VIRGO RISING
187

earned, in some sort of way. You work so hard on yourself and that probably extends to your
appearance. More than the average person, there is always going to be something about your
physicality that you don’t like and want to change. Meanwhile, you appear to be downright
perfection to many and that is the paradox here.
You have to watch out for being so busy criticizing and judging yourself, in lots of respects,
that you don’t take the time to notice what you’ve got or what you’re doing well. Try to pay
more attention to your strengths, instead of flaws and weaknesses. But, feeling so highly
flawed has a way of increasing your attractiveness. It’s a one-two punch because you have this
highly put-together physicality, as if all of your features were computer-programmed to make
the perfect person. Many with this influence are very conventionally attractive, resulting in
plenty of classic beauties and chiseled hunks. But, regardless of what you look like, it will still
seem as if everything you’ve got fits you just right. And the fact that you’re too humble or too
focused on your imperfections to see this only makes you more appealing. You’ll never feel
flawless but you come across as being close to it, which could also mean having few to no skin
problems, very rare bad hair days, and, for women, looking virtually the same without make-up.
But, this is also what makes you a rather daunting presence. People may constantly worry if
they’re going to measure up. Also, let’s face it, you don’t make it easy for them, in that regard.
Whether you realize it or not, your energy can be very judgey. Some Virgo Rising people openly
play this part of the critic while others will just observe while quietly judging you. Either way,
those scrutinizing, clear eyes of yours make it seem like you’re picking others apart. You do
spend a lot of time making mental notes of people’s mistakes or flaws. But, you’re also often
hiding your own anxiety or feeling very judged yourself. Virgo Risings have their work cut out
for them in terms of managing their nervous tension. This regularly emerges outwardly by
making you come off as tense, cold, not the nicest person. The fact that you so easily respond
with cutting sarcasm (a second language for many with this placement) or fierce criticism
doesn’t really ease those on the receiving end of your resting bitch face expression.
Yet, underneath it all, you’re often just trying to help. Your two-cents can regularly be
unsolicited but it’s coming from a place of wanting to fix things for people. You just have to
understand the difference. One of the central problems of this influence is knowing the
difference between offering constructive criticism with the intent of bettering things for
someone else or being mean or harsh to someone who did not ask for your help or is just fine

VIRGO RISING
188

how they are. You have a distinctly irritable side, making you easily annoyed with things that
others are cool with or causing you to openly complain in order to let people know how fed-up
you are of the situation. Sometimes, you just need to relax and trust other people to handle
things or let a situation unfold however it’s going to unfold. If not, your nitpicking and nagging
will only make things worse.
All of this over-thinking can manifest through a certain talkativeness. But, it’s a state people
may have to catch you in, as you could be busily stuck in your head, thinking of more important
things, keeping it short and concise with others. Once the topic of conversation is of interest to
you or is an area of expertise, however, you can be very chatty. Somehow, you just sound
studious and smart by how you verbalize things and the way you speak. It will be clear, even
through your speech, that you’re trying to make sure everything is correct. You’re very quick to
correct other people, as well, which usually does not come off as condescension or aggression
but a kind of intelligence that cannot abide by inaccuracies or false information. You might also
find it hard to sit still. This can mean being very fidgety and antsy, to the point where you
stress other people out, or always needing to stay busy. One tell-tale sign of Virgo Rising is the
person who is all too quick to ask someone if they want more wine, if the air conditioner needs
to be turned off, if there’s anything they can do for them. You have the energy of the assistant,
the worker bee, always eager to be put to good use.
LIBRA ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
With the 2nd House showing us how we find security in life, Libra being on the 2nd House
cusp means that you will, somehow, obtain security through other people. This can manifest in
many different ways, especially since the 2nd House is about both inner and outer security. In
terms of money, you may come to realize that you feel more financially secure when you’re in a
good relationship where one person is enhancing the lifestyle of the other, in some way. For
this reason, you will be able to trace any money issues you’re having to your relationships with
others. The reverse is also true: having issues successfully connecting and relating to other
people will cause you to struggle financially. This is because your sense of self-worth (2nd
House) is dependent on how happily you are co-existing with others (Libra). When you don’t
know how to go about relationships, you don’t know how to value yourself.
This is the source of many of your insecurities. For one, a lot of Virgo Rising people can
struggle with a feeling of being mean. The fact that you can be so critical and irritable, so eager

VIRGO RISING
189

to take others to task for their mistakes, makes it hard for you to feel like the kindest, gentlest
sort of person. With this state of mind, you become convinced that there is something about
you that is unattractive and unlikable. It’s true that you have your prickly tendencies and, if you
take it too far, you definitely can have a hard time getting along with others. As I stated before,
there are two types of people with this placement: the ones who openly voice their judgments
and the ones who mostly internalize that irritability. If you’re the latter kind, then you might not
have much of an issue playing nice with others outwardly. But, you remain aware of how you
really feel on the inside, which can make you feel like a terrible person.
Feeling unattractive to others does not just stem from being cranky or judgmental. It also is,
again, due to how self-critical you can be. Focusing too much on what you don’t like about
yourself, physically or temperamentally, makes it hard for you to see how much people want to
be around you, how attracted other people are to you. This will seriously limit or hinder you
financially. This house is how we manifest money into our lives and you must see money as an
energy that you can really attract your way. You must believe you’re attractive to do so. After
all, Venus is ruling the 2nd House here. Venus is not only the planet of attractiveness but it is
the natural ruling planet of this house. Even though it inherently rules the 2nd through its
Taurus expression, having Libra here is just as powerful but in a different way. Instead of just
manifesting money because it’s something you want to have and enjoy, you have the power to
draw money into your life because it will create and enhance great relationships in your life.
The house Libra rules in our chart is how we go about relationships. Therefore, you will
probably feel like you can’t be in a romantic partnership, in particular, unless you have enough
money. But, how much is enough? You can continue to make excuses in terms of shunning
romantic commitment because you don’t feel financially secure enough or like you have the
right lifestyle yet. However, what you don’t realize is that you need to just put yourself in these
romantic situations and let your lifestyle flourish as a result. When you allow yourself to be
loved, no matter what you have, your energy will be freed from feeling like you need a certain
bank account balance to be with someone. This goes back to the “work first” attitude you can
have. But, guess what? You will end up never feeling like you have enough money, no matter
what you accumulate, which causes you to miss out on great romantic opportunities.
You will also have to apply the same attitude toward someone you’re interested in
romantically. Your judgey nature can cause you to assess the other person’s financial situation

VIRGO RISING
190

and say no if they don’t have the right job or right amount of income. Now, it is fine to want a
mate to be financially secure and you have the right to say yes or no depending on your set of
values. The issue is when you let a person’s money be a huge or sole determining factor in
terms of being with them. It’s not bad to go for a “fixer upper”, within reason. After all, you’re
such a helper, so eager to aid people in terms of improving themselves. So, if the other person
is open to it, you can come into their life and upgrade them, helping them save and manage
their money better, look for jobs with higher income, or plan for the future financially. But, if
you maintain a rigid attitude, you may miss out on someone good who you could also end up
building a great financial future with.
Of course, in order to not overly focus on someone else’s flaws, you have to do that with
yourself. Focus on what the other person would want about you, what they would like about
you, instead of asking yourself “why would they like me?” Know that you have your flaws but
you’re not all bad. You’ve got to build yourself up with some solid self-love before you can be
loved, more so than the next individual. This helps you feel like you’re on solid ground before
you enter into a romantic union, which will allow you to not fixate too much on what your
significant other has. The more you are aware of your value, the more you will be able to have
what you want in life to find happiness with someone else. You will no longer fall back on the
excuse that you’re too broke to date or that you need to focus on finding a better job before
you get married. When you just let yourself be loved, you’ll attract all the money and material
resources you need.
Libra in the 2nd House can also lead to someone who digs in a partner’s pockets, looking for
gold. This is pretty symbolic of sugar babies, a person who uses their attractiveness to make
money for themselves, often times much more money. And you know what? If that’s what you
want to do and enjoy doing, then why not? It’s all a consensual agreement and you will come
to see just how much your personal appeal can lead to more in your wallet. Things just may be
unbalanced if you’re too dependent on your sugar daddy or mama and you don’t have enough
of your own. It’s also very possible for you to find yourself taking care of a sugar baby of your
own, which can end up draining you financially, if you’re not careful. There does need to be a
sort of balance in your relationships, a mutual transaction, in order for them to be secure, both
mentally and financially. This can mean just knowing that the other person fully appreciates
you, having them constantly treat you in ways that honor and acknowledge your worth.

VIRGO RISING
191

Other people can really ground you and stabilize you yet you can do the same for other
people. Because of this, forms of income that involve partnerships of any kind will be lucrative
for you. Working alongside someone else in a truly understanding, agreeable way will show you
that it literally pays to be nice. It will also prove that you need the perspective of someone else
to yield substantial results and that your perspective can also enhance the quality of another
person’s life. But, it must be a fair, thoughtful, and considerate perspective. Anything that’s very
interpersonal, such as counseling of any kind, will make you the most money. Instead of tearing
people down, building others up makes you increasingly secure, allowing you to build yourself
up, as well, by both feeling good about yourself and making good money.
SCORPIO ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
The power of your mind is something to behold, thanks to Scorpio being on your 3rd House
cusp. You’re capable of comprehending things in a profound, complex, and incisive way. After
all, Virgo is no intellectual lightweight and it’s rare to find someone with this Rising sign who is
stupid. Even if your intelligence doesn’t display itself in typical ways, you are no fool. You see
through many things with great insight. It feels like a gift and a curse, though. It’s hard to turn
your mind off and you’re capable of highly obsessive trains of thought. Having an obsessive-
compulsive mentality is what allows you to notice what other people don’t and figure out how
to change it and it’s also what causes you to endlessly think about things that other people do
not. It definitely gets exhausting after a while.
However, Scorpio represents a turbulent sort of drama and also the willingness to feed off of
that somehow. So, you thrive on your own mental intensity, leaving no stone unturned
whenever you want answers. You have the mind of a detective and may be the go-to person
when it comes to getting any sort of information on anyone. You somehow get all the tea on
everyone, without even trying, often times some truly scalding tea (“tea” is slang for gossip, in
case you didn’t know, and when it’s scalding, it’s really good). There is something about you
that makes people want to spill it to you. Maybe it’s because you’re such a great listener or
because you have an intuitive yet strategic sense of when to speak and when to stay quiet. In
fact, this is often your way of gaining control over the conversation. You subtly, powerfully
draw the information out of others because they either feel your judgment and the resulting
nerves makes them talk more or they feel the need to fill the intentional moments of silence.

VIRGO RISING
192

But, good luck to them when it comes to getting information out of you. Some Virgo Rising
people are just very private when it comes to what they do and don’t share while others are like
FBI agents, seeing many of their true thoughts as classified information that they’d have to kill
you to tell you, especially if they also have planets in Scorpio located in this house. After all, we
keep plenty of secrets in our Scorpio house. Therefore, what’s going on in your head is often a
big secret. Sometimes, this is because you feel like your thoughts are so terrible and you’re
reluctant to share many of them. Again, this goes back to your penchant for criticism. You’re
usually spot-on in your assessments of people. Yet, the 3rd House is where we’re two things at
once. So, you’re simultaneously perceptive and accurate in your judgments while also often
hurtful, destructive, even cruel in what you think or say. This is why you sometimes regret
saying certain things because you don’t realize the impact they’ll have. But, at other times, you
know what you’re doing, aiming right for the jugular.
This is something that defined your grade-school experience. You might have been subjected
to cruel classmates and teachers who came down on you harshly. Meanwhile, you were all too
aware of their weaknesses or how you could strike back. Your fierce intelligence could’ve made
you an honor student and also a scary mastermind to be reckoned with, even at this age. You
might have been more quietly strategic with your teachers, seeking subtle ways to undermine
them in the classroom and regain some sense of control or power, all while enacting your
revenge on your peers more openly, whether that was through words intended to hurt or
calculated humiliation. Of course, there is also the possibility that you abused your social power
somehow during these years, playing puppetmaster with many of your friends or terrorizing
certain classmates. Scorpio does symbolize the dark side, after all, and I think that a great deal
of your energy was wasted, somehow, getting caught up in these shadowy power struggles or
destructive patterns while you were in school.
But, hopefully, this also showed you how you could turn things around. You might’ve had
some truly transformative experiences in grade school, like going from the playground bully to
the social pariah who got their karma or almost failing a class and then studying intensely and
wholeheartedly in order to pass it. Whatever your mind focuses on gains power and strength.
So, you had to figure out where and how to direct your focus, during this part of your life. It’s
something that will carry over into your adulthood, showing you the most healing, empowering
ways to communicate and learn, not just for you but for other people. You might really benefit

VIRGO RISING
193

from having a journal where your shadowy “flip side” can play out, in order to prevent any
nasty thoughts from taking over your brain. You also have the ability to use your acute
understanding of others to help them in an amazing way. Just a single conversation with you
can have a powerful shift in someone’s life. So, you must use your power for good.
With the 3rd House representing the relationship with one’s siblings, you may have also
discovered your darkness through them. It’s as if you were the angel on one of your shoulders
and they were the devil on the other. The opposite may also be true, with you pulling a sibling
or a beloved cousin to the dark side with you. Pluto ruling the 3rd means that the sibling
relationship has always been extreme. Maybe there was some sort of trauma or deep pain that
the brother or sister went through and it affected you deeply. Maybe you both endured a lot of
painful things together growing up and it cemented a beautifully profound bond that no one
really gets but you two. But, there can also be extreme animosity and resentment with this
influence, taking it from sibling rivalry to a nasty, cutthroat war. It may be true that you never
trusted each other and there was some terrible betrayal on either side. So, there are either
many secrets shared between you two that creates a wonderful intimacy or too many secrets
kept or exploited that prevents you from ever being close.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
Having Sagittarius in the 4th House, also known as a Sagittarius Nadir, indicates that, for all
intents and purposes, you seemed to have a great upbringing. The 4th House represents one’s
history, dating back to childhood, and the relationship with the family. Of course, not everyone
with this placement is going to be on good terms with their family. A lot of it can depend on the
condition of Jupiter, Sagittarius’ ruler, in your chart. However, even in very dysfunctional
situations, it can very much appear that all is well and that the family situation is fine. But, you
are still left, at a very young age, wanting more. Maybe that’s because things aren’t really fine
at all and you’re the only one who’s honest about that. It also could be because you just
somehow aren’t fulfilled by your family in a way you can’t entirely explain.
This leaves you with a deep need for more. You will feel like your family, your hometown,
your background, is something that you have to eventually move on from. Unlike a lot of
people, it is unlikely for you to stay close to where you grew up or, even worse, move back.
Once you’re out, you’re out. This is the role that your family has been used to you playing from
the beginning. You were always the “big shot” of the family, the one that was going to go on

VIRGO RISING
194

and do something else, something greater. It was evident from the beginning because you
were probably never home, always off at some friend’s house or diligently attempting some
major feat elsewhere. As much as you loved your family, something about being at home just
felt restricting and suffocating. It felt like a trap and this explains a lot of your restlessness.
Into adulthood, a lot of individuals with Virgo Rising find it hard to settle down, to create a
nice little home for themselves with the white picket fence, the spouse, and the kids. Either the
idea of it is horrifying to you or you just constantly find yourself unable to fully make the
commitment and you do plenty of wandering in life until you finally settle down, if you ever do.
The ones who do end up settling down rather young will most likely have some strong Cancer
or Taurus influence in their life that makes them think they want to play the domestic role. But,
somewhere deep down, they will feel like they want to run away, screaming. This is because
you’re so used to running away. There’s a part of you that has run away from your past
significantly. You might only visit your family for the holidays or could even find yourself, for
valid reasons, having limited to no contact with them. You feel more comforted by the idea of
not necessarily going back home but creating a better home elsewhere.
Growing up, you may have felt like the unofficially adopted son or daughter within your
friends’ families and you still maintain that sensibility as an adult. One of the best things for you
about having a romantic partner is feeling like you’re welcomed into the fold of their family
because it fills some sort of void within you due to your family of origin. Having a Sagittarius
Nadir means that it will very likely be easy for you to be loved by your in-laws and in cases
where that’s not true, it will be deeply upsetting for you. So, you’re always kind of looking to be
adopted by some other family. Sagittarius shows where we can go too far and with it ruling the
4th, you may put too much energy into creating or finding something better than you already
had while growing up. Trying so hard to recreate your childhood or build the awesome family
you wish you had will eventually cause you to keep searching and searching until you can’t
anymore. You’ll then end up without a home, living out of a suitcase, metaphorically or even
literally, since you’re deeply comforted by travel and nomadic living.
You have the opportunity to establish a very positive, happy private life for yourself by
knowing that you can manifest the home you’ve always wanted. You can have the family you
always needed and this may involve finally settling down or creating surrogate families
throughout your life, usually with dear friends. As a result, you’re probably not a “blood is

VIRGO RISING
195

thicker than water” sort of person. You will, instead, believe (Sagittarius) that anyone who
provides you with genuine support (4th House) is family and that should be cherished. If you
feel like that comfort and support is lacking with your biological family, you will most certainly
live with that conviction. If there was something particularly unhappy about your childhood, you
just want a home life that will be inspiring and uplifting. So, your safe space is a positive one
and it makes an easier person to live with than you may appear, due to your fussiness and
anxiousness. In the end, you just want everyone within your little hearth to be happy.
Now, it’s definitely possible that you can find that happiness with your family of origin. There
are many people with Sagittarius on the 4th House cusp who have very beneficial relationships
with their families, to the point where their biological family is their greatest, richest source of
support. It can go either way. But, even in this case, there often needs to be a moment where
you realize that you’re looking so hard for something out in the world that you already have. It
gives you this feeling that nothing is good enough, which contributes to your critical nature. So,
if your family isn’t particularly dysfunctional, you might need to stop and count your blessings,
as well as return to your roots somewhat. Therefore, you’re either going to search for the home
you need until you find it elsewhere or you’re going to realize that you already have it.
Regardless of where your home base is, you will need to feel like you can be totally real with
your family and not hold back. On a private, personal level, you’re a truly “tell it like it is”
person, sometimes too much for comfort, reinforcing how unintentionally harsh you can be.
CAPRICORN ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
Our struggles are represented by the house that Capricorn rules. Since the 5th House
represents how we’re able to shine and gain validation, Capricorn on the 5th indicates a
struggle to feel special. You might not know what your particular talents are or have trouble
getting enough attention for them or feeling very confident in them. This can take many forms:
a persistent stage fright that refuses to go away and paralyzes you when it’s your time to
“perform”, a sense of being creatively blocked and unable to express one’s greatness, or a
highly calculated nature that makes you plot and plan your way toward others’ applause, which
often does not work. The 5th House symbolizes spontaneity, how we are when we’re totally in
the moment. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult (Capricorn) for people with their Ascendant in Virgo to
exist truly in the moment (5th House).

VIRGO RISING
196

The source of this is your bond with your father figure, as our Capricorn house says a lot
about our relationship with the Dad in our life. There could have been a lot of insecurities that
your father had that made it hard for him to fully be in the moment and shine, as well. He
could’ve suffered from a constant sense of inadequacy, shyness, or anxiety that inhibited him
and that rubbed off on you. Conversely, he could’ve inhibited you through a lot of judgment
and pressure. Virgo Risings feel this constant demand from their paternal parent to be great, to
never be mediocre. This is especially true if you had a father who seemed like a superstar,
always working hard to get his respective audience’s applause. But, even when the father figure
is gloriously charismatic, there is something within him that makes him feel like he’s not worth
the validation he gets. So, he keeps working to prove himself and he puts that on you.
This relationship can go multiple ways, though, because it’s also possible that your father
spent a lot of time encouraging your creative gifts and expression throughout your life. But, you
might have put him on such a pedestal that you placed great pressure on yourself to always be
great and never let him down. You also operated under a self-imposed rigor because you were
always a mature, serious child. The creative element of the 5th House represents our childhood
self and with Capricorn here, you may have not played the fun, carefree games that the other
kids were playing. You were too busy acting like a little grown-up. Instead of having the time of
your life during recess or lunch, you sought a good time in acts of responsibility like doing your
chores, homework, class projects, or group activities that made you the boss.
As a result, you were that kid who was an example of other kids to aspire to, not seeming like
a feckless child but someone who was quite accomplished. But, this is the source of your fear
and insecurity. Your inner child constantly worries about making the wrong move and losing the
respect of those you respect. However, creativity is fueled by being able to live in the now and
think about the results later. So, you’re one of those people who is going to have to grow up in
reverse. You have this little boy or girl inside of you who needs to start thinking about being a
little boy or girl. You must let yourself operate with a greater sense of spontaneity in order to
find true strength and purpose. This will make you increasingly confident, showing you that
even if you make mistakes and even if you don’t meet your predetermined standards, you’ll still
be able to impress many people with what you do.
Saturn acting as the ruler of your 5th House can lead you into a profession that is particularly
creative, like something in the arts, or that puts you in the spotlight. It is a part of your duty to

VIRGO RISING
197

gain that level of recognition, to be comfortable with it. But, just about anything can be creative
and you’ll succeed most when you utilize that creative flair to put your own special stamp on
your work. In the end, work is fun for you! You’re a hard worker, at heart, feeling most alive
when you are meeting deadlines, handling duties, taking control of things. It’s clear that you
take real pride in your work ethic and how together you are. You also gain strength through
that pride, which will help you be proud of yourself, no matter who’s watching. This includes
your father. There are a lot of Virgo Ascendant folks who spend their whole lives just waiting
for their Dad to tell them that they are proud of them. Maybe some already have a proud father
and don’t realize it because he’s not so expressive. Others may just get constant disapproval or
judgment. But, it doesn’t matter. Be proud of yourself and how hard you work!
You will work equally hard when it comes to having children. Saturn does indicate delays and
obstacles and it’s very common for this Rising sign to have children later in life, either in their
late thirties or early forties and, usually, not by choice but because of fertility issues, constantly
bad timing or a lack of viable partners. Others may have children earlier but experience a real
burden because of it. Also, let’s face it: children and you may not easily mix. You might too
easily get frustrated with them or hold them at arm’s length, like they’re some bewildering
other species. But, it’s very likely that it’s your lesson to learn to like children. After all, any
issues with them usually indicates deep-seated issues with your own inner child. When you
were a kid, you may have looked down on other kids as silly, foolish creatures.
However, getting over that will show you that children are often your greatest teachers. You
may have many run-ins with wise, old-soul type kids that culminates in having children of your
own who are little workhorses and mature beyond their years, just like you were at their age.
They’ll probably have some sort of major Saturn or Capricorn influence in their chart. Their own
shyness, self-consciousness, and insecurity will also be a reflection of your issues at that age
(and now), helping you see yourself through them in a way that frees you up somehow. You
can break that cycle of your own behavior by helping them have fun, be confident in
themselves, and really live and, in the process, you’ll do the same. Because of this, it’s
important to focus more on the lighter aspects of childraising and to make sure to not over-do it
with the discipline, which will only make the bonding more difficult.
It’s possible that you may also develop more of a growing appreciation for children without
having any of your own, preferring to make your creative projects your kids. Still, you can find

VIRGO RISING
198

yourself, even at a relatively young age, taking on the challenge of dating someone with kids
and becoming a surrogate or step mom or dad. This shows how much dating and responsibility
will blend for you. The 5th House also shows our attitude toward romance. You have to not
take it all too seriously and let yourself have fun while still making sure that you’re giving your
heart to someone substantial, which may mean someone accomplished and successful, with
significant Saturn or Capricorn energy. But, you can have so many fears when it comes to
giving your heart away. Dating has been such a minefield for you since your adolescence (the
teenage self also represented by the 5th). You either avoided it until your twenties or you had
one terribly awkward or difficult love affair after the next. This can definitely cause you to be
highly wary of love. It’s also possible that you become a heartbreaker, due to the inability to
deal with a broken heart. Knowing that you can successfully open your heart to someone else
who will truly love you in return is the lesson that comes from such patterns.
AQUARIUS ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
The 6th House is Virgo’s natural domain and it’s interesting to see Aquarius as the ruler here.
Aquarius represents the unconventional and the unpredictable. So, as a Virgo Rising, it may not
totally make sense for it to govern the house of routine. Actually, it makes total sense because
it represents how much you are always anticipating something unexpected to happen
(Aquarius) and how you are constantly making plans (6th House) to make sure it doesn’t
happen. However, while this makes you a brilliant problem solver, it has a counterproductive
effect after a while. As long you as keep worrying about all the things out of your control that
can occur, more things out of your control will continue to occur. It will feel as if things are
constantly going haywire in your day-to-day existence. Just when you straighten something out,
something else happens to throw everything off. It becomes a cycle that keeps going and going
and going until you’re driven insane.
At the same time, you feel like this works for you. This is another indicator of how you can
function better in stressful situations. The kicker is that it only makes you increasingly anxious,
neurotic, or worried about things. People may not understand the frenetic ways in which you
work. The house Aquarius rules in our chart is where we can feel or worry about being
misunderstood. You have your own particular methods and they may seem outrageous to
others. Needing things to be so incredibly specific for you to function can be both a help and a
hindrance. It means that you easily feel frazzled in situations that are not to your liking and up

VIRGO RISING
199

to your standard, which makes you out-of-step with others. It’s very likely that you work at a
much faster, more efficient pace than other people. But, no matter what your pace is, it’s never
like everyone else’s. That gets irritating, of course, and it’s enough to make it hard for you to
get things done because you don’t know what to do when things aren’t exactly right.
However, the method to your madness also often has ways of making amazing sense. You
know it all makes sense, in the end, even when you leave other people feeling exasperated,
scratching their heads, or feeling exhausted from trying to keep up with you. I think it’s just
important for you to keep up with yourself. Your peculiar way of going off the rails has to do
with work. You’re much likelier to spend your twenties staying up til 4 AM trying to meet a
deadline instead of partying and such. But, the all-nighters, the constant caffeine, the chaotic
forms of stress that you deal with to get things done can turn your life all the way upside down.
The psychosomatic effect of this can bring on strange bouts of sickness that seems to come out
of nowhere and make it harder for you to function. You have to come to recognize just how
unstable your work life and health can be, due to Uranus ruling the 6th House. You do make a
lot of sense but the paradox is that you can do many things that don’t make sense because
you’re so convinced that you are so uniquely productive and more correct than others.
As a result, you might need friends and acquaintances to regularly come in and help you de-
stress or establish a better sense of order. Although you’re an exceptional fixer, you need to
also remain open to the solutions of others. A truly intelligent person stays open-minded, aware
that a better method may lie in the ideas of someone else. In the process, you can find people
surprisingly helping you out when you least expect it. Due to how much you tie yourself in
knots through your over-thinking, another perspective can provide the flash of insight you need
to make everything better. Still, you will stick to your own insights until another one is proven
to be better. You readily extend these ideas to others, as well. Aquarius on the 6th House cusp
is another sign of how much you just want to help other people. You can do this not only
through brilliant yet annoyingly unsolicited advice (you seem to want to give advice most when
others don’t want it) but through an alternate form of practicality. As rational and scientific as
you are, you can be equally interested in holistic approaches, particularly to health, as you may
not find the answer to your own health issues until you go against the grain a bit.
PISCES ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP

VIRGO RISING
200

Although you like to see yourself as being so clear, pragmatic, and grounded, there is another
side of you that is very much living in another dimension. With Pisces Descending, you easily
experience this part of yourself through other people. The 7th House shows who we attract into
our life and why. Pisces is the sign that represents the otherworldly, that which goes beyond
the limitations of this physical plane. So, it’s safe to say that you will have many close friends
and significant others throughout your life who are just plain out-there. These companions are
quite ethereal, imaginative, and spiritual. They may live in a world of their own making, due to
isolation or delusion. As you take issue with this, unable to help but criticize their irrational and
unreachable ways, you will also discover that the messiness you don’t like in them is the
messiness you don’t like in yourself.
As we’ve already established, you live your life with such a strict sense of order, in some way
and in some major area, that you don’t realize how meandering you can actually be. Falling
apart is the opposite and equal reaction of trying so hard to put yourself and keep yourself
together. The stressful, high-pressure way that you live is not easy and, whether you admit it or
not, there are many times where you just want to crawl into a hole and not come back out.
There are times where you work so much or so hard that you inevitably collapse, too burnt out
to go on, or you go into such a daze, a consuming trace, that you lose touch with what is
actually going on. After all, isn’t that the number one complaint of the loved ones of a
workaholic? Being so caught in your work life makes you increasingly unavailable and
unreachable yourself, which is often just where you want to be.
Sometimes, you get tired of having to do it all and do it all so efficiently or perfectly. You’re
definitely the kind of person who comes off as having their act together, of being in control of
the situation, when they’re really just internally screaming into the void. This is where your
attraction to people with Pisces placements, an angular Neptune, or even an active 12th House
come into play. These people are more than familiar with escaping from the day-to-day
pressures that can exhaust, overwhelm, and confuse. So, you can create partnerships with
them that provides you with a space where you can just go with the flow of things and not
have to worry about much, if anything. You experience a blissful sort of escape of your own
through these individuals and they can help you find a real sense of healing, soothing your
anxieties and giving you the kind of compassion or unconditional love that prevents you from
being too hard on yourself.

VIRGO RISING
201

Although this all sounds so lovely and transcendent, you can actually spend a significant part
of your life avoiding relationships. After all, our Pisces house is what we can neglect in our lives.
So, many Virgo Risings are either terrified of commitment or just feel an inexplicable lack of
desire when it comes to being with someone romantically or getting close to people. This is
another reason why other people can see you as being more isolated and alone than you see
yourself. Again, going back to the notion of the work-obsessed person, making that such a
priority of yours in an unbalanced way prevents you from seeing the importance of merging
with someone else. In fact, the idea of doing so can be really scary and disorienting. Your
Pisces Descendant means you all too easily project the inner mess that you cannot deal with on
to others. You have a particular issue with those who are sloppy, vague, irrational, avoidant, or
secretive, feeling like they disturb the perfect order and clarity you work toward in life.
It’s true that you’re going to have some pivotal relationships with people who seemingly just
don’t live in this reality, don’t see themselves clearly, or aren’t able to stick to any solid plans or
guidelines. The Descendant shows how we all are going to experience a particularly terrible
partnership or two in life that teaches us what we do and don’t want from others. So, having
someone in your life who has a very destructive mental illness, who is a total liar, who is deeply
deceptive or has a major martyr complex will be your rite of passage that teaches you to stay
away from those who lack any solid sense of reality or sanity. However, you have to know that
definitions of sanity are sometimes too rigid. If you aren’t open to people who can happily
dissolve some of the tight boundaries in your life through their magic, their imagination, their
spirituality, or their fluidity, then you will have a hard time making these relationships work.
The thing is that you also have an influence on other people (7th House) that is quite magical
and out-of-this-world (Pisces). Insisting so much on clarity actually allows you to see beyond
physical limits and grasp something unspoken and unexplained. Virgo Rising people are way
more intuitive than they give themselves credit for. The way that you always seem to know
what’s wrong is not just rational but deeply felt. Neptune as the 7th House ruler also shows the
great empathy that is behind your need to help. Yes, you’re capable of being harsh and
judgmental and overly picky. However, sometimes, this acerbic energy is actually a cover for
how sensitive you really are. It often manifests as a physical sensitivity, which can explain the
numerous allergies you may have or the very particular diet you go by. But, you’re just as

VIRGO RISING
202

capable of being emotionally sensitive because you understand how something that goes
unfixed and uncorrected can cause profound and hidden problems down the line.
As a result, you enter into relationships with this yearning to save other people. You end up
getting what you’re looking for because you attract many poor, unfortunate souls who need
rescuing. But, this is what leaves you open to being taken advantage of as well as drained by
other people on multiple levels. Virgo Risings are known for their love of lost causes, whether
that’s drug addicts, alcoholics, those who do nothing but self-sabotage, or helpless victims. It
reinforces this notion you have of somehow fixing people and it also makes you feel like a good
person. However, you should make sure that you’re not treating people like charity, especially
since this can prevent a truly personal connection from occurring and can cause you to feel like
you’re some sort of martyr or savior. If you have this stance toward relationships, you will lay
regular guilt trips on to the other person or even play them a sad little violin of your own.
Due to the tit-for-tat element of the 7th, you then become the victim, the one who is a mess
because they can’t establish better boundaries. Being empathetic toward others doesn’t mean
doing away with personal boundaries altogether. You can go from one extreme to the other,
closing yourself off out of fear and exhaustion and then giving all of your energy away to other
people. Hopefully, you will know the difference between those who use their fragile, emotional
natures as tools to deceive you or gain your pity and those who are empathetic enough to
actually be sensitive to you. Then, the latter types will end up saving you, showing you that you
don’t have to exist in isolation in order to avoid dishonest, manipulative people.
But, still, these close friends, romantic partners, or even business associates will not be
entirely straight-up with you. Whether it’s through secrecy, getting lost in fantasized versions of
themselves, or just needing to be alone when things get overwhelming, you’ll have to accept
that, more than the rest of us, you’ll never entirely know the people that you’re close to, often
because they will never totally know themselves. They will think the same thing about you.
There is so much about you that you can hide from others and even yourself because it doesn’t
fit your immaculate self-image. It’s why, when people get to know you or connect to you, you
will both reveal things about yourself that they’d truly never guess and keep just as much
secret. Both you and your companions will often be living in your own separate realities yet the
world that you will regularly come together to create will be magical.
ARIES ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP

VIRGO RISING
203

There is some sort of pain that you may be holding on to when it comes to getting what you
want. Aries on the cusp of the 8th House indicates that you can go to extremes in order to fulfill
your desires because of this deep sense of resentment in regards to said desires not being met
or acknowledged. Our psychological scars lie in the 8th and with Mars as its ruler, you have
been scarred when it comes to assertiveness and anger. You might have been exposed to very
toxic, extreme, or even violent forms of anger, from an early age, that made you unsure of how
to express your own rage. This is why you can go from one end of the spectrum to the other,
totally repressing and bottling up your frustration to letting it all out in a devastating way. It’s
also why you seem to know how to go for the jugular and hit where it hurts. At some point in
your life, you’ve had to deal with someone exploiting all of your weak spots.
It’s common for those with their Ascendant in Virgo to experience some dramatic form of
bullying in their lives (and this didn’t have to take place at school, as a toxic adult could’ve been
just as much of a bully, if not more, as any of your classmates) or to be exposed to some sort
of military-style regime, maybe in their home or family life, that made them the recipient of
harsh lashing-out on a regular basis. This not only exposed you to an insidious style of anger
but it instilled an incredible rage within you. Many people who are bullied or pushed around in
life only become increasingly angry within because of the experience. This is the source of your
formidable fighting instinct. But, you might not fully realize it’s there because you’ve been so
beaten down in life, playing the role of the extremely put-upon servant who has to consistently
take the abuse of their superior.
This could also play out in a literal sense, putting you in work situations where you cannot
really assert yourself because your job is on the line and where you have to take whatever
someone else gives you. But, think about the waiter who deals with a horribly rude customer.
They may smile and nod and act subservient all while fuming on the inside. They may also get
revenge on their customer by spitting in their food. This is how your temperament expresses
itself. You always have very subtle, often secret ways of striking back at someone else. The
reason why you do it covertly is that you don’t want to get fired, so to speak. You want to
remain in-line and you know that, when you do finally lose it, it’s not going to be pretty.
Since the 8th House represents one’s demons, this gives you a lot of demons to fight in
regards to the anger inside of you. That anger fuels your demons and it’s why you can be so
deeply irritable and easily frustrated. Something so seemingly minor to someone else

VIRGO RISING
204

dramatically pushes a button within you because feeling like things aren’t the way you want
them to be brings out your anger. It makes you feel like you’re under someone else’s thumb
again. But, you also have to make sure that you’re not trying to put anyone else under your
thumb. Your control issues stem from wanting things exactly how you want them and you have
all sorts of under-the-radar ways of getting people to do what you want. You don’t want to feel
like a bully yourself yet when your shadow side emerges, you become overly aggressive. If
things go too far, you can completely back someone else into a corner. In some way, this has
been a painful pattern you’ve inherited from your family. It can seem as if there is generation
after generation in your family of people battling it out for some sort of top position.
In terms of your sexual life, this sense of dominance can go either way. You might be very
insistent on being in the “top” position, dominating your sexual partner and having them do
everything you like, or you could find an erotic thrill in being very submissive and dominated by
the other person. Either way, you will like sex to be really rough and aggressive. Yet, you may
sometimes not be mindful enough of what the other person really wants. The house where we
have Aries ruling is where we express the most selfishness. So, you can experience sexual
issues by being so fixated on your own sexual pleasure and desire that you don’t think about
the other person’s. You can be almost ruthless in your demand for them to keep up.
Alternately, you might feel constantly sexually frustrated, whether that means never being able
to get off or feeling like you’re never getting enough of it.
This influence is asking you to achieve great inner transformation by not turning everything
into a battle. You’ve got to release toxic energy in your life by remembering to focus on the war
and to pick your battles wisely and strategically. This results in more victories for you but in a
quietly powerful manner. You’ve been bullied and back into a corner so many times in life that
you know how to push back with great fierceness. Aries represents our courage and you’ve got
to dig deep and be introspective enough to find it. This also means knowing that becoming
some sort of bully yourself is not being brave. It’s being a coward. Understanding this will help
you defeat any bullies in your life, seeing right through them for the weak individuals they really
are and properly disposing of them through a powerful assertiveness.
You’re at your most powerful when you know what to do with your anger. You have been
caught up in this family cycle of anger throughout your life, in various ways, and you must
figure out how to break it by simultaneously eliminating toxic rage and acknowledging healthy

VIRGO RISING
205

anger. After all, it’s been said that anger is a productive emotion because it tells us what needs
to be done. This is something that really fuels your Virgo Ascendant’s expression. You need to
take your intense frustration and truly do something about it. In doing so, you will still be
acknowledging that the anger is there. The 8th House indicates the shadowy parts of ourselves
that we must remain aware of without getting caught up in that darkness. Your temper can be
truly vicious and you must be conscious of it without letting it fester for too long.
Such an attitude can help with any sexual frustrations you may deal with, as well. Aries in the
8th House means that you experience both emotional and sexual intimacy by being fiercely
honest about what you want. This helps you be intensely proactive and dynamic in emotional
connections outside of the bedroom that may also move into the bedroom. Basically, you’ve got
to be very upfront about what you want sexually, without worrying if your partner can truly
handle it. If they can’t, then the connection is not truly there. Do not waste your time with
sexual dissatisfactions, as faking or half-assing your way through the act is only going to create
excruciating problems. Sometimes, this is resolved by spending enough time alone to remain
aware of what you like sexually and fully own it. In some ways, the sexual desires of someone
else can be a distraction. You have such an intense sex drive and people may not expect that
due to your buttoned-up, modest, or even uptight demeanor. But, you’re very insistent about
your sexual wants and while this may give you a very aggressive sexual appetite, you
sometimes realize that, like any other job, you have to do it yourself in order for it to get done.
TAURUS ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
You put a lot of faith in the simple, practical things of life. Taurus in the 9th House means
that you really believe in a certain kind of pragmatism. It’s what makes you the level-headed
individual that you are. Staying grounded (Taurus) is not only something that you believe in
(9th House) but it keeps you moving forward in life. The 9th House represents how we’re going
to embark upon a journey of growth. For you, it’s a steady kind of growth, indicated by your
persistent focus on bettering yourself. Taurus is about a substantial quality of life and you are
going to seek to continually grow into someone who is substantial and living a good life. This
can certainly have to do with money and what you own but it also has to do with your values
and how you value yourself.
It’s an influence that shows how you are on a journey to appreciate and love yourself, more
and more. The interesting thing here is that the 9th House shows us what we can manifest into

VIRGO RISING
206

our lives in terms of opportunity and Taurus is about more of a material and financial
manifestation. So, this gives you the chance to grow into a manifester of the first order,
especially with Venus ruling both the 2nd and the 9th. But, you have to believe that it is
possible for you to have this happiness and simplicity. Developing this conviction isn’t exactly
easy. For one, you can be such a compulsive worrier that you find it hard to have faith that life
is going to be a nice, simple, serene ride for you. Scorpio in the 3rd gives you a mentality and a
way of thinking that over-complicates things. So, having something truly secure that you can
trust in will help you become increasingly simple and at ease. This doesn’t just have to do with
money but with how willing you are to accept stability and comfort in life.
Whatever house Taurus rules shows what will take a very long time for us to develop,
sometimes the longest. With Taurus in the 9th, that will mean it may take a really long time for
you to not only be a person of true faith but utilize your faith in a way that truly manifests good
things. It also shows that you are particularly cautious when it comes to what you believe in.
You are a skeptic and you’re definitely going to take your time to come around to something. In
terms of growing and learning experiences, you’re not one to dive into them. You’re cautious
and often plodding, wanting to make sure the circumstances are solid before you invest. This
can go either way as you may be a know-it-all who feels like you’ve learned all you can, thus
resisting any sort of growing experience, or you may come to highly value the lessons inherent
in new experiences. Still, you’re going to be sensible about which ones you pursue.
Our journey in the 9th House takes off in a new way once we move through our late teens
and early twenties, whether that means going to college or leaving our childhood home. During
this time in your life, you came to understand what you really valued and, subsequently, valuing
yourself would really liberate you. You might have had experiences in this part of your life that
involved making a significant amount of money for yourself or establishing a firm set of values
separate from your family’s. In doing so, you learned how to create security in your life and
feeling like a person of worth and substance provided you with freedom. The opportunities that
opened up once you started having significant personal income showed you how important it
was to believe in being practical. You might have had the opposite happen, experiencing a lack
of financial freedom during this time that you then became intent on developing.
These circumstances stay with you because they show you how to not settle for less than you
deserve. Well, they should show you. It’s kind of paradoxical having Taurus on the 9th House

VIRGO RISING
207

cusp because Taurus loves to create a comfort zone while the 9th House is all about being free
and forward-moving. So, as stated before, this is why Virgo Risings can either be settlers of the
first order or have a hard time settling down at all. Either one may stem from self-esteem
issues. If you feel like you deserve way less than you do, then you will stick to that and become
increasingly stagnant, as a result. However, insecurities can also keep propelling you forward to
gain more and more, all while not dealing with the actual problem. Being either totally money-
hungry or allowing yourself to remain financially limited can be one of the ways this manifests,
making it hard for you to know just what to hold on to.
Obviously, having strong self-esteem can bring such great positivity into your life. That’s true
of anyone but it’s especially true for you. Moving past any severe self-criticism or debilitating
perfectionism will allow you to embark on a journey where you continually discover what you’re
worth, how happy you could be, how comfortable in your skin you can become. This will occur
through any sort of experience where you are earning plenty, being paid what you’re worth,
gaining lots of appreciation, or learning how to simply enjoy life. Knowing how to both work
hard and enjoy the fruits of your labor is a part of this journey of yours, as well. Then, you will
develop very strong values that keep you feeling resilient throughout life. So much so that you
can possess unyielding convictions. Your values set you free but you will also freely express
your values, to the point where they overwhelm other people’s. It’s important for you to
remember that your comfort and happiness is not necessarily someone else’s.
GEMINI ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
You accomplish the most in life due to your intellect, your powers of reasoning, and your
communication skills. Gemini on the Midheaven, or 10th House cusp, means that Mercury rules
your 10th. Interestingly, Mercury also rules your chart. The different expressions of this planet
through Virgo and Gemini can lead to a sort of disconnect within your nature. Since whatever is
in your 10th shows who you are striving to be, having Gemini here means that you are striving
to be intelligent. The thing is that you most likely already are smart. It’s just that you may not
recognize that or appreciate that quality enough in yourself, especially due to how you can pick
yourself apart. It’s like you’re constantly trying to prove your intelligence to the world because
you don’t want to be looked upon poorly.
The irony is that the public might not take you as seriously as you would like them to. As
stated before, the intellectualism of Gemini can easily be dismissed as fluff or superficial. Since

VIRGO RISING
208

the 10th House represents our public self and the reputation we gain throughout life, there’s a
common theme here of the Virgo Ascendant not being seen as intelligent as they actually are.
You might sometimes feel dismissed by those in your work life or public sphere as an airhead or
not as intellectually substantial as you try to portray yourself. You’re often responsible for this
perception, though. The last thing you want to be known as is boring but you may feel rather
boring on a personal level. So, you do what you can to create an exciting image, to keep people
in your professional and worldly life on their toes. In the process, you may downplay some of
your shrewd acumen and cunning all while utilizing it capably to get ahead.
Having a Gemini Midheaven means that you find your place in society by being something of
a trickster. Since the Midheaven comes fully into focusing once the teenage years begin, you
began to realize how you could use your brain power to get ahead. But, this didn’t just take
effect by making you a straight-A student and someone who really loved school and loved to
learn. It also means that you learned very much how to play the game. Your peers began to
recognize just how well you played the game, more so than you even did. You realized that the
world expected you (Midheaven) to have plenty of tricks up your sleeve (Gemini). So, you
developed the ability to do so, carving out a rather mischievous place for yourself in the world.
This is the teenager who knew how to cut class and still pass the class with flying colors, how
to sell themselves to their classmates and teachers while not entirely believing in what they
were selling. In spite of being a good boy or girl, in general, it became your strategy to be
dualistic and tricky in order to get ahead in life.
A direct contrast to your Sagittarius Nadir, which has always allowed you to be brutally
honest and let it all hang out in your private life, you went into adulthood with an ever-
increasing understanding of just what to say and when and how. In fact, you might get to a
certain point in your life where you’re tired of your own self-righteousness or of how you can
impose your beliefs unto other people. You come to find out that, for you, standing on a
soapbox doesn’t get you anywhere in life. You’ve got to comprehend just where other people
are coming from and use that strength of comprehension to know what messages will
successfully reach them. As a result, it’s very common to see those with this placement doing
any sort of job that involves marketing, advertising, mass communications, or journalism. The
power of ideas and as well as of language ensures your success, which can also easily lead you
into any form of writing, creative or journalistic, as a career.

VIRGO RISING
209

In any case, you feel most accomplished when you’re being an interesting storyteller before
the world. You’ll find that you have the ability to make people hang on to your every word,
either through your line of work or the way that you interact with society. People will be
fascinated by you, especially when you impress them with your wit and verbal flair, the strength
of your voice and the information you’ve obtained. In the midst of spinning your various yarns,
however, you can get too caught up in the image-making. It’s very common for Virgo Rising
people to tell many half-truths or even flat-out lie in order to give themselves a more interesting
reputation or image. After all, you feel like you won’t succeed if you’re boring people. But, the
truth of your life is usually much less exciting than you want people to think. More than the
next person, you are definitely not the person that you try to convince the world that you are.
People will pick up on this sense of duality, on these inconsistencies, and it can be enough to
make some brand you as a fake, artificial or shallow. Sometimes, this is just an unfair
perception. But, other times, you are simply image-mongering. If you go too far in engaging in
this insincerity, then you will experience the consequences, like a swift fickleness in the public’s
response that seriously impacts your success or the truth of your “other self” being exposed in
some way. However, if you tell your stories within reason, you will serve as an example of the
fact that we’re all kind of bullshitting, in one way or other. No one is entirely truthful. All of that
is relative and you know how to take advantage of that in order to achieve your goals. In doing
so, you may become known as quite a master manipulator in a respectable fashion, capitalizing
on constant changes in trends, media, information, and your own ideas to be somebody.
This is how your manipulative side will used effectively and even with a sense of
responsibility. You need to become known as a mastermind in terms of managing and pulling
off your career or keeping people interested, not when it comes to petty social dynamics. It’s
very possible for you to get drawn into a lot of he-said, she-said situations in your public life.
People will love gossiping about you, as if you’re a reality television star or celebrity on the
cover of a tabloid. So, just get used to a ton of talk about whatever you’re doing at any given
moment. But, the flip side of this is that you can definitely feel the repercussions in engaging in
gossip about someone else, especially if you do this publicly or in a professional setting. Airing
out someone’s business, dragging them through the dirt, or even lying about them are patterns
that you will not be able to get away with.

VIRGO RISING
210

The thing is that you probably won’t feel, on a personal level, like you’re gossipy, two-faced,
or manipulative. But, you yield such results from going with whatever ideas or thoughts are
bouncing around, either in others’ heads or your own, and from making sure people are talking
about you, whether it’s good or bad talk. So, you can negatively portray yourself this way, if
you’re not careful. It’s much better to put out useful information out there, to put correct ideas
in people’s heads. After all, you are so geared toward being useful and correct. Gemini in the
10th indicates that any form of teaching would be a great career fit for you, as well. You will
thrive in a position where you have many “students” and this can take many forms.
In fact, this is a defining characteristic of this influence. You’ll be interested in doing many
different things professionally and have the ability to dedicate yourself effectively to varied lines
of work. You can juggle two careers at once or dabble in many professions throughout your life.
Being such a hard worker helps you pull it off. But, you have to make sure that you don’t have
too many hot irons on at once and that you’re also able to truly stick to the work you’re doing.
Otherwise, you’ll just be like a failing student, unable to finish their homework.
CANCER ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
With the 11th House describing what we feel detached from, Cancer, the sign of emotional
expression, ruling the 11th shows that you definitely don’t feel like the most emotional person.
It’s kind of an understatement, as you strive to handle your feelings in a truly logical way, cool-
headed and collected. But, keeping those emotions at arm’s length is what causes them to
become out-of-control. Your emotional expression occurs in ways that you absolutely cannot
predict or control, which is why you don’t like your feelings all that much. And the more you try
to stay on top of that emotional chaos, the number and more emotionally unavailable you feel.
This is why, when you do express what you feel, it seems to come out of nowhere, especially
for someone as level and put-together as you are. But, this actually underlines the fact that you
often feel very unsupported and even emotionally misunderstood by other people.
The house cusp where Cancer is tells us about our relationship with the maternal figure in our
lives. Having Cancer in the 11th symbolizes a mother who is not your ordinary mother. In the
traditional case of a woman who is the mother figure, something about her went against the
grain (11th House) of being the typical nurturing figure (Cancer). Your Mom might have been
very nonconforming in her nature or nontraditional in her parenting. In the process, she created
a bond with you that didn’t feel quite “normal.” In some cases, this creates a sense of

VIRGO RISING
211

alienation and painful distance from the mother. Even if you have a good relationship with your
mother, she still encouraged you to be independent in a way that created a certain emotional
distance. She either wanted you to not cling to her, remaining your own individual, or to deal
with your feelings in a way that was reasonable and aware of the big-picture.
As a result, you grew up feeling like you had inner needs that set you apart from your peers.
The 11th House shows how we dealt with social dynamics from an early age and situations
that, to this day, make us feel socially unaccepted. With the Moon ruling your 11th, you always
felt exceptionally or unusually sensitive in comparison to your peers. This doesn’t mean that you
were overly emotional. On the contrary, it meant your distance from your feelings gave you a
stronger awareness of what everyone else needed. Being confronted with insensitivity from
peers and friends, with a selfish concern for what they and they alone are feeling, is something
that makes you feel out-of-place socially. Also, you do have a deep need to belong on a social
level, as well, which goes deeper than average. This is another expression of your unusual
sensitivity. You might all too easily feel rejected or misunderstood even when that wasn’t your
friend’s or acquaintance’s intention, especially due to your anxiousness over things.
In many ways, you need a sense of comfort from your peer group and your social world. But,
this compels you toward social situations while also making you very self-protective in them. It’s
why you display a curious pattern of being socially involved in many things yet still being rather
shy, reserved, or closed-off with people. You find it easier to make friends when they need
something from you, which is why you so readily gravitate toward the role of either host or
servant at a party. But, the drawback is that this causes a lot of people to need something from
you. You’re definitely the mom friend, even with acquaintances that you don’t know that well.
This stems greatly from your own mother, who was probably very beloved within her
community and who truly treated her friends like family. You might have also had a “cool mom”
who all of your friends loved so much that she felt like one of your peers. Somehow, even to
this day, it’s not embarrassing or awkward for you to have your Mom hanging around with you
in social situations because it’s always been that way.
Taking on that maternal role within your community, you are the kind of friend and ally who
just knows what the other person needs. In fact, you will regularly feel like the babysitter in
social settings. You will play designated driver for your friends when they’re drinking, make sure
no one gets lost or embarrasses themselves while out, run errands with your buddies, or

VIRGO RISING
212

willingly do any other kind of favor for them. However, as one-sided as this may sound, you will
find your place socially when you are looking after others’ needs. If you ever make your needs
the focus, you don’t really get the support you’re looking for and you don’t feel taken care of.
Yet, you don’t really need to be taken care of, especially since you can process and deal with
your emotions so independently and objectively (in spite of the rare moments where you
suddenly snap or go crazy). You’re the one who’s always fine. The only thing you really need is
to just know that they care and appreciate what you do for them.
This is the kind of communal love you receive and it occurs in ways you least expect, maybe
through surprise parties in your honor that remind you of how loved you are or people always
taking the time to invite you places and include you in things. As a result, you develop a sense
of idealism that is geared toward making other people feel safe and supported and finding
comfort in that. Any sort of cause that has to do with giving people or animals a home, a
family, or a sense of safety that they don’t have will really fulfill you. Your softer side often gets
revealed when you’re faced with those who are truly in need and you are able to make a
difference in their lives by letting them know that they are cared for.
LEO ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP
No one really knows who you are, sometimes not even you. Leo is ruled by the Sun, the
planet of the self, and with it on the 12th House cusp, your true identity is an eternal mystery.
The 12th House represents one’s deepest secrets, yearnings, and dreams. With Leo ruling the
12th, there is so much that you are that you cannot express and so much that you would like to
be but that you feel unable to actualize. True self-actualization can feel elusive when you spend
so much time trying to create the most perfect version of yourself. Then, you don’t take the
time to lovingly accept who you are, flaws and all, and express that self outwardly. Some vital
part of who you are is repressed, due to this influence, which can cause you to be deeply
withdrawn and uncomfortable with attention. Maybe the glare of the spotlight is just too much
for you because you’re afraid it will expose who you really are. Once they all finally see you,
warts and all, will they still like you? Did they ever like you to begin with? These are the
questions surrounding your identity that can haunt you and cause you sorrow.
Yet, Leo in the 12th can take many different forms. It may also mean that you spend a lot of
time pretending to be someone that you’re really not. Usually, this is to compensate for any
deep-seated sense of inadequacy that torments you. So, you actually may pretend to be more

VIRGO RISING
213

outgoing, more aggressive or more confident than you really are. It’s like there’s this giant
smokescreen around you that prevents people from know what you’re truly made of. You may
struggle with this overwhelming sense of being an empty shell of a person and you’re always
trying to fill that inner void. It makes you consumed with all of these fantasies of who you could
be and, before you know it, you’re living out those fantasy versions of yourself. But, you
become so transfixed with that illusion of yourself until it all comes crashing down and then you
have to dream up a new personality, maybe even a new life, for yourself.
As you can see, Virgo Rising people are very capable of being chameleons yet to their
detriment. Your will (Leo) can be the source of great suffering (12th House) for you. If you feel
like the world will never accept or acknowledge the strength of your will, that energy will be
deeply internalized and cause you to become consumed with all of these self-created visions. In
your pursuit of perfection, you can definitely envision things for yourself that aren’t realistic at
all but that make you feel better about yourself. Pretending to be someone you’re not, pursuing
an ideal that is downright unattainable, can prevent you from feeling lowly, inferior, or invisible
and allow you to feel awe-inspiring, superior, a grand god or goddess. It then becomes clear
that, in spite of all of your humility, you do still have an ego and it can get the upper hand in
ways you don’t even realize.
When you become disappointed at the realization that this self-image you crafted was only a
mirage, your ego becomes crushed and then you feel compelled to begin the cycle all over
again. Conversely, you may not even try your hand at greatness at all for fear of that very thing
happening. In this mode, you’re stifling, ignoring, and repressing your ego at all costs. This
causes you great pain yet you may thrive on that pain, as well. There is a masochistic streak
within the Virgo Rising nature and when it’s enacted, you see yourself as someone who
somehow deserves to suffer and who nobody cares about. The Sun ruling the 12th can cause
you to seriously ignore your pain, pushing through it continually until you collapse from a
nervous breakdown, or to wallow in your pain so much that you end up feeling sorry for
yourself. But, since you don’t like to appear as someone who is inefficient and have a hard time
revealing your weaknesses, you find it hard to even express self-pity openly.
The resulting isolation only furthers the notion you have that you’re unimportant and that no
one cares what you’re going through. If you hang on to this unconscious belief, you will either
dim your light to the degree of turning it off altogether or you will put so much effort into

VIRGO RISING
214

getting that attention only to be met with disappointment or emptiness. The 12th House
indicates what we need to both acknowledge and release in order to find our serenity. Without
consciously doing both, we will just remain caught in the cycle of pain and suffering. So, with
Leo on the 12th House cusp, you’re being asked to acknowledge and release your ego. This has
multiple meanings, since ego is not just a state of vanity or self-absorption. You do have to
recognize that you have compulsively kept yourself from shining, either for your special talents
or your hidden personality traits. You need to understand everything about yourself that you’ve
kept in the dark and let it go.
By doing so, you will be able to transcend both a lack of identity and a rigid sense of identity.
This sense of not mattering, of not being important, is all an illusion. Everyone matters and
every life is of importance, including yours. We’re all connected in this way and you’re in a
position to feel at one with all of humanity. This will also be expressed by knowing that a sense
of a strictly defined personality is also an illusion. For someone like you, who strives to be very
exact and do everything within certain guidelines, this will be a particularly powerful part of
your spiritual development. We all have a piece of everyone inside of ourselves and you can
express a real empathy for other people in knowing that. You’re capable of becoming anyone,
at any time, because you know that your true personality consists of a million different
personalities rolled into one human being.
At this stage, you will be saved from your suffering because you will no longer become overly
attached to any of the visions of yourself that you have. For every way that you perceive
yourself, there is an opposing part of yourself lurking within your spirit. Coming to this blissful
realization can really boost your confidence, bringing you inner peace on those days where you
don’t feel good enough or don’t feel like you’re doing anything right. In spite of this perception,
there is something within you that is so right. This belief will be reinforced by your relationship
with your Higher Power. Those with a Virgo Ascendant really do come to gain a stronger sense
of self once they truly delve into spirituality. Maybe this is because you spend so much of your
life, before this spiritual awakening, living in your head and dealing with the resulting anxieties.
But, there is great personal power you will gain in letting go of so many things, including the
perceptions of self that have done nothing but repress or torture you. Your Higher Power will
bestow a power upon you that you never knew before and show you the special light, deep
inside of yourself, that is waiting to be turned on.

VIRGO RISING
215

A lot of this is understood through introspection and soul-searching. You will need a lot of
solitude and silence in order to truly understand yourself and get in touch with that inner light.
The Light of the Creator will inspire you to do so but your relationship with the Creator cannot
be built or maintained unless you take the time to do so. What this means is much less time
living hectically and at a very quick, stressful pace. In order to get in touch with who you are on
the inside, you have to really de-stress, stop thinking and worrying, and go inward. Since your
inner self is so deeply within, it’s going to be a real spiritual practice. You will require a spiritual
anchor in your life that makes you feel very validated and offers you room for a lot of self-
exploration. Astrology can fit that bill because you will be learning so much about yourself and
the infinite range of facets within yourself due to your birth chart. Any form of spirituality that
deals with manifesting will also be very empowering for you because it will show you how to
join your will with the Higher Will in order to be who you want to be.
Yet, the 12th House also shows us what does not exclusively belong to us and what must be
expressed in a collective, often selfless manner. Leo in the 12th is about understanding the will
of all humanity, how we all strive in some way to get what we want, be who we want, and gain
recognition in the process. In releasing an attachment to personal recognition, you will find it by
shining a spotlight on other people. You will also be dealing with the willpower of others, in the
process, serving as a conduit for their wants, yearnings, and visions. This is like being an acting
coach or interviewing a celebrity. The acting coach or interviewer isn’t pursuing the spotlight for
their sake yet they end up finding their own stardom and self-expression alongside the actor or
the famous person. If you are in a position where you’re getting more of the attention, like
being center stage somehow or an artist with your own vision, then you will both transcend and
embrace yourself by portraying the god or goddess that is within every human. Being an artist
will also help you express your multiple personalities, living out vital parts of yourself that you
may not be eager to share otherwise through characters and stories. At your core, you are this
human art piece. That should be no surprise, as you’ve worked so hard on yourself.

VIRGO RISING
216

LIBRA RISING

LIBRA ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


No matter what comes your way, having a Libra Ascendant means that life is a truly beautiful
experience for you. Similar to Pisces Rising, you’re very prone to seeing the good in things and
in other people yet without their particular brand of delusion or confusion. You’re more rational
than that. This placement makes you all about refining things, smoothing things over, making
things nicer and more appealing. It’s what gives you a narrative that is geared toward relating
to people and connecting to people. When you read about Libra Rising people just wanting
everyone to be happy, it’s very true. This gets expressed differently, depending on the
individual, but the essential motivation is the same. To you, happiness is beautiful. It’s lovely to
get along with others and it’s stressful, exhausting, or discomforting to be in serious conflict
with others. Having this point of view means that your role in your life’s story is that of the
peacemaker, the mediator, the one who plays nicely with others.
Due to this temperament, you’re a difficult person to dislike. The Rising sign indicates what
we do in an automatic or instinctual way. So, you’re capable of getting people on your side
without even trying or being all that aware of it. As a Libra Rising, you’ve always been a major
charmer and you innately understand how to use that to your advantage. You’re more than
capable of wrapping someone around your little finger with minimal effort. Although you’re
regularly characterized as a people-pleaser who bends over backwards to keep everyone
satisfied (which is not entirely off the mark), it works both ways. You want it to work both
ways, as this is what your life is all about: reciprocal interactions between you and others. So,
you know that the more you keep other people truly happy, the more they will strive to provide
the same kind of happiness for you. Whether they succeed or not is another story.
When it comes to love interests and significant others, in particular, you will have them eating
out of the palm of your hand. No matter their gender or sexuality, the Libra Rising individual
makes no bones about wanting the Red Carpet rolled out for them by their lover. Wanting to be
treated like a god or a goddess by your special someone can speak to the vanity that you’re not
always so great at hiding as well as a little-appreciated fact about this placement: you have a
way of dominating through perceived submission or acquiescence. You’re an expert at “quid pro

LIBRA RISING
217

quo” (giving something all while asking for something, in a way that the other person may not
even notice) as well as at making gentle yet insistent suggestions and creating an atmosphere
of interdependency that can easily become co-dependency. Let’s be honest: you’re
manipulative. It just comes with the territory of this placement. But, that doesn’t have to be a
bad thing necessarily. You can manipulate interpersonal situations for the well-being of others
or you can do it for the sake of your vanity, your image, or your popularity.
People easily fall for it because people easily fall for you. Venus, the planet of love, is the
chart ruler for a Libra Ascendant, as it rules the sign of Libra. With this amorous force
governing your aura, demeanor, and overall personality, you’re someone who just effortlessly
attracts a lot of love and admiration their way. This can, of course, manifest in terms of your
love life, giving you no shortage of prospects. There are typically two types of Libra Risings: the
ones who are virtually never single, easily going from one long-term love affair to the next, or
the ones who always seem to have a date or some new love interest on the horizon. Your
temperament just gears you toward romantic interactions and commitments. That doesn’t mean
that your love life is easy or isn’t a struggle because it definitely can be, depending on what’s
going on with your Venus. It just means that you feel like you always need to surround yourself
with love or be in love. Because of this, a lot of people with this placement dive headfirst into
their love affairs or find it exceptionally difficult to get out of one or leave it behind.
You also attract plenty of love your way in a platonic sense. People just really like you and
feel drawn to you. Even when someone has just met you, it can feel as if you’re someone that
they’ve known for a long time. Due to Venus being so relational, you instinctively form some
sort of connection with all sorts of people. But, this is what leads to the projection that you’re
constantly on the receiving end of. People will very regularly make more out of the connection
you create with them than you do. For example, someone may totally believe you’re flirting with
them when you’re not or that you want something romantic or sexual with them when you
don’t at all. You also frequently get labeled as the ideal mate, to the point where you’re put on
a pedestal. Soon, you realize that being worshipped has its drawbacks. Since you feel like you
have to present your best face to people to receive their love, your personality very often
misleads other people. What they see is not exactly what they get.
This life-long pattern of being the loveliest you that you can be is absorbed from your early
environment. With the Rising sign describing what kind of environment we are born into and

LIBRA RISING
218

deal with for our first several years, there is some unmistakable message about love that you
were given from day one. Usually, the parents either had a deeply dysfunctional relationship
that didn’t result in much happiness or longevity or they were soulmates who were truly made
for each other. There’s typically not much in-between for the Libra Rising. This means that
there could’ve been either a lot of conflict the day of your birth that had to be settled and
smoothed over or it was a very harmonious day that was overflowing with love and affection.
So, more than most, your early life was very defined by the strength of your parents’
relationship. As a result, they either divorced or split up very early on in your life or they stayed
together all throughout your upbringing and well into your adulthood.
As children, many Libra Risings are the go-betweens with their parents. In the case of dueling
parents who can’t see eye-to-eye, you were torn in the middle and maybe, in more negative
situations, used as a pawn by either one or both parents to affect the other. While this exposes
you to the downsides of relationships, it also makes you even more determined to rectify the
issues that arise between people. Also, it should be said that the parents staying together
doesn’t mean that the relationship is actually healthy. Some of you may exalt your parents’
marriage without realizing their deep, underlying issues and that could be because they don’t
want you to. Being the product of a union that is all about keeping up appearances and
projecting an image of happiness, regardless of the actual feelings involved, strongly impacts
you, making that your default way of being and living. No matter what is going wrong with you,
you can make people think you’re perfectly happy.
This is why you became the child who made sure that no one around you was unhappy and
that everything was going well. If you had younger siblings, you might’ve felt like it was up to
you to ensure their well-being, regardless of whether you actually wanted to do it. Even if you
were the younger one, you still had your way of looking out for their best interest, sometimes
developing your manipulative patterns to do so. You took any conflict that arose with your
siblings very hard, either getting easily hurt or feeling like it was your responsibility to work it
out, and this extended to whatever conflict you were faced with at any given time. You truly
hate feeling like someone dislikes you or isn’t happy with you and will do whatever you can to
make it right. But, this leads to an ongoing belief that you’re somehow responsible for other
people’s happiness, which, conversely, makes you feel like others are responsible for yours.

LIBRA RISING
219

Having this mindset causes you seek solace in relationships. The Ascendant is our overall
identity and having it in partnership-oriented Libra means that you very easily seek a sense of
self in other people. On one level, this isn’t a terrible thing because it makes you exceptionally
relatable. You can see yourself in others and know how to view things from their point of view,
which is why you have such a fair-minded, considerate, understanding nature. On the other
hand, not knowing who you are can lead to trying to find that sense of self in someone else.
You can also definitely struggle with an inability to be alone, whether that means having a total
allergy to being single or finding it hard to enjoy solitude or even do things by yourself. All of
this means that you’re unbalanced, which is not how you’re supposed to be living. The Scales
serve as Libra’s mascot in astrology and yours will constantly be out of whack if you cannot
counteract your love of people with a true love of self.
With Venus ruling your chart, more than the next person, your life is about love. But, how
does that play out? A curious trait that shows how contradictory you can be is that you can
consider or even refer to yourself as an excellent partner or an expert in relationships all while
exhibiting some of the worst patterns and making some of the worst choices in love. Just
because you focus a lot on relationships doesn’t necessarily mean you’re great at them! The
house placement of Venus tells you how your love life will play out and how you will pursue or
manifest love, for better or for worse. With Venus in the 3rd, you want to have really
stimulating romantic partnerships that are full of great communication. Yet, you can also be
very changeable or fickle in love. Venus in the 8th indicates a strong yearning for amazing
intimacy and passion that can produce love affairs that are very destructive or even toxic,
characterized by an exhausting volatility that the hot sex doesn’t make up for. The sign your
Venus is in and the aspects fleshes out your romantic tale more specifically.
You also need to look to your Venus to see how to love yourself. Whenever you’re
experiencing issues in love, this is the answer. It automatically restores the balance that you
need and will help you overcome your negative relationship patterns. You can become
downright hooked on admiration, getting yourself into messy, disappointing, or upsetting love
affairs just for the high of feeling loved. But, that stems from an inner emptiness that shows
your lack of admiration for yourself. At some point in life, you’ll make many choices in
relationships that reveal how little you value or love yourself. Hey, we’ve all been there (and it’s
one of the reasons why you’re so relatable). You just live out this particular dynamic in an

LIBRA RISING
220

overwhelming way and need to really step back to understand that you’re doing it. Learning to
have the right kind of relationship with yourself, first and foremost, will alleviate many of the
troubles in your love life.
You’ll also need to examine your parents’ marriage/union and the example it gave you. Any
unhealthy patterns that you witnessed, like cheating, lying, controlling behavior, staying in a
bad situation, a loveless marriage, or any kind of abuse, can most certainly show up in your
own romantic relationships throughout life. We all learn, for better or for worse, from the
example of love we’re given early in life, so this isn’t especially unique. But, again, it’s
something that you grapple very particularly, to the point where it’s really hard for you to step
away from those patterns. To your horror, you might find yourself behaving just like your
mother or father did (or does) in their marriage. If so, you have to figure out how to create
your own standards for your relationships. You need to cultivate your own values (Venus).
The key to your individuality is how you love, which means that you need to figure out the
best way to express your love and only accept relationships in your life that are giving you the
same kind of love in return. There will then come a time where you realize that there are
certain people you have to “divorce” (which, of course, may also take on a literal sense).
Remember, you must always receive what you give. You’re a very kind individual yet you
shouldn’t let people walk all over you, treat you without respect or consideration, or remain in
your life if they are fundamentally unfulfilling you. Kindness does not equal weakness and don’t
give other people the opportunity to think that of you. Learning to stand up for yourself, say
“no”, or cut certain individuals off is necessary. Otherwise, you’ll just have to resort to passive-
aggression or be filled with this hidden resentment underneath the agreeable exterior. Again,
other people aren’t responsible for your happiness. You are. So, interact with people in a way
that will make you happy.
Besides, being kind, respectful, and thoughtful is such a knee-jerk reaction for you that you
will end up making people happy, anyway. There is something about the aura of the Libra
Rising that is just very appealing. You give off the vibe of someone on an eternal first date: on
their best behavior, striving to say all the right things, wear the right clothes, look as cute as
possible. This is one of the reasons why you are so lucky in the dating department. While the
rest of us have to put in effort to come off well in the initial stages of dating, this is an inherent
part of your nature. In fact, a near-universal trait of the Libra Ascendant is almost never being

LIBRA RISING
221

the reason for a bad date. You’ll tell your friends horror stories of certain people you date, of
various love interests, yet you rarely, if ever, embarrass yourself or offend the other person or
make the wrong impression. This extends to the other areas of your life, as well. No one is
better at first impressions, which is why you effortlessly ace job interviews and leave a party full
of people you don’t know with a bunch of new friends.
It’s also why there is something vaguely distant about you. You’re not the type to let it all
hang out and while you are charming, nice, likable, and easy to talk to, most people don’t get
much of a sense of your actual personality until they really get to know you. You’re a reflection
of how we all, in some sense, put our best selves forward to look good, without revealing too
much of our unattractive traits. It’s no surprise, then, that Libra Risings can get away with
murder, usually labeled as so sweet, so innocent, or so well-intentioned that their less-than-
pleasant sides are generally downplayed or ignored altogether. Wanting to look good also takes
on a literal definition here. You spend plenty of time in your mirror grooming yourself, dressing
yourself, and cleaning yourself. It’s rare to find someone with this Rising sign who doesn’t care
how they look. But, even then, they’ll still manage to look beautiful without even trying. You’ve
always understood how attractive you are and how that works out to your benefit, unafraid to
lean into your pretty privilege.
As is commonly stated, Libra Rising typically produces very good-looking people, even if
they’re not physically attractive in a conventional way. There’s just something stunning about
you. Your features are probably very symmetrical and there is a softness and gracefulness to
the appearance. Your skin, which Libra rules, may be constantly complimented on for how clear
or lovely or radiant it is. Venus is a feminine energy, which makes the men with this Rising sign
attractive in an androgynous way, more refined than the average man, or blessed with a real
understanding of and even kinship with women. Meanwhile, Libra Rising women can both
totally revel in their femininity while also using it as a weapon in their arsenal. Their beauty,
their sexual appeal, their feminine wiles become strengths that help them move through life; an
approach that just as many of the men are prone to adopting.
A certain strength can be found in passivity and receptivity, which is why you understand how
to effortlessly attract people to you. It also can give you what appears to be a laidback,
easygoing, or even submissive personality. You can spot a Libra Ascendant by how agreeable
they seem and how they make you feel like they’re in perfect unison with you: nodding their

LIBRA RISING
222

heads a lot, smiling amiably, saying “yes” or “yeah” frequently, even repeating or rewording the
things you say. But, having this placement also makes you a real iron fist in a velvet glove. You
get what you want in the sweetest way possible. Such determination is often betrayed by how
insistently you can argue with people until they’re in agreement with you. Yet, you do it in a
way that many people don’t notice. It’s also because you’re so classy. There is a real elegance
to the Libra Rising demeanor. Many of you are also into the arts and it shows. Everything you
do has a rather aesthetic touch, turning you into a living piece of art.
SCORPIO ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
Having Scorpio as the ruler of your 2nd House means that you will build yourself up in life by
understanding the full extent of your inner power. This not only builds the kind of lifestyle you
want to life but will allow you to build solid self-esteem. Our Scorpio house, though, is where
things are turbulent. Therefore, it will feel as if you are always trying to survive dramatic hits to
your self-esteem. Sure, you go through life feeling so beloved and popular and attractive. Yet,
your constant yearning for that appreciation from other people can leave your sense of self-
worth in an unstable state. Anything from a serious disagreement with someone else to a cold
social reception to not feeling as cute as you’d like to feel is enough to completely throw off
your sense of stability. Eventually, you have to learn that this is something that comes from
within and that you can’t let any external force control it, especially other people.
You will also go through a significant part of your life uncomfortable with anything
tumultuous or volatile. If Pluto is playing a major role in your chart or making many aspects,
this may include intense feelings that you have inside of you that you decide are ugly or
unacceptable. Striving too hard to be liked and to get along with other people means that you
feel insecure when any emotions arise within you that you think will bring you unpopularity or
disharmony. This kind of attitude keeps the Libra Rising soul gliding along the surface of life.
But, sooner or later, something has to happen to get you to dig deeper. You are so fixated on
appearances that finding out what’s occurring beyond superficial appearances can be very
uncomfortable for you. However, this will only leave you feeling powerless, terrified, or without
a sense of control in any sort of intense exchange between you and other people.
The insecurity we feel on the inside, through our 2nd House, then manifests as a financial
insecurity that forces us to recognize the lack of stability we’re internally experiencing. With
Pluto as the ruler of your 2nd House, you can experience money issues that bring out a sense

LIBRA RISING
223

of powerlessness. There may be many financial crises in your life, often defined by a dramatic
loss of money, being betrayed by dishonest people who shortchange you or rob you or dealing
with extremes in terms of money. You’re particularly prone to expressing a lack of personal
value by not wanting to have too much money. You can be scared of the extremes of either
being totally broke or really rich. The powerlessness that comes with poverty is unappealing to
you for obvious reasons yet you can also be scared of financial power because you don’t want
to abuse that power somehow. But, such an attitude, instead, keeps you in a plateau where
you’re just doing okay yet you’re not making the most money you could be making.
Things are going to have to change dramatically when it comes to your finances. You must
examine your patterns when it comes to making, saving, and manifesting money and figure out
how you can change said patterns. If you resist that change, you will continually deal with one
crisis after the other or a feeling like money is the source of a lot of hidden pain for you. It can
be particularly hard for you to tell people about the financial issues you deal with because you
have a tough time sharing things with others that will make you look bad. But, this is the root
of real intimacy. You’ve got to accept the not-so-pleasant parts of your financial situation and
know that you can share them with other people. This will lead you to realize that you can
share your deeper, darker traits and feelings with others, as well. Instead of being scared of
your shadow side, you have to embrace it in order to find security.
Besides, when it comes to being in a relationship, you can only maintain that ever-attractive
image for so long. This is a tough process for all Libra Risings: getting to a point in life where
they don’t have to constantly keep up this façade and make people think the best of them at
any given moment. It’s quite impossible to be nice all the time. You have to become
comfortable with the good, the bad, and the ugly within you, all while knowing that there is a
certain beauty in all of those energies. Seeing someone’s darker self, learning their secrets,
understanding the more complex parts of them, is a very important part of being in a
relationship. If you want to see yourself as having such a strong interpersonal awareness, you
have to integrate your shadow energy into your personality.
Ultimately, this allows you to attract the money you want your way. The house cusp that
Scorpio is on is a great source of power for us. So, you have the power to truly create the
security you want for yourself. After all, you’re highly attractive, in more ways than one. You
just have to have the right mindset, eliminating any toxic beliefs about money that you’ve

LIBRA RISING
224

accumulated. You can’t do that until you have gone beyond the surface enough to eliminate
toxic beliefs in other aspects of your life. Until you do that, you will experience that
unacknowledged dark energy within yourself through various money problems that seem to just
bring you pain and secret torment. But, when you can transform that energy within, you’ll be
able to transform what you have on a material level. Money is an energy that comes into your
life when you are truly empowered and focused on exactly what you want.
In doing so, you will realize that you don’t have to shy away from having “too much”, whether
that means too much emotional energy that will scare people off or too much money that will
make you greedy, power-hungry, or depraved. You’re one of those people who has to truly
understand that money isn’t the root of evil. If you feel like there is something evil within you
that you can’t face, you will continue to resist your abundance. However, when you become
increasingly comfortable with your potential for great passion or emotional drama, you will find
yourself working at a level of income that brings you security. Feeling those intense feelings
without thinking they’re evil will draw money your way because you won’t think it’s evil.
You also need to feel intensely and deeply about your form of income in order to fully enjoy
it. The more contented you are with how you’re making money, the more powerful you will feel.
You can also end up in a job that either really empowers you or other people. Doing anything
that involves counseling can suit you very well, especially since you’re so people-oriented. Being
so relational and thoughtful gives you a real insight into others and people will value this level
of perception enough to pay you for it. Making money in order to deeply impact other people’s
lives will bring you the most security and also make you the most money. This can include
being artistic in any kind, having a cathartic outlet for your shadowy energy that also brings
home the bacon. But, Scorpio in the 2nd also indicates that you can find great security doing
something that lets you be in control and wield a certain kind of power. Sometimes, this can be
a more hidden or low-key power that doesn’t get a lot of attention. Yet, you will still be pulling
a lot of the strings. You are, after all, quite a master manipulator and being able to use your
tremendous influence over people on the job will yield dividends.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
Sagittarius in the 3rd House is a big part of what makes you such an excellent
conversationalist. You’re a wonderful listener and usually know just what to say to make people
feel better. Sagittarius’ house in our birth chart is a source of great positive energy for us. So,

LIBRA RISING
225

for you, communication (3rd House) is where you experience and express a lot of positivity
(Sagittarius). This is also why you like to keep it classy in terms of not badmouthing people or
being mindful of what you say to other people. It’s an interesting combination, though, because
Sagittarius is known for that bluntness of speech. Yet, everything is contradictory in your birth
chart, due to each sign being in the house that opposes it. Here, the unfiltered quality of
Sagittarius actually becomes excessively filtered, to the point where you really over-think
things. After all, the house cusp that Sagittarius is on shows what we can do too much of.
Thus, we are presented with the famous Libra Rising indecision. You have such an abundance
of mental energy that you are constantly exploring a wide range of ideas. The trouble is that
everything sounds good to you and you are all too willing to discover if it actually is a good
idea. So, you vacillate from one thing to the next, which is heightened by your ability to really
bounce off of other people and the ideas that they bring to the table. The good thing is that
you’re so open-minded. Like all the Air Risings, you’re very much an idea person. Problems
arise, however, when you explore an option and you end up disappointed with what you
discover. In spite of your positive thinking, you display duality in your constant anticipation of
disappointment. This is why you go back and forth between one idea and the next. You’re
afraid of missing out on something better than what is being presented to you.
The dual nature of your 3rd House also means that people cannot always entirely believe
what you say. It’s not to say that you’re a liar. Sometimes, you really mean what you say and,
other times, you don’t. This stems from wanting your words to have a positive impact on those
on the receiving end. Again, you know what an influence you have over others. So, you can say
things just because of the effect it will have on people. You believe in the power of little white
lies, understanding that even if you don’t entirely mean it, what you say will be good for the
other person to hear. Yes, you can definitely tell people what they want to hear and then
expect that in return from them. Sometimes, you don’t really want the other person to be
honest with you. Being the relationship person you are, you understand that your partner is
never honest with you one hundred percent of the time, that compromise can mean saying
you’re sorry when you’re not or going along with things that you don’t totally enjoy but will
make them happy.
You’re also capable of growing significantly through the communication that you have with
other people. Feeding off of the perspective of others, you learn a great deal from the ideas

LIBRA RISING
226

that they present you, as well as the experiences that they have. Living vicariously through
other people is something that you instinctively do and you can experience a great sense of
thrill just by listening to an amazing personal story that someone else is telling. Putting yourself
in someone else’s shoes so easily is part of what injects your conversations with such positivity.
You make the other people feel like what they’re saying is very meaningful. You also know how
to comprehend the experiences of other people as if they were own. This keeps you constantly
stimulated when talking to others. You love people and you believe that there is something
amazing about everyone’s point of view or, at least, you want to believe that.
It’s an attitude that’s always made you popular and your time in grade school probably
proved that. Jupiter ruling the 3rd House means that your experiences in school while growing
up were very beneficial to you. You enjoyed the wide variety of classes you had to take, seeing
the beauty in or fascinating quality about every subject. However, if you were an excellent
student, you weren’t exactly motivated by academics. Yes, you loved being in the classroom
and having all this information thrown at you. But, you just wanted to get all the A’s you could
get. To you, learning was about the benefits and the good fortune that came with it: being on
the Honor Roll, emerging in the top percentage of your class, winning the favor of adults in
your life. You were probably that classic bright kid who passed all their tests solely for the sake
of passing the tests, forgetting all the information as soon as it’s over.
Sagittarius on the 3rd House cusp can also cause you to feel like whatever intelligent
attributes you have are somehow accidental or due to luck. Although you may have gotten
great grades in school, it may not have been something that actually made you believe that
you’re smart. Unfortunately, Libra Rising children are very susceptible to believing that they are
valued more for their looks or their niceness than the brain that they have. But, this influence
does give you the potential to have a super-sized brain and a lot of this has to do with how
broad-minded you are. This displayed itself in grade school through your ability to accumulate a
ton of information socially. You most likely went through school feeling popular and having such
a social position allowed you to converse with many different people. You knew all the gossip
about everyone and, in spite of your kind demeanor, displayed an ability to very much engage
in that gossip that still carries into your adult life. Yet, you are capable of getting away with it,
for the most part, because you communicate in such a benevolent manner that it always either
seems like you’re saying what you’re saying out of concern or in an easygoing fashion.

LIBRA RISING
227

Since the 3rd House describes your relationship with your siblings, it’s rare for abundant
Sagittarius in the 3rd to produce an only child. You might’ve been blessed with a lot of brothers
and sisters, contributing to that sense of always being in people’s company and rarely, if ever,
being alone. But, even if you only had a couple siblings or one other sibling, you have always
experienced them as being a lot to deal with. Depending on the aspects to your Jupiter, you
either had a truly awesome bond with your brother or sister that made you feel like you always
had each other’s pack or there was an overwhelming, often ridiculous sibling rivalry there that
you were constantly trying to sort out. In the former case, you’re very used to feeling so
inspired by your sibling, like there is so much positivity between you two, and you carry this
into your communicative patterns with others. In the latter situation, however, your ability to
play the peacemaker compels you to constantly see things from their perspective and to say
whatever you need to say to keep things going smoothly, even if you don’t believe it.
CAPRICORN ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
We’ve already discussed that your pleasant, placid demeanor can hide a great deal of
unhappiness. But, you’ve been conditioned to deal with things in this manner because of
Capricorn being on the 4th House cusp. It’s a major part of how you were raised. Very
commonly, Libra Rising people come from families (4th House) that care a great deal about
having the right image or reputation (Capricorn), to the point of being highly status-conscious
or even classist. Your family may be of great prominence and stature, through career
achievements or public recognition or an old-money sort of legacy. The total opposite could be
true, with you coming from a family that was really struggling financially or not very successful
and on the receiving end of plenty of classism because of that. Either way, you grew up with an
overly high awareness of what people thought of you and your family situation. That was a
burden due to the pressures of coming from such a well-regarded family or the sense of failure
and inadequacy that stemmed from growing up poor or disadvantaged.
This doesn’t make it easy to deal with your family or come to terms with what happened
during your childhood. No one’s family is perfect and everyone’s childhood had some problems.
But, with Saturn ruling your house of family and upbringing, it takes much more work for you
than the average person to deal with your loved ones. The house cusp Capricorn is on, after all,
does represent our greatest struggles. So, you will spend a significant part of your life
struggling to feel truly at home with the people you’re supposed to feel at home with. You

LIBRA RISING
228

might feel like you never really get the support from them that you are supposed to get or that
there was something that you fundamentally needed from them as a child that you never got,
which is a feeling that carries over into adulthood. You handled this, when you were a kid, by
growing up quickly and learning to take care of yourself. You had to be strong at an early age,
due to various difficulties that defined your home life, and soon became quite a rock for your
loved ones to lean on. But, who can you lean on? Who’s taking care of you?
A major source of this mindset will be your father. With this influence, your father figure was
a highly dominant influence in your upbringing, for better or for worse. Many people with
Capricorn in the 4th have fathers who are completely overwhelming presences in the
household. He might have ruled the roost with an iron fist, exhibiting a strictness or a no-
nonsense manner that nobody dared to question, or he could have been the parent that you
were much closer to. Also, having a single father who played both the maternal and paternal
role is common. But, there was something about the family dynamic that made him the center
of everything and you were very much your father’s child.
Since the 4th House tells us what role we play within our families, you felt like you needed to
be a lot like your dad. You might’ve followed very much in his footsteps or heeded a lot of his
advice. As you grew up, your loved ones may have remarked how much you were like him.
You also developed a remarkable self-discipline because of your father and how he raised you.
In spite of your easygoing air, you have a strong work ethic deeply conditioned within you. Yet,
as much as this dynamic helped you, you might have grown up feeling like you didn’t receive as
much support or validation from Dad as you needed. You also came to resent how rigidly he
governed the household, turning you into a good, obedient little child who had to follow all the
rules or else.
Now, something else that is very common here is the father who isn’t around at all. This
could be because he walked out on the family at an early age, because he’s highly unreliable
and unable to handle his fatherly duties, or because he passed away in your early years. In any
case, there are a lot of Libra Risings who grow up feeling like they don’t really have a father.
While this may make you think that he didn’t play a very pivotal role in your childhood, he
actually did. You still took on the role of the father in your family, even though you felt like or
were a fatherless child, because you had to fill in the empty gap that he left. You probably took
on many responsibilities around the house, like working as early as you could, and became a

LIBRA RISING
229

source of steadiness for your family, providing your home with the paternal energy it needed.
This meant that you grew up convinced that you didn’t need anyone because you were the one
providing your loved ones with a strength that kept them going. But, in the end, you still
secretly felt neglected.
An inability to truly be vulnerable is something you can really struggle with. This prevents you
from ever having the support system you need in life. You were raised to be strong all the time,
either because of a tough-loving kind of father figure or because you didn’t want to make your
family’s life more difficult than it already was. However, you must learn how to find strength in
a space of vulnerability. If not, you’ll never truly feel safe or at home, with yourself or with
anyone else. As an adult, living with other people can be hard because you feel such an urge to
guard yourself all the time, not wanting them to see past the pretty exterior and understand the
giant messes you always seem to be working through. The 4th House shows us how our history
can repeat itself. Capricorn on the 4th House cusp means that you can be desperate to keep up
appearances, as you were taught growing up, which makes your home life increasingly difficult
because you will find it hard to get deeply personal with others. You have to learn that people
thinking the best of you all the time isn’t that important. You have to know when to be real.
With a Capricorn Nadir, it is hard for you to be raw and unguarded yet being able to go to
that place with others, as well as just with yourself, is what will finally allow you to feel safe.
You have to truly be willing to let people support you and care for you. Just because you felt
like you didn’t get your needs truly met as a child doesn’t mean that you have to prevent
people from satisfying your needs as an adult. When it comes to your family, you will have to
truly figure out if they are able to give you what you need. In some cases, there can just be
long-held resentments and misunderstandings from childhood that stand in the way of a great
relationship with them. But, many people with this influence come to realize that, in spite of
their flaws, their family actually is an incredible source of support for them. Even if they may
not be demonstrative or easy to deal with in the way you’d like for them to be, they are still
there for you when and how it counts. However, just as many of you might have to recognize
and accept that your family actually isn’t the right support system for you, that they provide you
with more discomfort and strife than they do happiness, and that changing the relationship with
them in some vital sense is the only way you can truly be happy.

LIBRA RISING
230

Understanding this requires you to fully take charge of your private life. You are an adult now
and you’re the one in control. If your father was overly dominant or too authoritarian, then you
will have to usurp him, moving away from that child self to understand that you are the one
making the rules now. Be grateful for the discipline he instilled within you. Just don’t feel like
you need to be subjected to it anymore. If your father wasn’t there for someone or left you
feeling abandoned, you have to stop needing someone to be the Dad you lost or never had.
This is why you can be so guarded: you expect people to leave or let you down just like he did.
But, the truth is that you took that difficulty and turned it around. Even as a child, you
displayed a maturity that allowed you to unofficially act as the other parent in the house. So,
you just have to tap into that in order to have the home, the family, that you want to have now
as an adult. If there are certain things about your personal life or your family situation that
aren’t working, change them. You’re the one ruling the roost now.

AQUARIUS ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP


When you’re living in the moment, you’re living in your head and in a rather far-out way.
Aquarius on the 5th House cusp indicates that you’re an intellectual yet it’s a quality about you
that isn’t easily understood, either by other people or by you. Unfortunately, you are sometimes
reduced to superficial attributes, like your good looks or your charm, that prevents people from
recognizing just how brilliant you actually can be. At the same time, you may not fully recognize
it, either, because of your focus on said attributes. Since Aquarius is also a progressive sign,
having it in the house of self-expression makes the typical Libra Rising a highly modern sort of
being. If you’re a man, you love women and aren’t afraid of your feminine side all while having
a GQ brand of masculinity. If you’re a woman, you actually have a great deal of masculine
energy that is juxtaposed to the girly-girl side that you are very prone to expressing. At heart,
you are someone who cannot be put into a box.
With the 5th House representing one’s expression as a child, your nonconforming side was
very evident as a child. Aquarius in the 5th produces boys that are softer, more refined, or
much more aesthetic than athletic and girls that are tomboys or that display a leadership quality
that doesn’t make them shrinking violets. You stood out amongst your peers, not just for

LIBRA RISING
231

breaking the mold but because of your intelligence. You were a gifted child in some capacity
and this could’ve translated into being put in gifted classes or recognized for your unusual
intellect. However, the more applause you received for your brainpower, the more skeptical you
became of said praise. This became true of any validation you received. Wherever Aquarius is in
our birth chart is the way in which we will go against expectations. So, a part of you never
wanted to be some sort of genius or prodigy, especially since that level of special attention only
made you feel like you didn’t fit in. Yet, the curious thing is that, whenever you didn’t get that
attention, you wanted it, as you were so used to standing out from everyone else.
You display the same patterns now as an adult. You want to be unique and you want to fit in,
at the same time. Even though you’re smart, you don’t want to be so smart that it intimidates
people or prevents them from relating to you. Even though you have a gender-bending
temperament, you don’t take it to the point where it truly alienates people or stops you from
feeling accepted. Therefore, your creative energy stems from knowing just how to push things
to that edge without being controversial about it. Whatever you’re good at, you put your own
stamp of uniqueness on it all while not showing off or tooting your horn very loudly. But, you
still want to toot it because you take pride in being able to stand out from the crowd. In order
to do that, you realize that you have to be one of the crowd.
This will also make you feel very creatively inspired whenever you are collaborating with
other people. Focusing on the talent of others frees you up from putting undue pressure on
yourself in regards to your talents. But, you also need to make sure that you’re not disregarding
your talent, either. The detachment of Aquarius means that you can have a hard time seeing
just what’s so awesome about you or what you’re good at. You innately understand that a
significant part of your charisma, your star quality, stems from not really wanting to be a star.
As a result, you will find that other people push you into the spotlight or shine a spotlight on
you without you even seeking it out. But, that doesn’t mean that you should dismiss their
adulation. Turning that attention to others, due to an insistence of never being selfish, should
not be so compulsive that you forget that you need to shine just like everyone else.
As a child, you displayed a certain aloofness or unpredictability that could be dramatically
expressed in the face of people’s interest in you. Since you’re so used to spreading love toward
everyone, being faced with someone who tries to get too up close and personal has always
caused you to become distant. Growing up caused you to quiet that side of yourself down to a

LIBRA RISING
232

certain degree. But, that sense of self-expression is still there, which is why you may seem to
not care much about getting attention for your creative efforts. In terms of romance, you can
also end up coming off as unmoved or detached. Even though you treat everyone you date
kindly and cordially, you all too easily lose interest. A very frequent pattern of yours is
becoming increasingly distant toward those who seem eager for your heart all while harboring a
growing infatuation those who keep themselves at arm’s length. This will often be people with a
strong Uranus or Aquarius influence who make it hard for you to pin them down or to feel a
truly personal connection with them.
Your dating life is in a constant state of chaos and never goes the way you expect it to or
want it to. Your inner teenager lives for those thrilling ups and downs, starts and stops,
because you developed a sense of romance, in your adolescence, that made it feel like an
electrifying, unpredictable experience. You get hit with those feelings of romance seemingly out
of nowhere, in a very abrupt and sudden fashion, and then things inevitably get turned upside
down. Also, you constantly get involved with love interests who are highly casual and seemingly
quite unromantic. But, it will always seem like it’s a viable love affair until they unexpectedly
grow distant or even turn cold. Meanwhile, there are people who want to be with you that
you’re disregarding, for one reason or another. Giving your heart to people who you think can
return the love to you but can’t, all while closing your heart to those who can, is a frustrating
part of your love life you have to work with.
Uranus ruling the 5th shows the importance of prioritizing friendship over romance. This can
mean having a pseudo-romantic connection with friends that no significant other could ever
come in-between (you need your lovers to be able to hang out with all of your friends on a
regular basis) or giving your heart to someone who starts out as a friend. In any case, you
express yourself from the heart by being a great friend. As a result, you can become good
friends with someone who you dated or be in a space where you are technically dating but
you’re really just friends. This is where your progressive nature must shine through.
Approaching dating and love from a conventional mindset is only going to keep this part of your
life in a maddening state of chaos.
You’ll experience an equal amount of craziness when children come into the picture. More
than the next person, your kids will totally turn your life upside down. You’ll be a mom or dad
to quirky, unique, unpredictable children, with a strong Uranus or Aquarius placements, who

LIBRA RISING
233

reflect the eccentricities of your inner child. Knowing how to be more of a friend to your kids,
an open-minded, accepting, and nontraditional parent, will allow the relationship to flourish.
But, it’s also very possible that you could choose to just not have children. You can be that
classic person who loves kids when they’re not yours, playing the role of the cool aunt, uncle,
cousin, or family friend, connecting with children and having fun with them all while being able
to hand them back to their parents and live your own life.
PISCES ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
Due to our tendency to neglect or be out of touch with the matters of the house cusp we
have Pisces on, this influence means that it’s hard for you to know what truly is and isn’t
productive. You very easily feel overwhelmed by all of life’s day-to-day concerns and tasks.
Your response to this can be to either avoid it all or to be totally possessed by a yearning to
work. It’s also true that you can go back and forth between these two modes, continually
neglecting your work or your daily tasks until you get to a disastrous point where you can’t
anymore. Then, you end up becoming highly consumed by everything you have to get done.
You get lost in your work and being in a particularly hard-working groove can virtually put you
in a trance. How you are able to effectively pull it all off is quite a mystery to you.
With Pisces in the 6th, you work best when you don’t exactly know what you’re doing. It’s like
you throw yourself into the ocean and somehow know how to swim back to the shore, even
though you didn’t think you knew how to swim. The greatest solutions to your problems are
located deeply within you. However, being consciously aware of this is hard. You can then seek
out a sense of efficiency or order in something outside of yourself. This reflects an unconscious
drive to find an organizing principle in something that is very intuitive, spiritual, or imaginative.
Yet, it also leaves you very susceptible to losing yourself in something or someone else because
you think that’s going to fix all of your problems.
Another drawback of this placement is how compelled you feel to fix the problems of other
people. It’s as if having your own mess to (sometimes) clean up is not enough. Instead, you
seek out the messes of other people. There is something deep within you that just wants to
help and it’s evident through your kindness and concern for other people. But, how are you
going to provide them with truly helpful solutions when you can’t even do the same for
yourself? Not realizing that you have the same problem as the person who you’re trying to
correct will cause you to project a lot of your mistakes and inefficiencies on to them. Neptune

LIBRA RISING
234

ruling the 6th makes you, at times, overly aware of how flawed you are. However, these flaws
make you feel like you’re never going to be truly loved or accepted. So, you compensate for
that by expressing great kindness toward the faults and the missteps of other people, doing
whatever you can to help them work through them.
Pisces is the archetype of selfless sacrifice and with it ruling your house of work ethic and
daily routine, you put a lot of time and effort into being selfless. You readily set aside whatever
you’re doing in order to help someone else. In the process, you fail to straighten yourself out,
blindly focusing on straightening other people out. But, does that even work? Sometimes, you
hit a wall. The other person isn’t listening or your advice and assistance doesn’t seem to change
much in their lives or they seem to not even care about the help you’re providing. Thinking that
selflessness is what gets things done will compel you to do things for people without any sense
of personal boundaries. Then, you will feel frustrated with them because they’re not really
working with you or appear to not care about your efforts. When this happens, instead of
pulling the “after all I’ve done for you” card, you should stop and recognize that feeling so
dissatisfied with them is an opportunity to work on yourself.
There is a certain point where that unselfishness of yours does more harm than good. But,
the primary recipient of that harm will be you, not others. You have to know when to pull back
from other people and handle the personal things that you have to handle. It will be tough
because, being as giving and kind as you are, you’ll experience what seems like an endless slew
of requests for help from others. What stresses you out (6th House) the most is not being able
to say no or set boundaries (Pisces). This also leads to health issues that can make you
constantly sick in a sympathetic way. You might always get sick when someone else does, to
the point where it’s seriously psychosomatic, like someone talking about their sore throat and
then your throat suddenly feeling sore. Also, when you become ill, it’s often a sign that you
need to rest, that you’re taking on more stress than your sensitive system can handle.
Periods of recharging help you remain productive. You definitely cannot afford to go through
life running on empty. It can’t just be about work, work, work. You have the opportunity to use
your work as a way to emotionally replenish. Having a space where you can fix things and bring
about solutions helps you feel less overwhelmed or confused. Remaining in touch with a certain
kind of serenity will give you the mindset you need to work hard without working yourself into
the ground. You’ll also know that any sort of help that you provide for others that gets in the

LIBRA RISING
235

way of that serenity needs to be curbed or eliminated altogether, depending on how badly it
disturbs your peace. This allows you to find your inner healing, which can translate into physical
healing in an amazing way. When you learn to effectively tend to yourself, with as much
empathy as you extend toward others, you’ll overcome any constant sickness you may endure.
ARIES ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
The sign on our 7th House cusp, also known as the Descendant, represents the parts of your
self-expression that you may not be fully aware of but that emerge through your connections
with and influence on other people. Having Aries on the 7th House cusp means that you may
not be fully aware of how aggressive, even combative, you can be. After all, being a Libra
Rising conditions you to see yourself as sugar, spice, everything nice. You might focus so much
on being fair or likable or thoughtful that you don’t realize that there’s a side to you that can be
very self-focused and intent on getting what you want. Let’s be honest: sometimes, the real
underlying motivation to all of your mediating and influencing is to get people to do what you
want them to do. You’re a master at doing so, all while making them believe that it’s for their
own good. You can sincerely believe that yourself, which is why it’s hard for you to see that
you’re making everything work out to your advantage.
But, you will meet some significant challenges in your close, personal relationships, in terms
of those who do not go along with you so willingly or easily. You’re very used to wrapping
people around your finger. So, you will feel quite thrown off by the close friends, romantic
partners, or other important companions that you attract into your life who resist your influence
quite strongly, often flat-out refusing to do what you want them to do. The Aries Descendant
means that you will regularly find yourself closely connected to firecracker type of people. Your
ideal partner is someone with Aries placements or an angular Mars who is very much their own
person and is willing to fight for their independence. In fact, if you don’t remain aware of their
desire to do their own thing, you will be rudely reminded. These people will not be afraid to
push back and let you know that you do not own them.
With Mars as the ruler of your 7th, you will very often find yourself feeling frustrated by these
companions or will feel like they are just out for themselves. Since you see yourself as such an
arbiter of fairness, you cannot stand selfishness in other people. It’s true that you can end up in
some unhappy relationships with those who are overly aggressive, too self-involved, or
constantly inconsiderate of you. But, these are often extreme situations that you end up in to

LIBRA RISING
236

remind yourself that this isn’t what you want out of a partnership. Due to the projection that
runs rampant in the 7th, you may sometimes feel like the other person has the aforementioned
traits when they’re really not that bad. Yes, they may sometimes be a bit too wrapped up in
themselves or have buttons that are easily pushed. However, your issues with these traits in
them simply reflect your issues with those qualities within yourself.
You feel so compelled to be the nice one, the one who gets along with everyone or does
what’s right for everyone, that you can become out of touch with yourself and what you truly
want. This causes you to have a lot of anger that has built up within that you don’t entirely
know what to do with. A part of you would love to just tip the scales in your interactions with
others, not caring if you’re throwing everyone else off balance because you’re still in balance.
Therefore, you’re drawn toward bold, blunt, assertive, or self-reliant people who play out this
energy for you. While their fiery, forward, independent nature is very attractive, it can also
easily become a source of contention for you. Yet, when you’re complaining about them being
rude or just thinking of themselves, you should stop and ask yourself if you’d like to express
more of those energies yourself.
Whether you realize it or not, you already live out your Aries Descendant qualities in your
relationships. Your vanity, your desire to see a certain image when you look in the mirror, can
make you sometimes very wrapped up in yourself. Your people skills make you an excellent
leader and you’re capable of being the one who acts in order to get things going for others. On
a one-on-one level, you light a fire under other people. Even though you may seem indecisive
or lazy, you feel much more active and dynamic when you’re doing what you can to spur others
to dynamic action. This is why you love being around those forces to be reckoned with who
know how to live life fully and don’t back down from any challenge or new, exciting situation.
Also, due to you being this relationship guru, you will put a lot of energy into making sure that
the other person is getting what they want. This means you encourage plenty of directness in
others, urging them to get their true feelings and desires out there on the table.
It's for this reason that you’re most compatible with direct, tell-it-like-it-is individuals. Even if
it leads to some friction, you’d rather get it all out there. In general, you do hate conflict. But,
you will come to realize that it’s inevitable when it comes to the important people in your life, as
the 7th House represents the experiences that we draw to us without even trying. You’ll be
faced with interpersonal friction because your companions don’t “yes” you to death and are

LIBRA RISING
237

such strong individuals that you have to stand up to them. It also could be because they’re very
argumentative. A relationship with non-stop fighting isn’t going to be good for you. That’s your
nightmare. But, many Libra Risings have to go through the ringer with someone else, usually a
significant other, who is so full of rage and animosity and even violent patterns in order to shed
their deep fear of conflict. You will then come out on the other side, stronger and able to stand
your ground with others. You’ll discover the part of yourself that is downright fierce.
It’s at this stage that you will be increasingly direct in your relationships, to the point of being
unafraid to tell the other person off, put them in their place, or push their buttons. No more Mr.
Nice Guy or Mrs. Nice Girl! Allowing yourself and others to let off some steam is what will bring
true balance to these unions. Aries in the 7th also means being able to bravely walk away from
any relationship that isn’t good for you. This is a hard thing for you to wrap your head around,
since you’re so other-focused. But, you end up finding a great deal of independence through
many of your partnerships. Know exactly what you want from someone else and do not settle
whatsoever for anything less. To avoid being alone, you often find yourself, especially in a
romantic sense, with people who aren’t giving you what you want at all and showing no real
concern for your feelings or desires.
This is why it’s so important for you to focus on the relationship with yourself. Do you know
how much you could be accomplishing and getting done if you weren’t worrying so much about
others? Having the right kind of close friends or romantic partners in your life will help you
understand this. Through their fierce independence, their ability to exist happily alone and focus
on their individual endeavors, they will show you your potential for “doing you.” Ultimately, you
can co-exist successfully together if you both have your own lanes to operate in. You can also
help each other be at your best and take life head-on. Whenever you need a boost of strength
or a new surge of motivation, your partner can provide it for you, influencing you through their
enterprising, courageous nature. You’ll be able to be the same influence on them, constantly
encouraging them and letting them know that they can be anybody and do anything.
TAURUS ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
The emotional scars that you’ve developed throughout life have to do with your self-esteem.
You have insecurities that can run very deeply yet you keep them secret or bottled-up because
you wouldn’t want them to interfere with your self-image as this very desirable individual. But,
they are still brewing beneath the surface and can have a particularly destructive effect on your

LIBRA RISING
238

life. Any time you are trying desperately to hold on to something that makes you feel good –
whether it’s validation, material possessions, or another person – you will experience a sense of
turmoil and psychological pain. The irony about this placement is that what you think brings
you comfort is actually a source of torment. Something or someone can seemingly make you
feel good all while pushing you to the edge emotionally. It’s exceptionally hard for you to give
up your attachment to things or people, which only furthers that painful cycle.
Taurus in the 8th indicates that the emotional issues you have stem from either being
seriously devalued at some point in your life, to the point where you felt worthless, or being so
addicted to other people’s love that you became a bottomless pit for it. Of course, it’s nice to
feel loved. But, for you, love can come with a serious cost. This might also have been reflected
literally by certain people in your family or romantic partners who provided for you financially
yet with plenty of strings painfully attached. Having an abusive or toxic individual make you
financially dependent on them is something that not only you experience. It can be a running
pattern in your family. Many of your loved ones, throughout the generations, could have found
themselves stuck in toxic, unhealthy, or unhappy situations because they didn’t have the
material resources to leave.
This is the emotional inheritance you grapple with that leaves you physically stuck in harmful
circumstances. That definitely could involve not knowing when to cut someone out of your life
and staying in romantic situations that are truly no good for you. Other people may develop a
frustrated, “just leave” attitude toward you because of that. Your dark side emerges when you
cannot break your attachment to situations and people that tear down or do not support your
self-esteem. In romantic relationships, this can be especially destructive. Those with their
Ascendant in Libra are prone to being those classic people who seem to be in a wonderful
relationship but are being cheated on, degraded, unappreciated, and even abused, behind
closed doors. Such patterns can also extend to casual love affairs or any other bond that you’ve
become so used to that you can’t let go of it, no matter how unhappy it makes you.
Venus is ruling the 8th House here and this means that your desperate attachment to people
reflects this belief you have that any love is better than no love at all. But, you’ve got to
seriously transform your beliefs about what love is and isn’t. This requires you to develop some
mighty self-love. The 8th House represents how we find our inner power and with Taurus on
the 8th House cusp, you’re at your most powerful when you have strong self-worth. You must

LIBRA RISING
239

know that there’s a form of security inside of you that’s so internal that no one can take it from
you. This can help you work through the pain or trauma of someone or something being taken
away from you and leaving you feeling very unstable. This is an influence that can indicate a
major loss of a loved one who was a real rock for you or your financial station being highly
rocky in your early life, especially if you have placements in Taurus here. But, instead of holding
on for dear life, you find much deeper security by letting go.
There will always be a part of you that is ferociously possessive, particularly in love, and that
can also become worryingly complacent in the midst of a bad situation. But, this is the shadow
side of you that you just have to manage. You have to know that you come from this long line
of people who went through pain because they didn’t know their worth, because they didn’t
have strong values, because they dug their claws into their money or their lovers and refused to
let go. You’ve also had money used against you in order to diminish you. But, you will be able
to pull yourself out of that cycle when you know that money is powerful yet the soul holds and
exerts far more power than money ever will. This will turn things around and prevent you from
getting involved in situations where you either feel powerless alongside someone who has all
the money or where you are trying to gain power from another person’s money.
However, you’re not afraid of correlating sex with money, in some vital way, which can either
be problematic or sex-positive. A lot of Libra Risings get the message early on that it’s alright to
stay with someone romantically if they are providing well for you financially. This is what leaves
so many of you in situations where your partner makes you unhappy or isn’t fulfilling you yet
they make so much money that you don’t leave. A certain sugar-baby or gold-digging lifestyle
can stem from this mindset. Taurus in the 8th causes many of you to not even blink at the
prospect of having sex for money. Being as classy as you are, you won’t broadcast it openly but
you also won’t knock it and may even try it. As long as it’s all consensual, why not? Intimacy
issues can arise, though, when sex only becomes transactional and not just in terms of money.
You might be overly focused on a certain “bottom line” in your sexual encounters. Feeling too
wounded in love can put you in a psychological place where it’s only sex to you, nothing else,
giving sex as much intimacy as one of an escort’s dalliances.
You’re very sexual and have a tremendous appetite for it. But, there are certain physical
aspects of sex that you might struggle with. It could take you a particularly long time to
orgasm. You also may be either overly sensitive to pain and discomfort or such a glutton for

LIBRA RISING
240

pain that it doesn’t even feel pleasurable anymore. This could reflect a psychological belief that
it’s only love if the other person is hurting you. Since Taurus in the 8th is a contradictory
influence, you will have to find that sweet spot between pleasure and pain in order to fully
enjoy sex. You don’t want it too nice and easy. However, you will be surprised how much your
sexual intimacy will improve if you aren’t so intent on being smacked around or ending up with
bruises. In short, you need to learn how to “make love”. Let your sexual partner treat you
nicely and value you, instead of degrade you. Having the lit candles and soft music going can
really enhance the experience. You know how to go on for a long time. But, when there is a
truly loving connection there, you are much more able to climax. It’s why you can really benefit
from waiting until you feel real affection for someone to sleep with them.
GEMINI ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
Being able to believe two things at once is a hallmark trait of the Libra Ascendant individual.
Thanks to having Gemini on the 9th House cusp, your convictions (9th House) are rather
dualistic (Gemini). But, instead of seeing this as flaky or indecisive or fence-sitting, you think of
it as evidence of your open-mindedness. You possess a strong yearning to experience a wide
range of ideas, which makes you highly open to suggestion. If you’re doing something and
someone comes along with another idea, it can take all of a few seconds for them to convince
you to go off with them. The upside of this is a flexibility that makes relationships seemingly
easier. The downside is that you are sometimes too easily swayed. As much as you are this
master influencer of others, you are equally easily influenced by the people around you.
But, the way you see it is that pursuing new ideas is what enriches your journey. Since the
9th House represents our path of personal growth, you grow as a person by dabbling in
numerous things. This can mean having an ever-increasing range of interests that takes you
from doing one thing to the next. It also could indicate being on one course but being just as
receptive to the alternative course. Already, we see the overlap here between having
Sagittarius on the 3rd House cusp and Gemini on the 9th House cusp. They are very similar.
However, the difference here is that with this placement, you are learning, through experience,
that logic, curiosity, and versatility enhance your life and bring you positivity. Sagittarius in the
3rd can lead to over-thinking that seems to get you somewhere yet really doesn’t. In this
house, you are actually going to those various places through the various ideas of you and
others.

LIBRA RISING
241

Gemini is a sign of ambiguity and with it ruling the 9th, you know how to live in a distinct
shade of grey. In fact, it feels inherently right for you to do so. Believing with equal conviction
that you seriously dislike someone and that it’s important to be civil and kind to them is one
way this can manifest. Also, having a craving for two mutually exclusive things that you
somehow convince yourself aren’t mutually exclusive at all is another way this energy expresses
itself. While you want to be with someone romantically, you also want to maintain the flirty, fun
joy that single life gives you. You might really want to take another job opportunity yet feel just
as compelled to stay because the security or the people. Whenever one opportunity presents
itself, your mind inevitably goes to the opposite. And then, even when you go after the opposite
circumstance, you go back to wanting the former. It’s clear, then, that you’re far from an easy
person to pin down, even when you want to make people feel like you are out of a desire for
likability or companionship.
This is a part of you that fully flourishes once you go off to college or leave home. With
Mercury as the 9th House ruler, your late teens and early twenties were a whirlwind time for
you. There were so many options for you to explore and so little time! In doing so, you
discovered the part of yourself that was up for mischief. Being the good little child you were,
you grow into this influence by learning that you cannot always fit into that obedient box. A
compulsion to be bad can emerge, with the devil on your shoulder getting louder and louder.
Making bad decisions is, after all, another way of exploring all of the ideas that pop into your
head or going against whatever you were currently experiencing. During the college years,
many Libra Risings can start rebelling, become frustratingly inconsistent, cheat on their
partners, or get involved with the wrong kind of people. But, you eventually learn from it all.
It’s like sticking your hand on the hot burner. It seems like a great idea, at the time, and you
don’t know that it’s not until you actually do it and get burned.
Throughout this time, an intent to go against the idea that people had of you also could’ve
developed that stuck with you over time. Unwilling to be what others wanted you to be
anymore, you started to do the opposite of what was expected of or projected on to you. The
boy or girl that people knew before will still be there but will also have a startling doppleganger
by their side. You develop that side of you to compensate for what you felt like you lacked
before, which may be confidence, independence, strength of will, or an ability to speak up.
Gemini in the 9th means that you’re on a journey to really find your voice. Knowing that you

LIBRA RISING
242

have something to say and freely, honestly communicating it is the key to your personal
growth. College could have given you this experience and it’s why higher education is so
important to a lot of people with this influence. Being able to speak up in the classroom and
share your ideas helps you do so in the classroom of life.
But, having such a strong belief that you’re logical also means that you can sometimes share
your thoughts with an underlying sense of dogmatism. “I’ll listen to you but I’m right” is the
vibe you tend to give off when conversing with others. Don’t be so intent on mediating or
influencing that you believe the other person should be thinking what you’re thinking. However,
being the reasonable soul you are, you’re always capable of moving forward from any
conversation, in spite of what has been said. You learn from whatever people say and can turn
anything someone says to you into a positive, whether that means diplomatically redirecting the
subject, flipping their words into a compliment, or using any negative speech from someone as
an opportunity to learn more about them or yourself.
CANCER ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
With a Cancer Midheaven, you gain a lot of your emotional fulfillment from what you do for a
living. You possess a deep need to be successful, since you always want to be thought well of,
and that innate ambition can very naturally take you to great heights of achievement. You also
need a career and public position that you can be very emotionally invested in and connected
to. As a result, the people that you move and touch out in the world will feel very emotionally
invested in and connected to you. It’s another aspect of that very relational quality that you
have. You have the ability to really make people feel for you. While your public self can have
this tender, vulnerable, or sympathetic quality, you might not personally identify with being that
way. You’re so rational, after all, and your high expectations of relationships can make you
rather cool-headed or aware of decorum when interacting with others. But, the Midheaven pulls
us out of our comfort zone. Therefore, with the Moon ruling the Midheaven, you are being
challenged to embrace all of your feelings, even when they’re messy or embarrassing.
The house cusp that Cancer is on says a lot about your bond with your mother figure. This
placement usually makes the mother seem distant and out-of-reach throughout the childhood.
Maybe it was because she worked so much that she didn’t spend as much quality time with you
or maybe she was just rather unemotional and calculated. It always seemed like your Mom had
it all together and it’s because she had to. She may have been a single mother, an amazing

LIBRA RISING
243

businesswoman, the breadwinner of the family, or was very in-control and made everyone else
fall in line. The Mom tends to “wear the pants” around the house, someway, because of this
position. This makes her a real example of strength for you and many Cancer Midheaven people
grow up wanting to be just like their mother. But, you could’ve felt that pressure anyway
because your maternal figure was probably a huge deal in her community. Everyone seemed to
know her and speak of her and, therefore, you were always being compared to her.
Feeling a lot like your mother’s child is something that could’ve heavily defined your teenage
years, which is when our Midheaven starts fully coming into focus. From this age on, people will
always associate you with her and you could’ve felt an insistence from her to live up to or not
hurt her image. You developed a deep need to achieve something in your own right to step out
of her shadow, which might have been made more difficult by the fact that she was constantly
involving herself in your accomplishments and planning your every future move with you. Yet,
this allowed you to develop an intuitive (Cancer) sense of strategy (Midheaven). You spent your
teens always reacting to the image of your mother or the image she wanted you to have. It
only reinforced your awareness of appearances as well as developed this understanding of how
to be a success. You felt like you needed to achieve things to further the relationship with your
Mom, which, in negative cases, indicates a stage-mother type. But, this only makes you deeply
in tune with what’s going to be a success and what isn’t.
In the process, you become equally in tune with what people are feeling and what they need
and how that can help you achieve things. You truly have your finger on the pulse, which is
why so many Libra Risings have an uncanny understanding of what’s trending and how to take
advantage of it. But, feeling such a duty to be so sensitive to others’ needs can also become
overwhelming. This is when you start taking care of everyone else more than you do yourself.
If you’re not taking good care of yourself, you will have some serious emotional episodes and
breakdowns before the world. Such patterns could’ve begun in high school, which is when a
moodier, more reactive side of you emerged in the face of everyone’s pressures and demands.
But, having a reputation for this is what makes so many people sympathize with you easily. You
receive so much love and appreciation because you make others just want to support you.
How much you’re receiving that support is going to determine your feeling of success. You’re
highly reactive in the face of any achievement or failure. A successful moment in your career
can make you feel like all is well while any perceived setback or flop can turn you into an

LIBRA RISING
244

emotional wreck. The former can make you feel very loved while the latter convinces you that
nobody cares about you or loves you. This all stems from issues you have with your family and
in your personal life that you’re compensating for in your public and professional life.
Unconsciously, you’re seeking the sense of family you may feel like you’re lacking.
Working through issues with your mother figure is going to be especially important in terms
of reaching the right level of success. Having a very challenging and adverse relationship with
the mother is common here. But, you cannot still be angry at her. You cannot still hold the
ways in which you felt like she failed against you. If you do, you will easily feel like you’re a
failure and will also, like some desperate child, constantly seek the love and care from the world
that you believe you didn’t get from her. Your journey through adulthood, then, involves really
understanding that inner child. On the contrary, you may have an excellent relationship with
your mother that’s still somehow acting as a hurdle. She could be too involved in your business,
too eager to exert her influence, even if she means well. You might also be following too much
in her footsteps and trying to be her (regardless of your gender) instead of being yourself. In
this case, you have to admit that you’re too dependent on her and truly become an adult.
Whatever the case, once you develop a more adult relationship with your mother, you will
truly become a maternal figure for the world. As a Cancer Midheaven, you are most recognized
and respected when you are providing other people with an amazing kind of support,
sensitivity, and understanding. Any job that requires caring for others, whether that’s
counseling or working with children or animals, will be right for you. But, even by taking a
caregiving approach to your work and public affairs, you will be on the right track. Being known
as this great nurturer will allow you to create real family environments on the job. You will work
to make everyone feel safe and comfortable. Already a people pleaser, you are growing into the
kind of adult who truly understands what people need. Working with your actual family is a
common pattern here as well, whether that means letting your mother manage you, joining or
creating family businesses, or employing your loved ones.
All of this comfort is something that truly helps you let your guard down. It’s a contradictory
effect because you are learning how to be vulnerable in public or at work. On a personal level,
you are very concerned with what’s appropriate and tasteful. Messy emotions often do not fit
into that category. But, having this Midheaven means that you will be forced to deal with and
express those emotions through your work and public role. Utilizing your career as an emotional

LIBRA RISING
245

outlet is an excellent strategy for you, which routinely leads many people with Cancer in the
10th into anything artistic like singing, acting, or writing. As a result, your place in society can
make you seem more emotional and reactive than you really are. There is a certain “craziness”
that you are learning to adopt to gain recognition. People will appreciate that messy, loony
image because it will make you seem very real. The world wants to feel a real emotional bond
with you and you have to be willing to let it all hang out to cultivate it.
LEO ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
The house where we have Leo is where we’re able to shine yet having it in the 11th House is
a paradox, like all of your house cusps. This influence shows that you regularly feel distanced
from the spotlight. Either that or you distance yourself from it. There is a sense of detachment
that you experience in terms of feeling like a star or special. Being so focused on others doesn’t
give you enough time to focus on yourself. Even when you do, you will find that you end up
feeling unacknowledged in some vital way. We have to detach from whatever is in our 11th
House in order to use that energy to help other people. But, in the process, we unexpectedly
receive whatever that placement represents. Leo being in the 11th means that you detach
yourself from the spotlight in order to shine it on to other people. You are helping others feel
like they are special superstars. While doing so, you will receive a growing amount of attention
from a slew of admirers who bestow an exalted status upon you.
We identify with whatever house cusp we have Leo on. Therefore, Libra Risings identify with
“the people.” Again, you have this knack for seeing things from other people’s perspectives.
That means that, while you have a particularly vain side, you’re not very invested in your ego.
Instead, you end up investing in the egos of others. Since you can be so devoted to someone
else, you may find that highly self-absorbed or narcissistic people unexpectedly come your way
and turn things upside down. They can seek to boss you around, brag, make situations all
about them. Such interactions will bring a lot of chaos into your life, especially if you are doing
all that you can to please them. But, this usually happens when you remain too detached from
your own ego expression, which can also swell out of control in odd or unexpected ways. All the
admiration you receive may go to your head and you can find yourself being very dominant,
boastful, or self-focused in the face of people’s love. These traits may seem to come out of
nowhere yet it’s really just the result of your own ego running wild.

LIBRA RISING
246

You have the ability to exhibit great leadership and control in social situations. While doing
so, you can make sure that nobody is made to be more important than the other. This is
another way that you insist on absolute fairness. So, you may have to take it upon yourself to
put some very egotistical or self-involved people back in their place in your social realm.
However, you may also end up being the one who is put back in their place. Being at the top of
the social food chain can make it all too easy for you to develop a superiority complex. Yet, you
also may not realize that you’re acting better than others, much like some beloved celebrity
who doesn’t realize that the adulation of their fans is turning them into a pain in the ass. There
is a way for you to be powerfully influential and beloved while also maintaining a balance and
not forgetting about other people.
The way in which you will be able to make a difference in the world is by bringing out the
best in others. Yet, you will have to be a true leader to do this. Libra Rising people do have
excellent leadership abilities, once the fear of conflict or being disliked is conquered. In fact,
you display that aptitude for leadership even while struggling with confrontation or the
disapproval of others. A part of you just knows what’s best for other people and you can exhibit
great confidence when it comes to taking the reins and granting them what they want. You
want what other people want and this not only means that you focus on what’s best for others
but that you want the same treatment reciprocated. You might have a hard time accepting that
not everyone shares your idealism and your vision for humanity. Yes, some people are just
plain selfish and only out for themselves. So, dedicating yourself to a cause that puts you at the
helm of things and makes you feel like things are going according to your plan and also for the
betterment of other people (which, ultimately, is your plan) will really make you come alive.
Having the will to do what’s good for other people is something that can make you feel
misunderstood or out-of-place on a social level. Leo in the 11th means that, from an early age,
any social situation where it feels like someone’s self-expression is being denied, shamed,
ridiculed, or dismissed will be alienating or awkward for you. It’s important that you don’t just
go along with whatever’s happening, which you’re prone to do in the company of powerful
bullies. You’ve got to do something to stop it! Typically, you are the kind of “popular” person
who can have the right influence to swoop in and save someone who is being treated like a
loser, an underling, or a nobody. You can really be a hero or a heroine for the underdog. I
think, on some level, you can also identify with the underdog, even though many wouldn’t

LIBRA RISING
247

guess it. The moments where your self-expression was denied, shamed, ridiculed, or dismissed
have deeply stuck with you.
Much of this is because of how much you want others to like and accept you. So, your
confidence is really tested when you feel unaccepted somehow. But, this is something that only
makes you more relatable to other people. No matter how well-liked you are, a part of you may
never totally believe it. The more people put you on some sort of pedestal, the more you
believe you’re going to be knocked off one day. This is why you find your social place by just
focusing on how you can make other people feel special and like they belong. You will then be
made to feel special and like you belong by those loyal followers of yours whose hearts you
have won. The Sun ruling the 11th is another indicator of just how tremendous your social
influence can be. In fact, you have to make sure you’re not abusing this power. If not, people
will very easily drink your Kool-Aid without even realizing it or putting up much of a fight.
You’re an excellent friend to other people yet there will be many social bonds, throughout
your life, that seem like some sort of battle for the spotlight. This can either result in you
feeling overshadowed by a pal or them feeling like they are living in your shadow. Ultimately,
this is upsetting to you because you want everyone to feel equal. You just have to accept that
you have an exceptional, one-of-a-kind personality. You will greatly stand out in your social
sphere, even though you might spend a significant amount of time not trying to stand out.
Feeling so easily misunderstood can mean that no matter what your intentions are, it seems like
they’re taken the wrong way. When you try to be low-key, you get noticed all the time. When
you try to be a team player, you’re singled out as the star.
Eventually, you’ll just learn to go with it, letting people think whatever they want to think
about you. How people as a whole receive you is ultimately unpredictable. Don’t let your sense
of self become dependent on that. Learning how to sit back and just receive that love is what
makes you truly self-assured. You will also come to learn that your sense of self is
unpredictable. You cannot be put in a little box and I think you will discover that while either
you try to or other people try to. Although you are laidback, you are not quite as easygoing as
you think you are. Having friends or acquaintances that are dominant personalities that make
you fight for your freedom can reveal that to you. You are at your best socially with those who
are their own people and strong enough in themselves to let you just be yourself.
VIRGO ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP

LIBRA RISING
248

The 12th House is the house of secrets and with Virgo here, you can spend a lot of time
hiding just how critical or judgmental you can be. After all, you want to be the nice one, the
one who is civil and easy to deal with. So, the irritation you can feel at other people’s foibles or
the ways in which you harshly assess the damage they make are kept secret from other people,
often including yourself. There is sometimes a sense that, beneath the pleasant smile, the Libra
Rising is silently judging you. In the end, the Scales are also a symbol in the court of law. So,
judgment is an inherent part of your nature. However, you can feel ashamed of or guilty about
that. Sentencing people to metaphorical prison makes you feel bad about yourself. As a result,
you repress the accurate yet not so pleasant assessments you make of other people.
In continuing with this metaphor, it allows guilty criminals to roam the streets. But, who is
guilty and who isn’t? There is a lot of confusion that we experience in our 12th House territory.
With Virgo here, that means going to disorienting extremes when it comes to who you assign
that guilt to. One part of you can repress your judgments of others, which means that this
energy gets redirected back to you. You’ll then end up dwelling on things that have gone wrong
in your life that aren’t your fault at all. It’s really other people’s fault but you feel like it’s
somehow unfair to blame them. But, is it fair to blame yourself when you’ve done nothing
wrong? It gets even worse when you allow this person to remain in your life or continue
messing things up without taking them to task. You deny and deny those judgments of them
until it all comes out in an overwhelmingly harsh way. It causes all sorts of break ups that can
occur after everything seemed to be fine and you voiced no complaints.
However, other people can also do this to you in the midst of some unsolvable problem. Virgo
in the 12th means that you may also be in complete denial in terms of your wrongdoings in a
situation. You can either secretly blame the other person for everything, allowing a draining
amount of resentment to build up inside of you, or you can truly delude yourself into believing
that everything is okay. Problems? What problems? This influence makes it really hard for a lot
of Libra Risings to take criticism. Even if it’s constructive, it can be too much for you to bear.
So, you would rather just deflect, do what you can to seemingly make the other person happy
and live in perfect harmony with them. But, other people can become increasingly frustrated
with either your unwillingness to really work on your issues or to acknowledge that they’re
there. If it gets to a certain point, they may feel like the only way to fix the issue is to just
leave. Then, you feel deserted, all while not knowing that you created this whole mess.

LIBRA RISING
249

You have developed these patterns because you have this feeling that perfection is some sort
of illusion. You might believe that trying to improve yourself is so futile because there’s always
going to be something wrong with you. Although you will spend your life attracting many
people to you, you’re unconsciously aware of being unable to be everyone’s type. Beauty is,
after all, in the eye of the beholder. So, feeling like people may not like you for whatever
reason can compel you to try really hard to ignore all of your flaws and mistakes so that others
stick around. But, it has the opposite effect of making you increasingly unappealing, so focused
on being perfect that people don’t get to see the real you. Conversely, you may give up on the
notion of not having flaws. However, that can cause you to internally obsess over them to the
point where you become overly fixated on what you’re doing wrong. You engage in self-
destruction by creating problems to fix because a part of you doesn’t want things to go
smoothly. But, if you are unaware of this or complacent about this, it will create a cycle where
you should be having great relationship when, in fact, you have nothing but issues.
Whatever is in our 12th House must be felt and acknowledged and then released. It does not
belong to us personally. It is our inner experience of humanity. Going through these painful
cycles where you are screwing up constantly yet helplessly unable to fix it or improve upon your
mistakes will allow you to empathize with other people going through the same thing. We’ve all
been through a phase of making the same mistakes, over and over again. You will especially be
able to relate to that when it comes to love. However, it’s not until you can consciously
recognize your mistakes and understand how to rise above them that you will be free of your
suffering. Sometimes, that involves being able to take some judgment and accept the criticism
of other people. It’s not “mean” if they are just trying to help you. That’s when it can be
constructive. You also have to be able to look in the mirror and see your flaws, not just try and
accentuate the traits and behaviors that are going to make you look good. Being imperfect is
not the end of the world. Accepting this will bring you inner peace.
At the same time, since judgment does not have to be cruel, this means that you also cannot
become consumed by the deeply internalized judgments you have of yourself or of other
people. Do not beat yourself up when things go wrong, especially if someone else should be
held accountable. Also, do not hold people accountable too harshly. This hidden side of you
comes out whenever you’re tired of always having to be nice. Mercury’s expression of Virgo
influencing your 12th means that living by “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything

LIBRA RISING
250

at all” can lead to a repression that eventually makes the worst things come out of your mouth.
Judgments of other people’s social station, lifestyle, clothes, appearance, etc., can obviously
prevent you from being fully empathetic. However, we’ve all been guilty of terrible criticisms of
other people. So, when your mind is going there, know how to not remain there.
Having some sort of artistic practice that gives you an outlet for that not-so-nice inner
monologue would be very healing for you. It will also gives you a sense of oneness with others
because you will know that you’re exorcising a mean streak that is ultimately human and that
comes from a place of dissatisfaction with the self. When we judge others harshly, we’re really
judging ourselves. You’re meant to be a kind-hearted, balanced person, so you should not
personally identify with such harshness. Just know that it’s an ugly part of you that is within
everyone, to some degree. This awareness can also translate into any sort of charitable or
selfless service that caters to people that society is very judgmental of: those deemed to be
losers, lost causes, wastes of time. You can exhibit the compassion needed to help these folks
get back on their feet and identify the underlying issues that have led to their place in life. Virgo
on the 12th House cusp means healing your fellow man by helping them work on themselves.
It’s one of the reasons why you will feel deeply satisfied, even at peace, by giving people
“make-overs”, on numerous levels and in many senses of the phrase.
You can’t help other people find that healing, though, until you have healed yourself.
Therefore, you have to really turn inward and work on yourself. It’s hard to for you to do this in
“practical” ways. If you do, you can overwhelm yourself with the wrong kind of work. It will
often be the pressures of the job or the standards of society that force you to constantly be
perfect. So, you have to release that, knowing that you’ll never feel perfect in real-world terms.
Instead, you must aim for that sense of perfection on a spiritual level. Being involved in
astrology, for example, can help you realize why you need to work on yourself and how. Any
other form of spirituality that identifies your flaws and gives you the tools to improve yourself
will also help you immensely. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. You must see the Higher
Power or the Creator as your spiritual employer who expects you to show up every day and get
to work, consistently bettering yourself via this higher knowledge. The subtle yet powerful
changes this mentality will make in your life will show you that the hard work will be worth it.

LIBRA RISING
251

SCORPIO RISING

SCORPIO ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


Your life is an emotional roller coaster that you never want to get off of. Scorpio Rising
people have a high intensity that makes it hard for them to just live life in a nice and easy
fashion. Instead, you want all of the psychological chills and thrills you can get, believing that
this is better than a boring existence. For this reason, if your life were a movie, it would be a
heart wrenching drama, a nerve-wracking thriller, or even a terrifying horror film. Death is
certainly a constant in your life. This doesn’t have to be taken literally, although it can mean
that you have experienced the losses of too many loved ones in your life. It just means that you
are always witnessing and experiencing metaphorical death, whether you are “killing off” the
poor fools who no longer belong in your life or you are murdering old parts of yourself in order
to be reborn as a brand new individual.
Those with their Ascendant in Scorpio do live many different lives, in multiple senses.
Constantly reinventing yourself, you are always saying goodbye to the “old you” so you can
become a stronger, wiser, emotionally richer version of yourself. Looking back on how you lived
and behaved several years ago can feel like an entirely different lifetime ago. Not content to
just live on the surface, you live for digging as deeply inside of yourself as you can. As a result,
you always end up having some sort of emotional revelation that alters your entire existence.
Unable to do things halfway, when you make a change in your way of living, it is a very
dramatic one. Most of the time, you’re not even trying to make this happen. The Rising sign
shows us how life happens to us. For you, there is constantly some major catalyst for your
personal transformation that is out of your control. Maybe it’s a loved one’s betrayal being
exposed or a scary experience that shakes you to your core. Whatever happens, this catalyst
will force you to do some soul-searching and eliminate any toxic, disempowering, or damaging
elements or people from your life.
Another reason why you live so many different lives is because you are always being forced
to survive. Your circumstances in life are going to be tumultuous or traumatic in some way. As
a Scorpio Rising, you are here to walk through the fire and live to tell about it. But, of course,
walking through that fire will leave you with some proverbial burns. Your life story is not the
prettiest one. Being significantly scarred and wounded is just an inherent part of having this

SCORPIO RISING
252

Rising sign. It’s not a guarantee that you’ve been abused but it’s very common byproduct of
this placement. You might have had a very turbulent or terrible childhood or you may have
been faced with the darker side of life later, in your adult years, through very unhealthy
partnerships that brought out the worst in you or daunting, traumatic circumstances, like sexual
assault or a near-death experience, that require the attitude of a survivor. This is the stance
that you instinctively assume in life. You’re always a survivor, never a victim. Fully intent on
being a very powerful individual, you don’t have much time to sit around and feel sorry for
yourself when pain comes your way or a crisis hits. You simply summon this will to keep going.
Even when you feel destroyed emotionally or spiritually, it’s only a matter of time before you
are resurrected, stronger than ever. Few people have more lives than you.
This fighting spirit is due to Mars being the secondary chart ruler here. Mars is the planet that
traditionally ruled Scorpio before Pluto, Scorpio’s modern ruler, was discovered. Both planets
have a potent combined impact on your life. Pluto’s influence makes you formidable in a covert
or quiet way. The key to your power is that you don’t flaunt it too openly and spend more time
internalizing it. This only makes it more devastating and transformative once it’s released. Pluto
is what compels you to consistently be reborn. Yet, your great power can turn against you,
especially when you don’t know how to release that intensity in healthy ways. Mars represents
the warrior archetype and it shows how you can misuse and misdirect your intensity by fighting
all of the wrong battles. You might not be able to lose a certain battle so you can win the
ultimate war. Instead, you become consumed with resentment, obsession, and frustration
whenever you’ve felt betrayed or hurt. Grudge-holding can be your specialty and what you may
fail to realize is how much that works against you.
Whenever you invest your energy into something, you invest all of it. You have to remember
that whenever you are focusing on fights and losses that are not worth your energy. This Mars-
Pluto effect is asking you to pick your battles, to know what to channel your tremendous
emotions into. Such an approach leads to a deeply internal sense of victory that no one can
take away from you. Mars’ house placement in your birth chart will tell you how to go about
that profound sense of winning. If it’s in the 1st House, this means that all you need to do is
see yourself as a winner and live life totally on your own terms. With it being in the 6th, you
have to know what is constructive and what isn’t in order to gain that internal victory. Pluto’s
counterinfluence will allow the fight of your Mars to empower you and transform you. Look to

SCORPIO RISING
253

the house placement of Pluto to see where you will be most transformed in life, whether that’s
in regards to your career (10th House), your spirituality and inner life (12th House), etc.
Ultimately, I see Pluto as being the primary ruler of Scorpio, representing how you are so full
of secrets and complexities. This is how you achieve your victories in a more strategic sense.
You know how to withhold certain information in order to prevent the other person from having
the upper hand of knowing too much about you or understanding you too well. Although you
will spend your life seeking out depth and intimacy, a distinct part of you doesn’t really want
people to get you. An air of mystery always surrounds Scorpio Risings and it’s something that
can either entice people or unnerve them. Constantly appearing to be someone with something
to hide, you can easily come off as untrustworthy or shady. This typically happens when you
spend too much time not trusting other people. It creates such a dark energy around you that
you become the person that others cannot really trust.
That attitude doesn’t come from nowhere. It stems from being born into an environment
where too much was hidden or where things were very volatile and unstable. Scorpio Rising
children often come into the world at a bad time during one or both of their parents’ lives, when
things are too emotionally heavy or overwhelming. They might have been going through
something traumatic like a death in the family (being born when someone in the family dies is
an eerie pattern with this Ascendant). So, having a baby just amplified all of the emotional
issues that were going on. There may have been some palpable resentment toward you for
being born, whether it was said directly to you or not.
This also could’ve been due to having particularly jealous siblings who you shared a real
animosity within your early years. Yet, since this is the sign of extremes, you may have to be
put through Hell by any of your family members and then emerge on the other side, at some
point, with the relationship undergoing a major positive transformation. In spite of this, you still
came face to face with their dark side as well as yours. Coming into the world this way is very
daunting, leaving you with this unspoken feeling of not knowing who you could really trust. The
sheer process of being born may have also been scary or dangerous, with you just barely
making it out alive or putting your mother at a high health risk as she carried or delivered you.
To be fair, even though your early environment may have been abusive or terrifying, many
Scorpio Risings are also born into incredibly loving families. But, as well-intentioned as it is, that
love may totally consume you. It’s to the point where you become very used to that

SCORPIO RISING
254

wholehearted, all-or-nothing way of living. This instills that capacity within you for going to
extremes. When the family is relatively happy, that means that something is going to occur to
destroy that happiness. Commonly, those with this placement experience a major death in the
immediate family that has a very seismic effect. Suddenly, nothing and nowhere is safe
anymore. Grief and unresolved pain became a default way of living. There also could have been
serious underlying emotional issues going on, like a parent struggling with depression or some
sort of mood disorder, that made the environment volatile or heavy.
Many of these effects can be very subtle. You might have felt very controlled early in life, like
you couldn’t express all that was going on within you because, somehow, you were going to get
shut down. Children with a Scorpio Ascendant can be quiet and seemingly low-key all while
harboring all of these very strong emotions on the inside. Instead of acting out, you had a way
of “acting in” that made you deeply internalize all of your turmoil. Maybe you learned not to
trust people enough to share it all or you felt like all of those feelings were too scary and
intense for people to understand. For most people with this placement, most of the early life
was very troubled. But, you might have been that kid that seemed to be having all these
problems yet had a hard time opening up or letting the adults around you truly help.
This pattern continues into your adulthood, causing you to put up all of these emotional
barriers out of mistrust, fear, and an obsession with your privacy. While this is a self-destructive
way of letting those emotions eat away at you from the inside, you seem to know this about
yourself. You are insightful and perceptive enough to know exactly what you’re doing when you
engage in harmful patterns. Yet, you do it anyway, determined to hit the self-destruct button.
You have to learn how to completely turn your life around, disengaging from the patterns that
make you hell-bent on ruining yourself or your life. This might be as major as substance abuse
or highly reckless, illegal, or life-threatening behavior. But, it can also be of the more subtle
variety, like being full of rage and resentment toward others, allowing very toxic influences to
be around you, or doing whatever you can to destroy what’s good in your life. You have the
strength to resist all of these unhealthy patterns and compulsions. Just look within and find it.
Once you do, you will achieve the major transformation in your life that really counts. You’ll
be able to leave behind all of the old ways that did nothing but undermine you and your
happiness. It’s hard for you to realize that coming from this background of loss, pain, or trauma
can give you the perspective that you don’t deserve a good life or happiness. But, you do and

SCORPIO RISING
255

taking yourself to the opposite end of the psychological spectrum will show you how to focus on
creating joy. You’ll never be a shallow, simple-minded person and you don’t have to be to find
joy. Being happy doesn’t mean that you don’t have depth. Besides, all of the suffering you’ve
been through only leaves you with a greater capacity for joy. You feel everything so strongly
and intensely. So, finally finding your happiness will allow that energy to illuminate your very
being. There will always be emotional trials in your life but you will survive and only be a better
person for it. In the end, being a Scorpio Rising gives you the life experience to write a hard-
hitting tell-all or a dramatic memoir, complete with an inspiring ending.
By transforming yourself so radically, you will be able to help other people do the same. But,
this is part of what some people find scary about you. Wherever you go, you create
transformation, sometimes without even trying or being aware of it. The sheer power of your
aura and the depth and accuracy of your insights into people means that you are constantly
shifting the temperature of a room every time you enter it. Some may find this energy about
you magical and alluring while others can feel themselves wanting to run away from you
without really knowing why. Famous for either being loved or hated, with little to no in-
between, you definitely evoke strong responses in people. Having such an intense aura leaves
people with no choice but to respond to you intensely and it’s just too much for some.
However, you will insist on either being taken or leaved. You cannot help or control your
intensity. It’s right out there and you have just come to terms with the fact that some people
won’t be able to handle it. The enormous strength of your energy comes through in so many
ways. It’s hard for you to just have small talk with someone. Wanting to get to the bottom of
everything, people that you’ve just met can feel like they’re being interrogated by a cop.
Excelling at either playing good cop or bad cop, you are quite obvious in your intent on figuring
out people’s true motives all while hiding your own. It seems like there are no secrets around
you! At the same time, you are also very capable of transmitting this “your secrets are safe with
me” vibe that makes people feel compelled to share their deepest and darkest with you, even if
you don’t know them that well or just met them.
You might hide your stance on things quite well, simply remaining watchful and observant.
But, a dead give-away of a Scorpio Rising is someone whose point of view, when fully
expressed, can seem startlingly harsh or extreme. There are distinct moments of cruelty,
meanness, or ruthlessness that can slip through. Scorpio is, after all, represented by the

SCORPIO RISING
256

Scorpion. When that stinger comes out, other should beware, especially if they make the
mistake of thinking they can mess with you. Like the Scorpion, you are both unassuming and
destructive. An interesting theme here is how many of those with this energy can hide in plain
sight by not seeming to be the Scorpio stereotype. While you may have the typically brooding,
quiet, soulful yet intimidating demeanor of this sign, you can go to many different extremes.
That’s the key here. Whatever a Scorpio Rising’s personality is, they will take that to a 10. If
you’re nice, you’re incredibly sweet. If you’re outgoing, you will completely take over a room. If
you’re funny, you’re relentlessly witty. You’re this way not just because you’re all-or-nothing but
because these behaviors often serve as smokescreens to your true inner depths, which, no
matter how quiet or loud, affable or guarded you are, you’ll always keep hidden.
But, a universal quality of this Rising sign is how serious and intense you all look when you’re
not speaking. No matter how you behave, when you are simply listening and observing, people
can feel you taking in every word with your laser-focused perception and seeing into their soul.
The eyes are a notorious standout feature. You have a fierce gaze that looks right through
people. Sometimes, the eyes are huge, watery, and expressive. But, much of the time, they are
smaller and beadier. In spite of being represented by the Scorpion, you look and act more like a
Snake (which is just one of the many totems of Scorpio, along with the Eagle). Regardless of
ethnicity, the Scorpio Rising tends to have a thinner nose and lips, with features that come
together in a Snake-like way. You may be alluringly soft-spoken, making your voice sound like a
hiss, and you can smoothly slither your way through your surroundings, remaining undetected
until others you scare the hell out of others when they see you. All of this combined with the
venomous bite that you give people after they make the wrong step and don’t heed your subtle
warning contributes to the impression that you are truly the human form of this creature.
Yet, as intimidating as you may be, you also hold enormous sway over others, snake-
charming them to the point of hypnosis. You can control your surroundings subtly and secretly,
with people not realizing it until it’s too late. But, so many people willingly go along with the
spell you cast. It has to be said that there is something seductive about the Scorpio Rising
demeanor. You exude this strong sexual energy in a way that you might not be entirely aware
of and it can lead to amazing sex appeal. Even when you don’t seem typically attractive, there
is this inner beauty to you, combined with your sexual aura, that really draws people in. Many
people become totally addicted once they get a taste of your loving. The body part that Scorpio

SCORPIO RISING
257

rules is the genitals. This shows how much you express yourself through the intense,
passionate act of sex. Also, there’s no other way to say it: your lovers can go absolutely crazy
over your private parts and how you use them. You aim to keep that side of you quite secret
but it usually has a way of being talked about. You cannot conceal that incredible passion of
yours for long, just like your generally placid poker face is often overcome by many intense
expressions. You are forever alternating between hiding and exposing your passion.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
You find the most security in life when you are focused on the positive. But, this brings up
many insecurities for you to work through. Sagittarius on the 2nd House cusp indicates that you
can spend a great portion of your life significantly uncomfortable with looking on the bright
side. Finding the silver lining in bad situations may seem silly and superficial to you, getting in
the way of the raw depth you gravitate toward. But, you won’t be truly comfortable with
yourself until you learn to get some perspective. Learning how to not see life in such stark
extremes is an important part of this process. Things may not be all good but that doesn’t
mean that they’re all bad, either. You can recognize the downsides of a situation while choosing
to focus on the good.
If you are unable to do this, you won’t be able to experience your finances in a positive way.
You’ll be too fixated on the negatives of your financial situation and that will only create more
negatives. If you are always brooding about being broke, you will continue to be broke. If you
keep falling into despair about your debt, it will keep getting worse. Jupiter, Sagittarius’ planet,
indicates our beliefs. So, Jupiter ruling the 2nd House, the house of material manifestation,
means that you will invariably manifest whatever you believe in a manner that will either
amplify your instability or help alleviate it.
But, with the 2nd House, external security isn’t possible until internal security is achieved. You
have to become comfortable with positive energy and really appreciate it in order to use it to
create the lifestyle that you want. This doesn’t just have to do with thinking positively but with
also taking whatever you’ve been through in life and turning it into a positive. You’re not this
ferocious survivor for no reason. You have endured so much and yet you’re still standing. That’s
obviously one good outcome of it all. Since you’re still here, you have to ponder the reasons
why you went through what you went through. A belief that everything happens for a reason
has a stabilizing effect on you, once you completely and truly integrate it into yourself, because

SCORPIO RISING
258

it prevents you from brooding over or resenting what has happened to you. There is a lesson in
everything and being the wise old soul you are, you should know that.
Focusing on the inherent lessons in every difficult or painful experience you’ve been through
will allow you to truly move forward in life. Getting over grudges and letting go of past hurts is
exceptionally difficult for a Scorpio Rising. But, you can conquer anything, including your own
negative emotional patterns. Therefore, you can learn how to genuinely let go and move on.
It’s not enough to just say “I forgive you” or act like you do. You have to believe it and feel it
within. If not, you will simply hit this psychological plateau where you are still obsessing over
what someone did to you years ago. You take this stance because of how much you want to
get to the bottom of things. Dwelling on what someone has done to you or how they’ve hurt
you is a way for you to deeply understand your feelings as well as their motivations. Yet, there
comes a time where you have dug as deeply as you can or need to. You’ve reached the bottom
and you have to forget about it.
Too much introspection can be harmful because it easily leads to a total fixation over your
emotional issues and wounds. It not only robs you of much of the positive energy you could be
expressing and experiencing but it seriously holds you back. If you remain stuck in those old
hurts, you are essentially trapped. You’ll be unable to open yourself up to new experiences, too
unhealed from your previous pain to give anything or anyone a chance. This translates on a
financial level, as you will be too preoccupied with your past or current money problems to
believe that there is an abundance of resources out there, just waiting to be drawn into your
life. A refusal to believe this is a sign that your negativity is still dominant. You can also be in a
state of your life where you’ve just hit a financial plateau, doing alright for yourself but unable
to make any more money and change your life through greater earnings.
If you are stuck in an emotional state where you’re seemingly alright but unable to change
what’s really wrong, then such money issues will persist. However, Sagittarius in the 2nd gives
you the power to manifest enormous resources. Just imagine how much more life you could be
experiencing if you just let go of the negative? Similarly, you have to imagine how much more
money you could have if you just released your negative ideas about it. The key is that you
have to want nice things for yourself. You have to want your life to turn around in a truly
positive way. Realizing that you’re stronger and wiser because of what you’ve been through will

SCORPIO RISING
259

help you embrace more of the good things in life. In turn, you will find it increasingly easy to
manifest good things, to the point where you’re really living the high life.
The excess of Sagittarius shows that you have the opportunity to be highly financially
comfortable, even wealthy, if you want. You not only have to believe that this is possible but be
totally honest with yourself about wanting that. Valuing real honesty is another important part
of this influence. While you might think you’re so real and raw, you engage in a lot of secrecy
that can prevent you from being straightforward or sharing a lot with others. Learning how to
be very candid and not hold back means that the Universe will not hold back, either, when it
comes to blessing you with the resources you honestly declare you want. There is so much that
you hide and it can take a toll on your self-esteem, making you feel like there is something
awful and shameful inside of you. But, you will build yourself up by hiding a lot less about
yourself, knowing that revealing more of your truth can lead to something wonderful.
The more you manifest money through very sincere intentions, the more you’ll realize that.
You definitely need to believe in what you’re doing for money in order to make the most at it. If
you find your form of income uninspiring or meaningless, then you won’t enjoy it enough to
make good money at it. You can also excel at any kind of work that requires you to inspire
other people or bring greater meaning to their lives, further emphasizing how you can set out
to empower other people. Doing something that helps other people own up to their deeper
truth will be quite lucrative for you. With Sagittarius in the 2nd House, there really are so many
possibilities when it comes to how you make money. As long as you feel that uplifting energy
when you’re doing it and it provides you with a sense of adventure or freedom, then you will
carve out financial security through it.
CAPRICORN ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
Your mind is very powerful but there is a heaviness to how it works. Capricorn is ruled by
Saturn, the planet of struggles and difficulties. So, you always seem to have something on your
mind that is troubling you, plaguing you, or weighing you down. You can get consumed by
negative thinking but it’s hard for you to not veer toward such thoughts. Your manner of
comprehending things is through a worse-case scenario sort of mindset. You see all the ways
that things could go wrong or are going wrong because you always want to be prepared for
some sort of crisis or hurt. But, it becomes too easy for you to ponder the dark side of things

SCORPIO RISING
260

because of this. You can miss the positive details of what are happening due to this focus on
how things are falling apart or are going to fail.
That mentality is what can cause you to come off as harsh. You’re hard to impress and spend
an unnecessary amount of mental energy focusing on people’s failings or how they’ve
disappointed you. Sometimes, that’s all you can pay attention to. That’s why communicating
can be so hard for you because when you need to address something supposedly negative
between you and someone else, it’s hard for you to do it without reprimanding them, often
severely. The fact that your words have so much weight to them and are taken so seriously by
others only makes that worse. In the 3rd House, we exist in a certain grey area where two
inversed forms of expression come together. While Saturn ruling the 3rd makes you a serious,
respectable thinker who weighs their words carefully, it also means that you can make people
feel stupid, unimportant, or not worth your respect through your choice of words. Sometimes,
you don’t realize this but, other times, you are aiming to hit where it hurts.
It should be said, though, that you are just as harsh toward yourself. Your dialogue with
yourself can be downright brutal, as you have a very hard time cutting yourself any slack. It’s
like you are always hearing this inner voice that is really disappointed and taking you to task.
Often times, this is for little things and mistakes that you are taking far too seriously. Such a
pattern is reflective of your relationship with your father figure. Here, we see a father
(Capricorn) who had a way of completely getting inside the child’s head (3rd House), for better
or for worse. Your Dad might have been a very serious thinker himself who always wanted you
to use your head and take the most logical route. Striving hard to impress him made you over-
think things to death, even if that wasn’t his intention. However, it’s also common to see the
father who communicated with you in ways that made you feel dumb, who was continually
unable to listen to you or let you have a voice, or who was such a negative thinker himself that
it rubbed off on you. This is why your inner voice can be so troublesome.
You then live with a lot of fears in regards to successful communication. Feeling like you’re
never really going to be listened to or understood, you keep a lot of your true thoughts to
yourself. What are you really thinking? Few people know because you seem determined to
remain quiet on much of it. Even if you’re more talkative or in a more verbal mood, you can say
a lot while revealing little to nothing. Being so intent on not letting people in your head is only
going to create more problems for you because it becomes increasingly hard to connect with

SCORPIO RISING
261

people. How can you have real intimacy if you’re not willing to really share? Some Scorpio
Risings take this to the next level and just lie regularly to conceal their true thoughts. While you
take communication very seriously, this flip side of you can communicate in ways that make
people lose respect for you when the truth is discovered.
It's also very possible for you to spend a lot of time rationalizing your lies and your omissions,
claiming that you’re just doing so for the sake of privacy and that it’s no one else’s business.
Actually, it’s a deep form of manipulation. Capricorn in the 3rd is one of the reasons why you’re
such an expert at mind games that ultimately distance you from other people. Knowing what
words will negatively impact other people is another way you engage in a verbal and mental
game of chess. You can really hurt people with your words, knowing just what to say to cause
the maximum damage. This sometimes comes out when you can’t take the pressure of the
conversation anymore. You do sometimes take others’ words too seriously (going too far in
making fun of a Scorpio Rising person will cause you to get a brutal tongue-lashing). So, you
respond with what you think is the same level of intensity when it often wasn’t even that
serious to the other person.
It’s also true that you can hurt people with your words because of how much words have hurt
you. Sometimes, you may even expect cruelty or insensitivity in communication. Such powerful
fear can act as a muzzle, making it hard for you to literally be heard and speak up. Mumbling or
stuttering through conversation or sometimes not knowing what to say at all can be a negative
trait of this energy. This is often most evident during your grade school years. It’s a tough time
in your life where you may have felt seriously picked-on, particularly by a lot of name-calling
and mental bullying, and found it hard to use your voice in the classroom. The fact that you
encountered a few tough teachers who really singled you out and gave you a hard time just
made it worse. You struggled to feel either smart or acknowledged in grade school, which
either made you not try at all or put in a tremendous amount of effort to excel.
You’ll soon learn that this is how you conquer all of your detrimental thought and speech
patterns. You just have to work and work at it until you overcome it. Your mind is so powerful
that, more than the next person, your thoughts truly become your reality. Focusing on all of
that negative subject matter only creates more and more obstacles for yourself. It’s when you
tell that harsh inner voice to shut up that you will be able to gain greater clarity in regards to
many things. This can include things between you and your father. If you have a very

SCORPIO RISING
262

overbearing paternal figure, you have to learn how to voice your own ideas and insist that he
listen. You have your own mind and you do not have to let his ideas and thoughts infiltrate
yours so much. Even if you have a generally positive relationship, you can still find yourself too
influenced by his thoughts, which ends up undermining your own. So, you will develop greater
strength by knowing how to resist and conquer his thoughts, as well.
Going through all of this mental exhaustion shows you how powerfully your thoughts impact
you, which is an awareness you should extend to others. You pay the consequences for any
blatant lies or glaring omissions that you express, which is inevitably what will make you very
dedicated toward communicating with integrity. Also, the harsh judgments or cruel statements
that fly out of your mouth can truly devastate other people. It’s as if those words become their
reality, too, especially since you are so insightful and can pinpoint so many unpleasant things
about others. Usually, your words are reality. But, it’s all about the delivery. You have what it
takes to provide people with greater clarity on various subjects, including themselves. You just
have to phrase it in a way that will be truly useful to them. Although it will be quite a struggle
to not let that other part of your brain make you a mean conversationalist, you can pull it off,
even though you won’t always succeed. Sometimes, you just have to not say anything because
you have nothing nice to say.
Developing this mentality will show you how intelligent you actually are in a pragmatic sense.
You are seeing the purpose in and importance of using your words very wisely, striving for a
successful outcome whenever you speak. Knowing this will strengthen your voice and show you
that you are someone with a substantial mind who is worth listening to. This also may be the
outcome of your bond with your sibling(s) or any cousin you may have. It’s a relationship that
may be troubled somehow, with you wanting to constantly talk some sense into your foolish
brother or sister. Capricorn on the 3rd House cusp can show a sibling who maybe struggled a
lot in school or had behavioral issues growing up, putting the pressure on you to be the good
one. This is why your mind can be such a pressure-cooker.
In many cases, there is a ton of resentment between the siblings and an inability to really
communicate that creates a lot of distance or animosity. But, it’s also very possible that you
turned to your brother or sister for constant strength and guidance or vice versa. They may
have been your mouthpiece, speaking up for you when you couldn’t, which is another reason
why you found it hard to have your own voice. You could’ve grown up feeling too mentally

SCORPIO RISING
263

influenced by them, which you learned to resist, in spite of their good intentions. The father
figure also plays a very pivotal role in your relationship. Maybe he pitted you against each other
constantly, creating an unnecessary rivalry. You also might have leaned a lot on one another
because you felt some sort of distance from him or due to him being more like a bossy sibling
to you than a parent that you could really rely on.
AQUARIUS ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
It should go without saying that you don’t come from the most “normal” background. Your
Aquarius Nadir indicates that you grew up in ways that weren’t exactly conventional. It also
could be said that your upbringing wasn’t the most stable one you could have, either. In some
way or another, Scorpio Rising people come from a background that they look back on and find
hard to understand. The 4th House represents not only your upbringing but your connection to
your family. With this influence, you can grow up feeling innately disconnected from your loved
ones, on some level. It felt as if you didn’t belong in your own home and this is a part of your
history that repeats itself in adulthood. You might still feel, behind closed doors, like you don’t
belong with the people that you’re supposed to feel safe with and at home with.
Aquarius always defies expectations and with it being in the 4th House, the cultural
expectation of having a nice, normal family just never panned out for you. The reasons for this
might be obvious because you may have come from a family that was so unstable and
tumultuous that there was no way you could ever get totally comfortable. Something occurred,
at some point in your childhood, to totally rock the foundations of everything. It could’ve been a
highly unexpected event, like the loss of someone or a sudden lack of security, that made it
virtually impossible for you to have the picturesque family situation you thought you were
supposed to have. Aquarius in the 4th House also can make it particularly hard to bond with
your loved ones in a close, cozy fashion. The manner in which a family is supposed to relate to
each other never really applied to your family, either because they were too dysfunctional to
have a great bond with or because they were always rather distant and undemonstrative, in
spite of how much they loved you, at the end of the day.
Yet, you have learned to keep a certain distance and to be your own person. You’re always
the one going against what everyone else in the family is doing, in some way or another. This
can make you the highly independent one, always intent on remaining an individual in the face
of their group antics, or it could make you the total black sheep of the family. Having that sharp

SCORPIO RISING
264

sense of perception you have does give you the potential to be quite controversial within your
personal life, bringing up subjects and dishing out opinions that can create a stir, regardless of
what your family members are going to think. You don’t care much about their approval or their
opinions, all too used to being the one in the family who doesn’t exactly fit in. This can make
you the weird one while the rest of them are seemingly straitlaced or it could cause you to be
the sane one amidst all of the crazies. But, there is always something about you that sets you
apart from everyone else in your family.
Being so comfortable with this role can make it hard for you to feel understood in your
private life. It leads to this sense of being very unsettled because your safe space has never felt
safe or reliable. While you appear to be very controlled and calm, you do have this sense of
chaos and even insanity that you are always living with. Most of the time, you do a good job at
hiding all of your inner turmoil. This off-the-rails, sometimes erratic side of you comes out
behind closed doors and you can feel uncertain about whether or not someone else will be able
to handle it. Such a fear stems from your experience with your family being quite unable to
understand you or flat-out disapproving of something about your nature. To cope with this, you
can distance yourself from people, more and more, in order to independently process all of
that. People who live with you may feel like you’re living on another planet altogether because
you have a hard time letting others get close. Also, your unwillingness to reveal your feelings
creates a self-fulfilling prophecy when you unexpectedly, wildly lose it and then the other
person is startled, shocked, and freaked out, unable to understand where it’s all coming from.
You have to remember that people cannot understand you unless you give them a chance to.
It’s very possible for you to receive the support that you’re looking for from loved ones. You
sometimes have to remember that they are just different people from you and you’re not
always going to “get” each other. That doesn’t mean that they don’t love you or aren’t there for
you. Uranus ruling over your 4th indicates that you might have to stop judging your family
members and the ways in which they show you love. Even though it may not be the
relationship you think you should be having with them, that doesn’t mean that there’s not
enough love there. In fact, you may sometimes seem to be the one who is rather cold,
especially due to how much you can distance yourself from them.
Since you’re so capable of shifting the atmosphere for everyone, your presence in the home
has the power to affect everyone else as a whole. Aquarius is not just individualistic. It’s also

SCORPIO RISING
265

communal and about the big picture. You will have to think of the big picture when it comes to
not letting any petty differences you have with your family stand in the way of your connection
with them. At times, you need to bite the bullet and set some of your personal feelings aside in
order to be there for them and have their back. The positive outcome of this placement is the
ability to forge a wonderful sense of friendship with your family. Without these rigid
expectations of how you should be relating to each other, you can develop a bond with them
that is cool, open-minded, and free of pressure. In spite of how different you feel from them,
and how much you may not want to admit this, there is also plenty that you have in common
with your relatives. Reminding yourself of this helps you maintain an objective understanding of
who they are and your relationship with them.
That objectivity will be needed when it comes to distancing yourself from any resentments
you may have toward them. You can’t have a healthy, supportive relationship with your family
(4th House) unless you are constantly looking toward the future with them (Aquarius). The past
is old news. Let go of it! But, this also means that you need to objectively figure out whether
you actually have a future with your loved ones. While some Aquarius Nadir people can enjoy a
great friendship with their family members, others feel the need to completely break away from
certain loved ones of theirs altogether. While you are fiercely loyal, having a “blood is thicker
than water” mentality will only get in the way of the home you’re looking to create now as an
adult. Blood is just blood, at the end of the day, and someone being biologically related to you
doesn’t automatically give them special privileges. They’re just people, like anyone else.
If you’re having long-standing, crazy-making issues with any of your family members, ask
yourself if you would tolerate the same behavior from someone not related to you. If not, then
you owe it to yourself to distance yourself from them however you need to, whether that
means fewer visits and conversations, minimal or limited contact, or no contact. None of them
are entitled to a relationship with you. They have to earn it, fairly and objectively. At the same
token, coming from a deeply dysfunctional family can help you see that maybe your real home
is with your friends. You might find yourself creating a surrogate family amongst dear friends
who are all outcasts and black sheep from their own dysfunctional families. Such a bond will
liberate you from your past. Sometimes, you just have to stop and reflect and realize that, even
though you feel like others don’t get it, there are so many people out there who do! Being
surrounded by kindred spirits, with their own brand of craziness, who become your family of

SCORPIO RISING
266

choice will continually remind you of that.


PISCES ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
Although you’re a very fierce individual, you are just as sensitive. Pisces’ placement on your
5th House cusp reveals that you possess a very tender heart. However, that tenderness is very
well-concealed. Pisces is a sign that hides very well and has plenty of secrets. The 5th House
describes our self-expression. So, this is a perfectly fitting influence for you, showing how you
express yourself by hiding yourself. Not many people know who you truly are and the thing is
that you can even sometimes struggle with this self-knowledge. It’s why you put so much
energy into being introspective. You are so good at being secretive that you can even keep
many secrets from yourself. Therefore, the exploration of your inner complexities really brings
you to life and reinforces your sense of self.
Your creative talent (5th House) can also be kept a secret (Pisces) much of the time or
throughout a certain period of your life. But, it resides very powerfully within you. Expressing it
all comes down to allowing yourself to receive attention. The house Pisces rules in our chart
shows what we can try to escape from. With this influence, you will constantly try to escape
from the spotlight. Too much personal attention can feel overwhelming and daunting,
particularly since you don’t like the feeling of being exposed. However, you also have the ability
to get utterly lost in the spotlight. One of the best ways to do so is to completely forget yourself
and just get immersed in whatever it is that you’re doing and expressing. Scorpio is incredibly
creative and regularly has some sort of artistic talent. Through the expression of this artsiness,
you will reveal your tenderness and vulnerability, which is another reason why you may shy
away from attention for your talents. But, you have to know that exposing this softer side of
yourself will lead to plenty of validation and recognition.
Since whatever you are good at is infused with this amazing sense of humanity, you will gain
the affirmation and applause of your audience by expressing what makes you deeply human.
This is why you can be so talented in the arts and have so much fun being an artist. It gives
that softer side of yours a release, as well as all of the strong emotions that stem from being so
sensitive. When people are on the receiving end of any artistic endeavor of yours, the intense
feelings that come pouring out of you can really amaze them. It’s very important for you to
have an emotional outlet because keeping all of that hidden will not only isolate you from
others but push you to the edge psychologically. You will also shine in any venture that has to

SCORPIO RISING
267

do with providing people with compassion, intuitive understanding, or healing. Yes, you are a
healer, even though you also can be a destroyer. It’s much better for you to focus on the
healing part of your nature because it shows you what is truly special about you.
Your specialness stems from your sensitivity and how deeply you can understand someone
else. The mystique you possess also contributes to your charisma. The 5th House shows how
we expressed ourselves as children. Neptune ruling the 5th indicates that you were a very
internal, empathetic child. You loved having alone time or disappearing into a crowd, to a point
where you might have pulled off some very dramatic vanishing acts as a kid. Feeling most alive
within your fantasy life, you also had an incredibly vivid and active imagination that may have
gotten you in trouble on a regular basis, due to constant fibbing or an inability to stop
pretending or being so consumed with your daydreams that you never paid attention. Life can
try to force us to tone down or even suppress our 5th House qualities to grow up. But, you
should never lose that connection with that highly imaginative, sensitive boy or girl inside of
you that just wanted to be alone and reflect, as this is the key to unlocking and developing your
creative energy.
When you were a child, there also was something haunted about you. Being so sensitive
made it very easy for you to get sad or feel lonely. Pisces is the archetype of pain and suffering,
which symbolizes how wounded you were from an early age. If and when you have children,
they might turn out to be particularly wounded, as well. But, this can be a deep, unconscious
fear of yours, which shapes your relationship with children. Some of you can avoid even
thinking about kids for a long time, if you ever have them, because you’re too scared of them
turning out to be messed-up and victimized somehow. Yet, you might also go the other way
and see yourself as the savior for children. You understand the pain of a child very deeply
because of your own wounded inner child. So, as a parent, you can be a very healing influence.
However, it’s important to not turn yourself into a martyr for your children, either. It may be
exceptionally hard for you to accept the notion of ever inflicting pain upon your child,
intentionally or unintentionally. This makes you go to great lengths to avoid any blame or
wrongdoing and adopt an “after all I’ve done for you” attitude or even project your sins on to
them. Since you’ll have children who have a strong Neptune/12th House influence or Pisces
planets, they will be very self-sacrificing and susceptible to guilt, possibly repressing their true
needs and feelings for your sake. Yet, they may also strive to isolate themselves from you, as

SCORPIO RISING
268

time goes on, due to feeling drained, manipulated, or taken advantage of. To avoid such a
pattern with them, you have to both forgive yourself for any mistakes you make as a parent
and also seek your child’s forgiveness. You’ll have a very compassionate son or daughter who
will feel for you and understand your pain. They will have plenty of their own pain, sometimes
just due to how sensitive they are, that they will also very secretly deal with and need some
sort of artistic outlet for.
The 5th House also rules romance, which is another art form for you. Just like with your
creative endeavors, your vivid fantasy life can consume you whenever you’re dealing with a
love interest. While this results in many very poetic love affairs, it also means that you are very
prone to not seeing the other person clearly. Your teenage years were spent developing this
sense of passion that was highly romantic yet ultimately unrealistic. You act out this inner
adolescent by constantly living out some fantasy with your lover, instead of remaining present
with them. You might also spend a ton of time dreaming and pining for “the one”, only to be
faced with another disappointing one in reality. It’s also very easy for you to let your love
interests project unto you. Turning yourself into their dream guy or girl will only last so long,
especially once you’re hurt by them and the illusion shatters.
It’s interesting to see this pattern of yours play out because you are so insightful. You’re also
so inclined to completely immerse yourself in someone whenever your passion for them is
stirred. Since you feel such chemistry with Pisces and Neptunian people, it becomes even easier
to get lost in them. You keep a lot of your romantic side hidden and this is something that
actually leads you to avoid romance much of the time. But, once you are in, you are completely
in. This is why being betrayed is so particularly devastating for you because you feel like you’re
losing some vital piece of you.
Sometimes, you will give your heart to someone knowing very well how much they’re going
to hurt you or have already hurt you. The drama of it all just entices you. It’s definitely better
for you to share passion with someone who is going to bring you peace, avoiding love affairs
that are just emotionally draining and depleting. For you, matters of the heart are also about
diving deeply and revealing multiple facets of one’s self. You love a good mystery and your
heart will be stirred by someone who has many secrets for you to explore. It takes a long time
for your lover to know your secrets and they never completely will. As alluring as this can be, it
also can become terrifying when you reveal a darker side of you or become an entirely different

SCORPIO RISING
269

person once you’ve been hurt or something about the love affair changes. Your love interest
dives into an abyss when they fall for you and at their own risk.
ARIES ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
You want things to go exactly the way you want them to go, thanks to Aries in the 6th
House. You feel like you are most productive when you are simply getting your way. Making
your own distinct plans from day to day, you are insistent about forcing said plans and will
easily feel frustrated once anything gets in the way of them. Basically, this is one of the
influences that contributes to your control freak side. Aries’ self-involved energy placed in the
problem-solving 6th House means that you always feel like the best solution is your way. At
times, you don’t care about anyone else’s plans and you may spend too much time saying “no”
to these plans, even when they would work out just fine. This is the counterproductive element
of the 6th House, when our methods become so rigid, premeditated, or analytical that we are
actually unable to get as much done as we want to. Not tackling everything on your to-do list is
particularly frustrating for you. But, often times, it’s your own fault.
Accepting the help of other people is especially hard for you. Instead, you’ll insist on doing it
all on your own, acting like some superhuman who doesn’t need anyone else’s assistance.
While your ability to rely on your own methods and efforts is remarkable, it does have its limits.
You can’t do everything yourself all the time! But, this is what you will declare whenever you’re
faced with the perceived (or, to be fair, real) inefficiency of other people. You ask yourself why
you expected someone else to be able to do your job better than you, advise them to step
aside, and then get to work. But, sometimes, it may be more effective for you to just initiate
these situations, instead of having to start and finish everything. Aries on the 6th House is a
very managerial energy. It definitely contributes to your ability to exert control over situations.
This can be a good thing as long as you’re not looking to control every little thing. Instead, you
can put yourself in the leadership position, tell everyone else what the plan is, and let them get
to work while you focus your attention on something else. If you need to step in, then do so.
But, believing that you have to jump in and micromanage everything is only going to aggravate
you and the people around you.
It also becomes clear, after a while, that you’re not always as on top of things as you think
you are. You slip and make mistakes like everyone else. An inability to see that will only hinder
your efficiency. The 6th House also describes our physical health, which can be impacted by the

SCORPIO RISING
270

stress we put on ourselves and the routines we engage in on a daily basis. Mars ruling your 6th
shows just how much you refuse to let any sort of sickness stop you or slow you down. You
actually have a natural ability to fight off illness or ailments very well. However, you can also
spend too much time fighting your illnesses and ailments, to the point where you refuse to
accept them. Being sick simply annoys you. It’s just another inconvenience you have to deal
with and you can be so determined to push through it that you don’t take enough necessary
down time to recover.
There is a ton of anger inside of you that either stresses you out more or is caused by the
stress in your life. Not having things work out just how you want them to really pisses you off,
to the point where you’re so consumed by that rage that you stop functioning as well. Anger
can be a great motivator for you in terms of channeling it into your work. But, sometimes,
dealing with that anger is just too much work. It exacerbates every inconvenience you deal with
on a daily basis, to the point where even minor annoyances become full-blown crises. Being a
Scorpio Rising does make it important to know when to let your anger go, especially since it can
affect you physically to the point of making you sick, only giving you another thing to be
frustrated about.
The good thing about having all of this rage is that you’re not going to take much lying down.
As quiet or even passive as you may seem, you know how effective it is to tackle things
ferociously and to be proactive about what you’re trying to get done. As I said before, your
anger can be directed very successfully into any sort of productive pursuit. When you focus on
what you can control, instead of all of the irritating things you cannot control, including other
people and their efforts, then you will be able to get a lot more done. Just worry about yourself
and what you’re doing. Such a stance will help you avoid control-freaking and feeling like you
have to do everyone’s job for them. You do your job well and that will help you push through
anything. Channeling your aggressive side into physical activity and working out will also be
highly beneficial for you. Getting your intensity out through exercise or even being involved in
some kind of sport provides you with great relief as well as consistent motivation.
TAURUS ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
Through your Taurus Descendant, you will learn that you owe it to yourself to have good
people around you. Having close bonds and partnerships with individuals who are going to build
you up, not tear you down, and who will make you feel comfortable and cozy is of prime

SCORPIO RISING
271

importance. Establishing this dynamic with other people will allow you to understand your
worth. You have a particularly hard time really knowing your worth. Your Scorpio Rising keeps
you fixated on the darker or more troubled aspects of yourself. It also compels you to engage
in self-destructive patterns, meaning that, as an individual, you constantly undermine yourself
or tear yourself down. Knowing how destructive you are, you might feel like you ruin whatever
or whoever you touch. It’s hard for you to recognize that there is another side of you that
provides people with such a solid, substantial love that you build them up.
Instead, you may project this quality of yours unto other people, just like we are all prone to
projecting our 7th House traits. So, this attracts you to people who you feel are very stabilizing
and who can bring you great peace and contentment. Close friends and romantic partners, as
well as any other important people in your life, are bound to have Taurus planets or a
pronounced Venus influence. These individuals are all about harmony and happiness, capable of
showing you a calmer, easier way to live. Since they are so geared toward focusing on good
things and helping others find happiness, they can ease you out of the self-torment you put
yourself through and show you that life can be much simpler and more pleasurable. In this
way, they will consistently build you up and help you see that life is worthwhile and that you
are also someone who is worthwhile.
Yearning for a break from your nihilistic perspective is what also makes you the kind of
companion who can provide people with ease and stability. Firmly in control of your life and
capable of experiencing joy just as intensely as you do other emotions, you feel compelled,
once you get close to someone, to take a breath. It’s hard for you to truly relax while on your
own. So, this other side of you gets expressed, once you grow close to someone, that just longs
for a break. Taurus in the 7th shows how cozy and settled in you become in these partnerships.
Once you are invested (Taurus) in someone else (7th House), you absolutely invest in them and
find it hard to let go of them. You’re very prone to treating other people like possessions yet
your partners will give as good as they get because they’ll also be quite possessive.
The reason why this dynamic forms is due to you refusing to lose what you’ve put so much
effort into. Taurus’ house in our birth chart represents what takes a really long time to happen
for us. Having Taurus on the 7th House cusp means your close relationships take a very long
time to form. You have all of those trust issues and you engage in a lot of watching and waiting
when it comes to letting someone else into your life. They have to constantly prove themselves

SCORPIO RISING
272

to be worth your time and effort. However, this is sometimes a reflection of your poor self-
worth and a feeling like you’re not worth their time and effort. As a result, you put the other
person through test after test, believing that they’re just going to give up on you. Attracting
such stubborn people into your life, though, means that they’ll refuse to give up on you. Their
ability to not throw in the towel when others would comes down to their patience as well as
their obstinacy. A lot of patience is required to get to know you better because of how many
barriers you have up. So, you really need these grounding influences around you.
The good thing is that, once the bond is finally and firmly established, neither of you will give
up easily on the other person, if at all. That can also be the potential downside. Taurus
Descending doesn’t exactly make you prone to horrible relationships, although any harsh
aspects to your Venus can change that. Most of the time, nothing is wrong per se but it
becomes this rut that you both have gotten extremely stuck in. Hitting a plateau and being too
unwilling to accept the change that comes from having some distance, taking a break, or
ending the relationship altogether is the drawback of this energy. The other person’s influence
on you makes you feel like you can finally be happy for once. So, it’s very hard to let go of that
or this very quality person that you have found. Mistrustful or guarded by nature, you don’t feel
like you meet a lot of people who are worth too much of your energy. Once you’ve found that
person, you get extremely attached to them, which can create a huge stalemate because they
will become just as attached to you.
In romantic relationships, particularly, patterns develop that make both people too lazy and
too comfortable with the situation to break things off. At some point, if a partnership is no
longer satisfying, you have to be willing to accept the change that comes with ending it. After
all, you already live a life full of change. It’s exhausting but you’re used to surviving it. You
have to remind yourself that you can survive changes in your close companionships, as well. If
that means going against the hardheaded other person’s wishes, then so be it. You can meet a
ton of resistance in other people, which may be why you sometimes find it hard to form strong,
long-term bonds with others. They may be too comfortable in their established routine to
change their lives by getting close to you. Conversely, you may have become such an ingrained
part of their established routine that they refuse to let you go. Stubbornness, in general, can
define so many of your relationships, making you feel like you are constantly talking to a brick
wall. Being with someone who is overly obstinate and extremely possessive is the nightmare

SCORPIO RISING
273

relationship experience of this Descendant. You need to be with someone who, even if they are
very stubborn, is still concerned enough with your happiness to want to compromise with you.
Otherwise, they are just completely self-indulgent, only thinking of their happiness.
Also, since Venus is influencing this house, don’t let your self-esteem become too dependent
on the other person. If so, they will have too much of an influence over how good you feel
about yourself or not. That all has to start with you. Instead of trying to gain self-worth from
someone else, know that you are innately valuable and that you must surround yourself with
people who recognize that. Your influence on someone else can help them truly develop their
self-worth. Once you both are solid and secure in yourselves, you will be able to come together
happily. It’s crucial for you to have partnerships that are just nice and simple. You complicate
things enough on your own. The irony of this placement is how you can come to resent the
simplicity and happiness of your relationships, feeling like it’s all too easy and somehow
superficial. A compulsion to ruin what’s good between you and someone else will stand in the
way of your ability to find and maintain closeness with others. Don’t destroy what you’ve built
with them. You can experience a mutual sense of pleasure and relaxation from close friendships
and build something romantically with someone else that is stable, financially secure, and brings
great happiness to both of you.
GEMINI ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
Your mind is constantly preoccupied with your emotional issues. Mercury, Gemini’s planet, is
ruling the 8th House of your chart. This is the house of Scorpio, which makes so much sense.
Mercury represents the mind and through this influence, your mind goes dark on a regular
basis. You have many thoughts that you keep secret, due to either feeling like other people
won’t be able to handle them or that you shouldn’t be revealing your secrets. You know what
it’s like to have your thoughts used against you and to also have people put the wrong ideas
into your head. So, you subtly strive to maintain a tight control over your communications and
conversations with other people. But, the more you hide your true thoughts or manipulate
others’, the harder it will be to deal with your unresolved pain.
Gemini in the 8th House indicates that you’ve experienced some sort of trauma or emotional
pain in life that showed you the horrible ways that people are capable of communicating with
one another. Having your voice seriously diminished or taken away from you, being verbally
and mentally abused, or having someone exert an insidious form of mind control over you has

SCORPIO RISING
274

left a serious emotional scar. The result is being constantly plagued by awful thoughts and that
aforementioned evil inner voice. Sometimes, it sounds like a voice that’s not even yours, that
doesn’t even belong to you. In these instances, it is your abuser or manipulator speaking, still
living rent-free in your head and causing a ton of destruction in the process. Other times, you
know that it’s you speaking, even if you don’t want to admit it. While you may accept your inner
darkness, it doesn’t mean that you always like it. Such antipathy for yourself compels you to
ignore your worst thoughts, all while they get louder and louder.
The famous Scorpio stinger is often times more verbal than anything else. You’re capable of
being very destructive with your words, knowing exactly how to phrase and say something so it
hurts the other person the most. This is rather unconscious, though, a byproduct of you being
so wounded throughout life by someone else’s words. Your intelligence can also have a
particularly dark manifestation. There’s a side of you that is a bona fide schemer, a master
manipulator, and you can engage in all sorts of secret plans with the intent of hurting someone
else or bringing them down. Your target usually doesn’t even know until it’s too late. Mind
control then becomes a harmful specialty of your own, especially in how you can engage in lies
that go undetected or heavily influence the mental perception someone else has of you.
Your dark side is truly another personality; one which you don’t reveal unless you feel
sufficiently provoked. It’s why people will feel like they don’t really know you, even if they’ve
known you for a long time. Gemini’s duality shows how you can engage in intimacy (8th House)
in a paradoxical way. While you seemingly reveal these raw, intimate parts of yourself, it’s also
quite calculated, due to the fact that there’s so much more you’re not telling. Even at your most
“open”, you’re never entirely open. The hypocrisy of it all, though, is how intent you are on
knowing the other person’s deepest, darkest secrets. It’s also very much a Scorpio Rising trait
to detest liars and insist on complete honesty, to the point where you’ll feel like the trust has
been seriously compromised if someone is caught in a lie. But, the thing is that you have your
own way of lying, which can be as dramatic as completely making things up to preserve your
privacy or could involve manipulating the other person through what you choose to say or
omitting important details about yourself and your life. Yet, it can be hard for you to admit to
having this opposing side of yourself that does exactly what you hate in other people.
When it comes to sexuality, you have an insatiable curiosity that makes you very eager to
know all of your partner’s sexual desires and thoughts. It’s all very mental, which can create

SCORPIO RISING
275

certain problems. You might find it very enjoyable to talk about, giving off the impression that
you’re a total freak, while experiencing the sexual act as vaguely disappointing. The idea of sex
is what entices you most and if someone doesn’t mentally stimulate you enough in bed, you
disengage very easily. Conversely, you may keep totally quiet about it while completely going
wild when it comes to doing it. This sometimes prevents you from being able to really
communicate what you want sexually, which is another way that you keep your true thoughts
to yourself and create a disconnect with someone else. In either case, there is always
something surprising and contradictory about your sex life, whether that means seeming like a
sex friend but actually being very sexually frustrated or keeping your sexuality very under wraps
while being such an animal in bed that the connection isn’t as human as it could be.
Eliminating dishonest communication from your life is what allows you to move beyond the
negative energy of your 8th House. This false, harmful, or deceitful way of communicating has,
in some way, been passed down through your family, with many of your relatives throughout
time finding it hard to really say what needs to be said to one another or saying all of the
wrong things to one another. You can take this emotional inheritance and turn it around by
recognizing that you’re smarter than that and know exactly what you’re doing. It’s why you
have that duplicitous evil side of you. It’s always plotting and scheming, intentionally setting out
to be dishonest, secretive, or hurtful. But, you can overcome this darkness within yourself by
plotting and scheming to be truly empowered and empowering. Your inner power stems from
your brainpower and how deeply impactful your words are. Knowing this will help you discard
or transform any situations in your life where thoughts and words are being used destructively
or against someone else.
If you’re unwilling to fully communicate with other people, then you will remain stuck in this
mindset that makes you feel like your thoughts will be used against you. Conquering that
demon of yours means learning how to trust more and be more open. However, being as
complex as you are, you’ll never say everything that’s on your mind and you’ll always have your
thoughts that remain well-hidden. Often times, you have to be secretive about your own info
because of how hurtful it can be. This will reverse your approach and allow you to not be
secretive about information of yours that ultimately isn’t going to hurt anyone and will only
bring you and the other person closer. You can encourage the same in others. Gemini on the
8th House cusp does undeniably give you the power to penetrate someone else’s mind. While

SCORPIO RISING
276

there will always be a potential within you to use that power harmfully, you also can get into
someone’s head in a way that gives them empowering ideas, allows you to say something that
creates a major shift in their lives, or shows that you profoundly understand them.
Your tremendous insight stems from this placement and being able to comprehend
complexity so naturally is something that can help you work through any sexual issues that may
arise in your life. Your sexuality is always going to be very complicated, never a black-or-white
thing. Sometimes, it’s a matter of needing more of a mental connection with the other person in
bed. Other times, you can find the sex unfulfilling because not enough communication is
happening. Just know that you play an equal part in that. Your sexual nature is also like a split
personality. Accepting that you can be a lovemaking romantic yet totally carnal and lustful is
important, as you might have a hard time integrating both. Having periods in your life where
you go from celibacy to having a lot of sex with different people or from promiscuity to holding
out for someone you could actually have feelings for may be necessary for you to accept that
other sexual self you possess.
CANCER ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
You are growing into your vulnerability throughout life, due to having Cancer in the 9th
House. The 9th House is about the journey of personal discovery and growth that we’re in.
Since Cancer is ruled by the Moon, the planet of emotional expression and needs, you must be
on a path in life that lets you explore all of your feelings as well as the states of vulnerability
needed to express them. While you have always been a very emotionally aware and sensitive
person, it is hard for you to reveal that part of you. But, instead of trying to outrun the softer
side of yourself, you must embrace it. Believing that it is worth it to reveal your true emotions
will help you grow because it will prevent you from being overly secretive and, therefore,
closed-off from the people you want to make emotional connections with.
This placement is urging you to believe that there will be plenty of support out there for you.
It’s just all about how eager you are manifest that comfort from others. In the 9th House, our
beliefs shape our experiences. So, if you believe that no one is going to really care for you and
comfort you, it will be hard for you to attract circumstances that are very emotionally
supportive. However, the more you develop this conviction that people care, the more you will
reap good fortune by manifesting the support system you need. You don’t have to do it all
alone! Sometimes, it’s a matter of being truly grateful (9th House) for the people who care for

SCORPIO RISING
277

you (Cancer). If you don’t really believe that they care or aren’t showing enough gratitude for
their support, you’ll find yourself feeling increasingly limited. These people who are there for
you will show up less and less, until you look around and realize that you have no one. While
this may seemingly confirm that irrational belief of yours that nobody cares, you must know
that you can completely turn all of this around by feeling grateful for those who do care.
The Moon ruling the 9th will throw you into many experiences in life that serve as lessons in
terms of letting your guard down. It will be very important for you to live by your emotional
truth. Believing that people aren’t going to be receptive not only stems from this notion that
others don’t support you. It also is due to you feeling like other people cannot handle your
emotional truth. Whatever you feel, you feel it in a major way and, at a certain point, it
becomes impossible to keep it all in. This leads to those moments when everything you’ve been
feeling comes spilling out in ways that may seem brutal or too much to some. But, you have to
learn from these moments. Let yourself go where support will naturally come to you. Feelings,
both yours and others’, are meant to be a guide for you. How people emotionally respond to
you will innately tell you if they are the right source of support for you, as will however
comfortable you do or don’t feel with them.
Don’t settle for situations where you feel like you have to shut yourself down emotionally
somehow. You will deal with some of that, in life, until you realize how badly you need to
liberate yourself through total emotional honesty. A lot of this is indicative of your bond with
your mother figure. Depending on the state of your Moon, your mother may either be someone
who is totally candid and straightforward or she could’ve seemed like she was trapped and
stifled somehow, unable to be truly honest about her yearnings in life. In the latter case, a part
of you wanted her to just admit to the truth and liberate herself from whatever trap she was in.
But, with this influence, the mother (Moon) can be experienced as being especially free (9th
House). She took you away with her on various adventures, which meant either doing plenty of
exciting things around town or going off and traveling together.
Having a Mom who was this restless soul also instilled a deep sense of restlessness within
you. Deep down inside, you’re always yearning for something more, just like you felt she did or
needed to. It makes you insatiable and also gives you this belief that you’ll feel better about
something if you just move on from it. Now, this is true in the sense that you gain emotional
security from being able to learn from whatever you’ve experienced and then move forward.

SCORPIO RISING
278

But, if you’re not dealing with your deeper emotions or not actually learning from the situation,
you compulsively move on in a manner that seems downright careless. At this stage, you think
very little of leaving behind someone or something that you feel like you’ve outgrown. You feel
like you have just this deep need to move on from it, when you need to take more time to
actually deal with what you’re feeling. Once you’ve fully processed your emotions, maybe you
can slow down and realize that you’re seeking something more because you can’t handle or
appreciate what you already have.
However, this placement is responsible for your innate ability to constantly grow throughout
your life. You’re very comfortable with the change that stems from moving on to another phase
in life and avoiding any stagnancy. Your intuition serves as a guide throughout this journey of
yours. Whatever you’re feeling, you believe it to be right. While this means that you have an
exceptional gut, you’re not always right. Scorpio Risings do regularly believe that their gut is
telling them something when it’s actually fear, insecurity, or irrationality speaking. Your mother
played a big role in this, as she always saw herself as right, even when she was blatantly
wrong. She may have sometimes tried to convince you that you had needs and feelings that
you didn’t have. You can take on the same pattern if you are utterly convinced that someone is
feeling a certain way when it’s just a matter of projection. Your intuition is always right but
there is a difference between a gut feeling and an irrational emotional response. Learning this
will help you distinguish between your accurate hunches and your crazy moods.
The college years of your life will be a great comfort for you. After growing up in such a
volatile or unsafe environment, you feel a sense of freedom once you go out in the world
because you begin to realize that, maybe, life will be safer for you and not as scary. Your late
teens and early twenties are a time where you can start discovering how good it feels to let
your guard down. You might look upon your experiences during this time with more fondness
and nostalgia than your previous years in life. Interestingly, there may still be ways that you
remain dependent and not totally free in this part of your life, whether that meant still living at
home while going to school or still being supported by your family.
Your road to total freedom, with Cancer in the 9th, involves many baby steps, especially if
you haven’t still moved on from things in your childhood. You’re meant to liberate yourself from
everything in your past because this is the only way you’ll be able to move forward in life and
feel truly supported. It helps to think about all the positive things from your childhood and to,

SCORPIO RISING
279

of course, only see the negatives as experiences that you learned from and that made you a
better person. This will allow you to express all of your emotions, seeing them all as good
because you learn something deeper about yourself every time you let yourself totally
experience your feelings. It’s better for you to freely express your crazy side in some vital way
than hold those emotions back, as trying to ignore your emotional truth only makes those
feelings increasingly overwhelming and undeniable.
LEO ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
With the Midheaven in Leo, you feel most accomplished in life when you are stepping out of
those self-imposed shadows and allowing yourself to be seen. Shining center stage (Leo)
requires a lot of dedication and effort (10th House) from you because you’re not one to willingly
put yourself out there. Even when you seem to do so, you don’t want people to know much
about you. This is why you get pulled out of your comfort zone by being forced to express your
true self before the world. It’s what the world expects of you and it’s something that challenges
your notions of yourself. You might think you’re so raw and so real all while not actually
revealing your authentic inner self. So, you will have to work very hard to just be yourself,
without any hiding or downplaying, and use that form of self-expression to succeed.
As a result, you achieve the most in a profession that involves some kind of creativity. Leo in
the 10th is another reason why you can be so artistic. You can truly make a name for yourself
through your special talents. Destined to be a performer for the world, in some capacity, you
will learn that putting on an amazing show is the only way you’ll be taken seriously. You have
to pull out all the stops on your respective stage and impress people with your charisma,
swagger, passion, and star quality. Standing out from the pack and being known as one of the
best, if not the best, is how you’ll find your place in the world. This strategy can apply to just
about any field that you get into, allowing you to effectively rule your professional territory.
Becoming a king or queen in your field and public sphere goes against the private version of
you that is not very used to adulation or approval. Having the Nadir in Aquarius gives you the
ability to go without a certain amount of positive reinforcement from even loved ones, intent on
being your own person and doing your own thing. The Midheaven in Leo, however, is asking
you to be an individual but with the intent of having a glorious reign that is very supported by
everyone else. Learning how you can amass all of these loyal followers is something that
happens during your teen years. This was a time in your life where you began to see just how

SCORPIO RISING
280

special you were and how much you could be celebrated. There’s something about how
passionate, powerful, enigmatic, and magnetic you are that creates this star power that you
may not entirely understand. But, the Midheaven shows us what the world sees in us before we
even see it, leading it to become a potential for success for us to live up to. Even though you
may just want to be a private loner, the world sees your kingly or queenly potential as you
enter adulthood and they expect you to assume your righteous throne.
As a result, you go through adulthood learning, more and more, how to turn on and direct
the tremendous energy you need to captivate your audience. This may not just be as an actual
performer but any professional or public activity that allows you to gain attention and exert
your will. You’re most fulfilled in your career when you’re in a leadership position. It’s no secret
that you enjoy being in control but it’s more so because you will have a strong creative vision
that you are very dedicated to bringing to life. You will excel at putting yourself at the center of
activity in a way that brings everything together. So, if and when you become the boss, you will
undeniably be the boss. But, you shouldn’t assume control in a tyrannical or narcissistic
manner. Always remember that you need to rule graciously in order to remain in good standing
in the world. Letting your ego get the upper hand, becoming really controlling, or exhibiting a
very self-absorbed desire for attention and praise will significantly hurt your reputation.
The Sun, Leo’s ruler, is the planet of ego, so you definitely need to utilize your ego in order to
get ahead in the world. But, the expression of ego can be healthy and balanced, as well.
Learning to not go to extremes in your ego-drive is going to be particularly important, seeing
how easy it is for you to go to extremes. You could also find yourself living out various colorful
dramas before the world and once that starts becoming childish, over-the-top, or histrionic,
you’ll start losing many people’s respect. This is why it’s so beneficial for you to do something
very creative and expressive. A career that requires you to be dramatic will allow you to get all
of that energy out before the world. Otherwise, you need to be a respectable monarch to find
your place in society: dignified, self-assured, majestic, grand, and capable of bestowing a
magnificent light on to other people.
Leo does represent the light, meaning that finding your light is going to be a major goal of
yours. Getting too caught up in your darkness is what compels you to misuse your power, while
living more in the light while allow your power to come through beautifully before the world.
You have what it takes to leave people in awe of you. Being able to exhibit your true

SCORPIO RISING
281

personality and use it as a part of your public image means that it won’t really be an image but
a real expression of who you are. It takes huge confidence to be that authentic, only making
you a more powerful figure. The house the Sun rules shows what we identify with. With Leo in
the 10th, you truly identify with being an ambitious, commanding person in the world who has
an undeniable sense of destiny. You are expressing your enormous strength of will to live up to
that destiny and, in the process, becoming the best version of yourself you can be.
VIRGO ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Your sharp observations of situations and people always end up proving themselves to be
right but usually very unexpectedly. Being the natural-born detective you are, you are often
obsessed with exposing some sort of hidden truth that you are sensing. But, whenever you go
looking for the evidence that will prove your suspicions, you come up short and the criminal
gets away. You might end up looking irrational and like someone who isn’t thinking clearly if
you let your fixation with being correct consume you. However, when you detach yourself from
a desire to find the evidence, it always falls right into your lap. Virgo being placed on the 11th
House cusp, the house of traits we feel personally detached from, means that you don’t feel like
you’re all that analytical or rational (Virgo). However, you have an amazing capacity for analysis
that comes from some brilliant place inside of your brain that you can’t explain. You don’t know
why you know you’re correct. You just do and if you just sit back and let things happen, it
usually gets revealed that you had someone or something exactly pinned.
Your razor-sharp mind can be put to good use if you direct it toward helping people. Virgo in
the 11th gives you a knack for knowing exactly how to solve others’ problems, although you are
often unable or unwilling to clean up your own messes. For you, helping people takes on a very
practical dimension. You can work very hard toward any cause that provides those in need or
who have less with practical assistance. Any volunteer work will develop your sense of idealism,
showing how you can be very useful to a greater cause. The 11th House also shows us the
kinds of social bonds and friendships we’re able to forge. So, you are a very reliable friend,
always there to help when someone needs your help. When any of your friends or
acquaintances looking for a favor, you may be the first person they call, which becomes a
pattern in your life that is tiring or stressful, after a while.
But, you find your place in your community or social world by being of service to other people
and making yourself useful. It’s to the point where you can feel distinctly out-of-place or

SCORPIO RISING
282

uncertain in social situations where you don’t have something to help someone with or work on.
You can begin to wonder what’s the point of you even being there. Because of this, you are
very often not a fan of social events unless you are being put to work. It’s why you will find it
much easier to make friends on the job or while volunteering. When you feel like the other
person is being expected to be reliable, then you can relax more into the situation. You also
might be rather happy to host parties or help throw them because, then, you can keep yourself
busy and have something to do. It’s when everyone is getting together all willy-nilly and there’s
no organizing principle at play that you feel awkward.
As a result, there are many social circumstances that you feel awkward in. Mercury also rules
Virgo and having it as the ruler of your 11th means that you will spend a lot of time over-
thinking whenever you’re socializing. It goes back to that yearning for everything to be correct
and straightened out. More than people know, whenever you make a glaring mistake or one of
your flaws is exposed, you may just want to crawl into a hole. The more you try to pull it
together socially, the more nervous and anxious you’ll feel, which also speaks to your control-
freak syndrome. Your exceptional ability for analysis must be used in an impersonal manner.
That’s what the 11th House is all about. When we try to use the qualities of our 11th for
personal gain, it backfires on us and makes things too chaotic. So, you should aim to organize
and analyze things for the sake of other people, instead of to make yourself a social success.
You’re the type of friend who can figure out just what’s going wrong in someone else’s life
and how they can fix it. Your peers will turn to you for excellent advice, which you can end up
giving just about anyone who is trying to solve some sort of problem. This inadvertently helps
you with your problems. You might not realize it but much of your irritation and dissatisfaction
stems from being unable to solve other people’s issues or get them to admit to their
wrongdoing, like a detective who cannot solve a case or is trying to get a suspect to fess up.
It’s another indicator of how much you can change people’s lives. In the process, you become a
better person, especially since you learn to let much of these improvements and solutions
happen on their own. As a result, you won’t be able to consider anyone who isn’t willing to
improve themselves or their lives a friend. Maybe a passing acquaintance, at best. You’re also
very picky and choosy with those who you associate with. Being such an unusually accurate
judge of character helps you easily discern who is worth the time and effort and who isn’t. It’s
an ability that you can use to help other people pinpoint the good ones from the no-good ones.

SCORPIO RISING
283

LIBRA ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP


You have so much love to give yet you can isolate yourself from people due to a deep fear
that you’re unloved or that you’ll never be loved. Libra in the 12th House means that you have
a secret yet overwhelming yearning for love that is so draining and confusing that you can hide
it from yourself, a lot of the time. It seems much easier to come off as jaded and cynical, as
well as someone who is so angry or so fierce that they eat their lovers or anyone else alive.
While you do have so much intensity that can be misdirected into destructive or defensive
behavior, you also, as we’ve stated before, have a very tender heart. But, having Libra, the sign
of relationships, in the 12th House, which represents our secret inner life, means that you come
to believe that true love is just some fairy tale that’s never going to come true. Like with all
12th House energy, this sense of illusion takes you to extremes that end up making love a
major source of pain and suffering for you.
On one hand, you might try and repress your romantic side altogether. You will pretend that
you’re too hardened for love or that you’re so resourceful and strong that you don’t need much
of it. Take that too far and you become convinced that you don’t need anyone’s love, which, of
course, is not true. But, if you keep deceiving yourself in that way, you will just become
increasingly isolated from other people. It gets to the point where you can’t actually connect
with someone, even though you have such a profound desire to, because you’ve convinced
yourself that it doesn’t matter. Somewhere along the way, you start to believe that you don’t
matter. Feeling deeply unappreciated is an effect of Venus ruling your 12th and it can make it
hard for you to appreciate those that love you in return. Instead, they may just receive
indifference, coldness, cruelty, or any other pain-inducing behavior from you. Then, you feel
that love is about pain, which makes you feel like you’re unable to love, on some level. You can
neglect to recognize how sensitive you are, how much you really care about other people,
because you believe it’s not worth it since they don’t care about you.
The opposite end of the spectrum is that you can totally throw yourself into romantic
situations, with this belief that, somehow, this person and their love is going to save you. Being
as intense as you are, when you love, you love with your entire being. It’s something that
terrifies you yet you will also feel beckoned toward that abyss that you create with someone
else or attract through someone else. This is when you get completely lost in another person,
becoming very enmeshed with them to the point where they feel like they are a part of you. So,

SCORPIO RISING
284

the thought of losing them becomes unbearable because, then, you lose yourself. It’s why the
fear of betrayal is always at the back of your mind. Sometimes, you realize that you will never
truly know the other person and wonder what their true intentions are. Paranoia, insecurity,
and obsession then consume you until you end up running them off, contributing to your own
heartbreak. Then, the cycle continues.
Fearing that you’re overwhelming and draining in partnerships is something that can either
prevent you from getting close to someone altogether, believing that they’ll never be able to
accept your love or return it with the same intensity, or make you constantly uncertain with
someone else, especially a romantic partner. As powerful and in-control as you appear, you
have the potential to be highly insecure in relationships, to a degree that you may not even
realize. Your fear of abandonment, your need to be in control of everything, your compulsion to
ruin things when they’re going well are all an expression of that insecurity. Acknowledging that
part of yourself can be too much to handle for you, which is why it takes so much for you to let
someone in.
But, a great deal of that sense of uncertainty stems from being in relationships with people
who have terribly betrayed you, kept horrible secrets from you, manipulated and controlled you,
abandoned you, or even died unexpectedly. When you’ve been through all of that, it’s hard to
believe that love will last or that having closeness with someone else can have a positive
influence on you. However, you are meant to go through all of this pain in love and
partnerships in order to find healing and peace. Libra’s location in your 12th House means that
you have to acknowledge the pain and suffering that can come from relationships and then
transcend it. We have all experienced those states of imbalance in love: the heartbreak,
insecurity, mistrust, dishonesty, or betrayal that can happen whenever you let someone into
your life. These experiences only make you human and should allow you to experience great
empathy for anyone else who has felt let down by love. You’re not alone in those feelings and
knowing that will contribute to your serenity.
We are supposed to just feel whatever is in our 12th without identifying with it. Libra’s
idealized, balanced energy, particularly when it comes to people, is not something you’re meant
to identify with. You’re too raw, too hard-hitting and intense, to be that person who is always
concerned with fairness and equilibrium. You must recognize that yearning for the ideal
relationship is nothing but an illusion. People are bound to disappoint or hurt you. Yet, this

SCORPIO RISING
285

doesn’t mean that you have to forget about romanticism and connection. Yearning for that
beautiful kind of union with someone else is just a part of your humanity. But, maybe, the
beauty (Libra) also lies in the pain and suffering (12th House) to some degree. You shouldn’t
live out that unconsciously because then that will attract you toward very painful partnerships.
Instead, you must know that you can come out of that heartbreaking cycle with a greater sense
of what beauty and love really mean. Even if a relationship doesn’t end well, you, at least, were
able to keep your heart open and experience some good times with the person.
Your tremendous capacity for love may sometimes only be satisfied through your relationship
to the Divine. In this day-to-day realm, you’ll either feel like there’s not enough love going
around or that people are too scared to love. But, you know what either experience is like. It’s
best to forgive people and sometimes just accept the love they have to give, at whatever level
it is. Through spirituality, you’ll be able to experience that soul-stirring kind of love that few
human beings can give you without bringing you intense emotional chaos in return (or
compelling you to bring such energy to their life). You will feel unconditionally loved by your
Higher Power, remembering that, no matter what, you’re always appreciated and admired.
Your sense of selflessness or charity is expressed through your ability to help other people
feel like they are lovable, no matter what, and that they only deserve influences in their life that
are going to bring them peace and joy. This is what your spiritual life gives you. Your study of
astrology can show you the beautiful traits about yourself that you should be loving. Yes, you
have that dark side to you and the potential to be destructive. But, turning deeply inward will
show you that there is more beauty, love, and kindness inside of you than that. Being able to
see the beauty in every human being is what will really drive any artistic abilities you have.
Libra in the 12th helps you create a whole new Universe where all is love. You can tell highly
romantic tales through your art or create characters who people are able to love, no matter
what they do, because they see the deep yearning for love behind all of their actions.

SCORPIO RISING
286

SAGITTARIUS RISING

SAGITTARIUS ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


Life is a non-stop adventure when you’re a Sagittarius Rising. It’s not about the destination to
you. It’s about embracing every part of your journey. So, you are completely open to whatever
is going to happen in your life, living with this conviction that good things are going to happen.
Everything will work out in the end! Because of this, you attract and fall into many beneficial
experiences throughout your life. Although you have this awesome power of manifestation, you
might not be entirely aware of it. That ability is just instinctive for you, because you have
always lived with this perspective that whatever you believe is what is going to happen to you.
As a result, you have an abundance of perspective, knowing that the life that you’re living is the
life that you believe you’re living.
There is definitely the spirit of a philosopher inside of every Sagittarius Ascendant. But, of
course, you all will have your own individual philosophies. There are many people with this
Rising sign who fit the very typical profile of being really optimistic, positive-thinking sort of
people. If this is your personality, you’re spirited and upbeat, forever looking on the bright side
and trusting in the process of life. It will take a lot to get you down and you can seem as if
you’re constantly happy. But, we shouldn’t put Rising signs in a little box. There are other
Sagittarius Risings who are not quite as idealistic or optimistic and who might not necessarily
seem that bubbly and positive. Yet, there is still something that they are absolutely positive
about. This reveals how having this Rising sign makes you chock-full of conviction. It’s a sense
of conviction that is far from easily swayed, as well.
In the case of the total optimists with this placement, it is very hard for someone to convince
you that things will not work out and that life isn’t good. This gives you a remarkably resilient
nature, capable of happily bouncing back from the worst circumstances with a smile on your
face. You will keep moving forward in life and will only look back on situations to laugh at them,
whether they turned out positively or negatively. But, the second type of philosopher with this
Ascendant is more so like a Jean-Paul Sartre or a Friedrich Nietzsche. Not exactly convinced
that things are all good, you will still have this outlook that is comprised of very well-developed
beliefs. The motivation for this belief system is to understand all the reasons why everything is
happening. You know that the Universe or the world work in a particular manner and that there

SAGITTARIUS RISING
287

is an underlying reason for it all that goes beyond simple logic. It’s more so about a framework
of ideologies. As you can see, the second type of Sagittarius Ascendant is more of a serious
thinker. However, many of you with this point of view can still come off as being someone who
is living life fully and freely, not letting much getting them down. Some of you are more over-
the-top and animated about this while others will have more of a pleasant, easygoing vibe,
making any situation you’re in better just because you’re there.
Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, making this planet your chart ruler. Jupiter is the planet of
one’s beliefs as well as how you can grow as a person throughout life. With this expansive
planet serving as your chart ruler, you are eternally concerned with your growth. This will mean
different things for each Sagittarius Rising. It all depends on what Jupiter is doing in your chart.
What kind of adventure is your life? What will you continually discover and why? You might
have Jupiter in the 1st, reinforcing the fact that you are constantly discovering more about
yourself and life and that you are on this path of endless exploration. Jupiter could be in your
8th House, indicating that you are exploring your emotional issues and the darker side of
yourself. By discovering the source of your psychological problems, you can also discover your
power by embarking on a journey to transform and overcome these issues. The sign that
Jupiter is in shows why you’re engaging in these explorations in the area of life represented by
the house placement while Jupiter’s aspects indicate exactly how you will go about it all.
Jupiter’s dominant influence over your life is what makes you feel like there is so much in life
that is possible. The sky is the limit! Go big or go home! These are all very Sagittarian phrases
because they not only serve to uplift people but to make them feel like there are no limitations.
Jupiter shows how we forgo limitations, which can inject us with an enormous sense of
inspiration, meaning, truth, or positivity. But, living without limits is, sometimes, not a great
thing. It’s what contributes to you being “extra” in your demeanor, in a way that can be seen as
unnecessary, exaggerated, or ridiculous. It’s what makes you come off as irresponsible and
immature or like you aren’t thinking much about your effect on others as you make your way
through life like the Road Runner.
Truthfully, you sometimes are thoughtless and can create as much disaster around you as
you do good fortune. But, like with everything, you always have a way of bouncing back. It’s
often remarkable, actually, how well you can recover from situations that others would die of
embarrassment from or get too discouraged or sad in the face of. To you, it’s all just a part of

SAGITTARIUS RISING
288

life! Since you’re more focused on the overall journey, you aren’t going to fixate too much on
one poor experience. It’s just a minor blip on your path, in the big scheme of it all, and you
refuse to let it stop you from living. Experiencing all that you can means taking the good with
the bad, the victories with the failures, the moments of pride with the moments of humiliation,
and accepting that it all comes with the territory.
Refusing to take anything too seriously, you don’t believe that you need to live a very
particular life or be a very particular person to be happy. This is also because you see
everything in broad-minded strokes, including yourself, and feel like any unnecessary
judgments are too limiting. Feeling this lack of limitation strongly defines your early years, in
some way or another. Whether your parents had a lot or a little, the world that you came into
allowed you to develop a huge sense of gratitude for whatever you had. A large part of this
could be because everyone was so grateful for you when you arrived. Sagittarius Rising babies
are sometimes “surprises” but are usually brought into this world with a real sense of
celebration. This is often because your parents were really hoping, even praying, for a child and
felt particularly blessed when you came along. As a result, the day of your birth was probably
very jubilant and happy, setting a carefree tone for the rest of your life.
The typical Sagittarius Rising is very intrepid and outdoorsy, which is a trait that was very
evident as a kid. You loved to play not just in your backyard but everywhere else. Climbing
trees wherever you could and exploring the woods and going on frequent camping trips
revealed just how willing you were to venture into various territories. You’ve always seen the
world as your playground. Anywhere you haven’t been is just another place for you to conquer.
This attitude was also instilled within you because you may have moved around a lot during
your first several years. Much like Aquarius Rising, there was a sense of you going from one
place to the next in your early life. But, for them, it was about constant change. For you, it was
about seeing all the places you could see. Some of you also had parents who traveled a lot, for
some reason, truly taking you to foreign territories on a regular basis.
Even if you didn’t move a lot back then, there was most likely one major move during your
early years that changed everything. Such a move took you out of your comfort zone, because
everything was so different or due to it being or seeming so far away from what was once
home, showing you that you shouldn’t waste time getting too attached to a comfort zone. Life
is all about discovery, so you had to discover this drastically new land and make it yours. It’s a

SAGITTARIUS RISING
289

pattern that expresses itself throughout your life. You relish new situations or new people. Even
if you’re not blatantly welcoming toward this unknown entity, as many Sagittarius Risings will
be, you will still have a complete openness to whatever could happen.
Your perspective can be so high-minded that it makes you appear downright enlightened. As
funny or jokey as you are, there is also this sage-like wisdom that you exude that people readily
pick up on and gravitate toward. Growing up, regardless of your birth order and age, you were
the one who lifted everybody’s spirits. Making those in your family laugh whenever they were
down or showing them how to believe in themselves or keep going, even when things got hard,
engaging with your early environment in this way conditioned you to see this as your role in
life. So, in any given situation, you’re the one who is boosting everyone up. The thing is that
you do so without even trying. You don’t even have to tell people that everything is going to be
alright. Just having you around reassures people of that, usually because things have a curious
way of consistently working out when you’re present.
Like a human four-leaf clover, people seem to benefit from your very presence. The energy in
the room shifts when you’re around. We could go a step further and compare you to not just to
a wise sage but to the sage that people use to cleanse their spaces from negative energy. You
have that effect, sometimes without even realizing it. Although you do love the sense of lifting
people up, inspiring them, and making them feel better, you don’t want anyone getting too
attached to you, either. A natural-born free spirit, you want to feel unencumbered enough to go
wherever you want to go next. If someone needs you too much or starts making too many
demands on you, you will start looking for the nearest exit. But, you also do this when people
aren’t pressuring you. Famously prone to feeling trapped, suffocated, and restless, whenever
you’re in this state, you will be out of there before they even heard you say “goodbye.”
Although we could say this is a defense mechanism that prevents most people from getting
too close to you and, therefore, limiting you, it’s also just an innate way of being for you. You’re
on the go as much as Aries Rising, but in a more adventure-seeking fashion. And I don’t just
mean on the go as far as heading from one place to the next in your city. You can constantly be
on the run in terms of traveling. It’s easy to spot a Sagittarius Rising by how much they travel
or how easily they’ll move. Regardless of income level, you will find a way to be a jetsetter to
some degree and see as much of the world as you can see. Friends and family can find it hard
to pin you down when you’re out of town every other weekend (or every weekend). But, people

SAGITTARIUS RISING
290

will eventually learn to just enjoy you while you’re around. Your catch-me-if-you-can attitude
will only become more pronounced if someone tries to actually catch you.
However, you do want to bring other people along on many of these adventures, as well.
Always up for a good time, you carry yourself with such enthusiasm that it’s infectious. Most
people with their Ascendant in Sagittarius have very big, raucous laughs that make it hard for
you to not laugh right along with them. It’s very easy for you to smile, nice and wide, but you
have this way of always seeming like you’re smiling, even when you’re not. (On bad days, this
can help because you can convince people you’re in a great mood while you’re internally
screaming) Appearing amused or on the brink of laughter, there’s a warmth to your eyes and a
real twinkle in them, which only reinforces the impression that you love all of life’s thrills. You’ll
probably engage in things like skydiving or bungee-jumping without thinking twice and might
even flirt with the wilder stuff like motorcycle riding and drag racing.
Spending your life amassing all of these spectacular experiences is what gives you such a
legendary aura. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it’s a big deal to many. With some
Sagittarius Rising people, this is due to having such a big personality. If so, you’re the type that
totally fills a room when you enter it, with a loud, animated, larger-than-life demeanor. Did I
say loud? The volume of your voice raises so naturally that you may easily embarrass people in
public who wish you would use your inside voice. Some with this Rising sign can actually have a
more low-key profile yet even these people’s energy can’t remain downplayed for long. It shows
in how completely swept up in a conversation you can get, becoming increasingly excited about
what you’re talking about, and how your reactions are so uncensored that it throws some for a
loop. It’s also apparent in the fact that you cannot live your life in a small manner. Even if
you’re not particularly loud in manner, you will live the loudest, greatest life you can.
Yet, in spite of your good intentions, you easily take things overboard. That’s the plight of
being a child of Jupiter. Eating too much, drinking too much, talking too much, working too
much, joking around too much, whatever the case is. Also, your personality can be labeled as
“a lot” by many. However, this doesn’t get you down or hold you back because you refuse to
live out anything but your truth. Honest to an absolute fault, you are always going to express
what you believe to be true, which also involves being as true to yourself as you can be. It’s
exceptionally hard for Sagittarius Rising people to be dishonest and many of you are such bad
liars you can’t even try to lie. Whatever your actual reaction or thought is, it will be obvious.

SAGITTARIUS RISING
291

Not just because it will be visible in your vivid expressions but because you will come right out
with it. This is a notorious Sagittarius quality: being too blunt for your own good. You don’t
mean to offend or hurt anyone’s feelings but you also lack finesse when it comes to expressing
your opinion. You just put it out there, speaking first and then thinking later.
Most people will get used to it, though, and will find it very endearing. Being so
straightforward and candid helps people know exactly where they stand with you. Yet, your
way of telling the truth is definitely clumsy, much of the time, just like your physicality. So
many individuals with this placement are highly accident prone, tripping over their own feet if
given a chance, running into walls and knocking things over constantly. Sagittarius’
representative is the Centaur, which is Half-Man (on top) and Half-Horse (on the bottom). It’s
so fitting because it will seem like everyone else has a regular bottom half, metaphorically
speaking, that makes it much easier for them to navigate this physical space than you.
Gracefulness is typically not in your vocabulary, whether in your way of physically carrying
yourself or your temperament, but that is largely a part of your charm.
Your bottom half can also seem like a Horse’s because it’s larger, in some way. Commonly,
this influence leads to thicker thighs and a particularly full or round butt, since Sagittarius rules
the butt. Whether you’re a man or a woman, your backside probably gets plenty of attention.
But, there is always some very pronounced body part with the Sagittarius Rising that stands
out. It could be giant eyes, a very wide grin, or a really large nose. Either way, that
exaggerated feature is a source of fascination for people and, for some reason, looks much
more flattering on you than it would on some people. The beauty and attractiveness of a
Sagittarius Rising can be almost unbelievable. There’s something cartoonish about your
appearance, in the best way, as if an animator wanted to create some bigger-than-life
character for people to love. The way you excite people is much like a cartoon, especially due
to how very silly, goofy, or full of jokes and laughter you are. There’s something so good-
natured and almost even innocent about that quality of yours and it makes people’s day on a
regular basis.
CAPRICORN ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
It will sound like an oxymoron but, with Capricorn on the 2nd House cusp, you have to
become comfortable with what is difficult in life. Until then, you will not be able to find the
security you need, both internally and externally. The 2nd House is how we are able to build

SAGITTARIUS RISING
292

ourselves up and with Capricorn located in the 2nd, you will value yourself, more and more,
when you appreciate how hard you work or how capable you are of persevering through
difficulties. Wanting everything in life to come easily and effortlessly to you prevents you from
appreciating what you have when you get it. This is why you won’t feel truly stable and secure
until you put the right amount of effort into things.
While good things come your way on a regular basis, you struggle to feel worthy of them. It’s
not something that you will readily admit to but you can go through life with the sense that you
just lucked out. People don’t win the lottery because they work for it. It’s just given to them.
For a significant part of your life, things will be just handed to you, by other people or by the
grace of the Universe. An interesting dynamic develops that makes you appreciative overall of
these things while not really feeling like you deserve them. Then, you struggle to value
yourself, wondering what you truly deserve. Saturn, Capricorn’s ruler, residing over your 2nd
House indicates that you find it very hard to develop solid self-worth. It’s a problem for many of
us yet it remains an ongoing issue for you so long as you either can’t appreciate your
contribution to your current life or fail to make a substantial contribution to having the life you
have.
Another issue of this placement is that you may actually feel, on some level, that things should
just be handed to you. After all, it is so much easier to not work for something, isn’t it? This
dilemma is fueled by your relationship with your father figure. With this placement, we see a
Dad who insisted upon the value of hard work so much that it made you want to go in the
other direction. Adopting your father’s values is one of the major keys to your feelings of
security. But, if you fail to value what he does, including hard work, then you can just go
through life with a feeling of instability and insecurity. On the flip side, it can be true that your
father didn’t work as hard as he should have. An afflicted Saturn can show an unstable Dad or
one who had trouble providing for the family. You always associate money with your father in
some essential way, either because he worked intensely hard for it or because he was too
unable to get it together and bring home the bacon.
The pressure this puts on you makes you feel compelled to overcome the financial instability
that your father brought with him or to grapple with the rigid notion of security that he
established for you. Having Capricorn on the 2nd House cusp can create great discomfort with
responsibility. All of that pressure and those expectations and demands seem too limiting and

SAGITTARIUS RISING
293

restricting. This is reflected in your relationship with money, as you will become terrible at
managing your money. More than capable of spending it all in one place, you will exhibit your
discomfort with any limitations by doing whatever you want with your money, whenever you
want to. But, then, what happens? You have a lot less money and you’re faced with limitations.
Financial restrictions are rather unavoidable when it comes to this placement. One reason for
this is due to how loose you are with money and how such a lack of responsibility leaves you,
well, lacking.
The other alternative is that you embrace financial restriction to the point of sheer
miserliness. This reveals a surprising trait about Sagittarius Risings: a lot of them are downright
cheap. Okay, let’s say frugal instead. But, this stems from a deep-seated fear of going broke, of
ending up in the poorhouse. You might have this fear because you dealt with a broke father
growing up or because he was so conservative in his values that he made you fixate on saving,
saving, and more saving. It gets to the point, though, where it stops being practical and starts
making you miserable. Spending a bit of money on things you absolutely need, like groceries or
clothes, can feel like an unnecessary burden. Hoarding your money for the rainiest of rainy
days, you exhibit this attitude because, again, you are shying away from difficulty. The thought
of not having the ideal amount of money that you want in your bank account is often too much.
Whether you are spending your money like crazy or pinching every penny you have, you are
operating out of a fear of struggling. You will either live totally beyond your means or so below
your means that it doesn’t make sense. To resolve these money issues, you have to take true
responsibility. You’re the one enforcing these limitations on yourself, either by not spending
your money well or not allowing yourself to enjoy your money. If you work hard for it, you
should be able to enjoy it. Also, if you work hard for it, you should appreciate it enough to use
it wisely. Money is an energy that comes into your life when you are handling it as wisely as
you can. As a result, you have to turn inward and value your inner wisdom.
You have to grow up to find true security, within and without. This Rising sign regularly
suffers from the Peter Pan syndrome, refusing to truly become an adult and take responsibility.
You fear being so limited that you can’t live freely and have your adventures and enjoy life. But,
part of being a grown-up means that you can do that. You’ll have to work hard to be able to
play hard. Knowing that a strong work ethic and dedication to your goals will lead to a
pleasurable life is what builds you up. You will stop running from your duties and will just

SAGITTARIUS RISING
294

buckle down and do them. Also, you’ll realize that being a responsible adult doesn’t mean that
you have to take all of the fun out of your life. Adopting this balanced attitude will give you the
perspective that you need to handle your money reasonably. You will remember to save and
conserve it but to also spend it without guilt or fear.
Sometimes, you just need to treat yourself! You deserve it. Recognizing that you do deserve
all that you have because you’ve worked for it will only allow you to manifest more money and
more resources. Saturn’s house in our chart is an area of true strength and purpose. You are
meant to be this excellent manifester and you will have to discipline yourself to have the right
kind of self-worth to do so. Spending your life wanting more and more easily leads you to feel
like you need to be more than you already are. As upbeat and glorious as you come off, this
causes deep struggles with self-esteem. Focus on the awesome qualities you already possess,
instead of what you feel like you lack. This only reinforces and boosts the awesomeness of
those qualities. Likewise, you need to focus on the material things that you already have,
instead of what you feel like you should be having. Always feeling like you never have enough
money will lead you to never have enough money. But, when you remain truly grateful for
what’s already in your life, much more will come your way.
Mastering this takes a lot of work, due to your insatiable restlessness and the greed that can
stem from that, but it will be more than worth it. You will then come to value serious, hard
work in more than one way. Like all the Fire Risings, you have to be truly patient, pragmatic,
and hardworking in order to manifest the money that you need. No shortcuts and no easy way
out. But, you will appreciate something much more if you have worked very hard for it and if
it’s taken quite a while to come to you, whether that’s the lifestyle you are trying to manifest or
the goals that you put great effort into accomplishing. Because of this, any sort of job that you
work your ass off in will bring you the most money. You will simply enjoy the process of setting
a goal and fully dedicating yourself to it until it becomes a reality. So, you can be happy making
money in many different fields. But, you will probably be even happier when you’re in control.
Your sense of authority and command will be very valued in the job market and that can lead
you to find great financial security by being the boss at whatever you do.
AQUARIUS ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
It’s hard for you to grasp the “normal” way to communicate. Your conversation style
consistently throws people for a loop because you don’t care about people’s expectations of

SAGITTARIUS RISING
295

what you should say or their preconceived notions of how conversations should go. In fact, the
things you say are often downright shocking or controversial. Aquarius on the 3rd House cusp
means that just about anything is capable of flying out of your mouth at any given time. But,
much of the time, it’s quite accidental and not intentional. You sometimes don’t want to be as
blunt or as offensive as you are but it just happens. The more you try to be acceptable and
restrained in communication, the more you’ll end up saying something wild or crazy.
You comprehend and process information in this wild, crazy manner. Uranus is the planet
where anything goes and with it ruling your chart’s 3rd House, you will go absolutely wherever
your mind takes you. This makes sense because you live with such a lack of limitations. It also
doesn’t seem that out-there to you until you share what you’re thinking with people. This is why
it’s sometimes best for you to process what you’re thinking or hearing very independently. Our
Aquarius house is where we do our own thing and with it in the house of the mind, you have a
truly independent mind. You think for yourself and do not appreciate anyone pressuring you or
trying to convince you of something else. Once you’ve formed an idea or a concept, that’s it.
There’s no changing it. But, this isn’t exactly stubbornness (although certain placements in your
chart may actually make you stubborn). It’s more about being highly opinionated, to the point
where you perceive your opinions as actual facts that can’t be argued with.
However, you can come across as so open-minded, at the same time. That’s not misleading
because you are. But, you are both. You’re a broad-minded thinker and also a real know-it-all,
highly interested in any sort of new, fascinating information and then being totally sure that
you’re right about it once you’ve made up your mind. You’re even like this when it comes to
things that you’re not all that informed about. More of an experiential learner and thinker than
a logical one, you throw yourself into a situation and then listen to your own inner voice to
determine what’s right and what’s not. It doesn’t matter if it’s out-of-step with everyone else’s
sense of what’s right. You’ll insist upon it, anyway.
Sometimes, you do this because you do actually want to create a commotion with your ideas
and stances. Although you’re often mortified at what you end up saying, you’re just as often
and as equally unconcerned with how people receive your words. There is this flip side of you
that just doesn’t care. This is when you will tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so
help you God, completely subverting other people’s ideas about what polite and acceptable
conversation is. Aquarius in the 3rd can make your speech (3rd House) rather alienating

SAGITTARIUS RISING
296

(Aquarius) to other people. There are times where you want this to happen because you get
tired of the pretensions and the half-truths around you. It’s easy to feel misunderstood, with
this placement, because you feel like you’re speaking a truth that others are not willing to
admit. It seems so obvious to you but not to them, making you the one proclaiming that the
clearly naked Emperor has no clothes. And for speaking the truth, you are shunned, judged,
ridiculed, or written off.
Honing your major bluntness is a life-long challenge. You should never rid yourself of that
quality because it’s so authentic and also because you shouldn’t let people’s approval or
disapproval determine how you communicate. At the same time, it is good to remember when
giving your views on something is helpful to others and when it isn’t. If you’re just being
outrageous or provocative in your speech for the sake of it, that’s not going to help anyone.
Aquarius is, after all, about creating change for the good of others. There are times where you
will have to be the one to say what no one else is willing to say. But, when that will truly
educate or enlighten someone else, you should do it. If it’s just going to cause an unnecessary
communication, then maybe you should distance yourself from the conversation somehow and
process that independently. Although you will always have something wild to say, there are
certain things that you should just say to yourself.
Your manner of thinking isn’t like most people’s, which is why what seems like a simple truth
to you is an earth-shaking revelation to them or a clear fact that changes their whole viewpoint.
This shows that there is a certain brilliance to how you think. Unfortunately, many Sagittarius
Rising people get the “dumb” label, with their unique intelligence going misunderstood by
others. You have an exceptionally quick way of processing and communicating things, which is
why you will hit on a hard truth that others haven’t even pondered yet or can’t put into words.
It’s a quality that was particularly evident in your grade school years. You also felt somewhat
disconnected from your classmates and teachers during this time. It may have been hard for
your intelligence to shine through because you weren’t given the kind of learning environment
that fit your unique educational needs. You had a way of standing out in the class, possibly for
being disruptive on a regular basis or engaging in some form of rebellion.
Aquarius in the 3rd often indicates either having rebellious siblings or being the most defiant
one among your siblings. Although you could’ve had a great friendship growing up, there may
have been some lack of synchronicity going on because you were so different from one

SAGITTARIUS RISING
297

another. You didn’t understand each other too well, treating the other like someone who was
clearly adopted and not actually related to you. There has also always been something very
chaotic about your bond with your brother or sister. When you get together, you’re quite
uncontrollable and unpredictable. You don’t have a very typical sibling relationship in some
manner. Needing a great deal of independence from them, you can probably go a significant
length of time not talking or seeing each other. On the flip side, they can truly be one of your
best friends, if not your best friend, creating a dynamic where you don’t even feel like siblings.
PISCES ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
Spending so much of your life on the run gives you a strong need to have a safe space to
come home to that allows you to do nothing. Your Pisces Nadir shows that you feel most at
home whenever you can just totally recharge. This is a much more private side of you that can
go against the over-the-top or restless energy that you generally express and give off. Behind
closed doors, you’re much quieter and more reflective. Having all of these experiences in life
and being such a philosophical soul does give you a deep yearning to reflect. It gets to a point
where it takes you down a rabbit hole of introspection, bringing up all sorts of unacknowledged
feelings, fears, and hurts. Interestingly, this is why so many of you can avoid having these
moments where you stop and reflect. It brings up a lot of painful things that you would rather
just run away from. But, you can’t run for forever. It all eventually catches up with you.
So much of this stems from your upbringing. The 4th House tells us how our childhood was
and how we developed the life-long bond with our family during this time. Pisces in the 4th
House indicates a childhood that was often overwhelming, confusing, and draining. You come
from a family that was deeply troubled in some way yet went to great pains to keep that a
secret. Having family members who suffer from substance abuse, mental illness, constant
exhaustion, or all sorts of hidden, unresolved feelings is something that affects you very deeply.
You absorb it all but then you also are confronted with this illusion that everything is fine. So,
you don’t really know what to believe! This placement is also the source of much of your blind,
and sometimes misguided, faith in life. You grew up conditioned to believe in what was right in
front of you, even if the perfect picture turned out to be an illusion or an act of deception.
You play an interesting role in the family because, being such a truth-teller, you’re in a
position to shatter all of the illusions about what’s happening in the home. Some people with
this placement will do just that once they’re disillusioned, often later in life, by the reality of

SAGITTARIUS RISING
298

their family situation. But, doing so can be hard because you feel too guilty. You feel a lot for
your loved ones, taking in their pain and suffering like it’s your own. The Pisces Nadir then
causes you to take on a martyr role in the family. You can neglect your true feelings and needs
in order to protect them in some sense, often from the reality of their actions. Sometimes,
you’re protecting yourself, as well, badly needing to believe in them. It’s something that can
haunt you and torment you, though, making it hard for you, as an adult, to confront things in
your personal life that must be confronted.
Therefore, your compulsive truth-telling can sometimes be a way of compensating for the fact
that you feel like you have to constantly lie to your family or that something about your family
situation has always been a lie. So, finally bringing the truth to light sets you free from your
long-held pain. While this influence can lead to a family that is emotionally exhausting and
depleting, it also can create a ton of unconditional love. No matter what happens, you want
your family to know that you’ll always love them and support them. Gaining the same kind of
acceptance from them can ultimately help you deal with the times where you feel so deeply
disappointed in them. You know the importance of forgiveness because it’s how you’ve bonded
with your family all of this time. In spite of what hot messes they may be and how they’ve hurt
you in the past, there is usually something very empathetic about your relationship with them.
Still, there will be plenty of times where you really need your solitude because it all becomes
too overwhelming and you can’t find any peace. Being a part of a huge family that makes you
feel like you’re getting lost within them or experiencing an often trying lack of boundaries with
your loved ones makes you regularly yearn to escape them. But, this repeats itself in other
private circumstances of yours because you can strive to escape just about anyone you live with
or form a sense of family with. Locking yourself away in your room or becoming very
withdrawn, like you did as a child, you hope to finally find your serenity. The thing is that others
may not even be bothering you or asking much of you. It’s just that you are so easily
overwhelmed within your home life that you can sometimes only feel safe when you’re alone.
At times, you may seek to escape your home altogether. Neptune, Pisces’ planet, serving as
your 4th House ruler means that living with you may be like living with a ghost. When you
operate like this, you’re never home, neglecting your loved ones in order to roam and get as far
away as you can. That’s all coming from some unresolved place of pain within you and if you
don’t take the time to heal yourself, you’ll end up causing your loved ones plenty of pain. Being

SAGITTARIUS RISING
299

such a runner can make it hard for many Sagittarius Rising people to settle down and have
families of their own. This usually cannot happen until you do enough soul-searching to figure
out what pain you still haven’t let go of from your childhood and why.
You can end up hurting the people in your personal life like your family hurt you, through not
being fully present or being so secretive that you isolate yourself or blindly engaging in
destructive patterns. You could even do the hurtful things to your family that they once did to
you. It’s a deeply karmic cycle that you have to understand and break. But, it lets you walk a
mile in their shoes and possibly understand their pain from a deeper perspective. Some people
with this placement can be busy remaining victims of their childhood, due to their
unacknowledged and unresolved pain, until they stop and realize how their family members
were victims, as well. Hurt people hurt people. There are many illusions about your loved ones
and also your place within your family that you have to break in order to truly establish the
home you want. You can love them unconditionally without turning yourself into their savior
figure and you need to know how to engage with them while maintaining your inner peace.
ARIES ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
Aries on the 5th House cusp indicates that living in the moment (5th House) allows you to
take real risks (Aries). This is an extremely spontaneous placement, compelling you to totally
dive into situations without doing much thinking. Alas, that is often a problem for you. Yet, you
are also willing to deal with any fall-out from that very reckless streak of yours. There is a
certain fearlessness to you that defines who you are, at heart. Eager for any experience you
can get, you aren’t afraid of a challenge or of something new. Such an attitude injects you with
a creative energy that makes you completely take anything head-on. Often times, you won’t
realize what you’ve gotten yourself into until it’s too late. But, you are very good at
maneuvering your way out of any sticky situations, usually emerging unscathed.
So, whatever you’re good at is fueled by that intrepid nature. You have the creativity of a
daredevil and that gives you a very thrilling, invigorating kind of star power. We see how we
shine when we look at the 5th House and you are capable of shining by existing right on the
edge. You’re so sure of yourself in these moments, convinced that you’re not going to fall off.
Some people would but you usually don’t, which allows you to express your talent with a sense
of an advantage over others. You don’t just live on the edge. You know you have an innate
edge over other people. Most Sagittarius Rising folks are well-aware of how lucky they are and

SAGITTARIUS RISING
300

how the Universe is typically looking out for them. Since this turns out to be true much of the
time, you gain a lot of validation for being a risk-taker.
You develop your talent through a sheer willingness to do it. Highly active and unafraid of
falling flat on your face, Aries in the 5th shows that you get good at something just by totally
putting yourself out there. Many other people hem and haw, too afraid of what people will think
or the possibility of it not working out. Not being preoccupied with those thoughts allows you to
throw yourself aggressively into your talents. Such an approach allows you to stand out from
the rest in an undeniable way. This has been apparent since you were a child. With the 5th
House representing how we were as kids, you always made sure that you were seen and heard.
It often got to the point where you one-upped many of the other kids, sometimes
unintentionally and sometimes on purpose. You’ve always needed a lot of elbow room and the
other boys or girls would often feel your elbows in their side or back if they didn’t step aside.
Back then, some adults may have discouraged you for being too competitive or aggressive,
too concerned with yourself. This is where some of the unself-consciousness and lack of
inhibition that comes with being a kid becomes stifled. Yet, you are not someone who can be
contained for long, if at all. Expressing yourself without hesitation or caution is what makes you
feel really alive. You shouldn’t stifle that for anyone else’s sake. If anything, you’ll find that this
gung-ho, seize-the-day attitude is what accentuates and strengthens your talents. So, don’t
worry about if anyone else can handle it or if it’s too much for them! It’s none of their concern.
You have the most fun when you are this bold and brave, which is something that you can
channel very well into anything athletic, competitive, or that is a real challenge.
Having children can be a challenge for you, in numerous ways. With Aries’ energy being
primarily concerned with itself, there are many Sagittarius Risings who do not want children or
aren’t very fond of them. This can stem from butting heads with the other kids growing up,
making you constantly feel like you’re headed for war whenever you’re in a child’s presence.
You might have little patience with them and feel as if being a parent would hold you back from
so much that you want to do. To be fair, a lot of people who don’t want kids feel that way. But,
it’s a particular expression of your desire to never feel trapped. It’s why many people with this
placement, if they do have children, will only have them after they’ve spent enough of their
lives doing what they wanted to do.

SAGITTARIUS RISING
301

Conversely, since so many things in your life are an “oops” or an accident, becoming a parent
can happen just as impulsively and unintentionally for you. If you feel like you haven’t had
enough opportunity to live for you, though, you could harbor a certain amount of anger or
frustration in regards to being a Mom or Dad. That’s something you should address, so you
don’t take it out on your kid. Regardless, you could find yourself fighting with your child on a
regular basis. Your son or daughter will very likely have Aries planets or a strongly placed Mars
that makes them a little warrior. It’s sort of your karma, as they will serve as a reflection of how
you were a little warrior as a child. Having an inner child that’s a fighter means that your actual
child will be one, too. But, it won’t be all conflict. Like with everything else, you just need to
totally throw yourself into parenting to get the hang of it. Once you do, you can be a great
motivator to your child, encouraging them that they can do anything. You’ll give them quite a
push but this can be a mostly positive thing, pushing them to be their best. Self-reliance will
also be an important trait you instill in your child, as you don’t need them weighing you down
unnecessarily. But, they will be naturally independent, anyway, making that easy for you.
The same sense of independence in matters of the heart makes you feel a strong sense of
chemistry with the other person. In romance, you attracted to Aries energy or Mars-influenced
person who are very much their own person. You love this because it gives you, yes, a
challenge. You thrive on the pursuit, the chase, and will usually prefer to do the chasing.
Having a love interest who is so independent that they’re not desperate for you only makes you
want them more. You want them to want you but once they do, you might lose interest. The
passion of the moment also comes and goes startlingly easy for you. Aries in the 5th makes you
open and give your heart based very much on your momentary desire. But, it may be a desire
for someone you can’t have or to win them. However, your fierce, self-reliant lover will make
sure to remind you that they’re no prize to be won. This can result in one of the many clashes
that can make your love affairs overly passionate, even a bit contentious. But, you get off on all
of that, seeing how high you can turn up the heat and how hard they’re able to push back.
TAURUS ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
Your sense of productivity depends very much on your consistency, thanks to Taurus being in
your 6th House. You feel like the only you way can be efficient is to completely slow yourself
down and take everything one step at a time. But, it’s hard for you to work at this very
measured pace without feeling completely bored. This is another placement that shows your

SAGITTARIUS RISING
302

resistance to the mundane. Taurus, itself, is a sign that represents a certain resistance and, in
many ways, this can mean being stubbornly unproductive. You can procrastinate and
procrastinate until the cows come home, preferring to do more pleasurable things than those
boring old chores. When you have a chore to do, it feels very much like a chore; not fun or
exciting. Of course, this stands in the way of your productivity because you’re too busy being
self-indulgent to actually be practical about what you have to do.
Taurus in the 6th House indicates that it takes a very long time (Taurus) for you to get
practical or day-to-day things done (6th House). You not only take your sweet time starting it
but you will take as much time as you need to finish those tasks. It can be frustrating because
it seems like you takes you twice the time or more to do what other people can do much more
quickly. But, consider your methods of doing it. You’ll go at it for a while, then take a break,
then get back at it again, then take another break. That break can become even longer if you
get caught up doing something that’s more enjoyable. You enjoy that until you realize you have
to get back to work. Then, you drag your feet to do it, wanting to focus on what makes you
happier. Such patterns are clear when you are actually at work. Not only can it take you forever
to complete things but it can also take longer than necessary for you to arrive at work. Your
sense of time is regularly thrown off by your eagerness to stop and smell the roses.
Not realizing that the roses will still be there to smell after you get things done only sets you
back further and further. Time is a very valuable thing and you have to recognize the ways in
which you can waste it. You also might be valuing your free time much more than the time you
need to spend working. So, your sense of timing is always behind somehow. Having Taurus
located in the 6th House also means that it’s very easy for you to get extremely stuck on doing
the same old things in order to stay productive. Although a part of you is obviously not a big
fan of routines or stagnancy, you also recognize that when you do things a certain way and
you’re happy with the experience, you could benefit from sticking with those methods. But, this
leads you to become surprisingly rigid about things. It’s basically like a superstitious person who
feels like things are not going to go smoothly unless they do this and that and this in a
particular order every single time. You’re like that in your work and it can make it very hard for
you to adjust to another method or routine, not being open to its potential value.
Once you feel like something works, you don’t want to try anything else. This is usually your
solution for any problem that arises. It’s why it can take you a very long time to figure out what

SAGITTARIUS RISING
303

the solution is to any issue you’re having. But, once that solution proves itself to be solid, you
become highly attached to it. Getting back to the superstitious quality, displaying such an
approach shows that your faith might not be as strong as you think it is. It’s very possible for
you to try something else and have it work out just as well. A resistance to what could work
because you’re not comfortable with it can start to affect you physically. Health problems can
arise that cause sickness or ailments that you are totally convinced is because of one reason
when it’s really not. If these problems are recurring, it’s hard to tell you otherwise. It’s also true
that you could experience illnesses that are very ongoing. Even a simple cold take a very long
time for you to shake. You get over sickness very slowly, often because you’re too slow to do
anything about it and then it’s too late.
You have to truly stop and recognize how your laziness and self-indulgence are particularly
counterproductive. It’s nice that you want to work at your own pace and hate being rushed,
pressured, or prodded. But, you also need to know when to pick up the pace and accept that
work isn’t always going to be as pleasurable as you want to be. Sometimes, it hardly seems like
a pleasure. That doesn’t mean that you have to avoid it. Patiently and consistently doing what
needs to be done, regardless of how happy it makes you, will allow you to be efficient. Yet,
Venus ruling the 6th indicates that your work life and your daily chores and errands can actually
bring you significant happiness in life. Being as careless or as thoughtless as you can be, having
a solid work routine that you can rely on helps you feel more stable and secure in life and also
in yourself.
You won’t (or shouldn’t) be so in love with work that you get completely stuck in a rut where
you’re doing nothing but working, as this will end up making you very unhappy. Instead, there
needs to be a nice balance there where you enjoy your work but also know how to enjoy plenty
of things outside of it. This will positively affect your physical health by showing you how to be
practical enough to deal with those problems as they arise so they don’t get in the way of the
pleasure you’re seeking. In fact, when you’re unhappy on the job, you can get sick or hurt to
the point where you can’t work for a while, showing you that you need to stop and take a break
in order to get back to your happy place.
GEMINI ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
Gemini Descending indicates that you form close partnerships with people who you feel highly
stimulated by. Being the restless individual you are, you definitely need to be kept engaged by

SAGITTARIUS RISING
304

other people to stick around. If not, you’ll take off once you get too bored. The close friends,
significant others, and other one-on-one companions that you have in your life will ensure that
there’s never a dull moment. Attracted to people with Gemini energy or an angular Mercury,
you will just love picking their brain, talking to them, laughing with them. They will be witty,
verbal, intellectual people who know how to have great conversation and are always looking to
learn. You’re always seeking to impart your knowledge on to other people, in the sense of
letting your enlightenment or the wisdom and meaning you gain from your experiences rub off
on them. However, although they will be curious and open-minded, you may find that they’re
not always buying what you’re selling.
You attract situations into your life where people are constantly contradicting you. This is
often due to the fact that standing on the soapbox that you do only leaves plenty of room for
you to be exposed as a hypocrite or, worse, a fraud. You’d never think that of yourself but you
are not as consistent and right as you think. Who is? Who is right all the time? Who is always
who they claim to be? If you’re answering “me”, then you’re missing the point and the major
influences in your life will teach you that. In this instance, they’re the ones schooling you but on
a more rational level. They will rather gleefully or impishly point out holes in your logic, play
Devil’s Advocate, question you constantly, or even seem indifferent and uninterested in
whatever message you’re trying to convey to them. While there are times where they can hang
on to your every word, in other instances, it seems like they’re a tough crowd.
Therefore, with Gemini in the 7th, you’re confronted with the contradictory nature of other
people. You draw people into your life who are a bundle of paradoxes, constantly two opposing
things at once. It can make your head spin and cause you to label them as manipulative,
insincere, fraudulent, or flat-out crazy. But, you are also more contradictory than you realize.
This is the nature of the 7th House. Through the people we become close to, we are exposed
to a part of ourselves we might not want to acknowledge. Karmically, this is why we draw these
people into our lives to begin with. In your case, you are confronted with how you doth protest
too much. Constantly claiming that you’re a no-bullshit person means that you’re sometimes full
of shit. Insisting that you’re alright and that things are great is usually a major sign that you’re
not okay and may even be falling apart. Sagittarius Risings spend a lot of time and energy
trying to convince people that they’re one way to avoid being perceived as the other way or,
more so, to avoid admitting that they are the other way.

SAGITTARIUS RISING
305

Your companions will be able to clearly see this within you because they experience it
firsthand. There will be many moments where you are continually contradicting yourself with
them. The reason for this is that you often don’t want to truly communicate. As honest and as
straightforward as Sagittarius is, it’s also not the best communicator. There’s another
contradiction for you! Sometimes, you get so self-righteous about something that you refuse to
really talk about it. This is because you totally think you’re right and see it as a waste of time to
entertain the other person’s ideas or because you feel like it’s stupid, not to be taken seriously,
and that you’re above it. But, then, the other side of you starts acting out, often indirectly
expressing what you should be openly communicating. It’s quite manipulative and a way of
mind-gaming the other person, which is how the Gemini side of you emerges.
Being bright, observant, and an active listener, your companion will notice this and their
ability to analyze your patterns can make you feel like they’re getting inside of your head. You
have a real wariness about possibly being manipulated by someone. The fact that they can be
rather manipulative only makes it easy to project that on to them. It’s true that you will likely
experience an important, pivotal relationship in your life with someone who constantly mind-
screws you. But, you don’t have to enter into partnerships expecting that. Open communication
is crucial yet that means that you really have to talk to the other person. And if they need to
talk, let them talk. You have the potential to be either an excellent listener or a terrible listener.
You can go back and forth between the two, depending on your state of mind. If you are
feeling open-minded, you’re all ears. But, if some subject’s going to come up that you don’t
want to hear or that you’ve made up your mind already on, you may shut down.
As a Gemini Descendant, you are constantly approaching your partnerships from two distinctly
different angles. Your partner may not know what they’re going to get at any given moment.
Pushing and pulling, running off and then coming back, being easy to deal with or a complete
headache are all ways that you can keep flipping the script on the other person. Sometimes,
you just want to see who can keep up. After all, you’re quick to leave someone in the dust if
they can’t. Being changeable and speedy themselves, your best friend, romantic partner, or
other important companion will be able to maintain your pace. In fact, there will be many times
where their duality throws you for a loop. This is why it’s important to really listen to and
observe one another. There will be times where either of you needs space and then needs

SAGITTARIUS RISING
306

closeness or goes from being present to being in your head and the other person must be able
to understand that and respond accordingly.
So, clearly, both of you can ensure that there is never a dull moment. It’s best to try not to
label or judge what’s going on, which means that, in romantic situations, the best way for you
to commit to each other is to not pin the situation down too much to a commitment. You’re
such a wanderer and a searcher, anyway, that you will get bored if a situation presents itself
too easily. Feeling like there’s more out there, you’ll run off looking for it. But, someone who
keeps you on your toes and makes you unsure if you’re going to get everything you’re looking
for is just what you need in a romantic partnership.
The dynamic in these bonds depends on constantly looking at each other from different
angles. This will prevent you from needing to give the relationship some sort of black-or-white
label, which doesn’t just mean in terms of its “status” but in terms of what kind of person the
other individual is and what kind of person you are. Your companion will fully embrace their
ambiguity, the fact that they’re a walking shade of grey. Gemini on the 7th House cusp means
that you’ll learn this about yourself through the influence of others. You can get so stuck on
needing to be and feel like a good person. It’s not to say that you need to be a bad person or
throw out your good qualities. But, being more focused on being an interesting person, full of
all sorts of qualities, will allow your relationships to thrive because you’ll embrace your
versatility right along with your multifaceted companion.
CANCER ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
Your emotions often stem from an especially dark or heavy place that you don’t want to
explore. Once you go there, you feel like you’ll be completely consumed by those feelings.
Cancer in the 8th House indicates that you have many emotional issues that simply stem from
how to handle and process your emotions and needs. There is something so intense about
going to that place of vulnerability for you and it stems from plenty of unresolved pain inside of
you. It’s crucial for you to figure out why you’re emotionally reacting the way you are and
where it all comes from. While it’s easy for you to try and run from your true emotions, that will
only cause them to become more and more bottled-up until they wreak complete havoc.
This placement indicates that there was something especially painful or traumatic in your past
that made you feel like you couldn’t be safe. Most likely, it originated in childhood. When you
were supposed to be protected, you may have felt deeply unprotected or exposed to something

SAGITTARIUS RISING
307

scary or threatening to your well-being. So, this made your alleged safe space a dangerous one
that could not be trusted. It leaves an emotional scar that makes it hard for you to believe that
you are truly safe and protected anywhere. You also learned to hide your needs and feelings
because you didn’t want them to be used against you. The state of vulnerability can make you
feel powerless now because you felt so controlled or manipulated at your most vulnerable.
Much of this stems from your relationship with your mother. It’s interesting to see how many
Sagittarius Risings have very intense and complicated bonds with their Mom due to having the
Moon ruling the 8th. In some cases, the mother is a toxic or destructive influence in the child’s
life. She may have abused you in some way or used her power as the maternal figure as a
weapon against you. Feeling so controlled and wounded by the mother breeds a deep-seated
resentment that makes you unconsciously swear you’ll never need anyone again. However, the
mother may also be fiercely loving and supportive but just has a dark side or an intensity to her
that left an impact on you. Your complex, sometimes volatile dynamic with her made you come
face-to-face with the shadow energy within you. To this day, it can be very hard for you to
express your true emotions and needs without going to destructive extremes or releasing an
unsettling side of yourself.
Your mother figure might have also been a product of a very abusive environment that she
had to survive. So, while she could have gotten out of that situation, a lot of her fears,
resentments, and emotional damage were passed down to you. In general, you can see a long-
running pattern in your family of women who have been very emotionally scarred or wounded,
often by their own mothers, yet who exhibit great power and strength. This placement causes
you to come from a long line of formidable women but many of them, if not most, may have
been unaware of how to utilize their power.
As a result, you inherit this problem, unaware exactly of how to express your own feminine or
maternal energy without going to a dark or heavy place. Once you get into your feelings, it’s
like something from deep inside of you possesses you. So, you can be determined to control
them or even avoid them altogether. Yet, being the philosopher you are, intent on
understanding the reasons why things happen, you have to eventually stop and recognize that
much of what’s going on in your life is stemming from a more internal source. Forming
supportive emotional connections with others is also hard because you feel like they will utterly
consume you and possess you once you let them in, just like you so often have felt with your

SAGITTARIUS RISING
308

mother. But, the alternative is constantly shunning connection until you’re so desperate for one
that you completely dive into it, consuming and possessing the other person.
Such a pattern reveals itself in your sexual life. Sex makes you feel very vulnerable and brings
up a lot of emotions. You channel those strong feelings into sex, which is why any sexual
encounter is going to emotionally affect you on some level. But, this is exactly what you can try
to resist, keeping your walls up emotionally to the point where the other person isn’t really
reaching you sexually, either. It’s very hard for you to own up to what you need in bed because
you become convinced that it will leave you too exposed or allow the other person to control
you. The flip side is that you can become so emotionally invested in someone that you sleep
with so early on that you end up getting hurt very easily. Since sex and emotions are so
intertwined for you, knowing what’s truly intimate and what isn’t is difficult for you, which can
create a lot of insecure or irrational behavior with whoever you’re sleeping with.
Cancer ruling the 8th House means that you have to find your inner power by releasing
anything or anyone in your life who makes you feel like you can’t be vulnerable or emotionally
available. Much of this may have to do with the painful things from your past that made you
feel too unsafe, exposed, unsupported, or unprotected. Any resentments toward your mother
figure will be tied up in all of that. You might have to do a lot of introspection to even figure out
that you have resentment toward her. In many cases, the relationship seems fine until you
realize how controlled, smothered, or manipulated you feel by her. If you are still holding these
things against her, that gets in the way of you mothering yourself. In the end, you’ll truly
empower yourself by engaging in intense self-care and giving yourself the support and the
comfort you need. Dig deep and figure out your real needs and then satisfy them yourself. This
helps you break the cycle of those in your family who have been hurt, betrayed, or let down by
their mother in some way. Caring for yourself brings you healing.
In the process, you’ll come to a place of complete acceptance of your emotions. After all, you
are all about embracing the truth. So, you must be able to handle all of what you’re
experiencing emotionally because you will only perpetuate your pain when you continue to hide
those feelings. This means not hiding them from other people, as well. Being as happy-go-lucky
or forward-moving as you are makes it hard for you to admit that things aren’t going very well
for you. But, this is how you create true intimacy. And instead of obsessing over whether or not
you can trust someone, how they respond to you in your vulnerable moments will show you if

SAGITTARIUS RISING
309

they are trustworthy and an enriching source of emotional support. Also, don’t be so convinced
that you’ll scare them off with your true feelings that you refuse to share them. The less you
bottle them up or try to control them, the less overwhelming they’ll be.
However, you will still have these intense emotions that can be destructive, at times,
especially if you’re letting your irrational side ruin a situation that actually can be supportive to
you. But, knowing this and consciously managing it will allow you to stay in touch with the light.
Just like you will sometimes just need to be powerful enough to give yourself what you need
emotionally, you can exercise that same inner power by meeting your sexual needs yourself.
This can calm you down and prevent you from completely diving into intimacy in an overly
vulnerable way. It will also remind you that, even if they let you down, you still have yourself.
Cancer in the 8th shows how much you need sex as an emotional and psychological release.
Because of this, you do need to feel rather safe with the other person. Although this can cause
you to wait until there’s an emotional connection first, sometimes, it takes little time to realize
this or form that bond. You can intuitively sense whether or not there is that connection, which
is often confirmed to you in bed. And while you will require your sexual partner to be attentive
to your needs, you’re equally supportive to all of their needs.
LEO ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
The 9th House is your domain, as it’s the house that rules Sagittarius. So, it makes perfect
sense that you would have Leo, the sign of self-expression, ruling your 9th House. With this
placement, you are on a journey of personal growth in life because that’s just who you are.
Your self-awareness increases through every phase of your journey in life, making you not only
increasingly conscious of who you are but more and more capable of believing in yourself.
Having a boundless faith in your abilities stems from this placement, to the point where you
leap with an unshakable belief that you’ll land right on your feet. This attitude is what makes
other people deem you the fool. But, the joke is on them because, the majority of the time, you
do land right on your feet. As I’ve been saying, things work out so well for you because you so
strongly believe that they will work out.
The Leo house rules in your chart tells you what you’re going to identify with. Having Leo
ruling the house of exploration and discovery means that you identify with being this explorer
and discoverer. You have a stronger will than most people to conquer all sorts of unknown
territories. Seeing the world as yours for the taking, this can actually contribute to a certain

SAGITTARIUS RISING
310

greed within you. It will seem as if nothing is ever enough, as if you need more and more to be
satisfied. Much of the time, this is a way to feed your ego. A significant part of your path
depends on developing and reinforcing your ego. However, the ego also needs limits and if you
don’t enforce any limits on yours, then you will simply be out-of-control.
There are many ways that you become out-of-hand and have to be put back in your place,
usually by manifesting some circumstance that hurts your pride or bruises your ego. In the 9th
House, we manifest whatever we focus on, for better or for worse. Spending too much time
thinking of yourself as a big deal leads you to attract experiences in life that turn everything
you do into a big deal, positive or negative. Being so iconic does come with a drawback, as this
means that people will pay a lot of attention to and dramatize everything that you do. So, those
moments where you slip and fall on your face will be front page news. This sometimes happens
whenever you think that nothing can go wrong and you’re always going to come out on top.
You’re a very lucky individual but your good fortune has certain limits. If not, you’d just be
getting everything you want, whenever you want it, and that wouldn’t be fair to everyone else.
Those moments where you push your luck, where you’re so intent on reaping benefits that it
backfires on you, will serve as growing experiences. Leo in the 9th House is asking you to be
confident and assured in your journey but to also know when to be humble. Your philosophy
must stem from a confidence in the greater Universe. You can come to identify with the
Universe, expressing yourself with such a sense of grandeur that you feel untouchable or
unbeatable. But, you’ll eventually have to come back down to earth and realize that so much of
your good fortune is because of the Universe, not because of you. However, your will to believe
in the goodness and the abundance that is out there for you is going to attract it your way. It’s
just important to not feel entitled to it or to over-dramatize the moments where good things
occur. If you do, then the negative moments will be just as highly dramatized.
The Sun ruling the 9th House also shows how much you will come to identify with just being
free. Your sense of self depends on how liberated you are. While growing up, you will feel free
but you’re not entirely free. You still have the limitations of home and of your parents’
expectations and the demands of grade school. It’s when you go off to college or leave the
house that you become truly free. This is such an exciting time in your life because it provides
you with a new level of liberation. More than the average person, you fully relished it. You could
stay out as late as you wanted and didn’t have any parents around you to reel you in. Because

SAGITTARIUS RISING
311

of this, you experienced your late teens and early twenties in a particularly freewheeling sort of
way. This will to do whatever you wanted to do might have caused you to be even wilder and
more out-there than you already were.
But, again, your ventures and excursions only reinforced this larger-than-life aspect of your
personality. If you went to college, you were probably a big man or woman on campus, very
well-known and graced with a lot of attention from many people. This is when you started to
become the legend you are today. In fact, your experiences during this time could be still
regaled and retold on a regular basis, sometimes by others but often by yourself. Your glory
days are truly the college years, especially since you began discovering so much about who you
are. Always in a state of self-discovery, this is why you insist upon being so honest. You find it
highly meaningful to constantly explore your inner self and figure out who you really are. So,
sometimes, the truths that you blurt out are mere epiphanies that you are having about
yourself and how you experience things. You feel like it’s only natural to share these epiphanies
with the people around you, possibly allowing them to be more honest about themselves.
While doing this, you also display a lack of awareness when it comes to the limits to that
truth. Your truth isn’t necessarily someone else’s, which is a particularly difficult concept for you
to grasp. The self-absorbed side of Leo makes you believe that what will inspire, liberate, or
mean something to you has to inspire, liberate, or mean something to others. Sometimes,
you’re right about this. Other times, you’re not. Yes, you’re not always right and it’s important
to remember that. Manifesting situations that will humble you will, in the end, be to your
benefit. While your freedom of spirit is a wonderful trait, there is no such thing as absolute and
complete freedom. Even you have limits and feeling the negative repercussions of carelessly
throwing yourself into situations all the time, wanting it all and wanting it now, or being
overbearing with your personal truth will ultimately have a positive effect, showing you that
there are ways to work with certain limitations and still be happy, honest, and authentic.
VIRGO ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
You secure a respectable place for yourself in the world when you figure out what needs to
be fixed and how to fix it. You feel most accomplished when you are not only problem solving
but simply working as hard as you can to get things done. Having a Virgo Midheaven means
that your route to success depends on humility, efficiency, and a pragmatic sensibility. The 10th
House tells us the public image we must cultivate to be recognized and accomplished, even if

SAGITTARIUS RISING
312

we don’t personally identify with it all too much. You’re not much of an analytical person, in
general, and can feel so careless, clumsy, or over-the-top that it’s hard to see yourself as
someone who has it so together. Yet, getting your act together is how you achieve the most in
life. You must dedicate yourself to and pursue you goals with a strong sense of discipline and
organization, showing the world just how grounded you can be.
This placement means that virtually anything that is honest hard work can be turned into a
viable profession for you. Your calling is to just work and as long as you’re putting enough
effort into the job, then you will make it to the top. You have to do so in a modest fashion,
though, which is an innate challenge because it’s not your automatic nature to do things
modestly. But, trying to draw too much attention to yourself and your efforts will backfire. Many
people with Virgo on the 10th House cusp spend the early parts of their careers working in
seemingly thankless or lowly positions, regularly getting overshadowed or outshined by other
people. You have to be in that supposedly inferior position in order to fully prepare for what’s
coming next. Being such a person of faith, you will stay dedicated to your work, knowing that
your time will come. If you are productive enough, remain consistent and reliable, and practice,
practice, practice at whatever craft you may have, you will eventually get there.
Having this placement allows many to parlay what seems like a small professional opportunity
into something that takes them to the next level. It has to be all about the work, at the end of
the day, not the attention that you get. Eventually, this brings you the recognition that you’re
looking for. The world expects real work ethic and discipline from you in your public and
professional efforts. If you’re not displaying those qualities, you won’t get ahead or your
success will be short-lived. For someone who lives for getting lucky, your career will actually be
all about succeeding in the tried-and-true way of just working your tail off until it happens
(although, if Jupiter is in the 10th or aspecting your Midheaven, you can have some wildly
fortunate opportunities come your way that make the hard work significantly easier).
This is something that you become aware of as you enter young adulthood. The teenage
years are a time in your life where you feel the pressure of these high standards. As someone
who always wants to do it up, you begin to express these perfectionist strivings because, of
course, you want the glory of being in that exalted position. But, you also learn that, to get
there, you have to truly work for it. There is no easy way out for you. High school actually may
have been less fun for you than other teenagers because it was such a busy time. Finishing

SAGITTARIUS RISING
313

your homework on time and passing your tests with flying colors grew into a huge concern.
Once you were able to work a job, you put in a lot of hours, to the point where you might have
seemed like an adult with a full-time job. More stressed out than the rest of your peers, for
some reason, you still thrived on it all. You realized that simply staying busy and striving to do
everything efficiently and correctly was the only way for you to achieve anything.
As this carries over into adulthood, you can feel as if you need to not only be a hard worker
but virtually perfect in order to make it in the world. The pressure of perfectionism is stronger
for you than for many people because you’re so used to messing up. On a personal level, you
are liable to get in one type of accident after the next, whether that’s a happy accident or a
disastrous one. This is why getting everything right becomes a real strategy for you. Whether
that means saying all of the correct things, having the right method for success, or not making
any major slip-ups, you don’t want any accidents to stand in the way of respect and
achievement for you. After all, you do thrive on feeling like you’re always right. However, this
easily becomes a trap, making you feel limited by this flawless image. Everyone has flaws, after
all, and it’s only a matter of time before yours are exposed.
Virgo on the Midheaven routinely leads a person to be seen by the public as some form of
perfection. It could be because you have this image of being highly articulate (due to Mercury,
the communicator, ruling your 10th) and always knowing exactly what to say. It might be
because so much of your work is executed with such impressive technique, accuracy, or detail.
It could also be because you have this image of being a flawless person, in general, either for
your attractiveness or the personality or life you have. The downside of this is that it easily
becomes exhausting to keep all of this up! You also feel this serious expectation to do so. When
you let yourself slip, make a glaring mistake or a wrong move, or stop caring so much about
your standards, the world’s criticism can be very swift and harsh, maybe mercilessly so. It may
truly feel as if you’re not allowed to be anything less than perfect.
The way to cope with that is to develop your own sense of perfection that helps you feel
accomplished. People will always find something to criticize, even if you seem to be doing
everything correctly. You must avoid letting the world’s judgments limit you and hinder you. At
the same time, you are very capable of using your judgments successfully in your working life
and your public endeavors. Being as opinionated and outspoken as you are means that you are
not going to be afraid to dish out some criticism in the world of something or someone. You will

SAGITTARIUS RISING
314

probably need a job that allows you to be critical of things or to communicate your ideas very
clearly and constructively. Any form of writing, then, would be a great career choice as well as
sales, marketing, or advertising, allowing you to develop precise ideas and engage in well
thought-out forms of communication with an end goal in mind.
If you don’t use your career as an outlet for this specificity and this aspiration to organize,
plan or correct, it can cause you to be an eternally judgey adult within society. But, since your
success and recognition rely on fixing things, you’re going to see a lot in the world that needs
to be fixed and feel like it’s your duty to do so, which will also draw you toward technical fields.
You can even find great satisfaction as a personal assistant, helping other people straighten out
and order their lives. Whatever you do for a living, it can seem as if things work out exactly the
way that you plan it. Yes, you generally rely on a lot of luck. But, having a strong sense of
discernment will aid you significantly in your success. You must make clear, precise choices in
order to be on the professional path you desire.
LIBRA ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Popularity occurs for you in ways that are truly out of your control. More than the rest of us,
you never really know if someone is going to like you or why. Thanks to the off-kilter energy of
the 11th House, it will seem as if the more you attempt to charm people (Libra), the less they
actually like you. However, when you don’t really care about being liked, you are widely
admired and even beloved. The 11th House brings us chaos when we try to use it solely for
personal gain. This is why you will find many of your relationships, which is what Libra
represents, chaotic and unpredictable. Something always happens to create distance between
you and the other person or turn the partnership upside down. But, when you aren’t seeking
much personal gain from your partnerships, they always have some way of working out.
You’re detached from a sense of what makes you likable and attractive. Although you’re such
a positive thinker, there is a part of you that has a hard time believing that people like you that
much, seeing how you are constantly offending people and stepping on their toes. Libra in the
11th means that you don’t feel very personally appealing but you have an objective
understanding of what is appealing. This is because you regularly have to step back, whenever
you’ve offended someone else or have come off as being too much for someone to handle and
observe other people’s interpersonal dynamics and why they seem to be getting along and
winning people over.

SAGITTARIUS RISING
315

You can use this awareness to help other people. The worldly idealism that you are capable
of developing will allow you to believe that everyone is equally deserving of love. So, involving
yourself in any sort of cause that makes people feel particularly loved and appreciated is going
to be a great fit for you, as will a cause that is about relating to and connecting to other people.
At the end of the day, you are exceptionally and unusually relatable. It’s what has always made
you stand out from your peers. Yet, this doesn’t mean that you necessarily find everyone else
so relatable and easy to connect to. Venus serving as the 11th House’s ruler here means that
you can easily feel unaccepted or misunderstood socially because you don’t play along with all
the niceties and rules of politeness that other people do. It feels fake and since you often times
end up rubbing someone else the wrong way, you either experience great awkwardness or
paralysis whenever you’re expected to be very diplomatic, to fake being nice, or to pretend to
feel a way about a person when you don’t.
You might not realize it, though, but this lack of concern with faking it is what makes you so
wildly relatable. Your peers and friends connect with you because they ultimately see you as a
good person with many likable traits, which can take you by surprise. Whenever you feel like
you’re alienating people with your uncensored honesty, you’re actually winning a lot of them
over. Sagittarius Rising individuals also get away with that brutal truth-telling far more than
most people do because those in your social world sense that there is a kindness within you, at
the end of the day. You’re capable of being a very thoughtful friend and ally, largely due to that
desire you have to spread goodness all around you. The key is to do so without caring about
being seen as kind. When you want everyone to think you’re so nice, you can actually end up
going against your own grain and faking it, pretending to be so loving and sweet when you’re
not feeling up to it. Your popularity takes a sharp turn when people in your community feel like
they can’t forge a genuine connection to you, so any false kindness should be consistently
avoided. Make people feel good simply because you want to, not to have them reflect some
lovely image of yourself back to you.
As much love as you have for your friends, you’re also going to need plenty of space with
them. After all, you’re such a free spirit and don’t want your style to be cramped. Social
commitments are very tricky for you because it’s so easy for you to love the idea of them and
then feel differently once you’ve had enough time to think about it. There’s definitely a flaky
streak within you when it comes to your social life, making you that person who doesn’t text

SAGITTARIUS RISING
316

back to avoid doing what you don’t want to do. Rarely will you just directly cancel because that
makes you feel mean or inconsiderate. But, it’s also rather inconsiderate to distance yourself
from your friends without much warning. In these instances, always treat your friends like you’d
want to be treated. You’d want to be told the truth outright, so get better at doing the same
with them. Your worries that they’re going to hate you for it are usually unfounded.
The lines between friendship and romance also conspicuously blur when Libra is on the 11th
House cusp. You love your friends and even acquaintances exactly how you love your romantic
partners, which can be both a beautiful thing and a problem. Sometimes, you’re a much better
friend than you are a boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse, which can cause your partner to feel left
out in the cold. The way you see it is that your commitment to your friendships is much more
long-term than your romantic commitments. It’s true because you can have many lovers that
quickly come and go while you are virtually married to certain friends of yours. While it’s
important to always appreciate your friends, you need to make sure you’re equally appreciating
your significant other.
Never wanting to be possessed or told what you can and cannot do, you’re that person who
will continually go out with friends and be a social butterfly while in a romantic relationship,
maintaining the same social life that you had when you were single. This can alienate certain
partners and be hard for them to understand. But, it’s not like they don’t matter to you! In fact,
you’ll insist that they come along, not seeing anything wrong with that. So, having a significant
other who can hang with your friends on a regular basis will be crucial. Naturally, this can lead
to having a significant other who actually is a part of your friend group or who is a constant
presence in your social world. This is usually the best way for you to go and it happens quite
unexpectedly. Many of your lovers will start off as a friend or a friend of a friend or a random
acquaintance that you never thought you’d end up with. It’s perfect because you truly need
your romantic partner to be your friend. This unpredictable change from platonic to romantic
(or from romantic back to platonic, as you can remain friends with exes very easily) indicates
how unconventionally love manifests in your life. More than the next person, you find love
when you least expect to find it.
SCORPIO ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP
You have much more of a dark side to you than you’d like to admit or acknowledge. With the
12th House representing your secret inner landscape, complex, tumultuous Scorpio’s placement

SAGITTARIUS RISING
317

in the 12th House means that those secrets are very profound, mystifying, and downright scary.
We all suffer from some form of repression in this house but you can go to extra lengths to
repress all of these intense emotions and dark compulsions. You would much rather think of
yourself as a positive person, believing that getting swept up in all of that psychological
storminess is just negativity. Insisting that it’s not that deep, you just move on. But, the thing is
that there are a lot of much deeper things going on, beneath your surface, and if you’re
unwilling to face them and accept them, they will just push you over the very edge.
Hiding all of this darkness from yourself and others is one route you can go down. As stated
before, you can spend far too much time trying to convince people that everything is fine. While
doing so, you just let those heavier emotions of yours fester and fester. You can’t even deal
with them because you also have to believe that everything is okay. But, what if everything isn’t
going to be okay? What if things are just going to be bad and remain bad? Contemplating that
is often too much for you. So, you ignore it and ignore it until, one day, you just completely
break down. Every person of faith has their tests of faith, which usually involve some dark night
of the soul. Experiencing a major loss, betrayal, heartbreak, loneliness, depression, or anything
else that ruins this idealized, rose-colored picture you have of life is enough to completely shake
up that belief system of yours. Then, you find yourself unable to get out of bed, too consumed
by the grief, the pain, or the sadness that you feel. Considering the notion that all you’ve
believed in is possibly a lie or has been destroyed becomes too much to bear.
However, it only feels so overwhelming because you spend so much time refusing to face the
possibility of it. This also brings to light the fact that being a Sagittarius Ascendant means that
you respond to and deal with everything in a bigger-than-life, often overwhelming sense, which
means the good stuff and the bad stuff. So, there’s actually this enormous intensity inside of
you and the opposite route of suffering with Pluto ruling the 12th stems from becoming
completely consumed by it. These are moments where you turn inward and wish to be alone,
so no one can see your agony and your misery. Yet, while you put a smile on your face, you are
privately or internally feeling very tormented. It’s an energy that is sometimes evident in
Sagittarius Rising people if you are perceptive enough or look hard enough. You go through this
life as this clown but a clown can cry the saddest of tears. This leads to existential crises where
you don’t know what to trust in anymore, fearing that everything is a joke or that you’re this
ridiculous joke. Going to this extreme, you may exhibit a complete lack of caring when it comes

SAGITTARIUS RISING
318

to your well-being. Sometimes, you’re not just taking these risks and leaps because you want
something good to happen. You can also live on the edge because you secretly yearn to self-
destruct. It can take so much effort to be happy and live a good life that you feel this deep
desire to ruin it all. The fact that you’re always surviving your bad decisions can make you feel
lucky yet will always only strengthen that urge to spontaneously combust.
Those fantasies of destruction can also be directed toward other people. Seeing the good in
people so much leaves no room for balance. That means that, when you see the bad in
someone else, it’s positively ugly. Scorpio in the 12th causes you to make a huge mess out of
things by letting people have it in the worst way. This is when your truth-telling goes to a dark
place and you end up hitting where it will hurt the most. You do so unconsciously and it’s
something that may especially rear its nasty head whenever you’re not sober (Sagittarius
Risings tend to not be the nicest when they drink, for this reason). It’s a hidden part of you that
wants to hurt someone else because you’re still not over the ways in which you’ve been hurt.
Again, your constant moving forward often does not leave enough room for you to heal. Not
truly dealing with unresolved childhood trauma, grief over a lost loved one, or a terrible
betrayal or heartbreak in life that has made you secretly bitter or untrusting will cause your
worst demons to emerge in a horrifying manner that doesn’t even seem like you. It’s this
shadowy side of yourself that you bottle up until you can’t anymore and it can devastate the
people you go after in these moments, especially if since they’ll have no idea that you harbored
these feelings or thoughts. Often times, you didn’t, either.
You say you live your truth but are you really living the absolute, entire truth? Pondering the
ugliest, scariest, rawest truths inside of you is the road to inner peace and healing. You can’t
just settle for a comfortable form of honesty that makes you feel like a funny straight-shooter.
You also have to dig deep and unlock the kind of honesty that is truly painful. If not, Scorpio in
the 12th will create this ongoing turbulence inside of you that you just can’t escape. The more
you try to escape it, the more it will torment you. Yet, you can also seek to escape into it and
get lost within it, which only makes you feel more tormented. Engage in some real introspection
and figure out where that very hurtful or very destructive part of you comes from. The
transcendence and fluidity of the 12th House means that you need to acknowledge and feel
your darkness (Scorpio), without letting it consume you or take over you.

SAGITTARIUS RISING
319

In general, you are meant to be this fun, positive, carefree sort of person. But, when you let
yourself go too far to that dark place, it’s like this demon possesses you. Letting go of your
demons is required. But, you can’t do that until you realize they’re there. We all have demons.
That’s just a part of what makes you human. So, instead of hiding your darker feelings out of
shame or fear, you need to find a way to get all out of that. If not, you are simply going to be
increasingly afraid of that part of yourself or even more full of shame once it comes to light.
Scorpio in the 12th shows that you will really benefit from a spiritual practice that is like an
exorcism of those demons. You need some form of spirituality that empowers you and shows
you how to take control of your life. Though you depend on the Higher Power for your
blessings, you have your own magnificent power, as well. You need a spiritual anchor that
helps you look within and utilize your inner strength and resources. Astrology can do so,
showing you the good, the bad, and the ugly inside of you and how you can transform and use
it all.
But, will you ever completely understand that abyss inside of you? Probably not. This brings
you inner peace because it will show you that you don’t need to search so compulsively for the
bigger answers to things. As a philosopher, you should know that. Sometimes, the answers are
right inside of you, very intuitively. Other times, you may not even know the answer or receive
it. Being able to exist in that state of not knowing is very powerful and transformative for you.
It will awaken a profound level of strength within, showing you that you can survive the worst
of times, even if you don’t know how you’re going to make it out, enriching and deepening your
faith. Helping other people understand this, as well, will be how you engage in selfless or
charitable acts. Due to all of your secret yet very intense suffering, you have great empathy for
people in turmoil or struggling to heal them and survive their inner darkness. If you’re an artist
of any kind, you will be able to express something universal by revealing the scary yet beautiful
complexities of humanity, the ways in which we all have a dark side that can take over us and
push us too far and how we can come out of the other side of all of that.

SAGITTARIUS RISING
320

CAPRICORN RISING

CAPRICORN ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


Life isn’t so easy for any of us. But, when you have a Capricorn Ascendant, it’s certainly not
easy for you. You’re aware of this yet you also express this awareness without much self-pity or
complaining. For you, life is about facing obstacles and overcoming them. No matter what
happens to you, you always have a way of getting through it. Capricorn Rising people exhibit a
significant strength and this is what gives you your individual sense of self. You know that when
the going gets tough, you’re the kind of person who will get going. Difficult situations are only
opportunities to build character and you have a very innate understanding of this. It’s why you
just roll up your sleeves and do what you need to do because you know that, eventually, it’s
going to pay off or be worth it.
Your narrative in life is of a success story. However, earlier in your life, it can be hard for you
to feel like there is much success occurring. There are so many people with this Rising sign who
are unable to find true success until they are well into their thirties or maybe even their forties.
This is when life is just beginning for you. Once you start getting older, you feel like you’ve just
started and that may be because you literally have. Another reason for this is that you might
not find the right career for you until this age. Living life in a straight line, with a focus on the
bottom line, those with their Ascendant in Capricorn usually go for a career that is guaranteed
to give them security and success, maybe even status. But, you might spend so much time
chasing after achievement that you don’t know what you actually want to achieve. Essentially,
you might just aim for the top, in any regard, without really engaging in work that is particularly
meaningful or important to you.
Capricorn Rising people, as a whole, spend a lot of their lives representing this societal
epidemic of having a job just to have a job. You can feel like you don’t have to enjoy it or love
it. It just has to pay the bills. However, this is where you’re wrong. You’re here in this life to
figure out what your purpose is, which means that you need to gravitate toward work that you
are going to genuinely love. Your job must be so deeply satisfying to you that it’s not just a job.
It’s not just a career, even. It’s more of a calling, a vocation. It allows you to feel like you have
a solid place in the world and not like you’re existing merely to exist. But, it’s not easy to pursue

CAPRICORN RISING
321

your true calling. It requires sacrifice, discipline, dedication, and perseverance. It requires you
to do it because it’s important to you, instead of worrying about what other people will think or
how it will impress them. It also is a path in life that shows you that the hardest things to
pursue or achieve in life are often some of the most rewarding things.
You’re not one to want to take the easy way out, anyway. While everyone else is searching
for a shortcut or going off on a detour, you remain on the same road. Saturn rules Capricorn
and this makes this arduous planet your chart ruler. In astrology, Saturn governs difficulties,
fears, obstacles, and insecurities and how we are supposed to work through all of that negative
energy to achieve greatness and find our purpose. Since Saturn is your chart ruler, this process
is the story of your life. It’s why, instinctively, you gravitate toward doing things the hard way.
The house placement of your Saturn will tell you what part of your life will be most difficult –
whether that’s your professional life (Saturn in the 10th), your partnerships (Saturn in the 7th)
or just your life, in general (Saturn in the 1st) – while the sign and the aspects of your Saturn
will indicate why this part of your life is so hard and how the difficulties are experienced.
What you may not realize, though, is that you like making things harder than they need to
be. Your outlook keeps you fixated on what’s going wrong in your life, what’s unsatisfying, what
is exhausting or burdensome. So, this is just how you feel like life is supposed to be. There is
definitely a masochistic streak within all Capricorn Ascendants that make them gluttons for a
certain kind of punishment. What that punishment is will depend on their Saturn. Are you so
focused on the struggles in life that all you do is struggle? Often times, the biggest roadblock in
your journey is yourself. But, you will also understand that there is a grey area here because
they call it “hard work” for a reason. Hard work does lead to great things. However, you have
to make sure that you’re not so busy working yourself into the ground for your reward that you
don’t have enough time to enjoy it or appreciate it when it comes.
Looking around and acknowledging your successes is going to be particularly important for
you. Since you’re usually so busy putting in the work, you don’t have enough time to stop and
recognize all that you’ve done. This can apply to your literal work life or anything else in your
life that you’ve put a lot of effort into. Also, in spite of any appearance to the contrary, a
struggle with a deep feeling of inadequacy is a near-universal trait of Capricorn Risings. So, you
can easily feel like you’re not worth success, like you don’t deserve it or like you’re not
competent enough to have it. Such an attitude is only going to push good things away from

CAPRICORN RISING
322

you, as will as anxiousness over your control or lack thereof over the situations in your life.
You’re going to find yourself thrust into many circumstances in life where you have to deal with
this raw, almost unbearable kind of fear or self-doubt. More than the next person, life is going
to test you, scare you, make you constantly question yourself. But, you will past the test by
stepping up to the plate every time and focusing on the task at hand enough to deliver, no
matter how insecure you feel. In the process, you will become increasingly aware of your true
sense of effectiveness, instead of just adopting a competent attitude to convince other people
that you know what you’re doing.
However, you are very convincing in that regard. The self-deprecating way you speak of
yourself or the very guarded or reserved manner you have can betray your inner doubts or
insecurities. But, otherwise, you come off as strong, on top of things, and successful. You are
the true embodiment of the notion that so many adults act like they know what they’re doing
and seem to have it all together when they’re really just scared and inwardly unsure of
themselves or their future. You’ll become a full-fledged adult once you experience your first
Saturn Return, around the age of 28 or 29, which is when all of these inadequacies and issues
demand to be resolved. The thing is, though, that a lot of Capricorn Ascendants go through
their Saturn Returns very smoothly and easily. You’ve already struggled and struggled with
these problems for your entire life, up until then, more intensely than most do with their
Saturn. So, the big, bad, scary Saturn Return is most likely not going to be such a big deal for
you. Like you always do, you’ll just do what you need to do when it comes around, no matter
how hard or terrifying it is, and get on with your life.
Maybe this is because you’ve always been a grown-up, on some level. It’s because you had to
be. The Rising sign tells us about the experiences of our first several years of life that really
shaped us and made us who we are today. It’s what has been ingrained in you, early on. With
Capricorn Rising, the sense that you had to handle yourself in a tough world was the message
you received from the beginning. This placement typically indicates a difficult birth that is like
an omen to the hardships you deal with early in life. Maybe that’s why you didn’t really want to
come out or there were so many issues delivering you. Somehow, you knew what was in store
for you. Having a rough childhood is also a very common characteristic of this placement, to the
point where it’s so rough that it might seem like you’re the protagonist in a Charles Dickens
novel. Your childhood tale may have included being shuffled around in foster homes, living in

CAPRICORN RISING
323

poverty, dealing with very negligent or poor parenting, suffering through various forms of
abuse, or having way too much responsibility at an early age.
You came into this world as an old soul and, as such, you were dealt some sort of poor hand
because, on a karmic level, you already had the maturity, the wisdom, and the strength to
handle it. Capricorn Rising children can really impress the adults around them by seeming like
they are one of them. It’s rare to see a “problem child” with this placement and even if you did
get in a lot of trouble, it was probably a major form of acting out, thanks to some trouble in the
home, and you were given swift, harsh punishment in response. Getting sent to boarding school
or juvenile centers is usually the outcome, in these cases. Since you have Saturn hanging so
much over your head, it felt like you couldn’t get away with anything. Your early environment
was very strict, in some way, and made you feel like there was so much that you couldn’t do.
There was so much that you could get in trouble for that you decided, early on, to do very little
in order to avoid the wrath of the authorities around you. Therefore, you may have seemed like
a well-behaved, perfectly polished little boy or girl, all while harboring a lot of fear on the inside
about possibly doing something wrong.
A major source of this is the relationship with your father. With Capricorn here, ruling the
house of one’s life path and sense of individuality, it is extremely hard for you to get away from
the influence of your father. It seems like he is there in all that you do. Typically, this
placement instills either some profound fear within you about turning out like your Dad or a
deep desire to be him. When you get down to it, you two are very alike in terms of
temperament and behavior, which is something you know but may hate to admit. It could be
because you feel like every move is subject to his judgment (which is probably quite harsh) or
because it’s hard to feel like your own success with him as your blueprint. Whether it’s
conscious or unconscious, you do end up following the same path that your father figure has,
which is something that can make you equally harsh, judgmental, and strict. The paternal
parent of a Capricorn Rising is typically a tough taskmaster. This may have felt like tough love
or like he would relentlessly put you through your paces. Whether his intentions were positive
or negative, it can lead to this issue where you are always feeling judged somehow.
Because of this, you were conditioned to try very hard to impress and be an example to other
people. Among your siblings, you were probably the “role model”, regardless of your birth
order. If you had younger siblings, you felt a strong sense of responsibility and duty in regards

CAPRICORN RISING
324

to them, especially if neither of your parents were particularly great examples. Even if you had
older siblings, you could’ve exhibited a greater sense of maturity than they did. You matured
faster than most of the children around you and felt ready for adulthood when you were still
just a kid. This is because you developed this adult-like ability to adopt the right image, to
display a great “job performance” for those around you. The pressure you feel to do so is
intense but you’re good at working under high amounts of pressure. However, this can also
make it a struggle for you to know who you are beneath that sense of deliberation and image-
mongering, which is something your Dad may find difficult, as well. When you’re not worried
about what people think of you, who are you?
But, this leads to another truism about being a grown-up: the older you get, the more
unconcerned you are with others’ opinions. Now, you’ll probably never go totally wild or
anything. You are, however, capable of just growing more into yourself as you age. You will
feel more and more like yourself, as time goes by, because you will have such a solid inner
strength as an individual, thanks to all that you’ve accomplished, that you won’t feel the need
to try so hard. You won’t have anything left to prove to anyone, including your father. The
relationship with the Dad is exceptionally life-defining here. The source of your non-stop work
ethic, your enormous ambition, your huge hunger for prestige or recognition is that you’re
trying to prove something to your father. Maybe you’re trying to show him that you’re not a
failure or incompetent. It’s common for those with this placement to have fathers that are
overly involved to the point of being controlling or overbearing or who, at the other extreme,
totally leave you to your own devices. So, maybe, you’re also trying to show him that you can
do just fine without him. In the end, you’re trying to prove that to yourself and you need to
stop and realize that you already have, time and time again.
In fact, you have what it takes to be your own father, either because of the intense pressure
he subjected you to allowed you to develop such deep self-discipline or because you were
totally on your own, when it came to him, and had to figure out how to go your own way. You
govern yourself with the same strictness that you were used to while growing up. Unless there
are some aspects that interfere, you are very unlikely to be someone who lets their time go to
waste or is unable to handle their duties in life. At times, of course, you will secretly feel like
you can’t do it and will want to run away, screaming. But, you refuse to, always buckling down
to take care of business. It’s such a pervasive quality of yours that just about everything you do

CAPRICORN RISING
325

seems like a contractual obligation. This is why Capricorn Rising people have that famous
reputation for being cold or intimidating. In the simplest interactions, it’s as if you are someone
else’s boss and you’re ready to reprimand or fire them for any wrongdoing.
Having no hesitation when it comes to getting other people in line is part of what can make
other people nervous around you, like you’re judging them. Often times, you will come straight
out with your judgments about how they’re screwing up. It may not endear you to everyone
but it makes you very effective and shrewd. It’s inevitable that you’ll end up being a boss of
something because it’s just your natural instinct to take control and make sure that everything
is running efficiently. You are very dedicated to your structured vision of how things should be
going, no matter how other people feel about it. Many Capricorn Risings have an energy that
can easily be overbearing, no matter what their delivery is. You make an impression that can be
so strong that it stresses people out, like whenever the manager is around and watching. But,
there are also other types of people with this Ascendant who are more so the “employees”, very
eager to take orders, very “yes, sir” and “no, ma’am” and intent on doing what is correct and
fixing what they’re doing wrong. While this can make you humble, it may also be a sign that
you need to discover your inner boss. You need to rise up the ranks because you’re meant to
be in control of your life, not have it controlled by someone else.
It takes plenty of time to move up the ranks, literally or metaphorically. You experience this
so strongly, though, that it can feel as if other people have it much easier than you. In truth,
many people do. That’s not to say that you’re more special than anyone or that your difficulties
are more important. It’s just that, with every step you take, you are faced with a potential or
actual stumble that you need to either avoid or recover from. Is it any wonder why you’re so
strategic? Some may say calculating but you always need to have some sort of a “business
plan” in whatever you do. This reveals how (almost desperately) you want to come out on top
and how seriously you take so many things in life. You want to succeed in truly everything and
this makes any perceived failure hard to stomach. A huge self-consciousness can be the result,
which is usually covered up or compensated for in some way.
Your seriousness also does not have to manifest in the cliched ways that you have probably
already heard. This Rising sign doesn’t make you humorless or without a personality or a wet
blanket who’s no fun. A hilariously dry sense of humor is a very common characteristic of
Capricorn Rising. Also, while you may have a certain reserve, you can also be a good time. But,

CAPRICORN RISING
326

a good time like a fun work event or cocktail party with those in your field. Being the
consummate professional you are, you know that there are times where you have to turn it on.
Most Capricorn Risings won’t be over-the-top in this sense. However, it’s still clear that you’re
somehow working the other person with your charm, conversation, or personability. In
interactions with people that serve no purpose, that are just random moments or social fluff,
the difference is often noticeable, with you reserving your energy for something (or someone)
more important.
In dramatic cases, snobbishness or classism can be seen, making you give someone who
doesn’t have a certain social status or who doesn’t serve your end goal the cold shoulder. But,
in general, you can regularly appear to give people the cold shoulder. You can recognize a
Capricorn Rising by their intense focus on what they’re doing. Since it’s like you’re always “at
work”, the simplest activities will be undertaken with great concentration or purpose. You’re not
easily distracted and are often downright offended when someone interrupts any of your
undertakings. When it’s time to talk, you’ll dish out a firm handshake and listen to whoever’s
speaking with a sober, focused expression. Unless the Moon is aspecting the Ascendant, you’re
not easy to read, largely because you’re such a sufferer of “resting bitch face.” You could be in
the best mood yet people will often recoil at the very tense, severe look on your face. It’s
something you probably just learn how to deal with and, secretly, you enjoy it because it
prevents frivolous, annoying, or weak people from approaching you and wasting your time.
However, you are definitely one of those people who looks completely different when they
smile, going from a mean mug to a gorgeous grin. Capricorn rules the teeth and there is usually
something distinctive about the smile and your overall dental situation. You might get cavities
very easily and need crowns and fillings regularly throughout your life, dreading going to the
dentist. On the flip side, your teeth could be in unusually perfect health. Yet, even when you
get compliments on your smile (a frequent occurrence), you’re probably not very inclined to
believe them. Thanks to the negative outlook that Saturn can bestow upon you, it’s hard for
you to see yourself in a positive light. To be fair, you did have it rough, in some way, growing
up and leaving that behind is difficult. That can also extend to your appearance. Something that
I have constantly noticed with Capricorn Risings is how dramatically different a lot of them look
when they’re younger. People will look at your old high-school pictures and say, “That’s you?”
Although this can be an ugly-duckling issue, it also isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that

CAPRICORN RISING
327

the heaviness of Saturn gives you an aura and an appearance in your earlier days that shifts as
you grow older and learn how to deal with the weight of your Saturnian energy.
This is what’s behind the famous Benjamin Button quality of this placement. You do truly look
much older when you’re younger. The more you age, the better you look, due to feeling lighter
and lighter as time goes on. Also, it’s very common to see major weight loss, significant work
that’s been done (you’re not against any plastic surgery), or just a total make-over once you
reach adulthood or a certain stage in life. The “glow-up” is absolutely real when it comes to the
Capricorn Ascendant, to a degree that can be very impressive. When good-looking, it is usually
in a very conventional, classic way, reflecting the conventional, classic aspect of your nature.
Blessed with a sophisticated elegance, you clean up very nicely and can pull off this Old
Hollywood type of vibe, particularly when you are dressed in formal wear, which you will really
love. Having very pronounced cheekbones or wonderfully striking bone structure will truly
define your whole look.
Capricorn is symbolized by the Goat, meaning that you may also look somewhat frail or weak
but you are much stronger than you appear, able to move your metaphorical weight and then
some. Like said Goat, you are also prone to verbal emissions that indicate how tired or
displeased you are. Capricorn Risings are major sighers, releasing multiple ones throughout the
day without even thinking, and can sound deeply annoyed or completely over it when they
speak. Some regularly veer into a dry, unemotional monotone. The joints are also governed by
this sign and you may have knees and joints that are known to crack all too easily, only
exacerbating the worn-out nature of your being. But, you’ll be fine, you insist. You’re always
fine, even when everything around you isn’t.
AQUARIUS ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
You feel secure within yourself when you don’t care what other people think of you. Aquarius
ruling the 2nd House cusp indicates that your self-worth (2nd House) stems from the freedom
found in not seeking others’ approval (Aquarius). It’s when you don’t have anything else to
prove that you’ll be able to build yourself up. This typically occurs for Capricorn Rising people
sometime around their forties or fifties, maybe even older, once they have achieved a lot of
what they’ve always wanted to achieve. You can live out your middle age happier than ever, as
you’re probably not going to have a mid-life crisis because you like growing older too much or
enjoy a wonderful retirement. But, what about the period of your life before then? Are you

CAPRICORN RISING
328

supposed to just remain insecure until this point? Aquarius’ energy does indicate where we feel
rather off in comparison to other people and with it in the house of security and self-worth,
you’re highly susceptible to looking around at your peers and feeling like they are far more well-
off and content than you are.
This leads to an attitude of “keeping up with the Joneses.” While you think that trying to
obtain the right apartment, the right home, the right job, the right car will lead you up the
social ladder, it will only cause you to struggle to move up each and every rung. In the process,
you will learn that trying to have what everyone else has just isn’t right for you. The 2nd House
shows what we can be uncomfortable with and how that leads to financial discomfort for us.
With the rebellious, unconventional sign of Aquarius here, you definitely can be uncomfortable
with what makes you different. You’re a traditionalist and you like to fit in because this leads to
prestige, respect, and recognition. To you, not fitting in just seems to lead to ridicule and a
failure to assimilate into the society that you so badly want to succeed in. So, you will do
whatever you can to play the role and have the right image. But, this causes you to lose touch
with your uniqueness, molding yourself into whoever you think you need to be to get ahead.
Then, we see the pursuit of status symbols, the pretensions that may cause you to look down
on others as unimportant or become obsessed with your image and reputation, or the attitude
that causes you to toil away in the corporate world.
However, as you try to develop an attachment to these forms of security, it will inevitably
backfire on you. The house that Uranus, Aquarius’ planet, rules can never operate according to
linear expectations. Here, it concerns money and material possessions. So, for example, you
may work really hard and seem to have a great form of income but you are constantly in one
financial struggle after the next. This is because you’re trying too hard to create this lifestyle for
yourself and things keep going against that plan. You feel very uneasy getting rid of your
various plans and this is not just in terms of money. You’re always strategizing in terms of what
you’re going to do and when and how and where and why. It’s a way for you to control the
outcome of everything. But, being so intent on controlling what’s going to happen will leave you
feeling insecure, both internally and externally.
Also, it’s equally true that you could be one of those people who has a good job that does
give you the lifestyle you finally want yet it still feels empty. Even if you’re making great money
and even if you’re living a life that other people approve of, is it making you happy? Then, you

CAPRICORN RISING
329

come to realize that all that conventional chasing of a dollar doesn’t mean much of anything, in
the big picture scheme. (Aquarius is, after all, about the big picture) As a result, you can turn
inward and understand that your strivings to be conventional, in general, don’t mean much of
anything, either. You will spend a significant part of your life checking off all of the little boxes
that make people think of you as dutiful, good, respectable, hardworking, or practical. But,
what does that matter if you do all of that and you’re still not happy with you?
Having lived a life that was so ruled by the “yes” or “no” you received from the authorities in
your life or the approval you gained from your various accomplishments, you need to liberate
yourself by focusing more on your own approval. You need to learn to rebel some. Break the
rules when needed! It’s hard for most Capricorn Rising people to go truly wild and crazy, even
when they seem more outgoing or fast-living. Don’t be fooled. The seemingly “out-there” ones
are only acting like that because they feel like it’s expected of them for some reason. Breaking
the rules doesn’t necessarily mean racking up traffic fines or screaming at your boss. It just
means that you don’t have to conform to some preconceived notion of behavior and decision-
making. Being a true boss means doing whatever the hell you want to do, all because you know
you’re the one who’s going to be held responsible, at the end of the day. In order for that to
happen, there definitely will come a time in your life where you have to usurp the person who’s
sitting in the office that’s rightfully yours.
You will gradually learn to relax, more and more, once you do so. Well, as much as you can
relax, that is! Without that terrible boss peering over your shoulder, you get to do things your
way. But, maybe, you also have to realize that the rules you’ve been setting for yourself are no
longer working. There’s nothing wrong with changing things up! You can become overly fixated
on whatever tradition has become a part of your life. Aquarius in the 2nd House shows that you
will become increasingly comfortable in your own skin by learning how to go against tradition.
It can even make things easier for you in the long run. No longer weighed down by what has
been so difficult in the past, you can make an abrupt yet welcome switch that lightens
everything up, going down an easier or more enjoyable path.
A great deal of that will have to do with keeping other people involved in whatever you’re
doing. Aquarius is the group-oriented sign that tells us that no man is an island. Yet, you can
struggle with this because a) you have such a hard time letting people help you and b) you
want to have all the control in a way that prevents people from feeling like they are making an

CAPRICORN RISING
330

equal contribution. Having this mindset makes you the intolerable authoritarian who isn’t
treating others fairly or equally. In the process, you can ruin certain business ventures for
yourself by creating a mutiny, usually inadvertently. You can’t be a boss without your
employees! So, make sure you’re behaving in a way that won’t compel them to quit and that
will allow them to see how valuable they all are. This obviously applies in literal and
metaphorical senses. Don’t be so busy trying to make yourself important in the world that you
don’t remember how important everyone else around you is.
Once we value the qualities of our 2nd House and adopt them into our value system, they
become lucrative. You’ll soon find that money (2nd House) is an energy that comes into your
life through the efforts of other people (Aquarius). It’s why you instinctively understand how
crucial networking is. Well-paying professional opportunities will come easiest to you through
the community of peers, colleagues, and friends that you find yourself in. When you try to just
get work on your own, it either backfires for you or proves to be underwhelming or unfulfilling.
It’s like the Universe knows how difficult you make things for yourself and brings you these
people who can show you a better way. But, you must be open to these situations, especially
given how randomly or unexpectedly they can occur. Money itself also has this chaotic
manifestation in your life. When you really need it, it seems like there is never enough yet when
you couldn’t care less, you have exactly what you need.
Maybe the key to you finally being rich one day is to just not care about being rich. Once you
stop trying to be the Joneses, you become the Joneses. Some people with this Rising sign have
certain pretensions that have to be set aside while others have to be in circumstances where
they are constantly snubbed, mocked, or misunderstood by those perceived to be “better off.”
Just shrug your shoulders and move on. You’re stronger than that and you will eventually have
the last laugh. This can also be due to having a job that seems to be a crazy pursuit to other
people that will never work out. Starting your own business can certainly fall into this category,
especially since you seem to have to deal with people consistently doubting you, no matter
what you do. But, instead of trying to prove them wrong, just know they’re wrong and focus on
being happily engaged with your work. It may take a while for you to see all of the fruits of
your labor but it will happen.
Aquarius on the 2nd House cusp gives you the potential to not only experience an exceptional
change in your income but to unexpectedly advance far beyond the level of income of most of

CAPRICORN RISING
331

your peers; the same ones who were once looking down on you. That detachment is still
required throughout this journey, though, because you don’t want your ego to get in the way of
your manifestation. You’ve got to remain that same grounded, hardworking person, whether
you’re rich or poor. Doing work that you feel is going to really help people can also allow you to
maintain that distance from your ego because your way of making money won’t be about you.
That sense of objectivity is also required for you to reach that higher station in life. There will
definitely be times where you need to be truly logical about how you’re financially supporting
yourself. No one gets successful right away or it’s impossible to love and enjoy every step of
the journey. Instead, you will come to realize that there are times where you have to do what
you need to do now in order to secure yourself a better future, especially if you’re getting into
something that’s rather uncertain or unpredictable. This allows you to sometimes delay your
gratification, in other instances, so you can experience true pleasure much later on.
PISCES ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
Having Pisces in the 3rd House symbolizes your ability to adapt very well to the thoughts of
others. It’s a large part of what makes you eager to follow protocol or adhere to some kind of
long-held tradition. It can get to the point where you’re not just adapting to other people’s
thinking but absorbing their very thoughts. There are no boundaries in our Pisces house and
with this influence, you are really capable of taking on the ideas and mindsets of others. In
many ways, this is how you get ahead. It’s almost as if you have this sixth sense (Pisces) for
the sort of information (3rd House) you need to be obtaining from other people. You do it
without even realizing it, as you will soak up what others have to say as if it is your own
experience, particularly people older than you, and then use that information wisely. Other
placements in your chart may make you stubborn or a know-it-all but you will also realize,
because of this influence, that you always need to be open to what people are saying and what
they have to possibly teach you.
But, you might have to watch out because you can also become too impressionable in this
sense, as well. Capricorn Rising people are the types that will devour all sorts of books, TED
talks, articles, or podcasts about what it takes to succeed at this or that or to get further in life
or be a better person. However, all of this information can easily serve as an illusion, deceiving
you into thinking that you have all the answers now or that you can just do x, y, and z and
everything will work out. You’re very frequently disappointed when it doesn’t happen that way.

CAPRICORN RISING
332

It may take you a long time in life to figure out that everyone achieves what they’re meant to
achieve in their own way. So, seeking out the counsel or the wisdom of everyone else can be
helpful, to a point, but it soon just becomes disorienting. You might be totally bombarded with
older people in your life who are always trying to control you or give you unsolicited advice or
take you in another direction. You have to make sure that you don’t let them get in your head
too much and, instead, take the time to figure out your own separate ideas, sometimes.
But, a universal trait of this Rising sign is your huge receptivity to the understanding of
others. This is why you have that famous love and adoration of your elders, showing great
respect for those who have more experience in life than you and, therefore, more information.
Yet, there is always a duality when we look at the 3rd House. It represents the two warring
halves of our brain, which ultimately come together as one. So, with Neptune ruling this house,
being such a mental sponge for others’ ideas also means that it’s very easy for you to lose your
voice or even your mind. You can feel so overwhelmed by all of the input you’re getting that it
causes you to just mentally shut down. Being at a total loss for words because you can’t
process anything anymore is common with this placement. On the flip side, you may never stop
talking, as if a dam has burst. This sometimes happens when you’ve kept quiet way too long on
things you’ve wanted to say but haven’t out of respect for other people’s ideas and thoughts.
Our Pisces house can indicate what we neglect or are confused and overwhelmed by. So, you
can truly neglect to communicate with people, much of the time. Maybe you keep many of your
thoughts secret and don’t share them until you can’t repress them anymore. It also can be hard
for some with this Rising sign to speak up or feel heard. In any given conversation, you might
be constantly asked to repeat yourself, have people get a big response for saying something
you’ve already said, or just be ignored altogether. In a loud, chatty room, you can say little to
nothing. Conversely, there is also the potential to take on just about any voice you need to take
on in order to thrive in a conversation. If you need to be loud, you can be and usually by
imitating loud people and absorbing their communicative patterns until you’ve successfully
internalized them as your own. Many Capricorn Risings who seem like alpha leaders probably
didn’t start off life feeling like they were very heard. Instead, they adopted the voice of
someone else who knew how to be heard until it became their own voice.
Your way of absorbing other people’s forms of comprehension and communication is also
what makes you something of a hustler. You just know things without needing to be told and it

CAPRICORN RISING
333

helps you greatly in business and in terms of being a mover and a shaker. It also can make you
particularly manipulative, especially if your Neptune is strongly pronounced. What excellent
businessperson isn’t, to some degree? You even can display an ability to manipulate your own
mind, psyching yourself out in many situations. Convincing yourself that your nerves are just
excitement or that you have exactly what it takes to get that job, your uncanny form of mind
control helps you transcend the self-doubt you work through on a daily basis. Yet, there is
always a flip that gets switched in the 3rd House. So, that mind control can just turn into a
mind that is completely out of control, leading to a stress that totally drains you and the
negative thinking that you cannot seem to shut off. You are better off just acknowledging those
thoughts and letting them go because resisting is futile and only makes it worse.
Your grade school experience was very likely one where you slipped under the radar. Seeing
as how you don’t even begin your best years until well into adulthood, Capricorn Rising children
are not inclined to seriously stand out in school. You merged into the population of your peers,
passing your classes and hanging out with your few friends and then going home. Your
teachers may not have even given you much attention. It could’ve gotten to the point where
you felt downright invisible, which either gave you an enjoyable sense of privacy and solitude or
made you feel very lonely and sad. Pisces on the 3rd House cusp can also lead to a classic
string of identity crises throughout one’s grade school years, where you tried on one label after
the next to figure out where you really fit in. Trying to be all things to all people is part of what
instilled that aptitude for image-mongering for you as well as your openness to all sorts of
different ways to gain recognition and respect. But, then as well as now, you have to realize
how lost you can get in all of that.
Things can be just as isolating or confusing in your bond with your siblings or, if you’re an
only child, a special cousin or someone who is like a brother or sister. Maybe you spent a lot of
your life feeling very alone in terms of that sibling relationship because there was always
something that kept you apart or you felt like they didn’t really see you or hear you like you
wanted them to. Spending plenty of time in solitude could’ve been the result, since the sibling
wasn’t present enough physically or emotionally for you to connect. But, on the contrary, you
may have also had a bond with your brother or sister that was very enmeshed. In that case,
they played a big role in your receptivity to this flow of ideas from other people. Maybe they put
a lot in your head and were very manipulative or deceptive themselves. However, they also

CAPRICORN RISING
334

could’ve engaged with you in a healing way that sought to bring you peace of mind through
their own understanding. You’re just as capable of doing this to other people. As tough as
you’re touted to be, you do have a sensitive side that can emerge if you are able to use your
words in a way that will bring other people peace of mind. After all, you have the nature of the
wise elder and, like someone’s reliable grandma or grandpa, you can have the kind of talks with
people that just make them walk away feeling like everything is going to be okay.
ARIES ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
The 4th House cusp, also known as the Nadir, shows what we require in order to feel safe
and supported and at home. Having Aries on this cusp indicates that you feel this way when
you have plenty of independence and you are the one calling the shots. Is it a surprise, then,
that you’re not the easiest person to live with? You’re, instead, a challenging (Aries) person to
live with (4th House) and you will most likely develop a history, throughout your adulthood, of
frustrating many roommates and significant others. To be fair, though, you can feel very
equally frustrated by the roommates and significant others you share a space with. Because of
this, the majority of Capricorn Ascendants spend a lot of their adult lives living alone. Whatever
you have to do to have your own space, you’ll do it. You don’t want anyone standing in the way
of your happiness in the home and, sometimes, this involves your loved ones.
With the Nadir indicating one’s relationship with their family and their upbringing, the Aries
Nadir shows that you have been locked in some kind of constant battle with your family since
childhood. Sure, every family has some level of fighting or disagreeing. But, it’s your major way
of relating to your family or, overall, their way of relating to each other. Mars is ruling your 4th
House and if there are harsh aspects to your Mars, this may mean that you grew up in a volatile
situation where there was explosive fighting and plenty of rage. Sometimes, violence or physical
abuse may have even found its way into the home. Otherwise, this can mean that there was a
lot of quarreling and head-butting but, at the end of the day, there was still love and affection
behind it all. In any case, you could never just rest easily in your home, while growing up, and
this is why you have gone through life not really intent on taking it easy.
It’s also true that your family members, as much as they love you, may also just be pretty
fundamentally selfish and out for themselves, to some degree or another. This every-man-for-
himself vibe in the home made you get very used to taking care of yourself and looking out for
yourself. In the end, you have emerged as the most self-reliant one in your family in some way.

CAPRICORN RISING
335

Most Capricorn Rising people can tell you that they left home as soon as they could, never
looked back, and didn’t accept any help from their family since then. Even if your family did
help you out later on, you still displayed a significant lack of emotional dependence on them.
Since they seemed rather unequipped to give you what you needed, you felt like you needed to
be the independent one and that has carried over into your adult life. Anyone who lives with
you can attest to how autonomous you are and how you don’t need to really lean on anyone.
Yet, that begins to work against you, in your personal life, if you’re not taking other people
into consideration enough. History repeats itself in this house and the self-interest that you felt
like you had to cultivate in your upbringing consistently comes out now in your private life as an
adult. You might seem like you are just out for yourself and don’t take your other loved ones
into account. Your self-involvement can definitely manifest through your workaholic patterns,
shutting people out because of your various pursuits and not giving them enough time, even
when they’re asking for it. Wherever Aries is in our chart is where we show our selfishness and
with it ruling the 4th, you display that selfish side behind closed doors.
It’s enough to make people get fed up and leave. Sometimes, you’re not living alone by
choice but because no one else will live with you. This is not just because you can be so
wrapped up in yourself. It’s also due to how difficult you can be. Being too angry or overly
confrontational, taking an overbearing stance, or needing to fight all the time in your home life
isn’t going to bring other people closer. It merely pushes them away and, at times, it seems like
that’s what you want. Your safe space seems to be with you and you alone. So, when other
people get involved, you can scare them off just to feel safe again. It’s good to rely on yourself
but you also have to know that it’s not a bad thing to let other people in and rely on them, too.
The Aries Nadir can also make you very prone to being consumed with your own frustrations
in your private sphere, which no one else will be able to help you with because you don’t let
them. So, you can easily get caught in this angry cycle or be in a constant battle with yourself
until you figure out how to accept the support of others. It’s very possible for you to still be this
strong, self-reliant force and to have a support system of people around you. After all, everyone
gets tired and no one can remain undefeated for forever. Part of that support that you receive
from other people will have to do with them letting you let off some steam. More than most,
knowing who to vent to after a long, hard day at work or a particular disappointment is going to
really increase your comfort level with them. You will also, of course, need to vent with them

CAPRICORN RISING
336

about the things going on with them that are frustrating you. But, remember that you can do
this without taking everything out on them or using them as your punching bag.
TAURUS ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
The 5th House is the house where we shine and with Taurus placed here, you’re going to
have an inner light that comes through in your own earthy sort of way. Taurus on the 5th
House cusp means that you will gain a lot of validation and attention for your grounded and
sensible ways. Since you take pride (5th House) in being level-headed and practical (Taurus),
this is how you end up feeling special. That’s why pursuits and avenues of expression that are
“boring” to other people aren’t really boring to you. They make you come alive! At the same
time, it can also put your audience to sleep. Hopefully, that means that they are so soothed and
relaxed by the creativity you’re expressing and presenting that they doze off. But, it can also
mean that they find your creative endeavors and what you’re good at rather dull.
It takes a long time for you to come into your own, as we’ve already mentioned. So, this
energy makes sense because the house cusp that Taurus is placed on is the area of life that
takes the longest to come to fruition, like a planted seed slowly growing into a flower. With the
5th House being the house of self, that’s what you’ll feel like, at heart. You are certainly a late
bloomer and this can be because it takes so long for you to actually figure out what you’re good
at. Again, it comes down to what you specifically enjoy, more so than just what kind of work
can you excel at. Your creativity is fueled by your determination, your ability to push and push
until you reach the finish line. So, you can persevere at anything in order to become great at it.
I think the trick is to realize that, even though it involves this dogged persistence, you can have
fun with it, too. You can enjoy it! Those with Earth signs on their 5th House cusp need to learn
how to channel such creativity into their work that they genuinely have fun on the job. In doing
so, you will come to realize that you don’t have to work just to work. You can work a job
because you’re good at it and because it brings you joy.
Therefore, you will exhibit a talent in whatever you find both pleasurable and pragmatic. It’s
going to have to yield material, tangible results yet also be something that you value because
you find happiness in it. Achieving that fine balance is going to take a while, requiring you to
neither invest your creative energy in something solely for the materialistic outcome, which
means that it stops being creative altogether, and to also make sure that you’re engaged in
projects that you feel are worth your time and effort because of the financial reward involved.

CAPRICORN RISING
337

Taurus in the 5th causes you to gain great validation specifically from having your value
recognized, which can be in dollars or in terms of what makes you a valuable human being.
Given how much insecurity you struggle with, it’s a yearning that sits right at the center of you.
Venus ruling your 5th shows how much you just want to be loved. Yet, you should make sure
that you’re heavily depending on the money you gain as a way of feeling loved.
It can also become a substitute for what you’re really passionate about, which will cause you
to forget about your true creative interests to do something that will pay the bills. But, when
you find that balance of pleasure and profit, you’ll understand how to find happiness in both
ways. You’ll just have to tap into that trademark patience of yours to wait for it all to totally pay
off. This placement indicates a very slow development that has been occurring ever since you
were a kid. The 5th House is the child-self and how we expressed ourselves as children. There
was probably something very low-key and subdued about you as a child that made it hard for
you to get recognition. The other kids seemed like they were far ahead of you in the race in
some regard, earning prizes or accolades that you constantly failed to grasp. But, this is a big
part of what allowed you to cultivate your patience, groundedness, and even keel. You weren’t
really a kid when you were a kid and, unlike the other children, you understood the value of the
long game, knowing that your talents and abilities would eventually be acknowledged.
Since there is a dramatic quality to the 5th House, you expressed such steadiness and
hardheadedness to a degree that it seemed like nothing ever deterred you. In fact, you might
have been regularly pulled aside as a child after proverbially running over whoever or whatever
was in your way. Although you were well-behaved and reserved, you were also so unstoppable
in your quests for success that you showed a take-no-prisoners attitude at that age that made
you seem tough enough to take on anything. You still have this mindset now and that comes
out whenever you’re totally living in the moment. Your inner child is used to being highly
obstinate in the face of anything or anyone that tells you that you can’t achieve something. So,
you spontaneously express such determination in a way that lets you always reach the finish
line of the race. It’s funny because being in the moment allows you to be patient, knowing that
things may not be working out right now because it will eventually all be worth it.
When it comes to having children of your own, that may also take a long time to happen. It
will probably be very important for you to not have children until you feel financially
comfortable enough because you do not want your kids to have to struggle. You will want to be

CAPRICORN RISING
338

at a level of success, once you become a parent, that allows you to provide them with the good
things in life. Since they will have Taurus placements or a strong Venus, they will most certainly
thrive on such a life. We can stifle our 5th House some as we grow up but it can easily be
reawakened not just through creative ventures but through the children we have. You always
wanted to live the good life when you were a kid. Whether you were financially well-off then or
spent a ton of time dreaming of being rich as an adult, often due to growing up poor, it was
quite a preoccupation to you back then. But, life humbled you as you got older, to the point
where you couldn’t really entertain or admit to those things.
However, your children will remind you of that inner self through their own love of being
indulged, comforted, secure, even sort of spoiled. They will also reflect the obstinacy of your
inner child. Even though it’s a side of you that can still get turned down a few notches due to
the decorum or the hierarchy of the professional world, it’s definitely still inside of you and it
drives so much of your business savvy. Yet, your children can provide you with tougher
negotiations than anyone else, as they refuse to budge or compromise and often have to be
sweet-talked into doing what you want them to do. Although you’ll probably be strict with your
kids in some ways, you will also know when to ease up on them and keep things more relaxed.
The same relaxed dynamic can occur in love affairs, as well. You want romance to just feel nice
and easy yet you are also very cautious and conservative about who you give your heart to.
Dating someone feels like a real investment to you and you don’t need any of your time or
energy or money wasted. Speaking of which, this is an indicator that you’re unequivocally for
“wining and dining.” It can depend on gender and sexual orientation but you may want to be
the one who’s getting spoiled and having the other one spend many nice things on them.
However, seeing how you love being in control, you will probably be the one paying for a lot of
the dates and giving your love interest lavish treatment. It doesn’t feel like romance to you if
someone isn’t being treated to wonderful things.
But, maybe, you’re not that interested in price tags and open tabs. That can be a good thing,
especially since, when taken to an extreme, Taurus in the 5th indicates a heart that is too easily
bought or someone who tries hard to buy the heart of someone else. In the end, it could just
be about being treated with the utmost appreciation by your lover. Such notions developed
within you during adolescence. As a teenager, your sense of love and passion was surprisingly
traditional; well, not really surprising, given that you were an old person in a young person’s

CAPRICORN RISING
339

body. Sincerely believing in such old-as-time dating maxims as “you can’t have your cake and
eat it, too” and “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free”, even at that age, you
always wanted to make sure that you were getting what you were worth from your love
interest, even if you regularly struggled to know what that is. Well, another reason is that
caution that you exhibit. You don’t dive into passion too eagerly. You take your time and you’re
going to be romantically involved with many Taurus-influenced folks who also take their sweet
time, letting it build slowly yet surely. If that goes on for too long, though, it can get to an
excruciatingly slow pace and then come to a dramatic and often disappointing halt.
GEMINI ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
You feel like you are most productive when you are always considering the alternative. This
doesn’t just mean always thinking of another solution to a problem but always thinking of
another potential problem that will need a solution. Gemini on your 6th House cusp indicates
that your way of getting work done is by thinking about it a lot. Mercury, the planet of the
mind, rules Gemini and this certainly explains your workaholic nature because you literally have
work on the mind on a constant basis. But, it also shows just how much you can over-analyze
your problems by believing that you should have a solution for everything that could happen.
Also, you will be truly beside yourself if something does happen and you don’t have an effective
solution for it. The issue will remain on your mind until it gets resolved.
Gemini in the 6th, then, explains your anxiousness as well as your counterproductive way of
making more problems for yourself. You’re able to poke holes in anything that you’re presented
with, even if it seems positive and problem-free. While everyone else is fine with it, you’re the
one who has an issue with it and then you end up creating problems where there were none.
Your negative thinking becomes ineffective, even though you see it as a realism that is more
effective than looking on the bright side or not totally thinking your way through things. But,
you just can’t think your way through everything! There comes a point where it’s unnecessary.
That’s where the phrase “over-thinking” comes from, after all.
Whether you realize it or not, you stress yourself out when your brain just cannot shut off.
That may mean fixating on everything that’s gone wrong through the day, worrying about all
the things that could go wrong, or analyzing what needs to be fixed again and again and again.
However, it’s hard to shut off your brain because you feed off of that energy to stay productive.
If you don’t have some sort of issue to figure out, then you can easily feel like you’re not doing

CAPRICORN RISING
340

much or wasting time. The duality of Gemini manifests through this influence by making it hard
for you to stop, sit down, and relax. As soon as you do, the other part of your brain chimes in
to remind you of all of your mistakes that you should improve upon or everything that you need
to be worried about. Not being worried about anything can make you feel more worried. In the
end, it can seem to many, maybe even to you, that you need to be in a nervous, anxious or
wired state of mind in order to complete your tasks and get things done.
The 6th House also represents our physical health and that’s tied to how healthy our daily
habits and thought patterns are. With Mercury as the ruler of the 6th, you can exhibit a real
hypochondriacal streak. As soon as you think something’s wrong with you physically, it is. If you
think you’ve got a cold or an ache in your back, then you will have it. This extends to thinking
about something stressful occurring and then that very thing happens. Such a pattern only adds
to the stress of your life yet you will also be surprised at just how easily you can prevent or get
over sicknesses through the power of your thinking. Of course, always go see a doctor when
necessary and take whatever medicine you need to take. I just mean that you can definitely
experience certain illnesses or ailments in a psychosomatic way, especially when your doctor
reports them as nowhere as serious as you believed them to be.
It all goes back to how you’re handling your thought patterns. You’ll need to rely on your
amazing discipline to turn those recurring thoughts around and realize that listening to there is
this ridiculous voice inside of you that is literally making you sick. In doing so, you can extend
that awareness to the madness that pops up in your day-to-day grind. It’s not enough for you
to just work. You work in the most hectic, crazymaking situations and, let’s be honest, you
secretly enjoy it. If you didn’t, you would simply show up to work, clock in, have things run
smoothly, and clock out. There’s a little bit of mischief in how you want your work life to be
chaotic in order for there to not be a dull moment. You don’t work as well when things are
functioning properly and there’s nothing to straighten out. However, you need to have a dual
awareness of this. Know that you thrive on the craziness of your work life while also being
detached enough from it where you don’t let that craziness get inside of your head. That’s
when you get truly stressed out and that’s when it becomes no fun at all, posing you with
problems on the job that give you a huge headache instead of a stimulating jolt.
CANCER ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP

CAPRICORN RISING
341

Although you keep up this harder exterior, you are much more vulnerable than you often
would like to admit. You’re only human, in the end, and Cancer in the 7th represents that softer
side of you. When we look at the 7th House, we see the sometimes surprising parts of
ourselves that emerge within our close, important relationships. With Capricorn Risings, this
means that you are more sensitive and emotional with close friends, significant others, or
anyone else important in your life than you are in general. Being more inclined to cry or talk
about your feelings with these people stems from them being more responsive and intuitive
types. This house shows you who you attract into your life. For you, it’s that lunar archetype,
drawing you toward those with Cancer placements or a strongly placed Moon: people who are
very nurturing, sensitive, and supportive, who will give you a shoulder to cry on.
But, there is always a downside to the dynamic that gets established via our 7th House. Even
though you feel a sweet sense of relief in being able to not have to keep a stiff upper lip around
these people, you can also start to feel emotionally overwhelmed by all of it. Maybe you start
disliking how they are so eager to take care of you, especially since you are very intent on
being self-sufficient. You can easily feel smothered or coddled by the people close to you,
having to remind them that you’re not a baby or they’re not your mother. The sensitivity of
these companions can go from appealing to annoying, as well, once they’re expecting you to
baby them. You may then have to remind them that you’re not their mother. However, the
person you might really need to remind of that is yourself, as it’s so easy for you to slip into
that maternal role with your partners. You naturally feel stronger than most people and that
makes you into more of a caregiver with others than you may realize.
The root of all of this is your relationship with your mother. The Cancer house in our birth
chart tells us about our bond with our maternal figure. Having a Cancer Descendant means
that, for better or for worse, you will see all of the patterns in your relationship with Mom
playing out in your close relationships with others. With the Moon ruling the 7th House, you
might have always had a co-dependent relationship with her, doing everything with her to the
point where you didn’t have much alone time. In spite of your autonomous nature, a part of
you unconsciously leaned on her far more than you wanted to admit. You enjoyed that
closeness and came to strongly associate closeness with nurturing because of that. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that she was all that nurturing of a mother, though. It could’ve meant that
you were a constant caregiver to her, always providing her with a shoulder to cry on if she

CAPRICORN RISING
342

needed it. While you loved her and cared for her, a part of you also resented this; a pattern you
can see arising in your relationships now.
What also may be true about this placement is that you are constantly seeking out the
mother figure that you feel like you didn’t have. Because your upbringing was so father-
dominated, the connection with Mom may have been lacking, in that she never built much of a
bond with you, or may not have been there at all, in the case of a literally absent mother. So,
you are attracting mothering people into your life, male or female, to help you fill that void and
become complete. The role you’re more likely to play in these partnerships has a lot to do with
how you did or didn’t engage with your mother while growing up and how you continue to do
so now, which is why resolving any issues with her will dramatically improve your relationships.
Resentments against your Mom will be the same resentments you hold against your best friend
or your romantic partner. Any needy behavior you display with her will be displayed strongly
with others or reflected strongly back to you. If she overwhelms you, you’ll let your companions
do the same and if you’re always taking care of her, you’re always taking care of others.
These kinds of unions form in order for you to learn how to check in with yourself
emotionally. You push through life so persistently that it can be hard for you to stop and just
ask yourself how you’re feeling. You can believe that, if you do, you will break down and not be
able to push on. Associating emotion with weakness is a classic Capricorn Rising trait. Having
the feelings that you have does not make you weak. However, if you keep denying them, they
will actually weaken you because they will gnaw at you from the inside, making you increasingly
tired, stressed, pressured, and nervous until you can’t take it anymore. Then, you inevitably
break down. It takes a lot for that wall around you to come down. But, once it does, you
become a complete mess. You don’t like such messy emotional scenes in other people because
you don’t like it in yourself.
It’s convenient for you to project your emotional baggage on to the very emotionally charged
people that you surround yourself with. However, these individuals can be an excellent
influence on you in terms of showing you that it’s okay to feel, to be vulnerable, to share what’s
going on with you emotionally. They will expect that from you within the relationship and if you
are unable to give that to them, you’ll feel them withdrawing and retreating. Yet, it’s the same
way that you can take it very personally whenever they’re not being emotionally open with you.
Our Cancer house tells us how we deal with our needs and emotions and, in large part, you

CAPRICORN RISING
343

experience those feelings through other people. Checking in with others is checking in with
yourself, in many ways. You don’t feel a strong bond with someone if they’re not sharing
emotionally because, otherwise, it’s just another one of your business contracts. The
vulnerability adds a human dimension to the relationship and to you. You’re reminded of your
own vulnerable qualities through a nice session where you get real and raw with someone else.
But, again, it has to be mutual for it all to work.
On the flip side, you may also become the one who’s emotionally overwhelming the other
person. It takes a lot of work to keep it all together like you do. Being able to let go of all of
that effort and totally relax with someone else means that your control over your emotions can
relax, as well. When people get close to you, they see beyond the highly calibrated image and
meet someone who is much more reactive. They deal with your changing moods, your spells of
irrationality, the moments where you have total meltdowns. They also see that you’re clingier,
needier, or more insecure than you’d like people to know. As much as it is a relief to take the
pressure off of yourself some by having relationships with these caregivers, you also need to
make sure you’re not crying out for them to meet all of your needs all the time or to constantly
make you feel better. When both of you understand the art of self-soothing, you’ll be able to
come together in a comforting way that’s not too emotionally taxing on the other.
LEO ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
Whatever psychological scars you have in life, you hold a deep belief that it is somehow all
your fault. Leo is ruled by the Sun, which represents the sense of the self, the center of us. The
8th House represents our emotional issues. This essentially means that you’re the source of
your emotional issues. But, this should be acknowledged with a healthy, empowering sense of
responsibility, showing you that you’re often your worst enemy, that you’re creating your
demons and, therefore, you can vanquish them. Unfortunately, this influence can also make
you feel like you’re the source of any trauma that you have in life. It’s an attitude that was
instilled in you and is why you beat yourself up as much as you do.
Since you have always felt responsible for everything, anything traumatic that you’ve been
through can be reframed to make you feel as if this was, somehow, your doing. That can be
true of terrible things that occurred during your childhood but it is also true of anything painful
or traumatic in your adult years. Cursing yourself for not being in control, for not doing this or
doing that when you should’ve, your perceived inefficiency in the face of something awful can

CAPRICORN RISING
344

haunt you for a long time. You can hold a ton of resentment against yourself more than anyone
else. So, it’s clear that it’s hard for Capricorn Rising people to forgive themselves. If you have
had someone in your life who’s caused you a lot of pain but blamed you for it, then this pattern
runs even deeper. It becomes an inner voice that is always chastising you, always tearing you
down and making you feel powerless.
Looking at the 8th House tells us the painful things that we have inherited from our families
and this intense self-blame has been passed down from one generation to the next in your
family. Such an attitude toward the self eventually leads to an equally intense amount of self-
destruction. With the Sun ruling the 8th House, self-destruction also stems from an abuse of
one’s power. It’s easy to do when you don’t see the light in yourself, only seeing the dark. You
then fail to realize just how wonderfully powerful you are. Either that or you recognize that you
have a certain power that you can use to gain some sense of control over your situation. But, it
becomes desperate, as you obsessively focus on control in order to avoid repeating those past
circumstances where you felt like you had no control over what was going on. This is the secret
dark side of you that emerges when threatened by things outside of your control or whenever
you feel powerless. It turns you into the boss who seems great in the interview and at the
beginning of the job and then becomes a nightmarish tyrant or insane control freak.
It’s also true that there are some Capricorn Rising people who can gravitate toward the
severely brow-beaten role, going to a dark place by wanting some tyrant or control freak to
puppeteer them, denigrate them, tell them it’s all their fault. Leo in the 8th is either highly
sadistic or deeply masochistic in its lower expression and you can play both the abusive boss
and the abused secretary role. This can also manifest in your sexual life. While you have this
secretly passionate side to you in bed that can be very surprising, you can ruin things by being
totally controlling about everything that’s happening. Wanting to dominate the other person
completely can create a self-absorption when it comes to sex that gets in the way of true
satisfaction and intimacy. Also, you have some deep insecurities about your sexual performance
and if your partner ever bruises your ego, in this regard, you may either feel truly shattered or
lash out very viciously. But, again, maybe you want your ego bruised, so you can obsessively
keep proving your sexual greatness to them or to anyone else.
A big part of overcoming these issues involves not identifying so much with being this
damaged soul. With everything you’ve been through in life, you know you’re a survivor.

CAPRICORN RISING
345

However, you also can never forget about all of the painful things you’ve experienced because
of that. This will cause you to constantly live out this tragedy; to remain in the darkness instead
of moving into the light. You can’t let everything that’s happened to you take your light away
from you. That’s what keeps you in this state where you’re destroying everything good in your
life or willingly allowing yourself to be destroyed. We have to eliminate the toxic elements of
our 8th House to find our healing. Leo on the 8th House cusp means you need to eliminate any
toxic energy in your life that’s not truly you. Identifying with your trauma, with your abusers
and the messages they instilled in you, prevents you from really knowing who you are. So, you
have to dig deep and be very introspective to understand yourself. Once you find your true self,
you can pull yourself out of unhealthy psychological states, just like you have (or inevitably will)
pull yourself out of unhealthy circumstances.
If you’re unable to do that, you will simply be acting out your trauma, recreating these
situations, again and again, like some intensely dramatic play with an endless number of shows.
But, since you’re creating these situations, you have to know that you’re also powerful enough
to recreate yourself, becoming who you’re really meant to be. You can completely throw out
that script and give yourself a new one. This placement gives you an immense power and you
find healing when you both recognize how powerful you are, moving away from people who try
to beat you down, and use it wisely, which means not beating others down, either. You don’t
have to be destructive. It’s a choice and you will break the cycle of family pain you’re a part of
when you learn to make the choice to be powerfully creative; to give yourself opportunities to
intensely enjoy life instead of having to survive one form of pain after another.
You will always have a part of you that is drawn toward power struggles. But, conquering
your inner darkness means knowing that and remembering that there is no real power struggle.
You are the source of your power and no one can take it away from you. Such an empowering
kind of confidence will then translate into a newfound sexual confidence. I think it will be
important for you to be able to demand what you want sexually from the other person. Yet, you
will also need to know how to not be overbearing and to give the other person room to express
what they want. Otherwise, you’re just making it all about you. There is something particularly
dramatic about how your sexuality expresses itself, especially due to how reserved or
conservative you can seem in your general demeanor. You’re a true lady or gentlemen in the
streets. But, you become a completely different person once you hit the sheets. Highly

CAPRICORN RISING
346

passionate and loudly expressive in sex, you also want it to be rather romanticized. Sex might
not be truly satisfying for you unless it’s with someone that you have real affection for.
VIRGO ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
You are on a journey to improve as much as a person as you possibly can. The more you do,
the more great opportunities will manifest for you. Virgo on the 9th House cusp indicates that
your personal growth depends on constructive criticism. You move beyond your own limitations
when you learn how to take criticism. This isn’t so easy for you because you struggle so much
with self-doubt and also because you’re used to feeling judged and torn down in ways that
aren’t constructive. But, the 9th House represents the belief that guides us throughout life
toward better things. So, you need to believe that you can always be better. Such an attitude
isn’t supposed to make you feel down on yourself. Instead, it will show you that it is always
possible to improve, no matter how you’ve failed or what mistakes and stumbles you have
made. But, in order for these improvements to happen, you have to assess your failings, flaws,
and mistakes in a way that will allow you to learn from them.
It will take a certain amount of objectivity and observation to do so. Since Mercury is the ruler
of Virgo, you will have to be logical about it. This also means rationally acknowledging when the
assessments, advice, or help of other people can aid or reinforce your self-improvement. A time
will come in your life when you realize just how much the right criticism will set you off on the
right path. Even if the critiques you get from other people are unhelpful, harsh, even downright
scathing, you can still turn it all around. Virgo in the 9th is why so many of you Capricorn
Risings go on to be major somebodies when there were many people in your lives telling you
that you weren’t good enough or that you were just nobody and would always be nobody. You
will come to see these experiences as growing experiences because you had to learn to be
more than the negative judgment someone else gave you. Also, of course, such criticism only
propels you to go even further. Conversely, the constructive criticism of someone else will also
urge you to move forward and be a better version of yourself.
You will then come to believe that criticism is a good thing, either way, because it either
drives you to prove your naysayer wrong or to use the excellent feedback that someone has
provided you with to succeed. Because of this, it’s hard for you to discount anyone’s opinion of
you because you want to hear it all, positive or negative, in order to maintain the inspiration
you need to succeed. This ultimately turns inward and causes you to be equally inspired by

CAPRICORN RISING
347

both your feelings of insecurity and competence, your moments of feeling like a failure and the
times where you feel on top of the world. It is all just fuel for you to keep bettering yourself
and keep succeeding. This manifests situations into your life that force you to work on yourself
and to not rest easily on your laurels, either because you’re seen as efficient enough not to or
because everyone seems to be doubting you.
Dealing with Virgo here means that work, in and of itself, is also a source of wonderful
personal growth for you. We aim to explore and discover whatever is in our 9th. So, you want
to explore all of the work that is out there and discover what kind of work is best for you. This
is something that really characterized your late teens and early twenties. Going off to college or
leaving the house was a time in your life that allowed you to really get to work, more than ever.
You might’ve had a job with serious demands that was juxtaposed with the demands of your
college classes. College students with this influence can always seem so busy with this, that,
and the other that they don’t have as much time for fun as their peers. Still, being so involved
with your work (Virgo) is what has always liberated you (9th House). You always felt like an
adult when you were a kid but you were trapped in the existence of a child, unable to make
your own living and set your own schedule. But, once you made it out into the world, you felt
free, finally able to live the adult life you always wanted, which included plenty of work.
Such pressures may have seemed daunting to others at that age yet you found a sense of
meaningfulness and inspiration from being made very useful on the job and being seen as very
efficient out in the real world, instead of a kid who is merely in the way or not contributing
much of anything tangible. It’s also why you were probably very insistent on carving out a
journey where you paid your own way, without much, if any, help. Being able to work full-time
freed you and allowed you to enter the workplace where you really belonged. It didn’t matter if
it stressed you out or didn’t give you a ton of free time. This sticks with you as move forward
throughout life, which is what causes you to be such a workaholic or put so much on your
plate. Your belief that you should always be busy and useful then leads to an excessive
busyness that doesn’t seem to stop. While the thrill of achieving all that you’re meant to
achieve enhances your life, you should also know when to put a stop to the flow of work, at
times. Learning that it’s not wrong to take some time off, that taking a break can be the right
thing to do for your health, is also another crucial part of your journey.
LIBRA ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP

CAPRICORN RISING
348

You are striving to be someone who is truly loved and appreciated in society. It matters very
much to you what people think, never wanting anyone to have the wrong idea about you. This
is why, with this Libra Midheaven, you will strive to cultivate the most appealing image for
yourself that you can. Gaining a lot of love from the public for your image is why you get so
consumed by your image-mongering. Venus ruling the 10th can easily make you feel as if the
only way for you to receive appreciation or be attractive to other people is to go about it in a
very calculated manner. This can give you major problems with self-worth and self-love
because you feel like you always have to work for it and that it can’t just come naturally to you.
But, this is also your attitude toward other people: that they really have to work for your love.
While you can channel this well into a public or professional role where you have plenty of
devoted admirers, it can leave you feeling unfulfilled on a personal level.
Even though you may not personally identify as a people-pleaser, you feel like it’s expected of
you to make everyone happy or to be agreeable. Since you’re a rule-follower by nature, you see
it as important to operate according to politeness and social niceties, on some level or another.
This gives you the ability to go out into the world and know all the right things to say to get and
keep people on your side. But, do you agree with the high regard that they hold you in? The
10th House challenges us to move out of our comfort zone and with Libra in the 10th, you are
asked to truly accept the love and admiration of the world. It’s a challenge for you because
you’re not one to think very highly of yourself. While everyone else is recognizing your most
favorable attributes, you’re just seeing the worst in yourself. So, you will inevitably find yourself
in professional situations where you’re being admired, maybe even put on a pedestal, or where
you have to relate successfully to others. This may include modeling, counseling, public
relations, or any other line of work that involves winning people over.
Eventually, it will become your ongoing goal in life to win people over, which is why you will
see the impression you make on others as so important. The favorability you cultivate can have
a great deal to do with your beauty or good looks. We start understanding how the world views
us via our Midheaven once we become teenagers. With this influence, during this time, you
began to understand the power of your attractiveness sometime during your teenage years.
High school may have been a time where you blossomed and gained a lot of romantic or sexual
attention from your peers. But, then again, it may have happened a little after high school.
Regardless, the effect of this placement is that ugly-duckling syndrome, where you felt plain or

CAPRICORN RISING
349

unspectacular before this time and then suddenly became a head-turner. After all, everything
about you has the power to impress, including your looks. However, you just might not have
thought much about your looks before this time and then began to realize how many people
were attracted to you and how you could use that to your advantage.
This could have distorted your ideas about romantic relationships. Our Libra house shows
how we go about relationships and having it on the Midheaven means that they become very
goal-oriented. You could’ve become totally fixated on having a boyfriend or girlfriend at this
age, more than the average teenager, moving you away from the solely independent stance of
your Aries Nadir. Yet, surging hormones were not the overriding reason that you sought out
love back then. You really wanted someone beside you to make you look good, to enhance the
notion of you being such a looker or a catch. We then see your deliberate, strategic nature in
partnerships develop. That’s not to say that you can’t love but it’s rarely just for the sake of
love, particularly when it comes to romance. Carrying over into your adult years, it gets to a
point where you enter into romantic partnerships with a strong awareness of where it can get
you and the success that can emerge from it. Thus, we see power couplings as well as work
connections that turn into romantic commitments and vice versa.
Are you sometimes falling in love with the image of love over actual love? Are you more
concerned with the “bottom line” of the relationship than the organic bond that is (hopefully)
present? You do want everything to lead to tangible results yet you shouldn’t let it get to the
point where you’re cold and calculating about relationships. You are also all too aware of the
publicity that your love life can get and you strive to avoid messy scenes or break-ups of any
kind, especially if your lover becomes tied into your brand. On the flip side, you may end up
being single for very long periods of time because you’re too in love with your work. You will, at
some point in your life, realize that you’re happier in your career than you could ever be in a
romantic union. This happens whenever love becomes such a struggle that no one is ever able
to really last. Again, you require the other person to put in a ton of work, just like you do,
which is why literally working together is so beneficial.
Being single and romantically unattached supports this notion of you being simultaneously
available and unattainable to your many admirers. Your image has this one-two punch because
you will have many people wanting you while feeling like you are somehow out of their league.
It easily becomes a trap (the difficulty that comes with the limited 10th House perception of

CAPRICORN RISING
350

you) because you probably don’t think that about yourself. But, you are put on that kind of a
pedestal. Libra on the 10th House cusp also gives you this reputation as a very classy or lovely
person; one who is always respectful and treats others like they’d want to be treated. That is,
you should aim for that kind of reputation. You do have this cutthroat side to you, thanks to
your fierce, survivalist Aries Nadir background, but you are being pushed to play nice in order to
make in the world. You can be a boss while still playing fairly and being kind. You find your
place in society by either making people happy or projecting something beautiful. While this can
support very people-oriented careers, it can also push you in an aesthetic, artistic direction that
allows you to cultivate your own form of beauty and bring it to the world.
SCORPIO ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Terrible things truly happen for you when you least expect it. You’re such a hustler, so
persevering, because you’re so used to being dealt some horrible curveball, out of nowhere.
With Scorpio in the 11th House, the more you resist the intense drama, the more it’s going to
happen. This house describes what we can feel distanced from on a personal level yet also that
which occurs in our life very unpredictably and uncontrollably. A part of you would like to just
not suffer and you probably don’t even feel like you’re all that dark or heavy of a person. It’s
just that there is always something dark and heavy that you’re having to deal with and often for
mysterious, random reasons that you don’t understand. But, this only instills that strength
inside of you because you objectively know that anybody can dealt a bad hand. You just have
to play what you’re dealt.
Because of this, Scorpio in the 11th allows you to develop an idealism that has to do with
helping those who are in a powerless situation because of the hand they’ve been dealt. You will
gravitate toward any cause that has to do with people dealing with major tragedy, loss, or
trauma. You have what it takes to empower these people and help them transform the terrible
circumstances that they’re in. This is how your power expresses itself: through the
empowerment of other people. Striving to be individually powerful, just for the sake of yourself
and your ego, is something that will consistently backfire on you. You’ll find yourself in social
situations where you believe that you’re pulling your puppets’ strings when they end up
unexpectedly cutting those strings altogether. You have the potential to be a controversial
social presence and any subtle Machiavellian tactics you go about will cause serious backlash.

CAPRICORN RISING
351

But, in many ways, you go about such tactics because of a lot of fear. The 11th House tells
us how we can feel like we’re not socially accepted and these feelings easily arise within you
whenever you’re faced with power struggles. You have always been this way, with any
memories of being bullied by some cruel, dominant peer leaving a real scar. So, you feel an
awkwardness socially when you’re not in control. Yet, if you’re not careful, you can end up
becoming one of the cruel bullies and doing it in such a covert way that it’s hard to call you out
for it. You’re that person who understands all the subtle social dynamics going around you and
this insight into your community or social world can actually help you make a difference.
It’s a power that must be used for the betterment of others, not for yourself, because it will
always be misused if you go that route. One of the ways that you can make a social impact is
by getting down to the nitty-gritty, calling things out that need to be called out or talking
someone through some serious issue. You are a truly real, raw ally for other people, going
beyond what’s superficial. Being faced with shallowness is something that alienates you, which
means that it can be hard for you to connect to many of your peers, even if that’s something
you hide very well. Friends are very much friends to you. It’s hard for you to invest in
superficial acquaintances or passing social connections. You need something much deeper than
that. Therefore, you will be very selective about who you give your energy to socially.
In truth, a lot of you will hate socializing, only doing it when necessary or when it’s an event
you’re very passionate about. You might go through a phase of extremes where you are very
socially involved and then not at all. Somehow, no matter how many people you know, you’ll
still maintain that mystery of yours because few people will be able to say they really know you.
Pluto ruling the 11th can also take you to extremes in friendships, making you highly involved
with someone and then cut-off from them altogether, especially if there is some sort of breach
of trust which, unfortunately, will happen on a regular basis for you. There will be many so-
called friends of yours that will prove themselves to be untrustworthy somehow. If you’re
perceived as particularly powerful by your peers, you can find people plotting to take you down
somehow. This is why it’s better for you to not be concerned with power in a self-serving way.
Whether it’s through backstabbing friends or dramatic circumstances, some crisis will always
happen to rob you of that power. Better for you to let others deal with those nasty social
politics and for you to gain your social power through what you do for others.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP

CAPRICORN RISING
352

One cannot stay buttoned-up for forever. A part of you is secretly yearning to completely
break free of the restraints you create for yourself, thanks to you having Sagittarius on the 12th
House cusp. The 12th House is the house of secrets that are so deep that they may even be
hidden from us much of the time. So, you aren’t keen on even letting yourself know,
sometimes, how much you want to break out of the cage you’ve put yourself in. You don’t even
see it as a cage. Instead, you convince yourself that you’re better off in captivity because, at
least, there are more boundaries, structures, and rules there than out in the wild. Capricorn
Risings typically do a good job of convincing the world that they don’t have much of a wild or
crazy side, that they’re perfectly sensible, grounded, or reliable members of society. But, not
giving yourself much freedom causes you to seek it unconsciously, in ways that totally work
against the well-laid plans you’ve set for yourself.
It’s interesting that the 12th House symbolizes a repressed part of the nature and Sagittarius’
energy brings a sense of excess to whatever house it rules. So, it’s safe to say that those with
their Ascendant in Capricorn are excessively repressed. Somehow, someway, you are terrified of
stepping out of line. This may, again, have to do with playing by all the rules. But, there are
other people with this placement who are more so repressed (12th House) in terms of
expressing their truth (Sagittarius). You are notoriously closed-off or shut-down, particularly
when it comes to your feelings. Anything going on inside of you or in your life that could be
considered inappropriate or embarrassing just doesn’t get talked about. The 12th House goes to
extremes and one way is by totally hiding whatever energy is in this house. So, here, you’ll go
to extremes when it comes to striving to never make a mistake, never make a fool of yourself,
never take the chance of looking or being stupid. But, there’s only so long you can go without
taking a stumble or ending up with egg on your face. Just the sheer thought of this happening
is horrifying to you and when you ever slip up or embarrass yourself, you feel profoundly
humiliated, truly shamed.
On the other hand, Jupiter ruling the 12th House can cause you to be so consumed with this
urge to get sloppy or cut loose that you don’t know what to do with yourself. This often
happens when you stop and turn inward, feeling safe from the world’s harsh judgment. It goes
to show that when you learn to just slow down and do nothing, you feel an incredible relief
from all of the pressure you put on yourself. It gives true meaning to “dance like no one’s
watching” because you can do the silliest, goofiest things by yourself, when no one else is

CAPRICORN RISING
353

around. You also have a wonderful sense of humor, which often gets tempered and turned
down to a dry wit for everyone else. It can give you amazing perspective in those hard times of
yours. Yet, seeing the humor in all things, you can let go of propriety to the point where you’re
nowhere near appropriate. You’ll get to a point, naturally, where you’re sick of the rules and
expectations! This can come out in a messy fashion through offensive jokes and statements,
ridiculous blunders, or other disastrous behaviors that are unlike your usually controlled self.
The thing is, though, that many of the effects of your 12th House aren’t so negative because
Jupiter’s influence here. While this is the house of suffering and pain, you usually only
experience suffering and pain when you’re living in a state of repression that prevents you from
being free and believing in all the possibilities around you. Although you can have incredible
dreams of success, your general cynicism in addition to the hardships you regularly face make it
hard for you to believe that you’ll get there. Doing so stems from suppressing your faith. But,
you may also be desperate for something to believe in that you don’t know just what to invest
your faith in. So, you can believe in the wrong things and people, intent on things turning out
right because of it when it only makes things worse. You might even believe things about
yourself that turn out to be false. This can mean seemingly positive things that seem like
strengths but are actually weaknesses, like the perceived sense of control and self-sufficiency
that only make your life more of a struggle. It can also involve perceived negative qualities that
are actually strengths, like the failures you’ve endured that are opportunities in disguise or the
“weak” moments that mean that you need a break, like everyone else.
You will pull yourself of that suffering by refusing to believe in nothing or in the wrong things.
Your crises of faith and your struggle to be positive are universal, human qualities that you just
need to accept. Sagittarius in the 12th means that you are equipped to understand how we all
need to have faith in something yet how having faith is a journey, not a destination. You feel a
profound yearning to believe in something greater yet you are always going to be a realist.
You’re never going to identify as some sort of foolish optimist and aren’t meant to. However,
you need to acknowledge the positivity you’re capable of feeling and then let it go, knowing
that this inner clarity and peace will allow you to know what direction to go when you are faced
with difficulties. This will give you an incredible inner freedom, telling you that, no matter what
obstacles come your way, you can transcend and overcome them.

CAPRICORN RISING
354

You’ll be able to do so with the help of your Higher Power. Your sense of spirituality also sets
you free because you will no longer have to adhere to the rules of the physical world that
ensure your security and success. Also, people are always going to judge but the Creator cares
more about your truth than anything else and, most importantly, always knows your truth. It
may not until you develop your spiritual life that you figure out that raw truth for yourself, in a
way that goes beyond propriety and judgment. Honestly owning up to the traits you have
through an awareness of your birth chart, for instance, will allow you to feel liberated, exploring
these parts of yourself in an uncensored sort of way. A new freedom of expression will stem
from your growing spiritual self, even though you will still have your parameters.
You will also be able to develop empathy for people who cannot express their truth out of
fear of judgment or being shamed by others. So, you have the potential to provide healing for
those who need a space to express feelings, thoughts, and experiences that they may find
embarrassing or absurd. If you have artistic inclinations, you will be able to explore your various
worlds and characters through this awareness. There is so much of the human experience that
is ridiculous and, therein, lies the truth of it all. As an artist, you’ll find a means of escape
through whatever material is either humorous or inspiring. You’re filled with vivid fantasies and
dreams of doing absolutely whatever you want, whether that means being free of responsibility
or moving far beyond any limitations. Your art can, therefore, be very uplifting because of the
amazing or carefree adventure it takes other people on. Also, doing any selfless act or
charitable service that has to do with uplifting people is a healing balm for your soul. Life is
hard enough. So, it’s deeply fulfilling for you to bring hope and goodness to others.

CAPRICORN RISING
355

AQUARIUS RISING

AQUARIUS ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


With an Aquarius Ascendant, you are here to always expect the unexpected. Like the
protagonist in some outlandish film, you are never truly prepared for the wild twists and turns
in store for you. Sometimes, this sense of unpredictability gives you the feeling that life is a
crazy, chaotic ride that you’re meant to enjoy with abandon. Other times, you feel distinctly
frustrated, as if things are constantly blowing up in your face. It’s true that no one can ever
totally plan for life and that unexpected things occur all the time. But, when you have Aquarius
Rising, this notion really dominates your life. Your narrative can never be premeditated. More
than anyone else, life just happens to you and you have to go along with it.
There are two ruling planets of Aquarius: Saturn and Uranus. The former is the traditional
ruling planet while the latter, which was discovered later, is the modern ruler. I like to think of
Uranus as Aquarius’ true ruler while Saturn is a potent yet subtle counterinfluence. Saturn
represents purpose, structure, duty, and achievement while Uranus is free, weird, defiant, and
challenges the status quo. Therefore, as an Aquarius Rising, you are a rebel yet you also need
to have a cause. You need to go against the norm yet for a reason. Sometimes, believe it or
not, it’s your rules that need to be broken. This is typically ignored in descriptions of this Rising
sign, instead just painting a picture of a carefree anarchist, happily thriving amidst madness.
While you are highly independent-minded and nonconforming, you can have a very hard time
doing away with whatever structures you have (or think you have) created for yourself. You
might rigidly hang on to them, especially since you are used to your life feeling less than stable.
This is when the Universe will have its way and will constantly upend your little system. If you
try and rebel against what’s happening organically, then there will be consequences, particularly
a rising sense of chaos that gets worse and worse as you resist it to remain in control.
All of this depends on which planet has the stronger influence: Saturn or Uranus. The planet
that has more aspects or influence in your chart will determine how you respond to chaos. If
your Uranus is stronger, you will find it much easier to just go with whatever happens, not
needing to stick to some preconceived notion of what should be occurring, trusting that
everything will fall into place. If your Saturn is stronger, you can be a low-key control freak who
spends their life learning that it’s about the Universe, not you, having its way. You will relax into

AQUARIUS RISING
356

life as you mature, understanding that you only make life more difficult when you resist its flow
and that things always have a way of working out for you anyhow.
You can actually rival Sagittarius Risings, at times, with how effortlessly things can work out
to your advantage. The key is for it to be effortless, though. You will either very naturally exert
little effort into living this ideal life, letting it happen for you instead, or you will learn, through
difficult experiences, that the harder you try, the worse things get. You won’t get recognition
for your efforts until you stop looking for recognition. This is when all the attention comes your
way. But, by then, you’re already too focused on what you’re doing for others. You’re here to
free your energy from overly personal concerns and to live for universal ideals. Humanitarianism
is so regularly attributed to Aquarius but this has lots of different meanings and manifestations.
Any way that you can help or uplift humanity, from being political to doing charity work to
counseling people to making art with the purpose of moving and affecting others, allows you to
express your individuality in the strongest fashion.
From the beginning of your life, you’ve been both someone who can turn a situation upside
down and who can better other people, all while standing out as your own person. Aquarius
Risings usually have a place in the birth order of their families that sets them apart from their
siblings, if they have any. You might have a significant age gap between you and your sibling or
even be an only child. The day of your birth may have been very chaotic, full of starts and stops
and detours. There was also this notion that your addition to the family created madness in and
of itself. It’s very common for people with this placement to have their families experience
significant instability soon after they’re born, such as moving a lot or going through divorce.
Maybe you weren’t even born into a stable situation to begin with.
Because of this, life has always felt haphazard to you yet this chaos was also entirely normal.
What is normal and what is unconventional? The lines blurred at an early age for you. This is
what made you feel very different from everyone else, for as long as you can remember. There
might be distinct physical differences between you and your family or you may have a
personality or attitude that is unlike any of theirs. A lot of Aquarius Risings don’t even feel very
influenced by their family, as far as their behavior and their outlook on life. Instead, you’ve
always formed your own ideas and perceptions. In fact, you felt like you were able to use your
atypical perspective to help those around you, starting with your family. It’s instinctual for you.

AQUARIUS RISING
357

Whether through your intelligence, understanding of people, open-mindedness, or ability to


keep your cool, you’ve always provided this breath of fresh air.
Yet, we see the innate conflict between your two chart rulers, Uranus and Saturn, because
while you are comfortable enough with yourself to be different, you also grow up feeling the
deep pain of being a misfit. You weren’t being melodramatic in your adolescence when you
went on about how misunderstood you were. You experienced some difficult circumstances in
life because of this. It might have been certain people making you feel like you were crazy, not
having your unique abilities or ways of learning supported in school or being harshly targeted
for not being like everyone else. But, this only strengthened you, only reinforced your resolve to
go against the grain. The Saturn-Uranus influence means that you are very uncompromisingly
you, even when it would be much easier to do what everyone else does or bend over
backwards for others’ approval. You are able to remain defiant, confident, and even indifferent
in the face of judgment (Saturn) because you’re too free to care (Uranus).
One of the most vital signs of an Aquarius Rising is someone who is not who they “should”
be, based on society’s rules. Many men with this placement are very comfortable with their
feminine side, even at an early age, and can have physical features that are more what we’d
ascribe to women: slim bodies, long hair, soft faces. On the flip side, a lot of women with this
energy are more masculine in their build and their demeanor, exhibiting more muscular or
broader builds, for example. Whatever your race, you take pride in going against whatever
stereotypes are ascribed to your ethnicity. The same thing goes for your sexual orientation and
you may have a sexual sensibility that is particularly fluid. Any of these traits goes to show
people that they cannot put you in a little box and if they try, you will quickly find your way out
of there and turn your attention toward more open-minded company.
Freedom is a very vital need of yours. You’re very independent and anyone that knows you
knows you need space to do your own thing and be an individual. If you’re not given this
breathing room, you will fight back. The rebellious nature of an Aquarius Ascendant is often not
so obvious unless their Uranus is overly strong. In that case, you may find it particularly difficult
to not see any sort of expectation as pressure or a demand. Otherwise, Saturn’s influence will
balance you out and make you a more level-headed, sensible person. That is, until you feel like
someone is forcing their ideas on you or trying to control you. Then, you can react in very
unexpected ways, like shocking outbursts or an almost ruthless stubbornness. Aquarius is the

AQUARIUS RISING
358

sign of experimentation and you’re like an experiment, in so many ways. People don’t know
when you’re going to blow up or burn down the laboratory until you do. You just see it as their
lesson (Saturn) for trying to rob you of your individuality (Uranus).
You have to look at the houses that Saturn and Uranus are in to show you the unique lesson
that you’re meant to learn in this life. Unlike Capricorn Risings, your Saturn-ruled cousins, your
trials don’t involve as much punishment or restriction. It might feel that way, at times, but you
have to remember that the only time you’ll feel restricted is when you fail to look at the big
picture. Uranus’ house placement in your chart will tell you how you’re supposed to adjust to
this crazy life of yours and the things that are in store for you, in the future, if you develop
enough detachment from immediate gratification. If Uranus were in the 10th, that would mean
career success and public recognition and acclaim and if it were in your 11th, this would
indicate the ultimate freedom and an ability to liberate “the people” right along with you.
Saturn’s house placement shows the present price you have to pay for your future goals but
how this will only make you stronger and wiser. With Saturn in the 8th, that means grappling
with a lot of demons and eventually being free of them. If Saturn were in your 12th, it would
indicate a strong sense of loneliness and isolation that you will soon move beyond.
There is definitely a wisdom to you and it is combined with a unique intelligence. Your
brilliance is one of your more obvious qualities. But, I’ve found that Aquarius Risings express
intelligence in two distinct ways. You might seem very erudite, well-read or well-educated and
capable of highly intellectual or philosophical discussions, or you can come off as an eccentric
savant, clueless about or oblivious to many “normal” things but a walking encyclopedia of
impressive facts and spot-on insights about a particular topic or two. Throughout your life or
even at different moments, you may play out both energies. Either way, you can startle people
with the depth of your knowledge and the way that you think.
Something about you startles people, in general, and it’s not just the fact that people can’t
pin you down easily or that you’re prone to saying or doing out-there things. You regularly
seem to appear out of nowhere to people and you even have an appearance that is shocking.
There is something unusually captivating about your look and your aura. You’re all too used to
the stares or double takes you get from people yet you don’t entirely understand it and it may
even startle or irritate you, at times. There is an out-of-the-ordinary magnetism about you.
Aquarius Risings have an electric energy surrounding them and this placement is known for

AQUARIUS RISING
359

having a particular beauty that is unconventional or paradoxical. Some have the typically
offbeat appearance while others are cute and adorable yet also icy and untouchable.
Your eyes can be particularly cool, sometimes to the point of being downright glacial. You are
a contradictory individual and this extends to your ability to be sympathetic yet chilly, friendly
but not too familiar with anyone. This may keep people sort of off-balance with you yet it
maintains your ever-important personal space. Just because you’re approachable and kind
doesn’t mean people should get too close! Speaking of the eyes, they may be rather wild and
wacky. Many Aquarius Risings have classic “crazy eyes” that somehow are just a part of their
appeal. You can be both a notably fast talker and walker, the latter of which is helped by the
strong, shapely legs that you probably have, since Aquarius rules the calves. This Rising sign
produces a lot of tall characters. However, you somehow give off the impression of being taller
than you are. Also, like Capricorn Risings, you might be known for your great smile.
Interestingly, due to Saturn’s influence, both Capricorn and Aquarius Risings can appear to be
rather intimidating. In spite of how approachable you feel, you may not seem that way to
everyone. But, the difference is that while Capricorn Risings aren’t very interested in being
approached much of the time, you have a much more avid interest in people. You want to
make friends! Aquarius Risings are defined most by their friendships. While you insist strongly
on being an individual, you pride yourself just as much on being an amazing friend. Your
greatest happiness in life is found through your friendships. When it comes to best friends, in
particular, you will find yourself defining certain chapters in your life not by who you were
dating or married to or what job you had but by your closest friendships. Your best friends are
your true soul-mates, more than any romantic partner, which is usually why you have to find
someone who can be a good friend first and then evolve into a significant other, and can teach
you more, directly or indirectly, than your parents or loved ones could growing up.
But, while a lot of people will try to be or think that they are your BFF, you will keep a casual,
somewhat distant rapport with most people. It’s very typical for Aquarius Risings to have a lot
of acquaintances that they know socially, professionally, or randomly yet very few close friends,
sometimes just one or two. After all, you live your own planet. You’ve always felt like an alien
and may even been called one at times throughout life. This manifests through a big, Martian-
shaped head (with either a pointy chin or swollen skull or both) to go along with your big brain.
It also means that you can never entirely belong to this planet. Instead, you’re just visiting,

AQUARIUS RISING
360

taking a lot of notes along the way, giving you the objective, outside-looking-in demeanor that
you have.
Although you would think that Aquarius’ mascot is the Alien, it’s actually the Water Bearer. It
makes a lot of sense in terms of how you are because it’s a symbol that is simultaneously
human (the person carrying the water) and not human (the jug of water being carried). You
live your life feeling this way. One part of you can deeply relate to other human beings, in ways
that are sociable or insightful or emotionally intelligent, while another part of you just can’t
relate at all. You’ve definitely had the thought, at some point in your life, that you aren’t
entirely human. You feel like you’re part human and part… something else. At a higher level of
awareness, this is what allows you to be a consistently evolved person. It’s like you are
embodying and expressing something that is almost more than human or, at the least, the ideal
prototype of what a human should be. In the process, you can become increasingly distanced
from your fellow man, even as you try to reach out to them or have them in your life. Exploring
all of this higher knowledge, reaching a greater state of enlightenment, can be another thing
that makes you feel alienated from those who are living seemingly normal lives.
But, again, whatever you do needs to be in service of a purpose greater than yourself. In
fact, it usually does, whether you try to or not. So, your personal evolution will ultimately allow
the people around you and, even, the world at large to evolve. You’re truly here to make the
world a better place and you do so instinctively. All you have to do is be yourself and live your
life. Whether you’re being a total nonconformist or actively striving to help people or spreading
your knowledge as far as you can, you will bring about change all around you. As the
representation of the Water Bearer, you are a tall glass of that refreshing and healing liquid for
other people to consume, which is how you can be described in terms of how much you can
cool people down or how you’re this attractive being who can draw many people to you.
The question is, though, how many people are you going to be drawn to? You can exist with
a much lower level of personal attachment to others than many people do and it’s one of the
things that can either make you seem weird to other people or like you don’t care much about
them. However, it’s simply natural to you because you’re such an individual. You definitely
display a great deal of resistance when it comes to belonging too much to any particular crowd
or group. It’s rare for you to have a friend group that you’re always hanging around and, even
if you do, you’re going to seek out space on a regular basis and want to do many things alone

AQUARIUS RISING
361

or with other friends. The truth is that Aquarius Risings are very friendly loners. It’s a rite of
passage for a lot of Aquarians to go through a period in life with little to no friends or an ever
empty social calendar. This just instills a staunch independence that allows you to move
through the world without getting too attached to anyone and, certainly, without following any
of these earthlings’ rules. If they judge you or reject you, you always have yourself.

PISCES ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP


With free-flowing Pisces ruling your house of money and earnings, you have the potential to
make money very effortlessly. Somehow, someway, you will always seem to have enough and
often times it will feel downright magical or like divine intervention. That’s because it is. You are
learning how to manifest money through a development of your intuitive and spiritual powers.
You will not be able to make much money if you have an overly practical approach. You just
need to imagine and visualize the money you want to make and then let go, trusting that the
Universe will provide for you. This is why you are learning to value spirituality, your sixth sense,
and things that cannot be entirely explained. Your sense of security depends on it.
As an Aquarius Rising, it’s very easy for you to feel like security or stability just doesn’t exist.
It seems like whatever you try to hang on to just disappears or eludes you, which is a reason
why you lose things so easily. But, this is because you’re not meant to be attached to anything
material. The more you let go, the more you will have. But, the more you hang on, the more
you will lose. Pisces is the sign of selflessness, after all, and any sort of greed or materialism is
going to stand in the way of you making money. This is why Aquarius Risings are usually not
very driven by making money or don’t see it as a major priority. However, you cannot go too
far with this mindset. Going to the extreme of not caring about money at all will prevent you
from earning enough to make it in the world.
This house is a source of insecurity for us and we have to become secure and comfortable
with the traits that it represents. Neptune ruling your 2nd House means that you can be very
insecure about carving out a place for yourself in everyday society. It’s that feeling that you
don’t really belong here, that you’re some otherworldly being who this world doesn’t care
about. But, the more you feel like you are invisible, neglected, or uncared for, the more you will
lack on a material level. The 2nd House represents the values we need to build and a mature
spiritual awareness must be a crucial part of your value system. This is something you may be

AQUARIUS RISING
362

uncomfortable with if you’re too scientific and too much of a thinker. Yet, this discomfort with
the intuitive realm and the unknown makes you feel increasingly insecure in life, both on the
inside and financially.
You have to embrace your sixth sense as well as the parts of yourself that are really messy
and may not make much sense. You feel like your financial situation is equally messy and
nonsensical. Your form of income may seem unstable or uncertain or it could be that your way
of handling money is a disaster. But, when you just accept that you cannot have all the
answers, you will feel a greater sense of security. You’ll be able to acknowledge all of your
emotions and impressions unconditionally, without trying to suppress them with logic or control.
Then, you will show an equally unconditional form of acceptance toward your finances, whether
or not you know how much money you’ll be making and when or what to do with it all. When
you let all of your feelings flow, all the money you need flows your way, as well.
Because of this, you have to value your sensitivity. As an Aquarius Ascendant, you are
actually very sensitive but in a way that is not overt or transparent. You not only have amazing
intuition but a deeply felt empathy for others. It’s common for people with this Rising sign,
though, to feel so overwhelmed by their empathy for people that they shut down, on some
level. This attitude can also make it hard for you to be empathetic toward yourself, either
causing you to be too hard on yourself or to not care about your well-being. The less sensitive
you are to yourself, the less you’ll acknowledge that the Universe cares about and loves you, no
matter what, and that there are also plenty of people out in the world who will show you
empathy. Too many experiences with insensitive people can leave you feeling like nobody cares
and this perpetuates a sense of insecurity in life.
The more you accept how sensitive you are, the more you will care enough about yourself to
make it and to survive. While worrying about money will block the flow of it, not caring about
money at all will constantly leave you lacking in it. So, you have to find a nice grey area that
allows you to take care of the practical things while also transcending anxieties about them.
When you see yourself as worth kindness and compassion, you will be open to the kindness
and compassion that the Universe bestows upon you every time it blesses you with money. You
will also see that money is an energy that can be used for people to exchange empathy. You
gain the most financially when you seek to use money to bless others’ lives. You might have
dreams of being well-off or wealthy so you can help others in need. If not, having this attitude

AQUARIUS RISING
363

is the best way for you to attract and earn the most income. It’s a mindset that will often come
about due to a period in your life where you’re rather helpless or suffering because of your
financial situation and depend on the aid of someone else.
In terms of how you make money, the best forms of income are ones that require Neptunian
traits. You can really cash in on your spiritual nature, turning being an astrologer, a Tarot
reader, or a healer into a full-time job. It may be one of the things about you that surprises
people because these professions seem so out-there to most and with a vague or poor success
rate. But, you make the most money when you aren’t overly concerned with results and are
willing to face the unknown. Such a way of earning will also show you how much people on the
job market will value your sensitivity. Such intuitiveness and concern for others can also
translate into any kind of counseling, non-profit or social work, or being a doctor or a nurse to
either humans or animals.
The 2nd House also shows us how we’ll be happiest making money. You will either prefer a
job that lets you operate on a very loose schedule or that allows you to work on a different time
frame than the rest of the word, which is a part of any of the aforementioned jobs. Being an
artist of any kind – acting, singing, writing, painting/drawing, etc. – will also be a very lucrative
venture for you, which is another way that you will be able to build a secure life for yourself out
of your sensitive side. An ability to be imaginative, to express a wide range of emotions and to
step into other people’s shoes will literally pay off for you. But, you have to consistently avoid
the trap of ego and remain more focused on what you’re giving to others and the healing
influence your art can have on their lives.
ARIES ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
You have a mind that not only operates very independently but very quickly. This is due to
Aries being the ruler of your chart’s 3rd House. It’s the reason why you insist thinking for
yourself and why you so often out-do and outmaneuver other people in the brains department.
To be frank, Aquarius Rising people regularly feel like they are dealing with stupid people,
which only motivates you even more to emerge from a discussion as the winner. When you
want to argue, you will argue your point ferociously and may not stop until you feel like you’ve
defeated the other person. Most of the time, you’d prefer to just mind your own business and
tend to your own affairs. However, when you’re challenged intellectually, when you’re

AQUARIUS RISING
364

confronted with stupidity, or when you feel like someone is trying to make you agree with
something you don’t agree with, all bets are off.
There is an innate duality to the 3rd House. So, you have the ability to be direct and assertive
while also being very aggressive. You might believe that you’re just being honest or just stating
the facts but it can come off as antagonistic or forceful without you even trying. You do have a
blunt side to you and when the wrong button is pushed, anything can fly out of your mouth.
The house that Aries rules in our chart is where we only think of ourselves. So, it’s very easy for
you to speak without being concerned with or aware of how it’s going to affect other people. It
can unfortunately come off, at times, as rude or insensitive to more delicate or easily offended
people. But, those who have a thicker skin or who are more direct, as well, will appreciate your
honesty and the fact that you can call things out when they need to be called out.
You have had to challenge yourself, throughout life, to find your voice and stand strong in it.
It’s one of the reasons why you’re this bold nonconformist. At the end of the day, you care
most what you think. As interested as you are in people, you’re not interested in anyone trying
to tell you what you should think. This combined with your ability to be so quick in
comprehension can make you stuck in your head in conversations. You have a way of listening
and not listening at the same time, especially when dealing with people that you know well.
You already know what point they’re going to make or what train of thought they’re going to
lead you down. You also always like to remain in touch with your own thoughts. So, you’re busy
thinking while others are speaking. You’re still tuned in to them but their volume is lowered so
you can still hear yourself think. Therefore, by the time it’s your turn to speak, you already have
the right response to them, which you knew you were going to say seconds or minutes before.
This ability to be ahead of other people mentally can lead you to believe that you’re always
right. But, the kicker is that it’s not too far off base. You are usually right as long as you have
gathered all the facts. It’s just important to not get ahead of yourself mentally and push a
certain point without knowing everything first. If not, you’ll blunder ahead like a pushy know-it-
all. Since you learn so independently, grade school was not so easy for you. Aquarius Risings
usually go through a period of having behavioral problems in school or have a hard time
conforming to the curriculums set in place. It’s another part of your rebellious path. You would
get in trouble just for having a lot to say or challenging what your teachers were saying. You
might have even failed to succeed in certain classes, even though you were clearly a smart kid.

AQUARIUS RISING
365

Because you think and learn in your own way, you could’ve felt like traditional schooling did
nothing for you and didn’t really cater to your unique mindset. It didn’t really help that you
easily butted heads with teachers or that it was hard to find teachers who were willing to help
you or guide you. Clashing with your fellow students also could’ve defined your grade school
years. Your classmates might have tested you a lot or found it easy to push your buttons,
leading to battles that you had to learn to fight independently.
So, you were on your own. Eventually, you learned how to survive the system and do it your
way. It’s the story of the misunderstood genius who fails their tests or who isn’t really
recognized by their teachers yet displays their intelligence in other ways, often later in life. But,
since Aries is the sign of singularity, there was probably one particular subject that you just
knew you could excel at and that served as evidence that you were intelligent, after all. Your
ability to win in this area of schooling showed you how to push yourself intellectually. However
your brainpower blossoms as you evolve was largely due to this subject. If it was English, it
made you an excellent writer or articulate and great with words. If it was Math, it made you
more logical, more capable of calculating things. If it was Social Studies, it gave you the broad
awareness you needed of the world around you.
You probably felt just as on your own in terms of your siblings. Aries on the 3rd is a very
common placement of either the youngest child or the only child. As stated before, if you had
any siblings, there was some significant distance between you and them, either in your age or
emotionally. You were your own person, doing your own thing. There was a sense that they
didn’t offer you much support, that they were very wrapped up in themselves, or that you were
alone a lot. If you weren’t an only child, you may have felt like one much of the time. Even as
an adult, it’s a challenging relationship (in ways that can be good or bad) that’s never
enmeshed or joined at the hip. You were also probably used to not sharing any of your “life
stages”, like getting your driver’s license or going off to college, with the other children in the
family. Things could’ve been pretty explosive between you and them. Either your siblings were
very aggressive and showed you how to fight back because of it or you were the one who was
really quick to fight with them and defend yourself against them.
TAURUS ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP
Your nontraditional nature is a testament to how individualistic you are because you very
likely come from a really traditional background. The 4th House is the house of our upbringing

AQUARIUS RISING
366

and our childhood, our relationship with our family. Having Taurus here means that your family
of origin had a very particular status quo and always stuck with it. This usually indicates they
have very conservative values but it can also mean being very routine people, the kinds who do
the same thing, over and over again. As much as you may not want to admit, you are very
comforted by routine, by the ordinary and the simple things in life you can always count on.
But, this is the side of you that emerges very privately, whenever you’re just trying to feel good
and safe. Living on the edge all the time can prove to be a bit tiring. So, you find nourishment
in being able to turn to the things and the people that are reliable.
This is why, in spite of your unpredictability, you have a very sensible, grounded side and
you’re someone that others can count on over the long haul. When you really love and care for
someone, you will be there for them through thick and thin. You know how to calm people
down and how to make people feel good because it’s so conditioned within you. Your family
needed you to be a source of comfort and stability for them. You have always been the voice of
reason in your family, the calm one, the one with patience and a level head. It’s a role that’s so
comfortable for you, which is why when you’re not calm or reasonable or steady, you feel out
of touch with something deep inside of you. As crazy as you may think of yourself as being,
you’re also quite steady and collected and capable of keeping it together.
The fact that you were this soothing, calming influence on your loved ones is something that
could’ve worked against you, though. It can feel as if your family (4th House) just engages with
you with their own pleasure (Taurus) in mind. This influence can make you feel like an object to
them, a toy to play with for their own amusement, especially since they are also so possessive
of you. Your household was a rigid one where a my-way-or-the-highway rule system was
enforced. In response to all of this, a deep-seated stubbornness and self-possession developed
within you throughout your upbringing. You always found ways, often subtle or low-key, of
resisting the influence of your family and insisting on doing what you enjoyed or what you
thought was right. Early on, you realized that you were much better off developing your own
value system, instead of clinging to theirs. It didn’t take long before it wasn’t about what they
enjoyed or what made them happy. It was about your own enjoyment and happiness, which
allowed you to escape their unyielding influence and conservative ways.
But, you can end up being overly obstinate in your own personal and home life, as an adult,
often without even realizing it. You might be so focused on what you like around the house that

AQUARIUS RISING
367

you refuse to budge. The Taurus Nadir explains why you are this curious mix of both easygoing
and stubborn. You are generally very easy to live with, self-contained and mellow and relaxed.
Yet, you can also become an immovable object about something that you consider to be
important. You might be unconscious of the ways in which you aren’t being open-minded
enough yourself. Remember, that kind of attitude is a form of conservatism. As much as you
may love to think that you’re not like your stodgy family, you are actually repeating their
patterns when you’re too resistant to change.
Having a Taurus Nadir does make you rooted in a strong sense of self-worth as well as what
things are worth. This may be because, in spite of how narrow-minded your loved ones can be,
they still offered you a lot of love and affection. You were made to feel like you were someone
of value and that you deserved all the good things in life. But, many people with this placement
feel like their worth as a person was substituted for the worth of the nice things they were
given. You most likely had a very comfortable upbringing on a financial level, coming from a
well-off family; maybe not “rich” but solid and secure. Your home was full of beautiful things
and was always lovely. Yet, there might have been too much of a focus on the material and the
superficial, leaving you with an impaired sense of what is actually worthwhile and what isn’t.
This all depends on the house placement and aspects of your Venus. If that’s the case, then
you definitely have to take the time to develop your own set of values. You have to know that
you’re worth something as a person and not as one of the objects in the home’s collection.
It’s such an experience that may make it hard for you to really accept the importance of
money. But, you just have to admit that you have a deep need to be financially secure. It can
take you a long time in life to be at peace with needing this home base of luxury but you’ll
finally feel settled once you do. I think this goes along with Pisces in the 2nd House because
you have such a history of not having to worry about the material things that were readily
provided for you. So, you don’t have to focus too much on money because you already know
how to manifest it and enjoy it. At the same time, embrace your need for nice things. Don’t
worry. The Taurus Nadir is private, so few people will know that you need a certain kind of
lifestyle and sense of security. It doesn’t make you less of a free spirit. You really can’t function
without that. Yet, you don’t just need a beautiful home, full of tasty food and great furniture
and in a nice area. You also need the atmosphere in your home to be beautiful. You want to

AQUARIUS RISING
368

just relax in your private life, without any sort of stress or drama or upheaval. Everything must
be calm and easy in your personal life in order for you to feel okay.
GEMINI ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP
You who are, at heart, is a contradiction. Gemini is both black and white, both good and bad,
and with it being on your 5th House cusp, you express yourself by embracing the
inconsistencies within you. This is what makes you simultaneously friendly and reserved, kind
yet aloof, intellectual and intuitive, individualistic yet highly aware of others. You develop your
sense of specialness and charisma by being multiple things at once, which is a quality you’ve
displayed ever since childhood. As a kid, you had several different interests that you soon
parlayed into a jack-of-all-trades level of talent. You shine most and feel most alive when you
keep things interesting and varied, when you are switching things up. Your intelligence,
curiosity, and wit also drive what you’re good at. Therefore, your talent reveals your
brainpower, which you take pride in. You must be careful, though, because you are the kind of
person who gets really passionate about one idea and then boredom sets in and you’re just as
passionate about another idea.
You can be that way in romance, as well. How can I put this nicely? Your heart is changeable.
At worst, you’re plain fickle in your passions. You absolutely love a meeting of the minds and
require consistent stimulation and intellectual engagement. To remain interested in someone
you have to remain mentally interested. If not, you’re all too prone to switching off and turning
your attention elsewhere. This is something that can make you seem rather cold because your
heart can come with an on and off switch. You give it and then you take it away, open it and
close it, especially since you think through these feelings a lot instead of just feeling them. But,
because of this, you experience a lot of chemistry with mercurial people. You’ll probably date or
get romantically involved with many people who have Gemini placements or a strong Mercury.
They will be hilarious and interesting and exciting, sure. But, more than the next person, you
experience drama and disappointment with your lovers due to them flat-out ghosting or being
unreliable or insincere. I think reminding yourself that feelings cannot just go away will prevent
you from getting involved with people who shut their heart off too easily.
As a child and adolescent, you were probably all over the place and not just due to your
multiple talents. Your endless curiosity may have gotten you in trouble, often times through
asking the “wrong questions” to adult. You were mischievous yet you were smart enough to

AQUARIUS RISING
369

play the game and get away with it. In fact, you might have regularly outsmarted the adults
around you. Gemini in the 5th means that you were probably very talkative. Yet, there could’ve
came a time where you felt like your thoughts and ideas just weren’t welcome, which may have
silenced you or quieted you down significantly. You’ve always had such an active mind and
you’re most spontaneous when you express whatever is going on in your head. This is why, of
your many talents, you may be happiest when writing. You have a creative energy that is highly
verbal and intellectual, so being able to put everything into words is a powerful ability of yours.
When it comes to making things happen, you’ve got to just say it out loud, to communicate
openly with other people and share your ideas. You’ll soon find enough people to bounce off of
and keep you interested in what you’re doing until you see it through. You also have a real
inner nerd and have a lot of fun doing brainy sort of things like reading, studying, or learning
new information. Watching history documentaries or sitting down with a great book is a good
time for you. This only reinforces your sense of being different and cerebral because these
activities are actually fun hobbies for you.
You actively pursued intellectual hobbies as a child, especially ones that gave you the room to
think and learn on your own. So, you will encourage your own children, if you have them, to
boost their brainpower, as well. You want to raise smart kids who have their own minds. You’ll
find that there will be some strong Gemini or Mercury influence in your child’s chart. This will
make them real thinkers who are capable of communicating well and humorously. You will be
able to successfully communicate with them, as well. Aquarius Rising people find it very easy to
talk to children or get them to open up to them, speaking to them on an equal level, just like
they’d speak to adults. You’ll encourage your children to ask questions and to think for
themselves, probably because this may have been discouraged in you when you were a kid.
You’re also very likely to be a “cool parent”, more like a much older sibling who’s in charge
while the adults are away. You will be a funny, fair, open-minded, and exciting mom or dad.
Yet, you won’t let your child get away with anything ridiculous or unreasonable and will
regularly need time alone to switch off and have your own interests.
CANCER ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
You have a lot of nervous energy, more than you consciously realize, and you can react to
things emotionally in a way that creates stress or anxiousness. Anxiety is something that a lot
of Aquarius Rising people inwardly grapple with. Having the Moon, which symbolizes one’s

AQUARIUS RISING
370

emotions, ruling over the house of everyday stressors means that you all too easily can become
a nervous wreck. Yet, you also have a way of compartmentalizing your emotions, setting them
aside to deal with the task at hand, which makes you seem perfectly cool and collected.
Because of this, you often feel like the best way to handle your feelings is to put them on the
back burner and not let them distract you. However, this becomes counterproductive when you
just forget to deal with them at all. You have to put your feelings to good use, which means
channeling them into something productive, instead of suppressing them or wallowing in them.
Your mother (or the parent who played a maternal role) is probably a very nervous, high-
strung person. You’re used to how much she tries to organize things, to be in control or to
make sure that everything is correct. While it can be comforting to know she’s on top of
everything, your mom also probably stresses you out on a regular. Much of your anxiety stems
from your emotional response to her anxiety. She is a natural problem solver but you have
regularly had to step in and fix things for her or provide her with clarity on a regular basis,
whenever she gets tied up in a knot or is worrying too much about something minor. Since your
maternal figure strives for this well-oiled machine, you felt like you always had to be on top of
everything, as well. Chores were probably a huge deal around the house, growing up, as well
as cleanliness and healthiness. Yet, it was always a challenge for you to totally adjust to such
regimented ways because you’re so random and unorthodox in your nature, which may have
been a major cause of that stressful dynamic. If there is some affliction to your Moon, you
could’ve felt particularly judged and criticized by your mom in a negative way.
This can lead you to judge your own feelings and try and correct them or tell yourself what
you should and shouldn’t be feeling. Aquarius Rising usually has a difficult time totally letting
their emotions flow. It can be hard for you to just accept your emotions without trying to “fix”
them in some way, without seeing them as a problem to solve. It’s even harder because your
moods and emotions can very easily create more problems in your life. But, this is due to you
going from one extreme to the other with them. You either push on like a robot, determined to
suppress them and keep functioning, making the emotions build and build until you collapse or
you become totally indulgent in your emotions, which prevents you from getting anything done
at all. You are meant to literally work through those feelings. You have to sublimate them into
some sort of task while not using work as a total distraction from those feelings. The best thing

AQUARIUS RISING
371

for you, when you’re upset about something, is to identify that and then work on something,
anything. It will stabilize you emotionally while giving you a practical release.
You experience your mother figure as a worker bee, someone who is always busy, and you
feel emotionally unbalanced when you’re not consistently productive because of that. You are
happier when you don’t have a ton of time off. Still, you do need to respect the cycles of work
and give yourself enough time to rest and regroup. But, even when burn out happens, it
exposes your sense of emotional emptiness or dissatisfaction and shows you what you need to
do to fix it. You can experience physical illness in the same way. Persistent health issues and
sickness, for you, are signs that you need to pay better attention to your emotions and handle
them in healthier ways. More than the next person, the healthier you are emotionally, the
healthier you will be physically, meaning that regular exercise and eating well do absolute
wonders for keeping your moods stable. But, there will always be a certain moodiness to how
you go about your daily routine. It’s why you don’t have the clearest daily routine because it’s
all dependent on how you feel. Yet, there is still a regularity to your irregularity and you
intuitively understand that and find comfort in that.

LEO ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP


You may not be entirely aware of the full extent of your charisma and how powerful your
influence is over other people. This is why you constantly find yourself on the receiving end of
attention you either don’t want or don’t expect. With a Leo Descendant, other people will see
you as a star and will make you the center of their attention. Yet, you’re so used to feeling like
a freak or a misfit that you may not believe that people think you’re that special or are that
wowed by you. Also, you may just not know what to do with that attention when you receive it.
Therefore, you can give other people a lot of attention and put them in the spotlight in some
sort of way. If the 7th House is how we essentially treat people, with the Sun ruling your 7th,
you treat other people in a way that makes them feel special and important.
This is why you’re going to attract attention-seekers into your sphere, those who actively
seek to be celebrated and even put on a pedestal. Your close friends and romantic
partners/interests will regularly have placements in Leo or an angular Sun. They will either
relish the spotlight or be so creative and charismatic, such strong leaders, that the spotlight just

AQUARIUS RISING
372

comes to them. Issues can occur, though, whenever you feel like they’re being egotistical, self-
absorbed, or pretentious. Being an Aquarius Rising means that life is constantly forcing you to
distance yourself from the ego and, in the process, free yourself and others. Therefore, being
surrounded by ego-driven people can be a challenging experience. While you are so attracted
to people who are really confident or who have strong personalities, you are also just as turned
off by the arrogance, entitlement, or demanding nature that they can display.
However, this is also how your dominant side emerges. The Descendant, in our chart, shows
what we receive in partnerships but also what we give in equal measure. Leo Descending
shows that you can subtly dominate other people. You know how uncanny your ability to
influence others is. The Sun, the planet of the self, is ruling the 7th House, which shows how
we impact other people. So, you are just a very powerful influencer, for better or for worse.
You are so skilled at seeing things from someone else’s point of view that you can covertly
maneuver the situation so it’s working to your advantage. You also expect just as much
generosity as you give. When you don’t get from someone what you’ve put out toward them,
you can feel really slighted and, yes, your ego easily gets bruised in this sense. This side of you
is diametrically opposed to the “live and let live” part of your personality. You’re generally cool,
nonchalant, sometimes seemingly indifferent. But, when you have truly put your heart into a
situation, you can become demanding or even entitled whenever the affections aren’t returned
how you think they should be returned.
Many of these situations make you feel like you’re just constantly dealing with very selfish
people who only think of how they can benefit from a situation. It’s true, though, that you’ve
dealt with many egotists, even actual narcissists, who just take and take from you. But, you are
inviting them into your life because you just give and give. The key is realizing that when you
give with expectations that you’re imposing on to the other person, it’s never going to work out.
Then, you’re going to attract people who do whatever they want without showing you much
empathy or consideration. Due to seeing yourself as this person who doesn’t judge or label and
exists in continual chaos, you may not realize how much you’re trying to control the situation.
Maybe you’re trying to be in control in relationships because you’re so used to things not going
how you think they should go, which causes you to dramatically project on to other people,
either in terms of what you expect of them or how they’re not there for you.

AQUARIUS RISING
373

A lot of these experiences can cause you to believe that the most important relationship (7th
House) you have is with yourself (Sun). This is one of the reasons why Aquarius Risings are so
exceptionally independent. You are perfectly capable of being your own boyfriend or girlfriend,
married to yourself, your own best friend. But, you have to make sure this mentality remains
balanced because it can cause you to enter partnerships in a very self-absorbed manner. Being
so able to lean on yourself can make it hard for you to actually meet the other person in the
middle or make them a vital part of your life. You can truly recoil at the thought of making
someone else the center of your existence. But, this will make you the center of all the activity
in the partnership and you won’t even realize it. Then, the other person feels like you just care
about yourself. Even when you are seemingly showering someone with affection, you may be
doing it out of self-interest; to get something in return from them.
Leo in the 7th House also means that you absolutely will not be dominated by anyone. If you
allow yourself to be in a position where someone else is calling all the shots, you will remain
deeply resentful about it until you either explode or take the upper hand one day. In fact, you
can experience an important relationship or two in life with someone who is a tyrant, who tries
to control you constantly, and you have to learn how to get out from under their thumb. You
must consciously bring a sense of your own power to any partnership. You are a strong
individual and you need closeness with someone who is a strong individual in their own right
yet who will not try and dominate you. It’s important that you also find someone, particularly a
romantic partner, who’s not intimidated by your strength. You truly love people but you can
also exist without an enmeshed sense of closeness with anyone, including significant others.
You’re in a relationship with yourself first, before anyone else, and this allows you to remain
self-assured whether or not you have someone romantically. This part of your chart gives you
enough pride to never beg or bend over backwards for anyone’s appreciation or love. You’re
confident enough to know that it will just come to you, giving you a distinct lack of desperation
or neediness in love affairs. In the process, you can bruise the egos of love interests who
believe they’re so important to you when you’d be equally fine taking them or leaving them.
Yet, you do gain a strong sense of what makes you awesome through how other people treat
you or cater to you. The less you care about people’s approval and praise, the more you receive
it. You just have to make sure this doesn’t go to your head! If it does, it can actually cause you
to become very unbalanced by trying to seek out that attention and praise, trying way too hard

AQUARIUS RISING
374

in the process and becoming outraged when you don’t get the glory. This is when you lose your
Aquarian cool and your understanding of the big picture. The Sun ruling the 7th shows that you
find balance by seeing your own traits in other people. Therefore, you will become increasingly
aware of what makes you great when you see what makes other people great. If taken too far,
though, this can cause you to live through others or even adopt the personality traits of others.
This is where your detachment from yourself becomes skewed and you lose sight of who you
are. You are other people but you shouldn’t take this too literally, either.
One way to live this out is by finding people who share your passions and enthusiasms. It’s
very likely that you will either develop and strengthen your creative talents through having a
very creative best friend or other half or that you’ll help other people strengthen their creativity
through your own. Either way, you unleash the more heartfelt side of yourself. As aloof and
cerebral as you can come off, there is a very passionate side to you that emerges in close union
or through important connections. You might find yourself getting annoyed with other people’s
drama or their seemingly petty or childish reactions. However, you can be just as dramatic and
adolescent in your ways when it comes to someone you really care about. This puts both
people center stage in some theatrical affair. But, the one thing you never want your
relationships to be is boring and this highly expressive dynamic guarantees they won’t be.
VIRGO ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
Digging deep inside of yourself requires you to do a heavy amount of analysis. The 8th House
is our dark side and how we deal with our emotional issues. Virgo being the ruler of this house
shows that handling your demons is hard work but that you must also be more than happy to
engage in this kind of work. You can express great humility, through this influence, by always
being aware of the flaws you have, the mistakes you make, that have a rather destructive
impact on your life. The pain occurs, however, when you become so fixated on these faults that
you can’t see anything else, which only creates an ongoing cycle of destruction in your life.
Being so used to chaos can make you all too comfortable with things going “wrong”. Whenever
something is wrong, you are obsessed with fixing it. But, when you feel like something deep
inside of you is wrong, you remain trapped in your head because you’re always going to be
picking yourself apart in terms of how messed up you feel you are.
It’s hard for you to feel like a truly well-adjusted person. Virgo in the 8th indicates that there
was some sort of psychological pain you’ve experienced that made you feel like something

AQUARIUS RISING
375

about you was profoundly, inherently wrong. You might have been on the receiving end of
really harsh criticisms that instilled this sense that you couldn’t do anything right. Due to the
fact that you’re not a so-called “normal” individual, you may be tormented by this notion that
there is something about you that needs to be changed, especially if there was a significant
person in your life who made you feel unacceptable for the different way you operated.
Beneath your defiantly free-spirited exterior, there may be significant shame or even a certain
kind of self-loathing in regard to how you need to fix yourself. Aquarius Rising is often labeled
as someone who always thinks they’re right, who’s a know-it-all, but this is often a defense due
to the painful sense of being wrong because of marching to one’s own drumbeat.
A masochistic part of you can put you in situations where you are made to feel wrong, where
you are continually picked apart, scrutinized, criticized. This is a part of your family baggage
that you’ve inherited. All of this becomes much truer if there are planets in Virgo in this house.
There is this ongoing feeling of pain within your family that people have felt because they were
criticized, because they were told that they needed to be fixed somehow, and the cycle just
continued. You can unfortunately perpetuate the cycle if you become too focused on how other
people need to change. You live out your darkness too compulsively when you’re always fixated
on others’ flaws. As nonjudgmental as this Rising sign is purported to be, no one is entirely
nonjudgmental. Therefore, an intensely judgey side of you can rear its ugly head on a regular
basis and completely rip someone else to shreds. Since you’re so chill and accepting, it can be
quite scary to other people when this happens.
This manifests on a sexual level, as well. The ever-critical demons inside of you can make you
feel deeply dissatisfied with sexual partners, as if they’re never doing anything right. Those with
the Earth signs ruling their 8th House may find it particularly hard to orgasm with a sexual
partner. With Virgo here, it’s because you’re too in your head or too busy assessing what’s
going wrong. You can also experience some very hidden insecurities about what you think
you’re not doing correctly sexually or how you feel someone is going to criticize your sexual
performance or what you have to offer in the bedroom. The closer you get to intimacy with a
partner, the more you will have to confront these issues and work through them.
Inevitably, you have to realize that there is a certain form of criticism that’s just not
constructive at all. If you’ve been abused or mistreated on any level, you’ll know that
unconsciously because you experienced that kind of criticism. You need to remain consciously

AQUARIUS RISING
376

aware of that and transform this shadowy energy, which allows you to break the family cycle of
judgment. This is why you emerge as either the glorious free spirit of the clan or the black
sheep that the others don’t understand. The 8th House is a form of inner power, a deep
emotional resource that cannot be given or taken away. You have to realize that you have
something perfect within you that no one can rob you of. It doesn’t need to be fixed or
changed. You must develop a more spiritual, subjective sense of perfection. You are exactly the
way that you need to be and that makes you perfect. By some point in your life, you will have
already endured an exhausting amount of work on your emotional issues. So, you have to
eventually let go and realize your work is done. That inner perfection has been achieved.
No one’s criticism or judgment of you can take that away. This is another reason why you can
stand firm in the face of other people’s scrutiny or narrow-mindedness. It’s the power of your
8th House in Virgo and it should not be abused. This means not directing criticism or judgment
toward other people in ways that will tear them down. However, you can constructively criticize
others in a manner that will empower them. Highly perceptive, you know how to read people
well and really get what makes people tick as you are so observant of a lot of nuances and see
things that others can’t pick up on. So, instead of using that power to just nail someone to the
wall, you can use it to help them really change their life, if they want to. You must learn the
hard way to not force change on resistant people through criticism, even if you’re just thinking
it and not saying it, which can still be damaging as it fills you with resentment. This leads you
into toxic situations where you’re the one doing all the work, relationally or practically, and the
other person doesn’t have the humility to do the same. Your dark side will always be there and
there will be times where you focus on what someone is doing wrong with the harshest
accuracy. But, it’s destructive when you do this constantly and without an ability to transcend
that way of thinking or communicating.
In terms of sexuality, knowing how to release unnecessary critical energy will allow you to
really transform your sexual life. Your eagerness to go against the norm can make you believe
that you’re so sexually free and even present yourself that way. Yet, Virgo in the 8th means
that there can be certain secret sexual inhibitions that you still have to work through. These will
all be mental, since Virgo is ruled by Mercury. Don’t over-think it. When you really have a
palpable sexual chemistry with someone else, you’ll be able to know that everything will fall into
place correctly and perfectly. If not, you are always willing to teach! I think it’s important to

AQUARIUS RISING
377

have a very clear notion of what you sexually want, to assess your deepest desires and to
understand exactly how to get there. While you may feel like you have to instruct your sexual
partner on how to please you, just as much of it will have to do with you having a very specific
idea about what pleases you. The fact that your sexual desires are so precise can make or
break your ability to climax. So, you have a lot of unpacking to do, in that regard. You also can
display a skill for knowing exactly how to please your sexual partner, tapping into just how
specific their desires are and how to get them to that place of orgasm most effectively.
Regardless of your gender or orientation, you can go through a part of your life always feeling
like your partner is way more sexually pleased than you and figuring out how to correct that.
LIBRA ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
With relational Libra ruling your 9th House of beliefs, you possess a strong conviction when it
comes to equality. You believe very much in fairness and in treating people how you want to be
treated. You also will equally believe in treating people how they treat you. So, whatever
energy someone is giving you, you give them whatever treatment you believe they deserve
based on their treatment of you. If someone is kind and loving toward you, you have plenty of
positivity toward them. If someone is negative toward you, you couldn’t care less about them.
You are much better off not engaging in their negativity and just moving on from them
because, with this influence, you have to make sure that your relationships with others (Libra)
are going as positively (9th House) as possible. You will come to see and believe that there is
so much love out there for you that it’s not even worth it to let yourself be brought down by
someone who’s not bringing you positivity. Leave them in the dust!
Since the 9th House is how we grow as people, you will find that relationships and
understanding the perspectives of others through relationships will bring you amazing personal
growth. You will get yourself into many experiences in life that teach you that you have a lot to
learn from other people. This can be hard for you to integrate because you’re such an
independent thinker (represented by Aries ruling the 3rd; the opposite of this influence).
However, the 9th House is about experiencing over thinking. You have to really be open to all
of the wonderful situations that can come your way because of others and throw yourself into
these experiences. If you think that it’s all up to you and only you, you’re going to seriously
limit yourself throughout your journey. It is when you let people help you, be there for you and
show you another way, that you will really expand your horizons. Again, while you insist on

AQUARIUS RISING
378

being your own person, you have to remember just how much you are also tied to other people
and how much they can enhance your path.
When you experience good fortune in life, it is usually because someone else has stepped in
to help you. You will also benefit from people providing their feedback, giving you another
perspective that broadens your horizons. You don’t really know your full potential until someone
else tells you. This can take many forms, like a friend who has great talks with you or a
significant other who is a positive influence or, ahem, even an astrologer who tells you things
about yourself via your birth chart. It is this back-and-forth between you and others that keeps
you buoyant and guides you faithfully throughout life. You will also find that you are that
positive influence on other people. You’re an uplifting sort of companion and if you are inspired
enough in life and living with enough meaningfulness, it rubs off on other people very
infectiously. Yet, you must not over-rely on being the one who makes other people’s lives
better. You have to let others do that for you, as well. After all, this is true equality. If you don’t
see that, you may lose balance by insisting too much on your opinion but not welcoming
others’. Aquarius Risings can be both highly opinionated and very tolerant of the point of view
of others. If you take either stance too far, you can veer from being dogmatic to apathetic. In
the end, you’ll walk the fine line of listening to others but making sure that you’re also heard.
It may have taken until your college years (or, if you didn’t go to college, the age you left
home) for you to realize just how wonderfully you could impact others or how much having the
right influences around you made a world of difference. Before then, since you were so insistent
on not being influenced, you may have lacked an equal awareness of how positively you could
influence other people. But, once you gain that taste of freedom and new experience, you
understand. The quality of your friendships could’ve increased during college and you may have
also met the love of your life at that time. No longer just the detached loner, you grew to
understand what love really meant. Love sets you free and you have to freely express that love,
as well. However, this is what can make it hard for you to truly settle down romantically. It’s
another reason why you need a lot of room of your own in love. You never, ever want to feel
suffocated. You will pack your things and run, figuratively and literally. You’re aware that there
are too many possibilities out there, romance-wise, for you to settle for a situation that is a
mutually unfulfilling dead-end. Unlike a lot of people, you know when it’s time to move on. Just
don’t be too quick to do so.

AQUARIUS RISING
379

SCORPIO ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP


It’s going to require not only a tremendous amount of emotional energy for you to achieve
anything in this life but the right application of that energy. The Midheaven shows how we have
to challenge ourselves in order to “make it” in the world. With a Scorpio Midheaven, it’s about
challenging yourself to understand, utilize, and express your deepest passions in order to be a
success. This is not exactly easy for you because it requires you to move beyond the rational
idealism that asks you to not go too far to emotional extremes, to not make a big deal out of
most things. Scorpio ruling the 10th is exactly why Aquarius Rising people have the capacity to
be radicals, truly disruptive forces. When you’re rebelling against the status quo, you’re pushing
things to the edge. In the process, the rage and frustration you can naturally experience toward
the status quo can push you to the edge. With Taurus ruling the Nadir, the aforementioned
rigid, unyielding, often superficial family atmosphere you’re used to can fill you with even more
of a righteous sense of anger in regard to people who abuse their power, who are unwilling to
accept change or something different, or who insist on living on the surface.
Therefore, you are finding your place in society by knowing how to destroy whatever is
standing in the way of real change, depth, and empowerment. The 10th House shows us the
best way to accomplish all of our goals. For you, with Scorpio in the 10th, it’s to rely on your
emotional resources and channel plenty of intensity toward what you’re doing. You have to aim
to be as powerful as you can be, which means knowing your power beyond what society tells
you it is and understanding that your real power can neither be created nor destroyed, simply
expressed. Because of this, you can cultivate an image and reputation for yourself as someone
who is seemingly indestructible, no matter how many times they’ve been crossed, betrayed,
hurt, or abandoned or how many times they’ve lost. But, it’s not about presenting yourself to
the world as invulnerable, especially since that can give you a skewed sense of your power. It’s
about being an ever-regenerating force in the world, knowing that whatever pain comes your
way can be transformed, either to overcome obstacles or to avoid or deflect slings and arrows.
Your journey through adulthood is an empowering one. The more you grow up, the more
formidable you become. Your growing pains can be particularly severe not just because you’re
meant to become stronger through them but because you’re meant to understand the depths of
your being through these experiences. Insisting on being this cool-headed person all the time
who doesn’t get swept up in emotion actually prevents you from being all that you could be.

AQUARIUS RISING
380

This means not only embracing your emotions but working with your shadow side. Since the
Midheaven starts blossoming during our teens, you then become forced to face abuse, of any
variety, or dramatic loss or profound heartbreak, revealing all the dimensions and complexities
of your inner life and throwing you into the darkness. Earlier in life, you may be so idealistic
that you don’t even want to consider the demons and the evils that are lurking not only out in
the world but within yourself. When you’re able to face this ugly side of life, you will know how
to come out of that and transform that. Surviving hell becomes your greatest achievement, first
in your personal life and then in your working or public life.
The Scorpio Midheaven shows that the impact you’re going to have on society will be very
dramatic. You want to change the world, on some level, and you have the ability to do so. You
will also be able to annihilate any sort of resistance that stands in the way of that. Glass ceilings
are meant to be broken by you and anyone who tries to tear you down is only going to be
tearing themselves down. If you don’t truly know your power yet, you will experience severe
trials on the way to success and often times through people who seem to irrationally loathe
you. This is when your innate detachment and lack of concern with others’ opinions save the
day. You’ve got to focus intensely on what you want to achieve and separate yourself from an
emotional investment in all the rest of it. The more you focus on the haters, the more
devastating their impact will be. But, when you see that they cannot take your power away
from you, you won’t give them any energy at all, which only takes you to the top, especially
since you can gain positive responses from people that are just as intense.
You thrive when you feel like you’re in control in your career. However, taking this too far
causes you to abuse your power or become obsessed with so-called power struggles. This
attitude will backfire on you. Then, the haters will actually have a point in their resistance to
you. Your purpose is to use that power as responsibly as you can, which can mean doing
something for a living that heals or strengthens other people. Knowing how to use your powers
of perception, your ability to understand complexities, for good is key because it will lead you
into work that helps you transform other people through those insights. Scorpio Midheaven
people can become very widely known for their insights, as a result. You will also excel at work
that requires some sort of detective-like skill, like extensive research, exposing or uncovering
hidden information, or getting to the bottom of things, including the human psyche. Whether
you actually become a psychologist or not, you must approach your professional and public life

AQUARIUS RISING
381

like one. Being able to do so makes you feel most accomplished. As misunderstood as you often
feel, you really just want to understand people, society, and the Universe as deeply as you can.
However, there will still be this sense that people can’t entirely understand you. But, you
don’t want them to! Scorpio on the Midheaven creates a shroud of mystery around your public
self, in some way or another. You don’t want to put yourself and your personal business out
there too much for everyone to know. True to form, you’d much rather put the focus on things
other than yourself. Yet, you must also understand that doing something professionally which
requires or involves a certain amount of intimacy will help you succeed. So, you do need to be
able to deeply connect with the public. It’s just that much of this profound connection will have
to do with exposing the hidden truth about something greater than yourself or outside yourself.
In doing so, you can end up exposing something hidden about yourself, as well. This is why
doing anything artistic as a career would work well for you. Delving into your dark side as a
living will provide a cathartic release and help you effectively shine a light on the shadows.
Otherwise, you may not feel all that dark on a very personal level. It’s best to mainly express
your shadow side professionally or put yourself into those types of situations in your work life
(which could also involve dealing with crime, danger, or death) so you don’t bring that home
with you. After all, you would rather just be cool and not have things be too heavy. But, still,
making it your mission to explore the darkness can cause you to be intimidating to many
people. Your public self can unnerve a lot of people but also seduce and captivate just as many.
There is an allure to you, a magnetism, that you don’t fully understand. Yet, it works to your
advantage, gaining you a lot of recognition. Even when people are a bit terrified of you, it gets
the job done. Just don’t set out to intimidate or scare people. Don’t even try too hard to be
alluring. Instead, you’re most successful and recognized when you just let your magic work
mysteriously and on its own. Scorpio in the 10th does give a lot of people a real sex appeal that
they can use strategically to succeed. The effect is like casting a spell on the world.
Since people will widely view you as formidable, there will be something witchy about your
public image. (By the way, both women and men can be witches.) This may cause certain
people to project bad or even evil intentions unto you. But, witches are so often misunderstood!
It’s not your job to control people’s perceptions of you. They will just have to learn to not get
on your bad side and all will be fine. Besides, you definitely have the ability to use your magic
to create amazing shifts, in society and others’ lives. You will actually be able to get ahead in

AQUARIUS RISING
382

life when you rely on the metaphysical and the spiritual to guide you. After all, you’re used to
not living and being like everyone else. So, you have to remain aware of the other dimensions
that are at play when it comes to your success and how the world responds to you.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
It can be hard for you to personally feel like you’re a fortunate person. You might not have
time to count your blessings because it seems like too much messes up for you to do that.
Focusing too much on things going right causes things to not go right, in your case. The 11th
House is how random, unexpected events occur in our lives. So, in your case, good fortune and
manifestation (Sagittarius) are not going to happen in linear or normal ways (11th House). You
are developing a sense of detachment from a traditional idea of luck, which will have two
effects. The first is that you will be objective enough to recognize ways in which you are truly
fortunate that you have not appreciated or been grateful for before. The second is that you will
focus more of your energy on bringing good fortune to people, instead of demanding that in
return. The less you demand things, particularly from the Universe, the more you get them. So,
you will live most prosperously when you just let things happen.
You have to develop the same lack of personal investment in the results toward yourself that
you have toward the people that you help. But, you do believe very much in doing what’s good
for everyone. The sense of idealism within you is almost boundless and, sometimes, you have
to be reminded that not everything or everyone can live up to this picture of what you think is
right or good. You are highly adaptable, though, and this can cause you to see silver linings or
amazing potential when things aren’t going well or when people have disappointed you. Making
people believe that they are limitless is how you will truly make a difference. This can lead you
toward causes that enhance others’ lives, often by pulling them out of some sort of terrible time
or disadvantageous situation. You want to make sure that everyone has enough of an
advantage and that they can manifest all that they’re meant to and you understand that much
of this starts with what they believe about themselves and life.
Just as inspirational toward friends and peers, this is yet another influence that indicates how
much you uplift people. Your exceptional idealism and vision of what’s possible set you apart
from other kids your age while growing up. You just wanted everyone to be good to each other
and eventually found yourself highly disappointed when you were faced with the meanness and
negativity that regularly occurs socially. Yet, holding on to this vision of how we can all lift each

AQUARIUS RISING
383

other up is how you find your place within your social world now as an adult. You’re the kind of
person who just gives people really good vibes, sometimes to an extent that you may not fully
get. You’re not really trying to be a good person because you know that having that mentality
leads to disappointment in this selfish world. In fact, a part of you may not feel like you’re that
good of a person at all. But, you will continually find yourself surprised by how much other
people see the good in you, more than you do yourself.
Due to this idealized social vision, you can make friends with just about anybody from any
walk of life. People of different backgrounds, economically or culturally, do not make you
uncomfortable. In fact, you feel uncomfortable when there is not enough diversity within your
social life, when everyone’s the same or just like you in some way. You have the potential to
make a wide range of friendships but most of them will be very casual and sort of distant. While
you are an excellent friend, with most people, you prefer to come and go, still prioritizing that
ever-cherished freedom first. It takes a lot for you to call someone a close friend. Another
reason for this is because, with Sagittarius in the 11th, you have a lot of experience with being
out-of-place socially. Therefore, you usually don’t assume that a social connection is more than
a passing thing. Since you never expect to belong, you don’t get too attached to the majority.
Having this side to you that is highly out-there or undeniably eccentric only reinforces that
distance from others. You have to watch out for letting yourself become too distant from other
people, especially in terms of engaging in alienating or unstable behavior that’s going to
distance you from them. Sagittarius is a sign of excess and with it being in this house, you can
become excessively intent on being different. This is the cliché example of an Aquarius Rising.
Contrary to popular belief, most people with this Rising sign are not overly, blatantly weird. You
may go through a phase of this in adolescence where you dyed your hair all colors of the
rainbow or wore outrageous outfits until you fully asserted your identity as a free spirit. But,
mainly, you are different without even trying and, at times, without even being that consciously
aware of it. What you have to watch out for is an over-the-top desire to be nonconforming,
unpredictable, or different, which can strike everyone with this placement on a regular
occasion, causing you to create chaos or break the rules just for the sake of it. In doing so,
you’re being a rebel without a cause and this serves no one, not even you. Going against the
grain must be a meaningful and inspired choice of yours in order for it to work out.
CAPRICORN ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP

AQUARIUS RISING
384

Nobody really knows the true extent of your sorrow and, throughout a certain part of your
life, that also includes you. Capricorn represents struggle and the journey to overcome it. With
Capricorn ruling the 12th House, which is all about one’s secret inner world, you deal with
heavy internal struggles that you keep hidden from most. The best metaphor for this is the
“functioning alcoholic” who successfully hides their drinking problem from everyone and doesn’t
even really see it themselves. Speaking of which, maybe you will encounter some struggles with
alcohol or substance abuse. This placement typically indicates someone who must remain in
control of their drinking or who should avoid drug use altogether in order to not endure a
downward spiral. With Capricorn in the 12th, you either hold and handle your liquor really well,
still appearing sober when you’re drunk or always knowing when to cut yourself off, or you
drink entirely too much, without boundaries. You either try drugs a few times or never at all
and that’s it or it becomes a full-blown problem. This just symbolizes the duty (Capricorn) to
manage escapism (12th House) that you must assume in life.
The house that Capricorn rules represents one’s relationship with their father or their paternal
parent. Since the 12th House has a way of making things feel elusive or nonexistent, in the
Aquarius Rising’s life, the father is usually not really there. He is either physically absent, a truly
invisible being due to walking out on the family or dying early in your life, or he is there but
checked-out. This is more common and often more hurtful: the father who you simply cannot
reach emotionally, who is isolated and confusing and even a tragic figure, due to his own
unacknowledged emotional problems. It’s possible that your dad is just a very sensitive,
spiritual, even selfless person who gives you an unconditional love that makes you feel strong
and able to face the world. But, since the 12th House is about suffering, it’s just as possible for
the father to inflict a lot of pain on to you, in highly unconscious ways. He can do this by
presenting himself as very sensitive, spiritual, and selfless when he actually lacks emotional
boundaries and a connection to reality and projects all of his hidden issues on to you.
Taking on the father’s karma in some way is a part of this placement. You have to deal with
the things that he was not strong enough to deal with inside of himself, which is why he may
use you as either a scapegoat or a savior. You suffer because he does or, sometimes, so he
doesn’t have to. This makes you simultaneously highly empathetic to other people’s pain and
terrified of the pressure that comes with stepping into others’ shoes. It’s much easier for you to
act unaffected, detached, or even somewhat cold or insensitive as a buffer from all of that

AQUARIUS RISING
385

draining emotional energy. But, ultimately, it is your responsibility to recognize the suffering of
other beings and to know what to do about it. This requires you to admit to your own suffering
and to stop shutting down whenever these difficult feelings arise. Again, displaying your
empathy toward others has to start with yourself.
A lot of Aquarius Risings have struggled with depression yet very quietly and privately. You
are the type of person who can make everyone believe that everything is great while you’re
having a nervous breakdown on the inside. It takes a lot for you to stop telling yourself that
everything is fine, as well. It’s a pattern that causes you to simply push through that depression
in a way that makes it worse. Many people with this Rising sign don’t like admitting to their real
emotions about things while some are maybe more emotional but don’t like to recognize the
insecurity, self-doubt, or fear that is deeply driving them. It might feel melodramatic or
ridiculous to you. But, Capricorn in the 12th will take you to the pits of despair, whether you
like it or not. It’s up to you to recognize the difficult states within you and to develop
acceptance and forgiveness toward yourself for feeling that way. You can always pull yourself
out of those periods and moments but that can only happen when you’re fully aware of them.
Also, always remember that you’re not alone in feeling that way and thinking those things.
Being this perennial outcast can, as I said before, be a deeply painful experience; so much so
that you don’t entirely admit to it. It makes you feel all alone in life. That constant sense of
loneliness leads to a melancholy that seems to rise up out of nowhere. All of a sudden, you’re
sad and you don’t know why. You’re not only sad for yourself but, unconsciously, for everyone
else in the world, as well. Your pain is so connected to other people’s pain that it’s really not
your pain. You are so swayed by all of the difficulties that other people try to hide but that you
pick up on so clearly. Through hiding your own tough times and heavy experiences, you will see
that anything you’ve felt is what anyone else has felt at any given time. Once you are gentler
toward yourself for going to those dark places and find serenity in the midst of that, you will be
able to have a genuinely healing effect on other people.
Total forgiveness toward your father figure has to be cultivated, though, for any of this to
happen. Any unresolved daddy issues are only going to seriously hold you back in life, secretly
setting you up to fail. Although many people with Capricorn ruling the 12th have to forgive their
father for not being a father, for not being there, others may have to come to see that this was
simply an illusion and that there was more love available for them than they knew. He was just

AQUARIUS RISING
386

human. Also, if he was too mentally ill or weak to be the dad you needed, he was still only
human. In any case, you must be compassionate toward him and let all the negativity go. This
will show you that you’re actually going to find much more fulfillment by creating a strong, solid
relationship with the Divine Father. All the guidance, protection, strength, and purpose you
were looking for from your earthly father will come from your Universal one.
While this is a beautiful mindset, it still creates significant problems in regard to what to do
here on earth. This is another influence that indicates how hard it can be for you to make it in
this physical realm. Due to the neglectful or misguided physical fathering you received, you’re
not one to bow to the authority figures around you. You also can feel like there is no real point
to careerism. Ambition feels like one big illusion to you. Your true goals can seem like mirages
that tragically disappear whenever you attempt to obtain them. The fact that your father’s
dreams may have never come true (which you may understand intuitively, without even being
told) only makes this even more haunting to you. It’s easy to feel lost, in this regard, and like
life just doesn’t want you to succeed. But, you have to shatter both illusions of success and
failure to really accomplish anything. Know that everything in this physical realm is temporary;
that everything eventually ends or disappears. It’s an awareness that causes you a lot of
existential angst. However, you should also know that you can discipline yourself to make your
dreams, impressions, and inner messages completely real.
You are being asked to work with your inner and spiritual life with great dedication, knowing
that, for you, so much that is of substance and importance cannot be entirely explained or
touched. A lot is achieved is when you visualize your goals and then let them go, knowing that
they’ll be achieved in a way that transcends conventional plans. It’s about the Universe’s Plan,
not yours. You must develop the strength to forget about any solely self-serving ambitions you
may possess. This will be particularly tough and require you to move beyond your ego. Instead,
you must focus on making the goals of others, which are also secretly or indirectly yours, come
true. Inner peace stems from this as well as the things you’ve always wanted to accomplish.
Once you release your personal ambition, you will also rise above a personal feeling of failure
and struggle. The 12th House is what doesn’t really belong to us. You aren’t meant to struggle
as an individual. You’re meant to alleviate the struggles of other people. However, it takes your
own struggles – both internal and external – for you to understand this and achieve this. Then,
you will not only make the dreams you share with others a reality but you will be following a

AQUARIUS RISING
387

strict set of spiritual guidelines which keep you serene and grounded, like the guidelines that
your birth chart in astrology can set for you in terms of your personal development.
This is why people’s judgments and arbitrary rules matter little to you. Your parameters stem
from a deep sense of internal wisdom, strength, and guidance, much of which is gained from
your relationship with your Higher Power, who will feel like your real father, which makes sense
as you’ve always felt not of this earth, anyway. You will then use that inner sense of healing to
heal other people. This can give you an even greater sense of purpose because it can soothe
the inner hurt and confusion you felt from never being able to heal your father and/or him
bringing this profoundly unresolved pain into your life. The more you see it as your mission to
express compassion, the less your Daddy issues will haunt you. Capricorn in the 12th further
supports your potential for success by doing anything metaphysical/spiritual or artistic for work.
In either field, you can release your own pain while helping others with theirs.
You’re not meant to hold on to negativity or identify with it. You’re meant to feel it,
acknowledge it, and then release it, seeing yourself as a vessel for other people’s hardships.
This can be achieved by being an artist who deals with difficult subject matter that can move
people who live through it, a spiritualist who helps people work through their complicated inner
problems or a humanitarian who sees the suffering in the world and does all they can to
alleviate it. Having enough alone time to reflect will allow you to do this. Alone time is also
needed to be able to release the energies that you can all too easily accumulate in your spiritual
and emotional body. You possess uncanny intuitiveness while also being able to remain
anchored enough to utilize it well. However, this takes practice. A balance needs to be
maintained, though. You have to remember that there’s a difference between healthy solitude
and damaging isolation. You cannot help humanity if you don’t strive to be a part of it. As much
as you may not feel like you belong in this world, you are here and for a reason, which is to
constantly remind people that we are all one.

AQUARIUS RISING
388

PISCES RISING

PISCES ON THE 1ST HOUSE CUSP


Heaven is truly a place on Earth when you are a Pisces Ascendant. Well, it can be. You’re just
as capable of going through Hell on Earth and then ascending to that lovely, peaceful place.
Your narrative can be of serenity but living a serene life, for you, often occurs once you’ve been
through a significant amount of pain and suffering. But, are you even fully aware of your pain
and suffering? What are you truly conscious of? Well, in many ways, you’re aware of things that
a lot of people aren’t truly conscious of. Being a Pisces Rising means existing outside of the
realm of normal, everyday consciousness. Instead, you are tuned into something far more
intuitive, fluid, even divine. But, because of this level of higher awareness, it can be either hard
for you to come back down to earth or exist on a day-to-day basis. Your life is not meant to be
humdrum and routine. Being in such a rhythm can merely bore others or cause them to become
stagnant. For you, it can be downright soul-crushing.
But, it seems as if life is just full of variables and experiences that are potentially soul-
crushing to you. You’re a very sensitive soul, no matter how much you are willing to admit that
or not. You will regularly read descriptions of the Pisces Rising individual that makes it seem like
you’re someone who cries at the drop of a hat, who is soft-spoken and withdrawn, who wants
to rescue all the stray animals and homeless people in the world. Now, there will be many with
this placement who fit that description, to some degree or another. But, there are also those
who try hard to hide their sensitivities and vulnerabilities. This is usually due to being
victimized, ridiculed, or even abused for that softer side. In this case, your chameleon prowess
takes over and you attempt to become someone else in order to avoid your fragility. The thing
is that you’re such a chameleon that you can truly pull this vanishing act off, adopting another
personality to hide your true one. Even the ones who are more openly sensitive do this, to
some extent. Pisces’ modern ruler is Neptune, which is the planet of illusions, dreams, and
fantasies (well, Neptune represents a lot of things but these are just a few of its qualities). So,
you are never truly what you seem to be.
Isn’t that the case for every human being, though? We all have hidden qualities that we’d
often prefer others to not know about. We all can adopt a certain persona that isn’t exactly us

PISCES RISING
389

but that helps us get by in the world. Since Pisces virtually is every human being, having this
sign on the Ascendant indicates that you play out this dynamic in a way that is more noticeable
and overwhelming than most people. If taken too far, it can lead to a life that is a constant
string of identity crises, compelling you to go from being one person to the next, or a troubling
lack of self-awareness. Although you have a very reflective side to you, you may not spend
much time actually figuring out and understanding why you do what you do, unless other
factors in your chart interfere. The idea of figuring yourself out may actually be quite daunting.
It’s different from your Scorpio Rising brethren who deeply know themselves yet remain a
mystery to other people. You are not only a mystery to others but, most of all, to yourself.
To a certain degree, this is just how it’s supposed to be. Figuring yourself out too clearly
leads to a self-definition that can become too limiting and strict. Instead, you dissolve all of the
boundaries of self that most people encumber themselves with. This is what makes you so fluid
in so many ways and there is also a major idealistic streak within the Pisces Ascendant
individual. Jupiter is your secondary ruler; the traditional ruler of Pisces before Neptune was
discovered almost two centuries ago. Jupiter does not believe in limitations and is a great
source of positivity. With it serving as your co-chart ruler, your famous rose-colored glasses
stem from the influence of this “sees the good in everything” planet. Yet, with Neptune also in
the mix, this is how you fall prey to people who do not have good intentions or energies and
how you set yourself up to be highly disillusioned by reality. Like all the Mutable Risings, you
are inherently dualistic. A part of you is a buoyant optimist, eager to live out all of your
fantasies and feel beautifully at one with everyone else, and another part of you is self-pitying,
melancholic, or tragic, weighed down by the sadness and the pain of life that you
unsuccessfully keep trying to run away from.
This entire dynamic played a pivotal role in how you came into the world and your early
environment. Pisces Rising children are very frequently “fix-it babies” who are conceived to save
their parents’ marriage or to bring greater happiness to a sad, unfulfilled, or lonely parent. No
one may have ever said that to you outright but it was just in the atmosphere. There was
probably a significant amount of confusion and messiness on the day of your birth and you may
have barely just made it out of the womb alive. Regardless of how your life began, you were
automatically assigned some sort of role that was magical, like the baby of a mother who
wasn’t supposed to conceive, or even savior-like. In your family, you were like the child who

PISCES RISING
390

crawled out of the manger, healing people with your very presence, revealing your empathic
energy with an old-soul, wise-beyond-your-years quality that transcended words.
Essentially, a lot of children with their Ascendant in Pisces are downright worshipped by their
families, treated like a sacred or divine figure in some sort of way. However, it wasn’t exactly an
ego boost. In fact, it was at a major cost to you. In order to gain the devotion of your loved
ones, you had to put yourself on a cross, sacrificing your needs and desires, maybe even
certain thoughts and feelings of yours, in order to save your disciples. In terms of siblings, no
matter your birth order, you were selfless in some sense toward them or you, at least, treated
your them with notable compassion that eradicated any major sibling rivalry. You effectively
disappeared into your early environment, whether out of shyness, wanting to blissfully merge
with everyone, or due to feeling unseen. This only heightens your potential for self-sacrifice.
Even with parents, you may have put their needs and feelings first. It’s common for those with
this position to feel the need to save or heal one or both of their parents, whether that’s due to
the parent’s struggles with substance abuse, mental illness, grief and loss, or a deep-seated
unhappiness. It instills a life-long sense of guilt within you when it comes to people you feel like
you’ve hurt or cannot save.
But, who is going to heal and save you? This is why turning to spirituality is such a must for
you. You come to define yourself through that connection with the Divine and how at peace it
makes you feel. Because of this, traditional religion is often not the answer for Pisces Risings as
it usually reinforces the guilt and obligatory sense of selflessness that you can struggle so much
with. Being spiritual is probably a better choice for you and this may occur after a phase in your
life of being very religious. Regardless, you need some sort of God or Higher Power to serve.
Your life story is about surrendering to something greater than yourself and finding a sense of
healing and redemption through that. This is also why, like many people of faith, you may go
through life in a very unhappy, lost, or even destructive manner until you find your spiritual
anchor and get on the right path.
The state of your Neptune in your birth chart will tell you how you’re able to cultivate your
path of enlightenment. Look to the house Neptune’s in to see where it will play out. Neptune in
the 10th means that you can save yourself by doing something professionally that allows you to
express compassion and heal other people. With this influence, you’ll be able to be an empath
with a sense of purpose, discipline, or structure. Neptune in the 8th, meanwhile, would mean

PISCES RISING
391

that you find your sense of healing through a deeper intimacy with yourself and others,
confronting your emotional issues and transforming them. Meanwhile, Jupiter’s house position,
as well as its aspects and signs, will show you how you can remain buoyant throughout life,
even as reality lets you down and humanity disappoints you. Such an attitude will lead you to
your enlightenment because it will remind you to not become too attached to the earthly
illusions that you’re constantly faced with. Jupiter in the 4th House indicates that cultivating a
true safe space for yourself will allow you to stay positive in the midst of disillusionment, while
Jupiter in the 3rd means that trying to remain more logical about things allows you to maintain
your idealism, no matter what happens.
You also have a way of seeing yourself idealistically, whether that means focusing more on
the good within yourself, feeling unconditionally loved enough by God or the Creator to turn the
other cheek in the face of others’ criticism (“only God can judge me” is a phrase that might’ve
been invented by a Pisces Ascendant), or believing that you’re just a human being doing the
best that you can. Of course, while these are all beautiful ways of living and viewing yourself,
you may also just be a hot mess and unable to see it or own it. There is something particularly
sloppy about the Pisces Rising person. You rock the “just got out of bed” look very well, often
times because you actually did roll out of bed and step out of the house. Neglecting one’s
appearance is a common trait with this Rising sign yet, strangely, the messier you look or carry
yourself, the better you appear. You might also be a slob in terms of how you live or find it
especially hard to keep up with things and stay organized. You’d definitely lose your head if it
wasn’t attached to your body and this is why, in spite of your serene and gentle demeanor, you
are equally capable of losing it. It’s hard for you to keep it together when life’s pressure
becomes too much, causing you many overwhelming meltdowns or your emotionally charged
facial expressions to say it all.
You have a dramatic side to you, which is why people with this placement are so very drawn
toward the arts. Yet, you can also drain others with what they see as your constant complaints,
moping around or endless violin playing. Even if you try to act tough, it’s quite evident how
much life and other people can get to you. But, you’re really just looking for empathy from
other people. So, the fact that some can dismiss you as being morbid, too sensitive, or feeling
sorry for yourself can be particularly disappointing. You’re so geared toward feeling like we’re
all one that you believe that people should feel for you the way you feel for them and dealing

PISCES RISING
392

with the insensitivity of the world is one of your biggest challenges. However, you definitely
should not respond to cruelty, selfishness, or dismissiveness by shutting down emotionally.
You’re capable of great empathy toward others and a part of being your unconditionally loving
self is extending that empathy while knowing it often won’t be returned in the same measure.
At the same time, this does not mean that you have to let all sorts of emotional vultures and
psychic vampires into your life. You need to protect yourself because you’re such a magnet for
those types of people. Getting yourself in situations where you’re being taken advantage of or
abused but not getting out because you’re too busy seeing the good in the other person, feel
like they need to be saved by you or because you just have an appetite for suffering and misery
should be your wake-up call. It’s possible to be compassionate toward other people while still
having healthy, firm boundaries. Learn how to say no, how to keep toxic people away from you,
and how to still love and have empathy for them but from a distance.
A highly instinctual ability to put yourself in anyone’s shoes is the hallmark of a Pisces
Ascendant. This is what gives you so many different personalities or allows you to hide your
true self, without even trying. Much like Leo Risings, you’re always acting. For them, it’s about
the ego-reinforcing nature of performance and self-expression. For you, it’s about taking on
different characters and hiding behind them. Throughout your life, your ego gets transcended,
much like a serious character actor talks about disappearing behind the role and leaving their
own personality behind. This is what you do, whether you are the kind of Pisces Rising who
doesn’t want to be seen or noticed and makes themselves invisible in a crowd or the kind who
adopts another identity in order to make it in the world. I could say that you are neglecting
your true self by doing this. Yet, having this Ascendant shows you that the notion of a “true
self” is an illusion. You can truly be whoever you imagine yourself to be.
You also have this way of being whoever other people imagine you to be. Part of your
narrative involves people projecting a lot of things on to you, the majority of which will be
untrue or unfounded. Besides, since you don’t even know yourself all that well, how can other
people say they know you? Just when someone thinks they’ve pinned you down, you’ll do
something to evade them. The truth is that you don’t want to be exposed. You may struggle
with a very daunting sort of imposter syndrome that makes you either constantly feel like a
fraud or regularly disillusioned by some seemingly real part of yourself or your life that turned
out to be one big lie. So, you live with a constant fear of being “outed” by others for something

PISCES RISING
393

you’ve kept hidden or want to believe is true but really isn’t. This makes it all too easy to go
along with what other people want you to do or be, which may mean being highly influenceable
and impressionable, deeply internalizing others’ expectations, or even lying to them, in some
way. But, as with any lie, it takes too much energy to constantly keep it up. Inevitably, you’ll be
caught slipping and then the truth will see the light of the day.
In the end, this is all a part of your redemption process. You have to spend a lot of time
repressing or distorting (Neptune) your sense of self until you reach the Ultimate Truth
(Jupiter). This just reinforces your spiritual outlook, teaching you how to rise above any
preoccupations that will lead to your undoing. The happiest Pisces Rising is the one who is just
swimming along the currents of life, not resisting what is happening while also not drowning in
it, either. There’s a reason why Pisces’ symbol is the Fish. The theme of the ocean or the sea
usually plays a big role in your life. You might be an excellent swimmer, with few to no lessons,
and will feel absolutely content living near the coast or the beach or close to some body of
water. Many Pisces Risings also feel and seem like mermaids or mermen who have washed up
on the shore. Like any sea creature, you’re a part of this world and another world, at the same
time, coming up for air regularly while unable to exist for long outside of an immersion in your
particular underwater landscape, whether that is the spiritual life, music, movies, books, or
video games that you can get so lost in. The potential for substance abuse with this placement
is both legendary and stereotypical. You’re at rather high risk for it but anyone could become
an alcoholic or drug addict. Essentially, you’re just looking for an escape.
But, you’re also a source of escape. Your eyes are a standout feature, revealing the
soulfulness and sensitivity that you possess, and it’s easy for others to get lost within them.
Your demeanor makes you like a drug, either providing others with a heightened sense of
ecstasy and wonder or being a real “downer” who makes their energy crash. As much as you
can heal, you also have the potential to sweep people up into a complete state of confusion.
Another sea creature whose archetype you can live out is the siren. Whether male or female,
you have the potential to seem so sweet, harmless, and innocent while hiding truly destructive
intentions. Let’s remember that Pisces is everyone. A truly great actor can go from playing the
hero and the villain, the admirable protagonist and the chilling antagonist. So, all of that talk
about being compassionate and a healer doesn’t mean that you’re not capable of going far off

PISCES RISING
394

into the dark side and taking people with you. But, the thing is that you often don’t know that
you’re doing it. This is why cultivating enough conscious self-awareness is important.
I would say that you should strive to be the mermaid/merman and not the siren. But, you’re
capable of seeing the good in the “bad” parts of your personality and, conversely, the
downsides of the good within you. Besides, there’s always something deceptive about your
demeanor, even if it’s not ill-intentioned or destructive. People wouldn’t guess at your hellish
depths when faced with your heavenly aura. It’s a vibe that creates an unearthly, uncommon
sort of attractiveness. When a Pisces Ascendant is beautiful or handsome, it’s not in a “regular”
way. Instead, it’s an out-of-this-world sort of loveliness that draws people in. Your features will
come together as if someone imagined and created the ideal person. A lot of people with this
energy look like paintings that have come to life or like they belong in a painting. It’s as if
you’re too good to be true.
Pisces Rising people can truly come off as angels, not necessarily in the sense of being saints
or a goody two-shoes but by seeming to be sent straight to someone else for a higher purpose.
It’s as if there is this invisible white light surrounding you that beckons people to you or brings
them peace. You might mysteriously appear in people’s lives or presence at the exact right
time, then disappear just as inexplicably or quickly, like an elusive guardian angel. Your highly
receptive energy makes people feel like you know exactly what’s wrong or how they feel,
sending many people in need your way. Having homeless people flock particularly to you is
common and you can also be a magnet for strays (animals and people).
With Pisces ruling the feet, there is something very distinctive about the feet with this
influence. People will find your feet especially nice or attractive, even those who are grossed
out by feet. Women with this placement will fully relish painting their toenails, getting their
pedicures, and wearing their open-toed shoes while the men will have a refined pair of feet that
they constantly bare in sandals or flip-flops. Walking around barefoot on a regular basis (maybe
too regularly) is also very typical. It all reinforces this notion that you’re not very bound by
material limitations, which is also represented by how fluidly you move, as if paddling through
water. Those with a Pisces Rising also tend to be rather soft-spoken, reinforcing the notion of
your shyness or gentleness, even when you’re not feeling that way. Yet, many of the more
outgoing or aggressive ones can still have a certain shyness to them. If not, you’re, at least,
rather introverted and you will need a lot of alone time to process things, to exist in your own

PISCES RISING
395

little world, to let out sides of yourself that you may not otherwise. Your art is also an obvious
outlet for these yearnings. You’ve just got to make sure that you don’t spend so much time
escaping into that other world that you forget to live in this one.
ARIES ON THE 2ND HOUSE CUSP
Valuing your sense of individuality is what will make you feel stable and secure in life. Aries
on the 2nd House cusp drives the Pisces Rising temperament because there is some distinct
sense of insecurity (2nd House) that is experienced in terms of being one’s own person (Aries).
While you do relish your solitude, you also have a hard time seeing yourself as a separate
individual from everyone else. The 2nd House is how we build ourselves up and with Aries here,
you will develop solid self-esteem by honoring and acknowledging your separateness. But, how
do you do that when you spend so much time getting lost in other people and in things that are
bigger than yourself?
The key is knowing what you want and owning it. Whatever house cusp we have Aries on is
where we think of ourselves first and where we should be allowed to do so. Therefore, you’ve
got to put yourself first in terms of securing the lifestyle for yourself that you want. Yet, if you
remain uncomfortable with your desires, you’ll be unable to do so. Shunning anything that’s
perceived as being too selfish stems from that ancient guilt and obligatory selflessness of yours.
However, that just further prevents you from getting what you want. This translates in terms of
money, making it increasingly hard for you to make the money you want to make. So, this cycle
is furthered that makes you feel like a nobody, a victim, a loser. But, how are you supposed to
truly get what you want if you’re not being upfront about it?
Learning how to be more direct and upfront about things is what allows you to feel more and
more comfortable in your own skin. Mars ruling over the 2nd House indicates that you are
coming to really appreciate assertiveness and find both inner and outer security through this
process. An inability to say “no”, to stand your ground, or to express your true opinions or
desires will cause the states of confusion or sadness in your life to not only continue but to
intensify. Again, this is the part of your life path that involves setting solid boundaries for
yourself. Being spiritually in-tune and rising above your ego does not mean that you have to
completely neglect yourself and deny yourself of what you want. Stop believing that you have
to suffer or be at the center of some Greek tragedy all the time. The more you step out of this
mindset, the more you will be able to win.

PISCES RISING
396

Knowing how to value the qualities within that make you a winner will allow you to manifest
the material resources that you need. Aries in the 2nd means that money is an energy that
comes into your life when you see obtaining money as a victory. Once you let yourself win,
becoming comfortable with the part of you that wants to look out for yourself, the Universe will
look out for you by bringing you all that you want financially. You cannot see money as this
dirty, evil energy that only the very selfish people of the world worry about. You need money to
survive and exist on this plane, like we all do. When you change your perspective, you will
come to see a desire for money as something that only makes you human and, therefore,
actually keeps you feeling connected with your fellow man.
I also think that you’ll have more frustrations (Aries) surrounding money (2nd House) than
the average person to work through. But, as with everything in the 2nd, this material
discomfort is a sign of inner discomfort. Whenever you feel particularly frustrated with what is
going on with your finances, you’ll probably find that this reflects another frustration in your life
that you cannot resolve because you’re not being assertive, direct, or self-reliant enough.
Therefore, you will need to turn inward and figure out how you can conquer that internal
discomfort. Then, you’ll know just how to can emerge victorious from financially uncomfortable
situations, manifesting money by boldly, openly pursuing it.
Understanding how to rely on yourself is also crucial. Pisces Rising people have addictive
streaks to their personalities, which causes them to turn to something or someone else to make
them feel better or centered when they should be looking to themselves. Ridding yourself of
any compulsive dependencies – which could be drugs or alcohol, escapist hobbies that consume
your life in an unhealthy way, spiritual or religious practices that become complete dogmas that
you totally define yourself by or a search for some sort of savior or healer – will allow you to
see just how secure and stable you will feel when you only look to you and only you for
guidance, encouragement, and happiness. Then, you will be able to clearly understand the
actions you need to take to life the live you want and go about them.
Because of this, you may make the most money doing something that requires working
independently or being left to your own devices, like self-employment or anything that is
freelance and without constant supervision. A form of income that allows you to fly solo or act
according to your own instincts will make you the happiest and, subsequently, give you greater
earnings. The 2nd House shows how we can make money with a sense of contentment and

PISCES RISING
397

appreciation that yields even more money. So, I think any sort of job that allows you to gain
the sole or major credit will be great for you. You’re so used to feeling invisible or neglected as
well as feeling so guided and swayed by all that is outside of you that you will find an amazing
kind of security by letting yourself be at the forefront. You’ll also enjoy leadership positions that
show you how much substantial results are produced when you’re at the helm. In terms of your
famous artistic yearnings, they can be turned into a living as long as you aren’t waiting for it to
just magically happen. You find financial security through initiative. Know what needs to be
done and do it, trusting in yourself enough and letting yourself get what you want.
TAURUS ON THE 3RD HOUSE CUSP
With Taurus sitting on the 3rd House cusp of your chart, you have a mind that works at its
own pace. Unfortunately, this can be an influence that makes some Pisces Rising receive the
“stupid” label when that’s not necessarily the case. Taurus’ house cusp in our chart does
indicate what takes the longest for us and with it on the 3rd House, the house of
comprehension, you definitely need plenty of time to understand things. It doesn’t mean that
you’re slow mentally, though. It can just be another thing that makes you feel like you’re not of
this world. You’re quite a “time is an illusion” sort of person and can easily get so swept up in
your own process of understanding things that you don’t realize that you’re behind others. This
is what makes those with this Rising sign perennially late or the last one to get a joke or
someone who spaces out, mid-conversation, and has to ask what was said.
You take your time to sort out every bit of information that comes your way. This might be
why you think best in solitude, when you’re free of the pressure of everyone else’s pace and
can process things according to your own timeframe. But, when you do come to a conclusion,
you’re absolutely solid on it. In fact, no one will be able to convince you otherwise. The duality
of the 3rd House expresses itself here through an alternate or simultaneous expression of ease
and obstinacy, pleasant dialogue and total narrow-mindedness. Although you seem quite simple
in your mentality and someone who is a joy to speak to, you also can be totally stubborn about
whatever you think. It’s surprising because it takes a while for you to really figure out what you
truly think about something. But, when you do, it’s set in stone.
This is where the aptitude for delusion comes into play. It doesn’t matter what facts you’re
presented with or what other people say. Once you have truly formed your own idea about
something, there’s no talking you out of it. What you may fail to realize is that it’s not aligned

PISCES RISING
398

with the reality of the situation. You might believe that you’re thinking realistically but that is
only because your comprehension of reality is all your own. Just like it takes a long time for you
to reach a conclusion, it takes an equally long time for you to understand that it’s wrong or that
it doesn’t add up. Joyful Venus ruling the 3rd House here also shows that you’d rather think
about things that make you happy. So, you have a way of getting overly attached to these
thoughts and ideas, to the point where you refuse to pay attention to seemingly negative
information that contradicts it. You don’t like having a thought process that’s going to stress
you out but things inevitably come to a breaking point when you don’t deal with the negativity
you’re faced with.
You displayed this mindset throughout your grade school experience. This placement
indicates that you probably did best in the subjects that weren’t stressful for you, that provided
a great deal of pleasure or were a breeze. Students with Taurus on the 3rd House cusp are
generally not geared toward challenging themselves intellectually. You probably were
particularly lazy about studying or tackling homework that you found hard. However, in spite of
how much this may have frustrated your teachers or parents, it was still clear that there was a
solid brain in there. You got what you were being taught, even if you needed plenty of extra
time to get it (having to seek outside tutoring is common with this placement). Your
comprehension probably displayed itself not during tests or when you were called upon but
when you were given room and understanding to take things at your own pace.
Otherwise, you much preferred the easier or more relaxing parts of the schooling experience,
like recess or the times in-between classes or, of course, any particular arts classes. You were
probably well-liked among your peers because you didn’t start anything with anyone. You
avoided a lot of the drama and the social conflict, wanting to just be at peace with everyone.
Yet, you also may have dealt with classmates who consistently pushed you and pushed you too
far. It might have been through bullying or just feeling like everyone was trying your patience.
The way your mind works makes you put up with a lot from a lot of people because, again, it
takes you so long to figure out what’s actually happening. But, once the pressure becomes too
much, you can’t take it. Even your loving patience has limits! So, from that age, you either
disturbed the peace when you needed to get people off your back or erected a total brick wall
around yourself whenever you just couldn’t deal with someone anymore.

PISCES RISING
399

It may also take you a long time to truly get comfortable with people in conversation, which
was evident way back in grade school. In any new classes or with new teachers, you may have
barely said anything at first, just taking your time to ease into the situation. Then, you slowly
opened up and began sharing more and more of your ideas. You’re still like that when it comes
to opening up and conversing in unfamiliar territory. This is why you’ll find such comfort talking
to your siblings or, if you’re an only child, any favorite cousins of yours. Taurus in the 3rd
shows that you can feel so relaxed in the presence of your brother or sister. There is a very
peaceful, loving relationship here that can involve boosting one another’s self-esteem and
making the other feel truly appreciated and worthwhile. Though it’s generally a pleasant bond,
you can become equally stubborn with each other and fall back into all-too-familiar patterns
and routines that prevent any growth. This sibling relationship may seem the exact same way it
was when you were kids, which could be both the major pro and con.

GEMINI ON THE 4TH HOUSE CUSP


You spend a great deal of time in your own head space and this is due to Gemini ruling your
4th House. In your private sanctum, you need the time and the energy to really think. This is
why you enjoy having down time where you are able to truly get lost in your thoughts. It’s not
just something you enjoy, though. It’s also a need. Being alone with your thoughts really
nourishes you. The flip side of this is that you can feel equally nourished by the thoughts of
other people and being in dialogue with other people. Gemini’s contradictory nature means that
you simultaneously want to be alone and want to talk, need to ponder things and need to get
so swept up in what other people are doing that you don’t have time to ponder anything. After
all, Pisces Risings’ famous yearning to unplug or recharge cannot be fulfilled unless their
respective power cords have been overused or their batteries have been drained.
This is how your masochistic, selfless-to-a-fault streak can play out with loved ones. With
your family, you have always felt very subjected to their endless noise. Having Mercury,
Gemini’s planet, as the ruler of your 4th House, which symbolizes one’s upbringing and bond
with their family, means that you probably didn’t grow up in a house where there was a lot of
quiet. You might have come from a particularly big family, either with many siblings or a
blended family situation that made your house a revolving door of people. Regardless of the
size of the family, though, there was still this sense that a ton of commotion and chatter was

PISCES RISING
400

always happening. Moments of silence were probably rare and short-lived. You contributed to
this either by being the one who was always filling the quiet moments with noise, unable to
shut up for long, or the quiet member of the family who preferred to listen and observe instead.
You also could’ve easily played both roles, depending on your mood or state of mind.
So, on one hand, your loved ones needed you to be there for them and lend them an ear.
This is what makes you so sympathetic to others’ troubles. You’re so used to having people
unload their stories on to you. In terms of your parental figures, this may have been in a way
that invaded your boundaries and wasn’t entirely appropriate. Your mother or father could’ve
shared problems of theirs with you that you didn’t need to be hearing about or worrying about
at that age. Yet, you developed your old-soul maturity by talking them through all of that. You
also could’ve done the same thing for siblings, regardless of whether or not they were older or
younger than you. Your Gemini Nadir shows that you are actually far more clear-headed and
rational than your general exterior suggests because you have always had to talk other people
through their problems, concerns, ideas, and thoughts.
On the other hand, you may be expected by your loved ones to constantly keep things
interesting and varied. The fact that you’re surprisingly chatty once you feel safe and at ease
and also so hard to pin down means that your family stays on their toes when it comes to you.
Carrying over into adulthood, with just about anyone that you live with, you keep the home
atmosphere exciting. A boring living space does not suit you at all. Your escapism into more
exciting fantasy lands guarantees that there’s not a dull moment. There also are times when
what is supposed to be exciting and fun between you and those you call family suddenly feels
tedious and uninteresting. More than the next person, you can simultaneously go along with
familial traditions, like holiday visits and get-togethers, while wanting to run out the door,
screaming, at the same time.
You’re very susceptible to what other people suggest, which means that you can let whoever
is a part of your support system put certain ideas into your head. You feel safest and most at
home whenever there is plenty of flexibility. But, you can then become flexible to the point of
twisting yourself into a pretzel at anyone’s suggestion. What do you really think? This is why
you then go to the extreme of clinging to whatever seemingly solid idea you have because you
feel like you will just be virtually hypnotized into doing someone else’s bidding if you don’t. Yet,
you also have a very manipulative side to you that emerges in your private sphere, as well. You

PISCES RISING
401

know how to say all the right things to make someone else feel safe and supported. But, in the
end, you may just be full of shit. You grew up surrounded by bullshitters and so you’re used to
telling people what they want to hear or saying things that aren’t necessarily true but are
interesting or sound good.
This is where you become immersed in your own fictions, instead of the reality of what’s
happening. The truth might bore you too much. Such an attitude can apply to your family and
your upbringing. But, while you could be glossing over unpleasant elements of your past, you
can also develop an ability to both acknowledge the faults of loved ones while paying plenty of
attention to their good qualities. Unlike many people, you won’t have time to be too stuck on
resentments and grudges and old hurts from the past. Instead, you can always find a new way
to look back on your personal history and your upbringing. You find your home by being logical
about things and, therefore, you aren’t going to have any time to brood over what’s already
happened. You’d rather just forgive and forget, moving on to subjects that are far more
interesting. Gemini on the 4th also indicates a family that is able to do the same, having
disagreements and then forgetting them in the blink of an eye.
History will end up repeating itself in your adult life, though, if you’re never able to allow
yourself true downtime to think. You are so used to constant stimulation that, even now as a
grown-up, you find it hard to just sit in silence. This is interesting because the paradox here is
that you need that silence, as well. So, you can easily frazzle your own nerves with your over-
thinking, your inability to not have the television on or music going, your eagerness to avoid
seemingly awkward silence. It’s how you were raised and what you’re just used to. Again, you
display a duality here in either being the one always needing to talk or urging people to talk
more. But, you also have to learn to rest your mind and your mouth. You are capable of
providing real levity, humor, and clarity to not just your family of origin but dear friends and the
family you eventually create as an adult. You come from a clan of witty, light-hearted people
and it shows in your patterns later in life. At the same time, you approach your private life from
the opposite view. You must realize that silence is golden because it replenishes you in all the
ways that you need. Due to all of this, behind closed doors, you will constantly surprise people
by revealing a side of yourself that is either far more talkative or way more in your head.
CANCER ON THE 5TH HOUSE CUSP

PISCES RISING
402

At heart, you are a very sensitive and emotional person. Thanks to Cancer being on the 5th
House cusp, which represents a person’s vital self-expression, you come alive when you are just
expressing however you feel. When you’re living in the moment, you’re really emotionally
aware. Yet, it’s clear that it’s very easy for you to not live in the moment, to be too wrapped up
in whatever you’re imagining or reflecting on. This is a pattern that stems from this placement,
as well. You all too readily get lost in the past, in particular, dwelling on how things used to be
because it seems like that was better than how things are now. Your penchant for becoming
very withdrawn and internal is also represented by Cancer being in the 5th. After all, you have
to look inward in order to know how you feel. In the process, you get very swept up in all sorts
of memories, dreams, fears, and intuitive impressions.
Being reflective allows you to exist in the moment. The 5th House represents our sense of
spontaneity and, for you, this occurs when you are being introspective. You take particular
pride in your ability to engage in this kind of soul-searching. That’s because it will also fuel your
creative talent. Whatever you are good at is going to be imbued with great emotion and depth.
Just like your feelings bring you to life, you’re able to bring anything to life with a significant
amount of feeling. You’ll also garner applause due to how you channel your emotions into your
creativity. As stated before, Pisces Rising is a very naturally creative placement. With the Moon,
Cancer’s planet, ruling the 5th, this is because you possess a natural instinct for creativity. You
also feel like your emotions and needs are highly validated through whatever it is that you do
creatively. Any sort of outlet that allows you to live vicariously through someone else, in
particular, makes you feel emotionally supported because the audience’s response to the
character you’re playing or creating will make you feel like they’re supporting you.
This happens in a very unconscious way, though. It also has ties to your mother and the
relationship between you two. Cancer’s house cusp in the birth chart describes one’s mother
figure. With Cancer on the 5th, you have a Mom that is a show woman, in some way or
another. She may actually be a performer, highly creative and talented and acclaimed for her
abilities. But, she might also just be a very lively, charismatic, confident individual who loves to
entertain people and gain their attention. Watching her various performances in awe instilled
within you this yearning to also perform. In fact, many people with this placement can find
themselves inheriting their creative talent from their mother in a notable fashion. In negative
cases, this represents the stage mother who always pushed her child to be great, to their

PISCES RISING
403

detriment, or forced them to gain the stardom or recognition that she didn’t gain herself.
Depending on the state of your Moon, you may have felt like you were always being pressured
to perform by your mother, in some way, which is what leads you to be such a fantasist.
However, even in more positive cases, it felt like you were always being urged by your Mom
to put on a show. You might have always had a lot of fun together, to the point of acting like
two kids at playtime, yet things also spun into a highly theatrical direction between you two.
Your flair for the dramatic truly stems from your maternal parent. Instead of just experiencing
your emotions, you perform them. But, always acting out what you’re feeling can lead to that
disconnect from the reality of what’s actually occurring. This might have been an evident
problem from childhood. With the 5th House symbolizing our child self, your high sensitivity
brought you constant attention as a kid. Expressing your emotions in a larger-than-life sort of
way, you may have been an exhausting child, in spite of your sweetness, because every
emotion you experienced was so overwhelming, to you and to other people. For example,
instead of just being sad, you were utterly heartbroken and felt like you had no friend in the
world. This has translated into adulthood but you’re (somewhat) better at hiding it now.
So many of your feelings get channeled into your creative outlet. It’s easier for Pisces Rising
folks to find that form of creative expression because they have such a driving need to. Also,
whether you had the aggressive stage mom or the proud mother who cheered you on in all of
your creative endeavors, your relationship with your Mom helped your creativity blossom. It’s
just important for you to never forget that small child within who needs to express their
feelings. You cannot function when you try to live a humdrum life devoid of creativity. In order
to feel emotionally secure, you must keep your inner child alive, which means continuing to
engage in creative expression. No matter what happens with your talents or where they take
you, you cannot neglect them. This is why those with this Ascendant are happy to pursue
artistic projects no matter what the outcome is because it fulfills them so deeply.
You will also re-experience your own sensitivity and highly pronounced emotions through the
children that you have. You feel a deeply intuitive connection between you and kids. But, this is
not just because of your psychic energy but due to how much you needed adults in your life, as
a child, who very intuitively understood you. Just how soft and gentle you can be is fully
revealed once you become a parent, especially since you’ll very likely having kids with a strong
Moon influence or Cancer placements who are very sensitive and tender themselves. You’ll

PISCES RISING
404

recognize the defenses that they try to adopt, seeing your own inner child in them, and will feel
especially protective over them whenever someone tries to invalidate or ridicule their emotions.
In a world that can be insensitive and mean, as a parent, you’re able to help your children
realize that it’s okay to feel and to let your guard down.
In terms of romance, you are very protective of your heart. After all, you get hurt so easily.
You can have troubles in matters of the heart all because it’s hard for you to not get
emotionally invested. As an adolescent, your crushes and infatuations were deeply felt and
heartbreak was not just silly melodrama to you but something that affected your innermost self.
You might never totally get over past hurts in love and it causes you to be very gun-shy, in
most dating situations. Either that or you attract Cancer- and Moon-dominant people who are
very self-protective and wary of getting hurt. So, it’s important that you create love affairs
where both people truly feel safe. This may cause you to gravitate romantically toward people
you’ve known a long time and have never gone there with but seem like a sure thing because
of your established chemistry. You need to truly know that someone cares in order to give your
heart to them, so it often helps to have a love interest who’s already a source of support.
LEO ON THE 6TH HOUSE CUSP
The house that Leo rules in the chart indicates a person’s sense of self. Leo on the 6th House
cusp, therefore, means that you can harbor a sense of self that is counterproductive, to some
degree. While the 6th House tells us what really works for us and helps us function and be
efficient, it also represents the counterproductive patterns that can stand in the way of our
functioning from day-to-day. This makes sense for those with Pisces Ascendant, as this energy
manifests as either seriously preventing yourself from having a functional daily existence or
being so driven by a will to finally be a functioning person in the world that you are unable to
actually be effective.
Much of the time, you’re either running blind or trying to curate an identity (Leo) that is
based off of judgments (6th House). You very easily feel like people are judging you and like
there are so many ways that you’re not measuring up. In response, you may try really hard to
measure up, only continually falling short in the process. It can seem like a fruitless process.
“When are you ever going to get your act together?” is the question that is constantly asked of
you by other people or by yourself. Internalizing others’ critical voices only inhibits your
confidence. At the same time, you will also struggle with confidence if you are unable to receive

PISCES RISING
405

constructive criticism. With Leo representing the ego, you may feel like you’re somehow above
that kind of positively critical feedback. Even when others are just trying to help and are giving
you truly good advice, you can insist on remaining on your disastrous path. The root of this is
that you have this fear that if you open yourself up to criticism, you will be picked apart so
badly that everyone will deem you inferior and unacceptable.
Health matters also drive home how much you can ignore advice or practical steps that are
good for you out of a certain self-involvement. You may not just neglect to listen to the
feedback of those in your life when it comes to your health but even the doctors. A curious flip
side to this, though, is that you may live at the doctor’s office, not only because you’re always
sick (6th House) but because of the attention (Leo) it gives you. Since you feel like it’s hard to
be seen in the real world, due to your concerns not being entirely “practical”, having these
physical ailments makes you feel like you’re being seen. Pisces has quite a notorious pattern of
exaggerating illness in order to get people’s sympathy. To be fair, you might also experience
sickness and poor health to a degree that is so dramatic that people often don’t believe it,
especially if you’ve developed a “girl/boy who cried wolf” reputation.
Eventually, you’ll learn that you’re healthiest and most productive when you will yourself to
be. This is why you possess such healing abilities. The willpower of Leo combines with the
physical well-being of the 6th House to ensure that you remain in great health and in good
shape. That is, if you truly want to be. If you want yourself to be sick, then you will be. It’s all
about your intent. Also, if you refuse to work on yourself, then you will remain adrift and unable
to really buckle down and establish some sense of order. If you’re too fixated on this fantasy
version of yourself, you won’t be able to see the warts-and-all depiction of you. With the Sun as
the ruler of the 6th, you will actually gain confidence by admitting to your flaws. Even though
you may give that “I’m only human” spiel, you actually can use your lack of judgment toward
the self to avoid a real confrontation with your flaws. It gets to the point where you act or feel
like some sort of deity, instead of a flesh-and-blood person. There’s only so far that an illusion
of the self can take you.
When you can understand what you’re doing wrong and how to correct it, you will find an
inner sense of light that allows you to move through life with great clarity and consciousness.
So much of your messy, problematic behavior is unconscious, as are the dramatic cries for help
that occur whenever you get sick or have a health issue. Living more consciously allows you to

PISCES RISING
406

be a much healthier individual, both physically and in terms of your habits. You will soon come
to understand that your visionary quality allows you to see just what kind of life you need to
stay reasonably grounded and to go about creating that. Still, you will operate very much on
your own sense of time. Your workouts, routines, chores, and obligatory tasks help you stay in
touch with your personal center; so much so that you can act as if everything revolves around
your time. But, to a certain extent, there’s nothing wrong with this attitude as long as it is
putting you and keeping you on track.
VIRGO ON THE 7TH HOUSE CUSP
Since you’re only human, you can only keep up the “love and light” side of your personality
for so long. When this part of you falters, another side of you comes out that can be
surprisingly snarky, judgey, even mean. With Virgo on the 7th House cusp, which represents
how we influence and connect with other people, you feel a strong compulsion to criticize other
people. Yet, this side of you emerges once you build an important bond with someone else. It
seems like your life is such a mess and humanity is always so chaotic and overwhelming.
Therefore, in your important, close relationships, you’d like for there to be a lot more order and
reason. Because of this, you attract good friends, significant others, and even business partners
into your sphere who seem to really have their act together. These people will have some sort
of major Virgo influence in their chart, planets in their 6th House, or even an angular Mercury
that helps them maintain a sense of clarity and good sense. By connecting with these people,
you will feel clearer and more sensible yourself.
Other people (7th House) definitely help you keep your head on straight (Virgo). You’re so
prone to drifting off to another dimension. So, you need a lot of grounding and bond best with
people who are very helpful, level-headed influences. They might constantly give you sound
advice or assist you with everyday tasks or give you the recurring wake-up calls that you
require. Yet, the 7th House works both ways. Therefore, you are just as capable of doing the
same thing with other people. When you are only thinking of yourself, you are off in your own
world. But, when you have to think of someone else, you feel like you should come back to
earth and do whatever you can to create a solid life with them. You’re more lucid and
reasonable than you may realize, possibly because all of that time dwelling in the spiritual,
intuitive realm of life gives you a very clear view of the things happening in everyday life that
seem simple and easy to understand in comparison.

PISCES RISING
407

However, you might be so intent on straightening things out in your partnerships with other
people that you reveal a very critical side of you. The closer people get to you, the more they
will realize how judgmental you can actually be as well as the anxiousness you can exhibit.
Pisces Rising people live with this sense of there being very few, if any, material things they can
hold on to. Although this generally allows you to develop a strong spiritual consciousness, the
equal and opposite effect of that is that it leads to plenty of nervous energy. When you’re
always facing the unknown, it’s easy to be filled with worry. These worries can plague your
partnerships with others, making you stress out over all of the little things that appear to be
going wrong or that could go wrong. Also, just what are you doing wrong? Even though much
of your penchant for nagging can be directed at other people, wanting them to do this and do
that so everything will be exactly how it needs to be, you can direct a lot of that judgment
toward yourself. You struggle with a distinct nervousness and awkwardness when it comes to
dealing with people because you begin to worry about being wrong or doing something wrong.
You become the classic Fish out of water, floundering all over the place and, in the process,
stressing other people out.
This is why so many will gravitate toward you to help you get your act together. But,
everyone’s Descendant shows how they have experienced a particularly negative relationship or
two in their lives. With Virgo Descending, you have to go through some important, one-on-one
partnership where you’re ripped to shreds by the other person. This companion can be so
critical that it’s not constructive at all. It’s just mean and harsh. You can also harbor this feeling
that other people are mean-spirited and ready to tear you down at any moment, which is why
you become such a worrywart in these interpersonal situations. That fear manifests when you
attract those who do nothing but pick you apart. However, you also have to watch out for these
patterns yourself in relationships. The 7th House is rife with projection and you may not realize
that you’re actually the one engaging in destructive, not constructive, criticism and just putting
that on to the other person. They’re judging you because you’re judging them.
At the same time, you do need a dynamic between you and others where the behavior of the
other person is being accurately assessed. You need to accept your more analytical side, the
part of you that can logically observe what’s going on. This protects you from being taken
advantage of and having the wool pulled over your eyes. Also, as we’ve already stated, you’re
sometimes just plain delusional. So, Virgo in the 7th means having a best friend, a romantic

PISCES RISING
408

partner, or anyone else important in your life who can logically observe what’s going on with
you and bring it to your attention provides you with crucial balance. It will be criticism, yes, but
the kind that you actually need. Instead of just going through life blindly, you must know what
you have to work on about yourself and the people close to you will show you that. The thing is
that these companions, when they’re good for you, will be humble and smart enough to know
what they need to work on, as well. If you point out something they’re doing wrong, they’ll
probably agree with you and promise to do better. Doing the same thing, without a deeply self-
deprecating belief that you’re screwing everything up with someone else, will allow these
relationships to thrive.
LIBRA ON THE 8TH HOUSE CUSP
Libra being in the 8th here indicates that you have a lot of emotional issues (8th House) to
work through when it comes to relationships (Libra). Who doesn’t, right? But, for you, there are
very particular demons to wrestle with in love. Betrayal, abandonment, dishonesty,
manipulation, secrecy, and a lack of healthy intimacy in matters of the heart have plagued you
to the point where you develop a very destructive attitude toward love. The house cusp where
Libra is shows what we’re looking for in relationships and with it being on the cusp of the
shadowy 8th House, you’re, in some profound way, looking or expecting to be hurt. You either
crave the pain, the tragedy, the heartache of love in a Shakespearean fashion or you believe
that the aforementioned things are such unavoidable parts of love that you’d rather not be with
anyone at all. True to Pisces Rising form, as a result, you will either seriously isolate yourself
and prevent people from truly knowing you or you will get completely swept up into situations
that aren’t good for you without realizing it or caring.
Venus ruling the 8th House indicates that you have been psychologically scarred in life when
it comes to love in a particularly dramatic way. I think you’ve been taught that certain things
are love when they’re actually not at all and, due to your easily illusioned and disillusioned
nature, it leads to a painful cycle of being unloved or unappreciated yet unable to recognize it
or let go of it. The 8th House also shows the difficult things in our family that have been passed
down from one generation to the next. You’re receptive to the ways, throughout your family
line, that love has been a way to control, abuse, denigrate, or hurt other people and how those
people have a hard time getting away from all of that, which contributes to the darker side
within you.

PISCES RISING
409

You’re all too prone to being in unrequited love situations where you delude yourself into
thinking you can make someone love you or want to be with you. But, this keeps you trapped
within this emotional drama where your affections are never being returned in the same way or
the other person isn’t valuing you. Also, being stuck in terrible relationships and unable to get
out of them is another source of great pain for you. Being unable to let go of abusive or toxic
people because you love them too much is your particular poison. You also come face-to-face
with your own disturbing patterns in love. Whether this means being utterly obsessive and
stalking someone, exhibiting controlling or manipulative or cruel behavior, showing intense
desperation to be with someone, or aiming to ruin the person who has hurt you, your dark side
can definitely emerge full force when you get to know someone, which can be a scary
revelation to those who just see you as some sort of peaceful angel.
However, Venus as the ruler of the 8th also means that you can be very destructive by being
too kind and permissive. It’s common for those with this influence to face abuse at some point
in their lives that they just put up because they’re too nice and agreeable to stop it. So, a part
of you can let someone else destroy you, often willingly. In terms of your sexual life, you’re also
extremely willing to please, to the point where you can get totally lost in the other person. But,
your focus on them can prevent you from having that reciprocated. This house represents
sexual issues that can occur and hinder intimacy. You might become so submissively concerned
with your sexual partner that you just let them climax without going there yourself. It can be
hard for you, after all, to actually let someone give you the full appreciation and treatment you
deserve. But, this totally throws off the balance in the bedroom and only continually distances
you from them and causes you to secretly resent them for being unable to please you. But,
often times, you’re very unaware of what actually pleases you sexually.
Being able to make other people happy is a part of your power. Yet, you can also use that
power against someone else. Sexually, you can actually feel as if you’re the one in control if
they climax and you don’t, as if you’re the one with the power over them. In many ways, your
submissiveness can actually destroy someone else, especially if they remain unaware of how
much you’re resenting them, manipulating them, or plotting against them. Beneath a placid
demeanor, you’re truly killing them with your kindness. You’re used to being exposed to these
subtle yet insidious power plays in relationships and feel like, if you aren’t keeping score or
maintaining the upper hand, you’re going to inevitably be hurt. The thing is that this actually

PISCES RISING
410

makes you increasingly unhappy in the relationship because you are too busy being engaged in
some sort of power struggle against the other person when you could be joining forces with
them in order to express your power together.
In order to overcome these issues, you have to eliminate any toxic ideas about love you
have, whether that means forcing your love on someone else, engaging in obscene forms of
manipulation, or sticking around when someone is no good for you. This will allow you to work
through what you have picked up on by being a witness to one unhealthy relationship after the
next in your family. You’re going to break that cycle when you realize that love does not have
to equal pain. It can involve pain. In fact, that’s often inevitable and you have an amazing
ability to face that pain and still exhibit love anyway. Yet, you need to know when to let go of
something that isn’t working, that isn’t truly reciprocal and balanced. Pisces Risings often have
to go through some horror-show love affairs to recognize this and to stop pining after people
who don’t really love or appreciate them. At the same time, you must learn how to recognize
and receive the affections of those who truly love and appreciate you.
This must start with you. You’re at your most powerful when you’re loving yourself because
this allows you to achieve a great inner transformation that eliminates negative or toxic energy
in your relationships. Looking inward and learning self-love is more empowering for you than
the average person. Appreciate your own power and know that you’re most attractive when
you’re recognizing how powerful you can be. Libra in the 8th shows that you have an intensely
attractive energy, which is why you’re so mesmerizing to people. But, where you are in your
place of self-love determines what kind of love you attract into your life. You’re also very
powerful when you’re loving other people yet you need to not waste that incredible love on
those who are not reciprocating it. When you’re directing that energy toward the right people,
you won’t feel such a sense of desperation, resentment, or masochism in love. You’ll always
have this dark side to you that allows you to manipulate, to dive in obsessively, or to hurt how
you’ve been hurt. But, being consciously aware of this will help you know when to not go there
and how to recognize what relational situations aren’t good for you.
At some point in your life, you’ll realize that you need to feel a strong sense of connection
with a sexual partner in order to be sexually satisfied. You are very sexually attractive and will
have many opportunities to remain active in that area. But, this placement may take you from
sleeping with a lot of people, possibly to feel loved and appreciated in a way that you somehow

PISCES RISING
411

don’t, to holding off more in lieu of something truly intimate. Sex is best for you when you feel
really compatible with the other person because you’ll know that they’ll be able to please you in
the way that you can please them. Your sexual partners will usually walk away feeling very
satisfied, which is another source of power. Yet, you need to be getting what you’re giving.
You’re so eager to do what they like sexually, so make sure you’re with someone sexually who
is the same way. You’ll find that this is quite a dealbreaker in romantic relationships. A lack of
sexual fulfillment with someone else will leave you feeling very emotionally unfulfilled with them
in various ways.
SCORPIO ON THE 9TH HOUSE CUSP
You strongly believe in the unknown and mysterious elements of life. The influence of Scorpio
in the 9th House means that you possess convictions that have to do with all that people can’t
entirely know or understand. You’re this transcendent being, after all, naturally existing on
some sort of higher plane. So, you have a way of knowing things that many people do not
know or can’t even perceive. It’s an overwhelming gift that can sometimes be downright scary.
However, it’s what makes life a meaningful experience for you. Those with their Ascendant in
Pisces are always getting unexplainable messages, intuitive hits, impressions, and insights that
can be so unnerving that it’s tempting to shut down and ignore them. Yet, your experience of
life is so rich and vivid because of all of that psychic energy. Therefore, you must embrace it
and allow it to truly be a part of your inner compass.
The 9th House is what guides us and inspires us. Having Scorpio here means that you’re
guided and inspired by your uncanny intuitive abilities. You have an extraordinary sixth sense, a
way of just knowing things that goes far beyond simple logic. But, believe it or not, not every
Pisces Rising fully embraces their gift, even though, or probably because, it comes so naturally
and automatically. It may even be hard for you to see it as some powerful gift. It might just
make you feel insane. Being a telepath or a medium or a psychic, which you, to some degree,
may literally be, is not easy. It can just be an exhausting, overwhelming part of your nature
that feels more like a curse than a wonderful talent. But, this is why you’re going to gain so
much positivity (9th House) by being able to embrace the unnerving or terrifying aspects of
yourself (Scorpio). Do not let yourself be discouraged by your inner magic and don’t let the
world demonize it and tell you that it’s evil or unnatural or something to repress. Your nature is
not defined by that which is of this world. So, let that spiritual power of yours flow freely.

PISCES RISING
412

The journey of personal growth that you’re on is characterized by your 9th House. With this
placement, it’s a journey to become increasingly powerful. Earlier in your life, you don’t really
know what your power is. In fact, you may feel distinctly powerless in some fashion. This is
another reason why a lot of Pisces Risings attract situations where they’re abused or victimized.
It can definitely be hard to see such experiences as positive but you can transform them into
positives. Being in that powerless position and understanding how to get out of it leads to
significant growth for you. Through these circumstances, you learn that you’re far more
powerful than you may think. Although it’s great that you are so able to surrender and to give it
up to a Higher Power, you can’t let this mentality allow you to just easily give up. You achieve
personal growth, then, by being a survivor. As much as Pisces is stereotyped as a poor, lost
victim, you also have an incredible capacity for survival. Experiences that involve serious
emotional trauma, tragic material loss and lack, and even brushes with death will teach you
how much of a survivor you are and how to tap into your inner reservoir of power.
Your awareness of this really flourishes during the college age. Going off to college or leaving
home sends you off on this journey toward empowerment. The fact that your early life can be
so defined by not having great boundaries gives you the opportunity to really grow by assuming
greater control over your life. Also, throughout this time, you may experience things that show
you the more shadowy side of existence. Dealing with grief over a major death or being horribly
betrayed by someone you trusted can shatter some of the illusions that you have about life or
other people. Becoming more connected to your darker self can also come to define these years
in your life. In any case, you experience your personal Hell, understanding how good things can
turn painful or how you can end up sending yourself to Hell. Learning that you’re just as
capable of being the devil as you are an angel will actually be liberating for you because it frees
you from having to live up to the idealistic projections people can put on to you.
There may also be a distinct shift in your sexual attitudes and patterns that occurs during
your late teens to early twenties. Scorpio in the 9th can commonly cause someone to lose their
virginity in this age range; someone who either waited longer than many of their peers for
something more emotionally intimate or who didn’t feel the true sexual freedom to do it until
this time. Even if that’s not the case for you, your sexuality may have undergone a major
transformation throughout this era, with you becoming much more sexually active or sex-
positive or, if you’re not straight, accepting the truth of your sexual identity. Regardless, these

PISCES RISING
413

experiences were also a part of you exploring your power. Understanding the power of your
sexuality became an act of liberation for you.
Yet, all of this happens in ways that are very private for you, maybe even secretive. Our
Scorpio house is where our secrets are and, with this influence, you are always undergoing a
journey of transformation that few people know about. It’s something deeply internal and,
sometimes, it’s even a mystery to you until you really stop and reflect upon it. Your growth
from stems from facing that ugly truth within and getting it all out there somehow. With Pluto
ruling the 9th, you must believe that you can perceive things that are occurring on profound
levels, both psychologically and metaphysically, that other people cannot. This moves you
beyond the comfort zone of clinging to delusions. Certain fantasies and ideals must be
shattered in your life; things that you once believed in but have now proven to be false,
disempowering, or toxic. Because of this, it’s very likely that you will go through the process of
eliminating a religious belief from your life because it inhibits your ongoing empowerment.
You have a powerful ability to reveal the raw, unvarnished truth about something to
someone. Yet, you may not realize just how powerful this form of truth-telling is, as it will
threaten or destroy the false beliefs that others cling to. However, it’s possible that you know
this and you do it anyway especially if you have Scorpio planets here. Like any great psychic,
you need to wait until someone is ready to hear your insights before you share them. When you
share your perceptions, they have a tremendous impact, which can be painful and devastating
or illuminating and healing. You know that whatever you’re picking up on is right yet you will
often internalize it. But, don’t do so to the point where you are repressing those hunches and
perceptions, either. You’re going to need a space in your life where you can freely express all of
those inner workings and this uncanny understanding of human nature and the Universe. Any
sort of spiritual practice like astrology, Tarot, or paganism that helps you recognize the potency
of your awareness will fill that void, as well as your artistic outlets that allow you to explore the
good, the bad, and the ugly within in a totally honest way.
But, your belief that hidden, sometimes destructive forces are at work can lead to an
unchecked, outrageous paranoia that you manifest into existence (9th House) through
consistently volatile, upsetting circumstances (Scorpio). You have to realize that you’re the one
wreaking havoc in your life by being so convinced that something terrible is going to happen.
When you have this mindset, you’re usually not owning up to what you feel is threatening or

PISCES RISING
414

dangerous inside of yourself. Therefore, you’re projecting all of that and manifesting a lot of
negativity, as a result. This is why you stagnate in life without an uncensored exploration of
your shadow side. You must experience those parts of yourself and know that it’s not going to
kill you. In fact, it’ll only help you thrive and move forward. The key to this is not polarizing
forces of good and evil but seeing it all as one shade-of-grey continuum. Then, you’ll learn to
sublimate that destructive side, seeing that, while your intensity can be troublesome, it also can
be wonderfully magical and uplifting.
SAGITTARIUS ON THE 10TH HOUSE CUSP
More than the next person, you’re not going to achieve anything of importance if you don’t
really believe in yourself. Sagittarius is the sign of faith and with it being on the Midheaven,
your life’s calling is to be someone of great faith. This sense of strong belief has to start with
yourself, which is a challenge, seeing as how it can be all too easy for you to get down on
yourself. The sign on our 10th House cusp is what is going to require great effort from us. So,
you are going to have to really work at being positive and believing in yourself. Feeling easily
victimized, depressed, confused, or adrift in a meaningless world makes this hard for you.
Although you harbor your own form of idealism, it can also be easily shaken. Jupiter is your
secondary chart ruler and with it ruling the 10th, you’re being challenged to develop idealism
about what you can accomplish in the world and who you can be.
It creates an interesting paradox in your life. Pisces Risings can become the true embodiment
of the phrase “I’m spiritual, not religious.” As I stated before, this may occur because of some
adverse experiences with religion. Yet, you also need to make sure you’re believing in the right
things because some so-called forms of spiritual thought can easily lead you astray. Whatever is
on our 10th House cusp is what we have to go about with responsibility or deliberation. So,
with Sagittarius on the 10th House cusp, you have to be responsible and deliberate about what
you believe in. Don’t become one of those people who believe that they’re so New Age and
enlightened when they’re really on a path to nowhere. You won’t achieve your goals if you are
harboring false, wasteful, or harmful beliefs, which also extends to a sense of being a victim or
lacking a locus of control. At the same time, if you’re not believing in much of anything, you
aren’t going to get very far, either. What kind of work is going to inspire you and bring you
greater meaning? How do you find your place in the world with a sense of positivity and by
living out your truth?

PISCES RISING
415

These are questions you will begin to ask yourself once you enter young adulthood. The
journey through the teenage years, with a Sagittarius Midheaven, really does feel like the
beginning of an amazing adventure. In some way, the world opened up for you majorly. Maybe
you already started getting incredible opportunities for success at this age or maybe you felt
finally ready to leave that isolated little cave of yours and join the rest of the world. All of those
visions that you so effortlessly receive and create began to take shape in a way that could be
useful in the world. Having Gemini in the 4th means that, during your early years, you were
always either alone with your thoughts or letting the ideas and thoughts of other people take
over your brain. Understanding who you wanted to be when you grew up meant that you had
to not only form your own convictions but openly share them with the world. You realized, once
you became a teenager, that this was something that was expected of you; that people were
looking to you, like some sort of evangelist or guru, for some greater sense of truth that they
didn’t know otherwise and that could change their lives.
After all, you are such a healer, by nature. So, it makes sense that your position in society
depends so much on how you uplift, inspire, or enlighten other people. You were probably very
well-liked or well-received by your peers, unless some other aspects say differently, because
they just felt touched by your amazing goodness. Being the empathetic individual that you are,
you realized how effectively you could bring that goodness to people. Ever since this part of
your life, you developed such a wonderful reputation that it can be difficult for people to not
look upon you fondly. This is where the projection and the putting you on a pedestal comes into
play. It’s great that the world sees you so much in your best light yet it also means that they
don’t see anything but the good. There comes a time where you will inevitably disappoint them
and this could work against you if people suddenly feel like you’ve been misrepresenting
yourself, claiming to be depicting your truth when it was really all a lie. Due to the ambiguity
that your Gemini Nadir makes you so comfortable with, this becomes very challenging because
you often just don’t know what the truth is.
The fact that you have such a larger-than-life vision of your success doesn’t help with this
issue. There is no limit to how much you can dream, adopting a real go-big-or-go-home attitude
toward your goals. In the process of doing everything so big in your public and professional life,
you become known as a big deal. Sagittarius’ house in our birth chart shows our potential for
excess. So, you definitely can have some excessive aspirations because you don’t really slow

PISCES RISING
416

down to consider whether or not it’s realistic or if you have the resources to do it or if it will all
turn out like you envisioned. You pursue your goals with such an idealism that it can end up
becoming a trap. Not only can those in the world be let down when you don’t live up to their
ideals, you very easily feel let down when your work life isn’t as idealized as you want it to be.
But, this is why it’s so important to stay positive! You have to know that you have the power
to manifest absolutely whatever goals, career, recognition, or longevity you’d like to manifest.
You’re a real example of believing so much that you can pull something off that you ultimately
do. It may seem naïve, reckless, immature, or foolish to the rest of the world. Yet, you will
eventually get the last laugh when you’re making all of your dreams come true. Since you have
a lot of dreams, you’re easily going to feel restless within your career because you have many,
many yearnings to turn into realities. You never want to feel stagnant or trapped within a
certain field, job, or path because of this. Instead, having Jupiter as the ruler of your 10th gives
you an attitude of “more, more, more” in terms of the ventures you get involved in
professionally. You can actually come off as highly aspirational or ambitious because of this,
which is something that may throw you off, at times, because you will identify with being a
person with a dream, just like everybody else.
Whatever you believe in doing as a profession, go for it. There is no particular set of boxes
that you’re going to fit in when it comes to your career. Any set sort of trajectory will only limit
you. Instead, you are most successful in anything that truly inspires you and that feels like an
amazing adventure. You’re also going to be drawn toward careers that let you really live out
your truth somehow. This placement means that you’re aiming for the real truth in life, using it
as a strategy to be somebody. In spite of sometimes being out of touch with what’s really going
on, you have the ability to curate an image for yourself as someone who is as honest and
straightforward as the day is long. In fact, you can garner a reputation for being rather blunt
and tactless or, to put it more kindly, very candid. The work involved in knowing the truth
means that you have to have a slew of experiences that help you significantly grow and learn.
In doing so, you’ll know what’s real and what’s not.
So, any job that involves a ton of exciting, awe-inspiring experiences is what you need. This
spreads you all around the world (traveling for your job is particularly attractive to you) and
allows you to be known in many different corners. But, you regularly bite off way more than
you can chew, in this sense. Your innate lack of psychic boundaries causes you to be too

PISCES RISING
417

messy, too uncensored, too over-the-top, or too available out in the world, which either leads
to constant moments of embarrassment or just a feeling of being very overwhelmed by what
you thought you wanted. Be careful what you wish for! This influence is like have wild dreams
of fame and fortune and wanting it really badly and then achieving all of that and totally
regretting it. With actual famous people with this Midheaven, there is a real sense of being
particularly trapped by their fame or running away from it. If you aspire to be this legendary
figure, you’ve got to deal with the consequences of being that huge.
Ultimately, you’ll successfully deal with the vast amounts of recognition and success that you
get by not taking it seriously and always remaining grateful. The former attitude will allow you
to remain a light spirit in society. Even when you feel really sad or alone, on a personal level,
most people will not know it. You not only feel like you have this duty to keep things positive
for people but you realize that the only way you can maintain a solid career is by remaining
positive yourself. So, having a public image as the comic relief, the one with the great laugh
and the steady jokes who can keep things light for others, will be the result of that. Also,
remaining grateful only allows you to continue to manifest that success. You have to work for it
yet you also have to always remember that it’s about luck. With Sagittarius in the 10th, such
amazing opportunities can just fall right into your lap. It can even seem like you’ve had it very
easy and didn’t even have to try too hard. But, what you have to work at most is your capacity
for gratitude. Refusing to believe or finding yourself unable to believe in the Universe’s
abundance or goodness creates struggle and failure for you. When you remain a disciplined
manifester, you will get where you need to go.
CAPRICORN ON THE 11TH HOUSE CUSP
Since Capricorn is in your 11th, you don’t consider yourself the most structured person. You
possess an innate sense of detachment and distance (11th House) from rigid rules and strict
regulations (Capricorn). This is why you go through life feeling really punished in odd, random,
unexpected, or crazy-making ways. You constantly harbor a sense that you’re on the receiving
end of some nasty karma and you don’t know where it’s coming from or why it’s happening.
The guilt complex that you live with doesn’t make that easy to process. Also, the more you try
to just go with the flow of things, the more you hit all of these walls. The house cusp that
Capricorn is in represents major difficulties in our lives. So, you can have this belief that

PISCES RISING
418

everything is fine and things aren’t going negatively for you. But, then, something happens to
throw you completely off and show you that your existence isn’t as easy as you think.
A lot of this stems from your relationship with your father. Having Capricorn here means that
the father figure in your life was essentially a very unpredictable person. This could have been
experienced in a generally positive sense, making him a quirky, exciting parent who kept you on
your toes. In this case, the rules weren’t traditional and led to a bond between you two that
wasn’t a conventional parent-child relationship. It felt more like a buddy-buddy sort of dynamic.
Yet, feeling too much like your father was a peer could’ve made it hard to feel like you could
seek out solid wisdom and guidance from him. In some cases, Dad was actually very unstable,
incapable of being someone solid you could rely on, whether that meant constantly forgetting
to tend to his parental duties and/or engaging in erratic or even bizarre behavior.
The sense of discipline you experienced from your paternal figure may have also been really
unreliable. In a more negative and dysfunctional sense, Capricorn in the 11th can also manifest
as a Dad who would come down on you in the most unexpected of ways. Being on the
receiving end of unpredictable fits and rages or rules that he would constantly switch up on you
in a perverse way would meant you’d get in trouble no matter what you did or said. It made it
hard for you to know exactly what the guidelines were and how to follow them. This also
could’ve really defined your early social experiences. The 11th House shows how we connected
to our peers, early in life, and how we continue to yet it also indicates what makes us feel out-
of-place or unaccepted socially. You can have major issues feeling socially adjusted. Being this
creature who is out-of-this-world probably made it hard for you to have very grounded,
“normal” interactions with your peers and friends, early in life. Social judgments hit you much
harder than most, as well. Since you’re so sensitive, you felt unaccepted all too easily.
The thing that distances you the most from people is not knowing what’s expected of you.
When you don’t know what the rules or parameters are in a social gathering, you end up feeling
overwhelmed, lost in the crowd, in great anticipation over someone’s criticism or disapproval.
This is part of what makes you innately shy, withdrawn, or introverted. Most social situations
don’t come with clear-cut rules and, earlier in life, you can really flounder because of this. I
think one of the keys to overcoming this is either having a better relationship with your father
or a better understanding of it. You want a bond with your father figure that feels like a real
friendship. This is often easier to achieve with the “cool dad” type. In this instance, he will get

PISCES RISING
419

along with your peers very well throughout your life, not embarrassing you but, instead,
impressing those who you brought over. You might be looking for such approval from your Dad,
wanting him to tell you that you’re cool and that he just loves hanging out with you, or you
might be seriously weighed down by his seemingly arbitrary disapproval.
If you still struggle with that, you’ll recreate those obstacles with your peers out in the world.
In the end, the best way for you to find social acceptance is through the work that you do. This
is why socializing feels like so much work to you, why you most likely plop down on to the
couch after a party, exhausted and stressed, like you just came home from an eight-hour shift.
You shouldn’t feel like you have to work for social acceptance and inclusion, though. Many of
you with this influence will grow up being the bullied child in the corner or the outcast that no
one understands. Experiencing some particularly cruel social behavior or suffering from very
painful social awkwardness, while growing up, leaves some serious scars. But, if you don’t
assume control in your social world, you will remain that little boy or girl, wanting the cool kids’
approval and terrified of or preoccupied with their backlash.
Gaining respect in your social world is very important to you and one surefire way to do this
is to fully dedicate yourself to various causes. Doing something that makes a difference in the
world strengthens you and gives you purpose. Also, your sense of idealism will develop in a way
that strives to strengthen others and give them purpose. You could particularly gravitate toward
any sort of cause that makes those who feel weak, unrecognized, unimportant, or
unaccomplished assume greater control over their lives. Yet, it’s going to be hard for you to feel
truly in control of your life and, to some extent, that’s the way it has to be. Saturn serving as
the ruler of the 11th means that you have to detach from a sense of personal authority. This
will also mean a sense of distance from the father’s authority. It’s definitely important for you to
go through your own rebellion (though it may be a bit later in life), to not feel a burning urge to
impress your Dad, to avoid strictly following his protocol. If you have more of an open-minded,
nontraditional father figure, this is much easier to do as he will probably encourage this. But, if
you have a father who came down on you through discipline that was all-over-the-place, forget
about his approval. Forget about his judgments. As an adult, you get to make your own rules.
Surprisingly, you will end up making a lot of the rules in your social world. Trying to get away
from this authoritative position will only make you, more and more, the one your acquaintances
and friends turn to for guidance or plans. You know what it’s like to exist disconnected from a

PISCES RISING
420

sense of stability. So, whenever a friend is having a hard time, you’re going to be there for
them, through thick and thin. This is where you experience problems, though. Again, it’s
important for you to make sure that you’re not expending your efforts on the wrong friends.
Getting socially involved and entangled with very difficult, negative, or harsh friends who only
proceed to weigh you down or make life harder for you is a rite of passage with Capricorn in
the 11th. Also, maybe these people just don’t put any effort into the friendship at all, leaving all
the work to you. Eventually, you will learn that you’re better off conserving your energy for
people who are going to be great “co-workers”, so to speak. In fact, you will often get on better
with friends you make on the job and who are great to work with. Someone can only be a
major part of your social life if they are reliable and solid. Otherwise, you’re perfectly fine
engaging at a bare minimum, in a way that can be startlingly cold, distant, or removed.
AQUARIUS ON THE 12TH HOUSE CUSP
There is so much that goes on inside of you that you cannot totally explain or understand.
Aquarius on the 12th House cusp indicates that there is a very out-of-control Universe within
you that you go out of your way, usually unconsciously, to contain and repress. Why? Because
you don’t want to feel disconnected from everyone else. Feeling so at one with humanity means
that you identify with everyone. You see yourself as someone who is a part of everyone,
whether you actually realize this or not. So, the notion of being misunderstood is particularly
painful for you because you don’t want to feel that disconnect from your fellow man. You
already struggle with a sense of loneliness, of being forgotten, of not being seen. But, being
able to become everyone you encounter helps you escape that sense of separateness. In the
process, you lose your sense of individuality.
Whatever is in the 12th House very often gets repressed yet finds extreme ways of re-
emerging. Having Aquarius in the 12th shows that you have somehow repressed your
uniqueness throughout life. You have done this by being the eternal chameleon, either shape-
shifting into so many different people that you’ve forgotten who you are or by trying too hard
to be who others want you to be. Being turned into some cookie-cutter version of yourself can
either be a voluntary or involuntary choice of yours. But, as you become someone else, you will
end up losing track of what makes you different. Eventually, this is what causes the illusion
you’ve built around yourself to be ruined. And with this influence, when that happens, it
happens in ways that can be particularly outlandish or outrageous. It’s like you’ve spent all of

PISCES RISING
421

this time pretending to be another person and then you very abruptly and wildly break out of
character, shocking the person on the receiving end.
There is a profoundly rebellious side to you, due to all of this repression. This is the other
extreme of Uranus ruling the 12th House because you will end up becoming highly defiant and
rule-breaking, just for the sake of it. You will either strike out with such extraordinary chaos
that you make a complete mess of everything or you will turn very much inward in order to
experience that freedom from others’ expectations. It’s no wonder why you can become so
isolated, so intent on being alone and doing your own thing. Solitude can be the only time that
you truly feel free to be yourself, setting aside all the personas and the guises. However, this
torments you because it makes you feel like you’re never going to be accepted if people knew
just how crazy or weird or out-there you are. You innately know that there’s something very
different about you but you have ways of hiding that from other people, either making you
desperate to be a part of their world or dive back into yours and never come back.
Aquarius in the 12th also shows that a great deal of your pain and suffering stems from a
sense of being helplessly unable to do anything about the pain and suffering in the world.
Aquarius is the sign that makes a difference yet with it being swallowed up in the 12th House,
you can very easily feel like trying to make a difference is futile. This leads to not only a sense
of fatalism, a belief that you’re just stuck in the same never-ending, never-changing cycle, but
that there is actually no help for humanity. You might not realize it or even be able to articulate
it but a part of you weeps so much for mankind that you get to a point where you can’t shed
any tears anymore or refuse to. This manifests in one of two ways. There are times where you
can become surprisingly cold and unsympathetic toward other people’s suffering. It’s
exhausting to be an empath, after all, and you can start to believe that if you just shut off that
sensitivity, you’d be fine. During these moments, you feel strangely unmoved or uninterested in
someone else’s problems. It’s also possible that you just feel like the world is going to hell in a
handbasket and there’s nothing you can do about it. What’s the use of charity, of
humanitarianism, of kindness even, when people are just going to continue to be as cruel,
selfish, and callous as they’ve been for centuries?
When you feel this way, you are actually tapping into something very universal: that feeling
we’ve all had that humanity is doomed or that society is never going to get better. For you,
healing stems from letting go of these beliefs. The notion of being unable to make a difference

PISCES RISING
422

is just an illusion. Anything we do or say can make a difference in anyone’s lives, no matter how
big or small the impact. When you find healing through this realization, you’ll also come to
understand that, because we all can make a difference, there is nothing shameful or wrong
about being different. By releasing the pain and the fear involved in being misunderstood,
ostracized, or marginalized, you will not only find inner peace for yourself. You will also be able
to extend great compassion and healing to anyone else who has felt misunderstood, ostracized,
or marginalized in life. This is why you can gravitate so much toward society’s “strays” and why
you have such an intuitive ability to see deeply into the humanity of someone else, beyond all
of the external and physical things that cause them to be labeled as “other.”
You will also come to appreciate the alternative inner experiences that you have. While you
cannot seek solitude to just totally distance yourself from others, you also reach such brilliant,
unique states of understanding through your alone time. Much of this will involve your
spirituality as well as your artistic life. You possess a real genius for whatever is intuitive,
metaphysical, or imaginative. Yet, you can go through life feeling like your exceptional
intelligence just isn’t recognized. In many instances, it won’t be, to the point where you’re
treated like you’re stupid or someone who just doesn’t get it. But, this is all the more reason for
you to go within and to know that you understand things with advanced clarity that many
people not only don’t understand but don’t even know exists.
A real wildness defines your most internal experiences. It can actually get to the point where
it feels too uncontrollable or strange for you. Easily entering into states of astral travel, knowing
exactly what someone is going to say before they say it, having highly vivid and predictive
dreams that inevitably come to pass, or even being able to commune with those in the afterlife
are all typical results of Aquarius in the 12th. It’s hard to talk about with other people,
especially since you feel like you’ll be labeled as crazy or a freak. Yet, I think there is a turning
point in the Pisces Rising’s life where they recognize that they actually have an amazing gift.
Your psychic powers, your spiritual insights, your artistic prowess, or just your ability to be a
source of healing and comfort for others create tremendous shifts in people’s lives. You can be
responsible for amazing breakthroughs in others’ understanding all while not entirely
understanding just how you did it. Often times, this is the best approach.
Also, when you transcend the notions of what is worthy of approval and what isn’t, you’ll be
able to appreciate your magical powers far more, regardless of whether or not society does.

PISCES RISING
423

You might appear to be living a quiet, peaceful life yet, when you reach this state of awareness,
you will be constantly defying society’s notions of what’s realistic, what’s rational, what’s best
for you. Being as sensitive as you are can be seen as especially unpopular and uncool in this
world, to the point where it leads to ridicule and mockery. Pursuing an artistic path is
something that you may be constantly told is impractical and won’t lead to anything. Also,
having the level of intuition you possess, being someone who believes in spiritual things like
astrology that aren’t grounded in the “real world”, gain you dismissal from certain people who
call you irrational or stupid for believing in such things. Every Pisces Ascendant is going to
experience at least one of these forms of alienation in their life (often two, possibly all three).
But, you find your inner peace by embracing the alienation, remembering that you’re not really
of this world and that you don’t have to be.
Besides, you’ll find that when you try to resist the inner giftedness within you that makes you
the transcendent being that you are, it will always backfire on you. It’s such a powerful energy
that you have within and it must be freely expressed. If not, it will only cause you to break
down further and further, feeling increasingly crazy or distanced from everyone else. But, what
is crazy and what is sanity? Through your spiritual awareness, your artistic life, or your selfless
efforts, you will find that these definitions are so loose to the point of barely even having
meaning. Weirdness is relative to everyone and we’ve all had moments of strangeness, either in
our experiences or our ways of being. We’ve all felt like we were going crazy or were made to
feel that way by others. Once you find your transcendence, you will be able to help other
people transcend the world’s judgmental labels.
You’ll also have to do this without looking for much nonjudgment in return. This placement is
about knowing that you live in a harsh, judgmental world yet still finding your own inner
freedom, whether it’s through metaphysical studies or forms of magic that help you break the
rules, modes of artistic expression that let you go completely wild and do all sorts of weird
things, or liberating yourself to reach out and touch any fellow human being, no matter what
status they have or sector of society they are a part of. No wonder you’re going to, in some
way, always prefer your own little world. The Universe you inhabit is much more freeing and
open-minded than this present one.

PISCES RISING
424

PISCES RISING
425

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayman Stewart was born in 1989. A Leo with a Scorpio Moon and Aquarius Ascendant, he has
been studying astrology since 2008. Having worked as a professional astrologer for several
years, he has self-published many e-books on various topics. He published The Descendant –
The Other Half Of You in 2017, an e-book focusing on the Descendant in astrology and its
effects on people’s relationships with others. Other works followed in 2019, including The Rising
Sign – Welcome To Your Life, Aspects in Astrology, and The North Node – Your Soul’s Purpose,
with the latter two being comprised largely of previous blog articles of his.

Stewart currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Although he is an astrologer by day, he is also an


actor and writer who is focusing on producing his own content.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

You might also like