How to Find Your Rising Sign

If you know what hour & minute you were born (and the town or city) an accurate "birth horoscope" can be cast. If you have your own birth chart, then imagine it's a clock face and find the 9 o'clock position. That is your true Ascendant point; and the Sign it's in is known as the Rising Sign.

Signs rise past the Ascendant by 1 degree every 4 minutes, thus the Rising Sign changes every 2 hours or so. You can guess your Rising Sign by counting 2-hour periods from the time of Sunrise on your day of birth. From 2 hours (or less) before Sunrise to the time of Sunrise, the Sun (and the Sign it's in) is rising, and exactly at Sunrise the Rising Sign is always the same as the Sun Sign. For some time before and after Sunrise this is also true, but whether it's 1 or 120 minutes depends on your birth date - the earlier it occurs within the range of dates for your Sun Sign, the longer the time BEFORE Sunrise your Rising Sign remains the same as your Sun Sign.

At some time in the next 2 hours or less, the Rising Sign becomes the Sign after your Sun Sign, and so on for 24 hours. To figure out your Rising Sign count the number of 2-hour periods after Sunrise to your time of birth; then count the same number of Signs after your Sun Sign to get to your "estimated" Rising Sign. If you were born 1 to 120 minutes after Sunrise, that is 1 period, and your estimated Rising Sign is one sign after your Sun Sign. If your Sun Sign is Leo and you were born at 3 AM, 21 hours after the last Sunrise (about 6-8 AM), then your Rising Sign is 21/2 = 10.5 Signs after Leo (after Pisces count Aries/Taurus/...) which is Gemini.
The true Rising Sign might be one closest to the "estimated" Sign. Adjacent Rising Signs appear very different, and since they indicate how people see you on first impression, you can relate traits you obviously display in your "style" to traits of the true Rising Sign, and choose which one "is you".  Click for Rising Sign Table  ©2001 by  Michael Star