Any exploration of a birth chart starts with the same foundation: an in-depth look at what we call your Big Three: your sun, moon, and rising signs. Your sun sign is the essence of your chart: your sense of self, your primary concerns. Your rising sign, or ascendant, is the essence of your external presence in the world, and how others see you. Your moon sign represents your inner world and the emotional framework that you use to navigate life.
Your Sun Sign
The sun is the home of your truest self. Just as the literal sun creates the conditions for life on Earth, the astrological sun is the source of creative energy in our charts. Our deepest inspirations and the highest dreams for our lives are both powered by the sun’s energy. That’s why astrologers often say that your sun sign is your ultimate identity, and why sun sign horoscopes are the most popular gateway into astrology. The placement of your sun reflects your overall approach to life, your values, and your creative energy.
However, it’s a common over-simplification to say that your sun sign is “who you are.” On one hand, it’s true that the basic energies of your sun sign are at the core of your psyche. All the other planets and the other aspects of your personality revolve around the sun. On the other hand, it makes sense that some people don’t relate strongly to their sun sign because the seeds planted in the bedrock of your personality are not always immediately obvious, and they can be overshadowed by other planets and transits, or different situations in your life that might make other influences more prevalent. You’re simply more complex than one sign, and that’s totally normal!
Instead of thinking of your sun sign as the last word in the story of who you are, think of it like the title of the book, and no matter what happens over the course of your life story, the sun stays central. To put it another way, the position of the sun in your chart is more a picture of who you are constantly becoming than who you appear to be at any given moment. In astrology, the sun rules your highest self, the self that helps you choose who you are, rather than who you are when you’re on autopilot. The sun shapes the way you come to your final decisions, and in this way, it shapes the path of your life.
Your Moon Sign
If the sun is the constant source of illumination and life-giving energy, the moon is a more mysterious presence. The light that the moon emanates is a glowing reflection of the sun. This glow illuminates our inner world, the watery realm of emotion, reaction, and our deepest needs. Although the sun’s energy is powerful, it is also distant, always disappearing behind the horizon, always out of reach. The moon, on the other hand, is so intimately tied to our life on Earth, that it can appear almost close enough to touch. The moon’s presence in our skies ebbs and flows like the ocean tides that it creates in our seas. It’s no wonder that, with all the moon’s intrinsic ties to our life on Earth, astrologers pay special attention not just to the moon’s position at the moment of our birth, but also its movement through the zodiac.
The moon shows us how to care for ourselves and others. Care is not one-size-fits-all, and when it comes to self-care many of us struggle to find out what works for us. Working with your moon sign can be a very powerful way to connect with the self-care practices that truly soothe you when you need it most. Diving into your moon sign’s profile offers insight into how to cope after a hectic work day, after an emotionally draining argument, or in the throes of heartbreak or grief. When you feel totally depleted and vulnerable, the moon’s imprint on your inner world becomes most obvious.
Have you ever tried to explain to someone what love means to you? If so, you’ve probably run up against the feeling that you can’t really explain such deep experiences with words. This experience is like trying to tell someone about the part of you that the moon influences—the part that is so intimate that we struggle to explain why we react the way we do, we can only observe the influence in situations that draw these reactions out of us and allow those closest to us to witness us when we are truly vulnerable.
Your Rising Sign
The basic picture of who you are isn’t complete without your rising sign. Your whole birth chart begins with the rising sign, or the sign that rose in the eastern horizon in the sky when you were born. Your rising sign is the line between the 12th house in your chart and the 1st house, and this changes every two hours (which is why precise birth info is so important!) Also called your ascendant sign, this part of your chart reveals the impressions you make on others. This placement determines the version of “you” that is projected to others, it sets the tone for how you see the world and how you interact with your surroundings. If you’re not totally sold on your sun sign as an accurate representation of who you are, you’re not alone. Many of us are more in touch with our rising signs because it’s the version of who we are that is most often reinforced by the people around us and the experiences of our day-to-day life.
Together with your sun and moon sign, the sign that was rising as you were born creates a general picture of who you are, while the other placements in your chart depict more nuanced aspects of your personality and your life. You might have noticed that, unlike the other two key players (the sun and moon), your rising sign is not an astrological planet. The rising sign is not a planet or a zodiac sign, instead, it is the cusp of your first house. The reason this spot carries so much astrological weight is that it serves as a kind of starting place for all the other energies in your natal chart, including your sun and moon. Because this sign is so specific to the time and place of your birth, it captures the early environment and the social conditioning that shapes the way all the other placements manifest in your interactions. It is an imprint of the energetic gateway that you pass through as you are born. The rising is sometimes called the mask you wear for other people. This isn’t to say that we’re all hiding who we really are, it’s just the way we were formed on the surface and it’s as true to who we are as any of the other natal influences, especially in childhood when so much is projected onto us. As we age, some astrologers believe that the rising sign takes more of a backseat in our personalities, as we get more comfortable in our own skin and live more into our unique destiny.
The rising sign has a lot to do with sight— it is the first sign we see on the horizon and it is the first way people see us. It impacts our first impressions and many astrologers think that it even shapes our physical appearance and elements of our health. For example, Libra rising natives are said to have melodic voices, big smiles, and great personal style, whereas Leo rising natives might have a distinct mane of hair, dramatic facial expressions, and a regal bearing. Of course, these traits are subjective and vary dramatically across cultures and times. But, astrology is most useful when it is understood as a creative and interpretive art based on astronomical science. The insights gained from learning about your rising sign are meant to be reflective, intuitive, and generative instead of precise and perfectly literal.
Beyond those three, most astrologers will be able to tell you about how each planet influences your life, depending on how it’s positioned relative to the other planets, about how the different areas in your life are shaped by the constellations present in any of the given houses, and major themes in your life. There’s so much to explore—make sure to check out your interactive birth chart to see all your astrological placements in one place!