Ascendant

The ascendant (, Asc or As), is the zodiacal sign and degree that is ascending on the eastern horizon at the specific time and location of an event. According to astrological theory, celestial phenomena reflect or determine human activity on the principle of 'as above, so below'. Thus astrologers believe that the ascendant signifies a person's awakening consciousness, in the same way that the Sun's appearance on the eastern horizon signifies the dawn of a new day. The ascendant (, Asc or As), is the zodiacal sign and degree that is ascending on the eastern horizon at the specific time and location of an event. According to astrological theory, celestial phenomena reflect or determine human activity on the principle of 'as above, so below'. Thus astrologers believe that the ascendant signifies a person's awakening consciousness, in the same way that the Sun's appearance on the eastern horizon signifies the dawn of a new day. Because the ascendant is specific to a particular time and place, to astrologers it signifies the individual environment and conditioning that a person receives during their upbringing, and also the circumstances of their childhood. For this reason astrologers believe that the ascendant is also concerned with how a person has learned to present themself to the world, especially in public and in impersonal situations. To astrologers, in some circumstances, it can function as a shield or mask to guard a person's real nature - in other words the 'defense mechanism' every person has to cope with unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations. Astrologers believe the ascendant also has a strong bearing on a person's physical appearance and overall health. The Ascendant is thus considered to be of great significance in all schools of astrology because it in effect serves as the filter through which everything in a horoscope- including the Sun and Moon- is expressed. Most astrologers believe that the Rising Sign exerts an influence equal to or more powerful than the Sun and Moon. In Jyotish, the ascendant is without question the most individual and defining element in the chart. Although Babylonian astronomers had observed the actual rising times of the signs, there is no specific mention of the ascendant in the texts that have survived on clay tablets. By the 3rd century B.C., Egyptians looked at the rising of specific asterisms to identify the ascending sign and get an approximate time of the night and that is reflected in the name subsequently given by the Greeks to the ascendant: horoskopos, or “hour marker”. ὡρόσκοπος in the sense of 'ascendant' and ὡροσκοπία 'observation of the ascendant' was used in the Greek manuscript of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos. The Ascendant, from an astrological point of view, is the value of the ecliptical geocentric longitude (aka Celestial Longitude, λ) which is easterly on the horizon. This intersection of the horizon with the ecliptic can be calculated from: λ A s c = arctan ⁡ ( y x ) = arctan ⁡ ( − cos ⁡ θ L sin ⁡ θ L cos ⁡ ε + tan ⁡ ϕ sin ⁡ ε ) {displaystyle lambda _{ m {Asc}}=arctan left({frac {y}{x}} ight)=arctan left({frac {-cos heta _{ m {L}}}{sin heta _{ m {L}}cos varepsilon + an phi sin varepsilon }} ight)} where θ L {displaystyle heta _{ m {L}}} is the local sidereal time in degrees, ε {displaystyle varepsilon } is the inclination of Earth's equatorial plane to the ecliptic (Axial tilt). For values referred to the standard equinox J2000.0 use ε {displaystyle varepsilon } = 23.4392911°; for J1950.0 use ε {displaystyle varepsilon } = 23.4457889°. ϕ {displaystyle phi } is the observer's terrestrial latitude (Southern latitudes are negative, Northern positive). The Ascendant is then found in the correct quadrant (0 to 360 degrees) by using the two rules: By definition of Ascendant, we have to take the point easterly (the rising one, less than 180° from the Midheaven) by using a final rule: Otherwise a direct result in the correct quadrant can be determined if calculator or programming software has the atan2(y,x) math function and then using the last rule.