sun sign astrology

The role of the Ascendant in defining ourselves

56602076 - what's your story written on the road sign with valley backgroundThe Ascendant and the Sun sign are often confused and I blame this on Sun sign astrology (so-called “horoscopes” that you see on the web and in newspapers which claim to predict the future based on the sign your Sun was in at the time you were born).  Sun sign astrology claims that the Sun describes your personality but this is actually the job of the Ascendant (also called the rising sign because it was rising on the horizon at the time you were born).   The Sun sign reflects our soul’s purpose this time around – astrologer Liz Greene calls the Sun sign the Hero’s Quest.   I like to think of the Sun sign as the “mission” that we were assigned when we came to earth.   This is not always visible to others, but the Ascendant, since it reflects our personality and the way we appear to others and the way we live our life, IS visible.

An acquaintance of mine popped into my office the other day.  She had always thought that she was born in the morning, but she found her birth certificate and discovered that she was born at night! So instead of her Ascendant being the sign of Cancer, which she had always believed, it apparently was Sagittarius, a very big difference.  This mind blowing discovery coincided with a big change in this person’s physical appearance which had inspired numerous personality changes such as becoming more outgoing and confident, both Sagittarian traits.

Not only that, as a result of this increase in confidence she has begun to make changes in her personal relationships (the Ascendant is the cusp of the First House of […]

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By |2016-08-02T07:31:49-04:00August 2nd, 2016|Consciousness|2 Comments

It’s true: Astrology can’t predict the state of your marriage

astrology compatibilityFirst, there is not an astrologer in the world today that makes prediction on marriage success using sun signs.  Thanks to the Internet there is enough information available to the general public about astrology to educate everyone that astrology involves far more than just the sign the Sun was in at the time of your birth.

So I am very surprised that if an academic institution like the University of Manchester was going to conduct an in-depth study on the effectiveness of astrology on predicting marriage duration, that they used sun sign prediction for their massive study of ten million marriages.

They do preface the article by admitting that

A complete horoscope, or natal chart, includes information about where the sun, moon and planets would have been observed relative to each other and to the constellations of the zodiac at the time and place of the subject’s birth. Popular astrology in the West focuses on one key element in this chart: the ‘sun sign’ (or ‘star sign’ in colloquial parlance), which is determined by the position of the earth in its annual revolution around the sun.

So it doesn’t really make sense that the study then goes on to conflate “astrology” with Sun signs.

You can read the study yourself if you like, but suffice it to say that the research found no correlation between marriages and astrological signs that was greater than the statistical chance would suggest.

Even if we put aside for a moment the argument that Sun signs are generally one of the LEAST significant indicators of compatibility, I have found in 30 years of working with clients that the most successful marriages are among the least compatible charts.  Compatibility is just not that significant an indicator of marital success.

Most of […]

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By |2020-07-25T08:30:46-04:00July 29th, 2013|Predictions, Relationships, Sun sign astrology|3 Comments

This is why Sun Sign astrology doesn’t work

A reader writes:

I was born under the sign of LEO. I think I have two other planets in LEO. I can tell you that I am far from a LEO. In areas that I should be strong because of my LEO traits, I am often handicapped by fear/anxiety. At times I think I strongly identify more with Virgo than LEO. I was wondering if you could tell what else in my chart that would account for this and if there is anything I can do to achieve the most positive aspects of LEO to the fullest.

This guy, let’s call him Fred, does indeed have the Sun in Leo and he also has Uranus in Leo which being a generational placement doesn’t add much Leo to his personality.  In addition, his Sun is square to Neptune, the planet of mists and illusion, which does tend to water down that Leo somewhat and make it more of a challenge to find the Self that Leo needs so strongly to express.

More importantly, though, he has Virgo rising (the rising sign represents the persona, the style in which we live our life) so it’s no wonder he identifies with the sign of Virgo, and Virgo is very different from Leo.  Fred has the North Node in Leo, so during this lifetime he is meant to move more fully into the Leo experience but he has to balance that Leo strength and power with the Virgo need for restraint and modesty.  Often when an individual has Leo and Virgo both manifesting strongly in their charts they will identify with one over the other, and the key to integration is to allow both of these influences to exist simultaneously.

There’s no doubt that Fred is powerful – Pluto sits right on his ascendant. […]

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By |2010-02-10T08:24:01-05:00February 10th, 2010|Sun sign astrology|Comments Off on This is why Sun Sign astrology doesn’t work

Why Sun Signs are Stupid

I love this video from Jeff – and while I completely agree with his rant against reducing astrology to a simplistic look at sun signs, I would like to point out that all of us do have Suns, and they are all in signs, and that the Sun is the most important single piece of the chart.  However, it is still just one part of a celestial puzzle, and every piece is an important one.

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By |2009-05-19T08:16:36-04:00May 19th, 2009|Astrology|Comments Off on Why Sun Signs are Stupid

Philip Sedgwick on 2012 and my thoughts on the Mayan Calendar and Age of Aquarius

Philip Sedgwick has a post on his new blog at Matrix that is chock full of interesting points to share.  Philip is an interesting astrologer – he was one of the first astrologers to work with the Galactic Center point which was so much in the news over the past few years as Pluto made a conjunction to it.  He is still exploring realms outside the boundaries of ordinary astrology, looking for ways to integrate the new Solar System into the astrological language.

Philip wrote an election blog for Huffington Post last year, and his commentary on that experience made me very glad I was picked up by Beliefnet and not, say, the New York Times which frankly was my fantasy.  It just shows that the Universe knows what’s best.  At any rate, Philip’s experience was not very enjoyable:

In honor of Mercury’s impending retrograde, allow me to back up first. Last fall I had the pleasure of writing a blog regarding election polling and the upcoming U. S. Presidential Election for the Huffington Post. My posts appeared under a subcategory entitled Huffpollstrology. But when I started writing for HuffPo, the first post was placed in the column with the standard array of mainstream bloggers. Oh my! I discovered that despite the stats about the general public loving to read sun sign columns, approximately 80% of the comments received about my first post were hostile, hateful and ignorant of the topic they condemned, which in the realm of blogging has nothing to do with anything. The ridicule came in from the obvious religious quarters, those who despise superstition and well educated and/or intelligent folks who condemned the idiocy of those who put credence into astrology. The spiteful comments continued through the tenure of my columns leading up to the […]

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By |2018-07-15T09:51:14-04:00January 14th, 2009|2012, Age of Aquarius|Comments Off on Philip Sedgwick on 2012 and my thoughts on the Mayan Calendar and Age of Aquarius