Ascendant in the Constellations - interpretation resources

[Jim Eshelman]

The Ascendant sign is regarded of almost no importance by Siderealists.I routinely ignore it.

I do believe it has some significance, but of so superficial a facade of expression that I tend to see through it so fast as to miss it. Some superficial traits do tend to anchor to the Ascendant sign, such as a nickname or sobriquette, popular images of celebrities, etc.

Statistical studies of character traits produce weak, poor results for the Ascendant (at most, only about as strong as, say, the Jupiter sign), In most cases, Midheaven sign shows better, though it, too, is weak. Since Midheaven and Ascendant signs are inherently (mathematically) connected, it makes sense that if you are going to interpret them at all, you do so only as a pair.

Mostly, only the findings derived from the Gauquelin data are given below.

INDEX/LINKS TO Ascendant-SIGN NOTES
Ascendant in Taurus viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75#p402
Ascendant in Gemini viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75#p403
Ascendant in Cancer viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75#p404
Ascendant in Leo viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p405
Ascendant in Virgo viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p406
Ascendant in Libra viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p407
Ascendant in Scorpio viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p408
Ascendant in Sagittarius viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=403#p409
Ascendant in Capricorn viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p410
Ascendant in Aquarius viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p411
Ascendant in Pisces viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p412
Ascendant in Aries viewtopic.php?f=13&t=75&p=401#p413

[Jim Eshelman]

Notebook #93 observations: Generally reliable, helpful, salt-of-the-earth, and sweet. Even in conflict they tend to be remarkably clean in communication and very up front and friendly about it.

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Poet, witty, talkative, courageous, sociable, energetic, sympathetic
Significantly low: Secretive, sensual

(Italicized traits also showed for a Capricorn Midheaven.)

Alan Dershowitz, Amanda Knox, Amy Winehouse, Barbara Bain, Brian Wilson, Cass Elliot, Candy Barr, King Charles VIII, Charlie Sheen, Christa McAuliffe, Dolly Parton, Dr. Dre, Drew Barrymore, Dymphna Cusack, Edward Gein, Elias Ashmole, Erica Jong, Gary Duncan, Gene Wilder, George R.R. Martin, George Washington, Ghislaine Maxwell, Giuseppe Verdi, Greta Garbo, Jack Parsons, Jean Piaget, Joanne S. Clancy, Johannes Kepler, John Wayne Bobbitt, JonBenet Ramsey, Jules Verne, Julia Child, Kathleen Battle, Linda Marshall, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Marcel Marceau, Maria Swanenburg, Marianne Williamson, Marlee Matlin, Martha Graham, Michael Dukakis (Gov), Miles Davis, Miley Cyrus, Mindy Kaling, Myra Hindley, Neil Armstrong, Patsy Cline, Phil Spector, Phyllis Schlafly, Reece Witherspoon, Rose McGowan, Rose Mary Woods, Rosie O'Donnell, Crown Prince Rudolph, Rupert S. Gleadow, Salome Jens, Victoria (Queen), Virginia Woolf, Werner Erhard, Werner Heisenberg, Zipporah Dobyns

[Jim Eshelman]

OBSERVATION: No matter how deep and serious a persona actually is, with Gemini rising there is a presentation of superficiality or, at least, of not wanting to be taken seriously. (Contrast Sagittarius rising.)


CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Poet, ambitious, energetic, charming, profound
Significantly low: Romantic, impassioned, mystic, pessimistic, sensual.

(Italicized traits also showed for an Aquarius Midheaven.)

Aaron Kosminski, Adele, Albert Einstein, Alexander Fleming, Ally Sheedy, Anna Moffo, Annette Funicello, Balthus, Billy Joel, Burl Ives, Catherine Corsini, Cher, Dalai Lama XIV, David Brinkley, Dinah Shore, Douglas Adams, Pope Francis I, Fritz Perls, Gene Roddenberry, George Michael, Imelda Marcos, Isaac Hayes, Queen Isabella I, James Huberty, Jane Russell, Jerry Lewis, John Forbes Nash, Jr., Judy Garland, VP Kamala Harris, Karen Carpenter, Lana Turner, Larry Flynt, Lee Harvey Oswald, Leona Helmsley, Lord Byron, Lily Tomlin, King Ludwig II, Marcia Gay Harden, Marie Antoinette, Mark Wahlberg, Mary Shelley, Mila Jovovich, Noel Tyl, Peter Fonda, Polly Bergen, Rami Malek, Richard Alpert, Roberto Assagioli, Ross Perot, Rutherford B. Hayes, Sally Kellerman, Salvador Dali, Sarah Bernhardt, Steffi Graf, Steven Spielberg, Susan Boyle, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, Tuesday Weld, Vincent Van Gogh, Virginia Brooks, Will Rogers, William Heirens

[Jim Eshelman]

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Traveller, romantic
Significantly low: Hardworking, devoted, profound, ambitious, pessimistic

(Italicized traits also showed for an Aries Midheaven. Underlined traits also showed for a Pisces Midheaven.)


Alanis Morissette, Angela Lansbury, Anne Frank, Augusta Foss Heindel, Max Heindel, Bill Gates, Bobby Fischer, Carol Kane, Celine Dion, Duffy, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Elizabeth Stuart, Eric Idle, Florence Farr, Gabriella Papadakis, Garrison Keillor, King George III, George W. Bush, Gov. George Wallace, Giorgio Armani, Glenn Close, Henri III King of France, Indira Gandhi, James Hanratty, James Earl Ray, Janet Baker, Jawaharlal Nehru, Joan of Arc, Joseph Goebbels, Judy Collins, Julia Roberts, Julio Gallo, Karen Hughes, Karen MacNeil, Lauren Bacall, Lauren Hutton, Llewellyn George, Luciano Pavarotti, M.C. Escher, Marilyn Monroe, Maya Angelou, Meryl Streep, Michel Gauquelin, Grand Duchess Olga Romanov, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Graves, Sandra Bernhard, Sri Aurobindo, Stephen King, Susan Strasberg, Susan Watkins, Tanya Tucker, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, Tina Turner, Valerie Harper, William Gray, Wynonna Judd

[Jim Eshelman]

Notebook #93 observations: I see two broad types of Leo Ascendant folks: Those who are really turbulent individuals who didn't know how to function in their lives, and those who persist in commitments, and generally are very effective in managing their lives (and are some of the most wonderful and service-minded of people). This may be a basic test for Leo Ascendant: can they live practically, or only be "legends in their own minds."

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Witty, generous, sincere, passionate
Significantly low: Traveller, methodical, cold

(Italicized traits also showed for a Taurus Midheaven. Underlined traits also showed for an Aries Midheaven.)


Alan Leo, Prince Albert, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angelo A. Buono Jr., Arnold Palmer, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Brooke Shields, Calvin Coolidge, Carl Benz, Chelsea Handler, Chick Corea, VP Dick Cheney, Pres. Donald Trump, Donna Summer, Elisabeth of the Trinity, Florence Maybrick, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Joseph Haydn, George H.W. Bush, Helene Boucher, King Henry VIII, Honore de Balzac, Jackie Robinson, King James I, Jasmine Guy, Jerry Rubin, Jessica Mitford, Joan Ganz Cooney, John Cleese, John F. Kennedy Jr., Josephine Baker, Karin Krog, Kelly Ripa, Leslie Van Houten, Lisa Edelstein, Loni Anderson, King Louis XVI, Madonna, Margaret Hone, Margo St. James, Marlene Dietrich, Martin Luther, Melanie C (Sporty Spice), Melissa Etheridge, Nicolaus Copernicus, O.J. Simpson, Oscar Wilde, Paul Simon, Paula Prentiss, Rachael Ray, Pres. Richard M. Nixon, Ricky Nelson, Roger Ailes, Rosalynn Carter, Rudyard Kipling, Sheila Easton, Stephen Bryer, Steve Jobs, Ted Bundy, Terri Lyne Carrington, Vanessa Redgrave, Wolfgang A. Mozart

[Jim Eshelman]

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Mystic, traveler, devoted, methodical
Significantly low: Witty, charming, kind
(Italicized traits also showed for a Gemini Midheaven.)

Emperor Augustus, Barbara Minty, Pres. Bill Clinton, Carl W. Stahl, Queen Consort Caroline, Charles Atlas, Charles Carter, Pres. Charles De Gaulle, Pres. Chester A. Arthur, Clifford Irving, David Copperfield, David Duke, David Koresh, Dan White, Dwayne Johnson, Erich Segal, Ernest Gallo, Esther Williams, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Emperor Franz Joseph, Gladys Bentley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Harpo Marx, Pres. Harry S Truman, Helen Duncan, Helen Hunt, James Eshelman, Pres. James Garfield, Jean Harlow, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jerry Garcia, Joanne Herring, Pres. John F. Kennedy, Jon Bon Jovi, Joseph Campbell, Judy Blume, Karen Silkwood, Kathy Bates, Lari White, Leonard Cohen, Princess Mary, Queen Consort Mary, Marsha Norman, Monica Lewinsky, Paul McCartney, Paula Abdul, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Speck, Robert Blake, Rudy Giuliani, Sabrina Salerno, Shannen Doherty, Rep. Sonny Bono, St. Therese of Liseux, Starhawk, Stephen Foster, Steve Carrell, Tallulah Bankhead, Theodore Sturgeon, PM Winston Churchill, Pres. Woodrow Wilson

It may be just one of those incredible "coincidences" ... [of 25 cases of drowning or "death by water" in his files] 10 have the constellation Virgo rising, which places Pisces on the Descendant or "cusp of death" a significantly abnormal number of times. There are numerous references in old sources to the connection between Pisces and drowning, and one early text flatly inks death by drowning to what we call the "mutable" signs of the Zodiac. And, as Cyril Fagan rightly pointed out... there appears to be a unanimous agreement that the 7th house is the "house of death."

[After a longer discussion, concentrated on the possible need of astrologers to reassess what the Ascendant means, and hedging that this is all preliminary thinking, he anticipates Ebertin by suggesting, "...if the manner of death does bear a relationship to the way the Zodiac is draped around the natal cusps, some revisions in doctrine are necessary, for it will mean that the Ascendant's effect is primarily environmental..." - JAE]

[Jim Eshelman]

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Sensual, idealist, tenacious, ambitious, active
Significantly low: Witty, combative

(Italicized traits also showed for a Cancer Midheaven. Underlined traits also showed for a Leo Midheaven.)


Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, Alfred Witte, Alfried von Krupp, Andy Griffith, Anne Baxter, Arthur Goode, Austin O. Spare, Bernadette Peters, Bertrand Russell, Cardinal Richelieu, Carole King, Chaka Khan, Chelsea Clinton, Gov. Chris Christie, Claudia Schiffer, Dana Delany, Dean Stockwell, Divine, Elvira, George Eliot, George Harrison, George Sand, Gloria Steinem, Grace Kelly, Grace Slick, Isaac Newton, Israel Regardie, Pres. James Carter, Jane Avril, Jimmy Page, Johann Muller Regiomontanus), John L. Lewis, Johnny Carson, Jonas Salk, Katharine Hepburn, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Kris Kristofferson, Linus Pauling, King Louis XIV, Louis Pasteur, Marcia Clark, Margaret Thatcher, Marion Jones, Mark David Chapman, Marquis de Sade, Mata Hari, Mohandas Gandhi, Nicole Kidman, Nina Hartley, Olga Wormser, Oliver Stone, Oswald Spengler, Paul Cezanne, Paul Janssen, Prince, Sir Richard Burton, Robert Heinlein, Robert Strack, Rod Serling, Roger Ebert, Rosalind Russell, Sara Houcke, Sigmund Freud, Mayor Tom Bradley, Pres. William McKinley, Winnie Ruth Judd

[Jim Eshelman]

Notebook #93 observations: I've seen a surprising number of substance abuse problems with this.

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Authority, hardworking, methodical
Significantly low: Mystic
(Italicized traits also showed for a Leo Midheaven. Underlined traits also showed for a Virgo Midheaven.)

Alan Watts, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barbara Bush, Dane Rudhyar, Dennis Hopper, Diana Princess of Wales, Diane Arbus, Edith Piaf, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elvis Presley, Gladys Knight, Gloria Estefan, Helen Gurley Brown, Henriette Bosmans, Hermann Hesse, Pres. James Madison, Jane Goodall, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jimmy Hynes, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sen. John Glenn, Pres. Joseph Biden Jr., Julian Assange, Kenneth Irving, Kesha Sebert, L. Ron Hubbard, Lenny Bruce, Leonardo Da Vinci, Liliane Bettencourt, Linda Tripp, Liz Greene, Lorraine Hansberry, Luther Burbank, Margaret Cho, Margaret Trudeau, Marlon Brando, Maurice Jarre, Mother Meera, Patti Smith, Speaker Paul Ryan, Phyllis Lyon, Raphael of Urbino, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Simone de Beauvoir, Sydney Pollack, Tammy Faye Bakker, Ted Turner, Timothy Leary, Tommy Blake, will.I.am, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Winona Ryder

[Jim Eshelman]

Notebook #93 observations: Frequently seem as if they have other vistas or dreams they want to explore, other horizons to dance off toward.

OBSERVATION: Most display a need or desire to be taken seriously - adopting a more formal style no matter the rest of their personality, as if wanting to display gravitas. (This doesn't match any of the G findings that I can tell. It's not at all pessimism, for example. It's a Sagittarian feel not a saturnine heaviness.) - Contrast Gemini.

OBSERVATION: Women with this often have a nobility of bearing, which (depending on overall physique) is often expressed as statuesque. Some examples are Catherine Deneuve, Coco Chanel, Sophia Loren, Raquel Welch, Oprah Winfrey, Candace Bergen, and probably Queen Elizabeth I. The trait is not really obvious in the men, many of the best known examples being shorter than average and 'reduced' in their presentation even when otherwise dramatic (I suspect the point is that men do not need these traits in order to be perceived as dignified).

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Pessimistic, energetic
Significantly low: Traveler, impassioned, poet, idealist
(Italicized traits also showed for a Libra Midheaven. Underlined traits also showed for a Virgo Midheaven.)

NOTE: This Ascending sign is one of the best examples of why I persist in putting essentially no emphasis on the Ascendant sign. Its findings are almost perfectly opposite what one might theorize for Sagittarius.

U.S. PRESIDENTS: (none)

Abigail Folger, Agatha Christie, B.F. Skinner, Buddy Holly, Candace Bergen, Carmen Electra, Catherine Deneuve, Cecil Rhodes, Coco Chanel, Dustin Hoffman, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth I, Francis Ford Coppola, Gayle King, George Plantagenet, Hal Holbrook, Hans Eysenck, Hendrik Verwoerd, Immanuel Kant, Pres James K. Polk, Jane Roberts, Rev. Jim Jones, John Berlushi, John Legend, Kylie Jenner, Liberace, Lily Pons, Lois Lowry, Lucy Hutchinson, Malcolm X, Marie Curie, Megan Fox, Michelangelo, Oprah Winfrey, Pattie Boyd, Sec. Pete Buttigieg, Brig. R.C. Firebrace, Raquel Welch, Ray Bradbury, Reinhold Ebertin, Richard E. Byrd, Ruth Buzzi, Samuel Alito, Sophia Loren, Steve Allen, Swami Vivekananda, Warren Buffet

[Jim Eshelman]

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Sympathetic, charming, sentimental, sociable, sensitive
Significantly low: (none)

(Italicized traits also showed for a Scorpio Midheaven.)

Pres. Abraham Lincoln, Alfred Dreyfus, Arthur H. Blackwell, Pres. Barack Obama, Belinda Carlisle, Beverly Sills, Billie Holiday, Billie Jean King, Carl Linnaeus, Carrie Fisher, Celia Franca, Sec. Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Cory Booker, King Edward VIII, H.G. Wells, Harry Houdini, Harvey Milk, Heidi Fleiss, Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, Isaac Low, Czar Ivan the Terrible, Jacqueline Susann, Jenny McCarthy, Joan Jett, Ken Kesey, LeAnn Rimes, Lucky Luciano, Dr. Margaret Millard, Marsilio Ficino, Michael J. Fox, Nat "King" Cole, Pat Nixon, Rene Russo, Robert Louis Stevenson, Roseanne Barr, Simon Newcombe, Stu Sutcliffe, Susan Sarandon, Pres. Thomas Jefferson, Whoopi Goldberg

[Jim Eshelman]

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Kind, impassioned, stubborn, sensitive, cold
Significantly low: Witty

(Italicized traits also showed for a Scorpio Midheaven. Underlined traits also showed for a Sagittarius Midheaven.)

Alan Hale Jr., Alexander Graham Bell, Antonio Banderas, Bela Lugosi, Bruno Hauptmann, Empress Catherine II, Charlene Gallego, Christine Aguilera, Col. Tom Parker, Deepak Chopra, Donald A. Bradley, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Janis Joplin, Sen. John McCain, Joyce Carol Oates, Karl Marx, Katherine Kurtz, Mary Tyler Moore, Matthew Quellas, Nadya Suleman, Nathalie Stutzmann, Oriana Fallaci, Peter Yarrow, Pope Benedict XVI, Ronan Farrow, Sally Eaton, Shirley Jones, Sylvia Plath, Vincent Price, Pres. Warren G. Harding, Whitney Houston

[Jim Eshelman]

To my surprise, a stunning number of people best known for Piscean or Neptunian things in the Example Chart Catalogue (though much of it also may be Sagittarian).

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Sentimental, mystic, active, combative, sensual
Significantly low: Sincere, sympathetic

(Italicized traits also showed for a Sagittarius Midheaven.)

Aimee S. MacPherson, Allen Ginsberg, Annie Besant, Barbara Hutton, Rev. Billy Graham, Bo Derek, Carla Van Raay, Clara Barton, Curt Sachs, Franz Hartmann, Harry Nilsson, Helen Reddy, James Dean, Jim Backus, Johannes Brahms, John Flamsteed, John Lennon, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Judith Butler, Kathleen Kennedy, Keir Dullea, Lena Horne, Liz Renay, Lucy Lawless, Lynn Redgrave, Margaux Hemingway, Morgan Freeman, Pauline Hanson, Pearl Buck, Raymond Buckland, Richard Krafft-Ebing, Ringo Starr, Rowena Jackson, St. Teresa of Avila, Stevie Nicks, Theo Van Gogh

[Jim Eshelman]

Notebook #93 observations: They seem to have a kind of ambitious idealism. (Cf. Sagittarius MC also?)

CHARACTER TRAITS:
Significantly high: Secretive, impassioned
Significantly low: Devoted, tenacious, witty, methodical
(Italicized traits also showed for a Sagittarius Midheaven.)

Amber Tamblyn, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Carole Feuerman, Queen Catherine de Medici, Charles Manson, Charles Whitman, Dakota Fanning, David Letterman, Diamond Jim Brady, Edith Wangemann, Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Boole, George Lucas, Pres. Gerald R. Ford, Giuliana De Sio, Helene Segara, Henri Desiré Landru, Ian Brady, Joe Pesci, Laura Bush, Linda Blair, Liza Minnelli, Lucille Ball, Mary Wilson, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Latifah, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Rodney King, Ron Howard, Rose Campbell Starr, Pres. Ulysses S. Grant, Vivian Leigh, Pres. William Taft

[Jim Eshelman]

I wanted to note that, as I'm compiling my catalogue of almost a thousand example charts with quality birth data, I'm becoming less and less impressed with the Ascendant sign as an indicator of anything at all.

I vary between thinking it has a slight, occasionally useful importance for certain surface things vs. thinking that zodiacal zones on angles don't mean anything at all.

I know that this is a sharp divergence from ancient astrology - perhaps the most acute divergence from early astrology that I make - but it's getting harder to substantiate. Individual cases sometimes look interesting (individual examples of anything have a tendency to look interesting), but, in the collective, they aren't good examples. One can find that Leo rising seems to have a characteristic mane and dramatic demeanor, that Sagittarius rising women seem more statuesque and Sag rising overall wants the world to grant them greater gravitas, while Gemini rising seems to want to come across as more superficial and flighty. If this is all objectively true, I'm not quite sure how it is really useful.

In any case, I doubt that I start paying more attention to Ascendant signs than the negligible attention I've paid in recent decades.

I will, however, dump my example pool (from the training charts) into the posts above so people can draw their own conclusions. Right now the catalogue is probably two-thirds finished, so I may update this in the future (or may delete them all).