🚨Beyoncé is an Aries Rising!🚨
& what is the rising sign?! + a collage of other ramblings
Hi to you!
Happy April 18th! We have finally ended our retrograde-y start to the year. The uphill slog through Mars Rx, Mercury Rx, and Venus Rx is over. Not to mention Eclipse Season and Tax Season. But here we are. Deep breath.
I’m curious, with all the REcalibrating, REorganizing, and REprioritize that the last four months of REtrogrades have offered — what feels different? What is coming into the view and what is fading into the background? Over the next few weeks we will trek familiar territory on our way out of the retro-shade. And chances are the way you relate to the world around you may have a different feel than it did months ago.
I feel like these retrogrades have knocked me back into student mode — this whirling sense that I know nothing. Which doesn’t feel like a step back as much as it feels like a new vantage point. The beginner’s mind. The fool. A place I’ve been countless times. But this time, to be a beginner feels teaming with possibility and wide eyed wonder full of nothing but endless avenues of exploration.
I think part of this fool’s journey I am on, especially as it pertains to astrology, has to do with my full time job teaching. I teach classes that require no previous astrological knowledge — So, I am constantly trying to divy up these complex concepts into bite-size morsels, easily digestible, without losing the integrity of the meal itself. It’s flexing my creativity and I will say, my metaphor game has never been sharper. But it also requires that I listen — is there a through line between the questions most frequently asked? What are the gaps in people’s knowledge that I can fill? It’s been a play of mental dexterity that has been very gratifying.
So I thought I’d address one of those questions here. In honor of the beginner’s mind, this question is not perplexing or profound. It’s actually very basic, but I don’t think I’ve ever addressed it here — What is the rising sign?
Logistically, the rising sign is the sign sitting on the eastern horizon when you were born. The place where dawn happens.
It’s the energy you lead with. Your first impression. Your phone voice that sounds different than your real voice. But ultimately it is how you dawn on yourself and others.
To understand the energy of your rising sign is to understand where you begin. Where you start to gain consciousness around yourself and where other’s start to gain consciousness about you.
I think back to three years ago when my Capricorn Rising partner and I were trying to decide where and how to move out of Chicago. It was the first time we butt heads in our relationship — that was early days, we have plenty that we butt heads over now hehehehe — but my astrologer mind knew that this was a clash of our rising signs. My partner was very concerned with making a plan. What’s the plan? What’s the timeline? What’s the goal? Very Capricorn of them. But these questions all fell flat for my Gemini Rising. I couldn’t conceive of creating a plan without seeing what I was working with. I had to travel to our potential new home, buzz around, get boots-on-the-ground information for the logistics to fall into place. We had different starting lines.
This is why the rising sign is, in many cases, as influential as our Sun or Moon sign. Any new doorway we step into brings our rising sign into the room. It is a factor that can alter the expression of our Sun and Moon signs. While also being the most variable aspect of our birth chart, as the rising sign changes every 2ish hours. You could be a Libra Rising, but if you were born 10 minutes later you could be a Scorpio rising, which in turn changes everything.
Just this morning I learned Beyonce is an Aries Rising! Her birth time has been hotly contested, but the interest sleuths got eyes on her birth chart and we were gifted with this breaking news! Now, I’ve never met Beyonce so I’ve never interacted with her rising sign personally, but I will say this is a shocking revelation for me. Anyone else shook by this? Originally, it was a tossup between Leo Rising and Libra Rising. I don’t have anything monumental to offer, other than considering Queen B with an Aries Rising has completely rattled my perception of her. That is how important the rising sign is.
Well, that’s your little astrology lesson for the day.
I think to breath more life into this newsletter that has gone a little stale for me (it’s not you it’s me!) I’m going to circle back to it’s original form — which is advice. So if you have anything you’d like an astrologer on the internet to take a crack at giving you two cents on drop it in this form. It can be astrological or otherwise. All questions/concerns/curiosities are welcome.
And there’s one last thing I want to bring to your attention! Yes, my ADHD is alive and well in this newsletter, but it’s been a little while so there’s a lot to cover. Retrogrades and eclipse are over, but the next couple dates put us at a standoff between Mars and Pluto. I wrote about this energy back in November (which feels like a million years ago) when these two where facing off for the first of three battles. Here we are again for the last. And I just want to say, conflict and power struggles abound! This may be a good couple days to consider letting things simmer before taking action/fighting back. This energy has us trying to get the upper hand, but it may not be worth it in the big scheme of things. Don’t risk burning bridges in a blaze of glory right now. Give it a couple days when cooler heads prevail. Just saying!
Thanks for riding this one out with me. Love you mean it!
