The beginning of the 1st house is a significant element of understanding your personality. Along with your Sun (identity) and Moon (emotions), your Ascendant is the third of the most important factors astrologers look at in analyzing your personality.

Your Ascendant, or Rising Sign, is the zodiac constellation that was rising on the Eastern horizon when you were born. It is located at the left horizontal line between the 12th and 1st houses of your natal chart. The Ascendant is based upon your time* and location of birth.

Your Ascendant is how you project yourself in life, how others see you. It's also your rose-colored glasses, the lens filter of the sign that was rising at birth.

A Virgo Ascendant may project themselves into life to be of useful service to the world. A Capricorn rising is more likely to take a cautious approach to the world than an adventure-seeking Sagittarius rising.

Knowledge of your rising sign will help you to understand why you project yourself into the world the way you do.

* If you cannot get your time of birth from a birth certificate, family member, or other government record, you can place your Sun sign on the Ascendant. This gives you a symbolic chart that provides accurate planetary placement, with only the fast-moving moon potentially in error. This is the method used for daily newspaper horoscope forecasts.

The Midheaven is the point overhead when you were born. If you were born at noon, your Sun would be near the Midheaven (abbreviated as Mc). The zodiac sign of your Midheaven is located at the top of the line that separates the ninth and tenth houses.

The zodiac sign on your Midheaven describes the outward expression of your individuality and ego. It provides information on career, public image, and how the world perceives you.

In esoteric (spiritual) astrology, the Midheaven is considered to represent something you need to take to the world in this life. It's the highest point you can reach in the worldly sense.

The North Node, sometimes called the "Dragon's Head," is a sensitive point where the moon's orbit around the earth rises from below the horizon.

It expresses your dharma, or soul destiny. The Zodiac sign your North Node is in will tell you about the qualities that you must develop within yourself. For example, those with a North Node in Aquarius are devoted to the search for universal truth, holistic living, and open-mindedness.

The natal House containing your North Node indicates the area of life you will need to bring those qualities into. As an example, having the North Node in the 11th house would compel you to work with those around you to help the world be a better place.

The South Node, sometimes called the "Dragon's Tail," is the intersection point where the moon's orbit crosses the sun's path from North to South. The South Node is exactly 180 degrees away from the North Node, in the opposite Zodiac sign.

It expresses your karma, or the lessons you need to learn from your past life. If you do not believe in past lives, you can consider this point to be lessons that you need to learn, or challenges to overcome, from childhood.

The South Node also gives you hints as to talents that you brought into this life. The South Node is a bit of a “double-edged” sword. On one hand, you have talents in the sign of the South Node. On the other, you need to use those talents to move to the sign of your north node.

For example, if your South Node is in Sagittarius, you may have spent many past lives developing wisdom while meditating in a mountain cave. In this life, you may not want to come in to the world from your peaceful mountain. However, you must step into the opposite sign Gemini North Node to do your work in this life. A Gemini North Node person would need to communicate all of that past life Sagittarius wisdom to the world during this lifetime.

Chiron, an asteroid orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, represents the wounding we sustain in life. Because Chiron was only discovered in the 1970’s, you will find a variety of opinions on the meaning of Chiron in the chart, but the most frequent interpretation is that of the "wounded healer."

In mythology, Chiron the Centaur gave up not only his life, but also his god-like immortality in order to relieve his suffering. His reward was to be placed up in the sky for eternity.

As a centaur (half human, half animal), Chiron represents overcoming our lower, animal nature in order to serve the highest forms of human service and see the Truth of the Universe.

Chiron in your chart represents ways where you suffer, as well as how you can heal your suffering. The House it falls in explains what area of life you stop yourself, and any Planets it aspects tell the story about the dynamics that play into the actual outcome.

The idea is that we create our own limitations and powerlessness in life because we hold on to ideas, behaviors, and possessions that are transitory. To end your suffering, let go of the past - bad experiences were things that happenED, not things that are happenING now. If you suffer because you can't help yourself stop a bad habit, become aware that you DO have options - you choose your actions (no one "makes you" do anything), and you alone have the power to change.

The Part of Fortune is a mathematically derived sensitive point in your chart. The symbol in your chart is a circle with an “X” inside it.

The Part of Fortune is the exact amount of degrees and minutes distant from the Ascendant as the Moon is distant from the Sun. It is calculated differently for day and night births:

For a.m. births, POF = Ascendant + Moon - Sun
For p.m. births, POF = Ascendant + Sun - Moon

The Part of Fortune is an ancient Arabic interpretive element usually associated with the physical body, especially health and money. As its name implies, it is an area of your chart that is benevolent, especially when activated by a transiting planet.

The POF indicates your worldly success, prosperity, and talents. It represents what you like to do, what you're good at, and what you'll be successful doing.

As you know, the 12 Zodiac Signs all have personalities. A further way to explore commonalities between the signs is to examine their underlying "Qualities": Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. These Quadruplicities, groups of four Signs 90 degrees away from each other that reflect a person's attitudes in life and the way they approach projects.

The four Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. Thy're the ones found at East, North, West, and South - the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth Houses. Each one has a strong character. They have initiative and motivation, they get things moving, but they're not necesasarily good at follow-through.

The four Fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, the Second, Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh Houses. Because they're stable and reliable, they're the ones who see projects through to completion. However, they can also be stubborn and inflexible.

The four Mutable signs are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, the Third, Sixth, Ninth, and Twelfth Houses. These people are happy to fill assigned roles, and are adaptable to changing circumstances. Their weakness is that they can be wishy-washy.

Transits are the relationship of the planets’ current position as compared to where they were when you were born. Some transits help you to get into the flow of life; others challenge you to work through growth issues. Many people see an astrologer on a regular basis in order to get “updated” on how the transiting planets are activating their natal chart. Near your birthday each year, the Sun returns to the same degree of the sign of your birth. A chart is then cast, called a Solar Return, to help you understand the changing cycles of the year ahead.

Progressions are a mathematical way of moving the planets in your chart. Progressions show the subtle, inner, and psychological influences that influence you as you grow through life experiences. There are several methods for doing this, but the most common is called Secondary Progressions. The idea is that you take on different ‘flavors” as you grow older. A person who was born on the first day of Sagittarius would have a Sagittarian influence for the first thirty years of life. During the second thirty years of life, she or he would still be a Sagittarius. However, she or he would take on a Capricorn influence. This would flavor the adventurous Sagittarian energy with the pragmatic grounding of Capricorn. The easiest way to understand these changing influences is to schedule annual updates with a competent astrologer.