In this series, I’m going to break down each and every rising sign and every house of your chart, based on the rising sign. I’m going to be using whole sign houses, which is a house system where every sign is a separate house.
This isn’t so much of a breakdown, actually, and more of a synthesis. When you look at everything in a chart isolated and dissected, ultimately you’re not going to get much of a narrative about your entire chart. By relating every house back to your rising sign, you can understand your entire chart in a more holistic way.
If you’re not using whole sign houses already, I highly encourage you to apply it to your understanding of your chart. While Placidus is still the most popular house system being used, it’s actually more relevant to electional astrology than using your natal chart to understand your personal drives. Whole sign houses are more relevant when you use astrology to build self understanding.
Libra Rising, Aries Descending: Seeking bad girls
Every stereotype about Libra talks about how it is conflict avoidant and about how the scales really just want to balance out all the issues and find an equilibrium. However! Libra risings have Aries on the descendent. Psych! Aries on the descendent people are actually looking for conflict and can often cause conflict just so that there is something to resolve. Libra risings are peacemakers. That means that they like to be in a situation in which peace has to be made. Libra risings love conflict.
The Libra on the ascendent, however, means that Libra risings don’t seem like people who like to cause conflict. Libra risings read as supremely reasonable and understanding people. They seem like people who are always able to take a step back and talk things over with a cool head. This type of person only emerges when there are hot headed issues circulating that everyone gets a little stirred up about.
Since Libra risings have Aries in the seventh house, they might look for partners who have issues that they can resolve. They might look for people who seem to always be in trouble—the bad boys and the bad girls. By seeking these types of images, Libra risings want to normalize or domesticate the bads. However, the bads don’t want to be fixed! What Libra risings have to learn is that not everyone wants their issues fixed and that trying to do so often brings out issues surrounding control. More on that in the fourth house/tenth house section.
Scorpio Second House, Taurus Eighth House: Don't move away
Taurus and Scorpio are signs that relate to the Moon. These signs have to do with withholding, with needing, and with receiving. Taurus in the eighth house means that Libra risings might have a tendency to hold onto the emotional problems of other people. They might get attached to a situation that someone else is moving through and almost do not want that person to move on because moving on would mean that the person changes, that their dynamic changes, and that relationships are lost.
This means that, to feel safe, Libra rising needs certain things to stay consistent in relationships. They might need small routines, inside jokes, or pet names to stay the same so that, even when life changes people, there’s something that they come back to. When they don’t get this type of stability, Libra risings can compensate by trying to force themselves and their loved ones to remain in place, to keep everyone from moving on in their life, because they’re scared that people will grow away from them. Taurus, the sign of the Moon’s exaltation, here also can mean that Libra risings feel like they have to live up to a lot of emotional expectations in their relationships.
The Scorpio second house makes this tendency to hold onto the same social roles a bit complicated. The second house is the stuff that is forced onto you, whether you like it or not. Scorpio here means that Libra rising are forced to change whether they like it or not. They’re people who often feel like they’re reluctantly pushed along in life by outside circumstances. They can feel like they’re constantly forced to change more than they’re ready for and in ways that are more drastic than they want.
When Libra risings feel insecure, they can default to withholding their true emotions by playing the social roles that they’ve already learned to be safe repetitively. Scorpio second house means that they’ve being challenged to find security through the type of change that often feels like chaos by asserting their self worth and ability to grow. When they do that, Libra risings will be able to break those expectations that they thought they had to live up to and emerge strong and unafraid.
Sagittarius Third House, Gemini Ninth House: Change my mind
Libra risings have opinions! They speak their mind! Having Sagittarius in the third house means that Libra risings aren’t here to circle around the truth and come back. They say what they think and they’re agonizingly honest about it.
The Gemini ninth house means that they’re not going to butter you up and just nod their heads and go along with whatever the loudest person in the room thinks. Gemini, ruled by Mercury, is a cynical sign. Libra risings will often go against what the dominant position in the room is, just to cause a little havoc. When there’s disagreement, that’s when Libra risings get excited. Remember, Libra rising is not really a sign that looks for ultimate harmony or ultimate peace. It’s a sign that will often stir up disagreement or trouble just so that it has something to harmonize.
These Sagittarius and Gemini placements can mean that Libra risings don’t really make up their minds about anything. Even if they’re fiercely political people, they’re not about to line themselves up to any set political ideology. Instead, they’re always in a state of questioning. They prefer to get involved in multiple levels of discourse over choosing one thing and sticking to it always. Whatever it is that a Libra rising supports, whether that’s a movement or a party, they will always, always have some critiques that they bring to the table with them. They believe that the best way to support a cause is to critique it so that it improves.
Capricorn Fourth House, Cancer Tenth House: Held emotionally hostage
The placement of Capricorn on the bottom of the chart is all about emerging from conflict. Again, Libra energy is not really about avoiding conflict. Capricorn is the sign where Mars exalts. Having Capricorn on the fourth house means that Libra risings emerge well when they face obstacles.
Cancer and Capricorn are really about control. The fourth and tenth houses always cross the signs that are on the horizon, which means that these signs represent the primary issues that the rising sign needs to work out. Cancer and Capricorn fourth and tenth houses mean that Libra risings are working through issues related to control.
Cancer on the tenth house means that Libra risings feel compelled to place themselves in roles where they must do a lot of caretaking of other people. They might feel like they always have to be that friend who’s there for people, the friend who cooks for everyone, the one who brings people together. This is a lot of work. Mars is in fall in Cancer because it’s labor that is often taken for granted and overlooked.
Capricorn on the fourth house means that Libra risings will never give as big of a shit as they seem.
And Libra risings care! They really do! However, Cancer on the top of the chart means that they might have been in situations where people used caretaking as a means of taking control over them, of holding them hostage emotionally. The Cancer and Capricorn fourth/tenth house challenge is about finding the means to care without feeding vocabularies around emotional manipulation. It’s about finding a realness to caring. This realness will require Libra risings to break a lot of their own assumptions around what a good, caring person looks like or does.
Aquarius Fifth House, Leo Eleventh House: Band of misfits
Fifth house deals with pleasure and having Aquarius, the sign in which the Sun finds its detriment, in the fifth house makes Libra rising a little cold when it comes to pleasure. Libra risings are not folks who feel the need to scream in pleasure or demand it eagerly. Aquarius is a calculating sign. Libra risings need to earn their pleasure, work towards it, or plan it. Sometimes, they can find it hard to figure out what pleasure means at all. They can overthink it or feel like they’re not allowed the same pleasures as other people for whatever reason.
The Leo on the eleventh house means that Libra risings are able to find pleasure with people. Often, Libra risings need their sources of pleasure to be validated socially before they’re able to make sense of it and enjoy it. Aquarius fifth house means that pleasure will always seem like a rebellion to Libra risings. It always seems like something good people don’t do. When Libra risings find their people—the people who enjoy the same things that they do and accept the ways they find their pleasure—they’re able to have fun.
On the flip side, the Leo eleventh house means that a lot of the people who know Libra rising might think that this person is all about just letting loose and having fun when, in fact, that’s not actually the full story. Even though Libra risings do want acceptance because of the Leo eleventh house, their need for acceptance comes out of their strangeness. Libra risings are weird people who like weird things—that’s why they want to be accepted. They don’t seek to fit in because they want to please people, even if that might be part of it a little. They seek to fit in because they feel alienated on the regular and like no one will ever really understand them. Libra risings are looking to become social kings or queens. They’re looking for their own band of misfits.
Pisces Sixth House, Virgo Twelfth House: Will I ever be good enough to begin?
Virgo in the twelfth house is such a self critical placement and Libra risings can be perfectionists. A common trait of a person who has Virgo in the twelfth house and Pisces in the sixth is never starting on the projects that they want to do because they feel like the idea itself is never perfect enough to begin on. Libra risings might feel like they’re never ready to start doing the things that they’re meant to do and like they themselves are works that never begin to progress because they never really begin. Pisces wants big ideas but also perfect ideas. Pisces in the sixth house can mean that the work itself never feels good enough to start on. Virgo in the twelfth house is like a self critical whisper. It always reminds Libra rising of the ways they could be improving.
Pisces also happens to be the sign of Venus’ exaltation, which happens to be Libra rising’s chart ruler. Having Pisces in the sixth means that Libra risings achieve a lot of honor through their labor. Virgo, the sign of Venus’ fall, in the twelfth house means that Libra risings must overcome insecurities around what good labor or good work looks like to achieve those honors. They have to talk back to the critic’s voice in their head and figure out how to start something even if it’s not 100% there because, really, no project is ever 100% there, especially not in the beginning stages.
