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.

Aries Rising, Libra Descending: I’m not normal

Aries risings actually care a lot about how they’re seen by other people. They have Libra seventh house. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re trying to please you however. They just know how they fit into a group. They might not care if they piss you off.

Libra is about similarity and Aries is about contrast. Aries risings tend to distinguish themselves from people with whom they share some similarities by contrast so that they feel like an individual. This means that Aries risings can look like a variety of different forms. They might be that one dyke with long hair when all the other lesbians in their town have short hair. They might be the one athletic Asian in their neighborhood.

Aries risings senses that other people (seventh house) wants them to conform. They don’t want to. However, because they sense the need for conformity there will also be some things that Aries risings do that, actually, do follow norms even if they, themselves, don’t notice this.

Taurus Second House, Scorpio Eighth House: Direct action

Aries risings share a ruler with their eighth house. The eighth house is about the difficulties that we share with others. Aries risings very extremely passionate people but they don’t fight alone. They fight with other people.

When Aries rising is interested in being your friend or your lover, they will move through a period during which they are 100% obsessed with you. This is because, with Scorpio in the eighth house, Aries rising expects relationships to transform both them and the other person. They expect that people will be willing to change for them because they are also willing to change for other people. This is a cardinal sign.

Taurus is what keeps an Aries rising in check and that is practical reality. Common sense. Aries risings are supremely idealistic. They will construct perfect utopias that have an answer for every question except the question of “and how do we achieve this perfect goal?” Aries risings are worried about money because they are never defined by their money. Money is something that blocks their creativity and must be reckoned with.

Aries is about action. Aries risings want to commit to action. Action is the transformation of a power within a social space and the material redistribution of resources. This is what Aries risings want to see and desire to see in the enacting of their own values.

Gemini Third House, Sagittarius Ninth House: Debate me

Whatever it is, Aries rising probably has an opinion about it. They have Sagittarius ninth house. However, will they let you know about whatever their opinion is? Maybe. If they feel like you’re worthy of it.

Aries risings actually don’t speak their minds all of the time. They might not feel like the people in the room deserve it. They might not care about arguing about something that they care about if the people they’re talking to are not people who they care about. This means that getting to fight with Aries risings is about a privilege. They will only fight with you if they care about you. With Sagittarius ninth house, Aries risings want to proclaim their ideas to the world, not necessarily to a dinner table. They’re the type to keep quiet and write about it in their blog later.

Gemini third house means that Aries risings are always changing their minds. They can be talked into things during debates! This is something that not everyone knows about Aries rising since they look stubborn. They’re not. They learn from fights and they change their minds.

Sagittarius ninth house, however, means that they will only change their minds if they decide to engage with you. Again, Aries rising will only argue if they respect you enough to let you change their minds.

Cancer Fourth House, Capricorn Tenth House: Strong baby

Fourth and tenth houses cross the horizon. These are the houses that challenge you the most. Aries risings are challenged to voice their needs and to work with other people by their environment.

With Cancer in the fourth house, Aries risings find it really hard to say that they need something. They operate from a base place of need because everything that they do or think about comes from their appetite. Aries rising is a hungry rising sign. They’re vivacious. Aries risings are people who think with their gut.

However, they might not say that they need something. They have Capricorn tenth house. Aries risings are often children who were expected to grow up fast. They might have been older children who took on responsibilities, middle children who were forgotten, youngest children who were left out, or only children who had to rely on themselves. Either way, Aries rising people often feel like they can only rely on themselves during life’s worst times and like they have to hide a lot of their inner complaints.

A lot of Aries risings might play strong for people who are younger than them but expect to be babied by people older than them. They might be tough sometimes but they’re really babies inside. By enacting their needs selectively, Aries risings help uphold a certain social hierarchy to their surroundings.

Leo Fifth House, Aquarius Eleventh House: Artists

The house in which Leo appears reveals a lot about each rising sign. The Leo house is the house that is ruled by the Sun and is the most fun, creative, and life giving house for that particular rising sign. For Aries rising, Leo is in the fifth house which is about pleasure.

Aries risings like to play. They like to have fun. They like pleasure. They are here to make things that don’t exist yet. They’re insanely productive people who never feel like they’re working when they’re working. They love what they do and, if they don’t, then they won’t do it. Aries risings are artists.

Eleventh house is the house that describes the people we want to play with. With Aquarius in the eleventh house, Aries risings can really play with anyone. However, they might not necessarily be trying to get close to anyone. They’re likely to have a friend of each personality archetype but these friends often don’t know each other. Aries risings are often people who are between different community spaces, floating around without entering any of them completely.

Virgo Sixth House, Pisces Twelfth House: Go, go, go

Again, Aries risings are very busy people. They have a sixth house that is ruled by Mercury. They get a lot of things done. They run to the drugstore in between picking up their laundry and asking someone out on a date. They do two or three things at once all of the time. If you want to hang out with one, you have to be available when they just happen to be in your neighborhood on the way to something else. Time spent with an Aries rising is never boring.

Aries risings also have Pisces in the twelfth house. Most of the time, while they are on their “go, go, go” headspace, Aries risings are also fantasizing. They’re imagining the end of capitalism while they get all of their jobs done. They do things sloppily because they don’t actually care about getting it done right—they care about getting it done fast so that they can have free time later. Aries risings rush so that they can have their own time to fantasize. They’re “go, go, go” so that they can literally go into their heads and leave to relax later. Aries risings fantasize to find meaning. The mindless tasks that they push themselves through are not meaningful so they get through them as fast as possible.

These people seem very busy but they’re not that busy at all. They just like to schedule all of their activities together so that they can do everything that anyone expects them to do so that they can have four solid evening hours where they space out and smoke weed. They like to control their time and, with it, their existence.