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.
Pisces rising, Virgo descending: Impressionable
The ascendent is how you see the world and the descendent is how you see yourself when interacting with other people. Pisces, at the ascendant, means that Jupiter is the ruler of the chart. Wherever you have your Jupiter, whatever sign it’s in, has a big influence on how you greet the world.
On the flip side of this, Virgo on the descendent means that Mercury is in charge of how you relate to other people. This is why Pisces rising people can often be someone who overthinks a lot in terms of relationships, someone who is constantly worrying over whether another person is enjoying themselves in their company and super responsive to people’s needs.
Pisces as the first house, which is really about your gaze onto the world, is a sign that lets everything in all the time. Pisces doesn’t judge, it doesn’t distinguish—it just accepts pure and simple. Pisces rising people can be easily influenced by the environment they put themselves in. They’re the kids that emulate other members of the group they find themselves in because they want people to always feel comfortable around them. While Pisces is about transcendence, Virgo is about integration. Put those together and Pisces risings like to fit in with the people who they choose. Since Pisces is the yes-man and Virgo the no-man, these people seem like they’ll say yes to almost anything but, when it really comes down to it, there’s a lot of places they wouldn’t feel comfortable in, things they don’t want to try, and people they don’t want to talk to.
In the face of conflict, however, Pisces risings tend not to be the people who others might initially look to. Because Pisces risings tend to avoid confrontation, feel like they’re not sure what to do in the face of it, or that there’s just bigger problems in the world besides some small drama between friends, they will seek to rise above rather than assertively support. It’s not that they don’t have your back. It’s just that they want you to see the bigger picture.
Aries second house, Libra eighth house: I'll try anything once
The second and eighth houses represent your relationship to the material world. Both are about values. The second house is your values and the eighth house is your social values.
Aries on the second house means that, while Pisces rising people may not fight for their personal involvements, they will fight for their values. And this fighting spirit in regards to what they feel to be important in life supports their entire person. With Libra on the eighth house cusp, Pisces risings absolutely need a sense of fairness for them to feel truly intimate with someone else. Their relationships need to reflect how they imagine social harmony. What they're looking for most of all is a sense of harmony.
Pisces rising can have a passion for small knickknacks and other commodities but, because of the Aries being where it is, they may not care especially about whether something is high quality. They're always up for trying new things and may not have a definite sense of taste that they're known for because they're always trying new things in their closet, diet, and makeup bag. In terms of possessions, they're not overly sentimental and understand when it's time to throw something away.
The Libra on the eighth can make a similar style develop in relationships. Pisces risings are willing to try out relationships with anyone and can try to mold themselves to suit their partners. They want to please other people and feel satisfaction in doing so. Sometimes, Pisces risings can feel as if they're putting on a new face for every person in their life because they're so flexible with their values.
Taurus third house, Scorpio ninth house: Institutionally traumatized
The Scorpio on the ninth house cusp is no joke. Often, Pisces risings are people who just didn’t fit in at school. They often are the people who always seem to bring up precisely the things that the teacher doesn’t know how to address in the classroom, the person who doesn’t see why we’re doing this ritualized education when we could be actually learning, and the people who wants to get to the deeper issues instead of skirting around a topic.
But, Pisces risings are not outspoken people. They don’t typically speak out all the time, showing everything that’s buzzing around in their minds. They’re careful about what they say and need years of experience before they’re ready to speak on a topic. They keep their thought process to themselves, which is why, sometimes, when they do say something, it looks like they’ve taken the time to consider all aspects of an issues and say speaking about a total image. They’re big picture thinkers because they take the time to think about every little thing.
Sometimes, Pisces risings can spend a lot of time playing dumb even if they know more about something than everyone else in the room just because they haven’t made up their minds to have an opinion yet. They can spend years playing the part of someone who knows nothing while they do their careful research. When and if they do choose to speak, they have their ideas straight and there’s absolutely no changing their minds anymore.
When it comes to schools and other institutions, Pisces risings have a lot of disagreements. However, they tend to avoid butting heads with people all day everyday and can keep a lot to themselves. This can build a case of carrying around a lot of resentment for all the moments in their life when no one listened to them and their concerns went unheard. However, Pisces rising’s super long and drawn out process of simply making up their minds and ideas actually may need this period of secrecy. Eventually, they will impress you with what they’re thinking but not before losing themselves to a vast rabbit hole of complexity and meditation first.
Sagittarius tenth house, Gemini fourth house: Misunderstood
The other house axis ruled by Jupiter and Mercury for a Pisces rising is the fourth and tenth axis. Together, they describe how you relate to exposure and privacy.
Having Sagittarius on the tenth house cusp means that Pisces risings are always chasing after big dreams and big ideas. If they truly and completely believe in something, it’s almost impossible to win in a debate against them because they will always, always, always know how to talk about what they know to support their point.
Gemini as the fourth house, however, makes it so that Pisces risings are not arguing with facts but opinions. These people are excellent persuaders but they don’t need data to back up what they think. They need ideology and are here to make frameworks. They rely on gut feelings and principles more than evidence. They’re aware that evidence can be provided to support almost any assertion of belief and, knowing this, prefer to argue with morals instead.
This makes Pisces risings excellent writers and storytellers but one who needs a lot of editing in order to make their point clear to people who don’t already share their opinion. Pisces risings can go on a lot of loops and makes jumps in logic that take them to much more inspiring places, which makes their train of thought awe inspiring if you can keep up. However, they’re not ones who make the effort to catch those who are new to what they’re talking about up and, so, can seem nonsensical to someone who doesn’t already know them super well.
Capricorn eleventh house, Cancer fifth house: Best Friends Forever
Having a Saturn ruled eleventh house means that Pisces rising can sometimes feel a bit insecure about how many friends they have. Cancer in the fifth means that it takes a long time to build a love practice with them with honesty and vulnerability. They expect their friendships to remain authentic. They won’t be friends with someone just because they seem cool to other people and, in fact, they can often resist making friends with popular people. They prefer someone who can give them the time of day they need. They tend to look for the people with some virtue or goodness that only Pisces risings can notice.
This can lead to Pisces risings getting in romantic entanglements where they stop seeing their friends completely. They might pick a best friend and spend all of their time with that one person, not taking the time to extend themselves and their support network. When anything goes wrong in this one relationship, Pisces risings can get lost in the drama of the moment and feel completely unsupported.
If you have a Pisces rising friend, the chances are that they will be with you through thick and thin. They’re just not going to ditch you because you’re having a hard time. This means that Pisces rising can have the opposite problem: they may not initiate hanging out until you’re actually having a hard time and tend to trauma bond with their friends.
Love is a boundary learning process for Pisces rising. They’re also going through lessons of what it means to create a strong community for themselves. This can mean resisting the urge to rely on that one special friend for anything and everything.
Aquarius twelfth house, Leo sixth house: Underrated
Pisces rising might hide their individuality when they’re going about their daily business. They may be much, much stranger than they appear, preferring to fit in with the crowd and not call too much attention to themselves. However, they’re people who most definitely have a special skill or secret hobby into which they have poured out their entire lives and soul. They have something where they shine brilliantly. They just may not feel like sharing it with the world all the time or like bringing it up until you ask them about it.
It can be very difficult for Pisces risings to show off their skills. It can be hard for them to prove to other people just why they’re so unique. This is mostly because they don’t feel like they really have to prove themselves to anyone. Even if they do show others, it’s probably going to be to a niche crowd who truly appreciates what they’re all about.
This gives Pisces risings the advantage of being able to go really far out in terms of their passions. They’re true eccentrics who write poems about the science of teleportation, about Edgar’s Cayce’s theories, and make movies about specific breeds of cats. They don’t care whether you get it. They don’t want popular approval at all.
The Aquarius on the twelfth house, however, can mean that this makes Pisces risings constantly wonder why people don’t appreciate their many talents as much as they do for people who are showy and do cater to expectations. A particular challenge for Pisces rising can be about coming to terms with the understated and underappreciated value of their work. They need to understand that it’s because they’re not out trying to make the most popular thing ever that they’re onto things that no one else is.
