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.

Cancer rising, Capricorn Descending: I’m baby and you have to be daddy

Cancer rising is the “I’m baby” rising sign. These people can seem a little naive only because they use vulnerability as a shield. Cancer risings are able to use openness and vulnerability as a mask because vulnerable moments are also moments where they can have so much control. Not everyone is so comfortable crying or laughing in front of people and, when the moment is right to do so, Cancer risings thrive. This is why they want everyone to feel comfortable—because they feel more in control in emotionally nudity than guardedness.

This rising sign can be a little oxymoronic because the condition of opening up is how they hide themselves. Capricorn in the seventh house means that Cancer rising is in control even when they are weeping openly. They understand how they are perceived and are capable of changing to shape perceptions.

Sometimes, Cancer risings might be attracted to someone who is a little closed off or even uncomfortable with vulnerability. This ensures that Cancer rising retains emotional control in relationships where they’re helping another person open up. This also means that Cancer rising themselves don’t have to deal with their own insecurities while creating a vulnerable mood in the relationship. Older Cancer risings will tire of this dynamic of helping people and will seek agency in their relationships more explicitly, understanding that control in relationships is something that everyone deserves without needing to be punished for.

Leo Second House, Aquarius Eighth House: Accept me but don’t define me

Leo is about social acceptance and the second house is what the first house has to reckon with. Like the sixth and twelfth houses, the second and eighth houses are not easy. They’re houses that force us to change.

Leo in the second house and Aquarius in the eighth house means that Cancer risings can be people who are both afraid of fitting in or not fitting in (more on this in the fourth house/tenth house section). Cancer risings are afraid of both being rejected by community and being swallowed by community. Leo in the second house means that Cancer risings build self esteem based on social validation. Aquarius in the eighth house means that Cancer risings build social values in resistance to what is already accepted.

Cancer risings want to find belonging but they’re not happy belonging to places that feel complacent. Cancer risings are original people who demand that their relationships challenge them socially. When Cancer rising’s originality is not accepted, they can feel really down about themselves. Their self image is social. When their weirdness is accepted, Cancer risings can confidently ask for the attention that they need to feel alive and well.

Virgo Third House, Pisces Ninth House: High standards

Cancer risings remember everything. They’re able to keep tabs on almost everyone who they know. They have Virgo in the third house. Even if they might not confess to it, Cancer rising remembers the time you ate their food in the fridge, spilled coffee on their pants, or forgot to make a hangout with them. Cancer risings are also really skilled communicators who know exactly how to deal with different types of people in their lives.

Cancer risings don’t want to settle for second best—they believe in themselves and believe in their friends. Pisces in the ninth house is a person who doesn’t quite want to make up their mind or take an active stance right away. Cancer risings want us all to move collectively towards fantastic dreams and visions. They’re not people who want to settle for a second best opinion when they can have a beautiful ideal.

The trap that many Cancer risings might fall into is that they can be really good at fixing other people’s problems or prompting other people’s interests but neglect their own stuff. Cancer risings have high expectations and know that the collective dreaming they do can’t be achieved unless everyone is in on it. They want people to put the same effort into them that they do for others and can become disillusioned when people don’t do this—that’s why they can be critical, because they are naive enough to hope that you and your relationship with them can be better.

Libra Fourth House, Aries Tenth House: Original

The fourth and tenth houses are the houses that cross the horizon. They tell us about environmental challenges. Having Libra in the fourth house and Aries in the tenth means that Cancer rising is challenged by social conformity and originality.

Libra in the fourth house looks for people who “look like them”—people who share ethnicity, politics, or interests. Cancer risings protect themselves by clustering. They want to feel like they have a team behind them of their people, whatever that means to them. Cancer risings create a safe social environment by looking for alignments between themselves and other people. They organize their reality socially.

Aries in the tenth house is someone who wants to stick out. Because Cancer risings look to build their environments by clustering, they also feel repressed by similarity and seek to differentiate themselves from their groups. Aries in the tenth house can be a little cut throat. Cancer risings want to belong but they absolutely hate it if they feel like anyone else is copying or imitating them because they might be past experiences where, because they stick to groups, they were forgotten quickly by people who they wanted to remember them.

Cancer risings only feel safe in their originality when they have a group with commonalities to differentiate themselves from. They don’t want their different-ness to isolate them from the group but they want what makes them different to be something that is uplifted by the group.

Scorpio Fifth House, Taurus Eleventh House: I want to eat you

Cancer risings fall into pleasure deeply and madly. Scorpio in the fifth house is a placement that forces Cancer rising to submit to pleasure and joy. As artists, Cancer risings are relentless about prioritizing their creative flow over everything else. As lovers, Cancer risings expect that sex will consume them. They feel desire as the urge to eat their lovers.

Getting to know a Cancer rising takes a bit of time. They have Taurus in the eleventh house and are looking for friendships to have a sense of familiarity. This familiarity takes a long time to develop and Cancer risings might be friends with people they’ve known for a long time. Friend breakups are incredibly painful for Cancer risings because they like to hang onto people.

With the fixed axis of possession in houses five and eleven, Cancer risings need love to remain stable so that they can surrender to something that they trust not to move around too much. They require deep and total commitment from the people they call their own, whether those people are romantic partners, friends, or something in between.

Sagittarius Sixth House, Gemini Twelfth House: Quietly influential

Sagittarius in the sixth house is a little goofy. Cancer risings are not precise people who can commit to doing the exact same thing everyday. They’re people who need a little spontaneity and adventure in their day to day life. Sagittarius in the sixth house is someone who wants their wildest fantasies to become a daily practice. Cancer risings want to turn their creativity into a skill.

The twelfth house is what motivates us secretly but something that we can put away a little. It’s something that we don’t want to have define us. With Gemini in the twelfth house, Cancer risings can be people who play dumb in order to protect themselves. They might fear that their intelligence will alienate them from people. They definitely don’t like to show unformed ideas before they’re ready to be shown, especially if they’re not sure how these ideas will be received. This is why some people might say that Cancer risings are manipulative—because they don’t like to show their hand right away,

With Sagittarius in the sixth house and Gemini in the twelfth house, Cancer risings don’t need to voice their opinions loudly. They prefer to put their ideas into practice and to influence others based on what they do rather than what they say. Cancer risings can be incredibly influential but you might not know when they are influencing you.