Behind slow walkers and people who try to board ahead of their zone at the airport, categorizing people based upon their sun sign is my biggest pet peeve. As a Scorpio (a sign frequently referred to as one of the ‘most hated’), I might be overly sensitive to this. Do you know how many times I have heard, “Oh, you’re such a Scorpio!”? And it’s never in response to any positive Scorpio traits, like my loyalty, determination, or curiosity…
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love being labeled as vengeful, remorseless, and downright villainous. BUT this is not why I am so bothered by this behaviour. Rather, if you’re going to characterize someone based on astrology, at least do your due diligence – consider their whole chart!
In my previous blog post about birth charts, I talked about how birth charts are a map of the sky at the moment you were born. Essentially, these ‘maps’ are wheels divided into 12 wedges: the 12 signs of the zodiac. The sun, moon, and planets pass through these signs; at the moment of your birth, the position of these celestial bodies in the ‘wheel’ (with you at the centre!) determine your placements and chart as a whole.
When you’re first diving into astrology and looking at your own chart, it can be overwhelming. So, it’s helpful to start with the ‘Big 3’ placements: your Sun, Rising, and Moon signs. In this post, I am going to introduce these placements – what they are, what they signify, and how you can interpret them.
To find out what your placements are, there are many online sites where you can create your own astrological birth chart for free. I like www.astro.com.
Sun Signs
Sun signs are what people are referring to when they talk about their zodiac sign, or just generally their ‘sign,’ and corresponds to the fun daily or monthly horoscopes we find in newspapers and magazines. No matter someone’s level of astrological knowledge, most everyone knows their sun sign.
In most cases, the length of the orbit of different celestial bodies determines how long they stay in a particular sign. The exceptions for this are the Sun (as it doesn’t orbit around itself) and the Moon (as it orbits around Earth). In the case of the sun, it’s the speed at which the Earth orbits the Sun which tells us that the Sun stays in each sign for about a month, thus the 12 zodiac signs.
As mentioned above, the sign that the Sun was in at the moment of your birth determines your Sun sign. The Sun sign is thought to generally tell us two things about a person:
1) Our motivation. What gets us out of bed in the morning. Our driving purpose
2) Our ego. Our identity, our personality, our general ‘essence.’ “I am _____.”
Rising Signs
Rising signs are a bit different than the other placements in that it isn’t a celestial body itself. Instead, it is the sign that was rising in the horizon to the east at the time you were born. Knowing your time of birth is essential to finding out your Rising sign, as these change every two hours.
Our Rising sign is the mask that we show the world. If our Moon tell us who we are when no one is looking, our Rising sign tells us who we are when everyone is looking. Rising signs can also indicate how someone views the world and tackles life. I like to think of Rising signs as the ways we support our Sun sign, in the sense that is the approach (Rising) we take to carry out our goals (Sun).
Moon Signs
Moon signs, though a bit lesser known, are part of the Big 3. The Moon’s orbit around Earth is rather quick, meaning that the Moon stays in each sign for only two or three days.
Moon signs are thought to tell us about our emotions – where they come from and how we deal with them. I like to think of Moon signs as a glimpse into our deepest selves, or inner children, which allows us to see what we most need to feel complete or fulfilled. While the Sun can tell us what we want, the Moon tells us what we truly need. It can also provide insight into who a person is when no one is around.
Big 3 Astrology Cheat Sheet
Here’s a handy table I’ve created to try and capture the essence of different signs as Sun, Rising, and Moon placements. What do your Sun, Rising, and Moon placements say about you?
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