The Ascendant

Many astrologers focus on the meaning of the Ascendant in its outward projecting mode.  Typical meanings assigned to the Ascendant are: how others see us, the persona, and body type (how we look).  However, there is an inner dimension to the Ascendant, which is the integration of the psyche, or rather of all of the separate components of the psyche.  I see this function—Integration—as the essential meaning of the Ascendant from which all others proceed. 

Integration is both a necessary and a higher level function of the psyche.  It can be said that the various components of the psyche, as they are symbolized by the astrological planets, are designed to naturally function together as a complete system.  Aspects between the planets may be viewed as symbolizing the smooth or frictional and sometimes dysfunctional relationships between the psyche’s components.  Therefore, it is not the day-to-day functioning of the psyche’s components that are integrated symbolically by the Ascendant.  I say this because it seems that the planetary placements and their aspects exercise more associative “control” over how they function together than do the rising sign and aspects to the Ascendant. 

We then ask, exactly how does the integrative function that the Ascendant symbolizes operate?  I believe the answer is that the Ascendant’s integrative function operates at a higher level of functionality than the level of the individual relationships between the psyche’s components.  Rather than relationships between individual component, the integrative function symbolized by the Ascendant processes the collective functions and outputs of the psyche’s components into a more coherent whole. 

Thus, a question answered by considering the Ascendant’s sign and aspects is: how does the individual process their psychic content and, therefore, form a working view of the world.  For, while the psyche may contain innate content (a question that has been debated by philosophers), it certainly receives content through the senses that it then must process and to which it reacts.  That sensory content is its impressions of the world, our environment.  It is the higher order processing of the sensory impressions that form our impressions of the world around us.  It is the manner of that processing that is symbolized by the Ascendant.

We can, therefore, say that the Ascendant is associated with our instinctual worldview.  This is to be distinguished from the Jupiterian systemic worldview, which is constructed through analysis and synthesis either independently or in a form that is adopted (i.e., through religion, higher education and other Jupiterian institutions).  The instinctual worldview arrived at through the processes associated with the Ascendant is not consciously constructed and is generally not something of which we are consciously aware.  Yet it has major implications for how we act and react in the world for it forms the template for how we process input, integrate it into the collection of our previous impressions, and form our underlying assumptions about the world and our relation to that world. 

To the extent that we act and react on the basis of how we have integrated our impressions into an unconscious worldview, this contributes to how others perceive us in the world.  For it is through our actions and reactions in the world that others judge us and form opinions about us.  In other words, how we integrate our psyche and the filters through which pass the sense impressions of the world (including of the people in our world) determine to a large extent how we operate in the world.  How we operate in the world is what others see of us. 

It is often the case that we are unaware of how we are perceived by others.  This occurs for a variety of reasons.  Perhaps the most obvious is that we are not in others’ minds and, therefore, are not directly perceiving how they perceive us.  We can only surmise how we are perceived by others from their reactions to us.  Another reason is that the integrative process symbolized by the Ascendant is largely unconscious and we are, therefore, often unaware of our filters and instinctual worldview.  Because of this, we tend to be unaware of how we present ourself to the world.  Additionally, it is our Sun not our Ascendant that is associated with our identity,  We therefore tend to see ourself through our Sun placement. 

Beyond affecting our actions and reactions in the world, how we integrate our psyche sets up a subtle vibration which is then projected outward.  For instance, someone with a Gemini Ascendant will process the world through a Gemini-oriented filter.  That very processing and integrating in a Gemini way sets up a sort of psychic field which is visible through the many subtle ways of acting that are a part of or are a close outcome of Gemini processing.  This throws off a “Gemini vibe” and, so, others tend to see that person in their Gemini mode.

Another function of the integrative process is to assemble a coherent and integrated “self” with which to face and interact with the world.  As we are well aware by looking at the complexity of most natal charts, the psyche must contend with disparate and often contradictory and competing tendencies and functions.  It is impractical and not useful for all of this psychic interaction (at times turmoil) to be on display to the world.  This would leave us feeling extremely vulnerable and would also too often present a chaotic and confusing image to others.  A society in which we all had to deal with each other’s psychic complexities would be untenable.

So, we construct a more integrated “self” that we show to the public—the persona.  Like our instinctual worldview, the persona is often not something that is consciously formed and often we are not conscious of it.  There are those, nevertheless, who do consciously construct a persona which they then employ to gain advantage in the world.  Also, there are those for whom the persona becomes their identity, displacing their real identity. 

Half of the work of constructing the persona has already been accomplished through the construction of our instinctual worldview.  By forming an instinctual worldview through the way in which we process psychic content and our sensory impressions of the world, we form an unconscious framework of not only the world but also of our place within it.  In other words, we see ourselves in the world as a reflection of how we process and integrate the world and our own consciousness.  Out of this comes an image of ourself as functioning in the world.

Here, we will note that the Ascendant has a natural liminal quality.  Through the integrative process we process both our internal world of the psyche and the external world that we inhabit.  These integrations do not go along independently but are relative to each other and affect each other.  In this sense, the Ascendant can be viewed as a bridge or portal between the psyche and the world, its environment. 

There is a school of metaphysics that views the external world as a projection of the mind, or psyche.  If fact, one can conceive this in a couple of ways.  One is that this physical plane is a projection of Universal Mind and that the personal mind (which itself precipitates from Universal Mind) participates in this projection.  Another is that whether the external world has any objective reality or not, the perception of the world, which is our experience of the world and, so, the world for us, is filtered through our psyche and, therefore, operationally, is a projection of our own inner state. 

When we allow the world as projection of the psyche, in whatever form, then it follows that we would also project our own avatar, our persona, out into the world.  Whether consciously or unconsciously projected, the persona represents how others see us (or, in some cases, how we would like others to see us).  It would be interesting to examine disconnects between a person’s internal self-image and their actual persona (how others see them) in light of Sun-Ascendant placements.  I would not be surprised to find astrological dissonance when a person has a radically different image of themself than how they are perceived by others, especially when that difference causes problems or dysfunction.

The Ascendant is also traditionally associated with one’s body type or how we physically present to the world.  To derive this symbolism from the integrative function we need to look at the mind-body relationship.  Neuroscience has increasingly identified how the mind/brain affects our body in a variety of somatic ways.  Perhaps, if the psyche is integrated in a certain way, symbolized by the Ascendant, his predisposes certain bodily traits to form.  For instance, Taurus’ inclination to process through the lens of satisfying physical needs and achieving comfort can lead to overeating which translates into a portly body type. 

Another avenue of connection between the psyche and the body is metaphysical.  As we have alluded to above, the body can be viewed as an accretion of the mind on this physical plane.  If the psyche integrates in a certain way, as symbolized by the Ascendant, then it stands that this can or would affect the mind’s projection of the physical body.  Thus, the nature of the integrated psyche would naturally be in harmony with the bodily projection and both would be related symbolically to the Ascendant.

We will now talk about the Ascendant’s counterpart, the Descendant.  In The Mountain Astrologer Sol 2022 issue, Dr. Paloni Rani Sheth (in “About the Descendant”) discussed the Descendant as symbolizing our Shadow side.  They pointed out that the Descendant represented what we need to incorporate or assimilate from the “other.”  This, I consider fairly close to the mark.  I would generalize further, in light of our above discussion of the Ascendant as representing the integrative function, that the Descendant symbolizes what remains to be integrated, or what has not (yet) been integrated into the psyche. 

As Dr. Sheth’s article suggests, we tend to project onto others (or “the other”) what has not been integrated in our own psyche.  More generally, we can say that whatever has not been integrated into our psyche, whatever has not been “owned” by us, becomes (or takes the shape of) Other—other-than-us.  It is what is, by natural understanding, separate from our identity, not our identified self. 

While this can take the form of negative projection of our Shadow, this can also represent the psyche’s ever-present yearning for completion and wholeness.  Feeling incomplete, we tend to seek completion and wholeness through relationship.  We are here reminded of the Greek myth, related by Plato, of the splitting of the human form.  Through this is explained the natural attraction that occurs between/among genders.  This yearning for our “other half” symbolizes the yearning of the psyche for that “other” which is not incorporated or integrated.  We can theorize that it is this yearning for completion that, primarily, causes us to enter into relationship.

If we look at relationship dispassionately, we will see that all relationship is need-based.  As with so much else of primal psychic function, the ultimate need is so painful to face that we displace it onto symbolic and lesser phenomena.  Thus, we may enter into a business relationship out of the felt need for advantage in business, to increase our material security or status.  We may seek our “soul mate” in a romantic relationship.  We may form relationships out of a need for companionship, or a desire for a family, or for any number of such reasons.  The underlying need of all these displacements, however, is the need to feel wholeness. 

In reality, try as we may and yearn as we may, no “other” can satisfy this need for wholeness.  And, because the need for wholeness is so intense and perpetually unfulfilled, our need and yearning for relationship does not disappear.  Even for the recluse or misanthrope, this intense and painful need has only been suppressed or placed into denial. 

Thus, the Descendant represents an always present wish to incorporate that which the psyche has not, or cannot, or will not integrate into itself.  It is ever facing toward the Other because the Other has not become part of the Self.  In its essence, we can view the Descendant as representing the process of how we relate to the Other, how we attempt to incorporate those unintegrated parts of our psyche. 

We can divide this attempt into two forces, which we will call “embracing” and “reactive.”  This typology relates to the Venusian rulership over the Descendant (and the associated seventh house).  For, as we will recall, the Venusian evaluative function distinguishes between what is judged to be pleasant/attractive and unpleasant/repulsive.  The psyche will naturally try to embrace what is pleasant and attractive and react to what is unpleasant and repulsive.  With respect to the Shadow parts of us, the dynamic is most likely to be reactive and it can be said that we react to those “others” on which/whom we project our Shadow side.  Those elements that we aspire to but have not fully integrated within our own psyche and personality, we will naturally tend to embrace and it can be said that we will embrace those “others” on which/whom we project those idealistic qualities.

A question arises: what occurs, what is the relation between Ascendant and Descendant, as the psyche becomes more whole and integrated?  Is this a never-ending process for which there will always be the Descendant, the unintegrated content of the psyche?  Does the function represented by the Descendant diminish as we become more complete and individuated?  Is there an end stage where we have achieved complete Wholeness, and what then of the Descendant?

This is an unresolvable question because, at its heart, it mirrors the paradox of Unity and Duality.  One could, of course, say that in the state of Perfect integration, astrology no longer applies.  Or, we could speculate that when the psyche is Complete, the Other has not been destroyed or consumed into nothingness, but has been incorporated as Other into the Whole as an integral and necessary phenomenon of the Whole.  Or, perhaps we can take a cue from Nicolas of Cusa and affirm that, ultimately, all opposites are resolved into Unity, as the Microcosm IS the Macrocosm. 

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