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Let’s start by looking at what the Ascendant and Midheaven actually means - a zodiac “sign” is simply a region of sky on the ecliptic - the sign of Taurus, for instance, is the portion of sky stretching from the star Hamal (in the constellation of Aries) to the Pleiades (the “eye of the bull” - the star Aldebaran, the middle of the constellation of Taurus, actually now lies in the zodiac sign of Gemini). Your Ascendant is simply the sign (portion of the sky) that was rising above the eastern horizon at the time you were born. The Midheaven is the sign that was highest in the sky at the time you were born. The Midheaven (MC) is purely dependent on your time of birth, and how far east or west you are (your longitude). So, someone born in London, England at noon on Christmas Day 1970 will have an MC of about 3 degrees Capricorn. Valencia in Spain and Accra in Ghana also have roughly the same longitude - and somebody born at exactly the same moment in Valencia or Accra will have the same MC. Your Ascendant, however, is also dependent on your latitude. The person born in London on noon on that Christmas day will have an Ascendant of 8 Aries, the person born in Valencia an Ascendant of 6 Aries and the person born in Accra an Ascendant of 4 Aries. This is why a Table of Houses has a different section for each latitude. To calculate the Ascendant, you need to know the Sidereal Time. The section below on Sidereal Time explains what this concept is - if you’re not sure of the concept behind Sidereal Time, it’s worth reading this first. The Calculation section below gives some worked examples. |
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