Aquarius RisingThe Symbols:This person has come into the world wearing the mask of the Individualist

Aquarius Rising

The Symbols:

This person has come into the world wearing the mask of the Individualist, Rebel, Genius, or Truth-Sayer. Other images include the Non-Conformist, Mutant, Inventor, Alien or Geek. Less than optimal expressions of this Ascendant’s energy might include the Weirdo, Sociopath, Crackpot, or Flake.

The Style:

In some ways, this is the hardest Ascendant to describe, because someone responding  really well to Aquarius rising expresses it in such an utterly unique way that it’s hard to foresee or predict.

This man or woman has reached an evolutionary stage where he or she should present an original, unconventional and highly individual face to the world. Development of the abilities to question authority and automatically follow the crowd is essential. Life should be confronted with as much independence as possible, independence of mind, heart, will and spirit. People wearing the mask of the Rebel need to make sure they’re fighting the War of Aquarian Independence in the right place. If a symbolic battlefield is chosen instead–such as the office dress code–Aquarian Ascendants can simply look difficult, contrary or “different.” Meanwhile they’re avoiding the real issue, which is that they’ve succumbed to parental pressures to choose a job that doesn’t suit them and never will.

If the rest of the chart is relationship-oriented and empathic, the Aquarian Ascendant is intended to keep this person from dissolving into the partner, family, or friends. If the rest of the chart is lively and playful, the Aquarian Ascendant is intended to help this person express his or her unique vision. If the rest of the chart is strong and driven, the Aquarian Ascendant is intended to help reinforce this person’s pursuit of his or her own goals. In any case, this Ascendant should convey the message: “Here is someone who’s not cut from the same cloth as anyone else on this planet, who is very much his or her own person, who follows the proverbial different drummer.”

If the childhood environment was unpredictable, particularly if one or both parents chafed, even unconsciously, at the responsivities of parenting, people with this Ascendant may have reacted a few different ways. They may have detached from the family emotionally or otherwise, either because they didn’t get good enough modeling from that family about how to be close, or because they expected the other shoe to drop and their ambivalent parents to disappear at any moment, or both. If the family was particularly chaotic or dysfunctional, this Air sign Ascendant can carry a “wired,” high-strung, vigilant energy, as if expecting a nasty surprise at any moment. Even with a good childhood, the match between the temperament of the Aquarius Ascendant and that of the rest of the family is often poor, and the Aquarius rising person can feel as if his or her parents might have taken the wrong baby home from the hospital. In any case, even if it was safe to belong to that family, something about Aquarius rising people didn’t fit into their childhood environment. They do well to learn that “being different” doesn’t necessarily mean being lesser or worse, that the don’t have to feel like the outcast or the misfit everywhere in their adult lives, and to value their uniqueness.  

–Jodie Forrest, The Ascendant