Why You're So Much More Than Your Sun Sign
Is sharing someone’s birthday really reason to be similar? As an astrologer, I’d argue no. In this post, we’ll explore the complexity of the natal chart beyond your sun sign, finally putting the sun in its rightful place.
You are a multifaceted, complex being, right? You cannot be reduced to one aspect of your personality—we’ll save that for reality TV “characters.” Similarly, your birth or natal chart (i.e. the map of the sky at the exact time and place of your birth) cannot be reduced to one celestial body in one sign. Your chart is complicated; it represents the entirety of you and your life, and thus, reflects your complexity. Not only does the natal chart account for personality, relationships, strengths, challenges and other aspects of life, it also accounts for time and depicts what changes and transformations you’ll experience over the course of a lifetime. After all, you’re not the same person you were yesterday, let alone a decade ago.
When analyzing an entire birth chart, any astrologer worth their Saturn return will factor in the ten “planets,” 12 signs, 12 houses, and multiple relevant angle combinations. Any given chart comprises seemingly endless permutations—it’s well over a million. If an astrologer wanted to take the analysis further, they could include asteroids, fixed stars and numerous timing techniques, like annual projections, transits, progressions, and more. As you can see, astrology is a super-duper-layered constellation (pun intended) of information and a birth chart is as complex and unique as each individual. See—you are special!
Your sun sign does matter, to be clear. It is widely considered one of three most vital components of a chart, otherwise known as the “big three.” (The other two are your rising and moon signs.) Most astrologers believe the rising sign—the sign rising over the eastern horizon at your time of birth—to be the most personal aspect of your natal chart, meaning you will likely have more in common with people of your same rising sign than sun sign. This is because the rising sign dictates the layout of your chart, including which energies (signs) show up in which areas of life (houses). For example, all Libra risings will experience Capricorn energy at home, Aries energy in their relationships, and Cancer energy in their careers, generally speaking. Keep in mind that planets in any of these houses will change the flavor of the energies, so knowing your rising sign alone is still insufficient to fully synthesize a chart. If I had my druthers, though, I would much rather ascertain someone’s rising sign than sun sign, if I could only know one thing about their chart.
At this point, you might be wondering: why have sun signs become the mainstream representation of astrology if they’re not the MOST important? Good question! Astrology is really old—like 2nd century BCE old. And that means it’s gone through many iterations with new techniques being added over time and old techniques being lost to history. In episode 163 of The Astrology Podcast titled “Why Horoscopes Are Still Valid and Important,” astrologer, author and podcast host, Chris Brennan details how sun-sign astrology (the system of finding your “sign'“ based on your birth month and day) rose in popularity. In a nutshell, when magazines and newspapers started printing horoscopes, they needed a simpler astrological system in order to be relevant to the everyday reader. Readers may not have known their rising sign (that required knowing their exact time of birth—eesh!), but they did know their birthday. Over time, the simplified sun-sign system became the dominant understanding of astrology, leaving the complexity of astrology to be widely unknown or, at minimum, vastly misunderstood.
If you’re like me, sun sign astrology may have been the extent of your astrological knowledge for quite some time—perhaps it still is. That’s ok! And if you haven’t given astrology the time of day because sun-sign astrology seems implausible, that’s also understandable. The limitations of the sun-sign system, plus the inaccuracy of horoscopes written for sun signs (they should be written for rising signs!), was one of the reasons I neglected to take astrology seriously for decades. It was simply entertainment.
That said, if you are astro-curious, I encourage you to reconsider this position. (And yes, will talk about the verity of astrology in another post.) Just as you may have felt misunderstood by someone who was just scratching the surface of you, so too has astrology. There is more depth and complexity to this celestial system than the zeitgeist captures, though the zeitwinds are achangin’. With an open mind (and a natal chart reading), you too could discover a whole new connection to the cosmos…and more importantly, yourself.
