What your sun, moon, and rising signs say about you

For centuries, astrology has been used to identify someone’s unique birth chart by examining planetary bodies, zodiac signs, and houses. Your natal chart maps the positions of the sun, moon, planets, and stars at the specific time of your birth to determine your character traits, personality, likes, and dislikes. While many people are familiar with their sun sign, they don’t always take their moon and rising sign into account. So, when people struggle to relate to their sun sign, it leads them to question the validity and accuracy of astrology rather than delving deeper into it and understanding that their moon and rising sign may give them the answers and connection they seek. If you’re looking to explore these three signs, here’s how they can shape your identity.

The Sun

The sun represents your motivation, ego, and driving force. It is the core element of what makes you shine and accurately depicts who you are to everyone around you. The sun sign is the most common in astrology and helps you understand your general attitude and spirit. It provides great insight into how you experience life and express your individuality. Therefore, most of your character traits, personal preferences, tendencies, strengths, and talents are represented through your sun sign. Being the most dominant of the three signs, it usually projects an accurate image of who you are and where you seek to be in life.

If your sun is an air sign including Gemini, aquarius, and libra, you are considered to be bright, inquisitive, and intellectual characters who are warm, welcoming, and talkative with other people. These signs tend to thrive in social settings, so when they require a recharge, they are content doing it around friends.

If your sun is a fire sign, including Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, you are confident, proactive, and have great vitality and physical energy. These characters are inherently goal-driven and career-focused, and they are motivated by their aspirations and other things that help them level up or progress in life.

If your sun is an earth sign, including Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, you appreciate the finer things in life and see beauty in the world around you. They are known to be rather pragmatic and don’t like any fuss caused, so when they want to have a moment to relax, you can probably find them surrounded by creature comforts.

Finally, if your sun is a water sign, including Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio, you are deeply emotional and compassionate, although when others meet you for the first time, you might come off as mysterious. Always the ones to nurture and care for others, these people thrive off of intimate experiences and emotional moments.

The moon

The moon sign shows your soul and inner emotions that are usually hidden and only reveal themselves when you have emotional reactions. It represents how you respond to situations and causes pleasure, pain, happiness, and distress while revealing your deepest desires. Shedding light on your subconscious self, the moon represents your inner world. Some of us feel feelings profoundly and become easily consumed by them, while others analyze their feelings and attempt to fix them instead of feeling them, but either way, the moon is the reason you feel in specific ways.

If your moon is an air sign, including Gemini, Aquarius, or Libra, you will seek out information to understand something logically and feel safe with it. Most situations will be met with an articulate and practical response, and you will feel most aligned with your inner self when put in a social setting.

If your moon is a fire sign, including Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, you will need action and excitement to feel validated and stimulated. When faced with a scenario you don’t have complete control over, these signs will self-soothe by taking the initiative or a leadership role to alleviate the issue.

If your moon is an earth sign, including Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, you will find solace in stability, success, and utilizing your skills. Being productive and working towards a goal gives these signs a sense of satisfaction and purpose. Their inner self feels like they have achieved something meaningful.

Lastly, if your moon is a water sign, including Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio, your world is ruled by sensitivity and emotions. This sign craves intimacy, bonding, and close relationships to feel safe, fulfilled, and aligned when deep feelings are involved.

Rising sun/ascendant

Your rising sign is the energy you put out and how you present yourself to the world. It is determined by the zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon at the exact time you were born. It represents your social and outward personality and gives others their first impression of you. Your rising characteristics illustrate your physical appearance, your style, perceptions of you, and any defense mechanisms you use when needed. Essentially, your rising shines a light on how you interact with everything and everyone around you.

If your rising is an air sign, including Gemini, Aquarius, or Libra, you are generally warm and welcoming and make friends easily. People are attracted to your ability to express yourself verbally, desire to be intentional, and have a genuine interest in getting to know others.

If your rising is a fire sign, including Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, you are action-orientated and confident but can be pretty blunt, so while some people are attracted to this, others can be put off by your no-frills attitude. These characters have quite the zest for life and an energy that can be infectious. When it comes to work and striving to do better, there’s very little that will hold these people back.

If your rising is an earth sign including Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, you are usually a worldly creature with an affinity to admire the things around you. You can be incredibly determined and practical in your life, making others understand things at face value rather than how they may be perceived.

If your rising is a water sign, including Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio, you might give off a mysterious attitude, but your care and love for those around you will never waver. As emotional, empathetic, and sensitive beings, your environment can significantly influence your life, so it's important to surround yourself with aesthetically pleasing and natural decor. Generally, water-rising signs are deeply ruled by their emotions.

Understanding your sun, moon, and rising signs is essential to gain insight into your personal astrology. Every part of your natal chart is important, and putting the pieces together will help you make sense of your personality and characteristics. Speaking to an expert astrologer can help you delve deeper into yourself and discover what the universe has in store for you.