Astrological Sun and Rising Signs: My Take on Them

I am not very well versed in astrology. I only ever received a few readings in my whole entire life. A lot of my friends who are of Indian and other South Asian heritage take astrology seriously. It determined marriages, naming of children, starting of businesses, starting of homes, and other life changing decisions. They are very serious indeed.

I recently became aware that not only are there Vedic Astrology, as well as the astrology we commonly understand as "astrology" today, but also that there is a Kabbalah perspective on this interesting art as well.

I know very little of all of them.

But upon receiving my last general chart reading, I was made aware of the existence of a Rising Sign.

In a more general context within which astrology is often used today, our Rising Sign is often considered to be our true self, one that find their expressions effortlessly. Like a knee jerk reaction. The state of our being that came to be without the slightest of thoughts. In this context, our Sun Sign became our ideal self, the self that we aspire to be, but often are not.

From what I heard about the Kabbalah perspective of these signs, is that The Sun Sign is in fact our true self. While our Rising Sign is the aspect of ourselves which assisted us in "resolving" our true self.

The way I see it, both are actually saying the same thing.

The difference lies in what a true self looks like.

On the one hand our true self is the ideal self. On the other, we have our current self as this truth for ourselves. In the first, we are going to always be in a journey to find our perfection, our true nature. In the second, perfection is not likely to be attainable, and what we have now is the only truth about us there is.

The Kabbalah perspective appears to me to belong to the first mindset. Not surprisingly at all really. Our current self, reflected in our Rising Sign, exist in service of the formation of that ideal version, reflected in our Sun Sign. What we all can be. If we decided that this is who we are, and we are prepared to take the journey to get there.

I dare say this is actually a very empowering stance.

In a framework that is geared more towards the here and now, one which focuses on self-love and self-acceptance (this is NOT to say that in believing of an ideal possible, we can not also love ourselves in the now) a true self is often defined by what comes more naturally, without struggle, without efforts. From this perspective, this is our current self, reflected in our Rising Sign.

Perhaps, instead of framing the Rising and Sun Signs in terms of "true" selves, we can frame them as "ideal self" and "current self".

This way, which ever self you feel is truly you, is up to you.