©Amy Herring, 2006 http://www.heavenlytruth.com

Do not reproduce in full or part without written permission from the author.

The Chart Ruler

Determining your chart’s ruling planet

The ruling planet of your chart is most often determined by the planet that rules the sign on the

cusp of your first house (your rising sign/ascendant). However, if you have a planet that is

conjunct your ascendant, that planet might be considered the ruler of your chart. The tighter the

conjunction, the more likely a contender it is for chart rulership.

Another potential for confusion are the old planetary rulers of the signs. These include:

º Saturn & Uranus ruling Aquarius

º Jupiter & Neptune ruling Pisces

º Mars & Pluto ruling Scorpio

Before Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars were the primary

rulers of these signs. Modern astrologers have mostly replaced those old rulerships with the new

planetary discoveries, but there is a strong case for the old rulerships. So which planet would you

consider as your chart ruler if you have one of these signs rising? Investigate both potential

ruling planets and their strength in your chart. Does one of the planets make more aspects in your

chart, for instance? One planet may stand out over the other one as the likely ruler of your chart.

However, if you can’t determine one’s strength over the other, consider co-rulership. Both

planets may be equally instrumental in ruling your chart.

The Chart Ruler’s Significance

So what’s so significant about your chart ruler? The ascendant is significant because, among

other things, it can tell you how you approach life, how you view and interpret the world coming

in at you. The chart ruler is important for reasons that are similar – the information you can get

by analyzing your chart ruler will flesh out your understanding of your ascendant, giving you

more detail about how you approach the world and how you interact with it. The chart ruler’s

house and sign can tell you a lot about where you are likely to find a lot of significant activity in

your life.

The planet ruling your chart represents a piece of you that is elevated in importance. That planet

could be said to characterize you, your outlook, and how you appear to others. Someone with

Capricorn rising might be characterized as a Saturnian sort of person – serious, hard working,

concerned with achieving tangible success in what they strive for. Someone with Pisces rising

might be considered a Neptunian sort of person – open and kind. They might, however, also be

considered a Jupiterian type, which also used to rule Pisces – generous and optimistic.

Looking at those examples, they might not seem to tell you anything additional. After all, just

knowing someone is Capricorn rising can tell you that they have a serious and hard working

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aspect to their personality – hence the reason Saturn rules Capricorn, because they fit well

together. In the cases of the chart ruler being a planet conjunct the ascendant, though, it becomes

a little more important to consider the chart ruler’s influence. If someone is Capricorn rising with

Venus on the ascendant, the person will seem much more Venusian than a regular Capricorn

rising person might appear – someone who has more of a graceful charm and appeal about them.

It can also be important to consider the ruler when you have someone with a rising sign that

seems discordant with what you know about them. What about the Aries rising person who is

soft spoken or the Gemini rising person who doesn’t seem to say much? Finding out more about

the house and sign position of the chart ruler can fill out more of the story.

The ruler’s house and sign

An Aries rising person who doesn’t seem to be characterized by the typical Martial bold energy

is a perfect example of the complexity the chart ruler analysis can add to the picture. If this

person had Mars in Sagittarius, they may display the sort of bold energy that seems like Aries,

because Sagittarius is a fellow fire sign. However, if this person has Mars perhaps in Taurus or

Scorpio, they are not likely to be as demonstrative or bold. Their technique of displaying their

boldness will depend on what motivates the sign that the chart ruler is in. Taurus is much more

laid back than Aries, and doesn’t tend to get its hair on fire in the same way. Scorpio is much

more guarded than Aries so wouldn’t be as revealing as pure Aries rising might be.

The chart ruler’s house position can give you even more information. The ascendant, as I’ve said

before, is how we appear to others, how we approach life and the world – our front door. But it

also has a great deal to do with how we act on the world. It’s our style of initiating contact with

the world. The ascendant is always in action, from our most briefest and inconsequential

interactions to our most important ones. Mars can be said to be the planet of action, and that

wouldn’t be incorrect to say, but Mars is just as much about what motivates you to act and how

you attack and defend. The ascendant is the membrane in constant contact with the world around

you.

Looking at the house position of the chart ruler can tell you a great deal about where the person

in question “projects him or herself in the activity of self-formation, in terms of the ego-in-

action. The solar house may be the bank vault where the energy of life is stored, but the house

position of the ruler tells you where it is primarily spent.” (Alan Oken – Rulers of the Horoscope)

Returning to the previous example of Capricorn rising with Saturn as the chart ruler, we can add

complexity by learning that Saturn is in Cancer in the 6th

house. Cancer can tell us the sorts of

things that a Capricorn rising person would feel a natural sense of duty toward. So they would

apply their Capricorn rising nature of hard work and achievement toward Cancerian things, such

as feeling a natural duty to take care of one’s family, perhaps even acting as the patriarch or

matriarch toward their loved ones, even if they are the youngest in the bunch. They naturally

attune their responsible nature with the understanding that we need to protect each other. The 6th

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house can tell us more about the circumstances in which this person often finds themselves and

the activities that they undertake to achieve their Capricorn and Saturn in Cancer style goals.

This person would spend a lot of their energy immersed in the tasks of daily living. They would

feel identified with the process of perfecting oneself in order to accomplish the tasks that they

have set for themselves. So the Capricorn rising person who has Saturn in Cancer and wants to

look after their loved ones would probably take that obligation very seriously and set out to learn

the skills that they need to do so properly. If one were to take care of their elderly parents, for

example, they might find themselves taking classes on the nature of such care or learning about

issues such as retirement and health care far sooner than they might ever have considered

learning for themselves. There is also a general urge for them to improve themselves (the 6th

house corresponds with the attitude of service as well as self-improvement for the sake of that

performing that service), hence the desire to work harder at the tasks they have set out to

achieve. It is not enough to do it, but it must be done well and with sufficient knowledge.

This is a complex subject with a myriad of different possibilities. When analyzing the nature of

the chart ruler, focus on the rising sign, and then bring in the chart ruler’s house and sign, which

will add to but not replace the story of the rising sign. Try it in your own chart!