Meaning and description of Ascendant or Rising sign or Lagna | Impacts of ascendant

Indian astrology is a profound ocean where human lives are predicted and forecasted through the study of variant aspects which holds many deep roots as few subjects won’t be able to produce precise predictions. Study of Ascendants is one of the aspects from the bottom of Vedic astrology which plays a significant role in portraying human lives.

The Ascendant or rising sign or Lagna is the zodiacal sign which is ascending on the eastern horizon at the time of the birth of the native. This is the first house of the horoscope. For example, if the Libra is rising at the times of birth of native, the native will be of Libra ascendant and in the horoscope of the person, the first house will have Libra zodiac. The ruler of the Libra zodiac Venus or Shukra will be the lord of ascendant. The personality, physical appearance and thinking pattern of the native will be much impacted by the Venus in this case.

Ascendant is the most important house in one's horoscope. In a horoscope, it represents the native while the other 11 houses represents different aspects (like money, luck, education, children etc.) of the native .Since it represents the person himself, it becomes increasingly important to have a good and successful life. To have a successful life, the ascendant of the person must be in a strong state. A strong Lagn makes the benefic astrological yogas (raj yogas and dhan yogas) made by other planets more powerful while the weak ascendant reduces the strength of the yogas. A strong Lagna itself can make many benefic yogas.

Rising sign is the true expression of one’s outer personality, physical attributes and appearance. It strongly impacts the physical strength, vitality, health and age of the person. If this is very weak and no other balancing impact is there then the person may become short-lived and may be having many diseases. The general success of the life-time of native is much influenced by it. A strong ascendant may assure a pleasant life full of joy, affluence, happiness, success, respect and good health.

The factors which contributes to calculate the strength of ascendants are as follows:

• Placement of ascendant lord


• Dignity of Rising sign ' s lord ( Exalted, debilitated, own house etc.)


• Placement of other planets in ascendant


• Aspects of other planets to the Lagna


• Position of the natural karaka of the Rising sign (Sun in all cases)

Placement of the rising signs lord plays an important role in deciding the strength of Ascendant. If the lord is placed in kendras(1st house, 4th house, 7th house, 10th house) or trikonas(5th and 9th house) then this would provide the very good strength to it. If the lord is placed in 6th, 8th or 12th house, this is a bad position and will make it weak. The dignity of rising signs lord is also an important factor. If the lord of lagn is exalted, in mool-trikona, placed in own house or sign, or placed in friendly sign, this would provide very good results in decreasing order. But if the lord of rising sign is placed in enemy sign or it is debilitated then the strength of ascendants will be weak.

Placement of natural benefic planets (Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus) and yoga- karaka planets for that Lagna creates good impact on it while the placement of natural malefic planets( Saturn, rahu, ketu etc..) creates bad impacts on it. In case of aspect or drishti from other planets to it, same rules are applicable as of in case of placement. Natural karaka of all natives is Sun so it's strength and good placement is also important for having a good state of ascendant.

Rising sign is the only aspects that makes people of same zodiac or sun sign or moon sign stand apart for being different besides this, it could also be perceived as the lurked aspects of natives. It is the only subject that could articulate the difference even between the twins as it changes after every 2 hours. So if the twins are born in this period of transition, then 2 minutes difference between two twins would make their rising sign different from each other and results will also be changes accordingly.

Indian astrology prescribes the study of three important birth charts of 16 which are there for a native-Lagna chart, moon chart and Sun chart. The first one is prepared while taking lagn as a first house. Moon chart is prepared while considering moon's position in the chart as lagn. Similarly, Sun chart is prepared while taking sun's position as Lagna. Out of these three, analysis of Lagna chart is the most important for making accurate predictions.

Apart from this, rising signs are also get affected with the placement of Lord of rising sign as the native will also attain impacts from the zodiac in which the ruling planet of it is placed. This further explains that it is very rarely possible that a person would be completely of only one sign as in general planetary placements, the native would acquire attributes of at least two or more signs but the Rising sign is believed to form the core of the native. For instance, a Leo could have some influence of Libra and a Capricorn could have some influence of Pisces.