Astrology · 5 min

The four angles

Rising, midheaven and their opposites. The skeleton of a chart.


Four points in a chart carry more weight than the rest. They are not just house starts but the load-bearing axes: where the first, fourth, seventh and tenth houses begin.

The four angles, one by one

  • RISING (1st) — the point coming up in the east. Where you meet the world.
  • MIDHEAVEN (10th) — the top of the sky. Career, reputation, visibility.
  • DESCENDANT (7th) — opposite the rising. What you look for in a partner.
  • IMUM COELI (4th) — opposite the midheaven. Roots, home, private life.

A planet near an angle

A planet sitting close to one of these four gets an outsized say in the chart. A Saturn near an angle speaks much louder than a Saturn parked in the middle of a house.

In the app

Your own rising sign — where your chart begins — is below.

Open in Celestine