Taurus Ascendent: Why it is Rare


In astrology, the rising sign, or ascendent, is one of the most important signs in your chart, and it determines how the world views you. Some rising signs are rarer than others, with Taurus being amongst the rarest.

A Taurus rising sign is rare because Taurus spends less time in the eastern horizon than other signs. Your rising sign is in the eastern horizon the moment you are born, and due to the tilt of the earth’s axis, Taurus moves through the eastern horizon more quickly than other signs, making Taurus ascendant rare.

The chances of a person being born in Taurus also changes depending on what latitude you are in. If you are born in the southern hemisphere, you actually have a greater chance of being born with Taurus rising that many of the other signs.

When Taurus is in the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, a person has a Taurus ascendent sign

Each Rising Sign Lasts a Different Amount of Time

The reason why some rising suns are rarer than others is because the signs do not all take the same amount of time to cross the eastern horizon. This is because of the tilt of the earth’s axis. The earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees relative the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path that the planets travel along as they rotate around the sun. Some are slightly above the ecliptic, while others slightly below.

On average, each sign takes take two hours to cross the eastern horizon, however some are faster and others slower. At the equator, the differences are small, but as you get further away from the equator, the differences become bigger and bigger.

In the northern hemisphere, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius take much longer to cross the eastern horizon, so there are a lot more people with these ascendent signs. Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus and Gemini take much less time, due to the tilt of the earth’s axis.

For example, at the latitude of Paris, France, the signs range from one hour to two hours and forty-five minutes.

In the southern hemisphere, the signs are reversed compared to the northern hemisphere as the fastest signs are the slowest, and the slowest are the fastest.

Let’s take a closer look at the ascension of Taurus, at various latitudes:

Paris, France: one hour and fifteen minutes

St Petersburgh, Russia: forty-five minutes

Concepcion, Chile: two hours and twenty-five minutes

What this means is that Taurus ascendent is rare in the northern hemisphere, but is actually more common in the southern. However, more people are born in the northern hemisphere than in the south. In fact, over 90% of the world’s population lives in the northern. This is partially due to the fact that the southern hemisphere is 90% water, while the northern is only 60%, so there is a lot more land mass in the north. As a result, globally speaking, taurus is one of the rarer of the rising signs.

At the equator, where each sign takes pretty much the same amount of time, a person has one in twelve chance of being born with a Taurus ascendent. This means you have an 8.3% chance of being born with a Taurus ascendent.

However, at the latitude of Paris, Taurus is in the eastern horizon for only one hour and fifteen minutes, out of twenty-four hours. This means you have a one in 19.2 chance, or in other words, a 5.2% chance of being born with a Taurus ascendent.

Taurus’ Rareness Relative to Other Ascendent Signs

Taurus is indeed a rare ascendant sign. It is matched by Aquarius in its rareness, and only surpassed by Pisces and Aries, which are actually slightly more rare than Taurus, due to moving through the eastern horizon the most quickly. But if you have a Taurus ascendent are were hoping to read that you are the rarest of all, don’t be disappointed, because a Taurus rising is in fact a very good rising sign to have.

Ecliptic, Zodiac & Precession, What Does It All Mean

So far, we have established that some signs move more quickly through the eastern horizon due the axis tilt of the earth. You are probably trying to come up with a mental picture of our planet at an angle, rotating, and seeing the other planets and stars as they each appear. I’m going to try to make this a little easier to understand, and to do that we need define three terms:

Ecliptic

The path which the sun, moon, and planets take through the sky, as viewed from Earth.

Zodiac

The twelve constellations the sun passes through, as seen through Earth. Over the course of a year, the sun is seen in all twelve constellations, which determines your sun sign.

Precession

The movement of the stars relative to the ecliptic. The stars move through the zodiac five minutes every six years, which means that a planet will move forward one degree in seventy-two years.

It’s a lot of moving parts, literally, but for our purposes just need to understand that each the planets rotate around the sun, and the earth rotates every twenty-four hours. Because of the earth rotation, the sign seen in the eastern horizon is continually changing, and because the planet is tilted at an angle, some planets appear in that location for less time than others.

Taurus is represented by the bull, and is strong and sturdy

Characteristics of a Taurus Ascendent

The ascendent sign is about how the outside world perceives you. It determines your physical appearance, and the first impression you make on people. Having a Taurus ascendent means that you have a steady and methodical approach to life. You move slowly and cautiously and are a creature of habit, disliking change. You are a very good friend and ally, and take your time when getting to know new people. Taurus ascendents are loyal and possessive, and do not give up on relationships easily.

The symbol of Taurus is the bull, which can be seen in the appearance of Taurus ascendants, which are strong and sturdy in their presence. They often have stout and robust bodies with beautiful faces and nice skin.

In order to the understand why some ascendent signs are rarer than others, we have to understand how the ascendent is determined. The ascendent sign is the sign that is present in the eastern horizon the moment you were born. Each ascendent lasts a different amount of time, which changes depending on how far you are from the equator, making Taurus a rare ascendent.

Recommended Reading

If you want to continue exploring this subject more deeply, you can see which books I recommend by clicking here.

Everet Dee

Everet Dee is a writer and researcher with a passion for metaphysics, philosophy, hidden history, the occult, the esoteric, and religion.

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