Ascendant

The Ascendant is the zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, and it marks the cusp of the first house — the threshold where the chart meets the world. It colours first impressions, physical bearing, and the instinctive style with which a person approaches anything new: the front door of the self rather than its inner rooms. Less the core identity (that is the Sun) than the lens it arrives through, the Ascendant is the mask that, worn long enough, becomes a true feature of the face.