The Way We First Meet Life: Understanding the Ascendant

A few years ago, I accidentally discovered there are two train systems in Italy.

One train system offers first and second class, spacious comfortable seating, clean surroundings and a serene journey to your destination.

The other is where comfort goes to die.

Packed carriages, highly surprised tourists, suspicious locals and, cue the angry American yelling for her rights. Standing for hours while stopping at every station imaginable, uncomfortable was an understatement.

Finally, we arrived at our destination.

Thank God, I thought to myself.

I quickly gathered my belongings and stepped onto the platform.

My relief was short lived.

I had just stepped onto a platform overlooking a deep ravine.

Now, to say I am afraid of heights is an understatement.

As the reality slowly dawned on me, while hopping into taxis and travelling over dizzying heights, that we would be spending the next several days perched above this enormous drop, I couldn't get rid of the roller coaster feeling in my stomach.

I couldn't relax.

There were moments walking through the town and relaxing at the hotel where I could let my guard down, but most of the time was spent in a state of heightened alertness.

I was highly suspicious, especially of the drivers.

Surely this was the trip where someone would accidentally drive us off the side of the mountain.

Can I just add, as a side note, that this place was phenomenally beautiful.

Now let's apply this experience to the moment of birth and the way we perceive life moving forward.

Imagine the train journey as our time in the womb and our passage into the world.

The train stops.

The doors open.

We step onto the platform.

What do we find waiting for us?

If our arrival feels stressful, overwhelming or threatening, perhaps we come to expect life itself to feel that way.

Perhaps there was stress surrounding the pregnancy. Perhaps the birth itself was difficult. Perhaps we simply entered the world with a heightened sensitivity to our environment.

Whatever the reason, our first encounter with life leaves an impression.

And if we are naturally inclined toward caution, suspicion or vigilance, imagine how that might shape the way we move through the world.

We may appear reserved, guarded, distrustful or rigid.

Not because we are trying to be difficult, but because we are responding to life as though we have arrived at another cliff top destination.

This is one way I think about the Ascendant.

The Ascendant has often been called the "doors of perception."

It symbolises the way we first encounter life and, in turn, the lens through which we continue to meet it.

It describes both the way we see the world and the way the world sees us.

The birth chart will often correlate with this outlook.

As we mature, become more conscious and perhaps do a little inner work, we begin to recognise that the platform we arrived on is not the whole story.

Of course, we all know people who seem to have boarded the first class train.

Their journey was smooth. Comfortable. Safe.

People greeted them with open arms and they respond to life in turn.

The person who arrives overlooking a ravine may develop qualities the the first class traveller never needed to cultivate.

A heightened awareness.

Resourcefulness.

Resilience.

An ability to read situations and motivations that others might miss.

But perhaps the question isn't which platform we arrived on.

Perhaps the more important question is:

What is life asking me to develop because of where I arrived?

And how can I use those qualities not only for my own growth, but to become more fully who I came here to be?

And ultimately, we may discover that we arrive exactly where life needs to meet us.