I am not an astrologer, but I often read books on astrology. I have found some of the most important answers for “my life as Kameliya” in them. Since I have been struck more than once by the accuracy of the things described there, I trust this psychology of archetypes, presented through the planets and zodiac signs.
That is why I now want to share what I understood about the role of the Ascendant from Martin Schulman’s book Karmic Astrology, Vol. 3. As a rule, astrological terms have psychological equivalents, and so it is with the Ascendant. According to Schulman, the Ascendant corresponds to the ego, and the ego is responsible for the connection between us and the outer world.
Pamela Kribbe writes the same about the relationship between the soul and the ego—namely, that the ego has an extremely important function: to provide focus for our activities in the outer world. Without this focus, we would float through our lives like a cork on the water’s surface.
“Thus, the Ascendant symbolizes the individual’s personality, because personality is simply the way the inner essence comes into contact with the outer environment. When people do not correctly use the influence of their Ascendant, the inner essence misinterprets its connection with the outer world. As a result, some people experience personality-related problems.” — Martin Schulman
Problems arise because without a clear idea of who we are—meaning, the primary color of our identity—we lack a clear focus. This focus comes from understanding that the Ascendant is a kind of door that connects our inner potential with the possibilities of the outer world. The Ascendant as a “gateway” becomes a filter between everything that exists inside the chart (our inner unique essence) and everything in the outer world.
“If we imagine the chart without the circle around it, then all the feelings, ideas, and possibilities you feel within yourself would scatter into the outer environment, creating a life of meaningless dissipation. You might be enchanted by so many external circumstances that you feel helplessly small in a world that seems too large to house you.
But if we close the circle and leave only the Ascendant as the point of your personal access to the outer world, then you can focus and concentrate your energies within a significant area or expression. The Ascendant is the filter through which we can gain control over ourselves.” — Martin Schulman
Standing on the “Inner Side” of the Door
It is precisely the presence of a clearly defined identity that allows us to understand what from the outer world pertains to us and what does not. Using the language of astrology, this means standing on the inner side of our Ascendant—staying behind the door and letting through only those things that we feel relate to us. To do the opposite—to stand on the outer side of the Ascendant—means to be positioned at the gateway between us and the outer world, but on its external side. The result is getting lost in the field of collective karma and losing the connection with our inner center.
I constantly encounter this fact: how we lose the connection with our inner voice when we direct our attention outward toward the numerous stimuli of the environment. Knowing that the way we stand at this “gateway” is individually specific helps us be more aware of our innate predisposition toward different ways of filtering stimuli. A person with an Aries Ascendant faces different temptations and challenges than someone with a Leo or Scorpio Ascendant. Knowledge of these individual differences in responding to the collective psyche helps us stand at the door from the right side.
The inner side.
Kameliya
Note: The quotations are translated from Bulgarian and are not presented as verbatim citations.
