Recently, I’ve been loving diving into astrology - and one concept I’m especially stoked on is the ascendant, AKA the rising sign, of a natal chart.

When we combine this with Human Design, we can come to something really cool: your “ascendant gate.”

This isn’t traditional Human Design by any means (a note on that later), but looking at this within my own design has been so accurate and helpful that I wanted to help you find/understand yours!

WHAT IS AN ASCENDANT OR RISING SIGN IN ASTROLOGY?

In astrology, your ascendant, AKA rising, sign refers to the zodiac sign that was rising (eh? Rising sign? Get it?) on the Eastern horizon when you were born.

When looking at your western astrological natal chart, you’ll see it’s ruled by the zodiac sign that is on the cusp of your first house - i.e., the line that determines the beginning of that house.

For example, Capricorn is on the cusp of my first house, so my rising sign is Capricorn.

NOTE: I use equal sign as my house system, so the exact degree of my rising sign (12 degrees) is also the cusp of my first house. If you’re using a system like whole sign, your cusp will be at 0 degrees – but don’t worry about it, that doesn’t really change anything for our purposes here. You can use any house system for this.

Your ascendant sign represents the first energy with which you entered the world, and is sometimes referred to as the “prow” of your ship – the ship being you, on the trajectory of your life’s journey.

It guides you, pulls you forward in life, and adds an overall theme to your experience in this lifetime. I also like to think of it as the lens through which you will be living out the rest of your astrology chart; no matter what else is going on in your chart, it is colored by the energy/themes of your ascendant.

It also tells us how you most likely appear to others.

Your ascendant sign rules your first house, which is all about the self, personal image, and how you look/come across (among other things).

So while your sun sign does tell you about your personal expression, your ascendant sign is usually what other people will actually see you as, especially upon first meeting you.

For example: I’m a Libra sun, and Capricorn rising.

I strongly identify with the Libran themes of fairness, equality, art, aesthetics, and loving gossip/drama as long as I’m not personally involved in it. However, most people have told me they see the Capricorn side when they first encounter me: diligent, to-the-point, mature, “all business,” hard, and in ownership of an unfortunately strong RBF.

WHAT IS AN ASCENDANT GATE (OR “RISING GATE”)?

In astrology, the wheel of the zodiac is divided into 12 different pieces, each correlating to a different zodiac sign.

In Human Design, our “wheel” is called the Rave Mandala. On it, we still have those 12 signs of the zodiac – but they are also overlaid with the 64 gates from the I Ching. It’s sort of like the signs are “chopped up” into gates.

This means that when you have a placement in your astrology chart – whether it’s a planet, asteroid, or an astronomical/mathematical point like your rising or south/north node – in Human Design, that placement will have both the energy of the gate, and the greater sign it falls into.

So, when we are looking at your “ascendant gate,” we are basically looking at a specific degree range in which your ascendant falls into your ascendant sign – and then looking at the correlating HD gate.

For example:

I’m a Capricorn ascendant, but because my ascendant is specifically at 12 degrees of Capricorn, my ascendant gate would be Gate 38 (rather than, say, Gate 54, 60, or 61, each of which correlates to a different degree range).

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR ASCENDANT GATES

The owner of the website Health Manifested has very graciously created and made available this chart generator, which includes your rising gates. Find it here.

Just plug your info in and identify the ascendant gates.
Find your personality ascendant on the bottom right.
Find your design ascendant on the bottom left.

NOTE: You can also manually look up the specific degree at which your rising sign falls, and then see which gate that falls into.

That’s totally cool, just know that it won’t tell you which line (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) the gate is on – unless you REALLY want to dig and find out the lines/degree correlation. If you’re cool with just the gate, that’s alright as well. The gate alone will tell you plenty.

PERSONALITY ASCENDANT VS. DESIGN ASCENDANT

Oh, I forgot to mention: you actually have two ascendant gates!

This is because your Human Design chart is actually a combination of a snapshot of the sky when you were born AND a snapshot of the sky 3 months before you were born.

Your personality ascendant gate comes from your birth date. Like any personality gate, this will be more obvious to you, and you are more likely to identify with this or see it more easily in your life/personal expression.

Your design ascendant gate comes from your “design date,” i.e. 3 months before you were born. Like any design gate, this is more likely to be unconscious to you. Your body is drawn to expressing this, but your mind is unlikely to identify with it so much.

They’re both good to know, but if you’re only going to know one of them, I’d learn about your personality gate.

WHAT EXTRA STUFF DOES MY ASCENDANT GATE TELL ME ABOUT MY DESIGN?

Your ascendant gate will essentially give you:

(1) A more specific look at your rising sign in astrology. Like, yes, you’re an Aries rising, but what specific THEME of aries is most highlighted for you here?

(2) A side of your HD chart that’s not included in the usual charts or reports (not that the OGs don’t already give you plenty). This may be a piece that makes you go, “Oh, THAT’S why I’m like that!” when you can’t find it elsewhere in your chart.

For me, I loved learning that I had my ascendants in Gate 38 (the fighter) and Gate 41 (contraction) – because these energies made so much sense, yet weren’t really reflected in other parts of my Human Design.

Gate 38 explains why I am someone who craves a deep sense of purpose, and why I can really struggle with that capricornian depression when I don’t feel I have something that gives me that purpose (translation: I have nothing to “fight for”). Gate 41 explains why I’m also very creative and fantasy-driven, and feel the pressure to bring those fantasies to life.

Those are things that feel essential to who I am, but I wasn’t seeing in the rest of my chart. As soon as I saw these as my ascendants, I felt a deep resonance. It may be the same for you, too!

UM, EXCUSE ME, BUT IS THIS ~TRADITIONAL~ HUMAN DESIGN?

Ha, no.

This is an interpretive take on HD, and like I mentioned before, you definitely won’t find this spoken about in source Human Design materials.

This is simply a fun way of combining traditional western astrology with traditional Human Design, and in my opinion, use it to get a more nuanced and helpful understanding of yourself.

BTW, If you feel so inclined to send me an email about how THIS IS POP HUMAN DESIGN!, or RA DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THIS!!!, or I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about, and how dare I deviate even 0.00001% from original HD material – in the words of my friend from Long Island, “Girl, just have a vodka soda and chill the fuck out.”

IF I INCORPORATE MY RISING GATE, IT CREATES A CHANNEL AND MY ENERGY TYPE CHANGES. IS THAT MY REAL ENERGY TYPE?

Nope, I definitely recommend going by your original energy type and definition on the whole. Even on the chart generator I included, you’ll see that your AC isn’t defined on the bodygraph!

Like I said, this is just so you can be more aware of the energies in your chart. I mean, I can’t stop you from doing what you’re gonna do – heck, some people use sidereal HD, which already creates a completely different chart than in traditional HD – but changing your energy type according to this article isn’t what I would personally tell you to do.

HOW CAN I LEARN WHAT MY SPECIFIC ASCENDANT GATES MEAN?

I got you!

You can get everyday explanations for any and all the gates in your HD chart (plus, all the other ones) when you grab the Mini Guide to the 64 Gates + 36 Channels.

If you want to learn about the gates overall – with more extensive explanations of each gate/channel, the deeper theory of how they work in a chart, planets and lines, and what specifically to tell someone in a chart reading – then you’ll want to grab the Gates + Channels Deep Dive Course.

Check ‘em out.

Love + joy,

Ariana

Your Human Design Ascendant (AKA Rising) Gates