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Demystifying Astrology: What Is The Chart Ruler?
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Circled on the chart pictured is the “ascendant”. To determine the “chart ruler”, or the “ruling planet” check the sign on the ascendant. The planet that rules that sign is your chart ruler.
Aries rising or ascendant = Mars ruled chart
Taurus rising or ascendant = Venus ruled chart
If you don’t know what planet rules what sign you can refresh your memory here: cheat sheet
Most astrologers feel the ruling planet is enhanced in the chart and I agree. It also pays to play close attention to the transits both to and from your ruling planet.
In other words, if you have a Mars ruled chart, how Mars is faring in the sky (and the affairs of the house it is transiting) is going to be particularly important to you. Transits to natal Mars same thing.
Cancer risings (Moon ruled charts) are very sensitive to the Moon’s moving through the signs and houses in their chart - this is worth noting. Capricorn risings and Aquarius rising do well to mind Saturn, etc.
When I say, “mind the ruling planet” I mean in every way, shape and form. For example, if the chart ruler is under duress in the chart, this gives information. If the chart ruler is well placed and well-aspected this gives different information.
Bottom line, you’d be well advised to familiarize yourself with your ruling planet in front of any other priority you might have, even if you are initially less than interested or affectionate towards the planet and what it represents because to deny the ruling planet and it’s expression is to deny yourself the same.
What planet rules your chart?
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73 Responses to “Demystifying Astrology: What Is The Chart Ruler?”
Jupiter is my chart ruler?? I find this a bit odd. Not sure why. But it does explain why I feel like convinced I can bounce back from anything. I was pretty sure I was going to die from sadness this summer. I’m glad to say I didn’t.
Good old Joop!
OK. So what happens when you have another planet squeezed in on your ascendent like I do? Scorpio ascendent with Neptune on it. Does the energy get screwed up? I mean Pluto and Neptune together? Is this why I always feel like humpty dumpty?
“Jupiter is my chart ruler?? I find this a bit odd. ”
It’s very common people feel divorced from their ascendant which is why I specifically suggested focusing because it is probably the missing piece too many things.
Gemini and Virgo rising - MERCURY! Timing - Bay-bee! Get your timing down!
see, I always thought the chart ruler was whatever you had the most of. no reason, it just made sense to me. thank you for clarifying! 
So what’s the verdict with Scorpio, is Mars or Pluto it’s ruler?
Yeah…. what Togi asked. What DO you do when you have a Scorp ASC but then a Uranus in Sag in the 1st?
(And no, it doesn’t aspect the ASC).
Togi, and PM, your ruling planet is your ruling planet. It is the planet the rules the sign of your ascendant and unrelated to whatever might be in your 1st house.
In other words if you are a Virgo rising and you have 6 planets in Libra in your first house - MERCURY still rules that chart. This is not something that is negotiable or that can altered in any way.
Togi and PM, you are both Scorpio risings so you have Mars-ruled charts… also look at Pluto (modern ruler) but I would be tracking Mars for sure!
Someone told me once that Mars is my chart ruler because it is conj asc and so highly aspected in my chart.
For the Scorpio rising, Elsa you’re saying take both Mars & Pluto into account? Mix ‘em some how? 
(sorry, I’m newer and maybe jumping ahead of myself)
Jilly - they were wrong.
aurangeluv, I would look at both but Mars moves fast so I would really be watching it move through the signs and houses.
Also note, Togi and PM - Scorpio risings who asserted themselves.
This post got their back up, see? You guys all have a hard on now, that is MARS!
Jilly - PS there are all kinds of people out there who think they know astrology and make up things like that - this is exactly what I am trying to combat.
The sign on the ascendant determines the chart ruler - PERIOD.
Get To know the ruler of your chart - PERIOD.
Because it rules you, see?
I am saturn ruled! I best get along with saturn or my first foot forward, my first handshake is going to be… less effective then it could be.
This is akin to holding your head up when you walk around. DO IT. Embrace and express the ruler or your chart - PERIOD and you will much happier and whole.
I’m happy to hear that I’m more Marsy than I always thought.
Ooo, Virgo so I am Mercury ruled. What do you mean, “timing, baybeeee!”? I don’t have to start to wake up early, do I??
Yes I blew off that info from that person. I’m Saturn-ruled too.
so true and thanks for clarifying it—my ruler is the sun, and when Pluto hit it-it changed many things about my appearance and approach to things also—
Besides checking its aspect-does the chart ruler sign matter? Like if my sun is in Cancer is it as important as the aspects to the sun or are the signs not important in this?
sonah22 - Everything about the chart ruler matters.
Also, a transit to the ruling planet of the chart is as important as a transit to the Sun in a chart.
This post got their back up, see? You guys all have a hard on now, that is MARS!
<>
You’re funny. In retrospect this is so true. Since my mars is in Sag I am happiest when I am doing Saggy type things and god knows I love Saggy type men…well not literally! Ha Ha.
It just clicked why I love the living daylights out of Geminis, that’s where my natal Jupiter is.
One of my dearest pals is Gemini Sun/Moon and she lights up my life like nobodies business, just by being herself.:)
Capricorn is on the ascent, that means SATURN is my chart ruler? Saturn rules, and “I am saturn ruled! I best get along with saturn or my first foot forward, my first handshake is going to be… less effective then it could be.” … Elsa, please, help me out with this in a translation I might get :~
“This is akin to holding your head up when you walk around. DO IT. Embrace and express the ruler or your chart - PERIOD and you will much happier and whole.” this is a piece of really valuable stuff. Fill in the gap if you could. I’m saying, “Hah?”
akasally - it means you are an authority figure. You are an elder as everyone who reads this blog already knows about you.
For more information, check the sign, house and aspects of natal Saturn but you are a SATURN figure in this world.
“It just clicked why I love the living daylights out of Geminis, that’s where my natal Jupiter is.”
kash, you shipped me a KEYBOARD - fast and international. It was an act of GENEROSITY..
per, your post on the boards, if you learn to drive (gemini) it will expand and cheer you (Jupiter)…
see how this is. Everyone reeks of their chart ruler…
Hey Elsa,
What about if two planets rule your rising sign? Pisces has two ruling planets, Neptune and Jupiter. Which one is the ruler?
So if I have mars as my chart ruler and mars in the first house, then I must be mars on steroids. Yikes. And here I thought it was Pluto.
tan - same thing as I have been telling these Scorpio risings. Look at both but I would particularly watch Jupiter as far as transits go because it is faster moving and closer in.
I guess what I’m saying is if you push me, one over the other, I am going to go with the traditional ruler as it will yield more information.
Another thing… see when Mercury is getting creamed in the sky - mercury ruled charts are affected!!
When Jupiter is well aspected in the sky, Pisces and Sadge risings benefit. Are you getting this?
Watch the chart ruler, ALWAYS.
In other words, me being Cap rising, when Saturn is under stress (as it is now from Uranus) I am going to be under stress and this is readily apparent on my blog over these last months.
Hehe, right!
Togi, yes. You are a hard-on out walkin’ around. You are a Mars archetype, basically and you ought to wear that will pride. Assert it, yes?
I’ve got a Mars ruled chart, but Mars is only in hard aspect, plus in Libra in the 6th house. Daaaaaamnn. I think I’m doing alright though!
Elsa, my ascendant is on a cusp (the exact minute of my birth time is not clear) between scorpio and sagittarius. What should i do in this case? Should i round it up to sag? or take into consideration all three planets (pluto mars jupiter)?
Scorpio ASC conjunct Neptune. So this is yet another way in which Mars is afflicted in my chart, in addition to my natal Mars-Neptune opposition. Could I be any more of a flake? And I’m an Aries Stellium to boot. I already know this is my major challenge in life. Sucks, tho.
Elsa,
Makes sense. Thanks.
aye, no wonder my life is going backwards..venus rules here with libra rising
and that sign in my 8th….looks like….inside out and upside down!
I have Pisces rising, like Tan, meaning I have two rulers, Jupiter and Neptune. I agree with Elsa’s position that the traditional ruler carries more weight then the outer planet ruler, but I am flexible enought to listen to alternative views without labeling them wrong, necessarily).
My Jupiter chart ruler is very tightly conjunct Uranus (1 deg) in the 5th house in Cancer which makes me almost absurdly patriotic (progressive liberal radical), shockingly generous at times (I often catch crap for this), and kind of a freak in general. Mixed in with the Neptune placed in an angle, people think so many wrong things about me that it gets really funny. Also, every time there is a transit to that Jup/Uran conjunction, things get really juicy!
Lindsey - yes.
lotion - you are either one or the other. If you have an overbite… thighs (haunches) that are prominent (ask someone else’s opinion), I would go with Sadge. If you do the eye thing at people, Scorpio.
Would also add this tidbit from a expert on chart rectification: He told me 80-90% of the time the person was born earlier, not later than the time stated on the BC. Basically the staff takes care of the baby and then glances at the clock to mark the time..
Hey Jilly - me too, Mars rising and I had read the same thing! But I’m so noticeably much more sensitive to moon stuff (Cancer is the sign).
I am cap rising-so that means saturn
and my actual saturn is in taurus-3rd house
I get this-but darn it- I still do not get aspects/transits, I really need a aspects and transits for dummies-
Elsa - LMAO at “the eye thing.” I woke up this morning and my Scorpio rising boyfriend was staring at me, so that I nearly jumped.
I always thought I was saturn ruled and behave more so, but from what you are saying, being a Leo rising, than my ruler is the Sun. I think I am Saturn ruled because I have so much Capricorn, but most people are surprised that I am a Capricorn because I come across sunnier?….am I close? More so in person, than writing…my writing I think is definitely more sedated.
Dena, your chart ruler is the Sun but as I recall your SUN is conjunct SATURN which explains…
jessica that sounds delicious. my bf has loads of scorpio and i can only look at him for 10 seconds while he is sleeping. he’ll wake up right away.
i swear some scorpios sleep with one eye open!
cancer moon?
My chart is Mercury ruled.
Elsa you are too kind!! xoxo
mercury.
and my timing sucks.
but my mercury’s stressed.
drives me crazy.
but i’m getting better.
and, yeah, my birth certificate has me born two minues after my dad says i was. ‘course he was busy catching me while the doctor was saying, “ah, it’ll be a little while yet” uhm, no, once the aries baby gets going, she moooooves!
Thanks for your comments Elsa. Interesting timing (as usual) for my mars square mars transit.
Question about expressing the chart ruler: does the sign the ruling planet occupy affect how you should express it?
I’m a Sag asc with Jupiter in Capricorn. So I should be more… ambitious?! More authoritative?! I would much rather be jolly Jupiter, but that feels odd.
hitchhiker - everything you wrote is correct. It feels ODD because Jupiter in Cap should be preaching reality… have a grounded philosophy… one perhaps passed down from the grandfather or other Saturn figure.
You get the idea. Your a horse with you feet on the ground you could say.
“If you do the eye thing at people, Scorpio.”
This is why I relate to my Border Collie. Border collies get in trouble when in a group of dogs because of their stare. I don’t think they know they’re doing it either.
Scorpio ascendant, natal Mars and Pluto in the 10th part of a t-square.
Cancer rising, so ruled by moon in 3rd house/Virgo (about to be conjuncted by transiting Saturn once it goes direct.) Eh. My moon has some sort of natal aspects to Mercury and Saturn - not quite oppositions. The symbol looks like a picnic table?
Oh, and the moon is sextile my Ascendant, that’s a symbol I can recognize.
picnic table aspect = inconjunct (what I call it) or Quincunx which I think is more in vogue these days but they are the same thing..
Hey Crackers, I wanted to tell you (sorry, I’ve lost the link to the other blog where I noticed, because I was reading on my cell phone), but I really like the way you write/express yourself.
I tried to read a book called Quincunx once, it was an unholy mess.
Thank you, Jessica. That’s very kind!
jessica that sounds delicious.
kashmiri - mmmm. Guess we have similar taste.
Oh, forgot to thank you for answering my question, Elsa. Thank you!
Thanks hitchiker & Elsa for the clarification– my Merc (Virgo chart ruler) is 3rd H Scorpio. I guess I should really be talking about transformation. I actually do believe in the process of refinement through big and little transformations. Too bad once I go through something and have processed it, I’m on to the next thing and don’t have much to say anymore. But maybe a little discipline would work. God knows with a bunch of Virgo I just need direction/ a goal from somebody. I should find that. Thanks for the spark!!
Taurus rising here, so I my chart is Venus ruled. I’ve always wondered how the chart ruler is figured out… now I have stuff to look up!
Now this is interesting! Virgo rising, so Mercury is my ruling planet.
Mercury lives in the 12th, which is (if I’m not mistaken) inner or spiritual life. And it clicks.
Ok. so I’ve been reading all these information, and it’s very interesting. I’m Pisces, Scorpio rising, Scorpio Moon. So, my chart ruler is Mars. Too bad it’s located in my 8th house (in gemini), I guess that’s not so good. Aspects: Mars trine Pluto, sextile Jupiter and MC, opossition Neptune. I also have Uranus and Moon conjuct my Asc. but that’s another story.
Ena - Mars in the 8th is a strong placement because the 8th is the house Mars rules. (and welcome)
I’ve got Capricorn rising, so I’m Saturn ruled. My natal Saturn is in Taurus, 4th house, opposite my Sun and Midheaven.
Most days I really don’t feel like an authority figure, though.
Thanks Elsa for explanation. Somehow that Mars in 8th always seemed ominous to me. (and thanks for the welcome, it’s been great reading you)
I’m scorpio rising so that means I am mars ruled. Mars is conjunct pluto and the sun (warrior), squares the moon (temper temper) and sextiles neptune which I take to mean lets me express my spirituality/creativity.
My best friend always calls me a warrior. I feel at my best when I get alot of physical exercise (both indoor and out!) which is not great now with sports injuries and no man…
I never knew to look out for Mars transits. I will definitely do that now.
Yay! Could someone have a big sex mars transit in my vicinity?
Mercury ruled chart. Pisces Mercury in 9th Conjuncts my MC, no other aspects. Timing is lucky, things just coordinate at the right time and place.
What if your chart-ruling-planet is retrograde?
Taurus rising here (also Taurus sun) so I’m Venus ruled x2. With Venus in my second house – a house it rules - I love to own beautiful things - waaaay too many of them (that garage sale will this summer if I can let go). Venus is in Gemini so I’m a social butterfly but I don’t get too close to people. Venus conjunct Uranus just emphasizes that and gives me a quirkiness that it took me years to learn to celebrate. When I was a kid I was just “different”. Venus opposite Jupiter/sextile Mars makes me very buoyant. I just don’t/can’t stay down very long. I’m like a cork, the harder you push me down the higher/faster I pop back up. This comes naturally to me and it earns me a lot of derision for being “Suzy sunshine”, but having a tendency towards happiness at your core is a great thing.
Jupiter rules my chart. Sag rising at 22 degrees with Saturn sitting right on top at 22 degrees, and Uranus also conjunct at 25 degrees. Sometimes I look in the mirror and ask “Who am I?” Haha.
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