What's my rising sign?

Questions that come up

Why does the birth time matter so much?

Over a day the whole zodiac passes across the eastern horizon, so a new sign rises on average every two hours. Some signs rise faster than that, and there an hour can move the Ascendant a full sign. If yours sits near 29° or 0°, a few minutes either way can change it.

Which time zone is used for my birth time?

The one that applied in your birthplace on your birth date. Time zone rules have been changed many times, so OMNIA looks up the historical rule for the place you choose instead of today's. For example, midnight at the start of 1 January 1970 in London was 23:00 UTC on 31 December 1969, because Britain kept its clocks on UTC+1 from February 1968 to October 1971, winters included.

What if my birth time fell in a daylight-saving gap?

If you enter a clock time that never happened that night, because the clocks jumped forward over it, OMNIA will not cast it. After you press Commence it says “That hour does not exist there (a daylight-saving skip); choose a neighboring hour.” Change the time in the form and press Ask Again. It will not guess for you, and the attempt does not use a free reading. A time that happened twice, on the night the clocks went back, is read as the first of the two.

Should I enter the time as AM or PM?

Neither. The form takes the hour in 24-hour time, and once you have picked it, it shows the time back in both forms, for example “Entered: 19:30 · 7:30 PM”, so an evening birth does not slip in as a morning one.

What if OMNIA can't find my birthplace?

Pick your town from the list of matches as you type. If it is not there, pick a larger town nearby or type coordinates into the place field, for example 39.9, 116.4. Until a place is set, the chart leaves out the rising sign and the houses, and your birth time is read in your device's time zone; the form tells you which one.

What if I don't know my birth time?

Then OMNIA will not give you a rising sign, and it will not make one up by assuming noon. If you know roughly when you were born, cast the chart twice, once for the earliest time it could have been and once for the latest. The rising sign only moves forward through the zodiac, about a sign every two hours, so yours is one of the two you see or a sign that lies between them. If both charts show the same sign and the window is under half a day, that sign is yours. An hour or two of doubt usually leaves one or two candidates; four hours usually leaves three or more.

A whole day tells you nothing. Every sign rises once in 24 hours, so charts for 00:00 and 23:59 often show the same rising sign without it being yours.

Each cast also starts a reading and uses one of the day's free readings. Casting the same chart again before midnight UTC, with the same area and nothing typed in, does not use another. If you run out, the chart still appears, rising sign and all; only the reading waits.

I'm a Cancer. What's my rising sign?

Your Sun sign does not decide it. Any Sun sign can come with any rising sign, because the Sun sign is about the day of the year and the rising sign is about the hour.