Customer Reviews

The Rising Sign: Your Astrological Mask

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I haven't seen another astrology book like this one. Ms. Avery breaks down the house wheel of each rising sign, describing each house as it falls on each sign.

For example, if you are Pisces rising, you have Pisces on the first house, Aries on the second, Taurus on the third, etc., all the way around the wheel. Ms. Avery relates what each of these mean for every sign.

The result is a more full understanding of each rising sign. For example, why might people who are Virgo rising feel constricted because of their own children? Because Capricorn (constriction) is on the fifth house (children).

The only drawback is that, understandably, the book does not deal with interceptions. I don't see how this would even be possible, with all the combinations for each sign. This minor drawback should not influence one's decision to buy the book.

Originally, I wrote a negative review of this book, but decided to change it since I found myself going back to the book again and again! So, you may have noticed the one star above; that is from the original review. Amazon won't let me change the stars now, but if I could, I'd give it four.

There are several problems with this book. The introductory chapters, while very concise, compact, and well written, are too summarial for the novice and too elementary for astrologers. Although the author warns the reader that the provided table for your rising sign may not be exact, if I had not known my rising sign I would have been way off by the simplified chart. What is the point of reading the information if it has a 1/3 chance of being accurate? The book should focus either on an audience of professionals or of novices, and not try to hit both. Since the rising sign is one of the most complex elements of the chart, I doubt that a good book for novices is easy to accomplish.

Some of the information gives the impression that the author was a very young astrologer when she wrote it. For example, the 2nd house is "the money house," something that is rejected by more advanced astrologer, although the 2nd house certainly contains money issues. The biggest problem is that the actual descriptions of each house read more like a sun-sign analysis, and almost can be interchanged with this. There is little to show how the rising sign interacts with the sun sign, or how it is different from the planets, or how it is used as "the astrological mask" that the title suggests. There is some information on what the rising sign is in the introductory section, but it is not integrated into the actual examples.

Although the author uses the Placidus House System in her practice, she simplifies the book into a flat chart system (Equal House) and spends too much time analyzing all the houses in a way that does not work, has little to do with the rising sign at all, and thus makes the novice reader come to the conclusion that Astrology is bunk when they try to read "their section"!

The book uses the outdated "he" for everything as opposed to a style that is more gender inclusive, and talks about "the opposite sex" although this is a criticism that can be given to many heterosexist astrologers, even today. The filler celebrity examples are also out of date. Robert Redford, for example, is mentioned as just getting into film-making. He must have just done Ordinary People when the book was written, but now he has the entire Sundance Festival. This is offputting, especially since the celebrity examples provide the only real clues toward understanding the rising sign.

This book only serves the purpose of being returned by professionals and turning off novices in it's early 80's apologist style. The fact that the author was a former actress turned astrologer is not something to brag about, either. If you want to learn astrology, there are many better books today that you can get by searching Amazon.com.

Coming to grips with a good working knowledge of how to interpret the Rising Sign is one of the things my astrology students find the hardest to accomplish smoothly and professionally. I certainly don't mean the formula for interpreting each of the signs at the house cusp. That's child's play. I mean the pyschological function of the Rising Sign as a mask, its pivotal relationship to the 12th, 1st and 7th houses and its capacity to both attract and filter experiences from the outer world. I have always found Jeanne Avery to be a very entertaining writer, but I think the thing I like most about her "Rising Sign" book is that by the time a student finishes it, ifthey read it cover to cover or least sequentially through each chapter of the people they are interestedin, they will have had a good, thorough walkthrough on how to interpret and tie together an entire chart using the house by house by house method that Avery exemplifies. The glaring flaw in this book -- and I always wonder how it could have possibly been justified -- is that not only does it not take into account intercepted signs, it doesn't even mention that there is such a thing and that it could greatly affect a reading you give yourself or someone else using this book.

This book covers territory that isn't easy to find elsewhere--not just the rising sign, which is the sign on the Eastern horizon at your birth, but all the signs in all twelve houses. When you read this book you'll realize that the correct answer to the question "what's your sign?" is "all of them"! Avery gives an analysis for each rising sign--which is the sign in the 1st House--and in the process reads each sign in each house. This is helpful, because houses are often overemphasized in basic astrology books, and even when they are discussed, houses without planets in them sometimes seem like they're non-functioning--like if someone doesn't have any planets in the 7th House, there's nothing to be said about their love life. (Houses are a 12-fold division of the sky, based on its orientation to the Earth--six above the horizon, 6 below. They're important because they allow one to relate astrological symbolism to one's everyday life.) There are legitimate criticisms to be made of this book--it does presume that the signs will be neatly assigned one to a house, when in most house systems people often have some signs covering two or more houses and other signs not ruling any house. There's not much explanation of how the rising sign connects with the sun sign, moon sign and other chart factors. If there were many other books on reading houses in terms of signs, I might give this book three stars instead of four. But as it is, I would recommend this as a book that most beginning astrologers would benefit from having on their shelves.

For those who think that astrological readings consist primarily of your sun sign, that is, the sign determined by your date of birth, this book will be a revelation. This book describes the vital importance to your character of your rising sign, which is determined by the time of your birth as it relates to your sun sign.

The rising sign determines your outward makeup, how you look and react to the outside world -- it determines your emotional make-up. Are you stoic, do you express emotion, do you get overwhelmed by little things, do you know what you are feeling at all, that is determined in large part by your rising sign.

Jeanne Avery writes about each rising sign in a clear, easy-to-understand and very interesting manner which does not make the mistake made by many who write about astology of giving lots of information and theory without enough examples of how it impacts real people in the real world. This book is full of real people and how their lives reflect their rising sign.

I highly recommend this book. I plan to buy some more of Jeanne Avery's books because I liked this one so much.

A reviewer below has noted that this book is somewhat outdated in its approach. However, after twenty years as a teacher of the psychic crafts at Santa Fe Community College, and a professional astrologer and tarot reader myself, I still find it fun to read and a good answer to the question "What is the rising sign?"

I was looking for a book that would help me determine my adopted daughter's ascendant and this was it! I was blown away by the accuracy of descriptions of both overt and very subtle behaviors which distinguish persons of differing rising signs. Highly recommend.

This book was recommended to me by a freind. I am a self taught astrology novice who found the material covered very useful. I have since lent it to many friends who have also broadened their knowledge of astology and have also become aware of the significance of one's rising sign.

This is the most thorough book on the subject of one's Ascendent I have ever found. If a skeptic who's simply read one's sun sign description and thought, "that's not me" read this book, they would have to question their skepticism!

Jeanne Avery takes each ascendent through all 12 houses, so we get a thorough picture of how it influences us in all aspects of our life. This is much more fine-tuned and expansive than just the sun sign! Additionally, she uses an ego-centered psychology paradigm (the name of it escapes me at the moment, sorry!) to explain how the ascendent affects our egos. For instance, some houses speak to our adult ego state, while others represent the inner child. She also includes not only the sign on the cusp of the house, but tells you how this sign affects you more particularly based on where the planet it rules is in your natal chart. This is one of the few astrology books that I have read that made me say yes, that's me, and now I know what I have to work on so that these issues affect me constructively and positively, rather than holding me back.

It is best to read this book with your natal chart already completed. The quick-and-easy guide to your ascendent is as accurate as this kind of guide can be (which is shaky at best), but it's more reassuring to come to the book with this information already at hand. Plus you'll want to know where your planets are house wise, to get the full benefit of Avery's information.

Very descriptive and in-depth explanation of the nature of the rising sign, one I have never came across to after all these years of studing Astrology. All other books on the subject mention the rising sign just as a mask, a core etc...While here the nature of the Ascendant is much more profoundly revealed and it becomes obvious its role is so not only superficial.
I highly reccomend it!