How Long it Takes a Sign to Rise

Watch as the line through the top of the circle labeled ‘MC’ moves back and forth like an inverted pendulum.

This is a series of charts to show the varying amount of time it takes for different signs to rise.  You can also follow the opening and closing of the line of the midheaven (MC).

The zodiac marches in regular time at the rate of 4 minutes/degree across the MC.  When we look due south (or due north from the southern hemisphere) we see the ecliptic move at a steady pace across the sky.  But when we look to the east or west it is a different story.  While Aries takes less than 1 ½ hours to rise, Cancer and Scorpio take almost 2 ½ hours.

The series begins with Aries rising and Capricorn on the midheaven.  The eastern sky opens quickly while Capricorn and Aquarius are crossing it (east is on the left), but begins to close when Pisces comes across.  The line representing the midheaven gradually moves back to the middle until it is straight up again in Cancer and then moves further and further east through Leo, Virgo, Libra and a few degrees of Scorpio.  In Scorpio we see the line begin moving back to the middle.  It snaps straight up from Sagittarius to Capricorn and the cycle begins anew.

I will make another post with a full explanation of how the chart maps our daily revolution from a specific point on the globe.

On the chart for Sagittarius rising don’t let the line pointing to the beginning of the 11th house (0degreesLibra04minutes) confuse you.  The MC is 11Virgo49.