What your ASC-DC Axis & MC-IC Axis reveal about you
Table of Contents
- Why you should know what the ASC-DC Axis & the MC-IC Axis means
- Why finding relationships in your birth chart is important
- Ascendant (ASC) meaning & Descendant (DC) meaning
- ASC-DC Axis meaning & influence on your
- Midheaven (MC) & Imum Coeli (IC) meaning
- MC-IC meaning & influence on you
- Interpret your ASC-DC Axis & MC-IC Axis in 4 easy steps
If you’ve ever taken a look at your birth chart, you’ve definitely noticed that it’s a circle, split into 12 Houses & 12 Zodiac Signs. As well as being separated by 1 horizontal line (splitting your chart into the northern & southern hemisphere). And a vertical line, splitting your birth chart into an eastern & western side. These 2 lines divide your birth chart, into 4 quadrants. At the beginning and at the end of each line, lies one of your angles. These angles are: your Ascendant (east), your Descendant (west), your Midheaven (top of the chart) & your Imum Coeli (bottom of the chart). All of these angles have individual meanings and influence a vast amount of your personality traits as well as your life path.
The horizontal line that divides your birth chart into the northern & the southern hemisphere, is called the ASC-DC Axis.
The vertical line that divides your birth chart into the eastern & western half, is called the MC-IC Axis.
In this article we’ll go over the individual meanings of the angles (ASC, DC, MC & IC). And also, into the relationship between the angles: the Axis.
Why you should know what the ASC-DC Axis & MC-IC Axis means
Many of you reading this article are fanatics of Astrology, and are convinced of the Universe’s impact on who we are as people. Exploring the Axis does exactly this: it allows us to explore ourself. If you were to go to an Astrologer and actually pay for a reading, the majority of the time they would look for relationships & connections in your birth chart. The reason that they do this is because it’s not enough to find out, what a planet (located in a House or a Sign) means. The art of Astrology, is about interpreting your birth chart and looking for ways it can help you better understand yourself. For that to happen you need to understand how all the planets in the universe are connected and shape you. Everyone’s birth chart is unique, the chances of you and someone having the same birth chart is 1 in 3.000.000 (not even twins have the same birth chart). Therefore, it’s important that you understand, what exactly makes you unique. For example, your Houses are important because, they depict your entire life path in 12 steps (12 Houses). And all of them build on each other, to understand what comes, you have to understand what happened. As you might have noticed this is also a relationship :0
Why finding relationships in your birth chart is important
The relationships in your birth chart are crucial that’s why, Astrological Aspects among others are studied. Astrological Aspects is the study of the angle at which your planets are distanced, and what that distance means for you. For example, your Moon and your Venus are in Opposition (one of the Astrological Aspects), so 180° apart. Your Moon gives insight into the deepest part of yourself & your Venus gives insight into your romantic side. The two planets are now Opposite, meaning that there might be conflict between the two. That’s the more straightforward part of reading a birth chart. An Astrologer would go further and unveil that there may be a toxic relationship, that you are a part of. This might be because, your true-self (governed by your Moon), is in conflict with your romantic self (governed by your Venus). Meaning the relationship may not be good for you. Now that you’re convinced of the importance of relationships in your birth chart, let’s talk about the relationships between your Angles: your Axis.
Ascendant (ASC) & Descendant (DC) meaning
We’ll now get into the relationship between your Ascendant & your Descendant. Before doing that let’s take a quick look at what each of them individually mean.
Your Ascendant (ASC) or Rising Sign, is the Sign that was rising on the eastern horizon on the day you were born. Your Ascendant is governed by your 1st House because, it’s positioned in the 1st House. Your Ascendant gives insight into who you want to be (your dreams, ambitions & drives), and how the world sees you (your outer appearance). The most important influence your Ascendant has on you, is in giving you the ability to switch between your personalities. By switching personalities, I don’t mean faking personalities. Based on the situations & setting you’re in, you show a different side of you. The key here is, that these personalities are all apart of who you truly are, you just deploy them when it’s necessary. A familiar example, is you switching between your professional and personal personality on a daily basis. Both your personal and professional personality are yours. You’re not faking them but, based on the setting one of them prevails. When you go out with friends you can talk about certain things, and where you can let out personal details of yours, in a meeting with your boss, this probably wouldn’t go down just as well.
Your Descendant, lies directly opposite your Ascendant, signaling an Opposition (we’ll get to that hereafter). Your Descendant is governed by your 7th House: The House of Marriage & Partnership. Therefore, your Descendant provides insight into the criteria you put for potential lovers. Your Descendant focusses on the “not me” part of you, which is why a lot people can’t relate to their Descendant. Your Descendant is responsible for helping you find someone, that completes you (it may be a lover of a guardian). Let’s take for example, the criteria you make up for a potential lover. You want your lover to give you what, you cannot give yourself, that’s why your lover compliments you. You can’t give yourself a talking buddy that responds, or someone who gives you butterflies when you think of them. A person has to enter your life, for these emotions to kick in. Everything your Descendant rules, is there to compliment you through someone else. Read our full story about your Descendant’s influence here.
The meaning of the ASC-DC Axis
The question at hand here is how does your Ascendant & your Descendant (ASC-DC Axis) influence you, more specifically your 1st House & 7th House. The 1st House is The House of Self & the 7th House is The House of Marriage & Partnership. Your Ascendant governs a very private part of yours, and is shaped from the day you were born. It shapes your identity, your personality, your preferences as well as your interests. It’s the foundation on which all of your other Houses, will be built upon and will continue to influence you, throughout your entire life. Your Descendant on the other hand governs your romantic side. Your Descendant is more concerned with guiding you towards someone, that will be a perfect match for you. Both of these angles are important to you and that’s prevalent through the ASC-DC Axis. Your ASC-DC Axis helps you find out who you truly are deep within you: your true identity. After you know who you are, and what makes you tick, you can start forming criteria for your potential lovers or people who are supposed to help you in life (like your sports coach). Your ASC-DC Axis is concerned with revealing your weaknesses and shortcomings, to guide you towards people who can lift you or help you.
Midheaven (MC) & Imum Coeli meaning
The relationship between your Midheaven (MC) and your Imum Coeli (IC), forms the MC-IC Axis. Just like your ASC-DC Axis, interpreting the meaning of this relationship between two angles in your birth chart, is important.
Your Midheaven or Medium Coeli (MC) is positioned at the highest point on your birth chart. Because of its position, its governed by the 10th House, which is the House of Career & Public standing. This means that your Midheaven has a significant influence on the type of career you pursue, as well as the part of you that helps out in your community. Your Midheaven builds upon all of your previous experiences as well as your personality, to guide you towards your dream career. Your Midheaven also plays a major role, in how you market yourself and how the public perceives you. You can influence what the public should think of you, by faking your personality to satisfy them. Or you can show your true colors, regardless if people around you like it or not. Whichever option you opt for, your Midheaven gives you the ability, to create your public image.
Your Imum Coeli (IC) lies at the lowest point in your birth chart, to represent your roots. Your Imum Coeli is governed by your 4th House: The House of Family & Core values. From the day you were born your family or childhood played an important role, in shaping who you are today. Even though you’re not defined by your past and certainly, not so early in your life, your adolescence still taught you important lessons. Some of the most familiar lessons are: your ability to read and your ability to walk. These advances in your early life, played an important role in shaping who you are today. Your early childhood also played an important role in forming your core values. Your core values, are your opinions, thoughts and actions that define who you are. You’re core values were either taught to you or something you’ve picked up yourself during your life.
The meaning of the MC-IC Axis
Now that you’ve seen what the individual meanings of your MC and your IC are, let’s jump into what the MC-IC Axis means for you. Your Midheaven (MC) is concerned with your career and the way the public thinks of you. You Imum Coeli (IC) is concerned with the way your childhood shapes who you are, and how your core values take form. In your birth chart, your Midheaven (MC) and Imum Coeli (IC) stand opposite each other, in what is called an Opposition: the angles are at an angle of 180°. The way this can be interpreted by you, will strongly depend on the context of your life. Because, we are Astrologers here (at astrologicalways), and have been interpreting birth chart for quite a long time, we can give you more general guidelines to interpret this Opposition. The MC-IC Axis could indicate that the type of career (a role of the MC) you have, isn’t necessarily in line with your childhood experiences (a role of your IC). An Astrologer would interpret this a discrepancy between the dream job, you had during childhood and your current job. “Is there a reason you can’t live up to your childhood dreams or are your childhood dreams no longer important?”. This could be a follow up question from the Astrologer, to understand why your Midheaven and Imum Coeli are in a conflict. The goal here is to narrow down and to discover what your birth chart is trying to tell you, about yourself.
Interpret your ASC-DC Axis & MC-IC Axis in 4 easy steps
1. Find your birth chart to reveal which planets are positioned at in the following Houses. 1st House for your ASC, 4th House for your IC, 7th House for your DC & 10th House for your IC. Read about the meanings of the planets in their respective Houses here. If you use cafeastrology’s birth chart calculator after submitting your birthday & birthplace, go to the table down below. Look for the roman numerals I (for 1st House), IV (for 4th House), VII (for 7th House) and V (for 10th House).
2. After you’ve gathered the Planets in their (scroll down the page to: “The Houses) Houses, it’s time to interpret the Axis. Remember both of the Axis stand in an Opposition, meaning there are conflicting roles at play (the Axis are at odds).
3. Think about why your ASC-DC Axis: why is the real you in conflict with your romantic life? Is there a lover that’s not good for you? Are you not getting what you seek out of a relationship? Ask yourself these questions and try to connect the dots.
4. Then think about your MC-IC Axis: is there a reason your childhood is in conflict with your career? Is your current career a representation of who you are? How can your core values be used to better your public image? Ask yourself these questions and try to connect the dots.