Water · Fixed · ruled by Pluto (traditionally Mars)

Scorpio rising sign

Scorpio rising sign — a Scorpio ascendant — is the joint 3rd most common of the twelve at 52°N, where Scorpio spends 171 minutes on the horizon each day and collects 11.91% of births. It sets the mask, the four angles of the chart, and Pluto (traditionally Mars) as chart ruler.

Rises in London: 2 h 51 min 11.9% of births
On London’s horizon today: 6:14 AM–9:04 AM local time, Oct 31
Rises in Sydney: 1 h 34 min 6.5% of births
On Sydney’s horizon today: 5:40 AM–7:14 AM local time, Oct 31

AstroHot calculation; today’s hours update daily.

Scorpio Rising Sign: Meaning, Appearance and Rising Times

What Scorpio rising is read as

Scorpio rising is described in every old text as the ascendant that gives nothing away. The first impression is contained: steady eye contact, few gestures, and answers that are accurate without being open. Mars traditionally rules the sign and Pluto in modern practice, and both readings agree on the same surface — controlled, and aware of being read.

Behind the Scorpio rising mask

The containment is read as intensity whether or not anything intense is happening, which is why this ascendant collects strong first impressions in both directions and rarely neutral ones.

What is the ruler of a Scorpio ascendant?

Mars in traditional astrology, Pluto in modern — so the chart ruler depends on which system you use, and the two can sit in completely different houses. Reading both is standard practice.

Scorpio as a Sun sign is read as intensity, privacy and refusal to accept surfaces — see the big three for how it combines with the ascendant.

Primary source

Scorpio rising appearance, as William Lilly described it in 1647

The body Scorpio gives when it rises

“A corpulent, strong, able Body, somewhat a broad or square Face, a dusky muddy Complexion, and sad, dark Haire, much and crisping; an hairy Body, somewhat bow-legged, short necked, a squat, wel-trussed Fellow.”

William Lilly, Christian Astrology (London, 1647), book I, chapter XVI — read the original text. Lilly wrote these portraits for the sign on the ascendant — the use this page is about — and modified them by any planet rising with it and by the condition of Mars, the chart ruler. They are a seventeenth-century convention, not a forecast of anyone’s looks; spelling is as printed, with the long s and u/v modernized.

Computed for each latitude

How common a Scorpio ascendant is

Scorpio rises in 2 h 51 min at London’s latitude, 52°N

With 11.9% of the sidereal day, Scorpio comes out joint 3rd of the twelve, with its mirror sign, Leo.

Scorpio rising by latitude: 8.3% of ascendants at the equator, 15.0% at 64° N

Scorpio crosses the even split of 8.33% between the equator and 20° N, and is over-represented from there north. Its place among the twelve moves from joint 5th at the equator to joint 1st at 64° N.

Shares assume births are spread evenly over the day. Why the signs are uneven is explained on the calculator page.

The chart a Scorpio ascendant builds

With Scorpio first, Aquarius falls on the IC, Taurus on the descendant and Leo on the midheaven — and Pluto (traditionally Mars) becomes the chart ruler.

First house — the ascendant Scorpio: how you arrive

Fourth house — the roots Aquarius on the fourth

Seventh house — the descendant Taurus: what you look for in a partner

Tenth house — the midheaven Leo on the tenth: the public role

Chart ruler Pluto (traditionally Mars) — read for its own sign and house

Whole-sign angles, as the tradition assigned them; a timed birth chart places the midheaven by degree and can move it a sign either way.

Computed from the rising speeds at 52°N

What Scorpio rising says about your birth hour

Given a Scorpio ascendant, your Sun sign fixes the hour — the method, and its margin, is on the calculator page.

Birth hour implied by Scorpio rising for each Sun sign, at 52°N
Sun in	Scorpio rising means a birth
Aries	about 8.2 hours before sunrise
Taurus	about 9.2 hours before sunrise
Gemini	about 10.6 hours before sunrise
Cancer	about 11.2 hours after sunrise
Leo	about 8.6 hours after sunrise
Virgo	about 5.7 hours after sunrise
Libra	about 2.9 hours after sunrise
Scorpio	within about 85 minutes either side of sunrise
Sagittarius	about 2.8 hours before sunrise
Capricorn	about 4.9 hours before sunrise
Aquarius	about 6.3 hours before sunrise
Pisces	about 7.3 hours before sunrise

What time Scorpio rises, month by month

Scorpio over London in 2026: 1:13 AM–4:03 AM GMT in mid-January, 2:17 PM–5:07 PM BST in mid-July

Scorpio starts to rise in the morning in Sep and Oct, and around midnight in Jan and Feb. From Oct 23 to Nov 22 the Sun is in Scorpio, so at dawn the rising sign is Scorpio too.

A London birth inside the bar for its date had Scorpio rising; between the 15ths the bar slides about four minutes earlier per day. Other places shift the hours — the calculator works them out for any town and time.

How sure a Scorpio ascendant is with an approximate birth time

The chance that a Scorpio rising chart is really Libra rising or Sagittarius rising is 4% with a birth time good to ±15 minutes, 9% at ±30 and 18% at ±60, because Scorpio spends only 2 h 51 min on London’s horizon.

Those odds assume the error is equally likely anywhere in the range and the birth anywhere in the sign. The calculator returns every sign the recorded time allows; without a time at all, the moon sign is the placement that still holds.

Sources

William Lilly, Christian Astrology (London, 1647), book I, chapter XVI

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

Cite this page

AstroHot. “Scorpio Rising Sign: Meaning, Appearance and Rising Times.” Accessed October 31, 2026. https://astrohot.com/rising-sign/scorpio/

For Wikipedia

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