Earth · Mutable · ruled by Mercury

Virgo rising sign

Virgo rising sign means Virgo was crossing the eastern horizon at the minute of your birth, so it is the sign people meet before they meet your Sun. It takes 171.3 minutes to rise at 52°N, which gives it 11.93% of ascendants there — joint 1st of the twelve — and makes Mercury your chart ruler.

Rises in London: 2 h 51 min 11.9% of births
On London’s horizon today: 12:34 AM–3:24 AM local time, Oct 31
Rises in Sydney: 1 h 20 min 5.6% of births
On Sydney’s horizon today: 3:00 AM–4:20 AM local time, Oct 31

AstroHot calculation; today’s hours update daily.

Virgo Rising Sign: Meaning, Appearance and Rising Times

What Virgo rising is read as

Virgo rising is the most-common ascendant in the northern hemisphere and one of the least dramatic: neat, observant and slightly reserved, a manner that assesses before it commits. The traditional reading gives the first house to Mercury, so the mask is analytic — it notices the thing that is one degree out of place and mentions it about half the time.

Behind the Virgo rising mask

People meet the assessment and read it as judgment. The Sun behind a Virgo ascendant is frequently far warmer than the first impression allows, and this is the ascendant most often described as improving on acquaintance.

Is Virgo rising common?

Yes — at mid-northern latitudes Virgo and Libra are the two slowest signs to rise, so they occupy the largest share of ascendants. The figures for your latitude are further down this page.

Virgo as a Sun sign is read as precision, usefulness and noticing what is off — see the big three for how it combines with the ascendant.

Primary source

Virgo rising appearance, as William Lilly described it in 1647

The body Virgo gives when it rises

“A slender body of meane height, but decently composed; a ruddy browne complexion, blacke hayre, well-favoured or lovely, but no beautifull creature, a small shrill voyce, all members inclining to brevity; a witty discreet soule, judicious and excellently well spoken, studious and given to History, whether Man or Woman; it produceth a rare understanding, if [Mercury] be in this Signe, and [the Moon] in [Cancer], but somewhat unstable.”

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 Mercury, 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 Virgo ascendant is

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

With 11.9% of the sidereal day, Virgo comes out joint longest of the twelve, with its mirror sign, Libra. It stays up 3.3 times as long as the quickest.

Virgo rising by latitude: 7.8% of ascendants at the equator, 14.6% at 64° N

Virgo 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 9th at the equator to joint 3rd 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 Virgo ascendant builds

With Virgo first, Sagittarius falls on the IC, Pisces on the descendant and Gemini on the midheaven — and Mercury becomes the chart ruler.

First house — the ascendant Virgo: how you arrive

Fourth house — the roots Sagittarius on the fourth

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

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

Chart ruler Mercury — 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 Virgo rising says about your birth hour

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

Birth hour implied by Virgo rising for each Sun sign, at 52°N
Sun in	Virgo rising means a birth
Aries	about 10.1 hours after sunrise
Taurus	about 9.1 hours after sunrise
Gemini	about 7.7 hours after sunrise
Cancer	about 5.5 hours after sunrise
Leo	about 2.9 hours after sunrise
Virgo	within about 85 minutes either side of sunrise
Libra	about 2.9 hours before sunrise
Scorpio	about 5.8 hours before sunrise
Sagittarius	about 8.5 hours before sunrise
Capricorn	about 10.6 hours before sunrise
Aquarius	about 12 hours after sunrise
Pisces	about 11 hours after sunrise

What time Virgo rises, month by month

Virgo over London in 2026: 7:28 PM–10:19 PM GMT in mid-January, 8:37 AM–11:27 AM BST in mid-July

Virgo starts to rise in the morning in Jun, Jul and Aug, and around midnight in Nov. From Aug 23 to Sep 23 the Sun is in Virgo, so at dawn the rising sign is Virgo too.

A London birth inside the bar for its date had Virgo 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 Virgo ascendant is with an approximate birth time

The chance that a Virgo rising chart is really Leo rising or Libra rising is 4% with a birth time good to ±15 minutes, 9% at ±30 and 18% at ±60, because Virgo 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. “Virgo Rising Sign: Meaning, Appearance and Rising Times.” Accessed October 31, 2026. https://astrohot.com/rising-sign/virgo/

For Wikipedia

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