A Crab Morphs into a Lion

At a delightful and thoroughly English garden party on Sunday, where we sat in the afternoon sunshine next to tables covered in cakes, my friend M said that she was still not sure whether she was Cancer or Leo Rising. Her birth time gives 29 degrees of Cancer, but had she been born two minutes later, the sign rising up over the easter horizon would have been Leo - quite within the realm of possibility, given the drama of giving birth, watches and clocks not necessarily being accurate to the minute, and the tendency to round times up or down (or simply forget them) unless written down in the moment. Also, when is the moment of birth, astrologically speaking? For most astrologers, it is the the first breath that defines the moment of truly independent being, when the individual's connection with the cosmos gets 'locked' into place.

When I had first met her 20 years ago, I had cast M's birthchart. Apparently I had also cast her personality (via her Rising Sign) as Cancerian, although she had never felt entirely comfortable with this. Being a Sun/Mars Aries person, maybe she wouldn't be. However, 17 years later, when we met again after a long absence, I was looking at her birthchart again and noted that she could after all be Leo Rising. Given that she's an artist, has a wonderfully sunny personality, and by her own admission is not especially maternal, it seemed entirely likely to me. Apparently, hearing that her Ascendant might be different from what she had believed for 18 years had been a huge relief. No more introspective walks on beaches famous for their fossils, no more wallowing in emotion - the spell was broken and she was, in her own words 'set free'! Out has gone the wardrobe of protective Cancerian colours, the blacks and the blues (one could also include white and silver, but I'm not sure she wore those), and in have come clothes that are colourful and bold in design, often purple, pink or red, like her fabulous cape and her very long Doctor Who-style scarf. Very Leo. Given that they suit her down to the ground and she looks great in them, I think the case is made.