Question:
If the moon sign is the hidden self, the sun sign the external self, and the rising sign the paint job, then what does it mean to have a moon sign=rising sign? Where does that place the sun sign, if both the hidden self and the paint job are the same sign?
So let me go further into the car analogy.
The whole analogy is: if you're a car, your moon sign is the actual car, your rising is the how you've externally decorated the car (what the color, do you have fancy rims, did you cover the seats in fur, etc), the sun sign is how you drive it as the sun sign relates to your actions (you're sun sign is what you are consciously aware of).
I got that analogy from an astrologer that I follow, I do think that it does a good job of quickly giving one an idea of each of the three separate roles of the placements and how they go together (these are the 3 most influential placements).
Forever, you have a good point and I agree with the sentiment of you saying that paint job is not a good description of rising sign due to its huge influence.
The rising sign IS the most external energy that one puts out, but it is always influencing us, it dictates our interest and it is essentially our life path. I heard somewhere that it is the energy that we came to this life to master, so our lives are coated in the energy. So, it is external, but it does have a huge influence.
So the analogy might not be perfect. When the guy made it up, he called the rising sign the paint job because it is what you notice first/it is most visible. I still think it's a great analogy overall.
Apologies for my writing, I'm doing this from my tiny cell phone (I'm not tiny).
