The words a chart uses
What are the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven and IC?
The four angles are where the horizon and the meridian cross the zodiac at your birth: the Ascendant rising in the east, the Descendant setting in the west, the Midheaven above and the IC below.
Two lines cross every chart. The horizon runs from the Ascendant, the degree rising in the east at your birth, to the Descendant, setting in the west. The meridian runs from the Midheaven, the highest point of the zodiac above the birthplace, to the IC, the lowest point beneath it. Because the Earth turns, the angles move through the whole zodiac in a day, so they need a birth time.
What each is associated with
The Ascendant is traditionally associated with how you meet the world and how a new situation first finds you. The Descendant, opposite, with others and partnership: the qualities you may meet in the people close to you. The Midheaven with vocation and public role. The IC with home, roots and what is private.
Each axis is read as a pair. Meeting the world and meeting another, a public life and a private one: each end shows something about the other.
On the wheel
Becoming Choice draws the horizon and the meridian as two diameters across the wheel, labelled ASC, DSC, MC and IC, and each angle can be selected for its own reading. A transit to the Ascendant or the Midheaven is shown with its other end too: a square to the Midheaven is also a square to the IC.