Dear Heather,
A rising sign is the sign that was rising over the horizon at the moment you were born. In answer to your question, I think rising signs have a minor impact. They 'flavour' our characters, much as herbs flavour good cooking. They definitely make a difference but they don't change the basic nature of the food.

Dear Mariah,
Do you remember the story about the person who met their guardian angel? She was invited to review her life as a series of footprints along a beach. "See," said the angel, wherever you walked, I walked beside you." "But look," she cried, "There, in a really bad phase of my past, I can see only one set of prints in the sand. Why did you abandon me then?" "Abandon you?" retorted the angel. "Why, that's when I was carrying you." Your 'spiritual side' may not, currently, be as lost as you fear.

Dear Anne Marie,
When Mercury changes direction in the sky, energies alter and atmospheres change. But it is by no means true to say that deals ought not to be done under such an influence. In my view, Monday is deeply auspicious for the signing of your new mortgage.