Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AS-CEND'ANT, n.

1. Superiority or commanding influence; as, one man has the ascendant over another.
2. An ancestor, or one who precedes in genealogy, or degrees of kindred; opposed to descendant.
3. Highth; elevation. [Little used.] – Temple.
4. In astrology, that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the time of one's birth. That part of the ecliptic at any particular time above the horizon, supposed to have influence on a person's life and fortune. – Johnson. Encyc.