We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility. -- Malcolm Gladwell

I had encountered an episode today that prompted me to question the whole constitution and validity of a first impression.


Sometimes a first impression can be uncannily accurate while at other times unfortunately misleading. Although we emphasise that we all shouldn't judge a book by its cover, most of us tend to have our mind made up about a person within the first few minutes of interaction. This is not to suggest that our subsequent impressions are promised to remain static and will not alter, but first impressions do carry indubitable weight towards the initial perception. 


Perhaps a first impression can be understood in the context of probable specific elements that get registered. Is it the voice? The appearance? Social etiquette?  Facial expression? How and what has been conversed? The body language? Or is it to do with how the other person actually make us feel about ourselves?


It may quite well be based on the combination of all of the above. It has been established previously that we are all unique in our orientations, and, we perceive the world in relations to our own values, instinctive nature and our immediate environment, therefore, I am more comfortable with conjecturing that our first impressions on the same object will differ due to the inevitable inclination to be subjective.


Astrologically (Ha, you know I would have to tie it back to astrology), it is represented by the Ascendant, which is the beginning of the first house and what we project out into the world, consequently, how others see us. Again, we all have our own unique ascendants, as the time of birth is critical in determining its zodiac sign hence the qualities we consciously or unconsciously project. It may be easier to understand this if we think of the importance of the birth time underlies the meaning of the instance we were first brought into this world. 

We still cannot deduce with confidence about how a person sets out to achieve an initial impression by solely examining the sign of the ascendant. This is further complicated by the different aspects that an ascendant makes with the other planets in the birth chart that could potentially modify its expression and behaviour.


The Sun sign also points to various characteristics of the individuality and personality. Supposedly if the Sun and Ascendant are in conflicting elements (i.e. Air and Earth) such as Taurus and Aquarius, we will see a person exhibiting the eccentric, social and unpredictable side of Aquarius, as well as the traditional, stubborn and reliable side of Taurus. In particular for this example, Aquarius generally orientates towards an ideal to improve the future whereas Taurus is simply happy with maintaing the existing structure and status-quo. Although one may hold prominence and suppresses the other, in the long run, this person will be constantly in battle with himself or herself if these contrasting qualities are made unaware. 


It is hard to imagine that we can get the full picture of someone in a glimpse since that we are all multi-faceted.       


We infer then that the first impression cannot be entirely dependent upon to draw a depiction of someone. At the same time however, there is the value in understanding each time what our first impression is and why it is the way it is, as the experience and exploration may lead to uncovering more aspects about our own personalities.