A vibrating inertial rate sensor has sense elements that operate on axes that are rotationally skewed from a node reference axis, enabling both a rate sense and a drive sense determination. Alternatively, the skew may be applied to rotationally offset the drive elements from antinode reference axes to affect active torquing of the gyroscope. The skewed sensing scheme may be applied to vibratory systems having one or more node axes. The skewed drive scheme may be applied to vibratory systems having two or more node axes to affect active torquing.