Tenth House in the Horoscope

The 10th House governs your social status and career. It's not to be confused with your actual work and profession, which belong to the 6th House. Here, it's your position - at the work place and other social settings - whatever it is you actually do there.

     In the Placidus and Regiomontanus House systems, the start (cusp) of the 10th House is always the position of Medium Coeli (Midheaven, MC). In the Equal House system, though, MC can theoretically be anywhere between the 7th and 12th House - but it's rarely outside the 9th or the 10th House.

     Still, since MC is about your self-image, the 10th House can be said to show sort of what you make of your life, what you accomplish in the world around you. To what extent you make a mark.

Zodiac sign and Planet

If the House changes Zodiac sign somewhere in its span, that means your career development will shift from one characteristic to another. It usually includes a significant change of your social situation as a whole. If the House is mainly in one single Zodiac sign, there may still be changes but they seem to go ahead as predicted.

     Planets in the 10th House indicate events of importance regarding your career and social position. They also stress that these events are of significance in your life. A lack of planets in the House suggests that your career develops rather uneventfully, which doesn't mean that you don't have on - but it might not be that important to you.

     Here are simple keywords describing how your career and social status develop, depending on what Zodiac sign you have in the 10th House:

• Aries challenge
• Taurus secure
• Gemini easy
• Cancer emotional
• Leo prominent
• Virgo deliberate
• Libra fair
• Scorpio unsettling
• Sagittarius independent
• Capricorn ambitious
• Aquarius contemplated
• Pisces worrying

     Here are keywords for how career events appear if you have a planet in your 10th House:

• Sun consistently
• Moon longing
• Mercury negotiations
• Venus agreement
• Mars competition
• Jupiter opportunity
• Saturn authority
• Uranus competence
• Neptune imagination
• Pluto upheaval

     The keywords are just simple clues to understand the 10th House. You need to consider the whole before deciding on the meaning of one single ingredient.

Aspects

The 10th House has the following aspect relations to other Houses:

• Opposition 180° 4th House
• Trine 120° 2nd House, 6th House
• Square 90° 1st House, 7th House
• Sextile 60°12th House, 8th House

     These relations between the Houses are quite important when analyzing their influence. The opposition aspect to the 4th House, that of home and family, is obvious: the extent to which you focus on your career corresponds to how you neglect your home and family, and the other way around. That's almost impossible to avoid, no matter what you might imagine.

     The trine to the 2nd House, personal resources, shows their importance in how far your career will go. And if you're successful, you will certainly have increased resources. The trine to the 6th House, work, says about the same. Your work can help or break your career, and your career influences your work greatly.

     The square to the 1st House, identity, stresses how important it is for your career that you control the impression people have of you, which is not an easy task. The square to the 7th House is similar to the opposition to the 4th House. You will find it hard not to neglect your partners to the extent you focus on your career - and vice versa. Still, squares can be worked out so that all sides benefit, if you find the right solutions.

     The sextile to the 12th House, personal sacrifice, seems a bit odd - but who doesn't need to sacrifice a lot in order to have a career? The sextile to the 8th House, things beyond one's control, indicates how much of your career depends on things you can do nothing about. It also reminds us that career advances are very often dependent on blood-relations.

© Stefan Stenudd
The planets
The Zodiac
The Houses
The aspects