Rethinking astrological analysis regarding career and legacy
Looking beyond just the Tenth house of the birth chart
Mention “career” to most astrologers, and they will certainly mention the Tenth house of public persona, vocation, legacy, and of course, career. However, the cultural meaning of career is shifting. It is difficult to choose and remain with a single career, even if you wanted to. I can speak only from a U.S. centered experience, but I see many factors causing people to have multiple careers or jobs in any one time period or over their lifetime, to varying degrees of satisfaction.
Aside from the likely oversimplification of using career as a synonym for vocation, could it be that as capitalism in its current form transforms, so will our view of career and vocation?
In A Map to Your Soul: Using the Astrology of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water to Live Deeply and Fully, Dr. Jennifer Freed connects the tenth house (although she uses the term “domain” rather than “house”) to authority.
“The tenth domain is about character and authority. What is the footprint of our character, and how does it lend us authority?” She writes.
Authority may sound a bit severe, so perhaps leadership could be used instead. Leadership of self, in terms of knowing oneself well enough to identify core desires, principles, and intentions which result in the gestalt of your life. Notice that I have not included natural talents, tendencies, or aptitudes, although they certainly contribute to your identity (typically associated with the First house).
And because we are pack or communal animals, I think it is important to consider how one leads others. Even if you don’t consider yourself a leader, you are, simply because in any relationship dynamic, there is an element of leadership over the third party - the relationship as a living being. Through overt or covert behaviors, through large and small choices, we lead relationships somewhere. (As an aside, who we call leaders - CEOs and heads of state, just as an example - are not exemplary models for what I would consider leadership. Simply holding power doesn’t make one a leader.)
Which leads to another component typically associated with the Tenth house. Legacy. But I also bring in the Seventh house (relationships), because what is legacy if not an impression left through relationships? Sure, one could argue that legacy relates to leaving a physical thing behind, but physical things can be lost, erased, or destroyed. A lasting legacy often survives because it is shared from person to person as stories demonstrating what the person who has passed meant to people. What is a name on a building if we know nothing about the person who held that name?
Considering all of this, I would propose that for hints about one’s vocation and legacy that we also strongly consider the First house of identity and self, and the Seventh house of relationships along with the Tenth house.
Looking at the example chart shared here, we make a few deductions from the Big Three.
The Sun is in Virgo in the 11th house. This will be a person who finds themselves in service to groups of people.
The Moon is in Pisces in the 5th house. This is a highly creative person. Music and imagination will likely be naturally involved in their daily activities.
Libra as the Rising sign yields an approach to all things that values beauty and harmony, and this person will come across as pleasant to be around.
Next, let’s look at the Tenth house. Cancer is at the Tenth house cusp (also called the Midheaven, or MC), with Venus and Mars conjunct the MC, in a close conjunction to each other, also in the sign of Cancer. Black Moon Lilith in retrograde in the sign of Leo is in the Tenth House, and Neptune in retrograde in Capricorn and Uranus in retrograde in Aquarius oppose the Cancer Midheaven.
There is quite a lot going on with this Tenth house! From the level of complexity of planets involved, one can safely deduce that this person’s vocation and legacy will be nuanced, complex, and perhaps fueled by both internal (personal planets Venus and Mars, as well as Neptune and Uranus at the Fourth house cusp, also called the IC) and external (planets conjunct the MC, Sun in the Eleventh house) factors.
With Mars and Venus conjunct in Cancer, this person intuitively knows to nurture (Cancer) their masculine drive (Mars) and feminine relational (Venus) energies, and at the point of self-mastery in life, proudly demonstrates that ability (conjunction with Midheaven) and may serve as a role model for healing harmful overexpressions of one energy over the other (e.g. the patriarchy), through self-sovereignity (Black Moon Lilith).
They are pushed by the Neptune and Uranus conjunction at the IC, in a manner that drives this person out of the status quo via their ability to make material what arises from imagination (Neptune in Capricorn). They may understand that they are perhaps destined through their unique sensibilities to correct some social injustices (Uranus in retrograde in Aquarius).
Looking to the First house, we see Pallas Athene in Scorpio, which lends a strategic mind, especially with the feminine style of leadership (building trust, collaboration, long term view). Venus as the ruler of the First house supports such aptitude.
On the Seventh house cusp is the sign of Aries, ruled by that Mars up at the Midheaven. This would lead to someone unafraid of initiating relationships, instinctive at choosing people to be close with. Sedna and the Part of Fortune are in the Seventh house, indicating a place where transcendence through disempowering experiences (Sedna) may lead to gains in life (Part of Fortune).
Another consideration about the Tenth house and looking at primary influences on vocation and legacy is the T-square it makes with the First and Seventh houses. The inherent pressure of this configuration is often alleviated by the point that would make the T-square into a cross, or the IC/Fourth house cusp. In this example, it would mean utilizing Aquarian energy, which is innovative thinking about norms which no longer serve the consensus, as well as personally doing what pleases oneself, even if others think it is too weird.
I have stayed pretty superficial with this analysis, because to be honest, I really want to paint my hallway and bathroom today. I have it taped and everything! It is a color called “Let It Be”, a gorgeous honeyed terra cotta shade that feels both grounding and uplifting. A little like this birth chart example.
And I can tell you they are both of those things! It is my older son’s chart, and they are a professional musician, an activist, and beloved music teacher in Seattle. They kindly gave me permission to use this chart as an example. Rather than brag about my son, you can learn more about them on their newly born Substack.
I would love to hear what you think about your astrology and how it lines up with your vocation, or simply any observations you have!
Pretty amazing (and affirming!) to read this after spending the past couple of hours writing about a "failure" in my life based on a prompt from Susan Wittig Albert's WRTIING FROM LIFE: Telling Your Soul's Story. When I started writing on this topic yesterday, it was just too heavy so I left it for this morning when I expected to feel fresher and more capable. I used a lot of tarot imagery, particularly versions of The Fool (0) card, as I wrote. It was one of those opportunities to allow myself to feel what I feel, which is always ultimately empowering for me.
I was really writing through 10th house stuff: what authority and success mean, what validates the work I do and the person I am, how I define success (and failure!), the balance between intra- and inter-personal work in the world. I found that grounding/liberating peace by writing to the other side of my sense of failure only to discover it contained my success. When I looked only at external markers as a measure, it was easy to interpret my experience as one of failure. But when I widened the lens of perception and looked at all the relationships, the dynamic vitality of a life lived holistically, I could only see a design of perfection (in the sense of the word as meaning 'lacking nothing/whole') that feels completely successful.
Then I listened to this! Synastry. Perfection.🌿💚🧡
P.S. I've painted the floors in two rooms a lovely honey-rich terra cotta, a color I adore. So grounding and reassuring.
Maria, thank you for mentioning Freed's book. I've downloaded the sample. I like the term "domain." I've also been thinking about the flatter, more neutral term "area." Thank you for once again enlarging our view beyond the traditional!