Ten
The Tenth House
House of Capricorn Element: Earth
Ruling Planet: Saturn
Area of Consciousness Universal
Awareness through the experience of recognition and authority

Sun in Tenth House 10

When the Sun is in the 10th House, consciousness is gaining experience of having status and recognition and the responsibilities connected with this. A 10th House person is accountable to those who are able to confer authority and give him the recognition, which he craves. The cusp of H10 - the Midheaven - is the highest point of the chart: all that a 10th House person does publicly, if not privately, needs to be able to bear the scrutiny which he will be exposed to as a result of occupying this elevated position. In the 10th House a person has to abide by whatever rules he has chosen to live by or be broken by them. Unless the Sun is afflicted by Uranus or Pluto, this placement produces a pragmatic attitude to conformity. What matters to a person with the Sun in H10 are status, recognition and the leverage that comes from having a platform from which to work; in return for these he is usually prepared to play the game.

For a 10th House person a career is the customary route to recognition. On the ladder of his profession he expects to rise by dint of hard work. The prospect of promotion is his motivation. In the House of Saturn the rewards often come late and only as a result of considerable effort. A 10th House person who does not expect to work hard for recognition, has failed to under­stand something very fundamental about the nature of the success that comes through the 10th House.

For 10th House women, the yearning for recognition is every bit as strong, even if the opportunities are not so numerous. Societies the world over have been slow to extend approval to a woman with ambition. It has been said of the 10th House, that, if a person cannot have recognition he will settle for notoriety - and this, many women have had to do, although the fruits of this kind of fame tend to be rather bitter because there is something inherently conservative about the house of Saturn and a H10 person would rather be with the Establishment than against it. Tenth House women who have gained status through marriage also tend to feel that this is an ersatz commodity and may be deeply envious of their husbands.

Women with the Sun in H10 who do have careers are likely to fit motherhood around them. They are rarely content with domesticity over a long period.

There does not appear to be any one profession, which attracts 10th House people. They will be found wherever there is a career structure and the promise of stability and promotion. They are more likely to make employees than entrepreneurs.

Mercury in Tenth House 10

Mercury in the 10th House gives a liking for structure order and hierarchy. Unless the Sun is in the 9th House or Mercury receives an aspect from Uranus or Neptune, there tends to be a marked preference for ‘hard fact’ over abstractions. When Mercury is in H10 with the Sun it reinforces the ambitiousness and pragmatism conferred by this placement. A person with this combination makes self-advancement his priority and the benchmark of success.

When Mercury is in H10 and the Sun in H9 then a person, tends to adapt the famous Sufi description, "bows in the next world but stands in this". Although this combination confers much interest in philosophical and spiritual ideas, and in remote places, a person’s allegiance remains with his own society and he is usually ambitious for a position within it. This combination is common in the charts of clergymen and lawyers who draw on universally applicable principles to sanction law and order and earn themselves status in the process.

When Mercury is in H10 and the Sun in H11 then a person is likely to make his career in an organisation, which serves the public, good. This combination tends to reduce the radicalism of the Sun in the house of Aquarius and makes a person more inclined to work to preserve the status quo than to change it. This combination produces members of the armed forces, the police force and career civil servants.

Venus in Tenth House 10

In the 10th House Venus, unless afflicted, facilitates the process of self-advance­ment. This placement augurs well for a successful and enjoyable career in which lucky breaks reduce the need to strive.

Venus in H10 may also bring an advantageous marriage, most likely to a person older and more established. If a man is bringing the Capricornian experience into his life through the marriage partner, the wife almost certainly will be more mature. In the charts of either sex an unafflicted Venus in H10 suggests that the Father was much admired and there remains throughout life, a respect for authority figures.

Mars in Tenth House 10

With Mars in H10 a person projects himself through his career and is likely to bring a competitive attitude to this area of his life. A person with Mars in H10 has to do things in his own way and is confident of his own abilities. He is happier therefore wielding authority than submitting to it, which probably accounts for the tense relationship a person with this placement so commonly has with both colleagues and superiors. Mars in H10 is frequently insubordinate. A person with this placement is likely to have experienced his Father as a forceful personality and learnt his own assertiveness, as much through resisting the Father’s regime, as by copying his example.

Jupiter in Tenth House 10

Jupiter in H10 bodes well for advancement in life. In the house of Saturn, Jupiter is given discipline and staying power and so, provided the content of his work is perceived to be worthwhile, a person with this placement is usually happy to build a career. Like Venus, Jupiter in H10 gives lucky breaks and ease, both in dealing with and wielding authority. Unless Jupiter is afflicted, this planet in H10 indicates that the relationship with the Father was characterised by mutual trust and respect, and was a source of encouragement to the child.

Saturn in Tenth House 10

Saturn in the 10th House is the planet of Karma in its Own House. Unsurprisingly its effect on a person’s life is very pronounced. The sign and position of the Moon will shed light on why there should be such a need to have to struggle against an undertow which threatens to pull down all-a-person builds in his life, and which is resisted only by constant effort, self-discipline and sound judgment. Saturn in the 10th House, as the lives of Hitler and Napoleon demonstrate, does not rule out eminence and acclaim but it means that a person will face the consequences of all he has put into motion during his lifetime.

A person with Saturn in H10 frequently starts life with obstacles blocking his way, including a father with a negative and critical attitude to the child or the marked absence of a father figure during the formative years. Either way the child’s self-confidence is seriously undermined. If the father is absent the child frequently feels a sense of shame and un­worthiness for which he may attempt to compensate by achievement. Alterna­tively there may be insufficient self-confidence for him to make anything other than the most hesitant of progress in a career. Amongst those who do strive to succeed, it is notable that they commonly become disillusioned with their choice of career at the point when they are in sight of the glittering prizes, or suffer professional disgrace. Either way they are perceived by others as having ‘blown it’.

Unless Saturn is aspected by Uranus or Pluto a person with this placement, never having known an easy exchange with his father, tends to be awed, if not overwhelmed by authority figures. If Uranus or Pluto make stressful aspects then there is likely to be a negative and defensive attitude to authority. 

Uranus in Tenth House 10

Uranus in the 10th House indicates that there is a developmental need to be freed up from reliance upon authority figures and externally imposed discipline. This placement can produce profoundly anti-establishment people and is common amongst exiles, who have left the fatherland because of what was perceived to be too stifling a regime. In such cases, the father is normally seen as embodying the values, which the child rejects in the name of individual freedom. If Uranus is retrograde the anti-authority stance tends to be less overt but there is, nonetheless, a resistance to all externally imposed authority, which in turn makes for a chequered career. Whether retrograde or direct, Uranus in H10 makes a person critical of procedures and reluctant to conform to any system. He is usually far better off working for himself than trying to be a company man.

Neptune in Tenth House 10

With Neptune in the 10th House a person has difficulty in settling for anything which is ordinary: this placement has the effect of making conventional achievement seem trivial and unworthy to the Neptunian, who may either try to live out a fantasy in which he seeks to elevate himself by claiming special powers - usually psychic or spiritual - or seek some kind of idealistic work. Should he make such a connection then he will be prepared to sacrifice much in the way of material reward and social standing for his cause. Neptune in Capricorn is capable of giving a very practical and effective expression.

Pluto in Tenth House 10

With Pluto in the 10th House the soul is learning about power, as something external to himself. Through the many lifetimes in which Pluto is in H10, the soul will come to know all the permutations of the relationship between an indivi­dual and authority: there will be lifetimes in which the personality craves power which he does not have, others in which he has authority and recog­nition, and others again in which the personality rejects all externally imposed authority in order to develop a power base within himself. Whatever the nature of the lesson about power which is being learned, a person with Pluto in H10 is never indifferent to authority figures, including his father or the most dominant parent. If the child reveres the parent then he is likely to be learning to work with power; if the child rejects the parent or is rejected by him, then he is likely to be learning to be his own authority source, themes which will be born out only by the pattern of the chart as a whole.

Moon in Tenth House 10

The Moon in the 10th House indicates that the past life experience has involved exposure to lifestyles, which gave direct experience of status and externally imposed authority, both of which continue to hold great fascination for the Moon person. This placement confers either a longing for personal recog­nition or an attraction and deference towards powerful people, especially powerful women.

A child with this placement of the Moon is commonly born to parents, one of whom at least, either occupies a position of authority on some scale or craves recognition, which is felt to be lacking. Mostly that parent will be the mother who places great emphasis on achievement and measures success according to conventional criteria. The child himself tends to comply with those ambitions of the parent, which extend to himself and allows himself to be directed. Throughout his life the person with the Moon in H10 tends to be impressed, both by people with status and seniority and those who have power over him by dint of the hold they have on his emotions. Far from resisting people who use this kind of control, a person with the Moon in H10 is likely to encourage their involvement in his life and is happy to defer to their perceived superiority. The point here is that a person with the Moon in H10 tends to give over control of his life to those to whom he becomes emotionally attached. Where the past life experience has been one of holding a position of authority, a person may be haunted by the memory all his life if the present incarnation does not give him scope to repeat the experience.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Developments in our society in the last 50 years make it easier for women with an emphasised 10th House to gain status and recognition in their own right rather than having to bring it into their lives by means of the partner. Nevertheless, conventional perceptions of the woman’s role, coup­led with a failure to appreciate, whilst at school, the extent of their own ambitiousness, still makes it very common for 10th House women to reach the Saturn Return without having taken even the most basic of steps towards setting themselves up in a career, which will give them the rewards they seek. The consequences of this tend to be frustration and a sense that there is a piece of their life missing. It is notable that men with an emphasised 10th House do not to leave themselves out in the cold in the same way. Maybe this is because they are encouraged both directly and indirectly to recognise their ambitions.