10 house: Calling and goals

Houses

What am I known for and where am I moving in my work?

The tenth house starts at the Midheaven and governs calling and public image: how a person is seen, what they are known for, what result they consider theirs. This house is about direction in work, not a position.

The first, fourth, seventh and tenth houses are called angular: their boundaries are the Ascendant, the nadir, the Descendant and the Midheaven. A planet at such a boundary shows up most noticeably.

Look at the sign on the Midheaven, the planets in the tenth house and its ruler: they describe the direction in work. A planet in the tenth house is the quality by which the person is publicly recognised.

A house without planets does not mean the theme is absent. It is read by the sign on its cusp and the ruler of that sign: where the ruler is placed, the theme goes. Empty houses in a chart are usually more than half – there are ten planets and twelve houses.

Houses are built with the Placidus system from the time and place of birth. An error of four minutes in the time shifts the Ascendant by about a degree, and an error of an hour can move a planet into the neighbouring house. Without a known time the platform shows no houses at all, rather than inserting noon and producing a plausible but wrong chart.