House 10 - Social Position and Reputation

The 10th house, being an angular house, indicates our capacity for integration, structuring and achievement in society and our effort for recognition.

It shows the timing and all our efforts as well as the nature of our social recognition, being the house opposite the 4th house, in which the structuring is individual created within the environment of the home, the family members or internal and not social, or the "big family" called society.

This is the sector in which we can analyze where and how we see ourselves as social beings. It is the gateway to a person's status in society. It is the place that we design, manifest, build and engage in to dedicate ourselves personally to society and what in practice we can deliver.

It talks about everything we strive to become, our career choices, our first big job after we graduate, who we want to become in our family tree. It also tells us about personal obligations, planning, and responsibilities.

It also rules fame, honor, notoriety, and specific milestones in an individual's life. The 10th house (house whose cusp is called the Midheaven, defined by the plane of the meridian and the position of the zodiac) is the strongest house in an astrological chart (birth chart) after the 1st house (where the cusp is called the Ascendant or eastern horizon where the zodiac was). The Sun rises in the first house and reaches its maximum height and brightness in the tenth house, at the top of the chart, which represents the absolute, blinding power of the midday Sun.

Hence the term "middle of the sky", meaning that it is at the exact halfway point between rising and setting.

The mundane tenth house is commonly referred to as the "House of Social Status", and deals with the position we achieve in our social life, whether at work, in our career, or in society as a whole. It deals with status, the authority a person conveys, and the role he or she assumes in society.

Thus the 10th House refers to the efforts we have to make to achieve the goals of social inclusion, achieving prominence and recognition. Often, this refers to the profession. However, it can also be related to charitable work, hobbies, the ability to exert influence in public, governmental, or private initiatives. This sector ends up helping us to understand the facilities or means by which we can gain these positions. It also shows, next to the position of luminaries and personalities, our mark left in history and also our biography told by others.

It also talks about the promotions we receive, the fame we achieve, and the ventures and functions we participate in as social beings. It is how we see ourselves, the social role we assume, and how society sees us (and how our efforts are seen by the community as a whole).

In this way, the 10th house relates to career plans, résumés, roles within the ranks of business or government, as well as social acts committed that have marked us historically. This house does not exactly refer to success, but to the success of having stood out. Someone who has become very famous for committing a crime has evidence of this in his 10th house.

In other cases, this role relates to the street on which we live, the role we had socially on that street or neighborhood, by the type of activity, way of interacting, and how this environment outside our house saw us, registered and historically transferred our interference.

Along with the seventh house, the 10th house can also show, when not well managed, the life of appearances, helping us to understand the way others see us, but this time through the status or name we build for ourselves: the lawyer, the dentist, the engineer, the architect, the technician, etc.

In this sense, the 10th House refers to our social biography, to the content socially associated with that name, person or action. This sector can also show the market niche we operate in, the characteristics of the companies we set up, or even the products or services we offer.

Besides its most common association with career and social position, the 10th house is also about how we present ourselves in public: are we slow, dynamic, admired, professional, well-liked, or personas non gratas? In this way, it refers to the traces left as impressions in the social process.

Whether for good or bad, the tenth house of the world is a place of high visibility, and this has the power to attract admiration or condemnation. You know that famous phrase: "speak well or speak ill, speak of me"? In a way it applies to the motto of the 10th house. In this way, we cannot forget that the 10th house is also a "glass pane", that is, it puts us in the limelight, and the same indicators of success can be related to the kinds of criticism, opposition, discussions, and clashes that scratch the biography.

If the fourth house refers to the base, roots, i.e. "where you come from", then the tenth shows "where you are going". In this sense, it refers to our role in existence related to collective constructions and social consolidation.

The big move to nurture correctly in this sector of the chart is to know how to use the nuances of the psychological foundations obtained in the experiences of our 4th house, which is private, toward the 10th house, a public and independent profile. The fourth house is like the comfortable sofa that awaits us at home, while the 10th house is our chair at work, or, our structure and root begin in the 4th house, and the top of the tree is the 10th house, which begins to exhibit and provide its fruits through our action as social characters.

In this sense, and for many centuries, social projections, because of the lack of opportunities, offers and viability as in current times, were made by the parents themselves. Boys usually followed their father's professions and therefore, often, the son's profession was at the same time the father's image in terms of society. Thus, the success of the father was fundamental to the success of the son, and so on.

For this reason, many old astrology books say that the 10th house is the father in the case of a man. Girls, on the other hand, were brought up to be integrated into society by their mothers. Thus, their reputation was transferred to the girls in the past. All manual skills, cooking, weaving, caring, running the household, were transferred from the mother. This is why this house for women was said to relate to the mother.

In modern times, this interpretation is no longer as clear. Modern society allows unrestricted professional activity for both men and women, which may well transfer to women the vocation and image of the father, and vice versa. Therefore, it is very risky to interpret the 10th house of a man as being the father, and the same house of a woman as being the mother.

This sector can give us hints about how we can contribute in a better way to the activities we perform when in society, and how we approach and face the professional environment. Of the various socially sought after aspects, the 10th house refers to a person's resume and recognition, awards, positions, social, collective, media, known, commented achievements, and all the implications that come from it.

Although no star has total dominion or possesses a nature totally equal to its meaning, when positioned in this house, they become significators of this matter.

Stars well positioned or aspected in this sector, or even with the Midheaven, can help us understand the ways to obtain professional success or raise the social position, while stars in tension can deny, hinder and create adversities for it.

The 10th house has very similar characteristics to the Sun. So, as we always remember, this house, like all the others, must always be interpreted according to the whole chart.

Ambition, Career and Social Image

The 10th house represents the apex of our individual Self with regard to our collective role, indicating how we show to society the resources that we recognize and learn to manage in the 2nd house, and that we perfect in the 6th house. It thus indicates our projection and influence in society and social processes, "status", career, ambition and vocation. It also gives indications about our ability to realize ourselves, to structure and influence society (house 10).

Career, professional goals, ambition and motivation are likely to be analyzed here and in a more practical context, as are the quality of employers, bosses and their rules, and any other organizations that have the ability to govern us. We have to separate in this case, the other aspects of career as a means of social elevation concerning recognition, degrees and recognized expertise from: routine work, financial return and environment.

How am I seen socially?

The 10th house also defines what we represent to society, our social image and character, how we are seen by everyone, what actions make us known. Still in our current society, one's reputation is partially tied to the family. In the current times, given the technology we have the opportunity to act in different areas, making the possibilities of this sector more eclectic and organic, as they can adapt to our personal lives.

Besides dealing with our image in society, it deals with authority, honor, prestige, of the organizations to which we are affiliated, of the government, and of the businessmen.

It also deals with goals and aspirations, as well as people who may have power and influence over you. That is why it usually indicates one of the parents, the one with the most influence, if they have played a determining role.

How we deal with the prestige and social status we acquire through our careers and social position is dealt with by the 10th house.

It incites questions such as, "What role will we choose and how will we best enhance it?", "How far do we want to go and how much we want to achieve in life?", "What will my vocation be?", "How do we manage our status and how much do they massage our ego?", "Will we use our power to really help society or will we just be ambitious, stubborn and reckless?"

In a competitive, meritocratic society, depending on the position we achieve (or the drive to achieve it), it can be very difficult to subtract oneself from the rewards acquired. What is the limit, then? Who dictates such a limit? All these things can be analyzed within the scope of the mundane tenth house in the birth chart.

Extra Interpretations

For interpretations beyond the natal chart, as in horary and mundane astrology seeking answers to specific events, places, governments, or situations, the 10th house basically means the monarch, the president, the executive, the party that is in power, the model of government or prime minister of a country, the central government and ministries, royalty and eminent and famous people, as well as the reputation and national trade, that which becomes evident, what makes a country or city rise socially, the credibility, power, and reliability of the leaders.

The influence of the stars located in the House 10 of the Birth Chart

Learn about all astrological houses