Several years ago, I went hiking with a few friends to Dog Mountain at the Columbia River Gorge. It’s one of the most popular and strenuous hikes in the Gorge. You must be prepared for steep grades and potentially dramatic weather changes as you approach the summit.
Once you reach the summit, you’re gifted with outstanding panoramas of the Columbia River Gorge. On a clear day, one can see numerous Cascade volcanic peaks, including Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. Despite the trails being very steep and tricky to climb, requiring some fitness and perseverance. However, it’s also a hike known for prime wildflower viewing in May and June, while the hikes in the summer and fall are also rewarding.
When I think of the Midheaven/10th house in the birth chart, I’m reminded of that experience of climbing up Dog Mountain, with strenuous steep switchbacks and the gravely ground. It required concentration, stamina, and a sense of purpose to get to the top. Without the proper mindset preparation of the 9th house, it becomes hard to reach the pinnacle of our birth chart, as represented by the Midheaven.
Think of the midday Sun in its zenith of light and strength. That’s analogous to the Midheaven and what it represents in our lives: our ultimate goals, our reputation, and where we achieve recognition and a sense of accomplishment.
Culmination Point & Our Vocation Path
In more modern terms, the MC/10th house reflects our vocational path, public life, reputation, status, and sense of authority. In this culminating point, all that we’ve learned about ourselves, the resources we have, our voice, our family roots, our relationship with creativity, joy, and others, how we tend to our daily life, how we navigate intimacy, sharing resources, and our philosophy on life and its meanings all inform what we bring to the world as represented by the MC/10th house.
The most elevated point in the birth chart stands for the goals of our lives, what we aspire to achieve, our contribution to society, and how society sees us. It’s also where we learn how parental influences have affected our lives and vocation.
Granted, when looking at the intersection of sense of vocation and career/work, we have to take in the entire chart, especially the 2nd and 6th houses; the MC/10th house paints the image of our maturation and place in the world. In this area of the chart, we’re in the intersectional heart of how our personal story, gifts, challenges, and influences get to be reflected through our relationship with ambition, authority (ours and of others), and parental and parental and societal expectations that burden our shoulders.
So when speaking of purpose and livelihood, the MC/10th house is where we may start digging for the gold. On a surface level, it paints our professional path, but at a psychological and spiritual level, it informs us of the hidden influences behind our career choice. On a psychological level, this is the sphere of our birth chart that calls us to find what is our contribution to our community/world, but also how we navigate the boundary between personal selfhood and professional representation in the world. In this area, we show the world what we have mastered and gained authority. The driver in this area of our lives is to put ourselves out in the world, standing up for our vision and abilities.
At a spiritual level, this sphere of our birth chart reflects our honorable intentions towards the world, exemplified through our work/careers. Whatever the sign on the MC and any planets in the 10th house, all of these will inform what we want to contribute to the world and where we want to experience honor, success, acclaim, and even prestige.
Parental Influences & Our Vocation
Regarding parental influences, some view the 10th house as the sphere of the mother’s influence; others view it as the father’s. I think it depends on the birth chart in question and the experience of the person in question. Nevertheless, it’s inescapable that either or both of our parents, directly or indirectly, have influenced our choice of work in the world. This is especially true in relation to their unconscious, unlived, and unexpressed lives, making it harder for us to make sense of our ambivalence, challenges, and self-sabotage around our vocational path.
I’ve noticed in client work how much the unconscious influence of one of the parental figures gets triggered when one is crafting their own business. Suddenly, mother and father issues spring up, posing challenges and beckoning to be acknowledged and healed so that the business’s vision may manifest.
When it comes to issues around self-value and feeling nourished and supported by the business, to name just a few, I often feel compelled to ask my client about their relationship with their mother and/or father. Issues around visibility – being seen or being afraid to put oneself ‘out there’ often reflects issues with either an overbearing father on a more abusive bent or the absent, ineffectual father figure.
As for issues around lack of sense of nourishment, inability to balance self-care and work, and joy around receiving, I see a link to mother issues that stem from unreliable mothers and weakened or self-effacing mothers. This is a generalization, as the planetary placements in the birth chart and the person’s history will bring further clarification.
I invite you to consider how your parental relationships may illuminate the areas of challenge and potential growth in your career/business. Remember that the 4th house is the root, and the 10th house is the canopy of the tree of your life. Our family background, with its lineage and relationships, has a much bigger influence on the work we do in the world than we may imagine or want to acknowledge. That’s why I always say that business is deeply personal.
Business as a healing journey
Now, suppose you think of the MC/10th house as the pinnacle of your life’s wheel, as exemplified by the astrological houses. In that case, at this journey stage, we move from the personal and relational to turn our eyes toward the collective. From this point onward, what we do will affect the collective. Think back to the experience of hiking up a mountain, your own Dog Mountain. Once you reach its pinnacle, you enjoy the view, take a break, and eat and drink before you hike back down. Nevertheless, from this point forward, you hike down with a different perspective because of all that you’ve learned on the journey upward. In terms of vocation/career, as you reach the ‘top,’ you are now in a position to share your knowledge, help others in your community (11th house), and address your legacy desires.
If you think of the MC/10th house as a pinnacle, this is also the point on our heroic journey where we may start to pivot away from what we want to accomplish toward what we want to share and leave behind for the benefit of others. I also like to envision the MC/10th house as akin to the Full Moon phase; when things are illuminated, the harvest happens, and we see the full picture of what worked, what didn’t, and how we want to move forward.
In more mundane terms, think of how gaining a promotion at work shifts your view of your work, its responsibilities, and what happens when you’re not promoted. Either way, it’s a time of reenvisioning the way forward and a deeper look at what went amiss and what to retain.
I’ve noticed, too, through client work and in my journey that birthing a business is a healing journey on the parental issues that may be running our lives unconsciously. It’s also healing around aspects of creativity, sharing our voice, and how we want to be seen in the world. As I’ve said before, business is deeply personal because work is more akin to a sacred pilgrimage of self-discovery, expression, and healing of the unexpressed aspects of ourselves than merely being how we earn our livelihood.
[Note: Depending on which house system is used, the Midheaven isn’t the cusp of the 10th house. I use Placidus or Koch, and in these house systems, the Midheaven – a.k.a. Medium Coeli Latin for the middle of the sky, and often abbreviated to MC – is also the cusp of the 10th house.]
Photo Credits:
Main image: Maxima from Goodfon – photo of Dog Mountain, Oregon
Subsequent images: Felix Lam, Faye Cornish and David Marcu via Unsplash
