Careers and Confusion
This article combines Traditional, Modern and Evolutionary Methods used to describe the Natives Career.
As I have studied a few methods of practicing the craft of astrology, it is not surprising that at times confusion can set in. Even before my journey into the traditional side of astrology I somehow always felt comfortable using the tenth house to describe my clients careers or professions.
Many books written by modern astrologers bring the sixth house into use when describing a career or profession. Use of this house has never really jelled with me; maybe because of my early medieval studies the traditional uses of the houses remained firmly planted in my brain.
After many years more of study I learnt rectification with a wonderful teacher Jeanette Martins, who was able to discuss any topic of interest with me, be it modern or traditional. She emphasized that we live in modern times and our lives are not the same as they were in traditional times. Astrology needs to evolve to cater for the changes in the way we live today.
Learning rectification gave me a vital tool in understanding astrology better. Rectification to me is like a mathematical calculation that proves you are using the correct ruler of the correct house. If there is an aspect then we have an event, if there is no aspect and we have a correct birth time then perhaps we are using the incorrect house and ruler.
Horary was once again a wonderful tool to add to my collection of tools to help me understand this complicated craft. Here my teacher was a strict, typically traditional disciplinarian, thank goodness. My knowledge of the houses and matters concerning them improved vastly, hence my rectification improved dramatically.
This was an eye opener for me as I went along to study this traditional craft, Horary and found my knowledge of houses somewhat hazy! When learning Horary it is important to keep things simple and to use a good dose of common sense. So for example, to give a subject like profession or career to too many houses would complicate matters, too many rulers too much confusion and chaos. Horary just would not work. Another example to allow the fourth and tenth house to signify mother would just not work, do you look at Lord ten (ruler of the tenth house) or Lord four. No! Mothers belong to the tenth house they are your father’s partner so they are signified as the turned seventh house counted from the fourth house of fathers.
Studying the traditional methods also enlightens one to exactly why a house rules a certain thing. When looking at the natural rulers of the houses in the traditional way we start with the first planet that we can see with the naked eye, Saturn and he rules the first house. Going along in their order in the sky, Jupiter rules the second house, Mars the third and ‘hello’ the Sun, ruler of all men and fathers rules the fourth house. One can go even deeper as to why the fourth belongs to fathers but that is an article for another time.
For my mathematical brain Horary was like a piece of the puzzle that helped to complete my picture. Rectification is using arc of events and working back in time to get and exact aspect off the ruler of the event by marrying the birth time to the event.
If ever I need proof of what should rule a house I go back to my clients charts I keep on file and check with events off all the rulers for a situation. With all my rectifications all the professional or career events came off the ruler of the tenth house, some charts showed weaker aspects off the sixth house as well but the tenth house was the place to go to get an official event for a career change.
I am trying to see why in modern times we have chosen the sixth house as the place of careers and work. Work yes, as not many of us really like the slog of hard work it become our ‘Achilles heel’ in some way, perhaps how we approach our careers or the effort we put into our careers could be shown by the sixth house. But essentially our profession is a tenth house thing.
So now looking at careers and professions I did a lot of reading and have listed the respected opinions of learned Astrologers of different Eras to try and see how this can all fit together.
TRADITIONAL ASTROLOGY
15th – 17th Century
William Lilly:
Tenth House – ‘the profession or Trade any one uses’
Sixth House – ‘Day- Laborers’ of the sixth house and its questions – Sickness, Servants, small Cattle
William Lilly published his textbook in 1647, the Traditional era of Astrology. He allotted a man’s careers to the 10th house and allotted servants or people of service to the 6th house.
William Ramesey:
Sixth house – ‘Of hiring Servants’
Tenth house – ‘Of learning any art or Occupation’
William Ramesey wrote Astrologia Restaurata or Astrologie Restored which was published in 1633. Once again servants and service are under the signification of the sixth house and occupation falls under the signification of the tenth house.
The traditional Astrologers use the Tenth house and its ruler to describe the native’s career.
John Frawley:
Sixth house – ‘The sixth house has nothing to do with the querent’s job. It is the querent’s employees and servants that would be judged from the sixth house.’
Tenth house – ‘The tenth house shows the querents job or career, whatever that career might be – no matter how menial.’
This has been quoted from ‘The Horary Textbook’ written by John Frawleyan internationally acclaimed teacher of the ancient craft of Horary. A really good textbook for these modern times.
MEDIEVAL ASTROLOGY:
Pre -Traditional times.
Here too following teachings of Aristotle and others such as Guido Bonatti the sixth is allotted to servants and the tenth house to careers
…..the joys of the planets here according to the traditional system of joys which is that given, for instance, in Guido Bonatti’s Liber Astronomia and this is such that:
Mars rejoices in the sixth because this is the house of deception, infirmities and servants and he signifies servants, deceivers, liars, false speaking men and therefore he rejoices in this house because no other house signifies these things.
Quoted from Robert Zoller’s first Medieval Astrology Course Notes
Al-Biruni:
Sixth house – ‘slaves and maids’
Tenth house – ‘commerce, professions’
Al-Biruni’s book “The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of ASTROLOGY” Written in 1029 A.D
He too indicated that the sixth house belongs to slaves and maids whilst the Tenth house is the house of commerce and profession
Medieval astrologers also use the tenth house to signify the career of the native.
Claudius Ptolemy (100AD – 178AD):
Quoted from Tetrabiblos ‘The Quality of Employment – The dominion of the employment, or profession, is claimed in two quarters; viz, by the Sun, and by the sign on the Mid-heaven.’
He also makes note of any planets posited in the Mid-heaven. So he too looked to the tenth house to describe the native’s profession and employment.
MODERN ASTROLOGY:
Noel Tyl:
“When we extend the Midheaven and its symbolism throughout the horoscope system, we involve all or most of the planetary symbols within the horoscope” Quote from Noel’s book on Vocations.
Noel Tyl came to South Africa and gave a wonderful workshop on Vocations and his Midheaven Extension Process. I attended the workshop and found his method to be reliable and accurate in many cases. Here is a Modern Astrologer, who like the Traditional and Medieval Astrologers looks to the tenth house for information from the chart describing the native’s career.
Kevin Burk:
In his book “Understanding the birth Chart”
He calls the sixth house our Office, where we go to take care of business on a daily basis. He mentions that the sixth house relates to our job and our co-workers and not necessarily to our career or life’s work.
Then looking at the tenth house he calls this house the corporate office. This is the house where public appearances are scheduled, where we plan and receive recognition for our accomplishments in life. This house relates to our life path, which, if lucky is also related to our chosen career.
Laurie Efrein:
In her book ‘How to Rectify a Birth Chart’ she writes that the midheaven (tenth cusp) shows the career, the life path and the worldly status.
The sixth remains in her writing the house of illness.
Zipporah Pottenger Dobyns:
Her book called ‘Progressions Directions and Rectifications’ quotes the sixth house as “I work competently” and the tenth house as “I carry out the Law”
Myrna Lofthus:
‘A Spiritual approach to Astrology” shows the sixth house to be your physical ability to work and the tenth as goals obtained through profession.
James Janney Lippinoott:
In 1927 he drew up a students chart called ‘Astrology is the Clock of destiny’ in his chart he shows the tenth house as being the house of career and the sixth as the house of sickness and labour.
*****
MauriceFernandez:
I have recently been introduced to Maurice Fernandez and his views regarding ‘Astrology and the Evolution of Consciousness’ the title of one of his thought provoking books. Maurice has been to South Africa twice now and has been a guest speaker for the Astrological Society of South Africa on both occasions. He also gave a wonderful workshop on the Nodes that jogged many an Astrologers memory and shook up our minds in a positive way.
Maurice kept on referring to the sixth and twelfth house for career. I am only just getting my head around perhaps allowing the sixth house some significance or rather influence in the career path of the horoscope and then Maurice in his quiet confident manner throws in the twelfth house!
I looked around the room and realized I was not the only Astrologer there confused by his usage of both the sixth and twelfth as houses describing profession.
Maurice on the sixth house – Management of daily life, function, health management, hygiene, work, professional environment, skills, refinement
The sixth house in his book is the Virgo Archetype, describing the way acquired knowledge is used to manage daily existence. It describes personal effort, labor capacity, and general work related issues including the nature of one’s work. As the sixth house is the last house in the lower hemisphere it reflects the level of mastery one acquires as an independent being through the refinement of personal skills.
Ok I can see how the sixth house can have a role to play in our profession. As I see the sixth house being the house of servants and laborers, in the bigger scheme of things could it not be the house showing how we are servants to our creator?
I see it as the way in which we carry out our profession using our own personal skills to do the work we have come to do in this life on earth. We are after all servants to God, the sixth house will show us how we can be of service to God and how we can carry out Gods work using our own individual skills. How we can actually carry out our tenth house profession.
The traditional ruler of the sixth house is Mercury and traditionally the ruler of knowledge needed for any trade. In the body Mercury rules the tongue and brain as a seat of reason, arms, hand and fingers that can communicate and do the labor needed of us. Mars joys in the sixth house of work and service and he does so as he thrives on action.
Interestingly enough the modern ruler of the sixth house is also Mercury who is the messenger, the connector, logical, left brain, movement, language and intelligence through skill. Now Maurice Fernandez teaches that the planets are positioned against the backdrop of a particular sign, as the planet, say Mercury, visits a particular sign then over the period of time Mercury is travelling through that constellation its influence on us is characterized by the sign Mercury is transiting through.
So for a modern view of the sixth house Maurice Fernandez describes this house using the Virgo Archetype. ‘Management of daily life, function, skills, work and professional environment’
Professional environment to me is the environment in which we will be of service, a place of work, our place of being the servant in the chart? Interesting to look at charts of the rich and famous to see how they are of service.
MADONNA 16/08/1958. 7:05am EST, Bay CityMI
Take Madonna for example, she has the sign Aquarius ruling her sixth house. Aquarius is an air sign, the archetype confirming her professional environment which is extroverted, intelligence, cutting edge, technology, sarcasm, elitism, technology and quality, futuristic as well as being high tech, sound engineering, DJ, film and photography. Hmm sounds like the way she works…
When looking at the archetype of the signs in the tradition and medieval times they are described using their qualities, elements, gender, modes, voiced and mute, fertile and barren, humane and bestial and maimed.
The sign of Aquarius would then be sanguine, air, humane, weak voiced, fixed and male. Still looking at Madonna sixth house describes the ‘how’ in her approach to her career. The weak voiced is explained by her intelligent use of sound engineering and technology to further promote her voice (loud voice) described by Gemini on her tenth house cusp, a mutable sign that can be adaptable.
Let’s look at her tenth house, the sign on the cusp being Gemini once again, air and extrovert as well as intellectual, adaption, rhythm, media, trends, modernity, communication, mobility, internationalism, travel, fashion and loud voiced.
And now for the bomb shell Maurice dropped when he brought the twelfth house into the subject of profession. I actually approached him personally as this was not the subject of his workshop and challenged him re his statement. I could see how the sixth house fitted into this trilogy but for the life of me I was stuck getting the twelfth house to fit in.
Maurice describes the houses according to their sign archetypes. The twelfth house is the descending house from the path of the collective or humanity. It is also the house without boundaries and all the collective can fall into the twelfth house. As this is the so to say open house, then this is the place where the collective can come in to our lives. The house opposing the twelfth is the sixth, it is the polarity of the twelfth and through each other a point of balance can be achieved. So the twelfth house will allow in the people who will come for your services you provide from your sixth house. The twelfth house shows us whom we will attract to use our services. Or as Maurice quotes “the 12th house describes the orientation of our work…in other words, through what (career) orientation will one tap into collective consciousness.”
The twelfth house is also the area where powers that operate in our life are greater than us and these powers are nature, fate, the divine and the masses. We face what is impersonal and cannot be owned as well as what cannot be predicted. It shows us how we interact with the masses through a public function or profession.
Back to Madonna, her twelfth house has Leo on the cusp so will interact with the masses in a creative fashion, keeping the flames burning, passion, drama, the stage, egocentric, a queen of her craft, performance, warm and outgoing. The masses in turn will tap into this creative side of her; this is the part of her that is appealing to them.
Leo in the tradition is describes as choleric, fire, fixed, male and feral.
We can get deeper into the twelfth house and other issues like secret enemies which surely can describe the people who come into your lives to utilize your professional ability; some are good some are bad. The chaos that comes with a house that allows all good and evil to fall within its boundaries can create a type of personal imprisonment for one. Thank goodness Saturn joys in this house as this is the one place in our nativity that really needs boundaries and structure to prevent chaos.
In the Sanguine issue of the Chamber issue 3, Jacqueline Brook’s article on the twelfth house goes into a lot more detail of the traditional meaning of the twelfth house. I in this article am just focusing on the twelfth as a house that could some how be part of the trilogy describing a career.
I still look to the tenth house to describe the type of profession one will have. It is the only house used to describe profession in Horary and the only house which will give the main aspect for a professional event or permission to start a new job in rectification.
The sixth house is the hard work we put in to achieve our tenth house goals where we are recognized and respected in the profession signified by the tenth house. With rectification the odd promotion or in office movement can be picked up from the sixth.
Then finally the eye popping head turning twelfth house involvement in profession is now gaining my interest. I feel the need to explore a few other famous charts just to see how they interact with the masses and what type of collective energy falls into their twelfth houses and if this gels.
DALAI LAMA 3/07/1935, 4:30 LMT, Tangster China.
Gemini is the sign on his twelfth house cusp
Mutable, double bodied, loud voiced, sanguine, air, humane and masculine.
The Archetypes for Gemini being intellect, adaption, integration, urbanism, media, mobility, communication, internationalism, cross cultural experiences, diversity, teaching and multicultural orientation.
This sounds like a good description of what falls into his life and on which level he interacts with the masses.
BARACK OBAMA 4/08/1961, 7:24pm AHST, Honolulu.
Capricorn is the sign on his twelfth house cusp
Melancholic, earth, female, weak voiced, cardinal and bestial
The Archetypes for Capricorn are boundaries, laws, morals and ethics, authorities, the government, credibility, ambition, leadership, status, serious, practical, private, controlled, rejection towards social taboos, attentive and mature.
Once again this too is a good description of who and what falls into his life and how he interacts with the masses who swam into his life through his 12th house.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR 27/02/1932, 02:00 UT, Golders Green, England.
Scorpio is the sign on her twelfth house cusp.
Phlegmatic, fixed, water, female and mute.
The Archetypes for Scorpio are about change, power, resources, money, magnetism, esteem, attraction, love, sexuality, attachment, intimacy, trust, intensity, emotional crises, ruptures, renewal, growth and growth seeking, introspective, confrontational, psychology and emotionally attached.
This describes her twelfth house rather aptly, the collective falls through into her twelfth and the masses that she attracts through her twelfth house associations. This is what the people wanted to see from her and it is what she gave them.
DELINIATIOJN
Of course it is necessary to delineate the complete chart to get a complete picture of the native’s career, looking at the rulers and through which signs they work. Looking at the planets posited in the houses, fixed stars and all other influences with in the chart.
In this article I am exploring the trilogy of using the tenth, sixth and twelfth house to describe a complete picture of Profession and Career. I have approached this subject with an open mind and feel it is important for all Astrologers practicing their various methods to keep an open mind and discuss other ways of improving their craft with out damaging the basic foundation on which it was developed.
I am open to comments about how my fellow astrologers feel about this. I know this trilogy works in my chart, further research would be interesting.
Comments from Maurice Fernandez
—– Original Message —–
From: Maurice Fernandez
To: ‘sublunar’
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 6:49 PM
Subject: RE: Article on Career and Profession
Hello Laurie
Thank you for your patience and sharing your article with me.
My comments are the following:
Overall your description of my perspective on the 12th house is accurate, but I’m adding the below paragraph to better define the 12th house association with career.
“The 12th house represents our collective identity where our sense of individuality dissolves and we are, consciously or unconsciously, relating to other beings and life in general as oneness. In a day to day manner, through the 12th house we “become” the masses, for example walking the sidewalks or taking public transportation—we intermingle with the collective and have a conversation with strangers we will never meet again. The contact is not personal or intimate, it results from being part of the melting pot…part of that greater oneness.
On these bases, from a career point of view, the 12th house reflects how a person can tap into collective consciousness and respond to a public need. While the 6th house refers to the logistical approach and technicalities or maintenance needs of our work, the 12th house refers to our interaction with the public who potentially becomes our client. The 12th house describes in what way a person attracts the attention of masses, passer-bys, and thus, how will the masses respond to one’s work—along with that, the 12th house describes the orientation of our work…in other words, through what (career) orientation will one tap into collective consciousness.”
Beyond that, I have to add that it is not enough to focus on the 12th house alone to understand the career orientation because we have to look at matters from an archetypal point of view: the 12th House is incomplete without looking at its natural ruler: Neptune and the sign of Pisces…and of course the ruler of the sign on the 12th house cusp. In other words, one’s career orientation and capacity to tap into collective consciousness to gain the attention of masses, belongs to the 12th House, Neptune and Pisces AS A UNIT.
I know traditional astrologers will hang me for this one, not only for including Neptune as a natural ruler of the 12th house and Pisces, but for daring to association house, planet, and sign this way. Yet, this is my observation…
Using the example of Politics as a career orientation, it is a fact that every politician has a connection between Leo to Pisces or Capricorn to Pisces archetypal.
95% of politicians have:
Saturn and/or Sun in the 12th House
Saturn and/or Sun in Pisces
Saturn and/or Sun in major aspects to Neptune
Neptune in the 10th or 5th House
Pisces on the 10th or 5th House cusp
Capricorn or Leo on the 12th House cusp
They often have multiple signatures of the above list—Examples:
Tony Blair (Saturn/Neptune conjunct, Neptune in the 5th House, Sun in the 12th House)
Obama: (Sun/Neptune square, Saturn in Capricorn in the 12th House, Capricorn on 12th House cusp)
Gordon Brown (Sun in Pisces in the 12th House)
George Bush (Sun and Saturn in the 12th House)
Sarkosy (Leo on the 12th House cusp, ruler of the 12th House in the 5th House)
Angela Merkell (Neptune in the 10th House, Sun/Neptune square)
Etc…
You can apply this principle to any career orientation, no matter how menial.
Hope this helps (I guess it probably complicates your task 🙂 )
Blessings,
Maurice
