The commanding tenth house

Version en Español aqui. Gracias, Señor Shaman!

I think this title is very fitting with respect to this particular house. The tenth house is (usually) "at the top" of the chart because it (usually) depends on the Midheaven, the highest point the planets will reach in the sky from an earthbound perspective during their "travel" from the Ascendant towards the Descendant. Since height is usually considered a position of status, those who hold the high ground usually having an advantage over others, the areas of life covered by the tenth house usually govern all other areas covered by the rest of the houses. This house is angular so its strong energies enforce that.

And since I began so abruptly, I might as well follow my own lead and say governments fall in the tenth house. The tenth house is opposite the fourth and the latter does represent countries, so it is fitting that the government is "above" the country in a sense they rule it. Back in the day this was the house of the king and for hundreds and even thousands of years kings had absolute power over their kingdoms, so this symbolism of the tenth house being above all others makes more sense from this perspective than the one on governments. During modern times and coming into the current ones, dictators would best fit this symbolism.

Governments are usually made of people who are part of one or several parties that get to form a majority in parliament, that majority allowing them to form a government. There are quite a few differences between countries when it comes to forms of government and how each government comes to power, but I chose a simpler and more general depiction of the process to make it easier for anyone to understand. So it is in fact the majority in parliament that has the power to rule, governments being merely the extension of that majority, that actually performs the process of ruling.

As mentioned before in the article on the seventh house, I consider the ninth house to be the law and the tenth house to be that of law-enforcement. The parliament passes laws (that ideally would be conceived using the best ninth house traits) which its extension, the government will enforce. Both the parliament and the government can thus be considered as being the ruling class, even if at least one party in parliament has a minority of seats and so it is generally considered as being in opposition to those who are in actual power and who pass the laws. I am not going to talk about political games (tenth and fifth house) and how they are played out between various people in various parties for various interests, games that in reality are games of power because in the end everyone wants a slice of that power in one form or another. Diplomacy (seventh house) is often used, but blackmail, lying and deceit (third house) are among the many weapons politicians use in those games of power, which in reality are more conflicts (seventh house) in their own right than competition.

Besides ruling over a country in the form of territory, governments rule over the people of that country, i.e. society (eleventh house). Ideally, governments are there to serve (sixth house) the people, but in many cases abuses take place and the people end up being slammed with taxes (eighth house) and their liberties can be restricted. The tenth house is trine the sixth, so in theory it would be quite easy for rulers to serve their people, but the personal ambitions (in which the first house and Imum Coeli play a great role in my opinion, along with the Midheaven) of those who make up governments usually dictates (tenth house) they should first serve themselves (first house and Ascendant). Greed (second house) is usually a powerful motivator in this case.

I have talked in the article on the sixth house how I think it would be easier for someone to move from that area of life to the tenth house through the second, instead of "jumping" straight from the sixth into the tenth. This is because people who are more wealthy usually find it easier to gain (second house) a position of power (first house in the tenth house). While it is true people obtain a seat in parliament by being elected, in many cases they have to pay their way inside their own party in order to make the election lists and in countries where such lists exist, to make their way towards the top of the election lists of their party because there is a high probability not everyone on the list will get a seat in parliament due to the percentage of votes their party receives. 

Also, when it comes to forming a government, parties often select people who have and are contributing more to the party from a financial perspective and who are likely to do so even more once they hold the rains to whatever department allows them to increase their personal income (second house) through various means - who said corruption??? Since elections are usually preceded by electoral campaigns, parties have to spend money on various campaign gimmicks in order to convince the electorate they deserve votes. That money comes from inside the party, but ultimately from its members and so it makes sense that those who contribute more "deserve" to be on electoral lists. 

It would be great (at least in theory) if only ordinary people made up such parties, but in reality many businessmen and women are members of various parties or have friends (eleventh house) in politics. Their wealth allows them to offer more "help" to the party in the form of money, usually ending up gaining more once the party comes into power and offers them various facilities with respect of their personal businesses (fifth house). I think I forgot to cover personal businesses in that article, likely because I do not have the luxury (fifth house) to write the articles in one go, so I will cover it here.

A similar thing as the one mentioned before happens during presidential campaigns, but in this case the person who is running for presidency (seventh house and tenth house) will benefit from greater financial support from all sorts of third parties, each of those people having their own interests. So the candidate for presidency has to make all sorts of promises to people in his or her public campaign speeches (third house), but they also have to make all sorts of promises in private (Descendant) to those who contribute to their campaign, often those promises being unknown (twelfth house) to the electorate. Those people are usually businessmen, but not just any kind of businessmen because a businessman is also someone who opens a fruit stand at the local produce market. I see this personal business a fifth house theme because it involves risk in the form of the money invested into it, money that can be the native's own (second house) or borrowed (eighth house). The natives who start such businesses are subjected to risk because the business they had started can fail due to many reasons and if that happens it is likely they will experience financial problems. 

Businesses that grow and evolve can become corporations, at which point they move from the fifth house (along with major influences of the sixth house) to the tenth because they become at least one of the dominant forces in their field. The person who has started the business ceases to micromanage the entire operation and instead commands (tenth house) everything from their office through several levels of subordinates (sixth house). 

In the previous example with the fruit stand, one can in theory grow from that fruit stand in a produce market into a national chain of stores that sell fruit and other products that derive from fruit: juice, jam and jelly, etc. They can then grow even further and become multinational and can grow even more and become intercontinental. Unfortunately, the inconjunction between the fifth and the tenth houses makes it nearly impossible for anyone who starts a personal business to expand it all the way to corporate level. It is thus likely those who started companies that became corporations were already wealthy enough to be able to sustain their business or had at least someone wealthy and powerful enough to support them, or both.    

Once certain businesses have grown into corporations, their owners are usually allowed to enter certain circles of power (tenth house with eleventh house influences). The wealthier and more successful they are, the more powerful circles they get to be allowed in. It is in those circles that people usually plan large scale businesses and transactions and, because some of them are also involved into politics or have friends in politics, they can make use of that to their advantage. They can thus influence the passing of laws in their favor, even if those laws are unfavorable for the rest. 

Like all other centers of power, corporations are structured on a hierarchy that ranges from the intern all the way up to the CEO and beyond, to the shareholders and the ultimate owner. In many cases the owners own more than one corporation. Any employee (sixth house) can climb the corporate ladder, at least in theory, and they can so so with the help of their Midheaven. The Midheaven represents one's highest aspirations, greatest achievements, and public image, among other things. I have spoken in the article on the seventh house about manners and how one has to behave in a certain way with respect to areas of the tenth house. This applies to a great degree in a corporate environment where someone has to show off as being professional, behave and act accordingly. The Midheaven is opposite the Imum Coeli (intimacy) so it makes sense someone cannot show up at the office in their pajamas, for example. 

Although the Midheaven usually helps a person improve their career, another tenth house theme, it is supported by other energies of the chart. The ninth house plays a great role here because the person who aspires to hold a better position inside the corporation has to have the specialized knowledge that allows them to successfully deal with the issues specific to that position. Their dreams and wishes (eleventh house) also have to support that, because it would be senseless to aim for upper management if the person constantly daydreams about painting butterflies (fifth house). I should've said this in the article on the second house and also address it when I covered the sixth house, but I guess it is fine to talk about it here. One can increase their personal finances (second house) through multiple sources of income (sixth house), but he or she can also do that by advancing in their career since a promotion usually brings a raise in salary. But it also comes with added responsibility (sixth house).

The person also has to be competitive in order to fight their way up to that position (seventh house), but also diplomatic in order to negotiate their way whenever the situation demands. Discerning when it is best to fight and when to negotiate, especially in a bustling environment, requires quick thinking (third house), but ultimately the individual has to have enough personal power (first house and Ascendant) that will propel them forward towards their goal. As such, I think the solar plexus chakra is connected to the tenth house more, as one needs to manifest their personal power in order to climb up the hierarchical ladder.

Both the state and corporations run vast amounts of money through banks, another area covered by the tenth house. Banks are a special kind of power, maybe the power over every other because not only do they hold the state's money (collective wealth, in theory), but also most of the individual money as well (second house). As such, banks have the power to regulate economies and even ruin them, apparently by accident. I will not even start to talk about the stock exchange, something I view as a casino (fifth house) in which business (seventh house) is apparently conducted in the form of commerce (buying and selling stock), but from which the "house" always wins as in the case of actual casinos. By house I mean the people who pull various strings from the background (twelfth house) based on their own interests (first house) to gain more money (second house). I spoke about stock exchange nonetheless...

I have talked in the article on the first house how some people are desperate to procreate and I mentioned Henry VIII as being a good example. Since the tenth house was the house of kings initially, it is thus the house in which the personal power of the first house can be applied alongside the power conferred to the individual by the rank conferred to them by the tenth house. Not all kings were powerful, some of them being weakling sissies, but the simple fact they held the rank of king enabled them to use the power conferred to them by the rank itself. Anyway, just as an individual wants to procreate so he will get to "live" on through his children, so did kings want to procreate in order for the power conferred to them by their rank to continue to belong to their bloodline. 

Thus dynasties appeared since antiquity and a king was born to be a heir of the throne because his father was the king, just as his father's father, his grandfather's father and so on. This is probably one of the reasons why many modern astrologers assign the father to the tenth house, while older sources assigned the mother to it - I will likely address this when I cover the fourth house. Anyway, despite being in power and wielding power, a king was often under threat of losing that power regardless of how loyal his subjects were. Foreign (ninth house) threats could have posed a threat to the king just as much as domestic (fourth house) ones and besides wars (seventh house) that could cause a king to lose his crown (together with his life is some cases), all sorts of plots (twelfth house because those plots were often planned in great secrecy) could be made by his own subjects to overthrow him. The ninth house is the twelfth from the tenth, the seventh is square the tenth, the fourth is opposite the tenth, while the twelfth is sextile the tenth and I think if you've read through this series so far you'd had an idea how those aspects can play out. 

Anyway, a king was able to command his subjects any way he pleased and that kind of authority also passed on into other hierarchical structures. In the military a soldier's superior has the authority to command the soldier, even if that superior is a corporal that only has authority over privates. The sergeant commands both corporals and privates, a colonel commands anything from a major to a private, all the way up to the marshal (or grand marshal and admiral or grand admiral in the navy) or generalissimo who commands huge armies (fleets). The latter two military grades ceased to exist for the most part yet they have remained as titles various leaders use for themselves in order to appear as being more powerful to those over whom they have power, as well as to pose as being more menacing (Ascendant) to foreign powers (ninth and tenth houses). Yet regardless of their respective military rank, any military personnel can end up in a position of authority through various circumstances and are sees as the commander who directs certain operations ad hoc. For example, a corporal becomes the commander of a platoon of soldiers in the event the sergeant dies in battle or if the latter is wounded and cannot continue the fight.   

Besides the military, authorities in general fall in the tenth house. Señor Shaman and I wrote in Asteria how this can be the simple traffic cop, the person in question directing (commanding) vehicles to move in certain ways. But authorities can be considered any and all other people from different branches of the government who have the power to command or at least direct something to be performed in certain ways, a power not available to ordinary citizens. There are however other kinds of authorities. They are spiritual authorities such as clergymen who have a certain rank within their church's hierarchy, the maximum exponents for these being the Catholic pope, the Orthodox patriarch(s), the grand imam of the Muslims, the Buddhist lama and so on. Of course, there are other authorities within the hierarchical structures of churches, each rank conferring its holder more or less power within that church. 

There are also people who are seen by others as being authority figures, despite the fact they hold no rank, or whatever rank they hold within a certain organization has no authority over people outside that organization. This also applies when it comes to government agencies or religious hierarchies, but the difference is in case of government agencies for example, there are many cases where someone has power within their own agency without having jurisdiction over others so they can only command within their own agency. However, I will narrow the discussion to the occult universe, since I deal with occult related topics more often.

Someone like the illustrious meanie Mr. Farrell is seen by many occultists as being a great authority figure with respect to the Golden Dawn tradition, despite the fact many of those occultists are not part of any magical order that follows that tradition, either closer to the initial Golden Dawn current or following the revivalist GD current. This is probably because said gentleman must be some kind of Magister Templi by now, at least, and thus he must know as sorts of advanced, intricate and sophisticated magical techniques specific to the Golden Dawn, the symbolism behind those techniques and their proper application in practice. 

As such, many who make use of a magical system derived from that of the Golden Dawn will look up to the illustrious gentleman and often follow whatever instructions he shares with respect to such magical practices because they recognize that information is coming from someone who has reached a position of power that allows him to "command" others, even in the form of giving advice in a more arrogant arsehole-ish manner. As a quick side note, my book Magical Words details on how someone who is practicing magick can end up in a position of power that will allow them to increase their authority over the spirit world and so they will command the spirits to a greater degree. So check it out, because I've been told Mr. Farrell greatly enjoys it - it helps him find inner peace very quickly! (Still no word on what someone else thinks of it...)

While Mr. Farrell is entitled to do that, he does not consider himself as being the authority figure many think he is and instead he focuses his energy into his personal practices (and rubbing his dice). However, as I stated in the article on the first house, there are many wannabe authority figures out there in the occult world who pose as leaders and who go to great lengths to advertise themselves as such. These people constantly seek the validation of others and will often engage into or generate conflicts that would draw more and more attention onto them. They are likely to use that attention to inoculate their followers using all sorts of propaganda in order to make those people blindly follow them and even to increase the number of their followers. It is self evident the ultimate goal (Midheaven) of people is to gain more and more money (second house).

The angel of the tenth house is Kashenyaiah and you can work with him for areas of life covered by the house and the Midheaven as well:

Lastly, the tenth house is an Earth house based on the universal attribution of signs to houses and so its energies are focused on the concrete, material nature of command. Without conflating its energies to the sign of Capricorn, there are several similarities between this house and that particular sign in that authorities have control over the population and hierarchies are structured. The sign of Capricorn is Cardinal Earth, so it generates the initial impulse of structures while at the same time control is among the archetypal traits of the sign. Without a better place to write about this,

This article is dedicated to El Maximo Exponente de la Magia, the illustrious meanie Mr. Farrell, who's muchly superior overthetop woowoo is greatly enriching the occult universe. The reason why I am dedicating this article to him is because tomorrow is his birthday and last year I forgot to wish him the best on that day so this year I want to do it in advance. Happy Birthday, beloved meanie! May you be loved wholeheartedly muchly and by as many people as possible! I still hate you! And you know why :D

Edit: it appears there's other ways to enter politics. I was just informed by Mr. Farrell rugby can be a good launch pad for one's political career in New Zealand. So I guess that inconjunction between the fifth and the tenth houses can allow people to become powerful after all. Not to mention the fact many other professional athletes and movie stars gain a certain amount of power that grows exponentially to their fame, but they are most of the time (if not always) fronts for people who hold the actual power and who lurk in the background (twelfth house). By the way, this inconjunction also presented many obstacles for kings to have heirs, in my opinion.

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo