Tenth House
The tenth house follows the ninth and precedes the eleventh. It is angular, built on the Midheaven, the highest point of the ecliptic above the horizon at the moment observed, in the classification set out at House Division. In the whole-sign aspect scheme it is in aspect to the first, second, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and twelfth houses, and in aversion, sharing no aspect, with the third, fifth, ninth and eleventh.
The Midheaven itself
Ptolemy’s own text uses “the mid-heaven,” mesouranēma, more than any other of the twelve named places besides the horoscope itself, both as a prorogative place in its own right in his chapter on length of life and as a general point of reference throughout the whole work 1 bk. III ch. 10. The Latin name still in technical use, Medium Coeli, translates the Greek directly.
Tradition
Held byDorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation bk. I, c. 75 CE
Dorotheus ranks the tenth place second of the twelve by strength, immediately after the ascendant and ahead of the eleventh 2 bk. I.
What Lilly assigns it
Tradition
Held byWilliam Lilly, Christian Astrology bk. I, London, London, 1647
Lilly assigns the tenth house kings, princes, dukes, earls, judges and chief officers, whether of an army or a town; magistracy and office of every kind; mothers; honour, preferment, dignity and the practice of law; a person’s own profession or trade; and, cast for a kingdom, its rule and its government. He rules by it the knees, calls it the Medium Coeli, and reports it feminine 3 bk. I.
Gap in the evidence
Lilly’s inclusion of mothers among the tenth house’s significations, alongside kings, magistrates and profession, sits awkwardly next to the fourth house’s own assignment of parents; the two are not sourced here to a single reconciled doctrine, and this entry reports Lilly’s list.
References
- Claudius Ptolemy, trans. F. E. Robbins. Tetrabiblos. Loeb Classical Library 435. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940 (composed c. 150 CE). bk. III ch. 10. find a copy (catalogue search) recordprimary source
The standard English reference and the chapter-numbering scheme this site adopts and names. Non-Robbins reprints number the chapters differently, so every locus here is given as Robbins numbering.
- Dorotheus of Sidon, trans. Benjamin N. Dykes. Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation: Cazimi Press, 2019 (composed c. 75 CE). bk. I. ISBN 9781934586501 recordprimary source
Second updated edition. A practitioner translation, cited alongside rather than instead of Pingree's 1976 Teubner critical edition. The Greek original is lost; the text survives through a Middle Persian intermediary into Arabic, which is itself part of why the Dorothean material needs careful reading.
- William Lilly. Christian Astrology. London, 1647 (composed 1647). bk. I. https://archive.org/details/b30338724 recordprimary source
Second edition 1659. Where a figure differs between the two printings this site says which printing it is quoting.