The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 35 of 54 · Part Six · Judging the houses

#The tenth house: career and action

#What the tenth house means

Varahamihira's word for the tenth house is avocation (karma, one's work); its technical names are Mana ("honour" or "respectability"), Ajna ("command"), Meshurana (from the Greek mesouranema, "mid-heaven") and Karma ("action") (Brihat Jataka I.15–18). Aiyar's note lists avocation, knowledge and clothes. The later books add: career and occupation, status and honour, authority and government, fame and reputation, one's deeds in the world, success, and the person's public life.

The thread: what one does in the world, and how the world sees it. The 10th is the top of the chart, the mid-heaven, the most visible point. It is a kendra — many say the strongest — and an upachaya: career grows with effort and time.

#Significators

Parashara's list of house significators gives Mercury for the 10th in the e-text read for this course (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 32.31–34); other editions and later authors add the Sun (authority), Jupiter (fortune, wisdom) and Saturn (work, labour). The 10th from the Sun is also read (7.39–43).

The Sun and Mars have their full directional strength in the 10th (Brihat Jataka II.19, Chapter 14): the planets of power and action at the top of the sky.

The dashamsha (D10) is read for career (Chapter 12).

#Varahamihira's method for livelihood

Varahamihira gives a whole short chapter, "On Avocation", to finding how a person earns their living (Brihat Jataka X). It is a precise method, worth learning in full.

#Step 1: planets in the 10th — the source of wealth

A person gets wealth from his father, mother, enemy, friend, brother, wife or servant according as the planet which occupies the 10th house from the lagna or from the Moon is the Sun, or the Moon, or Mars, or Mercury, or Jupiter, or Venus, or Saturn respectively (Brihat Jataka X.1, Aiyar).

Several planets in the 10th mean several sources (Aiyar's note to X.1).

#Step 2: the navamsa lords of the 10th lords — the kind of work

The avocation of a person will be that stated for the planets which might be the lords of the navamsas occupied by the lords of the 10th houses from the lagna, the Moon and the Sun (X.1).

So:

1. Find the 10th house from the ascendant, from the Moon and from the Sun.
2. Find the lord of each.
3. Find the navamsa each of those lords is in.
4. The lord of that navamsa is the "planet of livelihood". Its nature gives the kind of work (X.2–3):

Aiyar's note adds, following Garga, that the work shows in the periods of these planets (note to X.1).

#Step 3: the condition of the planet

If the planet of livelihood is in a friend's sign, wealth comes through a friend; in an enemy's sign, through an enemy; in its own sign, from one's own house; the Sun exalted, by one's own powers. And powerful benefics in the 11th, the ascendant or the 2nd mean wealth "in various ways" — the person prospers whatever work they choose (X.4, with Aiyar's note).

#Planets in the tenth house

The 10th is the one house where Varahamihira gives every planet a good result. Any planet in the 10th is prominent, visible and active.

#The lord of the tenth house

The 10th lord in a kendra or trikona, strong, is a mark of success; linked to the 9th lord it forms the most famous kendra–trikona raja yoga (Chapter 19). In the 6th, 8th or 12th it forms the Phaladeepika's "Duryoga" (Chapter 21).

#The example chart: Cancer in the 10th

#The house itself

• Sign: Cancer, a movable, watery sign of the Moon: care, nourishment, the public, feeling.
• Occupants: the Sun, Jupiter (exalted), Venus (the ascendant lord) and Ketu.
• Aspects: Mars, from Aries, by its special 4th-house aspect.
• Ashtakavarga: 29 points.

This is the chart's most crowded and most important house. It holds:

• the ascendant lord (Venus) — the self directed to career (Chapter 26);
• the exalted Jupiter, forming Hamsa (Chapter 18);
• the Sun with full directional strength — authority;
• the lords of the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 11th houses (Chapter 9).

Varahamihira gives all of them good results here: the Sun, comfort and power; Jupiter and Venus, wealth.

#Its lord: the Moon

The 10th lord, the Moon, is exalted in the 8th, in exchange with Venus (Chapter 19). Duryoga (Chapter 21), outweighed; a career with an 8th-house element — research, investigation, others' resources, transformation — and possible sudden changes.

#Varahamihira's method

Step 1: sources of wealth. The planets in the 10th from the ascendant are the Sun, Jupiter and Venus (Ketu is not counted): wealth through the father, brothers (or, more broadly, peers and colleagues) and the spouse. The 10th from the Moon (Aquarius) is empty.

Step 2: the planets of livelihood.

So the planets of livelihood are Mercury, Mars and Jupiter: by Varahamihira's list, writing, accounting and crafts (Mercury); technical work, metals, fire and boldness (Mars); and learning, advice and acts of virtue (Jupiter). In modern terms, a career that combines analytical or communication skills, technical or engineering work, and teaching, advising or administration.

Step 3: their condition. Mercury is in a friend's sign (Leo, the Sun's): wealth through friends — and it is a benefic in the 11th, so "wealth in various ways" (X.4). Mars is in its own sign: wealth through one's own house or efforts. Jupiter is exalted.

#The dashamsha

In the D10 chart, the ascendant is Libra and the 10th house is Cancer, which holds the Moon in its own sign: the career significator strong in the career division. Mars is in Capricorn, exalted in the D10, in the 4th. Jupiter and Mercury are together in Aries, the 7th. The D10 confirms the picture: a strong, public career (Moon in the D10 10th), with Mars especially powerful in work.

#The reading

This is the centre of the chart. A strong, visible career with real standing (Sun, exalted Jupiter, the ascendant lord all in the 10th; Varahamihira gives them all good results; Hamsa yoga). The work combines analysis or communication (Mercury), technical or decisive action (Mars) and wisdom, teaching or advice (Jupiter). Partnership and colleagues matter to it (Venus in the 10th; Jupiter as "brothers"; Mars from the 7th aspecting the 10th). Its lord in the 8th adds depth, research and some volatility. Timing (Chapter 22): Jupiter's dasha (2018–2034) is the main period of career growth.

#Summary

• The tenth house is career, action, honour, authority and reputation (Brihat Jataka I.15–18); it is a kendra and an upachaya.
• Its significators: Mercury in Parashara's list, with the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn added by others; the Sun and Mars have full directional strength there.
• Varahamihira's method: planets in the 10th show the source of wealth; the lords of the navamsas occupied by the 10th lords (from the ascendant, the Moon and the Sun) show the kind of work (Brihat Jataka X.1–4).
• Every planet in the 10th gives good results by Varahamihira's rules (Brihat Jataka XX).
• The example chart: Sun, exalted Jupiter and Venus in Cancer in the 10th; planets of livelihood Mercury, Mars and Jupiter; the D10 Moon in its own 10th — a strong, visible, varied career.

#Exercises

1. What does Varahamihira say a person gains from if Venus is in the 10th from the ascendant?
2. A chart has an Aries ascendant, and Saturn (the 10th lord) is in Gemini navamsa. What is the planet of livelihood from the ascendant, and what kind of work does it give?
3. Why is the 10th house called both a kendra and an upachaya, and what does that combination mean?
4. Which planets have full directional strength in the 10th?
5. Work out the planet of livelihood from the ascendant for a chart you know.

Answers: 1. From the spouse (X.1). 2. Gemini navamsa's lord is Mercury: writing, accounting, crafts (X.2) — in modern terms, communication, commerce, analysis. 3. As a kendra it is strong and prominent; as an upachaya it grows with effort over time: a career is both the most visible part of life and something built gradually. 4. The Sun and Mars. 5. (Your own answer: the 10th from the ascendant, its lord, that lord's navamsa, and that navamsa's lord.)