House 10

Rank is the older theme of this house, and Lilly 1659 fills it with kings, judges, officers and honors, then adds a person's trade almost as an afterthought. He also puts mothers here, and Sepharial 1920 puts the father here, the same dispute that appears at the fourth house.

Authors argue over how strong it is. Lilly's table ranks the first house above this one, while Wilson 1819 insists Ptolemy gave first place to a planet at the Midheaven and calls the modern preference for the Ascendant a mistake. Ptolemy himself gives no twelve-house ranking in the passages examined here.

Method matters at this point. Under Placidus the tenth house begins at the Midheaven, and under Whole Sign, the option on this calculator, the Midheaven can land outside the tenth, often in the ninth or eleventh. Modern popular astrology reads it as career and public reputation, which keeps Lilly's afterthought and drops his kings.