Beyond Career: Different Ways of Interpreting the Midheaven
A seriously underrated part of the chart.
I know career and overall life direction is an area of confusion and stress for a lot of people at the moment, myself included. Personally, all of these recent retrogrades and eclipses have had me shifting my priorities when it comes to my business, and I’ve found myself yearning to have greater meaning and connection with people through my work that isn’t so centered around social media. I’ve also been having a lot of conversations with friends and acquaintances about how they desperately want to make a change in their career, but aren’t completely clear on what type of work would be the right fit for them.
There are a lot of different ways to look at career and overall life purpose in your chart, but I want to zoom in on just the Midheaven for today. Over the years, I have found that the Midheaven goes beyond career, and can point to all different areas in your life, such as family, leadership, public perception, personal style, and passions outside of work. In addition to career, this newsletter will focus on these more nuanced interpretations of the Midheaven, so that you’re able to fully interpret this specific point in your chart and gain some insight into what might be a meaningful path for you. Even if you’re not able to change careers or are currently retired, leaning into the themes associated with your Midheaven may help you to find a side passion or hobby into which you can channel your energy.
If you’re curious in learning more about career astrology, these are some past articles I’ve done on the topic:
First, what is the Midheaven?
The Midheaven (MC) is one of four angles in your chart, the others being the ascendant (aka your rising sign), the descendant, and the Imum Coeli (or simply, IC).
Like all of the angles, the Midheaven acts a super sensitive point within your chart, but it specifically carries with it themes related to the 10th house. Before we get into all of the significations associated with the Midheaven, take a look at the diagram below to see how to identify it in your own chart. It will always be labeled “MC.” For now, take note of what sign it is in.
The sign in which your Midheaven falls can be very telling of:
The type of career or life work that you might be most drawn to
What you may become known for, or areas in which you readily take on a more public facing role or bigger responsibilities
Overall life calling, not just the mundane work you’re doing every day, but where you find greater purpose
How comfortable you are being in the public eye and receiving attention
How you’re perceived by the world, like on social media or in more public spheres - basically how you’re seen by people that don’t know you super well
The relationship with your parents or traits that they have - can be interchangeable what parent it is, but I typically associate the Midheaven more with the father figure.
Your status, and what you consider your role in the world to be
Your approach to leadership, whether that’s at work, within your family, etc.
Your style. Both the Midheaven and the Ascendant signs in your chart can be very telling of your personal tastes and how you like to express yourself through clothing, beauty, or hair.
To break all of these points down in a few examples, let’s take a chart with an Aquarius Midheaven for instance. An Aquarius MC may point to career interests that are outside of the status quo, and may seem weird to some people. Ex: I have an astrologer friend who has an Aquarius Midheaven - not a typical career path. It may also be that creating community around work or another passion is something that you're drawn to, or creating change in the world ties back into work or your life mission somehow. Outside of work, you may be known for your interesting style choices or unique interests and point of view.
Meanwhile, a Midheaven in Gemini or Virgo may mean that communication or writing of some sort may find its way into your work or natural hobbies. That could look like being a literal writer or journalist, or maybe it might speak to a career in social media and communicating with people in other ways, like in sales for example. Storytelling and the conveying of information may prove to be very important to you. One of these signs as your Midheaven can also speak to you having many different interests or roles at work and in the world, and it may be hard to settle on just one niche.
To contrast, a Midheaven in a sign like Scorpio may mean that psychology and studying human behavior and the motives and patterns behind something may pop up in your work or hobbies. Or a Cancer Midheaven can often indicate that you are seen as a nurturer and someone who is comforting and whom others can confide in. Areas involving the home, like real estate or interior design, may be interests of yours too.
The Midheaven doesn’t always have to play out in super literal ways for it to make sense. I have my Midheaven in Taurus, which is not a sign you would typically associate with my career as an astrologer. However, I work with a lot of fashion and beauty brands to create astrology content for them, and my first career was at a fashion magazine - all Taurus related themes. I also like to show off my personal style, aesthetic, and creativity publicly, which is again linked to Taurus.
The Midheaven through the houses
It’s also important to note the house in which your Midheaven falls in your chart. This exercise is when it can be helpful to switch to whole sign houses. When using whole sign, the Midheaven can be found in the 9th, 10th, or 11th house. In some cases, it can even be as far over as the 12th or 8th house. Having the Midheaven in a house other than the 10th sheds light on other themes that might be tied into overall life purpose or career path.
For instance, a 9th house Midheaven speaks to career interests or other life passions that center around teaching, writing, foreign cultures, or higher education - all very 9th house themes. Having the Midheaven in the 11th can show that creating community or an audience around your work is very important, or your work is very much centered around partnerships and collaborating with people. A big podcaster whose chart I know has an 11th house Midheaven, and she is known for having this podcast with her best friend. People love tuning in every week to witness the friendship - very 11th house.
In the case of an 8th or 12th house Midheaven, again you would incorporate the themes of either of those two houses with the themes we just went over above for the Midheaven. Psychology, human behavior or finances for the 8th, and healing, spirituality, mental health, or animals for the 12th.
Locating the ruling planet of the Midheaven
You can take your interpretation of the Midheaven one step further in another way by identifying where the ruling planet of your Midheaven sign is placed in your chart. I recommend using traditional rulers for this exercise, meaning Mars for Scorpio, Saturn for Aquarius, and Jupiter for Pisces. You will want to locate the planetary ruler of your Midheaven by both sign and house - this will add another layer of insight into the type of hobbies or work you may find to be most fulfilling.
The below chart shows someone who has a Pisces Midheaven, with the ruling planet, Jupiter, placed in Capricorn, the 7th house. In addition to the 9th house and Pisces Midheaven placement being relevant to this person’s career path, they also need to consider Capricorn and 7th house themes too. They may have a natural skill for connecting with people, or the theme of partnership or having close interactions with people may play a role in their work (all 7th house matters). With the Midheaven ruler in the sign of Capricorn though, it may take a while to pinpoint what type of work speaks to them, and they may find greater career success later on in life or seek out a more traditional career path (all Capricorn themes).
Returning to my Taurus Midheaven, the ruling planet is Venus and is placed in Pisces, the 8th house of my chart, which makes a lot more sense when it comes to being an astrologer for my career. It blends the Pisces theme of spirituality with the 8th house theme of helping people to better understand themselves through my work. So I’m able to get more detailed information on what my passion or career might be than I was by only looking at the sign of Taurus.
Transits to the Midheaven
And for those interested in career timing, transits to the Midheaven can be very telling of when you will want to make a change your overall life path or long term career direction. The below transits to the Midheaven that we’re about to go over can also signal a change in your status and how you are perceived publicly. For instance, getting married often happens with transits to the Midheaven, because you’re going from someone who is considered to be single in the eyes of the state/country to now having a partner. Having kids is another event that is common with transits to the Midheaven, because you go from being just in charge of yourself to now identifying as someone’s mother or father. Or it might be that the way you’re viewed at work is different, like suddenly you may receive more attention or need to adapt to a leadership role. These bigger life events and changes in identity are super common with significant transits to the Midheaven.
When looking at the below transits, you will want prioritize when these planets come into an exact conjunction, square or opposition with your Midheaven to the exact degree. Though the period of time when that aspect goes exact will be the most telling of when shifts take place with career or overall life purpose, you will still feel this energy building in the months leading up to the aspect going exact.
When long transits like Pluto, Neptune, or Uranus aspect your Midheaven, these can be seen as a deeply transformative with the type of work you’re doing and what your overall calling in life might be. Transit Pluto may have you searching for deeper meaning in your work, or there could be the figurative death of one career or life path in order to make way for something that is more aligned with who you are becoming as a person. On another note you might be assuming a position of power in your career or another area of your life. Neptune transits can point to feeling dissatisfied with how things are going at work or with your overall life trajectory, but you may feel confused as to what to do next. The long term picture is hazy, but over time you may realize that you want to be incorporating greater creativity and spirituality into your work, or you could be craving more of an emotional connection to your career and life responsibilities. How you’ve been showing up at work in the past may need to dissolve first in order for you to find a new path forward.
Uranus transits to the Midheaven will bring unexpected shakeups and very fast paced developments into your work, or there could be a very surprising change in the way you view yourself and how you relate to the world. When transit Uranus was conjunct my Taurus Midheaven in 2019, I quit my job in the fashion industry to be an astrologer, which I could not have foreseen even a year before this took place. I just remember thinking at the time that everything was happening so fast. Speaking of change, the transits of the North and South Nodes, and therefore the eclipses, to the Midheaven will bring major shifts to your work and public persona as well. Bigger career opportunities may open themselves up to you, or you could end up leaving behind one job for another. You may have a desire to explore a specific career niche too, or you may gain further insight into what type of job or life calling speaks to you the most.
Jupiter transits to the MC bring growth to work related matters, but there’s also a desire to keep learning and expanding, and you may want to break out of anything that feels restricting in your career or with other life responsibilities. Further education, travel, or themes of writing, publishing or teaching may find themselves into your career or personal interests at the time of a Jupiter transit to the Midheaven. And then Saturn-Midheaven transits are typically about restructuring and laying down a solid foundation for your career and bigger life goals that will serve you in the years to come. The more challenging side of a Saturn transit to your Midheaven is that you may feel a lot of weight and stress coming from work and other responsibilities. It could be that you’re putting in a lot of hard effort but not seeing immediate payoff. There may even be this hopeless feeling of not being able to see a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to career. Having patience at work and knowing that when Saturn moves away work will flow more easily is key to keep in mind under Saturn-Midheaven transits.
One last point I’ll mention is that transits to the Midheaven automatically affect your Imum Coeli (IC), which is the angle in your chart that is associated with home, family, and your innermost self. And vice versa. So it’s always important to remember that at the same time you’re going through these changes with what your career looks like or what types of long term goals you’re wanting to pursue, you may see big shifts taking place in your home life too.
I hope this has helped in interpreting your own Midheaven! Comment below if you feel like your Midheaven placement closely reflects what you do for work or is indicative of other personal interests you may have. I love reading how the astrology shows up in real ways for you.
Thanks so much Alice. That was really interesting! Mine’s at 1° Sagittarius and honestly… it tracks. I’m a coach, somatic therapist, and yoga teacher living in Bali, teaching women all over the world how to build freedom-based lives. Teaching, travelling, sharing big ideas - it’s basically the Sag MC starter pack, right?
Aquarius midheaven in 9H, just got my phd and im a professor of literature and culture, currently working on a book about the congruences between poetry and science!