The Midheaven and Your Career Path

It is Graduation time again in the Philippines. Young graduates are now about to be thrown into the real world, a world where people work for money, for fulfillment or even for just killing time.

As a guide to the graduates, I am posting here an article I wrote for Mr. Ms. magazine, May 2006:

“Whatever is born or done this moment
has the qualities of this moment in time.”
-- Carl G. Jung

Pioneering psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) studied about a thousand horoscopes and made the conclusion that causality does not have to be A causes B. A and B can happen at the same time. He called this phenomenon synchronicity. In astrology, this means that the characteristics of the heavenly bodies have a synchronous effect on the birth of a person or any other event on Earth. Thus, when a person is born, a map of the heavens (natal chart) would give a fair indication of the characteristics of that person’s life.

In Astrology, it is very important to know at least three things: the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant at the exact moment of one’s birth. The Ascendant is the zodiac sign on the eastern horizon at the time of birth. The Eastern horizon is where the sun “rises”. Thus, the Ascendant sign is popularly called the Rising Sign.

Popular astrology is mostly concerned with the Sun sign. The Sun sign represents one’s core personality. But humans are not one-dimensional beings. We have a complex nature.

The Moon sign represents the emotions. This involves the “murkier” side of things which popular astrology does not want to delve into so much. On the other hand, the Ascendant sign is the personality one projects to other people. Thus, if somebody tells you that you do not look like a Leo or a Scorpio, that means that what he/she is seeing is not your Sun sign but your Rising Sign.


Think of the Whole YOU

If you ask other people for advice on your career choice, their advice might be based on your Ascendant, the personality that you project. Thus, they might tell you to go to banking or Real Estate (Taurus) when what you actually want to become is a Secret Agent like James Bond (the quintessential Scorpio).

Or your heart may be telling you to become an actress (Moon Leo) but your talent actually lies elsewhere. If you consult a newspaper or magazine, it probably would be based on your Sun Sign alone.

Your Sun, Moon and Rising Signs can be compared to your Ego, Id and Superego. Or, if you were a house, your Ascendant would be your gate, courtyard and main door. Your Sun Sign would be your living and dining rooms while your Moon Sign would be your bedrooms.

When choosing or changing jobs, it is very important to analyze not just your Sun Sign but also your Moon and Rising Signs. But most importantly, look at your Midheaven.


The MIDHEAVEN


The Mediun Coeli (MC) or Midheaven is the “highest point” of the natal chart; It is the point of the noonday sun at one’s date of birth. Technically, it is the point where the ecliptic (apparent path of the Sun across the sky) crosses the meridian (line of longitude) which passes through the birth or event in question

The Midheaven indicates one’s career, life goals and public reputation. This is the key to your success – professionally and emotionally. In esoteric (spiritual) astrology, this represents what you want to do and be acknowledged for in this lifetime.

Our Sun, Moon and Rising signs are personal to us. Perhaps we allow a few friends and relatives to take a peek at our emotional or personal selves. But for the world at large, we want to be known by our Midheaven Sign. This is the kind of person we want the world and posterity to know.

For example, Queen Elizabeth II would certainly not want the world to look at her as friendly, willing, a reforming sprit, rebellious or eccentric (Aquarius rising). She would rather be known as determined, powerful, disciplined and with a sense of purpose (Scorpio midheaven). Scorpio midheaven needs emotional involvement in one’s career and the British queen’s involvement in her career is the prime reason that the English monarchy is still functioning.

In the olden days, the midheaven sign was not given much thought because kings begot kings while farmers begot farmers. But in this age of social mobility where janitors can become tycoons and heiresses can become paupers, the midheaven sign looms vital. For many astrologers, this is the destiny or karmic sign. The Midheaven Sign is what you want to do and are supposed to do in this lifetime.

In order to get a feel of what is the best job for you, analyze your Sun, Moon and Rising Signs and then try to see which is most compatible with your Midheaven Sign.


Job Clusters of ARIES MIDHEAVEN SIGN

Keywords: Pioneering, Physical body, Competition, Immediacy, Independent action, Controversy, Vigor. Example.: Jane Fonda and Pablo Picasso

With an Aries Midheaven Sign, the following is a partial list of jobs that go well with the respective. Sun/Moon/Rising Sign:

ARIES: residential / institutional architect, war correspondent, muckraker, soldier, commodities trader, pro athlete, neurosurgeon, no-desk jobs.
TAURUS: landscape architect, animal husbandry, ENT doctor
GEMINI: sports or crime reporter, PR for architectural firm, advertising sales
CANCER: obstetrician, gynecologist, interior designer, commodities analyst
LEO: stage actor, trial lawyer, chief of surgery or administrator of surgical services, venture capitalist, athletic coach in high school
VIRGO: civil engineer, records supervisor, draftsman, health and safety inspector
LIBRA: labor relations, PR for medical firms, insurance claims adjuster, cosmetic surgeon,
SCORPIO: crime investigator, trial lawyer, reconstructive or exploratory surgeon, institutional architecture
SAGITTARIUS: college athletics coach, architect or engineer for international firm, foreign correspondent, trainer of race horse
CAPRICORN: Corporate lawyer, financial officer for manufacturing or engineering firm, investment analyst for insurance firm
AQUARIUS: civil rights litigator, professor of social psychology, head of R&D in engineering firm
PISCES: Dancer, fine artist, medic or chaplain in the military.

Midheaven Sign as Guide


From the above example, one can see that with your Sun/Moon/Rising signs taken together with your Midheaven sign, you can fine-tune your job description, For example, if you would like to be a reporter and your midheaven sign is Aries, you can have a choice on what kind of reporter to become depending on your other signs. If your Sun sign is Aries, then you might want to become a war correspondent. But if you are a Gemini, then you might rather be a sports reporter. Or if you are a Sagittarian, you might want to become a foreign correspondent

If you want to be a lawyer, and your midheaven is in Aries, then you can choose which sort of law you would like to specialize in – litigation (Leo), corporate (Capricorn) or civil rights (Aquarius).

To continue, here are the other Midheaven signs:

Taurus Midheaven: Needs steady career path. Outdoors preferred. Construction, beauty, sports, horticulture or agriculture, financial management, food industry, fashion, banking, singing, physiotherapy, nursing, counseling (children). Example: Marilyn Monroe

Gemini Midheaven: Communication is key. Also variety and stimulation.. Sales, the media, writing, advertising, retailing, youth work, the hotel industry, interpreting / translation, teaching. Walt Disney

Cancer Midheaven: Requires some continuity in career. Money not the prime consideration. Nursing and the 'caring' professions, social work, restaurant trade, historian, architecture, child care industry, personnel work. Albert Schweitzer and JFK

Leo Midheaven: Likes to be in the spotlight Ambitious and financially motivated.. Acting (specially stage), any artistic work, luxury trades, banking, fashion industry, medical profession, politics or local government, work with animals. Jacqueline Kennedy and Adolf Hitler

Virgo Midheaven: Work best as an 'assistant' rather than a 'leader'. Power behind the throne, secretary, personal assistant, literary/publishing industry, administration or management of any kind, health club/leisure centre management, journalism, copywriting, psychology, the police, librarian, civil servant, animal care and breeding. Eleanor Roosevelt

Libra Midheaven: Needs comfortable working place and good pay.. Peacemaker of the office. Fashion and beauty industry, soft furnishing or interior design, antiques, diplomatic corps, the legal profession, language work, modeling. Mickey Rooney and US Chief Justice Earl Warren

Scorpio Midheaven: requires emotional involvement in the career. Money not a big factor. Needs “security of tenure”. Military, police, detective or forensic science work, investigative journalism, mining, self employment, research of any kind, medical profession, funeral industry, psychotherapist, politics. Mao Ze Dong, Ben Gurion, Paul Newman and Billie Jean king

Sagittarius Midheaven: Needs to be challenged, not very good with routine. Lawyer, outdoor sports, veterinary profession, travel industry, export industry, university lecturer, town planning, space industry, airline industry, the church, writing, international finance. Hitchcock and Solzhenitsyn

Capricorn Midheaven: Very ambitious for status, rather than necessarily for money. Quintessential self-made businessman. Self employment, politics, estate agency, farming, orthopaedics, homeopathy, engineering, exploration industry, dentistry, sculpting, civil service, stock brokerage. MacArthur and Elizabeth Arden

Aquarius Midheaven: Need absolute freedom in their career, and need, above all, to be able to be innovative. Not particularly motivated by money. Cutting edge technology, space industry, airline industry, IT industry, optician, conservation, television work, photography, cartooning, humanitarian work, publishing, the legal profession, telecommunications. Kissinger and GB Shaw

Pisces Midheaven: Often to be found working tirelessly in the background. Exceptional counseling abilities. Needs variety. Dealing effectively with intangibles. The caring professions, work with the disadvantaged and the minorities, the wine trade, the sea or fishing industries, plumbing, the church, the navy, faith and alternative healing, the occult and anything artistic – fiction, poetry, films. Van Gogh, Christian Barnard, Pope Paul VI, Glenn Miller, Albert Einstein, and Bill Gates.

ASTROLOGY and HEALTH

“A physician without knowledge of astrology has no right to call himself a physician”

– Hippocrates (born ca. 400 BC)

Astrology was studied and respected in the ancient Egyptian civilization, in the Greek and Roman civilizations, in the old Islamic civilization, and in the Renaissance. In 1125, the chair of Astrology was founded at the University of Bologna. The prestigious Cambridge University taught astrology since 1250. Until the 18^th century, astrology was part of university students’, including medical students’, training.

While claiming great astrologers of the past like Copernicus (proponent of sun-centered solar system), Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler (discovered the laws of planetary motions) for their side, Establishment astronomers renounced astrology after the twin discoveries of Uranus in 1781 and Neptune in 1846. Astronomy separated from Astrology and the latter lost its academic status. While astrology embraced all aspects of life, astronomy was concerned only with celestial mechanics. As a result, university students and faculty, including the medical faculty in Europe, America and the colonies, were deprived of a great deal of astrological knowledge accumulated through the millennia.

Before the 20^th century, the non-astrologer physicians’ primary medicine for curing people was leeches – to bleed the patients in order to remove impurities in their blood. In movies, old books and magazines, one can still see the advertisements of various “elixirs” peddled by physicians and pharmacologists.

Today, astrology is back in business, proven by academic research such as the comprehensive study done by Michel and Françoise Gauquelin, French statisticians and psychologists who gathered hundreds of thousands of birth charts for their data.

Medical Astrology

Astrologers still incorporate health aspects in their work. When a person gets sick, the astrologer draws up the astrological chart at the time of the first symptom. Each Zodiac sign rules some parts of the body. For example, Aries rules the head area, Taurus the neck area and Libra the kidneys. The mentioned astrological chart is then judged in relation to the person’s natal or birth chart, i.e., the astrological positions at the time of birth.

Persons born under a Sign usually suffers from the part of the body ruled by that sign. Thus, Arians suffer from headaches, Taureans from colds, chills and tonsillitis, and Leos suffer from heart, spine and back ailments.

The diagnosis is also based on the polarity of the signs. For example, Aries’s polarity (opposite) is Libra. If an Arian complains of headaches (the head being ruled by Aries), the probability that the headaches are caused by the kidneys (ruled by Libra) should be investigated.

Each Sign is “ruled” by a Planet (the Sun and the Moon are considered “planets”). Together, the Sign and its ruling Planet is said “to rule” or greatly influence certain parts of the body. For example, Leo and its ruler, the Sun, control the heart, back and spine including the thymus gland and the body’s immunization system. Cancer and the Moon control the breasts and the alimentary (food) system – esophagus, stomach, gall bladder, etc. Sagittarius and Jupiter control the hips, thighs and the body’s largest gland, the liver and the pituitary gland, the body’s “master gland”.

By reading the positions and relationships of the Signs and the Planets in the charts, the astrologer deduces the diseases that the subject is prone to and the probable causes of the present sickness. The astrologer then prescribes the remedy which may include herbal medicine, sometimes including the time the herbs should be gathered, or the mineral and cell salts needed by the patient. The astrologer’s prescription may include actions on the part of the patient, such as taking a vacation or expressing his/her ideas openly without fear or inhibition.

By reading the natal and other astrological charts, the astrologer gets to know the whole personality, including mental and emotional attitudes, and even the whole history of the patient. The astrologer can thus prescribe the remedy that would cure not just the present symptom but the whole being.

For example, gallbladder stones may be caused by the patient’s anger over someone or something which s/he could not express. Or for a patient with heart trouble, the charts may indicate the real cause of the problem – inability to love or being unloved.

Medical astrology is not a separate branch of astrology. Astrology is holistic – it studies the whole of (wo)man – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

Hippocratic Law

Linda Goodman, in her book Star Signs (St. Martin’s Press: New York), is particularly concerned about the timing of surgery. She quotes Hippocrates who stated, “Touch not with iron that part of the body ruled by the sign the Moon is transiting.” “Touching with iron” means operating with a knife. Goodman further explained that according to Hippocrates, disobeying this law will result in 1] complications, including infection, 2] slow and painful healing and recuperation or even 3] death.

Goodman says that when a physician declares that “the operation was successful but the patient is dead,” it usually indicates that this Hippocratic law was not obeyed.

It is rather strange that medical doctors of today swear by the Hippocratic Oath, yet they do not practice or follow most of what Hippocrates advised.

Goodman gave some startling examples. Jeff Chandler, star of many detective films, went for a simple operation for a slipped disc. He died while being operated on. Cause of death? “Unnatural causes.” On that day, the Moon was in Leo, ruler of the heart, spine and the back.

Another example was Bertha Todd, first wife of Michael Todd, who later became the husband of Elizabeth Taylor. Bertha had cut her finger on a broken glass. She decided to go to the hospital the following day to have her finger stitched. Afraid that it might be painful, she asked to be anaesthetized. After the third dose of anesthesia, she died. On that day, the Moon was transiting Gemini, ruler of shoulders, arms, hands and fingers.

Goodman mentioned other examples. She was emphatic in urging readers not to have any sort of operation or even injections when the Moon is transiting the Sign which rules the body part concerned. The Moon changes sign every two and a half days so the postponement of the operation will not be more than that period.

The Moon’s influence on the tides is well known. Since the human body is seventy percent water, it is but logical that the Moon would have great influence on it, too. The menstrual cycles of women are also known to be influenced by the Moon. Hence, the rationale behind the above-mentioned Hippocratic Law is that first, the Moon has great influence on the human body. Second, any surgery naturally interferes with the tidal flows of the body fluids. And third, the parts of the body ruled by the Sign the Moon is transiting at the time become especially sensitive and vulnerable. So next time you need to have a medical or dental operation, check where the Moon is transiting.

ZODIAC SIGN RULERSHIP

OF THE PARTS OF THE BODY

ARIES head, face (except nose), cerebral hemispheres of the brain

Subrenal glands which pump adrenalin to the system

TAURUS neck, throat, larynx, tonsils, carotid arteries and jugular vein

Thyroid gland

GEMINI shoulder, arms, fingers, lungs, upper ribs

CANCER stomach, diaphragm, breasts, alimentary canal, lymph system,

Mammary glands

VIRGO large and small intestines and the pancreas

LIBRA kidneys

SCORPIO nose, genitals, descending colon, rectum, the blood, urethra. rules bodily outlets and procreative processes

SAGITTARIUS hips, thighs, liver, veins, femur bone, sacral region, and the sciatic nerve

CAPRICORN teeth, bones, kneecaps, skin, hair, nails and cell walls

AQUARIUS lower legs and ankles, varicose veins and circulatory system

PISCES feet and toes, the entire body system relating to “leaks” and the draining of fluids

_________

Published in the Mr. & Ms. Magazine: Supermonthly of the Body, Mind and Spirit January 2006