This Part Of Your Zodiac Chart Determines Your Career Success

For as much as astrology gets picked apart from every angle, one part of your chart that has likely been left untouched by most is the midheaven, which in part helps determine how successful you'll be in your career and what types of careers suit you. To be more specific, your midheaven — an abbreviation for middle of heaven — isn’t a planet. Sometimes also known as the Medium Coeli, or MC for short, it represents the highest point of your chart, as well as the southernmost high point above the horizon at the moment of your birth.

Your midheaven determines career goals and public achievements, as well as your reputation in the eyes of society and the ways you go about earning it. According to astrologer Chelsea Jackson, who also writes for Elite Daily, “It speaks to how you're known on a public level, and how you're known professionally. It’s the side of yourself that people see — the public side of you rather than the personal side of you.”

A midheaven calculator will be included in any astrological natal chart. To find it, you’ll need an accurate birth time, date, and place in order to have your full birth chart created. Once you’ve gathered all of the right information, you can input the data into a free birth chart calculator. The calculator will provide you with tons of astrological information about yourself, including your midheaven sign. Just look for "X MC" (because the midheaven is the cusp of the 10th house of the birth chart) and the corresponding sign will be revealed next to it.

Not to be confused with your rising sign, your midheaven sign describes your public persona. It can be especially helpful in determining what kind of jobs and career endeavors you may be naturally inclined toward. Here's what it all means, sign by sign.

Aries Midheaven

Aries midheavens excel at careers that keep an eye on the future. They jump into things feet first and are great at hitting the ground running. “Aries midheavens tend to do well in professions where they have a lot of independence,” says Jackson. “They work really well as entrepreneurs and can take the lead really well. In a job where a company is looking for initiative, Aries are great.”

An Aries midheaven may need help with follow-through, though. Their discipline isn't their greatest asset so much as their faith in their abilities. They excel the most in careers that require a self-starter.

Taurus Midheaven

Taurus midheaven individuals are slow but determined. It could take them years to find something that’s right for them, but once they set their mind on achieving something, they will never, ever give up on it. What they prioritize the most, says Jackson, is something dependable and constant. “Taurus midheavens really look for stability and comfort in their job,” Jackson says. “And also creativity as well.”

A very grounded individual, it could take a Taurus midheaven years to find something that’s right for them, but once they set their mind on achieving something, they will never, ever give up. They won't accept "no" for an answer, and they'll continually, steadily pursue their goal, although they could benefit from an extra push of motivation to find it. But once they do, they will pursue it creatively and successfully.

Gemini Midheaven

Gemini midheavens need a career to be fast-moving and engaging. Otherwise it's not uncommon to see them pursuing two careers at once with the same vigor. They get easily bored with routine and need a lot of flexibility in their job. They excel in “anything that has to do with learning,” according to Jackon. “So something where they're constantly able to learn something new, is great for them.”

Thriving in environments that make use of their adaptability and curious mind, people with Gemini midheaven signs make excellent writers and teachers and would succeed in communications, journalism, media, or marketing fields.

Cancer Midheaven

Cancer midheavens are natural nurturers, with a lot of compassion and an artistic, creative approach to their work. Great at professions that involve nourishing and caring for others, they make fantastic chefs, social workers, teachers, and life coaches — anything with a service industry edge.

They may have a lot of ups and downs in careers that don’t suit them because of an innate restlessness that is caused by suppressing their emotional side. A Cancer midheaven needs a career that allows them to utilize their intuition and their ability to care for others. “They also need to feel emotionally fulfilled in their work,” Jackson adds. “Their emotions are very tied to what they do.”

Leo Midheaven

Leo midheavens go after their goals with unwavering faith in themselves. That being said, they also need to feel valued and appreciated in their work in order to thrive, according to Jackson. “Leo midheavens need a lot of acknowledgement and appreciation in their profession,” she says.

They also tend to naturally have the ability to take the lead and are great at being authoritative. They're courageous in their choices and decisions, but they should look out for when their attitude borders on arrogance or impatience. A Leo midheaven would excel in careers that put them in the spotlight or in the public eye in some way: motivational speakers, actors, singers, or dancers — basically, anything that allows them to shine.

Virgo Midheaven

Virgo midheavens have an eye for detail and a gift for analysis and criticism. “Virgos are great at the details, so anything that requires you to be a bit of a perfectionist,” Jackson says. “Anything that revolves around the nitty gritty details of something.”

They excel in any career that allows them to put their perfectionistic tendencies to good use, along with their interest in bettering themselves and the world around them. Medicine, research, teaching, science, and the literary arts are right up their alley.

Libra Midheaven

Priding themselves on their ability to seek balance, Libra midheavens have a talent for presenting themselves with diplomacy and charm. Someone with a Libra midheaven sign would also tend to succeed in collaborative jobs. “They would work well with someone [because] they're very partnership oriented,” says Jackson, “so they're very much about unity and togetherness.”

Always out to seek justice and equality, Libra midheavens are naturally prone to listening to two sides of a story and willing to fight for fairness when it comes to making decisions. For that reason, they excel as lawyers, managers, judges, or couple's therapists.

Scorpio Midheaven

Scorpio midheavens make it their goal in life to shine light into the darker areas of human existence that otherwise would go unknown or unnoticed. They have an innate ability to see the truth underneath the lies, or the stories people tell themselves, and believe exposing these truths is a difficult but necessary job.

“Scorpio midheavens do really well at careers where they have to investigate, like detective work or something that kind of requires them to dig really deep,” Jackson says. “They are also incredibly determined, and they really do prioritize job security as well.” A Scorpio midheaven would make a fantastic detective, criminal psychologist, actor, or therapist.

Sagittarius Midheaven

Sagittarius midheaven individuals are always on the move and need freedom. They need a career that allows them to travel to new places, explore foreign lands, and experience other ways of life in order to feed their philosophical curiosity. Working in imports and exports or in a job that allows them to travel, such as a pilot, photographer, or touring musician, would be perfect.

“They really like to travel for work and anything pertaining to knowledge, maybe like a professor,” says Jackson. “I see them as spiritual, too, so working in spiritual or holistic fields.”

Capricorn Midheaven

Capricorn midheavens take their careers incredibly seriously and tend to be a little more structured, according to Jackson. They will climb the ladder of success like an American Ninja Warrior, fast and furious, and rise to the top at an astronomical speed. They are born to make a name for themselves and to make as much money as humanly possible.

“They tend to be really great at jobs that require discipline and where they're in charge,” says Jackson. “They do great in managerial positions or working for a Fortune 500 company that gives them a lot of room to kind of climb up the ladder. They also make excellent entrepreneurs.” Natural CEOs, managers, and business moguls, they are the type of people who end up on the cover of Forbes.

Aquarius Midheaven

People with an Aquarius midheaven sign are geared toward the unconventional. They prefer a job that only they can do with their own unique set of skills, because by being the only one qualified to do their job, they can avoid having someone watching over their shoulder and telling them what to do. “They're a little bit rebellious,” Jackson explains. “And so anything that's a bit unconventional and quirky — something like a non-traditional job — is great.”

They may pursue one career for a particular part of their life, and then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, switch careers. They love to learn and get a lot of opportunities through their friends and social groups. And Aquarius midheavens are great at anything pertaining to communication and intellect, such as activism or working for tech startups.

Pisces Midheaven

Pisces midheavens make most of their career-related decisions using their intuition, or by following their gut. They can appear to be out of touch with what's going on in the real world, but in fact, they're just tuned into a different wavelength, which is why they tend to be well-suited for creative and spiritual professions.

“They may change careers quite often, and they need something with a lot of room for them to adapt and go with the flow, as opposed to something that's super rigid,” says Jackson, a Pisces midheaven herself. “They do well when they have a lot of space to kind of change and adapt and whatnot.” Money isn't as important to them as passion; they may seek careers in music, theater, film, spirituality, healing arts, or literature.

Of course, all of these explanations don’t necessarily mean you're on the wrong path if you're doing something different from what your sign might be best suited to. Jackson recommends that at the end of the day you just go with your gut.

“Even if your midheaven sign is telling you to do one thing, but you're feeling like that's not what you want to do, then that's confirmation in itself that what you have in mind is what you should be doing,” Jackson says. “Your midheaven is just kind of a reminder of some ideas, but ultimately, it's up to you, regardless of what your midheaven says that you should maybe be doing.”

Hopefully, understanding your midheaven will inspire you to go after your career goals, no matter what they are!

Expert:

Chelsea Jackson, astrologer, intuitive, and artist