Time for another the Ask the Astrologer question! Once or twice a month, I answer a question in a way that aligns with what you might hear in an actual astrological consultation. This is not your usual advice column, and not your usual astrology column, either. The frequency of it may increase if I receive enough letters, so if you have a question, please ask! See the end of this post for how to submit.

I am a law student now. I want to become a successful lawyer. My family is middle class, neither rich nor poor. Can I earn serious wealth through my career, according to my chart? - C.G.A.

Yes, you can. Whether you will depends on what you do with the potential in your chart.

For your income, the main place to look is your second house. That indicates your overall approach to acquiring and managing your money, and how financial matters tend to go for you. It’s your personal finance department, covering all your sources of income, with a particular focus on income earned through your own efforts. Regarding income from your career specifically, the eleventh house provides some more details, because it’s the second house from the tenth, which is the house of career. The eleventh house, in addition to everything else it means (friends, associates, groups, long term plans, hopes and desires), serves as your career’s finance department.

Your second house has no planets in it, so to see how it works for you, we look at its ruler. With its cusp in Cancer, it’s ruled by the Moon. Your Moon is in Sagittarius, right on your DC (seventh house cusp). Sagittarius suggests a rather impulsive approach to money. It’s ruled by Jupiter, whose motto is, “Live big!” Sagittarius’s approach to finances is to earn big, spend big, and, because Sagittarius is all about living in the moment, never worry about tomorrow. 

Sagittarius is also associated with the field of law, and the DC, with contractual relationships. So here, we have a suggestion of earning your money through a Sagittarian kind of work, which law is, and/or through a business partnership or contractual relationships. The relationship between a lawyer and their client is one such contractual relationship, and many lawyers are partners in their firms. 

Jupiter itself is conjunct your Sun, in impulsive, impatient Aries, in the eleventh house. Aries is a strong placement for both of those planets, and the eleventh house is especially good for Jupiter.* Here we have another testimony to law as a potentially lucrative career for you, and a likely impulsive approach to money. Expansive Jupiter in the eleventh reflects your desire for great wealth (or at least for a lot of something, and you’ve apparently decided the something you want is wealth). Jupiter always insists on more, brings abundance easily, and when it’s conjunct Sun, what Jupiter wants is an inextricable part of your sense of self. Aries, besides being impulsive, is a go-getter sign, very good at standing up for its own interests. Meanwhile your chart ruler,** the communicator planet Mercury, is in silver tongued Pisces, in your tenth house of career. 

I expect you have strong negotiating skills. With those skills, when it comes time to negotiate your pay, you can easily get yourself the best deal possible. If your reaction to this statement is to think it’s not true, all you need is a little practice, and you will be a strong negotiator. That potential is so strong in your chart that all you have to do is tap into it.

Between your second and eleventh houses, you definitely have the potential to earn big money, especially through some kind of work that uses your Aries and Sagittarius energy. If you were not interested in law, I would be suggesting other fields that work with those placements. Since you have chosen law, I’m focusing my interpretation there.

The pitfall of your big earning potential is that you may be even better at spending money than making it. Your chart as a whole looks very impulsive: Aries, Sagittiarius, and Gemini, which are your Sun, Moon, and rising signs, are all highly impulsive signs, and the more impulsive you are, the more likely you are to spend money as if there’s no tomorrow. On top of that, your main money planets are in Sagittarius and Aries.*** To ensure that you don’t fall into financial disaster, you will have to diligently save money when you have it coming in and avoid spending beyond your means. That may mean tricking yourself into acting in a way that doesn’t come naturally to you, if your natural impulse is to spend your money as soon as you get it. 

To help you with that, you have the limitations planet, Saturn, in slow, steady Taurus, also in your eleventh house, and Taurus is the sign associated with wealth. That likely means you won’t become as wealthy as you expect as fast as you expect--Saturn doesn’t promise instant results--but you could acquire significant wealth over time, if you let Saturn put the brakes on your spending when necessary and you manage your income well. You also have Saturn in opposition with Mars, which rules your eleventh house. That reinforces this picture.

Back to your Moon: no matter which house it rules, Moon also indicates your deepest desires and emotional needs. When it rules your second house, those emotional needs and desires very easily get intertwined with money.  What does this desire for serious wealth really mean to you? 

There’s nothing wrong with building wealth, as long as you do it ethically, but don’t make it a substitute for your equally valid emotional needs. Everyone has deep emotional needs that have nothing to do with money, but mistaking money for the fulfillment of those needs is a common thing to do, especially when your financial and emotional receptors are the same, which they are in your birth chart. I suggest paying some careful attention to your emotions and your financial desires, so that you become aware of how they inform each other. That will help you make better financial decisions overall, and probably take better care of your emotional needs as well.

Another way Moon as your financial ruler tends to work is that your finances wax and wane, just like the moon in the sky. You will probably be in some quite different financial situations over the course of your life. You could easily have a recurring pattern of high income some of the time and little or none at other times, which is another reason to be careful about saving money when you have it coming in. You might also experience multiple significant changes in your career, over the course of your working life.

Maybe there will be times in your life when you’re supported by someone else--a spouse, for instance--and other times when you’re the breadwinner for yourself and others. Being financially supported by others, especially a spouse, or being the one who supports them, is another thing the second house ruler at the DC could indicate. But that’s not necessarily a permanent situation, and practically guaranteed not to be when the second house ruler at the DC is Moon.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, regarding career and finances, never mistake it for permanent. Over your lifetime, if you handle your finances well, you can build up significant wealth, if that’s what you really want. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be making a lot at every step of the way. When the down times come, don’t worry: it’s temporary. When the up times come, don’t take them for granted: it’s also temporary. The important thing is that overall, over time, you manage your money and build your wealth in a way that satisfies you.

*Jupiter joys in the eleventh house. Houses of joy is a traditional astrology concept, which means, basically, that this planet gets a bit of a boost from being in this house. Jupiter is also especially happy in fire signs, and Sun (which is also a planet for astrology purposes) is exalted in Aries, meaning it’s an extra sunny Sun.

**The chart ruler is the planet that rules the ascendant. In this case, Gemini is rising, which makes Mercury, ruler of Gemini, the chart ruler.

***Since C.G.A.’s eleventh house has planets in it, they have the most say over her eleventh house matters, which include income from career. Its ruler isn’t irrelevant, but the tenants living in a house have much more effect on it, day to day, than the absentee landlord. Over an untenanted house, the landlord has full say. Works the same way in astrology as in real estate.

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