Sun and Midheaven (MC): aspect cards

Sun conjunct the Midheaven makes your career and your identity the same matter. You want your work to show who you are, and you are often watched in public from early on. Confidence and leadership are strengths. The thing to watch is that when your position becomes your self-worth, praise or criticism about your work hits much harder than it should.

• You have career goals that connect clearly to who you are
• You work in front of others with confidence

• You tie your self-worth to your position or to praise
• You tire from having to keep up an image of success

You are chosen to present your results to the executives. The night before, you worry that if you slip, it means you have failed as a person. This time you write down three things you want the audience to take away, instead of thinking about your image. Your message gets clearer, and you speak in a calmer voice than you expected.

Measure success by what truly fulfils you, and your career path will be steadier.

When the Sun is on good terms with the Midheaven, your identity and career goals run the same way, smoothly. You tend to find work that uses your own strengths and to be recognised naturally. Senior people or those in authority often back you, and chances to lead come without your demanding them. The point to watch is that when chances arrive by themselves, you may not push yourself beyond what people hand you.

• You get work that uses your strengths and earns recognition
• Senior people support your career path

• You wait for opportunities to find you and do not push yourself
• You aim where others point, not where you want to go

Your boss offers you a small team lead role you never asked for. You accept and do well. Two months later you write in your notebook, "In three years I want to do something nobody has offered yet," and start booking chats with people from other departments. The first opportunity you create yourself appears.

Aim higher than what people hand you, and your potential will grow in full.

When the Sun challenges the Midheaven, who you are and the path society expects do not match. You may feel the work does not answer what you need inside, carry your family's expectations, or clash with seniors at work. That feeling pushes you to prove yourself. The way through is to ask which kind of success is truly yours, then adjust your path to the answer.

• You have a drive to prove yourself in your work
• You question the path that others set for you

• You feel the work does not answer what you need inside
• You clash with seniors at work over direction

Your family wants you to take a civil service job like your father's, while you like design. You have kept quiet for a long time. Recently you made a small design piece and showed it to your father. He said nothing but asked which program you used. It was the first time he had asked, so you can start talking about your future at home.

Ask which kind of success is truly yours, and adjust your path to that.