Cardinality, Control And The Angles

She's Gotta Have ItI’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about control and it what it means to be controlling. Cardinal signs are said to be controlling, address issues of control. The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. They resonate to self/action (Aries) and Mars, home/family (Cancer) and the moon, others/relationships (Libra) and Venus and career/goals (Capricorn) and Saturn.

The angles are all cardinal. The 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses are cardinal. Among other things, they show areas where control is an issue. With the ascendent we control our physical selves, how we act, seem, how we physically appear.

The Imum coeli, IC, has issues of control over the circumstances of our home and family. Perhaps we don’t control the family we are born into, though some would say we do, but once we’re grown we control where we live and who we call family, based in part on what we experienced growing up.

The descendent or 7th house cusp ruled by Venus often shows how we attempt to control our relationships. It shows what we like, what we tend to pick. Choosing is control. You can control the impact of the other by choosing well. Venus also attracts. Our descendent sign is like our bait. What bait you have controls the type of fish you’ll catch.

The midheaven, MC, represents the career, our presence in the greater world, goals. Reputation shows up here. Control of the reputation, doing what you believe to be the right thing, enhances performance and opportunity out in the big world. If you want to be a banker you’d sure want to control any circumstances that might speak to your integrity in handling others’ money. If you want to be a lingerie model a different sort of “good” reputation is probably important.

The thing is, the universe operates under a set of rules. I’m not sure what they all are but I sure do know when I manage to break one. The signs on the angles show how we go about controlling ourselves and our circumstances in order to fit into our understanding of these rules. The signs and the planets in aspect to these angles also shape our personal understanding of the rules.

To my way of thinking, control is not bad or wrong; control is neutral, natural, necessary. I can’t help but think that how a person feels about control is likely to be a reflection of their IC placement and therefore also seen in their midheaven.

How do you feel about control?

20 thoughts on “Cardinality, Control And The Angles”

  1. I feel like I need to work on NOT having so much control – being a control freak is not all that it’s cut out to be! This past year has been good in that regard… learning to let go. But that “need” is still there.

  2. Getting a grasp on the qualities of the fixed and mutable signs has been relatively easy. But the cardinal qualities – that took me a long time. Cardinal qualities – ah yes. What is behind the need to control? Fear and insecurity. Aries is about asserting courage against fear – meeting fears head-on, like a soldier going into battle. Cancer’s often feel insecure, are vulnerable, and therefore fearful. Libra is the opposite sign to Aries, and they have plenty of fear, and avoid confrontation. Capricorn is full of fear and caution, and their task is to expand past their fear boundaries. Of course, the four cardinal signs are comprised of much more than this rather narrow view, but a need to control because of inner fear and insecurity is a good place to start when it comes to cardinal signs.

  3. “I can’t help but think that how a person feels about control is likely to be a reflection of their IC placement and therefore also seen in their midheaven.”

    Yep. Chiron/IC teaches me that attempts to control will cause pain for all involved. Uranus/MC teaches me that to bother trying to control is an exercise in futility.

  4. Haa 2 cardinal signs here!! Me Aries hubby Cancer so yeah we often have issues to who gets wg
    Hat but generally I get my way more!! Haaa

  5. I align with Janet, Miss Jackson (if you’re nasty), on this one:
    “This is a story about control. Control of what I say, Control of what I do. And this time, I’m gonna do it my way. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Are we ready? I am, cause it’s all about control..and I’ve got lots of it.”

    uh..I have a few issues with this 😛

  6. Now I get why my mom and dad were such control freaks – they’re both cardinals to the max! Ha ha! I am not a cardinal type person, I’m afraid. I go with the flow.
    I have a question though – if your MC is squared by saturn, how would that manifest in the ‘choices’ you make (about MC/IC related issues), or the ‘control’ that you may have over this matter? Doesn’t seem that saturn squaring the mc/ic axis would give you much power or control.

  7. This is really interesting. I hadn’t thought of myself as very Cardinal, as I only have my Sun/Venus in a Cardinal sign (Aries). I didn’t realize that the angles ‘counted’ and shit oh dear, I’ve got most all my planets in the 1st, 4th, and 10th houses. I didn’t even know I was in control! 😉

  8. Overlapping t-squares from the 1st & 7th to the 10th house in cardinal signs, with planets conjunct the asc & desc. Me, controlling? My Pisces MC says “nah!”.

  9. I have Capricorn IC and Cancer MC – I most definitely have control issues, but the motivation behind it is: having control allows me to feel confident/secure that I can take care of myself.

  10. hmmm… I have IC in Aquarius. I believe we are all controlled by societal forces, to some extent, and the more aware we are of these forces, the more control we can exercise over our individual destinies.

  11. Avatar
    libra rising

    5 planets in the angular houses; 4 planets in cardinal signs (3 of which are in angular houses) Nothing in Aries (my son’s Sun- Jupiter conjunction is Aries though), and nothing in the 7th house, which is ruled by Aries. You may be right – I control my physical self, career and home – but NOT the people in it!

  12. So these are the positive ways to use these angles and aspects? Like, you pick what relationship you get into, how you come in and what you promise each other (action reflects character and goals, right?), controlling your reputation like not pissing and moaning when you transgressed and blaming others rather working and excelling at all times… I don’t know.

    It seems to me like there’s not enough control in those options for me, 🙂 like a consolation prize, like, “oh yeah, you get to pick where you live, but then all the rest, you know, or once you get a partner and have set it up, that’s about as far as you get, then you can’t tell them not to cheat or they’ll get their bone on out the window” it’s like it’s a yes or no on a poll or something. At the same time, of course, Saturn in Libra points to the fact that we control our choices on a daily basis in relationships and make decisions, and this is how we try to get what we expect from somebody.

    I was told by a Libran teacher that a human’s basic desire is to control. (Control the weather through supplication and ritual, control other people’s behavior through traditional structures, but mostly control chaos). I need control because I’m not secure.

  13. I’m afraid of nature, and I have to have faith… or else I lose it. I’m afraid of Uranus and Pluto, and Shiva.

  14. Neptune on the IC. No ‘control’ in the obvious sense of the word at and in my homelife….but Neptune is in Scorpio which does allow for a deep root albeit not a solid one. The home appears to the outside world quite beautiful in a natural (Taurean) way….but lots of things don’t work and there are no latest gadgets here. My life also sketches this – am on a big and deep mission (soul journey) while out there in the world I appear stable and together when in reality work is completely nebulous.

  15. Is “control” the right word? It feels loaded. Seems like “initiating” is more appropos…

  16. I’ve realised that it is mostly out of fear/survival/lack of self confidence issues that I have been controlling (job was important to be independnt because I “could not trust” anyone but myself). I’m slowly resolving these and learning to let go. However I have always felt very much out of control all at the same time – Neptune cj the ascendant – going with the flow.
    Sadge Rising +(Neptune cj the ascendant).
    Moon cj Jupiter cj IC
    Venus & Saturn in H7
    Pluto cj MC (opp Moon cj Jupiter)

Leave a Reply to diastella Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

Scroll to Top