In traditional astrology, the 9th House is called the House of God. We cannot take this literally, as if God could reside in a division of the astrological wheel. The Divine exceeds the entire figure. He is above it, within it, before it, and beyond it. The Ninth House is “of God” not because it contains God, but because it represents the knowledge (gnōsis) that leads towards Him. We can call it the house of Gnosis, then.
This is why the 9th is associated with religion, clerical institutions, priests, ministers, masters, doctors, philosophers, astrologers, interpreters of signs, divinatory arts, magic, theology, Scriptures, and even the (prophetic) dreams we have while asleep. In horary astrology, if we ask about these matters, it is to the 9th House that we must look at.
The 10th House, the Medium Coeli, is the highest point of the chart. But, alas, the MC is not God either. Even so, the MC represents the point of greatest visible elevation in the figure. The MC is the nearest point of contact between the embodied human being and the High above. Not because God is trapped there, no, but because it represents the highest elevation of incarnated life.
What is learnt in the 9th House culminates in the 10th. Religious, philosophical, astrological, or spiritual knowledge exists to orient our life upwards, to the MC. The 9th gives knowledge and the 10th is the culmination of it. This is also why the tenth from any house shows its realisation. For instance, the Ascendant is the individual, the body, the embodied life, the point of entry of the soul into the visible world. The 10th, being the tenth from the Ascendant, shows the culmination of that individual; their work, honour, authority, and place in the world.
There is also a correspondence with the theosophical reduction of the number ten: 10 = 1 + 0 = 1. The 10th is the 1st raised to its highest expression. The native begins at the Ascendant, but is fulfilled in the Medium Coeli. This is also why the 10th is related to vocation. The word comes from the Latin vocatio, vocare, “to call”. A vocation is a calling, the summons by which God calls the individual towards the fulfilment of what he has come into the world to do. It is the accomplishment of the invidiual will aligned with God’s Will, reaching henosis, the so-called Great Work or Magnum Opus. From the 1 to the 10 and back to the 1.
The 11th is also one of the most positive houses because of this. It is the place of genuine friends, allies, protection, good fortune, and those gifts raining from the Above. Of course it is the house where Jupiter has his joy. Jupiter, the Greater Benefic, is the planet of mercy, abundance, nobility… Chesed. The 11th is the 2nd from the 10th. So, it is the resources, goods, and benefits coming from the top. The 11th is what Heaven grants you. The grace, the mercy of the Heavens. It is the spiritual grammar behind the Jesus prayer Kyrie eleison: from the Greek Kyrie, vocative of Kyrios, “Lord”, and eleison, from eleos, “mercy”, a prayer for descending from above.
Astrology contains a cosmology within it. An order in which higher knowledge leads to God. If you attain this knowledge in the 9th, then complete your mission in the 10th… Why not also spread it to the others close to you in the 11th?
Kύριε ελέησον