10th House (Reputation) and 8th House (Legacy): One of the interesting things about 21st century astrology is that a lot of the original meaning of words has been lost because the original intent has also been lost, and my guess is largely out of disinterest for the origin. Astrology was not democratic until the last hundred years or so, and much of the language we use is the language of the client, namely, the people who could afford to patronize astrologers. While today, we may use “legacy” as a word for “reputation beyond death,” that’s not what it means in this context. In this context, it means an actual legacy in the true sense, which is a tangible remainder of a person that exists in material reality after death.

While we may say “Michael Jackson left a legacy as the King of Pop” his actual legacy is the tangible catalog of music, Neverland Ranch, his collection of oddball crap, and any other tangible remainder of his life. Elvis’s reputation is the King of Rock N Roll,” but his legacy is his music and Graceland and recipes for the kinds of food people like to eat when they’re high. The average person may make a legacy gift to their favorite charity in their will, or they may built a memorial to something important to them. A legacy can even be something incidental but tangible, like a trait you pass on to the next generation that is evident, such as your red hair or your musical talent.

On the other hand, a reputation is what the world generally thinks of you and how it receives you based on what it learns from the rest of the world. While this could of your own design, your reputation may not be entirely within your control, because your family, or in patriarchal societies, your father and his social standing, will inform the world of your reputation before you get a chance to take charge of it. A reputation isn’t the same as your persona, which is how you seem to people when you meet them. For example, Lalo Salamanca is charming and suave (ascendant) but his reputation is as a ruthless and cold drug lord (midheaven) because 1) he’s a Salamanca, and 2) he’s a psychopath and acts on it.

Look at it this way, too: how many sons of bitches do you know whose reputations have been whitewashed when they die because of the taboo against speaking ill of the dead? But their legacies don’t lie – there’s no whitewashing what they can’t hide anymore.