A kundli has twelve houses, called bhavas. Each is a division of the sky at the moment of birth, counted from the ascendant, and each governs one department of life: the first house is the self and the body, the second is wealth and speech, the fourth is home and mother, the seventh is marriage, the tenth is career, and so on around the chart. A planet means little on its own. It means something once you know which house it sits in, which houses it rules, and which houses it aspects.
This is the difference between the sun-sign columns and Vedic astrology. A column can tell you that Jupiter is in Cancer this year. Only your chart can tell you that Cancer is your fifth house, which makes that transit a matter of children and study for you, and a matter of career for someone born a few hours later. Houses are where events happen.
How are the houses counted?
The sign rising on the eastern horizon at your time and place of birth is the ascendant, or lagna. That whole sign becomes your first house, the next sign your second, and so on through all twelve, which is the whole-sign system most Vedic astrologers use. Because a new sign rises roughly every two hours, the birth time decides the houses, and a time that is wrong by an hour can move every planet into a different house. If your time is uncertain, birth time rectification comes before any reading; it is part of our kundali analysis. Your nakshatra, by contrast, is fixed by the Moon and changes only about once a day.
The twelve houses and what they rule
| House | Sanskrit name | Rules | People and body |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Tanu (Lagna) | Self, body, temperament, appearance, vitality, how you begin things | You; the head |
| 2nd | Dhana | Wealth and savings, speech, food, values, the family you were born into | Immediate family; face, mouth, right eye |
| 3rd | Sahaja | Courage, effort, communication, skills, short journeys, hobbies | Younger siblings; arms, shoulders, ears |
| 4th | Sukha | Home, property, vehicles, schooling, comfort, inner peace | Mother; chest and heart |
| 5th | Putra | Children, intelligence, creativity, romance, speculation, merit from past lives | Children; the stomach |
| 6th | Ari | Illness, debts, enemies, competition, service, daily work, litigation | Maternal uncle; intestines and digestion |
| 7th | Kalatra | Marriage, the spouse, partnerships, contracts, dealings with the public | Spouse and business partner; lower abdomen, kidneys |
| 8th | Randhra | Longevity, sudden events, inheritance, hidden matters, research, transformation | In-laws; reproductive and excretory organs |
| 9th | Dharma | Fortune, faith, the guru, higher learning, long journeys, ancestors | Father and teacher; hips and thighs |
| 10th | Karma | Career, profession, status, authority, public reputation | Employer and authority; the knees |
| 11th | Labha | Income, gains, ambitions, friends, networks, the fulfilment of wishes | Elder siblings and friends; calves and ankles, left ear |
| 12th | Vyaya | Expenses, loss, sleep, foreign lands, isolation, hospitals, liberation | Hidden rivals; the feet, left eye |
Kendra, trikona and dusthana: how the houses are grouped
Astrologers rarely read a house in isolation. The houses fall into families, and a planet’s placement is judged first by which family it lands in:
- Kendras (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) are the pillars of the chart: self, home, partner, work. Planets here act strongly and visibly.
- Trikonas (1st, 5th, 9th) are the houses of merit and fortune. Their lords are the most benefic planets in any chart, and a planet placed in them tends to be protected.
- Dusthanas (6th, 8th, 12th) carry illness, loss and upheaval, but also service, research and release. A malefic here can be an asset, because it fights the difficulties the house represents.
- Upachayas (3rd, 6th, 10th, 11th) are houses of growth: results improve with age and effort, and malefics tend to do well in them.
- Marakas (2nd, 7th) are the classical houses of longevity, read with care and only against the whole chart.
No house is good or bad on its own. A strong sixth house makes a fine doctor, lawyer or athlete; a weak seventh with a well-placed lord still marries happily.
How to read a house: four questions
For any house, and any question that belongs to it, the reading runs through the same four checks:
- Which sign occupies it? Each sign colours the house: the signs of Mars make a seventh house forthright and quick to quarrel, the signs of Venus make it accommodating.
- Where is its lord, and how strong is it? The lord of a house carries its results wherever it goes. A tenth lord in the fourth pulls career toward home or property; a lord that is exalted, in its own sign or well placed in the navamsa delivers, while one that is debilitated or combust struggles.
- Which planets sit in it or aspect it? Jupiter, Venus, a strong Moon and Mercury support a house; Saturn, Mars, Rahu and Ketu test it, though a malefic in the right house can be exactly what the chart needs.
- What is the house’s karaka doing? Each house has a natural significator: the Sun for the self and the father, the Moon for the mother, Mars for siblings and courage, Mercury for speech and intellect, Jupiter for children, wealth and the guru, Venus for the spouse, Saturn for work and longevity. A house and its karaka are read together, and a weak karaka limits what a strong house can give.
Then comes timing. A house delivers most during the dasha of its lord or of the planets placed in it, which is why two people with similar seventh houses marry years apart. The same method underlies every specific reading on this site: Mangal Dosh is a question about Mars and the seventh house, Pitra Dosh about the Sun and the ninth, and a career reading about the tenth, the second and the eleventh together.
Reading your own chart, and when to ask
With the table you can locate the house behind your question and see which sign and planets you have there, which is a good first step and a better one than a sun-sign column. What the table cannot do is weigh the lord’s strength, the aspects, the navamsa and the running period against each other, which is where twenty years of charts make the difference between a description and a prediction. If you would like your kundli read house by house, with the timing of the next favourable and cautious periods, share your birth details, in person in Port Louis, across Mauritius or online.
Frequently asked questions
The twelve houses, or bhavas, are divisions of the sky counted from the ascendant, each governing an area of life: 1st self and body, 2nd wealth and speech, 3rd courage and siblings, 4th home and mother, 5th children and intelligence, 6th illness and enemies, 7th marriage and partnership, 8th longevity and sudden change, 9th fortune, father and dharma, 10th career, 11th gains and friends, and 12th expenses, foreign lands and liberation.
The seventh house, with Venus as the natural significator of the spouse and Jupiter as the significator of the husband in a woman’s chart. A full marriage reading also weighs the second house of family, the fifth of romance, the eighth of the marital bond and the eleventh of fulfilment, together with the navamsa chart.
The tenth house, read with the Sun, Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter as its significators. Income comes from the second and eleventh houses and daily work from the sixth, so a career reading considers all four, plus the running dasha, before advising on a job change or a business.
The first house, the ascendant, and its lord, because they set the whole chart and stand for the person. After it come the kendras (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) and the trikonas (1st, 5th, 9th). A strong ascendant lord carries a chart through weak houses; a weak one limits even good placements.
Your ascendant sign is fixed by your exact time and place of birth; it becomes the first house, and the other signs follow in zodiac order. Any kundli software will draw it, but if the birth time is uncertain by more than a few minutes, have the chart checked, because the houses can shift.
Share your birth details and Acharya Amit Pandey will look at it personally.