The Horoscope Explained
The Horoscope Explained
A horoscope (also called Chart or Kundali) is a map of heavens seen at a particular time from a
particular place. The KP horoscope is slightly different from the traditional horoscope as it contains
comparatively more information. A KP horoscope typically contains position of 12 planets (including
Rahu, Ketu, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) and 12 houses. There are various ways in which a horoscope
can be drawn. In India two most popular formats are ‘North Indian format’ and ‘South Indian format’.
Here is a sample horoscope diagram drawn for –
This is a horoscope in South Indian format. The South Indian chart is seen in clock-wise fashion. In the
South Indian chart format, signs are fixed and houses & planets keep moving. The second box from
the top left is fixed for Aries. This is the box where “I 001-23-55” is written on the chart. From that
box onwards, in the clockwise fashion, we can read other signs i.e. Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo,
Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces respectively.
So keeping this chart in mind, we can say that first house starts from Aries (because ‘I’ is written in
the box fixed for Aries) 1 degree, 23 minutes and 55 seconds. The second house starts from Taurus 3
degree 46 minutes 54 seconds. The starting position of second house is also ending position for first
house.
Third house starts from Taurus 29 degree 19 minutes 19 seconds. Fourth house starts from Gemini 23
degree 2 minute 49 seconds. As we see Ketu in Cancer 16 degree 24 minute 10 seconds between ‘IV’
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and ’V’ number, we can say that Ketu is in fourth house. Similarly, Saturn is between ‘VI’ and ‘VII’, so
we can say that Saturn is in sixth house and so on.
Similarly we can see position of all planets and houses from this chart. To have a consistency across
the tutorial, we are planning to stick to the South Indian chart format.
Note: Astrologers from the Traditional astrology background may wonder seeing the chart above how
come both second and third houses are fallen into the same sign Taurus? Which means that Venus is
lord of both the houses - second and third. Mars also become lord of eighth house and ninth house as
per KP chart. Virgo and Pisces are kind-of disappeared as no house is falling in these two signs? This is
because of the reason that KP uses Placidus House division system, which is borrowed from Western
astrology, where the houses are of unequal size. Unlike Traditional astrology, not all houses are of
equal size of 30 degree in KP and hence sometimes no house falls into a sign or sometimes more than
one house fall into a sign. We will talk more about it in the later chapters.
Calculating KP horoscope manually is a tedious process. We will cover manual calculation in later
chapters (chapter 3). Till such time, you can use free software on www.MyKundali.com for casting a KP
chart.
Planets
As mentioned above, totally 12 planets are used in KP namely Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
Venus, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. As Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are of
comparatively recent discovery, usage of these planets is not as extensive as other 9 planets. Not all
KP astrologers use all 12 planets, hence the usage of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto is up to the choice of
a KP astrologer. In this tutorial, our emphasis will also be on original 9 planets only. Please note that
Rahu and Ketu are not planets in terms of modern astronomy, as they don't have any physical
existence. They are mere mathematical points. Due to this reason, they are also sometimes called as
shadow planets. I'll not go into the astronomical details of Rahu and Ketu because it is not the
objective of this tutorial.
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From the above table you can see that Rahu and Ketu have not been allotted any sign ownership. You
may also note that each of the nine planets have been given ownership of 3 stars.
As Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were not part of the ancient Hindu astrology, they have not been given
ownership of any sign or any star. As per Western astrologers, Uranus owns Capricorn, Neptune owns
Pisces and Pluto owns Scorpio.
Houses
There are 12 houses in astrology. Houses are also referred as Bhava or Ghar in Hindu astrology. Every
house in astrology has been assigned certain significations by the sages. For example, 1st house is for
self, health, 2nd house for family, finance, 3rd house for brother, courage, 4th house is for mother,
conveyance and so on.
In the astrology, if a house is good, you will get good results related to the house. For example, if the
1st house is good in your horoscope, your health will be good. On the contrary, if the first house is
bad, the health will be affected and one can even have a short life. Different systems of astrology like
Hindu system, Western system etc. have different rules for judging the houses. In other words, all
systems use somewhat different rules to identify whether you will get good results or bad results
pertaining to a house in your life. Similarly, KP System also has different rules and we will be
describing those rules in the following sections. Before that, let us have a look at what is generally
assigned to each house by our sages -
First House
Birth, head, physical body, limb, physical features, livelihood
Second House
Wealth, food, right eye, what one eats or drinks, face, eye, speech, family, property
Third House
Courage, firmness, bad thoughts, breast, ear, especially right ear, prowess, brother or sister - younger
one, heroism, mental strength
Fourth house
House, home, land, relation, mother, vehicle, happiness, water, learning
Fifth House
Intellect, children, son, belly, traditional law, virtuous acts previously done
Sixth House
Debt, wounds, disease, enemy, sin, a wicked act, fear, humiliation
Seventh House
Desire, love, passion, cohabitation, partner, public, wife or husband, dowry
Eighth House
Life, longevity, mental pain, defeat or insult, sorrow, scandal, ill-repute, death, impurity, obstacle,
danger
Ninth House
Guru or preceptor, father, auspicious, previous life , worship, penance, virtue, grandson, prayer,
spiritual initiation, noble family, fortune
Tenth House
Livelihood, kingdom, work, commerce, trade, business, rank or position, good conduct, honor,
sacrifice, command, quality, wealth, occupation
Eleventh House
Profit or gain, income, all kinds of receipts, acquisition, gain, desire, passion, fulfillment of one's desire,
wealth or riches, brothers and sisters - elder one, friends
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Twelfth House
House of disappearance, bondage, loss, negation, bed, sin, poverty, penury, loss, decline, misery, left
eye, leg, defect
Cusps
The point at which two houses meet is called a Cusp. Starting point of a house is called the cusp
of that house. Sometimes terms 'cusp' and 'house' are used interchangeably. For example, lord of the
cusp and lord of the house has the same meaning in KP.
The planet that owns the sign that falling on the cusp of a house is called the owner or the
lord of the house. Please note that the terms 'owner of a house' and 'house lord' are used
interchangeably in astrology. In the example chart, the cusp of the first house falls in sign Aries. Mars
is the owner of the sign Aries. So we will say that first house lord is Mars. Similarly, cusps of the
second and third house fall in Taurus sign which is owned by Venus. So we will say that the second
house and third house are owned by Venus. Some of the astrologers from the classical astrology
background will find this unusual that both second and third house are owned by Venus. This happens
due to the fact that KP follows unequal house division. We will talk about the house division in details
later.
Signs
The whole Universe is divided into 12 equal parts and each part is referred to as a sign. So there are
12 signs as follows -
1. Aries
2. Taurus
3. Gemini
4. Cancer
5. Leo
6. Virgo
7. Libra
8. Scorpio
9. Sagittarius
10. Capricorn
11. Aquarius
12. Pisces
There are various classification for the signs. These classifications are sometimes useful in predictions.
Some of the important classifications are as follows -
Classification 1
Fiery Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Earthy Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Airy Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Watery Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Classification 2
Movable: Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn
Fixed: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius
Common: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces
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further into nine parts, this 9th division of a star is called a 'Sub'. This 'Sub' is the real backbone of KP
System. We have already talked about the lord of a sign and the lord of the star above. As lord
(owner) of a sign is called 'Sign lord', similarly lord of a star is called 'Star lord' and the lord of a sub is
called 'Sub lord'. 'Sub lord' is calculated on the basis of years allocated to each of the 9 planets in
Vimshottari Dasa system. The years allocated to each planet in Vimshottari Dasa System are as follows
-
You can notice the difference in the sequence of the planets noted above. This is the sequence used in
Vimshottari Dasa. Ketu is listed first here because Ketu owns Ashwini star, the first star of the zodiac,
followed by Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury.
In each star, first sub lord is the planet that owns the star and then it is followed by the remaining
eight planets in Vimshottari Dasha planet sequence. For example,
If Ashwini is the star which is owned by Ketu, the first sub lord in Ashwini star will be Ketu, the second
sub lord will be Venus, the third sub lord will be of Sun and so on.
If Bharani is the star which is owned by Venus, the first sub lord in Bharani star will be Venus, the
second sub lord will of Sun, the third sub lord will be of Moon and so on.
You can notice that there is no name given to a sub like we have given the names for signs and stars.
What we are mostly cocerned about is the lord of that sub i.e. sub lord.
Span of a Sub Lord = (Years of Planet in Vimshottari Dasa/ 120) X 13 degree 20 minutes
as 13 degree 20 minutes can also be written as 800 (13 X 60 + 20) minutes, for simplicity of
calculation, we can say -
Span of a Sub Lord (in minutes) = (Years of Planet in Vimshottari Dasa/ 120) X 800
based on this we can calculate the span of each sub lord as follows -
Span of a Sub Lord Ketu = (7 / 120) X 800 = 46.6666 = 0 degree 46 minutes 40 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Venus = (20 / 120) X 800 = 133.3333 = 2 degree 13 minutes 20 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Sun = (6 / 120) X 800 = 40 = 0 degree 40 minutes 00 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Moon = (10 / 120) X 800 = 66.6666 = 1 degree 6 minutes 40 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Mars = (7 / 120) X 800 = 46.6666 = 0 degree 46 minutes 40 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Rahu = (18 / 120) X 800 = 120 = 2 degree 0 minutes 0 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Jupiter = (16 / 120) X 800 = 106.6666 = 1 degree 46 minutes 40 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Saturn = (19 / 120) X 800 = 126.6666 = 2 degree 6 minutes 40 seconds
Span of a Sub Lord Mercury = (17 / 120) X 800 = 113.3333 = 1 degree 53 minutes 20 seconds
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Sub Lord Sub Span
Ketu 0°46'40"
Venus 2°13'20"
Sun 0°40'
Moon 1°6'40"
Mars 0°46'40"
Rahu 2°0'0"
Jupiter 1°46'40"
Saturn 2°6'40"
Mercury 1°53'20"
TOTAL 13°20'
To save you from the hassles of calculations, this is a ready reckoner table of Sign, Star, and Sub can
be found here.
Note: High school mathematics is involved in the calculation of Sub lord. Don't worry, if you don't
understand the calculation part because now-a-days we have software programs that can do the
calculation for you. Also the sub lord calculation table mentioned above can be used for ready
reference.
House Grouping
Like Sub, house grouping is another very important concept in KP System. For every important aspect
of human life, one house has been given primary importance and few other houses have been given
secondary importance. All these houses together are known as group of houses for an aspect. By the
term ‘aspect of human life’, I mean health, family, profession etc. Let us take an example of marriage,
for marriage house number 7th has been given primary importance. Why? Because 7th house is taken
as the house for spouse – husband or wife. If you are coming from the Hindu astrology or Western
astrology background, you will find it familiar. If you don't have any astrology background, you can
refer house signification table under the heading 'House' above. House number 2 and 11 are said to be
supportive house for marriage. In our traditional astrology, 2nd house is the house for family and 11th
house is the house for friends and fulfillment of desire. So we can say that for marriage we have to
judge house number 2, 7 and 11. This is house grouping for marriage. Similarly, we can group houses
for other major aspects of our life. I am tabulating house grouping for some of the important aspects
as follows -
More comprehensive list of house groups can be found at House Grouping section of this wiki.
Significators
Concept
As mentioned above, 12 houses deal with all aspect of a human life. Generally a planet can give results
related to many houses. For example, from the section ‘Houses’, we can see that 7th house is the
house for ‘marriage’ whereas 10th house is the house for ‘job’. Now, one single planet can give both
job and marriage to a person. Assuming Mars is that planet, we will say that Mars signifies 7th house
and 10th house in such a case.
Similarly, results related to a house can be obtained from more than one planet. Assuming in a chart
Mars and Jupiter both can give Marriage, we will say that 7th house (marriage) is signified by Mars and
Jupiter.
To put in simple language, a planet can signify more than one house. Also a house can be signified by
more than one planet. From terminology, let us move to the method of finding significators in the next
section.
Finding Significators
Here is the sign, star and sub position for all the planets and cusps for the example chart -
As this signification is in the order of strength, signification at level 1 is more powerful than
signification at level 2. Signification at level 2 is more powerful than signification at level 3 and so on.
Level 1 to 4 is usually mentioned as grade A to E signnificators.
Suppose we have to find signification for the planet ‘Mars’ in example chart. Here are the signified
houses -
Level 1. Mars’s star lord is Venus who is in house no. 11
Level 2. Mars is in house no. 9
Level 3. Mars’s star is Venus who owns house no. 2, 3, 7
Level 4. Mars owns house no. 1, 8, 9
Sigificators are mentioned in the order of strength. It means that the significators at level 1 is more
powerful than the significators at level 2. Significators at level 2 are more powerful than significators at
level 3 and so on. Level 1 to 4 is usually mentioned as grade A to E significators.
so, 6th house significators are Ketu, Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn. (The easy way is to take from the above
table of planet significations, i.e. from level 1 column only Ketu for 6th, level 2 column only Saturn for
6th, level 3 column Sun, Jupiter & Saturn, and level 4 column Sun only.)
so, 10th house significators are Sun, Saturn, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Rahu
TIP: If there is no planet(s) in the star of significators, significator(s) are considered strong.
In above case, as Jupiter doesn’t have any planet in its star, hence it is a strong significator
for 10th house by occupation and also by lordship if the house is empty, which is not so in
this case. By a strong significator we mean that the planet has more chances of giving the
result of the house than other significators
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4 Ketu Moon Mercury
5 Mercury, Rahu Moon Mercury, Rahu Moon
6 Ketu Saturn Sun, Jupiter, Sun
Saturn
7 Mars Venus
8 Mars
9 Mars Mars
10 Sun, Jupiter, Moon, Sun, Mercury, Jupiter
Venus, Saturn Jupiter, Rahu
11 Mars Venus Ketu Saturn
12 Saturn
NOTE:
1. Planets conjoined or aspected by the above significators (level 1 to 4) are also the 5th
level (weakest) significators.
2. As you can notice from above, Sub doesn’t play any role in the process of finding
significators.
In our example chart, Rahu conjoins Mercury and Jupiter in Capricorn sign. So we can say that Rahu
acts as an agent to Mercury and Jupiter. As Rahu is closer to Mercury than Jupiter, it will represent
Mercury more prominently than Jupiter. Capricorn is the sign owned by Saturn, so it will also act as an
agent to Saturn, but even less prominently. Sometimes 'Node act as an agent of planet planet X' is
also written as 'Node represents planet X'.
In our example, Rahu signifies houses 5 and 10 by its own. Rahu also signifies 5, 10, and 4 by being
agent of Mercury. Rahu also signifies houses 10 and 6 by being agent of Jupiter but less prominently
than by being agent of Mercury. Rahu also signifies houses 10, 6, 11, 12 by being agent of Saturn, but
even less prominently than Jupiter and Mercury.
For practical purpose, we generally take the most prominent agent only in our analysis. In other words,
though Rahu acts an agent of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, we will take Mercury only otherwise we will
be confused with too many houses signified.
Strengths of Significators
As mentioned above, a planet gives result of the houses in order of Level 1 to Level 4. Though we must
note that if there is no planet in that planets star, the planet is called self-strength planet and gives
results in following order -
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Level 4. Houses owned by the planet itself
Level 3. Houses owned by the star lord of the planet
Ruling Planets are generally used in conjunction with birth charts or horary charts. Sometimes RPs also
have some other independent applications like predicting minor events and rectification of birth time.
Rahu and Ketu act as agents to other planets. Please see section "Shadow Planets - Rahu and Ketu"
below for more information.
Suppose we have to calculate Ruling Planets at January 18, 2009, 6:00 PM IST at Delhi, India. Here is
the Ascendant and Moon position at that time -
From the "Sign, Star, and Sub Table", we can find Sign lord and Star lord for both the longitude as
follows -
The day on 18th January 2009 was Sunday, so the day lord will be Sun.
So, here are the Ruling planets for the moment (January 18, 2009, 6:00 PM IST at Delhi, India) -
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Ascendant Star Saturn
Lord
Ascendant Sign Moon
Lord
Moon Star Lord Rahu
Moon Sign Lord Venus
Day Lord Sun
Note:
1. Hindu day starts from sunrise and last till next sunrise. We have to take 'day lord'
according to Hindu day only.
2. The ruling planets in a star or sub of retrograde planets should be discarded from the list
of RP.
Selection of Significators
As discussed above, when you are judging particular aspect of life, you have to check significators of
the group of houses related to that aspect of life. For example, if you have to find out the time of
marriage, house group is 2, 7 and 11 (see the table above). So, you need to find out significators of
house number 2, 7 and 11. When the person will pass through the dasa of significators of house 2, 7
and 11 together, s/he will get married.
Sometime, you get many significators for judging an aspect of life. For example, if we have to find out,
when will the native of the example chart get a new job. For job, we have to judge 2, 6, 10 and 11.
Now here are the significators
2 – Mars, Venus
6 – Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Ketu
10 – Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Rahu
11 – Mars, Ketu, Venus, Saturn
Now here is the dilemma for the astrologer. All the nine planets are appearing as singinifcator for the
job. In such a case, we need to find out the signifcators which are more powerful that others for that
particular aspect of life. As we need to eliminate less powerful significators and keep more powerful
significator, this process is also termed as 'elimination of significators.'
Before we jump into the process of singificator elimination, we should remember these two important
points -
* As mentioned above, level 1 significators are powerful than level 2 significators as so on. So, one
need to give preference to the higher level significators
* Again as mentioned above, Planets having no planets in its star is stronger.
As Moon, Mars, Mercury and Rahu are the significators of 1, 5, and 9 as well. These are not powerful
enough to give results of house number 2, 6, 10 and 11. So these are the planets that have the
possibility of dropping from the significator list of job. If we remove Moon, Mars, Mercury and Rahu
from the significators list, we will left with the following –
Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Ketu
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Remove the significators in the sub of the signifcators of the houses detrimental to the houses under
consideration. As mentioned above, house number 1 (12th to 2nd – negation of 2nd) 5 (12th to 6) and
9 (negation to 10th) are detrimental houses for job. Significators of house 1, 5, and 9 are as follows –
1 – Mars
5 – Mercury, Rahu, Moon
9 – Mars
So Saturn, Sun, Mars and Mercury are also weaker significators for job and can be removed from the
signifactor list.
Note: Some KP astrologers give more importance to star lord of sub lord rather than sub lord itself.
As explained in house grouping section, 7th house is the primary house for marriage. 2nd and 11th
houses are supportive houses. These three houses together will be called conductive house group (or
simply house group) for marriage. 1st, 6th and 10th house being 12th from the mentioned house
group are detrimental for marriage. If sublord of 7th house is signifying either 7th or 2nd or 11th then
the marriage is promised. The person will definitely marry. This way we can decide the promises
related to various aspect of life in a chart.
Timing Events
Once it is decided whether the event is promised in the chart or not, next important step is to find out
when the event will take place.
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The matter will fructify in the dasa, bhukti and antara of the significators of houses group for the
matter under consideration. Significators of main and supportive houses needs to be found out
according to the method given in the section "Finding House Signifcators." Now-a-days all KP software
like http://www.MyKundali.com gives you a list of significator, so you need not to worry about
significator selection process. The event will happen in the conjoined period of the signifcators of the
house group for the matter under consideration. Among the signficators, you need out possible dasa
lord, bhukti lord and antara lord. If the selected number of sigfinicators are more than three (we
require one for dasa, one for bhukti and one for antara), we need to find out powerful significators
among them according to the rules given in "selection of significator" section.
Note: In KP System, only Vimshottari Dasa is used. Other dasas like Yogini, Kalchakra, Ashottari,
Chara Dasa etc. are not used.
Generally dasa is for some longer duration. To pin point exact time of happening of an event, we need
to see the transit as follows -
1. Dasa, Bhukti and Antara lord should transit through the significators of the houses under
consideration to fructify the event.
2. For even finer timing, we need to check transit of Sun and Moon. Sun and Moon should transit
through the significators.
Note: Sun transit is considered when the event is likely within a year. Moon transit should be
considered for pin-pointing an events up to a month. Lagan transit should be considered for predicting
the event upto hour and minutes.
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