How to read your Birth Chart?- The Fundamentals

Contents-

1. Meaning of Birth Chart
2. How to get your Birth Chart?
3. How to interpret it- The basics rules to read Charts
4. 12 Astrological Houses and their Significance
5. Planetary Placements and their Results
6. Natural Karakas of 12 Houses

What is your Birth Chart?

Your birth chart is the snapshot of the sky when you were born. It reveals all of your secrets. Whether it's your past life karmas that you carry and bring forth in this life, or your present circumstances and future predictions, your Birth Chart will tell you everything you need to know about yourself and more. It's also known as your horoscope or Natal Chart or Lagna Kundli or Janma Kundli. To know about your past, present and future life through in depth analysis of your birth chart, you need to first understand the basics. Start from the beginner's level, move step by step and in due course, you'll be a pro at analyzing the horoscopes.

How to get your Birth Chart?

To obtain your birth chart, you need to enter your birth details on any astrological software and it will prepare your Janam Kundli. I use astrosage, but there are plenty of other apps and websites available. After you enter your birth details, you will get your Lagna/ Janam Kundli. It will look somewhat like the image below. 

Lagna Kundli/ Birth Chart/ Natal Chart/ Horoscope

How to interpret and read your Birth Chart?- The basics

• In a Birth Chart, there are 12 divisions or sectors. Each division represents a house (Bhavas) of your Kundli. 
• The houses are read in chronological order starting from 1st and goes up to the 12th house. Each house represents a particular area of your life.
• The numbers written in different houses represent the zodiac signs (Rashis).
• The location of 12 houses in the kundli are constant but the Zodiac Signs vary from one person to another.   
• As per North Indian system, as the houses are fixed, hence they are not labelled on the kundli and only Rashis or Zodiac Signs are written. 
• The zodiac sign falling in the first house (as seen from the number written in your first house) is your Ascendant/ Rising sign.
• The Effects of 9 planets (names abbreviated in image) placed in different houses and Rashi are predicted based on their placements and strengths.

Note- To get better understanding at the beginner's level, eliminate the planet placements and start with looking at individual houses and the zodiac sign that occupies that house. Each Zodiac Sign has a Lord which rules over that sign. And every Lord will behave differently in different houses. (To avoid confusion between planetary placements and house lords you need to forget about placements and only consider houses. In later steps, you can include the placements and then correlate with their houses). 

Example- 

1. Take a look at the Birth Chart given above. 
2. Observe the 12 houses and the numbers written over them.
3. As per this Kundli, the different houses, their zodiac signs and lords are-

House	Zodiac Sign	Lord
1	Pisces (Meen)	Jupiter (Guru/ Brihaspati)
2	Aries (Mesh)	Mars (Mangal)
3	Taurus (Vrishabh)	Venus (Shukra)
4	Gemini (Mithun)	Mercury (Budh)
5	Cancer (Kark)	Moon (Chandrama)
6	Leo (Singh)	Sun (Surya)
7	Virgo (Kanya)	Mercury (Budh)
8	Libra (Tula)	Venus (Shukra)
9	Scorpio (Vrischik)	Mars (Mangal)
10	Sagittarius (Dhanu)	Jupiter (Guru/ Brihaspati)
11	Capricorn (Makar)	Saturn (Shani)
12	Aquarius (Kumbh)	Saturn (Shani)

According to the Kundli given above-

• Ascendant= Pisces
• Moon Sign (Placement of moon)= Virgo
• Sun Sign (Placement of Sun)= Sagittarius

To understand different aspects of your life, note the zodiac sign that occupies that house and analyse it according to the effects of that sign and its lord. 

Each house represents a paticular field of your life.

Astrology houses

 The 12 Astrological Houses and their significance

• 1st house- The house of self

This is your Lagna (Ascendant) or Tanu Bhaava. It represents your physical appearance and personality. Your nature, childhood, ego, health, strengths, and weaknesses everything is depicted by this house.

• 2nd house- The house of wealth

This is your Dhana Bhaava. It represents your family, possessions, finances. In terms of body parts it is the significator of neck, throat, teeth, eyes, nose. It also gives an indication about the person's voice quality, writing ability, and ancestral wealth.

• 3rd house- The house of hardwork and communication

This is your Sahaj Bhaava representing your courage, hardwork, short distance travels, media and communication. This is the house of your brothers, sisters, and paternal uncles.  In terms of body parts, it rules over ears, hands, arms, shoulders and chest.

• 4th house- The house of comforts and home

This is your Sukh Bhaava. It represents your mother, friends, home, luxuries, comforts, happiness, fixed property, native place, and agriculture. This house is the heart of your kundli. It also depicts your roots and domestic life.

• 5th house- The house of education

This house represents your hobbies, children, creativity, romance, emotions, imagination, love affairs, playfulness, optimism, intelligence, and education. Its also known as the house of your Ishtdev. 

• 6th house- The house of illness

This is the house of diseases, injuries, health, wellness, debts, court cases, social work, daily routine, maternal uncles and aunts, society, and colleagues, enemies, obstacles, criticle thoughts, and difficulties. 

• 7th house- The house of partner

This is the house of partnerships and marriage. It represents your life partner (husband/wife) as well as business partners. It deals with your relations with your partners. As this house is located opposite to the ascendant,  its also known as the Marak Sthan. 

• 8th house- The house of transformations

This house indicates longevity, sudden events, transformations, inheritance, joint assets, in laws, reasearch, deep analysis, deep emotions, hidden mysteries, occult, and dark sciences. Bad habits, addictions, chronic diseases, extramarital affairs, and mental problems are predicted from this house.

• 9th house-  The house of luck

This house is known as Dharma Bhaava and indicates religious instincts, spirituality, fortune, blessings, divine help, good deeds of previous life, ethics, principles, favours, higher education, long-distance travels, foreign settlement.

• 10th house- The house of career

This house is known as Karma Bhaava and represents your work and profession. Your prestige, status in life, recognition from the government, relations with higher authorities are also seen from this house. 

• 11th house- The house of gains

This house is known as Laabh Bhaava and indicates your income, desires, job promotions, name, fame, and profits. Your well-wishers, elder siblings, and acquaintances are also represented by this house.

• 12th house- The house of spirits

Being the last house this represents the end of the journey on Earth and into the realm of the outer world. This is the house of unconscious mind, self-undoing, isolation, imprisonment, hospitals. Its also known as the house of loss, detachment, expenses, meditation, letting go, hidden enemies, sleep-related disorders etc.

 

• The 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th are called the Kendra Houses and are considered good.
• The 1st, 5th, and 9th are called the Trikon and are considered best houses.
• The 6th, 8th, and 12th (some also include 3rd) are called the Dusthan and are generally considered bad houses.
• The 2nd and 11th are neutral houses.

Planetary Placements and Results

Results of Lords of different houses-

House	Lord name	Result
1	Lagnesh	Always positive
5, 9	Trikonesh	Always positive
4, 7, 10	Kendresh	Generally positive
2,12	Sam Greh	Neutral & depends on placement
3,6,11	Trishdayesh	Generally negative
8	Ashtamesh	Always negative

Planets and their Zodiac Signs-

Planet	Ruler of	Exaltation Sign	Debilitation Sign	Mooltrikon Sign
Sun	Leo	Aries	Libra	Leo
Moon	Cancer	Taurus	Scorpio	Cancer
Mars	Aries, Scorpio	Capricorn	Cancer	Aries
Saturn	Capricorn, Aquarius	Libra	Aries	Aquarius
Jupiter	Sagittarius, Pisces	Cancer	Capricorn	Sagittarius
Venus	Taurus, Libra	Pisces	Virgo	Libra
Mercury	Gemini, Virgo	Virgo	Pisces	Virgo

Exalted and debilitated signs are always seventh from each other.

Placements of planets in their own signs (even if it's ashtamesh), exalted and mooltrikon signs give positive results.

Placements of planets in their debilitated signs generally give negative results.

As Rahu & Ketu are shadow planets and are not the lords of any zodiac signs, thus their exalted and debilitated signs are a myth, their results are predicted on the basis of house placements and their relations with the house lords. 

Planets	Friend	Neutral	Enemy
Sun	Moon, Mars, Jupiter	Mercury	Saturn, Venus
Moon	Sun, Mercury	Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus	none
Mars	Sun, Moon, Jupiter	Saturn, Venus	Mercury
Mercury	Sun, Venus	Mars, Jupiter, Saturn	Moon
Jupiter	Sun, Moon, Mars	Saturn	Venus, Mercury
Venus	Saturn, Mercury	Moon, Sun	Jupiter, Mars
Saturn	Venus, Mercury	Jupiter	Sun, Mars, Moon
Rahu& Ketu	Venus, Saturn	Jupiter, Mercury	Sun, Mars, Moon

Planetary results in different signs ranging from positive to negative are-
Exalted Sign > Mooltrikon Sign > Own Sign > Friendly Sign > Enemy Sign > Debilitated Sign

Natural Karakas of 12 houses

The 12 Zodiac Signs in chronological order, represent the 12 houses. The characteristics of the zodiac signs are imbibed in their respective houses. Aries represents the first house, Taurus the second, Gemini the third, and so on. Lords which are exalted in a particular sign are also considered exalted in their respective houses. Apart from this, there are certain planets that naturally rule over a particular house irrespective of the Lagna, such planets are known as the Karakas of those houses. Placement of these planets in the listed houses is considered to give positive results

• 1st house- Sun
• 2nd house- Jupiter
• 3rd house- Mercury & Mars
• 4th house- Moon & Venus
• 5th house- Jupiter
• 6th house- Saturn & Mars
• 7th house- Venus
• 8th house- Saturn
• 9th house-Jupiter & Sun
• 10th house- Jupiter, Sun, Mercury, Saturn
• 11th house- Jupiter
• 12th house- Saturn