The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 26 of 54 · Part Six · Judging the houses

#The first house: the self

#How Part Six works

The next twelve chapters take the houses one at a time. Each follows the same plan:

1. What the house means — in Varahamihira and in the later books.
2. Its significators — the planet that naturally signifies the house (karaka), and other starting points.
3. How to judge it — the house itself, its lord, its significator, the divisional chart for its matters.
4. Planets in the house — Varahamihira's rules (Brihat Jataka XX), with the conditions that limit them.
5. The lord's placement — what it shows when the lord of this house is in each kind of house.
6. The example chart — a worked reading.

The method of judging is the same for every house. Learn it here, and the later chapters will be quicker.

#What the first house means

The first house is the ascendant or lagna, the sign rising at birth. Varahamihira lists its significations as the body, and his translator adds fame and the limbs (Brihat Jataka I.15, with Aiyar's note). Its technical name is Kalpa, "power" or "capability" (I.16). The later books add: the person's character and temperament, appearance, health and vitality, the head, general happiness and the general course of life.

But the first house is more than one house among twelve. It is the starting point of all the others: every house is counted from it. Its sign colours the whole chart. Its lord is the most important planet in the chart for the person themselves. So the first house is judged first, and its strength affects everything else.

#Significators

• The Sun is the natural significator (karaka) of the first house (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 32.31–34): vitality, the soul, the self.
• The Moon is a second "first house". Varahamihira constantly reads the chart from the Moon as well as from the ascendant (Chapter 9). The Moon's sign shows the mind and feelings, as the ascendant shows the body and the outward person.

#How to judge the first house

#Its strength

Varahamihira gives a direct rule:

If the lord of the ascendant or Jupiter or Mercury should either occupy it or aspect it, the ascendant would become powerful, and not by other planets (Brihat Jataka I.19, Aiyar).

A strong ascendant is a strong foundation: health, resilience, a clear sense of self. To this the later books add:

• benefics in the 1st, or aspecting it, strengthen it; malefics there weaken it — though a malefic in its own or exaltation sign is less harmful (Brihat Jataka XX.10–11);
• a vargottama ascendant (the same sign in the birth chart and the navamsa) is strong (Brihat Jataka I.14);
• the ascendant's ashtakavarga points (Chapter 16): more than 30 is good.

#Its lord

The ascendant lord stands for the person. Its dignity shows how much support the person has; its house shows where their life and attention are directed. A strong ascendant lord in a kendra or trikona is one of the best features a chart can have. An ascendant lord in the 6th, 8th or 12th makes the Phaladeepika's "Avayoga" (Chapter 21), which needs careful judging: the person's energy is drawn into struggle, the hidden, or withdrawal.

A short guide to the ascendant lord's placement (the later books, especially the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra's chapter on the lords of the houses, chapter 24, give the details):

#Its significator

The Sun's strength shows vitality. A strong Sun supports the first house even if other factors are mixed.

#The navamsa

The navamsa ascendant and its lord are read as a second view of the self (Chapter 12): the inner nature, and how the person develops with time.

#Planets in the first house

Varahamihira's rules (Brihat Jataka XX), in plain words:

Notice two things. First, the exceptions are all about dignity: the Moon in its own or exaltation sign (and in Aries), Saturn in its exaltation or own signs or in the signs of Jupiter. This is Varahamihira's own scaling rule at work (XX.10–11, Chapter 9). Second, several lines are harsh in the way of their time. Read every line as "if nothing else in the chart modifies it" — which is never the case.

The later books add a widely used principle: any planet in the 1st house strongly colours the person's character and appearance with its own nature. The Sun gives pride and authority; the Moon, sensitivity and changeability; Mars, energy and boldness; Mercury, wit and youthfulness; Jupiter, wisdom and dignity; Venus, charm and grace; Saturn, seriousness and endurance; Rahu, unconventionality; Ketu, detachment.

#The example chart: a Libra ascendant

#The house itself

• Sign: Libra, rising at 1°50′. Libra is a movable, airy, "human" sign, ruled by Venus (Chapter 7): balance, fairness, partnership, refinement.
• Vargottama: 1°50′ Libra falls in the first navamsa of Libra, which is Libra itself. The ascendant is vargottama — the same sign in both charts. A sign of a strong, consistent self (Brihat Jataka I.14).
• Occupants: none.
• Aspects: only Mars, from Aries, aspects Libra (its 7th aspect). Mars is in its own sign and strong.
• Ashtakavarga: 33 points, well above average (Chapter 16).

#Its lord: Venus

Venus is in Cancer, in the 10th house. Cancer is the Moon's sign, and the Moon is neutral to Venus (Chapter 10): a modest dignity. But:

• the 10th house is a kendra and the strongest house of the chart (Chapter 9);
• Venus is joined there by exalted Jupiter and by the Sun;
• Venus is in exchange with the Moon (Chapter 19), binding the self (1st) to the 10th house and the 8th;
• Venus also rules the 8th, which brings an element of the hidden and of change into the self.

The ascendant lord in the 10th directs the life towards career, action and public standing. This is the single strongest theme of the chart.

#Its strength by Varahamihira's rule

Does the ascendant lord, Jupiter or Mercury occupy or aspect the ascendant? Venus is in Cancer and aspects Capricorn, not Libra. Jupiter in Cancer aspects Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces. Mercury in Leo aspects Aquarius. None of them. So by Brihat Jataka I.19, the ascendant is not specially "powerful". Against that: it is vargottama, has 33 ashtakavarga points, and is aspected only by a strong Mars in its own sign.

#Its significator

The Sun, karaka of the first house, is in the 10th house in Cancer. In the 10th the Sun has its full directional strength (Chapter 14), and Cancer is the sign of its friend the Moon. A strong significator of vitality and self.

#Planets in the 1st

None. The ascendant's character is therefore given mainly by its sign (Libra), its lord (Venus, in the 10th with Jupiter and the Sun) and the aspecting planet (Mars).

#The reading

Put together: a person whose sense of self is balanced, fair-minded and relationship-oriented (Libra), but with a strong drive and directness from Mars's aspect (Mars is the 7th lord, partnerships, and in its own sign). The self is consistent and well founded (vargottama, 33 points), and the life is pointed firmly towards work and public life (ascendant lord in the 10th with exalted Jupiter and a directionally strong Sun). The exchange with the Moon in the 8th adds a private, investigative, changeable side to the person that others may not see.

Notice how the reading combines: the sign, the lord's house and dignity, the aspects, the significator, the special factors (vargottama, ashtakavarga). No single factor decides.

#Summary

• The first house is the body and the self, and the starting point of every other house (Brihat Jataka I.15–16).
• Its natural significator is the Sun; the Moon gives a second view of the self.
• It is strong when its lord, Jupiter or Mercury occupies or aspects it (Brihat Jataka I.19), when benefics are there, when it is vargottama, and when it has many ashtakavarga points.
• The ascendant lord's house shows where the life is directed.
• Varahamihira's rules for planets in the 1st are scaled by dignity (Brihat Jataka XX.1–11).
• The example chart's ascendant: Libra, vargottama, aspected by Mars, its lord Venus in the 10th — a self directed towards work and public life.

#Exercises

1. A chart has a Gemini ascendant with Mercury in the 7th house. Is the ascendant "powerful" by Brihat Jataka I.19? Why?
2. Saturn is in the 1st house in Libra. What does Varahamihira say? Why is this different from Saturn in the 1st in Aries?
3. The ascendant lord is in the 12th house. What does this suggest, and what would you check before saying anything?
4. Why is the first house judged before any other?
5. Find the ascendant, its lord and the lord's house in a chart you know, and write three sentences about the person's self using this chapter's method.

Answers: 1. Yes: Mercury in the 7th aspects the 1st (every planet aspects the 7th from itself), and Mercury is both the ascendant lord and one of the planets named in the rule. 2. That the person will be as happy as a king, learned and well formed (XX.9), because Libra is Saturn's exaltation sign; in Aries, its debilitation, the difficult results apply in full (XX.11). 3. A life drawn towards spending, foreign places, retreat or the spiritual (Avayoga in the Phaladeepika). Check the lord's dignity, aspects, any cancellation, the strength of the ascendant itself, and the rest of the chart. 4. Because every house is counted from it, and its lord represents the person; its strength supports or weakens all the other houses. 5. (Your own answer.)