Houses in Vedic Astrology (Meaning & Significance)

Life is full of uncertainty and unpredictable moments. Sometimes it offers you a bundle of great joy and happiness. Other times, you are clueless about the end of the darkest period in your life. Vedic Astrology helps you understand the meaning of different houses in your horoscope and why you go through a certain phase in your life.

Significance of Each House in Vedic Astrology

1st House

The first house in the chart is the crux of the entire horoscope. It represents the self, and the exact position where life begins.

• It is the house of self, of your being. It speaks about your personality, emotions, thought and reactions, which when aspected or in relation with other houses behaves in a specific way.
• As we proceed to the 2nd house, it gets added as a connection to your life and the effects of both the houses get combined, which go further ahead towards the next house.
• This is how every house, and the journey of life is predicted through the first house in Vedic Astrology. The entire chart exists because of the existence of the first house.

2nd House

The second house represents your childhood, the quality of life as a child and care and nurturing you received and the teachings you imbibed.

• It shows the kind of family dynamics you share in your first home (parental home). Form this house, one can find out details about your upbringing, the expectations of your family from you.
• The current & future benefits (financial) from your family in later phase of your life can be gauged from this house.
• The support from your family in your life’s decisions can be seen from this house, as well as the quality of the first friends you will have.
• It also depicts your own personality and hobbies.

For example, Venus in Taurus in second house is in its own sign, which depicts an interest in arts, music, dance, literature - all of which could have been prominent while growing up, along with hobbies such as collecting gemstones instead of postcards, or the natural instinct to stay close to nature or traits can be interpreted by the sign/ planet placed in this house. It also depicts your way of expression and speech which would have the qualities of the house and planet placed in it.

3rd House

The third house represents your mental courage, communications, strength, boldness, short travels, relations other than your parents such as siblings, neighbors, and acquaintances.

• The planet placed in this house depicts the quality of interaction and events related to these segments in your life.
• If you have siblings, they might have a prominent planet in their chart which is present in your chart in this house, or friends who have similar placements. These were the first people to enter your life apart from your parents and would be important for you.
• It also forms the part of your personality which is your mental courage and efforts you put in or the travels you took as a child. This usually forms a pattern of behavior regarding these areas of life. It helps you in gauging situations and your reactions in these areas.

4th House

The fourth house is the house of conveyance, the house you live in, the house you build, your mother, your general happiness, your relationship with family, with women, or all motherly figures such as aunts, mother-in-law, female teachers & mentors, your daughter, grandmother, and so on.

• The strength and dignity of planets in this house show your attitude towards them. A benefic planet here could mean you support the women in your life and see them in high regard or inspire them to do better in life.
• It also symbolizes the kind of household your mother comes from. The prosperity within the family can be gauged from this house.
• It also signifies the overall happiness, prosperity and peace of mind which you have, in general.

5th House

The next phase of your life from here is education. The quality of education you receive, your interests in certain subjects, level of creativity and how it expresses itself and speculations can be traced from this house. Recreation even during school can be placed through this house alone.

For e.g., Aries in this house, or house lord in a particular chart, means that a person could be into sports and athletic in nature. Mercury in this house would signify someone with analytical abilities. Scorpio in this house would show research abilities and interest in Chemistry, Biology or Psychology.

In the divisional charts, it indicates your first child. Love affairs and its ability to turn into a successful union can be derived from this house. Your artistic qualities and skills can be seen from this house, especially in the latter half of your life.

6th House

The 6th house is an important house. This house shows your enemies, the part of your life you struggle with, diseases, debts, competition, maternal relative and your relationship with them, and government jobs.

• The planet in this house is naturally a malefic for you, being placed in the evil house (dusht-sthan). If associated with malefic planets, it increases the effects.
• It also depicts your quality of thoughts regarding the above-mentioned things, or the planet placed here would show who you would have issues with - paternal figures and men, or maternal figures and women, Sun would show paternal figures, Mars would show men and brothers or male kins, Jupiter would show maternal figures, mentors or women, Venus would show female friends.
• The planet placed here would depict the area that you might struggle with in terms of enemies or rivals.

E.g.: Mars placed here would mean issues with power dynamics. Similarly, Venus placed here would translate into issues with your own Venusian qualities.

7th House

The seventh house in your birth chart is situated at the juncture of your life with equal number of houses on either sides. This depicts your life where you start your phase of adulthood, and your basic education is completed. This is the part where partnerships take place, whether it is professional partnerships post education or your personal partnerships.

• In the birth chart, this house does not indicate the partnerships you will have, but instead the partnerships you wish for in your life based upon your experiences from the prior houses.
• The fulfilment of this house is speculated from divisional charts, such as for professional partnerships, we would look at the chart of your fame and profession, whereas, for personal partnerships, we would look at the 9th division of your chart (Navamsa) depicting marriage as the most prominent personal relationship formed, and then derive whether you received what you wished for or you have something else in store.
• The qualities of your partner are checked from the 7th house of the Navamsa (D9), along with several other house combinations and placements.

This house is prominent to depict all kinds of partnerships that you will form through life, and your expectations regarding them.

This house can be interpreted in different ways as well. It is also known as the ‘Makara’ or the destroyer, but then, this is also the house of your possibilities, of conception of the second child in other divisional charts.

8th House

The eight house is another important house that one should be careful of. It is the house of longevity, accidents, spontaneity and sudden changes along with transformations. This house naturally belongs to the sign of Scorpio, which carries transformational energy. This house indicates issues and events related to your longevity and the diseases you could get.

• The most interesting thing about this house is that this is also a house of disgrace, hidden works and occult sciences. Any occult knowledge that one takes which is disgraceful or unethical can be traced from this house depending upon the planet placed in this house.
• Whether it is a transformational sign, whether it is a sign which brings disgrace or whether it is a sign that could make you a spy or a secret agent can be traced from this house.
• This is also the house which aspects/is aspected by many other houses in the chart directly.

9th House

The 9th house is the house of your ‘luck-quotient’. It is also known as the house of ‘dharma’. It shares a trine relationship with your house of self and house of education.

• This house acts as a catalyst with the level of luck it can bestow upon you on the basis of your personal desires (first house), and things done for the progression of self (first house). It also represents your higher education (progression from the fifth house of education) and your rate of success in attaining higher knowledge.
• Depending upon the planet placed here, one can determine your prospects in higher education and the place you may receive it from.
• It is also the house which describes your philosophy in life, thinking patterns, relationship with father, wisdom and your personal stand when it comes to preserving “dharma”.

E.g.: Rahu is the most benefic planet placed here. It may depict a person who pursues higher education or wishes to pursue higher education in a foreign land, or learns from travelling in foreign places, or wishes to study in order to work in a foreign land. It may be the factor which leads you to work in a foreign land of your choice, which enhances your learning as well. It also enhances your luck quotient for clearing interviews and examinations, leading to higher knowledge or pursuits of the same kind.

10th House

10th House is your house of profession in your birth chart.

• The planet placed in this house is a direct reflection of your attitude towards your work, your discipline and commitment.
• It also describes your success quotient professionally and when and how you may attain it.
• It symbolizes the dignity of your work, fame, possibility of getting to work at a position authority, quality and nature of job and promotions that you will receive based on your efforts, which can be seen through this house.
• It also shows who would be the person to help and guide you to get the recognition you need.

The placement of Saturn in this house reflects efforts made by Self. Saturn means discipline and hard-work which nobody else can do for you. Saturn will guide you here, which means you would be dependent on Self and will be a self-made individual.

The placement of Venus or any feminine planet would mean help from a woman, mother, or working in an area which is Venusian in nature - banking, business, arts, etc.

The Placement of Jupiter would depict getting to the position with the help of powerful mentors and intellectuals, or working in a capacity of mentorship - guru, teachers, etc.

The placement of Sun would mean someone who gets into a profession or works in any capacity due to the help form father or a father figure.

11th House

The eleventh house in the birth chart represents one of the 5 evil houses. However, it is also the house of friends, gains, profits, elder siblings, and wish fulfilment.

• This is a complex house with mixed results and is aspected by many other houses. The results depend upon the aspects upon this house.
• This is the house which indicates the results of your karma in this lifetime.
• This house depicts your efforts and ways in which you accumulate things in life depending upon the dignity of those planets in your chart, or areas of life where wishes may be fulfilled, depending upon how those planets are placed in your chart, conjunctions and aspects.

12th House

The 12th house is a beautiful house to trace a lot of life events from and can be looked into with a lot of depth. It is the last house in your chart. This is the house of letting go after living an entire life. This can be interpreted as the need to let go of assets, or letting go of materialism to gain higher consciousness.

• This is therefore known as the ‘Moksha-Sthan’ or the house of salvation.
• This house in divisional charts traces your past life karmas and the transcendence from this life to another and it is seen in your birth/Navamsa chart to trace the results of the karmas of this lifetime which will be reaped in this lifetime or next.

This is also the house of secret enemies. Looking at the planets in the divisional charts and birth chart, one can trace a lot about your past life and karmic bonds.

Lord of Each House in Astrology

In a birth chart, every house has a particular sign in it. The lord (planet) of the sign governs that specific house in a horoscope. The placement/conjunction/aspect of any house, and the ruling master determines the fate of the house and its consequence.

One can refer to the houses and lords of the signs in the list above. One can find the astrological reason why a person is going through certain phases or problems in life from these houses.

In any birth chart, the 12 astrological houses are classified into four categories.

Trikona

The trikona refers to the houses which aspect each other and form the pursuit of wisdom, intelligence and growth in a person’s chart. These are 1st house (house of Self), 5th house (house of education) and 9th house (house of dharma), thereby making the trikona or triangle which helps a person gain education, balance within Self, consciousness, wisdom and philosophical bend in life.

Kendra

The kendra houses are the four houses which depict the 4 most important areas of life. These are 1st house (house of Self), 4th house (family and home), 7th house (partnerships, such as marriage), and 10th house (profession). Most of the beautiful and auspicious conjunctions/yogas (and some inauspicious conjunctions) are formed in the Kendras which impact the overall quality and prospects in life. The planets placed in these houses are said to be the results of past karmas and direct the life led in this one.

Dusht Sthans

The 5 houses considered as dusht sthans or evil houses are 6th, 8th and 12th whose results can be seen upon 3rd & 11th thereby bringing them under the impact of these dusht sthans.

The cumulation of these 3 houses represent risky affair, hidden works and unethical deeds whose results are seen in the two houses as mentioned above.

Marakas

The 2nd and the 7th houses are known as Marakas. The planets placed here are traced to check influences from past life. Malefics present in these houses show negative impact upon partnerships and relations. These planets require deep study in each chart to come to a final conclusion.

Astrological Significance of Houses for Crucial Life Problems

Trikona houses are regarded as ascension to higher consciousness, growth and self-journey towards the positive. When these come in contact through aspects with Kendras, they are considered as catalysts and benefics. Therefore, an association of trikona and kendra are considered auspicious.

However, the association or aspect of the Dusht Sthans with Kendras are considered malefics as these negative house placements can affect the auspiciousness and positivity of kendra houses.

Marriage/Relationship

For any problem concerning partnership or your marriage, an astrologer will look deeply into the 7th house and the lord and analyze the issues it is most prone to as per planetary movements.

The placement of the planets and lord in the 7th house will explain key details that concern your marriage. If the house lord is posited in Kendra or Trikona, it will be favorable for the native. However, in association with any evil house or their lord, there can be threats to the prospects of your marriage.

The association of an evil house with the 10th house and its lord would create trouble in the marital paradise.

Career/Professional Life

For those facing job-related issues in their professional life, a Vedic expert would closely look into the 10th house and its lord for a better understanding of the obstacles or unnecessary hurdles you are going through.

The placement/conjunction/aspect (PCA) of different planets in the 10th house along with the lord or the master of the tenth house would give accurate predictions of the trouble in your profession or career.

For the students who find it difficult to concentrate on their studies or are not getting desired success, an astrologer could help understand the reasons for it through a detailed study of the 5th house and 9th house and their association with any evil house or the lords.