How to Use the 12 Houses

Astrologers read horoscopes by judging the results of each house in a chart. I will explain how to
do it. This is not exactly an entry level article, but I will try to write it in such a way that you will
come away with important knowledge regardless of your current level of understanding astrology.
It would, however, be very helpful if you knew what the houses mean.
These principles might not work reliably well on charts cast using a tropical zodiac and using a
modern house system, but they will be extremely sound and reliable if you apply them to birth
charts cast using a sidereal zodiac and the ancient whole-sign house system.

Background Knowledge
Before we start, you need to be perfectly comfortable with house lordship, house types, and the
definition of benefic and malefic planets.

Lords of Houses
You have to understand how this works before you can do anything else, so lets start here. If you
find this too confusing you should first go read my explanation on how astrology works, and then
return to this article.
Whichever zodiac sign is rising in the east becomes the first house. The next sign is the second
house, and so forth. So, if you have Aries rising, then Aries is the first house. The next sign, Taurus
is the second house. Gemini is the third house, etc. If Cancer, instead, is rising then Cancer is the
first house, Leo the second, Virgo the third, and so on. This is how the whole-sign house system
works. If you use this simple system with the accurate sidereal zodiac, it works.
The zodiac signs are places owned by planets just like people own land on which they build a
house. Each sign has a specific owner. You should already know this, but here it is anyway:
Ownership of the Signs
Cancer Moon & Sun Leo
Gemini Mercury
Virgo
Taurus Venus
Libra
Aries
Mars
Scorpio
Pisces
Jupiter
Sagittarius
Aquarius Saturn
Capricorn
Lets say Cancer is the first house. The Moon would therefore be the owner of the first house the
lord of the first house because the Moon owns Cancer. If instead Leo were the first house, then
the owner of Leo the Sun would own the first house. If Capricorn were rising, Saturn would
own the first house. The second house would be Aquarius, so Saturn would also own that house.
Jupiter would own the third, Pisces. Mars the fourth, Aries, etc.
This is how you figure out which planet is the lord of which house. It is fundamentally important to
know which planet owns which houses. For understanding the results of a house in a chart, the
owner of that house is as important as the house itself!

Types of Houses
There are 2 types of houses: good and bad. Good really means abundant and bad means
scarce. A good house is abundant, so planets living in such houses get supported and pampered. A

bad house has scarcity. Planets in bad houses have to work and embrace deeper principles to be
happy.
The good houses are the triangles and square corners of the sky. The triangles are houses 1, 5
and 9. The square corners are houses 1, 4, 7, and 10. (Yes, the first house is both a triangle and a
square corner. It is the most important house in the horoscope.)
Altogether there are 6 good houses: 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10. In the rest of the article, whenever I say
good house I am talking about these.
The other 6 houses are bad houses. Three of them are OK, though. The three that are really bad
are 6, 8, and 12. Whenever I say bad house I am talking about these. If you want to know why
these are bad or scarce houses you can just contemplate my description of the 12 Houses.

Benefics & Malefics

Good and bad are not perfect synonyms for benefic and malefic. Understand that benefics are
gentle and malefics are harsh. Gentle things are more pleasant, so they feel benefic or good on
the surface but harsh things are also important and have good, important roles in our lives, even
though they feel difficult, bad and malefic on the surface. If you want to explore this in a little
more detail you can read my article on Male vs. Female / Malefic vs. Benefic.
With that out of the way here are the benefic and malefic planets.
Benefics & Malefics
Benefics
Malefics
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Mercury
Sun
Bright Moon Dark Moon
It is really quite important to note that not all benefics or malefics are equal in strength, so please
pay attention to the order I listed them in. Those closer to the top of the list are more strongly
benefic or malefic, those closer to the bottom are more mild and neutral. There are two planets not
included here the lunar nodes: Rahu and Ketu. These planets are huge wildcards more than they
are specifically benefic or malefic.They will significantly amplify the benefic or malefic nature
of whatever they planet they contact in a chart.
Another important bit of background information to grapple with for a novice is the idea that
planets get in different moods depending on what houses they own. So you can have a benefic in a
really bad mood if they own difficult houses in the chart. Visa versa, you can have a malefic in a
very good mood. For example when Capricorn rises, Jupiter owns a bad house (the 12th), and
this puts him in a bad mood. Jupiter is always a gentle and benefic planet, but for some rising
signs he is in better moods then others.
I am going to give you a practical example of how to apply all this info later on in this article.

How to Interpret a House

Every house governs a subject area. For example, the first house specifically governs the tangible
things in life, including ones body, strength, and level of material success. When reading a
horoscope you start by getting a general feeling of how positive or negative a house is so that you
can start to interpret how positively or negatively the topics of that house will manifest.
When a house is very positive it will be an important part of your life an important source of
things that come more easily and amply to you. When a house is very negative it will also be an
important part of your life an important source of things you will work on and strive to improve

and understand in your lifetime. The more bland a house is, being neither positive nor negative, the
less important it is in your life.
Here is how to determine the basic positivity or negativity of a house:

Positive Factors
1.
2.
3.
4.

Does the house lord occupy a good house?

Does the house lord occupy good sign(s), etc?
Do benefics influence the house?
Do benefics influence the house lord?

Negative Factors
1.
2.
3.
4.

Does the house lord occupy a bad house?

Does the house lord occupy bad sign(s), etc?
Do malefics influence the house?
Do malefics influence the house lord?

Does the House Lord Occupy a Good or a Bad House?

This one is mercifully simple. Lets say Pisces is rising. So the lord of the first house is Jupiter. If
Jupiter is in a good house, this is a positive factor. It means the First House will be positive you
will have a good body and good material success.If on the other hand Jupiter is in a bad house, it is
a negative indication you will not be so pretty or sound in body and will lack in material success.
If you think you can stop there, you are nuts. You are just beginning to begin to understand the
horoscope. Keep that in mind. But this first step does give you the first overall vision of the
positivity or negativity of the house.
You can also take notice of the specific house involved. Lets say Pisces rises, and Jupiter is in the
7th House this indicates that the first house is positive (because the 7th house is one of the good
places) and also indicates that the goodness of the First House is connected fundamentally to the
nature of the 7th House which is all about the ability to relate with other people and form
relationships. So in this case you can interpret that the person will have material success and
physical happiness as a result of their ability to interact with other people and form good, healthy
relationships.

Does the House Lord Occupy Good or Bad Sign(s), etc?

For this you have to learn which signs cause exaltation, debilitation, etc. for each planet. Here is a
quick table of the two greatest extremes:
Exaltation & Debilitation
Exaltation
Debilitation
Taurus
Moon
Scorpio
Virgo
Mercury Pisces
Pisces
Venus
Virgo
Capricorn Mars
Cancer
Cancer
Jupiter Capricorn
Libra
Saturn Aries
Aries
Sun
Libra
If the lord of the house is in exaltation, or in a sign he owns, it is positive. For example, lets say

Aries rises. That means Mars is the lord of the first house. If Mars is in Capricorn (exalted) or in
one of the signs he owns (Aries or Scorpio) it is a positive indication for the first house.
If the lord is in debilitation, or in the sign of a planet who is his enemy it is negative. You need to
know about planetary friendship and enmity, of course, before you can figure out if a planet is in the
house of a friend or an enemy.
I use the word sign(s) with a parenthetical s why? Because a planet is in more than one sign!
The space within a single sign contains many subdivisions where other signs are prominent within
it. To learn more about this, start with my article on variations within a single sign. Luckily, the
main sign in the normal zodiac is the most important. You should also at least also consider the sign
the planet occupies in the navamsha subdivision when you are assessing if the sign occupied by the
lord of a house is positive or negative for that house.
I also use the word etc. That is because there are other considerations that fall into this general
principle. Combustion of a house lord is a negative indication, for example as is placement in
certain degrees of a sign (baalaadi avastha). It is a bit beyond the scope of what we can
immediately teach and learn, though.

Do Benefics or Malefics Influence the House and House Lord?

First thing you have to ask yourself is, how does one planet influence another? Primarily by:
One planet joining another in the same sign
One planet aspecting another
As far as aspects go, to put it really simply and quickly, every planet influences the sign it is
opposite from. For example, any planet in Aries will influence Libra because Libra is opposite (7
signs away from) Aries. Three other planets have additional aspects.
Mars also influences the 4th and 8th signs from it. So Mars in Aries, for example, influences
Libra (like normal) and also Cancer (the 4th sign from Aries) and Scorpio (the 8th sign from
Aries).
Jupiter also influences the 5th and 9th signs from it. For example, Jupiter in Aries influences
Libra (of course) as well as Leo (the 5th sign from Aries) and Sagittarius (the 9th sign from
Aries).
Saturn also influences the 3rd and 10th signs from it. So if Saturn were in Aries, he would
influence Libra, Gemini and Capricorn.
There is a very important rule: The lord of a house is never going to be negative towards that
house. For example, lets say Aquarius rises. Saturn would therefore rule the first house. Saturn is a
malefic, yes. But when you are assessing the first house, if you see that Saturn influences it, you
must not think of Saturn as a negative influence, because he is the owner of the house. The owner of
a house will never intentionally damage that house. So whenever the owner of a house interacts
with that house, it is always a positive indication regardless if the planet is benefic or malefic, etc.

Positive + Negative = Neutral?

Never, ever make the mistake of thinking that a house with 3 positive factors (for example) and 3
negative factors is a house with 0 total factors! Positive and negative do not cancel each other out in
astrology. Rather a house with both positive and negative factors is going to have some positive
effects and some negative effects. To know which effects will be positive and which will be
negative you need to advance further in your study of astrology and know how the various planets
and signs and combinations involved will affects different themes of the house under evaluation.
That is out of the scope of this article. We need to stick to the basics, one step at a time.

The Moons Houses

After you have evaluated a house the normal way, you should repeat the exact same process on the
house in relation to the Moon. Lets say for example you want to evaluate the fifth house of a chart
where Pisces rises and the Moon is in Aquarius. The 5th sign from Pisces is (Aries is 2, Taurus 3,
Gemini 4, Cancer 5) Cancer, so you do this whole system on Cancer, like I just described. Then,
when you are done, you examine the 5th House from the Moon. In this case the Moon is in
Aquarius, so the fifth house from the moon is (Pisces is 2, Aries 3, Taurus 4, Gemini 5)
Gemini. So you repeat the process now focusing on Gemini.
Now I hope to clarify and unify all this information with a practical example.

Simple Example
Lets evaluate the first house of this example chart using the principles of this article.
The first house is Capricorn. So Saturn is the lord of the first house.

Does Saturn occupy a good or a bad house?

Saturn occupies the 4th House, which is one of the good ones. So far so good! You can interpret this
to mean that much of the persons physical good fortune and material success must come from his
basic emotional nature (the 4th House).

Is Saturn in a good or bad sign?

Saturn is in Aries, which means he is debilitated, so this is bad. Now, you would want to look next
at the persons navamsha, and you would also want to check how much modification
(cancellation) of debilitation there might be. But lets stay simple for now. The first lord is
debilitated, period. So we can interpret this to mean that the first house suffers as a result of Saturn
being debilitated in Aries. This means: the person experiences practical unhappiness and lack of
material success due to his lack of patience and prudence.

Do malefics or benefics influence Saturn?

The most obvious influence on Saturn is Jupiter, who aspects Saturn in Aries because he is in the
opposite sign, Libra. Jupiter is a benefic. No other planets directly influence Saturn. So we have
another positive indication for the first house of this chart because a benefic and no malefics
influence the lord of the first house.
What does it mean? It means this person will experience happiness and success as a result of things
pertaining to Jupiter, and Jupiters location in Libra and the 10th House. So for example he will be
very happy and successful in religious, philosophical, or counseling (Jupiter) social roles (10th
House) which involve the ability to relate well to the common person (Libra). You could also say
that his sense of truthfulness and equity (Jupiter in Libra) is a very positive factor by which he can
achieve success and happiness in life.
If you want to consider Jupiters mood Jupiter is not in the best mood because he owns a bad
house (the 12th). So this person loses happiness and material success as a result of being overly
renounced (Jupiter is a religious planet, his ownership of the 12th promotes renunciation). In fact
this person lost a fantastic opportunity for huge success and fame as a result of becoming a religious
renunciate.
If you put the whole thing together, though you see the planet of sound (Jupiter) owning the house
of communication (3rd House) as a basically positive influence, and you start to think the the

person must be involved in music or in oration as a powerful speaker.

Do malefics or benefics influence the first house?

Three planets influence the first house in this chart: Mars and the Sun do because they are 7 signs
away in Cancer. And Saturn also influences the first house as a result of his influence on the 10th
sign from himself.
You might be tempted to say that Saturn is a malefic, but Saturn is the lord of the house we are
examining, so his influence on the house is never negative. Thus the physical being of this person,
and his material success benefits as a result of his Saturnian qualities: like detachment, tenacity,
work ethic, etc.
The Sun is a mild malefic, so there is a mild negativity about this. You can say that the native mildly
loses happiness and success as a result of being somewhat too intense or assuming a bit too much
authority.
Mars is the strongest malefic, so this person really loses material happiness and successes as a result
of lacking (because Mars is debilitated in this chart) martial qualities such as a competitive spirit, a
strong material drive, and a will to fight.

The same house from the Moon

This is the same chart viewed from the Moons perspective instead of the Ascendants perspective.
The first house from this perspective is Taurus, which belongs to Venus.
Does Venus occupy a good or a bad house?
Venus occupies the 4th House from the Moon. This is good. Again we feel that this person should
enjoy happiness and success as a result of his basic inner, emotional makeup.
Is Venus in a good or a bad sign?
She is in Leo, the sign of her enemy, the Sun. But the Sun is close by so their relationship improves
and becomes neutral. This is a null point. There is nothing to interpret from it, basically.
Do benefics or malefics influence Venus?
Venus shares Leo with a mild benefic, Mercury. This means that the persons ability to organize and
intellectualize and communicate is a mild factor promoting material happiness and success. She also
shares her sign with Ketu a wildcard. Since Ketu is with two benefics, it amplifies the benefic
power. So you should interpret that the persons mystical insight (ketu) into emotional topics (4th
House) is big factor in promoting his material happiness and success.
When there is more than one influence, you should combine them. The combination of these
planets, sign and house show that the persons material happiness and success benefits a lot as a
result of poetic, artistic ability to connect with emotions on a mystical and spiritual level.
Do benefics or malefics influence the house?
The only influence on Taurus, the first house of the Moon, is the Moon. Of course, this will always
be the case because by definition the first house from the Moon is the sign occupied by the
Moon. But in this case it is worth noting because the Moon is exalted. The Moon and the 4th House
have a lot in common, so this further strengthens your interpretation that the power of emotional
expression, etc. is a major factor of this person achieving happiness and success in their life.

Closing
What I explained in this article was developed in very ancient India. It was recorded in Sanskrit in
Parasharas Encyclopedic Treatise on Astrology. This article explains the last few verses of the
13th chapter and first few verses of the 14th chapter of that great and ancient tome.
If you think this is complicated, you should hear the insane complexity of the way seasoned
astrologers talk to one another. I actually think that most astrologers drift off into complicated topics
because they havent clearly understood basic principles. This article may be advanced or difficult
for a non-astrologer to understand. But from an astrologers point of view it is very, very
fundamental and basic. Yet this so-called basic principle and technique yields profoundly solid
and accurate interpretations. If you follow this simple and basic principle clearly and carefully, not
just on the first house but on each of the 12 houses, you will be able to make sense out of the houses
and arrive at interpretations of a horoscope which are both useful and accurate. By focusing on
mastering such fundamental techniques (insofar as mastery of this subject is possible) one can
actually become a good astrologer.
Source: https://vicdicara.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/how-to-use-the-12-houses/