What House Signification Means

House signification answers the reverse of the planetary question. Instead of asking which houses a given planet works for, it asks: for this house, which planets are its agents? The result is a list of significators for each of the twelve houses, ordered by the strength of their connection.

This is the table a practitioner reaches for when the question is already known. Someone examining marriage looks at the significators of the seventh house together with the second and eleventh; someone examining profession looks at the tenth with the second, sixth and eleventh. In KB the house significator table is generated so that each house row can be read directly against the running dasha.

How Planets Become Significators of a House

Krishnamurti Paddhati derives the significators of a house from four relationships, conventionally listed in descending order of strength:

1. Planets in the star of the occupants of the house. If a planet sits in the house concerned, any planet tenanting that occupant's nakshatra becomes the strongest significator of the house.
2. The occupants of the house themselves. A planet physically placed within the house span signifies it directly.
3. Planets in the star of the lord of the house. The sign lord of the cusp is identified, and any planet in that lord's nakshatra signifies the house.
4. The lord of the house itself. The owner of the sign in which the cusp falls is the weakest of the four, though still a genuine significator.

The logic behind the ordering is the KP rule that a planet gives the results of the house signified by the lord of the star it occupies. A planet standing in the star of an occupant is therefore connected to the house through the strongest available link, while mere ownership of the sign is the most distant. Where no planet occupies a house, the list simply begins at the third category.

Refining the List with the Sub Lord

A raw significator list is often long — six or seven planets is not unusual — so KP applies filters. The most important is the sub lord. Each of the 27 nakshatras is divided into nine subs in the Vimshottari order and in proportion to the dasha years — Ketu 7, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17. The sub lord of a planet indicates whether that planet will actually deliver what it signifies.

The commonly applied refinement is that a planet in the sub of a significator of a house that negates the matter is set aside, even if the planet is otherwise a strong significator. For marriage, for example, a planet in the sub of a strong significator of the sixth or twelfth is treated with caution. The cuspal sub lord of the house itself is examined first of all: if it does not signify the houses that promise the matter, the tradition holds that the event is not promised, and the significator list becomes moot. Cuspal sub lords are listed on the cusp table.

House Groupings Used in Judgement

Houses are rarely judged singly. The tradition reads them in groups, because most life matters involve more than one house:

• Marriage — 2 (family), 7 (partner), 11 (fulfilment of desire); negated by 1, 6 and 12.
• Profession — 2, 6, 10 and 11; a change of job also involves the houses that end the previous one.
• Children — 2, 5 and 11; negated by 1, 4 and 10.
• Property and vehicles — 4, 11 and 12, the twelfth for the expenditure involved in acquiring.
• Education — 4, 9 and 11.
• Foreign residence — 3, 9 and 12.
• Health and recovery — 1, 5 and 11 support recovery; 6, 8 and 12 indicate the ailment.

Note that a house which promises one matter frequently negates another. The twelfth supports foreign residence and property purchase but works against marriage and health. This is why the tradition treats significator lists as question-specific rather than as fixed verdicts about a planet.

From Significators to Timing

Once the significators are ranked, timing is left to the Vimshottari dasha. The event is expected when the dasha, bhukti and antara lords are drawn from the significators of the relevant houses — a joint period in which several of the required significators hold office simultaneously is what practitioners look for. Period sequences are shown on the dasha page, and the underlying star and sub lords on the planet table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does one house have so many significators?

Because four separate relationships qualify a planet, and a single planet can qualify through more than one of them. Long lists are normal; the ordering and the sub lord filter are what reduce the list to the planets actually relied on for judgement.

Which significator is the strongest?

By the standard ordering, a planet in the star of an occupant of the house ranks highest, followed by the occupant, then a planet in the star of the house lord, then the house lord itself. In practice a planet appearing in several categories at once, and whose sub lord does not negate the matter, is treated as the most dependable.

Can a house have no significators at all?

The list can be very short if the house is unoccupied and few planets tenant the star of its lord, but the house lord itself always qualifies, so the list is never empty. A sparse list simply means judgement leans more heavily on the cuspal sub lord.

Is the house significator table just the planet table reversed?

Largely, yes — both are built from the same occupancy, ownership and star-lord relationships. The difference is the ordering. In KB the house table additionally ranks the planets by strength of connection, which is the information needed when the question is fixed and the planets are unknown.