Significators

Concept

As mentioned above, 12 houses deal with all aspect of a human life. Generally a planet can give
results related to many houses. For example, from the section ‘Houses’, we can see that 7th
house is the house for ‘marriage’ whereas 10th house is the house for ‘job’. Now, one single
planet can give both job and marriage to a person. Assuming Mars is that planet, we will say
that Mars signifies 7th house and 10th house in such a case.

Similarly, results related to a house can be obtained from more than one planet. Assuming in a
chart Mars and Jupiter both can give Marriage, we will say that 7th house (marriage) is signified
by Mars and Jupiter.

To put in simple language, a planet can signify more than one house. Also a house can be
signified by more than one planet. From terminology, let us move to the method of finding
significators in the next section.

Finding Significators

Here is the sign, star and sub position for all the planets and cusps for the example chart -

 Planet Name Longitude Sign Star Sub

 Sun      269°19'04" Jupiter Sun Rahu   
 Moon      118°50'32" Moon Mercury Saturn
 Mars      258°56'14" Jupiter Venus Rahu
 Mercury      283°37'35" Saturn Moon Rahu
 Jupiter      277°55'40" Saturn Sun Venus
 Venus      316°25'24" Saturn Rahu Venus
 Saturn      147°42'35" Sun Sun Moon
 Rahu      286°24'40" Saturn Moon Saturn
 Ketu 106°24'40" Moon Saturn Jupiter

Cusp Longitude Sign Star Sub

 1 001°23'55" Mars Ketu Venus
 2 033°46'54" Venus Sun Saturn
 3 059°19'19" Venus Mars Saturn
 4 083°02'49" Mercury Jupiter Saturn
 5 108°59'58" Moon Mercury Ketu
 6 141°16'58" Sun Venus Jupiter
 7 181°23'55" Venus Mars Mercury
 8 213°46'54" Mars Saturn Saturn
 9 239°19'19" Mars Mercury Saturn
 10 263°02'49" Jupiter Venus Saturn
 11 288°59'58" Saturn Moon Mercury
 12 321°16'58" Saturn Jupiter Jupiter

Finding Signification of Planets

A planet signifies various houses in the order of strength as follows -

Level 1. House occupied by the star lord of the planet

Level 2. House occupied by the planet itself
Level 3. Houses owned by the star lord of the planet
Level 4. Houses owned by the planet itself

As this signification is in the order of strength, signification at level 1 is more powerful than
signification at level 2. Signification at level 2 is more powerful than signification at level 3 and
so on. Level 1 to 4 is usually mentioned as grade A to E  signnificators.

Suppose we have to find signification for the planet ‘Mars’ in example chart. Here are the
signified houses -
Level 1. Mars’s star lord is Venus who is in house no. 11
Level 2. Mars is in house no. 9
Level 3. Mars’s star is Venus who owns house no. 2, 3, 7
Level 4. Mars owns house no. 1, 8, 9

We can say that Mars signifies houses 11, 2, 3, 7, 9, 1, 8 in this chart.

Let us take another planet ‘Moon’ -

Level 1. Moon’s star lord Mercury is in house no. 10
Level 2. Moon occupies 5th house
Level 3. Moon’s star lord Mercury owns 4th House
Level 4. Moon owns 5th house

So, we can say that Moon signifies houses 10, 4, and 5.

We can tabulate signification of the planets in our example chart as follows -

 Planet Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

(star lord's (occupancy) (star lord's (ownership)
occupancy) ownership)
 Sun  10 10  6  6
 Moon  10  5  4  5
 Mars  11  9  2, 3, 7  1, 8, 9
 Mercur  5  10  5  4
y
 Jupiter  10  10  6  10
 Venus  10  11    2, 3, 7
 Saturn  10  6  6  11, 12
 Rahu  5  10  5  
 Ketu  6  4  11, 12  

Finding House Significators

Significator for a house in the order of strength are as follows –

Level 1. Planets in the star of occupants of that house
Level 2. Planets in that house
Level 3. Planets in the star of owners of that house
Level 4. Owner of that house

Sigificators are mentioned in the order of strength. It means that the significators at level 1 is
more powerful than the significators at level 2. Significators at level 2 are more powerful than
significators at level 3 and so on. Level 1 to 4 is usually mentioned as grade A to E  significators.

Let us take an example of house number 6 in our example chart -

Level 1. Planets in the star of the occupant of the 6th house (Saturn) - Ketu
Level 2. Planets in 6th house - Saturn
Level 3. Planet in the star of the owner (Sun) - Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn
Level 4. Owner of 6th house - Sun

so, 6th house significators are Ketu, Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn. (The easy way is to take from the
above table of planet significations, i.e. from level 1 column only Ketu for 6th, level 2 column
only Saturn for 6th, level 3 column Sun, Jupiter & Saturn, and level 4 column Sun only.)

Let us take another example of house number 10 in the example chart -

Level 1. Planets in the star of the occupants of 10th house i.e. Sun, Jupiter, Mercury, and Rahu -
Sun & Saturn (in the star of Sun), no planet in the star of Jupiter, Moon (in the star of Mercury),
Venus (in the star of Rahu)
Level 2. Planets in 10th house - Sun, Jupiter, Mercury, Rahu
Level 3. Planet in the star of the owner (Jupiter) - no planet in the star of Jupiter
Level 4. Owner of 10th house - Jupiter

so, 10th house significators are Sun, Saturn, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Rahu
TIP: If there is no planet(s) in the star of significators, significator(s) are considered
strong. In above case, as Jupiter doesn’t have any planet in its star, hence it is a strong
significator for 10th house by occupation and also by lordship if the house is empty,
which is not so in this case. By a strong significator we mean that the planet has more
chances of giving the result of the house than other significators 

We can tabulate house significators in our example chart as follows –

 House Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

(in Occupant's star) (Occupants) (in Owner's star) (Owner)
 1        Mars
 2      Mars  Venus
 3      Mars  Venus
 4    Ketu  Moon  Mercury
 5  Mercury, Rahu  Moon  Mercury, Rahu  Moon
 6  Ketu  Saturn  Sun, Jupiter,  Sun
Saturn
 7    Mars  Venus
 8      Mars
 9    Mars    Mars
 10  Sun, Jupiter, Moon, Venus,  Sun, Mercury, Jupiter,  Jupiter
Saturn Rahu
 11  Mars  Venus  Ketu  Saturn
 12      Saturn

NOTE:
1. Planets conjoined or aspected by the above significators (level 1 to 4) are also the 5th
level (weakest) significators.
2. As you can notice from above, Sub doesn’t play any role in the process of finding
significators. 

Significations of Nodes - Rahu & Ketu

Rahu and Ketu are not planet in true sense. These are shadow planets and do not have any
physical existance. To understand signification of Rahu and Ketu, we need to understand the
'agent' nature of these two. 
 
Rahu and Ketu act as an agent of the planet(s) -
(a) the planet conjoining or aspecting
(b) owner planet of the sign in where it is placed

In our example chart, Rahu conjoins Mercury and Jupiter in Capricorn sign. So we can say that
Rahu acts as an agent to Mercury and Jupiter. As Rahu is closer to Mercury than Jupiter, it will
represent Mercury more prominently than Jupiter. Capricorn is the sign owned by Saturn, so it
will also act as an agent to Saturn, but even less prominently. Sometimes 'Node act as an agent
of planet planet X' is also written as 'Node represents planet X'.

A node signifies the houses -

(a) Level 1 to Level 4 above
(b) Level 1 to Leve 4 of the planets it represents
 
In our example, Rahu signifies houses 5 and 10 by its own. Rahu also signifies 5, 10, and 4 by
being agent of Mercury. Rahu also signifies houses 10 and 6 by being agent of Jupiter but less
prominently than by being agent of Mercury. Rahu also signifies houses 10, 6, 11, 12 by being
agent of Saturn, but even less prominently than Jupiter and Mercury.
 
For practical purpose, we generally take the most prominent agent only in our analysis. In other
words, though Rahu acts an agent of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, we will take Mercury only
otherwise we will be confused with too many houses signified.

Strengths of Significators

As mentioned above, a planet gives result of the houses in order of Level 1 to Level 4. Though
we must note that if there is no planet in that planets star, the planet is called self-strength
planet and gives results in following order -
 
Level 2. House occupied by the planet itself
Level 1. House occupied by the star lord of the planet
Level 4. Houses owned by the planet itself
Level 3. Houses owned by the star lord of the planet 
 

Ruling Planets (RP)

Ruling Planets (RP) is a divine tool to help astrologers. As the name suggests, Ruling Planets are
the planets that rule a particular moment. KP System considers total 5 ruling planets in the
order of strength as follows -

1. Ascendant Star Lord

2. Ascendant Sign Lord
3. Moon Star Lord
4. Moon Sign Lord
 5. Day Lord

Ruling Planets are generally used in conjunction with birth charts or horary charts. Sometimes
RPs also have some other independent applications like predicting minor
events and rectification of birth time.

Rahu and Ketu act as agents to other planets. Please see section "Shadow Planets - Rahu and
Ketu" below for more information.

Day lord for each day is as follows -

 Day Day
Lord
 Sunday  Sun
 Monday  Moon
 Tuesday  Mars
 Wednesda  Mercur
y y
 Thursday  Jupiter
 Friday  Venus
 Saturday  Saturn

Suppose we have to calculate Ruling Planets at January 18, 2009, 6:00 PM IST at Delhi, India.
Here is the Ascendant and Moon position at that time -

Ascendant Longitude :   097°55'37"

Moon Longitude         :  189°17'14"

From the "Sign, Star, and Sub Table", we can find Sign lord and Star lord for both the longitude
as follows -

   Longitude  Sign Lord  Star Lord

 Ascendant  097°55'37  Moon  Saturn
"
 Moon  189°17'14  Venus  Rahu
"

The day on 18th January 2009 was Sunday, so the day lord will be Sun.

So, here are the Ruling planets for the moment (January 18, 2009, 6:00 PM IST at Delhi, India) -

 Ascendant Star  Saturn

Lord
 Ascendant Sign  Moon
Lord
 Moon Star Lord  Rahu
 Moon Sign Lord  Venus
 Day Lord  Sun

Note:
1. Hindu day starts from sunrise and last till next sunrise. We have to take 'day lord'
according to Hindu day only.
2. The ruling planets in a star or sub of  retrograde planets should be discarded from the
list of RP.

Selection of Significators

As discussed above, when you are judging particular aspect of life, you have to check
significators of the group of houses related to that aspect of life. For example, if you have to
find out the time of marriage, house group is 2, 7 and 11 (see the table above). So, you need to
find out significators of house number 2, 7 and 11. When the person will pass through the dasa
of significators of house 2, 7 and 11 together, s/he will get married.
Sometime, you get many significators for judging an aspect of life. For example, if we have to
find out, when will the native of the example chart get a new job. For job, we have to judge 2, 6,
10 and 11. Now here are the significators
2 – Mars, Venus
6 – Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Ketu
10 – Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Rahu
11 – Mars, Ketu, Venus, Saturn
 
Now here is the dilemma for the astrologer. All the nine planets are appearing as singinifcator
for the job. In such a case, we need to find out the signifcators which are more powerful that
others for that particular aspect of life. As we need to eliminate less powerful significators and
keep more powerful significator, this process is also termed as 'elimination of significators.'
 
Before we jump into the process of singificator elimination, we should remember these two
important points -
* As mentioned above, level 1 significators are powerful than level 2 significators as so on. So,
one need to give preference to the higher level significators
* Again as mentioned above, Planets having no planets in its star is stronger.
 
We will now discuss three popular elimination methods.