11/22/2018 How to Use the 12 Houses – Vic DiCara's Astrology

Vic DiCara's Astrology

ASTROLOGY HOW-TO'S

How to Use the 12 Houses

Posted by VIC DICARA on 19 MAY 201019 MAY 2010

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
(h p://vicdicara.com/12houses.php).

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 let’s start here. If you
find this too confusing you should first go read my explanation on how astrology works
(h ps://vicdicara.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/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

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Cancer Moon & Sun Leo

Gemini Mercury Virgo
Taurus Venus Libra
Aries Mars Scorpio
Pisces Jupiter Sagi arius
Aquarius Saturn Capricorn
Let’s 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
(h p://vicdicara.com/12houses.php).

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 li le more
detail you can read my article on Male vs. Female / Malefic vs. Benefic
(h ps://vicdicara.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/stereotypes-male-vs-female-malefic-vs-benefic/).

With that out of the way here are the benefic and malefic planets.
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How to Use the 12 Houses

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
a ention 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 bo om 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 be er
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. (h p://vicdicara.com/12houses.php) For example, the first house
specifically governs the tangible things in life, including one’s body, strength, and level of material
success. When reading a horoscope you start by ge ing 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. Does the house lord occupy a good house?

2. Does the house lord occupy good sign(s), etc?
3. Do benefics influence the house?
4. Do benefics influence the house lord?
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Negative Factors

1. Does the house lord occupy a bad house?

2. Does the house lord occupy bad sign(s), etc?
3. Do malefics influence the house?
4. 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 pre y 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

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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 (h p://www.facebook.com/note.php?
note_id=136928743307), 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
(h ps://vicdicara.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/variations-in-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 Sagi arius (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?

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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 Moon’s 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

Let’s 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 person’s 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 person’s navamsha, and you would also want to check how much modification (“cancellation”) of
debilitation (h ps://vicdicara.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/canceling-debilitation-bad-things-causing-
good-things/) there might be. But let’s stay simple for now. The first lord is debilitated, period. So we

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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 Jupiter’s 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 Jupiter’s 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.

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The same house from the Moon

This is the same chart viewed from the Moon’s perspective instead of the Ascendant’s 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 person’s 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 person’s 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

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What I explained in this article was developed in very ancient India. It was recorded in Sanskrit in
“Parashara’s 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 haven’t clearly understood basic principles. This article may be advanced or difficult for
a non-astrologer to understand. But from an astrologer’s 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.

– Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com (h p://www.vicdicara.com)

© 2010 Vic DiCara, all rights reserved

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Published by Vic DiCara

Author of 27 Stars 27 Gods, Radically Deep Fundamentals of Astrology, and Beautifully Rational
Philosophy of Astrology; Sanskrit translator of Bhagavad-Gītā, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, and Mādhurya
Kādambinī. Bhakti-tīrtha vidyārthi at JIVA Institute of Vṛndāvana under the learned tutelage of Śrī
Satyanārāyana dāsa Bābājī. Bhakti-śāstrī vidyārthi & adhyāpaka at Vṛndāvana Institute of Higher
Education. …but all this doesn’t fully describe Vic. For the rest, best to meet him. Or, hypothesize it
via “July 27, 1970 at 19:38 in Bay Shore New York.” View all posts by Vic DiCara

7 Comments

1. PANKAJ says:
7 Dec 2012 at 7:21 pm

i
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Good analysis – But In Case of a Yoga karaka planet say saturn ( malefic by nature) for Libra if
will its aspects be considered benefic or malefic aspect

1. VIC DICARA / VRAJA KISHOR says:

8 Dec 2012 at 2:03 pm

i
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Don’t be so black and white.

2. BABA says:
18 Dec 2012 at 6:27 pm

i
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11/22/2018 How to Use the 12 Houses – Vic DiCara's Astrology

Hi Vic,

Read in ur article”s” that “If the lord is in debilitation, or in the sign of a planet who is his enemy
– it is negative” and its comfortable in friend’s house (apart from his own). A query – Lets say, for
example, Saturn is in Mercury’s house and that too conjunct with Mercury…now Saturn treats
Mercury as friend whereas Mercury treats Saturn as neutral…So how will saturn behave in &
effect Mercury’s house and how will the same effect Saturn’s own houses. Please reply whenever
convenient

Thanks
Baba

1. VIC DICARA / VRAJA KISHOR says:

18 Dec 2012 at 8:39 pm

i
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It’s debatable. I tend to think the guest’s feelings to the host as being most important, since
after all we are talking about the dignity of the guest.

3. BABA says:
18 Dec 2012 at 8:45 pm

i
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Thanks a bunch !!!

4. PANKAJ says:
19 Dec 2012 at 5:01 pm

i
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Vic – Thanks for the note highlighting its is never black and white – but it is not clear how do we
interpret for the apsects of yogakarka planet like saturn (Malefic by original nature) in say Libra
ascendant for its placement and aspects to 3 , 7 and 10 to analyze a house and its aspects

1. VIC DICARA / VRAJA KISHOR says:

20 Dec 2012 at 10:39 am

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i
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I’m sorry I don’t have time to answer every question. I have to tend to students, clients, and
family first.

Comments are closed.

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