Houses and Divisional Charts
Learn what houses represent, how house systems differ, and why vargas are a separate layer.
Houses and signs both use twelvefold language, but they answer different questions. A sign describes a zodiacal region. A house organizes the chart around the local horizon, meridian, or a defined relationship to the Ascendant.
The twelve houses
The following themes paraphrase the Parashari house scheme recorded in BPHS chapters 11–20. They are a learning map, not a complete prediction:
| House | Core field |
|---|---|
| 1 | Body, identity, vitality, and approach |
| 2 | Resources, speech, family assets, and sustenance |
| 3 | Initiative, skills, communication, and siblings |
| 4 | Home, foundations, property, and inner security |
| 5 | Learning, creativity, children, and counsel |
| 6 | Work, service, illness, conflict, and obligations |
| 7 | Partners, contracts, and other people |
| 8 | Vulnerability, shared resources, discontinuity, and longevity |
| 9 | Teachers, principles, higher learning, and long journeys |
| 10 | Action, profession, responsibility, and public role |
| 11 | Gains, networks, fulfilment, and elder peers |
| 12 | Expenditure, retreat, loss, foreign settings, and release |
A judgment should combine the house, its sign, its lord, occupants, aspects, relevant combinations, and timing. An empty house is not an absent life area; its lord still carries the house.
House systems
Whole Sign assigns the entire rising sign to house one, the next sign to house two, and so on. Equal systems use equal 30-degree houses from a defined starting point. Placidus and Porphyry divide arcs using different geometrical constructions, so cusps and house placement can differ.
Swiss Ephemeris documents the geometry and codes for Whole Sign, Equal, Placidus, and Porphyry houses. Ascendant's supported choices are listed on Configuration.
Ascendant currently calculates the selected Swiss cusp set internally, while
public get_chart() output remains one sign per numbered house. Consult the
configuration boundary
before expecting a non-Whole-Sign choice to change planet-to-house membership.
Bhava is not automatically rashi
In Whole Sign houses, sign and house boundaries coincide. In quadrant and other cusp-based systems, a sign can span parts of multiple houses. Always state whether a rule expects:
- the sign counted from the Ascendant,
- a bhava or house cusp,
- the house occupied by a planet,
- or the lord of a house.
Divisional charts or vargas
Vargas subdivide a planet's position within a sign and map it into another zodiacal chart according to a division-specific rule. They are not produced by changing the birth time, and they are not the same as selecting another house system.
Common examples include:
- D1 Rashi for the foundational natal chart,
- D2 Hora for resources,
- D4 Chaturthamsa for property and fixed assets,
- D9 Navamsa for strength, dharma, and partnership analysis,
- D10 Dasamsa for profession,
- D24 Chaturvimsamsa for education.
See Divisional Charts for every division supported by Ascendant.
Use vargas after the natal chart
A stable workflow is:
- Establish the D1 house and lord relevant to the topic.
- Judge the planet's condition in D1.
- Open only the varga declared for that topic.
- Compare the repeated or changed pattern.
- Apply a timing method.
The packaged Ascendant skills follow this D1-first order. A missing required varga produces insufficient evidence rather than permission to improvise.