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Planets in the Signs and Houses
This book follows up on the foundation provided in Fundamentals of Vedic Astrology and delves into questions such as impulses likely to be generated by the planets in different signs and houses of the natal chart. The author makes this subject eminently readable and cuts through the obscurity of the centuries to present a clear and effective science with a deep psychological background and underpinning.
- GenresAstrology
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 2003
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July 17, 2025
my chart:
1st house:
When Virgo occupies the Ascendant, the primordial feminine power pours down into the individual's personality. A person born under this sign may not be constitutionally strong, but is pleasing in appearance, feminine by temperament, sharp in intellect, and capable of interpreting the thoughts of others. Given over to sensual pleasures, the spiritual quest will not be his forte. He likes to be surrounded by respectable people, who could be famous as authors, tradesmen, lawyers, diplomats and even martyrs. He may attain material prosperity and be honored outside his immediate surroundings and country. He can be easily frustrated and his passionate nature often leads to serious psychological complications. He may even have a psychopathic personality and is often found to be deceitful, critical, manipulative and covetous of other people's wealth. A Virgo-born Ascendant is full of anxiety for the world at large and usually does not have many children.
JUPITER in Virgo bestows stability, grace, protection and a religious insight. Vitality may be low but there will be a glow and grace on the face of the person. His temperament will be religious with much faith in formal worship. Marriage will be helpful in producing a happy, luxurious life full of respectable social relationships. The individual has a great deal of potential for spiritual knowledge
2nd house:
Libra in the Second house produces an individual who is very meticulous about the cash he acquires: he avoids "tainted'* money. He works with diligence and scrupulousness, though he may secretly covet the wealth and affluence of others. He tries to be meek, and wants to be known as a very honest person. Such a person may often gain through resources hidden inside the earth: agriculture, mining and quarrying. He is usually very greedy, but strives to hide his greed.
KETU in Libra may persuade the individual to dabble in black magic and will lend an unusual quality to his appearance.
When KETU occupies this house, the inner being of the individual may become depraved and conceited; he may be found engaged in activities which relate to theft, murder, burial grounds and scandals.
3rd: Scorpio
Scorpio is not a very desirable sign in the Third house. It arouses base impulses, making the person sensual, indigent, ungrateful, quarrelsome and aimless. His behavior is unethical and anti-social.
4th:
The MOON is a soothing planet which replaces the Sun's radiance with an attractive coolness. The Moon in the Fourth house makes the individual approachable by everyone, high and low, rich and poor. A sympathetic chord resounds when we meet someone with the Moon hi the Fourth house. The depth of the ocean is in his eyes and the tranquility of his disposition can quiet the most turbulent emotions in others.
Motherly affection, nice cars, pleasant travel and universal respect give a sense of contentment which makes him non-competitive with others. He is popular among his relations and loved by the opposite sex. He is affluent, but often afflicted by physical problems.
MARS precipitates the impact of past karmic deeds, especially those of an adverse nature. Ordinarily, Mars is a planet of selfishness, greed, and rash action, which, in the long run, catch up with the individual in the form of physical or psychological problems. Occupying the Fourth house, Mars creates impatience, impulsiveness, and self-centeredness, unless it receives auspicious aspects or is in exaltation or its own sign. As a result, the individual is considered cruel, inflexible, and covetous by nature. Under such circumstances, Mars may produce affliction for the mother, loss of property, dependence on manual labor to earn one's livelihood, and constant movement from one place to another. Generally, such a person is not born into a respectable family, is abandoned by his siblings, favors bad company, and involves himself in tawdry sexual affairs. He earns his living by serving bad people....
A person with Sagittarius in the Fourth house will burn with a furious desire to possess the impossible. He can be ruthless in his efforts, but his idealism will often make him hesitate when action is most called for.
He will wish to indulge in clandestine relationships, to possess tremendous power and occult knowledge, but his physical and mental limitations will prevent him from attaining his objectives. In his psycho-physiological structure, adequate vitality to consummate his desire is lacking, thus he suffers incessantly like Tantalus (((Tantalus was a character from Greek mythology who, in hell, was condemned always to hunger for grapes which were just above his reach, and to thirst for water which vanished whenever he knelt down to drink.))).
MARS provides two possibilities: either the individual will be an ardent student of spiritual practices or a debauchee incapable of listening to good advice. He will be isolated from his friends, have strained relations with his mother, and will engage in secret or disagreeable jobs. He should be on guard against possible heart ailments
When the MOON occupies this sign, the individual becomes highly social, his immediate surroundings are very pleasant, and his family is happily disposed towards him. Psychologically, however, there is an intense dissatisfaction in him; he longs for the spouse or property of others. He is afflicted by a secret contradiction; nothing can soothe his nerves.
5th house:
When Capricorn occupies the Fifth house, the individual is of the retiring type. His interest in the world springs from entirely unusual sources and his knowledge of the life-process is very deep. He is contem-plative and endeavors to translate his understanding into action. Often this makes him misunderstood, for his ideas are enigmatic and his words confusing. He teaches a deeply spiritual philosophy whose full significance may be comprehended only by highly evolved souls and as a result of which he may even be persecuted.
6th house:
The SUN produces a very deep-rooted impact. It destroys all impediments to the flowering of the native's innermost uniqueness. When the solar rays sparkle and strengthen the soul principle in man, no other conditioning can obstruct its clear impulses. The inner man must have his way; external conditions must adjust to inner ones, and thus they dissipate and fall asunder. From an ordinary point of view, this may seem to be a destruction of physical and social barriers. The Sun in the Sixth house enables the individual to achieve victory over his enemies, a successful termination of litigation and disputes, and effective solutions to financial difficulties. However, there may be kidney troubles or other such ailments, especially of the navel region. Psychological maturity and self-reliance are acquired along with a feeling of personal isolation. At times, even the government is unhelpful and antagonistic. The native may decide to live away from his homeland. With this combination, a very enigmatic situation arises: people at large express tremendous goodwill and sympathy for the individual, but they cannot establish empathy with him. Thus he may sometimes find himself on the psychoanalyst's couch unless his natal chart is basically strong.
VENUS creates problems when placed in the Sixth. Although the individual under its influence learns to unfold his capacities by associating himself with different types of people, these associations create social and personal difficulties for him. Often his marital life is in jeopardy, he becomes involved in bad business and debt, and at times suffers from venereal disease. He has no control over his expenditures. He learns his spiritual lessons with great difficulty but develops a sense of detachment after much physical, financial and moral suffering.
Aquarius in the Sixth house opens the flood-gate of karma and brings to light whatever the individual has acquired in the past. This enables the individual to wrestle with the adverse forces in his life and eradicate them from his psyche, so as to utilize the helpful forces for achieving his destiny. As a result of these diverse influences, there are large numbers of people hostile to him who circulate severe criticism against him. But there are also sincere friends and the individual's own sense of ethics to sustain him through thick and thin.
Unless he is of an outgoing disposition, the the native with the SUN in Aquarius is always yearning for the love and affection of his family members; he misses the finer qualities of life and remains sensually self-indulgent. His friends and foes are equally unsavory, and he himself may suffer psychological difficulties.
Usually this combination does not make the person indigent, though his sexual desires are frequently uncontrollable and he will go to any lengths to satisfy them
VENUS produces extreme sensuality. Under its influence, the individual often flaunts all religious injunctions and moral tradition with his promiscuity, drunkenness and gambling
7th:
MERCURY makes the individual very diplomatic, able to relate well with every type of person. His relationship with his spouse is as harmonious as with other business partners; the influence of the marriage partner on his attainment of social status is considerable.
Pisces, as a sign of detachment, destruction, sorrow, liberation and equanimity, produces in the Seventh house a frustration with the opposite sex which leads ultimately to a spiritual withdrawal from sexuality altogether. The native realizes the transitory nature of human relationships through sorrow, frustration, profligacy and denial of marital bliss
MERCURY will make the individual renowned for his intellect, business skill, diplomatic efficiency, and literary gifts. His spouse will be the dominant partner, and he will feel greatly relieved of day-to-day problems because of the partner's efficiency.
8th:
With RAHU in this position the individual is always trying to attain his goal, but unfortunately his goal is not often clear to him. Under such conditions he is always worried about unimportant things or striving after something which seems important to him momentarily but gives no ultimate satisfaction, and to attain his assumed objective he may associate with undesirable characters who bring him a bad name. He suffers from complex ailments which are difficult to diagnose
When Aries occupies the Eighth house, the individual is constantly exposed to completely new sets of circumstances; he is unprepared for the patterns of life that are unfolded to him. He is driven far away from his birthplace and the society in which he spent his childhood. In the pilgrimage of his life he ascends many peaks and attains much money and status, but from every peak he views his past, and the memory of olden days disturbs his psychological balance.
RAHU makes the individual vulnerable to poisons or to enmity from his spouse and the spouse's relations.
One's parents are chronically ill and his patrimony greatly reduced if the Eighth house lord occupies the Fourth
9th:
Taurus, being an essentially materialistic sign concerned with sensual gratification and material pleasure, produces an abundance of wealth, respectability, honor, and material enjoyment. The heavy burdens of family and society placed on the individual's shoulders are not conducive to the arduous preparations for spiritual attainment. What the individual is able to serve is his society and his friends. He learns his spiritual lessons while satisfying his own carnal passions, and learns, in the process, that there are other values in life which must be taken into account even while leading a worldly existence. This same lesson is taught by any planet in Taurus in the Ninth, except for Ketu, under whose impact the native is stripped of all his power and sustenance and psychologically crucified for trying to explore the unknown and share his experiences of it.
"Occultism is a dangerous path whose implications cannot be easily comprehended; the road to divine unfoldment requires passage through many mysterious places and circumstances. For such occult preparations, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius also have special significance"
10th:
"SATURN, with its tremendous power to annihilate old worlds and create new ones, provides a detachment in worldly matters which nevertheless has constructive and creative capabilities. Such an individual is drawn more towards the abstract sense of justice, the underlying or hidden order beneath external manifestation, and even towards the complete destruction of the existing world order. The Saturnian native makes a good surgeon, engineer, social reformer, scientist — or butcher. He moves from one place to another or from one job to another, without knowing why he does so but acting from an unseen motivation.
He is often a leader or a great thinker, but sometimes he may be considered a little crazy in his ideas."
Gemini in the Tenth house often belongs to a person who has clarity with regard to his purpose in life and is aware of his responsibilities. Intellectually, he is usually very bright. He may, however, be divided in his loyalties between the temporal and spiritual world. He often succeeds in attaining equanimity by adhering to a higher and giving up a lower state of consciousness. But in making this choice, he makes a substantial sacrifice in terms of material advantage.
SATURN will cause the children of the native to attain eminence in a foreign land; he himself will be considered an expert in international law. Psychologically he will feel greatly fettered; he seldom receives opportunities to express his special expertise. Occasionally he suffers serious setbacks in his career.
11th: cancer
Cancer in the Eleventh house brings the native into contact with truly evolved persons. His mind is developed and he is sensitive to the cruelties perpetrated on the people of the world. Such an individual takes a very ambitious stance in life, but later changes his job and earns money from agriculture or other trading activities. He studies religious texts, contemplates the problems of life, and secures much fame
12th:
Leo in this house of ultimate dissolution may, at worst, destroy the respectability of the native. He is not believed; his integrity is questioned. His carnal passion is often uncontrolled and even his closest friends abandon him.
1st house:
When Virgo occupies the Ascendant, the primordial feminine power pours down into the individual's personality. A person born under this sign may not be constitutionally strong, but is pleasing in appearance, feminine by temperament, sharp in intellect, and capable of interpreting the thoughts of others. Given over to sensual pleasures, the spiritual quest will not be his forte. He likes to be surrounded by respectable people, who could be famous as authors, tradesmen, lawyers, diplomats and even martyrs. He may attain material prosperity and be honored outside his immediate surroundings and country. He can be easily frustrated and his passionate nature often leads to serious psychological complications. He may even have a psychopathic personality and is often found to be deceitful, critical, manipulative and covetous of other people's wealth. A Virgo-born Ascendant is full of anxiety for the world at large and usually does not have many children.
JUPITER in Virgo bestows stability, grace, protection and a religious insight. Vitality may be low but there will be a glow and grace on the face of the person. His temperament will be religious with much faith in formal worship. Marriage will be helpful in producing a happy, luxurious life full of respectable social relationships. The individual has a great deal of potential for spiritual knowledge
2nd house:
Libra in the Second house produces an individual who is very meticulous about the cash he acquires: he avoids "tainted'* money. He works with diligence and scrupulousness, though he may secretly covet the wealth and affluence of others. He tries to be meek, and wants to be known as a very honest person. Such a person may often gain through resources hidden inside the earth: agriculture, mining and quarrying. He is usually very greedy, but strives to hide his greed.
KETU in Libra may persuade the individual to dabble in black magic and will lend an unusual quality to his appearance.
When KETU occupies this house, the inner being of the individual may become depraved and conceited; he may be found engaged in activities which relate to theft, murder, burial grounds and scandals.
3rd: Scorpio
Scorpio is not a very desirable sign in the Third house. It arouses base impulses, making the person sensual, indigent, ungrateful, quarrelsome and aimless. His behavior is unethical and anti-social.
4th:
The MOON is a soothing planet which replaces the Sun's radiance with an attractive coolness. The Moon in the Fourth house makes the individual approachable by everyone, high and low, rich and poor. A sympathetic chord resounds when we meet someone with the Moon hi the Fourth house. The depth of the ocean is in his eyes and the tranquility of his disposition can quiet the most turbulent emotions in others.
Motherly affection, nice cars, pleasant travel and universal respect give a sense of contentment which makes him non-competitive with others. He is popular among his relations and loved by the opposite sex. He is affluent, but often afflicted by physical problems.
MARS precipitates the impact of past karmic deeds, especially those of an adverse nature. Ordinarily, Mars is a planet of selfishness, greed, and rash action, which, in the long run, catch up with the individual in the form of physical or psychological problems. Occupying the Fourth house, Mars creates impatience, impulsiveness, and self-centeredness, unless it receives auspicious aspects or is in exaltation or its own sign. As a result, the individual is considered cruel, inflexible, and covetous by nature. Under such circumstances, Mars may produce affliction for the mother, loss of property, dependence on manual labor to earn one's livelihood, and constant movement from one place to another. Generally, such a person is not born into a respectable family, is abandoned by his siblings, favors bad company, and involves himself in tawdry sexual affairs. He earns his living by serving bad people....
A person with Sagittarius in the Fourth house will burn with a furious desire to possess the impossible. He can be ruthless in his efforts, but his idealism will often make him hesitate when action is most called for.
He will wish to indulge in clandestine relationships, to possess tremendous power and occult knowledge, but his physical and mental limitations will prevent him from attaining his objectives. In his psycho-physiological structure, adequate vitality to consummate his desire is lacking, thus he suffers incessantly like Tantalus (((Tantalus was a character from Greek mythology who, in hell, was condemned always to hunger for grapes which were just above his reach, and to thirst for water which vanished whenever he knelt down to drink.))).
MARS provides two possibilities: either the individual will be an ardent student of spiritual practices or a debauchee incapable of listening to good advice. He will be isolated from his friends, have strained relations with his mother, and will engage in secret or disagreeable jobs. He should be on guard against possible heart ailments
When the MOON occupies this sign, the individual becomes highly social, his immediate surroundings are very pleasant, and his family is happily disposed towards him. Psychologically, however, there is an intense dissatisfaction in him; he longs for the spouse or property of others. He is afflicted by a secret contradiction; nothing can soothe his nerves.
5th house:
When Capricorn occupies the Fifth house, the individual is of the retiring type. His interest in the world springs from entirely unusual sources and his knowledge of the life-process is very deep. He is contem-plative and endeavors to translate his understanding into action. Often this makes him misunderstood, for his ideas are enigmatic and his words confusing. He teaches a deeply spiritual philosophy whose full significance may be comprehended only by highly evolved souls and as a result of which he may even be persecuted.
6th house:
The SUN produces a very deep-rooted impact. It destroys all impediments to the flowering of the native's innermost uniqueness. When the solar rays sparkle and strengthen the soul principle in man, no other conditioning can obstruct its clear impulses. The inner man must have his way; external conditions must adjust to inner ones, and thus they dissipate and fall asunder. From an ordinary point of view, this may seem to be a destruction of physical and social barriers. The Sun in the Sixth house enables the individual to achieve victory over his enemies, a successful termination of litigation and disputes, and effective solutions to financial difficulties. However, there may be kidney troubles or other such ailments, especially of the navel region. Psychological maturity and self-reliance are acquired along with a feeling of personal isolation. At times, even the government is unhelpful and antagonistic. The native may decide to live away from his homeland. With this combination, a very enigmatic situation arises: people at large express tremendous goodwill and sympathy for the individual, but they cannot establish empathy with him. Thus he may sometimes find himself on the psychoanalyst's couch unless his natal chart is basically strong.
VENUS creates problems when placed in the Sixth. Although the individual under its influence learns to unfold his capacities by associating himself with different types of people, these associations create social and personal difficulties for him. Often his marital life is in jeopardy, he becomes involved in bad business and debt, and at times suffers from venereal disease. He has no control over his expenditures. He learns his spiritual lessons with great difficulty but develops a sense of detachment after much physical, financial and moral suffering.
Aquarius in the Sixth house opens the flood-gate of karma and brings to light whatever the individual has acquired in the past. This enables the individual to wrestle with the adverse forces in his life and eradicate them from his psyche, so as to utilize the helpful forces for achieving his destiny. As a result of these diverse influences, there are large numbers of people hostile to him who circulate severe criticism against him. But there are also sincere friends and the individual's own sense of ethics to sustain him through thick and thin.
Unless he is of an outgoing disposition, the the native with the SUN in Aquarius is always yearning for the love and affection of his family members; he misses the finer qualities of life and remains sensually self-indulgent. His friends and foes are equally unsavory, and he himself may suffer psychological difficulties.
Usually this combination does not make the person indigent, though his sexual desires are frequently uncontrollable and he will go to any lengths to satisfy them
VENUS produces extreme sensuality. Under its influence, the individual often flaunts all religious injunctions and moral tradition with his promiscuity, drunkenness and gambling
7th:
MERCURY makes the individual very diplomatic, able to relate well with every type of person. His relationship with his spouse is as harmonious as with other business partners; the influence of the marriage partner on his attainment of social status is considerable.
Pisces, as a sign of detachment, destruction, sorrow, liberation and equanimity, produces in the Seventh house a frustration with the opposite sex which leads ultimately to a spiritual withdrawal from sexuality altogether. The native realizes the transitory nature of human relationships through sorrow, frustration, profligacy and denial of marital bliss
MERCURY will make the individual renowned for his intellect, business skill, diplomatic efficiency, and literary gifts. His spouse will be the dominant partner, and he will feel greatly relieved of day-to-day problems because of the partner's efficiency.
8th:
With RAHU in this position the individual is always trying to attain his goal, but unfortunately his goal is not often clear to him. Under such conditions he is always worried about unimportant things or striving after something which seems important to him momentarily but gives no ultimate satisfaction, and to attain his assumed objective he may associate with undesirable characters who bring him a bad name. He suffers from complex ailments which are difficult to diagnose
When Aries occupies the Eighth house, the individual is constantly exposed to completely new sets of circumstances; he is unprepared for the patterns of life that are unfolded to him. He is driven far away from his birthplace and the society in which he spent his childhood. In the pilgrimage of his life he ascends many peaks and attains much money and status, but from every peak he views his past, and the memory of olden days disturbs his psychological balance.
RAHU makes the individual vulnerable to poisons or to enmity from his spouse and the spouse's relations.
One's parents are chronically ill and his patrimony greatly reduced if the Eighth house lord occupies the Fourth
9th:
Taurus, being an essentially materialistic sign concerned with sensual gratification and material pleasure, produces an abundance of wealth, respectability, honor, and material enjoyment. The heavy burdens of family and society placed on the individual's shoulders are not conducive to the arduous preparations for spiritual attainment. What the individual is able to serve is his society and his friends. He learns his spiritual lessons while satisfying his own carnal passions, and learns, in the process, that there are other values in life which must be taken into account even while leading a worldly existence. This same lesson is taught by any planet in Taurus in the Ninth, except for Ketu, under whose impact the native is stripped of all his power and sustenance and psychologically crucified for trying to explore the unknown and share his experiences of it.
"Occultism is a dangerous path whose implications cannot be easily comprehended; the road to divine unfoldment requires passage through many mysterious places and circumstances. For such occult preparations, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius also have special significance"
10th:
"SATURN, with its tremendous power to annihilate old worlds and create new ones, provides a detachment in worldly matters which nevertheless has constructive and creative capabilities. Such an individual is drawn more towards the abstract sense of justice, the underlying or hidden order beneath external manifestation, and even towards the complete destruction of the existing world order. The Saturnian native makes a good surgeon, engineer, social reformer, scientist — or butcher. He moves from one place to another or from one job to another, without knowing why he does so but acting from an unseen motivation.
He is often a leader or a great thinker, but sometimes he may be considered a little crazy in his ideas."
Gemini in the Tenth house often belongs to a person who has clarity with regard to his purpose in life and is aware of his responsibilities. Intellectually, he is usually very bright. He may, however, be divided in his loyalties between the temporal and spiritual world. He often succeeds in attaining equanimity by adhering to a higher and giving up a lower state of consciousness. But in making this choice, he makes a substantial sacrifice in terms of material advantage.
SATURN will cause the children of the native to attain eminence in a foreign land; he himself will be considered an expert in international law. Psychologically he will feel greatly fettered; he seldom receives opportunities to express his special expertise. Occasionally he suffers serious setbacks in his career.
11th: cancer
Cancer in the Eleventh house brings the native into contact with truly evolved persons. His mind is developed and he is sensitive to the cruelties perpetrated on the people of the world. Such an individual takes a very ambitious stance in life, but later changes his job and earns money from agriculture or other trading activities. He studies religious texts, contemplates the problems of life, and secures much fame
12th:
Leo in this house of ultimate dissolution may, at worst, destroy the respectability of the native. He is not believed; his integrity is questioned. His carnal passion is often uncontrolled and even his closest friends abandon him.
November 30, 2009
The Simon Cowell of astrology. A must-have.
April 16, 2022
Awesome read
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