The Birth(Natal) Chart in the Vedic Astrology- Houses and Signs

 Hello Everyone!!

Today we gonna know about the Birth or Natal chart in the Vedic astrology. Also, refer to as Kundli or Janampartrika in Hindi.
A Vedic birth chart is the astrological representation of the planetary placements and combinations at the time one takes birth.

It can be in North-Indian style, South-Indian style, so on and so forth. But the one I am gonna refer to in my this and subsequent posts would be of former kind i.e. the North-Indian style of the Birth chart as the latter is a tad complex due to the Ascendant that keeps on changing(it is constant in North-Indian style of birth chart) and also there are many other factors.

One needs to know his/her exact date, time and place of birth to have an accurate generation of the birth chart be it from any software.

To start with, let me show you how a default birth chart looks like:

                                          Fig.1

As you guys can appreciate in the picture above, there are 12 boxes which are called the 12 Houses of the birth chart.

                                          Fig.2

KENDRA/ANGULAR HOUSES

                                       
                                          Fig.3

                      TRIKONE/TRINE HOUSES
                                   

The square boxes are called Kendra/Angular Houses while the triangular boxes are called Trikone/Trine Houses (there are many categories of houses which we will be dealing in subsequent posts).

                            Fig.4

                         

Starting from the centre-top box mentioned in the above picture, called the 1st House or Ascendant or Rising Star/Sign or Lagna(it never gets changed in any birth chart, it remains constant i.e. you cannot consider this house and 2nd house, 3rd house etc. etc in other charts. 1st house is always the 1st house). From here, we count the subsequent houses in the anti-clockwise direction till the 12th House(immediate right to the 1st House).

All these houses signify different aspects of one's life such as personality, wealth, siblings, marriage, career, etc, etc. We will be dealing with it in details in future posts. 

Now let us take an example of any random birth chart:

                            Fig.5

                         

Here, you would observe that some numbers or digits are being mentioned in each house. Don't get confused with this as the sequence of houses. Let me tell you what these digits in each house signify.

These numbers are nothing but the Signs(Rashi). These are 12 in number signifying the 12 signs of the Zodiacal Belt. 

For the purpose of Predictive Astrology, 27 asterisms(Nakshatras) and 9 planets have been taken into consideration. The Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun through a certain path in the heavens. This path is referred to as Ecliptic. On both sides of the Ecliptic, there is an imaginary belt of 9-9 degrees each inside which all these planets revolve. This broad belt, a total of 18 degrees, is called Zodiac.

To facilitate the study of astronomy, Zodiac has been divided into 12 equal parts. Each part is called a Sign or Rashi. These are:

  1. Aries (Mesha)

  2. Taurus (Vrishabha)

  3. Gemini (Mithuna)

  4. Cancer (Karka)

  5. Leo (Simha)

  6. Virgo (Kanya)

  7. Libra (Tula)

  8. Scorpio (Vrishchika)

  9. Sagittarius (Dhanu)

10. Capricorn (Makara)

11. Aquarius (Kumbha)

12. Pisces (Meena)

#Note: This sequence of signs never changes, it is constant i.e you can't put Gemini in 6th position or Cancer in 7th position. Gemini and Cancer always hold 3rd and 4th position in the sequence respectively.

So, for the above fig.5, the 1st house has sign #10.
Hence, the Ascendant for this chart is CAPRICORN. 


Now you know that there are 12 Houses and 12 Signs/Rashis.
Houses' number is constant and it never changes while each sign in a definite sequence, as mentioned above, keeps on changing its house every 2 hours (as there are 24 hours in each day and 12 signs in total).

For example (random): If Aries i.e. sign #1 sits in the house no. 1 at 6:00 am then it will move to house no. 12 around 8:00 am (the exact time is counted from the exact time of sunrise). Therefore, in a similar sequence Taurus i.e. sign #2 will occupy the house no. 1 around 8:00 am as Aries has moved to house no. 12. Similarly, around 10:00 am Gemini ie. sign #3 will move to and occupy the house no. 1 as Taurus now moved to and Aries moved to house no 11. and this is how houses remain constant and the signs keep on changing the houses every 2 hours sequentially.


I hope guys, you are now clear as to how the birth chart per se looks like for there is no use of discussing the planets and signs and all without the basics i.e. the natal/birth chart.

For any further questions or if you have any doubts, you may ask in the comment section below.

Stay blessed and happy.

XOXO.....