Chapter 2: Fundamental Principles

Before We Start

Any questions arise in the mind of KP student while reading this tutorial can be discussed in K_P_System YahooGroup (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/k_p_system). Also drop an email to KP System YahooGroup (k_p_system@yahoogroups.com), if you are a KP astrologer and want to contribute to this tutorial.  

The Horoscope Explained 

A horoscope (also called Chart or Kundali) is a map of heavens seen at a particular time from a particular place. The KP horoscope is slightly different from the traditional horoscope as it contains comparatively more information. A KP horoscope typically contains position of 12 planets (including Rahu, Ketu, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) and 12 houses. There are various ways in which a horoscope can be drawn. In India two most popular formats are ‘North Indian format’ and ‘South Indian format’. Here is a sample horoscope diagram drawn for –

Date: January 13, 2009

Time: 12: 00 Noon IST

Place: Agra, UP, India

(Detailed chart can be found at www.astrosage.com/chart.asp?user=kptutorial)

This is a horoscope in South Indian format. The South Indian chart is seen in clock-wise fashion. In the South Indian chart format, signs are fixed and houses & planets keep moving. The second box from the top left is fixed for Aries. This is the box where “I 001-23-55” is written on the chart. From that box onwards, in the clockwise fashion, we can read other signs i.e. Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces respectively.

So keeping this chart in mind, we can say that first house starts from Aries (because ‘I’ is written in the box fixed for Aries) 1 degree, 23 minutes and 55 seconds. The second house starts from Taurus 3 degree 46 minutes 54 seconds. The starting position of second house is also ending position for first house.

Third house starts from Taurus 29 degree 19 minutes 19 seconds. Fourth house starts from Gemini 23 degree 2 minute 49 seconds. As we see Ketu in Cancer 16 degree 24 minute 10 seconds between ‘IV’ and ’V’ number, we can say that Ketu is in fourth house. Similarly, Saturn is between ‘VI’ and ‘VII’, so we can say that Saturn is in sixth house and so on.

Similarly we can see position of all planets and houses from this chart. To have a consistency across the tutorial, we are planning to stick to the South Indian chart format.

Note: Astrologers from the Traditional astrology background may wonder seeing the chart above how come both second and third houses are fallen into the same sign Taurus? Which means that Venus is lord of both the houses - second and third. Mars also become lord of eighth house and ninth house as per KP chart. Virgo and Pisces are kind-of disappeared as no house is falling in these two signs? This is because of the reason that KP uses Placidus House division system, which is borrowed from Western astrology, where the houses are of unequal size. Unlike Traditional astrology, not all houses are of equal size of 30 degree in KP and hence sometimes no house falls into a sign or sometimes more than one house fall into a sign. We will talk more about it in the later chapters.

Creating Horoscope (Casting the Chart)

As discussed, to cast a KP chart, you need positions of 12 planets and 12 houses. There are two ways you can get these information -

1. You can use some software, which requires just date, time and place, or

2. You can calculate these positions manually with the help of certain tables

Calculating KP horoscope manually is a tedious process. We will cover manual calculation in later chapters (chapter 3). Till such time, you can use free software on www.MyKundali.com for casting a KP chart.

Planets

As mentioned above, totally 12 planets are used in KP namely Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. As Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are of comparatively recent discovery, usage of these planets is not as extensive as other 9 planets. Not all KP astrologers use all 12 planets, hence the usage of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto is up to the choice of a KP astrologer. In this tutorial, our emphasis will also be on original 9 planets only. Please note that Rahu and Ketu are not planets in terms of modern astronomy, as they don't have any physical existence. They are mere mathematical points. Due to this reason, they are also sometimes called as shadow planets. I'll not go into the astronomical details of Rahu and Ketu because it is not the objective of this tutorial. 

Each planet owns certain signs and stars (nakshatras) as follows -

More comprehensive list of house groups can be found at House Grouping section of this wiki.

Good and Bad Houses for Specific Matters

Generally 12th house from any house is considered detrimental to that house and hence negates the results of that house. For example, 2, 7 and 11 houses are the houses that give marriage. 12th House from these houses i.e. 1 (12th from 2), 6 (12th from 7) and 10 (12th from 11) will give opposite results i.e. denial of marriage or separation, divorce etc., if already married. This is a general rule which requires some modifications on the basis of sufficient evidence.

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 -

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 -

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 –

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 -

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 -

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) -

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.

Method 1: Detrimental House Method

The significators of houses detrimental to the aspect under consideration are weaker. For example, house number 1 (12th to 2nd – negation of 2nd) 5 (12th to 6) and 9 (negation to 10th) are detrimental houses for the job. In the example chart, significators of house 1, 5, and 9 are as follows –

1 – Mars

5 – Mercury, Rahu, Moon

9 – Mars

As Moon, Mars, Mercury and Rahu are the significators of 1, 5, and 9 as well. These are not powerful enough to give results of house number 2, 6, 10 and 11. So these are the planets that have the possibility of dropping from the significator list of job. If we remove Moon, Mars, Mercury and Rahu from the significators list, we will left with the following –

Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Ketu

Method 2: Sub-lord method

Remove the significators in the sub of the signifcators of the houses detrimental to the houses under consideration. As mentioned above, house number 1 (12th to 2nd – negation of 2nd) 5 (12th to 6) and 9 (negation to 10th) are detrimental houses for job. Significators of house 1, 5, and 9 are as follows –

1 – Mars

5 – Mercury, Rahu, Moon

9 – Mars

Planets in the Sub of above planets are as follows –

Moon – Saturn is in the Sub of Moon

Mars – There is no planet in the Sub of Mars

Mercury – There is no planets in the Sub of Mercury

Rahu – Sun, Mars and Mercury in the Sub of Rahu

So Saturn, Sun, Mars and Mercury are also weaker significators for job and can be removed from the signifactor list.

Note: Some KP astrologers give more importance to star lord of sub lord rather than sub lord itself.

Method 3: Ruling Planets method

Check the ruling planets for the time of judgment of the horoscope. The ruling planets that are also found in the significators of the house grouping are the strongest significators. In other words select the planets which are common among singificator for the aspect and ruling planets.

Selection of Fruitful significator: A Step by Step Approach

This is a step by step approach often recommended in k_p_system yahoogroup. Out of the significators mentioned above and select the fruitful significators as follows:

1) Significtors which are common with the Ruling Planets,

2) Significators which are posited in the stars of the cuspal sub lords of required houses for a matter under consideration, 2,7,11 for marriage,

3) Significators which are the cuspal sub lords of the required houses,

4) Significators of planets without having any planet in their stars, which are strongest to give the results of the houses by being the sub lord to them. (Golden Rule: Take the planets which are posited in the sub of the significators whose constellations are not tenanted),

5) Significators appearing many times amongst the Ruling Planets and significators.

6) Ruling Planets or other methods of selecting fruitful significators can to be used in fixing timing of event by DBAS.

Finding out promises in a chart

In the "House Grouping" section it was explained that - "for every important aspect of human life, one house has been given primary importance and few other houses have been given secondary importance." Standard rules for prediction are -

1. If the sublord of primary house under consideration is signifying house group related to the matter under consideration then the matter is going to fructify and the answer is positive.

2. On the contrary, if it sublord of primary house is signifying detrimental houses (see good and bad houses above) alone then the matter will not fructify

3. But, if it sublord of primary house is signifying house group as well as detrimental houses then the native will get both the results in different dasa period.

As explained in house grouping section, 7th house is the primary house for marriage. 2nd and 11th houses are supportive houses. These three houses together will be called conductive house group (or simply house group) for marriage. 1st, 6th and 10th house being 12th from the mentioned house group are detrimental for marriage. If sublord of 7th house is signifying either 7th or 2nd or 11th then the marriage is promised. The person will definitely marry. This way we can decide the promises related to various aspect of life in a chart.

Timing Events

Once it is decided whether the event is promised in the chart or not, next important step is to find out when the event will take place.

The matter will fructify in the dasa, bhukti and antara of the significators of houses group for the matter under consideration. Significators of main and supportive houses needs to be found out according to the method given in the section "Finding House Signifcators." Now-a-days all KP software like http://www.MyKundali.com gives you a list of significator, so you need not to worry about significator selection process. The event will happen in the conjoined period of the signifcators of the house group for the matter under consideration. Among the signficators, you need out possible dasa lord, bhukti lord and antara lord. If the selected number of sigfinicators are more than three (we require one for dasa, one for bhukti and one for antara), we need to find out powerful significators among them according to the rules given in "selection of significator" section.

Note: In KP System, only Vimshottari Dasa is used. Other dasas like Yogini, Kalchakra, Ashottari, Chara Dasa etc. are not used.

Generally dasa is for some longer duration. To pin point exact time of happening of an event, we need to see the transit as follows -

1. Dasa, Bhukti and Antara lord should transit through the significators of the houses under consideration to fructify the event.

2. For even finer timing, we need to check transit of Sun and Moon. Sun and Moon should transit through the significators.

Note: Sun transit is considered when the event is likely within a year. Moon transit should be considered for pin-pointing an events up to a month. Lagan transit should be considered for predicting the event upto hour and minutes.

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