Sārāvalī · Phaladīpikā · checked against your chart
Planets in the houses
A house is a department of your life. A graha sitting in it works on that department for as long as you live. That is the whole idea, and it is the first thing anybody learns to read in a chart.
What most pages on this subject leave out is that the same placement does not mean the same thing for everybody. Saturn in the 7th house is a yogakāraka for one ascendant and a debilitated planet ruling two difficult houses for another. So every page here gives the classical verse first, and then a computed table of what that graha actually owns and how it is dignified for all twelve rising signs.
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Find out which house each of your planets is in
Enter your birth details once. We will cast the chart and take you straight to the nine pages that describe your own placements.
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No single placement decides a life. Every planet here is read against the whole chart before it means anything.
Saturn in the twelve houses
Śani — time, delay, labour, old age and the debt that has to be paid. It rules Capricorn and Aquarius, is exalted in Libra, falls in Aries, and aspects the 3rd, 7th and 10th houses from itself.
- Saturn in the 1st houseBody and selfA slow start, a hard childhood, and a face that ages backwards.
- Saturn in the 2nd houseWealth, family and speechMoney arrives late, and it arrives from somewhere else.
- Saturn in the 3rd houseCourage and younger siblingsMalefics do well here. Saturn in the 3rd is stamina that outlasts talent.
- Saturn in the 4th houseMother, home and peace of mindThe mother, the home, and the quiet that will not settle.
- Saturn in the 5th houseChildren, intelligence and past meritChildren late or few, a deep mind, and a long argument with anxiety.
- Saturn in the 6th houseEnemies, debt and diseaseEnemies lose because you are still there. One of Saturn's best houses.
- Saturn in the 7th houseMarriage and partnershipSaturn's strongest house — and the hardest thing it does to a marriage.
- Saturn in the 8th houseLongevity, upheaval and hidden thingsThe verse says short life. The tradition mostly says the opposite.
- Saturn in the 9th houseFortune, father and dharmaThe harshest verse in the chapter — and three saints who had it.
- Saturn in the 10th houseCareer and standingBoth texts say king or minister. The bill is sent to the home.
- Saturn in the 11th houseGains, income and elder siblingsThe only house where neither text finds anything bad to say.
- Saturn in the 12th houseLoss, foreign lands and liberationHeavy expenses, foreign shores, and a real talent for solitude.
Still being written
Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Rahu, Ketu — one graha at a time, written from the texts rather than generated. Until they land, the full chart tool already computes every one of these placements for you.
Open your birth chart →The twelve houses, in one line each
- 1st · Tanu bhāva
- the body, health, complexion, temperament, and the way you come across before you say anything
- 2nd · Dhana bhāva
- savings and accumulated wealth, the family you were born into, food, and speech
- 3rd · Sahaja bhāva
- courage, initiative, the hands and arms, short journeys, and younger brothers and sisters
- 4th · Sukha bhāva
- the mother, the home, land and vehicles, schooling, and plain inner contentment
- 5th · Putra bhāva
- children, the thinking mind, learning, romance, and the good karma carried in from before
- 6th · Ripu bhāva
- illness, debts, litigation, enemies, competition, and daily service or employment
- 7th · Kalatra bhāva
- the husband or wife, business partners, contracts, and your dealings with the public
- 8th · Āyur bhāva
- length of life, sudden reversals, in-laws' money, inheritance, occult study, and chronic trouble
- 9th · Bhāgya bhāva
- luck, the father, the teacher, long journeys, pilgrimage, and religious life
- 10th · Karma bhāva
- profession, authority, reputation in public, and the work you are known for
- 11th · Lābha bhāva
- income and profit, fulfilled wishes, friends and networks, and elder brothers and sisters
- 12th · Vyaya bhāva
- expenditure, foreign residence, hospitals and confinement, the bed, and mokṣa
Frequently asked questions
What does a planet in a house mean in Vedic astrology?
A house is a department of life — the 7th is marriage, the 10th is career, the 4th is home and mother. A graha sitting in a house colours that department with its own nature for the whole life. Saturn in the 7th slows and hardens the marriage; Venus there sweetens it. The placement is a standing condition, always switched on; the daśā periods decide when you actually feel it.
Is the house placement more important than the sign?
For most practical questions, yes. The sign tells you how a planet behaves; the house tells you what part of your life it behaves in. But neither settles anything alone — what the graha owns for your particular ascendant usually matters more than either, which is why every page here carries a table of all twelve ascendants.
Why do two websites give me different houses for the same planet?
Almost always because one uses whole-sign houses and the other uses a cusp-based system, or because one is using the tropical zodiac instead of the sidereal. This section uses whole-sign houses on the Lahiri ayanāṁśa, which is the standard Parāśara convention in India. A wrong or approximate birth time will also move planets between houses.
Are these results from a real classical text?
Yes. The verse on every page is taken from Sārāvalī of Kalyāṇavarma, Chapter 30, and Phaladīpikā of Mantreśvara, Chapter 8 — the two standard sources for planets in the bhāvas. They are printed as they read, including the harsh ones, with the same chapter's own rule about strength and dignity alongside them.
The classical results sound frightening. How literally should I take them?
As the starting position, not the verdict. Sārāvalī closes that chapter by saying that according to a planet's strength, its friendships, the aspects on it and whether it sits exalted or fallen, the result comes out full, half, or not at all. A dignified planet keeps most of the good and sheds most of the harm. Reading one verse without that rule is how people frighten themselves unnecessarily.