How to Read a Vedic Horoscope

Reading a Vedic chart – Houses, Signs and Planets

There are multiple websites that can generate a Vedic horoscope for you. In this article, we will learn how to read a Vedic horoscope or chart. The chart is divided into 12 portions known as Houses as you can see in the image:

Each house corresponds to various parts of life. The first house represents your self, your body, mind, your personality. 2nd is your family, wealth, speech, fixed assets. 3rd is your siblings, communication etc 4th is your childhood, home, mother 5th is your creativity, education 6th is competitors, disease, debts, conflicts, obstacles etc 7th is your partner, legal dealings 8th is sudden changes, hidden things, death 9th is your luck or past life karma, your religious inclinations 10th is your career, your father 11th is your social network, friends, gains 12th is foreign lands, imagination, dreams, bed pleasures, spirituality Each house indicates more aspects but these should do for a beginner. The chart is divided into 12 zodiac signs too. Each house will have one zodiac sign. The signs are usually represented by numbers:

1 = Aries

2 = Taurus

3 = Gemini

4 = Cancer

5 = Leo

6 = Virgo

7 = Libra

8 = Scorpio

9 = Sagittarius

10 = Capricorn

11 = Aquarius

12 = Pisces In the image below, there is number 2 in the first house i.e. Taurus in the first house.

The Gemini zodiac is there in the 2nd house in the chart we have and Scorpio in the 7th house. The houses are always fixed. The top one is always the first house. The first house is the Ascendant. So, this person has a Taurus ascendant. (Later on, we will learn what this means for a person) There are nine planets: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu (North Node of the Moon) and Ketu (South Node of the Moon). The symbols used for each planet are Su, Mo, Ma, Me, Ju, Ve, Sa, Ra and Ke respectively. Rahu (Ra) and Ketu (Ke) are special points in space calculated based on the positions of Sun and Moon respectively. Hence, they are not really planets but points in space. Although, it is said they might be invisible planets not on the physical plane. Each planet has a specific energy to it. Sun represents the father, the boss in workplace, the ruler (king) of a nation. It represents your soul and your ego. It shines bright, radiance. Moon is intuition, emotions, mother, the queen, the homeland, the childhood. Mars is the soldier, aggressive energy, vitality. It also represents people who dig deep...engineers, miners, surgeons, etc. Mercury is the Prince. He loves to have fun, go after the women. But, he can also take care of the business, when the King asks him to. He is the businessman. Jupiter is the guru, the teacher, the wisdom. Venus is beauty, creativity, pleasures etc. Saturn is discipline, structure, hard work Ra is uncontrolled desire Ke is indifference

Each planet indicates many more things but this should suffice for a beginner. In the next article, we will delve into the meaning of each sign and, further on, see how to interpret the meaning of different combinations. e.g. what would Moon in Gemini, or Scorpio in 7th house, mean?