Astrology – 1st House – Lagna / Ascendant

This is the 1^st house of any birth chart. This is where your birth starts. Ascendant is described in the scriptures as, the zodiac sign which is rising in the east horizon when you are born. The ascendant changes approximately every 2 hours in sky at the eastern horizon. Say for example when you were born, the sign rising on the eastern horizon was Taurus. Then your 1^st house will become Taurus.

This is the house, which denotes you. Your individuality. What you are. It represents your body and specifically the upper part of the face till your nose starting from your head. It represents your vitality. It represents your physique, appearance, brain, complexion of the body, vigour, weakness, happiness, grief and innate nature. It also, represents your form and shape, longevity, start in life.

Relatives it signifies are – Self, Maternal Grandfather.

It also represents the mind of the father.Why mind of the father? In any chart the 5^th house represents the mind. In your chart, your father is represented by the 9^th house. So 5^th house from the 9^th house which is your 1^st house (Ascendant) is the representation of your father’s mind.

Now the point to note here is that, the strength of your ascendant will determine, how will your life be. Firstly, which Zodiac sign is in the ascendant. Then where is the lord of the ascendant placed. Who is the lord of the ascendant? Is the Lord of the ascendant present with a benefic or malefic planet? Who is aspecting the Ascendant and the ascendant lord. All these put together will direct you to understand how the Ascendant will play a role in your life.

If the Ascendant and its lord is very strong, then the individual can overcome all difficulties in life pretty easily. This cannot however be in isolation. It has to be holistically looked at with other combinations and significations in the chart.

Example: If the Ascendant lord in placed in the 10^th house, then the individual’s major focus of life and his force of life will be towards career, status, and matters concerning the 10^th house. If there is a planet, say Jupiter, present in the ascendant, then the brain of the person will work majorly according to the significations of Jupiter on an overall basis. Always wanting to gain knowledge. This will be his image. The way the world will look at them and perceive them. If Venus is present in the Ascendant, then the individual will be heavily focused on beauty, vehicles, luxury and all other significations of Venus. Also, if there are no planets in the Ascendant, then the placement and association of the Lord of the ascendant plays the vital role of the individual’s image.

Again, these are examples only. The chart needs to be looked at holistically to gauge the totality of the individual.

Below are the basic and general permutation and combinations, as given in the texts, if the Ascendant lord is placed in the 12 different houses. This is at a very basic and mundane level. The actual impact can be judged when we combine the Lord placement with the sign and planet placements. But from a basic comprehension aspect, this will be helpful to understand as we go along. So, this is not to be taken literally as full diagnosis is required. You also have to understand, that these texts were written when our society and culture had much different values and norms. You have to be intelligent enough to interpret these according to today’s time place and condition. These are just excerpts. We shall cover this in details a different series on “Lords in the Houses”.

1^st Lord in the 1^st house: Native will be endowed with physical happiness and prowess. He will be intelligent, fickle-minded, will have two wives and will unite with other females. The position of the ascendant lord in the ascendant itself will make the native fearless and long-lived.

1^st Lord in the 2^nd house: Native will be gainful, scholarly, happy, endowed with good qualities, be religious, honourable and will have many wives. This native will face obstacles in obtaining progeny and thus will be left with longing for issues. He will further become wealthy though his own efforts.

1^st Lord in the 3^rd house: Native will equal a lion in valour, be endowed with all kinds of wealth, be honourable, will have two wives, be intelligent and happy. This native will be equal to king, respected by others and will indulge in unnatural methods of sexual gratification.

1^st Lord in the 4^th house: Native will be endowed with paternal and maternal happiness, will have many brothers, be lustful, virtuous and charming. This native is of Nobel descent. He will prosper by his own efforts. He will be ambitious and beautiful. Prosperity will come to him easily. He will enjoy physical felicity.

1^st Lord in the 5^th house: native will have mediocre progeny happiness, might lose his first child, be honourable, given to anger and be dear to king.

1^st Lord in the 6^th house: If related to a malefic the native will be devoid of physical happiness and will be troubled by enemies, if there is no benefic Drishti.

1^st Lord in the 7^th house: If Lagn’s Lord is a malefic the native’s spouse will not live (long). If the Grah in question is a benefic, one will wander aimlessly, face penury and be dejected. He will alternatively become a king (if the said Grah is strong).

1^st Lord in the 8^th house: native will be an accomplished scholar, be sickly, thievish, be given to much anger, be a gambler and will join others’ spouses.

1^st Lord in the 9^th house: native will be fortunate, dear to people, be a devotee of Śrī Vishnu, be skilful, eloquent in speech and be endowed with wife, sons and wealth.

1^st Lord in the 10^th house: native will be endowed with paternal happiness, royal honour, fame among men and will doubtlessly have self-earned wealth.

1^st Lord in the 11^th house: native will always be endowed with gains, good qualities, fame and many wives.

1^st Lord in the 12^th house: If Lagn’s Lord is devoid of benefic Drishti and/or conjunct with malefic, the native will be bereft of physical happiness, will spend unfruitfully and be given to much anger.

By now you would have started to get an idea of what would your 1^st house mean? Hold on, do not reach to conclusions. There is much more to come. In the next article I shall take you through the 2^nd House.