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 -

Planet Name Longitude Sign Star Sub

Sun 269°19'04" Jupiter Sun Rahu
Moon 118°50'32" Moon Mercury Saturn
Mars 258°56'14" Jupiter Venus Rahu
Mercury 283°37'35" Saturn Moon Rahu
Jupiter 277°55'40" Saturn Sun Venus
Venus 316°25'24" Saturn Rahu Venus
Saturn 147°42'35" Sun Sun Moon
Rahu 286°24'40" Saturn Moon Saturn
Ketu 106°24'40" Moon Saturn Jupiter

Cusp Longitude Sign Star Sub

1 001°23'55" Mars Ketu Venus
2 033°46'54" Venus Sun Saturn
3 059°19'19" Venus Mars Saturn
4 083°02'49" Mercury Jupiter Saturn
5 108°59'58" Moon Mercury Ketu
6 141°16'58" Sun Venus Jupiter
7 181°23'55" Venus Mars Mercury
8 213°46'54" Mars Saturn Saturn
9 239°19'19" Mars Mercury Saturn
10 263°02'49" Jupiter Venus Saturn
11 288°59'58" Saturn Moon Mercury
12 321°16'58" Saturn Jupiter Jupiter
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 -

Planet Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

(star lord's (occupancy) (star lord's (ownership)
occupancy) ownership)
Sun 10 10 6 6
Moon 10 5 4 5
Mars 11 9 2, 3, 7 1, 8, 9
Mercury 5 10 5 4
Jupiter 10 10 6 10
Venus 10 11 2, 3, 7
Saturn 10 6 6 11, 12
Rahu 5 10 5
Ketu 6 4 11, 12
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 –

House Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

(in Occupant's star) (Occupants) (in Owner's star) (Owner)
1 Mars
2 Mars Venus
3 Mars Venus
4 Ketu Moon Mercury
5 Mercury, Rahu Moon Mercury, Rahu Moon
6 Ketu Saturn Sun, Jupiter, Sun
 Saturn
7 Mars Venus
8 Mars
9 Mars Mars
10 Sun, Jupiter, Moon, Venus, Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Jupiter
Saturn Rahu
11 Mars Venus Ketu Saturn
12 Saturn

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 -

Day Day Lord

Sunday Sun

Monday Moon

Tuesday Mars

Wednesday Mercury

Thursday Jupiter

Friday Venus

Saturday Saturn
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 -

Longitude Sign Lord Star Lord

Ascendant 097°55'37" Moon Saturn

Moon 189°17'14" Venus Rahu

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) -

Ascendant Star Lord Saturn

Ascendant Sign Lord Moon

Moon Star Lord Rahu

Moon Sign Lord Venus

Day Lord Sun

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.