7 min · Goal: Use karakas alongside houses and lords, and assess a planet in a repeatable order.
Beyond ruling houses, each graha permanently signifies certain things for everyone. That is its karaka role, and it gives you a third way into any question alongside the house and the house lord.
The main ones: Sun for father and authority. Moon for mother and mind. Mars for siblings, courage and property. Mercury for intellect and communication. Jupiter for children, wealth and the guru. Venus for spouse and comfort. Saturn for longevity, service and sorrow. Rahu for foreign matters, Ketu for liberation.
So for a question about marriage you check three things: the 7th house, the 7th lord, and Venus. When all three agree, you can say something with some confidence. When they disagree, the honest answer is that the area is mixed.
One classical principle worth knowing and worth holding loosely: a karaka placed in the house it signifies is said to harm that house. Jupiter, the karaka of children, in the 5th house of children. Venus, the karaka of marriage, in the 7th.
The reasoning is that the significator is too close to its own subject to see it clearly. Practitioners disagree substantially about how much weight this deserves, and many treat it as a minor consideration or ignore it entirely. We mention it because you will encounter it, not because you should build a reading on it.
Work through the same sequence every time. Which sign is it in, and what is its dignity there? Which house does it occupy? Which houses does it rule for this Lagna, and is it therefore a functional benefic? Is it combust? What does it aspect, and what aspects it? What is it conjunct with? And what is it karaka for?
Seven checks. Doing them in a fixed order is what stops you from noticing one dramatic factor and building a reading around it — which is the single most common failure in amateur interpretation, and in a good deal of professional interpretation too.
You have the framework from Level 2 and the actors from Level 3. That is the foundation of Jyotish, and you can now look at any placement in any chart and describe its condition accurately, which is more than most people who discuss astrology confidently can do.
Level 4 covers yogas — the named combinations — and, as much as their meanings, how to judge how common and how significant any given one actually is.
Someone asks what their chart says about children. Which three factors do you check, and what do you do if they disagree?
You now have both halves of the foundation: the houses from Level 2 and the grahas from Level 3. Level 4 covers yogas — the named combinations — and how to judge how common and how significant any given one actually is. Create a free account and we will tell you when it opens.
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