How to read your Kundli: a simple guide for beginners

A Kundli looks like a puzzle of diamonds and numbers. It is simpler than it looks. Once you know three words and twelve houses, you can read the basics of any chart, including your own.

Three words to know first

• Lagna (ascendant): the sign rising in the east at your birth. It is your body, your nature and the starting point of the chart.
• Rashi (Moon sign): the sign the Moon was in. It is your mind. Rashifal, Sade Sati and Kundli Milan are all counted from it.
• Nakshatra (birth star): the one of 27 star groups the Moon was in. It sets your dasha and your name letter.

The 12 houses

• 1st: self, body and personality.
• 2nd: money, family and speech.
• 3rd: courage, brothers and sisters, and effort.
• 4th: mother, home, property and peace.
• 5th: children, education, romance and creativity.
• 6th: work, debts, health habits and competition.
• 7th: marriage and partnership.
• 8th: sudden change, inheritance and hidden matters.
• 9th: luck, father, teachers and dharma.
• 10th: career and reputation.
• 11th: income, gains and friends.
• 12th: expenses, foreign lands and letting go.

Reading a North Indian chart

In the North Indian chart the houses never move. The top middle diamond is always the 1st house, and the houses run anticlockwise from there. The number written in each house is the sign: 1 is Mesh, 2 is Vrishabh, and so on up to 12 for Meen. So if the top diamond shows 5, your lagna is Simha.

Reading a South Indian chart

In the South Indian chart the signs never move. Meen is always the top left box and the signs run clockwise. The lagna is marked with a line or the letters "As", and you count houses clockwise from it.

Where to start

• Find your lagna and see which planet rules it. That planet is your lagna lord, the most important planet in your chart.
• See which house the lagna lord sits in. That area of life gets most of your energy.
• Find the Moon. Its sign is your rashi and its house shows where your mind lives.
• Check which mahadasha you are running. It tells you which planet is in charge right now.

Never judge a chart from one placement. A planet that looks weak is often supported by another, and the whole chart must be read together.