Astrology Basics: Concept of Houses, Sub Lord & Cuspal Sub Lord

The ABC, Astrology Basic Concepts, continues. In previous article, you learned what planets, zodiac signs & constellations are. Now, it is time when you come down from skies and understand some of the basic concepts used in astrology to analyze an astrological chart.

Zodiac signs are important and they do have their own set of characteristics as mentioned in the previous article but what actually plays a major role in deciding the fate of a person is the houses a planet signifies.

Similarly, the constellation in which a planet is present is capable of changing the nature of events. The planet may not give its own result but starts giving results of the constellation if the constellation lord strongly opposes what the planet is signifying but the Sub Lord holds the final say.

Houses (Cusps)

There are 12 houses in an astrological chart each having its own importance. Houses are also knows as cusps. There are 12 zodiac signs each having a width of 30 degrees but the houses (cusps) are of different width. You will find that the first house (ascendant) & seventh house has the greatest width.

Due to this a single zodiac sign can rule over maximum two houses while some other zodiac sign may not rule over any house. This is observed in the Bhava Chalit chart, bhava is a Sanskrit word which refers to houses in an astrological chart. The ayanamsa which I prefer for casting horoscopes is K.P. old.

House (Cusp)	Body Parts	Relationship	Other Significations
First	Head, Pituitary Gland	Self	Overall Health, Entire Physical Body, Mind, Nature
Second	Face, Eyes, Nose, Lips	Family	Assets, Possessions, Earned Wealth
Third	Ears, Throat, Arms, Hands	Younger Brother	Bravery, Strength, Communication, Media, Travel
Fourth	Chest, Lungs, Heart	Mother	Property, Vehicle, Comforts of Home, Home Land, Luxury, Hotel
Fifth	Digestive System, Spinal Cord, Pancreas, Liver, Gall Bladder, Spleen	Children, First Child	Intelligence, Creativity, Health, Spirituality, Love, Power
Sixth	Small Intestine	Maternal Uncle	Competing Ability, Conflicts, Miscommunication, Hard Work, Servants, Pets, Enemy, Bank
Seventh	Reproduction Organs, Kidney, Urinary Bladder	Spouse, Partner	Business, Trading, Other People, Open Enemy, War
Eighth	Large Intestine, Anus	In-Laws	Obstacles, Hurdles, Accidents, Sudden Events, Excavation, Occult, Insurance
Ninth	Hip Joint, Thighs	Teachers, Elderly People	Philosophy, Higher Knowledge, Righteousness, Astrology
Tenth	Knee Joint	Father	Status, Respect, Power, Boss, Authority
Eleventh	Lower Leg, Ankle	Elder Brother	Fulfillment of Desire, Gain, Income
Twelfth	Feet	Paternal Uncle	Expenditure, Loss, Isolation, Research, Foreign Lands, Separation, Liberation

Note: Different astrologer have different opinion about the significations of houses. Like some prefer ninth house for father. This is what we follow in our system while predicting events based upon the houses a planet is signifying & it has worked pretty well so far.

Cusps & houses does not actually mean the same thing. A cusp exists in a cuspal chart (bhava chalit chart) while we see houses in the main chart (Ascendant Chart). So, for a Leo ascendant person, fifth house is always going to be Sagittarius while the actual cusp might be present in Capricorn. You can call it cusp of the fifth house or fifth house cusp.

Suppose, you are a Leo ascendant person having 5 planets in Sagittarius. This may appear that you have a number of planets in a good house. But, if in cuspal chart (bhava chalit chart) all of them are shifted to sixth house then they are going to bring troubles to your health for sure. Since, they are placed in your fifth house, your fifth house will suffer i.e. you can suffer from breaks in education, problem in spinal cord or diabetes as well.

Do not expect good results based upon placement of planet in main birth chart (Ascendant Chart) as the cuspal chart (bhava chalit chart) decides results of every individual planet depending upon the cusp in which the planet is placed. The results are then experienced through that house in which the planets are placed in the Ascendant Chart.

Cusps & houses mean the same thing when you follow equal house system. The system in which you consider that each house has same width i.e. 30 degree. But we do not follow equal house system due to which this difference is experienced.

Sub Lord

In the previous article of astrology basics, we have covered the zodiac signs & constellations. There are 12 zodiac signs and 27 constellations which means 2.25 constellation per zodiac sign. When we further divide a constellation into nine parts, we call those individual parts as Sub (each part owned by one planet).

This gives total 243 subs. Out of them six subs lies at the intersection of fiery & earthy and airy & watery signs are again i.e. occupying 2 zodiac signs simultaneously and hence taken as two separate subs. Therefore, we have 249 subs in our system. - Refer to 249 Sub lords Table

Each constellation has a width of 13 degree 20 minutes. The width of sub of each planet is different & is not divided into nine equal parts. The ratio is as follows:

• Ketu - 7
• Venus - 20
• Sun - 6
• Moon - 10
• Mars - 7
• Rahu - 18
• Jupiter - 16
• Saturn - 19
• Mercury - 17

This is also the chronological order of occurring of planetary time periods (dashas). When you will add this, you will get 120. - Refer to Planetary Time Period System You Should Follow

Width of Ketu Sub: (13°20')*7/120 = 46' 40"

Constellations are always 13 degree 20 minutes wide & therefore, the width of Ketu Sub (or Sub of any other planet) always remains the same.

The first Sub is of the planet who owns the constellation. Eg: Bharani Constellation (13°20' - 26°40') is owned by Venus then first Sub is owned by Venus (or Venus is the Sub Lord of first Sub) then comes Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury & Ketu comes at the last.

By checking the degree of a planet in the 249 Sub Lords table you can find out in whose constellation & sub a planet is present. Then all you have to do is note the houses all of them (planet, constellation lord & Sub Lord) are signifying in the bhava chalit chart. The combination of houses will decide the result you will experience in that planet's time period.

I understand this may sound bit complicated at first, but when you will go through all my articles then you will understand what is actually going on. It takes time to become good with prediction but it is worth it.

Cuspal Sub Lord

Cuspal Sub Lord is just a theory but I think it is time that I should sum up everything with an example to make things clear.

This is the simplest illustration which I take all the time because the zodiac signs in Ascendant Chart & Bhava Chalit chart are same. But you can see that Sun appears to be in 4th house in the Ascendant Chart but in Bhava Chalit Chart it is shifted to 5th house cusp or 5th cusp. The zodiac sign in which Sun is present should be seen from Ascendant chart which is Taurus in this case.

Degree of Sun (29°30' Taurus) indicates that Sun is occupying the constellation of Mars & Sub of Saturn. Now, calculate the significations of these three by looking there zodiac signs & there placement in cuspal chart (bhava chalit chart).

In Cuspal Chart, Sun is present in fifth house & Sun's sign Leo is present on seventh house; Mars is present in third house & its signs Aries & Scorpio are present in tenth house in Chalit Chart; Saturn is present in first house & its signs Capricorn & Aquarius are present in twelfth & first house.

Sun: 5 7

Mars: 3 10

Saturn: 1 12

1. These are the house significations of Sun alone & we can remove the name of Mars & Saturn.
2. Power of Sub Lord is three times the power of planet & the power of Constellation Lord is two times that of planet. - Rules of Nadi Astrology

Sun: 5 7    * 1

          3 10   * 2

          1 12    * 3

Now, suppose the native is going through Sun time period and wishes to know if the Sun, lord of 7th house in this case will bring the marriage or not. Positive combination for marriage is 2, 7 & 11 and negative combination is 1, 6 & 10. Ignore the other houses and give +1 to each positive house and -1 to negative house.

Result of 7 in planet, 10 in Constellation & 1 in Sub Lord : (+1)*1 + (-1)*2 + (-1)*3 = -4 (Denial of Marriage in Sun Time Period)

Suppose, the degree of ascendant is 16 degree Aquarius. Then the seventh house will lie exactly at 16 degree Leo (180 degree apart). The Sub lord at the starting degree of any cusp is known as the Cuspal Sub Lord.

We do not use Cuspal Sub lord in horoscopes because it changes within minutes & seconds and the birth chart should be very accurate in order to give predictions based upon Cuspal Sub Lord but still there is a theory based on this.

Cuspal Sub Lord Theory states that if the Sub lord of a prime house denies the corresponding event then the event is not going to happen even if the time periods supports it.

Eg: The prime house for marriage is the seventh house even though the combination for marriage is 2, 7 & 11. If the cuspal Sub Lord of the prime house (seventh house here) denies the event by strongly signifying 1, 6 & 10 then the native will never get married in his/her life.

In this case, we are assuming that Sun is the cuspal sub lord of seventh house & it denied marriage. This means that this native is never going to get married.

Read Next: Astrology Basics: Accurately assess a Birth Chart

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