Planetary Actions and Domain of Houses

One of very basic questions of a new student of astrology is determination of how planets act in a chart for a given matter.

A house in the horoscope signifies a matter at hand. Therefore, it is important for us to first determine which house should be studied. E.g. for children, speculation, intelligence, we look at 5th house. This is the relevant domain area. Now for the matters to fructify, it is important to have planets involved; field of activity and domain is determined by the house and actions are determined by the planets. Once the domain/house is determined, the following planets should be identified:

1. Karaka of the domain: E.g. Sun denotes father, Venus denotes wife, etc.. Since this planet is the natural karaka for the domain, it would continue to do it irrespective of the horoscope.
2. Lord of the house by virtue of the sign located in the house: This planet “owns” the trait in the horoscope for all practical purposes. This planet is the biggest influence on the trait .  If you consider the set of planets influencing the trait as a team, then this planet is the de facto team lead. A leader can be powerless and that would hurt the affairs of the house.
3. There are other planets that can be in yoga with the Lord. These planets influence the leader. There are some matters that require contribution from planets influencing multiple houses at the same time.
4. Planets located in the house influence the affair of the house, but work under the shadow of the leader.
5. There is an outside influence of other planets on this house, which should be considered like a nudge from outside:
• Drishti: Planets having drishti on the house fall in this category. The beneficial or malefic influence is on the house. When things are executed by the leader and team members, the good or bad nature of the final outcome is influenced by these planets
• Argala and Badhaka: These work in creating an intervention on the final outcome. Argala can again have a good or bad influence, but badhaka will always create obstacles.

So what does this leader really do? As the lord of a house, a responsibility is entrusted to a planet to take the affairs of the house to fruition. A planet’s agenda in a horoscope will be seen from the house lordship in a horoscope, which is always overriding factor. As a leader, the lord of the house provides the vision and direction, sets the rules and imprints its personality on the trait.

The inherent nature of planet will govern how things are done and how results are achieved, but eventually it is the job of these set of planets a team to see that it is done. That is why it is extremely important to understand the qualities of the planets and how they operate. This should be the first lesson for anyone who wants to learn astrology. In my humble opinion, the best is to go through the chapter of the planets in The Astrology of the Seers in detail.

As a leader, the lord will transform and influence other planets that are situated in its sign/house. This is the basic principle of dispositorship in a horoscope. However, in some cases, if the leader is weak (due to various astrological factors), the team members may in turn may start exerting their influence on it.

If the affairs of a house are controlled and executed by a team (as above), the entire horoscope can be considered horoscope as a hierarchy. A leader could a part of another team for a different affair and house. Its traits may thus be modified by another planet. There is a possibility of one planet becoming the main dispositor of all the planets. Such a planet would exert the biggest influence on the personality of the individual.