The 12 houses of Horoscope or the Janam Kundli are the most basic pillars of predictive astrology. Each house signifies a few things and each house has a lordship of a particular planet. It is important to understand how each house is faring in the birth chart to arrive at any particular deduction. Various ancient texts have talked about the 12 houses in detail.
Among the available astrological classics, the twelve houses of the zodiac have been explained well in the astrological classic Uttara Kalamrita which was written by Kalidasa.
We have given below the significance of all the twelve houses based on Uttara Kalamrita.
The details about the following have to be read from the first house which is the Lagna: (1) Body, (2) Limbs, (3) Happiness, (4) Unhappiness, (5) Old age, (6) Knowledge, (7) Birth place, (8) Fame, (9) Dreams, (10) Strength, (11) Dignity, (12) Political life, (13) Longevity, (14) Peace, (15) Age, (16) Hair, (17) Appearance, (18) Self-respect, (19) Livelihood, (20) Gambling for others, (21) Stigma, , (22) Honor, (23) Skin, (24) Sleep, (25) Wisdom, (26) Wealth, (27) Nature to insult and to avenge, (28) Freedom from ill health, (29) Nature to renounce, (30) Ability to do work, (31) Endeavoring to preserve live-stock, (32) Loss of decency, and (33) Defamation from one’s own Kinsmen or persons of the same caste.
Each house has a unique importance and signifies different aspects of human life.
The following items are to be judged from the second house: (1) Speech (2) Wealth, (3) Faith in the sacred texts, (4) Maintaining others, (5) Nails, (6) Enjoyment of pleasures, (7) Truth and falsehood, (8) Tongue, (9) Eyes, (10) Clothes, (11) Diamond, copper and precious stones, (12) Pearl, (13) Determination or control, (14) Artificial products, (15) Family, (16) Sale and purchase, (17) Soft speech, (18) Generous or charitable nature, (19) Efforts to acquire money, (20) Helping others, (21) Friends, (22) Splendor or grace, (23) Miserliness in giving money, (24), Great eloquence, (25) Learning, (26) Gold, (27) Fine silver, (28) Corn, (29) Humility, (30) Nose, (31) Firmness or steadiness of mind, (32) Close follower or neighbor, (33) Following the rules of going and arriving, and (34) Powerful or prosperous living.
From the third house the following factors have to be interpreted: (1) Courage, (2) Brothers, (3) War, (4) Ears, (5) Feet, (6) Road, (7) Land and place, (8) Mental instability, (9) Ability or fitness, (10) Abode of gods, (11) Causing sorrow, (12) Dream, (13) Soldier, (14) Valor, (15) One’s near relations, (16) Friends, (17) Wandering, (18) Throat, (19) Taking clean food and the like, (20) Power, (21) Partitioning of inheritance, (22) Ornaments, (23) Good qualities, (24) Education, (25) Pastime or hobby, (26) Strength, (27) Profits, (28) Physical growth or development, (29) Descent from a good family, (30) Servants, (31) The part of the hand between the thumb and the index finger (which is sacred to the dead ancestors), (32) Maid servants, (33) Small good vehicles or short good journeys, (34) Pilgrimages, (35) Great undertakings, and (36) Performing personal religious duties.
The things that can be delineated from the fourth house are the following: (1) Education, (2) National or governmental work, (3) House, (4) Travels, (5) Vehicles drawn by men, boats and similar conveyances, (6) Oil-bath, (7) Mother, (8) Relatives, (9) Friends, (10) Caste, (11) Clothes, (12) Small well, (13) Drink, (14) Milk, (15) Spices or perfumes, (16) One having happiness, (17) A good name, (18) Miraculously efficient medicine, (19) Faith or trust, (20) False allegations, (21) Mandapa or auspicious pavilion, (22) Victory, (23) Works that give sorrow or sufferings, (24) Agriculture, (25) Land, (26) Garden or pleasurable place, (27) Digging tanks and wells, (28) The several sacred installations, (29) Relatives on the mother’s side, (30) Pure or steady intellect, (31) Father, (32) Wife, (33) Securing and keeping safe one’s earnings, (34) Palace, (35) Sculpture, (36) Entering into one’s own new house, (37) Character, (38) Loss of one’s house, (39) Paternal property, (40) Food like that of the gods, (41) Art of giving mentally clues to the places where stolen property is hidden, (42) Ant-hill, (43) Developing or contributing to the extensive spread of the Vedic texts and Shastras, (44) Buffaloes, cows and bulls, horses, and elephants in an intoxicated state, (45) abundance of crops from wetlands, and (46) Wealth.
From the fifth house one has to examine the following: (1) Children, (2) Virtuous deeds of the father, (3) King, (4) Minister (or minister of a king or ruler), (5) Good character, (6) Sculpture, (7) Mind, (8) Education, (9) Pregnancy, (10) Discretion, (11) Umbrella, (12) Listening to or spreading good stories, (13) Auspicious documents or parchments, (14) Clothes, (15) Employing great Prayogs or Mantras for achieving varied desired ends, (16) Paternal property, (17) Foresightedness, (18) Wealth and prosperity acquired through the wife or her relatives, (19) Affairs with courtesans or loose women, (20) Profundity or seriousness, (21) Firmness, (22) Secrets, (23) Humility, (24) Good reporting of news, (25) Welfare, (26) Friendship, (27) Composition of Kaavyas and Prabandhas (minor epic narratives), (28) Undertaking some good work, (29) Stomach, (30) Mantra, (31) Upasana or worship with penance, (32) Splendor which is graceful and pleasing, (33) Distributing food, (34) Discrimination between virtue and vice, (35) Performing the japa of mantras, (36) Wisdom, (37) Deep thought, (38) Means of earning money, (39) Having the instrumental music of Mridanga and the like that give delight, (40) Scholarship in literature, and (41) Acquisition of the hereditary post of a minister.
We can judge the following from the sixth house: (1) Diseases, (2) Obstacles, (3) Fighting in war, (4) Maternal uncle, (5) Phlegm, (6) Tumor, (7) Cruel or fierce activities, (8) Madness, (9) Smallpox, (10) Foes and enmity, (11) Miserliness, (12) Ill-health, (13) Venereal boils, (14) Boiled rice, (15) Heavy breathing, (16) Debts, (17) Slanders, (18) Delight of the foes, (19) Tuberculosis, (20), Healed constitution, (21) Wounds, (22) Mental agony or worry, (23) Many intense worries, (24) Hatred by many, (25) Frequent diseases of the eyes, (26) Receiving alms, (27) Untimely food, (28) Fall or loss or destruction brought about by foes who are collaterals, (29) Profits, (30) Wearisomeness, (31) Poison, (32) Peptic or duodenal ulcer, (33) Fetters, (34) Protecting one’s own fame, (35) Urinary aliment, (36) Dysentery, (37) Six flavors (tastes in food like hot, sweet, bitter etc.), (38) Reproach, (39) Sorrows from servants and theft, (40) Imprisonment, (41) Quarrels from brothers and others.
The seventh house reveals the details about the following: (1) Marriage, (2) Loose sex life, (3) Victory in love or passion, (4) Hatred or a loose woman, (5) Deviation from the right or proper path, (6) Having perfumes, music and flowers, (7) Delicious food, drinks and the like, (8) Chewing betal leaves (tambula), (9) Break in travels, (10) Curd, (11) Loss of memory, (12) Possessing clothes and the like, (13) Semen, (14) Husband’s (or wife’s) purity, (15) A pair of wives, (16) Generative organ, (17)Urinary track, (18) Anus, (19) Commerce or trade, (20) Milk, (21) Sweet or pleasant mansion, (22) Food with cereals and ghee, (23) Charities, (24) Valor, (25)Destruction or enemies, (26) Victory, (27) Acquisition of money that is kept at a different or distant place, (28) Arguments, (29) Sexual union, (30) Adopted son, (31) Preparations with ghee, (32) Own place, (33) Foreign or distant place, (34) Wife (or husband), (35) All secret sex affairs and (36) theft.
From the eighth house we have to judge the following: (1) Longevity, (2) Happiness, (3)Disgrace or defeat, (4)Money coming from the death of some one as in insurance or as in the case of a dead distant relative, (5) Afflicted face, (6) Worry about or arising from death, (7) Absence of quarrels, (8) Sorrow from an ailment of meha, (9) worries arising from brother, enemy, wife (or husband), (10) The fortress of the enemy, (11) Misery or worry, (12) Idleness, (13) Fear of punishment from the government, (14) Loss of money, (15) Debts, (16) Receiving the money of others out of ignorance, (17) Long awaited money, (18) The arrival of a wicked person, (19) Sin, (20) Killing a live being, (21) Loss of a limb, (22) Capital punishment, (23) Terrifying sorrows, (24) A story that disturbs the mental peace, (25) Series of afflictions, (26) Attempting to do highly cruel acts, (27) Battle, and (28) Utmost mental anguish.
The following are to be judged from the ninth house: (1) Charity, (2) Virtuous acts, (3)Pilgrimages, (4) Penance, (5) Respectful devotion and service to the teachers and other elders, (6) Purity of mind, (7) Worship of the gods, (8) Effort to learn, (9) Splendor, (10) Travel or conveyance, (11) Fortune or prosperity, (12) Polity, (13) Valor, (14) Listening to or spreading good stories, (15) Travels, (16) Worshipping Shiva by pouring water on the image, (17) Nourishment, (18) Coming into contact with the virtuous, (19) Auspiciousness, (20) Paternal property, (21) Sons and daughters, (22) Eight forms of wealth, (23) Horses, elephants and buffaloes, (24) Coronation, (25) Temple, (26) Establishing or consecrating Brahma, or firmly securing the Brahmanical faith, (27) Vedic rituals and sacrifices, and (28) Circulation or distribution of money.
The tenth house gives us the details about the following: (1) Commerce, (2) Honor from the ruler, (3) Riding on a horse, (4) Wrestling, (5) Work of or in the Government, (6) Service, (7) Agriculture, (8) Doctoring, (9) Fame, (10) Buried or hidden treasure, (11) Sacrifices and the like, (12) Pre-eminence or the position of the best merchant, (13) Teachers, (14) Religious yantras or symbolic diagrams, (15) Chanting of sacred spells or mantras, (16) Mother, (17) Wide spread or extensive religious merit, (18) Medicine, (19) Thighs, (20) Gods, (21) Acquisition of the full power of a mantra, (22) Prosperity, (23) Adopted son, (24) Lordship, (25) Right path, (26) Good living with self-respect, (27) Honor, (28) A prince, (29) Fame, (30) Expert teaching ability and the like, (31) Authority using a seal, (32) A mind that gives orders to be obeyed.
The following facts can be investigated from the eleventh house: (1) Gains in all possible ways, (2) Evil desires, (3) All forms of income, (4) Dependence on others, (5) Elder brother, (6) Paternal uncle, (7) Worship of gods, (8) Worship of the Sattvic deities, (9) Education, (10) Great skill in earning gold and money, (11) Ancestral property, (12) Knee, (13) Special position, (14) Love of or fondness for ornaments and precious stones, (15) Wealth, (16) Lost wealth, (17) Seeking to possess ornaments made of gold for the sake of arts and women, (18) Wisdom, (19) Position of a minister, (20) Brother of the wife, (21) Profits, (22) Rise of fortune, (23) Achieving the desired goal, (24) Easy or good returns, (25) Cooking, (26) Desires, (27) Longevity of mother, (28) Ears, (29) Shanks, and (30) Skill in the art of painting.
The twelfth house gives us the details about the following: (1) Disturbed sleep, (2) mental worry or anguish, (3) The two feet, (4) Fear from foes, (5) Imprisonment, (6) Freedom from suffering, (7) Relief from debts, (8) Elephants and horses, (9) Paternal property, (11) Ascent into heaven, (12) Left eye, (13) Hated by the public, (14) Cribbed limbs, (15) Loose sex life, (16) Breakdown of marriage, (17) Giving up the sleeping bed, (18) Loss of power or authority, (19) Kept in chains in an enemy’s house, (20) Mental imbalance, (21) Miserable condition, (22) Harm, (23) Wounded by the thought of the loss of happiness of the father and brothers, (24) Disputes, (25) Anger, (26) Physical ailment, (27) Death, (28) Migrating to a different place, (29) Expenditure of all kinds, and (30) Loss of wife or husband.
The way, this wonderful science of Astrology is structured is a marvel on its own. 12 houses, 12 zodiacs, 9 planets – all signifying a particular thing, concerning all aspects of a human life – add to it the Dashas and Transits, you start getting the contours of the larger Picture…
First House 
