Jyotish reference
The twelve ascendants (lagna)
The lagna, the sign rising at birth, is the first house and the frame of the whole chart. Each page below gives the engine's table of which planets help and which strain that ascendant, and a text on how the rising sign tends to show.
| Name | In short |
|---|---|
| Aries ascendant | Mars rules the chart; the Sun and Jupiter help, Mercury strains. |
| Taurus ascendant | Venus rules the chart; Saturn is the yogakaraka, Jupiter and Mars strain. |
| Gemini ascendant | Mercury rules the chart; Venus helps, Mars strains, Saturn is mixed. |
| Cancer ascendant | The Moon rules the chart; Mars is the yogakaraka, Jupiter helps. |
| Leo ascendant | The Sun rules the chart; Mars is the yogakaraka, Saturn and the Moon strain. |
| Virgo ascendant | Mercury rules the chart; Venus and Saturn help, Mars and the Sun strain. |
| Libra ascendant | Venus rules the chart; Saturn is the yogakaraka, Jupiter strains. |
| Scorpio ascendant | Mars rules the chart; the Moon and Jupiter help, Mercury and Venus strain. |
| Sagittarius ascendant | Jupiter rules the chart; the Sun and Mars help, Venus strains. |
| Capricorn ascendant | Saturn rules the chart; Venus is the yogakaraka, Jupiter strains. |
| Aquarius ascendant | Saturn rules the chart; Venus is the yogakaraka, the Moon strains. |
| Pisces ascendant | Jupiter rules the chart; the Moon and Mars help, Saturn, Venus and the Sun strain. |
Why the lagna changes everything
The same planet means different things for different ascendants, because the houses it rules change with the rising sign. Saturn rules the 9th and 10th houses for a Taurus lagna and is its best friend; for a Leo lagna it rules the 6th and 7th and asks for work. That is why Jyotish reads planets through the lagna first and the Moon second. The general article on the lagna explains how it is found.
How the tables are made
Each page lists the houses every planet rules for that ascendant and the role the JyotiSoft engine gives it: functional benefic, functional malefic, mixed, neutral or yogakaraka. The rule is Parashara's: lords of trines help, lords of the 6th, 8th and 12th strain. It is the same reading the bot uses when it interprets transits for your chart. Schools differ in the details, so the note under each table says which rule we apply.
What a rising sign can and cannot tell
A lagna describes a tendency: the way a person meets the world, the body's style, the shape of the life the chart then fills in. It is not a portrait. The lagna lord's house and strength, the planets in the 1st house, the Moon and the dashas change the picture a lot. Two people with the same ascendant born a day apart have different charts.
Questions
What is my ascendant?
Is the ascendant more important than the Moon sign?
What is a yogakaraka?
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