Planet placements
How to read a planet: sign, house, nakshatra
A placement is three facts from one position: sign, house and nakshatra. See them for Mars in one chart, and why a planet beside it can read differently.
01 · Three coordinates for one planet
A placement is three facts read from one longitude and one horizon.
The sign says which 30° part of the zodiac the planet is in. The house counts that sign from the rising sign. The nakshatra divides the same zodiac more finely, into 27 parts. A reading combines them.
One position, three readings
A planet’s place in a birth chart starts as one number, its sidereal longitude, plus the chart’s rising sign. Three labels come from them, and a placement reading uses all three:
- The sign is the 30° part of the zodiac the longitude falls in, as the twelve signs explains.
- The house is that sign counted from the rising sign, as why the first house is not always Aries shows. It is the only one of the three that depends on the birth time and place as well as the date.
- The nakshatra is the 13°20′ part of the same zodiac, one of 27, and its pada is a quarter of that, as the Moon among the nakshatras describes for the Moon.
The sign and the nakshatra are two scales on one ruler, one coarse and one fine. The house is a different kind of fact: a relationship to the horizon.
Mars in one chart
In the fictional chart for 17:05 IST on 1 November 2026 in Delhi, Aries rises and Mars is at 24°38′ Cancer:
- Its sign is Cancer. The sign also fixes the planet’s classical dignity; Cancer is where Mars is debilitated.
- Its house is the fourth, since Cancer is the fourth sign from Aries.
- Its nakshatra is Ashlesha, third pada.
Each label has its own traditional reading, which the site keeps as separate guides: Mars in Cancer, Mars in the 4th house and Mars in Ashlesha. A full reading weighs them together with the planet’s aspects, its condition and the house’s ruler, rather than adding three paragraphs.
Two planets in one house
The Moon in the same chart is at 10°02′ Cancer. It shares the sign and the fourth house with Mars, but it is in Pushya, not Ashlesha. Planets that share a sign and a house can still sit in different nakshatras, and nakshatra-based rules, such as the starting dasha from the Moon’s nakshatra, treat them differently.
The placement guide explains how the Kundli page lists these facts and where each guide is found.
Calculate a chart and open its placements on the Kundli page, or explore another topic in Learn.