Last Updated on April 21, 2021 by astrologerbydefault

The placement and position of the signs in the chart is of prime importance as it can sometimes turn normally malefic planets like Saturn into the biggest benefic and also turn the biggest benefic Jupiter into a trouble maker.

A bit of background,

The 4 Kendra houses are the building blocks of your personality, the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th.

• 1st house –  the overall personality, the overall environment, role in society, will power, health, longevity etc, basically a snapshot of you
• 4th house – the security, comforts, emotional health, nurture, mother, childhood experiences, basic education, house, lands, vehicles etc.
• 7th house – husband/wife, partnerships, legal relations, business, fertility, passion, foreign travels, business rivals too
• 10th house – social presence, power, prestige, profession, salaries, actions done to resolve karma, power, authority in public etc.

Then there are the Dharma trikon houses, the 1st, 5th and 9th. These are the most auspicious houses in the chart. The 5th and 9th are popularly called Kona houses. The 1st is the link between the Dharma trikon’s creativity and foundation and the building blocks of your life, the Kendra houses.

• 5th – divine intelligence, creativity, expression of creativity, children, self-ego, recognition as an individual, spirituality
• 9th – all the support you will receive from all sources, your beliefs, patrons, peers, paternal figures, religion, ancestors, your past life merits etc

Now when planet owns a kona house and a kendra house, it is a Yogkarak planet, and gives extraordinary results.

Then there is one more possibility, when a planet owns just the kendra houses. This is possible when the ascendant is Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces. The axis Virgo-Pisces is the most sensitive of the lot and the Gemini-Sagittarius axis is the most happening. I have written about the 7th lord being the Badhak for dual natured signs, and all four of these are dual-natured signs. Also remember the ascendant lord can never give overtly malefic results on his own but can be stopped from giving favourable results by the influence of malefics.

Now,

• Gemini ascendant, Mercury owns the 1st and 4th houses. Jupiter owns the 7th and 10th house. So Jupiter will become a functional malefic, the badhak lord.
• Virgo ascendant, Mercury owns the 1st and 10th houses. Jupiter rules the 4th and 7th house. Again Jupiter becomes the functional malefic, the badhak planet.
• Sagittarius ascendant, Jupiter rules the 1st and 4th houses. Mercury owns the 7th and 10th houses. Here Mercury is a functional malefic as the badhak lord.
• Pisces ascendant, Jupiter rules the 1st and 10th houses. Mercury owns the 4th house and 7th house and is the functional badhak planet.

If the functional malefic, badhak here is actually occupying his own sign the results are most severely unfavourable. If he just aspecting his own sign, then the results are less severe. This planet will cause more problems in his Vimshottari mahadasha/ antardasha periods. If neither occupying nor aspecting his own sign this Jupiter or Mercury, loses his functional malefic nature and gives his usual benefic results.

So the worst case scenario for these four ascendants will be if both Mercury and Jupiter both occupy their own signs. Both will be giving unpleasant results in life. The ascendant lord will be prevented from giving his auspicious results and the badhak lord will freely give his undesirable results in full dose.

There is a logic to this. The Kendra houses are the the basic building blocks of our life and most of our activities are related to these keywords. Both Jupiter and Mercury are generally mild natured planets. Jupiter is quite the philosophical elder and Mercury is the impressionable adolescent. If these are to look after these important aspects of someone’s life you can imagine his personality to be mild, gullible often taken advantage of. So for these specific ascendant signs, Jupiter / Mercury have to lose their benefic natures and become somewhat ‘cruel’ so as to better guard these houses. As they gain ‘cruelty’, they stop giving their usual benefic results, often bringing obstructions and obstacles.

Then the best balance would be if Mercury or Jupiter aspects his own sign rather than occupying it so that he is able to give some of his benefic results as well retain a bit of ‘cruelty’ for his guard duty.

In any chart, if there are overtly malefic planets placed in the Kendra houses they will cause problems. These four houses, 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th are linked to things which directly affect you in a very intense way, physically, emotionally, financially and socially. So be very careful in analysing the influences here. And don’t be scared of fancy names like ‘dosh/defect’. Is is just a reminder that you should be careful in handling the keywords related to these houses. A bit of extra-awareness is most often the easiest solution to an astrological ‘dosh’. You can also perform the two remedies as recommended by Maharishi Parashar, mantra and daan.

(This is called Kendra adhi pati dosh in Jyotish. Have avoided using the technical name so that you don’t get put off with the terminology and understand the concept first.)