Aspects are easy to learn and easy to over-read. A chart contains dozens of looks, and a reading that lists them all produces noise. This page gives a working order that keeps the reading calm and in proportion. It brings together the rules in the rest of the aspects library.
Step 1: list the looks
For each planet, find its sidereal sign and house in the planet position calculator. Then write down the signs it looks at.
- Every planet: the 7th sign (the 7th aspect of every planet).
- Mars: also the 4th and 8th (Mars).
- Jupiter: also the 5th and 9th (Jupiter).
- Saturn: also the 3rd and 10th (Saturn).
- Rahu and Ketu: decide which school you follow (Rahu and Ketu aspects).
The list is short enough to write by hand, and writing it out is the quickest way to see the chart’s pattern.
Step 2: note what each look falls on
For each look, note the house and any planets in it, as set out in aspects on houses and on planets. Mark the pairs that look at each other: those are mutual aspects, and they tie two planets together much as a conjunction does.
Step 3: weigh each look
Not every look is equally important. Ask four questions.
- Who is looking? A natural benefic or malefic (benefic and malefic aspects), and what houses it rules for this ascendant.
- How strong is it? Dignity (own sign, exalted, debilitated), combustion and retrograde motion. The Shadbala calculator gives a measure.
- How close? A tight angle is stronger. See full and partial aspects.
- Is it a friend? Use the friendship table as a note on temperament.
Step 4: start with the lagna, the lagna lord and the Moon
The lagna is the self and the body, the lagna lord says how that self is placed, and the Moon is the mind. Many teachers read the looks on these three before anything else, since they colour the whole chart. A benefic look on the lagna or the Moon is read as a general support, and a pressing look as a general call for effort. Do not stop there: it is a starting tone for the reading.
Step 5: read the houses that matter for the question
Choose the question: career, partnership, learning, home. Take the house that answers it (the 10th, 7th, 5th or 4th), its lord and its karaka, and list what looks at each. The house lord tables give lordship for the placement, and the house library gives the effect of each planet in each house.
Step 6: add the yogas and conjunctions
An aspect rarely works alone. Add what the planets are doing together: conjunctions (the conjunction library) and yogas, many of which depend on a link between planets by conjunction, aspect or exchange. Examples are Raja Yoga, Gaja Kesari Yoga and the five great-person yogas, for instance Hamsa and Shasha.
Step 7: add the dashas
A look speaks loudest when the planets involved are running. Check the mahadasha and antardasha of each planet that looks or is looked at, as set out in mahadasha and antardasha explained. A look from the lord of the running dasha colours the whole period. Transits add a background: the current sign of Jupiter or Saturn and the signs they look at are read from the natal Moon in the method called gochar. See Sade Sati 2026 to 2027 for Saturn.
A short worked pattern
The example below is a made-up arrangement to show the method and is not a real chart. Suppose the Moon is in the 4th house, Saturn in the 10th and Jupiter in the 8th.
- Saturn looks at the 4th by its 7th, so the Moon in the 4th is looked at by Saturn, and the Moon, by its own 7th, looks back at Saturn: a mutual aspect.
- Jupiter in the 8th looks at the 12th, the 2nd and the 4th by its 5th, 7th and 9th, so the 4th and the Moon in it receive Jupiter’s look as well.
A reader would note that the Moon in the 4th has one pressing look and one supporting one, then check the dignity of each and the lords of the 4th and 10th. The reading becomes: a feeling nature that is serious at home and supported by wise counsel, with the balance depending on the details. The tone is a tendency, and not a statement about an event.
Common mistakes
- Counting from the wrong place. The planet’s own sign is the first. Start the count there.
- Using tropical signs. The Vedic count uses sidereal signs, which differ from tropical ones by about 24 degrees at present.
- Reading a look as a verdict. A pressing look describes effort and a supporting look describes ease. Neither fixes an outcome.
- Ignoring birth time. The lagna and the Moon can change sign with a small difference in time, which changes every look.
- Mixing systems. Parashari planetary looks and Jaimini’s sign aspects answer different questions. Pick one at a time.
Checking it in your chart
Work through the steps above with your own chart from the planet position calculator, and compare your list of yogas with the Raja Yoga finder. Any decision about health, money or law belongs with a qualified professional, and an astrological reading is one lens among many.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Where should I begin when reading aspects?
Begin with the looks on the lagna, the lagna lord and the Moon, since they set the general tone. Then take the house that answers your question, its lord and its karaka.
↳ How many aspects does a chart have?
Counting by sign, each of the seven planets gives at least one look and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn give three. Most of them fall on empty signs, so the ones that matter are those landing on planets or on the houses you are asking about.
↳ Do aspects matter more than conjunctions?
Most teachers treat a conjunction as the closer tie, with a mutual aspect nearly as strong and a one-way look lighter. Closeness and dignity matter more than the category.
↳ When do aspects show their results?
Mainly in the dashas of the planets involved, and with background colour from transits. A look from the running dasha lord is usually the most active one.
↳ Can I read aspects without a birth time?
Only partly. Planet signs other than the Moon are usually safe, but the lagna and house positions need the time, and so do the looks counted from them.