Meanings of Houses – Anandamath

The Houses (Bhavas) are the portions of the sky as we see them rising on the east, setting in the west, above our head and in between. There are twelve bhavas and the first and most important one is that portion of the sky that is rising in the East at the time of birth, also called Ascendant.
The east is the direction from which all stars and planets are first seen when coming into view (rising) on the eastern horizon. So the sight of every celestial body is “born” in the East, and that makes the Ascendant represent birth in general, as well as our body, our appearance, and our life in general.

The Rashi (sign) that happens to be on the Eastern horizon will be the backdrop to the 1st house and therefore strongly influence the individual’s destiny.
The bhavas represent the various areas of our lives such as our family (2nd house), our siblings (3rd house), and profession (10th house). Each bhava represents a number of areas of life.
Whereas Grahas (planets) indicate the different aspects of our consciousness, the bhavas indicate what areas of life that consciousness is most strongly connected to, projected on and influenced by.

The Rashis color that connection and give it very specific qualities. For example, a very simple one to show the principle, the 10th house indicates one’s profession and work. The Moon in the 10th house would connect one’s caring nature with professional activities. But that could be in so many ways! If Kanya (Virgo) would be in the 10th house, it would show us that the self would identify most with care in practical, detailed, down-to-earth ways indicated by Virgo. Some areas of life are represented by more than one bhava.

The logic of how and why each of the 12 bhavas has been assigned its significations has four major parts: life chronology correspondence, physical correspondence, Rashi correspondence and relative counting.

The 3 correspondence principles provide the foundation significations, whereas the relative counting principle extends the list to an almost limitless array of significations.

The correspondence principles all have a similar basis: considering two holistic values, there are precise connections between all the major parts of each. For example, when we consider the solar system with it’s planetary bodies, and the human life with all it’s aspects, we can find precise correlations between each heavenly body, and specific aspects of human life. In the case of life chronology correspondence, the full span of life is mapped to the chart.
The12 houses correspond to various stages in life. The Ascendant corresponds to birth itself, the second house early childhood, etc upto the 12th house which corresponds to death. In the case of physical correspondence, the full body is mapped to the chart. The first house corresponds to the part of our body that is born first (the crown of the head), the second house to the face, etc. upto the 12th house which corresponds to the feet. The Rashi correspondence maps the zodiac itself to the chart. The First house corresponds to the first sign (Mesha-Aries), the second house to the second sign (Taurus-Vrishabha) etc.