Bhava Chalit Chart (Sripati Houses)
The Bhava Chalit chart divides the sky into houses measured from the exact rising degree. This tool lists the Sripati house midpoints and boundaries and shows which planets change house.
Signs and houses
The usual rasi chart uses whole signs: the sign rising at birth is the first house, the next sign is the second, and so on. Every house is exactly one sign wide. The Bhava Chalit chart takes a different view. Each house is centred on a point called the bhava madhya, and the houses can be wider or narrower than a sign.
This tool uses the Sripati method. It takes the four angles of the chart: the ascendant, the lowest point of the sky (IC), the descendant and the midheaven (MC). The arc between each pair of neighbouring angles is split into three equal parts, giving twelve house midpoints. The boundary between two houses, called the sandhi, lies halfway between their midpoints. The first house midpoint is the exact ascendant degree.
Reading the result
The house table lists each bhava with its midpoint, the sign of that midpoint, and its start and end boundaries in sidereal longitude. The planet table gives each planet's longitude and sign, its house in the whole-sign rasi chart, its house in the Bhava Chalit chart, and a marker when the two differ.
A shift usually happens when a planet sits near the start or end of a sign, or when the houses are much wider or narrower than a sign, which is common far from the equator. A planet that moves from the tenth house in the rasi chart to the ninth in the Bhava Chalit chart, for instance, keeps its sign but is read for ninth-house matters.
Many astrologers read sign-based factors, such as dignity, from the rasi chart, and use the Bhava Chalit placement to judge which house a planet's results relate to. Which chart to give priority is a choice that varies between teachers.
Calculation settings
Positions are sidereal with the Lahiri ayanamsa. The midheaven is found from local sidereal time and the mean obliquity of the ecliptic, with the small effect of nutation left out. The calculation is done by MyAstroLuck's own engine.
House boundaries depend on the exact rising degree, which moves about one degree every four minutes. A small change in birth time can therefore move a planet across a sandhi.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a planet in a different house here than in my birth chart?
The rasi chart uses whole signs, while the Bhava Chalit chart uses houses centred on the exact ascendant degree. A planet near a house boundary can fall on the other side of it.
What is a bhava madhya?
The midpoint of a house. The first one is the exact ascendant degree, and the others come from dividing each quarter of the chart into three.
What is a sandhi?
The boundary between two houses, placed halfway between their midpoints. Planets are assigned to houses by these boundaries.
Which house system is used?
Sripati, which divides each quadrant between the angles into three equal parts. Western astrology knows the same division as Porphyry.
Which ayanamsa is used?
The Lahiri ayanamsa.
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