The twelve rashis
In this tradition your rashi is where the Moon stood at your birth. It sets the temper of the mind, and the dashas that time your life are counted from it.
Element and modality
Twelve rashis fall into four elements, three signs each. Fire holds Mesha, Simha and Dhanus. Earth holds Vrishabha, Kanya and Makara. Air holds Mithuna, Tula and Kumbha. Water holds Karkataka, Vrischika and Meena. The elements repeat in a second pattern, modality. Each sign is movable (chara), fixed (sthira) or dual (dvisvabhava) in a rotation starting at Mesha. A movable sign opens a season. A fixed sign settles into it. A dual sign carries it forward into the next.
Sign lords, exaltation and debilitation
Each rashi has a ruling graha. Every graha in turn stands exalted in one sign at one precise degree. It is debilitated in the opposite sign at that same degree: its strongest and its weakest point in the whole zodiac. Guru is exalted near the start of Karkataka and debilitated near the start of Makara. Shani sits the other way round, deepest in Tula at its strongest and deepest in Mesha at its weakest. Near a graha's exaltation point, the houses it rules tend to speak clearly in a chart. Near debilitation, that same rulership asks more care.
Why your Vedic sign may differ from your Western one
Both systems measure the same 360 degrees, from different starting points. The Western Sun sign is tropical, fixed to the equinox. The rashi here is sidereal, fixed to the star field, using the Lahiri ayanamsha this site applies throughout. The gap between the two has widened to about 24 degrees, close to a whole sign, which is why most readers find their Vedic rashi is the sign before their familiar Western one. A Western Sagittarius is commonly a Vedic Vrischika.
Moon sign against lagna
The rashi here is the Moon sign, the temper of the mind. The lagna, the sign rising at the exact birth minute, is a separate reading: the manner and the body the world meets first. The two can agree, or sit far apart, and a chart is read with both together rather than either alone.
Kuja (Mars) · fire. First to move and first to speak. You start things; the finishing asks more of you than the starting ever did.
Carries: Initiative, courage, a body that recovers fast.
Shukra (Venus) · earth. Steady, and not to be hurried. What you build tends to stay built, and what you keep, you keep well.
Carries: Patience, comfort, a good ear and a good voice.
Budha (Mercury) · air. Quick, curious, many-handed. Your gift is the connection nobody else in the room has spotted.
Carries: Words, trade, learning, the useful acquaintance.
Chandra (the Moon) · water. You feel the room before it speaks. Home is not a place you live in; it is the thing you protect.
Carries: Memory, care, property, the mother's line.
Ravi (the Sun) · fire. You are seen. That is a duty as much as a pleasure, and the years reward the ones who carry it as duty.
Carries: Standing, authority, generosity, a straight back.
Budha (Mercury) · earth. The detail others skip is the one you catch. Service well done is your signature, and your quiet pride.
Carries: Method, health, craft, work that must be exact.
Shukra (Venus) · air. You weigh. The instinct for fairness makes you the one people ask, and the one who takes longest to decide.
Carries: Partnership, taste, negotiation, the deal that holds.
Kuja (Mars) · water. Nothing shallow interests you. You go under the surface of things, and you do not come back with nothing.
Carries: Depth, research, recovery, what is hidden and shared.
Guru (Jupiter) · fire. You need somewhere to aim. Meaning is not a luxury for you; without it the arrow will not leave the bow.
Carries: Teaching, travel, law, faith, the long view.
Shani (Saturn) · earth. You climb. Slowly, and past people who started higher — the years after forty are usually the ones that prove you right.
Carries: Endurance, structure, responsibility carried early.
Shani (Saturn) · air. You stand a step outside, which is exactly why you see it. Your circle is wider than your household, and it matters more.
Carries: Networks, causes, gains, the unconventional path.
Guru (Jupiter) · water. You take in more than you say. The tradition calls this the sign of release — of letting go well, which is a rarer skill than holding.
Carries: Imagination, compassion, faith, distant places.
| Rashi | Element | Modality | Lord | Exalted | Debilitated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesha Aries |
fire | movable | Kuja | Surya 10° | Shani 20° |
| Vrishabha Taurus |
earth | fixed | Shukra | Chandra 3° | — |
| Mithuna Gemini |
air | dual | Budha | — | — |
| Karkataka Cancer |
water | movable | Chandra | Guru 5° | Kuja 28° |
| Simha Leo |
fire | fixed | Surya | — | — |
| Kanya Virgo |
earth | dual | Budha | Budha 15° | Shukra 27° |
| Tula Libra |
air | movable | Shukra | Shani 20° | Surya 10° |
| Vrischika Scorpio |
water | fixed | Kuja | — | Chandra 3° |
| Dhanus Sagittarius |
fire | dual | Guru | — | — |
| Makara Capricorn |
earth | movable | Shani | Kuja 28° | Guru 5° |
| Kumbha Aquarius |
air | fixed | Shani | — | — |
| Meena Pisces |
water | dual | Guru | Shukra 27° | Budha 15° |
Finding yours
The Moon changes sign roughly every sixty hours, so the rashi needs a birth date and an approximate time rather than the date alone, close to a sign's edge. Each sign's page below gives its element, lord, exaltation and debilitation in full, with the nakshatras it holds.
Questions people ask
Is Mesha the same as Aries?
Not quite. Aries is the Western tropical sign. Mesha is its sidereal counterpart, offset by about 24 degrees today. Most people's Vedic rashi is the sign before their Western Sun sign, though the exact match depends on the birth date.
Which rashis are compatible with mine?
Kundali matching reads the two Moon signs for bhakoot, the count between them, and for graha maitri, the friendship of their lords. Both are weighed with six other kootas together; a difficult reading in one is examined against the whole chart, not treated as a verdict.
What is my rashi's lord?
Kuja rules Mesha and Vrischika. Shukra rules Vrishabha and Tula. Budha rules Mithuna and Kanya. Chandra rules Karkataka. Ravi rules Simha. Guru rules Dhanus and Meena. Shani rules Makara and Kumbha. Each sign's page names its lord beside the table.
Which nakshatras are in my rashi?
Every rashi holds two whole nakshatras and part of a third, sometimes a fourth, since 30 degrees runs a little past two mansions of 13°20′. Each sign's page lists them with their span and padas.
Read from your chart
A rashi is one line of a chart; the other eleven houses decide what that line does with a year. Darshanam, the free five-week reading, is built from your birth minute, and brings your kundali with it.