First house (tanu bhava): self and body
The first house (tanu bhava, lagna bhava) is the house of the body, personality and general self. It is the house the Lagna sets.
What it is
Traditional significations include the body, appearance, temperament and the way a person begins things. The lord of the first house and any grahas in it are read for these themes.
How it is worked out or read
The Lagna sign is always house 1 in this site's chart, and its lord is shown in the grahas table by sign.
Where it appears on this site
The first house is shown in the birth chart as the Lagna sign. See the Lagna article.
How the first house is counted
The first house is the sign that contains the Lagna, and in whole-sign houses it is the whole of that sign. Every planet's house is then counted forward from this sign, so the first house sets the reference for all the others. A planet in the same sign as the Lagna is in the first house even if it sits at the very end of that sign, because the whole-sign method ignores the exact degree of the Lagna. The reader can therefore find the first house without any calculation beyond identifying the Lagna sign.
Because the Lagna changes about every two hours, the first house also changes its sign over the course of a day. A birth at the same date but two hours apart can produce a different first house and a different set of houses for every planet, which is why the birth time is central to the chart.
Traditional significations
The classical lists associate the first house with the body, the general health, the appearance and the temperament. It is also said to show the self, the way a person begins things, and the path a life tends to follow in its early stages. The lord of the first house is read with these themes, and its position shows where the self's energy is directed.
The first house is one of the kendras and one of the trikonas, so it carries the strength of both groups in the classical view. Planets placed here are read as close to the core of the chart, and their dignity is weighed carefully.
Reading the first house with care
A reader should not treat the first house as a description of the whole person. It names a set of themes that the rest of the chart elaborates. The most useful habit is to read the first house together with its lord and with any grahas placed in it, and then to check how the Moon and the Sun relate to the same themes. Where the first house, the Moon and the Sun all point in one direction, the reading is more consistent than where they conflict.
Lagna lord and the self
The lord of the Lagna is read as the planet that most directly carries the first house into the rest of the chart. Its sign shows the manner in which the self is expressed, its house shows the area of life where that expression is most visible, and its dignity shows how comfortably it works. A reader who wants to understand the first house well will therefore look at the Lagna lord before reading any planet placed in the house itself.
When the Lagna lord is placed in a kendra or trikona, it is read as strengthening the self's connection with its surroundings. When it is placed in a dusthana, the reading is more cautious, because the self's expression is said to meet more resistance or to require more effort to fulfil.