केतु · Tanu Bhava · Kendra · Trikona · Dharma trine
Ketu in the 1st house
Ketu in the first gives a detached, self-contained person who is hard to read and often uninterested in the impression they make. There is skill carried in from somewhere — capability without ambition. The texts note doubts about identity and a physical constitution with something unusual about it.
What it gives
- •Genuine detachment; unmoved by opinion
- •Innate skill needing no training
- •Spiritual inclination from early on
What to watch
- •Weak sense of identity
- •Indifference where effort is needed
- •Unusual or hard-to-diagnose complaints
Where Ketu actually is today
Computed at sunrise for the reference place. A planet sits in a given house for exactly one ascendant at a time — the sign it occupies is the 1st house of only one lagna.
Ketu right now
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Who has Ketu in the 1st today
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It depends on your ascendant
The same placement reads differently from each of the twelve ascendants, because the 1st house is a different sign for each — and Ketu is exalted in one sign and debilitated in another. This table is computed from the classical rulership and dignity tables, not written by hand.
| Ascendant | 1st house sign | Sign lord | Ketu’s dignity | Ketu rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Aries | Mars | Neutral | — |
| Taurus | Taurus | Venus | Debilitated | — |
| Gemini | Gemini | Mercury | Neutral | — |
| Cancer | Cancer | Moon | Neutral | — |
| Leo | Leo | Sun | Neutral | — |
| Virgo | Virgo | Mercury | Neutral | — |
| Libra | Libra | Venus | Neutral | — |
| Scorpio | Scorpio | Mars | Exalted | — |
| Sagittarius | Sagittarius | Jupiter | Neutral | — |
| Capricorn | Capricorn | Saturn | Neutral | — |
| Aquarius | Aquarius | Saturn | Neutral | — |
| Pisces | Pisces | Jupiter | Neutral | — |
Strongest from Scorpio — Ketu is exalted in Scorpio. Weakest from Taurus, where it falls in Taurus.
What it aspects from here
From the 1st house, Ketu aspects the 5th, 7th, 9th houses. Ketu is a shadow body; many schools give it the 5th, 7th and 9th aspects, and some give none. Shown here as the widely used set. An aspect carries the planet's nature into those houses, so a placement is never confined to the house it sits in.
The 1st house
The first house is the ascendant itself — the sign rising on the eastern horizon at birth. It is read before anything else, because it fixes every other house and rules the body that lives out the chart. A planet here colours appearance, temperament and the impression a person makes before they speak.
Karaka: Sun · Signifies: physical body and constitution; personality and self-image; vitality, longevity and general fortune; head and complexion
Ketu as a planet
Ketu is the south node, Rahu’s opposite: where Rahu grasps, Ketu lets go. The house he occupies is one a person is already skilled in and therefore bored by — mastery without interest. He rules spirituality, moksha, sudden loss and the kind of insight that arrives without being sought.
Nature: Malefic · Karaka of: detachment, moksha and past-life skill
Related placements
FAQ
Ketu in the 1st house — common questions
What does Ketu in the 1st house mean?
Ketu in the first gives a detached, self-contained person who is hard to read and often uninterested in the impression they make. There is skill carried in from somewhere — capability without ambition. The texts note doubts about identity and a physical constitution with something unusual about it. The 1st house (Tanu Bhava) rules physical body and constitution, personality and self-image, vitality, longevity and general fortune, and Ketu is the karaka of detachment, moksha and past-life skill. Classically it is a kendra, trikona, dharma trine house, which shapes how a malefic planet behaves there.
Is Ketu in the 1st house good or bad?
It depends on the ascendant, and this is where most articles stop. From an Scorpio ascendant the 1st house is Scorpio, where Ketu is exalted. From Taurus it is Taurus, where Ketu is debilitated. The table on this page gives the dignity and rulership for all twelve ascendants.
Which houses does Ketu aspect from the 1st house?
The 5th, the 7th, the 9th houses. Ketu is a shadow body; many schools give it the 5th, 7th and 9th aspects, and some give none. Shown here as the widely used set.
Which ascendant has Ketu in the 1st house right now?
Exactly one at any moment: the sign Ketu currently occupies is the 1st house of a single ascendant. The card on this page computes it from today's ephemeris and says when Ketu moves on. In a birth chart, though, what matters is where Ketu stood at your birth — the free kundli calculator gives that.
Does Ketu in the 1st house affect marriage?
Not directly. Marriage is read from the 7th house, its lord, Venus and the Navamsa. A 1st-house placement matters only through the houses Ketu rules and aspects from there — which this page's table sets out per ascendant.