Budh in the 10th House
Mercury in the 10th house, by Phaladeepika and Lal Kitab
What Budh gives in the 10th house by Lal Kitab and by Phaladeepika, its upay, the houses it looks at from there, and what it means for each lagna.
Mercury in the 10th house gives success in business, good reputation at work, and favour from authorities.
In a kendra (one of the four angles of the chart, the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, where a graha acts with most force), in Mithun (Gemini) or Kanya (Virgo), Budh forms Bhadra Yoga, one of the five Pancha Mahapurusha (“great person”) yogas of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. The table below marks the lagnas where that happens.
Lal Kitab reads Budh in the 10th house by the house, not by your lagna; Parashara’s view for your own lagna is further down, and Phaladeepika and Brihat Jataka may differ. How Lal Kitab and Parashara differ · Lal Kitab: pakka ghar, rin and upay
Lal Kitab upay
Keep a green handkerchief. Donate clothes on Wednesdays.
This is Lal Kitab’s one upay for Budh in the 10th house, to keep its good results strong; it is a suggestion, and your whole kundli may call for another. All upay for Budh
What Phaladeepika says
Mantreswara, Adhyaya 8, sloka 13Phaladeepika 8.13 holds that Budh (Mercury) in the 10th house (the house of career and conduct) brings success in whatever a person undertakes, with good learning, strength, intelligence and happiness. The text adds good deeds and truthfulness.
How much of this holds turns on the rest of the chart: the rashi Budh sits in, the 10th house’s lord and the grahas with it or looking at it. The old texts speak of a man; their readings apply to anyone.
What Brihat Jataka says
Varahamihira, slokas 20.6 and 20.3BJ 20.6 gives Budh in the 10th the same result as the Sun there (20.3): happiness and power.
When Budh in the 10th house shows, and where it looks
Its results show most in Budh’s own mahadasha (17 years) and in its antardashas inside the others. The 10th house’s matters also come forward in the periods of the house’s lord, which depends on your lagna.
Its drishti (a graha’s glance: the houses it looks at feel its influence) from the 10th, by the rules our kundli reading weighs houses with:
- on your 4th house (mother): is counted neither way in our reading
The 10th house, Karma bhava, rules career, status, reputation and authority; it is a kendra and an upachaya (the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th houses, which grow better with time and effort); its karaka (the graha that naturally signifies a house’s matters, whatever the lagna) is Budh, Surya, Guru, Shani. The 10th house, and every graha in it
Budh in the 10th house, for each lagna
the rashi it sits in, and the houses it rules| Lagna | Budh sits in | Its state there | Lord of your | For this lagna |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesh (Aries) | Makar (Capricorn) | Neutral | 3rd and 6th | Malefic |
| Vrishabh (Taurus) | Kumbh (Aquarius) | Neutral | 2nd and 5th | Mildly malefic— lord of the 2nd and 5th, which the verse calls 'somewhat inauspicious' (34.23) and does not name among the killers |
| Mithun (Gemini) | Meen (Pisces) | Debilitated | 1st and 4th | Lagna lord— the lagna lord, which the verse leaves unjudged: 34.25 names only Shukra auspicious for Mithun |
| Kark (Cancer) | Mesh (Aries) | Neutral | 3rd and 12th | Malefic |
| Singh (Leo) | Vrishabh (Taurus) | Friendly | 2nd and 11th | Malefic— lord of the 2nd, but the killers the verse names for this lagna are Shani and Chandra (34.29–30) |
| Kanya (Virgo) | Mithun (Gemini) | Own rashi · Bhadra Yoga | 1st and 10th | Benefic · Yoga— gives yoga together with Shukra (34.32) |
| Tula (Libra) | Kark (Cancer) | Enemy | 9th and 12th | Benefic · Yoga— gives yoga together with Chandra (34.34) |
| Vrishchik (Scorpio) | Singh (Leo) | Friendly | 8th and 11th | Malefic |
| Dhanu (Sagittarius) | Kanya (Virgo) | Exalted · Bhadra Yoga | 7th and 10th | Benefic · Yoga— gives yoga together with Surya (34.38)— lord of the 7th, but the killers the verse names for this lagna are Shani and Shukra (34.37–38) |
| Makar (Capricorn) | Tula (Libra) | Friendly | 6th and 9th | Benefic |
| Kumbh (Aquarius) | Vrishchik (Scorpio) | Neutral | 5th and 8th | Neutral— gives mixed results (34.42) |
| Meen (Pisces) | Dhanu (Sagittarius) | Neutral | 4th and 7th | Malefic · Maraka |
Budh’s state in each rashi, and the houses it rules for each lagna, as our free kundli reads them (BPHS chapter 34); each house links to what Parashara says of its lord sitting in the 10th. “Its state there” is how that rashi treats Budh: exalted, own, friendly, neutral (sam), enemy or debilitated. “For this lagna” is Parashara’s verdict on the houses it rules. The two answer different questions.
The labels, from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, chapter 34:
- Yogakaraka: the strongest graha a lagna can have: the one Parashara names as bringing yoga, or the one lord of both a kendra (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) and a trikona (1st, 5th, 9th) (34.13)
- Benefic, Malefic, Neutral: works for the lagna; brings its harder matters; neither
- Lagna lord: the lagna’s own graha, where the verse calls it neither good nor hard
- Maraka: a killer Parashara names for the lagna, watched for health and longevity; printed alone, or after another label. It is not always the lord of the 2nd or 7th: where it differs, the line under it gives the verse
- · Yoga: one of two grahas he says give yoga together for this lagna
One lagna, read through
Take Tula lagna. Budh sits in Kark there (enemy) and rules your 9th and 12th houses, which makes it a benefic for Tula lagna (BPHS 34). The two pull apart: the label says what it does for this lagna, the rashi how much strength it has to do it, so it gives less of that good than its label promises. The Lal Kitab reading above is the same for every lagna; this row is the part that changes with yours.
By Brihat Jataka 20.11, Budh in the 10th house gives its good in full for Dhanu lagna, half for Kanya lagna, a quarter for Singh, Vrishchik and Makar lagna, little for Tula lagna and none for Mithun lagna, by the rashi it sits in. The verse gives no share for a neutral rashi, which is where it sits for Mesh, Vrishabh, Kark, Kumbh and Meen lagna. BJ 20.10–11
Budh in the 10th house: where it works best, and where hardest
read off the table aboveBudh passing through the 10th from your Moon
the gochar of Budh, not the birth chartNot the birth placement above: here Budh is moving through the 10th counted from your Moon rashi. Phaladeepika counts the 10th among Budh’s good transit houses (all twelve, on the Budh page). Our Monthly Prediction reads it as good: success at work, recognition, your words carry weight.
Common questions
3 questionsIs Budh in the 10th house good?
Lal Kitab counts it a good placement, one of the 10 houses where Budh does well (with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 11th). By its rashi, it is strongest for Kanya and Dhanu lagna; it is debilitated for Mithun lagna.
What is the Lal Kitab upay for Budh in the 10th house?
Lal Kitab’s upay for it: Keep a green handkerchief; donate clothes on Wednesdays.
Which houses does Budh look at from the 10th?
The 4th (mother).
A graha reads the same for everybody. Your chart does not.
Where each graha sits in your kundli, which bhavas it rules for your lagna and which dasha is running decide what it does for you. Make your free kundli to see all nine.
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