Saturn in the 4th house: a hard verse, two cancellations, and Sasa Yoga at the nadir

The 4th is the house of comforts, conveyances, lands, the home and the mother, and the texts sort the planets in it cleanly: the benefics are given the house's good things, and the Sun, Mars and Saturn are denied them. Saravali's Saturn verse is the bleakest of the seven. The Bhrigu Sutras are the most conditional: they speak of hardship concerning the mother and then cancel it outright in two cases, when Saturn is in its own sign or exalted in the 4th, and when it is the Lagna lord. Those two cancellations, and Sasa Yoga, which forms in exactly the first of them, are what this page is mostly about.

It describes rules, not your home or your family. For the planet, see Saturn in Vedic astrology; for the house, the 4th house, Sukha Bhava.

The house and the planet

BPHS Ch. 11 Sl. 5 list six things for the 4th: conveyances, relatives, mother, happiness, treasure, and lands and buildings. Saravali Ch. 3 names it Griha and Vesma for the dwelling, Sukha for happiness, Bandhava for relatives, and Jala and Patala for water and the nether world. BPHS Ch. 7 Sl. 33-36 make it a Kendra, the nadir, and a Chaturasra with the 8th. Ch. 34 Sl. 2-7 add that malefics owning Kendras do not stay inauspicious, and Sl. 14 that this holds fully only when they own a trine as well.

Saturn arrives as the second strongest natural malefic, the planet of grief in BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 12-13, the planet of land and property in the Bhrigu Sutras' introduction, and the planet whose period BPHS Ch. 47 tie to property for a strong Saturn. So two readings of Saturn meet the 4th house: grief in the house of happiness, and land in the house of lands. The texts give both, under different conditions.

What the texts say about Saturn in the 4th

Saravali Ch. 30 Sloka 77

Saravali Ch. 30 Sl. 77 (p. 105): heart disease or a broken heart, "devoid of relatives, conveyances, wealth, intelligence and happiness", sickness in boyhood, and prominent nails and hair. It takes away four of the house's six subjects in one line and adds health notes, which are the text's wording and not medical advice. It carries no condition. Read beside Saravali's verses for the Sun and Mars in the 4th, also harsh, it is the malefic pattern of the house applied without exception.

The Bhrigu Sutras, Sutras 14-21

Sutras 14-21 (Bhrigu Sutras pp. 101-102, corpus line 4027), one of the longer Saturn passages: the loss of the mother and a step-mother, all of which "will not happen" if Saturn is in its own sign or exalted in the 4th, when the native owns horses and palanquins; as the Lagna lord in the 4th, a long-lived mother and every comfort; with the 8th lord, loss of the mother and of happiness. The app's provenance comment records that the mother lines were dropped from its own text. The commentator (p. 102) names Aries, Taurus and Libra rising as powerful Dhana yogas and adds Sasa; of the authorities quoted, Brihat Jatak and Phaldeepika read it harshly, and the Note says all agree Saturn is "very evil" here outside the cases he names.

This app wrote two lines from the chapter. Favourable: "genuine security and prestigious property - capable of forming Sasa Yoga here, one of Saturn's strong Kendra placements". Testing: "a restrictive, emotionally heavy home environment under real affliction". The favourable line follows the Bhrigu cancellation and Saturn's land signification; the testing line follows Saravali and the Bhrigu default, without the mother.

BPHS Ch. 15: a malefic in the 4th

BPHS Ch. 15, the house's own chapter, closes its conveyance slokas with a general rule: a benefic in the 4th, aspecting it, or tied to its lord gives happiness from vehicles, free of accident; a malefic in the same relationships gives losses and accidents involving vehicles. A Saturn in the 4th is the second case by position. Sl. 2 add that residential comfort is complete when the 4th is occupied by its own lord and aspected by a benefic, which a Saturn in the 4th meets in part when it is the 4th lord, for Libra and Scorpio rising. Sl. 6-7, on the mother, stack three conditions each and state only the favourable case; their absence should not be read as anything.

The two Bhrigu cancellations, worked through

The first cancellation, own sign or exaltation in the 4th, happens for three rising signs only. For Cancer rising the 4th is Libra, where Saturn is exalted. For Libra rising it is Capricorn, Saturn's own sign. For Scorpio rising it is Aquarius, its Moolatrikona to 20 degrees and own sign after. These are also the three Lagnas where Saturn in the 4th forms Sasa Yoga, so the Bhrigu cancellation and the Mahapurusha yoga pick out the same charts.

The second cancellation, Saturn as the Lagna lord, applies for Capricorn and Aquarius rising. For Capricorn rising a Saturn in the 4th is in Aries, its debilitation sign. So the Bhrigu text cancels the hardship for a debilitated Saturn here, because it rules the Lagna, while this app's engine prints the testing line for it, because it is debilitated. For Aquarius rising a Saturn in the 4th is in Taurus, a friend's sign, and the two agree when Venus is well placed. Between them, the two clauses cover five rising signs out of twelve.

Sasa Yoga at the nadir

BPHS Ch. 75 Sl. 1-2 and Saravali Ch. 37 Sl. 2 form Sasa when Saturn is in its own sign or exaltation in an angle. The 4th is an angle, and Sasa forms here for Cancer, Libra and Scorpio rising. In this app's engine run over 121,469 New Delhi charts from 1950 to 2049, 10,402 had Saturn in the 4th, and Sasa formed in 29.9 per cent, a higher share than with Saturn in the 1st, because the three qualifying signs happened to be occupied more often in the sample. The Yogas calculator reports it.

Libra rising is the strongest of the three on lordship. Saturn rules the 4th and 5th there, an angle and a trine; BPHS Ch. 34 Sl. 33-34 call it auspicious, Sl. 13 would make one planet owning both specially a Yoga Karaka, and the Bhrigu commentator and Advanced Predictive Astrology both call Saturn the Yoga Karaka for Libra. Ch. 24 Sl. 40 read the 4th lord in the 4th as a minister with wealth of all kinds, skilful, honourable and learned, and Sl. 52 the 5th lord in the 4th as happiness from the mother, wealth and intelligence, a ruler, minister or teacher. For Cancer rising the exalted Saturn rules the 7th and 8th, the pair BPHS Ch. 34 call specifically harmful when the 8th lord also owns the 7th, and a maraka by association.

Other named combinations through the 4th

Several BPHS combinations run through this house or its lord, and three bear on a Saturn here. Kahal Yog, Ch. 36 Sl. 9-10, needs the 4th lord and Jupiter in mutual angles with a strong Lagna lord, or the 4th lord in its own or exaltation sign joined to the 10th lord; for Libra and Scorpio rising Saturn is the 4th lord, and in the 4th it is in its own sign, so the second version needs only the 10th lord beside it. The Raj Yogas of Ch. 39 Sl. 35-37 (3930-3936) include the 4th or 10th lord joined to the 5th or 9th lord; for Libra rising Saturn holds the 4th and 5th lordships in one planet.

The Nabhasha patterns of Ch. 35 Sl. 9-11 depend on where every planet falls: Vajr Yog is all benefics in the 1st and 7th, or all malefics in the 4th and 10th; Yav Yog is all benefics in the 4th and 10th, or all malefics in the 1st and 7th. A Saturn in the 4th rules out the malefic form of Yav and is a necessary part of the malefic form of Vajr. These are rare by construction, and this page does not say the engine tests them.

Saturn's company in the 4th matters as well. Saravali Ch. 15 reads Saturn with Jupiter as heroic, wealthy and famous, the head of a city or an assembly, the one plainly favourable Saturn pairing; with the Moon, well liked by the public but without wealth; with Venus, a skilled worker in wood, a painter, an owner of livestock. BPHS Ch. 45 put any planet joined with Saturn in the Kshudhita state. A benefic in the 4th with Saturn therefore counts twice in the texts: as the benefic BPHS Ch. 15 Sl. 14 want in the house, and as a planet Ch. 45 call hungry.

Your rising sign: Saturn's sign and the houses it rules

With whole-sign houses, a Saturn in the 4th is in the fourth sign from your Ascendant. The Lagna calculator gives your rising sign. BPHS Ch. 24 has one sloka for each house lord placed in the 4th, and in sum: the lords of the 9th and 10th bring home and land, the lords of the 6th, 8th and 12th take them away.

Aries and Taurus rising read warmly on lordship, with Saturn as lord of the 10th and either the 11th or the 9th; Taurus is also the Lagna for which BPHS Ch. 34 Sl. 23-24 say Saturn causes Raja Yoga. Both put Saturn in an enemy's sign, Cancer or Leo, so the engine prints the testing line for them unless the Moon or the Sun sits well enough from Saturn to lift the sign to Neutral, and even Neutral prints the testing line. Lordship and the house line disagree for the two Lagnas where Saturn's lordship is best.

How this app decides favourable or testing

The Kundali reading prints the favourable line when Saturn is Exalted, Moolatrikona, in its Own sign or in a Friendly sign; the 4th is not a dusthana. For other signs the engine combines Saturn's natural relation to the sign lord with a temporary relation read from your chart: a lord in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from Saturn is a temporary friend.

• Always favourable: Cancer (exalted), Libra and Scorpio rising (own sign or Moolatrikona).
• Never favourable: Capricorn rising, Saturn debilitated in Aries, although the Bhrigu Sutras' Lagna-lord clause cancels the hardship there.
• Favourable if Mercury or Venus sits well from Saturn: Gemini, Aquarius and Pisces rising; otherwise Neutral.
• Friendly or Enemy, decided by Jupiter: Virgo and Sagittarius rising.
• At best Neutral: Aries, Taurus and Leo rising, with Saturn in a sign of the Moon, the Sun or Mars.

In the engine sample 49.1 per cent of Saturn-in-the-4th charts printed the favourable line. The test does not look at the 4th lord, the axis of Ch. 15, at benefic aspects on the house, or at the Lagna-lord clause the Bhrigu text applies. A testing line means Saturn lacks dignity, nothing more.

Strength sits in the middle of Saturn's range here. BPHS Ch. 27 Sl. 7 put Saturn's directional strength at nil in the 1st and full in the 7th; the 4th is halfway, worth 2 of 4 in the engine. In the strength run a Saturn in the 4th averaged 9.06 of 20 and was Strong in 17.0 per cent of charts. The Shad Bala calculator shows each part; Saturn is combust within 15 degrees of the Sun in this engine, and earns no motional credit for retrogression.

The three aspects: the 6th, the 10th and the Lagna

Saturn aspects the 3rd, 7th and 10th places from itself (BPHS Ch. 26 Sl. 2-5). From the 4th they fall on the 6th, the 10th and the 1st, and the engine returns those three. The 10th aspect lands on the Lagna itself. BPHS Ch. 12 Sl. 3 say bodily health suffers when the Lagna is touched by a malefic with no benefic aspect alongside, so a Saturn in the 4th always supplies the malefic half of that condition, and the question becomes whether any benefic also aspects the Lagna. The 7th aspect falls on the 10th, the other end of the 4th-10th axis.

Saturn's 10th aspect is returned only by Mars: a Mars in the Lagna aspects the 4th by its own special 4th-place aspect, so a Mars rising and a Saturn in the 4th aspect each other fully. The worked chart below has exactly that. For the 10th house, see the 10th house.

The mother: three places to look

BPHS never reads a relative from a house alone. Ch. 32 Sl. 22-24 take the mother from the stronger of the Moon and Mars, and Sl. 22-24 read the 4th counted from the Moon for her, just as the 9th from the Sun is read for the father. So there are three places to look: the 4th from the Lagna and its lord, the Moon itself, and the 4th from the Moon. A Saturn in the 4th from the Lagna is one input among those. The Moon sign calculator gives the Moon's sign so you can count from it. This app makes no statement about any parent from any of them.

Saravali on dignity and by sign

Saravali Ch. 45 describes Saturn by dignity: exalted, royal assignments and leadership; in Moolatrikona, of good family, wealthy and valorous; in its own sign, honourable and happy; debilitated, adversity; in an enemy's sign, dirty and distressed; in a friend's sign, depending on others for food. Its Ch. 29 by sign adds, for the 4th-house cases that decide the engine outright: Libra (Cancer rising), rich, soft-spoken, honours from abroad; Capricorn (Libra rising), learned, honourable, famous, courageous; Aquarius (Scorpio rising), eminent but "a great liar" and very ill-tempered; Aries (Capricorn rising), worn down by hard labour.

Two of those sign verses sit oddly against Saravali's own 4th-house verse. Libra and Capricorn bring wealth and honour; the house verse takes wealth and happiness away. Saravali does not rank its chapters, and neither does this page. Its kindest sign verses for Saturn, for Sagittarius and Pisces, fall in the 4th for Virgo and Sagittarius rising, where the engine can read Friendly or Enemy depending on Jupiter.

Timing: the Saturn period and the 4th from the Moon

The Saturn Mahadasha lasts nineteen years (BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 15). BPHS Ch. 47 Sl. 53-56 describe a strong Saturn's period as recognition, a high position, property and children; Sl. 57-60 describe the reverse for a Saturn in the 6th, 8th or 12th, debilitated or combust, and add an escape clause for a Saturn in an angle or trine, joined or aspected by a benefic, or in Sagittarius or Pisces. The 4th is an angle, so a Saturn here meets that clause by position. The engine does not apply it. When Saturn rules your 4th, for Libra and Scorpio rising, the app adds the 4th lord's theme, "gains in property, home comforts and vehicles". The Vimshottari Dasha calculator gives your dates.

Transits are a separate frame, and this house has one named. Saturn passing the 4th sign from the natal Moon is Ardha Ashtama Sani, which Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II (p. 313) reads as a strain on domestic peace because the 4th is the house of contentment. The Ashtama Sani calculator dates it, and the Gochar calculator marks it testing. It is a statement about the Moon's fourth sign, not about a natal Saturn in the 4th house.

A worked chart

The figures below are this app's engine output for a birth at 05:30 IST on 1 November 2021 in New Delhi. They illustrate the rules, and are not a reading of any person.

This is the Libra case. Saturn is in its own sign in the 4th, which is the first Bhrigu cancellation and the Sasa condition at once; it rules the 4th and 5th, so Ch. 24 Sl. 40 and Sl. 52 apply; and BPHS Ch. 34 call it auspicious for this Lagna. The house line, the dasha verdict and the quality all agree.

The other conditions are mixed. Jupiter shares the 4th, a benefic in the house, but it is debilitated and, by BPHS Ch. 45, Kshudhita for being joined with Saturn. BPHS Ch. 15 Sl. 2 want the 4th lord in the 4th with a benefic aspect, and the only aspect the engine records on Saturn is Mars's, from the Lagna. Saturn's own 10th aspect falls back on that Lagna, where the Sun is debilitated and Mars combust, and no benefic aspects it; that is the condition BPHS Ch. 12 Sl. 3 name. The Ascendant is at 0.16 degrees of Libra, so a birth a few minutes earlier would have had Virgo rising and Saturn in the 5th. The Saturn Mahadasha does not begin until 2085.

Two more checks can be made by hand. Kahal Yog's second version needs the 4th lord in its own sign joined to the 10th lord; here Saturn is the 4th lord in its own sign, but the 10th lord, the Moon, sits in the 11th, so it is not met. And BPHS Ch. 15 Sl. 14 give two opposite verdicts on vehicles, for a benefic and for a malefic in the 4th; this chart has one of each in the house, Jupiter and Saturn. The text gives no rule for netting them, and the app does not compute either. What the chart shows most clearly is that the rules are conditions to check, and a single chart can satisfy several of them in opposite directions.

Checking a Saturn in the 4th in your own chart

1. 1.Confirm the placement with the birth chart calculator: Saturn is in the 4th if it is in the fourth sign from your Ascendant.
2. 2.Is Saturn in Libra, Capricorn or Aquarius (the first Bhrigu cancellation and Sasa)? Is it your Lagna lord (the second)?
3. 3.Otherwise, note where the sign lord sits from Saturn: it decides the engine's Friendly, Neutral or Enemy.
4. 4.Find your 4th lord: in the 4th with a benefic aspect (Ch. 15 Sl. 2)? Weak or afflicted?
5. 5.Does a benefic aspect your Lagna, which Saturn in the 4th always aspects (Ch. 12 Sl. 3)?
6. 6.Check the divisions BPHS Ch. 7 assign to fortunes and conveyances in the Chaturthamsa (D4) and Shodashamsa (D16) calculators.
7. 7.Note when the Saturn periods run, and keep Ardha Ashtama Sani, counted from the Moon, separate.

The methodology page explains how positions are computed, and the sources page lists the books behind each reading.

Common misreadings

• "Saturn in the 4th means an unhappy home." Saravali reads it that way; the Bhrigu Sutras cancel the hardship in own sign or exaltation, or when Saturn rules the Lagna.
• "Saturn in the 4th harms the mother." The app's notes record that this prediction was dropped; BPHS reads the mother from the 4th, the Moon and the 4th from the Moon together. This app says nothing about any parent.
• "Saturn in the 4th is Ardha Ashtama Sani." That is a transit, Saturn in the 4th from the Moon. A natal Saturn in the 4th from the Lagna is a different thing.
• "The app's testing line for my Capricorn-rising Saturn contradicts the Bhrigu Sutras." It does: the engine reads the debilitation, the Bhrigu text the Lagna lordship. Both are reported here.
• "Saturn has no strength at the nadir." Directional strength is half of full in the 4th, more than in the 1st or 10th.

Frequently asked questions

Is Saturn in the 4th house bad?

Saravali Ch. 30 Sl. 77 read it harshly: without relatives, conveyances, wealth and happiness. The Bhrigu Sutras read hardship concerning the mother and cancel it when Saturn is in its own sign or exalted in the 4th, or is the Lagna lord. BPHS Ch. 15 Sl. 14 read a malefic in the 4th as trouble with vehicles.

Does Saturn in the 4th form Sasa Yoga?

For Cancer, Libra and Scorpio rising, where Saturn is in Libra, Capricorn or Aquarius. In this engine's sample it formed in 29.9 per cent of Saturn-in-the-4th charts.

What does Saturn aspect from the 4th house?

The 6th, the 10th and the 1st. The aspect on the Lagna is a malefic aspect that BPHS Ch. 12 Sl. 3 weigh against any benefic aspect there.

Which rising sign gives the strongest Saturn in the 4th?

Libra: Saturn in its own Capricorn as lord of the 4th and 5th, called auspicious by BPHS Ch. 34 and Yoga Karaka by later commentary, with Sasa Yoga.

What is Ardha Ashtama Sani?

Saturn transiting the 4th sign from the natal Moon. The Ashtama Sani calculator dates it. It is not the same as a natal Saturn in the 4th house.

When does a Saturn in the 4th show its effects?

Classically in the Saturn Mahadasha and Antardashas. BPHS Ch. 47 Sl. 57-60 make a Saturn in an angle one of the escape conditions from an adverse period; the app does not apply that clause.

Where can I read the neighbouring placements?

See Saturn in the 3rd house and Saturn in the 5th house; for a benefic in the same house, Venus in the 4th house.