I would not be wrong when I say that the horoscope is like a mirror, from where an astrologer can peep into the past, present and the future. Horoscope is a complete snapshot of the natives live. Natal chartcan be prepared by using the date, time and place of birth, and these days it is possible within minutes with the help of software, unless the astrologer is a big fan of calculations and doing things manually after reading the ephemeris.  It is the interpretation of the horoscope that is challenging for any astrologer.

There are three basic parameters in a horoscope and they are Signs, Houses and Planets. The 12 Signs are spread over 12 houses.  There are in total 9 planets including Rahu and Ketu which are just mathematical points in Vedic astrology. Many houses will not contain any planets and some houses will have more than one planet. Interpretation of the horoscope has to be done in a very systematic way to reach any tangible conclusion. The interpretation of any horoscope is a very complex process and it involves many steps that need to be undertaken so that correct predictions can be made. Every astrologer should be aware of the fact that whatever he says will have a positive or a negative effecton the life of hisclient. There are no strict rules that should be followed when reading a chart but everyone has a methodology that they follow, generally all have some similarities. I have mentioned below some of the steps that should be undertaken when reading any horoscope.

1. First step in reading a horoscope is to verify the overall strength of the lagna/Ascendant and the lagna lord along with strength of Moon and the Sun. In Vedic astrology Moon is the significator of the mind and Sun is the significator of the soul. Both these luminaries also represent overall Health, body structure, character, thinking, alertness and personality of the native depends upon the sign rising in the lagna.

2. Analyzing planets in Kendra (House 1,4,7,10) and Trine (House 5,9) along with the placement of their lords.

3. Analyzing the planets placed in the TrikBhavas (Houses 6,8 & 12) as they are malefic in nature and any benefic planets posited in Trikbhavas will lose its strength.

4. Placement of Trik Lords (Lord of House 6,8& 12) is important when reading the horoscope as placement of trik lords in any house will lessen the strength of that particular house.

5. Besides this the astrologers needs to analyze any bad or auspicious Yogas in the Horoscope. Including aspects and conjunctions that planets could be making.

6. The astrologer also needs to study the benefic and malefic planets along with planets that are exalted or debilitated in the natal as well as the Navamsha chart.

7. The individual house of the horoscope needs to be analyzed, including the Karkas (Significators).

8. Last but not the least the period of Mahadasha and Antardasha that the native is running along with the look at the Gochar to analyze the timing of any particular event.

For analyzing any aspect of natives life, the astrologer assesses the house related to that aspect along with the Karka. Karka planets are those planets that do the work for you. Suppose we are checking for timing of marriage in a male horoscope, we will check the 7^th house, along with the significator of that particular event, for Marriage we will look at Venus as Venus is the significator of Marriage, marital happiness and sex. We will also look at the malefic aspects on the 7^th house and the 7^th lord. Below I have explained with the help of an example.

Date of Birth: 08 Feb 1950
Time of Birth: 6:55 AM
Place of Birth: Calcutta – West Bengal

In the above horoscope as we are looking for marriage we will start with the 7^th house. In the chart we see that the 7^th house lord is the Sun as Leo sign is posited there. The ascendant lord Saturn is posited in the 7^th house. Saturn in its enemy sign is not promising stability in the marriage. However as lagan lord is in the 7^th house, the native will always have a desire towards marriage. Jupiter the lord of the 11^th house which is the house of fructification of desires and Venus which is the lord of the 9^th house or the bhagesh are conjoined with 7^th lord Sun in the 12^th house.Jupiter although debilitated in the natal chart is exalted in Navamsha chart. 5^th house lord Mercury in gains that is the 11^th house, the native was very much interested in romance and moving about with members of the opposite sex. The strong period of marriage of the native was to be during the Mahadasha / antardasha of planets Saturn, Sun, Jupiter and Venus as these planets are strongly connected with the 7^th house, its lord and the karka.  As studied from the horoscope of the native that he was running the antardasha of Saturn in the mahadasha of Jupiter from 22 -02-1972 to 04-09-1974. This was indeed a very strong period of marriage as the native was running the dasha and antardasha of the planets of which one was posited in the 7^th house and the other was indicating gains or fructification of desires.

The transit in towards July 1973 saw Saturn and Sun conjoined in the 5^th house which is the house of romance. Venus and Jupiter aspect each other and Rahu posited in the 11^th house which is one of the upachya house and Rahu in upachaya enhances results and when in the 11^th house it aspects the 5^th and the 7^th house. The native did love marriage on 10 July 1973 in the period in which he was in the mahadasha of Jupiter, antardasha of Saturn and patyantardasha of Sun.