THE STELLAR PERSPECTIVEHouse Significators
The four-grade hierarchy
A significator is a planet connected with a house through a specified relationship. For a target house, the common A–D framework considers stellar links to occupants, direct occupation, stellar links to its owner and ownership.
| Grade | Relationship to the target house |
|---|---|
| A | Planet in the star of a planet occupying the house |
| B | Planet occupying the house |
| C | Planet in the star of the house's owner |
| D | Owner of the house |
Occupation and ownership
House occupation generally receives priority over house ownership in this common scheme, with stellar relationships playing the leading role. Ownership comes from the sign on the actual cusp, rather than automatically from counting signs from the ascendant.
If Mars occupies the tenth house and Saturn owns it, a planet in a Mars-ruled star enters grade A for the tenth. Mars enters grade B. A planet in a Saturn-ruled star enters grade C, and Saturn enters grade D. A single planet can qualify through several paths.
Empty houses
An empty house still has an owner and may have planets in that owner's stars. Empty does not mean inactive. Repeated entries can be displayed once while preserving the different relationships that qualify the planet.
The grades describe a hierarchy of relationships, not numerical probabilities. Node representation and sub-lord interpretation add further conditions. This four-grade structure is different from the later named Four-Step Theory.