For any house signification, KP ranks significators by strength:
Level A (Strongest): Cuspal sub-lord. The sub-lord of the house cusp is the primary significator and overrides all others.
Level B (Strong): Planets tenanted in the house. Any planet actually occupying the house is a strong significator. Multiple planets in a house share the signification.
Level C (Moderate): Planets aspecting the house. In classical Parashara, planets aspect via planetary drishti (Mars 4 and 8, Jupiter 5 and 9, etc.). In KP, only strong aspects are counted; weak aspects are often ignored.
Level D (Weakest): House lord (classical ruler). The planetary lord of the sign on the house cusp is the weakest significator, consulted only when A, B, C are absent or inconclusive.
Application to a question: "Will I have children?" Look at the 5th house (children). (A) Is the 5th cuspal sub-lord benefic for children? If yes, strong YES. If no, check (B): Are benefic planets in the 5th? If yes, moderate YES. If no benefics in 5th, check (C): Are benefics aspecting 5th? If yes, weak YES. If all three are no, check (D): Is the 5th house lord benefic? If yes, very weak YES or possibly no.
Conflicts: If Level A says "yes" (cuspal sub-lord is Venus/Jupiter) but Level D says "no" (house lord is Saturn), KP prioritizes Level A. The cuspal sub-lord's verdict trumps the house lord's.
The engine computes all 4 levels of significators for all 12 houses. You will receive a chart, identify significators for a specific house, and predict an outcome based on the 4-step hierarchy.
The order and its logic. KP ranks significators in four steps: planets in the star of an occupant of the house, then the occupants themselves, then planets in the star of the house lord, then the house lord. The ranking follows from the principle that a planet delivers the results of the lord in whose star it sits, so a star-level link transmits the result more directly than ownership does.
Applying it to a question. For any matter, list the houses that support it and the houses that negate it. Run the four steps for each relevant house, collect the significators, and then check which of them are active in the running dasha. A significator that is strong on paper but inactive in the current period will not produce the event now.
Where students go wrong. The commonest error is treating the house lord as primary because classical training has trained that instinct. In KP the house lord ranks last of the four. The second commonest error is stopping at the first step and ignoring the rest, which produces an incomplete picture when the house is lightly tenanted.
Cross-checking. Significator analysis should agree with the cuspal sub-lord verdict. When they disagree, recheck the sub-lord computation first, because an error there is more likely than a genuine conflict in the method.