Rahu and Ketu: The Shadow Planets

Rahu and Ketu are called chaya grahas, shadow planets. They are not bodies in the sky but mathematical points: the two places where the Moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic, the Sun’s apparent path. Rahu is the north (ascending) node and Ketu the south (descending) node. Eclipses happen only when a new or full moon falls near them, which is why Indian tradition says Rahu and Ketu swallow the Sun and Moon.

The story

In the Puranic account of the churning of the ocean, the asura Svarbhanu disguised himself among the devas to drink the nectar of immortality. The Sun and Moon recognised him and told Vishnu, who cut off his head with the Sudarshana chakra. Having tasted the nectar, both parts lived on: the head as Rahu, the body as Ketu, forever pursuing the Sun and Moon.

How they move

The nodes always lie exactly opposite each other and move backwards through the zodiac, completing a circle in about 18.6 years and spending about 18 months in each sign. Traditional Jyotish uses the mean node, a smoothed average position; some modern astrologers use the true node, which wobbles around it by up to about a degree and a half. VedicsAstro uses the mean node.

Rahu

Rahu is desire without limit: ambition, obsession, the foreign and the new, technology, crowds, illusion and sudden rise. It magnifies the house it occupies and makes the person hungry for its matters. Rahu in the 10th can give a dramatic career; in the 7th, an unusual partner; in the 2nd, a restless relationship with money and speech.

Ketu

Ketu is the body without a head: detachment, past mastery, intuition, spirituality, loss and liberation. It gives skill in the matters of its house but little interest in them, and can make those areas feel empty until they are approached with less attachment. Ketu is the karaka of moksha.

Reading the axis

Because they are always opposite, the nodes are read as an axis. Rahu in the 1st and Ketu in the 7th sets a tension between self and partner; Rahu in the 4th and Ketu in the 10th between home and career; Rahu in the 10th and Ketu in the 4th the reverse. The nodes also act like the lord of the sign they occupy and take on the qualities of planets conjunct them, so their Dashas — 18 years for Rahu, 7 for Ketu — depend heavily on those connections.

Related combinations

• Kaal Sarp Dosha: all seven planets on one side of the nodal axis.
• Grahan Dosha: the Sun or Moon conjunct a node in the birth chart.
• Guru Chandal Yoga: Jupiter conjunct Rahu, testing judgement and tradition.
• Rahu in an upachaya house (3rd, 6th, 10th or 11th) is considered well placed and often gives success.

Your Kundli shows where Rahu and Ketu sit, the nakshatras they occupy and when their Dashas run.