Graha

Rahu

राहु

Rahu is not a body in the sky but a point: the north node of the Moon, where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's going north. An eclipse can happen only when the Sun and Moon are near the nodes, and the old story explains it. At the churning of the ocean the asura Svarbhanu slipped among the gods to drink the nectar; the Sun and Moon gave him away and Vishnu cut off his head, but the nectar had made him immortal, so the head, Rahu, and the body, Ketu, live on and swallow the Sun and Moon in turn. The nodes always move backwards through the zodiac, taking about eighteen months over each sign, and are always opposite each other. In a chart Rahu stands for ambition, the foreign and the new, obsession and illusion. In the classical scheme of sign lords, which the site follows, Rahu rules no sign, and these pages give it none; what the site's tables do hold is below.

At a glance

Nature
Natural malefic
Rules
No sign
Day
Saturday
Vimshottari dasha
18 years

What Rahu signifies

The site's table of significations, the natural karakatva the birth report reads, gives Rahu: ambition, foreign matters, innovation, obsession, illusion.

Rahu is one of the natural malefics in the site's table, with the Sun, Mars, Saturn and Ketu. Natural nature is only half the story: what a graha is for a particular chart depends on the houses it rules from that chart's Lagna, which each sign's page sets out.

Signs and dignities

In the classical scheme of sign lords, which the site follows, Rahu rules no sign. The birth report's interpretation says nothing of the nodes' dignities, on which the texts disagree; the site's table of dignities does list an exaltation and a fall for them, used where a strength or a dignity has to be named:

Friends and enemies

The natural friendships the site reckons with, from the table every dignity and strength is worked from (Parashara gives the nodes none of their own):

A planet in the sign of a friend is comfortable there, in an enemy's ill at ease; the sign pages list who is where.

Aspects, combustion and direction

The site casts no aspect from Rahu: aspects are by sign, every graha aspecting the seventh from it, and the nodes, being points rather than bodies, cast none.

In transit, counted from the Moon sign, the classical gochara table the site uses counts Rahu favourable in the 3rd, 6th and 11th houses.

Its dasha and its nakshatras

Rahu rules Ardra, Swati and Shatabhisha, one in each third of the zodiac. Its period in the Vimshottari dasha lasts 18 years, of the cycle's 120; a person born with the Moon in one of its nakshatras begins life in it.

Rahu in the twelve signs

Varahamihira gives Rahu no reading in the signs: the Brihat Jataka reads the seven planets in each sign and leaves the nodes out, and the site writes none in its place.

Rahu in the twelve houses

The readings the birth report gives for Rahu in each house, counted from the Lagna:

In the 1st house. Rahu in the 1st house gives intense ambition, an unconventional persona and a magnetic, sometimes restless presence; identity is sought through bold reinvention.

In the 2nd house. Rahu in the 2nd house brings unusual or sudden gains in wealth and a persuasive, unconventional voice; family ties and speech may carry foreign influence.

In the 3rd house. Rahu in the 3rd house is strongly placed for daring ambition, media, technology and self-promotion; you are courageous, manipulative if needed, and tireless.

In the 4th house. Rahu in the 4th house brings restlessness at home, foreign residence or unconventional property; emotional security and the mother-bond may feel uncertain.

In the 5th house. Rahu in the 5th house gives ambitious, unorthodox intelligence and speculation; matters of children, romance and creativity carry intensity and surprise.

In the 6th house. Rahu in the 6th house is excellent for defeating enemies and competitors; you thrive in conflict, service and foreign or unconventional work, overcoming odds.

In the 7th house. Rahu in the 7th house brings an unconventional or foreign partner and intense, unusual partnerships; desire and illusion strongly colour marriage.

In the 8th house. Rahu in the 8th house draws you to the occult, research and sudden transformations; it brings unexpected events, hidden gains and deep, obsessive inquiry.

In the 9th house. Rahu in the 9th house gives unorthodox beliefs and ambition for higher learning, foreign travel and gurus; fortune comes through unconventional dharma.

In the 10th house. Rahu in the 10th house is powerfully placed for worldly ambition, fame and rise through unconventional or foreign careers, politics or technology.

In the 11th house. Rahu in the 11th house is excellent for large, sudden gains, influential networks and fulfilment of ambitious desires, often through unconventional means.

In the 12th house. Rahu in the 12th house draws you to foreign lands, isolation and the subconscious; it brings hidden expenses, escapism, and a pull towards moksha or illusion.

Observances

The tradition's observances for Rahu, as the site's reference lists them. Saturday is its day and Goddess Durga its deity. Its mantra is "Om Rahave Namah", and its beej mantra "Om Bhraam Bhreem Bhraum Sah Rahave Namaha", recited 108 times. The customary gifts: donate mustard oil, blankets or coconut; feed stray dogs. Its stotra is the Durga Chalisa.

Its stone is the Hessonite (Gomed). The site advises a stone only from a chart, never from a transit or a sign alone; a node has no Shadbala of its own, and its remedies page goes by the chart's own planets.

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