VedicReader

Ketu

The nine grahas

Ketu is the descending node. He is called śikhī, the one with a flaming tail. He signifies detachment, spiritual liberation and sudden loss. The texts do not agree on his dignities either.

Nature	gives the results of the house it is in and of the lord it is joined with; in a kendra or trikoṇa, joined with the lord of the other, it gives rāja yoga Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · Laghu Pārāśarī 3.21
Rank	the army BPHS 2.5
Varṇa	of mixed birth (jātyantara) BPHS 2.31
Exaltation	the texts differ, and this app gives none
Aspects	none of its own, in Varāhamihira BJ 2.13 · Sārāvalī 4.32-33
Vimśottarī daśā	7 years BPHS 35.14-15
Aṣṭottarī daśā	no period BPHS 35.21-22
Lord of	Aśvinī, Maghā, Mūla BPHS 35.12-14
Complexion	like Rāhu BPHS 2.20
Place	an anthill BPHS 2.31
Gem	cat’s eye (vaiḍūrya) Phaladīpikā 2 · Nature of the grahas

Each fact gives the verses it comes from. A book in the library opens at the verse.

Nature

Parāśara places Ketu in the planetary cabinet with the army, and another Parāśara passage counts Śikhi among the benefic grahas. (BPHS 2.5 · BPHS 26.55) Laghu Pārāśarī gives the main rule for reading him. It says the two dark grahas give the results of the house they occupy and of the lord they join, when strong. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13) The same text adds that in a kendra or trikoṇa, when associated with even one lord of the kendra and trikoṇa pair, they become yoga-producing. (Laghu Pārāśarī 3.21) Parāśara gives his jāti as jātyantara, of mixed birth, and his place as an anthill. (BPHS 2.31)

Parāśara describes Svarbhānu as smoke-shaped, dark-bodied, windy in constitution, intelligent, and like a crested flame. (BPHS 2.20) Bṛhat Jātaka gives Ketu’s name śikhī, the crested one. (BJ 2.3) The reference texts here connect Ketu with wounds, disease, skin afflictions, extreme pain, bursting, hunger, and distress. (BPHS 8.48) The modern reference card also notes detachment, liberation, occult matters, injury, and sudden loss under Ketu’s signification. (BJ 2.3 · BPHS 2 · Nature of the grahas) Phaladīpikā assigns cat’s eye, vaiḍūrya, to Ketu. (Phaladīpikā 2 · Nature of the grahas) Pulippāṇi places Ketu with the pitta nāḍi group. (Pulippāṇi 176)

The texts in this library do not give a settled single scheme of Ketu’s exaltation, debility, own sign, element, sex, or guṇa. (BPHS 2 · Nature of the grahas · Pulippāṇi 10) Pulippāṇi gives one later scheme, assigning Kumbha as rulership, Vṛścika and Karka as exaltation, Vṛṣabha as debility, and Siṁha as an inimical sign. (Pulippāṇi 10) Bṛhat Jātaka gives the general rule that exalted grahas, grahas in good navāṁśas, and grahas connected with strength produce better results. (BJ 1.13-14) For Ketu, the working rule given in Laghu Pārāśarī remains central: judge his strength, house, and conjunctions first. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · Laghu Pārāśarī 3.21)

No classical verse in the sources here gives Ketu special aspects distinct from conjunction and ordinary full aspect. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) The methods used with him are classical in basis. Parāśara’s bhāva-lord method reads a graha through house rulership and house placement, and Bṛhat Jātaka adds dignity by sign and varga strength. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords · BJ 1.13-14) Since Ketu has no signs assigned by agreement in these sources, his practical strength is read from placement, association, and the condition of the sign lord. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) Vishwanathan reads the star lord as a second layer under the sign lord in judging how a graha acts. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords)

What the texts say of it

Bṛhat Jātaka does not assign Ketu a separate daśā, but Parāśara’s Vimśottarī includes one. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās) Parāśara says Ketu daśā can give wounds, disease, fever, distress, losses, and results tied to the sign lord and joined grahas. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās · BPHS 8.48) Phaladīpikā also gives Ketu daśā with difficult bodily and worldly effects, and its outcomes vary with association. (Phaladīpikā 19 · Daśā results) The card’s reading of detachment, spiritual inclination, sudden separations, and release from old ties is in line with those sources when Ketu is strong or linked with benefics and good houses. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās · Phaladīpikā 19 · Daśā results · BPHS 26.55)

For house placement, the public-domain English Self Instructor gives a short traditional digest. For the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 8th, it gives bodily trouble, poison, disturbed domestic life, passion, eye trouble, and quarrels. (Self Instructor 5 · p. 130 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 130 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131) For the 2nd and 5th, it gives breaks in education, a harsh inner nature beneath a sweet tongue, trouble through children, and indulgence. (Self Instructor 5 · p. 130 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131) For the 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 11th, it gives courage, popularity, eventual rise, agreeable speech, holy bathing, friends, and wealth. (Self Instructor 5 · p. 130 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131)

The same digest gives the 9th with weak sight, impiety, falsehood, and yet children, relations, and friends. (Self Instructor 5 · p. 131) Taken together with Parāśara’s list of wounds, disease, pain, hunger, and distress, the difficult houses show Ketu as sharp, separating, and afflicting. (BPHS 8.48) Taken with Laghu Pārāśarī’s rule, the upacaya houses can turn his force toward rise, courage, and gain, especially when he is strong and linked to capable lords. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 130 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131 · Self Instructor 5 · p. 131) The texts in this library do not give a full classical sign-by-sign chapter for Ketu comparable to the seven visible grahas. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās · Phaladīpikā 19 · Daśā results)

How it combines

Laghu Pārāśarī gives the first rule for combining Ketu. Ketu gives the results of the house he occupies and of the lord he joins, when strong. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13) House lordship is therefore indirect in his case, since the source rule works through the bhāva occupied and through conjunction with a bhāveśa. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) If he is in a kendra or trikoṇa and joins one of the lords that complete a kendra-trikoṇa link, he can produce rāja yoga. (Laghu Pārāśarī 3.21) The strength of the joined lord matters greatly for the quality of that yoga. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords)

The next layer is the sign he occupies and the condition of that sign’s lord. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords · BJ 1.13-14) Parāśara’s bhāva-lord method reads every graha through placement and lordship conditions, and that is the classical way to extend Ketu’s results through the rāśi he inhabits. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) If the sign lord is exalted, strong in varga, or otherwise well placed, Ketu’s results rise in quality and become more effective. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords · BJ 1.13-14) If the sign lord is fallen, afflicted, or weak, Ketu’s tendency toward injury, distress, rupture, and loss is read as harsher. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords · BPHS 8.48)

A further layer comes from conjunction and aspect with other grahas. (Laghu Pārāśarī 2.13 · BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) Joined benefics can soften Ketu and direct him toward insight, withdrawal, sacred acts, and gains promised by the house. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās · Phaladīpikā 19 · Daśā results · BPHS 26.55) Joined cruel grahas can sharpen bodily trouble, conflict, fever, wounds, and sudden breaks. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās · BPHS 8.48 · BPHS 26.55) In antardaśās, the subperiod lord colors Ketu’s period by its own house rulership, placement, and relation to Ketu, following Parāśara’s general daśā method. (BPHS 36 · Effects of the daśās · BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords)

Transit from the Moon is read by house from Candra under the general bhāva method in this library. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) No cited source here gives a separate classical chapter on Ketu’s transit effects from the Moon, so the reading rests on the house transited, the natal condition of Candra, and the state of the sign lord involved. (BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords) A transit over sensitive natal places or over natal Ketu intensifies themes of separation, pain, and sudden disturbance, drawn from Parāśara’s significations for Ketu. (BPHS 8.48) If transit Ketu activates a natal yoga connection in kendra or trikoṇa with strong lords, the period can also show sharp turning points that produce status or release. (Laghu Pārāśarī 3.21 · BPHS 14 · Effects of the bhāva lords)