Ketu (south node) in Vedic astrology: meaning and significations

Ketu is the Sanskrit name for the south node of the Moon. B.V. Raman, author of Hindu Predictive Astrology, also lists Sikhi (Dragon's Tail) as an alternative name.

Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, R. Santhanam's translation) names the nine grahas (planets) as Surya, Chandra, Mangala, Budha, Guru, Shukra, Shani, Rahu and Ketu, or Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.

In the same chapter, BPHS assigns governance to seven of them and gives Rahu and Ketu none.

P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, follows the same reading. Ketu's meaning on a Learn page like this one comes from its significations and its role as a shadow planet, covered below.

Sky-lore, said as tradition: PVR notes that the Matsya (fish) avatara of Vishnu is said to have come from Ketu.

Both BPHS (ch. 3) and PVR classify Ketu as a natural malefic. PVR explains why the label matters: 'because the results given by planets are based on their inherent nature'.

That is the natural nature only. Lordship of houses for a given Vedic ascendant (lagna), the sign on the eastern horizon at birth, can change how a planet behaves: this is called functional nature, a later lesson.

In BPHS's planetary cabinet, the royal court of the grahas, Rahu and Ketu together hold the role of the army.

The remaining attributes in the table (colour, deity, element, guna and abode) are traditional images from the classical texts. A guna is one of the three qualities, such as sattva, rajas or tamas, used to describe a planet's temperament. Read them as imagery, not as literal facts about a point in the sky.

Rahu and Ketu are chaya grahas (shadow planets): mathematical points, the north and south nodes of the Moon. They mark where the Moon's orbit around the earth cuts the earth's orbit around the Sun, and they sit exactly opposite each other.

In Skybond's engine, sign rulership comes from the seven visible planets. The twelve signs are ruled by the seven visible planets: Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, Venus rules Taurus and Libra, Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo, the Moon rules Cancer, the Sun rules Leo, Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius.

PVR's Table 6 also lists Rahu in Aquarius and Ketu in Scorpio as own signs. Skybond's engine gives the nodes no own sign and never treats them as house lords.

Dignity (exaltation, debilitation, own sign) is where the texts openly differ:

• PVR (Table 6): exalted in Sagittarius, debilitated in Gemini, own sign Scorpio, moolatrikona Pisces.
• BPHS (ch. 47): exalted in Scorpio, moolatrikona Sagittarius, own sign Scorpio, with some sages giving Pisces.
• B.V. Raman: exalted at 20° Scorpio.
• Skybond's engine: exaltation in Scorpio, debilitation in Taurus, no own sign.

Other texts differ, and each view is read within its own frame. Skybond's chart uses the engine values in the last line.

A karaka is a significator, literally 'one who causes'. Ketu's natural significations (naisargika karakatwas, in PVR's Table 16) are read from the houses shown in the table: occult knowledge (8th house), pilgrimages and going abroad (9th house), and moksha (liberation) (12th house).

PVR offers an analogy for this pattern: Ketu is most comfortable with occult activity, which is 8th house matter, hence own sign Scorpio, the 8th sign; his official duty is giving meditation and moksha, which is 12th house matter, hence moolatrikona Pisces, the 12th sign.

PVR also notes that the chara karakas (variable significators of the people in one's life) leave Ketu out, 'as Ketu stands for moksha (emancipation) and does not stand for any person who affects one's sustenance'.

Ketu rules three nakshatras (lunar mansions, 27 divisions of the zodiac used for finer planetary detail): Ashwini, Magha and Mula.

In Vimshottari dasha, the dasha (planetary period) system PVR calls the most popular, Ketu's mahadasha (main period) lasts 7 years of the 120-year cycle.

On motion: Ketu always moves backwards (east to west) through the signs, about 18 months per sign, exactly opposite Rahu, per B.V. Raman.

BPHS's classical description of Ketu is short: 'Ketu is akin to Rahu'. This is a traditional character sketch, general in nature.

B.V. Raman cautions that such descriptions 'are only general in nature and should not be applied hastily'. Read the sketch as imagery, not as a verdict on anyone's chart.

Skybond's chart records each planet's sign, house, degree, nakshatra and pada (a quarter of a nakshatra), dignity, whether it is retrograde or combust, and which houses it rules for your lagna. It uses Vimshottari dasha for timing.

OnlineJyotish advises treating interpretations 'as traditional associations rather than promises'.