Rahu in Capricorn, Ketu in Cancer (Dec 2026 to mid-2028)

The nodes spend roughly 18 months in each sign, moving backwards through the zodiac, so this stretch covers one full sign each for Rahu and Ketu. For comparison, other speeds from B.V. Raman: the Moon takes about two and a quarter days per sign, the Sun about a month, Mars about 45 days, Jupiter about a year, and Saturn about two and a half years.

The timeline in IST:

• December 2026: Rahu enters Capricorn, Ketu enters Cancer
• 25 January 2027 to 26 June 2027: Jupiter joins Ketu in Cancer
• Mid-2028: Rahu enters Sagittarius, Ketu enters Gemini

Capricorn is the 10th sign, an earth sign and a movable sign, ruled by Saturn. Cancer is the 4th sign, a water sign and a movable sign, ruled by the Moon.

In Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS, R. Santhanam's translation) chapter 47, in P.V.R. Narasimha Rao's (PVR) Table 6, and in Skybond's engine, neither node has a listed dignity in Capricorn or Cancer.

Skybond's engine places Rahu exalted in Taurus and debilitated in Scorpio, with Ketu the reverse. Other texts differ, and each view is read within its own frame.

Skybond uses the mean nodes, the averaged positions of the Moon's nodes; some calculators use the true nodes, so node dates can differ slightly between calculators.

Counting uses whole-sign houses: the sign of your reference point is the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd, and so on. PVR puts it plainly: 'We can see which house a planet is transiting in, with respect to natal lagna, and expect the planet to influence the matters of that house'.

PVR and B.V. Raman also count transits from the janma rasi, the sign holding the Moon at birth.

Example with Skybond's sample chart (a teaching chart, not a real person): the lagna is Cancer and the Moon is in Leo. Rahu in Capricorn lands in the 7th house from the lagna and the 6th from the Moon.

The grid above shows the same count applied to every ascendant, and the identical counting works from a moon sign.

Rahu and Ketu are the north and south nodes of the Moon, two shadow points rather than physical planets. They are always exactly opposite each other, 180 degrees apart.

They travel east to west through the zodiac, the reverse of most planets, taking about 18 months per sign.

One thing this page does not cover: the aspects of the nodes. Texts and calculators differ on whether and how the nodes cast aspects, so this page does not give them.

PVR is direct about this: standard transit results 'are given only for reference. In reality, not everyone with the same janma rasi experiences the same results'. He adds that 'The results given by planets depend on what they stand for in the natal chart'.

B.V. Raman says the same in his own words: 'There is no denying the fact that the birth horoscope directly affects Gochara results'.

So treat the grid above as a map of where to look, not a set of outcomes. To go further, Skybond publishes one transit article per event for each of the 12 ascendants, free to read at /transits/{sign}/. In the app, transits are written for your own houses, counted from your lagna and from your Moon.