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Rahu
Ahi - Svarbhanu - Thama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahu
Passion, Entitlement & Desire
Risk-Taker - Marriage-Maker
"Caput Draconis - The Dragon's Head"
also see the Ketu Kethu page
"churning"; water cyclones, typhoon, hurricane
bored & reckless
poisons, stigmatized disease
excess
Entitlement
erased boundaries; crossed limits; invasion
obsession, compulsion, dysfunctional desires; unrequited love
affliction via psychic agency & ghosts
immediate gratification, blind impulse
intense dissatisfaction or unhappiness with life
sudden outbursts of anger
susceptibility to gossip, psychic invasion
innovation & invention; radically new ideas
jealousy
exotic marriages
"bad luck"; dis-aster ( "bad stars")
mysterious and un-diagnosable illnesses
black magic, tantra
occult, tantric, & magical people; foreigners
out-caste/outcast/pariah
furious shaking, spasms, epilepsy, earthquakes
sudden change; trauma; chaos
Rahu's Characteristics
see this page for details on Ketu
Karmic Control Planets
the mystic world or mystic knowledge
Rahu breaks social boundaries on Sex, Death, and other Taboos
the "chandala", corrupter
"The trick is to have positive intention during the dream." -- Chagdud Rinpoche
Again and again some people in the crowd wake up,
They have no grounding in the crowd,
And they emerge according to much broader laws.
They carry strange customs with them
And demand room for bold gestures.
The future speaks ruthlessly through them.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Great love and great achievements involve great risk.
He who angers you controls you.
Rahu has a body black in appearance.
[He is represented by] a person of a hundred years.
[His stone is] Agate.
[His direction is] South-west.
[He lingers in] the corners of the house.
Rahu causes great fear to men by means of epilepsy, smallpox, halter, flies, worms, ghosts, fiends and goblins, and also by leading to suicides by hanging, because of diseases resulting in lack of appetite and leprosy.
One ought to guess about one's paternal grandfather through Rahu.
In Mesha, Vrischikha, Kumbha, Kanya, Vrishabha, Kataka, and in the tenth house, from the lagna, Rahu has strength.
-- Jataka Parijata
Rahu has smoky appearance with a blue-mix physique.
He resides in forests and is horrible.
He is windy in temperament and is intelligent. Ketu is akin to Rahu.
-- BPHS, Ch. 3 [Planetary Characters and Description], Shloka 30
Rahu rules the outcaste while Ketu governs mixed caste. ...
Rahu denotes multi-colored clothes and Ketu rags.
Lead and blue gem belong to Rahu and Ketu.
-- BPHS Ch. 3, Shloka 41-44
Rahu causes great fear to men by means of epilepsy, smallpox, halter, flies, worms, ghosts, fiends and goblins, & also by leading to suicides by hanging, because of diseases resulting in want of appetite and leprosy.
~~Jataka Parijata, Ch. 2, ln. 81
Rahu & Ketu are two psycho-magnetic zones opposite each other, on our Moon's orbit path around Earth. They reside where the Moon's path intersects the plane of the ecliptic, called the "rashi chakra" ["circle of signs"].
Rahu is the "North Node of the Moon" = Dragon's Head = Caput Draconis.
Ketu is the "South Node of the Moon" = Dragon's Tail = Cauda Draconis.
Rahu, Ketu, Dhuma, are called "chhaaya grahaa" or "shadow planets" because they have similar effects to planets, but they have no gravity or mass. ["Planet" means "wanderer".]
Rahu/Ketu (who work always as a pair) move "backwards" through the rashi chakra, in direction opposite to Moon and Sun.
Rahu has the influence of Jupiter conjunction Venus. It gives intense appreciation and respect for the area by house where Rahu is located or transiting. There is popularity in this place with optimism and cheerfulness. This is a lucky place.
.... Ketu has the influence of a Mars conjunct Saturn. In Ketu, too much of the Saturn accent can produce fear and hold the Mars action back. This can give poor timing.
Mars represents energy and Saturn, a cycle of time. With the Combination, we need to take stock of the issues involved, and do something about them. There is an ambition for power where Ketu is located by house.
The trick is to use the energy of Mars in the right amount by the disciplining of Saturn in an area of selfless service rather than over-possessiveness.
~~ Manik Chand Jain, Rahu & Ketu in Predictive Astrology, page 82.
Every planet has two nodes relative to Earth. However, due to our Moon's extraordinary proximity to Earth, the Moon's nodes are said by the ancient rishis to have especially powerful implications for life on our little blue planet.
"Each planet has got its own ascending and descending nodes except the Sun....Generally the point of the Zodiac, where a planet crosses from the south to north latitude is the ascending node and the point of the Zodiac where a planet crosses from the north latitude to south latitude is called the descending node."
Rahu is always malefic in some sense, even when His contribution makes the native's life more vigorous, interesting, & colorful than would conventionally be allowed. The bhava occupied by Rahu becomes a site for sudden changes, sometimes catastrophic.
The nature of the catastrophe is known via Rahu's lord. When Rahu's lord is a highly impressionable graha like Chandra or Budha, the lord of the lord will be a causative agent also.
Lordship of Rahu:
Exaggeration of the importance of / Malefic amplification of / the Lord's house
Rahu's lord = L-1
Sudden changes regarding the physical body & individualization. Taboo associations for the social personality & the appearance. Typically a multicultural personality whose origins are smoky, outcaste, or harmed by some social taboo such as birth defect, orphans or illegitimate birth.
Rahu's lord = L-2
Sudden changes regarding wealth & family lineage values. Maraka functionality. Period of L-2 is dangerous. Rahu brings wealth and language abilities.
Rahu's lord = L-3
Sudden changes regarding Mental health. Siblings are peculiar. A double-upachaya effect. Malicious or unsavory thought habits mature over Time, giving better communication skills and benefits from taking risks in the communicative activities.
Rahu's lord = L-4
Sudden changes regarding Home property and education. Rahu internationalizes the education and causes the childhood home to experience foreign influence.
Rahu's lord = L-5
Sudden changes regarding children and speculation. Rahu amplifies winnings from gaming, abundance of children, creativity & performance arts. Periods of Rahu create major fluctuation in the fortune of politicians, promoters, and performance artists.
Rahu's lord = L-6
Sudden changes regarding illness, conflict, animosity, debt, disease, money-lending, medicines, policing. Imbalances of all kinds are amplified & exaggerated. A double-malefic effect. However, generally two negatives make a positive in Jyotisha.
Things get so evil with this combination that the native is forced to abandon all attachment to the problems of life.
When Rahu's lord is L-6 and L-6 is also a natural malefic, managing conflict of this proportion is such a hopeless prospect that the native severs his connection with the source of the animosity.
Relationships end suddenly, including the relationship with the physical body. However the native walks away almost unscathed. Desire for conflict is itself annihilated. The total effect is more like double-Ketu
Rahu's lord = L-7
Sudden changes regarding marriage and contractual agreements. Spouse is peculiar, desirous & impulsive, with foreign qualities. Maraka functionality. Period of L-7 is dangerous.
Rahu's lord = L-8
Sudden changes regarding hidden assets. Amplification of mysterious patterns, deep healing, catastrophic loss & change. In-laws (spouse's family) are impulsive and unpredictable, may be trouble-makers if L-8 is a natural malefic. A double-malefic effect, although this effect is so extreme that it becomes a spiritual positive. Tantric healer.
Rahu's lord = L-9
Sudden changes regarding priesthood, religious rituals, moral culture, university teachings, philosophy, religious fellowship, guru, father. Rahu's effect is tricky here; typically gives a foreign flavor to the religious practice, and may signify ritualism. Generally not harmful but can give fascination with external trappings of foreign cults, & the father may have eccentric tastes.
Rahu's lord = L-10
Sudden changes regarding leadership, public responsibility, symbolic/iconic figures in the culture. A double-upachaya effect - initially too impressed with one's own position, but humility toward genuine service improves with Time.
Rahu's lord = L-11
Sudden changes regarding marketplace Gains, the elder sibling, concentric circles of interlocked social and conceptual networks. Initially too busy creating and exploring connections, impulsively adventuring into curious links. Improves with Time, as the native finds their niche. A double-upachaya effect.
Rahu's lord = L-12
Sudden changes regarding loss, sanctuary, meditation, prayer, long journeys to foreign lands, long separations from loved ones, long illnesses, hospitalization, imprisonment, isolation, lasting grief. A double-malefic effect.
Rahu breaks social boundaries on Sex, Death, and other Taboos
Rahu gives the spirit emotional permission to break taboos & manifest passions long suppressed in the subconscious.
Because social moral codes are essentially systems of taboo-management, taboo-crossing Rahu is associated with breakdown of the moral code.
For some people, it is very frightening to be swept up in an uncontrollable current of desire, because along with the excitement there is a terrible fear of rejection & death. If Rahu is associated with a malefic graha, the person subconsciously remembers the ill-effects of breaking taboos in past lives, when they likely were driven out into the wilderness by their angry tribe - and died.
For other people, Rahu is almost blissfully high adventure.
An investor with a "good" Rahu might take huge financial risks with his own money in a speculative business venture - and turn a fine profit.
A diplomat might marry a handsome but illiterate foreigner whose simple graces much assist an international career.
A Hollywood celebrity might build an worldwide recognition by flaunting sexual, blood, knife, death, age-gap marriage & extramarital affair taboos in sensual, feminine style. See the case of Angelina Jolie, who achieved remarkable stardom during her Shukra/Rahu period, 11/2002 until 11/2005. (Followed by a fertile Jupiter period, producing children.)
If Rahu is associated with a benefic graha, the person subconsciously remembers the glamorous effects of expanding their tribes boundaries in a socially appreciated way. For example, the taboo on exotic marriages does not apply to royalty, who frequently marry foreigners to gain alliances for their tribe. A person carrying positive past-life memories of a tribe-pleasing foreign bond or shamanic funeral where all the evil spirits came and were dispersed, will be much more likely to enjoy Rahu periods in the current life.
What is "Taboo"?
"1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed," explained in some Englishsources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially."
But this may be folk etymology, as linguists in the Pacific have reconstructed an irreducable Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu "sacred, forbidden" (cf. Hawaiian kapu "taboo, prohibition, sacred, holy, consecrated;" Tahitian tapu "restriction, sacred;" Maori tapu "be under ritual restriction, prohibited"). The noun and verb are Eng. innovations first recorded in Cook's book."
How "taboos" work (very simple version):
There is nothing inherently frightening or evil in taboo objects or behaviors. Different cultures set different boundaries. There is no single taboo shared by all societies.
Rather, each culture trains its members to detect its own boundaries with psychic, emotional, & physical warnings that scream "we don't go there". Members are trained to believe that if they *do* go there, they will be ostracized - and die.
Normally, we are socialized to feel frightened or disgusted when we approach a taboo boundary. Physically, when approaching an extremely taboo object, we might become nauseated or even faint.
What objects or behaviors are taboo?
Taboos are usually necessary or inescapable items which are forbidden by the culture. Ask any anthropology student :)
In traditional societies, Rahu people are outcaste workers who handle objects that are taboo across a broad range of cultures, such as corpses, feces, & spoiled food. In some societies, animal meat & leather are also taboo. Rahu people will be found in butchery, & leatherworking.
In some societies, certain sexual practices or partners are taboo. Again, Rahu people will be found "pushing the envelope" of social tolerance. In rural Nepal, childbirth is taboo. Childbirth is considered dangerous not only for the birthmother and child, but for the entire village. Rahu people there are midwife-shamans. This is not a medical job. It's task is to manage the evil spirits.
In medieval Europe, the "interest" on loaned money was taboo, as was psychic divination. Yet there was a great need for these services, so two outcaste groups were retained for the purpose. Outcaste Jews handled the taboo money, and Roma (gypsies) handled the taboo divinations.
As you can see from these social examples, Rahu groups & individuals can have a lot of power because they provide essential services. However, they are frequently also in danger because of their taboo stigma.
Periodically, unstable societies go on conformist "cleansing" binges that place Rahu people in serious peril.
Try to have your wits about you during a Rahu period, and appreciate that what spells pleasure to you is likely to spell fear & loathing for others. Have compassion along with your passion, and be skillful in the way you push the envelope. Don't let Rahu mislead you into thinking the adventure has no consequence, unless your culture is very tolerant and stable.
Rahu-Ketu periods in a normal, otherwise-balanced western person will create an era marked by unusually high "emotional permission" to cross taboo boundaries.
For example, Rahu gives permission to marry outside one's tribe; have an extramarital affair; eat meat; gamble; dance; be naked; perform magic & foretell the future; explore taboo sexuality. Rahu permits much more direct engagement with matters of ritual pollution - or even physical pollution.
It gets physical when ingesting taboo/illegal drugs, or taboo amounts of a sanctioned intoxicant like alcohol. Or when a person from a culture where meat (or a particular kind of meat) is taboo, starts eating those taboo/polluted foods.
For example, a foreign student from a strictly vegetarian family might travel to a cow-eating country & find themselves eating cow meat. Mahatma Gandhi left his traditional Gujarati family for law school in London during Shukra/Rahu period - and had a life-changing struggle with numerous religious taboos, especially eating meat. (This struggle prepared him morally for later work releasing caste taboos in So. Africa & India.)
For an example of the taboo impact of extramarital affairs, see the divorce chart of Charles, Prince of Wales. The onset of his Rahu Mahadasha, where radix Rahu is extremely powerful yuti lagnesha Chandra in house-10 for public position, shows the worldwide impact of his long extramarital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. The affair itself originated much earlier in the prince's life, but the dramatic public effects of it began for him in 1995 - the year his Rahu era started.
What to expect from a Rahu bhukti?
Depends on your culture, and whichever planets are yuti Rahu, or receive drishti from Rahu.
The two biggest Forbidden Zones in American society are Sex and Death. So Sex & Death are where we see the dominant effects of Rahu for westerners:
extramarital affairs,
homosexual, polyandrous/polygamous union, or other taboo-sexual emergence;
intense erotic attractions of all kinds
exotic/exogenous marriages; including foreigners, class/caste gap & age gap
suicide, infanticide (abortion), ritual murder; & other taboo sorts of death
anything that *combines* sex & death in ritual form
Rahu does produce the occasional Pentecostal snake-dancer & other shamanistic-tantric outcroppings, but middle class folk will find that most of their Rahu adventure is centered around a core group of secret, forbidden activities:
extramarital affairs & other forbidden sexualities;
illegitimate pregnancies & abortions;
occasionally, suicide in the family.
Inter-racial & inter-faith marriages are much less taboo in America than they used to be. But still, one of the most common effects of a Rahu bhukti for the strong Rahu person (who has Rahu drishti to the marriage house) is to cause exogenous marriage, a marriage outside their caste, class, religion, or tribe.
Other Rahu marriages are those with a major age gap, where the spouse is old enough to be one's parent or grandparent (because it resembles parent-child incest).
Another interesting pattern in marriages made during Rahu bhukti, is that they tend to end in divorce either within the same Rahu bhukti that caused the marriage (in other words, within 3 years maximum) -or- at the subsequent Rahu bhukti (which might be as long as 18 years in the future). It is not so simple as saying that if the marriage was made under Rahu then divorce will also occur under s subsequent Rahu period. There are multiple factors required to create a divorce. Still, it is a common pattern that cause the Jyotishi to be on alert.
In the Rahu-dominated entertainment industry, interracial marriage bears little stigma, & as an attention-getter it can be a public relations plus. However, outside of this subculture wherein "there is no bad publicity", exotic marriages eventually do become stigmatized, on both sides.
Exaltation [uccha] and debilitation [neecha] signs of Rahu-Ketu
There is no agreement whatsoever in the Jyotisha classics regarding exaltation and debilitation signs, nor imputed ownerships signs, of Rahu-Ketu.
I enjoy to agree with the modern Jyotishi authors of Light on Relationships, Hart deFouw and Robert Svoboda, who state that Rahu is exalted in Scorpio.
Here are a few classical opinions:
Author
Node
Rashi effects
Vriddha Samhita
Rahu
owns Aquarius
Jyotishamrita
Rahu
owns Aquarius
Vriddha Samhita
Ketu
owns Scorpio
Jyotishamrita
Ketu
owns Scorpio
Veemesaram
Rahu
owns Aquarius
Jatakachintamani
Rahu
exalted in Scorpio; fallen in Taurus
Jatakachintamani
Ketu
exalted in Gemini; fallen in Sagittarius
Veemesaram
Rahu
exalted in Scorpio; fallen in Taurus
Veemesaram
Ketu
exalted in Scorpio; fallen in Taurus
Jatakalankaram
Rahu
exalted in Scorpio; fallen in Taurus
Jatakalankaram
Ketu
exalted in Scorpio; fallen in Taurus
Syama Sangraham
Rahu
exalted in Gemini and fallen in Sagittarius
Syama Sangraham
Ketu
exalted in Sagittarius and fallen in Gemini
Sarvartha Chintamani
Rahu
exalted in Taurus; fallen in Scorpio
Sarvartha Chintamani
Ketu
exalted in Scorpio; fallen in Taurus
Bhavartha Ratnakara
Rahu
exalted in Taurus; Gemini and Cancer mulatrikona
Bhavartha Ratnakara
Ketu
exalted in Scorpio; Sagittarius and Capricorn mulatrikona
This chart is composed from the scholarly writing of Mylavarapu Venkateswara Rao at http://www.sutradhari.com/horasara2.htm
Q. How to read from a horoscope that a person is prospering in magic-mesmerism?
A. Rahu governs magic and mesmerism. If he occupies the 10th house or aspects it, we can say that his earnings are through magic or mesmerism.
- B. V. Raman, A Catechism of Astrology, part II page 4 [4th edition 1992]
The three anchors of human incarnation are
Lagna, the physical form or rupa
Surya, the positive Will or Intention
Chandra, which is Manas, which includes not only feelings but senses, images, perceptions - the Whole Mind
Chandra rules hopes dreams emotions fear aspirations imagery and all the other ocean of mental-emotional experience which is Manas. Chandra rules a huge territory!
Rahu is a disturber of the Moon which means He is a disturber of Manas, the Mind.
Because they do not directly own any sign or house, Rahu and Ketu function primarily to *amplify* the power of the ruler of the house they occupy, and also to amplify the power of any planets which share their occupying house.
Rahu in lagna sends a "hard" drishti upon the 7th house, which often makes the first marriage partner a foreigner. If other aspects to kalatra-bhava are good, that foreigner might be a wonderful person. However, Rahu's drishti means that the marriage partner will practice different cultural habits from the native. Even when the aspects are inauspicious, marriage may survive despite severe psychic and social imbalance between the partners due to their mutual fascination with the strangeness of the Other. (Frequently this Rahu aspect means that, amongst the marriage-makers Shukra, Rahu, or lord of 7th navamsha, this native will marry during a Rahu bhukti.)
Rahu bhukti often incites impulsive, short-lived marriages. ( I think all county courthouses should have astrologers posted at the marriage license counter to impose a “cooling off period” for anyone trying to get married during his/her Rahu bhukti!)
For example:
Rahu rising in Leo puts Ketu in Aquarius, 7th house. Ketu/7 brings qualities of unworldliness, social instability, escapism, and psychic attunement into the marriage. Ketu here will also magnify the power of its Lord Shani, enhancing the qualities of dutifulness, resignation, and subservience to public opinion that Shani already represents. A person with Ketu in Kumbha/7 will tend to enter their first marriage based on social opinion rather than personal choice, and remain in that marriage long after it fails due to Ketu's retreat into fantasy and denial.
Disease
Rahu destroys the physical body while Ketu creates the physical body, Rahu is associated with intense desires (including obsessions) which are energetic overloads for the physical body, thus Rahu is a destructive force.
Ketu actually creates and maintains the physical body by anti-doting or negating the effects of desire.
Psychically, Rahu is a taboo-breaker.
Rahu breaks taboos, therefore He has a bad reputation as an enemy of organized society. Planetarily Rahu is the arch-enemy of Shani, ruler of social conformism, stability, and rules.
Taboo = a psychological mechanism that makes a particular thought "un-think-able" or a particular action "un-do-able".
"An effective taboo is worth more than the most skillful argument." -- Garrett Hardin
Rahu creates a psychic gateway, through which miraculous and/or catastrophic changes emerge.
Rahu releases subconsciously stored desires. These desires were often rather violently suppressed in past lives because it was impossible, inappropriate, or dangerous to manifest them in the old life. In the current life, when Rahu becomes strong, the desire resurges powerfully, "sprung" with the full force of long suppression.
During Rahu periods, folks often wonder "what hit me?" Suddenly the feelings change with hurricane force. An intense new hunger for a person, substance, or experience arises. One feels willing to sacrifice all life stability in order to gain this burning desire. Once achieved, however, the object of desire becomes repugnant, revolting, hideous... and so the inevitable & permanent cycle of attraction-repulsion makes a yo-yo toy of the mind. Everything becomes dramatic, extreme, a violent roller-coaster of desire & revulsion ... until finally, the Rahu period expires.
Rahu creates obsessive-compulsive behavior, passions, OBSESSIONS. His special forte is sexuality & money, jealousy & greed.
Rahu is responsible for sudden, impulsive marriages. In relationships, Rahu can function as Venus's "evil twin" - causing us to mistake hormonally-driven passion for enduring love. In romance, under Rahu's influence, one may become obsessed by a person, idea, substance or pattern that you know is bad for you - but the addiction or obsession is so powerful that one becomes utterly enslaved.
One could feel compelled to marry the object of desire (even though one knows this relationship is highly unstable), just to control them -- or to try to get your obsession, guilt, or grief under control.
However, if you are in Rahu's grips right now, take heart! Although Rahu periods do create these marriages for less conscious folks, if you are conscious enough to know that Rahu is operating and you find yourself immersed in a powerful attraction-repulsion take the scriptural advice and resist marriage!
During its reign as mahadasha/bhukti-pati, Rahu will "light up" its rashi sign within navamsha. E.g., if Rahu occupies Simha in radix, then Rahu's period's will "wake up" Simha's house in the navamsha too. Rahu's navamsha rashi should define how your romantic & sexual passions will be running during Rahu.
Rahu's bhukti always disturbs some aspect of life. However, if Rahu is yuti a good planet it can also magnify the good planet's effects. As B. ,V. Raman notes, Rahu frequently makes serious trouble in one department of life while simultaneously improving other departments. This seems to be the price one pays for a step up in consciousness which Rahu produces by "pushing the envelope" in the houses He owns & aspects.
It has been my experience over nearly sixty years that Rahu as sub-lord, whether in his own period or in the period of other planets, would always create problems of a serious nature, affecting family and personal matters, which would test the mental and physical stamina of an individual whatever be his social, educational, or financial attainments.
It is also found, contrary to general belief, that planets like the Sun and Mercury, occupying Rahu's constellations are capable of conferring happy results financially and career-wise but would create situations in domestic life, which could shatter a person's self-confidence and make him experience results which he would ordinarily never expect to happen.
There are of course exceptions which I will discuss in due course...
~~ B.V. Raman, Autobiography of a Vedic Astrologer, p. 99-100
Note these examples of catastrophic life changes under Rahu bhukti:
death of her young mother by sudden heart-attack, Rahu bhukti in chart eleven-year-old girl [Rahu bhukti with sade saati plus Rahu gochara Chandra]
impulsive marriage to violent spouse, near death at his hands, Rahu bhukti in young woman
fatal electrocution in household accident, Rahu bhukti in 25-year old woman
Rahu is called "the great churner of the oceans of milk". Rahu is expansive, like Jupiter, but in chaotic and weird ways.
Rahu releases long-suppressed desires from past lives. Rahu is the excitement of desire - usually desire for something that is very new, forbidden, unprecedented, or challenges established tradition. After Rahu's desire is released and made manifest the excitement fades as yang swings to yin and Ketu induces apathy. Ketu has "been there, done that" attitude which is often the mask for exhaustion and frustration. More about Ketu here.
Rahu is our powerful to brings past-life desires and fantasies into material form in this life. Rahu is the force of passion and desire. A person with a strong Rahu is considered to have built up lots of tantric powers from previous incarnations which grant the spiritual power and permission to change stored subconscious imagery into conscious imagery, and through the power of desire, to manifest that image on the material plane. I.e., to have a five-senses, real-life experience rather than just a daydream or a hope. Rahu is very powerful because desire is a very powerful thing!!
Ketu is Rahu's diametrically opposite force. Rahu is permissive and expansive like Venus and Jupiter, but Ketu is restrictive and like Shani and Mars. Whereas Rahu is passionate and desirous, Ketu is detached and meditative. The house, degree, sign, aspects, and other characteristics of Ketu show imagery that has already been manifested by Rahu, that we are finished desiring and now wish to separate from ourselves. Wherever Ketu is, there the person is detached, impassionate, cool-tempered, and unconcerned with the development of those matters. Ketu is a manifestation of Shri Ganesha, the elephant-headed god who is cheerful, slow-moving, and above it all.
Ketu is excellent for meditation and withdrawal from the world of the senses but understandably Ketu's influence damages any attempt at acquisitions. Ketu will "destroy" marriage in the 7th house because he doesn't really are enough to keep the fires burning. Ketu will make the person quite unconcerned about financial wealth when he occupies the 2nd or 11th houses. That doesn't mean a person with Ketu in 2 or 11 will be poor. Far from it. That person with Ketu in 2 or 11 might have much money at his disposal. But he will not care about the money. He will not take steps to protect money, develop his wealth, or show much attachment to it.
Ironically, because this detached state has no resistance to money, the person might be remarkably wealthy as a result of past-life labors. Much poverty is caused by resistance to wealth! However whether rich or poor, he will be neutral on the subject of wealth.
Similarly, Ketu in 5th house of children gives detachment toward children. As with money for Ketu in 2/11, Ketu in 5 can produce numerous children provided Guru's aspects are fertile, but the parent with Ketu in 5 will be emotionally detached from his offspring - and often frustrated with them. The first child may be adopted, from inside or outside the Ketu parent's family. Or, the first child may have some birth condition which detaches then from the parent's home, such as a health problem, needing special education, or something else that creates an emotional distance.
Ketu is spectacularly helpful for all matters of meditation and spiritual ascendance. Be sure to visit a temple of Ganesha to enhance your transcendent spiritual awareness. However, if you are wanting to enhance your bank account go see Lakshmi or someone else!
Rahu's obsessive fixation on the object of desire can ultimately yield favorable results. The object of Rahu's desire is usually something material; but still, that material acquisition may benefit others. The catastrophic qualities of Rahu's energy do not indicate anything morally or aesthetically wrong in the desire or in the object itself. Rahu problems are all attributable to the intensity of desire during Rahu periods. The desire is so strong that it blinds the person to his effect upon others.
In very empowered Rahu situations, the person becomes a tragic figure, brilliantly obsessed, unable to detect their own "fatal flaw" which is some fixation on a person or idea, until it is too late: they have ruined everything around them, and the curtain comes crashing down. Rahu makes it hard for one to see the forest for the trees.
The spiritual bottom line is wisdom. True happiness requires seeing the forest!
Luckily, the spirits protect us. Rahu periods are ALWAYS followed by Jupiter periods. As soon as Jupiter kicks in, we can see the forest again - and value of the previous period of obsession through Rahu then becomes known to us. Toward the end of strong Rahu periods you will notice your tendency to occasionally pull your head out of the sand, and see your higher goals again.
The usual voice-in-the-head effect under Rahu is "I must possess X in order to be happy." Unable to remember that one's goal is "happiness itself" rather than a specific representation of happiness, the person becomes extremely unhappy when the object of their desire escapes them.
Interestingly, staying true to one's desires, however those desires may be judged socially, IS one of the keys to happiness. But again, honoring one's desires as a path toward happiness, is different from obsessive control and imprisoning possession of the desired object.
Managing desire is the essential business of earthly incarnation. Rahu makes the desires so extreme that Rahu periods for the aware individual can be the peak spiritual education experience. On the outside, the person may appear to be going insane with a fixation - a total control freak. But on the inside, if that person is paying attention, the roller-coaster experience of desire, suppression of desires, volcanic resurgence of the desire, becoming friends with the desire, and finally releasing the desire (whether manifested or not) can be a critically important spiritual wisdom.
Managing Rahu/Ketu with Tonglen Practice
The classical Tibetan-Buddhist practice of tonglen can be very effective during intense Rahu/Ketu planetary periods.
Rahu gives insatiable yearning hunger, while Ketu gives detachment, disconnection, and despair. Cycling between these two nodes, during intense periods, one may temporarily feel like the victim of an unstoppable boomerang cycle of primal need and utter abandonment.
Rahu's attachment cycle to experience, possess, and control reaches its natural extreme; then starts Ketu's reverse detachment cycle creating despair, impossibility to be loved or accepted, unworthiness proven by rejection. This cycle can make a person absolutely miserable on the ego level.
Tonglen, an old Vajrayana Buddhist compassion practice, can give profound relief to the suffering of Rahu/Ketu's psycho-emotional battering. The essence of Tonglen is:
Breathe in all the suffering of all people on Earth who are feeling your same pain, including yourself. Be specific. For example, if you have the pain of loneliness, abandonment, or rejection from a lover, say "I breathe in the terrible pain of all those who suffer emotional rejection from a lover."
Breathe out full healing of all those people's pain, including your own. Say, "As I breathe out, may all those who suffer this pain, including myself, receive full healing acceptance from their beloved."
You will find that by working to heal not only your own dilemma but also simultaneously the similar situations of others, the healing happens much faster.
The essence of Vajrayana Buddhism is to use the tools at one's disposal for healing and compassion. The primary tool at one's disposal during intense Rahu/Ketu periods may well be intense emotional suffering caused by the violent eruption of ancient, suppressed desires along with the ancient, suppressed blocks against manifesting those desires. Luckily, the scorching flames of desire and the frozen hell of despair are both excellent tools for spiritual education. If you have prominent lunar nodes, be willing to use whatever comes your way.
Rahu and Ketu are always weird.
Ruling or occupying good houses like 1, 5 or 9 doesn't make them any less weird.
Rahu-Ketu can be helpful if they are positioned this way:
No aspects on either node from Mars or Saturn
Rahu acts better when Saturn is good by house and sign ("Shani vat Rahu")
Ketu acts better when Mars is good by house and sign ("Bhaum vat Ketu cha")
When yuti either a yoga-karaka planet or the 10th house ruler
Rahu behaves better in Virgo and best in Gemini
Ketu behaves better in Pisces and best in Sagittarius
My own experience:
Rahu/Ketu are psychic nodes. Their level of effect is set by their Lords & co-occupants.
At best, they yield brilliant intuition.
Normal effects are: occasional insights, with anxiety about emotional change
Malfunctioning nodes give severe anxiety, mental/emotional illness, & out-caste status
"Very nodal people" =
Radix nodes in lagna
Radix nodes yuti Chandra
Navamsha nodes in D-9 lagna
Radix nodes conjunct navamsha lagna
Navamsha nodes conjunct Radix lagna
"Very nodal people" will be involved with "foreign-ness" to a dramatic degree in their lives. The distinctive foreign components may be foreign ideas, foreign spouse or romance, foreign business or travel, or foreign adoption children, foreign appearance.
Rahu-Ketu transits essentially Reorganize the Personality, by opening the consciousness to a previously undetected level of past-life information. This information arises while reconnecting (usually very intensely) with a person, place, or knowledge base from a previous incarnation. (Thus the obsessive connection to things which are "foreign" in this life.)
Rahu/Ketu effects are felt much more strongly during periods of Rahu or Ketu
"Triple-whammy" effects can be predicted for the native whose nodes rise in either radix or navamsha, when their Vimshottari Dasha gives a Rahu/Ketu bhukti. This period will dramatically change the individual's definition of him/herself, due to new psychic information, which breaks through from the subconscious storage zone.
Rahu-Ketu transiting the Radix affects the physical body/Material Plane. For example, nodes crossing the 1/7 axis in Radix may generate a pregnancy or induce surgery.
Rahu-Ketu transiting the navamsha affects the astral body (relationships). For example, modes crossing the 1/7 axis or a nodal return within navamsha often bring a dramatic relationship. Often there is a long psychic build-up period, such a partners dreaming about each other before meeting, or a strong but taboo attraction, or other dramatic circumstances which are not so much in the physical body, but predominantly on the astral
Rahu is essentially a "Shamanic" effect. Rahu connects the person to ancestral spirits -- who are of course everywhere around us, but rarely honored in modern society. Rahu "opens the gate" to essential information/relationships from past lives.
Rahu/Shani conjunction, any rashi:
If Rahu has higher degree, the "shadow" or the shamanic membrane will dominate Shani. Shani's job is to keep order. (Shani rules time and space, the Law, all structures including Clans and Bones.) The "shadow's" job is to shape-shift and show hidden forces. The person will need to find a way to package their shamanic knowledge so that conventional society can understand psychic truths -- which is a mighty task! Early years are bound to be heavy with social criticism, imprisonment, contempt. However with other good planets, person might emerge in later years as a powerful authority. The key with this combination is *time.* Person must be allowed to mature emotionally, and early dashas must support life.
If Saturn has higher degree, shamanic perceptions of Rahu are compressed inside of Saturn. The combination is classically associated with mental/emotional illness. Remember when Peter Pan was robbed of his shadow? He could not find himself. Here the shamanic forces are shackled to for forces of social control. The person knows they don't fit in to the mainstream, but they are not empowered to seek alternative societies - psychic congregations, healing networks - which might provide much-needed validation. Compressed visionary energy may periodically erupt into anti-social activity. A much-imprisoned prophet speaking critically important, highly unpopular truth, like the biblical Jeremiah.
Rahu Dasha is time of material fulfillment for Taurus and Libra lagna. [Shani rules] Fortune-fulfilling houses 5, 9, or 10.
Rahu conjunct any other planets hugely amplifies that other planet. With sensual planets like needy Moon, self-indulgent Venus, permissive Jupiter, or the willful Sun, Rahu gives a passionate intensity to the sensual quest. Not always accomplishment, but always desire.
Rahu also amplifies its house owner. If house owner is Saturn or Mars, great need for self-knowledge in order to manage the desires not have the desires manage you.
Rahu dasha is time of material fulfillment when Rahu itself *resides* in house 5, 9, or 10. See this chart of successful attorney who experienced blossoming of legal literary accomplishments, publications, children, and success in litigation during Rahu's 18-yr dasha. [Note strong Rahu in 5 with L-2 Jupiter, lord of two kendras.
Rahu in 5th house is generally harmful to children. Will deny children if Rahu occupies a barren sign - those ruled by Budha and Shani. In all other signs the children will often develop willfulness, have social-adaptive blockages, and may exhibit shamanistic tendencies to "push the envelope" which marginalize the children socially. However usually there are compensating effects from other good planets.
It is only in the Navamsha of Saturn that Rahu's disposition is held to be harmful.
--B. V. Raman, Three Hundred Important Combinations. p.211, Bahuputra Yoga
(That is, if Rahu occupies 5th-radix and *also* occupies Capricorn or Aquarius navamsha, then we see extreme results for children.)
Ketu in my experience is a purely psychic, meditative planet which is very, very spiritual but gives radical disconnect on the material plane. Ketu periods can make an ungrounded person so severely confused that they may be unable to maintain their job, home, or relationship. Strong Ketu makes the body highly sensitive. Perhaps unwittingly the native is receiving signals from the beyond. The prominent Ketu native needs reliable sanctuary protection whilst their sensitivities are at peak levels. Seek shelter to avoid feeling and being treated like you're crazy. People who cannot access the spiritual network may experience the duration of Ketu period in homeless wandering - addicted to numbing drugs, or living in their car.
Ketu alone, with no aspects, in house 12, will bring person to sanctuary retreat space early in life and keep them there. Nun, monk, and Saint.
Rahu in 5 & 9 with no aspects gives a passion for truth which goes into writing books.
Surya is a source of energetic outgoing hot Male Energy; Moon is the opposite, incoming cool Female Energy. (Not to be confused with anatomical male bodies, which run a combination of Male and Female energies.)
Rahu the Darkener who causes eclipse of Surya is the greatest enemy of the Sun. Rahu symbolizes destruction of Dharma.
(In traditional India, Surya signifies a woman's husband; Rahu brings widowhood.)
If you enjoy divination using the Tarot, you may be enlightened to note the correspondence between the Lunar Node Rahu and Joan Bunning's vivid, inspiring instruction on how to handle "The Devil".
"Desire is the source of endless problems.
The more desires we have, the more we have to plan and work hard to realize them.
Some time ago a businessman told me that the more he developed his company, the more he felt like making it even bigger. And the more he tried to make it bigger, the more he found he had to lie & fight mercilessly against his competitors.
He had come to realize that wanting more & more made no sense, and that he only had to reduce the size of his business for competition to become less fierce so he would be able to carry out his work honestly.
I found his testimony very true."
~~ H. H. Dalai Lama, 365 Dalai Lama: Daily Advice from the Heart: # 245 -- ed. Matthieu Ricard, trans. Christian Bruyat & Dominique Messent
Q:
Letter to a client concerned with the "social trauma" inherent in the Rahu-Ketu returns at age 18-19, age 36-37, age 54-55, and age 72-74...
A:
The social trauma I was referring to in context of the Rahu-Ketu return to your lagna, is caused by Rahu bringing up ancient desires from the subconscious while Ketu induces doubt and confusion in the ego-personality. The end result is that the person is tossed in "an ocean of milk" as the Vedas say… caught in the structure of the human condition, wanting what they generally can't achieve and disregarding the wealth, accomplishment, stability, etc. that they do already possess.
The Rahu-Ketu return to the 1/7 axis of self-and-spouse is a time of not fitting in socially because outsiders can't "read" you. That's the social trauma. People can't make much sense of you, so it's hard to feel that you have a place.
There is a natural but temporary (18-month-long, occurring every 18 years) eroding of the bourgeois social connections based on your profession, your property, your marriage, your general status in the community. The status tags sort of fall off… as the person renovates their ego-personality to accommodate the new desires that Rahu pushes up into consciousness.
It's not crippling for mid-life adults who have a strong spiritual foundation, especially educated adults who value solitude. If you just read Emerson and Thoreau for 18 months you won't feel disconnected at all!
I'd guess you'll be quite fine if you stay with the daily meditation. In meditation, all the intense psychic interference patterns (generated by Rahu wildly pushing desires up into the consciousness) can be smoothed out for a little temporary stability.
But you can see how the Rahu-Ketu emergence of desire combined with the equal and opposite force of severe self-doubt could be really traumatic for a teenager ... that Rahu-Ketu return age 18-19 is usually a considerable social challenge. It's the year many young adults venture into independent living, start college or get that apartment etc. Desires run very strong and it's definitely hard for the more stable older adults to "read" their risk-taking young adult clearly at all!
We both know your female friend who is also having a gochara Rahu-Ketu event Oct 2003-May 2005. Her results will be different than yours, although the theme of strong desires rising to the surface will be strong for both of you. Note that her Rahu-Ketu positions are reversed in her rashi and navamsha charts, indicating her exceptional psychic gifts. She is remarkably sensitive.
No doubt her wealth has been built in part through her powerful intuition that gives her superior timing in all matters social and financial. She will enjoy her Rahu-Ketu return because she'll use her intuition to take another step up in prosperity, getting more of what she wants through more fabulous timing.
Just because you are both experiencing strong nodal transits does not mean you will be hurtful to each other. Ideally, you can inspire each other with higher and higher permission levels - the freedom to change!
The social trauma I was referring to in context of the Rahu-Ketuis more in relation to marriage and other pillars of the social community; less in regard to friendships or professional associations. The social trauma - as I am calling it - is felt most strongly where others put up fierce resistance to your psychic, spiritual, emotional, physical, and philosophical changes.
Professional associates are generally not so deeply involved in your personal life that they would notice the deep churning of a new level of desires; so professional associations don't create the social trauma. Similarly neighbors and community folks don't have that much purchase on your inner life so they don't create major problems in self-definition either.
The troublemakers during Rahu-Ketu are the people who know you well and who have an investment in your behavioral stability. That's first and foremost the spouse, then the birth family, then the in-laws, then close friends of both genders, then professional colleagues and others who are privileged to judge your social performance, then sliding way down the scale of influence the people you may form temporary relationships with including neighbors etc.
The suffering is from resistance to the desires that Rahu brings. Only the people who have a motive to resist your changes will cause you much trouble at all.
The Rahu-Ketu return to especially sensitive points in the chart - e.g. to the Moon or lagna, or afflicting the reigning bhukti lord - requires us to make major structural changes in our social identity in order to accommodate a huge wave of new ideas about ourselves, especially about the type of relationships we want to be in. As Rahu brings up ancient, unsatisfied desires, we need to see these newly conscious aspects of ourselves reflected in new relationships, new undertakings, new locales. Rahu brings radical change to the house it occupies, when it also transits that house - every 18 years - the in the Rahu Return.
Rahu transiting the 7th house brings the major changes through the spouse's behavior. (Most intense place for gochara Rahu in the whole chart!) Rahu transiting his natal place in the 10th house, by contrast, can bring radical changes in the public view of the person, causing scandal or celebrity (or both) if the supporting planets are strong.
The effects of Rahu Return depend very much on the house. Yours is occurring in the 7th house so you can bet the agent of change will be the spouse, and the locus of psychic impact will be the marriage and your social definition of yourself as a married person with all the many social implications that identity has for all the people around you.
Your friend who is experiencing the Rahu-Ketu return in her 4/10 axis won't make major social identity changes in her life. She will be the effect of other people's opinion of her, but she won't be the agent of change herself. As long as gochara Rahu-Ketu don't engage the natal Moon or rashi lagna, the Rahu Return can be interesting without being traumatizing. Her social status will rise up because Rahu occupies her 10th house of status and position. She'll have fun with being a more public person for 18 months.
To the extent that people criticize your changes (your instability or difficulty establishing clear boundaries) they could hurt your feelings temporarily during the intense 18 months of Rahu-Ketu transit to your lagna. But as long as you are wearing your Buddhist hat, you will instantly recognize the hidden compliment in this type of criticism. Creativity positively requires chaos. If you hear criticism for your chaos, translate it as validation: it's really a compliment to your creativity!
Hope this is helpful. Rahu-Ketu is nothing to be afraid of. We Americans thrive on change. We make heroes out of those who buck the system, break boundaries, and take chances. So you are entitled!
Enjoy Rahu "churner of the ocean of milk" as He exposes the human condition and entertains us richly in the process!
Q: You mention that Rahu is a trouble-maker. Will all periods of Rahu be difficult for me?
A: It depends on how much you like to take risks.
Rahu is inherently difficult for individuals who depend heavily on social approval through conformity.
Rahu is inherently exhilarating & creative for people who are naturally independent and thrive on materializing long-held desires through creativity.
Organized cultures generally do not sanction sudden changes in behavior or trespass of the moral code. Rahu folk, whether they are strong Rahu at birth or only temporarily insane from Rahu sub-period, often receive some negative social reinforcement while they are adventuring, having intense (often taboo) romances, or breaking other social codes in order to realize their deepest dreams. It depends on the overall tenor of the chart whether the person is spiritually conscious enough to turn Rahu's extremes to conscious profit.
Rahu is anti-conformist. It is said that the two strongest human desires are (1) to mate and (2) to conform. So you can see how Rahu has developed a reputation as a serious malefic. He prevents a person from conforming to social taboo. Rahu's job is to push passions to the surface.
I personally value Rahu because I am an independence-loving American and also because I think skillful transformation is generally a good thing, a spiritual refreshment.
But Rahu is for obvious reasons associated with scandal, taboo-breaking, excess, etc. so "skillful" is really the key :)
Letter to a spiritually engaged client with Rahu rising in Meena, already established in a tantric lineage, who sought to optimize Rahu's influence during Shani/Rahu period:
... Attractions during Rahu periods are intense, psycho-sexually compelling, tumultuous, taboo, involve foreigners/foreign behaviors & ideas/strange and wonderful experiences. You should be most attracted to accomplished religious students in your own lineage, who have darker complexion or possibly a darker-more-mysterious mentality. Preferred partners during Rahu are rich, religious, mystical, and magical.
You are stimulated by foreign travel and will attract romantic interest while traveling, especially when your tantric interests guide your travel choices. So, if you want romantic excitement, travel! Watery environments especially lakeshores [Rahu in Pisces rising] are auspicious for love.
Rahu is a Naga, so as long as Rahu is your bhukti-pat you will get good results when you direct your puja to Naga deities for increasing love-passion in your life. Ask your teacher for recommended rituals.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but do be CLEAR and detailed about what you want in a lover -- to avoid the spirits playing havoc with your hormones and bringing any old raggedy shaman into your sanctuary. Rahu is associated with disasters, so unless your meditations on love are focused and aware, Rahu can bring in some bizarre lovers! On the other hand, maybe you like the MilaRepa (Tib = “ripped-clothes”) type J))
Rahu is very adventurous and pro-change. Rahu likes big exciting moves, but Rahu is time-lord for only a short time = your age 52-55. Shani who is the overlord of your life age 39-57 does not like big upsets. Shani is nose-to-the-grindstone, a very hard worker, who is dedicated to repaying the bulk of your karmic debt during his mahadasha.
Shani likes to stay in a fixed environment so he can maximize his service work. I don’t think you will move physically. Rather, because Rahu occupies the ascendant [lagna] which is the social personality and physical body appearances, there is dramatic change in your social personality and physical appearance!
Also Rahu aspects three houses giving changes in
[house-5] your relationships with children/students/lovers,
[house-7] partnerships business and sexual
[house-9] Sangha, lineage, and most of all teachers.
However all changes however profound and/or exciting proceed from a stable, repetitive physical base because Shani is still the mahadasha lord. Physical moves can be later when Budha mahadasha starts. For Pisces rising, Budha [Mercury] rules the 4th house so there can be many intellectually-motivated physical moves during Budha dasha, a 17-year-long period of scholarship and intellectual apprenticeship.
If you do move it should be only extended traveling, perhaps requiring to put your goods in storage temporarily, but this is not a permanent move because you are not finished with your practical “day job” obligations until end of Shani mahadasha.
To optimize Rahu's occult opportunities for a senior spiritual student such as yourself, I do recommend traveling especially in company of your Sangha, especially under leadership of your teacher(s), and especially to sites sacred to Naga deities (which are usually near bodies of water).
For example holy pilgrimage to Mount Kailasha and its nearby sacred lakes would be very enjoyable and you would most likely combine administrative tour duties with romance.
Also journey to Himalayan monasteries with introduction from your teacher(s) to assure your status, if purpose of your journey is to deepen occult knowledge, will be very satisfying although rigorous. Rahu can change the body through shocking psycho-chemical reactions, so be prepared to get near-death sick if you try the Himalayan route.
You might consider educating yourself on Naga beings and their culture to determine if you have a taste for their way of doing things. They are very powerful and subtle and they can control a weak mind so to enjoy their company you need to bring a strong mind to the bargaining table!
If you like them and they like you, you can learn to run their intense healing power through your hand chakras and become a fabulous occult healer. Just an option for you that I am mentioning because I know you have a high level of familiarity with tantric culture already… not something I usually mention to folks who ask about Rahu!
Rahu astrologically is the Naga King – a giant snake & control being – so find out more from your teacher or even on the internet these days, if you are interested in the esoterica.
Don’t let Shani overwork you. You will not be much good to anyone if you are exhausted. Having said that, I think the prognosis for tantric development of all types is superior under Shani-Rahu… Not only intellectual studies and ceremonial service to your teacher, but also personal love, is fully included in “tantra”.
If you are doing well in your magical studies you will be attracting sexual healing energies of all kinds, including passionate love. Under Rahu, great passions and great healings arise.
Letter to a client whose Rahu position combined with a powerful Rahu bhukti raised subconsciously-held self-doubt and self-contempt acutely to the surface.
Especially troubled by the intense but forbidden desires of the physical body & the effect of those desires on the social personality.
Poisoning events in her family; tempted to indulge in scandal. (Rahu rising in Aries).
Q: I keep coming to these points in my life where I'm completely disgusted with my life and no longer feel life is worth living.
I'm hoping that a good psychic person can read where this energy is coming from and help me clear it. I feel like I'm churning inside and most of the day I am in a sort of a trance.
A: Rahu gives a lot of that "churning" that you're describing, but it also usually propels a person into an exciting change of some kind. I think Rahu is working well for you and you will achieve the change you desire.
The trance state is a typical Rahu result caused by intense activity of subconscious materials moving up into your conscious awareness. We become fascinated with the internal spiritual movements and don't register much of what's happening in the conventional social world during periods of Rahu the Shaman!
Those points of disgust are also part of the cycle of Rahu. We all have them; Rahu rising people have them more often.
Rahu is the force that makes us re-incarnate. It's a pretty disgusting process, turning our beautiful free cosmic flying spirits into meat-bodies. I agree!
A good psychic can in fact assist you in locating those points, but you can also do the work yourself. I personally think you'll have better results by being ruthlessly honest with yourself. Now is the time for intensive journaling. your communication skills are powerful now - expansive, creative, and *deep.*
One suggestion: Rahu in your chart lies at the birth point, so it is double strong. It is entirely possible that your mother did not want to be pregnant when you were in her womb. But you were a strong little spirit and you survived. Of course maternal instincts are very strong, and she learned to love you once that charming little baby had arrived! However *anyone* with rising nodes (Rahu/Ketu) had some dramatic events in the womb.
I think, astrologically speaking, that your events had to do with not being wanted. Since Aries is associated with Metal and Rahu with that notorious churning, there may even have been an attempted abortion involving heat and a metal implement. This prenatal memory, if it exists, would be cycling up quite strongly now, under effect of Rahu bhukti.
It is also possible that like any woman with severe morning sickness (I can attest!!) she resented the little fetus and its poisoning effect on her host body - she might have just said, like any mother, my god I wish this pregnancy was finished tomorrow - in other words, I just want to stop feeling disgusted and nauseated. (Really, the first three months of natural pregnancy are total hell for many women.)
And the little spirit-in-a-fetus (you) might have completely over-reacted and thought you weren't wanted. These days enlightened moms are very careful about what they think and say while pregnant; we realize it isn't just a short-term medical conditions, but a huge psychic and spiritual event. However, there are plenty of non-enlightened moms who are available to assist in creating the proper prenatal trauma to serve the spiritual programs of their babies!
If you choose to visit a psychic, you might want to ask specifically for any prenatal information, to see if the astrological view can be confirmed with the psychic method. Of course you will not want to prejudice the reader with any specific imagery - just ask for prenatal, and focus on the earlier months of the pregnancy when mom's friends and relative might not yet have known her condition.
Also, when exploring your long-suppressed memories, RAHU'S SPECIALTY, be very very gentle on yourself. This stuff is pretty scary - in the psychic world it's called "core invalidation" - negative messages from the mother while in the womb.
The interesting thing about Rahu rising is that people who have it, like you, do have cycles of self-disgust most of their lives -- but that is essentially because they set exceptionally high standards for themselves. Then they criticize themselves - brutally - for falling short of the mark. They usually feel that their very *survival* depends on being not just OK, but exceptional. So, interestingly, they are always extraordinary people of exceptionally high accomplishment.
See what you can see yourself, and do try some intensive journaling - the planets are really with you now to write, write, write. If you will simply ask in meditation to be connected to a healing spirit guide, presuming that the higher forces want you to be connected to one, you certainly will be!
Tarot: see Joan Bunning's description of the "Wheel of Fortune Card" for insight into Rahu/Ketu!
Q:
I have a challenging Rahu situation. Rahu occupies a dusthana in both radix & navamsha, His lord is fallen, and it looks like He can cause a lot of trouble in my life. Actually, Rahu has already shaken up my life since His mahadasha started a few years ago.
I've read that spiritually speaking one should follow Rahu's path and just get into whatever Rahu creates, as deeply as possible. I'm scared of constant turmoil & the threat of harm, but if I'm supposed to just plunge into it for better results, I guess I will. What do you think?
A: My own view of Rahu is psychic - as in intuitive perception - rather than spiritual as in divine enlightenment.
I understand Rahu to govern the function of releasing stored, unfinished desires from the subconscious into the conscious. Rahu releases the desire to have an intense, and typically taboo, experience. The usual objects of desire are people, knowledge, and prestige. Rahu increases love power, magical power, and political power.
Remember the myth of Rahu. He wanted the power of the gods. He did "whatever it takes" to get that power. It's a terrible price to pay, to have your body split in half and wander the universe insatiably thirsting for power, but that's who Rahu is and that's what He does. He is an endless machine generating desire, desire, desire.
There probably is some point at which the enlightened being learns to use the "new brains" that are attached to the human reptile brain stem with such skill that the desire function of the reptile brain gets totally managed by higher thinking.
At that point, the person would stop reacting to past trauma, and stop reincarnating in the Earth. They would have exhausted their desire inventory; they wouldn't have any use for an Earth incarnation and they wouldn't be influenced any more by Rahu.
For most of us who can count on being trapped in the earthly reincarnation cycle for the foreseeable future, Rahu's ego-driven power cravings are super dangerous -- although inevitable -- and the very essence of non-enlightenment.
Rahu leads to ego-inflation and excessive permission, which will always get the person in trouble socially and might destroy their personal spiritual life for the rest of the working incarnation.
Having said that, there is a school of thought (tantrik) which reasons that the best way to burn off as much subconsciously stored desire as quickly as possible thus speeding arrival at enlightenment, is to follow Rahu's desires with enthusiasm and vigor.
I subscribe to this view, with reservations. My main reservation is that for this strategy to succeed, the person much be very conscious or have a conscious external teacher.
Very few humans meet this condition. Therefore Rahu's periods will generate negative results for most people, most of the time.
With basic risk management skills in place, it's fun to break the rules. It's invigorating to crash social barriers.
The old saw about 'you have to learn the rules to know how to break them' is very true for the successful utilization of Rahu energy.
But most people don't have a mature, objective understanding of social control processes. Most people don't understand why the laws exist in the first place.
Most people are immature with fragile, traumatized egos that trap them in their own personality. Therefore most people can't utilize Rahu energy successfully. Rahu utilizes them! Rahu causes risk taking behavior & breaking social taboos which makes big trouble for all but the most conscious negotiators of the Law.
If you think you have the skills to follow Rahu, "become more like Rahu", I say go for it. But make sure you have some sort of a safety net: a good formal education, a solid marriage, or a big trust fund to carry you through periods of extreme volatility. Unless you feel yourself losing control of your thoughts & actions, stay away from conventional mental health professionals because they interpret Rahu's boundary transcending behavior as reckless disregard for consequences, delusional, and psychotic.
Chogyam Trungpa used to say that unfortunately, the most spiritually sought-after, massively transformative, intensive kundalini rising experiences often get people locked into hospital psychiatric wards.
The western medical community has NO ability to distinguish between sudden-onset enlightenment experiences where the native WANTS to radically explode their ego structure versus involuntary psychotic episodes where the native does NOT WANT to lose what little control they can barely hang onto.
Just as sattvik calm and tamasik sloth look equally peaceful from the outside, so tantrik fast-track voluntary ego dissolution and severe involuntary psychiatric distress also look equally "insane" to the untrained eye.
I also think extreme Rahu devotion is much better practiced in the tantrik communities of India where they are set up for it.
from Yi Jing, the Book of Changes:
Grace, Ornament
"Its coming is sudden; it flames up, dies down, is thrown away."
Clarity of mind has the same relation to life that fire has to wood. Fire clings to wood, but also consumes it. Clarity of mind is rooted in life but can also consume it. Everything depends on how the clarity functions. Here the image used is that of a meteor or a straw fire. A man who is excitable and restless may rise quickly to prominence but produces no lasting effects. Thus matters end badly when a man spends himself too rapidly and consumes himself like a meteor.
Namaste,
In one of your articles on Rahu, I think, you mention the natal-Rahu conjunction with Lagna in relating to not being wanted.
I definitely can relate to it having gone through several years of that un-nameable yearning for a support never to be found, anger at having been denied or not being wanted at the core, all of which exploded several months ago to the realization that it was the mind positing things around perhaps some facts in order to strengthen behaviors and find a balance around a 'comfortable' operating point.
At that point all of the yearnings dropped, acrimony gave place to understanding. I believe such occurrences can lead adults to regress to narcissism ( i.e. creation of a false self for the constant support or finding validation through other means) if the realization of the complex web of minds' operations doesn't occur.
--a student of Jyotisha
Namaste:
Thanks so much for your comments on my website articles.
I agree wholeheartedly with your observation that the terrible yearning for acceptance can in fact lead adults into compulsive narcissism.
That process of creating a false self by which to gain acceptance, does seem to be very much the default result of childhood rejection. When a better result occurs - like the breakthrough you describe - it is a cause for spiritual celebration.
I also agree with you that Rahu is the agent for many extraordinary experiences & insights, since He causes subconscious desire for intimate connection to erupt into consciousness. Rahu desperately wants ego-recognition from the elite; He craves praise & glory.
On the lower levels this sudden realization can cause plenty of problems with social taboos, but on the higher energetic levels Rahu can show us entitlement & connectedness we never dreamed of.
Best wishes in your Jyotisha studies,
Sincerely, Barbara Pijan Lama
updated: 22 August 2008
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