Rahu, Saturn, and the Friendship Table

Natural friendship is taught for Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Saturn's friends are Mercury and Venus. Saturn's enemies are the Sun, the Moon, and Mars. Jupiter is neutral to Saturn in the common table. Rahu does not appear as Saturn's enemy because Rahu is not one of the seven. Later writers sometimes say Rahu behaves like Saturn, which would make them similar, not hostile. Similarity is not a license to call every Saturn-Rahu conjunction a war.

Saturn and Rahu in one sign can delay, isolate, and enlarge ambition, especially in the tenth house of career or the eleventh of gains. In the sixth house of conflict and debt they can describe a long dispute. The sign lord still disposits both. If that lord is strong, the pair works, slowly. If the lord is weak, the pair drags. Enmity from the seven-planet table is the wrong word for that judgment. The eighth house is longevity. Do not turn the pair there into a medical or death claim.

Saturn mahadasha lasts 19 years. Rahu mahadasha lasts 18. A Saturn-Rahu antardasha inside either is a serious stretch of their combined natal condition. It is not proof they are enemies. Functional friendship depends on the houses their signs rule for the lagna. Lahiri sidereal signs decide the conjunction. A tropical Saturn may not share Rahu's sign at all.