Pillar article
Ketu Dosha, the Seven-Year Dasha, and Lal Kitab
Ketu, the south node of the Moon, runs a Vimshottari mahadasha of seven years and always sits opposite Rahu. Ketu dosha, in ordinary consulting speech, means that this node afflicts the lagna, the Moon, or a house the native is worried about. Lal Kitab is a later remedial book laid on top of that Parashari reading. The dasha clock stays where the birth nakshatra put it.
What the node is doing
Rahu and Ketu are the points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's apparent path. They are not physical planets, and they occupy opposite signs for the whole life. Ketu's sign is detachment, sudden endings, and a sharp narrow focus. The house Ketu occupies shows where that focus lands: the 10th is vocation, the 7th is partnership, the 12th is sleep, foreign stay, and moksha. Calling every Ketu a dosha skips the house. A Ketu in its own traditional dignity, or joined to a strong Jupiter, is read differently from a Ketu squeezing the Moon.
Parashari chart, then the upay
The classical order is house, sign, aspect, and dasha. Saturn aspects the 3rd, 7th, and 10th from itself, Mars the 4th, 7th, and 8th, Jupiter the 5th, 7th, and 9th. Ketu's special aspects are disputed between schools, so a careful reading leans on the house Ketu occupies and on the grahas that share its sign. Lal Kitab remedies are a separate custom, often object-based, and they are not a second ephemeris. Keeping a prescribed item does not shift Ketu into another bhava. If the worry is marriage, the 7th lord still has to be read. If the worry is the mind, the Moon's condition still leads.
The seven-year window
Ketu mahadasha lasts seven years. Inside it, antardashas follow the standard order and lengths: the Ketu-Ketu antardasha is the shortest opening slice, and longer sub-periods belong to Venus and Rahu because those lords own 20 and 18 years of the 120-year cycle. Events associated with Ketu's house are examined in Ketu's mahadasha and when Ketu is antardasha lord inside another mahadasha. A remedial vow can be kept on those years as devotion. The vow is not a cancellation of the period. Jyothish SI will show Ketu's house from the Lahiri chart once the birth city and time are in.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ketu ever sit in the same sign as Rahu?
No. They are the two ends of one axis, so Ketu is always opposite Rahu. A conjunction of the two nodes is not a possible birth placement.
How long is Ketu mahadasha?
Seven years. The balance at birth depends on how much of the Moon's nakshatra remained, and later Ketu returns as antardasha inside the other mahadashas.
Can a Lal Kitab upay delete Ketu dosha from the chart?
The upay is a custom beside the chart. Ketu's house and the seven-year dasha stay as calculated from the birth nakshatra and the lagna.
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D1, D9, D10, dashas, yogas, and transits, the same calculations referenced in this article.