Retrograde Planets in the Birth Chart

Retrograde planets in a birth chart are the tara grahas that were moving backward at birth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The Sun and the Moon never retrograde. That limit would be false if a 'retrograde Sun' were treated as a yoga, because the Sun's apparent motion does not reverse. Rahu and Ketu are always retrograde in their mean motion, so calling them retrograde adds nothing. A vakri graha is given chesta bala, strength from the effort of that motion, in the classical strength scheme. It is not a damaged graha by default. The house it occupies is pursued again, inwardly, or with a delay and a second attempt. Mercury retrograde in the 3rd can show a mind that rewrites and revises. The same Mercury direct can speak more linearly. The sign and the lordship still dominate the motion.

People fear a retrograde 7th lord will deny marriage. What it more often shows is a marriage topic that returns: a late bond, a second chapter, a partner from the past, or a commitment that is reconsidered. Denial still requires the 7th lord to be weak, the Navamsa to fail, and the dasha to confirm it. A retrograde Saturn is still Saturn. If it sits in an upachaya it can be a powerful, slow builder. If it sits in the 7th it still delays marriage, and the retrograde condition deepens the delay rather than inventing a new planet. Combustion is a different defect, nearness to the Sun, and a graha can be retrograde and combust or either one alone. Do not stack the words into a single curse. Exaltation also survives retrogression. Jupiter retrograde in Cancer is still an exalted Jupiter, with a more inward wisdom.

The impact arrives in that graha's Vimshottari period, not for the whole life equally. A retrograde Venus has 20 years in which relationship and comfort may be revised rather than simply enjoyed. A retrograde Mars has 7. Outside those years the natal retrograde is a style, not a daily crisis. Transit retrogrades are a separate article of the sky: a graha stationing and repassing a natal house. The birth retrograde does not mean the person 'is a retrograde.' It means one or more grahas in the kundli have this motion. Count them. If only Mercury is vakri, do not live as if Saturn were. Gems do not direct a retrograde planet. They are irrelevant to the motion. Read the house, give the graha its chesta strength, and drop the idea that backward means broken.