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Rahu and Ketu, Opposite by Definition
Rahu and Ketu are always opposite each other, so they occupy houses seven apart. If Rahu is in the 10th, Ketu is in the 4th. That opposition is the astronomical fact under the legend.
Head, tail, and a cut in the story
The puranic telling belongs to the churning of the ocean. A being sat among the gods to take the nectar. Vishnu as Mohini cut him. The head became Rahu and the body became Ketu, and both were left immortal enough to swallow the luminaries. That is the legend of eclipses. It explains, as a story, why the Sun and Moon are said to be seized. The chart uses a plainer fact. The two nodes are one axis. You cannot have Rahu in a sign and Ketu in a random other sign.
What the axis does in a kundli
The house of Rahu is amplified and unusual. The house of Ketu is separated, skilled in a narrow way, and turned inward. Rahu's mahadasha lasts 18 years. Ketu's lasts 7. Rahu gives much of its result through the dispositor, the lord of the sign it occupies. Ketu is read with its dispositor as well. Neither node owns a sign in the standard seven-graha scheme. A Kaal Sarp yoga is the special case where the other seven grahas all sit on one side of this axis.
Eclipse and conjunction are not the same date
A solar eclipse is a new Moon near Rahu or Ketu. A lunar eclipse is a full Moon near them. A birth chart can still show Sun conjunct Rahu, grahan yoga, on a day when no eclipse was visible, because the natal test is the shared sign. Do not import the story's swallowing image as a medical result for the eyes or the mind. Father and authority are the Sun's topics. The mind is the Moon's. The node colors the house those luminaries occupy.
Frequently asked questions
Can Rahu and Ketu be in adjacent signs?
No. They are opposite. The houses are always seven apart: 1 and 7, 2 and 8, 3 and 9, and so on.
How long are their mahadashas?
Rahu 18 years, Ketu 7 years. The order of Vimshottari places Ketu first in the repeating sequence, then Venus, and Rahu after Mars.
What is the legend's one chart fact?
The severed head and body are the two nodes of one axis. Eclipses occur when a new or full Moon falls near that axis.
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D1, D9, D10, dashas, yogas, and transits, the same calculations referenced in this article.