Why Rahu and Ketu Are Classed as Malefics

Rahu and Ketu are chhaya grahas, shadows, and they are classed with the malefics: Saturn, Mars, the Sun, and a dark Moon. The specific reason is eclipse. Rahu and Ketu are the points that swallow the luminaries in the astronomical sense, and a conjunction of either node with the Sun or the Moon is treated as an eclipse on status or on the mind. That is a real basis for the word bad. It is a classification, not a proof that every house they enter is ruined.

They rule no signs, so they always borrow a host. A bad guest with a strong host, Mercury managing Rahu in Gemini, is different from a bad guest with a fallen host.

In the 3rd, 6th, and 11th, malefics are expected to produce through effort. Rahu in the 11th during its 18 years can be a gains period. Ketu in the 6th can be a detached competence with opponents. Calling the nodes bad in those houses ignores the upachaya rule that Jyotish uses for Saturn and Mars as well. The 7th remains the marriage complaint for either node. The 1st makes the complaint personal because the other node is then in the 7th.

Ketu in the 12th is often spared as release. Bad is a poor adjective there.

Rahu's 18 years are long enough to feel like character. Ketu's 7 are long enough to feel like a break. Natural benefics get long periods too, Venus 20 and Jupiter 16, and nobody calls those bad by class. The nodes got the malefic class plus a mythology of a cut demon. Keep the class, use the house, and drop the idea that a birth with nodes, which is every birth, is a defective birth.

Every chart has both. The question is only where.