Sade Sati in Astrology

‘Sade’ means Half and ‘Sati’ means Seven. Thus ‘Sade-Sati’ refers to the seven and half years of transit of Saturn. Now one has to understand why is it of such importance. Saturn has a transit of 2.5 years in each zodiac which makes the total time taken to transit 12 zodiacs or rashis to be 29.4 years which is its time taken for revolution around the sun. Now the term ‘Sade-Sati’ is not used in isolation but is taken with reference to the position of moon in the natal chart also.

In the natal chart lets suppose the moon is placed in the zodiac sign of Libra (please see the diagram below). Then during the transit(gochar) of Saturn, when Saturn enters the sign of Virgo then the first stage of ‘Sade-Sati’ starts. Now, Saturn takes 2.5 years to transit through Virgo and then it enters into the sign of Libra where it stays for another 2.5 years before proceeding to Scorpio where it transits for another 2.5 years. This entire stint of 2.5 years in Virgo to 2.5 years in Libra and finally 2.5 years in Scorpio adds to 7.5 years and this is called as ‘Sade-Sati’.

For a native whose Saturn is ill-placed in the natal chart suffers much during this transit of Saturn for 7.5 years and it called as the phase of ‘Sade-Sati’.

Therefore the generalized definition of ‘Sade-Sati’ is as follows- ‘When transiting Saturn enters the sign preceding the zodiac sign in which Moon is placed in the natal chart to the Zodiac sign in which Moon is placed in the natal chart to the Zodiac sign immediately succeeding the zodiac sign in which Moon is present is called as the phase of ‘Sade-Sati’.