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’.

Rahu and Ketu in Vedic Astrology

The plane of orbit of revolution of Moon is inclined to the plane of revolution of earth around the Sun. Thus, the angle formed between the straight line from the center of Sun to the center of earth and the moon’s plane of revolution is equal to 5 Degrees. Now the plane of revolution of Moon intersects the plane of revolution of Earth-Sun at two points. Thus there forms an ascending node and the descending node. The ascending node is ‘Rahu’ while the descending node is ‘Ketu’.

The following graphical illustration makes it more clear,

As per the Hindu Mythology, during churning of the sea which is referred to as the ‘Samudra Manthan’, the Gods and the Demons were involved in the churning with the aid of ‘Vaasuki’ snake. During the ‘Samudra Manthan’ nectar or ‘amrit’ was churned out and all Gods lined up to take their share of this ‘amrit’. However, in this band-wagon, one of the Demon disguised himself as a God to have his share of this ‘amrit’ and this secret was revealed by Moon God to Lord Vishnu who slaughtered the neck of this Demon with the help of his ‘Sudarshan Chakra’. The head of this Demon is referred to as ‘Rahu’ and the rest of the body of the Demon is referred to as ‘Ketu. It is from this day that the enmity of Rahu with the Moon God persists and legends say that whenever lunar eclipse occurs, ‘Rahu’ engulfs the Moon God. In the horoscope if ‘Rahu’ and Moon are closely conjunct in the same house then this conjunction is referred to as ‘Grahan Yog’ which is inauspicious.