Guide
Ketu–Rahu antardasha
Ketu–Rahu antardasha occupies 21/20 years in a full Ketu major period, using proportional Vimshottari arithmetic. Its broad interpretive focus is simplifying commitments and questioning familiar rewards. Birth balance changes the starting remainder, and exact calendar dates require a stated year convention rather than a generic forecast.
Draft · specialist source review requested
What does Ketu set the context for?
The major-period theme is simplifying commitments and questioning familiar rewards. Choose one obligation to examine before dropping it. Disinterest can reflect a changing priority, but a chart cannot tell you whether a job or relationship should end. These are reflection prompts drawn from traditional symbolism, not descriptions that every person must recognize.
How does Rahu change the emphasis?
Rahu introduces questions about unfamiliar settings, ambition, and appetite for new possibilities within the larger Ketu period. Verify an opportunity before committing to it. Novelty can widen experience, but the chart cannot validate a claim, a contract, or an expected return. Read both planets' house ownership and their mutual relationship before emphasizing the subperiod.
How is the duration calculated?
The subperiod sequence begins with the major-period lord, then follows the cyclic order. The table gives full-period fractions, not personal start dates.
| Subperiod lord | Exact years | Fraction of major period |
|---|---|---|
| Ketu | 49/120 | 7/120 |
| Venus | 7/6 | 1/6 |
| Sun | 7/20 | 1/20 |
| Moon | 7/12 | 1/12 |
| Mars | 49/120 | 7/120 |
| Rahu | 21/20 | 3/20 |
| Jupiter | 14/15 | 2/15 |
| Saturn | 133/120 | 19/120 |
| Mercury | 119/120 | 17/120 |
Method: multiply 7 major-period years by the subperiod lord's allocation, then divide by 120. A birth partway through a lunar mansion begins with a remaining balance, not a new full major period. [BPHS, ch. 48 and 53.]
Is this a good or bad period?
Neither label follows from the planet name alone. House ownership, dignity, associations, and actual circumstances can point in different directions. We do not generate health, death, or longevity predictions.
Can the period tell me when to act?
It supplies a broad traditional timing context, not permission to ignore deadlines or take financial risks. Specific dates need a calculated chart and an explicit uncertainty range. Western transits use a different clock and can be considered separately.
Why do websites show different dates?
Check the birth time, ayanamsa, lunar position, and days-per-year setting. Small differences near a boundary can change the reported day without changing the period sequence.
Read how Vimshottari works, the yoga directory, and house-lord meanings.
Classical reference
BPHS ch. 48–49 and 53 in the checked chapter scheme. Interpretive prompts above are original, not a translation of those chapters.
Updated 2026-10-13. Educational preview; read alongside the whole chart.
Where can I explore the chart factors?
How we calculate
Is astrology a guarantee of what will happen?
No. These calculations locate celestial bodies; astrology is a reflection and timing tradition, not evidence of guaranteed health, financial or relationship outcomes.
How are these results calculated?
Positions come from Astronomy Engine, an open-source astronomy library, and are checked against Swiss Ephemeris in our methodology tests. Western readings use the tropical zodiac; Vedic readings subtract the Lahiri ayanamsa. Terms are defined in the glossary.
Next: compare your birth chart, see today's sky, or make a private vision board.