The navagraha are the nine grahas of Vedic astrology: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. Each one signifies a set of people, qualities and life areas, and a kundli is read by seeing where each graha sits, how strong it is, and which one's period is running.
Why "graha" does not simply mean "planet"
The Sanskrit root grah means to seize or grasp. A graha is "that which seizes": a moving point in the sky that is held to take hold of human life and colour it. That is why the list includes bodies no astronomer would call planets. The Sun is a star, the Moon a satellite, and Rahu and Ketu have no body at all; they are the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. The fixed stars, which do not move against the zodiac, are not grahas. The outer planets discovered by telescope are not part of the classical nine.
Three kinds of graha
- The luminaries: the Sun and the Moon, the two kings of the planetary court. The Sun is the soul (atma), the Moon the mind (manas).
- The five true planets (tara grahas): Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. Each owns two signs, while the luminaries own one each.
- The nodes (chaya grahas, "shadow planets"): Rahu and Ketu, always exactly opposite each other and always moving backwards through the zodiac. Eclipses happen near them. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra gives them no sign of their own; later texts disagree on their exaltation, and on whether they cast special aspects.
Natural benefics and malefics
By nature (naisargika), Jupiter and Venus are the benefics, joined by the Moon when it is waxing and by Mercury when it is alone or with benefics. The Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu are the malefics; the Sun is the mildest of them. See shubha and papa for the terms.
This is only the first layer. A chart also has functional benefics and malefics, decided by which houses a graha rules from the lagna. Saturn can be the most helpful planet for one ascendant and Jupiter a mixed one for another. A "malefic" is not a bad planet; it is a planet whose work is to test, cut or harden.
Dignity: where a graha is comfortable
A graha's sign placement sets its basic strength. From strongest to weakest, the classical ladder runs:
- Exaltation (uchcha), with a deepest degree.
- Moolatrikona, a stretch of one of its own signs where it acts most like itself.
- Own sign (swakshetra).
- A friend's sign, then a neutral's, then an enemy's.
- Debilitation (neecha), always the sign opposite exaltation.
Debilitation is often cancelled by rules called neecha-bhanga, and dignity is only one of several strengths. Directional strength (digbala) is another: Jupiter and Mercury are strong in the 1st house, the Moon and Venus in the 4th, Saturn in the 7th, the Sun and Mars in the 10th. The full measure, shadbala, combines six.
Friendship between grahas
Parashara gives each of the seven a natural list of friends, neutrals and enemies. The Sun and Saturn are enemies, for example; the Moon has no enemies at all. On top of that sits temporary friendship in a particular chart: grahas placed in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th from each other become temporary friends. Combining the two gives the working relationship that astrologers use when judging how a graha feels in another's sign. Each graha page lists its natural friends.
Aspects (drishti)
Every graha casts a full aspect on the seventh house from itself. Three have special full aspects as well: Mars on the 4th and 8th, Jupiter on the 5th and 9th, Saturn on the 3rd and 10th. Many astrologers give Rahu and Ketu the 5th and 9th like Jupiter; others do not. Aspects are how a graha influences houses and planets it does not occupy.
The 120-year Vimshottari cycle
Each graha also rules a period of life. In the Vimshottari system the nine periods add up to 120 years and always run in the same order:
| Graha | Years |
|---|---|
| Ketu | 7 |
| Venus | 20 |
| Sun | 6 |
| Moon | 10 |
| Mars | 7 |
| Rahu | 18 |
| Jupiter | 16 |
| Saturn | 19 |
| Mercury | 17 |
This is also the order of the nakshatra lords from Ashwini onward, so each graha rules three of the 27 nakshatras. The nakshatra your Moon occupies at birth decides which mahadasha you begin in, and how much of it remains. The Vimshottari dasha guide explains the arithmetic and the sub-periods.
Reading the grahas together
No graha is read alone. Its sign, house, dignity, aspects, the houses it rules and the dasha currently running all combine, and one factor never decides a chart. The pages below go through each graha in turn. To see where all nine sit in your own chart, make a free birth chart, then read the relevant houses and signs.