5.37: In the Kingdom of Jyotish, Ketu is the Warrior/Monk. If Mangala/Mars is the Army commander+law enforcement archetype, Rahu is CIA and Ketu is FBI. They are in charge of investigations and defense that is beyond the borders of everyday law enforcement and protection. Rahu and Ketu are chaaya-grahas or shadow planets. They don’t really exist materially and that means that their influence in our lives is mostly on the mental plane. Ketu and Rahu are warriors who strategize. The difference between them is that Ketu wins the war, sticks his flag of victory and then walks away from the battlefield after giving up the spoils of war seeking Moksha instead. Ketu controls Akash Tattva and has an ethereal ‘connection’ to the greater consciousness.
The fire of Sun is akin to light and is life affirming. The fire of Mars is heat and can hurt. The fire of Ketu is invisible and is the hottest fire of them all. It is the soul’s fire. The only way to cool down the tamasic fire of Ketu is to connect with a greater spirituality. He is the headless warrior who ‘sees’ with his intuition and fights to win. His symbol is a triangular flag of victory. After planting his flag, Ketu realizes that all is Maya including the victory..he turns away and gives it all up.
The intense desire of Ketu is Moksha. Ketu is a co-ruler of Scorpio Rasi, the house of transformation..along with the other zodiac warrior, Mars. Ketu’s transformation is the most profound of all as it chips away the grasp Maya holds on us..a little bit at a time..during every incarnation.
As a chaaya graha that is disembodied and severed, Ketu has no identity or self aspect. All Grahas have deities associated to them and meditating on the deity is the same as approaching the energy of the Graha. Surya’s deity is Agni(fire), Chandra is Apas or Ambu(water)…Mars’s diety is Skanda or Narasimha or Hanuman. For Ketu, it is the Brahman itself who rules his energy.
Ketu is still Tamas in Guna. Ketu seeks Moksha but in the realm of Maya, it is not possible to know the Brahman without piercing the veil. So Ketu retains its asura quality even though the warrior garb of Ketu hides his inner Monk.
Therefore, the nature of Ketu is Krura. The lessons of Ketu are harsh. It is important to remember in astrology that regardless of individual chart placements or yogas, a krura graha will always deliver results according to its krura(cruel) nature and a soumya graha will always deliver results in a soumya(gentle) manner. In the zodiac, there are more krura grahas than soumya grahas underscoring the fact of life that all of our existence is about learning lessons of karma and fate. Good karma assures lighter lessons taught by kind gentle teachers and heavy karma will be delivered by harsh and strict teachers. But at the end of the day, we are always learning and transforming. No transformation is more intense than the lessons of Ketu in our lifetime.
In a horoscope, Ketu represents the Soul Knowledge. Whatever we bring with us from our previous lifetime and we have no need to learn it all over again, Ketu holds those areas of our life within his portfolio. That knowledge is something we can dip into during times of need and it will turn up as intuition or instinct or psychic knowledge. Ketu is also instrumental in adding to your library of Soul Knowledge for the next incarnation.
5.38: Anthropomorphizing Ketu: Our Rishis have imagined Ketu as the headless warrior. In iconography because it’s difficult to focus on an image without a head, there is a depiction of a hooded serpent. His body is red and his gazeless ‘gaze’ is fierce. As a warrior who has fought before and won, his body is full of marks and wounds and bruises. He is behind a smokescreen. He has a poisonous forked ‘tongue’. His body is bruised and muscular. He is lean but also massive. He is a eunuch.
Ketu is a spiritual renunciate. He wears rags as clothes and often they are patched together. He lives in a home built from mud and grass. He doesn’t eat much. He is at peace, gives up everything he has fought fiercely for and yearns to be one with Brahman.
5.39: Ketu’s nature is Krura. His influence hs to separate the native from everything that holds him tethered the world of Maya. He has a healing quality but the modality is harsh. He controls poisonous substances, hard drugs(drugs and hallucinogens will remove our consciousness from the 3D world), chemotherapy(destroys cells to save life).
Ketu is disconnected from life and living. He adores isolation and craves it more than the company of people. A Ketu prominent native has a sharp tongue with harsh words that have very deep meaning so as to make others fear him and respect him and dislike him..all at the same time. Everyone will think of the native as ‘weird’. He has lost his head and seemingly has no vision. Wherever Ketu is situation in a chart, he is blind to that Bhava/Rasi’s significations.
Example: if Ketu is in 5th house, the native should not make any decisions about their education or children because headless Ketu makes them ‘blind’ there. They also probably have exceled in 5th house matters in their previous lives and conquered that area of life already. That’s why in this lifetime, it’s not their priority and will ignore or ‘give up’ in that area. It is not an area of failure..but rather something they give up by choice.
Another example: Ketu in 5th house also makes one less likely to have children. If due to their partner’s chart, they do have children, they will likely be disinterested in raising them as it’s not part of their soul purpose as they have already ‘conquered’ that in another lifetime and have finished learning those soul lessons.
5.40: Ketu has affinity and appetite for tantric arts, occult, esoteric philosophy and healing modalities. They can also tap into the psychic realm and ‘see’ things that can’t be seen with eyes. In our modern world, they can be diagnosed as schizophrenic or someone prone to hallucinations or hearing voices or visions. Ketu can also make one ‘see’ ghosts or what normal eyes cannot capture. which means that all expressions of Ketu would be incomprehensible to normal people where Ketu is not prominent.
Being a Tamasic Graha and the co-ruler of Scorpio Rasi with Mars, he controls the 8th house from Lagna in the Kalapurusha’s chart. 8th H in a chart indicates transformation and is a Dushtana house.
5.41: Ketu is always in retrograde motion. Retrograde is considered as the slowing down of grahas in the cosmic sky due to various shapes orbits and speeds. This can also be considered as moving backwards due to relative motion.
In a chart, we show this as a graha during transit moving in the anti clockwise direction. What does it mean? In normal transit, a graha will go in clockwise direction and move from Aries to Taurus to Gemini etc. But when it is in retrograde, it will transit in the reverse direction. It will be moving from Aries to Pisces to Aquarius etc.
Sun and Moon as luminaries can never retrograde as this would mean that time is moving backwards. Five planets can sometimes retrograde but after a short while(no more than one house backwards at a time), they will stop reverse transit, be stationary(sthamba) and the move direct again. This is a minor correction in their otherwise clockwise movement.
However, Rahu and Ketu..aka North and South Node of the Moon respectively in English…are ALWAYS in retrograde motion. They don’t go clockwise ever.
There is a certain meaning to planets’s direction of transits through the zodiac or Rasis. It denotes the soul’s journey through the zodiac up above in the space and each Rasi house is a stage of evolution.
But as shadow planets or chaaya grahas that are always in backward/reverse motion, Rahu and Ketu bring to us mental imprints of our karma and vasanas from previous lifetimes. They don’t affect our lives in any real sense but only make suggestions to us on a mental/psychic plane. Ketu here can only show us the way to reach for moksha. We have to enact it to materialize it. Being a Krura graha, Ketu will take anything that stands in our away if we refuse to give it up ourselves because Ketu is a warrior who is fighting for our soul’s Moksha. It is important to remember that he is fighting FOR us so we can rip ourselves away from this world of Maya to get closer to Brahman with each incarnation.
The more we lose the veils that blind us from the truth of Brahman, the closer we get to Moksha. But sometimes Ketu will make us blind and helpless to this outer world by scratching our eyes out so we will be forced to look inwards. If we meditate and have a spiritual practice, Ketu is happy and knows we already know our assignment. To surrender to a higher power is the only remedy for Ketu afflictions.
5.42: Ketu..like Rahu..can never be combusted by Surya. As shadow planets, they don’t have any physical attributes that the Sun can affect. Combustion means that at very close degrees, the graha is rendered ‘invisible’ and weakened by the supremacy of the luminary Sun. There is no form or shape or substance for chaaya grahas that would allow them to be influenced.
Because they only operate on the mental plane, Ketu..like Rahu..can be influence/influenced by the attributes of any planet it is in close conjunction with in a Rasi house. Example: This means that Ketu can influence or can be influenced by a conjunction with Moon. Ketu can also be influenced by other grahas’ aspects and by the environment of its Rasi as well as Nakshatra placement.
5.43: Ketu and soul connections with others. However due to the reverse motion, I have heard that Rahu and Ketu connections/coinciding patterns in two different charts can imply past life connections between the two individuals. I haven’t researched this yet and it is somewhat difficult to prove. Comparing two relationship charts with Ketu/Rahu to see soul connection between the two people is a whole different subject that deserves its own session.
Ketu experiences are isolating and hence liberating on a spiritual level. For the same reason, on a material level, it feels like a loss. But it is not a loss because whatever signification feels like a material loss is something you had won over and then given up in a previous incarnation. You have had a transcendent experience in that area. Ketu might activate itself and give you an electrifying jolt to remind you what you had been …it can be useful to have that glimpse as you can use that knowledge to further this current life’s soul lessons.
5.44: Ketu transit lasts 18 months in every Rasi. That means, it takes 18 years to traverse the entire zodiac. Ketu’s transits are always in reverse motion or retrograde.
Whatever Bhava in your chart, Ketu is in during his transit would be that aspect of your life that you have to ‘give up’. This means that it’s never a good idea to start something or desire for something for that house’s signification. This can be further refined to Nakshatra and Nakshatra pada level. But to put it simplistically, if Ketu is transiting your 7th house, do not start new partnerships or relationships. You will have to give it up.
5.45: Ketu doesnt have exaltation or debilitation. But some texts say that Ketu is exalted in Pisces as it is the Rasi of Moksha. It doesn’t have a Moolatrikona either. As a chaaya graha, Ketu derives it’s strengths and borrows cues from other grahas.
Ketu has co ownership of Scorpio Rasi along with Mars.
5.46: Ketu’s age of maturity is 48. His direction is inwards. He doesn’t rule over any day but is honored on Tuesday along with Mars, the co owner of his house, Scorpio. His colour is variegated or multi-colours. His gender archetype is eunuch as he has no gender. In relationships, he represents maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother. He is associated with isolated places and ruins. His Guna is Tamasic and Tattva is Akasha.
Ketu was a warrior but he belonged to the clan of asuras. His presence in the Vedic astrology pantheon makes him an outsider. His caste designation is Mleccha or an outsider. Imagine him as a wandering fakir or holy man who has no marks or symbols that would identify his origins. Ketu in the house resides in the hidden places, corners and under staircases.
BPHS says that Rahu, Ketu and Saturn stand on anthills. What does this mean? It means that just like no one will build a home on a weak foundation like anthills, these grahas offer to the native ideas that have no foundation. Saturn is Karaka of depression..Rahu is Karaka of illusions, obsessions and addictions..and Ketu is the headless Karaka of hallucinations, visions, fears and ..the unseen and the unknowable. They all work on the mental plane upon foundations that are not physical or real. So anything that has no foundation or a weak foundation is Ketu’s territory.
5:47: Ketu Key words: Eccentric, Spasmodic, Seizures, Moksha, Fire, Flag of Victory, Monk, Anthills, Under staircase, Corners of Home, Headless, Blind, Inner voice, Intuition, Psychic, Giving up, Warrior, Short hair, Anemia, Victory, Flag, Triangle, Saffron robes, Rags, Patchy clothes, Vulture, Tuesday, Hallucinogens, Drugs, Chemotherapy, Poisons, Smoking, Smoke, Ghosts, Visions, Random, Explosive, Chaos, Mleccha, Barbarians, Outsider, Addictions, Bruises, Past lives, Losses, Wounded, Serpents, Spiritual, Meditation, Emancipation, Renunciate, Tantric arts, Occult, Spirits, Weird, Stand apart, Shunned, Akasha, Ether, Brahman.
5:48: In the coming weeks, we will discuss mythology and symbols. We cannot go into more details of strength, aspects etc until we learn about Rasis and Lagnas after this Graha introduction.
Assignment: you already know Gunas, Tattvas and other qualities of Rasis from the past sessions. Take Ketu as the graha passing through all the 12 Rasis and write down how this interaction appears to you.
Example: Ketu in Aries:
Tamas Graha in Rajas Rasi.
AkashaTattva Graha in Agni Tattva Rasi.
Eunuch Graha in a Male Rasi.
Ketu is a krura graha.
Ketu is in an Dharma house/Aries
A Mleccha Kshatriya graha is in a Rasi whose lord is Kshatriya (Aries is ruled by Mars)
We need more information to make predictions and timing of events, but this is just general information that you just remember and will give some clue about the comfort level of Ketu in Aries. So based on just what we have covered so far, what is the state of Ketu in Aries according to you? Please write it down and set it aside.
Now…do this for the remaining 11 Rasi houses too. Even if it’s just a few lines, it’s ok. This will help you revise concepts and be familiar with the energies/qualities of the Grahas/Rasis.
Come up with more key words and keep adding to it. They should be based upon the mythology, symbols and supported by the texts(BPHS, Saravali, Phaladeepika, Uttarakalamrita, Jatakaparijata) BUT NOT from a friend or relative chart you associate with Ketu. That would be working backwards and reverse engineering is not a way to learn Jyotish.
Next: Graha Basics: Budha/Mercury