--- title: "Ketu (South Node) in Vedic Astrology" url: "https://abhisheksoni.in/learn/graha/ketu" language: "en" updated: "2026-10-27" description: "Ketu (South Node) in Vedic astrology: detachment, moksha, past life, occult, loss, healing. Exalted in Vrishchika, debilitated in Vrishabha; dasha 7 years." --- # Ketu (South Node) *Graha · ☋* Ketu (South Node, केतु) is one of the nine grahas of Vedic astrology. It signifies detachment, moksha, past life, occult, loss, healing. It rules the nakshatras Ashwini, Magha and Mula, is exalted in Vrishchika and debilitated in Vrishabha, and its Vimshottari dasha lasts 7 years. ## Classical facts - **Sanskrit name:** Ketu - **Hindi name:** केतु - **English name:** Ketu (South Node) - **Glyph:** ☋ - **Deity:** Ganesha / Chitragupta - **Nature:** Malefic - **Gender:** Neuter - **Guna:** Tamas - **Element:** Fire - **Direction:** North-West - **Exaltation:** Vrishchika 20° - **Debilitation:** Vrishabha 20° - **Aspects (drishti):** 5th, 7th, 9th - **Vimshottari dasha:** 7 years - **Nakshatras ruled:** Ashwini, Magha, Mula - **Significations:** detachment, spirituality, moksha, past lives, isolation - **Karaka:** chhaya graha, mokshakaraka - **Time in one sign:** ~18 months (retrograde) - **Motion:** Always retrograde - **Note:** Always retrograde; exactly 180 degrees from Rahu. - **Traditions differ:** Exaltation sign for the nodes is not uniform across traditions. This app follows Parashara: Rahu exalts in Taurus, Ketu in Scorpio. Some schools read Gemini and Sagittarius instead. - **Reference:** [Ketu (mythology) (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketu_%28mythology%29) ## Articles about Ketu (South Node) - [Twin flames and Vedic astrology, honestly](/learn/twin-flames-and-vedic-astrology): Twin flame is not a Vedic idea and no birth date reveals one. What a kundli can read is your own pattern in relationships, and the periods when they move. - [Ashtama Shani for Simha rashi, and what it does and does not say about health](/learn/simha-rashi-ashtama-shani-health): Saturn is in Pisces, the 8th from Simha, until June 2027. Tradition reads that as a period of lower reserves, not a health sentence. What is worth doing. - [Rahu in 10th, Ketu in 4th: career against home](/learn/rahu-in-the-10th-house-ketu-in-the-4th): The Rahu-Ketu axis read as a pair: ambition pointed outward, home ground left unsettled. What the 10th-4th axis does, the reverse axis, marriage and timing. - [Rahu Gemstone: When to Wear Gomed](/learn/gemstones-for-rahu): Tradition gives Rahu hessonite, gomed, in silver on the middle finger. A stone is support, not a cure, and never a hurried purchase. - [Ashwini nakshatra and career, and why a yearly forecast cannot be honest](/learn/ashwini-nakshatra-career): What tradition says about Ashwini and work, the transits actually crossing Aries now, and why one forecast cannot cover a twenty-seventh of everybody. - [Rahu and Ketu in 2026 and 2027, without the fear](/learn/rahu-ketu-transit-2026-2027): Rahu is in Aquarius and Ketu in Leo until about the start of December 2026, then Capricorn and Cancer for eighteen months. What the shadow planets do not mean. - [Rahu in the 10th house: what it means for your career](/learn/rahu-in-the-tenth-house): Rahu in the 10th house as a placement for work, read honestly. Ambition and visibility in jumps, not a promise of fame, and how sign and transit change it. - [Ketu in 7th house spouse appearance: what tradition says](/learn/ketu-7th-house-spouse-appearance): Pages say Ketu in the 7th house gives a lean, unusual looking spouse. Why that is a stretch, and what it does show: an independent partner, some distance. - [Vedic astrology in 2027: the transits that matter](/learn/vedic-astrology-2027): 2027 turns on three slow transits. Saturn leaving Pisces for Aries in stages, Jupiter crossing into Leo, and the nodes holding Capricorn and Cancer. - [Simha rashi, Rahu and career, without the promises](/learn/simha-rashi-career-rahu): Rahu is in Aquarius, the 7th from Simha, and Ketu sits on Simha itself. Only in December 2026 does Rahu reach a house that touches work at all. - [Rahu and Ketu on the Pisces and Virgo axis, and marriage](/learn/rahu-ketu-pisces-virgo-and-marriage): Why the delayed-marriage claim about the Pisces and Virgo nodes is overstated, and the honest answer on reading a spouse from the seventh lord. - [Rahu in the 7th house: attraction, marriage and business](/learn/rahu-in-the-7th-house): Rahu in the 7th house intensifies partnership, bringing pull, unconventional matches and expectations that need checking. It is not a separation verdict. - [Rahu and Ketu in your kundli, and how their positions are worked out](/learn/rahu-and-ketu-in-the-kundli): Rahu and Ketu are the two points where the Moon crosses the Sun's path. They are always exactly opposite, move backwards, and take 18 months per rashi. - [Famous people born in Mula nakshatra, and why most lists are wrong](/learn/mula-nakshatra-famous-people): Most names on Mula (Moola) celebrity lists cannot have been born in Mula at all. Here is the checked list, and an honest word about the mool dosha fear. - [Lal Kitab, its fixed house chart, and its household remedies](/learn/lal-kitab-explained): Lal Kitab is a set of Urdu books from Punjab that reads a chart on a fixed grid and prescribes cheap household remedies. Here is how it differs. - [Ketu transits Ashlesha from December 2026, and what that period is about](/learn/ketu-transit-ashlesha-nakshatra): Ketu enters Ashlesha on 5 December 2026 and leaves on 14 August 2027. Here is who it touches, what tradition says about it, and what is worth doing. - [Ketu in the 7th house, Rahu in the 1st, and marriage](/learn/ketu-in-the-seventh-house): Ketu in the 7th always means Rahu in the 1st, because they sit opposite. Tradition reads it as distance inside closeness, not as a marriage that fails. - [Ketu in Revati nakshatra, and what the placement actually asks of you](/learn/ketu-in-revati-nakshatra): Ketu in Revati sits at the very end of the zodiac, in Pisces, in Mercury's nakshatra. Tradition reads it as a placement about letting go rather than acquiring. - [Ashlesha nakshatra in the kundli, with Ketu there and with the 7th lord there](/learn/ashlesha-nakshatra-ketu-and-seventh-lord): Ashlesha is the coiled serpent at the end of Cancer. Here is what tradition holds when Ketu sits there, and when the ruler of your 7th house does. - [Sanyasa yoga in a kundli, and why a calculator will over-report it](/learn/sanyasa-yoga): Four or more planets in one house is the best known sanyasa combination. What the classics say, and why having it does not mean leaving the world. - [Rahu sitting with a debilitated planet in your kundli](/learn/rahu-with-a-debilitated-planet): When Rahu shares a sign with a debilitated planet, tradition holds it exaggerates that planet's uneasy side. It is rarely as bad as it reads. - [Pluto in the 7th house, and why a kundli does not use it](/learn/pluto-in-the-7th-house): Pluto is not one of the nine grahas, so a kundli does not use it at all. Here is what Vedic practice reads about a marriage instead. - [The major planetary transits of 2026 and 2027, and how to read them against your own chart](/learn/planetary-transits-2026-2027): Saturn reaches Aries in June 2027, Jupiter moves between Cancer and Leo across both years, and the nodes turn to Capricorn and Cancer in December 2026. - [Career and money inside a mahadasha](/learn/planetary-periods-career-and-money): The mahadasha running in your chart shapes which years favour building a career and which favour holding what you have. It indicates conditions, not amounts. - [Does a mahadasha damage a relationship](/learn/planetary-periods-and-relationships): A mahadasha does not break a relationship on its own. It changes what each person needs and how much strain the bond is being asked to carry. - [Which mahadasha is linked with going abroad](/learn/planetary-periods-and-going-abroad): Tradition links foreign residence with the 12th house, long journeys with the 9th, and Rahu with unfamiliar ground. A mahadasha gives a window, not a visa.