How long do Rahu and Ketu stay in one sign?

About eighteen months, moving backwards through the zodiac, with the full circuit taking roughly eighteen years.

Why do Rahu and Ketu move in reverse?

They mark where the Moon's orbital plane crosses the ecliptic, and that line of intersection itself slowly rotates backwards. The motion is a real feature of the geometry, not a convention.

Is a Rahu transit dangerous?

It is read as intensifying whatever the house it occupies is about, and as unsettling rather than destructive. The nodes attract more fear-based readings than any other factor; the mechanics support none of it.

Does the node convention change my chart?

It can, slightly. Mean and True node can differ by a degree or more, which near a sign boundary changes the sign — and therefore a Kaal Sarp finding. We use the Mean node and say so on every report.

Rahu-Ketu Gochar: the nodes' transit, and why it runs backwards

राहु-केतु गोचर

What is Rahu-Ketu gochar and how is the nodes' transit read?

Rahu and Ketu are the lunar nodes — points, not bodies — always exactly opposite each other. They move backwards through the zodiac, taking about eighteen months per sign and roughly eighteen years for the full circuit. Their transit is read as an axis: whatever Rahu's house is about, Ketu's opposite house is about letting go of.

Not planets, and that changes the reading

Rahu and Ketu are not bodies. They are the two points where the Moon's orbital path crosses the Sun's apparent path, which is why eclipses happen near them. Having no physical body, they are read as having no light of their own — they take the character of the sign they are in and the planets they sit with.

They are also always exactly opposite. A transit of Rahu is therefore never a single event: it is an axis moving, and the two ends are read together.

The axis reading

The usual reading treats Rahu's house as the direction of pull — hunger, ambition, the unfamiliar, the thing one goes after — and Ketu's house, always the opposite one, as the direction of release: something already known, already done, that loosens its hold.

So a nodal transit is described as a shift of attention from one side of life to the other. Whether that reads as a gain or a loss depends which side you are standing on, which is why these transits are among the easiest to describe in alarming terms and among the least useful to describe that way.

Mean node or True node

There are two conventions for calculating the nodes. The Mean node moves at a steady average rate; the True node accounts for the wobble and can briefly appear to move forward. The two can differ by a degree or more, which matters at a sign boundary and for Kaal Sarp determinations.

We use the Mean node, which is the Drik Panchang convention and the common Indian standard. If a transit date you have been given differs from ours by a few days near a boundary, this is usually why.

Common questions

How long do Rahu and Ketu stay in one sign?: About eighteen months, moving backwards through the zodiac, with the full circuit taking roughly eighteen years.
Why do Rahu and Ketu move in reverse?: They mark where the Moon's orbital plane crosses the ecliptic, and that line of intersection itself slowly rotates backwards. The motion is a real feature of the geometry, not a convention.
Is a Rahu transit dangerous?: It is read as intensifying whatever the house it occupies is about, and as unsettling rather than destructive. The nodes attract more fear-based readings than any other factor; the mechanics support none of it.
Does the node convention change my chart?: It can, slightly. Mean and True node can differ by a degree or more, which near a sign boundary changes the sign — and therefore a Kaal Sarp finding. We use the Mean node and say so on every report.