withAshoka a Vedic Companion

Glossary · graha

Ketu

Also written the south lunar node · the dragon’s tail

Ketu is the south node of the moon — the point exactly opposite Rahu, and the other place eclipses occur. Like Rahu it is a shadow graha, but its character is the reverse: where Rahu hungers, Ketu releases.

It signifies detachment, spirituality and moksha (liberation), the things we are done wanting; also instinctive, past-life skill that comes without effort, and the sense of incompleteness that turns a person inward. Headless in the old image, it acts without ego — sometimes as confusion, sometimes as sudden insight.

Ketu rules the nakshatras Ashwini, Magha and Mula. The node convention here is the mean node: Ketu = Rahu + 180°.

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