Glossary · concept
Vakri (Retrograde)
Also written retrograde · Vakri / Margi · station
Vakri describes a graha in retrograde — appearing, from Earth, to move backward through the signs. Margi is the opposite: the graha "turning direct" and resuming forward motion. The moments of turning are its stations.
It is an apparent motion, an effect of Earth and the planet moving at different speeds — but Jyotish reads a Vakri graha as turned inward and intensified, its themes revisited rather than advanced. Budha (Mercury) is the famous one, going Vakri three or four times a year; Guru, Shukra, Mangal and Shani each do so for a stretch every year or so.
The luminaries — Surya and Chandra — never go retrograde; the nodes are always retrograde.
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