Rahu and Ketu – The Moon’s Nodes

Rahu and Ketu are the Lunar Nodes in Vedic Astrology. They are Grahas in that they grab and attach us to our karma just like the starry Grahas, yet they do not rule over Rasis like the other starry planets. They are shadows, the eclipse points where the Earth’s orbit around the Sun intersects with the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. Even though they are not physical planets they are perhaps the most influential forces in the chart. It is along the Rahu / Ketu axis that the main forces of karmic desire are seen.

The myth of Rahu and Ketu sheds much light on their function and greater possibility. Shortly after the beginning of time, the Gods and demons were in a terrible war over the pot of immortal nectar at the bottom of the Milk Ocean. (A metaphor for The Milky Way) Neither side was making much progress so they decided to join forces and churn the milk ocean to get the pot of nectar, agreeing to share the yield of their joint efforts. Once the nectar was extracted then came the job of distributing it. The Gods, not wanting the nectar to fall into the hands of the demons, devised a plan. Lord Vishnu disguised himself as the enchanting and beautiful Mohini to distribute the nectar. The Gods and Demons were seated on two different sides of an aisle as Mohini distributed the nectar to the Gods only. The demons were too enchanted by her beauty to notice she was not giving them the nectar. However one demon, Rahu, noticed what was happening and disguised himself as a God and managed to get a drink of the nectar. As soon as this happened, the Sun and Moon told Lord Vishnu what was happening and Vishnu returned to his form and let fly his sudarshan and chopped Rahu in half, but only after Rahu managed to take a drink of the nectar. Thus he is immortal, but chopped in half. The head is Rahu and the tail is Ketu. Rahu is a head without a body. Everything he comes into contact with he becomes obsessed with, like an immature person or a person with a voracious appetite. Rahu represents material desires that we want to experience, but because he is not a physical planet he operates on the subconscious level. He distorts our perceptions and colors the world according to his desires. He tends to obliterate the essence of things, focusing on their material substance. Rahu obsesses over the things we need to learn so we can eventually be freed of them. There are certain lessons we can only learn in a physical body, in the physical world. Rahu’s obsessions indicate those things. All human beings are at least slightly crazy in some way, Rahu shows the area of life where we are unbalanced and obsessed. Rahu keeps us obsessed until we learn detachment from what he is influencing. As such, he represents our most powerful attachments. Losing our higher self to the things of this world is the main reason we suffer in life. Rahu’s obsessions bring much suffering as long as we desire experience. However, once we desire liberation, Rahu is incredibly spiritual. Rahu will tend to feel like Saturn in that both of these planets bring stress and fear. The stresses of Saturn are based on the tangible known things in the universe that can go wrong, our health, our income, etc.

Rahu feels stress and worry about the many unknown, undeveloped qualities of our mind and experience. His obsessions are all attempts to strengthen the undeveloped part of our consciousness.