Last Updated on June 1, 2021 by astrologerbydefault

There was a question on Saturn conjoint or aspecting Rahu, commonly called the Shapit (cursed) dosh and its remedies.

Rahu and Saturn are both slow moving planets so once they get conjunct or Saturn aspects Rahu, this event can go upto 1.5yrs. A child born during this time will have this shapit, ‘cursed’ negative combination or dosha in his birth chart, causing typical events in his life. And remember Saturn aspects the 3^rd 7^th 10^th house from his placement. So statistically about 25% people will be born with Saturn with or aspecting Rahu. (This is also a combination for Pitru dosh, ill luck from the ancestors.) 

To analyse them together you have to check out the following about Saturn in the birth chart.

• Is Saturn a Yogkarak or a functional benefic or functional malefic for your ascendant? (He is generally favourable for Taurus, Libra, Capricorn and Aquarius ascendants)
• Is he aspected by benefics or malefics? Is he being made more malevolent or has some potential to do good?
• Which house/ sign is he placed in, with whom and who else does he aspect? If he is placed in the 1^st, 4^th, 7^th 8^th houses, the effects are more inauspicious.
• Which houses does he own? ie where does Capricorn and Aquarius lie in this chart and which planet is sitting here?
• Any other significant patterns you notice about him, any auspicious yog or significant combinations or even more malefic patterns.
• If you are experienced enough check his Nakshatra, Ashtakvarga, Navamsha etc, all sources which can give you more information.
• Overall, can he be expected to give auspicious results or not? If inauspicious, then which aspects of your life are going to be in trouble?

Then perform a similar exercise for Rahu. Do remember that his physical effects are dependant on the other planet’s keywords, the signs/ planets/ nakshatra he is influenced by. Astral effects are going to be his own, but channeled through these keywords. Any other combination involving Rahu eg Guru-Chandal? Or Shakti yog? Anything like this gives Rahu more power to create illusions and push you away from your karmic path. If you allow Rahu to lead you away from your karmic path, Saturn will not like it and take action to discipline you aggravating the shapit dosha.

So now we know what Rahu and Saturn are independently capable of giving you in your chart. But when Saturn influences Rahu by conjunction or aspect then their intrinsically opposite natures flare up. Saturn works on the material levels and Rahu on the astral levels. Saturn’s nature is constriction, limitation, reductions, rules and regulations, social structure, law and morals, slow to act, karmic payback, reality. If you follow his rules he will give you some gain at the end. If you do not then your karmic load will increase. Rahu is fast acting, quick to seize the opportunity, will break rules, won’t think twice about cheating others etc driven by his intense desire to experience. He is Desire. He creates Illusions and also helps break through them depending on the soul’s maturity. His results are exclusively on the astral realms but he works through the material keywords of the planets who influence him. Do anything under his influence and it gets registered directly in the Sookshma sharir/subtle body, ie deep-set karma. Rahu is an astral graha represented as a head without a torso. (Rahu and his other half Ketu are very fascinating forces in the horoscope, I have written several posts on their nature.)

It is said that Rahu is like Saturn and Ketu is like Mars. But this is not really correct as they work on the subjective levels. Saturn and Mars are more on the objective planes of existence. If you have any connection, aspect or conjunction between these forces, ie Rahu/Ketu with Mars or Saturn in your chart you are going to face some  typical turmoil in life.

Rahu and Saturn are forces of struggle, pain, sorrow, so when they come together, these negative results are magnified. It is a deep negative karma carried over from several lives, now out for resolution. Rahu in the astral and Saturn at the very physical Mooladhar chakra have the potential to cause rare havoc in the chart. Rahu-Saturn combination will adversely affect other auspicious combinations of the chart so this dosha needs to be analysed carefully. Together they give delayed or denied marriage, no comfort in marriage, falling out with the spouse, divorces, death of spouse, no peace in married life. Then delayed or denied children, miscarriages, abortions, deaths of children, denial of male children, abnormal or unhealthy children ie in some way or the other the next generation will be affected. A vitiated family life, arguments in the house, negative energy, psychic attacks, ghosts in the house, financial troubles, there is no comfort/happiness in the house. Personal health is not good and lingering diseases exist. Education, career, business etc can get affected. Even if there are luxuries available, you will not be allowed to enjoy them. Overall Saturn influencing Rahu affects the overall auspiciousness of life.

If they are capable of giving auspicious results together in some way then Rahu with Saturn may give opportunities especially in foreign lands, import/export, trade, speculation/stocks etc. Successes in social work, technology, electronics etc. But even then, they will give trouble of some sort in your life as above in some way or the other. But for this you have to examine the chart in depth.

As about 25% of the population will show this shapit yog, I will try to divide it into a low energy and a high powered Dosh as follows,

Low energy Shapit Dosh – If you see patters like this in the chart, the dosha is of a low intensity and can be managed by performing remedies. More the patterns the more its intensity reduces in real life.

• Saturn is a yogkarak for Libra and Taurus ascendants, so these two ascendants do not suffer much from this dosha.
• Rahu and Saturn aspected by benefics, who are themselves powerful. Especially if a powerful Jupiter aspects Saturn by his 5^th or 9^th aspect, ie Saturn does not aspect him in return, then this Dosh reaches its lowest intensity.
• Saturn not aspecting any other planet in the chart.
• A strong ascendant lord and a strong Moon in the birth chart, can somewhat manage the turmoil created by this Saturn’s influence on Rahu. Ascendant lord is connected to the physical self, Moon to the astral self. If these two are very powerful, most of the life’s problems can melt away.
• Some other powerful auspicious yog in the horoscope which can help the overall personality cope.
• If the navamsha chart is auspicious, then a lot of life’s problems are reduced.

High energy Shapit Dosh – If you see patterns like this in the chart, the dosha is of a higher intensity and cannot be completely managed by performing remedies. More the interconnecting patterns, more intense the dosha’s energies.

• Rahu and Saturn aspected by malefics, especially so if Mars aspects them in some way.
• Saturn aspecting other planets, influencing their energy.
• The ascendant lord and the birth Moon being unable to give good results, ie are afflicted by functional malefics, or placed in the 3^rd 6^th 8^th 12^th houses, or eclipsed/ combust etc combinations then the personality, the environment and the mental/ emotional strength are compromised, adding to the problem. The coping mechanism is affected.
• The navamsha chart is not auspicious and unable to support the main physical personality. This increases the intensity of all problems in life including the shapit dosha’s effects. (Do read about Navamsha analysis)

The Vimshottari Dasha. Be alert during these following periods as they will create negative issues as the Dosha gets the energy to manifest its results as above. Mental and physical strain will occur during these periods. Depending on which houses/ signs are involved, you will face stress from those parts of your life.

• If you are undergoing a Dasha period, mahadasha, or antardasha or the even smaller sub-sub-dashas of Rahu or Saturn then you should be alert as the trouble indicated by the Shapit dosha in your chart is going to 100% surface during this period. Analyse this period carefully. This trouble cannot be avoided, but its intensity can be modulated depending on its power in the birth chart, is it the low/high power variety?
• If you are going through a dasha period of a functional malefic for your chart, then the dosha’s energies can add to the discomfort you are going to face.
• If it is a dasha period of a benefic who does not have enough power to grant auspicious results, then too you should be alert as the auspicious energies in life are lesser and might not be able to avert the negative effects of the dosha.
• Dasha periods of benefics with sufficient power in your birth chart give strength to endure the negativity and also grant the intelligence to convert adversity to gain. So use these periods wisely to consolidate yourself.

Finally Transits. If you have this Shapit combination in your birth chart then you should be aware of the transits too.

• If you are going through a significant transit of Saturn or Rahu in your chart then expect turbulence. Eg From 2019 Mar to 2020 Jan Rahu and Saturn were opposite each other, ie Saturn was aspecting Rahu with his 7^th aspect. If you have charts with Shapit yog in your study bank you must have observed these people going through a bad period in their family life, loved ones, well-wishers, children, finance, business etc. Now these two are in the 6/8 axis, this the axis of karma/trauma cycles. So cannot grant relief till they move out from this 6/8 axis in transit. So whatever aspects of your life are controlled by Saturn and Rahu can remain problematic.
• Planets aspect in transit also. So if you have your beneficial planets aspecting the birth chart position of Saturn/Rahu, then this transit period can give relief from the dosha for some time.
• And the other way round, if you have your malefic planets aspecting the birth chart position of Saturn/Rahu, then this transit period will aggravate the dosha for this time.

Finally a bit on Remedies. I have always recommended mantra jaap as a remedy, and it works well.  Homa, pujas, giving away items of that planet etc are all options which you can choose as per what you can do. Some charity, to the really deserving poor people, is also helpful (giving stuff to undeserving people does not work). I have written about remedies in several posts. But with remedies, remember one thing always. No remedy can completely stop the problems caused by your birth chart energies (prarabdha karma). Reduce it yes, completely eliminate, no.

If the Shapit dosha in your chart is of the low energy type, the remedies will be useful and will reduce the burden of karma significantly. You should be able to live a regular life without much disturbance from Saturn/Rahu. Some dreams may be disturbing from time to time, or minor incidents may occur. As the highest reduction in intensity will be when you experience the effects in your dreams. Then the intensity of the problem can be reduced in some way, eg if you were to fracture your leg, you will get away with a sprain etc.

If the Shapit combination is of the high energy variety then the remedies will not be so efficacious. I have seen on the Internet, dubious sites who claim to do a 100% remedy of such karmic combinations but it is not really possible. Some part of it will have to be gone through despite the remedy being performed. The more intense the combination, the more repetitive and reinforcing the patterns are, the more deeply the karma (prarabdha karma) is ingrained into your present life.

Apart from the astrological remedies, if you know that you have such a combination in your birth chart and a typical time period is coming up from the transits and Dasha, then you should be prepared. Saturn is involved so he will want discipline and make you work hard. If you recognise the karmic targets indicated in your chart, be sincere and honest with yourself, discipline yourself and work, he will accept this and actually help you achieve them. But if you get fascinated with Rahu, desire satisfaction in the illusions which Rahu paints before your eyes and get carried away, Saturn will not only register this as a karma to be resolved in your future lives but also discipline you in this current life. Saturn’s job is to remove illusions and he does this with the slow grinding force of Time. He recognises no emotions, no pain, no suffering, he is only about completing the tasks you have set for yourself at your birth moment.

So essentially the shapit dosha is nothing but an internal fight between the power of Illusion created by the manifested worlds around you and the desire of the soul to complete its karmic tasks and get free from this Illusion. You always have a choice in this. If you fall for the Illusion it is nothing but trouble throughout and more entanglements. If you are able to complete your karma then its freedom. Maybe this is why it is called a cursed combination. A lot depends on the power of the ascendant lord and the birth Moon in navigating this.

(There are few pending questions on Saturn and Mars, so will try to write more about these two in my next few posts)