The most commonly used system for timing events is Vimshottari dasha here. Depending on which lunar mansion/nakshatra you were born in you will experience the planetary dashas/periods. Not everyone will experience all the 9 graha/planetary forces’s Mahadasha during their lives. This post is about interpreting Ketu’s times.

As always there is no point to doing astrological predictions if you do not have the precise birth details. Even a difference of 1 minute will put off your Dasha calculations. Do your birth time rectification using maths or life-event matching or palmistry and then get into the dasha predictions. If your birth moon Nakshatra/Lunar mansion is Ashwini, Magha or Mula you will have your Ketu mahadasha going on at your birth. The balance of the planet’s dasha period remaining at birth is calculated using the location (degree/minute/second) of Moon in the nakshatra. If you get this birth time wrong your starting point will be wrong thus your entire life-time’s calculation will go wrong.

And then the Ketu mahadasha can occur at any point in life depending on your birth Moon nakshatra. The sub-periods/Antardasha owned by Ketu in other planet’s Mahadasha-s will also carry his flavour.

Ketu’s main periods/mahadasha or sub-periods in other planets Mahadashas will give results as per Ketu’s ability to give results in your chart.

To evaluate Ketu’s Mahadasha in your life, there are 3 steps.

Step 1 is to check out these following about Ketu in your chart. You need to know the power of Ketu in giving results and also the aspects of life which he represents. These keywords are going to be in focus during his periods.

1. Location of Ketu in your birth chart (divisional chart 1/D-1). Can you expect it to give its results completely or not?
   • Which house and in which sign is he placed? Thus which aspects of life is he influencing.
   • Is he in the sign of a friend/neutral/enemy planet. How is this planet placed? Is he strong/weak etc, as Ketu will take on his powers and ability to give results.
   • Is Ketu exalted/debilitated?
   • Which planets is he conjoint or aspected by? Thus which other parts of the personality is he influencing? Also Ketu will take on their powers and ability to give results too.
   • Is the birth during an eclipse? Or a kaal sarpa yog?
   • Has he matured?
   • Which lunar mansion/nakshatra is he placed in? He will be influenced by the ruler of this nakshatra too.
   • And finally is there any planet placed in Nakshatra owned by Ketu? He can be influenced by these too!
2. You can repeat this same analysis from the birth Moon sign to get the effects that this Ketu Mahadasha is going to have on the emotional aspects.
3. And you can repeat this same analysis using the divisional chart 9, Navamsha chart to get perspective on the sub-conscious and astral expectations and also the sum total of his potential. (If you find this complicated right now, don’t overwhelm yourself, do it whenever you feel more confident.)

Ketu is primarily the force of detachment and dissociation. As mindful dissociation from the manifested world is required for spiritual growth he is also called the Moksh-karak (agent of enlightenment). But broadly whichever house/aspect Ketu touches, he will make you indifferent to them. These will simply not be relevant to you, you will be apathetic to them. Sometimes being detached can give better fruits than being overly attached to things. If he is favourably placed and in the company of benefics and influencing the powerful houses of your chart he will give good results. Gains from overseas, business where you deal with intangible stuff (eg stock markets are just numbers not solid stuff), journeys to distant places including astral travel etc are possible. If he is heavily influenced by malefics and is going to give unpleasant results then he can cause, deaths, separations, amputations, losses, diseases, anxieties and related stuff. Ketu in his periods will shed off all that is consuming your energy for no good reason. All the things which are not wanted at the deeper inner levels will be cut off by Ketu.

But go through his karakatva/all that he stands for in the chart, before predicting hopeless things and causing yourself needless stress.

Step 2 is now you will need to evaluate upto the antardasha/sub-period levels at least. (Even smaller segments are called successively Pratyantar-dasha, Sookshma-dasha and Pran-dasha. The logic on how to analyse these even smaller units remains the same for each planetary owner of the sub/sub periods.) The lord of the sub-period will give his results within the broad framework of the overarching Ketu’s karakatva as above.

1. Find out the power of the sub-period planetary lord like you did for Ketu above.
   • Which houses he rules over is more important now because Ketu is headless and will take cues from this sub-period lord.
   • Especially if this sub-period lord is the owner of the 2nd or 7th house (Marakesh) its sub-period within the Ketu mahadasha can cause physical death.
2. The mutual relationship between Ketu and the sub-period lord. Are they friends/enemies/neutral. And their placement, if they are in the 6/8 or 2/12 uncomfortable aspects, that sub-lord’s sub-period will not be comfortable.

Step 3 is the routine planetary transits/ gochar which will modify results during their transit periods. You can get this from your software and superimpose it on your D-1 birth chart. Use a different pen so that you can make sense of the composite chart you are drawing. Or you can use the easy Ashtakvarga table method to get a sense of the transits Dashas.

Ketu Mahadasha/main period lasts for 7 years. His energies are quite intense thus this relatively short period. Within this, you will experience the following antardasha/sub-periods. These are very very general readings just to trigger your own thought processes. Each horoscope is unique so each will have its own unique analysis. Readings/combinations from books should be used for reference, as a starting point and to build into your own further analysis.

1. Ketu antardasha – 4 months 27 days
   • If Ketu is placed well he will give gains in terms of professional life, personal life, may give awards and recognition, separation from negative things in life. But despite this he will give an underlying mental stress, maybe headaches.
   • If Ketu is not placed well, debilitated or under malefic influence he will be no condition to give positive results. Then he will give his results of apathy and separation in the negative sense, causing separation from the positive things in life. As Ketu is a headless graha, most problems will be in some way linked to the ‘head’.
   • He follows Mercury’s Mahadasha, so first of all will cause a sudden end to things which were going on in life. Things will suddenly start going out of sequence, karmic stuff will come up for resolution. Mostly endings! However if you can remain in control intellectually, you can actually make use of the spiritual things from your past lives which will now be accessible.
   • You might feel alone, introverted, caught in the past during this period. Try to divert these energies into your spiritual practice if you can so that your material life remains more stable.
2. Venus antardasha – 14 months 0 days
   • If Ketu and Venus have a fruitful working relationship then expect pilgrimages, visits to sacred places, companionship, profits and gains through partners. Learning opportunities and broadening of philosophical outlook.
   • But if these 2 are in an uncomfortable relationship in your chart then expect eye problems, headaches, problems in relationships, they can also cause separations and divorces.
3. Sun antardasha – 4 months 6 days
   • If Ketu and Sun are comfortable with each other and will give benefic results then gain in wealth, creativity, political power, favours from political leaders, a good relationship with the father, wins in legal issues is possible.
   • However negative results of such a combination can give problems with the government, health related issues, fevers, heart problems, unnecessary travel to foreign locations etc.
4. Moon antardasha – 7 months 0 days
   • If Ketu and Moon are mutually comfortable then expect profits in your businesses, you may construct new houses, buy new cars or start something new connected with liquids. Interactions with women will increase. More results depending on all the things Moon stands for in your horoscope.
   • Else the negative effects are like this, problems from women, emotional issues destabilised life, lack of comforts etc.
5. Mars antardasha – 4 months 27 days
   • If Ketu and Mars are on good terms in your chart you will start something new as can be seen from the karakatva of Mars in your chart. Eg, you can start new businesses or lands. There will be energy and confidence in pursuing your interests.
   • Else the negative effects can include traumas, surgeries, accidents, damage to the vitality of the physical body, diseases which cannot be diagnosed etc.
6. Rahu antardasha – 12 months 18 days
   • Rahu and Ketu are always 180 degrees apart. Ketu desires Rahu and Rahu desires only his ambitions
   • If Rahu is well placed with benefic planets and is capable of giving positive results, your ambitions will be high and also will be fulfilled during this period. Especially sucess in foreign lands, markets and speculation.
   • If not then you will suffer from over-reaching and falling while chasing your ambitions. Troubles and diseases may accompany.
   • Here karmic influences predominate and free will is at its lowest ebb, so best lie low while this is on.
7. Jupiter antardasha – 11 months 5 days
   • If Ketu and Jupiter are favourably situated then you can perform rituals like pujas, yadnyas etc, publicly visible ceremonies. There will be prosperity, celebrations and gains. Maybe marriages and birth of children.
   • If not then there will separations from the aspects of life defined by Jupiter in in the horoscope.
8. Saturn antardasha – 13 months 9 days
   • If Ketu and Saturn are both capable of giving good results with each other then social mobility, hard work which yields success, change of job for the better,
   • If not then this period can cause physical problems related to bones, teeth, nerves, obstacles, death of parents (if indicated), social defamations, loss in power and money, theft, long journeys etc.
9. Mercury antardasha – 11 months 27 days
   •  If Ketu and Mercury are favourably disposed towards each other can lead to pilgrimages, good health and comfortable lifestyle, huge profits in trade and good communications, birth of children etc.
   • If not then, can cause losses in mental and intellectual capacity, problems in speech, losses to the children and siblings etc.
   • This is the final sub-period of Ketu Mahadasha. In this period you will release all that related to Ketu and prepare yourself for the upcoming Venus mahadasha of 20 years.
   • If, in case, you have your Venus and Ketu conjunct with each other then you will have a massive 27 (20+7) years of life as a seamless Venus/Ketu combination mahadasha. And if by chance Venus is your ascendant also here you will face 27 yrs of a strange dissociation with your sense of self.

The generic remedy for those suffering from problems during this period of Ketu is pujas of Shiv or Shakti. Doing the Rudra-abhisek once in a while or a daily recitation of any Shiv mantra will be good. Or if you are more drawn to Shakti, a yadnya of Devi Mahatmya once in a while or reciting any mantra of Devi daily will help.

Analysing the effects of planetary periods requires an understanding of several factors in the horoscope, the most important being the karakatva of that planet (which areas of your life are controlled by the planet) and the power of the planet to give good/bad results. If you can determine these two things with confidence, analysing the effects of that planet’s periods will be easy.

This is the second shortest mahadasha at 7yrs. The shortest is the Sun Mahadasha at 6yrs. This 7yr period is very intense thus is very short. If you can do some spiritual practice during this period it can provide significant back-up for you for a lifetime. Ketu’s main period  is followed by the Venus Mahadasha, the agent of relationships, the longest one which lasts for 20yrs.

Ketu’s periods will be characterised by his keywords, separation, dissociation, apathy and disinterest. But these will be very intense periods where karma will be in the forefront and your options will be rather limited. It is a very short period of 7yrs as Ketu’s separative fiery energies cannot be tolerated for more than this. In this period, try to remain calm, try to actively take interest in things unfolding around you and do start some simple regular spiritual practice. These simple things will act as an anchor in Ketu’s periods and help you resolve your own karma more easily.

If you feel a bit overwhelmed by all his here is a tiny short-cut keyword post on how to analyse the planet’s time-periods based on the which house he rules over.