Kumbha lagna · vimshottari
The Mercury Mahadasha for Aquarius Ascendant
17 years · Mercury rules the 5th and 8th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Aquarius ascendant Mercury rules the 5th (Gemini) and the 8th (Virgo), so for Aquarius the 17-year Mercury mahadasha carries both a trikona house and a dusthana house.
Counted from Aquarius, Mercury is exalted in the 8th (Virgo) and debilitated in the 2nd (Pisces). Saturn, Aquarius’s lagna lord, counts Mercury a friend; Mercury counts Saturn neutral. Mercury’s own nakshatras fall in Ashlesha (the 6th), Jyeshtha (the 10th) and Revati (the 2nd) for Aquarius ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mercury mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Aquarius
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Aquarius |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury–Mercury | 2 years 4 months 27 days | the 5th and the 8th |
| 2 | Mercury–Ketu | 11 months 27 days | no house |
| 3 | Mercury–Venus | 2 years 10 months | the 4th and the 9th |
| 4 | Mercury–Sun | 10 months 6 days | the 7th |
| 5 | Mercury–Moon | 1 year 5 months | the 6th |
| 6 | Mercury–Mars | 11 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 10th |
| 7 | Mercury–Rahu | 2 years 6 months 18 days | no house |
| 8 | Mercury–Jupiter | 2 years 3 months 6 days | the 2nd and the 11th |
| 9 | Mercury–Saturn | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 1st and the 12th |
For Aquarius ascendant, three of the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mercury–Mercury, Mercury–Moon and Mercury–Saturn, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mercury–Mercury and Mercury–Venus. The sub-period of Saturn, Aquarius’s lagna lord, is Mercury–Saturn, the ninth of nine, 2 years 8 months 9 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Aquarius take 6 years 6 months 6 days (38%) of the Mercury mahadasha’s 17 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 5 years 2 months 27 days (31%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mercury mahadasha for Aquarius, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For an Aquarius-rising chart this is the frame of the Mercury mahadasha, not a forecast: where Mercury and each sub-period lord actually sit, and their dignity there, decide what it comes to, and this page cannot know either.
Related
For Aquarius or any other ascendant, the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mercury mahadasha table; the Aquarius chart house by house on the Aquarius ascendant page. How the Mercury mahadasha is read in general is in our Mercury mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.