Karka lagna · vimshottari
The Mercury Mahadasha for Cancer Ascendant
17 years · Mercury rules the 3rd and 12th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Cancer ascendant Mercury rules the 3rd (Virgo) and the 12th (Gemini), so for Cancer the 17-year Mercury mahadasha carries both an upachaya house and a dusthana house.
Counted from Cancer, Mercury is exalted in the 3rd (Virgo) and debilitated in the 9th (Pisces). The Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, counts Mercury a friend; Mercury counts the Moon an enemy. Mercury’s own nakshatras fall in Ashlesha (the 1st), Jyeshtha (the 5th) and Revati (the 9th) for Cancer ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mercury mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Cancer
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Cancer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury–Mercury | 2 years 4 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 12th |
| 2 | Mercury–Ketu | 11 months 27 days | no house |
| 3 | Mercury–Venus | 2 years 10 months | the 4th and the 11th |
| 4 | Mercury–Sun | 10 months 6 days | the 2nd |
| 5 | Mercury–Moon | 1 year 5 months | the 1st |
| 6 | Mercury–Mars | 11 months 27 days | the 5th and the 10th |
| 7 | Mercury–Rahu | 2 years 6 months 18 days | no house |
| 8 | Mercury–Jupiter | 2 years 3 months 6 days | the 6th and the 9th |
| 9 | Mercury–Saturn | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 7th and the 8th |
For Cancer ascendant, three of the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mercury–Mercury, Mercury–Jupiter and Mercury–Saturn, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mercury–Mars and Mercury–Jupiter. The sub-period of the Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, is Mercury–Moon, the fifth of nine, 1 year 5 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Cancer take 7 years 4 months 12 days (43%) of the Mercury mahadasha’s 17 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 3 years 3 months 3 days (19%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mercury mahadasha for Cancer, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Cancer-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 Cancer or any other ascendant, the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mercury mahadasha table; the Cancer chart house by house on the Cancer ascendant page. How the Mercury mahadasha is read in general is in our Mercury mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.