Meena lagna · vimshottari
The Mercury Mahadasha for Pisces Ascendant
17 years · Mercury rules the 4th and 7th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Pisces ascendant Mercury rules the 4th (Gemini) and the 7th (Virgo), so for Pisces the 17-year Mercury mahadasha carries both a kendra house and a kendra house.
Counted from Pisces, Mercury is exalted in the 7th (Virgo) and debilitated in the 1st (Pisces). Jupiter, Pisces’s lagna lord, counts Mercury an enemy; Mercury counts Jupiter neutral. Mercury’s own nakshatras fall in Ashlesha (the 5th), Jyeshtha (the 9th) and Revati (the 1st) for Pisces ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mercury mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Pisces
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Pisces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury–Mercury | 2 years 4 months 27 days | the 4th and the 7th |
| 2 | Mercury–Ketu | 11 months 27 days | no house |
| 3 | Mercury–Venus | 2 years 10 months | the 3rd and the 8th |
| 4 | Mercury–Sun | 10 months 6 days | the 6th |
| 5 | Mercury–Moon | 1 year 5 months | the 5th |
| 6 | Mercury–Mars | 11 months 27 days | the 2nd and the 9th |
| 7 | Mercury–Rahu | 2 years 6 months 18 days | no house |
| 8 | Mercury–Jupiter | 2 years 3 months 6 days | the 1st and the 10th |
| 9 | Mercury–Saturn | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 11th and the 12th |
For Pisces ascendant, three of the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mercury–Venus, Mercury–Sun and Mercury–Saturn, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mercury–Moon and Mercury–Mars. The sub-period of Jupiter, Pisces’s lagna lord, is Mercury–Jupiter, the eighth of nine, 2 years 3 months 6 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Pisces take 6 years 4 months 15 days (38%) of the Mercury mahadasha’s 17 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 4 months 27 days (14%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mercury mahadasha for Pisces, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Pisces-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 Pisces or any other ascendant, the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mercury mahadasha table; the Pisces chart house by house on the Pisces ascendant page. How the Mercury mahadasha is read in general is in our Mercury mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.