Meena lagna · vimshottari
The Saturn Mahadasha for Pisces Ascendant
19 years · Saturn rules the 11th and 12th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Pisces ascendant Saturn rules the 11th (Capricorn) and the 12th (Aquarius), so for Pisces the 19-year Saturn mahadasha carries both an upachaya house and a dusthana house.
Counted from Pisces, Saturn is exalted in the 8th (Libra) and debilitated in the 2nd (Aries). Jupiter, Pisces’s lagna lord, and Saturn count each other neutral. Saturn’s own nakshatras fall in Pushya (the 5th), Anuradha (the 9th) and Uttara Bhadrapada (the 1st) for Pisces ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Saturn mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Pisces
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Pisces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saturn–Saturn | 3 years 3 days | the 11th and the 12th |
| 2 | Saturn–Mercury | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 4th and the 7th |
| 3 | Saturn–Ketu | 1 year 1 month 9 days | no house |
| 4 | Saturn–Venus | 3 years 2 months | the 3rd and the 8th |
| 5 | Saturn–Sun | 11 months 12 days | the 6th |
| 6 | Saturn–Moon | 1 year 7 months | the 5th |
| 7 | Saturn–Mars | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 2nd and the 9th |
| 8 | Saturn–Rahu | 2 years 10 months 6 days | no house |
| 9 | Saturn–Jupiter | 2 years 6 months 12 days | the 1st and the 10th |
For Pisces ascendant, three of the Saturn mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Saturn–Saturn, Saturn–Venus and Saturn–Sun, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Saturn–Moon and Saturn–Mars. The sub-period of Jupiter, Pisces’s lagna lord, is Saturn–Jupiter, the ninth of nine, 2 years 6 months 12 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Pisces take 7 years 1 month 15 days (38%) of the Saturn mahadasha’s 19 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 8 months 9 days (14%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Saturn 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 Saturn mahadasha, not a forecast: where Saturn 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 Saturn mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Saturn mahadasha table; the Pisces chart house by house on the Pisces ascendant page. How the Saturn mahadasha is read in general is in our Saturn mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.