Leo for the year ahead

Sade Sati runs whenever Saturn is transiting Cancer, Leo or Virgo — the 12th, 1st and 2nd houses counted from Simha. Saturn takes about 2½ years per sign, so the whole passage lasts roughly seven and a half years, which is what the name means: sade sati, seven and a half. Because Saturn's full circuit is 29.46 years, it comes round about once every three decades, so most people meet it two or three times in a life. It is read from the natal Moon sign, not the Sun sign, and it is not a verdict of misfortune — the classical reading is a period of load and consequence, in which things that were unsustainable stop being sustained.

Because those are the grahas whose sign changes on a yearly scale. A graha is only useful for a timeframe it actually moves across, and Jupiter is the one whose sign change lines up with a year — twelve signs in 11.86 years works out at very nearly one a year, which is why Guru's position is the first thing a varshik reading names and why a twelve-year rhythm recurs throughout Hindu tradition. Saturn is slower again at about 2½ years a sign, too slow to describe a single year but exactly right for the background tone across two or three of them. The quick grahas are the wrong instrument here: the Moon has crossed all twelve signs before a month is out, so it cannot say anything about a year that is not already stale.

Counted from Simha, Jupiter is classically auspicious in the 2nd, the 5th, the 7th, the 9th, the 11th houses — that is, when Jupiter is transiting Virgo, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Aries, Gemini. The strongest of those are the 11th for gain and the 9th for fortune and guidance. Jupiter in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th from the Moon is read as mixed to difficult, which surprises people who expect Jupiter to be uniformly benefic. It is not — a benefic in an awkward house is still awkward, and the same Jupiter transit is a good year for one rashi and a flat one for another. That is the whole point of counting from your own sign.

Ashtama Shani is Saturn in the 8th house from the natal Moon — for Simha that is Saturn transiting Pisces, and it lasts about 2½ years. The 8th is a dusthana concerned with longevity and sudden change, so Saturn there is traditionally treated as one of the harder transits, alongside Sade Sati itself. Ardha Ashtama Shani, also called Kantaka Shani, is Saturn in the 4th — Scorpio for this rashi — and affects home and peace of mind. The favourable Saturn positions are the 3rd, 6th, 11th: Libra, Capricorn, Gemini, where a malefic gains strength rather than causing damage.

Yes, and on roughly the same timescale as Saturn. The nodes take about 18 months per sign and 18.6 years (retrograde) for a full circuit, and they move backwards through the zodiac rather than forwards. They are also always exactly opposite each other, six signs apart, so they are read as an axis rather than as two independent placements: if Rahu is in the 3rd from Simha then Ketu is in the 9th, and the pair is read together. Rahu is favourable in the 3rd, 6th and 11th — the same Upachaya houses that suit Saturn — and difficult in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th and 12th.

Your Moon sign. Gochara — transit reading, which is everything on this page — is counted from the Chandra rashi in Vedic astrology, and Sade Sati in particular is defined from the Moon. Reading it from a Sun sign will typically put the transit two or three houses out and give you the wrong answer with full confidence. If you only know the sign that matches your birth date, that is a tropical Sun sign, and on the sidereal zodiac Jyotish uses it is frequently a different sign again, since the two zodiacs have drifted about 24 degrees apart. A free Kundli gives you the Moon sign to read from.