Magha Pada 4 (Cancer Navamsa)

Magha Pada 4 at a Glance

Pada

4th of 4 — navamsa 40 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Leo 10°00′ – 13°20′ — 130°00′ – 133°20′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Leo, the whole of Magha being inside it

Navamsa (D-9)

Cancer, ruled by Moon

Navamsa from the rashi

12th from Leo — a dusthana, so the navamsa's gift is spent rather than held

Ketu in Cancer

in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain

Name syllable

May

Ketu dasha balance

none to 1 year 9 months of the 7-year period

What Pada 4 Settles About a Magha Birth

All four padas of Magha fall inside Leo, so the pada leaves the rashi alone — a Magha native is a Leo native whichever quarter the Moon occupied. What pada 4 settles instead is the navamsa: Cancer, the 12th sign from Leo, where the other three quarters of Magha give Aries, Taurus and Gemini. The D-9 is where the classical texts look for the strength behind a promise the rashi chart only states, which is why a Magha pada 4 birth and a pada 3 birth are both Leo natives with Sun as rashi lord and still do not read the same.

The pada is fixed by the Moon’s exact longitude, so it needs the birth time and place rather than the date: a Magha Moon anywhere in Leo 10°00′ – 13°20′ is pada 4, and the Moon crosses 3°20′ in roughly five to seven hours depending on how fast it is moving. A free kundli will say pada 4 rather than just Magha, and with it the Cancer navamsa and how much of the Ketu mahadasha was left.

Cancer Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The fourth pada of Magha is the Cancer navamsa, lorded by the Moon — the 12th sign from Leo, a dusthana, so the navamsa's gift is spent rather than held. Leo and Cancer are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They have neither element nor mobility in common: Leo is fire and fixed, Cancer is water and movable. Pada 4 is not the vargottama one and neither are the other three: Magha has no vargottama pada at all, which it shares with 17 other nakshatras.

Two grahas carry this pada: Ketu, which lords Magha, and the Moon, which lords the Cancer navamsa. Between Leo 10°00′ – 13°20′ and the Cancer D-9 that arc points to, Ketu counts the Moon a natural enemy, so pada 4 asks for two things at once. Reading Magha pada 4 in a particular chart means reading both Ketu and the Moon.

Where Ketu Stands in This Pada

Ketu lords Magha, and in the Cancer navamsa Ketu is in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain. That is a statement about pada 4 specifically: the lord of a nakshatra sits in a different navamsa sign in each of its four quarters, and across Magha the grade runs from Ketu in a friend’s sign at padas 1 and 2 down to Ketu in an enemy’s sign in Cancer at pada 4 — pada 4 is the weakest of the four on this test.

Magha pada 4 is one of 27 padas that put the lord in hostile ground. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Cancer the Moon is in its own sign, which is about the mind a Magha pada 4 birth starts with rather than about what Ketu can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Ketu Balance a Pada 4 Birth Starts With

A Moon in Magha means life begins inside a Ketu mahadasha, 7 years long. The pada fixes how much of it is left: pada 4 of Magha runs from none to 1 year 9 months remaining — the shortest of the four, and a Moon on the last minute of Magha begins with the Ketu period already spent, so the next mahadasha starts at birth — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Magha leaves the whole 7 years open. Inside Leo 10°00′ – 13°20′ it takes the exact longitude to place a birth within that range, and the pada is as far as a nakshatra reading gets.

Ketu rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Magha shares that 7-year opening with Ashwini and Mula — and pada 4 of Magha shares the range above with pada 4 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Ketu nakshatra it is. Pada 3 of Magha carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Ketu balance a Magha pada 4 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Venus for 20 years, then the Sun.

The Syllable May

A child born with the Moon in Magha pada 4 is traditionally named from May. The other three quarters of Magha give Ma for pada 1, Mee for pada 2 and Moo for pada 3, which is why a naming list keyed to the nakshatra alone gets it wrong three times out of four — the syllable follows the pada, and the pada follows the longitude.

The Other Three Padas of Magha

Magha is Leo 0°00′ – 13°20′, ruled by Ketu, Rakshasa gana, rat yoni, Antya nadi, and pada 4 shares every one of those with the other three. What belongs to pada 4 alone is the arc, the navamsa and the syllable — Leo 10°00′ – 13°20′, Cancer, May:

The rashi column is constant on Magha; the navamsa column is what the pada buys you.

Frequently Asked Questions