Ketu Transit in Ardra

Ardra is Rahu's nakshatra in Gemini, with Rudra as its deity and a teardrop as its symbol, so here Ketu stands on its counterpart's ground, the other end of its own axis. Mercury owns the sign. Mars, whose nature Ketu takes, counts Mercury an enemy.

The stay runs about eight months, backward from the fourth pada to the first, and a direct spell of the true node can divide it into two visits. Rahu stands in Purva Ashadha for the first half and in Mula, Ketu's own ground, for the second.

Ardra is the storm that clears the air. Grief, effort, sharp thought and destruction that makes room are its themes, and Ketu brings them to a head and then removes them. A long sorrow finishes, often through a single event that seems to come from nowhere. The intellect turns to research and to the roots of a problem, and loses interest in argument. Speech, the shoulders and the nervous system, which Gemini rules, need care.

Aries, Capricorn and Leo Moons receive Ketu in the third, sixth and eleventh, the houses Phaladeepika gives to Saturn and to the nodes. Gemini Moons carry Ketu on the lagna and Rahu in the seventh, and Sagittarius Moons the reverse. Cancer Moons meet Ketu in the twelfth and Scorpio Moons in the eighth, and the lagna is read the same way.

The stay shows how a person meets loss, whether the clearing Rudra brings can be allowed, and whether what is wept for can be released.

The remedy is Ganesha and Om Kem Ketave Namah, joined with Om Namah Shivaya for Rudra. Parashara prescribes mantra and dana for Ketu, and the traditional gifts are a blanket, sesame or food for dogs on Tuesday.