Rahu Transit in Hasta

Hasta is the hand, the Moon's nakshatra in Virgo, Mercury's sign. Savitr, the Sun as the giver of impulse, is its deity. In the usual lists Mercury is Rahu's friend and the Moon is neutral. Rahu finds the sign kind and the star neutral.

The stay runs around seven months, backward from the fourth pada to the first, and a few weeks of direct motion by the true node can divide it into two visits. Skill, craft, handwork, healing, trade and the small precise acts of daily life are the themes.

Rahu enlarges the hand. Technology enters the craft, foreign tools and methods arrive, and a person may take up a skill with sudden obsession. The other side is fraud of the hand: sleight, and theft by clever means. Ketu stands in Revati at the same time and moves back into Uttara Bhadrapada for the second half of the stay.

Cancer, Aries and Scorpio Moons and lagnas receive Rahu in the third, sixth and eleventh, the houses Phaladeepika allows to Saturn and to Rahu. Virgo Moons carry Rahu in the first and should watch the intestines, the nerves and the hands. Pisces Moons have Ketu in the first and Rahu in the seventh. Libra Moons hold Rahu in the twelfth and Aquarius Moons in the eighth.

The transit shows what a person does with their hands when no one is watching. Savitr sets the impulse, and Rahu shows where it has grown crooked.

Worship Durga, and offer water to the morning Sun for Savitr. Recite Om Ram Rahave Namah. Parashara's graha shanti asks for mantra and dana, and the traditional gifts for Rahu are dark cloth, sesame and oil on Saturday. Avoid intoxicants, and make something with your hands every day.