Saturn Transit in Mula

Mula opens Sagittarius, Jupiter's sign, and Jupiter is neutral toward Saturn. The lord is Ketu, whom the tradition treats like Mars, an enemy of Saturn. Nirriti, goddess of dissolution, is the deity and a bundle of roots the symbol. The first degrees are gandanta, and Saturn enters the nakshatra through the knot it left in Jyeshtha.

Mula pulls things up by the root. The search for causes, the destruction of what is false, medicine from roots and the removal of an unsound foundation are the themes, and Saturn does the pulling slowly and completely. A career, a belief, a family arrangement or a long treatment is examined to its base. Whatever has no root is taken out.

The hips, the thighs and the sciatic nerve need care. Saturn takes about a year over the nakshatra, and the retrograde usually returns it for a second or third visit, each going a little deeper into the same root.

Capricorn, Sagittarius and Scorpio Moons are in Sade Sati, with Sagittarius in the middle phase and Scorpio in the last. Virgo Moons have Saturn in the fourth, the Kantaka position, and Taurus Moons in the eighth. Libra, Cancer and Aquarius Moons and lagnas, with Saturn in the third, sixth and eleventh, have Phaladeepika's favourable placement.

The transit shows a person's own root. Saturn in Mula asks what one would be if the position, the belief and the family name were removed, and the year is long enough to find an answer.

The remedy is sadhana that goes to the root: japa at a fixed hour, and honest inquiry into one's own motives. Give sesame or oil on Saturday, recite Om Sham Shanaishcharaya Namah, and offer a blanket or food for dogs on Tuesday for Ketu. Serve the destitute, whom Nirriti governs.