Saturn Transit in Shatabhisha

Shatabhisha lies in Aquarius, Saturn's own sign. Its lord is Rahu, who behaves like Saturn and is counted its friend in the usual lists. The deity is Varuna, keeper of the waters and of rita, the law, and the symbol is an empty circle or a hundred healers. Saturn is at home in the sign and among friends in the nakshatra.

The hundred healers treat what ordinary medicine cannot. Chronic illness and its cure, secrecy, solitude, research, the sea and the mind that works alone at night are the themes, and Saturn strengthens all of them. A long illness receives its right diagnosis. A solitary piece of research is completed, and a habit of concealment is exposed by Varuna's noose.

One visit can be as short as three months, and Saturn's retrograde usually brings it back, spreading the whole passage over about a year in two or three visits. The calves, the ankles and the circulation need care. Sleeping at irregular hours does harm.

Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn Moons are in Sade Sati, with Aquarius in the middle phase and Capricorn in the last. Scorpio Moons have Saturn in the fourth, the Kantaka position, and Cancer Moons in the eighth. Sagittarius, Virgo and Aries Moons and lagnas have the third, sixth and eleventh, which Phaladeepika lists as favourable.

The question is what a person does alone. Solitude used for healing and inquiry gives its results here, and it often brings a cure, sometimes for others as much as for oneself.

Care for the chronically ill, and be truthful in private matters. Give sesame oil on Saturday, recite Om Sham Shanaishcharaya Namah, and offer water to Varuna with a prayer for the removal of illness. Rahu's lordship asks that intoxicants be given up, and a dark cloth given on Saturday serves both grahas.