Saturn Retrograde Dates

Saturn turns retrograde once a year and stays retrograde for about four and a half months.

For that stretch the slowest graha appears to move backward through the sign it is crossing. Jyotish calls the state vakra, and it changes how Saturn's results arrive.

Parashara's shadbala gives a retrograde graha full chesta bala, the strength of motion, and Uttara Kalamrita goes further, counting a vakri graha as strong as an exalted one. The tradition adds that a retrograde malefic gives its harsh results with more force. A retrograde Saturn is a strong Saturn, and as a strong malefic it asks for more.

Saturn's fields come under review during the retrograde: work, duty, delay, the old, the poor, chronic illness and the karmic accounts of the sign it occupies. Contracts signed earlier come back for revision, and a responsibility that was avoided returns. For someone already on a slow and honest path, the review confirms it.

The house Saturn retrogrades through, counted from the Moon and from the lagna, names the field. For Moon signs in Sade Sati, the retrograde lengthens the stay and deepens the review. In the third, sixth and eleventh, the houses Phaladeepika calls favourable for Saturn, the review tends to end in gain.

The retrograde shows where patience was real and where it was only for show, and it rewards finishing work, repairing what one already owns and keeping quiet about hardship.

• Complete what was left half done before beginning anything new.
• Serve those who labour, light a sesame oil lamp on Saturday, and give sesame, oil or iron, the dana Parashara names for Saturn.
• Recite Om Sham Shanaishcharaya Namah daily until Saturn turns direct.