Guides / Vedic astrology
The nine Grahas
Grahas are the nine planetary factors of Jyotish: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu.
Nine factors, not nine personalities
In Jyotish a Graha is a “seizer”: a moving point that marks a kind of experience. The seven visible bodies are joined by Rahu and Ketu, the North and South Nodes of the Moon. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are not part of the classical nine, though they appear in the Western chart on Inner Light.
The nine roles
The Sun is associated with vitality, authority, and the father. The Moon with mind, mother, and fluctuation. Mars with heat, courage, and conflict. Mercury with speech, calculation, and trade. Jupiter with wisdom, dharma, and growth. Venus with pleasure, arts, and partnership. Saturn with time, labor, delay, and endurance.
Rahu is associated with appetite, foreignness, and amplification. Ketu with release, insight through loss, and the past that has already been lived. These are starting points for reading, not verdicts.
Common questions
- Are Rahu and Ketu planets?
- They are the lunar nodes: the points where the Moon’s path crosses the ecliptic. Vedic astrology treats them as Grahas with their own dasha periods and meanings, even though they are not bodies like Mars or Venus.