Antardasha 5 of 9 in Rahu mahadasha · 1 yr
Rahu-Ketu antardasha राहु-केतु अंतर्दशा
Rahu-Ketu lasts about one year and eighteen days and is the sub-period most often flagged as difficult in Rahu mahadasha. The two nodes are always opposite each other, and their relationship, modelled on Saturn and Mars, is unfriendly. Tradition expects confusion, sudden separation, relocation, unusual illness, and a collision between ambition and the wish to withdraw. Spiritual insight often arrives here. Reversible decisions are the classical advice.
- Length
- 1 yr
- Position
- 5 of 9 in Rahu
- Natural relation
- Rahu is enemy to Ketu
The mahadasha behind it
Rahu mahadasha is an eighteen year period that tradition associates with ambition, unconventional paths, foreign lands, and the hunger for what one does not yet have. After the direct Mars period it feels more complicated and less predictable. Classical texts read a well-placed Rahu as bringing worldly rise by unusual routes, and an afflicted Rahu as bringing confusion, deception, and dissatisfaction despite gains. Read the full Rahu mahadasha.
What Ketu adds as sub-lord
Ketu mahadasha is a seven year period that tradition associates with detachment, sudden turns, and a loosening of attachments to things that no longer serve. It usually opens quietly after the busy Mercury period and asks for inward focus rather than expansion. Classical texts read it as a time of spiritual gain and material uncertainty, with results depending heavily on the house and sign Ketu occupies. As an antardasha lord it colours the mahadasha's agenda rather than replacing it: the houses Ketu owns and occupies in the birth chart become the stage for Rahu's themes for 1 yr. See Ketu as a mahadasha.
How the length is computed
Rahu runs 18 years and Ketu runs 7 years in the 120-year cycle, so Rahu-Ketu lasts 18 × 7 ÷ 120 = 1.050 years, about 1 yr. The exact calendar boundaries depend on the Moon's degree at birth; the free kundli lists them.