Ketu — the south node, the release of the chart
Ketu is the descending node — the other crossing point of the Moon's orbit, exactly opposite Rahu, and the tail to Rahu's head in the eclipse story. Where Rahu is hunger, Ketu is the receipt for hunger already fed: the chart's zone of past mastery, of skills that arrive strangely pre-installed and ambitions that refuse to ignite. Jyotish calls it the moksha karaka, significator of liberation, because its gift is subtraction — it shows what you can finally put down. A Ketu area of life often works best when held lightly: competence without craving, headless and therefore unafraid.
As karaka — significator — Ketu stands for detachment, moksha (liberation), past mastery, research and diagnosis, intuition, and endings that free. Its Vimshottari mahadasha runs 7 years: a whole season of life colored by this graha's agenda.
Ketu is a lunar node — a point where the Moon's orbit crosses the Sun's path, not a physical body — so the classical texts assign it no own sign, and there is no consensus on its exaltation or debilitation. In practice it takes the character of its sign lord and the planets it sits with. Ketu, like Rahu, sits outside the classical natural-friendship table; some later texts treat it as Mars-like, and in practice it is judged by its sign lord and conjunctions.
Strong Ketu gives the researcher's temperament: penetrating insight, immunity to hype, the ability to walk away cleanly from what others cling to. It marks natural diagnosticians, mathematicians, and meditators — minds that reach the root because they skip the decoration.
Detachment miscarried becomes dissociation: apathy dressed as wisdom, escapism, self-neglect, doubt that dissolves even what deserved keeping. Afflicted Ketu quits five minutes before the harvest. Its practice is discernment — release the craving, keep the commitment.
Research and mathematics, diagnostics and forensic work, spirituality and contemplative teaching, healing at the subtle end, archival and root-cause disciplines. Ketu does poorly in fame-driven arenas and superbly wherever depth is valued over display.
Ketu in relationship is undemanding to a fault — present, loyal, and hard to read. Its lesson is that non-attachment was never meant to look like absence: showing up visibly is also a spiritual practice.
BPHS treats Ketu as a chhaya graha with a Vimshottari lordship but, as with Rahu, assigns it no undisputed own sign, exaltation, or debilitation — texts variously name Scorpio or Sagittarius, and we note the disagreement honestly. Its mahadasha runs seven years.
Where in your life is Ketu asking to be expressed more cleanly?