Ketu

In Vedic astrology, Ketu is the south node of the Moon — the headless shadow planet that completes the pair begun by Rahu. Where Rahu is endless appetite for the future, Ketu is the past: the storehouse of what you have already mastered, exhausted, and now seek to release. Classical texts describe it as a headless body drifting without desire — the significator of detachment, renunciation, spiritual skill, and moksha itself.

Ketu's sign shows the flavor of your innate, often unstudied talents — the style of your natural genius — while its house shows the department of life where you operate by instinct rather than effort, and where circumstances repeatedly invite you to let go. It acts like Mars in dignity, cuts rather than builds, and rules no sign of its own.

The most spiritual of the shadow planets, Ketu governs intuition, past-life mastery, healing, and the wisdom that arrives without instruction. Its gift is a razor-like penetration that sees through illusion and an independence from social approval; its shadow is confusion, dissociation, and the refusal to engage with the world's demands. A well-placed Ketu grants genius and spiritual depth; an afflicted one brings loss, anxiety, and a drifting sense of not belonging. Its ultimate teaching is that what you cling to is exactly what you must learn to release.

Classical Significations:

• Roles: The mystic, the ascetic, the healer, the researcher, the seeker of liberation.
• Anatomy: The feet, the nervous system, and subtle or unexplained physical conditions.
• Dignity: Rules no sign. Considered strong in the 3rd, 6th, and 11th houses, and in water signs.