Ketu: The South Node of Liberation

The Tail That Releases

Ketu is the other half of a severed demon. Where Rahu is the head that grasps, Ketu is the tail that lets go. It has no eyes to see, no mouth to consume, no brain to scheme. It simply is.

Like Rahu, Ketu is not a physical planet but a mathematical point - the southern intersection where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s apparent path through the sky. This is where eclipses happen. The nodes always sit exactly opposite each other, connected by an invisible axis that runs through every birth chart.

On the winter solstice, when light reaches its minimum before returning, we write about the planet of endings and release. There is timing in this.

The mythology

The story begins the same way Rahu’s does. The asura Svarbhanu disguised himself as a deva to drink the amrita, the nectar of immortality, during the churning of the cosmic ocean. The Sun and Moon reported his deception to Vishnu, who threw his discus and severed Svarbhanu’s head from his body. But the nectar had already passed his throat. Both halves became immortal.

The head became Rahu. The body became Ketu.

Rahu got the eyes, the mouth, the brain - and the hunger. Ketu got none of these. What it received instead was different: the capacity for action without desire, perception without agenda, existence without the constant clamor of wanting.

This is why Ketu represents what we have already accomplished. The head schemes and craves; the body has already done. Ketu is the repository of past action, past mastery, past lives. It has nothing left to prove.

What Ketu represents

Ketu governs several interrelated domains:

Detachment and disinterest: Ketu is the energy of not-wanting. Not suppression of desire, but the genuine absence of it. Where Rahu obsesses, Ketu shrugs. This can manifest as spiritual detachment or as apathy, depending on how it’s working in the chart.

Past-life inheritance: Ketu shows what you have already mastered, often across lifetimes. The skills that come effortlessly, the knowledge that seems innate, the talents that require no learning - these are Ketu’s gifts. The catch is that they often come with disinterest. What we have already done does not fascinate us.

Liberation (moksha): Of all the grahas, Ketu is most associated with moksha - final liberation from the cycle of birth and death. This is not because Ketu is spiritual in a devotional sense, but because Ketu represents the exhaustion of wanting itself. When desire burns out, freedom becomes possible.

Spiritual perception: Ketu governs psychic sensitivity, mystical insight, and the perception of what lies beyond ordinary reality. Rahu is fascinated by the material world’s possibilities; Ketu has already seen through them.

Loss and endings: Ketu dissolves whatever it touches. In the house where Ketu sits, things fall away, interest wanes, circumstances end. This is not punishment but completion. What needs to end, ends.

The unconscious: Where Rahu amplifies into obsession, Ketu dims into the unconscious. We may not even notice where Ketu operates in our lives because we are not paying attention there. The lack of desire is also a lack of awareness.

Ketu in the birth chart

Ketu’s position by house and sign shows where you already have mastery and where you may experience loss or disinterest.

By house: The house Ketu occupies shows a life area that feels somehow complete, even if objectively incomplete. Ketu in the 7th house may indicate past-life work around relationship, making this lifetime’s partnerships feel strangely familiar or bringing detachment from conventional partnership. Ketu in the 10th may give natural authority that requires no striving, or a lack of interest in worldly achievement.

By sign: Ketu takes on the nature of the sign it occupies, but with a quality of having already been there. Ketu in Scorpio has already investigated the depths; the fascination is gone. Ketu in Sagittarius has already sought meaning; the questions feel answered or irrelevant.

The Rahu-Ketu axis: The axis between Rahu and Ketu describes your evolutionary direction. Ketu shows where you came from: the familiar territory, the skills already developed, the patterns already worn smooth. Rahu shows where you are headed: the unfamiliar territory, the new growth, the uncomfortable expansion. The healthy path integrates both - using Ketu’s mastery in service of Rahu’s direction, not clinging to what is already complete.

Conjunctions: Ketu does something unusual to the planets it joins. It does not amplify like Rahu; it spiritualizes, mutes, or makes unusual. Ketu with the Sun can indicate a father who was absent or unusual, or someone whose ego-expression is naturally subdued. Ketu with Venus brings detachment from conventional pleasures and often unconventional approaches to love. Ketu with any planet makes that planet’s expression less worldly, more interior, sometimes harder to access.

Ketu’s nakshatras

Three nakshatras are ruled by Ketu, and they share his themes of origins, destruction, and liberation:

Ashwini (0:00 - 13:20 Aries): The first nakshatra, the beginning. Ruled by the Ashwini Kumaras, the divine physicians. Swift action, healing power, new starts. Ashwini natives often have healing gifts and act with speed.

Magha (0:00 - 13:20 Leo): The royal throne, connected to ancestors and lineage. Ruled by the Pitris, the ancestral spirits. Magha natives often have strong connection to heritage, pride in lineage, and carry ancestral karma.

Mula (0:00 - 13:20 Sagittarius): The root, connected to endings that precede new beginnings. Ruled by Nirriti, goddess of destruction. Mula natives often uproot things - beliefs, situations, even their own lives - seeking what lies beneath surface appearances.

All three nakshatras involve origins and endings - birth stars that carry the energy of what came before and what must be released.

Ketu periods

Ketu’s influence intensifies during his periods:

Ketu dasha: The Vimshottari system assigns Ketu 7 years - shorter than most planetary periods. Ketu mahadasha often feels disorienting. The things you thought mattered may suddenly not matter. Direction becomes unclear. What motivated you before loses its pull.

This is not depression, though it can look like it. It is the dissolution of attachment. Ketu dasha strips away identification with whatever you were holding most tightly. Career ambitions may evaporate. Relationships may end not through conflict but through fading interest. Spiritual seeking often intensifies, though it may feel more like spiritual confusion.

Those who fight Ketu dasha - who try to keep wanting what they no longer want - suffer more than those who allow the dissolution. The teaching is to let go of what is ending, even if you do not yet see what comes next.

Ketu transits: Ketu moves through each sign for approximately 18 months, moving backward through the zodiac alongside Rahu. When Ketu transits sensitive points in your chart, expect dissolution, loss of interest, and the completion of cycles. Things that have run their course will end. This can feel liberating or disorienting, depending on how attached you were.

The fear - and the misunderstanding

People fear Ketu less than Rahu, but they understand it less. Rahu’s hunger is recognizable; we all know what obsessive wanting feels like. Ketu’s release is stranger. What does it mean to not want something you used to want? What does it mean to have talent for something that bores you?

Ketu is often misunderstood as negative because our culture values ambition, drive, and engagement. Someone in Ketu mode - detached, uninterested in conventional goals, drawn inward - looks like they are failing to thrive. But Ketu operates by different values. It asks: what remains when wanting stops?

The shadow of Ketu is genuine. Excessive Ketu influence can produce:

• Nihilism and meaninglessness
• Dissociation and escapism
• Self-neglect (not caring enough about the body, practical matters)
• Spiritual bypassing - using transcendence to avoid embodied life
• Confusion and lack of direction

But these are distortions, not the principle itself. Healthy Ketu brings discernment, genuine peace, intuitive wisdom, and freedom from the compulsions that drive most human suffering.

Working with Ketu

Ketu cannot be grasped or controlled. Working with Ketu means learning to release:

Accept what is ending: Ketu dissolves. Fighting this creates suffering. What wants to leave your life - the job, the relationship, the identity, the desire - may need to leave. Resistance extends the pain.

Develop discernment: Ketu’s gift is viveka - the capacity to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the lasting and the passing. This is not intellectual analysis but intuitive recognition. What actually matters? What is distraction?

Honor past mastery without clinging: Ketu shows your gifts. Use them. But do not expect them to provide the fulfillment they might have in previous lives. They are tools, not destinations.

Tolerate not-knowing: Ketu periods often involve being unclear about direction. The old motivations have fallen away; the new ones have not yet appeared. This liminal space is uncomfortable but necessary. Rushing to fill it with new desires just repeats old patterns.

Turn toward liberation: Ketu ultimately points toward moksha. During Ketu-heavy periods, spiritual practice becomes more relevant. Not as another achievement to pursue, but as recognition of what Ketu actually wants - which is the end of wanting.

Traditional remedies

The remedial tradition offers approaches for Ketu:

Mantra: Om Ketave Namah or the longer Om Stram Strim Straum Sah Ketave Namah, traditionally recited on Tuesdays or during Ketu-ruled times.

Charity: Giving blankets, food to dogs, or mixed-colored cloth. Supporting spiritual renunciates or those who have given up worldly life.

Gemstone: Cat’s eye (lehsunia) can strengthen Ketu, but should be worn with caution and only if Ketu is well-placed. Cat’s eye is one of the more unpredictable gems; its effects can be unexpected.

Behavioral: Practicing meditation, developing discernment, consciously releasing what has completed its purpose. Worship of Ganesha (the remover of obstacles) is traditionally associated with Ketu.

Ketu and the body

From an Ayurvedic perspective, Ketu is associated with Pitta, though it can also increase Vata in its more dissociating expressions. Ketu governs the nervous system’s subtler functions, psychic sensitivity, and conditions that are difficult to diagnose or treat through conventional means.

During Ketu periods, sensitivity often increases. The nervous system may become more reactive. Strange symptoms may appear. What helps: grounding practices, regular routine (though Ketu resists routine), and attention to the subtle body through meditation, yoga, and contemplation.

The Rahu-Ketu teaching

The nodes cannot be understood apart from each other. They are one being in two parts, always exactly opposite in the sky and the chart.

Rahu shows where you are hungry, grasping, driven. It is the future you are reaching toward, often unconsciously. Ketu shows where you are done, detached, skilled without interest. It is the past you carry and must eventually release.

The evolutionary path runs from Ketu to Rahu. You are meant to use what Ketu has given you - the skills, the wisdom, the mastery - in service of Rahu’s new territory. Clinging to Ketu means living in the past, recycling what you have already learned. Ignoring Ketu means throwing away your inheritance.

Both nodes require consciousness. Rahu’s hunger must become conscious enough to be directed wisely. Ketu’s release must become conscious enough to be used, not escaped into.

The teaching of Ketu

Rahu teaches through dissatisfaction. Ketu teaches through completion.

What happens when you get what you wanted and it does not satisfy? Eventually, you stop wanting it. This is Ketu’s wisdom: not that desire is wrong, but that desire exhausts itself when followed to the end.

The Yoga tradition speaks of vairagya - dispassion, non-attachment. Ketu is vairagya made planetary. It is what remains when the fires of wanting have burned down. Not emptiness, but space. Not absence of life, but freedom from the compulsion that drives most living.

This is why Ketu is the significator of moksha. Not because liberation is an achievement to chase, but because liberation is what remains when chasing ends.

On the solstice, in the darkest moment before light returns, Ketu’s teaching feels especially apt. Something has completed. Something is ending. And in that ending, in the stillness of the turning point, something else becomes possible.

Understand Your Ketu

To understand how Ketu operates in your chart - where it brings mastery and where it requires release, how to navigate its periods, and how your Rahu-Ketu axis shapes your evolution - explore written consultations for personalized Jyotish analysis.