☋︎ Ketu · Ketu
Ketu
The south node — detachment, mastery already held, and what is let go of.
- Nature
- Krūra / pāpa — a natural malefic
- Rules
- No sign — it is a point, not a body
- Exalted
- —
- Debilitated
- —
Ketu is the south node and Rāhu’s opposite in every respect — the body without the head. Where Rāhu craves, Ketu has already had it and is done.
It signifies detachment, spiritual practice, and mastery carried from before that arrives without training. Its difficulty is that it also signifies loss of interest: the area it touches often works well and is not valued by the person.
Always exactly opposite Rāhu, always retrograde, and traditionally the more spiritual of the two.
Kāraka — what it signifies wherever it falls
- detachment
- liberation
- past mastery
- insight
- loss
- ascetic practice
Source: BPHS ch. 3; Jātaka Pārijāta ch. 2