☊︎ Rāhu · Rahu
Rahu
The north node — appetite, foreignness, and amplification without limit.
- Nature
- Krūra / pāpa — a natural malefic
- Rules
- No sign — it is a point, not a body
- Exalted
- —
- Debilitated
- —
Rāhu is the north lunar node — a point, not a body, which is why it has no rulership and casts no light. It is the head of the severed asura: appetite without a stomach.
It amplifies whatever it touches and gives it a hunger. It signifies foreignness in every sense, sudden and unearned gain, obsession, and things that are not what they appear to be.
It is always retrograde. Where it appears, the classical reading is that the area is unregulated — it can produce spectacular results and no sense of when to stop.
Kāraka — what it signifies wherever it falls
- obsession
- foreign things
- sudden gain
- illusion
- technology
- ambition
Source: BPHS ch. 3; Jātaka Pārijāta ch. 2