Rahu (North Node)
Rahu is the Moon’s north node, a shadow planet (chhaya graha) with no physical body. It signifies ambition, obsession, the foreign and the unconventional, and it magnifies whatever house and planets it touches.
Also known as: rahu graha, dragon head
Rahu and Ketu are the two points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s, which is why eclipses happen near them. In myth, the asura Svarbhanu drank the nectar of immortality and was cut in two by Vishnu’s discus: the head became Rahu and the body Ketu.
Rahu is hungry for experience. It drives ambition, innovation and risk-taking, and a pull towards technology, foreign lands and new ideas, but it can also bring restlessness, confusion or excess. It moves backwards through the zodiac, always exactly opposite Ketu, and spends about eighteen months in each sign. Its Mahadasha lasts eighteen years.
Rahu is said to act like Saturn and to give the results of the lord of the sign it occupies. Many people prosper in Rahu periods, especially with Rahu in the 3rd, 6th, 10th or 11th house. Traditional supports include Durga worship, charity on Saturdays and hessonite (gomed), worn only after a chart check.