Saturn (Shani)

Astronomical Introduction

Shani's diameter is roughly 125,000 kilometres. Moving at an average speed of 10 kilometres per second, at a mean distance of about one and a half billion kilometres from the Sun, this planet completes one revolution in 30 years.

Famed for its rings, Saturn is considered the most beautiful planet of the solar system. In size it ranks second only to Jupiter. It takes a mere 9 hours to rotate on its axis. It has 10 satellites, of which Titan is as large as Mercury.

Puranic Account

According to the Padma Purana, Shani is the son of Surya, the Sun, born of his wife named Chhaya ("Shadow"). By his father's command he became a graha, one of the nine "seizers" that act upon human destiny, and by his own wife's curse he became cruel of nature. The story goes that Shani's wife, a daughter of the gandharva Chitraratha, was of fierce temperament. Once, while Shani was absorbed in devotion to the Lord, she came to him after her ritual bath, adorned and ardent, to unite with him; when Shani paid her no heed, she cursed him: "Whatever your gaze falls upon shall be destroyed."

Shani is generally held to give inauspicious results; his complexion is black, and he is regarded as a Shudra. His mount is the vulture, or else the buffalo. It was because tears of grief fell at the death of Sati that Shani turned dark of hue. When Shani was tormenting the people, Lord Shiva placed two rashis (zodiac signs) under his lordship. It was his glance falling upon him that severed the head of Ganesha, son of the goddess Parvati. By the Devi's curse Shani was afflicted with lameness. According to the Purana, in ages to come Shani will assume the office of Manu.

Upaya (Remedial Measure)

The Shani Pradosha fast is observed when the trayodashi (the thirteenth lunar day) of the month's dark fortnight (krishna paksha) falls on a Saturday. One fasts through the day, worships Lord Shiva at evening, and then takes food. According to the Bhavishyottara Purana, if on a Saturday one worships an iron image of Shani with flowers of deep black colour, Shani's affliction is removed, especially when he occupies the fourth, eighth, or twelfth bhava (house, a domain of life in the chart).

In predictive astrology (phalita jyotisha), Shani is generally regarded as a giver of sorrow and as a maraka, a death-inflicting influence. According to the Puranas, the moment Shani was born his gaze fell upon his father, and by that glance alone Surya was stricken with leprosy and his charioteer Aruna was crippled. Yet this same Shani, in his pure form, is the very symbol of that law of justice upon which the doctrine of karma-phala, the fruits of action, operates. Even in his inauspicious form he is in truth applying that same law: driving the restless horse of our mind onto the right path with the whip of sorrow.

The Person Influenced by Shani

The Shani-type body is dry and dark of complexion, tall yet lean and thin, with the look of an old man. The hair is hard, thick, dry, and stiff. The eyes are sunken (yellow, or red with a brownish cast, or round like a serpent's) and blink only after long intervals. Shani is lame. The teeth and nails are thick; the eyebrows are straight, or sparse of hair; the ears are small. His constitution is vata-dominant, governed by the windy humour, and he is tamoguni, ruled by the quality of darkness and inertia: wrathful, hard-hearted, and dull-witted. He is cunning, an utter obstinate, and if bent upon revenge, the kind who descends upon his enemy without warning. In his auspicious periods, the Shani type is a philosophical thinker, often a recluse.

In the body, his domain covers the nerves, the hair, the eyesight, the eyebrows, the temples, and the bald head. He directs such functions as deep reflection, caution, concentration, a narrow and withdrawn disposition, cunning, laziness, wickedness, sorrow, and death.

Rashi and Graha Relationships