Vakri
A graha is vakri when its apparent motion through the zodiac reverses. The Sun and Moon never retrograde, Rahu and Ketu are always retrograde (they are the nodes and move backwards by nature), and the other five do so for part of every year.
The classical reading is that a retrograde graha acts with more force and more deliberation - the texts call it courageous - and that a retrograde benefic gives its good fully while a retrograde malefic gives its harm fully. Some authorities add that a retrograde graha gives the effect of the sign it has come from, or that its results repeat. The modern Western notion that retrograde means debilitated or delayed is not the classical Jyotish reading and the two are not to be merged: here the graha is stronger, not weaker, and a retrograde graha also has a smaller combustion orb (Mercury 12 degrees instead of 14, Venus 8 instead of 10), so it escapes the Sun's burning sooner.
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- retrograde grahaVakri grahaRetrogradationCheshta
Nature and meaning
- Kind
- Concept
- Sanskrit
- वक्री
- English
- Retrogradation
- Meaning
A graha is vakri when its apparent motion through the zodiac reverses. The Sun and Moon never retrograde, Rahu and Ketu are always retrograde (they are the nodes and move backwards by nature), and the other five do so for part of every year. In Jyotish retrogradation is a source of strength, not of weakness: it is the basis of cheshta bala, the strength of motion, one of the six components of shadbala.
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