Malefic in every chart: the greater malefic, whose harm is slow, structural and lasting.
Reading
Shani is krura and the greater malefic. Its harm is not an event but a condition: delay, loss, obstruction, chronic illness, the long undoing of a thing. Because it is also the graha of karma, discipline and endurance, the tradition reads a well-placed Saturn as the most durable blessing in a chart, and an afflicted one as the hardest teacher.
Shani is Saturn, the graha of karma, time, longevity, sorrow and discipline. It is the karaka of the 8th house and of the length of life, and of the 12th and of renunciation in many readings. It is the slowest of the grahas and the one whose results are least interruptible: what Saturn gives, it gives for good, and what it takes it takes by attrition.
Those in a long hard passage those who need to learn patience
Symbols
StoneTree
Mythology Summary
Shani is the Hindu Saturn, the son of the sun who does not look up when his father arrives and is given the lordship of time and karma in punishment or in consequence. He gives each person the fruit of their own actions, slowly.
Modern Practice
Shani is honoured on Saturdays with sesame, iron and service to the poor. His practice is endurance and honest dealing, and his discipline is the point.