Shani appears in 2 systems: the same name is used for more than one thing. Both are shown below.
Deities
Shani
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.
Shani is traditionally the son of Surya and Chhaya (Surya's shadow-wife), making Yama and Yamuna his siblings; the two are already linked in his relations. In Jyotish and Ayurveda, Shani is a Vata (air) planet while the Hermetic Saturn is earth; the earth given here follows the Hermetic planet table.
Correspondences
Offerings
- Offerings
- SesameIronGrainWater
Sacred timing
- Sacred Timing
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- Shani DevSaturn of the Hindus
- Gender Expression
- Masculine
- Titles
- The Slow OneLord of KarmaJudge of Deeds
- Symbols
- StoneTree
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- ToneSlow severeAddressShaniThe Slow OneLord of KarmaRelationshipThe delay that is the teachingWarningHe is not cruel he is accurate and he is slowResonanceThose in a long hard passage those who need to learn patience
- 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.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- KarmaJusticeDisciplineDelaySorrowTimeThe planet saturn
- 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.
Details
Jyotisha
Exalted at 20 degrees of Libra, debilitated at 20 degrees of Aries; moolatrikona the first 20 degrees of Aquarius, the rest of Aquarius being own sign, with Capricorn as the second own sign (BPHS ch. 3). Friends Mercury and Venus; enemies the Sun, Moon and Mars; Jupiter is neutral. Western tables print the exaltation degree as 21 rather than 20. The gem is the blue sapphire (neelam): the catalogue holds the family head sapphire rather than a separate blue stone, and no blue_sapphire id exists in stones.json. In the Puranas Shani is the son of Surya and Chhaya, which is why the Sun and Saturn are the classic inimical pair.
Correspondences
- Planet
- Saturn
Sacred timing
- Day
- Saturday
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- ShanaischaraMandaSauraSaturn
Nature and meaning
- Kind
- Graha
- Sanskrit
- शनि
- English
- Saturn
- Nature
- ClassKruraQualityMaleficConditionMalefic 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.
- Meaning
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.
Details
One of 3,120 entries in the Grimoire — the whole library, every cross-reference, is free to take. Take the whole thing Is it wrong somewhere?
Referenced by 6
Every entry that names Shani, grouped by the system it comes from.
☊ Jyotisha 2
- Shani Deity
- Shani Dasha Graha
☉ Planets 1
- Saturn Deities Associated
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