Sanskrit: “eclipse”
The Sun or the Moon conjunct Rahu or Ketu in the same sign.
Four combinations qualify: Sun–Rahu, Sun–Ketu, Moon–Rahu, Moon–Ketu. Since the nodes retrograde through the zodiac in about eighteen and a half years and occupy each sign for roughly eighteen months, same-sign conjunction with a luminary is not unusual. Orb is what separates a meaningful instance from a nominal one.
The eclipse combination — said to obscure the significations of the luminary involved: confidence and vitality with the Sun, emotional clarity with the Moon.
Read by degree separation above all. A luminary within three degrees of a node is a materially different condition from one at twenty-five degrees in the same sign. Practitioners who use tighter orbs report the yoga far less often, and that is the more defensible practice.
Benefic aspect, particularly from Jupiter, is the standard mitigation. A luminary that is otherwise strong — the Sun in Leo, the Moon waxing and in a kendra — is read as withstanding the conjunction. Placement in an upachaya house is treated as reducing the difficulty over time.
The dashas of the luminary and the node involved. Rahu’s eighteen-year and Ketu’s seven-year mahadashas are the periods classical sources watch.
Orb is the main disagreement and it is not a small one, ranging from same-sign to within a few degrees depending on the authority. Some traditions also distinguish sharply between Rahu and Ketu conjunctions rather than treating them as one yoga, on the grounds that the two nodes signify quite differently.
Widely used in fear-marketing. It is better read as describing an unusual relationship to those significations than as damage — many capable people have it. Distance matters: a conjunction within a few degrees means something quite different from one at twenty.
Our engine doesn't currently detect Grahan Yoga automatically, so we won't claim it either way. Generate your free kundli to see your planetary positions, house placements and dignities, then check the condition above against them yourself.
Create your free kundliA note on how to hold any of this: a yoga is one feature of a chart among many, and no combination decides a life on its own. Classical texts frequently disagree on exact conditions, and a yoga’s effects are traditionally read as arriving during the dasha periods of the planets involved rather than continuously. Be particularly wary of any reading that names a difficult yoga and then offers to sell you the cure.