QUESTION: Retrograde planets show our past karma, Ketu also shows past life, talents and debts. What is the difference?
ANSWER: Retrogression refers to the movement of the planet. It moves backwards across the sky. So retrogression is the QUALITY of “graha”. Grahas are the forces of any system that make this system function and bring the system into motion through their specific powers.
It happens that at some point any system gets problems because the grahas have their own specific characteristics, move with their own speed and make the processes OVERLAP with each other.
Let us look at the solar system. All planets of the system rotate around the center, Sun. But they do it differently, with their own speed and their unique paths. For example, the paths depend on the distance from the Sun.
You can imagine the teacher (Sun) who starts the project and gives tasks to his students. He must remember that all students are unique and have their unique abilities. They will move differently and complete their work at different speeds, they will have their own orbits. So at some point the system must be synchronized when quick students with simple tasks must wait for slow students with difficult tasks. Some of them can get frustrated, some of them can get bored. That’s what happens during the time of retrogression. Basically, this is the period when all the systems get synchronized through the specific graha (functional force in the system).
For example when Jupiter is retrograde we must reconsider all knowledge, wisdom and opportunities that we acquired during its direct movement. When Jupiter moves across Scorpio we learn how to get benefits from Scorpio’s qualities, for example we start new research or get new opportunities in hidden resources - taxes or inheritance - or we undergo successful and effective surgery. We happily fly through this time until Jupiter stops and starts moving backwards. Now our task is to look back and return to some things that we might have forgotten. Maybe you made some mistakes in your research or missed some data. Maybe your surgery had some side effects and you feel that you need more time to recover. So you must be synchronized with the reality, reviewing some things in the past.
But what is the difference with Ketu, graha that also shows our past karma?
Ketu is the DOOR out of the system, the door to the past that had been already forgotten. Information is forgotten but still it influences our current decisions because it penetrates to the system through the door.
Ketu’s past is totally different from retrograde planet’s past. It is not the past in the current system like you made a mistake and you go some steps back to correct it. With a retrograde planet you know what to do because you observe this past, you can see what the problem was.
Ketu is also information that is written in our genome, we are not aware of it but it still influences us. The door opens wider during solar and lunar eclipses so information comes more intensively through it. And with the help of such grahas as Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury (planets, ruling Mahabhutas) we recognize and adopt this new information and make it useful in the system.
You can complete the task given by a retrograde planet. You simply go and do what you are aware of. But you can never complete something associated with Ketu. The more you face it the more you discover. It is a constant flow of information running from the past. And this past is not in the system. Actually the system itself depends on this past like your life depends on your genome. You cannot “correct Ketu”, you cannot rewrite the process of evolution on Earth and change your past. You can only accept it and make use of it in your current life.
Say, your 7th House is ruled by a retrograde planet. It means that you might have some problems in your partnership because you reconsider your decisions about your partner. With a retrograde planet you will have more problems and experience with partners. You break up and in one month you come back or you re-marry the same partner after divorcing them. In the long run you become an expert in relationships because you always revise them, you have the ability to look back and analyze your experiences.
When Ketu is in your 7th House, partnership is strongly afflicted by the past and the effect will be totally different. In this case you are not aware of what is happening in your partnership. That’s not you yourself who makes the problem with the partner, it is you (your genome) in the past. The constant flow of information from the past penetrates into your expectations and decisions in the partnership. And you get problems because there is no such partner on Earth who can fully meet your requirements.
People with such placement can suffer from being unsatisfied in relationships. And the problem is that they don’t know what to do about it. They become very selective because they look for something special. You can analyze their request by sign, nakshatra, and navamsha of Ketu. The ruler of Ketu will show if they get the partner and how it will happen.
So the affliction by Ketu is much stronger that the affliction by a retrograde planet.
It can be concluded that retrograde planets and Ketu show different sides of the past. A retrograde planet is easier to handle. Ketu is something you must accept since you will never get full control over it.
© Anna Varuni