Rahu &Ketu Esoteric meaning

Mythology can help us a lot in understanding the nature of Rahu and Ketu. Mythology is a set of stories that hides deep esoteric mysteries of life. This is true for all authentic mythology - Eastern and Western. Authentic mythology means mythology constructed by enlightened beings who have penetrated to the deepest secrets of life. They were called Rishis - the enlightened seers - in ancient India.

.There are two shadow planets in Indian astrology called Rahu and Ketu. They are called the Moon's North and South Nodes respectively in western astrology. In some other parts of the world, they are called the Dragon's head and tail respectively. In the Indian mythology they are believed to be a demon called Swarbhanu who had participated in the churning of the ocean. Many things came out of the ocean one after the other. In the end, 'amritam' or nectar came out. According to mythology, anyone who drinks this nectar becomes immortal. The churning of the ocean was done by the gods and the demons together. The gods were worried that if the demons too drank the nectar, they would become unconquerable, and that would be too bad for the regulation of the Universe. So, they requested Lord Vishnu for help.

Vishnu took the form of a lovely lady called Mohini and started to distribute the nectar. The gods and the demons were sitting in two rows facing each other. Mohini was so beautiful that all the demons forgot themselves and started fantasizing about a life together with her. She was dancing tantalizingly and giving the nectar only to the gods, swaying seductively and passing by the demons, without giving them a drop.

This demon Swarbhanu was very smart. He understood the entire plot. He took the form of a god and sat between the Sun and the Moon - the two luminous gods. Mohini could not recognize the demon in time and as a result, Swarbhanu got a gulp of the nectar of immortality. The Sun and the Moon immediately shouted out in unison that Vishnu had given the nectar to a demon by mistake. Vishnu immediately cut the demon's head with his divine disc. He threw the head of the demon towards the north and the rest of the body to the south. It is believed that ever since these two separated parts of the demon are circling the sky chasing each other so that they can unite but in vain. No matter how much they try, they remain 180 degrees apart from one another. In every birth chart, these two, Rahu or the demon's head, and Ketu or the demon's tail, sit 180 degrees away from each other.

Now let us decode the deeper meaning behind this 'myth'[esoteric meaning ] which hides so many layers of the 'truth' in its bosom.The churning of the ocean represents the spiritual purification process. As the awareness of a spiritual seeker deepens, the deeper unconscious layers of the mind (the ocean) reveal themselves in the form of a million insights. These insights are shown in this myth as gifts hidden in the bottom of the ocean. As we go very deep, we come upon a place in the deepest layers of the mind where a nectar like substance is revealed. This substance is nothing but our true 'Self' or the 'atman'. Anyone who drinks at this sacred hidden fount of immortality becomes Self-realized or immortal. He realizes that only the body perishes not the real 'Self'. Such a man becomes a god because so many hidden powers of the deeper mind awaken in him.

Even the modern science tells us that an average man is able to use less than 10% of his brain capacity. The various practices of yoga and meditation help the advanced spiritual practitioner to awaken the rest of his brain power. That hidden brain power is also called the serpent power or the kundalini shakti.

Again you see a reference to the demon or the serpent here. The idea is that there is a hidden power in man which is latent in most people, but can be awakened with tremendous efforts (churning of the ocean). Both the gods (seekers with divine intent) and the demons (the selfish egotistic seekers) who want power only for their personal gain, seek to awaken this power. But, the divine plan is such that the supreme God himself (Lord Vishnu) ensures that only the deserving souls (the devas) get to drink the nectar of Self-realization and not the demons.

Rahu is the clever fellow who wants to become fully enlightened without doing the work of purifying his mind and character (to become fit to become a God). Such a fellow does not deserve Lord Vishnu's grace. In fact, he deserves his wrath (symbolized by the cutting of the head). Rahu is the mouth, and hence represents insatiable greed. A mouth without a stomach can eat, but cannot assimilate, which is necessary for satiation. Thus Rahu is the ever insatiable demonic tendency of an ignorant man. That is why a person with ill placed Rahu, or Rahu conjunct with or aspecting Sun, Moon, Mercury or Jupiter is often prone to using dubious means to try and go ahead in life. He may resort to lying, cheating, scheming, speculating etc. quite frequently in order to succeed. There is often an insatiable lust for worldly objects. Not only that, such people often have a narcissistic tendency where other people seem to be only objects for one's egoic gratification.

There is a notorious bad yoga called Guru Chandaal yoga involving Rahu and Jupiter. This suggests that the ancient rishis equated Rahu with Chandaals - people of the most despicable or tamasik class. Its qualities are just the opposite of Jupiter. Where Jupiter stands for spirituality, purity, wisdom, ethics, integrity and expansion, Rahu stands for delusion, confusion, deceit, extreme laziness, extreme materialism etc. It destroys the good qualities of Jupiter in this infamous yoga.

Despite all these bad qualities Rahu is cursed to be immortal because he has gulped the 'amritam'. The idea is that the stupid 'ego' or the 'ahamkara', though non-existent like a shadow that Rahu itself is, will continue to be projected by the unenlightened soul for ever and ever in all its reincarnations till it becomes liberated from the grip of ‘Maya’ through enlightenment.

Ketu is the thirsty for 'amritam' demon, who can find no peace till he gets to drink it. So, he chases Rahu all over the universe as he has got the nectar in his mouth. The idea is that Ketu only wants spiritual liberation which is possible only by drinking the nectar of Self-realization. That is why in astrology, Ketu's period is so traumatic for worldly goals and aspirations. Ketu just hates to be distracted from its goal of liberation. Ketu is also said to be the dark side of Jupiter in the sense that though it wants spiritual wisdom more than anything else just like Jupiter, it wants that in an extreme manner. It may resort to extreme measures like excessive asceticism, self denial, or even sanyas from the world unlike Jupiter.

Jupiter is capable of expanding in wisdom without resorting to excessive self denial, through its life experiences, reading scriptures, and following realized Gurus or Masters. But Ketu, being the belly or the trunk of the demon, wants the spiritual nectar so desperately that it would leave no stone unturned to get it. It doesn't mind causing even accidents, disasters, misfortunes etc. to the native in order to get him on to the spiritual path. Just like Rahu's thirst for worldly pleasures is extreme, Ketu's thirst for the 'amritam' is equally extreme, even demonic in terms of the cruelty that he can inflict upon the native.

On the other hand, since Rahu could not assimilate the 'amritam', and he had not performed the spiritual austerities to get the nectar, his nature remains demonic. And yet, since he has drunk the nectar, he cannot die.This part of the myth symbolizes the 'ego’, which can never get enough of the outer world, be it money, name, sex, fame, power, etc. etc.

As we all know, pride and too much cleverness is the most common pitfall of most worldly successful people. That is Rahu at its best or worst, depending upon your perspective.Ketu is the one which is always trying to dissolve the ‘ego’ so that Rahu listens to its yearning for spiritual liberation.

But another thing to contemplate here is why was Rahu not able to assimilate the ‘amritam’? It was so because before he could do so, he was separated from his body (Ketu). Thus to assimilate the purifying and immortalizing benefits of the ‘amritam’, Rahu needed Ketu (the body which contains the belly where the assimilation process happens). This part of the myth points to the importance of assimilation of wisdom in order for it to become effective. That is why in the ancient education system, learning was supposed to have three stages - shravanam or listening (Saturn), mananam or contemplation (Jupiter) and nidhidhyasanam or assimilation (Ketu). It is only by assimilating the wisdom that we listen to or read, that we can ever hope to become enlightened or truly wise. This points to the deep importance of Ketu for spiritual wisdom which Rahu is unable to accomplish. Without Ketu, Rahu would keep chasing all that is false or ‘Maya’ in search for happiness (the nectar) without ever being able to find true fulfillment - ‘moksha’ or liberation.

So, the Rishis are telling us that unless we purify our Rahu - our head or the understanding of life - through deep contemplation of life's inner secrets under the guidance of realized Gurus, our Ketu, the deep hunger for Self-realization would remain forever unfulfilled. We would need to take repeated births only to die at the end on this earthy plane of inevitable death. Salvation lies only in enlightenment of the mind , the Rahu-Ketu axis. The Rahu is the way our conscious mind works under the spell of ignorance, and Ketu, the deep unconscious part of the mind which wants to be liberated, but is unable to do so because of unawareness of the spiritual truth.

But in some extremely evolved souls, their 'buddhi' (Mercury) and 'manas' (Moon) is no longer clouded by the delusionary influence of Rahu. It has been purified through deep and persistent spiritual practices across many births. In such cases, the person's Ketu is on the ascendancy, and whatever such a person does is done consciously with an aim to attain enlightenment. Such souls are so ready for enlightenment that they are very quickly able to realize the futility of the chase for happiness outside. They become extremely conscious of the inevitability of death on the physical plane no matter what we do. They realize that there must be a way out of suffering, and become focussed on ending it for ever.

The great Gautama the Buddha is an excellent example of Ketu functioning with all its power. He left all the comforts of a princely life, renounced even his family and infant son the moment he realized the inevitability of old age, disease and death; to embark on his search for true happiness. The whole world benefited and has been benefiting for over 2500 years because of his attaining enlightenment. That is the power of a fully functional Ketu!! It can bestow the highest knowledge of the supreme truth on a soul!!

That is why Ketu is also associated with Lord Ganesha, the God of wisdom, the one who removes all the obstacles from our path if what we are doing is positive and auspicious in nature. The idea is that Ketu is not only the cruel planet which thrashes us for having worldly desires, it is also the divine Lord Ganesha who removes all the obstacles from our path if what we are doing is for our own and everyone's spiritual benefit.

The Sun and the Moon in the story represent the 'Soul' and the 'Mind' respectively as archetypes. Swarbhanu being caught by them has caused an eternal enmity between them and this demon. Every now and then Rahu engulfs these luminaries under it's dark clutches, thus clouding our innate soul wisdom. When Rahu engulfs the Sun it is called the solar eclipse, and when it engulfs the Moon, it is called the lunar eclipse.

We, the eternal children of the Sun and the Moon, need to free ourselves from the clutches of the ignorant demon by invoking the grace of Lord Vishnu or God Almighty in order to attain eternal happiness or 'Moksha' - salvation or freedom from the cycle of births and deaths.

So, to sum it all up, a myth is neither real nor unreal. It is a pointer to the absolute Truth which needs to be first understood and then realized for our own good.