The Moon right now

This is the sky itself: what the Moon is doing at this moment, and the same for everyone reading it. What it means for one particular chart is a different question, and the answer is further down.

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tldr: This year: 12 lunar months, one of them the adhika masa, 15 great transits — Guru and Shani Peyarchi, the node shift and the grahana.

The Moon This Year, In Jyotish

Twelve lunar months come to about 354 days and the solar year is 365, so the Vedic calendar slips eleven days a year, and every second or third year it gains a thirteenth month to catch up. That extra month is the adhika masa, and it is the most interesting structural fact about this calendar, so it is computed here rather than assumed.

The year holds 12 lunar months, each running New Moon to New Moon and one of them — Adhika Ashadha — contains no Sankranti at all: the Sun does not change sign once inside it. That is what makes it the adhika masa, the extra month inserted every second or third year to stop the lunar calendar drifting away from the seasons, and the month after it is then called Nija, the true one. The Sun makes 12 Sankrantis, one into each sidereal sign — those are the solar months, and they are what fix the festivals tied to the seasons. There are 4 grahana (eclipses), traditionally kept as times for fasting and stillness rather than for beginnings.

The Lunar Months

Each is named for the Sankranti, the Sun's entry into a sidereal sign, that falls inside it. A month containing no Sankranti at all is the leap month.

  • Phalguna 18 Jan to 17 Feb, 29.7 days
    The Sun enters Kumbha (Aquarius) on the 12th. Its Full Moon falls in Ashlesha.
  • Chaitra 17 Feb to 19 Mar, 29.6 days
    The Sun enters Meena (Pisces) on the 14th. Its Full Moon falls in Purva Phalguni.
  • Vaishakha 19 Mar to 17 Apr, 29.4 days
    The Sun enters Mesha (Aries) on the 14th. Its Full Moon falls in Hasta.
  • Jyeshtha 17 Apr to 16 May, 29.3 days
    The Sun enters Vrishabha (Taurus) on the 15th. Its Full Moon falls in Swati.
  • Adhika Ashadha 16 May to 15 Jun, 29.3 days
    No Sankranti falls inside this month, the Sun does not change sign once in the whole of it, which is what makes it the leap month. It takes the following month's name, and that following month is then called Nija, “the true one”. Its Full Moon falls in Anuradha.
  • Nija Ashadha 15 Jun to 14 Jul, 29.3 days
    The Sun enters Mithuna (Gemini) on the 15th. Its Full Moon falls in Purva Ashadha.
  • Shravana 14 Jul to 12 Aug, 29.3 days
    The Sun enters Karka (Cancer) on the 16th. Its Full Moon falls in Shravana.
  • Bhadrapada 12 Aug to 11 Sep, 29.4 days
    The Sun enters Simha (Leo) on the 17th. Its Full Moon falls in Shatabhisha.
  • Ashwina 11 Sep to 10 Oct, 29.5 days
    The Sun enters Kanya (Virgo) on the 17th. Its Full Moon falls in Uttara Bhadrapada.
  • Kartika 10 Oct to 9 Nov, 29.6 days
    The Sun enters Tula (Libra) on the 17th. Its Full Moon falls in Ashwini.
  • Margashirsha 9 Nov to 9 Dec, 29.7 days
    The Sun enters Vrishchika (Scorpio) on the 16th. Its Full Moon falls in Krittika.
  • Pausha 9 Dec to 7 Jan, 29.8 days
    The Sun enters Dhanu (Sagittarius) on the 16th. Its Full Moon falls in Ardra.

Grahana, The Eclipses

Grahana means “seizing”: the tradition tells it as Rahu swallowing the light. They are kept as times for stillness, fasting and prayer rather than for starting anything.

  • 17 Feb , Annular Solar Eclipse in Aquarius
  • 3 Mar , Total Lunar Eclipse in Virgo (Blood Moon)
  • 12 Aug , Total Solar Eclipse in Leo
  • 28 Aug , Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces

The Year’s Great Transits

Guru Peyarchi and Shani Peyarchi, Jupiter and Saturn changing rashi, are the two transits Jyotish organises a year around; whole almanacs are built on them. With them: the node shift, which resets where the eclipses fall, and the grahana themselves.

  • 17 Feb, Grahana — Annular Solar Eclipse in Aquarius
    Grahana means 'seizing': the tradition tells an eclipse as Rahu swallowing the light. It is kept as a time for stillness, fasting and prayer, and explicitly NOT for beginning anything — which is close to the opposite of the modern Western reading of an eclipse as a fresh start.
  • 3 Mar, Grahana — Total Lunar Eclipse in Virgo (Blood Moon)
    Grahana means 'seizing': the tradition tells an eclipse as Rahu swallowing the light. It is kept as a time for stillness, fasting and prayer, and explicitly NOT for beginning anything — which is close to the opposite of the modern Western reading of an eclipse as a fresh start.
  • 8 Mar, Saturn goes asta (combust) in Meena
    Saturn comes close enough to the Sun to be lost in its glare. Jyotish calls this ASTA — 'set', as a star sets — and treats the graha as unable to give its results while it lasts, which is a far stronger claim than the Western footnote about combustion.
  • 11 Mar, Jupiter turns margi (direct) in Mithuna
    Jupiter turns MARGI — forward again — in the rashi Mithuna, the nakshatra Punarvasu. What it had been holding back it now delivers.
  • 12 Apr, Saturn rises again (udaya) in Meena
    Saturn emerges from the Sun's rays and becomes able to give its results again. UDAYA is the heliacal rising, and in traditional practice it is watched for: the first morning a planet is visible again is when it is held to resume.
  • 1 Jun, Jupiter enters Karka
    Jupiter crosses into the sidereal rashi Karka (Cancer), entering at the nakshatra Punarvasu, which is ruled by Jupiter. Sidereal, not tropical — the Vedic zodiac is measured from the fixed stars and currently runs about 24 degrees behind the Western one, so this date is NOT the Western ingress date for the same planet.
  • 14 Jul, Jupiter goes asta (combust) in Karka
    Jupiter comes close enough to the Sun to be lost in its glare. Jyotish calls this ASTA — 'set', as a star sets — and treats the graha as unable to give its results while it lasts, which is a far stronger claim than the Western footnote about combustion.
  • 26 Jul, Saturn turns vakri (retrograde) in Meena
    Saturn appears to stop and turn backwards, in the rashi Meena and the nakshatra Revati. Jyotish calls this VAKRI, and unlike the Western reading it is not simply a caution: a vakri graha is held by many texts to gain strength (cheshta bala), because it is closest to the Earth and most insistent.
  • 12 Aug, Grahana — Total Solar Eclipse in Leo
    Grahana means 'seizing': the tradition tells an eclipse as Rahu swallowing the light. It is kept as a time for stillness, fasting and prayer, and explicitly NOT for beginning anything — which is close to the opposite of the modern Western reading of an eclipse as a fresh start.
  • 13 Aug, Jupiter rises again (udaya) in Karka
    Jupiter emerges from the Sun's rays and becomes able to give its results again. UDAYA is the heliacal rising, and in traditional practice it is watched for: the first morning a planet is visible again is when it is held to resume.
  • 28 Aug, Grahana — Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces
    Grahana means 'seizing': the tradition tells an eclipse as Rahu swallowing the light. It is kept as a time for stillness, fasting and prayer, and explicitly NOT for beginning anything — which is close to the opposite of the modern Western reading of an eclipse as a fresh start.
  • 31 Oct, Jupiter enters Simha
    Jupiter crosses into the sidereal rashi Simha (Leo), entering at the nakshatra Magha, which is ruled by Ketu. Sidereal, not tropical — the Vedic zodiac is measured from the fixed stars and currently runs about 24 degrees behind the Western one, so this date is NOT the Western ingress date for the same planet.
  • 5 Dec, Rahu enters Makara, Ketu enters Karka
    The lunar nodes change rashi together and always sit opposite: Rahu into Makara (Capricorn), Ketu into Karka (Cancer). They move backwards through the zodiac and take about eighteen months in each pair of signs, so this is one of the slowest and most watched shifts in Jyotish — it resets where the eclipses will fall.
  • 10 Dec, Saturn turns margi (direct) in Meena
    Saturn turns MARGI — forward again — in the rashi Meena, the nakshatra Uttara Bhadrapada. What it had been holding back it now delivers.
  • 13 Dec, Jupiter turns vakri (retrograde) in Simha
    Jupiter appears to stop and turn backwards, in the rashi Simha and the nakshatra Magha. Jyotish calls this VAKRI, and unlike the Western reading it is not simply a caution: a vakri graha is held by many texts to gain strength (cheshta bala), because it is closest to the Earth and most insistent.

The Faster Grahas

Mercury changes rashi a dozen times a year, turns vakri three times, and burns and rises with each, 32 of this year’s 85 events on its own. That is the definition of routine, so these are counted rather than listed one by one.

  • Venus, 17 events
    rashi, udaya, vakri, asta, margi.
  • Mars, 9 events
    rashi, udaya.
  • Mercury, 32 events
    rashi, udaya, vakri, asta, margi.

What This Means For You

This is the sky as Jyotish reads it, the same for everyone. Laid over your own chart it becomes which bhava (house) each of these falls in, and how the Moon sits against your own janma nakshatra, the one it occupied when you were born.