Ketu Mantra

Ketu is the other half of the same severed asura — a body with no head, moving on and never quite knowing why. Where Rahu wants, Ketu has already stopped wanting, and the distance between those two states is the whole difficulty of this graha. Seven thousand repetitions is the lightest count in the set, which is worth noticing: the graha of renunciation asks for the least.

What This Graha Governs

Ketu is the second chhaya graha, the descending node — the tail to Rahu's head, and the point where the tradition puts everything that is finished before you have finished with it. His territory is moksha, detachment, intuition that arrives without reasoning, flags and banners, and skill so old it feels like memory. He also takes loss: the thing you were good at that stopped interesting you, the relationship that ended without an argument, the sudden competence you cannot account for. Ketu gives knowledge and removes the appetite for using it. That is not a punishment and it is not a gift; it is simply the shape of the graha.

The Beej Mantra

Om Sraam Sreem Sraum Sah Ketave Namah. Sra is the seed, the thinnest cluster of the nine — a sibilant that does not stop or press, it just passes through, which is Ketu exactly. The three vowel turns move it through arising, holding and dissolving; Sah seals the offering; Ketave Namah is salutations to Ketu, whose name means banner or flag, the thing that marks a place after the army has moved on. Chant it softly, and notice that this is the one beej mantra that asks almost nothing of your mouth. It sits very close to breath.

The Vedic Mantra

The longer form is the Ketu Gayatri: Om Ashwadhwajaya Vidmahe Shuladharaya Dhimahi Tanno Ketuh Prachodayat — we contemplate the one whose banner bears the horse, we meditate on him who holds the trident, may Ketu set our thought in motion. Like Rahu, Ketu is not a Vedic deity and has no hymn of his own, but the verse used for him in navagraha homa is a genuine and famous one: Ketum Krinvann Aketave, from the Rig Veda's first mandala — making a banner for the bannerless, making a sign where there was no sign. It is addressed to Agni and was never about the graha at all, but it is hard to find a line that fits Ketu better, and the tradition evidently agreed.

How and When to Chant

Tuesday is the day most lineages give, on the reasoning that Ketu behaves like Mars; some prescribe Thursday instead. Chant at dusk or after dark. The eight classical directions are assigned to the other grahas and Ketu is the one left over, so practice varies: north-west is common, and those who read Ketu as Mars-like face south. Use a nine-mukhi rudraksha or cat's-eye mala. Seven thousand is the full anushthana and can be done in forty days without strain. Offer sesame, horse gram (kulthi), and a grey or smoke-coloured cloth; feeding a dog is the traditional Ketu act, and it is the one part of this that nobody has found a way to sell.

Who Needs It Most

The indications are a Ketu mahadasha — seven years people often describe as the period when things quietly stopped mattering; Ketu conjunct the Moon; Ketu in the first, fourth or seventh; Kaal Sarp yoga; and a heavily loaded twelfth house. Astrologers also suggest it where someone is being pulled inward against their own plans — the successful career that has gone tasteless, the marriage that is not unhappy and not alive either. Ketu is the graha most easily confused with depression, and that distinction is not one a chart can make. Anyone who recognises themselves in the last sentence should speak to a doctor, and can also chant. The two are not in competition.

✦ Ketu is the only graha that gives by subtraction, which is why his mantra asks for so little. Chant the seven thousand, and what leaves was probably never yours.