Moon Mahadasha: 10 Years of Chandra

The mahadasha of Chandra, the Moon, lasts ten years. It takes second place in the vimshottari cycle, behind the Sun and ahead of Mars. A mahadasha is a major period of constant length entrusted to a planet. It contains antardashas, sub-periods each of which falls to a second planet. The life of someone whose Moon was born in Rohini, Hasta or Shravana, three nakshatras, starts with the Moon's.

Your natal Moon decides everything. It supports the period when it is exalted, in its own sign, in a kendra, in houses 11, 9 or 5, fully strong, and joined or aspected by benefics; house 2 strengthens the result further. The time is then luminous, with celebrations at home. Debilitated, or waning, or joined to malefics, it changes color: the mind tenses and gets muddled, and troubles touch the servants and your mother. Waning and placed in 6, 8 or 12, it cools your bond with authority. Between these extremes lie mixed cases: in house 3, happiness comes and goes, and a strong Moon that has fallen into 6, 8 or 12 alternates worries and happy moments.

Another method names periods by quality, depending on whether the planet is rising toward its exaltation or sliding toward its debilitation. For the Moon, this points to patience, respect for sages and gods, and growing wisdom and renown. At the opposite end it includes sleep, indolence and conflicts with the powerful and with relatives. This reckoning ignores the criterion of the waxing or waning Moon, which the first method treats as a condition. Neither is right over the other.

To read about the graha itself, open the Chandra guide.