Life chapters
Your life in long chapters.
Vedic astrology has a timing system Western astrology does not: it divides a life into long chapters, each coloured by one planet. They are called dashas, and the most used system, Vimshottari, spans 120 years.
A 120-year cycle
Nine rulers take turns in a fixed order: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17. Together they add up to 120 years, an idealised full human life.
Ketu and Rahu are not planets. They are the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's, and Vedic astrology treats them as shadow planets. Tap any ruler on the ring.
Where your cycle starts
Nobody starts at the beginning. Your first chapter is set by the nakshatra, the lunar mansion, the Moon was in when you were born. Each of the 27 nakshatras is ruled by one of the nine. The further the Moon had travelled through its nakshatra, the more of that first chapter was already used up before you arrived.
Move the Moon below and watch the first chapter change.
Chapters inside chapters
Each chapter is split into nine sub-chapters in the same order, starting with the chapter's own ruler. Their lengths are proportional: a Saturn sub-chapter inside a Venus chapter lasts 20 × 19 ÷ 120 years, a little over three years.
Sub-chapters are why a long chapter does not feel the same from start to end. Pick a chapter to see its inner rhythm.
What each chapter tends to bring
The tone of each ruler, in short.
Two people, two chapters
In a relationship each person lives their own chapter. Someone in a Saturn chapter, carrying weight and responsibility, can feel out of step with a partner in a Venus chapter who wants pleasure and time together. Neither is wrong.
The couple reading lines up both timelines, so you can see which combination you are in now and when one of you will change.
How to hold it
Chapters describe tone, not events. Without an exact birth time the Moon can be off by enough to shift dates by months. Read your chapter as the weather of a long season, not a script.