Sade Sati: Saturn's seven and a half years
Sade Sati (साढ़े साती) means "seven and a half". It is the time Saturn (Shani) takes to pass through three signs: the 12th, the 1st and the 2nd counted from the birth Moon sign. Saturn spends about two and a half years in each sign, so the whole passage lasts roughly seven and a half years.
The three phases
- Rising (Saturn in the 12th from the Moon): tradition links it to expenses, travel and loss of comfort.
- Peak (Saturn over the Moon sign itself): said to weigh most on the mind, health and peace of mind, since the Moon stands for the mind.
- Setting (Saturn in the 2nd): associated with family, speech and savings.
Saturn's orbit takes about 29½ years, so Sade Sati returns about every three decades: two or three times in a lifetime. When Saturn turns retrograde near a sign boundary it can step back into the previous sign for a few months, which is why published dates often show a phase ending and beginning again.
Related Saturn transits
Two shorter Saturn transits get similar attention: Saturn in the 4th from the Moon (Kantaka Shani) and in the 8th (Ashtama Shani). Each lasts about two and a half years and is called Dhaiya in North India.
Not all Sade Satis are read alike
Astrologers do not treat Sade Sati as uniformly bad. Saturn's strength in the birth chart matters: for people with Vrishabha, Tula, Makara or Kumbha lagna, Saturn is considered a friendly or even yoga-giving planet, and their Sade Sati is often read as milder. The running dasha also changes the reading. Saturn is described as a strict teacher that rewards patience and steady effort.
How we use it
Our Gochar stock-picking test (H11) leaves out any stock whose listing-day Moon is in Sade Sati, following the classical rule. Every stock kundli page shows whether that is the case today. If you have made your kundli, your Sade Sati timeline shows every spell from your birth onwards, with today marked.
How the dates are computed
We take Saturn's sidereal (Lahiri) sign at noon IST every day from the NASA JPL ephemeris and record when it enters and leaves the 12th, 1st and 2nd signs from the Moon. Different almanacs can differ by a day at the edges because they use other times of day or another ayanamsa.
For learning and curiosity, not investment advice.