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According to Vaidik astrology, Shani Dev is one of the nine Graha or planets. Shani is considered to be the strongest malefic and a stern teacher who represents patience, effort, endeavor, and endurance; and who brings restrictions and misfortunes. However, a favorably-placed Shani on the horoscope of a person stands for a strong career, healthy life and everything positive for that person. Shani placed "unfavorably", on the other hand, denotes troubles in all of the above.

This movement of Shani through the Moon signs carries great importance in Hindu astrology. The effect of Shani starts when it enters the previous Raashi (Moon Sign) to one's own birth Raashi and stops when it leaves the Raashi (Moon Sign) after one's birth Raashi. The total period is of 7.5 years and is called Saadhe Saatee, and is typically a period of great difficulty. When it occurs for a person foregoing Shani Mahaa Dashaa the malefic effects of the planet are highly pronounced. It is said that Shani can reduce even a king to a pauper during such period.

Shani rules the signs Makar (Capricorn) and Kumbh (Aquarius), is exalted in Tulaa (Libra) and is debilitated in Mesh (Aries). Mercury, Venus, Rahu, Ketu are considered friendly towards Shani, while the Sun, Moon and Mars are his enemies. Guru or Jupiter maintains neutral relations. Shani is the Lord of three Nakshatra or lunar mansions: Pushya, Anuraadhaa and Uttaraa Bhaadrapad.

Shani's Transit 2012
Shani is the farthest planet visible from the Earth with the naked eye and its rings are certainly its most outstanding feature. The rings are symbolic of limitations and represent the parameters of the Law of Karm. According to Vaidik astrology Shani will be entering the sign of Raashi Tulaa on Nov 15th, 2012 leaving the sign of Raashi Kanyaa where it has spent the last two years and some months challenging all of our conventional ideas about health and healing and ensuring that we embrace the virtues of modesty, thrift and caution.

Shani is the taskmaster of the zodiac whose Kaarmik lessons, once learned, remain with each of us throughout our lives. He represents reality, challenges, structure, foundation, obstacles, hard work, obligations, restrictions, and limitations. He is cold, distant, stoic, determined and persistent. His function, as he transits  through the houses of our birth charts, is to teach us our life lessons.

Raashi Tulaa is the sign of relationships and balance between two polarities. Shani will be in its exaltation when he enters Tulaa. Shani in Tulaa also brings a desire for charm and a harmonious approach to life. Shani desires to build structures, and in Raashi Tulaa, Shani wants structures that will build relationships and alliances. This will give a person with the potential to relate to others in ways that are proper and fair no matter what the circumstances may be.

Shani's transit can be depressing and burdensome to some, and can be times of material success and wealth to others. This usually indicates the need to take on responsibility in relationships, the nature of which is to point to the path of orientation necessary for spiritual growth. Limitations and blockages in relationships on the personality level are likely until one learns to go beyond the urge to control others for purely personal reasons. While Shani is passing through Raashi Tulaa it will be evaluating our progress in all Venus-related issues. Much attention is given to Raashi Tulaa and Venus's rulership over relationships, partnerships, and all kinds of alliances will be both forged and tested under the influence of Shani in Raashi Tulaa. Other aspects of Raashi Tulaa include beauty, and with Shani (aging) in Raashi Tulaa (beauty), we may find ourselves faced with some difficult facts about the processes that we use to stave off the aging process.

For the next 2 1/2 years Shani would be in Raashi Tulaa. Some of the results faced by different Raashi would be as under -

Shani's Transit in Mesh
Shani's placement here indicates the importance of partnerships. Your relationships shall be tested during the next 2 1/2 years. Sometimes Shani may bring increasing demands from others around us. That includes co-workers who may be part of your team. There will be confrontations with others, and what you will learn is how to confront and what you will or will not put up with. If your bound Raashi Mesh issues haven't been squared away, the test will be harder because there is that much more inner work to be done. Even if you are a master at human relations, encounters are likely to be challenging. It is advisable at this time to lay low and not get dragged into any lawsuits. Your opponent is liable to be very nasty, and your attorney might be nastier. For a relationship to be a successful, it takes a combination of the 5th house (self expression) and the 7th house of relationships. You have to be able to express feelings of love before you can give love. With Shani in Raashi Tulaa, the lesson is relationships, and changing partners will not solve the problem. Here you must have a self to give, and learn to cooperate in the relationship not compete. The responsibility for your partner may be heavier than usual, and feel restricted in the relationship. A feeling that your partner is not giving enough in the relationship gives you the feeling that all the responsibility is on you.

Shani's Transit in Vrishabh
Shani here will give orderliness to your life. Shani's transit for the next 2 1/2 years can be an extreme time of balancing health, work, and devising daily routines that allow one to rest and re-energize. Compulsive activity won't make a heavy Shani go away. Accepting responsibility and creating healthy bound Raashi Mesham will. Shani here will make you to earn your way in this world. Your work habits will be much disciplined and probably you may work harder than before. You may have insecure feeling of never doing enough so you may over compensate and over do. You can get to the point of living to work instead of working to live. This might play on your health as we learn to balance the work ethics and health. Shani's discipline will restrict your health to get your attention. Your attitudes towards work and others will play a big role here, as you may expect others to have the same work ethic as you do. As an employer you can really get too demanding of others and expect them to do their share, when they do not do, it play's on your nerves and your health will pay the price in the form of restriction of flow of blood to the heart.

Shani's Transit in Mithun
Shani's transit in Mithun can distress you by not being able to express freely. Self-consciousness about free-form dancing, letting loose, and joking in social situations may find you suddenly tongue tied. Spontaneity may go into self-blocking. Shani in the 5th is a lesson in refusing to hide your emotions. Shani's restrictive nature in the 5th can lead to writer's block, insecurity around romance, and adolescent feelings of wanting to run and hide. The way to handle this is to stick with people you feel safest with and practice letting go. If invited to a social gathering where there will be new people, take an old friend along for support. If self-judgment arises around creativity, give yourself permission to do 10 artistic things badly and laugh at them. With Shani here the fun is all gone. You may become conservative and the party lifestyle would have been deleted. Shani restricts so you can rebuild your self-expression, your creative nature, your love affairs or lack of will show in this period. All the spontaneous actions would have been delayed. Anything that you can create including children will be felt more importantly. Responsibility of children will often trouble you. You may need to learn to love and show affection to others. By putting others needs before yours. In addition you may be required to be willing to handle the guilt from past mistakes & dealing with the insecurities of self.

Shani's Transit in Kark
This is Kendra for residence and maternal activities and Shani's presence is to work on one's feeling of basic safety and security. There can be unresolved issues with the family of origin to be processed, particularly with the father, but it may also depend on which parent wielded the authority. A parent who may have been over critical, unavailable, undemonstrative, and unappreciative might cause distress. Meditations while sitting on the ground (outdoors) can help channel earth energy and provide a soothing base from which to review family business. Also, sitting on the floor in one's home, and rubbing the lower back vigorously can also help relieve the lower back tension that arises when we don't feel "supported" or capable of supporting ourselves. Start to work at becoming your own authority and trusting your own counsel helps. You do more things right than you ever do wrong, so make a list of your successes and start owning them. Shani's presence will affect in a later part of life when you have already established yourself. You might have to have an ego to rebuild and the dark side of our ego and home will show in this transit. You can gain through real estate or lose depending upon the natal placements. Shani here will make you face your own insecurities and inabilities to mother others. You will come across cold and uncaring persons who might affect your emotions.

Shani's Transit in Sinh
Shani here can bring on questions of one's native intelligence and ability to communicate clearly. Shani's transit in Sinh is a call to return to school in order to acquire more skills that will pay off in earning power and professional respect later on. Sometimes issues from childhood pop up. If parents kept children under too tight a reign, the adult may feel fearful about risk taking, and exploring one's own natural curiosity. If there were difficulties in early schooling or in communicating with one's peers during that developmental phase, Shani might be calling you back to unearth those memories and reassess your true capacity to connect with others. During this period you may have the mental energy and you may want to communicate to siblings. You may feel loneliness or separation from relatives. You may find yourself responsible for siblings, Interruption from education, or may have the opportunity to return to your education. The mind can be very fragile and your attitude will be important in this period. Depression and mental instability will be a key factor here. You may need to stabilize the mind power and give more mental energy to seek and absorb knowledge.

Shani's Transit in Kanyaa
Limitations, restrictions, and feelings of inadequacy are related to feelings of self-worth and inadequacy around money and values. The lesson here is to separate oneself from one's stuff and one's earning power in order to reassess what value lies behind being a decent human being. Shani here will influence your finances and the lesson of learning the true value in life. Shani is saying that there is more to life then material possessions. Here you will need to re-evaluate your need to operate in the outer world and the way you live in it. This will be rebuilt one brick at a time last for a lifetime, but not in a material value, in a spiritual mater. The more we give our self the more we receive. The more we can help others with our wealth and ask nothing in return the more we receive. If we can flow with his energy, and stay out of the past habit that we are so comfortable in, then Shani can guide us into the new life pattern. Shani is the teacher of the universe if we have the willingness to learn the easier this lesson will be. The financial structure for those with this placement can give opportunity for real estate, and a disaster for others. Others may have the breaks of Shani when it comes to investing and invest very cautiously.

Shani's Transit in Tulaa
Shani transit the Janma Raashi is like having a mean guy sitting on your shoulder telling you who you are and what you do is just not good enough. This transit can feel like a loss of confidence and faith in oneself with a sense that others are judging and/or criticizing you. The first thing that Shani is asking you to do is tighten your bound Raashi Mesh and get clear on self-acceptance. The second thing is to remember is that nobody judges you as harshly as you judge yourself. Getting in touch with low self-esteem and working on a realistic self-appraisal usually curtails the projections. Shani here can often be extreme in its demands for perfection. If there are things you can do to sharpen up your self-image, do them.

This period will be important because this shows how we will look at the world and how we react in the personality form. Most of us will want to withdraw from society, depression will be in play with this placement, in turn will feed us the negative outlook in life. Our insecurities from childhood will be in play, misplaced guilt and anxieties can create a false outlook on life. People around you are very dominating forcing you to deal with them along with a fear of failure. Anxieties and trauma from both physical and spiritual will be forced to deal with. The period will give you energy and more strength to face the consequence. With this transit, the hard work and determination will be helpful, for Shani is rebuilding the personality, to withstand the future storm.

Shani's Transit in Vrishchik
Shani's transit in Vrishchik can be a time for breaking down old structures. You may experience this as a need to retreat in order to cultivate a creative space for reflection and reorientation. Behaviors and methods of operating in the world that don't work will become apparent to us now. This is not the time to panic and pursue quick fixes. Taking stock of the previous experience is what's needed in order to fortify us so that we can start new activities. In the next 2 1/2 years much of what has lied low will have become in to the fore if we've done our self-work well. While Shani transit here your physical energy might be low. This may cause some of you anxiety. Society may impose a lot of restrictions. With Shani here you may have an opportunity to visit places which you may have not imagined. Shani here asks you to be patient so that you may discover your treasure. There will be increase in spirituality during this period. With Shani in the house of anxieties fears and unrecognized guilt will hang over you. This is the house of past sub-conscious attitudes that have been leftover from previous life's. Guilt can be from early childhood, or from uncontrolled emotions. Instead of looking at the problem you may hide from reality. It will be extremely difficult for you to expose your inner most feeling, leaving you painfully raw and vulnerable having to depend on others. Shani will not allow you to escape for long as this house is the house of imprisonment, hospitals, and institutions.

Shani's Transit in Dhanu
Shani here will give benefits through friends. You may feel as if you are the centre point in your friend circle. Sometimes friends can be felt as a burden, restriction or responsibility. You may worry that a friend will reject or criticize you; or they, themselves might be the ones who feel cold and judgmental at times. You may sometimes choose older or more mature associates who have had greater experience and can serve as models or teachers of how to behave. Shani here may give suffering and a sense of loneliness and isolation because of lack of companions. However a benefic Shani here has the capacity for loyal and enduring friendships. The 7th house is a one on one relationship while the 11th house deals with many different types of people as we are dealing with our friendship, extended family and organized group. Learning to give of your self will be a big challenge for you, the test of cooperation and giving in a place that has to deal with so many people in your surrounding will be a challenge. If you can learn to handle on a one to one basis then they could have a friend or two to hang out with and it will be very beneficial for you. With the responsibility of groups and or extended family can be very overwhelming with this placement. Friends may help you achieve your goals once you get past the fear of failure and find your own identity.

Shani's Transit in Makar
Shani here would influence your career and your responsibilities for the next 2 1/2 years. Here professional authority, accolades, and rewards for hard work and dedication may be experienced. Some individuals will rise in profession while others may experience a drastic fall. This will be from the birth placement of Shani and its nature on the native. Professionally, and in terms of one's reputation, integrity becomes the final judge. If negative energies have not been dealt with properly this will be a period when you may have to face difficulties. The 9th house and the 10th are social and political houses, too. Those houses rule judges, lawyers and politicians. While the 6th house has ruler ship over our service, the 10th house has more to do with our attitude toward work. Shani is at home here and the influence of this planet will give a much disciplined attitude toward our work and co-workers. This period you will be forced to influence the manner in which society looks at you and make you at center stage. The responsibility of home and work will be under a scrutiny. The insecurities of this period can be seen with over work and over responsibility, and the lack of delegating work to others. You may get to the point of feeling over loaded with responsibility.

Shani's Transit in Kumbh
This period will teach you and your philosophy of life will make it practical and workable. The thing to watch out for is avoiding a real look at underlying insecurities. Shani wants fixity and can create problems for those who want to change. Shani wants authority over all dominions as an antidote to fear. The danger of this placement is dogmatism and self-righteousness. It may make you feel safe in the short term, but will cheat you during experiences and intellectual flexibility. All ideas, no matter how precious they are, must be able to stand the scrutiny of light and reality. This is one of the best places for Shani to be in. It will influence the higher sub-consciousness. The same thought process that defines us as individuals, and apart from the animal species. What Shani will do in this house is to break up the stagnated reality we have been living in whether it being religion or philological views and make way for the seed to be planted with new ideas. This is also the time for long distant travel. It is also the house of in-laws, best to live at a distance from them.

Shani's Transit in Meen
This period will be a test of tolerance. Shani brings people into your life where you are challenged to maintain your own values and at the same time respect the diversity of others. The keenest test will be for married persons is combining their assets and learning how to share. Most divorces and break ups are over money. Few people have sat down with pen and paper and written out their true feelings about money and handed it to their spouse to read. Therefore, when it comes to money and sex everyone is walking around in the dark sending out ciphers and providing no decoders. Shani here will teach you to come to terms with one's values, stating them, and cultivating the willingness to accept another's. It is sharing with no expectation of return. It is giving because you have it to give. Shani here also gives troubles which may be death like. It may also transform you to a new individual as if you are taking a rebirth. The 5th house shows our self-expression towards love and the 8th house shows our attitude towards love. With Shani, here you must learn to control your pleasures with ego and pride.

Shani's most powerful place in the chart is in the 7th House and the Kendra's. He is the Lord of Raashi Makar and Raashi Kumbh. He is a particularly beneficial planet for Raashi Vrishabh and Raashi Tulaa Ascendants. Shani's nature is Vaat, or Airy. His gem is Blue Sapphire and all black stones. His metal is Lead. Shani's direction is West and his day is Saturday. He reaches full maturity at the age of 36. Shani is also known as Mandee and is generally known to affect one adversely on occasions when he occupies certain positions in one's horoscope like Saadhe Saatee (7 1/2 years), Dhaiyaa (2 1/2 years). He is the slowest moving planet taking 2 1/2 years in each Raashi, completing one cycle every 30 years. A prayer to Saturn (Shani Dev), especially on Saturdays, is said to mitigate the hardships one will have to face during these periods. He bestows all benefits to the devotees who pray sincerely to him.

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