Sade Sati

Sade Sati means seven and a half. It begins when Saturn enters the sign before the Moon's birth sign, continues while it crosses the Moon sign itself and ends when it leaves the sign after it. Saturn spends roughly two and a half years in each sign, which gives the seven and a half years.

Tradition reads this as a long season of pressure, responsibility and review rather than a fixed misfortune, and its effects are said to depend on the rest of the chart. It comes around about every thirty years, so most people meet it two or three times in a lifetime.

Saturn's transit through the fourth and eighth signs from the Moon is described separately, sometimes under the names Kantaka and Ashtama Shani.