Shani - The Service Principle

Of all the grahas to talk about in jyotish, Shani is probably the least pleasant. However, with a stationary karka shani in lagna, I have borne his burdens (not uncomplainingly) more heavily than most. I am sure there is more to come. Supposedly however, his harshest effects are manifested by the completion of the first Saturn return. Shani has taught me many painful lessons and this is what I have to charitably say about him.

Surya represents the Atma which has agreed to incarnate in order to fulfill any remaining desires (Rahu) before it can attain moksha (ketu). While the Atma is essentially selfish in his objective for attaining moksha, he still needs to interact with other souls on this Earth. And Shani represents the interactions where the Atma provides service. Shani in Makar represents work done in service to one's ambition for public standing/or one's own clan, while Shani in Kumbh represents work done in the interest of service to humanity at large. Thus we can see that Shani has both extremely practical facets (earth sign) as well as high intellectual pretentions (air sign).

The sign and house that Shani occupies in the natal chart dictate the nature of service that the Atma has agreed to provide in the given lifetime. This comes with a caveat though - Shani represents detached, neutral service, free of guilt or any other emotion. So a karka Shani needs to put his emotions aside and focus on being detached while providing service. Another thing to note is that Chandra "is" (the ruler of karka rashi) and Shani "does". Shani is detached because it helps him to be prolific. By not getting emotionally involved, Shani in Kumbh can serve a 100 people in the same time that a messy, emotional Karka Shani spends in "being" the 3 people he is trying to serve. Similarly a Shani in Mangal's rashi can get confused as he tries to do Mangal's bidding (promoting Surya's svarth), which is at odds with his own innately humanitarian goals. Notice however, that there is no inherent difference in the action oriented nature of Shani and Mangal - Shani "does" and Mangal also "does". In Mesha rashi, Shani does selfish things under Mangal's command and hence he is debilitated - his self loathing knows no bounds!! The difference between a Makar shani is work done in service of one's karma (Makar is the 10th house of the cosmic Kalpurusha) whereas Mesha shani works in service of the ego (Mesha is the 1st house of the cosmic Kalpurusha).

Grahas too, can get tied up in knots depending on the sign they occupy!! The Atma, with help from Guru (dhi shakti) needs to attain the level of consciousness in order to fine tune the output. Once the Atma experiences a realization, the manas - chandra (which bathes in the reflected light of the atma) can be instructed to make the necessary changes.

Shani's drishti's - 3rd, 7th and 10th represent the areas of the chart where the service will be applied.