Saturn through Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces — the 12th, 1st and 2nd from an Aquarius Moon. Dates from the ephemeris.
Yes. Saturn is in Pisces, the 2nd sign from Aquarius — so Aquarius (Kumbh) is in Sade Sati, in its setting phase, until 23 February 2028.
Sade Sati is Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon — for an Aquarius Moon, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. It takes as long as Saturn needs to cross three signs, which is where seven and a half years comes from, and it is a transit: it starts, it ends, and it is not something in your birth chart.
| Phase | Saturn | In | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rising | 12th from Moon | Capricorn | 24 January 2020 | 17 January 2023 |
| Peak | 1st from Moon | Aquarius | 29 April 2022 | 30 March 2025 |
| Setting | 2nd from Moon | Pisces | 30 March 2025 | 23 February 2028 |
Every simplified account gives three tidy blocks of two and a half years. Saturn retrogrades, so it crosses into the next sign, turns back, and crosses again — a phase can still be running months after the next one has started. The dates here are the ephemeris rather than the tidy version, which is why they overlap.
Saturn in the 4th from the natal Moon is Kantaka Shani, and in the 8th is Ashtama Shani. Together they are called Dhaiyya, or Small Panoti: one sign of Saturn each rather than three, so about two and a half years of occupancy — though the windows below run longer, because they are measured from Saturn’s first entry to its final exit and it retrogrades back in. Neither is running for Kumbh today.
| Transit | Saturn is | In | Now | This or next window | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kantaka Shani | 4th from Moon | Taurus | No | 8 August 2029 – 30 May 2032 | 2.8 years |
| Ashtama Shani | 8th from Moon | Virgo | No | 22 October 2038 – 26 September 2041 | 2.9 years |
This matters because “Shani is on you” is said about all three. Sade Sati covers three of the twelve signs, so a quarter of all rashis are in it at any moment; these two cover one sign each, so another sixth are in one of them. Which one you have changes the dates completely, and Taurus and Virgo are nowhere near the three signs above.
Saturn takes about twenty-nine and a half years to go round, so Sade Sati comes back roughly that often — two or three times in a long life. These are computed from Saturn’s actual sidereal positions rather than from a twenty-nine-year rule of thumb, which is why the spans differ: Saturn is fastest near perihelion and slowest near aphelion, and Kumbh’s cycles here run 8.1 to 8.1 years.
| Cycle | From | To | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| past | 21 March 1990 | 17 April 1998 | 8.1 years |
| now | 24 January 2020 | 23 February 2028 | 8.1 years |
| ahead | 6 March 2049 | 7 April 2057 | 8.1 years |
1 already finished.
Sade Sati is counted from the Moon sign, not the Sun sign. The sign you know from a newspaper column is almost always your Sun sign, and the two agree for about one reader in twelve. If you have looked yourself up under the wrong one, every date you have been given is somebody else’s.
Find your Moon sign from your birth date, time and place — free, and it takes a minute.
Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, measured against the stars, and Western astrology uses the tropical one, measured against the equinox. They have drifted about 24° apart, which is most of a sign. A site running tropical positions will put Saturn in the next sign along and shift every date here by roughly two years.
These pages use the Lahiri ayanamsa, which is the Government of India standard and what almost every Indian panchang follows.
Saturn retrogrades once a year, so it can enter a sign, back out and enter again. That gives two defensible answers for when a phase ends: the first exit or the last one.
Every date on this page is first entry to final exit, so a span here is at the long end of what you will see quoted. It is the honest boundary of when Saturn was in the sign at all.
Yes. It runs from 24 January 2020 to 23 February 2028.
23 February 2028, when Saturn leaves Pisces — the 2nd sign from Aquarius.
Capricorn (12th from the Moon), Aquarius (over the Moon) and Pisces (2nd from the Moon).
Sade Sati is Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd from your Moon and runs about seven and a half years. Dhaiyya is Saturn in the 4th or the 8th — Kantaka Shani and Ashtama Shani — and each runs about two and a half. For Kumbh that means Saturn in Taurus and in Virgo.
The Moon sign. The sign most people know is their Sun sign, and the two match for about one person in twelve, so looking Sade Sati up under a Sun sign usually returns another rashi’s dates.
Whether one is in yours is a question with a yes-or-no answer, and the chart is free to cast. What it means for you is the conversation.