The Moon's ten years are the years of feeling. The Moon brings care, sensitivity and changing moods, and its period turns life toward the mind's weather: home and the mother, food and comfort, the public and popularity, water and travel, the emotions themselves. People in a Moon mahadasha are more receptive and more changeable; they do well in anything that serves the public and poorly under prolonged strain.
For those born with the Moon in Rohini, Hasta or Shravana the Moon period is the first ten years of life — a childhood close to the mother, read as nourishing when the Moon is strong and anxious when it is weak — and Mars's seven-year period follows at ten or before. For everyone else it comes after the Sun's bright six years, and the shift is from doing to feeling: the person settles, marries, moves house, has children, or simply becomes softer.
The Moon's condition matters more than most: a waxing Moon in Taurus, Cancer or a kendra gives a fortunate, popular decade; a waning Moon in Scorpio or the 6th, 8th or 12th gives worry, illness through the mind, or trouble around the mother. The house from the lagna directs the years — the 4th for home and property, the 7th for partnership, the 10th for a public career. The Moon–Jupiter and Moon–Venus antardashas are the sweetest; Moon–Saturn and Moon–Rahu the most anxious.
What Moon brings
Traditionally, the Moon brings feeling, care, changing moods. A mahadasha is that graha's turn to colour the years: the house it holds from the lagna, the houses it rules and the planets it sits with all say what its 10 years are spent on. The antardasha inside it — each of the nine grahas in turn — sets the shorter weather.
Moon mahadasha by house
The tradition reads the period first from the house the lord holds in the birth chart, counted from the lagna in whole signs:
- 1st house. A Moon period from the 1st makes the years personal and emotional; the body and mind need care.
- 2nd house. A Moon period from the 2nd brings family, food and money through the public.
- 3rd house. A Moon period from the 3rd brings travel, writing and changeable plans.
- 4th house. A Moon period from the 4th settles the home, brings the mother close and gives comfort.
- 5th house. A Moon period from the 5th brings children, romance and a creative mind.
- 6th house. A Moon period from the 6th tests health through worry; service and healing work suit it.
- 7th house. A Moon period from the 7th centres on partnership and public life.
- 8th house. A Moon period from the 8th is emotionally deep, with hidden matters and the mother's health in view.
- 9th house. A Moon period from the 9th brings pilgrimage, learning and a gentle fortune.
- 10th house. A Moon period from the 10th brings public work and a popularity that changes with the tide.
- 11th house. A Moon period from the 11th brings friends, gains and social ease.
- 12th house. A Moon period from the 12th withdraws the mind — distant places, sleep, expense and inner life.
The antardashas of Moon
Each mahadasha is divided among the nine lords in the Vimshottari order, beginning with its own; the length of each is the mahadasha's years times the antardasha lord's, divided by 120:
| Antardasha | Length |
|---|---|
| Moon–Moon | 10 months |
| Moon–Mars | 7 months |
| Moon–Rahu | 1 year 6 months |
| Moon–Jupiter | 1 year 4 months |
| Moon–Saturn | 1 year 7 months |
| Moon–Mercury | 1 year 5 months |
| Moon–Ketu | 7 months |
| Moon–Venus | 1 year 8 months |
| Moon–Sun | 6 months |
Who begins life in the Moon mahadasha
Moon rules three nakshatras. A natal Moon in any of them starts the cycle in the Moon mahadasha, with the balance set by how far into the nakshatra the Moon stood: