Introduction to Maraka Houses/Planets

As I wrote about planetary positions and dashas which lead to my Sannyas Initiation - https://www.astrosaxena.com/Sannyas , I realized that I never wrote about Maraka Planets as an article or post. So, let's understand today what are Maraka Planets?

Maraka Planets – 2nd house and 7th house are considered as Maraka or Killer or Death Inflicting houses. So, their lords are considered as Maraka or Killer Planets. So, Maraka Planets will be different for every ascendant. Also, we won’t consider planets sitting in these 2 houses as Maraka Planets, only the house lords.

Why 2nd house and 7th house are Maraka Houses? – 2nd house is normally looked for family life and wealth. 7th house is main house of relationship. Then how come these two houses are considered as Maraka or Killer houses as almost everyone looks forward to achieve these things in life. The reasons are two-fold, one is astrological and the other is symbolical.

a. Astrological – 8th house is house of longevity. 7th house is 12th from 8th house, hence 7th house represents loss of longevity. So, 7th house is Maraka/Killer/Death Inflicting house. Likewise, 3rd house is 8th from 8th house. It is Bhavat Bhavam of 8th house and carries the same energy of longevity. 2nd house is 12th from 3rd house, hence 2nd house also represents loss of longevity. So, 2nd house is also a Maraka/Killer/Death Inflicting house.

b. Symbolical – 2nd house is house of family and 7th house is house of relationship. So, if you want these two things in your life then you would have to let-go of your self and selfish desires. You can’t have ego and relationship together. So, if you are dealing with 2nd house and 7th house related matters then you would have to kill your own self/ego and egoistic desires. Hence, these 2 are Maraka/Killer/Death Inflicting house. Here, it represents symbolic death of ego of person.

Maraka Planets for different ascendants – Following are maraka planets for different ascendants being lords of 2nd house and 7th house –

Aries Ascendant – Venus. 

Taurus Ascendant – Mercury and Mars-Ketu. 

Gemini Ascendant – Moon and Jupiter. 

Cancer Ascendant – Sun and Saturn. 

Leo Ascendant – Mercury and Saturn-Rahu.

Virgo Ascendant – Venus and Jupiter. 

Libra Ascendant – Mars and Ketu. 

Scorpio Ascendant – Jupiter and Venus. 

Sagittarius Ascendant – Saturn and Mercury. 

Capricorn Ascendant – Saturn-Rahu and Moon. 

Aquarius Ascendant – Jupiter and Sun. 

Pisces Ascendant – Mars and Mercury.

Impact or Result of Maraka Planets – As always, our lives move as per dashas we go through. So, these maraka planets will also give their results during their dashas. Whenever they are active during the dashas, you can expect some events of the nature of maraka/killer/death inflicting. Now, getting disconnected from someone or something is also like death of that person or thing in your life. So, it is not necessarily death of a person but getting separated from someone or something by any means is also included here. Major result can be seen when both MD and AD planets are maraka planets.

Difference in results – Now, the most important thing. When benefic planets like Mercury, Moon, Venus and Jupiter are maraka planets, person will be separated or disconnected from someone or something due to a positive event during their dashas and even maraka planets dasha will bring some benefits for the person because the basic nature of these planets are benefic. Problem is when malefic planets (Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu) are maraka planets and they are even in weak dignity in chart. At that time, the disconnection or separation can happen due to a negative event during these planets dashas. Again, major impact can be seen when both MD and AD planets are malefic maraka planets and they are also in wrong dignity. If these malefic planets are in good dignity then person would still have courage to deal and overcome the negative event. Needless to say that in any case, transits must also support the positive or negative events.

Some examples – Following are some examples –

a. I got initiated in Sannyas. As discussed in above article, I was under dasha of maraka planets and they were activating my 2nd house of family lineage. So, I got separated from my family lineage due to a positive event as both maraka planets for me are benefic planets, i.e. Jupiter-Venus. If they had been malefic then I would have been separated from my family or family lineage due to a negative event.

b. One of my friend is Aries ascendant. Venus is maraka planet. Venus is placed in 4th house/Cancer of mother, home and home land. Person was under Venus-Venus dasha and got citizenship of a different country. So, disconnection from home land happened but due to a positive event.

c. Then for a change, Sanjay Gandhi - https://www.astrosaxena.com/BG3had Moon-Saturn as maraka planets. Saturn is more prominent as it rules 2nd house and sits in 7th house. So, it links both maraka houses. He was in Moon-Mercury-Saturn dasha at the time of his plane crash. Moon was 7th house lord in 8th house, Mercury was in Scorpio in Saturn ruled nakshtra Anuradha and Saturn itself was in 7th house. I discussed the transits in article. As Saturn is most malefic planet which itself represents death and as his chart/dasha/transit all were indicating towards possibility of a negative event, maraka planets and their dasha here brought a negative event.

Hope this helps. Thanks,

SPB