Rahu Ketu Transit 2026: 25 November or 5 December? Which Date Is Correct

Two WhatsApp forwards. Same week. Same family group.

The first one says Rahu and Ketu change signs on 25 November 2026. The second, just as confident, says 5 December. Underneath, someone asks the question I’ve been hearing all month: “Which one is correct? I have to plan a griha pravesh.”

Here is the honest answer. Both dates are correct. Neither forward is lying. They are simply using two different ways of calculating where Rahu and Ketu are, and the two methods disagree by about ten days.

Once you understand why, you’ll never be confused by this again. And you’ll also understand something most people miss: those ten days in between matter more than either date.

Rahu and Ketu are not planets you can see

Rahu and Ketu are not physical bodies. They are two points in the sky where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s path. Rahu is where the Moon crosses going north; Ketu is where it crosses going south. That’s why eclipses happen only near them.

The Moon’s path isn’t perfectly steady. The pull of the Sun and the Earth keeps tugging at it, so these crossing points don’t glide smoothly backwards through the zodiac. They wobble. Some days they move backwards quickly, some days slowly, and occasionally they even stand still or move forward for a short time.

So astrologers have two choices.

The Mean Node smooths out the wobble and gives you the average position. Think of a train timetable: Delhi to Lucknow in eight hours, steady and predictable. In this method, Rahu always moves backwards at an even pace.

The True Node gives you the actual position at every moment, wobble included. Think of the train’s real journey, slowing at stations, speeding up on open track. It’s more precise, but it jumps around.

Most of the time, the two positions are within a degree or so of each other. But when Rahu is near the edge of a sign, even that small difference can mean days of disagreement about when it crosses. That is exactly what’s happening this year: the True Node reaches Capricorn on 25 November, and the Mean Node on 5 December.

The date I follow, and why

I follow the True Node. So for me, Rahu enters Capricorn, and Ketu enters Cancer on 25 November 2026.

I have three reasons.

The first is my tradition. I come from the school of my guru, Shri K.N. Rao, and this is the method I learnt there and have practised ever since.

The second is the sky itself. Jyotish began as observation. Eclipses, the most dramatic thing Rahu and Ketu do, happen where the Moon actually crosses the Sun’s path, not where an average says it should be. If the eclipse follows the true position, I believe our readings should too.

The third is what happens at the edges. Most of the time, the two methods agree closely enough that it makes no difference. But when Rahu sits near the border of a sign or a nakshatra, that small gap decides which sign, which house, which nakshatra lord is in play. Those borderline charts are exactly where precision matters, and in my experience the actual position serves the reading better.

Some people object that our texts call Rahu and Ketu always vakri, always moving backwards, while the True Node sometimes pauses or briefly moves forward. My answer is that both methods move backwards overall, exactly as the texts say. The small pauses of the True Node are not an error. They are the real sky.

I should be fair here. Many respected astrologers, and many printed panchangs, use the Mean Node and its date of 5 December. That is a legitimate method, not a mistake. What matters most is that you stay with one method, instead of switching between them depending on which date suits your plans.

The ten days nobody is talking about

Here is what I find far more interesting than the date debate.

Between 25 November and 5 December, Rahu and Ketu are sitting right on the border between two signs. In Jyotish, a planet at the very edge of a sign is in sandhi, a junction. It belongs fully to neither sign. Its results are unsettled, mixed, hard to read. Whichever method you follow, for these ten days the nodes are standing in a doorway.

And for Ketu, this doorway is a special one. Ketu is crossing from Leo back into Cancer, and the meeting point of Cancer and Leo is one of the three gandanta points of the zodiac, where a water sign ends and a fire sign begins, where Ashlesha nakshatra meets Magha. Our tradition treats gandanta as a knot, a place where things get tangled before they resolve. Children born at gandanta are given special shanti for exactly this reason.

So in these ten days, Ketu, the planet of endings and detachment, is passing through a knot in the zodiac. That is not something to fear. But it is something to respect.

There’s also a very practical example of why the two dates matter. Jupiter enters Leo on 31 October and joins Ketu there. By the True Node, that Jupiter–Ketu meeting lasts 25 days. By the Mean Node, it lasts 35 days. If you’re someone with planets in Leo, or running a Jupiter or Ketu dasha, that difference is worth knowing.

My advice for 25 November to 5 December is simple. If you can, avoid beginning big things in these ten days: a griha pravesh, a new business, a major investment, an engagement. Use them instead to finish what’s pending, clear old dues, and pray. Durga for Rahu, Ganesha for Ketu. Let the nodes cross the doorway before you walk through a new one yourself.

Does the date change your prediction?

For most people, honestly, no. Rahu and Ketu stay in their new signs for about 18 months. Their effects don’t arrive like a switch being flipped on one particular evening. They build slowly over weeks. Whether the transit formally begins on 25 November or 5 December, what you feel in January will be the same.

The date matters in three situations.

If you have a planet, your Moon or your lagna in the last few degrees of Capricorn or Cancer, or the first few degrees of Aquarius or Leo, the nodes are touching you directly during these days. You’ll feel the transition sharply.

If you are choosing a muhurat in late November or early December, for a wedding, griha pravesh or business opening, ask your astrologer which method they use and stay away from the ten-day window if possible.

And if you are entering or leaving what I call Rahu’s Sade Sati, the four-and-a-half-year cycle of Rahu over the Moon, this is the moment the phase changes. Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces are all affected this time.

Also in this series: Rahu Ketu Transit 2026–28: effects on all 12 rashis | Capricorn: Rahu sits on your Moon | Cancer: Ketu on your Moon, Jupiter at your side