Sade Sati calculator
Find out whether Saturn's seven-and-a-half-year stretch around your Moon sign is running now, which of its three phases you are in, and when it starts and ends. You also see your last and next Sade Sati, and any Dhaiya.
Date and place of birth. Add the time if you know it: on some days the Moon changes sign, and Sade Sati is counted from the Moon.
What Sade Sati is
Sade Sati means seven and a half. It is a long-held tradition in Indian astrology: the years when Saturn passes through the sign before your Moon sign, your Moon sign itself, and the sign after it. Saturn takes about two and a half years to cross one sign, so three signs make about seven and a half years.
Saturn goes round the whole zodiac in roughly 29.5 years, so most people meet Sade Sati two or three times in a life. It is counted from the Moon because classical astrology names the Moon the mind. Sade Sati is about how a stretch of life feels, and how you carry it.
The three phases
Rising phase: Saturn is in the 12th sign from your Moon, the sign just before it. It is often read as a time of clearing out, when old arrangements start to feel heavy.
Peak phase: Saturn is over your Moon sign. These middle two and a half years are traditionally held to be the most demanding, when responsibility tends to feel personal.
Setting phase: Saturn moves to the 2nd sign from your Moon. It is often read as a steadying time, when the work of the earlier years settles into shape. The calculator shows which phase you are in, and the dates of each.
Dhaiya: Saturn 4th or 8th from the Moon
Dhaiya means two and a half. It is the stretch when Saturn is in the 4th or the 8th sign from your Moon, and each lasts about two and a half years, the time Saturn spends in one sign. The 4th is sometimes called Kantaka Shani and the 8th Ashtama Shani.
Like Sade Sati, Dhaiya is a long-held tradition in Indian astrology. Both are read in the same spirit as Sade Sati: stretches that tend to ask for patience and a steady routine.
How to read your result
If you are in Sade Sati, read it as a season, not a verdict. Saturn is classical astrology's name for grief, and for what endures it. So the tradition reads these years as a time for endurance built slowly, not for quick wins. They tend to reward structure, patience and work done steadily, and tend to be hard on shortcuts.
If you are not in it, the dates of the next one are simply useful to know. Nothing here predicts an event. It describes a tendency, the way a season does.
Questions people ask
How long does Sade Sati last?
About seven and a half years, in three phases of roughly two and a half years each. Saturn appears to move backward for a few months every year, so it can cross a sign boundary more than once. That is why a phase can begin, pause for some months, and resume.
Is Sade Sati always bad?
No. It is traditionally held to be a demanding stretch, one that tends to ask for patience, structure and steady work. It describes a season of effort, not a punishment. Astrologers also read it differently depending on how Saturn is placed in the rest of your chart, so the same years can feel quite different for two people.
How many times does Sade Sati come in a lifetime?
Usually two or three times. Saturn takes about 29.5 years to go round the zodiac, so it returns to the signs around your Moon roughly once every thirty years. The calculator shows your last Sade Sati and your next one, with dates.
What is the difference between Sade Sati and Dhaiya?
Sade Sati covers three signs around your Moon (the 12th, the 1st and the 2nd) and lasts about seven and a half years. Dhaiya is Saturn in the 4th or the 8th sign from your Moon, about two and a half years each. Both are long-held traditions in Indian astrology, counted from the Moon sign.
What should I do during Sade Sati?
You do not need to buy anything. Our answer is small and regular: a weekly practice built from what the planet behind your question stands for, done on a fixed day. The free reading looks at your whole chart, finds which planet carries your question, and names the practice for it.
Why do other websites show different dates?
Sites use slightly different settings for the sidereal zodiac, and a Moon near the edge of a sign can land in different signs as a result. Some also give only the first date Saturn enters a sign, ignoring its backward loops. We use the Lahiri setting, the standard in India.
Saturn is one planet. Your question may rest on another.
The free reading looks at your whole chart, finds which planet carries your question, and names a small weekly practice for it. A section on Saturn's periods, Sade Sati included, is coming.