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The mantra of Ketu

the name mantra and the Navagraha Stotram verse for Ketu, the south lunar node

What the tradition reads

The Vedic tradition gives Ketu, the shadow planet formed from the south lunar node, the name mantra Om Ketave Namah, a short form of the fuller mantra Wikipedia's own account of the deity records, Om Viprachitti Putra Simhika Putra Om Navagraha Ketave Namah, naming Ketu directly as the son of Viprachitti and Simhika. The verse from the Navagraha Stotram attributed to Vyasa reads Palasha pushpa sankasham tarakagraha mastakam, raudram raudratmakam ghoram tam ketum pranamamyaham, rendered plainly as a bow to Ketu, the colour of the palasha flower, head of the group of stars, fierce, of a wrathful nature and dreadful, a description the tradition reads as fitting a graha it treats as unpredictable and difficult to read even by the standard of Rahu, its own sibling point. The tradition prescribes the mantra for whoever stands in a Ketu dasha or antardasha, or whose chart otherwise calls for it, paired with charity of sesame, multicoloured cloth or a blanket given on a Tuesday, and, in the wider remedial literature, the mantra of Ganesha, held to steady Ketu's more scattering effects. Where the mantra is recited on a mala it keeps the same manner as for every other graha, one hundred and eight repetitions, the thumb moving each bead toward the body and never crossing the head bead at the top of the strand.

The story

Ketu shares its mythic origin with Rahu: both are read as portions of the demon Svarbhanu, who disguised himself among the gods to drink a share of the churned nectar of immortality, only for the Sun and Moon to expose him before the Sun and Moon could pass his throat, at which point Vishnu's discus severed his head, immortal Rahu, from his body, immortal Ketu, leaving both hungry and both resentful of the two lights that had exposed him. Wikipedia's account of Ketu names Viprachitti as his father and Simhika as his mother, the same mother the mythology gives Rahu, and lists Rahu directly among Ketu's siblings, confirming the pair's shared descent from one demon rather than two unrelated figures. Because Ketu is the headless remainder of that body, later tradition reads him as having, in its own words, lost his head, that is, lost his attachment to worldly sense, and treats Ketu as the most spiritual of the nine grahas, associated with moksha, renunciation and self realisation rather than with worldly gain. The Navagraha Stotram's verse to Ketu is recited today both by those whose own Ketu is difficult and in the communal Navagraha shanti rites, a continuing practice Wikipedia's account of the Navagraha system confirms.

Written from

Corpus key mantra:Ketu.