In the previous chapter, we learned about the twelve houses and their lords. The houses are the areas of life. The signs are the costumes. Now we meet the actors themselves. In Vedic astrology, there are nine main planetary influences. They are called the navagrahas in Sanskrit and Hindi. The word nava means nine, and graha means that which seizes or influences. These nine grahas are the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu.

You may notice that the Sun and Moon are not planets in the modern astronomical sense. The Sun is a star and the Moon is a satellite. But in Vedic astrology, any heavenly body that influences life on Earth is called a graha. Rahu and Ketu are not physical planets at all. They are shadow points where the paths of the Sun and Moon cross. Yet they are considered extremely powerful in Jyotish. So when we say nine planets, we mean nine cosmic forces that shape human destiny.