Jupiter and Venus are natural benefics. Saturn, Mars and the Sun are natural malefics. The Sun is the mildest of the three. Rahu and Ketu are counted as malefics too. Two planets change sides. The Moon is a benefic while waxing and a malefic while waning. Mercury is a benefic, but turns malefic when a malefic sits with it. This is a planet's own nature. It is not the same as what it does for one lagna.
☕ One nature for five, a condition for two
The basics page on the nine grahas gives the two lists. This page looks at the edges. Where does the waxing Moon end? When does Mercury turn? Why is the Sun only a mild malefic?
The rule itself is short. The Sun, Saturn, Mars, the waning Moon, Rahu and Ketu are malefic. The others are benefic. Mercury becomes malefic when it is joined with a malefic (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 3, v. 11, p. 27). Jataka Parijata gives the same list (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. II, vv. 8–9, p. 48).
Parashara also ranks them. He names the Sun, Saturn and Mars in rising order of harshness. So the Sun is the mildest of the three. He calls the Moon a benefic of the second rank. He says Mercury takes the colour of its company and is good when alone (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 34, vv. 8–10, p. 344). That is why the Sun reads “mild malefic” in the table below.
Nature here means the planet's own temperament. A planet's role for one lagna is a different idea, called functional nature. A natural malefic can be a helpful lord for one lagna. Both ideas are in use, side by side.
At a glance
- Sun: mild malefic
- Moon: benefic
- Mars: malefic
- Mercury: benefic
- Jupiter: benefic
- Venus: benefic
- Saturn: malefic
- Rahu: malefic
- Ketu: malefic
- This is the app's fixed table: one nature for each planet, with no condition.
- Mix-up: “waning” starts at the new Moon. It starts after the full Moon.
- Mix-up: Mercury is malefic when it aspects a malefic. The rule is about sharing a sign, being joined.
- Mix-up: a malefic is a bad planet. It is a harsher temperament, not a verdict.
- Mix-up: natural nature and functional nature are the same. The second depends on the lagna.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the waxing Moon end and the waning Moon begin?
The books say “waning” and stop there. The plain reading is the half after the full Moon. The translator of Jataka Parijata notes that opinions differ. He adds a narrower view: the Moon is weak only on the 14th and 15th days of the dark half (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. II, v. 9, p. 49, translator's note).
Is there a 72° rule for the Moon?
One modern English translation of Brihat Jataka puts a number on it: a Moon less than 72° from the Sun is a malefic. The Sanskrit verse says only “waning”, and two older translations print no number (Brihat Jataka, ch. II, v. 5). We follow the verse. The 72° figure is one translation's reading.
Why are Rahu and Ketu malefic?
Parashara names them malefic in the list of chapter 3 (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 3, v. 11, p. 27). His later chapter on natures leaves them out of its ranking. Jataka Parijata names them malefic too (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. II, vv. 8–9, p. 48). These books are one line of tradition, so their agreement is one voice, not two.
Does a waning Moon with Mercury become a benefic?
A translator's note to Parashara says so (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 3, pp. 27–28). The verse does not. The Nava horoscope follows the verse and does not apply that note.
Deep dive: two answers in one app
A fixed table for the day score. The conditions for the horoscope.
⚖️ Where the books and the app part
The verses make the Moon and Mercury conditional. A table that needs one value per planet cannot hold a condition. So the app keeps two readings, each in its own place.
What Nava follows: The day score uses the fixed table above when it weighs your running dasha and bhukti lords without a full birth chart. There the Moon and Mercury are benefic, and the Sun a mild malefic. The horoscope page applies the conditions: it shows the Moon as malefic once it is 180° or more ahead of the Sun, that is after the full Moon, and Mercury as malefic when a malefic shares its sign.
Both are choices. The fixed table is a simplification the verse does not make. The 180° line is the plain reading of “waning”.
🪐 Start with the nine grahas
The plain lists, the planetary cabinet and why “malefic” does not mean evil are on the nine grahas. Next in this series: natural planetary friendship.