Ketu

What is combustion?

A planet is considered 'combust' when it comes close enough to the Sun in the sky that its own light is overpowered — it becomes difficult to observe directly, much as a candle's flame is hard to see in daylight. Classical Vedic astrology treats a combust planet as weakened in its ability to give clear results for the significations it governs, for as long as it stays within this close range of the Sun. Each planet has its own conventional orb (the maximum angular distance at which combustion applies), which is narrower while the planet is retrograde. The Sun itself is the reference point and cannot be combust; Rahu and Ketu are excluded, following the same convention used elsewhere for these shadow points.