Sade Sati check
Sade Sati is Saturn's roughly 7½-year passage through the sign before your Moon sign, your Moon sign and the sign after it. It comes round about every 30 years.
Traditionally it is a time of hard work, responsibility and slower results rather than misfortune. This check uses today's sky, so it tells you whether it is running now and in which phase.
Sade Sati, explained
What Sade Sati is
Saturn takes about 29½ years to go round the zodiac, about 2½ years in each sign. Sade Sati is its passage through three signs: the one before your Moon sign (the rising phase), your Moon sign (the peak) and the one after it (the setting phase), about 7½ years in all. When Saturn turns retrograde it can step back into a sign and stretch a phase by some months.
How this check works
Your Moon sign comes from your birth details; Saturn's position is calculated for today, with the date it next changes sign. So the check tells you whether Sade Sati is running now, in which phase, and whether Saturn's next move starts or ends it. It also mentions Saturn 4th or 8th from your Moon, the shorter periods often called Dhaiya. Because it uses today's sky, the answer changes as Saturn moves: check again next year and it may differ.
What it traditionally brings
Saturn is the planet of time, effort and responsibility, so tradition reads Sade Sati as years of hard work, delay and slower results, which often pay off later; not as misfortune. How it feels depends on Saturn's role in your own chart, its strength there and the dasha you are running.
The traditional remedies are simple and free: patience and steady work, service to elders and people in need, the mantra Om Sham Shanaishcharaya Namah on Saturdays, and a sesame-oil lamp. No stone or paid ritual is needed. A blue sapphire, often sold for Saturn, should never be worn without a careful look at the whole chart.
Questions
Can Sade Sati be good?
Yes. When Saturn is a helpful planet for your Ascendant, such as the yogakaraka for Taurus and Libra Ascendants, or strong in your chart, many people look back on it as a time of solid progress.
How long does Sade Sati last?
About seven and a half years, in three phases of about two and a half years each; Saturn's retrograde turns can add some months.
How often does Sade Sati come?
About every 30 years, so most people go through it two or three times in a lifetime.
Which phase is the hardest?
Many astrologers read the peak, Saturn over the Moon, as the most demanding, but it varies from chart to chart. For Taurus, Libra, Capricorn and Aquarius Moon signs, whose lords are Saturn or its friend Venus, it is often said to be milder.
What is Shani Dhaiya?
Saturn's roughly 2½ years in the 4th or the 8th sign from your Moon, traditionally read like a short Sade Sati.
Do I need my birth time?
Usually not: your Moon sign comes from the date. The time matters only if the Moon changed sign on your birthday.
Every choice behind this calculation — the ephemeris, the ayanamsa, the houses and the rules — is listed on How we calculate.