Saturn Retro 2026: 02: Kanwachal Road

Dear friends, this is my 2nd post of annual Saturn Retrograde 2026, and like I promised in the first post, I'm making these posts purely Saturnine in quality, mood, and flavour... (As per the requirements of this Saturn Retrograde period)..

Every night when I leave our friends adda at Gauhati Club area, and make my way back home through Chenikuthi, I take the internal Kanwachal road, along Navagraha Crematorium.

As soon as we enter the Kanwachal road, we're welcomed by the Navagraha crematorium compound wall on the left, and a Shani Mandir on the right. 

And, as we progress, we reach the entrance to the Navagraha crematorium. Atop the grand entrance gate sits the statue of Dharma Raj/ Lord Yamraaj. Sitting on his throne, with mace in hand, with glowing ruby eyes, welcoming people to their heavenly journey beyond. 

And, as we cross the entrance gate, and proceed ahead, there's yet another Shani Mandir at the other corner of the Navagraha cremation ground.

So, it's lord Yamaraaj flanked by Lord Shanidev on BOTH sides. Twin Shani temples on both the corners of the cremation ground.. on Kanwachal road... 

See video below👇🏼  👇🏼..

The track is All The Way from the 1991 movie, Dying Young.. stg Julia Roberts.. 

At night when I cross this stretch, now vastly illuminated by LED lights, I remember my childhood days when it was dark, gloomy, shady and full of hushed up tales.

In my youth, I was full of enthusiasm to make others perceive me with astonishment, shock , and awe. It was this same enthusiasm which saw me conduct many of my prayers and rituals at the cremation grounds. Many people were often shocked to see me emerge from the crematorium at late hours. To my great satisfaction, exaggerated stories about me began to spread throughout our town. 

And to foster and maintain that legend, I used to visit the cremation grounds more often. But finally, one day, an incident occurred, which made me discontinue my visits and rituals. 

It was 1990, when my grandfather departed just before my metric exams. While they prepared his body above the pyre, they removed his rings and jewellery. I remember a red coral ring, they had taken off and put on the side. I could have taken it as a relic, as a last memory of my grandfather. But something inside me froze. I couldn't take it.

Later in the evening as we waited at home mourning, I felt a great restlessness come over me. There was no electricity, it was drizzling, and dark, and I set out with an umbrella from my then home, at Uzan Bazar. I walked all the way to the Navagraha cremation grounds. In the dark, drizzling rain, I began searching among the ashes, for my grandfather's red coral ring.

 Someone saw me from afar and made a hasty retreat. My smile was almost glowing in the dark. And I continued searching amidst the wet ash and cinder.

After sometime, the drizzle stopped, and It became suddenly quiet. In fact it sounded much more quieter than any other night. I felt a  tingling sensation on the nape of my neck. As if someone was watching me from behind. Someone not too far away. I felt a cold feeling in my stomach. My heartbeat started pacing. Without looking back, I picked my umbrella and left the crematorium.

After that night I completely stopped my nocturnal visits.

As the years passed, Kanwachal road changed. It became well lit, crowded, bustling. It completely changed from my youthful days " portal of darkness". In a crowded city, it became one of the well lit, spacious, landscaped terrains.

But, very recently, especially post Covid days, suddenly, it seemed to resurrect with a new Avatar. One, that brought us once again, strongly closer to the afterlife, 

After Covid, the categories of longevity and mortality, youth and ageing, natural departure and sudden early death.. all seemed to have been.. completely muddled up. 

And, in these recent times, so, so many of my own friends, and younger people, have I been unfortunate enough to accompany, on their life's last journey... to this very Navagraha cremation grounds...

An Ode to Kanwachal Road

So, every night when I cross this gate, 

Where Lord Yama sits, on his throne,

With mace in Hand, and red ruby eyes

Atop this looming entrance gate...

Flanked on Both sides.. by none other 

than Lord Shanidev himself 

I take a breath to pause.  

In front of this heaven's gate.

 Which both reminds and welcomes us

..Of and to,  the afterlife beyond..

 I offer my humble prayers...

For yet another day on Earth

Before, my own time cometh

To enter the gateway ..

And commence my own ..

Heavenly journey beyond ..

🙏🏼🙏🏼🪐🪐🪐🙏🏼🙏🏼🪐🪐🙏🏼🙏🏼

Saturn Retro 2026: 01: Gravitas

Here's my first post for Saturn Retrograde 2026. We're in the 14 days Gravitas phase, which begins two weeks BEFORE the actual / official date of Saturn Retrograde. All that data is there in the blog PAGE: Saturn Retrograde Introduction at the tail end of this post..

Anyways, to cut a long story short, last Saturn Retrograde season, 2025, my posts were VERY visual, dramatic, electric, bold. Which is very good. BECAUSE I was blogging on Saturn Retro after a gap of Seven years!!

But also, not great from the Saturnine point of view. Because I'm a Saturnine person, posting in this blog literally named Saturnine. So MY Saturn Retrograde posts HAVE to be heavy, gloomy, swampy, layered, obscure, fragmented. 

Last year's Saturn Retro 2025 posts were visual, dramatic, bold, and I shared the links to my Facebook and Instagram stories, yes STORIES!! Also, I used a lot of AI images to attract views on my posts. Comic book, mythos, type vivid generated inagery!!

But NONE who SAW, didn't even comprehend to click the link to my blog post! Forget about  participating in the complexity, the layered technical mystical phenomenon of Saturn Retrograde.

So, this year, the only place I'm sharing my posts is on Instagram Threads. Because there, some intelligent people actually connected to me, starting a productive Saturnine alliance.  

And they connected to ONLY the Saturnine, swampy, heavy, layered posts!! Proof: Eshan Sen , Author , Vedic Astrologer, actually shared my post on Butchers Crossing, a Saturnine Nicolas Cage movie, and since then,  we've come a long way on a Saturnine astrological journey which has lasted uptil now!

Lord Shanidev chooses, where to share. I just have to do MY Saturnine Tradition/ Job!!

Hence I start this post with this video 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 below...

The first part of the video above ☝🏼☝🏼shows the lonely, eerie, yellow smiley ball I found next to our entrance gate. I travelled far from Sajanpara , Rani, Mushroom Livelihood Ashram of our brother Pranjal Baruah, next to airport, to home at Zoo Tiniali to watch Fifa World Cup Finals 2026, with me parents. The whole town, especially Latasil field was agog and alive with preparations for the final match. And I too came home all gung ho. But as soon as I entered our gate, this lonely, eerie , creepy smiley ball waiting. With its beautiful jaded Saturnine smile..

The second half of the video shows the Mushroom Farm, at Rani, where I came from, was all flooded by morning, due to nights heavy rains. A gloomy, despondent, swampy mood. CONTRAST to the GLOBALLY electric mood of World Cup Finals Football match between Argentina vs Spain!!

I could have put up dramatic pictures, videos to highlight the final match. But herein, I choose to put up this video, in the pure Saturnine tradition of Annual Saturn Retrograde 2026. If THIS is the only post I put up, then, let this be the..

... perfect Saturnine post 

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Anyways, here's the schedule for Annual Saturn Retrograde 2026..

Gravitas Phase: 

13 july, Mon - 26 July Sun

Saturn Retrog begins: 27th July

Red Hot Rising Phase:

 27 July Mon - 10 Aug , Monday

Orange Phase: 

11 Aug, Tue - 7 Sept Mon

Yellow Phase:

 8 Sept Tue - 6 Oct Tue 2026: 

Blue Phase: 

7 Oct  Wed- 4 Nov Wed 2026: 

Ultra Retro Phase: 

5 Nov Thu - 26 Nov 2026: 

Vanishing Phase:

 27 Nov - 11 Dec 2026: 

EXPLANATIONS about the phases/ parts of Annual Saturn Retrograde are given in detail below in the blog PAGE (not post)👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 link below 👇🏼 👇🏼 

Saturn Retrograde Introduction

🙏🏼🙏🏼Jai Shanidev 🙏🏼 🙏🏼 

The Mercy of Mahadev

My close childhood friend passed away on Friday, 6th February from Liver damage complicated by auto immune disease. For the past month I was attending nights with him in the hospital, alternating with his wife, who is herself a recovered kidney transplant patient. During those night stays in the hospital, browsing through endless posts, I discovered something..

Saturn and Rahu are in their own Nakshtras TOGETHER, after a long, long time! Namely Saturn in Uttar Bhadrapada (26) in Pisces, and Rahu in Satabhisha (24) in Aquarius. After uncovering this combination, late night, I re checked with Meta AI on WhatsApp. But it gave no conclusive data, so I had to check Saturn Rahu Nakshtra transit, every five years, and then, decade by decade! And finally, late, late, into the night, came upon the truth ..

Saturn and Rahu are in their own Nakshtras TOGETHER, after FIFTY years!! Last time this happened was from April to August 1976, during the PEAK middle of Emergency in India. Everything was shut down, and no one had noted any credible astrological data during this period.
Just for the insight of the reader, and myself, here's my research below 👇 👇 to illustrate my efforts late into the night..

Saturn Transit in OWN Nakshtras
27 April - 27 Aug 1976: pushya
30 Jan - 14 April 1985: Anuradha
22 Oct 1985 - 19 Nov 1986: Anuradha
15 Mar 1996 - 2 Apr 1997: U. Bhadrapada
30 oct - 17 Nov 2004 : pushya
25 jun - 25 Oct 2005 : pushya
20 Dec 2005 - 4 Jul 2006 : pushya
8 July - 17 Sept 2016 Anuradha
28 Apr - 02 Oct 2025 : Uttar Bhadrapad
20 Jan - 17 May 2026 : Uttar Bhadrapad
9 Oct 26 - 8 Feb 2027: Uttar Bhadrapad

Rahu Transit in OWN Nakshtras
23 Nov 25 - 02 Aug 2026: Satabhisha
11 Sep 2019 - 20 May 2020: Ardra
30 Jun 2013 - 09 Mar 2014 : Swati
18 Apr 2007 - 26 Dec 2007: Satabhisha
4 Feb 2001 - 14 Oct 2001: Ardra
23 Jun 1994 - 02 Aug 1995  : Swati
11 Sep 1988 - 21 May 1989: Satabhisha
30 Jun 1982 - 9 Mar 1983: Ardra
18 Apr 1976 - 26 Dec 1976  : Swati

Saturnine
So, to summarise.. from 20 Jan to 17 May, 2026, Saturn and Rahu are going to be in their OWN Nakshtras, at the SAME  Time ! After FIFTY years!! Which last happened In 1976. For 4 months!! And this year, 2026, to further magnify this, both these Nakshatras are next to EACH OTHER, Namely Saturn in Uttar Bhadrapada (26) in Pisces, and Rahu in Satabhisha (24) in Aquarius. With Jupiter ruled Purva Bhadrapada (25), Hemmed in between the twin blades of this sharp Rahu Saturn scissors.. also known as Papa Kartari in Vedic astrology.

Purva Bhadrapada (25), a very occult Jupiterian Nakshtra, represents secret societies, the secret powers behind the screen, elite power class, often enmeshed in diabolical secrets. Now caught between the twin scissors blades of Rahu Saturn on either side. The disclosure of million pages of Epstein files at this point is the EXACT manifestation/ expression of this!!

But, it does not end there...

I was following a series of posts on Threads these last two weeks about Saturn Neptune conjunction!  From a strict Vedic perspective, we do not follow the outer planets in our immediate calculations, so I had kind of ignored it. But gradually, indirectly sifting through endless data on the almanac, I finally came to the fact.. Saturn Neptune conjunctions occur EVERY 36 YEARS and is call Grander Conjunction!! It is superior to Saturn+ Jupiter conjunction which happens every 20 years. Last time Saturn Neptune conjunction occurred was in 1989, The Fall of the Berlin Wall, and change in the world Order!!

THIS Time.. it's DIRECTLY Overlapping with Rahu Saturn own Nakshtras scissors formation. Happening on 20th February 2026!!

Over the years,  I haven't retained much inclination nor breath to expend upon Global predictions of  sensational astrological events. There's completely and utterly ENOUGH people doing that in GREAT magnitude in all of social media. 

But rather, now, I want  to offer my own, narrow, personal Saturnine perspective, on such great transits.

Since, I've been writing this singular post over a long eventful time... Now, I wanted to narrate some personal, narrow, spiritual experience/ event that would acknowledge the Cataclysmic, astrological  magnitude, of these two mega transits...  one after THIRTY YEARS, and one after FIFTY YEARS.. 

To narrate acutely karmic, cosmic, and Cataclysmic Saturnine event!! illustrate, in the most personal, narrow, visceral, Saturnine manner, 

Over the years, this Blog has increasingly become a narrative, testifying about astrological events in the most physical mundane way. Completely opposed to the beginning , where I craved for the sensational,  spectacular projections of Cataclysmic, astrological  events!

So towards the end of this long post, I simply  waited for some event that would sum it all up.
And, my involuntary patience, was finally rewarded by providence  👇👇👇

The Mercy of Mahadev
So, to summarise this journey so far.. blogging in hospital as a night attendant, then close childhood friend finally dying after one month of hospitalization,  then myself detected with high blood pressure, and subsequent ultrasound scans, CT scans reveal cysts in kidney and liver, consulting gastroenterologist, top homeopath, and no medicines given, but drastically changing lifestyle out of fear of death, high pressure meds creating drowsiness, weakness, fear, anxiety closedly entangled with sorrow of friends death, due to a similar line of illness. Reviewing life style, path, goal, direction.. and all that drastically at once..

Amidst all that, there was one thing constant in the background for the last two months...

 
Because of the construction of the Bharalumukh bridge, in my hometown Guwahati, a old Hanuman temple below was broken, and temporarily relocated. One of my new young students, whose home was opposite it, regularly visited it, and became involved in its relocation, rebuilding process. Although the devotees around the area were extremely rich traders who were equally religious and devout, and they regularly visited this temple, somehow it came to us to contribute, and get directly involved with the priests in its relocation and rebuilding process.

 Once we had contributed bricks and cement, but alas, the temple was yet again broken down due to some administrative, political process. And now, finally,  for the third time, was getting established below the bridge.

 
As we contributed construction materials again, we started building pressure on the priest, in whom, I found his former qualities of strong minded, hands on approach rapidly diminishing. He seemed to be increasingly more and more in a trance like state.

Finally, after demanding some deadlines for action, he finally said that, on the night before Maha Shivratri, he would definitely begin construction in one side of the temple, and show us some concrete progress.

Distracted by health problems, depression, and after many futile visits to the site, I involuntarily surrendered to his vague promise.

Finally, late night on Valentine's day, 14th Feb, the night before Maha Shivratri, my young student called with excitement.. the left wing of the temple, was separately built, segregated, into a exclusive corner where Shiva lingam had been established on a platform, in the nick of time, before Shivratri next day. Which would see endless throngs of devotees visit Lord Shiva, with their ecstatic rituals and offerings...

So, next morning, I set out late, and finally reached the temple by noon. And Lo, behold, exactly as described, towards the left, a separate small wing where Lord Shiva had been, finally, established, now adorned with all the customary offerings, milk, curd, tumeric, bel patra, dhatura, etc etc, the full schedule and syllabus of Shiva Ratri prayers / rituals.

And, below, in his right towards the wall.. a small black statue of .. Lord Shanidev 🙏🙏🙏

Prologue/ Conclusion
My entire life, as a Vedic astrologer, Vastu Consultant, spiritual seeker, I had prayed to ALL the Gods. But only, post Covid, because of one of my client/ friends who completed the pilgrimage of 12 Jyotirlinga temples TWICE over, I could connect very   strongly to Lord Mahadev.
Immediately, I also got involved in a 12 Jyotirlinga temple project in Indonesia with my close friend and college senior. But he soon passed away due to Liver disease, and it all came to naught. But the  research remained, and immeasurably contributed to my astrological approach.

 
Later, I started watching with great devotion and fervour, a serial on Hotstar about my forever favourite deity.. Karm Phal Data Shanidev. Which showed the life of Shanidev from birth, childhood,  adolescence to adulthood. What was remarkable was the depiction of Tridev, namely Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar. Especially the remarkable depiction of Mahadev finally revealed and connected me to his mercy, compassion, love and consideration.
Lord Mahadev finally came to me through a Saturnine serial on Shanidev.

And NOW, in the reconstruction of this Hanuman temple, finally I was unexpectedly rewarded by this unforeseen and, unexpected opportunity of establishing a Shiva temple..
..on the very night before Shivratri 🙏🙏🙏

 
Indescript, small, below the bridge, by the Bharalu tributary, surrounded by rich, devout traders. But the love, devotion, and materials for construction specifically chosen from us.

ESPECIALLY For me, whose Sun was in the 12th house, and Saturn Ketu in the 9th house, this was a great gift from the heavens.
Because, forever was I seeking recognition, validation, fame and public appreciation. But finally, after many travails and tribulations, and many dramatic journeys, that came to zero/ naught, I had long given up..

But now, quietly in the shadows, amidst the rubble of construction .. I received my great recognition, my certificate of cosmic appreciation...

..I received compassion, attention, and affection.. the Mercy of Mahadev..

🙏🏼🙏🏼Jai Shanidev🙏🏼🙏🏼