Rahu mahadasha for Simha (Leo) Moon sign

In the Vimshottari system a life moves through nine long periods, each ruled by one planet. The planet that rules the period sets the tone of those years: the areas of life that come forward, and the kind of effort that pays.

The Rahu mahadasha lasts 18 years in full. Most people meet it partway through, so the part they live through can be shorter.

Rahu stands for ambition, the unfamiliar, foreign things and sudden openings. Its period tends to stir strong wants and unusual chances, and asks for care in telling a real opportunity from a passing appetite.

Rahu owns no sign of its own, so it rules no house counted from Leo. In its period it works through the lord of the sign it occupies at birth and the planets it sits with, and those are found only in your own chart.

Rahu has no natural friendship of its own with Sun, the lord of Leo. It takes on the colour of the planets it is joined with in your chart, so the same period can feel very different from one person to the next.

Which mahadasha you are in, and when it began, depends on the Moon's nakshatra at the moment you were born, so it is personal to you. Even within the Rahu mahadasha, where the planet sits in your own chart and the sub-periods inside it shape the years more than your Moon sign alone.