What does it mean when a planet is combust?

A combust planet sits within a few degrees of the Sun, close enough that, seen from Earth, its light is swallowed by the solar glare. Vedic astrology reads the planet's significations the same way: present but dimmed, working through difficulty. Its matters tend to arrive late, stay private, or demand more effort, while the planet's dignity and house decide how much of its strength survives.

At what degree is a planet combust?

Each planet has its own orb of combustion, measured from the Sun's position. The Moon is combust within about 12 degrees, Mars within 17, Mercury within roughly 14, Jupiter within 11, Venus within roughly 10, and Saturn within about 16. Mercury's orb tightens to about 12 degrees when it is retrograde, and Venus's to about 8. The Sun itself is never combust; it is the source of the glare.

Is a combust planet always weak?

No. Combustion dims a planet; it rarely defeats one that is already strong. A combust planet that is also exalted or in its own sign keeps much of its power, its inner strength showing through the glare. Some traditions also hold that a planet within a fraction of a degree of exact union with the Sun is quietly energised, a state described as being in the heart of the Sun.

Which planets become combust most often?

Mercury and Venus, because they orbit between Earth and the Sun and never appear far from it. Mercury stays within about 28 degrees of the Sun and Venus within about 47, so both pass through combustion again and again. The Moon is combust for roughly two days around every new Moon. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are combust less often, for a few weeks in each cycle.

Does combustion go away?

In the sky, yes. Combustion is a phase of each planet's cycle, and a transiting planet pulls clear of the Sun within days or weeks. In a birth chart the condition is a fixed feature of that planet, read alongside its dignity, house, and the rest of the chart. There it describes how the planet gives its results, slower and more privately, throughout its periods.

Combust Planets: What Combustion Means in Vedic Astrology

A combust planet is one that sits so close to the Sun in the sky that its light is drowned in the solar glare. Vedic astrology calls the condition asta, the setting, and reads it as a dimming of the planet's power: its significations grow faint and strained, its results arrive late or stay private. Each planet has its own orb, from about 10 degrees for Venus to 17 for Mars, and combustion applies whenever the planet stands within that distance of the Sun, in the same sign or across a sign boundary. A combust planet is dimmed, never destroyed, and its dignity decides how much of its light survives.

Combustion is one of the four passing conditions a planet can be in, alongside retrogression, planetary war, and the avasthas. This page goes deep on combustion alone; the planetary conditions maps all four and explains where they fit in the order of reading.

What combustion actually is

Combustion is an astronomical picture before it is an astrological rule. A star or planet that rises or sets close to the Sun cannot be seen; its light is lost in the glare of dawn or dusk. The Sanskrit name asta, the setting, records exactly that disappearance.

The classics carry the picture straight into the chart. A planet whose body cannot show its light is a planet whose significations struggle to show their results. What Mercury stands for, speech, calculation, trade, or what Venus stands for, love, art, ease, still exists in the person, but it speaks as if through a roar of fire: effortful, muffled, often unseen by the world even when the work is real. Texts such as the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and the Phaladeepika count combustion among the standing weaknesses to check on every planet, which is why every serious chart table flags it.

The combustion orbs, planet by planet

Each planet has its own distance of safety from the Sun. The orbs below are the standard working values used across the tradition; a planet closer to the Sun than its orb, measured along the zodiac, is combust.

Planet	Combust within	Notes
Moon	12°	Happens for about two days around every new Moon
Mars	17°	The widest orb of all
Mercury	14°	About 12° when Mercury is retrograde
Jupiter	11°
Venus	10°	About 8° when Venus is retrograde
Saturn	16°	Some authorities give 15°
Sun	Never	The Sun is the fire: never burned, only burning
Rahu and Ketu	Not applicable	Shadow points without bodies; they cast no light to lose

You need not memorise the figures; the shape is enough. Every orb sits within roughly a dozen degrees of the Sun, give or take, with Mars the widest at 17 and Venus the narrowest at 10. Any chart calculator applies the exact values for you and marks the combust planets in the planet table.

Why Mercury and Venus burn most often

Mercury and Venus orbit between Earth and the Sun, so from our vantage point they never stray far from it. Mercury's greatest separation from the Sun is about 28 degrees, and Venus's about 47. Both planets therefore swing through combustion again and again as part of their ordinary cycle.

That frequency changes how the condition is read. A combust Mercury can strain the mind and the speech for a stretch: decisions feel harder to voice, paperwork and negotiation ask for extra care. A combust Venus can dim love and ease for a while: pleasures feel flatter, relationships ask for patience. Both planets pull clear of the glare on a schedule measured in weeks, and their matters brighten as they go. In a birth chart, where the combustion is permanent, the same themes describe the texture of a lifetime rather than a season, and the planet's dignity sets how strongly they apply.

One refinement is worth knowing. When Mercury or Venus is retrograde, it passes between Earth and the Sun, nearer to us and brighter, and the tradition tightens the orb accordingly: about 12 degrees for retrograde Mercury and about 8 for retrograde Venus.

What a combust planet means in a chart

Read a combust planet as dimmed, not deleted. Its significations, and the affairs of the houses it occupies and rules, tend to come with three signatures: delay, privacy, and effort. The results arrive, but later than the chart's promise would otherwise suggest, and often without applause.

Delay shows up as matters that ripen slowly, especially during the combust planet's own dasha, the planetary period when its themes take the stage. Privacy shows up as work done out of the world's sight: the combust planet's gifts are often real and even substantial, yet under-recognised, pursued behind the scenes. Effort is the felt sense of it, as though the planet's affairs need twice the push for the same distance.

There is also a closeness so extreme that some traditions reverse the verdict. A planet within a fraction of a degree of exact union with the Sun is described in those traditions as being in the heart of the Sun, quietly energised by the nearness rather than burned by it. Treat it as a refinement to know of, not a rule to lean on.

What softens combustion

Every weakness in Jyotish comes paired with its measure of relief, and combustion's chief relief is dignity. A combust planet that is exalted or in its own sign resists the fire: its inner strength shows through the glare, and the classics expect it to keep much of its power. Combustion dims a planet; it rarely defeats a planet already strong.

Distance matters too. An orb is a threshold, not a cliff. A planet just inside its orb, fifteen degrees from the Sun in Mars's case, is barely singed, while one within a degree or two is deep in the blaze, unless it reaches the heart-of-the-Sun closeness described above. A strong house position, friendly company, and a well-placed dispositor each restore part of what the glare takes. The honest reading weighs all of it before saying a word about weakness.

Natal combustion and transit combustion

The same condition does two different jobs depending on where you meet it. In the current sky, combustion is a phase: every planet cycles into the Sun's glare and out again, the Moon for about two days each month around the new Moon, Mercury and Venus for stretches of weeks, the outer planets for a few weeks around their conjunction with the Sun.

In a birth chart, combustion is a fixed feature of the planet, part of its lifelong character. It does not switch off, but it also does not act alone: it is one adjustment laid over the planet's sign, house, dignity, and aspects. The natal reading describes how that planet gives its results across the life, with the delay-privacy-effort signature strongest in the planet's own periods.

How to read a combust planet, step by step

When a chart shows you a combust planet, resist the one-word verdict and walk the sequence. It takes a minute and it keeps the reading honest.

Confirm the distance. Check how far the planet stands from the Sun against its orb. Just inside the orb is a graze; within a degree or two is the full condition.
Check the dignity. Exaltation or own sign keeps most of the planet's power. Debilitation alongside combustion is the genuinely hard case, and even there the rest of the chart has its say.
Note the house and lordships. The houses the planet occupies and rules tell you where the delay and privacy will be felt.
Expect muted, not missing. The planet's matters come harder, quieter, often late. They still come.
Watch its periods. The combust planet's dasha is when its signature is most visible, and when patience with its themes pays best.

Burned is not broken. To see whether any of your own planets are combust, run a free birth chart; the planet table marks combustion next to each position, with the Sun's distance there to check against the orbs above.