A clock with five hands

Vimshottari dasha is a 120-year cycle shared out among nine planets. Ketu gets 7 years, Venus 20, the Sun 6, the Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17. Where you start depends on your Moon's nakshatra at birth.

Each period divides into nine sub-periods in the same order, and those divide again, five levels deep: mahadasha, antardasha, pratyantardasha, sookshma, prana.

Think of it as a clock. The mahadasha is the hour hand, the chapter of your life. The antardasha is the minute hand, the current theme. The rest are finer and finer detail.

Your Profile shows the first four, and Tara reads them when you ask her about timing.