---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: gochara
title: Gocara
iast: Gocara
devanagari: गोचर
description: 'Transit: the grahas’ current motion read against a natal reference, classically from the Moon sign; the horā frame for ongoing time; NOT retrograde-panic content, NOT a physical-force claim, NOT an endorsed predictive method.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Bṛhat Saṃhitā (graha-cāra); Bṛhat Jātaka
reception_note: 'Transit content (Mercury-retrograde panic, Sade Sati dread) is high-volume commercial material. This file documents the classical frame; it does not endorse predictive claims or remedy marketing.'
tags:
- gochara
- transit
- hora
- graha
- jyotisha
not:
- term: 'retrograde-panic content'
  why: '“Mercury retrograde ruins communication” is modern pop-astrology idiom, not a classical category. The classical gocara literature reads transits from the natal Moon by codified house rules; the panic genre is a recent commercial layer.'
  instead: 'Render gocara as transit and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a physical-force claim'
  why: 'The texts assign significations to passages; they do not state a mechanism by which a passage compels events. Reading a pseudo-physics of planetary influence into the sources adds a claim they do not make.'
- term: 'an endorsed predictive method'
  why: 'Documenting the transit frame is not endorsing transit prediction; the corpus takes no position on efficacy.'
related:
- /concepts/graha.md
- /concepts/rashi.md
- /concepts/dasha.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Gocara -- गोचर

**Not:** retrograde-panic content, a physical-force claim, an endorsed predictive method

## What It Actually Means

Gocara, literally the going of the cows, idiomatically the grahas’ pasture-walk, names the current positions of the grahas read against a natal reference point, classically the Moon’s sign (janma-rāśi). Horā practice evaluates each graha’s transit by the house it occupies counted from that reference, with codified favorable and unfavorable positions, and popular observances like Sade Sati (Śani’s roughly seven-and-a-half-year passage over the natal Moon and its neighbors) are gocara doctrines. The saṃhitā literature separately tracks graha-cāra, planetary courses, as public omens. This file documents the frame and its vocabulary; the predictive weight any school gives it stays with the school.

## Audience Metaphor

Weather moving over a fixed house: the natal chart is the house, today’s sky is the weather crossing it. The classical texts catalog what each passage is said to signify; they do not supply a force by which a passage compels. The physics is the reader’s import, not the text’s.

## Citations

1. Bṛhat Saṃhitā on planetary courses (graha-cāra) -- see [references/brihat-samhita.md](../references/brihat-samhita.md)
2. Bṛhat Jātaka on reading positions from the natal reference -- see [references/brihat-jataka.md](../references/brihat-jataka.md)
