Muhurta for Signing a Contract

Signing a contract belongs to the affairs of Mercury: he answers for speech, reckoning, written obligations and mediation. In this muhurta, therefore, the state of Mercury matters more than almost anything else, and the best days count as Wednesday and Thursday.

The branch is convenient in being applicable nearly always. Even when the day has been agreed with the other side and cannot be moved, the hour of signing usually remains yours, and within a day the difference between stretches is often larger than between neighbouring days.

What is examined in the chart of the moment

Mercury: not retrograde, not combust, not conjunct malefics. The third house answers for correspondence and agreements, the seventh for the other party, the tenth for performance, the eleventh for what the contract will bring. The lagna must be strong: it stands for whoever signs.

A useful rule of classical muhurta: if the seventh house of the moment is stronger than the lagna, the advantage in the contract goes to the other side. For an equal agreement one looks for a moment where the lagna and the seventh house are comparable in strength; for one's own advantage, where the lagna is stronger.

Strength here is not judged by eye: one looks at where the lord of the house stands, whether it is combust or retrograde, whether the house is aspected by a benefic or a malefic, and whether malefics occupy the house itself. The second and eleventh houses are read as the money of the contract — what comes in and what is promised — the twelfth as expenses and obligations, the sixth as disputes and possible litigation. The eighth house of the moment is left empty: in contractual matters it answers for hidden terms and for what surfaces later.

Auspicious guidelines

Nakshatras: Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Chitra, Anuradha, Uttara Ashadha, Shravana, Dhanishta, Uttara Bhadrapada, Revati. Tithis: 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13. Weekdays: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday. A waxing Moon.

For a long contract — a lease, a supply agreement for years, an employment contract — the stable nakshatras are preferred: Rohini, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada. For a one-off deal the swift ones suit: Ashwini, Pushya, Hasta. The nature of the nakshatra works literally here: a stable one holds the agreement, a swift one closes the question and does not drag it out.

The rikta tithis — the 4th, 9th and 14th lunar days — are excluded, as are ashtami and chaturdashi. Of the yogas, Vyatipata, Vaidhriti, Parigha, Vyaghata, Shula, Ganda, Atiganda and Vajra are not used. Rahu kala, yamaganda and gulika kala are reckoned from local sunrise for the city where the signing takes place.

Matching the natal chart

Chandra bala is checked: the transiting Moon must not stand in the fourth, eighth or twelfth house from the signer's natal Moon. Tara bala is checked: the nakshatra of the day must not fall into janma, vipat, pratyari or vadha from the natal nakshatra.

For a large contract the periods are examined too: an agreement concluded in the dasha of planets connected with the second, tenth and eleventh houses is more often performed as intended. Both calculations rest on the natal Moon and need a correct birth time — if it is approximate, it makes sense to go through rectification first.

What is avoided

A retrograde Mercury is the main thing this muhurta tries to avoid: he is traditionally associated with returning to what was already agreed, with amendments and with re-execution. Then: the karana vishti, amavasya, eclipses, gandanta, rahu kala, ashtami and chaturdashi, an afflicted eighth house of the moment, and the Moon in the eighth or twelfth from the signer's natal Moon.

A waning Moon in its last quarter is not taken for contracts from which growth is expected — that phase is left for closing and terminating. There is a reverse application too: for ending a relationship, terminating an agreement or clearing a debt the waning Moon is exactly right, and in that case the rules are read the other way round.

Retrograde Mercury: a measure of caution

Mercury is retrograde for about three weeks three times a year — roughly a quarter of the time. Refusing all contracts in those weeks is impossible and unnecessary: the rule says not "do not sign" but "on such days one returns to what was already agreed". Its practical sense is to read the text more attentively, check the schedules and the details, and not sign unread.

If the contract does fall in a retrograde period, it is sensible to pick an hour with a strong lagna outside rahu kala and to reread the whole text — including what was "already agreed verbally". That is usually exactly where the rule proves itself.

Kinds of contract

The general rules are the same, but the principal house shifts with the subject of the agreement. An employment contract is read by the tenth house — service and superiors — and by the sixth, which answers for duties and subordination. A lease and anything to do with premises, by the fourth house. Supply and trade, by the second and eleventh: money received and money promised. A loan or credit, by the sixth house and Saturn: in taking on debt one wants the lord of the sixth weaker than the lord of the lagna. An agreement about a joint venture, by the seventh house, where the balance between lagna and seventh matters most of all.

Termination stands apart. Here the rules are read in reverse: one takes a waning Moon and, among the nakshatras, not the stable but the swift or movable ones, so that the matter closes and does not drag on. Eclipses, vishti and gandanta remain forbidden in this case too.

What counts as the moment of signing

A modern contract has several candidates for the role of event: the verbal agreement, the exchange of signed scans, the electronic signature, the mark of registration. Tradition counts as the event the moment after which the obligation is in force — that is, the last signature, not the first. If the signatures are given on different days, the event is the one that completes the contract.

With an electronic signature this is easiest of all: the moment of pressing the button is chosen by the signer, and one can hit the right stretch to the minute. With a paper contract signed at a meeting, the moment is chosen together with the meeting itself, by the rules in the text on the important meeting.

If the contract is sent by post and the other side's signature will arrive who knows when, there is nothing to choose: the moment is taken to be your own signature, and there one stops. Muhurta does not require you to govern what does not depend on you.

The order of work

• decide what matters most in this contract: equal terms, your own advantage, or a quick close;
• discard vishti, amavasya, eclipses, gandanta, rikta tithis and spoiled yogas;
• get round a retrograde or combust Mercury where possible;
• check the remaining days against the signer's chandra bala and tara bala;
• within the day find a stretch with a strong lagna and the desired balance between lagna and seventh house, outside rahu kala.

In practice

The date of signing is rarely appointed single-handed. If it has been agreed with the counterparty and does not move, the muhurta is applied to the hour: within a day there is nearly always a stretch with an acceptable lagna outside rahu kala. And in any case an unfavourable moment is an argument for reading the text more carefully, not for abandoning the deal.

The general rules of date selection are set out in the date selection section, the calendar indicators in the calendar, and the nearest related cases in the texts on the important meeting and buying property.