What it means
Graha translates closer to 'the one that seizes' than to 'planet'. The nine are the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and the two lunar nodes, Rahu and Ketu. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not part of classical Vedic practice.
How it is read
Each Graha carries a set of significations - the Sun for authority and vitality, Venus for pleasure and partnership, Saturn for time, labour and limits - and each rules one or two signs. A planet in the sign it rules, or in its sign of exaltation, is said to act freely; in its debilitation sign it acts under strain.
What to watch for
Rahu and Ketu are not physical bodies but the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. They have no rulership in the ordinary sense and are read as amplifiers and voids respectively - which is why they behave unlike the seven and are so often over-dramatised in popular writing.
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