Nakshatras

Anuradha is the lotus that opens in muddy water, and Mitra is the god of friendship, the one who makes strangers into al…

Ardra is the storm that breaks over dry ground, and the name simply means 'the moist one' or 'the wet one'. This is the …

Ashlesha means 'the embrace', and it is the coil of the serpent: intimate, total and not entirely safe. This is the naks…

First light, first hoofbeat. Ashwini is the horse already at a gallop before the gate has finished opening, and the twin…

Bharani is the narrow gate that everything must pass through, in both directions. Ruled by Venus and presided over by Ya…

Chitra means 'the brilliant', 'the dazzling', 'the many-coloured', and it is the single jewel set in the sky's own neckl…

Dhanishtha is a drum, and the name means 'the wealthiest' or 'the most swift'. Its deities are the eight Vasus, the gods…

Hasta is the hand: the making hand, the healing hand, the sleight-of-hand. Savitar is the aspect of the Sun that impels …

Jyeshtha means 'the eldest', and the name is the whole burden. Indra is its deity, the king who took the throne by force…

Krittika is the blade and the flame, the nakshatra that separates. Agni's fire does not destroy indiscriminately; it bur…

Magha is the empty throne, and the ancestors standing behind it. This is the nakshatra of inherited authority, of the na…

Mrigashira is the deer with its head raised, nostrils working, already moving toward a scent nobody else has caught yet.…

Mula means 'root', and it does not mean the comforting kind. This is the nakshatra that digs down until it hits the actu…

Punarvasu means 'good again', 'wealth again', 'the return of the light'. It comes directly after Ardra's storm and its w…

Purva Ashadha means 'the early invincible one', and the word ashadha means unconquered, unsubdued, not to be defeated. I…

Purva Bhadrapada is a fire that has stopped pretending to be domestic. Its deity is Aja Ekapada, the one-footed goat, a …

Purva Phalguni is the front legs of the bed, and the tradition means exactly what you think it means. This is the naksha…

Tradition calls Pushya the most auspicious of all twenty-seven, and it does so for an unglamorous reason: this is the na…

Revati is the last of the twenty-seven, the final degrees of Pisces, and its deity is Pushan, who protects travellers, f…

Rohini is the Moon's favourite wife, and the entire cosmology has trouble with it. This is the nakshatra of the red-glow…

Shatabhisha means 'a hundred healers' or 'a hundred medicines', and its symbol is an empty circle. Varuna presides, the …

Shravana means 'hearing', and it is the only nakshatra named after an act of attention. Vishnu presides, and the three f…

Swati is a single young shoot bending in the open wind, and the whole meaning is in the fact that it does not break. Vay…

Uttara Ashadha is 'the later invincible one', and where its sister declares the victory, this one holds it. Its deities …

If Purva Bhadrapada is the fire, Uttara Bhadrapada is the still water underneath it. Its deity is Ahir Budhnya, the serp…

If Purva Phalguni is getting into the bed, Uttara Phalguni is still being married in it forty years later. This is the n…

Vishakha is the archway you walk through at the end, and it is also the last mile before it, which is the part nobody ph…