Mrigashira nakshatra: traits, lord, deity and name letters

Character

Mrigashira is the fifth nakshatra. It starts at 23°20′ of Vrishabha and ends at 6°40′ of Mithuna, so the zodiac’s sign boundary cuts it into two equal halves of two padas. The first half lies in Vrishabh Rashi, where the Moon is exalted, and the second in Mithun Rashi, where she is neither exalted, own nor debilitated. Venus is the lord of Vrishabha. Mercury is the lord of Mithuna. Mars is the lord of Mrigashira itself, so the nakshatra belongs to a graha that rules neither of its signs.

A Moon in Mrigashira at birth is read as a searching, curious and restless mind. The antelope’s head is the clue: an animal with its head up, scenting and listening, ready to move on at a sound. The nakshatra is described as gentle in manner but never at rest, forever following the next lead, the next place, the next question. The reading has a lighter side, in appetite for novelty and the sheer pleasure of looking, and a harder one, in a mind that finds it difficult to stay with what it has found.

Mrigashira is of the deva gana and the mridu class, the soft one; Ardra comes after it. The two labels describe a nakshatra whose edges are gentle, and they sit oddly beside Mars. Set side by side, they can be read as a soft nature with a driven energy underneath.

Lord and dasha

Mars is the lord of Mrigashira. It rules Chitra and Dhanishta as well, set nine and eighteen places further along the cycle. In Vimshottari, Mars has 7 years of the 120.

For a Moon in Mrigashira the opening mahadasha is therefore the one of Mars, and it comes fifth in the order of the nine, directly after the Moon’s own. How much of the 7 years is left at birth is a matter of the Moon’s exact degree: more than five years for a birth in the first pada, under two years in the last. Rahu’s 18 years come next, then Jupiter’s 16.

A period of Mars at the start of life is read as an early stretch of effort and friction. The Moon’s own sign position adds a detail: in the first two padas she stands in her exaltation sign, and in the last two she does not.

Deity and symbol

The deity of Mrigashira is Soma. Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita names him by the epithet śaśi, and the Muhurta Chintamani uses śaśabhṛt. Together with its soft class, this deity is read as giving the nakshatra a gentleness of manner.

Its symbol is an antelope’s head. The Muhurta Chintamani’s list of shapes gives the head of a deer, eṇāsya. The popular image and the classical one agree in kind, antelope or deer, and in the part drawn: only the head. A head alone is read as attention rather than action, a creature that watches and picks its moment.

Gana, yoni and nature

Mrigashira is of the deva gana, the divine class, which Ashwini, Punarvasu and six other nakshatras share.

The yoni of Mrigashira is the serpent. In the Muhurta Chintamani it is paired with Rohini, the nakshatra just before it, under that animal. B. V. Raman’s Muhurtha sets Mrigashira as the female serpent and Rohini as the male.

Its nature is mridu, soft, a class also held by Chitra, Anuradha and Revati. The Muhurta Chintamani gives the soft nakshatras to singing, new clothes, amorous play, the affairs of friends and ornaments, and Varahamihira adds any act of good omen. Each item is the text’s own pairing of works with a class.

Padas and name letters

The navamsa run of Mrigashira crosses the sign boundary at its middle. The two Vrishabha padas are in Simha (23°20′ to 26°40′) and Kanya (to 30°00′), and the two Mithuna padas in Tula (0°00′ to 3°20′) and Vrishchika (to 6°40′): four signs in a row, from Simha to Vrishchika.

For the pada of a particular birth, the kundli calculator will give the answer. A name in the Namakarana custom begins with the sound of the Moon’s pada. The four syllables are Ve, Vo, Ka and Ki, in pada order, from Govinda’s commentary on the Muhurta Chintamani. A Vrishabha Moon thus gives Ve or Vo, and a Mithuna Moon Ka or Ki.

In Prashna and muhurta

The antelope’s head, raised and listening, is the picture of a question that is itself a search: for an answer, a person, a thing mislaid, a direction to take. When the Moon stands in Mrigashira in a Prashna chart, that reading is open. The Rashi settles which lord is looked at, Vrishabha in the first two padas and Mithuna in the last two, and the condition of that sign’s lord is weighed with the Moon, who stands for the asker’s mind while the Lagna is the asker. Muhurta lists Mrigashira with three companions, Chitra, Anuradha and Revati, as the soft nakshatras.

Whatever the search is for, AstroGPT answers from the chart of the minute you type, cast for your place; the horary astrology guide shows how such a chart is read.