Ashlesha nakshatra

Span

16°40′ Cancer to 30°00′ Cancer

Ruling planet

Mercury (Vimshottari dasha of 17 years)

Deity

The Nagas

Symbol

A coiled serpent

Nature

Tikshna (sharp)

Gana

Rakshasa (fierce)

Yoni (animal)

Cat

Nadi

Antya (Kapha)

The meaning of Ashlesha

Ashlesha (आश्लेषा) is the 9th of the 27 nakshatras. Its presiding deity is the Nagas, the serpent deities of hidden power and wisdom, and its symbol is a coiled serpent. In Jyotish the deity of a nakshatra is the key to its nature: what the deity does, the nakshatra does.

It is ruled by Mercury, so a person whose Moon is in Ashlesha begins life in the Mercury dasha. The other two nakshatras ruled by Mercury are Jyeshtha and Revati; together they share something of Mercury’s character.

Good for: Tikshna work

In the muhurta texts Ashlesha is a tikshna (sharp) nakshatra, favoured for severing ties, decisive action and difficult rites. When the Moon passes through Ashlesha (about once every 27⅓ days) it is a good day for those kinds of beginnings.

The junction between Ashlesha’s last pada and Magha’s first is gandanta, a knot where a water sign meets a fire sign; births and beginnings there are traditionally given extra care.

The four padas

Each nakshatra divides into four padas of 3°20′. Each pada falls in a navamsa sign, and each has the traditional first syllable used for naming a child born in it.

In marriage matching

In guna milan, Ashlesha is of Rakshasa gana, cat yoni and Antya nadi. Two partners with the same nadi lose all eight points of nadi koota. Match two charts.

Find your birth nakshatra · Cancer (Karka) · Chapter 5: the 27 nakshatras

Sources: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and Phaladeepika for the signs, planets and houses; Muhurta Chintamani for the nakshatra classes and the guna milan attributes. Wording is our own.