Nakshatra 9 of 27
Ashleshaఆశ్లేష
The coiled serpent — penetrating insight, and the power to entwine.
- Ruling planet
- Mercury
- Deity
- The Nagas, the serpents
- Symbol
- A coiled serpent
- Gana
- Rakshasa (fierce)
- Nature
- Tikshna — sharp
- Sidereal span
- Karka 16° 40′ – 30° 00′
About Ashlesha
Ashlesha means 'the embrace', and its symbol is a serpent coiled around whatever it holds. The nakshatra is associated with kundalini, with hypnotic and persuasive power, with medicine and poison as two faces of the same knowledge, and with a mind that sees straight through pretence. It is classed rakshasa and tikshna, and the tradition treats it as powerful rather than pleasant. Its gifts are insight, strategy and healing; its shadow is entanglement.
What it traditionally favours
Study of hidden or difficult subjects, mantra practice, medicine, negotiation and strategy. Avoided for weddings and for beginnings meant to be simple.
The four padas
Every nakshatra is divided into four quarters called padas, each three degrees twenty minutes wide. The pada refines the reading: two people born under the same nakshatra but in different padas are held to differ meaningfully, because each pada falls in a different navamsa and so carries a different sub-influence.
The pada also decides the first syllable of a child's name. Where the moon stood at birth gives the nakshatra; which quarter of it gives the syllable. The four syllables below are in pada order — a child born in the first pada takes the first, and so on. This is the naming convention used at namakaranam across most of southern India.
- 1Di16° 40′ →
- 2Du20° 00′ →
- 3De23° 20′ →
- 4Do26° 40′ →