Nakshatra 10 of 27
Maghaమఖ
The throne — inherited authority and the weight of lineage.
- Ruling planet
- Ketu
- Deity
- The Pitris, the ancestors
- Symbol
- A royal throne, a palanquin
- Gana
- Rakshasa (fierce)
- Nature
- Ugra — fierce
- Sidereal span
- Simha 0° 00′ – 13° 20′
About Magha
Magha opens Simha, the sign of the king, and its symbol is the throne room. Its deities are the Pitris, the ancestors, which gives the nakshatra its distinctive character: authority here is not earned from nothing but inherited, and with it comes obligation to those who came before. Magha governs ceremony, rank, ancestral rites and the dignity that a position demands of the person holding it. Classified ugra, it is powerful and formal rather than gentle.
What it traditionally favours
Ancestral rites and shraddha, ceremonies of state and office, taking up a position of authority, and honouring elders.
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.
- 1Ma0° 00′ →
- 2Mi3° 20′ →
- 3Mu6° 40′ →
- 4Me10° 00′ →