Nakshatra 19 of 27
Mulaమూల
Down to the root — investigation that does not stop at the surface.
- Ruling planet
- Ketu
- Deity
- Nirriti, goddess of dissolution
- Symbol
- A bunch of tied roots, a lion's tail
- Gana
- Rakshasa (fierce)
- Nature
- Tikshna — sharp
- Sidereal span
- Dhanus 0° 00′ – 13° 20′
About Mula
Mula means 'root', and it sits at the galactic centre — the direction in which the whole zodiac turns. Its deity is Nirriti, who presides over dissolution, and its nature is to pull things up by the roots in order to see what they actually are. This makes it the nakshatra of the researcher, the philosopher and the radical, and also of upheaval. Nothing about Mula is gentle, but nothing about it is superficial either.
What it traditionally favours
Research and investigation, philosophical study, herbal medicine, uprooting what has failed, and beginning again from first principles.
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.
- 1Ye0° 00′ →
- 2Yo3° 20′ →
- 3Bha6° 40′ →
- 4Bhi10° 00′ →