- Span: 03°20′ Scorpio to 16°40′ Scorpio
- Deity: Mitra, the god of friendship
- Dasha Lord: Saturn
- Symbol: Lotus or a Cane
- Animal (Yoni): Deer (female)
- Shakti or power: radhana shakti = “power of accomplishment through devotion”
Anuradha nakshatra deals mostly with the idea of devotion, dedication towards something. Many associate this star with Radha, the consort of Krishna, who accompanied him on many incarnations. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In mythology, she is shown as an example of devotion and love without boundaries.
The Sanskrit name itself can have a few different translations. The prefix anu can mean “moving towards” or “in relation to”, while radha can mean “devotion”. So a translation can be “seeking devotion” or “related to devotion”.
Other meanings of radha are “lightning” and things like accomplishment, achievement and success. So another meaning could be “moving towards success”, as well as “moving towards enlightenment” as lightning could be related to Kundalini or a higher energy. A final meaning, more unusual and less spiritual, that I would give it is “related to power”, as thunder/lightning can allude to extreme power.
Sanskrit terms are never simple to translate, as Sanskrit is a language where words purposely mean multiple things, so that in a few words you can transmit multiple meanings. All the meanings above are valid, and represent some expressions of this nakshatra.
One of the main symbols of this star is the Lotus. This is a beautiful flower, that usually grows in mud, literally rising from the dirt or ugliness. The Lotus can also adapt to extremes of weather, such as snow or scorching heat, as long as the roots remain in water.
The Lotus symbolism here shows adaptability, where beauty and radiance are maintained even in environments not conductive towards that. It also shows the idea of an arduous process, as someone rising from the ashes or the shadows.
The secondary symbolism of a cane alludes to wisdom. As sages are usually depicted holding canes. A cane or a staff is usually a symbol of power, status, accomplishment of some sort. In a way, it can be an analogy to kundalini, as this power is depicted as a snake and a cane has the same shape as a snake.
The deity Mitra has an interesting backstory. In earlier mythology, he was indistinguishable from Varuna (deity for Shatabishak nakshatra), they were usually referred to as a singular entity Mitra-Varuna. They were depicted as youthful royal figures, maintainers of order and truth in the world.
Later on, their distinctions came. Varuna was said to be the lord of oceans, the patron saint of physicians, and punisher of sinners. Mitra was said to be the god of friendship, sustainer of mankind and keeper of oaths. Varuna was said to cover the Sun, ruling the night. Mitra was said to uncover the Sun at dawn, ruling the day.
The idea of covering and uncovering, obviously, refers to secrecy. Mitra deals with uncovering and discovering, while Varuna deals with protecting and concealing.
Some loose notes:
- Devotion, dedication, deep passions in life.
- Extremes of devotion.
- Love for friendship and friendliness.
- Loves serenity and having people at ease.
- Fall from grace, or loss of ego, makes the native grow.
- Good skills with numbers, can indicate statistics or administrative work. Also things like numerology.
- Love for working in groups, they can easily make opposing sides work together.
- Friendship and Friendliness:
- Always tries to be pleasant to others.
- Easily captivates others and makes friends.
- Can harbor bad friendships or keep bad friends. Strange sense of loyalty.
- Devotion:
- Extreme dedication towards something or someone.
- Can deal with deep work or deep focus in something, like arts or career.
- Can deal with obsessions, fan-clubs, being a groupie, etc.
- Could show someone that gets obsessive when in love.
- Lotus:
- Lotus rises from the mud.
- These natives can rise in life, coming out from bad situations or a bad start in life.
- Love for travel:
- Intense desire for travel and discovering foreign cultures.
- The native’s friendliness makes for an easy time getting along abroad.
- Career wise:
- Mathematics, any area dealing with crunching and processing numbers.
- could show engineering, data science, and others.
- Administrative work, managing people and teams. Teamwork.
- Finance, accounting, etc.
- Occult fields, specially numerology.
- Arts, cinema and photography.
- Music, a great star for musicians.
- Political activism, promotion of ideologies or causes.
- Lobbying.
This nakshatra, in my view, is yet one more case in astrology where people see pretty words and get carried away. The word in question is devotion, seen through the association with the goddess Radha.
Devotion can mean a beautiful spiritual relationship, yes. It can also mean radicals and terrorists. Devotion is the quality of uttermost belief and dedication to something. You can be devoted to your spouse, to your children, to your mother, to god. But you can also be devoted to radical causes, crazy ideas, violence, and all kinds of things.
Whenever I study anything in astrology, my goal is always to find the impulse behind whatever it is. The impulse is the basic, essential quality, behind a planet/sign/house/nakshatra that can be interpreted anywhere. Regardless of the context, regardless of which kind of person is being discussed.
An example of that is Gemini, I remember studying western astrology and the texts frantically telling me that Gemini “is always sociable, never an introvert” and yet I’ve met more than a few introvert Geminis. They were never the life of the party, but upon talking to them, they were the Geminiest of Geminis of the whole world. What gives?
Simple, the basic impulse of Gemini is seeking information and variety, trying to find something new, going after multiple things and ideas. One avenue, or expression of that, is being a chatterbox and talking your mouth out. But around the mid 90s, something called the internet popped up. And you can learn stuff there, discover a variety of things, and satisfy this Gemini yearning without being “always sociable” as some texts say. Before the internet, there were these things called libraries, some still exist today. A lot of Geminis were and are bookworms, trolling libraries for tons of information, no talking needed.
Similarly, the basic impulse of Anuradha is devotion, dedication, and the energy of lightning towards something.
That can mean spiritual pursuits, and truly great potential exists in this nakshatra for this, but it can also mean dedication in other places. For one thing, it can relate to groupies. Crazy fans that follow around bands, musicians or sports teams anywhere as if it was their job. It can also show obsessions to people, not always reciprocated, such as stalking or unrequited love.
I mention this because time and time again I’ve seen people discussing Anuradha and saying things like “I can’t believe that such a benevolent star sits in Scorpio”, as if being a Scorpio (necessarily) meant being a psycho serial killer, and as if being an Anuradha always meant being a Holy Mother who nurtures orphans and rescues diseased animals. Different kinds of people exist, in both cases.
A secondary impulse of Anuradha is that of friendship, these natives will usually value and cherish their friends dearly. Being dedicated to them through everything. Rarely will Anuradha break off friendships. Similarly, the natives have a strong trend towards wanting to keep people at ease.
Putting two and two together, the conciliating qualities of Mitra with the power of the Lotus to rise through the mud, Anuradha usually has the skill not only to rise in life. But also to create common ground and make opponents work together towards a common cause. Working in group and finding a group are usually important things in the life of Anuradha.
Anuradha usually has a good affinity with numbers, which can manifest with skills in things like accounting, finance or management. But it can also deal with numerology and occultism.
Anuradha tends to indicate deep devotion or focus onto something. A 5th lord here can show someone with great artistic talent, as they will be very dedicated towards their art. Anuradha can indicate proficiency, achieved through deep focus/devotion, regarding the matters it touches in a chart.
As usual, let’s delve into the negative. The negatives of Anuradha all relate to the excess, or the wrong application of all the qualities above. I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.
On friendliness, Anuradha can conquer the world, for good and bad. Meaning that they can use their friendliness to manipulate people. Many times, to their own detriment, might I add.
An essential quality of Scorpio is, at times, being your own worse enemy. Just remember the tale of the scorpion and the frog, the scorpion drowned and died. Similarly, Scorpio many times creates his own needless issues in life. With Anuradha, this comes from being friendly and manipulative with a smile.
If everyone gets along, there is no problem. Right? If people are being friendly, there is no problem. Right? If people are at ease, I’m in control. Right? Maybe, mostly no. But let’s agree to disagree 😀.
Agreement and common ground are needed, so that we don’t all just kill each other all the time. But disagreement is simply a fact of life, and necessary at times. Anuradha doesn’t understand that, they want to force agreement any which way.
These natives will insist on a specific way of doing things. They will talk it out, be smooth, nice. But they will insist on their specific way. They will force people to agree, on the ground of keeping peace and good relations. But, as with anything coerced, sincerity and longevity are not guaranteed.
People will agree at face, all while resenting the native or even not following the agreement at all. Eventually, the effects of said resentment or disconnection will catch up, and Anuradha gets shocked with a sudden disappointment. I say sudden on a very loose note, because it is not sudden at all. Any agreement made on shoddy bases will collapse, like a poorly made bridge, it is no surprise.
Anuradha natives tend to confuse friendliness with truthfulness. So seeing common ground all around can easily fool them.
Similarly, agreements have to be made with willing and cooperating parties. A certain degree of equality is needed. Mitra deals mostly with holy agreements, sacred oaths, that we humans make with gods. On a spiritual level, that deals with beautiful devotion. On a day to day level, that deals with Anuradha natives seeing themselves as gods, or above others. So agreements have no equality.
They are the godly energy, the right person standing above, while others are merely humans. So they smile, and they charm, but they don’t give an inch. Agreements are never a true cooperation, but monologues of the native.
The agreement is made, much like a patched up bridge, and broken to the surprise of Anuradha. Great disappointments arise out of this, and the native can feel his ego broken by these experiences. Parents, friends, siblings, children, family, coworkers can all figure on this.
Devotion can similarly become a negative. Devotion is a pretty word, a synonym for it is an ugly word called obsession, a milder synonym is infatuation. Yet they all tend to mean about the same: intensity, love, passion and dedication towards something. With something being a key thing to understand.
Anuradha can make for very devout and intelligent natives. Or it can make for zealots, radicals and those that can’t live without pushing their beliefs onto others at all times. The deep and powerful intensity of passion that Anuradha brings can make for the most annoying of people.
Every conversation, every subject, becomes about their pet causes or beliefs. If they are into politics, it doesn’t matter that you were discussing “Phillips head screwdrivers”, they will bring politics into it. If they are deep into religion, they will manage to talk about the spirituality of the Torx screw. The subjects don’t matter, all that matters is pushing their beliefs. They have a deep passion, so everyone must know about it and, most importantly, everyone must share their passion and agree with them.
They are prone to emotional speech, alienating rants and overall excessive speech about their passions/devotions. Whichever they are. They will always be passionate and devoted by whichever belief or cause they pick-up.
A final defect is the combination of both things, friendliness and devotion, or devotion to friends. Anuradha can have really bad friends, that they keep around, no matter what. This can mean negative people, stupid people, complicated or shady characters, etc. Learning to let go and adjusting their friendships, from time to time, can be an important lesson.
As a daily star:
Anuradha day is usually a great time to socialize. The natives are not that fond of confrontation, preferring friendliness and agreement, even if somewhat false. Similarly, the day is not conductive towards major disagreements or quarrels. So it is a good day for a party or a good time, as people are not prone to fighting here.
The thunder energy means a great time to focus on something, maybe studying a subject, maybe writing a report, etc. There is a strong energy for concentrated effort here. The idea of lightning can also mean unusual things, so it is a good time to explore. Discover new ideas, new places, new people. Mingle, get to know new things, etc.
→ Favorable activities with Anuradha: dealing with groups, being around people and overall being sociable. Great for traveling, specially to foreign lands. Dealing with finances, accounting, numbers, organization and bureaucracy. Dealing with anything unusual or out of the blue, remember, the thunder energy. Concentrating on something, focusing.
→ Unfavorable activities with Anuradha: unfavorable for new beginnings. Not good for domestic and routine activities, such as chores. Not good for confrontation, as the impulse is that of friendship and conciliation.
On a predictive manner, as hinted above, Anuradha grants devotion or great skill in something — achieved through devotion/dedication. When related to the 5th house, this can make for a great artist, as they will be deeply passionate about their creations. In the 7th house, the person could be very devoted to their partners, sometimes to the point of obsession. In the 8th, it could show someone who has a knack for finance and business. In the 10th, someone who sacrifices a lot for their work or public life.
Examples:
- Warren Buffett (Anuradha Moon at 12° Scorpio): American investor and business mogul.
- Numbers: A given in a financial field, also great administrative talent, managing one of the largest funds in the world.
- Devotion/Dedication: He takes his job very seriously, having dedicated most of his life to it, and keeping his schedule in check even in complicated moments of his life, such as a battle with cancer.
- Bruce Lee (Anuradha Ascendant at 13° Scorpio + Sun at 12°): Chinese-American actor, specialized in martial arts
- Thunder energy: He was known for his physical strength and high energy.
- Devotion/Dedication: He was extremely dedicated, to the point of obsession, to his craft. He mastered all forms of martial arts, and he would rehearse action scenes until they were more than perfect. He would work beyond exhaustion, which eventually led to health issues.
- Artists like Pablo Picasso, Emmylou Harris and Tina Turner all have planets in the 5th house here.
See more Nakshatra posts here
