Vedic · Nakshatra 17 of 27

Anuradha

The star of devotion: friendship that survives distance and difficulty.

Ruling planet
Saturn, in the Vimshottari cycle
Span
3°20' Scorpio to 16°40' Scorpio
Deity
Mitra, god of friendship
Symbol
a lotus
Gana
Deva
Padas
Four, of 3°20' each

What Anuradha means

Anuradha is the best friend of the zodiac. It builds real bonds, works well inside groups, and has a devotional quality that can be aimed at people, work, or the divine. It also handles hardship better than most, which is why it is associated with success achieved abroad or against odds.

The work: Stay devoted. Make sure the devotion is returned somewhere.

Your birth star is where the Moon was

A nakshatra is not a sign. The sidereal zodiac is divided two ways at once: into twelve signs of 30 degrees, and into twenty-seven nakshatras of 13 degrees 20 minutes. Your birth star is the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment you were born, and jyotish weighs it as heavily as the sign, sometimes more.

Anuradha occupies 3°20' Scorpio to 16°40' Scorpio. Because a nakshatra is narrower than a sign, finding yours needs an exact birth time: the Moon crosses one about every day, so a few hours can move you into the next.

With the Moon in Anuradha

A Moon here finds home in friendship rather than in a place, and travels well because of it. Devotion is the emotional default, which is a gift given to the right people and a wound given to the wrong ones.

Find your birth star from your birth moment

The four padas of Anuradha

Every nakshatra divides again into four quarters called padas, of 3°20' each. The pada your Moon falls in refines the reading further and decides its position in the navamsa, the divisional chart jyotish uses for marriage and for the real strength of a planet.

Pada 1
3°20' Scorpio to 6°40' Scorpio
Pada 2
6°40' Scorpio to 10°00' Scorpio
Pada 3
10°00' Scorpio to 13°20' Scorpio
Pada 4
13°20' Scorpio to 16°40' Scorpio

Why Anuradha being ruled by Saturn matters

Anuradha is ruled by Saturn. That is not decoration: the nakshatra your Moon sits in decides which planetary period, or dasha, your life opens with. The twenty-seven run three times through the same nine lords, so Saturn rules Anuradha and two others, and the Vimshottari system uses that to time when things happen rather than only what they mean.

The gana is Deva, which is godly: gentle, cooperative, oriented toward harmony. Classical matchmaking still uses it when comparing two charts.

Where the other mirrors say something similar

Six Mirrors reads a birth through six traditions at once, and shows you where they independently agree. The birth star is the finest grain any of them offers, which makes it one of the most useful things to check a convergence against.

Sidereal positions use the Lahiri ayanamsa. Degree spans and ruling planets are derived from the nakshatra's index rather than transcribed, and checked against the engine's own calculation.