The Rashis

That tells you straight away how Jyotish differs from the astrology most of us grew up with. In the West the Sun sign is the headline. In India the Moon sign is, because the Moon governs the mind, the memory and the feelings you actually live inside from one day to the next. The Sun describes what you are here to do. The Moon describes how it feels to be you while you do it, and in my experience that is the thing people recognise first.

One sign back

The sidereal zodiac is measured from the stars and the Western zodiac from the seasons, and the two have drifted about 24 degrees apart. So anything in the first 24 degrees of a Western sign moves back one sign in the sidereal chart, and anything in the last six degrees stays put. About four people in five find their sidereal Moon one sign earlier than their Western one. The same is true of the Sun and the Rising sign. The Sidereal and Tropical page works through why, and why neither zodiac is wrong.

The twelve

Each rashi has its own page, which covers the sidereal Moon there at length, the sidereal Sun more briefly, the ruling graha and the nakshatras that fall within the sign.

Mesha, Aries, ruled by Mars, is the quick feeler who reacts first and thinks second, brave and direct and learning the pause.

Vrishabha, Taurus, ruled by Venus, is where the Moon is exalted, slow and deep and settled, the calm centre of any room it is in.

Mithuna, Gemini, ruled by Mercury, feels through words, lives on conversation and variety, and has to learn depth as well as breadth.

Karka, Cancer, ruled by the Moon itself, is the Moon at home, deep, permeable and loyal, and in need of a real refuge.

Simha, Leo, ruled by the Sun, is warm and large and proud, generous with love and slow to say sorry.

Kanya, Virgo, ruled by Mercury, examines a feeling before expressing it, cares through service and lives with a loud inner critic.

Tula, Libra, ruled by Venus, weighs everything, needs harmony around it and keeps the peace sometimes at its own expense.

Vrishchika, Scorpio, ruled by Mars, feels intensely and privately, and lets very little go until it has been fully understood.

Dhanu, Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter, needs meaning and open road, and is at its best when it has something to believe in.

Makara, Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, holds feeling in reserve, takes responsibility early and learns to rest late.

Kumbha, Aquarius, ruled by Saturn, feels for the group more easily than for the person in front of it, and thinks before it feels.

Meena, Pisces, ruled by Jupiter, has no edges, picks up everything and needs quiet water to settle in.

The Western pairs

Every rashi page has a Western pair in The Signs, and the Moon in the Signs page gives the Western reading of each Moon. Read them together. Most people with a sidereal Taurus Moon were told they had a Gemini Moon, and both descriptions have something to say about them, because the two zodiacs ask different questions of the same sky. I give the sidereal Sun and Moon beside the Western ones in every full portrait and I do not swap one for the other.

If you have been through the Chinese section, The Animals is a third way of cutting the same twelve fold cake, by year rather than by month or by the Moon's position, and it is worth keeping in mind that none of the three replaces the others.

How to use these pages

You need your Moon's sidereal position to know your rashi, and that takes a chart. If you already have a Western chart with the Moon's degree on it, the one sign back rule above will get you there in most cases. If the Moon sits in the last six degrees of its Western sign, it stays. If it sits in the first 24, move it back one. Anyone within a degree or two of that line should have it calculated properly, and the Find Your Numbers and Signs page will add the sidereal Moon in due course.

Then read your rashi page, and notice what fits and what does not. After that, find the nakshatra your Moon sits in, because The Nakshatras page divides each rashi into finer parts and the nakshatra is the detail I read first in any portrait. Read your Western Moon page too. You will learn more from the gap between the two descriptions than from either one on its own.

You will be your own teacher. All I will do is help you remember what you already know.

If you would like your own chart read, my readings are here.

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