Mirgashira Nakshatra

Curious Sensitive / Observant Explorer

mirgashira - deer — 📷 Scott Carroll on Unsplash

The Basics

📷 https://www.flickr.com/photos/numerologysign. creative commons.

Mirgashira lies between 23°20' Taurus — 6°40' Gemini. This essentially means, depending on your Moon’s exact degree, you could either be a Taurus or Gemini. Needless to say, Mirgashira in Taurus will have a receptive but steadfast energy, while in Gemini it would adopt a more active and agile energy.

The Myth

As we have established already, the key to understanding how Nakshatras manifest in reality, is to become familiar with the myths associated with them.

The myth associated with Mirgashira involves Daksha, the son of Brahma. Daksha organized a grand Yajna (a ritual) but intentionally avoided inviting his daughter Sati’s husband, Shiva, whom he despised. Sati went to the ritual without Shiva’s consent, where Daksha insulted her and Shiva. Sati couldn’t bear the humiliation and jumped into the sacrificial fire. Upon learning of Sati’s death, Shiva became furious and destroyed Daksha’s yajna. Yagya, the presiding sage, turned into a deer and ran away, but Shiva caught up and killed him. His head became the Mrigasira nakshatra, which symbolizes sacrifice.

Symbolism

While mythologically, Mirgashira is associated with sacrifice, the word Mirgashira translates to ‘deer’s head’. In ancient cultures, when it comes to deriving meaning, often looking at what the word literally means in connection with the symbol it represents gives much insight.

In many cultures, including ancient Indian cultures, deers are associated with gentleness, innocence, sensitivity, intuition, agility, connection to nature, and search for knowledge. Think of deers in the wild, constantly seeming to search for something. That’s the energy that Mirgashira holds.

Rulerships

As usual, let’s break it down by the categories we use, so we can get a better understanding of how rulerships impact the manifestation of Mirgashira:

Rulership of the Nakshatra itself — Mirgashira is said to be ruled by Mars. Mars represents courage, strength, energy, ambition, passion, assertiveness, and the drive to succeed. It’s considered a masculine planet and is associated with the fire element. Mars is also known as the planet of action and is said to be the planet that governs our ability to take action and make things happen.
Rulership of the zodiac signs the Nakshatra is placed in — Depending on the degree of the Nakshatra, Mirgashira can either be placed in Taurus or Gemini. Needless to say, how Mirgashira manifests is greatly influenced by the zodiac sign it finds itself in. In Taurus, Mirgashira is influenced by the creative impulse of Venus. It can create a steady, driven, gentle nature in its positive expression, while its shadow expression can manifest as stubbornness. In Gemini, Mirgashira becomes influenced by the intellectual flair of Mercury and can give the ability to communicate well through writing, speaking, and persuasive abilities. Its shadow expression can show up as the duality of Gemini, resulting in double-mindedness, and inconsistency.

Putting it All Together

mirgashira nature — 📷 Jovan Vasiljević on Unsplash

Now that we briefly looked at all the key meanings associated with Mirgashira, let’s put it all together.

#1 — from the word Mirgashira — Quality of a deer. Gentleness, innocence, sensitivity, intuition, agility, connection to nature, and search for knowledge
#2 — from the Myth — sacrificial
#3 — associated with Mars — courage, strength, energy, ambition, passion, assertiveness, and the drive to succeed.
#4 — associated with Venus (if placed in Taurus) — steady, driven, gentle nature, stubbornness
#5 — associated with Mercury (if placed in Gemini) — writing, speaking, and persuasive abilities, double-mindedness, and inconsistency.

A Quick Example

mirgashira example — image generated from Cosmic Insights

This is an example of a chart that shows the Moon placed in Taurus, in Mirgashira Nakshatra, in the 5th house.

Generally speaking, this chart would indicate a person who is:

curious, action-oriented, creative, passionate, and assertive
Since the Moon is placed in the 5th house of creativity, which indicates the creative arts, this person, because of the influence of Mirgashira placed in Taurus, would be a highly creative individual.
Since the ruler of the 5th house, Venus is placed in the 10th house along with Mercury, this person would likely have a public life and may be known for their creative and communicative abilities. They could either manifest these energies in writing, acting, or other communicative arts, like poetry.