Span: 0°00' Aries – 13°20' Aries (sidereal)
Ruling lord: Ketu
Presiding deity: Ashwini Kumaras (divine healers)
Symbol: horse's head
Shakti (classical power): reach quickly
Ashwini is the 1st of the 27 nakshatras, occupying 0°00' Aries to 13°20' Aries in the sidereal zodiac. If the Moon stood in this stretch of sky at your birth, this is your Janma Nakshatra, your birth star.
The traditional reading is: quick to start, restless, energetic, heals and moves fast.
The behavioural marker most often named: leaps into action before anyone else, then wants the next thing before finishing this one.
The classical anchor for this is the shakti, the power assigned to each nakshatra in the Taittiriya Brahmana. For Ashwini it is reach quickly, and the deity Ashwini Kumaras (divine healers) and symbol horse's head carry the same idea in image form.
Every nakshatra is quartered. Each quarter, a pada, is 3 degrees 20 minutes wide and maps onto a navamsa sign, which shades the reading:
| Pada | Span (sidereal) | Navamsa sign |
|---|---|---|
| Pada 1 | 0°00' Aries – 3°20' Aries | Aries |
| Pada 2 | 3°20' Aries – 6°40' Aries | Taurus |
| Pada 3 | 6°40' Aries – 10°00' Aries | Gemini |
| Pada 4 | 10°00' Aries – 13°20' Aries | Cancer |
Because a pada lasts roughly six hours, you need your birth time to know which of the four is yours.
Ashwini is ruled by Ketu.
Because Ashwini is ruled by Ketu, anyone born with the Moon here begins life in the Ketu period of the Vimshottari dasha cycle, which runs 7 years. That starting point shifts the timing of every period that follows, which is why two people of the same age can be in completely different chapters.
Ashwini is nakshatra number 1 of 27, spanning 0°00' Aries to 13°20' Aries in the sidereal zodiac. Its ruling lord is Ketu, its presiding deity is Ashwini Kumaras (divine healers), and its symbol is horse's head.
Each nakshatra is quartered into padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes. For Ashwini the four padas fall in the navamsa signs Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, in that order.
Ketu rules Ashwini. In the Vimshottari dasha system the Ketu period lasts 7 years.
Not sure whether Ashwini is yours? It takes your date, place and ideally time of birth.
Find my nakshatraThe span and the pada boundaries are arithmetic and exact. The lord, deity and symbol follow the classical sources and vary little between them. The character reading renders the shakti, deity and symbol in plain words; the classical texts themselves are terse here, and anything longer is later compilation.
Recorded source for this entry: BPHS + Taittiriya Brahmana (shakti to reach quickly); deity Ashwini Kumaras (divine healers), symbol horse's head, lord Ketu