Beyond Star Signs: Nakshatras — #2 Bharani
An Astrology Series
Let’s continue our journey through the Nakshatras!
If you have not yet read my first two posts on the topic, I recommend that you do so before you continue with this post.
Let’s continue with the second Nakshatra — Bharani 🐘!
The Basics
On to the basics!
Similar to Ashwini, Bharani lies entirely within Aries as well (sidereal). To be specific, 13°20' — 26°40' Aries.
The Myth
We already established in a previous post the importance of understanding the myth associated with each Nakshatra.
The Myth associated with Bharani is somewhat a continuation of the myth of Ashwini.
Remember the story of Surya’s (Sun) wife Santana, and the shadow wife (Chaya)?
That story now continues:
Yama, the god of death, is the child of Surya (Sun) and Sanjana. Unable to bear the Sun’s heat, Sanjana runs away after creating a Shadow wife. The Sun continues to live with the shadow wife, without knowing that this was not Sanjana. After some time, the Sun and Chaya — the shadow wife, have three children.
The shadow wife Chaya loved her own children, but did not show the same love for Yama, the child that was born to the Sun and Sanjana. Dispute born out of this between Yama and Chaya eventually leads to the Sun realizing that he’s been living with a shadow wife — and he goes in search of Sanjana.
Yama then goes on to become the first mortal to be sent to earth to die, eventually becoming the god of death.
Yama, the god of death, is associated with the Bharani Nakshatra, and is seen as the deity personifying Bharani.
Keep that in mind. We will come back to this later!
Symbolism
Bharani is known as the Bearer of New Life. Bharani’s symbol is Yoni (Vulva), the female reproductive organ.
When we begin to explore the nature of Bharani Nakshatra symbolized by the Vulva, what comes to mind? Generally Vulvas are associated with birth, life, sexuality, and creativity. It’s associated with the womb — where new life is nourished and hosted.
Rulerships
So far we have looked at the myth and symbolisms associated with Bharani. Before we start to put these together to see what Bharani reveals, let’s take a moment to discuss rulerships.
As I mentioned in my post on Ashwini, when it comes to rulerships of Nakshatras, we need to consider two things:
- Rulership of the Nakshatra itself — Bharani is said to be ruled by Venus. Venus is usually associated with material wealth, prosperity, sexuality, potency, pleasure, beauty, and luxury.
- Rulership of the Zodiac Sign where the Nakshatra is placed in — We already established that Bharani lies fully in the zodiac sign Aries. Aries is ruled by Mars. Mars is associated with courage, bravery, action, energy, and war.
Putting it All Together
We have now covered all the key building blocks to understanding how Bharani could manifest. Let’s recap before we move further.
We know that Bharani is,
- #1 — associated with Yama, the god of death — signifying death and transformation.
- #2 — associated with Yoni (Vulva) — birth, life, sexuality, and creativity.
- #3 — associated with Venus — wealth, prosperity, sexuality, potency, pleasure, beauty, luxury and spirituality.
- #4 — associated with Mars — courage, aggression, bravery, action, energy
So what could it look like when you have your Moon placed in Bharani Nakshatra?
We established that the moon signifies your mind and emotions — your innter world. This is how you perceive the world from within.
What’s notable about Bharani from what we have discussed so far is that it signifies death and life at the same time. It’s a Nakshatra of transformation. If you have your Moon in Bharani, it is likely that you would be someone who would have had many death like situations through out life. This doesn’t mean it’s literal near-death — but rather, significant endings and beginnings that lead towards transformation.
If we are to imagine a formula that could illustrate what else moon in Bharani could manifest, we get something like this:
Moon, your inner-self, will combine the passion and drive that Mars brings, with the energy of sensuality, beauty and creativity. When Mars and Venus come together, it always creates a ‘spark’. When this happens between two people, we can call it ‘chemistry’. If you have Bharani in your natal Moon, then this ‘chemistry’ happens within you!
The influece of Mars and Venus together gives you a sensual personality. You will likely be someone who loves creativity, sensuality, sexuality, and luxury. Bharani moon natives, although would desire wealth, would often desire it so that they can use it for others in need. Depending on the house your moon is placed in, it would highlight different areas of these more aggressively.
Think of the symbolisms we discussed earlier — specifically the Vulva (life) and Yama (death). We also know of the association to Venus and Mars. These energies would give you primal sexual desires, but often due to circumstances this may push you towards needing to suppress or disown them. At times this leads to the ‘death’ of these — by often embracing somewhat an ascetic nature. At its core, Bharani moon would create a deep sense of seeing sexuality as an expression of the divine.
Bharani holds within itself both the masculine (Mars) and the Feminine (Venus) principles. This creates an enormous creative potential in Bharani moon people.
How is this useful anyway?
If you are someone who has their Moon placed in Bharani Nakshatra, what are the patterns you would want to embrace and foster so you can live your highest expression?
Embrace your love for the sensual, sexual, beauty, creativity, life, wealth and luxury. In its highest expression, embrace spirituality.
At the same time, interrupt patterns that can cause you to be indulgent in all these things to the point of excess.
A Quick Example
Let’s see what this can look like on a birth chart.
A quick disclaimer: This is a general analysis. While this can give you some pointers in understanding yourself, it’s important to remember you need to consider the entire chart for a holistic understanding.
This is an example of a chart that shows the Moon placed in Aries, in Bharani Nakshatra, in the 3rd house.
The general profile of this person would indicate that they are:
- sensual, creative, courageous, attractive, and charismatic
- since the Moon is placed in the 3rd House of Communication, their focus in life would likely be around things of communication and media. This could mean that they are a writer, a poet, a lyricist, etc.
- Since the ruler of Aries is Mars, and Mars is placed in the 11th House of Community and Social Networks and rules over the 10th House of Public Life, this person will likely be a public figure. Given the presence of Uranus in the 10 House very close to Venus, it could also indicate they would likely have risen to fame suddenly.
- Considering the placements that we just looked at, along with the connection to Mars and Venus, and their connections to the 10th House here, this person would likely be a media figure — likely a singer/dancer.
Conclusion
I hope this post is of value to you in undertanding Bharani. As you know, there’s so much more we can discuss with each Nakshatra. What we are covering here in these posts are simply the basics and a small portion of the enormous amount of insight you can gain by going deeper into learning about the Nakshatras that are relevant to you or your loved ones.
As always, use Astrology only as a tool to make the unconscious conscious, and never as a blue print of your fate!
Use it to foster patterns that need to be fostered in you, and interrupt the ones that do not serve you well in the long run!
