The first snow fell here where I live in Canada. It’s been snowing for few days now. It’s not even the middle of November yet and we’re already covered as if it’s winter. The last time we had snow at this time of year here was perhaps twenty five years ago when I was still in high school. It’s a strange scene outside – still autumn with the colourful leaves on trees, still flowers, yet all now covered in snow and quite frozen, which honestly, has been a little sad to see. But the little sunny petals are rebellious, and still trying their best through it all. All around, many people are calling this terrible, complaining, while others, especially the children, are out to play.
Is snow bad? No. It’s just nature. Nature is neither good or bad, it just is. Winter too carries her wisdom – it’s wisdom set in snow. It pulls us inward; it shows us how we nurture our inner flames, how honest we are, how we create of scarcity and external limitations, how we act and move when grounds are frozen and winds are strong, how we persevere and endure. It shows us what we’re made of. Winter reveals. It reveals where the warm actually is.
There is a story from ancient times, about a tiny village south of the equator, where the people there never ever saw snow because it was always hot and humid. One day, snow fell. All feared it. What god is now punishing us, what kind of a curse is this? Whatever we don’t understand as human beings, we’ll fear, and we’ll seek to destroy or diminish. Out of fear and ignorance we destroy things, and we further separate ourselves from ourselves and from one another.
I’ve been seeing more and more how difficult it is for people to discern the genuine from the false. So today I’d like us to remember what the essence of true astrology is, and I’ll then dispel some fears and misconceptions on the Ashlesha nakshatra, which people often ask about because it often carries scary interpretation. We are not meant to villainize things in life and astrology; we are meant to observe it, and seek to understand it. And the deeper we understand something, the more we may be able to dissolve the boundaries and perhaps even touch a deeper wisdom, a light of awareness.
The dharmic focus of astrology
Spiritual astrology is a beautiful ancient practice, an eye awake and seeing; seeing beyond the surface and offering wisdom, insight and guidance for people. Real astrology goes beyond the mundane things or predictions, it is meant to elevate you beyond all that. It is a spiritual science, which essentially offers you an opportunity for a deepening, so that you may live a more fulfilled life of greater love, wisdom and purpose.
Astrology is a way to go deeper. We go deeper because we seek to dissolve some of the pre-conditioning of this world. We go deeper because we seek to touch and taste freedom. the soma, the sweet nectar. And this serves us. It serves us because it gives us confidence of the path and serves our faith that way; it serves us because we choose to become better people and be of greater help to one another, build something beautiful together.
Nowadays, so much has become a circus. It’s quite heartbreaking how as collective and people we’ve become disconnected from our hearts, humaneness and values we’ve become. There is so much misinformation, profanity, and astrology too, just like all other systems of wisdom throughout humanity, has been corrupted, tainted and polluted by lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, lack of respect, social media circus shows, spiritual egos and lack of ethics. So often astrologers make rash and fear based unethical predictions, spreading misinformation and propagating lack of knowledge.
Lack of understanding creates fear, stress and inevitably will lead you down the wrong path. Clarity and truth frees us, and when we understand the essence of things, we settle into peace and hopefully choose a dharmic path. I often, unfortunately, meet people who say they have “depth of knowledge” in astrology, but it’s obvious they don’t have because of the statements they make, and the negatively skewed perspectives they hold. It is precisely the lack of understanding that is at the root of people then feeling scared, worried, anxious or confused. So whenever you fall into the rabbit hole of hopelessness, fear and stress, you need to first reflect on what your beliefs and learning are based on.
It is with every part of my being that I am against pollution of true wisdom and purity and commodification of people’s vulnerabilities, and this is why I am devoted to always show you the nature, essence and depth of things. The root of our problems in this world is lack of knowledge, lack of deeper understanding and staying merely on the surface of things. We, as humanity, need to be able to pierce through our ignorance, laziness and need for instant gratification – only then we may touch and taste the sweet nectar of true wisdom, and live a more fulfilled life of love, beauty, purpose and fulfilling relationships.
This life is a gift, a most precious gift. It is up to you how you may choose to live it. All rivers will go into the sea anyway, but it is up to you what you choose to do with your river, what you pour into it, how you nourish it and how you flow with it. It’s yours, and the choice is yours, you are the one living within it. But if you do desire and choose to live a more fulfilling and purposeful way, you need to align to a dharmic path and be heart centered, embodying virtue, love, living in appreciation and seeking truth and wisdom.
Insights on Ashlesha
So let’s shine some light on Ashlesha, as the moon is transiting this lunar mansion today. I often receive questions about it, and most recently, a dear woman reached out to me for insight, as she was quite terrified that some social media astrologer told her that evil resided in Ashlesha. This is false. But it’s also sad. It’s sad that there are people calling themselves astrologers, and leading people astray by saying such things, and it’s even sadder that this astrologer lives in an inner world so false and limiting. Hopefully she may grow out of this ignorance and feel inspired to learn more.
All nakshatras are part of the divine creation and of nature, so all deserve respect, and neither of them are inherently evil. There’s no such thing. So I’d like to begin with the symbol of Ashlesha and her connection to snakes.
The deity associated with Ashlesha are the Naagas serpent deities. In the old days, people feared snakes, and even today many snakes are killed and seen as scary animals. And Ashlesha too, like the snakes, is often so unjustly vilified. I am not a big influence in our world, but I hope that our reverence for all living beings and animals and sacred knowledge increases; i hope that our compassion as human beings increases. Across the world we’ve had many cultures respect snakes, such as the Hopi people with the snake dance. I hope we return to our human values.
This may sound as off topic for astrology and Ashlesha, but it actually isn’t, because it is spiritual practice itself to serve the misunderstood, the vilified, the voiceless, the persecuted unjustly. Snakes are treated with brutality due to our fear and ignorance, and this is what I wrote of in the beginning. Whenever we fear something we don’t understand, whenever we remain in ignorance, we will hurt that thing. Awareness matters. Our humaneness matters. I personally don’t have any Ashlesha in my chart, nor do I get cuddly around snakes in nature, but I respect them, their wisdom, their life. This is what I hope we all can inspire to do.
Ashlesha is known as the “entwiner” or “embracer”, and this lunar mansion resides in the Hydra constellation, the water snake constellation. More precisely, Ashlesha is the deity personification of stars and asterisms of δ, ε “Ashlesha”, η, ρ, and σ “Minchir” and “Minazal” of the Hydra constellation.
The symbol of Ashlesha is a coiled serpent and also, a wheel. The wheel refers to the karmic cycles and karmic imprints that the native may have entangled themselves into, so they are given a unique opportunity to unhold their hands from these wheels and step onto a dharmic path. The old mentalities of eye for an eye will not serve you. What trumps karma is grace, and it is love.
What Ashlesha is often known for is how it coils and wraps around people or things, especially those she loves or wants to attach to, and as such, these natives need to be mindful of their intention. There is potential for healing and raising themselves through deeper awareness if they choose a path of dharma and virtue; and so, the path to dharma of Ashlesha essentially begins with the conscious choice to transmute the inner darkness, transform through letting go of fears and insecurities, and alchemize – transforming poison into medicine.
Actually, a lot of Ashlesha people feel drawn to medicine, medical fields or being physicians later on in life, or even working with insects, reptiles, or roots and bulbs and agriculture. Roots and bulbs? Yes, exactly. Because Ashlesha is here to dig into the underground and understand how things move there, unroot the weeds, and nourish seeds into something fruitful and healthy for all. This also means exploring its own underground, its inner world, what moves it, what drives it forward, its hidden motivations; to explore what within its inner self needs to be nourished and what needs to be devoured completely. And in this way, Ashlesha may also become very passionate about psychology also, exploring the worlds of the human psyche.
Everything in nature can be either medicine or poison, depending on how we use it. As part of the Shiva trimurti and Mercury as her lord, this nakshatra is about truth and integrity in its highest manifestation, especially when it comes to speech and words. This nakshatra can be deeply hurtful to people if the native choose to be unkind and cruel and manipulative or use people’s vulnerabilities agains them or betray people’s trust or gossip or spread false things. The root of all these actions, and the deeper attachment tendencies here, is fear, and especially fear of abandonment. So to keep herself safe, she coils around.
Shiva connects to the throat energy center, and also relates to cleansing the past karmic impulses. The throat center or chakra, known as Vishuddha, is known as the purification center where the nectar amrita drips down and is split into pure form and a poison. As I said, everything in life can be either medicine or poison depending on its usage.
So in its higher manifestation, the nectar becomes higher vision, discernment, clarity, truth and integrity, and is associated with creativity and self expression – we create with our voice, and we may create amazing things, meaningful things.
When this is a closed center, or in its lower vibration, this leads to problems and degradation; where as when it is open, the so-called lessons of life are seen by the individual as opportunities for deepening, knowledge, and are translated and turned into wisdom and higher learning.
Vishuddha translates to “very pure”, “free from vice”, “virtuous” and “brilliant”; however, Vis-Shuddhi also translates as purification from poison, or removal of poison. Shiva held the “halahal” which came from the poison which came from the churning of the cosmic oceans in his throat; and as such, it is our throat which is the point where purification can happen.
There is deep symbolism here that humbles us into its understanding – because it shows that whether poison or nectar comes of us is up to us, and that purification is key, which comes through self knowledge, and inner spiritual knowledge. For some people, it may come naturally – they may naturally be of more integrity; for others, rain may come to purify them; and yet for others, they may not even ever know the poisons they hold.
It is usually very easy to see who someone is based on their words, perspectives – it shows you who they are, it shows you what moves through them, the kind of nectar they hold. Our voice can cleanse, can heal, can purify the hearts and even souls of others; but it can also hurt others, taint them, and make them ill. It is only up to us whether we choose to use our voice and words for wisdom, to raise others, to encourage and be kind, to lift each other up.
Let’s think of the snake in real life. Before it sheds its skin it actually goes blind temporarily. This makes the snake feel very vulnerable, and so she becomes more defensive but also may attack you more easily, because she is scared – she is scared because she feels vulnerable. But she needs to grow. She needs to shed her old skin because she is already grown and outgrown of her previous skin. Every new beginning, every shedding, makes us feel vulnerable; and every time we love someone we feel vulnerable also.
So when Ashlesha people feel vulnerable in whatever shape or form they may get defensive or attack you in some way. So if you are an Ashlesha native, you need to remember to look within you, nor focus externally, use the internal eyes, and seek within. Don’t strike, don’t coil, just observe yourself and don’t be afraid of your emotions and vulnerabilities.
What the “old skin” of the Ashlesha native holds is the belief systems and conditioning, and all she needs to shed to free herself of these. It is a peeling process. And what peels is love. Love is peeler. It peels the layers off of us which aren’t true anymore, so that we can release our true fragrance, our true essence, and reveal our true self. Without our true self, we cannot possibly fall into true deep love. So it is about shedding these layers of fears, insecurities, projections, controlling tendencies, jealousies …
A lot of my Ashlesha clients often share with me how they have “trust issues running through their minds all day long”. And that’s exactly it: trust. They need trust, but often expect the worst around the corner, or especially the closer they feel to someone and the more they open up, the more this then triggers their fear, and then they get into attack mode, even if not provoked necessarily.
So think back to how the snake was vulnerable being temporarily blind during her shedding – what this shows is that you need people whom you trust in your life, especially in the moments when you feel you can’t see or feel vulnerable and need to open up and share emotionally your deepest most sacred self. You need someone who knows how to touch gently, and not be afraid of your deeper intense self, your deeper emotional worlds. Not everyone in our world can be trustworthy, but some people indeed can be. So when you find them treasure them; don’t test them, don’t push them away.
You too need to show yourself as trustworthy and reliable. Often times the past life karmas that you may still be entangled in stem from unfulfilled promises, so it is important in this life to keep true to your promises, the vows you give, and make the effort to be emotionally honest, giving and don’t fear your vulnerability.
Love is what peels us. It is not here to make us happy always, it is here to grow us, expand us, shift us. Sometimes we may feel pain, that’s just life. But love is always worth it. Always. For love, we all kneel, we humble ourselves and we give ourselves completely; we surrender our egos, our pride, and we open our palms to its glory and power. Even one second of tasting the sweet nectar of love is worth it all.
Your power is in inner alchemy – inner transformation, i.e. shifting your inner beliefs, perceptions and ideas, and expanding your awareness. It’s in learning how to master your energy, and use your wisdom and intuitive insight for good. You have beautiful ability to emotionally feel and connect, so there’s no need to play games out of fear. As a water snake, you have to ability not just to coil around – you have the ability to untangle and uncoil yourself from what no longer serves you, which is mainly your old beliefs, conditioning, fears, and unhealthy attachments.
Shine your light on the darker inner corners of your psyche, there’s nothing to fear inside of yourself – you will likely find treasures of deep wisdom and strengthen your intuition and creative abilities. You are a sensual being, a magnetic being, a creative being, a sensitive being. These are all beautiful things, and when you act with the integrity and moral compass, and with virtue and ethics, you will reach great heights and find the deeper emotional connection you seek.
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