New Moon Solar Eclipse in Āśleṣā: The Embracing Star

NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE

Rita Dixit Indian Miniatures: Asavari Ragini: A Painted Melody. Murshidabad, Bengal, India, c. 1780 | Edit by @___turiya

08.12.2026

Eclipse season commences with the new moon (Ādi Amāvāsyā | Sūrya Grahaṇam सूर्य ग्रहण ) in the Vedic lunar mansion of Āśleṣā (sidereal Cancer), the embracing and entwining star. Expect deep alchemical transformation and the surfacing of what has long been hidden.

This cycle moves with coiled intensity, calling us to digest and release what has long been held. This eclipse is hemmed by Guru, Budha, and Ketu, intensifying the field of delivery.

The points where the Sun and Moon intersect the ecliptic plane, positioned exactly 180 degrees apart, are known as the lunar nodes — Rāhu and Ketu in Jyotiṣa. These shadowy grahas, often called the great awakeners, govern eclipses and symbolize the eternal dance between light and darkness. They confront us with what has been concealed, disrupt stagnant patterns, and offer the opportunity to awaken to deeper truths along our journey.

Solar eclipses expose that which has been hidden from view and set the tone as an omen of the energies for the next six months. A spiritual culmination unfolds, signaling transformative endings and the potential for new beginnings — inviting introspection, healing, and the initiation of new creative endeavors. This cycle urges us to refine our inner compass, untangle and release an old karmic pattern.

Situated from 16°40′–30° of Kāraka Rāśi (Cancer), the embracing star appears as a coiling ring of stars in the constellation Hydra. It marks an alchemical threshold where viṣa (poison) becomes amṛta (nectar), drawing awareness toward the subtle work of inner transformation.

Āśleṣā, one of Ketu’s birth stars and the nīca point of Maṅgala (Mars), initiates the gaṇḍānta juncture — the karmic knot between water and fire, Mokṣa and Dharma. 

Gaṇḍānta entrusts genuine potency and spiritual power only to those life has already humbled, entrusting it to those upright in their relationship with power and alchemy. You can only hold a siddhi if you are able to be invisible, to hide, maybe even in plain sight. Held any other way, it spoils whoever presumes to wield it.

Its Devatās are the Nāgās (Sarpas), guardian serpent beings of primordial wisdom. Its animal yoni is the male cat — a nocturnal guardian of thresholds, moving in silence between worlds, master of stillness, instinct, and unseen passage.

Āśleṣā holds the energy of Viṣāśleṣaṇa Śakti — the power to inflict poison, to penetrate and bind at a subtle level — revealing how venom, when rightly handled, becomes medicine, mirroring the inner path where shadow is transmuted into healing. 

Just as the coiled energy at the base of the spine yearns to merge with its beloved in the crown, Āśleṣā stirs the curiosity to delve deeper and unite with one’s desired outcome, weaving disparate elements into coherence and granting true inner authority through the patient art of alchemy.

Āśleṣā is linked with Ādi Śeṣa and Sage Patañjali, pointing to the serpent power of consciousness that binds and releases. Its medicine lies in yoga, mantra, and disciplined inner awareness — the same forces that can entangle the mind become, when refined, the means of profound purification and healing of citta, speech, and body.

What is revealed now invites you to reassess and consciously redesign the physical architecture of your life with greater awareness. Accelerated spiritual growth becomes possible when we allow ourselves time to introspect. Some pattern has been attempting to surface for completion and healing. Create space to meet it with steadiness.

During eclipse windows, for most, it is traditionally advised to postpone major auspicious undertakings such as marriage or business ventures. However, it is an ideal time for sādhanā.

Eclipses stir duality to initiate purification — a necessary process through which self-knowledge is deepened and stabilized. Any turbulence you feel is part of this alchemy.

During this eclipse window, keep life simple. Stay grounded. Rest. Reflect on what is being revealed and what needs untangling.

The ancients taught that any practice undertaken during an eclipse bears fruit a thousandfold. In this sacred window, they consumed less — physically and mentally — to keep their channels clear. With the Sun and Moon — our sources of prāṇa — obscured, this becomes a potent time for:

• Mantra chanting

• Meditation & breathwork

• Prayer & fasting

• Turning inward, rather than outward

It is also recommended to bathe before and after the eclipse to cleanse both body and mind, allowing for a smoother energetic transition.

Trust that this cycle serves as an initiation, sowing the seeds of transformation that will blossom in divine timing, guiding you into the next phase of your journey.

Pay close attention if you have major planets — your Sun, Moon, or Lagna — in Āśleṣā. This cycle may bring sudden change, an unanticipated turning point, or the revelation of something deeper within. Also take note if you are currently running a dāśā or antar dāśā of Ketu, Sun, Moon, or Mercury.

All My Relations, Tulsi

What old skin is ready to be shed?

ॐ अनन्ताय शेषाय विद्महे 

नागराजाय धीमहि 

तन्नो शेषः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Om Anantāya Śeṣāya Vidmahe 

Nāgarājāya Dhīmahi 

Tanno Śeṣaḥ Prachodayāt ॥

Total Solar Eclipse: 08.12.2026

New Moon Aśleṣā (Cancer)

0:36am PST | 23:06 PM IST 

Eclipse hours: 08.12 8:34am - 12:57pm PST | 12/13th 21:04 - 1:27AM IST

With the path of totality extending from northern Russia through Greenland and Iceland to northern Spain and northeastern Portugal.

 Jalāluddīna Rūmī // “In search of yourself, you'll lose yourself.

Leave the little river and join the big river.

Why do you carry the burden of the world on your shoulders like an ox?

Change your direction and become one with the Universe." 

Eclipse Season: A Field Guide

Eclipse Season

August 12th & 27/28th

Eclipse season commences on August 12th with the new moon in the Vedic lunar mansion of Aśleṣā (Cancer), the Embracing and Entwining Star. Expect deep alchemical transformation and the surfacing of what has long been hidden.

The points where the Sun and Moon intersect the ecliptic plane, positioned exactly 180 degrees apart, are known as the lunar nodes — Rāhu and Ketu in Jyotiṣa. These shadowy grahas, often called the great awakeners, govern eclipses and symbolize the eternal dance between light and darkness. They confront us with what has been concealed, disrupt stagnant patterns, and offer the opportunity to awaken to deeper truths along our journey.

Solar eclipses expose that which has been hidden from view and set the tone as an omen of the energies for the next six months. A spiritual culmination unfolds, signaling transformative endings and the potential for new beginnings — inviting introspection, healing, and the initiation of new creative endeavors. This cycle urges us to refine our inner compass, untangle and release an old karmic pattern.

What is revealed now invites you to reassess and consciously redesign the physical architecture of your life with greater awareness. Accelerated spiritual growth becomes possible when we allow ourselves time to introspect. Some pattern has been attempting to surface for completion and healing. Create space to meet it with steadiness.

During eclipse windows, for most, it is traditionally advised to postpone major auspicious undertakings such as marriage or business ventures. However, it is an ideal time for sādhanā.

Eclipses stir duality to initiate purification — a necessary process through which self-knowledge is deepened and stabilized. Any turbulence you feel is part of this alchemy.

During this eclipse window, keep life simple. Stay grounded. Rest. Reflect on what is being revealed and what needs untangling.

The ancients taught that any practice undertaken during an eclipse bears fruit a thousandfold. In this sacred window, they consumed less — physically and mentally — to keep their channels clear. With the Sun and Moon — our sources of prāṇa — obscured, this becomes a potent time for:

• Mantra chanting

• Meditation & breathwork

• Prayer & fasting

• Turning inward, rather than outward

It is also recommended to bathe before and after the eclipse to cleanse both body and mind, allowing for a smoother energetic transition.

Trust that this cycle serves as an initiation, sowing the seeds of transformation that will blossom in divine timing, guiding you into the next phase of your journey.

Pay close attention if you have major planets — your Sun, Moon, or Lagna — in Aśleṣā (Sidereal Cancer). This cycle may bring sudden change, an unanticipated turning point, or the revelation of something deeper within. Also take note if you are currently running a dāśā or antar dāśā of Ketu, Sun, Moon, or Mercury.

All My Relations, Tulsi

ॐ तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे
महादेवाय धीमहि
तन्नो रुद्रः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Om Tatpuruṣāya Vidmahe
Mahādevāya Dhīmahi
Tanno Rudraḥ Prachodayāt ॥

New Moon: New Moon Aśleṣā (Cancer)
August 12th, 00:36am PST | 23:06 PM IST 

Eclipse Timing: August 12/13th
8:34am - 12:57pm PST | 12/13th 21:04 - 1:27AM IST

With the path of totality extending from northern Russia through Greenland and Iceland to northern Spain and northeastern Portugal.

"In order to establish order, disorder has to be shaken; and for shaking to remain under control, we who are at the basis, at the level of Para, have to be Para – that is, unreachable by the surface turmoil. In that integrated state, the fast moving chaos and change will pass away in a steady manner.

So, we have to be very steady. We have to be very careful not to get upset by little or big things. If we lose our basis, our dignity, the phase transition will take much longer.

Don't give importance to things which may upset us. This is a very precious time for the world. Everything depends on how our awareness is; just don't let it be shaken. Our awareness is the basis of all these transformations. More than ever before, time demands we remain completely ourselves. It is a very tender, delicate time for us - we should not become angry, indifferent, or sad; we should just be like an ocean. The evolutionary power is waking up.

We shake it, then leave it; then after some time shake it again. Each time a new level of purity, awakening, is added.”

~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

New Moon in Krttikā: The Star of Fire

NEW MOON IN KRTTIKĀ

May 16th 01:31 AM IST | 13:01 PST 

The Sun and Moon converge for May’s New Moon (Amāvasyā) within the Vedic Lunar Mansion of Krttikā (Taurus), the Star of Fire, known also as the radiant star cluster of the Pleiades—marking a powerful threshold of refinement, purification, and aligned emergence.

Kṛttikā, seed of solar energy, appears in the night sky as a radiant cluster of seven stars within the Pleiades. The ancient Ṛṣis observed these stars as a luminous necklace woven through the heavens, attributing profound significance to their role within the greater movements of natural law. Known as the seven Kṛttikās—the wives of the seven great sages—they are recognized today through Alcyone, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Merope, Atlas, and Pleione.

The name Kṛttikā translates as “the cutters,” and its symbols—the razor, blade, and sacred fire—speak to its power to refine, purify, and sever what is no longer aligned so that something truer may emerge. Its śakti, Dāhana Śakti, “the power to burn,” holds the capacity to purify through fire, severing attachment to the corporeal and clearing the way for transformation.

Kṛttikā, the exaltation (ucca) point and birth star of the Moon (Candra), holds Agni as its Devatā—the sacred fire and original creative spark with the power to burn, refine, and transform: the ever-consuming flame. Similar to ghee offered into the havan kuṇḍ during a yajña (Vedic fire ritual) to fulfill desires, this Nakṣatra seeks a fertile vessel for the cultivation of stability, prosperity, and purposeful manifestation.

We cannot purify or sit in tapas (austerity) without first fueling the inner fire. Agni cannot burn without an offering—without ghee, or something to consume. Yet this longing for growth is softened and sustained through the coolness of amṛta (divine nectar), the fullness of Soma: that receptive, magnetic force which nourishes and steadies Agni’s intensity, allowing transformation to unfold without exhaustion. Together, they sustain the original impulse toward creation, refinement, and embodied becoming.

The Star of Fire is associated with Lord Murugan (Kārttikeya), the God of War, who wields a spear and rides a peacock, symbolizing courage, directed intelligence and spritual refinement. Here, growth often requires us to move beyond that which is familiar or preferred. The blade of Kṛttikā severs what no longer serves, clearing space for new beginnings, greater clarity, and aligned emergence.

The same fire that burns can be used to assimilate experience into wisdom and transmute food into usable energy. Just like the Goat, the animal medicine of this Nakṣatra, which consumes instinctively and must eventually metabolize all that has been taken in, you may find yourself confronted by pressure, friction, or discomfort in some area of life that is asking to be refined through awareness.

Purification is rarely comfortable, yet it is often the very force through which refinement unfolds. We remain unaware of certain shadows until the inner light begins to intensify. As awareness increases, what has been hidden begins to loosen, surface, and dissolve.

Though this process may feel confronting at times, what rises into awareness is often revealing of a refinement already underway—much like dust stirred into the air after a long-neglected space has finally been cleared.

Be gentle with yourself through the process. Tend steadily to your inner fire and remain present with what is unfolding. If Agni is cared for and kept strong, we cultivate the capacity not only to digest the food we consume, but also the experiences gathered through the senses. Through steady practice and awareness, what is being refined will gradually begin to stabilize, integrate, and reveal itself with greater clarity.

All my Relations, Tulsi

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
 then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
 go to the limits of your longing.
 Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
 and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
 Just keep going. No feeling is final.
 Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
 You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

- Rainer Maria Rilke 

New Moon in Aśvinī: The Star of Transport

NEW MOON IN AŚVINĪ

Curated by @___turiya

April 17th 4:51AM PDT | 7:51AM EDT | IST 17:21

The New Moon अमावस्या of April arises in Aśvinī अश्विनी (sidereal Aries), the Vedic lunar mansion known as the Star of Transport—governing movement, as well as the subtle passage between states of being.

Aśvinī stands at the threshold—where one state dissolves and another has not yet fully formed—making it a potent gateway for transition, initiation, and swift reorientation of the path.

Seated at the beginning of the zodiac, Aśvinī holds the spark of latent power, igniting the unmanifest into manifestation. Initiating the first of the dharma houses, and governed by Ketu graha (south node)—marking Sūrya’s uccha (exaltation) point—the emergence of the individual principle, singular and self-illuminating—it is represented in the celestial firmament by two bright stars in the constellation of Meṣa—known in modern astronomy as Hamal (Alpha Arietis) and Sheratan (Beta Arietis)—which ancient Vedic ṛṣis saw as forming the head of a horse.

This asterism holds the energy of Śīghravyāpana Śakti—the power to quickly reach or attain the object of one’s aim. There is a swiftness inherent here, a directness in movement, where intention meets response with minimal delay. There is also an element of the miraculous—an intelligence that moves beyond limitation, where outcomes once thought fixed may be restored, reversed, or brought back into alignment.

Artwork: Pinterest

Ruled by the Aśvinī Kumāras, the celestial physicians to the devas—Daśra and Nāsatya, “bringing help” and “truthfulness”—this Nakṣatra embodies healing, rejuvenation, and the intelligence of alternative medicine. Symbolized by the head of a horse, it carries vitality and the eagerness to begin—to set forth with sensitivity, precision, and a swift, determined current.

The Aśvinī Kumāras are born of a subtle concealment within the solar lineage—when Sañjñā, wife of Sūrya and daughter of Tvaṣṭṛ, unable to bear his radiance, placed her shadow (Chāyā) in her stead and assumed the form of a mare. Sūrya followed, taking the form of a stallion, and through this union the twin horsemen were born—carrying the intelligence of swift restoration, arriving at the threshold where life is renewed.

Initiatives taken now, especially those related to health and healing, are said to bear rapid results, drawing upon the potency of creation itself. There is a subtle current here that replenishes what has been diminished, restoring vitality where life force has waned.

Half animal and half human, they hold an invisible thread—linked to the nostrils, to the first and final breath, and to the currents of iḍā and piṅgalā. The practices within Yoga Śāstra encourage the gentle and steady purification of these channels, guiding awareness toward the inner, hidden pathway, through which the journey of transcending identification with the body, the senses, desire, and even the fruits of action unfolds.

There’s a desire here for a fresh start and rebirth, one that lays the foundation for something enduring. This is attainable through unwavering focus and a commitment to the inner and outer purifications that may have kept you in a holding pattern. This constellation carries the swift momentum to achieve one’s objectives, much like its animal totem, the horse.

Artwork: Pinterest

Just as the race horse wears blinders to avoid distraction or misstep, we too must maintain singular focus, centered in our own lane. Let us remain resolute — unmoved by the opinions, expectations, or noise of the waking dream and world around us — steadfast in the pursuit of what truly matters.

The energies have been clearing the way, awakening clarity, and inviting us to take our seat at the center of our wheel and draw in congruency. With this New Moon, like a doorway swinging wide open, that which we’ve been tending to with steadiness, patience and a slow maturation can begin to land and meet with forward momentum.

What are you claiming?

All my Relations, Tulsi

Join us for our monthly New Moon gathering | Pulse of the Stars: Vidyā & Chai - Sunday, April 19th ☽☼

My schedule is now open for consultations. → Jyotisa Readings

I Said to the Wanting Creature
by Kabir (trans Robert Bly)

“I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

And there is nobody, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the
soul less thirsty?
In that great absence, you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don’t go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary
things, and stand firm in that which you are.”