Properties
Sidereal Location: 13:20°-26:40° in Sagittarius.
Tropical Location: 07:20°-20:40° in Capricorn.
Corresponding Fixed Stars: Kaus Media and Kaus Australis, aka δ and ε Sagittarii.
Ruler: Venus, Apas – The water god.
Nature: Rajasic
Motive: Kama (Pleasure)
Activity: Balanced
C\M\D: Maintenance
A\P\M: Plant
Elements: Air, Pitta
Qualities and Direction: Fierce and cruel, downwards
Sex, Species and Caste: Priest, human, monkey, female
Special Power: The ability to stimulate and fill with vigor and zeal.
Activation Ages: 7, 11, 15, 23, 29, 63, 71, 76, 87.
Main themes: Selectivity and choosiness, passion and drive, weapons and violence, battles and war, preaching and doctrine, religious and ideological extremism, defeat after initial victories.
Appropriate activities: Business and sales, dating and sex, swimming and sailing, diving and fishing, plumbing and irrigation, fountains and pools, assault and aggression, ambush and betrayal, murder and assassination, poisoning and pest control, arson and incineration, hypnosis and psychotherapy, black magick, animal training, military training, horror movies, digging ditches, trenches, foundations and wells, tunneling and mining, laying infrastructure.
Description
The Purva (initial) Ashadha (unassailable, invincible) lunar mansion gets its name from its symbols, the tusks of an elephant that pierce anything they encounter when he decides to charge, this symbolism is often expressed in a combination of recklessness and extremism which bring initial successes but end up in ruin, like in the cases of Adolf Hitler (Jupiter and Ketu), Joan of Arc (Mercury) and John F. Kennedy (Rahu).
Another important symbol of this mansion is the winnowing basket which was used in the past to separate the wheat from the chaff. This symbol alludes to the narrow-focused doctrines and beliefs that are often represented by this mansion like in the cases of Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva (Sun, Moon and Saturn), Founder of Mormonism Joseph Smith (Mars and Rahu), Father of Communism Karl Marks (Jupiter), and inventor of Christian Social Anarchism Leo Tolstoy (Mars). Sometimes this mansion also symbolizes falling victim to extremism due to differing beliefs, as in the case of Galileo (Rahu).
The deity of this mansion, Apas, the god of water, symbolizes not only actual water that nourishes life but also spiritual water that nourishes ideas, hence this mansion symbolizes not only extremism but also the creativity of poets, writers, scientists and philosophers, for example the aforementioned Galileo Galilei (Rahu) and Johannes Kepler (Mercury), J. R. R. Tolkien (Sun) and Rudyard Kipling (Sun and Jupiter), Thomas Aquinas (Jupiter) and Elvis Presley (Sun).