The Moon sign: why your rashi is the Moon's

The rashi is the sign of the Moon at birth, and Jyotish gives it the central place that Western astrology gives the Sun, because the tradition reads the Moon as the mind: the part of a person that perceives, feels, remembers and responds. The Moon sign describes that inner style, and nearly every timing technique in Jyotish counts from it.

What the Moon sign describes

The Moon sign reading is the one on the Rashi calculator's card and in the twelve rashi entries on this site: an emotional temperament, a way of needing and reacting. A Moon in Mesha decides fast and tires of waiting; a Moon in Karka remembers everything and puts family first; a Moon in Makara plans long and shows little. These are styles of mind, not destinies.

The Moon's condition

Three things modify the sign's reading:

• Phase. A bright Moon (from a few days after new to a few days after full) is read as a stronger, steadier mind than a dark one near the new Moon.
• Dignity. The Moon is at home in Karka, exalted in Vrishabha, debilitated in Vrishchika (lesson 9).
• Company. Planets in the same sign as the Moon colour it: Saturn's company sobers, Jupiter's expands, Rahu's unsettles.

Finding the Moon sign

1. Convert the birth time to universal time with the birthplace's zone.
2. Compute the Moon's tropical longitude and subtract the Lahiri ayanamsa.
3. Divide by 30°: the whole number is the sign (Mesha is 0), the remainder the degree.

When the time is unknown, the honest method is to compute the Moon's sign at the start and end of the birth day in the birthplace. If both agree, the sign is certain; if not, the time of change decides, and the calculator lists both.

Worked example

Born 14 August 1990 at 12:00 in Mumbai: the Moon's sidereal longitude is 35°34′, so the Moon is 5°34′ into Vrishabha, its sign of exaltation. On that day the Moon entered Vrishabha from Mesha at about 07:40 in the morning, so a birth before that would have had a Mesha Moon; the calculator shows exactly that when "I don't know the time" is ticked.

The Moon sign and the rest of the chart

The rashi is the first thing to read and the easiest to over-read. The lagna (lesson 7) describes how the person meets the world, the houses (lesson 8) where life happens, and the dasha (lesson 16) when. Hold the Moon sign as the centre and let the rest of the course add the frame.

Calculate yours

Try the calculator this lesson explains.

Date of birth

Day

Month

Year

For example 14 08 1990 · Remembered on this device only, never sent anywhere.

Time of birth

Hour (24h)

:

Minute

I don't know the time

24-hour clock, for example 14 30 for 2:30 pm

Place of birth

Type at least two letters and pick a town or city. Place data from GeoNames.

Calculate