Ashwini : The Star of Cosmogenesis
The Nakshatras: Ashwini
Ashwini is the First of the 27 Nakshatras and the first of the Ketu ruled signs. Ashwini means “Born of a Female Horse” or “the Horse-Woman”. Another more archaic name for this asterism is Aswayuja, which can be translated as “She Who Yokes Horses”. This equestrian theme extends into this asterism’s primary symbol: the Horse’s Head. The Horse here is the representative of a Journey in potentiae, a great Power which, if tamed, will transport its Master. Thus this sign’s primary domain is that of Beginnings, but in the most primal and originating sense. Ashwini constitutes the initial 13’20 degrees of Aries, and as such it can be described as the Beginning of the Beginning. Here, genesis itself finds birth in the explosive and nuclear world of Mars, where the Headless Ketu first harnesses the Power of Creation.
Unlike the conquering Magha or the annihilating Mula, Ashwini is not defined by apocalyptic nostalgia or tribal memory, rather, it is the establishment of what shall be thereafter Remembered. Ashwini is the grand emergence from Nothingness, the first Immanence of the Self into Manifestation. Here is the Prime Materia of the Alchemists which carries within it the Ur-Memory which Ketu yearns for and from which it derives its intense desire for Moksha. Here, all original states and possible forms are secreted away and made accessible to future generations and epochs.
The Ashwini Kumars or the Ashwins, the Twin Horsemen, are the presiding deities of this asterism. These Divine Twins are strongly associated with the Vedic Goddess Ushas who is the Mother of the Dawn that awakes the Twins to drive away the Night and the Oppression of Darkness. As the First Nakshatra, Ashwini banishes the prior “darkness” of Non-manifestation and heralds the dawn of a new Age of Incarnation. We can also interpret this as a banishing of the Darkness of the Watery depths represented in the Last of the Rashis, Pisces. The Twins features in many myths where they retrieve the souls of various slain and wronged figures to their bodies, restoring them to life. This amazing power to heal and reconstitute not only the sick and the lame, but to even return life to the dead, is a theme which is carried in some fashion throughout all three Ketu nakshatras, albeit in forms sometimes less savoury than what is seen here. The symbolism of the Horse is again salient here, in that it is this sacred beast which carries the Twins, via chariot, into the realms of the dead and back again, that they might perform their miracles. Thus the Horse is a symbol of the Power to transit the realms and communicate with the Dead and most importantly the Ancestors.
With these attributes in mind we can see how Ashwini holds dominion over the Healing Arts, Resurrection, Initiations and Beginnings, Birth, Immortality, Youth and Travel. There is an abundance of peo
ple born under this nakshatra in the Health industry, amoungst the ranks of doctors and nurses, but even more commonly they appear in more traditionalist healing disciplines involving the use of herbalism and more holistic methodologies.
Ashwini, like the other Ketu nakshatras also creates a sensitivity to the paranormal or supernatural. A disproportionate number of Ashwini natives take interest in ghosts, report having encounters with spirits and the subtle-bodied dead and having precognitive dreams. Even less gifted Ashwini natives still possess a sort of “spaced out” or vacuous quality, belying an ego with a tenuous grasp on its “host”.
Having Moon in Ashwini tends to make the eyes sleepy and large, the skin pale, the hair dark and produces a prominent chin and forehead. Another feature we sometimes see with Ashwini is a gap between the two frontmost teeth of the upper jaw.
[artwork credit Tom Smith “White on Black”‘]