Mrigashira

“Soma is the mythical nectar of immortality, the very essence of life, which is pure bliss, ananda – the delight of the soul. ‘Soma, the Cheerer, yields whate’er the heart finds sweet’, say the words of the rigvedic hymn. This seeking of soma, “the juice of life” is inherent in every soul. We all seek some kind of happiness and bliss in life, and in our own way, each of us is trying to squeeze the juice out of life to enjoy it to the fullest. Yet, with distracted mind, our happiness never lasts forever. We seek bliss in perishable things of the material world, constantly running from one thing to another, but we fail to recognise the true essence of life hidden within us.
The true essence of life is the Divine Soul, the atma pervading the whole universe. The Supreme Self is “the taste of the water, the fragrance of the earth, the sound in the ether, the heat of the fire and the light of the Sun and the Moon”, as proclaims Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita. It is the unique quality and the true essence of everything, what is the highest and best in all things.”

– Journey with the Moon

Having power of finding fulfilment as its shakti, Moon, the mind, is always searching its fulfilment in external things and experiences – forgetting that its own name is Soma, “the nectar”. It is only when mind finally stops searching, pauses for a moment and stays peacefully absorbed in the present moment, where there is no sense of lack or desire, that it find its true inner happiness, true soma – and true fulfilment.
Mrigashira nakshatra, with head of a deer as its symbol (mrigashira literally means “head of a deer”) and Soma, the fickle Moon, as its deity, is always on search. Airy in nature, with two of its padas in earthly Taurus and two other padas in Gemini, it is always somewhere between heaven and earth – which can give birth to indecisiveness, too. Moon in this nakshatra gives birth to a very swift, active mind and whenever Moon is transiting this lunar mansion our mind can become overly active, distracted and ungrounded, doing too many things at the same time and searching for its fulfilment in too many places simultaneously. This energy can help us, though, in travelling, going on adventure or researching, if we channel it wisely.