Mula

Mula nakshatra is, perhaps, the most mysterious lunar mansion. Unlike other nakshatras, it doesn’t consist of stars, but its main portion on the sky contains Galactic Center, a supermassive black hole, around which our solar system is revolving in the cycle of cosmic evolution. Mula nakshatra inspires us to get to the root of all things and ask ourselves more frequently some of the existential question: “Who am I? Where do I come from? Where do I head? What am I doing here?”

The very same questions were asked by Lord Brahma (Prajapati, sometimes addressed as another deity of Mula nakshatra) at the beginning of creation, when he was born out of the lotus flower, which emerged from the navel of Lord Vishnu – the very same name, Vishnu Nabhi (“Lord Vishnu’s navel”) is sometimes given to the black hole in the centre of our galaxy, from which it emerged. But Brahma didn’t found the answers in the outside – he found them only within, once he turned to meditation. Mula nakshatra, similarly, inspires us to seek the answers for the most important and most fundamental things in life within ourselves, not in the outside.

Mula nakshatra unroots all that is unreal and superficial to give space to the truth. Even if truth initially feels unpleasant, eventually it liberates us from our own illusions. Such is also the energy of Mula nakshatra: it confronts us with all those things, which we normally do not want to see or do not accept in ourselves, so we can eventually liberate ourselves from the clutch of those limitations.

This lunar mansion is very much connected with our karmic debts. Nirriti, its presiding deity, is described in the Vedas as the bringer of poverty, loss, chaos and sickness. Yet, her role is not purely negative. Sometimes she creates sickness in the body, so we may heal some conflict within the mind. Sometimes she creates loss, so we may let go of some unhealthy attachments. Sometimes she brings us poverty, so we can pay off some old karmic debts. She always confronts us with truth about ourselves.