Pushya Nakshatra: The Nourisher, and the Most Auspicious Star in the Sky

Pushya (also called Poosam in Tamil, Pushyami in Telugu, Pooyam in Malayalam) — 3°20′ Cancer to 16°40′ Cancer, in Cancer; lord Saturn; deity Brihaspati. Lahiri sidereal.

Pushya nakshatra is the eighth lunar mansion, from 3°20′ to 16°40′ of Cancer, and the tradition calls it the most auspicious of the twenty-seven. Its deity is Brihaspati, the guru of the gods; its symbol is a cow's udder — or a lotus, or an arrow; its lord is Saturn. The name means "the nourisher", and the mansion is exactly that: the star under which what is begun is fed and grows. It holds the deepest degree of Jupiter's exaltation. A person with the Moon here is steady, dutiful, protective and quietly generous, the one everyone leans on — and the one who has to learn to be fed as well as to feed.

Below, Pushya from the ground up: the span and the sign, the dates when the Moon is in Pushya through 2027 (computed, with the Guru Pushya and Ravi Pushya days marked), the four padas and the navamsa each reaches, the Moon and every other planet here, the sub-lords of the Krishnamurti method, the dasha a birth here begins, and the computed sky this Moon is under in 2026–27. The Sanskrit is glossed as we go.

Pushya nakshatra at a glance

The story and the symbol

Brihaspati is the teacher of the gods and their priest — the one who knows the rites, who advises Indra, whose counsel is the reason the gods win. He is Jupiter in the sky, and Pushya is his mansion, though its lord in the dasha scheme is Saturn. The pairing is the mansion's whole character: Jupiter's grace given Saturn's discipline; the guru who is also the one who does the work; wisdom that shows up as duty. Pushya natives are not glamorous; they are the people who keep things running, and they are trusted because of it.

The udder is the symbol because Pushya feeds — the cow's milk, the mother's, the earth's. The lotus is the other symbol, the flower that grows clean out of mud, and the arrow is the third, because nourishment has to be aimed. The old texts call Pushya tishya, the auspicious, and it is the mansion chosen for beginnings that are meant to last: the first purchase, the first day of a business, the ceremony. The one thing the tradition forbids under it is marriage — the story is that Brihaspati's own marriage was broken into when the Moon carried off his wife Tara, and the mansion carries the memory — and it is the single exception in a star otherwise good for everything.

Saturn's lordship gives the mansion its patience and its weight. Pushya people are the tradition's dutiful ones: they do what is expected, they hold what they are given, they serve. The shadow of the placement is the servant who never asks for anything — the nourisher who starves.

Which rashi is Pushya nakshatra? (Pushya nakshatra rasi)

Pushya lies entirely inside Cancer (Karka or Kark rashi), from 3°20′ to 16°40′ — the middle of the Moon's own sign. A Pushya Moon is a Cancer Moon, in its own sign: nurturing, emotional, protective, attached to home and mother. Saturn as star-lord over the Moon's sign is a strange match — the two are enemies in the Parashari table — and the strangeness is the Pushya signature: the tender Cancer heart inside a disciplined, dutiful, sometimes cold exterior. Jupiter's exaltation reaches its deepest degree at 5°00′ Cancer, in Pushya's first pada, which is why the mansion is the guru's own and why Jupiter here is as strong as Jupiter can be.

Pushya nakshatra 2026 and 2027 dates: when the Moon is in Pushya

The Moon returns to Pushya every 27.3 days and stays for about a day. These are the windows, computed against the Swiss Ephemeris (Lahiri, IST), from October 2026 to the end of 2027. Two combinations are especially prized: Guru Pushya yoga, when Pushya falls on a Thursday (Jupiter's day), and Ravi Pushya yoga, when it falls on a Sunday (the Sun's). Both are the tradition's days for buying gold, opening accounts, starting a venture, beginning study, and taking medicine for the first time — for everything except a wedding.

So there is no Guru Pushya left in 2026; the first is the evening of Thursday 18 February 2027, and the best of the year is Thursday 18 March 2027, when the Moon is in Pushya from before sunrise to the following small hours. The Ravi Pushya of Sunday 1 November 2026 falls five days before Dhanteras and is the tradition's day for the year's gold. Times are IST (subtract five hours thirty minutes for UTC). The weekday is the panchang's, which runs from sunrise to sunrise, so Pushya in the small hours before dawn belongs to the day before — which is why the night of Sunday 4 October 2026 and the night of Thursday 18 November 2027 count. A Guru or Ravi Pushya is strongest when Pushya holds at sunrise, so the "whole day" entries are the ones to plan around.

The four padas of Pushya

Every mansion is cut into four quarters, the padas, each 3°20′ wide and each tied to a navamsa sign — the ninth harmonic, the chart of the inner life and the partner. Pushya's padas run Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio.

No pada of Pushya is vargottama. The first pada, holding Jupiter's deepest exaltation, is the one the tradition singles out: any planet there is under the guru's fullest grace, and Jupiter itself there is one of the strongest placements in the zodiac.

Moon in Pushya: the janma nakshatra

Of all the placements, the Moon's nakshatra at birth — the janma nakshatra — is the one that shapes the mind and fixes where the dasha begins. With the Moon in Pushya, the mind is one that provides. These are the people of duty and steadiness, who feed, shelter, teach and protect, who are trusted with money and with secrets, and who rarely let anyone down. They are religious in the old sense — respectful of rites, elders and rules — and prosperous in the slow way, through work held onto. The classical lists give them a calm mind, learning, wealth, virtue, and the esteem of others.

The trait that explains the others is the udder: they nourish, and they do not ask to be nourished. A Pushya Moon will run the household, the department or the temple for decades and never say what it needs; the classical caution is a certain rigidity, and a self-neglect that turns, late, into resentment or illness. What they have to learn is to let the milk flow both ways.

Saturn's lordship over the Moon's sign makes them older than their years — the child who was responsible, the young adult with an elder's manner. Jupiter's exaltation in the mansion gives them the grace that makes the duty bearable, and often a teacher's gift.

Pushya nakshatra female and male natives

The tradition wrote two portraits, one for each sex; they are kept because they are asked for, with the caution that a chart is not a sex.

For a woman, the tradition gives Pushya a calm face, a devout nature, skill in managing a home and its money, deep attachment to children and to the mother, and a patience that others take for granted. She is described as respected, sometimes to the point of being relied on by everyone, and as slow to complain. The caution is exactly that: she gives more than she is given.

For a man, the tradition gives Pushya a steady, well-built frame, a serious manner, learning, religious feeling, and a reputation for reliability that brings him responsibility early — often the family's, or an institution's. He is described as prosperous through effort, generous, and obedient to rules and elders. The caution is about rigidity, and about a heart kept behind duty.

Either way, Jupiter's condition in the chart decides how much grace is in the duty, and Saturn's how much weight.

Career, money and health

Work. The guru's mansion under Saturn's lordship gives the professions of care and structure: teaching, the priesthood, counselling; medicine and nursing, especially of the young and the old; food, dairy, agriculture — the udder's trades; banking, accountancy, trusteeship, administration — everything that requires being trusted with what belongs to others; and government service, which the tradition marks as Pushya's own. Pushya also does well in charity, in hospitality, and in any work where reliability is the product.

Money. Comes slowly and stays. Pushya is one of the wealth nakshatras of the tradition, not through luck but through holding: the native saves, invests in land and gold, and is rarely in debt. The Virgo pada keeps most; the Libra pada gives most away.

Health. Cancer governs the chest and the stomach, and Pushya adds the breasts and the milk — the nourishing organs. Complaints of the digestion and of the chest are classical, along with the illnesses of over-work and of a self-neglect that is noticed late. Before any medicine, the tradition's first order is to be cared for.

The other planets in Pushya

Any planet in Pushya picks up the mansion's nourishment and Saturn's duty, and only then its own nature.

Sun in Pushya. In a friend's sign, in Saturn's mansion — the Sun and Saturn being father and son, and enemies. A self that provides and expects to be respected for providing; a father who was a provider, dutiful, sometimes distant. Authority that is earned by service.

Moon in Pushya. Covered above. In its own sign.

Mars in Pushya. Debilitated in Cancer; its deepest fall at 28° is ahead in Ashlesha, so the fall here is partial. Force turned to protection: the guard, the surgeon, the one who fights for the family. Frustration when the drive has no outlet; neecha bhanga through Jupiter or the Moon lifts it.

Mercury in Pushya. In an enemy's sign but a learned mansion. A mind that is careful, dutiful, good with accounts and with scripture; the teacher's Mercury, the priest's. Speech that is measured and trusted.

Jupiter in Pushya. Exalted, at its deepest degree in the first pada — the strongest Jupiter in the zodiac. The guru, the benefactor, the one whose blessing works; wisdom, wealth, children, faith, all at full strength. The tradition's most fortunate Jupiter placement.

Venus in Pushya. In an enemy's sign and in Saturn's mansion. Love expressed as care rather than passion; beauty that is domestic; art that consoles. A faithful Venus, not a thrilling one.

Saturn in Pushya. In its own mansion, in an enemy's sign. Duty at full strength: the long service, the institution built, the elder who carries everyone. Saturn's own sub-lordship gives it the mansion's patience; the Cancer sign chills the heart it serves.

Rahu in Pushya. The hunger in the nourisher: appetite for security, for property, for the mother's approval; the foreigner who becomes the family's provider. Rahu in Saturn's mansion is disciplined by it and unsettles it.

Ketu in Pushya. Detachment from the mansion's duty: the one who has fed enough and withdraws, or the renunciate who serves without attachment. Often a placement of spiritual teaching.

Lagna in Pushya. A solid, well-nourished frame, a calm face, a manner that is serious and kind. The lagna lord is the Moon, and its placement decides whether the nourishing is warm or dutiful.

Two people with the Moon in Pushya can have nothing else in common: one has it in the first pada under the Saturn sub, the other in the fourth under Mercury's, and the same star gives them different minds, different dashas, different marriages. The paragraphs above are the mansion; the person is the combination. A nakshatra report reads that combination for your chart — every planet's nakshatra, pada and sub-lord, and the dasha the Moon starts — so that what this page says in general becomes what is true of you.

The sub-lords of Pushya

This is the level at which the Krishnamurti method (KP) reads a chart: each nakshatra is cut into nine unequal parts in the proportion of the Vimshottari years, and the lord of the part — the sub-lord — decides what a planet here actually delivers. Two planets in Pushya with different sub-lords give different results. It is the step at which two charts that look alike come apart — where real astrology begins.

The sub-lords of Pushya, three of them in particular. The Saturn sub at the start (3°20′ to 5°26′40″) is Saturn in its own mansion and its own sub, and it holds Jupiter's deepest exaltation at 5°00′: a Jupiter here is at the top of the zodiac by dignity, under Saturn's discipline by sub — the guru who works. The Venus sub (8°06′40″ to 10°20′) is where the mansion's care becomes warmth: the pleasant provider, the host. The Jupiter sub at the end (14°53′20″ to 16°40′) is Jupiter's own part of Jupiter's exalted mansion, and a planet there is nourished by grace rather than by duty — the lightest degrees of the star.

The dasha the Moon here gives

A Moon in Pushya starts life in the Saturn mahadasha (19 years), and the balance left at birth is the fraction of Pushya the Moon has still to cross, times 19: a Moon exactly halfway through Pushya has 9.5 years of Saturn left. The order after that is fixed — Mercury → Ketu → Venus → Sun → Moon → Mars → Rahu → Jupiter — and it is the same for everyone born with the Moon here; what differs is where in it a life is standing at any moment. A Pushya life begins in the nineteen-year Saturn mahadasha, and since most Pushya Moons are born partway through the mansion, Saturn usually runs through childhood and into the teens — a childhood the tradition expects to be responsible early, sometimes hard, with an elder's weight on it. Then the seventeen-year Mercury, which typically covers the twenties and thirties: the working years, the learning, the accounts. Ketu's seven and then Venus's twenty usually arrive in the forties and fifties, and the Venus period is where the nourisher is finally fed.

→ What a dasha is

Pushya nakshatra compatibility and marriage life

Three tables decide a nakshatra match: the yoni (the animal), the gana (the temperament) and the nadi (the constitution, which must differ). Pushya is sheep yoni, deva gana, madhya nadi.

Best matches by yoni — the sheep, whose other mansion is Krittika (full marks); then the elephant (Bharani, Revati), the serpent (Rohini, Mrigashira), the cat (Punarvasu, Ashlesha), the cow (Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Bhadrapada), the buffalo (Hasta, Swati) and the mongoose (Uttara Ashadha), each scoring three with the sheep. Most difficult by yoni — the monkey (Purva Ashadha, Shravana), the sheep's enemy, scoring nothing.

By gana — Pushya is deva, which matches deva and manushya well; deva with rakshasa is the classical mismatch. Pushya with Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Shravana and Revati is deva to deva.

By nadi — Pushya is madhya nadi. Pushya with Bharani, Mrigashira, Purva Phalguni, Chitra, Anuradha, Purva Ashadha, Dhanishta or Uttara Bhadrapada is the nadi clash the texts name.

What no table shows: a Pushya native is a partner who provides and stays, and needs one who will notice when they are tired — because they will not say. The mansion's one prohibition is the wedding itself: the tradition does not hold marriages under Pushya, however good the star is for everything else.

Which pada of Pushya is best, and which is difficult?

None of Pushya's padas is bad; the tradition ranks it as the most auspicious mansion and every quarter is strong. The first pada, in Leo, holds Jupiter's deepest exaltation and is the one the texts single out for the guru's grace. The second, in Virgo, is the most dependable and the best for health work. The third, in Libra, gives the most and keeps the least. The fourth, in Scorpio, is the most guarded and the one to watch for the self-neglect that is the mansion's only real affliction.

The sky for Pushya Moons in 2026–27

The figures are computed, Lahiri sidereal, true node; nothing here is quoted from a panchang. Saturn is in the ninth house from your Moon until 3 June 2027, then in the tenth (with a return to the ninth from 20 October 2027 to 23 February 2028). Jupiter, exalted, is in the first house from your Moon until 31 October 2026, previews the second from 31 October to 25 January 2027, returns to the first until 26 June 2027, and then settles in the second. Rahu is in the eighth and Ketu in the second until 25 November 2026; after that Rahu is in the seventh and Ketu in the first for eighteen months. Plainly: this is one of a Pushya Moon's better years. Saturn, the mansion's own lord, is in the ninth from the Moon until June 2027 — faith, the father, the long journey, under Saturn's discipline — and then in the tenth, the house of work, where Saturn's transit is demanding and productive. Jupiter, exalted in Cancer, sits on the Moon itself until 31 October, previews the second from 31 October to 25 January, and returns to the Moon until 26 June 2027: the guru's planet on the guru's mansion, at full strength, for most of the coming year. Ketu moves onto the Cancer Moon on 25 November for eighteen months, with Rahu opposite in the seventh — the detached note inside the good year, and a stretch in which partnerships are tested. Mars enters Leo, the second from your Moon, on 12 November and meets Jupiter and Ketu there.

→ Sade Sati · Mars Meets Jupiter in Leo

Remedy and mantra

The classical remedy for an afflicted Pushya placement is worship of Brihaspati — the Jupiter mantra Om Brihaspataye Namah or Om Gurave Namah on Thursday — and of Saturn as the mansion's lord, with Om Shanaishcharaya Namah on Saturday. The feeding of cows and of teachers is the mansion's own offering, and the Guru Pushya days in the table above are the tradition's times for it. The remedy the tradition puts before all others is rest, and being fed by someone else — the nourisher's affliction is the empty udder. A remedy — a puja, a gemstone, a rudraksha, a yantra — is prescribed to the chart, and the chart decides which.

Questions we are asked

What is Pushya nakshatra? The eighth of the 27 nakshatras, 3°20′ to 16°40′ Cancer, ruled by Saturn, with Brihaspati as deity and a cow's udder — or a lotus — as symbol. The tradition calls it the most auspicious star. It stands for nourishment, duty, and the guru's grace.

Pushya nakshatra is which rashi? Cancer (Karka, or Kark rashi). The whole nakshatra lies inside Cancer, the Moon's own sign.

Who is the lord of Pushya nakshatra, and which god rules it? Saturn is the lord in the dasha scheme; Brihaspati — Jupiter, the guru of the gods — is the presiding deity. The dasha for a Moon here begins with Saturn's nineteen years.

When is Pushya nakshatra in 2026 and 2027? The Moon is in Pushya about once a month for about a day; every window from October 2026 to December 2027 is in the table above, computed. There is no Guru Pushya left in 2026; the next is Thursday 18 February 2027 (evening) and the best is Thursday 18 March 2027.

What is Guru Pushya yoga? Pushya nakshatra falling on a Thursday, Jupiter's day. The tradition's best day for buying gold, opening accounts, starting a business or a course of study — for everything except marriage.

What are the Pushya nakshatra characteristics? Steady, dutiful, nurturing, religious, trustworthy, prosperous through effort; the one everyone relies on and who rarely asks for anything.

Which pada of Pushya is best? The first, in Leo, holding Jupiter's deepest exaltation. None is bad; the fourth is the most guarded.

Is Pushya nakshatra good for marriage? Pushya natives are faithful, providing partners. But the tradition does not hold weddings under Pushya — the one thing the most auspicious star is not used for. Match by yoni (sheep), gana (deva) and nadi (madhya).

What does 2026 hold for Pushya nakshatra? Exalted Jupiter on the Moon for most of the coming year; Saturn, the mansion's lord, in the ninth until June 2027, then the tenth; Ketu arriving on the Moon on 25 November. The computed sky is above.

Read this as education. It is not medical, legal or financial advice, and no single nakshatra is a chart.

A page can map Pushya; only a consultation can read your Moon, lagna, sub-lords and dasha in it together, with the questions you actually have.

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