Psychology, and a changeable mind

Ashlesha Nakshatra

Ashlesha is one of the most fascinating Nakshatras. It is very different from Pushya and Punarvasu, the other two Nakshatras in Cancer. As per mythology, Ashlesha is ruled by Lord Vasuki, the king of the serpents. We often attach a negative connotation to serpents, but we must understand this through mythology.

In the Bhagavad Gita, while explaining his role to Lord Arjuna, Lord Krishna says that among the serpents he is Lord Vasuki. He also says that among the Pandavas he is Lord Arjuna and gives several other examples. The point is that Lord Krishna regarded Lord Vasuki as the king of the serpents, and Lord Vasuki rules this Nakshatra. During the churning of the ocean, Lord Vasuki's body helped the gods and demons churn it. Lord Vishnu is also known to sit on the serpent Sheshnag, symbolising his close relationship with the serpents.

Similarly, Lord Shiva, or Lord Rudra, carries a snake around his neck. Serpents share a close relationship with the gods. Ashlesha therefore possesses the Sattvic guna, a selfless quality. Its methods may be extreme, but in most cases its intention is likely to be selfless.

Mercury in Ashlesha

Mercury in Ashlesha immediately brings to mind careers in psychology, consumer behaviour, strategy, business consultancy, risk management and the like. The person would have the intelligence to comprehend what might happen in the future and plan accordingly. In the field of psychology, you're trying to prevent your patient's mental health from becoming worse. In the field of risk management, you're trying to protect your client's money.

Mercury Ashlesha can also end up building a career in the fields of data analytics or even espionage. These professions are all about understanding the future. What do you think is going to take place? A Mercury Ashlesha-like person would have the answer and the person would have the ability to be the best in one's field of work as the person would have a natural intuition that, yes, I've seen the numbers.

Based on that and my natural intuition, I can say this is going to happen. The market is going to crash in 18 months or the stock prices for that company are going to rise in three months. The demand for this product in this region is going to rise in four months. Intuition is likely to be a superpower the native is likely to be blessed with and the person may also become an expert in telling stories creatively.

You captivate the attention of your audience like a public speaker telling a story of one's trip to the forest. You hear the story and you feel totally lost in the story. Mercury Ashlesha has that ability. Advertisers, sometimes you see an ad and you just can't stop watching it.

It leaves you spellbound. Mercury represents businesses and therefore earlier I had taken the example of the native being a business consultant. If not a business consultant, the person, if running one's own business, the person would do very well understanding how the demand is going to be for one's products or services. The major downside to having Mercury in Ashlesha is changeable behaviour.

Mercury is known to change its position without worrying of the consequences. That's the main reason and Ashlesha has this changeability linked to wanting to be in a position which is more favourable. Here the person can become an opportunist. Perhaps in businesses you need to be opportunistic to take advantage of market conditions.

This flexibility and adaptability linked to both Mercury and Ashlesha would make the native extremely flexible in one's approach and way of life. If you ask the person to move to a different country and build a new life, the person would mentally prepare oneself in such a way that the person does not feel that the change was very challenging and so the person may excel at a job that requires this constant intellectual stimulus where challenges keep changing. You are studying one market today, another industry tomorrow, something on those lines. Business consultancy comes to mind again.

A business consultant is hopping from one project to the other. You need to adapt to a new market. You need to adapt to your client's way of working. Adaptability can actually be an asset.

That is how I view Mercury in Ashlesha.