The Moon's Twenty-Seven Stations

Your birth chart in the Indian tradition carries a division the Western one does not: 27 segments of sky, each exactly 13 degrees and 20 minutes wide. These are the nakshatras. Each is named for the star group that sits in that stretch of the ecliptic.

The number comes from the Moon. It completes one circuit against the background stars in about 27.3 days, which works out to a little over 13 degrees a day. Divide the 360-degree circle by 27 and you get 13 degrees 20 minutes — one nakshatra, one day's travel. That is why there are 27 of them and not some rounder number.

A nakshatra is read from where the Moon stood at your birth, not the Sun — one reason an Indian chart can describe a different person than a Western one. The segments are measured from a fixed starting point against the stars rather than from the equinox, which is the other reason. In Indian use the 27 divisions are older than the twelve signs.

If you know your birth time, find your Moon's nakshatra and read its character beside your Sun sign. The two often describe different people. One caution: the Moon covers about half a degree an hour, so if it sat near a boundary, a rough birth time can hand you the neighbouring division.

The twelve signs cut the sky into months. The 27 cut it into nights. Same circle, finer ruler — and it is the Moon, not the Sun, that tells you where you stand on it.