1 ✶ Healing

Ashwini, Star of Transport

The spirit of innocence dashes forward to peer into the vista of the first lunar mansion, home to the forever young horsemen, the Ashwini Kumar twins. Called “Physicians to the Gods,” these shining lights serve as surgeons who can heal worldly frustration, pain, and sadness. From this point in the starry sky, vitality brightens hope for new beginnings and finding beneficial insights for earthly regeneration. Here and now is where you can begin a restorative journey to awaken a new dawn of discovery, healing, and transformation. Just as the dual horsemen adorned with crowns and royal jewels appear to be moving swiftly, you too can accelerate your progress toward the destination you are hoping to reach.

COSMIC CONNECTIONS & PRINCIPAL SYMBOLS

Amid the stars: Two bright stars, Alpha Arietis (Hamal) and

Beta Arietis (Sharitan), constitute the nakshatra; they lie just

below the bright constellation Andromeda

✦ Vedic location: 0°00’ to 13°20’ Aries

✦ Ruling planet: The moon’s south node—Ketu ☋

✧ Ashwini Kumar twins, the celestial horsemen. Children of the sun, these exceptional twins were known to initiate healing, resolve suffering, and care for others to accelerate regeneration and movement toward actualizing their dreams. They were gifted with recognizing medicinal properties of herbs and sharing their superhuman secrets of health and vitality. Riding like a whirling wind announcing a coming storm, they also represent swiftness and owning your power to jump over hurdles and assert your individuality.

✧ Horse (male). Harnessing raw power, this is a sign of the vitality of cosmic creation: power, swiftness, and unstoppable courage.

✧ Horse’s head. The stars in the constellation of Aries appeared to the ancients as a horse’s head. The horse’s head signifies having the speed to take the lead, and using your instinctual sixth sense to break free from the confines of your own and others’ expectations to move freely ahead of the crowd.

✧ Two horsemen. Double the wisdom of a single horseman, this is a sign of having the energy needed to get where you want to go, or having two supporting forces working favorably together. It can also refer to gaining momentum or a dynamic view of polarities in which you allow your understanding of each side to shift and deepen.

✧ Ketu. The ruling planet for this lunar mansion is aligned with the more challenging pathways to liberation and unleashing hidden truths to accelerate progress. Ketu, the Shadow, is often depicted as a headless god with the body of a fish with a dragon-like tail (as you will see in other cards in this deck).

Finding Personal Meaning
GETTING IN TOUCH WITH HEALING

Outer Action
Sit in a garden or under the shade of a tree and feel the life force of the living Earth. Experience connecting with the power of the Earth beneath your feet. Take a few moments to contemplate the actions you can take to energize your optimal healing forces and empower your ideas for creating more beneficial and joyful opportunities.

Inner Exploration
How do you connect with your inner healer? Are you open-minded to doing what increases your well-being and making new choices for where you want to go on your journey? Or are you locked into old mental patterns and approaches?

Listening to Your Soul
Sit quietly where you won’t be disturbed. Focus completely on sensing, slowing, and deepening your breathing, As you become inwardly relaxed, think about how you can recharge your vitality. Imagine yourself meeting the Ashwini Kumar twins, the celestial healers. What questions might you ask them that will help give you the insight to take better care of yourself emotionally, mentally, physically, and/or spiritually? What feels like the best starting point for doing that?

2 ✶ Birth

Bharani, Star of Restraint

Tied to the waning and waxing cycles of life, Parvati, the divine mother of love, is adorned with abundantly flowering gooseberries, auspicious symbols for renewal and increasing energy. Overseeing Yama, the god of death who carries a noose used to lasso souls leaving the body, she stands above him as the bearer of life, a promising sign for giving birth, the sacredness of the yoni (female sex organ), and the mysteries of feminine power. Her gentle nature is indicated by her hand gestures offering compassionate blessings and the lotus flowers, signs of purity, being held in two of her six hands. Arousing the spirit of purification, her message celebrates Bharani and using your time to actively fulfill responsibilities that you’ve birthed. By eliminating involvements with forces that take you away from your truth, you engage in energizing your soul’s awakening. Even if worldly temptations demand that you juggle conflicting desires and dictates, you can draw on your strength to sort through the pros and cons of enticing voices and nurture the best of what lives within you. Whether you’re harnessing the power of an elephant or a burden-bearing water buffalo, the magic of emerging possibilities can help you find your way through the shadowed valley of rebirth where the agents of change, improvement, and spiritual evolution lie in wait.

COSMIC CONNECTIONS & PRINCIPAL SYMBOLS

Amid the stars: Between the star cluster of the Pleiades

and the bright star Hamal appear three dim stars in Aries: 35

Arietis, 39 Arietis, and 41 Arietis, the brightest of the three

✦ Vedic location: 13°20’ to 26°40’ Aries

✦ Ruling planet: Venus ♀

✧ Yama, Lord of Death. Acting in accord with the higher laws of nature, Yama walks freely, bringing forth unpredictable birth, transformation, and death. In this card he stands between the sensual, sensitive elephant that never forgets and the water buffalo, a sign for strength and patience.

✧ Elephant (male). This is a sign for intelligence, a good memory, large responsibilities, and perseverance.

✧ Water buffalo. The buffalo carries burdens. It is connected with life-giving water, the life-sustaining fluid within the womb, and fertility, unending toil, and the strength to succeed.

✧ Yoni (female sex organ). The three stars of Bharani appeared to the ancient seers as a symbol of a vagina—sign of the divine feminine and a portal for human birth, and the ultimate mortal vessel for sensual and transcendent bliss.

✧ Womb. This is the watery home where the seeds of creation grow and the spirit of life transitions from one plane of existence to another.

✧ Venus. The ruling planet Venus, or Shukra, shares its name and attributes with the ancient goddess of love, fertility, and life-giving forces, Venus, who is timelessly entwined with desire, romance, intimacy, passion, beauty, pleasure, and enjoyment of the humanities.

Finding Personal Meaning
GETTING IN TOUCH WITH BIRTH

Outer Action
Singing or dancing with passion and enjoyment gives birth to inspiration, happiness, and creativity. It can also untangle twisted knots of stress and unburden the soul. Seek events where you can be uplifted by heartfelt vibrations.

Inner Exploration
What do you want to give birth to now? Are you giving yourself time to think about different options that have the potential to fulfill your needs, hopes, and wishes? Can you make more time for the things you love to do?

Listening to Your Soul
Inhale very slowly. As you begin to exhale, contemplate the sensations of your “vital life force,” called prana, flowing in and out of your body. Continue witnessing this life-energizing flow until you decide to stop. Then, get in touch with how relaxed and comfortable you are in your body (or not). A relaxed state of mind often makes it easier to sense the truth of your feelings and to know what choices are best for your next step forward.