Lesson 2 of 14
The twelve rasis
Twelve signs of thirty degrees each, every one with a ruling graha and a character of its own.
The twelve rasis
| Rasi | Lord | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Mesham | Sevvai | movable, fire |
| Rishabam | Sukran | fixed, earth |
| Mithunam | Budhan | dual, air |
| Kadagam | Chandran | movable, water |
| Simmam | Suriyan | fixed, fire |
| Kanni | Budhan | dual, earth |
| Thulam | Sukran | movable, air |
| Viruchigam | Sevvai | fixed, water |
| Dhanusu | Guru | dual, fire |
| Magaram | Sani | movable, earth |
| Kumbam | Sani | fixed, air |
| Meenam | Guru | dual, water |
The path the Sun, the Moon and the planets travel is a circle of 360 degrees. It is cut into twelve equal of 30 degrees, starting from . In Tamil they are Mesham, , , , , , , , , , and . They carry the same names as the Western signs, Aries to Pisces, but they are measured against the stars rather than the seasons, so the two zodiacs sit about 24 degrees apart.
Your rasi is the Moon’s
When a Tamil family asks "what is your rasi?", they mean the sign the Moon was in at birth, not the Sun. The Moon changes sign about every two and a quarter days, so two children born a week apart usually have different rasis, while a Western sun sign stays the same for a month. The daily and weekly readings in almanacs are written for the Moon’s rasi, and so is the warning that comes round once a month.
Rulers
Each rasi has a ruling . The Sun rules Simmam and the Moon rules Kadagam. Each of the other five visible planets rules two signs: Mesham and Viruchigam, Mithunam and Kanni, Rishabam and Thulam, Dhanusu and Meenam, and Magaram and Kumbam. A graha in a sign it rules is in its and counts as comfortable there. and rule no sign.
The ruler is how one part of a chart speaks to another. If the seventh sign from the lagna is Viruchigam, the matters of marriage are carried by Sevvai, wherever Sevvai happens to sit. That idea of a sign lord carrying its sign’s matters around the chart comes up again in every later lesson.
Three kinds and four elements
The signs come in a repeating pattern. Mesham, Kadagam, Thulam and Magaram are movable signs, quick to begin. Rishabam, Simmam, Viruchigam and Kumbam are fixed signs, steady and slow to change; they are steady in the way a marriage is meant to be, though the wedding lagnas the almanacs name are Mithunam, Kanni and Thulam. Mithunam, Kanni, Dhanusu and Meenam are dual signs, adaptable and in between. Laid over that is a second pattern of four elements: fire for Mesham, Simmam and Dhanusu, earth for Rishabam, Kanni and Magaram, air for Mithunam, Thulam and Kumbam, and water for Kadagam, Viruchigam and Meenam.
The Sun’s rasi names the Tamil month
The Sun spends about a month in each rasi, and the Tamil calendar names its months by it. begins when the Sun enters Mesham, which is why falls on or about 14 April; begins when it enters Magaram, which is Pongal. The day the Sun crosses into a new rasi is a .
A rasi describes a leaning, not a destiny. Kadagam is read as home-loving and protective, Kumbam as independent, but the rest of the chart decides how much of that shows in a person.