Anuradha
The seventeenth of the 27 lunar mansions, the layer of the Vedic sky that Western astrology does not have. Anuradha is the nakshatra of friendship: its deity is Mitra, the god of friendship and of the promise between people, its symbol is the lotus that grows from the mud, and its stars are the three across the head of the Scorpion. The name means following after Radha, the star before it.
What the tradition says
Anuradha's image is of devotion that survives distance: the friend who stays, the lotus that flowers in poor ground. The classical texts read it as loyalty, warmth, a talent for bringing people together, and a capacity to succeed away from home. Saturn rules the mansion, which gives the devotion its endurance; this is friendship that keeps its promises for decades.
The honest shadow in the sources is the cost of devotion: a loneliness under the sociability, a hunger for belonging that can be exploited, and a resentment when loyalty is not returned in kind. The texts say Anuradha people must learn that friendship is not a ledger.
A Anuradha Moon
An Anuradha Moon describes a mind that stays: feelings organised around loyalty and belonging, warmth that is given steadily and expected back, and a private melancholy the friends do not see. Anyone born with the Moon here begins life in a Saturn period, and the sequence of their planetary seasons runs from there.
The four padas
All four of Anuradha's padas fall in sidereal Scorpio. The navamsa runs Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio across them; the tradition reads the third, in Libra, as the most companionable, and the fourth, Scorpio within Scorpio, as the most intense in its attachments.
In degrees: pada 1 from 3°20′ Scorpio to 6°40′ Scorpio with a Leo navamsa, pada 2 from 6°40′ Scorpio to 10° Scorpio with a Virgo navamsa, pada 3 from 10° Scorpio to 13°20′ Scorpio with a Libra navamsa and pada 4 from 13°20′ Scorpio to 16°40′ Scorpio with a Scorpio navamsa.
Why your Western chart never mentions this
There is no Western equivalent of Anuradha.
Western astrology divides the sky into twelve signs and stops. The Vedic system lays 27 mansions of 13°20′ over its twelve signs, a finer grain with its own deities, symbols and timing system. There is no Western equivalent of Anuradha, which is why a person can know their "big three" thoroughly and still meet something new the first time their Vedic chart is calculated. It is not that one system is finer-grained and therefore truer; they are answering different questions, and we show you both so you can see where they agree, and where they argue.
The Sun passes through Anuradha from about 19 November to 3 December each year, which Western astrology calls Scorpio and Sagittarius. A Moon can be here on any day of the year, since the Moon crosses a mansion in about a day, and it is the Moon the tradition reads first.
About 60 seconds · needs your birth date, time and place · unknown time handled honestly
Questions people ask
Is Anuradha a good nakshatra?
The tradition does not rank the mansions as good and bad; each carries a capacity and a cost, and Anuradha's are the gift of loyalty and the tax of loneliness under it. Readings that call nakshatras lucky or unlucky are selling something.
What if my Moon is at the edge of Anuradha?
Then your pada matters more than usual, and your birth time matters more than usual, since the Moon moves about 13 degrees a day and crosses from Vishakha into Anuradha and on into Jyeshtha within two. The calculator shows your exact degree and flags it when a placement sits near an edge.
I am a Scorpio in Western astrology. Is Anuradha the same thing?
No. Your Western sign comes from the tropical zodiac; Anuradha is a sidereal mansion that lies inside sidereal Scorpio. You can be a Western Scorpio with no Anuradha placements at all, and a Western Sagittarius with a Anuradha Moon. The free chart shows your actual pair.
We read charts for pattern and coherence, not prediction. Nothing here tells you what will happen, and nothing here tells you who you are; it shows a structure and leaves the judgement with you.