Punarvasu
The seventh of the 27 lunar mansions, the layer of the Vedic sky that Western astrology does not have. Punarvasu is the nakshatra of return: its deity is Aditi, the boundless mother of the gods, its symbol is a bow with its quiver, and its stars are Castor and Pollux, the Twins. The name means good again, the light that comes back.
What the tradition says
Punarvasu's image is of the arrow that is retrieved and shot again: recovery, renewal, and a resilience that does not depend on things going well. The classical texts read it as generosity, a philosophical turn of mind, and an ability to begin again after loss that others find hard to credit. Jupiter rules the mansion, which gives the return its faith; this is optimism with a reason behind it.
The honest shadow in the sources is the return that never settles: a restlessness that keeps leaving in order to come back, a preachiness that Jupiter can bring, and a contentment with modest results that others read as lack of ambition. The texts say Punarvasu people must learn that the return is worth something only if they stay.
A Punarvasu Moon
A Punarvasu Moon describes a mind that recovers: feelings that bruise and heal, a wide sympathy, and a habit of finding the lesson in what went wrong. Anyone born with the Moon here begins life in a Jupiter period, and the sequence of their planetary seasons runs from there.
The four padas
Punarvasu crosses a sign boundary: its first three padas fall in sidereal Gemini and the fourth in Cancer. The tradition reads the Gemini padas as renewal through learning and speech, and the fourth pada, Cancer within Cancer by navamsa, as the one where Aditi's motherhood is felt most, the return to home. It is the pada the tradition treats as the strongest.
In degrees: pada 1 from 20° Gemini to 23°20′ Gemini with a Aries navamsa, pada 2 from 23°20′ Gemini to 26°40′ Gemini with a Taurus navamsa, pada 3 from 26°40′ Gemini to 0° Cancer with a Gemini navamsa and pada 4 from 0° Cancer to 3°20′ Cancer with a Cancer navamsa.
Why your Western chart never mentions this
There is no Western equivalent of Punarvasu.
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 Punarvasu, 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 Punarvasu from about 6 July to 20 July each year, which Western astrology calls Cancer. 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.
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Questions people ask
Is Punarvasu a good nakshatra?
The tradition does not rank the mansions as good and bad; each carries a capacity and a cost, and Punarvasu's are the gift of beginning again and the tax of never quite settling. Readings that call nakshatras lucky or unlucky are selling something.
What if my Moon is right on the Gemini to Cancer boundary?
Then your pada matters more than usual, and your birth time matters more than usual, since the Moon moves about 13 degrees a day. The calculator shows your exact degree and flags it when a placement sits near an edge.
I am a Gemini in Western astrology. Is Punarvasu the same thing?
No. Your Western sign comes from the tropical zodiac; Punarvasu is a sidereal mansion that partly overlaps sidereal Gemini. You can be a Western Gemini with no Punarvasu placements at all, and a Western Cancer with a Punarvasu 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.