Pushya
The eighth of the 27 lunar mansions, the layer of the Vedic sky that Western astrology does not have. Pushya is the nakshatra of nourishment: its deity is Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods, its symbol is the cow's udder, and its stars are the faint cluster the Greeks called the Manger. The name means the nourisher.
What the tradition says
Pushya's image is of feeding: milk, the flower that becomes fruit, the teacher who feeds the mind. The classical texts read it as care, steadiness, generosity of a practical kind, and a natural authority in matters of duty; it is the mansion the tradition holds to be the most auspicious of the twenty-seven for most undertakings. Saturn rules the mansion, which gives the care its discipline; this is nourishment that keeps its promises.
The honest shadow in the sources is the cost of always feeding others: a rigidity about how things should be done, a tendency to give in order to be needed, and a difficulty receiving. The texts say Pushya people must learn that the nourisher also has to be fed.
A Pushya Moon
A Pushya Moon describes a mind that steadies others: feelings that are dependable, a protective instinct that reaches beyond the family, and a real discomfort with being cared for rather than caring. Anyone born with the Moon here begins life in a Saturn period, the longest but one of the nine, and the sequence of their planetary seasons runs from there.
The four padas
All four of Pushya's padas fall in sidereal Cancer. The navamsa runs Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio across them; the tradition reads the first as the most authoritative, the second as the most practical, and the fourth as the one where Saturn's weight is carried most privately.
In degrees: pada 1 from 3°20′ Cancer to 6°40′ Cancer with a Leo navamsa, pada 2 from 6°40′ Cancer to 10° Cancer with a Virgo navamsa, pada 3 from 10° Cancer to 13°20′ Cancer with a Libra navamsa and pada 4 from 13°20′ Cancer to 16°40′ Cancer with a Scorpio navamsa.
Why your Western chart never mentions this
There is no Western equivalent of Pushya.
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 Pushya, 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 Pushya from about 20 July to 3 August each year, which Western astrology calls Cancer and Leo. 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 Pushya a good nakshatra?
The tradition does not rank the mansions as good and bad; each carries a capacity and a cost, and Pushya's are the gift of steady care and the tax of not being able to receive it. Readings that call nakshatras lucky or unlucky are selling something.
What if my Moon is at the edge of Pushya?
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 Punarvasu into Pushya and on into Ashlesha within two. The calculator shows your exact degree and flags it when a placement sits near an edge.
I am a Cancer in Western astrology. Is Pushya the same thing?
No. Your Western sign comes from the tropical zodiac; Pushya is a sidereal mansion that lies inside sidereal Cancer. You can be a Western Cancer with no Pushya placements at all, and a Western Leo with a Pushya 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.