Shravana Nakshatra

The name comes from the verb to hear, and the symbol tradition assigns is an ear, sometimes three footprints for the three strides of Vishnu, who is the nakshatra's deity. Its gana is deva, the group the classical scheme associates with a gentle, orderly temperament. A Moon in Shravana is described as attentive, teachable and loyal to what it has learned: the texts picture a mind that would rather listen than speak, that remembers what it was told, and that carries tradition forward with care. Jataka Parijata and later writers link it with learning passed from teacher to student and with a liking for structure.

The quieter face of listening is a reluctance to speak up when speaking is needed, and a tendency to accept received opinion too readily. Capricorn's influence can make this Moon cautious to the point of anxiety, and the receptivity that makes it a good student can also make it slow to form a view of its own.

The pada shifts the emphasis. The first, in the Aries navamsa, is the most assertive and most likely to act on what it hears. The second, in the Taurus navamsa, is the most settled and the most attached to familiar routines. The third, in the Gemini navamsa, is the most verbal, turning listening into teaching or writing. The fourth, in the Cancer navamsa, where the Moon is strongest, is the most sensitive and the most shaped by family and early surroundings.

A Shravana Moon does not mean a life in teaching or in the media, two professions popular writing attaches to it, and it does not foretell the health, wealth or marriage of the person. A Moon dasha at the start of life, however long, says nothing about the years that follow it. The listening quality is a description of temperament, and whether it becomes a strength or a limitation depends on the houses, the Moon's strength and the company it keeps in the chart.