Krittika – Razor/Cutter

Krittika shows the Sun to be the transition point from Cardinal Fire to Fixed Earth in the spirit of purification, ritual and sacrifice.

Krittika – Razor/Cutter – Video

 

Deity:Agni (God of Fire, Sacrifice and Ritual)

Sign(s)/Degrees:26:40 Aries – 9:59 Taurus

Ruler:Sun

Symbol:Razor/dagger

Story: Krittika Nakshatra starts at 26:40 Aries and goes to 9:59 Taurus. This is where the Moon is at its highest exaltation at very early Taurus. This Nakshatra is literally the Pleiades in the sky. When we look up in the sky and we see the Pleiades, that is Krittika. It is related to the god Agni who is the god of sacrificial fire.

The Pleiades cluster is literally a cluster of hot, young stars that have just been born. Krittika is also very similar to the name Kartikeya, one of the names of Mars which is also related to fire. There are a lot of interesting stories and intersecting myths around Krittika, Mars, Agni and Kartikeya. These whole kind of interesting mythology that has o do with fire, enthusiasm, purification are all very poignant themes in Krittika Nakshatra. It is where Aries becomes Taurus and where the fire goes into the Earth. It is analogous to the Vedic fire pit which literally is a fire where you offer oblations to purify Karma.

The god is Agni and in the Vedas, Agni was the most celebrated of all of the deities. He is the one who purifies our heart and intention. In a Vedic fire ceremony, you take and offer things into the fire and you are really offering your impurities to be burnt up in the fire pit of truth. This is an external display that is meant to evoke the internal Puja (worship) of offering your impurities into the fire of consciousness. We do an external show in order to evoke an internal transformation. This is what this Nakshatra is about.

We offer seeds often because seeds have to do with karma. Karma is a seed in the mind and that seed can grow and root deeper into the mind and have more attachment just like roots are attached to the Earth. Or we can burn those seeds up. There are all these analogies in the Vedas about burning up the seeds of karma. If you burn a seed, of course, it does not grow into a tree of karma. This is a very powerful metaphor of Krittika Nakshatra.

It is symbolized by a Pujari, or someone doing a Puja.  It is where the fire and drive of Aries becomes the connection, warmth and beauty of Taurus.

The god is Agni, he of the sacred fire who purifies our intention. When we offer something into the fire, Agni eats it, turns it into smoke and then it goes up into heaven. Agni is the god who takes our intentions up to heaven internally. When we make that sacrifice to the inner force, it is the inner fire that rises up. Even if you turn fire upside down, the flame still goes up. Fire is always rising into higher dimensions. When we do meditation and we burn our Karma in the fire pit of truth, it rises to the top. This is why Agni is the powerful god of fire and the Nakshatra of Krittika is his domain.