Bharani – Aries (Nl – Venus) St – Beta Arietis

13° 20’ – 26° 40’ Mesha In the Sky LORD YAMA (S5)

Bharani nakshatra is one of the 27 nakshatras or lunar mansions in Hindu astrology. It is located in the constellation of Aries and is represented by the star Beta Arietis.

According to Hindu mythology, Bharani nakshatra is associated with Lord Yama, the god of death. People born under this nakshatra are believed to possess strong qualities of courage, perseverance, and determination. They are also believed to have a fiery and passionate nature and are natural leaders.

In Vedic astrology, Bharani nakshatra is considered to be a “Kshatriya” nakshatra, meaning it is associated with warrior qualities. It is also believed to be an auspicious nakshatra for activities such as starting a new business or undertaking important journeys.

People born under this nakshatra are advised to worship Lord Yama and perform certain rituals to appease him. The ruling planet of Bharani nakshatra is Venus, and the deity is Yama, the god of death.

Bharani heralded Venusian energy, is represented in the celestial firmament by a group of three faint stars forming a triangle in the constellation of Mesha. Ancient Vedic Seers saw these stars as forming female sexual organs. These stars are known in modern astronomy as 35 Arietes, 39 Arietes & 41 Arietes. 41 Arietes is the brightest among those three, with a visual magnitude of 3.62, which explains the faintness of the stars of this asterism. It is only through being privy to some direct universal (galactic, in this case) knowledge, that ancient Seers were able to attach such importance to these relatively faint groups of stars. In order to locate these stars in the night sky, one has to focus on the region between the bright star Alpha Arietes (belonging to the previous asterism, Ashvini) and the bright group of stars of the Pleiades star cluster (belonging to the next asterism, Krittika). It is easier to locate 41 Arietes, while the other two can be seen lying in a straight line on its right-hand side.

”Bharani” can be roughly translated into either ”bearing” or ”she who bears”. It must be noted, however, that it doesn’t necessarily mean bearing a child as in the case of pregnancy, even though we would discover later how this asterism is directly related to the womb. Name, which conveys a major part of this asterism’s energy, relates primarily to the feminine side of nature and its capacity to receive, hold, nurture, and destroy.

Symbol

The main symbol of this asterism is a ”vagina”, a female sexual organ. In effect, all female reproductive organs can be seen as symbols of this Nakshatra. In all ancient cultures these organs, as symbols, were seen to represent fertile aspects of nature. In Egyptian civilization, the vagina is symbolically represented as the” buckle of Isis” and is seen as a doorway between different worlds. Vedic point of view also describes birth, death, transformation, and regeneration to feminine reproductive symbols. They are also seen to represent restraint, caution, jealousy, secrecy, forbearance, struggle, sacrifice, catharsis, sexuality, nurturing, and maternal love. Bharani, therefore, carries all the above-mentioned attributes. Since a soul finds its entry from the astral plane to the physical world of living through the female sex organ, it is not very hard to see the ”doorway” connotation associated with this symbolism.

As we shall discover later, Yama, Lord of death and one of eight doorkeepers between physical and other worlds, is the ruling deity of this Nakshatra. Womb, as we know, carries new life in form of a fetus for several months, before it finally finds itself manifested in the world. In the same way, Bharani allows things to brew on subtle planes, before they suddenly take outer material forms. In the case of childbirth, it is usually very hard to predict which day the water is going to break. The same is the case with revolutions, which usually brew within the hearts and minds of people for a while before suddenly erupting. The same is applicable to death as well. This makes Bharani an unpredictable Nakshatra, operates in hidden ways, and revels in secrecy.

A ”boat” is an alternative symbol of this Nakshatra. It again symbolizes transportation between different planes
and realms of existence. Bharani is thus a Nakshatra directly related to the process of birth, death, and
regeneration, at least on the earthly plane of existence.

Star – Beta Arietis

Beta Arietis is a star located in the constellation of Aries, which is part of the zodiacal band. Aries is a constellation of the northern hemisphere and is best visible in the autumn and winter months. The constellation is associated with the ram, which is also its symbol. It is also known as Bharani, which is the name of the second lunar mansion or nakshatra in Hindu astrology.

Beta Arietis is a white main-sequence star and is one of the brightest stars in the Aries constellation. It has an apparent magnitude of 2.64 and is located at a distance of around 160 light-years from Earth. Beta Arietis has a spectral type of A5 V, which means it is a white main-sequence star. However, despite being classified as a white star, Beta Arietis appears slightly blueish-white to the naked eye. This is because, even though Beta Arietis emits light across the entire visible spectrum, it has a higher proportion of blue light compared to other colors due to its high surface temperature of around 8,700 Kelvin.

Beta Arietis is the second brightest star in the Aries constellation, after Alpha Arietis (also known as Hamal). Beta Arietis has a mass of around 2.2 times that of the Sun and a radius of around 2.5 times that of the Sun. It has a surface temperature of around 8,700 Kelvin, which is hotter than the Sun’s surface temperature of around 5,500 Kelvin.

Beta Arietis has a luminosity of around 21 times that of the Sun and rotates at a high speed of around 230 kilometers per second at its equator. Its estimated age is around 450 million years old, which is relatively young compared to the Sun’s age of around 4.6 billion years.

Beta Arietis is a member of the open cluster IC 166 and is believed to have formed in the same region as the other stars in the cluster. IC 166 is located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, which is a spiral arm that is closer to the galactic center than the Sun.

Beta Arietis is classified as a variable star and is known to have small fluctuations in its brightness. These fluctuations are caused by changes in the star’s temperature and luminosity, which can occur due to internal processes such as the fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core.

Overall, Beta Arietis or Bharani is a star with significant cultural and astrological significance in Hindu mythology and Vedic astrology.