The Nakshatras Just like the Rashis, the Nakshatras also break up the zodiac into equally spaced segments. There are 27 Nakshatras, each taking up 13'20". The Nakshatras are also called Lunar mansions, as the Nakshatra position of the Moon is an important use of Nakshatras.
Each Nakshatra has a symbol, various attributes, and a planetary ruler. In order to clarify the use of Nakshatras, we will first explain the major differences between the use of Rashis and Nakshtras.
Rashis are used to break up the chart into houses, as one Rashi corresponds to one house (the topic of the following lesson). Nakshatras do not correspond to any house, or to anything comparable. - The attributes of the Rashis are highly symmetric, with the order of male-female, and movable-fixed-dual repeating in a consistent pattern. The attributes of the Nakshatras are not like that at all, and their significance is not easily derived from a mathematical pattern as in the case of the Rashis.