Mercury Transit in Punarvasu

Punarvasu means the return of light. Aditi, mother of the Adityas, is its deity, Jupiter rules it, and its symbol is a bow and quiver. The first three padas lie in Gemini, Mercury's own sign, and the fourth in Cancer, the Moon's. Mercury counts Jupiter neutral and Jupiter counts Mercury an enemy, so the welcome is one-sided.

The usual stay is about a week, and close to two months when a retrograde loop settles here. Recovery is the theme: a message resent, a study taken up again, a trade or a friendship renewed after a break. The mind gets a second chance at what it dropped.

Muhurta Chintamani places Punarvasu among the chara nakshatras, movable, and such days serve travel, vehicles, gardening and any work that must move, with Mercury adding correspondence and short trips. The Cancer pada turns the mind toward home, mother and memory. Reasoning softens into feeling.

• Taurus, Pisces, Capricorn, Scorpio, Virgo and Leo Moons hold Mercury in Phaladeepika's favourable houses during the Gemini padas.
• Gemini, Aries, Aquarius, Sagittarius, Libra and Cancer Moons have the harder houses then, and should let a returning matter come in its own time.
• For the Cancer pada, Gemini, Aries, Aquarius, Sagittarius, Libra and Virgo Moons gain, and Cancer, Taurus, Pisces, Capricorn, Scorpio and Leo Moons take care.
• Count the same way from the lagna.

The transit shows what a person does with a second chance. Asking why the thread was dropped, before picking it up again, makes the best use of Aditi's nakshatra.

The remedy is to complete something abandoned. Recite Om Budhaya Namah, honour Vishnu, and give green cloth or moong on Wednesday. Aditi is honoured with a prayer for one's mother and all mothers, and with gentleness toward a returning friend.