Sun Transit in Hasta

In Hasta the Sun meets its own name. Savitr, the impeller, the deity addressed by the Gayatri, presides over this hand in Virgo, and the Moon rules the nakshatra. The Moon is the Sun's friend and Mercury, lord of Virgo, is neutral, which makes this one of the better stays of the Sun's year.

It lasts about two weeks. Hasta is laghu. The Sun's significations turn to skill: writing, craft, medicine, accounts, and work of the hand done for an authority. A father is seen at work. Government becomes clerical, and a signature or a document is the main event.

Cancer, Aries, Sagittarius and Scorpio Moons have the Sun in the third, sixth, tenth and eleventh and gain. Virgo Moons carry it in the first, which Phaladeepika reads as fatigue and loss of standing. Libra, Aquarius and Gemini Moons hold the twelfth, eighth and fourth and should watch spending, health and the home, with the lagna giving the second count.

The transit shows what a person's hands do when no one is watching. Savitr supplies the push, and the person chooses the task.

Offer water to the rising Sun. Keep Gayatri japa at the sandhyas if you have the initiation, and Om Suryaya Namah otherwise. Give wheat or copper on Sunday, and do one piece of skilled work for someone who cannot pay for it.

In some years Mahalaya Amavasya, the ancestors' new moon, falls during this stay. Hasta's hand is the hand that offers, so the fortnight suits tarpana, dana and the completion of any rite left unfinished.