Jyestha & Poverty

Moon in Jyestha 🦉today, a star of elders and power. Jyestha is associated with Alakshmi, poverty, and lack of abundance. The magical force of poverty/misfortunate actually has some very beneficial uses in healing and spirituality, which is why owl parts or owl feathers are used so much in Witchcraft all over the world, from Cuba to India. In Tantra, Jyestha as a Goddess is used to create fights and discord. Owls, being the vehicle Lakshmi rides on, represent it as the negative force of poverty that she exercises control over to give her devotees abundance. Poverty implies the lack of nourishment and scarcity of something, and this can be a desirable trait for destroying diseases or negative influences or traits within us in our life. We can use Jyestha to put our senses into a state of poverty and perform penance and austerity, which natives with this moon placement often do. It can also be used for weight loss due to its extremely astringent aspect. Jyestha as a Goddess, like the role many grandmothers, plays a role like Dhumvati (both associated with the crow), the Grandmother goddesses. Grandmothers in families play a very special role in defending and protecting the children of that family. As a woman goes through menopause, she becomes more able to fulfill this aspect of the Goddess for her family, which also ties into Nritti in Mula as well, due to the function of yin energy in spirituality. Grandmothers function as a huge buffer against negative forces harming the children, and many grandmothers learn consciously how to watch over their family members using picture frames or mirrors to scry them, meditation on them through prayer, or simply having a very strong intuition. The nature of Jyestha nakshatra is also good for exercising or controlling negative spirits due to the sharp dreadful aspect, which makes it a great day to clean your house out spiritually or go to the doctor. In Jyestha, we learn more about the mysterious force of poverty and its movement through towns or families, and we can keep Alakshmi away by performing auspicious or religious actions (she hates both), or increase her presence in our life by not performing them and dwelling in inauspicious places, depending on what we want to achieve in life. Jyestha as a Goddess produces deep wisdom in those who master her Vidya. This may surprise those who know the owl is actually quite an unintelligent animal, associated with arrogance and bad behavior. Putting up with this force, however, produces wisdom very quickly, which is why the Greeks associated the bird with wisdom. All symbols are bivalent in nature, containing within them their opposite. She is rarely worshipped today but can be very useful if you understand her power and how to relate to it in a positive way. She loves spicy food like chilies and sour foods like lime. This is why charms of these are made and kept outside-- to attract her out and away from the house.