There are certain features that can be telltale signs of a nakshatra, even if the natives do not always look overtly similar across all features. There are a few specific features I love to check for when I'm suspecting that Krittika कृत्तिका nakshatra (26°40′ Aries/Mesha – 10° Taurus/Vrishabha) may be present.
This nakshatra tends to grant its native large to medium-sized, medium to close set, rounded eyes. The eyes are neutral to downturned in tilt, and the brows (which are on the fuller side) are generally rounded. There is typically a lot of softness around the eyes, such as fleshy, lightly hooded eyelids or protruding & pillowy under eyes. There is often the prescence of "yin sanpaku" with Krittika, meaning having white sclera visible beneath the iris.
Krittika's yoni animal is the sheep (sometimes interchanged with the goat), a symbol of spiritual purity and sacrifice, whose baby form is the lamb. While Krittika women's overall face has that lamb-like, soft, delicate, or diminutive look, Krittika's cheekbones are more prominent. They have protruding cheek bones with medium to large, sculpted & padded, low cheek apples. The projection of the upper cheeks leads to a more distinct cheek contour overall. Their chin is rounded, prominent, and sometimes clefted. Their jawline is typically quite narrow. The combination of these features creates a clear, short inverted triangle to the lower Krittika face. Overall, their face tends to give a youthful impression.
Krittika is the first Sun-ruled nakshatra, the planet of the archetypal masculine principle. This nakshatra was especially celebrated in the "roaring 20's", and is found as the primary placement for quite a few flapper icons, like Greta Garbo, Mae West, Mae Murray, Carole Lombard, Mabel Normand, Irene Delroy, and Estelle Taylor. Krittika women like Katherine Hepburn and Greta Garbo were notable for their rebellious, slightly androgynous style, being some of the first female fashion icons to boldly wear pants.
The following excerpt, from writer Laura Morley, can help to shed light on why Krittika was prominent during this era. "The 1920s was a period of true liberation for the western woman. She began to experiment with makeup, and she drove a car. A long-stem cigarette dangling from her acrimonious pout seemed to be a permanent fixture, and you never knew whose bed you’d find her in. She consumed far too many cocktails and listened to jazz on repeat. She was brash, she was bold and most of all, she rebelled against everything she had been taught, rejecting the social norms which had been so carefully set in place by the generations gone before her. When a new transatlantic culture descended at the end of the first World War, it was the ‘flapper’ who emerged. An entirely new genre of youth, this young woman was a result of the social and political turbulence that she had lived through. Now an independent individual, she refused to endure the male-dominated society of her female ancestors. The fashion statements of a flapper almost stood to emulate that of her male counterparts. Gone were the days of boned corsets, as the flapper often used long strips of cloth to minimise the appearance of her breasts. Bobbed hairstyles were adopted and hemlines suddenly rose to just below the knee, often giving way to a peep of silk stocking. Though these women embraced androgyny, they did so to prove to men that they were capable of functioning as equally valuable and important citizens: holding down jobs, voting and making decisions for themselves. The flappers was the pioneer of the progressively blurring lines between masculinity and femininity, though in paradox, she could flaunt her sexuality and exercise new sexual power, the likes of which she had never experienced before." To this day, Krittika women are often seen with short to medium length bob haircuts, as can be seen in the visuals to this post. In general, extending to trine Sun-ruled casting, Sun-ruled nakshatra women are prominently cast in historical period films from this decade (below). Krittika is a mixed (mishra) nakshatra in quality, relating to the juxtaposition of soft, innocent features with some sharper and more androgynous qualities and preferred expressions blended in.
You can watch my new Youtube-Short to see Krittika lamb-beauty in motion (it can also be found on instagram @claire.nakti or tiktok @clairenakti). As with everything in astrology, these features to check for are a tendency not a rule for Krittika's physical appearance. A person's other primary placements will bring in features as well, though one will tend to come to the surface the most strongly (relating to their dominant planet); one can have a Krittika primary placement but be dominated by one of their other primary placements instead.
In this way, I seek in these posts to isolate the Krittika nakshatra appearance influence as much as possible by finding the most consistent common physical ground amongst its natives, while having awareness that each individual you're seeing has other astrological influences at play as well that make them unique. I wanted to make these posts so that you don't have to rely on two people looking strikingly similar to know they share a nakshatra, but rather can more consciously/logically check for certain revealing features even amongst people who have many differences.
For more information on the sacred feminine role (and its connection to beauty & sensuality)-- in both its celebrated and demonized necessary expressions-- you can check out my female spiritual path course.
Click through the gallery below for more visuals to the above description:
Birth time notes:
-Carole Lombard's birth time is rounded, so Krittika ASC is approximate (the area is for Krittika/Rohini).
-Emma Chamberlain has Krittika Sun, and she stated she has "Capricorn Rising" (Tropical), a range which allows for her to have either Krittika or Rohini Moon.