punarvasu (पुनर्वासु) means 'return to the light.' the shakti or divine power of this nakshatra is "vasutva prapana shakti" meaning the ability to gain wealth or substance. the presiding deity of punarvasu is aditi; the sanskrit word aditi (अदिति) means "boundless," "limitless," "freedom," or "innocence"
punarvasu is of the deva (godly) clan and belongs to the the merchant caste; its primary motivation is artha — the pursuit of wealth, material well-being and prosperity; artha (अर्थ) in sanskrit means meaning or purpose
the vimshottari lord is jupiter, brihaspati - guru of the gods; the realm of ether - the realms beyond space
for further insights into the cosmic function of punarvasu and aditi i will be quoting an excerpt from 'DIVINE HORSEMEN: THE LIVING GODS OF HAITI' — MAYA DEREN
here, I liken the haitian goddess erzulie to the vedic aditi as they represent the same archetype and symbolism
"Myth is the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter."
— maya deren, punarvasu ketu (below)
Erzulie: Goddess — The Tragic Mistress
Voudoun has given woman, in the figure of Erzulie, exclusive title to that which distinguishes humans from all other forms: their capacity to conceive beyond reality, to desire beyond adequacy, to create beyond need. In Erzulie, Voudoun salutes woman as Divinity of the dream, the Goddess of Love, the Muse of Beauty.
It has denied her emphasis as mother of life and of men in order to regard her (like Mary, with whom Erzulie is identified) as mother of man's myth of life — its meaning. In a sense, she is that very principle by which man conceives and creates divinity.
Thus, to man himself, she is as mistress.
Erzulie moves in an atmosphere of infinite luxury, a perfume of refinement, which, from the first moment of her arrival, pervades the very air of the peristyle, and becomes a general expansiveness in which all anxieties, all urgencies vanish.
The tempo of movements becomes more leisurely, tensions dissolve and the voices soften, losing whatever aggressive or strident tones they may have had. One has the impression that a fresh, cooling breeze has sprung up somewhere and that the heat has become less intense, less oppressive.
She is provided with a fresh white or rose silk handkerchief which she arranges carefully around her hair.
Perfume is imperative, and there may be powder as well. A white or rose dress of delicate cloth, with lace or embroidery, has been keps in readiness for her. And, finally, she is brought not one necklace, but several, of gold and pearls, along with earrings and bracelets and her three wedding bands.
The careful, unhurried accumulation of costume is an act which, step by step, rejects the primitive, the "natural condition", and, step by careful step, instructs the fortunate attendants in the idea of beauty, the sense of form, and, above all, the cumulative painstaking process by which a work of man — be it art or myth — is created.
The Goddess examines each article minutely; where alternative choice exists, her considered selection, her indecision are very pointed; each effect is critically scrutinized, often rejected and rearranged. The very process of this creative transformation becomes so significant that whether it is a large audience or a small family who await her, or how long they may have to wait, ceases to be of any consequence.
What is of consequence is the act itself, and the demonstration of the fact that such an act can transfigure the female into the feminine.
Her voice is a delicate soprano; her every gesture, movement of eyes, and smile, is a masterpiece of beguiling coquetry; with her, human relationship becomes itself significant rather than merely a means to an end.
She may visit her altar chamber and be pleased that the flowers are fresh, for flowers are her passion.
She may ask for a favorite song, for she loves to dance and is the most graceful of all loa; or she may simply give audience to her admirers, and by her postures and attitudes transform the crude chair in which she sits into a throne.
Above all, she favors desserts, decorated cakes and confections of all kinds. Or, if she has arrived on an impromptu visit, she may be content with a sip of the crême de menthe or the champagne which, theoretically, should always be ready for her appearance.
As Lady of Luxury, she gives gifts constantly;
her own perfume, the handkerchief she wears, the food and money which she distributes generously.
She particularly rewards those who are handsome, or who dance well, or whose personality pleases her. She never neglects one who is devoted to her.
an altar to maîtresse erzulie, mistress erzulie, metres ezili freda
As Lady of Luxury she is, above all, Goddess of Love, that human luxury of the heart which is not essential to the purely physical generation of the body. She is as lavish with that love as she is generous with her gifts. She treats men with such demonstrative affection that it might seem, at times, embarrassing. She will embrace them, and kiss them, caress them, sit with an arm around those to both sides of her.
Nothing is meted out or budgeted, there is more than enough; this is her way of loving, this is the divine fecundity of the heart. A heart is, indeed, her symbol, most often the pierced heart identified with Mary.
She, who is the wealthiest of the loa, the most frequently gifted with luxurious accoutrement, suffers for not being "served" enough.
She, who is the most complimented, most beloved, most often wedded in the sacred marriage of devotee and divinity — she who is Goddess of Love — protests that she is not loved enough.
Inevitably then – she begins to weep. Tenderly they would comfort her, bringing forward still another cake, another jewel, pledging still another promise. But it would seem that nothing in this world would ever, could ever, answer those tears. It is because of these tears that the women, who might otherwise resent her, are so gentle. In their real, reasonable world there is no grief like this.
this weeping is so inaccessible to reason that one thinks, inevitably, of a child's innocence of reason. It is this sense of innocence which emanates from her that makes her identification with the Virgin Mary somehow seem truer than her promiscuity, than even the fact that the devotion of prostitutes makes of her almost their patron saint.
She is the divinity of the dream, and it is in the very nature of dream to begin where reality ends and to spin it and to send it forward in space, as the spider spins and sends forward its own thread.
The labor of Erzulie is as endless as the capacity of man to dream and, in the very act of accomplishing that dream, to have already dreamed again. It is upon this diminutive feminine figure that man has placed the burden of the most divine paradox — He has conceived her without satisfactions, without balance, to insure an overwhelming balance against his own satisfactions. This is the meaning of the merciless muse, the most unhappy Medusa.
Erzulie is the loa of the impossible perfection which must remain unattainable. Man demands that she demand of him beyond his capacity. The condition of her divinity is his failure; he crowns her with his own betrayals. Hence she must weep; it could not be otherwise.
The wound of Erzulie is perpetual: she is the dream impaled eternally upon the cosmic cross/roads where the world of men and the world of divinity meet, and it is through her pierced heart that "man ascends and the gods descend.
jacob's ladder, william blake, punarvasu ☽
the following are some lyrics from songs by lana del rey (mercury in punarvasu) with many of this nakshatra's themes of wealth, excess, luxury, beautification, devotion, heart break, dreams, fantasy, etc
I say, "You the bestest" / Lean in for a big kiss / Put his favourite perfume on
It's you, it's you, it's all for you / Everything I do / I tell you all the time / Heaven is a place on earth with you
They say that the world was built for two / Only worth living if somebody is loving you
There are violets in your eyes / There are guns that blaze around you / There are roses in between my thighs / And fire that surrounds you
It's no wonder every man in town / Had neither fought nor found you / Everything you do is elusive / To even your honey dew
our honeymoon / Dreaming away your life
Winin' and dinin', drinkin' and drivin' / Excessive buyin', overdose and dyin' / On our drugs, and our love, and our dreams, and our rage / Blurrin' the lines between real and the fake / Dark and lonely, I need somebody to hold me / He will do very well, I can tell, I can tell / Keep me safe in his bell tower hotel
Money is the anthem of success / So put on mascara and your party dress
I'm your national anthem, boy, put your hands up / Give me a standin' ovation / Boy, you have landed, babe, in the land of / sweetness and danger, Queen of Saigon
