Virgo Sidereal Sign: Kanya
Kanya, sixth rashi, is a maiden with wheat and light: a dual earth sign of Budha, exalted here, where Shukra falls.
A young woman in a boat, a sheaf of wheat in one hand, a light in the other. Kanya, the sixth rashi, holds one of the loveliest images in the sidereal zodiac. It stretches from 150° to 180°.
Budha is doubly at home here: he rules the sign and is exalted in it. The sign divides for him like this: the first fifteen degrees are exaltation, peaking at the fifteenth, the next five are moolatrikona, and the last ten are his own domicile. Shukra falls here at the twenty-seventh degree.
Even and dual, Kanya is considered feminine. It has two feet, a medium build and a mottled complexion, and it faces south. It haunts the hills, is strong by day and rises by the head. It is linked to the merchant guild, and so to trade and barter. Its nature is tamas, the heaviest of the three, which is what marks this sign.
Three things remain of the image: the grain, meaning the harvest and the care for whatever nourishes, the light carried in the hand, and the maiden, emblem of what stays intact.
On the body of the cosmic being, Kanya stands for the hip in one list and for the navel in another. It covers the last three quarters of Uttara Phalguni, all of Hasta, and the first two quarters of Chitra.
Kanya as Lagna, the Ascendant
People gladly listen to you, says the old portrait of Kanya, because you speak gently. Kanya, Virgo of the sidereal zodiac, is a dual sign whose lord is Budha, Mercury. It becomes your lagna if it was rising in the east at your birth.
To this are added fine looks, a personal radiance and real competence at work. You know how to do things, and do them well, whether it is an exemplary spreadsheet of accounts or a hem redone without a trace. You are also assumed to have an inclination for righteous acts and great caution with money. Family comes in two beats: a strong attachment to relatives, but not necessarily agreement with brothers and sisters. You can cherish your tribe and argue with your brother at every celebration.
The temperament is said to be sometimes mixed, sometimes windy. Mercury and Venus are the favorable grahas of this lagna, all the more when they are joined, and the Sun conforms to its company. Saturn is judged favorable because it rules the fifth bhava, with a reservation due to the sixth, which it also rules.