Krittika

the cutter, the one who cuts

Span26°40′ Aries – 10°00′ Taurus (sidereal)

RulerSun

Symbola razor; a flame

Starsthe Pleiades, brightest among them Alcyone (Eta Tauri)

Presiding deity Agni

A blade of fire that burns away everything false.

Krittika belongs to Agni, god of the sacred fire, and its nature is sharp, purifying, and exacting. It cuts through pretense and cooks the raw into the ready, in the kitchen, the forge, and the heart. Its people carry a fierce clarity that can nourish or scorch.

In myth the Krittikas, the Pleiades, are the six mothers who nursed the war god Karttikeya.