The Fixed Stars

Mula

Mula, the root, the tail of the Scorpion

Sanskrit mula, the root or the foundation. It stands at about 24° Sagittarius (tropical).

The root at the sting, where the Scorpion's tail ends and the galaxy's heart lies behind.

Mula is the Vedic name for the gathering of stars in the Scorpion's raised tail and sting, and for the nakshatra they form. The word means the root or the foundation. Its ruling deity is Nirriti, goddess of dissolution and of the ground beneath things, and the asterism is drawn as a bunched cluster of roots or a goad. The tail points toward the center of the Milky Way, so the root of the sky lies in this direction. In the Arabic reckoning the sting itself is the mansion Al Shaula, the raised tail.

A regional name for the tail region rather than a single star; keyed to the nakshatra it names.