Meaning
Meena is "of the shape of two fish", and Iyer's note to the Brihat Jataka lays them side by side, "the head of the one being near the tail of the other". Its other name is Antyabha, one of the two Iyer notes as not Greek. The text says that the two fish rise by both head and foot.
It is a dual sign, even and feminine, and its triangle with Karka and Vrishchika faces north. Guru rules it; Shukra is exalted in it at the 27th degree and Budha, exalted opposite in Kanya, is debilitated here.
Our chart's text for a Meena lagna describes gentleness, devotion and a deep inner life, and suggests clear priorities so that compassion finds steady expression.
Meena has the box at the top left of the South Indian chart, with Mesha beside it. It ends at 360° with Revati, after which the circle begins again at Mesha and Ashwini.
In the chart
Meena is the twelfth rashi, 330° to 360° of the sidereal zodiac, and it holds the last pada of Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati. In the whole-sign houses of the chart, the rashi of the lagna is the first bhava and each rashi after it the next, so Meena is the first bhava for a Meena lagna, the seventh for a Kanya lagna, and so on round the twelve.
Its navamsas begin with Karka: the nine parts of 3°20′ run Karka, Simha, Kanya, Tula, Vrishchika, Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha and Meena, as the Brihat Jataka's rule gives them, the movable rashis starting from themselves, the fixed from the ninth and the dual from the fifth. In 2026 the rashi covers about 24°13′ Pisces to 24°13′ Aries of the tropical zodiac, by the Lahiri measure, so a planet in tropical Pisces is often in Kumbha here; another ayanamsa would move the edges by up to about 2.5°.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Shape (Brihat Jataka I.5, Iyer 1885)
- "of the shape of two fish" sourced
- Other name (I.8)
- Antyabha, one of the two Iyer notes as not Greek sourced
- Direction of its triangle (I.11)
- north sourced
- Day or night (I.10)
- a day sign, powerful by day; rises by both head and foot sourced
- Exalted here (I.13)
- Shukra, at 27° sourced
- Debilitated here (I.13)
- Budha sourced
- Themes in our chart's text, our words
- gentleness, devotion and a deep inner life our construction
How the schools read it
- The Brihat Jataka (Varahamihira, 6th century; Iyer 1885)
- "Of the shape of two fish", lying head to tail in Iyer's note; called Antyabha, a name Iyer notes as not Greek; dual, even and feminine; its triangle faces north; a day sign rising by head and foot; lord Jupiter; Venus exalted at 27°, Mercury debilitated.
- Modern Jyotisha
- A dual water rashi ruled by Guru, its element and quality grouped as in the Western triplicities.
- Western tropical astrology
- Pisces, the same twelfth of the circle counted from the March equinox, about 24° ahead in 2026.
- Other ayanamsas
- Raman's about 1.5° smaller than Lahiri's, Krishnamurti's about 5′ smaller, Fagan-Bradley's about 53′ larger: a placement near an edge can change rashi.
- The chart forms
- South Indian: Meena has its own fixed box; North Indian: the boxes are the bhavas and the rashi's number, 12, moves with the lagna.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's text for a Meena lagna: "Meena lagna, a dual water rashi ruled by Guru, brings gentleness, devotion and a deep inner life. The two fish swimming in opposite directions suggest a pull between worldly and spiritual aims, and clear priorities help that compassion and faith find steady expression." Our words.
Claims about it
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The sidereal rashi shows the sky as it really is: it is the constellation of that name.
falseWhat the record shows: Both zodiacs measure the same positions from different starting points. A rashi is an equal 30° division counted from a point set by the ayanamsa, not the constellation of the same name.
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The Lahiri ayanamsa is accepted everywhere.
falseWhat the record shows: Lahiri is India's national standard and by far the most used, but the KP school, B. V. Raman's followers and Western siderealists use other values, up to about 2.5° apart; a placement near a rashi's edge can change rashi between them.
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The sidereal signs sit about 24° behind the tropical ones whichever ayanamsa is used.
disputedWhat the record shows: True for Lahiri (about 24°13′ in 2026) and close for Krishnamurti; Raman's is about 1.5° less and Fagan-Bradley's about 0°53′ more.
