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Two of this atlas's navigational sections, beings and creatures and Vedic astrology, connect at exactly one point. The bridge is a serpent.

Guardians of Hidden Knowledge

Nagas are the serpent beings of Indian tradition, tied to water, the underworld realm of Patala, and to treasure and hidden knowledge. Buddhist tradition holds that a naga king sheltered the meditating Buddha under his hoods during a storm, and that nagas guarded the Prajnaparamita texts until Nagarjuna retrieved them, a guardianship over concealed wisdom that reappears in the figure the atlas links them to.

The Ninth Nakshatra

Ashlesha, the ninth of the twenty seven nakshatras in Vedic astrology, names the Nagas as its presiding deities and takes the coiled serpent as its own symbol. Ruled by Mercury and read as penetrating, hypnotic, and as prone to manipulation as to insight, its character is built directly out of what the serpent already means elsewhere in the same tradition. Every other path between these two sections in the atlas runs through several steps; this one runs through none.

Where To Read More

• NagaSerpentsThe serpent beings themselves, guardians of hidden knowledge across Indian tradition
• AshleshaThe NagasThe nakshatra whose presiding deities are the Nagas, one of only one edge joining these two sections