Amavasya tithi is the new moon day, the fifteenth and last tithi of the dark fortnight, in which the Moon closes the final twelve degrees to the Sun and disappears into its light. It is the counterpart of Purnima: where the full moon night is the brightest of the month, Amavasya is the darkest, and where Purnima belongs to Chandra, Amavasya belongs to the Pitris, the ancestors. About one birth in thirty falls on it, and because classical texts prescribe a shanti for new moon births, it is also one of the tithis families ask about most anxiously. The sections that follow cover what being born on Amavasya involves, what the Moon is actually doing, the customs of the day, why only this tithi can host a solar eclipse, what the traditional worry about new moon births amounts to, and where the tithi sits once the whole chart is in front of you in the kundali calculator.
The tithi before is Krishna Chaturdashi, the night of Shivaratri, and the one after is Shukla Pratipada, when the new cycle begins.
Conventions used. A birth falls on Amavasya when the Moon is between 348 and 360 degrees ahead of the Sun, that is, within twelve degrees behind it, at the moment of birth. Sidereal signs use the Lahiri ayanamsa. Birth shares come from random moments across 1950 to 2010, and eclipse counts from every new moon in those years, computed with the Swiss Ephemeris.
Born on Amavasya? Read the chart, not the fear.
A consultation reads your Moon and Sun together, their sign and house, Rahu and the lagna, and the dasha you are running, and answers any concern about a new moon birth calmly and on the evidence.
In this article
- Amavasya tithi, the new moon
- A Moon hidden beside the Sun
- The Pitris, deities of the new moon
- Rahu as the tithi’s planet
- No burnt signs, and a Purna tithi
- Solar eclipses fall only on Amavasya
- The concern about new moon births
- Diwali, Mauni and Mahalaya Amavasya
- Amavasya in muhurta
- Amavasya and KP
- Two Amavasya births
- Frequently asked questions
Amavasya tithi, the new moon
Amavasya means dwelling together, the Sun and the Moon sharing one place in the sky. It is the thirtieth and final tithi of the lunar month, presided over by the Pitris in the Muhurta Chintamani; it is counted with the Purna tithis; Rahu takes it in the weekday reckoning of tithi lords, as it takes Ashtami; and like Purnima it has no burnt signs. Roughly one sampled birth in thirty, 3.3 percent, fell on it. The amavasya tithi meaning is the close of one cycle and the seed of the next: the Moon unseen, its light gathered back into the Sun before it sets out again.
A Moon hidden beside the Sun
On Amavasya the Moon is within twelve degrees of the Sun, less than one percent lit and invisible, and in 80 percent of Amavasya births it shares the Sun’s sign; in the rest it sits in the sign just behind. Twelve degrees is also the Moon’s combustion orb, so every Amavasya chart carries a combust Moon, and what that means in practice is the subject of the site’s combust Moon article: feelings closely fused with purpose, an inner life that is private and often deep. Because the two luminaries usually share a sign, they usually share a house as well, and whichever house holds them becomes a strong focus of the chart, carrying both the Sun’s will and the Moon’s feeling. Vedic literature even names the two faces of the new moon, Sinivali, the Amavasya on which a last trace of the crescent can still be sensed, and Kuhu, the one in which the Moon is wholly gone.
The Pitris, deities of the new moon
Every Amavasya is a day for the ancestors. Families offer water and sesame in tarpan, feed brahmins or the poor, and remember those who came before them, and the dark fortnight of Pitru Paksha ends on the great ancestral new moon, Mahalaya. As a birth deity the Pitris point to continuity with a lineage: a sense of duty to family, an interest in roots and inheritance, and often a role as the one who holds family memory together. That is a meaning of connection and gratitude. It is not a statement that a family carries an ancestral curse, and the site’s guide to pitra dosha explains why that separate idea is judged from specific chart factors rather than from the tithi of birth.
Rahu as the tithi’s planet
The weekday count of tithi lords, having used the seven weekday planets, gives the eighth and last place in each cycle to Rahu, so Rahu rules both Ashtami and Amavasya. Rahu is the node that eclipses the Sun at a new moon, which makes the link less arbitrary here than it might seem. In an Amavasya chart it pays to look closely at where Rahu sits, which planets rule the sign and the nakshatra it occupies, and who keeps it company. A well-placed Rahu tends to add ambition and an unconventional streak to the tithi’s inward character; a troubled one can add restlessness.
No burnt signs, and a Purna tithi
Amavasya shares two features with Purnima. Neither tithi has any shunya signs, so the burnt-sign rule leaves an Amavasya chart untouched, and both are counted as the fifteenth, Purna tithi of their fortnights, the tithis of completion. Completion is exactly what the new moon marks: the lunar month ends here in the calendars that count months from new moon to new moon.
Solar eclipses fall only on Amavasya
A solar eclipse can happen only at a new moon, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun close enough to Rahu or Ketu for its shadow to reach the Earth. Most new moons pass above or below the Sun. The table counts the new moons from 1950 to 2010 that produced a solar eclipse somewhere on Earth.
| Kind of solar eclipse | Share of new moons | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Any solar eclipse | 17.6 percent | Some part of the Sun covered, somewhere on Earth |
| Total | 5.7 percent | The Sun fully covered along a narrow path |
| Annular | 6.0 percent | A ring of sunlight around the Moon |
| Hybrid | 0.4 percent | Total along part of the path, annular elsewhere |
| Partial only | 5.6 percent | Only part of the Sun covered anywhere |
Any single town sees far fewer, since each eclipse is visible only from part of the Earth. A solar eclipse birth puts the Sun, Moon and a node together, which is read as grahan dosha in popular astrology; the site’s grahan dosha guide explains how that is actually judged, by house, lords and dasha.
The concern about new moon births
Classical texts treat Amavasya births as a matter for propitiation. Parashara prescribes a shanti for a birth on the new moon, as he does for Krishna Chaturdashi, and some traditions distinguish Sinivali and Kuhu births within it. The concern behind this is easy to understand: at the new moon the Moon, which stands for the mind and the mother, is at its weakest. A combust Moon is not a sentence, though. Its effects depend on its sign, its house, the aspects it receives and above all the dasha, and many people born at the new moon lead steady, successful and emotionally rich lives. An amavasya birth shanti is a family’s devotional choice. Nothing in a responsible reading depends on whether it was performed, and no one should be told that a new moon birth dooms them or their family.
Diwali, Mauni and Mahalaya Amavasya
For all its association with darkness, Amavasya carries some of the brightest occasions of the year. Diwali’s Lakshmi Puja is performed on the new moon at the end of the Ashvin dark fortnight, and in Bengal the same night is Kali Puja. Mauni Amavasya, the new moon of Magha, is kept in silence and with sacred bathing, most famously at Prayag. Mahalaya Amavasya closes Pitru Paksha with offerings for all ancestors. In Jyeshtha the new moon brings Shani Jayanti and, in much of the north, Vat Savitri; Hariyali Amavasya greets the monsoon in Shravana; and an Amavasya falling on a Monday, Somvati Amavasya, or on a Saturday, Shani Amavasya, is kept with particular devotion.
Amavasya in muhurta
For choosing dates, Amavasya is kept for ancestral rites, charity and certain forms of worship, and left out of weddings and most new ventures; the site’s marriage muhurat guide lists it, with Purnima, among the tithis generally avoided. The next day, Shukla Pratipada, is itself avoided for major beginnings because the Moon is still so thin, which is why the classical recommendations for new undertakings favour the days a little further into the bright half. None of this applies to a person born on the day.
Amavasya and KP
The fundamentals of KP, set out in the site’s introduction to KP astrology, leave no room for the birth tithi. The Moon of an Amavasya chart is judged like any other planet, through the houses its star lord and sub-lord signify, and matters are promised or denied by the cusps. The new moon label does not make a promise weaker, and the absence of a shanti does not change a single significator. What the new moon does decide in any system is the Moon’s nakshatra, and with it the starting point of the Vimshottari dasha.
Two Amavasya births
A woman born at dusk on the new moon of Diwali, details altered, during her family’s Lakshmi Puja. Aries is rising and the Sun at 10 degrees Libra is setting in the seventh house, with the Moon at 5 degrees Libra just behind it, combust and unseen, and Venus in its own sign in the same house, as described on the page for Venus in Libra. Born during the worship of the goddess of wealth, she became a banker, and in her thirties she left a large bank to run a microfinance institution that lends to women’s self-help groups. The seventh house of partnership and public dealings, ruled by a strong Venus, describes that work far more precisely than the tithi could.
The second is a man, particulars changed, born before dawn on Mauni Amavasya as Scorpio rose, his Sun at 20 degrees Capricorn and the Moon at 12 degrees Capricorn, eight degrees behind it, both in the third house. His parents had the Amavasya shanti performed when he was a few weeks old. Saturn, lord of the sign that holds both luminaries, sits in its own sign Aquarius in the fourth. He is a forest ranger who spends long stretches alone in a tiger reserve and says he has never been happier than in silence, which, for a child of the day of silence, his family finds rather fitting.
Frequently asked questions
What is Amavasya tithi?
The new moon day, the fifteenth and last tithi of the dark fortnight, when the Moon is within twelve degrees behind the Sun. Its deities are the Pitris, the ancestors.
Does a new moon birth bring bad luck?
No. The Moon is weak by phase and combust, which is worth reading carefully, but its sign, house, aspects and the dasha decide how that shows. Many new moon births lead steady, successful lives.
Is the Moon always combust on Amavasya?
Yes. The Moon’s combustion orb is twelve degrees, exactly the span of Amavasya, so every Amavasya chart has a combust Moon, usually in the same sign as the Sun.
Should an Amavasya birth shanti be done?
It is a family’s devotional choice, prescribed in the classical texts. The child’s life does not depend on it, and a responsible reading looks at the whole chart rather than the tithi.
Why do solar eclipses happen only on Amavasya?
Only at a new moon is the Moon between the Earth and the Sun. When that happens near Rahu or Ketu, its shadow falls on the Earth; across 1950 to 2010 that was true of 17.6 percent of new moons.
Which deity and planet rule Amavasya?
The ancestors, the Pitris, are its presiding deities per the Muhurta Chintamani. Its planet, on the weekday count of tithi lords, is Rahu.
What is Mauni Amavasya?
The new moon of Magha, kept in silence and with sacred bathing, especially at the confluence at Prayag.
A new moon birth deserves a calm, complete reading.
A consultation reads the Sun and Moon together, their sign and house, Rahu and the lagna, and the dasha you are running, and answers any worry about an Amavasya birth on the evidence of the chart.