ShivKali Oracles – Chandrashekhar

Chandrashekhar literally means the moon as a crown. Shiv is called Chandrashekhar because he holds the crescent moon on his head.

There are multiple lore about how the moon is on his head. The moon is described as Chandra/Som in the astrology and it has the power to heal. In many ancient scriptures like the Rigveda, we get references of a godly elixir called Somras. This Somras is said to be extracted from such plants that bloom only in full-moon nights and under direct moonlight. However, scientists are still searching for such plants. Pearl/Mukta is the relevant stone for solving issues with Chandra in people’s birth chart. Pearl has cooling property and can help in management of emotions. Interestingly, moon has a direct relationship with emotions. On full moon nights, many people experience instability in their emotions. People who have gone insane, are called lunatics.

As per one saga, after Shiv consumed halahal poison after samudra-manthan, he got a severe headache due to the toxin. In order to suppress the toxin, he put the moon on his head to get some cooling effect.

Another lore tells that while Shiv was getting ready for going to Himalaya’s house to marry Parvati, Shiv decided to go in his usual dress. But when he reached the place with all his assistants, people started to panic seeing all the ghosts. Parvati’s mother Menaka fainted to see Shiv dressed in ashes, tiger skin etc. After getting back her senses, she denied to handover Parvati to such a groom. Parvati managed to convince Shiv to change his attire and Shiv dressed in a royal dress. Viswakarma prepared a gold crown but Shiv did not want it as it was too heavy. Then, a tribal human prepared a light head-wear with shola (a spongy plant), called ‘topor’. As a cherry on top, Vishwakarma added the crescent moon in the topor. Shiv liked it very much and wore it. In Bengali culture, this tradition of wearing topor during marriage is still present.