Venus in Chitra Nakshatra (Shukra in चित्रा)

Chitra, the 14th of the 27 nakshatras, covers 173°20′ – 186°40′ of the sidereal zodiac, across the boundary between Virgo and Libra. Chitra is ruled by Mars, so Venus in Chitra stands in Mars’s star.

Venus and Mars count each other neutral, so in Chitra the graha and the lord of its star agree about each other. The other two nakshatras Mars rules, Mrigashira and Dhanishta, put Venus under the same star lord.

Venus in Chitra, Pada by Pada

By rashi, Venus in Chitra is debilitated in padas 1 and 2 (Virgo) and in its own sign in padas 3 and 4 (Libra), because Chitra crosses from Virgo into Libra. By navamsa the four padas fall in Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. Venus’s strongest navamsa in Chitra is pada 3 (Libra, in its own sign), and its weakest is pada 2 (Virgo, debilitated).

Chitra pada 2 is vargottama — Virgo in rashi and in navamsa — so Venus there is debilitated on both counts. Chitra pada 3 is vargottama — Libra in rashi and in navamsa — so Venus there is in its own sign on both counts. Of the 108 padas only twelve are vargottama, one for each sign.

Venus’s deepest debilitation, 27° Virgo in the classical table, falls inside Chitra, in pada 2 (Virgo 26°40′ – 30°00′, the Virgo navamsa). Venus’s moolatrikona, Libra 0°–15°, covers padas 3 and 4 of Chitra.

When Venus Is in Chitra, 2026–2028

• 25 August 2026: Venus enters Chitra, and leaves on 11 September 2026 — 17 days.
• 24 October 2026: Venus enters Chitra while retrograde, backing in from the next nakshatra, and leaves on 5 December 2026 — 42 days.
• 28 September 2027: Venus enters Chitra, and leaves on 9 October 2027 — 11 days.
• 11 November 2028: Venus enters Chitra, and leaves on 22 November 2028 — 11 days.

Those are the four spells Venus spends in Chitra between 1 January 2026 and 1 January 2029, 81 days in all. Over the same span Venus stands in every one of the 27 nakshatras. The dates are days only; for Venus in Chitra a minute would be more precise than the ayanamsa behind it.

Inside Chitra: what the tables locate there for Venus

Of the 84 complete spells Venus has in the table, in any nakshatra, the shortest is 10 days and the longest 43; the Chitra spells, at 17, 42, 11 and 11 days, sit inside that range.

• 24 October 2026: Venus meets the Sun at 6° Libra, within a quarter of a degree of Chitra’s edge, so another ayanamsa may put the meeting in the neighbouring nakshatra.

The retrograde table runs from 2024 to 2031, wider than the ingress table, and it places one of Venus's stations in Chitra. On 14 November 2026 Venus stations direct inside Chitra, in pada 2. At a station Venus’s motion is at its slowest, so these are the days it is most nearly still in Chitra.

Chitra as the Setting for Venus

In the nakshatra tables Chitra’s deity is listed as Vishvakarma and its symbol as bright jewel; its gana is Rakshasa, and the muhurta texts put it in the Mridu class (tender). Those belong to Chitra whichever graha is in it, and they are read on the Chitra page. What changes with Venus is everything above: the dignities in Virgo and Libra, the relation to Mars, and the dates. None of it is a prediction for anyone born with Venus in Chitra; the house it occupies and the dasha running decide what the placement does in a chart.

Related Placements

The sign-level reading is on Venus in Virgo and Venus in Libra; Venus in all 27 nakshatras is on the Venus nakshatra table. For the nakshatras themselves, see the 27 nakshatras guide and our Chitra article.

The Other Grahas in Chitra