candra maṅgala stotram

A hymn for the propitiation of the moon as a planet rather than as a god, and it opens like an almanac: Candra, lord of Cancer, white as a jasmine, born in the lineage of Atri, of the southeastern quarter, his diagram four-sided, benefic in the sixth, seventh, tenth and eleventh houses, friendly to Śani and to the Sun. What follows is the standard confession of ritual incompetence that the graha hymns use and that gives them their character — I do not know how to invite you and I do not know how to send you away; I do not know the manner of worship; forgive me, supreme lord. Without mantra, without correct action, without devotion, lord of the gods: let what I have worshipped be counted complete. Only then does it ask, addressing him as the husband of Rohiṇī and the very form of nectar, to be gentle and to turn aside every misfortune.