The Nodes

For the past 6 months I have been doing research into the nodes. In western astrology the nodes have been an enigma in western tropical astrology. Back in the early 1990s when I was learning astrology the only thing you could get out of an astrologer about the nodes was this vague statement, “The north node is the direction your soul is going and the south node is where you soul has come from.” This was all western astrologers would say without much more information. There were a couple of obtusely written books that came out during this period about “karmic astrology” which referenced the nodes but I found the explanations vague and confusing so like many other astrologers I ignored them for the most part, put them on the backburner and looked them only as a backup battery for questions about karma. But I found this also to be somewhat murky and for the most part un-useful. So like most western astrologers I didn’t look to hard at it. It wasn’t until a student kept asking questions about it that I took a second look.

Vedic astrologers have a very different view of the nodes. They see the nodes as very malefic. The north node more malefic than the south – as westerners we reversed this idea. The north node has a feeling of Saturn – according to Vedic astrologers and the south node the feeling of Mars. The idea of the nodes being malefic really hit me after watching the big solar eclipse back in 2017, shortly after Trump became president. If felt like a very bad omen for what was to come during the Trump administration and the massive whole continent eclipse did not disappoint with its warning of darkness falling across the land. It was during this period that my feelings about the nodes really started to change. How could ancient people – who invented astrology – see eclipses as negative, yet current western astrological thought has some how rubberized the meaning of them? I suspect that New Age thought with its desire to make everything nice, and positive took the meaning out of the nodes along with the teeth.

In reality the nodes are not so simple. They do represent the shadow, the dark, the place where bad things happen – just as their symbolism implies. They also speak to the issues individuals drag around with them from past lives both nodes do this on an axis. For example you have the south node in Scorpio and the north node in Taurus, there will be issues worked on in this life around power and values that are related to past lives. What houses they fall in will add in a layer of meaning. If those nodes fall in the 1st and 7th houses these issues will play out in the area of identity and partnerships.

When a node is conjunct a planet the expression of the nodal energy, the darkness, the karma, the bleed through from the past life in terms of issues and experiences overpower the planet and create an opportunity to overcome those past life issues. But like a grove worn in a record, the energy of that node becomes more powerful and unless the person accepts the challenge of working through the past life trauma/issue, the node can become a black hole, a dark path one can slide further and further into.

There is a pattern of nodal connections in psychopaths charts. And for some who have heard me talk about this and have a nodal conjunction in their chart, they have wondered if this implies they are evil some how. No, it does not. Emphatic NO. While 80% or so of charts of cult leaders and serial killers/despots have a nodal conjunction, millions of people have a nodal connection and are very kind and wonderful people and 20% of those who are truly evil have no nodal conjunction.

Astrology is a road map, the nodes like everything else in one’s chart are a choice. The nodes are the place where bad things can happen. The preponderance of nodal conjunctions in “evil” people may come from pull of repeated negative experiences that the individual experiences in past lives and then feels pulled into in this life. But this is exactly the purpose of the nodal interaction, to break the negative cycle and work through the pattern. So it again comes back 100% to free will. The part that is beyond the control of the individual, in terms of the nodal placement, is the dark event that will bring the issue to light in this lifetime. There will be some event, sometimes more than one, that will trigger the issues of the past trauma through a traumatic event in this lifetime.

For example one woman had past life memories of being a leper and had Uranus in Leo conjunct the North Node in Leo in the 7th house and the South Node in Aquarius in the 1st house. When she was a kid she got in a terrible bicycle accident and the skin was scrapped off her face, her nose came off, her eyes came out, her teeth came out and her jaw was broken in pieces. She had to have numerous reconstructive surgeries to get her face back. During this period she had to start 7th grade and her face was still undergoing surgery, she had no nose and was scared that no one would accept her. She recalled the feeling of being an outcast in the lifetime when she was a leper, but this time when she went to school, she was accepted. She made a wonderful friend whose kindness and love affirmed her worth and healed her self-esteem.

We looked at this configuration when she had the accident and Mars was conjunct the North Node that day along with many other aspects. She is fine now and there are no signs that she ever went through this. This situation very clearly illustrates the nodal conjunction of her Uranus with the North Node in Leo in the 7th house opposing the South Node in Aquarius in the 1st house. A terrible accident (Uranus rules accidents and change – Mars set it off) brings up her feelings of being different (Uranus rules those that don’t fit in – in Leo the sense of self, the Sun, the soul, the self-confidence has been blighted by the Node there.) The accident though brought these hidden feelings out. In the scenario she recalled that it had been her friend who had urged they go to the store on their bikes even though she didn’t want to do so, this is a 7th house issue and also an Aquarian issue. Aquarius rules friendships which speaks to the friend that twisted her arm and got her into the accident and the other friend who helped transform her sense of self – the Leo. The 7th house rules the public – she was outside on a public sidewalk when the event occurred she was also partnered up with her friend, they were alone, unsupervised – just the pair of them. The accident was a result of clothing getting stuck in the spokes and throwing her off the bike where she skidded face down across the pavement. After half a dozen surgeries and many healing sessions with her father, she was able to physically and spiritually transform and heal. This is just one example of how the nodes work in a person’s chart.