1
Introducing the
Moon's Nodes
The Moon's nodes are probably the most misunderstood points in astrology.
Although few astrologers would dispute their importance in the chart, equally few astrologers could offer a modern, supportive interpretation of the nodes, what they represent, and why. Traditional astrology takes a rather consistent view of the nodes. The North Node (
Caput Draconis, which means the "Dragon's Head") was given a similar quality to the traditional interpretations of Venus and Jupiter, and was associated with all of the good things that we could possibly experience in our lifetime, including success, advancement, increase, and personal fulfillment. The South Node (
Cauda Draconis, which means the "Dragon's Tail") was of the same nature as Mars and Saturn, and
was associated with huge heaping amounts of what one would expect to come out of the tail end of a dragon. The traditional interpretations of the Moon's nodes pretty much boil down to "North Node
good; South Node
bad."
As modern astrology moved away from the extremely fatalistic and often very negative traditional style of interpreting the planets, the nodes too received a facelift of sorts to make working with them more empowering. The North Node became the processes and experiences that we must strive for in order to work with our karma and to grow in this lifetime. And the South Node got promoted from evil incarnate to the point in the chart where we're most likely to take the easy way out and to rely on habit. The South Node is also related to the karma that we're working off in this lifetime. In other words, "North Node
good; South Node
bad."
One of the difficulties in coming up with a truly comprehensive understanding of what the nodes represent in the natal chart is that the Moon's nodes are the only points in the chart that do not have an associated Western mythology. The associations of the dragon with the Moon's nodes comes from Hindu mythology, and while working with this myth is a great help in understanding the nodes as they are used in Eastern astrology, the Hindu myth doesn't help us come up with a Western, humanistic understanding of the nodes.
If we want to understand the energy of one of the zodiac signs, for example, we can simply break it down into its component parts. Is it cardinal, fixed, or mutable? Is it earth, air, fire, or water? When we combine our understandings of the elements and the modalities, we can easily come up with an accurate understanding of the energy of each of the signs. In a similar vein, by examining the things that we can observe about the Moon's nodes and interpreting them individually, we can come up with a much more structured, comprehensive, and, above all, supportive approach to interpreting the Moon's nodes.
Let's review what we know about the nodes so far. The nodes are
mathematical points that represent where the orbit of the Moon around the Earth crosses the ecliptic (which is the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth). The North Node is the point where the Moon's orbit rises above the ecliptic, and the South Node is the point where the Moon's orbit falls below the ecliptic. The North Node and the South Node are always exactly opposite each other in the chart.
This information about the nodes may not appear to be as helpful to interpreting them as the elements and modalities are to interpreting the signs; however, just this simple physical description of the Moon's nodes can help us gain a more complete understanding of what they represent in astrology.
The Nodes Are Mathematical Points—
They Are Not Physical Bodies
The nodes are mathematical points; they are not physical bodies. What this means is that the nodes do not emanate light. The nodes can
receive aspects from the planets, but they cannot directly influence how a physical body expresses itself.
This also means that the nodes do not filter the energy of the signs.With the nodes, as with the angles, we have a pure expression of the energy and symbolism of the signs. Our experience of the energy of Aries, for example, is very different when we are experiencing Venus in Aries than when we are experiencing Mars in Aries. The personalities of the planets color the expression of the signs that they visit. The nodes, however, do not change how the signs are expressed or experienced.
The Nodes Are Related to the Moon,
the Sun, and the Ecliptic
The nodes are most closely related to the symbolism and processes of the Moon because they represent points on the Moon's orbit around the Earth. But the nodes are also related to the Sun because of their relationship to the ecliptic. In other words, the nodes are the points where aspects of the lunar and solar principles connect.
Let's look at the Moon first, and get a feel for what the Moon brings to this process. The Moon reflects the light of the Sun; it is passive, receptive, and feminine. The Moon responds, and produces emotions and feelings. The Moon is the container of our experience, providing form and location for the Sun's expression. The Moon relates to our conditioning, habits, vices, and learned responses; in other words, the Moon is our memory. The Moon is not just our memory of this lifetime; it is our soul's memory, and it is what our soul wants us to remember from other lifetimes. The Moon is our unconscious and our subconscious.
The Sun, on the other hand, is our conscious, active life force. The Sun is our will, our power, and our sense of purpose. The Sun is the heart of our existence; it is the motivation for our life this time around. The Sun is how we are seen, how we shine, and how we express and project ourselves. The Sun is how we want to be a hero in our life; it is how we want to become an individual.
The ecliptic, the apparent orbit of the Sun around the Earth, describes the path that our journey will follow in this lifetime.When we look at a natal chart, what we're actually looking at is a two-dimensional representation of the positions of the planets as viewed from the Earth, flattened to the plane of the ecliptic. In other words, in a chart, the ecliptic is the chart wheel itself.When we look at the positions of the planets along the ecliptic, we are looking at where along our journey we encounter these energies. The position of the Sun at birth shows the point where we chose to begin our quest for self-expression and self-realization in this lifetime. The ecliptic, the chart wheel, represents the actual course that we will follow.
Viewed in this way, the nodes represent the places in the chart where our past, our soul memories (the Moon), intersect with our current conscious experiences and our current cycle of lessons and growth. The South Node is the point where we are able to dip below the ecliptic into our past and access our memories from previous journeys. The North Node is the point where our past lessons intersect with our present journey, the point where we emerge from the past and move into new territory. It is the point where our past lessons come up into the light of conscious awareness and enable us to look at this piece of our past in an entirely new way.
Since the South Node relates to our past soul lessons, and the North Node relates to our current soul lessons, the traditional association of the South Node to our past and our karma, and the North Node to our future, or dharma, makes sense.
The Nodes Are Always in Perfect Opposition
Next, let's look at the opposition aspect. Planets are said to be in opposition
when they occupy points across the wheel from each other, at an angle of 180 degrees. Traditionally, oppositions were considered "hard" or "challenging" aspects, but fortunately this opinion has been largely updated.
When I look at oppositions, the keywords I start with are
balance and
perspective. (Others also use
compromise, but I find that limiting. To me,
compromise means that each person has to give up something that they want in order to get something that they want.
Balance just means that there is agreement and harmony.) The thing about oppositions is that both planets really "want" the same thing; they just approach it from different ends of the spectrum. If we can get each planet to see things from the other's point of view, then we can find that middle ground where they can work together and both get what they want. This process is made easier by the fact that, being directly across from each other, the two planets can "see" each other easily and are able to gain greater perspective on the big picture.
Putting It Together
So, the key to the nodal axis is to get the South Node and the North Node to work with each other, right? Not quite. The nodes are not planets; they are mathematical points in the chart. This doesn't make them any less important than a physical body; it just makes them a bit different to work with. The planets, remember, represent physical urges (for want of a better word) and drives that we all have.We can either choose to work with our Mars, for example, or to ignore it. Either way, we're going to be very aware of its presence in our chart.When Mars is activated by transit, or when transiting Mars triggers activity in our chart, we feel it. If we choose to become aware of it and own it, we can learn to use the energy in the most constructive way possible. If we don't, we're still going to experience it.
The nodes, on the other hand, have to do with the spiritual or soul lessons that we can encounter in this lifetime. The nodes are where the path of our soul development intersects with the path of our physical experiences. Since we're presently incarnated on the physical plane, that is where our focus naturally lies. If we don't choose to work with the nodes and their lessons on a conscious level, we are probably not going to be very aware of how they manifest.
In order to really work with and experience the n...
