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THE NODES OF THE MOON

by Brian Habit

NOTE: To find out where the nodes are in your birth chart, go to www.astro.com, enter your birth information, and print a free copy of your chart. Then find the "True Node." That's your North Node. The South Node (not shown) lies directly opposite the North Node, in the opposite sign and house.

Most of the key points in a person's birth chart are planets. Each of the planets corresponds to some physical body in our solar system. The Nodes of the Moon are unlike the planets in this respect. Rather than correspond to physical bodies, the Nodes relate to the Moon’s revolution around the Earth.

South Node in Capricorn in the 6th House

Simply put, the South Node represents your past, and the North Node represents your future.

You came into the world marked by history, with a past. A series of causes and effects unfolded before you were born. We could think of the past in terms of genetics or reincarnation or both.

If we think of the past in the sense of our genetic inheritance, then the South Node symbolizes the impact that our ancestors have on us. Our genetic endowment ensures that we’ll have certain strengths and weakness.

If we think of the past in terms of reincarnation, then this life is one in a series of lives, and over the course of them, we develop awareness. We develop both productive and destructive tendencies. We bring these tendencies or karma into life with us. We can think of karma as cause and effect: past behavior affects the quality of one’s life—or lives—in the future.

It’s beyond the scope of astrology to determine whether reincarnation is an acceptable belief. Such a question falls within the purview of philosophy, or religion, or another type of belief system. However, whether we believe in reincarnation or not, we can say that the South Node represents the lingering influence of the past on the present.

The South Node represents the past and how it affects us, whether we talk about it in terms of the past lives of our ancestors or in terms of our own past lives. It indicates instinctive, automatic ways in which we act. It represents both positive and problematic potentials. The South Node’s house represents an area of activity to which we are effortlessly drawn. The South Node’s sign represents the attitudes or motivations that come naturally for us. These unconscious biases shape how we perceive our experiences.

Your South Node lies in Capricorn, in your 6th house (the house of responsibilities). Whether because of heredity or karma, you are automatically, instinctively adept in acting in Capricornian ways (self-sufficiently, with self-discipline, practically, in an organized way). You also have a natural orientation toward the affairs of the 6th house—learning skills, assuming responsibilities, serving others. From the get-go, you take a Capricornian approach to 6th-house matters. In the process, you weed out the development of behaviors that clash with such an approach. You prevent them from developing. For example, it comes pretty naturally for you to “keep a stiff upper lip,” to focus on “the business at hand,” regardless of how you’re feeling. 

Now, if we don’t recognize our natural biases and stretch ourselves beyond them, then we get into a rut. We cover the same ground over and over and digging a hole for ourselves. We could take the easy way out and stick to South Node behaviors and pursuits. Based on experience, we know that if we act in certain ways, we’ll tend to get certain results pretty reliably. If we focus primarily on doing those things in our lives, we may seem successful because we’re such “naturals” at it. However, the victories that we win could feel very hollow. We might be successful in the world, but we also feel bored, unsatisfied, and empty.

The work of the South Node is all work that we’ve finished already. It’s behind us, not ahead of us. We’ve done everything we can in that department of our lives, and it’s time to move on to new assignments. The South Node indicates which of the qualities indicated elsewhere in the chart we have developed through experience.

Let’s look at some examples of the sorts of problems that you could run into if you focus on acting in South-Node kinds of ways. Focusing on the South Node means taking a self-denying approach to dealing with paid employment or other responsibilities.

Perhaps you overdo the idea of responsibility. Ideally, in the 6th house we strike a healthy balance between acting responsibly toward ourselves and acting responsibly toward others. If you overdo it, then you err in the direction of “being there” for others. You become your own slave driver, compulsively keeping yourself on a treadmill of duty for other people’s sake, and taking it out of your hide. You work hard to serve or support them, whether it’s in providing for your children, or delivering the goods for your boss, or otherwise contributing something of value to someone who’s counting on you.

Whether it’s because you to overdo responsibility or it leads you to overdo it, you might in effect try to control life by managing it. Specifically, you might try to control others, by encouraging them to depend too heavily upon you, rather than encouraging them to become more self-sufficient. If this is the case, then you’re probably not even conscious of doing this. It’s as if in a past lifetime circumstances demanded that you be the workhorse on whom everyone else depended to “get the job done.” You got really good at doing that, so good in fact that now you’re employing that same approach even if it’s no longer necessarily, or appropriate, or healthy to do so.

It’s not that you’re a Bad Person for acting so responsibility. It’s just that it’s time to broaden your repertoire by learning new skills, by growing in other directions. If you overdo your South Node, then it will hold you back from becoming more satisfied in your life.  

Not surprisingly, if you let yourself slide into a cynical, bitter perspective about how awful your working conditions or other responsibility-related matters are, you could also act self-destructively, bring everyone else down in the process, or both.

Now let’s look at the point opposite your South Node--the North Node.

North Node in Cancer in the 12th House

The North Node represents the future to which we are drawn. It symbolizes the newest stage of our growth. Your North Node lies in Gemini, in the 1st house of style. It indicates which of the qualities indicated elsewhere in the chart that you’re developing through conscious effort, starting almost from scratch. You’re developing your sensitivity, intuition, and imagination through solitary, spiritual or altruistic pursuits.

If we let ourselves experience our North Node, then we leave ourselves open to newness. With newness comes both awkwardness and excitement. We feel fascinated and anxious at the same time. After all, there’s not nearly the certainty that comes with South Node behaviors based on experience. With the North Node, all we’ve got is the uncertain future.

When you have experiences of a Cancer or 12th-house nature, they call into question your automatic assumptions about life. In other words, when situations call for you to reflect on your inner life or to receive nurturing from others, you might feel lost at first. When you have such experiences, you feel like you’re out of your element.  The unfamiliar is scary, at least at first.

If we first learn to recognize our natural biases and, secondly, decide to go beyond them through an act of will, then we’re on our way to growth. If we’re going to grow in this life, though, we have to stretch ourselves toward our North Node. That way lies both stress and fulfillment. The North Node indicates what we need to become in this lifetime. We can’t know from looking at our charts whether we will become that. The answer to that question depends on us. 

With your North Node in Cancer in the 12th house, you may not appreciate just how tender and imaginative you can be. You may work against yourself by denying yourself the comfort and inspiration that is available in solitary pursuits. However, the more you stretch yourself in such directions, the more satisfying you’ll find it in the long run. The more you focus on seeing yourself and your life as being more than simply a hard worker facing a mountain of hard work, the more satisfied you’ll be.

The idea here is to move toward your North Node in this life—to focus increasingly on developing Cancerian strengths as you address the issues associated with the 12th house.

If you do this, then in general you open yourself up to receiving nurturing—nurturing from yourself, from other people, from the universe. If you’d like to couch this idea in theological terms, then we could say that you’re opening yourself up to receiving God’s love. The idea could be as simple as resting when you’re tired, serving yourself some “comfort food” when you’re hungry, or taking the phone off the hook and disappearing for a while, when it’s time to “get away from it all.” One way or another, you unplug. You disengage from the workaday struggles of getting by on the material plane, and you contemplate life from an otherworldly perspective.  

One way you could do this would be by cultivating some sort of spiritual practice. Spirituality means different things to different people. Let it be something that’s meaningful for you. Maybe that means spending time meditating or reading sacred writings. Maybe it means dwelling in a place of worship, or exploring shamanism, or simply opening yourself up to your inner world and to direct knowledge of the Infinite, to the Cosmic Wow (as astrologer Rob Brezsny calls it).

Perhaps you dedicate yourself to gentle, nurturing altruism; to you, that expresses the presence of Spirit in the world. If that’s the case, then you might become an activist to protect the environment, for example. Somehow you protect others emotionally or physically, or you make their surroundings more secure. You could also help people in an institutional setting (such as a psychiatric facility) or by delving into their inner lives (as a psychoanalyst or psychotherapist), or by doing something related to health care (such as massage therapy or public health work).  

Another way you could move toward your North Node would be by cultivating a fuller expression of your creative imagination, or intuition, or psychic ability. Maybe you’re like a man whose father pressures him to become a businessman like himself. Rather than do that, he follows his inspiration and becomes a painter. When he paints, he feels free, at peace and alone. Maybe you take up sculpting or singing, or you become a dancer or musical composer, a comedian or an illusionist.

You might also use your South Node as a springboard toward further achievement by becoming a director of photography, choreographer, or ballet director. That would combine the organization skills and administrative ability of Capricorn with the imaginative vision of Cancer. If you develop your psychic ability or esoteric interests, you might become, say, a clairvoyant who reads tarot and gives talks.

The 12th house is the house of seclusion. Simply getting some serious “alone time” could also help you reach your North Node. You could seek out time in repose, such as while gardening or doing something else that you enjoy. Maybe you make a lifestyle decision that takes you into relative seclusion. You get out of the “rat race” and derive great satisfaction from living life “in the slower lane,” like a successful banker who sells his businesses and moves away to live on a quiet ocean inlet.

 In moving toward your North Node, you don’t need to shun using whatever strengths might be associated with your South Node. By all means use your instinctive sense of the need to discipline yourself, to acquire practical skills that can be of use to others. Define yourself in part by doing something that requires discipline, getting training or teaching yourself, or dealing with technical details.

Just don’t limit yourself by relying too much on such behaviors. Concentrate on developing your “softer side” in your more secluded time and through your more otherworldly interests. It may feel awkward for a while, but the more you do it, the more spiritually satisfied you’ll be. Stick with it. Give it time. You’ll be amazed how far it will take you in the long run.