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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 Sagittarius in the 7th 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 Sagittarius, in your 7th house (the house of intimacy). Whether because of heredity or karma, you are automatically, instinctively adept in acting in Sagittarian ways (thinking and acting based on principle, taking adventurous leaps into the unknown, and so on). You also have a natural orientation toward the affairs of the 7th house—establishing and maintaining close bonds with others, collaborating with others, acting interdependently. From the get-go, you take a Sagittarian approach to 7th-house matters. In the process, you weed out the development of behaviors that clash with such an approach. You prevent them from developing. You naturally tend to consider other people’s philosophies more than your own ideas and interests, for example, when deciding what to do and what not to do.

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 putting too much faith in those close to you, naively believing that if you follow their advice, you’ll come out just fine. It means getting embroiled in fiery confrontations over philosophical differences with other people.

Let’s say you get married. Your partner has a very visible career, say, as a politician. He or she makes major goofs in the political world, acting incompetently, doing unpopular things, until it all gets swallowed up in public controversy. Rather than encourage your partner to make basic changes in how he or she acts, you stand by him or her, on principle. Eventually your sweetie gets booted from office or thrown in jail, and your life gets dragged down, too.

Here’s another scenario with a spouse: You pair off with someone, and eventually you realize that you want to go into the same field of work that your partner is in. He or she has never seemed terribly secure in that department, and you think that your partner couldn’t handle the competition. It’s very important to you to be a supportive companion, so you never broach the subject. You never follow your dream, and when you’re older, you look back and regret it.

Maybe you have a partner who gives you wonderful gifts and charms you at one moment, and abuses you at the next moment. Over time, you develop profound anger about such treatment, and you hold the anger inside, rather than talking to someone else about it. Doing that hurts your self-esteem. Maybe you jump into a marriage impulsively, then feel like you can’t breathe, and jump out of it again a few weeks or months later.

Such problematic scenarios aren’t limited to romantic relationships. They could just as easily come up in other close interactions with others.

Suppose you become a legal prosecutor. You take on cases prosecuting drug dealers. You’re good at what you do—too good. First you win lots of cases. Over time, you become too emotionally or philosophically engaged in the outcomes of your cases. You act in such a vehemently dogmatic, nail-the-bastards way, that you’ll do whatever it takes to win and make them suffer as much as possible. Eventually, people decide you’ve gone too far, and then the tables get turned: you become the legal defendant when charges are brought against you.

Another scenario: You’re not sure what to do about a situation, so you take a friend’s advice. The two of you are close, and you don’t feel the need to look at the advice critically. You just act on it, trusting and hoping for the best. Then your decision backfires in a big way.

Those are all examples of focusing on your South Node—investing hope, trust, zealousness, or kindness in close interactions with other people, and suffering for it. Let’s look at the point opposite your South Node--the North Node.

North Node in Gemini in the 1st 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 independence, your intelligence, your communication skills, your wit.

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 Geminian or 1st-house nature, they call into question your automatic assumptions about life. In other words, when situations call for you to collect as much information as possible, or as great a variety of experiences as possible, you might feel lost at first. The same could happen when it’s time to perceive sights and sounds accurately, think about them clearly, and communicate to others about them. The same thing could also happen when it’s time to present yourself to the world in a very personal, independent way—to take the initiative to show others who you are. 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 Gemini in the 1st house, you may not appreciate just how intelligent and verbally adept you could be. You may sell yourself short when it comes to acting independently in the world. Maybe teachers or others along the way tried to make you think you were less than competent. Maybe some strong figure led you to believe that you didn’t know what was best for you, and you should follow that person’s lead instead of satisfying your own curiosity about the world. However, the more you stretch yourself in such directions, the more satisfying you’ll find it in the long run. The more you communicate with logic and reasoning about specifics, rather than struggling over philosophical points of view with others, the more satisfied you’ll be.

By all means cultivate close relationships. Consider what other people have to say. Think about what life means in the long run, but don’t limit yourself by relying too much on such behaviors. Concentrate on moving into territory that let’s you communicate with detached interest, with cool reasoning, with a light, playful touch. Concentrate on following your own lead, taking the initiative, approaching the world in a way that makes sense to you.

How could you do this? Try out a variety of different roles. Experiment with them. See which ones catch your interest. Become skillful in a few of them. You could pursue more than one role at the same time, or you could pursue one after another, in different periods in your life.

Take a public speaking course, or join a public speaking club, such as Toastmasters. Even if you find yourself stammering nervously at first, that’s normal. The club is set up to encourage everyone to get beyond that through mutual support. The more you practice doing it, the easier and more satisfying it will be.

The same goes for being a musical performer or artist in some other sense of the word. By developing your abilities as a communicator or singer or whatever, the self-confidence and poise will spill over into other parts of your life, helping you along there, too.

Develop pride in your own intelligence, in your resourcefulness and versatility. If you have ideas or information that you think are important to share with the world, then share it. Other people who are invested in holding on to rigid attitudes might try to make your life difficult when you do it, but the more you do it, the more spiritually satisfied you’ll be. Ride it out. Stick with it. Give it time. You’ll be amazed how far it will take you in the long run.