Lunar
Nodes
May 6, 2005
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/may6.html
Dear Eric,
What are the lunar nodes?
Regards from San Pedro
Dear San Pedro
The Lunar Nodes are very mysterious.
No discussion can ever cover them
entirely, but I'll try to get you started. First of all, you can find them because
they look like little horse shoes in the chart. They are designated North and
South, for reasons I'll get into in a moment; some charts only give the North
Node; the South Node has the same degree in the opposite sign. The North Node
is the horse shoe with the opening on the bottom; the South Node is the once
with the opening pointing up.
The North Node is also called the
Dragon's Head or in Vedic (Indian) astrology, Rahu. The South Node is also
called the Dragon's Tail or in Vedic astrology, Ketu. They activate a polarity;
they are always exactly opposite one another, so they remind us how important
it is to remember that opposite signs always work together in some way.
First let's go to the Fred Gettings
Arkana Dictionary of Astrology for a technical definition. The nodes "are
the points in which the orbit of the planet [or the Moon] intersects the
ecliptic." The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth.
Most people know the Earth goes round the Sun (research indicates that many
people are still confused about this!) But it looks like it works the other way
around. So the apparent path of the Sun is called the ecliptic. At the degree
where a planet such as the Moon (or recently, Venus) crosses this path, we have
the node. When the Sun is standing right there when the Moon (or a planet, such
as Venus) crosses this path, we have an eclipse (or in the case of Venus, a
transit).
The Moon is not exactly on the ecliptic.
The Moon's orbits -- and all the planets -- intersect with the ecliptic at an
angle.
Where the Moon crosses one of its nodes
to the northern latitudes, we have the North Node. Where the Moon crosses the
ecliptic to the southern latitudes, we have the South Node.
Are you with me so far? This is a
three-dimensional situation. The chart is two-dimensional. The Sun is making an
orbital path on one plane; the Moon on another; where they meet are the two
points called the Nodes.
Whenever you're looking at a chart of any
kind and you see the Sun near one of the Moon's nodes, that tells you that an
eclipse is in the vicinity -- really, two eclipses, one of the Sun and one of
the Moon. So eclipses and the Nodes are intimately linked. What the nodes give
you is a permanent stand in for eclipses even when the Sun and Moon are
somewhere entirely different. They kind of tell you, "This is the
approximate location of the next eclipse." Approximate, not exact. As I
write, this, the North Node is at 3 Taurus and 20 minutes and the South is in
the same degree of Scorpio. The next eclipse is a solar eclipse on Oct. 14 at
21 degrees of Libra and 5 minutes. On that day, the nodes will be at 2 degrees
and 6 minutes of Taurus/Scorpio. The nodes and the position of the eclipse are
about 10 degrees apart, which is fairly typical.
I don't know enough about astronomy to
account for this difference, but I live with the mystery.
Now, none of this tells you what to do
with the nodes.
If you look them up in an astrology
textbook or two, you're going to find out that the South Node is about your
past karma, the past, where you're coming from, where you get stuck in life, or
where you draw your power based on past experience. That's a reasonable
explanation. The North Node is usually said to be a place where we struggle to
become something, to learn something, or to express ourselves. True enough.
The Sound Node feels like Karma -- the
total effect of our past actions. The North Node feels like Dharma -- right
action, or 'acting as if to hold the world together'. They are very important
in terms of their house position; their sign position tells you a lot because
the sign where the node is placed gives you a ruling planet or two to search
for, and that placement tells you a lot about the influence of the particular
node in question.
If a planet is conjunct one of the nodes,
then that planet (and the house it rules) are associated with the whole story
of the node. If a planet is square the nodes, then one will not be able to deal
with the nodes until they first address the concerns, issues or themes of that
planet. If a planet is trine or sextile the nodes, then it will tend to be
greatly amplified and broadcast widely into our reality and even the world
around us. The nodes say a
Some Western astrologers say the North
Node is 'good' and the South Node is 'bad'. This is entirely oversimplified and
not so helpful if you?re trying to get a sense of a person from their chart.
The Nodes are important tools in Vedic
astrology and are only beginning to be vaguely understood by modern Western astrologers.
Last year I had the chance to speak for a while with Presanan, the official
astrologer to Ammachi, when Amma's road show was in
The nodes tell us about what we get to do
here on the Earth, and they help us do it. Since we are on the Earth, we would
do well to consider the value of doing what we came here to do. As a result,
they keep us grounded, which is where we belong. If we ever get too far from
the true path of life (as we define it) the nodes will somehow keep us on
track, or eventually bring us back on track. I consider the Nodes to be
something of a first priority in order of what really matters in the chart.
Now, one past point. In terms of what
they are, the nodes are directions in space. They are nothing physical; they
are points that hint at where an event in the future (an eclipse or two) will
occur. But they act with power that should make most planets envious. They are
among the very most compelling points in the chart, on par with Pluto, Saturn
or Chiron, but really much more immediate, even urgent. They feel like a strong
current moving us through the water. They are alive. They are completely cosmic
and yet totally mundane.
The fact that no-thing can have this kind
of effect tells you that astrology is not about things, it is about energies
and ideas. People who have difficulty interpreting the nodes may be responding
to this intangibility, this no-thingness. Tune in; check for aspects, pull a
few tarot cards, take a deep breath, or wait for the next eclipse.
The Lunar Nodes speak. If you?d like a
good book that can help you decode the nodes, have a look at Incarnation by
Melanie Reinhart.
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