To gain the most from the Moon’s Nodes series, please do read Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3 and Part 4
And now, Part Five…
5. How significant is the Nodal Axis?
I started out on my research with certain questions:
How significant is the Nodal axis? Are astrologers missing something really important by not delineating it in their readings, both natally and in terms of its transiting cycle? Does it say something specific? Or does it act as a reinforcer for information about a person’s life pattern which can be derived from other chart factors?
I think I have demonstrated quite clearly that the Nodes and their attendant planetary/Angular links can be used on their own to sketch out a clear picture of the basic structure of a person’s life path and the archetypal energies which need to be responded to and brought into the journey, for that person to be all they can be.
It appears that some lives are more touched by the hand of Fate than others. It seems that strong outer planet links, especially Pluto’s conjunctions or squares to the natal Nodal axis, and strong prevailing major patterns eg Uranus conjunct Pluto opposite Saturn conjunct Chiron linked to the Nodes, bring some people a more challenging and Fate-directed life than others. Mary Shelley’s chart is a very good example of this, with Uranus, dispositor of Pluto conjunct MC, conjunct her Sun and square her Nodal axis.
I have distinguished between minor and major Nodal activity in transits and progressions, and demonstrated that the major effect is what appears to be present when turning points occur. This would suggest that in contemplating the unfolding picture of a person’s life, the combination of Nodal activity with the foreground presence of outer planets, especially Pluto, points out that something really special is going on and should be carefully noted.
I also asked whether astrologers are missing something important by not paying attention to the Nodes, natally and as life unfolds. I think the answer to this is yes, with particular reference to the transiting Nodal cycle and the eclipse seasons which accompany them. The pair of houses highlighted by the transiting Nodal axis and eclipses should be carefully observed, especially if the pre-natal eclipse degrees crop up in the form of a returning eclipse, or a current eclipse is triggering natal patterns linked in to either of the pre-natal eclipses.
I appreciate that we all need to earn our living and there are a multiplicity of interpretive factors available which would take all day to prepare if they were to be included in every reading. We have to be selective.
But having done this research, I think that, in preparing a reading, if the clustering effect I have been discussing is in evidence, it is important to pay particular attention to that person’s natal Nodal pattern and the current Nodal/eclipse picture.
The client is then likely to be bringing matters of a life-changing nature to us for discussion, which offers us roles both as observers and midwives; human agents in the here-and-now of those mysterious ‘watchers by the threshold‘ whose numinous presence in our lives is symbolically represented by the Moon’s Nodes in Action.
You are most welcome to download the full research study from which my conclusions are taken: it was FREE for several years, but I am now charging a small fee of $7. The simplest way to get it is to send the money to my PayPal account: contact.anne.w@gmail.com
PayPal will notify me and I will send you the e book within 24 hours.
Thanks!
550 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2016
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page of Writing from the Twelfth House
Astrology: Questions and Answers 
“…..strong prevailing major patterns eg Uranus conjunct Pluto opposite Saturn conjunct Chiron linked to the Nodes, bring some people a more challenging and Fate-directed life than others….”
Present and accounted for. 😉 Pluto Rx is the ruler by sign of my SN. The ruler of my SN by house is retrograde and conjunct Saturn conjunct Chiron. The ruler of Saturn conjunct Chiron is retrograde and conjunct the SN. You are the first person outside of my Evolutionary Astrology teachers that has acknowledged that.
For some reason, I was initially drawn to and started learning about the lunar nodes before the other stuff of astrology. As I’ve learned a bit more, I’m even more convinced that they are key in chart interpretation.
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Hi, ms fr – many thanks for your affirming feedback. It was a really profound experience, doing that research and being able to draw some useful conclusions from people’s actual lives rather than from theorising…
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Via Facebook : 26.10.16
Rene Aceves:
We should bother to use them but not in the way karmic astrology does, which is probably wrong.
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Thanks, Rene. Can you say more about why you hold this view?
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Rene Aceves:
As a professional reader, I found they weren’t helping as defined by modern astrology. My friend Roy Kirkland was doing Jyotish for severlasting years and told me how they were used there. Though I practice western astrology, his guidelines work well. Strange, that karma is an Indian concept, but the nodes are not used karmically in their astrology. I also found that how they are used in cosmobiology helps.
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Via Facebook : 27.10.16
Melody Carr:
This series was really a revelation of just how much my life has been shaped by this cycle. Thanks, Anne! Still looking at the effects. It’s so interesting that in tracking this it seems that the nodes crossing my ascendant axis seem to be the most powerful, or at least eventful cycle, more so than the nodal return or opposition–which may be more internal–? I wonder . . . Within a few weeks the North Node crosses my ascendant again and my life is pivoting into new directions–all year. I think Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune had something to do with it, too. 🙂 Neptune is stationing on my Descendant at the same time. The relationship I’ve been in for the last nine+ years (yes, NN was right there at the Descendant when it began) is opening in new directions, too . . . We’ll see what happens next.
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Many thanks for this affirmation, Melody. It was really satisfying, doing the research, and observing the impact of this cycle and especially the ‘clustering’ effect I talk about. I wrote the original thesis when the North Node and eclipses were crossing my Asc, and here I am, promoting it on Facebook for the first time as the North Node and eclipses are crossing my Asc eighteen years later…and new directions opening up for me too, as Neptune crossing into the upper hemisphere of my horoscope makes a Finger of Fate with a natal Mercury/Neptune exact sextile…every good wish for the journey ahead!
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Melody Carr:
Thanks, you too, Anne! As I look at the nodal cycle, seriously, so many times when the nodes crossed over my Ascendant/Descendant it corresponded with strong outer planet cycles! I’m trying to find the times when it didn’t so I can figure out if that was different. But every time the North Node went over my Asc, there was a strong outer planet aspect, to either that axis or to my MC/IC axis or both. (They are fairly close squaring each other, just under 4 degrees.) The Descendant transits didn’t always have aspects to the angles, still often corresponded to powerful change–though not always as traumatically sharp an ending and regeneration. But until I actually starting framing this reply, I didn’t quite grasp how much the outer planets always synchronized with the North Node crossing! Thank you for so many revelations about this and framing it so succinctly. It’s much more meaningful to consider in the light you’ve shed. Since our Asc/Desc axis is pretty closely conjunct, it seems you’ve been blessed with this potent stimulus for transformation, too . . .
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This is brilliant feedback, Melody, and much appreciated. Perhaps we should compare notes again when the North Node has completed its transit through Virgo and has moved into Leo?
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Yes, that would be great! Truly, this is making me look at my life in a very different way. I’m just starting to absorb this.
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Alison Gunn :
I do think we should bother. 🙂
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Well, as you have seen from this post and the series, that is certainly my own view, Alison.
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