“…I 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…”(i)
Impetus and inspiration for this post came from a very striking experience I had on 9th May 2017, at around 7 pm. More about this shortly…
The North Node’s transit through Virgo, South Node in Pisces, from the end of 2015 right through to early May 2017, picking up on a particularly undermining, painful and difficult Saturn/Neptune square from Sagittarius to Pisces, challenged us all, especially when the attendant eclipse seasons in September 2016 and March 2017 triggered off the pattern.
Collectively, we had the pain and trauma of waves of mass migration from the world’s trouble spots to European countries ill-equipped to cope, with many migrants drowning in overcrowded traffickers’ boats, their hopes for a better life perishing with them. We had the election of Donald Trump and the shock-waves that sent around the world. We had the UK voting to exit from the European Union with similar effects.
At a personal level, many of us, me and my clients amongst them, had a great deal of personal confusion, uncertainty, family trauma and other types of suffering to deal with. The impression I gained from astrological colleagues especially via social media, was that the Nodal Axis through Virgo/Pisces had challenged us to grow and move forward in our personal paths through a great deal of worldly pain.
As the imminent shift of the Nodal Axis into Leo/Aquarius approached, there was a great deal of positive comment, hope and anticipation across the astro-Web. A move from Virgo’s dense earth and Pisces’ deep water to Leo’s creative, optimistic fire complemented by Aquarius’ detached, humane airiness would – surely – be easier and more pleasurable to deal with?
The North Node Crossed my 9 Virgo Ascendant, entering the 12th House, in November 2016 (where it will remain until the Spring of 2018, with the South Node tenanting the 6th House). I was aware in late April/early May 2017 that the North Node’s shift into Leo was imminent, and read some of the astro-Web’s outpourings on the subject.
However, I was too immersed in grappling with the inner challenges brought to me by trauma close to home– not of my making – to pay much attention to second guessing what the shift might bring for me personally, or indeed what day it was going to take place.
However, on 9th May 2017, just after dinner, my inner turmoil resolved itself to the point where I was able to take constructive action to put some distance between what I know to be my main path for whatever life remains to me, and the needs of others. (Protecting other people’s privacy prevents me from being more explicit than this).
In essence, I re-affirmed for myself that night that the energy my intertwined creative life and spiritual path requires, was not going to be given away to grappling with old family pathology from whose grip I have largely managed to extricate myself after decades of tough spiritual work.
Realising that this was a key moment, I put up a chart, and was stunned to note that decisive action I had taken had been almost exactly the moment that the North Node shifted into Leo in my Twelfth House. That night, I was even more aware than usual of the unconditional support my Aquarian husband has always given me to follow my creative path.
Looking for some strong Nodal JPEGS I could use whilst writing this post, I came across this summary – brilliantly appropriate for where I am at the momentn– from the website of Alison Gunn, Ph D, an astrologer whose in-depth work I very much admire:
“…In a nutshell, then, this is the dichotomy of the 6/12 nodal axis: you have to find a way to live in the everyday world and, at the same time, keep the issues confronting your ‘immortal soul’ on the front burner…” (ii)
I hope you will find this personal account of interest, and that it will inspire you to keep a close eye on the pair of houses being highlighted in YOUR horoscope over the next eighteen months by the transiting Nodal axis and its attendant eclipses. These are the area in your life which are now ripe for challenge and change!
To end on a pungent, amusing but I think very accurate piece of astrological shorthand from that incomparable astrologer Michael Lutin, couched in the terminology of Alcoholics Anonymous: he invites us to think of the South Node as the Bottle, and the North Node as The Meeting…a very concise way of reminding us that the South Node represents the safe haven of familiar responses and patterns which, if we stick there, leads to no progress. We need to push ourselves in the direction to which the North Node beckons us, if we want to grow and develop to the fullness of which we are capable as this life time unfolds.
________________
Endnotes
(i) from Anne Whitaker, The Moon’s Nodes in Action, p 157
(ii) from Alison Gunn Ph D, Beyond The Stars Astrology and Tarot , in analysis of the 6th house/12th house nodal axis through the signs
900 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2017
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Astrology: Questions and Answers 
Your post today on the nodal axis caught my attention. I had taken my focus off them. It was a book on them that drew me back into the study of astrology. May 9 is my birthday so I was even more drawn in by the article. I have 02 Leo rising and nothing in the 1st house except the south node. Will keep my eyes open. With all the other transits currently happening I had slipped on watching the nodes. I do have you book on them and will try to find time to explore it more deeply. Also will read the two you mentioned. Something else I have been focusing on is Uranus return happening for me at age 83 and I thought I had a year before I had to think about that. First I thought surely 83 must be wrong but everything says yep it is happening at age 83 which I just turned May 9 and I haven’t a year to think about it. Thanks for you informative article and drawing my attention back to the nodes. Nancy Willis
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Hi Nancy, thanks for dropping by with your feedback. I think you will find that the process of your Uranus Return takes around a year before Uranus moves out of orb of 28 Aries – so you DO have time to reflect on what’s happening…
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Thanks, that is good to know. So many things going on at once at this time in not just my live but History that it makes your head spin.
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I read this post with great interest, as I’ve been hearing about the nodal transit happening around this time. I have the ‘luck’ of having my North Node be 2 degrees Aquarius in my 12th House, so of course this flips things for me on the head. Plus, my Moon is also in Aquarius(a shocking development, I know), so whatever surprises this transit dishes out, I’m sure will light up my Moon placement as well, as thats the neighborly thing to do to, I’m sure.
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Hi, Anne! I confess that this post was entirely above my pay grade (as they say), but I’m glad to see you posting, and hope that all is going well with you. It does sound as though life’s gotten more complex: the reason hardly matters. The experience usually is the same, regardless of specific details.
Your comments did remind me of a little note I keep on my desk now, with three words written on the page: stupid, irrelevant, and boring. Those are the three things I decided I didn’t have any more time for in the years I have left. Honestly, if we eliminate those three things from our lives, there suddenly is a lot of time and energy available for other people and other things!
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Hi, Linda – great to hear from you. Hope you are well. I haven’t been calling in on any of my blog friends much of late, including your good self. Must remedy that!
And MY life is basically fine…I leave you to draw the inference from that!
I did love your desk note, and am going to copy it for myself if you don’t mind. Being of a certain age does indeed begin to concentrate one’s mind wonderfully on the things which will do – and the things which definitely WON’T any more..
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Hi Anne, I enjoy everything you write. I may have commented some time ago that I have Virgo Rising at 8.32 degrees, very close to yours. So I am also going to be experiencing the 12/6 house nodal axis now too. We shall see how this plays out! I noticed you are married to an Aquarian and I am too! I like that with my Moon being in Aquarius. I relate well to all that is Aquarian.
I just recently created an Astrological deck of cards, the intent being to have fun while playing familiar card games and easily learning basic Astrology. I had 50 decks printed this past February and have a few left, which are currently up as ‘Buy Now’ on eBay. If you get a chance would you take a look and let me know what you think of them? I am a professional Astrologer in the Phoenix Arizona area and you can see them on my blog here: astrologerpeg.wordpress.com
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Peggy
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Hi Peg yes, I do indeed remember our Asc in common. Do keep me posted re your 12/6 Nodal experiences – and congratulations on your good sense in marrying your Aquarian!
I will indeed check out your cards.
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Your decisive moment on the 9th May prompted me to look at the nodes ingress into Leo. As it happens I did have a minor self-care versus caring-for-others drama on the 29th of April (when the North Node first slipped into Leo). A more striking development occured on the caring-for-others front though. On the 9th (as it happens), a friend in her mid seventies was admitted to hospital following worrying palpitations. She called the ambulance fearing that this could trigger another stroke. Her Sun (heart) is in Leo, and the transiting nodes fell square her Uranus. Your post alerted me to the eclipses coming up in August, a period I’d already privately flagged up as difficult for her. This may help in terms of advice regarding preventive measures, and readyness for support.
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Hi Brian yes – I’m working with the True Node position, although the Mean Node entry was indeed slightly earlier. Both dates appear to have been significant for you; having checked my diary for 29th April, that date was significant for me too, and clearly part of the process I’m currently working through…how interesting. I wonder if anyone else will offer feedback on those two dates?
Thanks so much for this vivid feedback – and I do hope the alert re the eclipses can lead to useful positive advance action on your friend’s part.
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Hello Anne. In my haste I’d forgotten that I was using the mean node! I have to admit that I’ve never made a systematic comparison.
I should perhaps also have mentioned that back in 1999 I was apprehensive on her behalf about the approaching total solar eclipse which not only fell conjunct her Sun, but would be visible in Cornwall where she was living. In the event she experienced significant healing and an improvement in her long term health problems -including, if I remember rightly- sorry, no time to rummage- palpitations. Thanks for the alert, and the well wishing. 🙂
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Thank you, Anne. I enjoyed your raising of this topic and your perspectives shared. I’ve been noticing bits and pieces on the nodal shift as well, as well as the shift of Regulus on that Leo-Virgo cusp, too. I’m glad you mentioned the May 9th date specifically, and your experience. I did notice a marked ‘inner easing’ even with the depth-stirring Scorpio full moon last week. And yes, the nodes journey thought the Virgo-Pisces axis, along with the Saturn-Neptune square, really did light things up for those of us with well-populated Mutable zones! (Thanks, too, for the Aquarian Love … mine is an Aqua Sun, and Saturn and Midheaven in Aqua, too.)
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Hi Jamie
great to hear from you – and to have your feedback. This Aquarian Love thing is spreading: you have one of those too…
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I have this 6/12 nodal axis involvement in my natal chart with the recent movement of the north node. But Leo is in the 6th House. Does this mean that while there is the need to balance the two energies, I should invest more energy now in the 6th House?
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Yes, without looking at the rest of your chart but only this one significator, I would think that might well be the case. You have a great deal of 12th House wisdom to draw on, I think, to offer through that Leo/6th House Node. Keep me posted!
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Via Facebook:
18.5.17:
Lesley Hibberd:
Re: Michael Lutin’s comment about the South Node being the bottle. My Sun is at 3 degrees, 50 minutes Pisces, so the South Node just went over my Sun. I’m helping one of my sisters take care of our mother, who is a completely unsalvageable alcoholic. Quite frankly, I hope the North Node’s egress into Leo signals my imminent release. I have a late Leo Jupiter/Pluto conjunction and my Progressed Moon has just gone into Scorpio. My father just died and I expect my mother to follow before the year is out.
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Thank you for sharing such painful personal information, Lesley. Astrology can certainly at times be disconcertingly accurate in what it describes, and when it describes it. Yours is certainly a vivid case in point. Blessings to you and your sister at this most difficult time.
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