“…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.
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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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