~Lunar Nodes~the secret of our past life

mystery of lunar nodes

Probably one of the most inspirational astrology books I have read in my entire professional life so far is “Astrology for the Soul” by Jan Spiller. Many astrology fans, even some professional readers, from time to time neglect how important nodes of the moon are in a natal birth chart and progressed chart. Clients who are learning astrology themselves would usually know more about their planets, such as sun sign is Leo, moon sign is Cancer and rising sign is Aquarius, etc. Astrology is widely used in predicting future trends and analysing current situations by observing the movement of the plants. In natal astrology, we focus on the positions and relationships of the planets at the time a person is born, and find out tendencies including both strength and weaknesses in a person and thus have better understanding about ourselves for potential improvement. Lunar nodes, though technically speaking are not actually celestial planets, they are very sensitive points in our birth chart to reveal essential information for us.  Especially when we go more in depth to analyse a person’s psychological process, the nodes suddenly become the most prominent. This is not to say that two people having the same nodes share the identical life journey, but there usually are certain psychological tendencies and patterns shared in between.

So what are the nodes, and where are they in our birth charts? 

lunar nodes

In our birth chart, there are two symbols looking like an upright horseshoe and a reverse horseshoe, respectively North node and South node of the Moon. These two points in our charts are not referring to a specific physical planet, neither do they tell us the location of the actual Moon(even though they are called the Node of the MOON). They are the two points at which the orbit of the Moon intersects the ecliptic. (As we know the moon’s orbiting sphere is slightly tilted away from the ecliptic, which is the sphere where the earth orbits the Sun.) The North node, also known as the Dragon Head, is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic; and the south node, also named the Dragon Tail, is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic hemisphere. Because North node and South node are pointing at two opposite directions, they are always 180 degrees apart, thus they will always in exactly opposite signs in our chart: North node in Leo with South node in Aquarius; North node at 6° in Libra with South node at 6° in Aries etc. 

Since the earth is perpetually orbiting the Sun on the ecliptic and the Moon is doing the same on a slightly tilted sphere around the earth, the two intercepted points between the two spheres are also changing. As we know, the 12 zodiac signs are on the ecliptic, and the Moon’s nodes always regress in motion as a scientific fact. Thus when the nodes regress, the direction they point at is also moving from one sign to another in the backward motion. For example, instead of progressing from Aries to Taurus, they move back from Aries to Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn etc.) The nodes of the moon will complete one 360° cycle in about 18~19 years and back to its original place, so in average the node will stay in a specific sign for a year and half. You can imagine, it is very possible that people born not far from your own birthday could share the same node positions with you. For example, if you were born on June 1st in 1941, your North node would be in Virgo, and South node in Pisces; and people born between May 25th in 1941 and November 21st in 1942 share the same North node sign and South node sign, though different degrees.* Below is a simple calendar to check your North node sign and South node sign.

*If you were born on the first day or last day of each node sign, I highly recommend that you check your node position with a professional astrologer or with credible astrology softwares available online. The sign could be different based on where on earth you were born and what time you were born. For example, based on the calendar, 21st November 1942 is the last day with North node in Virgo. However if you were born in Hong Kong after 2:16pm on the 21st, you North node would have entered North node in Leo. 

Below I have put together a calender for you to easily check what your north node and south node is. 

BEGINS	ENDS	North node IN	South node IN
August 20, 1967	April 19, 1969	Aries	Libra
April 20, 1969	November 2, 1970	Pisces	Virgo
November 3, 1970	April 27, 1972	Aquarius	Leo
April 28, 1972	October 26, 1973	Capricorn	Cancer
October 27, 1973	July 9, 1975	Sagittarius	Gemini
July 10, 1975	January 7, 1977	Scorpio	Taurus
January 8, 1977	July 5, 1978	Libra	Aries
July 6, 1978	January 5, 1980	Virgo	Pisces
January 6, 1980	January 6, 1980	Leo	Aquarius
January 7, 1980	January 12, 1980	Virgo	Pisces
January 13, 1980	September 24, 1981	Leo	Aquarius
September 25, 1981	March 15, 1983	Cancer	Capricorn
March 16, 1983	September 11, 1984	Gemini	Sagittarius
September 12, 1984	April 6, 1986	Taurus	Scorpio
April 7, 1986	May 5, 1986	Aries	Libra
May 6, 1986	May 8, 1986	Taurus	Scorpio
May 9, 1986	December 2, 1987	Aries	Libra
December 3, 1987	May 22, 1989	Pisces	Virgo
May 23, 1989	November 18, 1990	Aquarius	Leo
November 19, 1990	August 1, 1992	Capricorn	Cancer
August 2, 1992	February 1, 1994	Sagittarius	Gemini
February 2, 1994	July 31, 1995	Scorpio	Taurus
August 1, 1995	January 24, 1997	Libra	Aries
January 25, 1997	October 20, 1998	Virgo	Pisces
October 21, 1998	April 8, 2000	Leo	Aquarius
April 9, 2000	October 12, 2001	Cancer	Capricorn
October 13, 2001	April 13, 2003	Gemini	Sagittarius
April 14, 2003	December 26, 2004	Taurus	Scorpio
December 27, 2004	June 22, 2006	Aries	Libra
June 23, 2006	December 14, 2007	Pisces	Virgo
December 15, 2007	August 21, 2009	Aquarius	Leo
August 22, 2009	March 3, 2011	Capricorn	Cancer
March 4, 2011	August 29, 2012	Sagittarius	Gemini
August 29, 2012	February 18, 2014	Scorpio	Taurus
February 19, 2014	November 11, 2015	Libra	Aries
November 12, 2015	May 9, 2017	Virgo	Pisces
May 10, 2017	November 6, 2018	Leo	Aquarius
November 7, 2018	May 5, 2020	Cancer	Capricorn
May 6, 2020	January 18, 2022	Gemini	Sagittarius

In astrology, the reason for which the nodes are so critical in a chart lies in that they are karmic points in which we discover our past tendencies and our future fulfilment. The North node represents our karmic paths and the lessons we were born into this world to learn and to master. The South node reveals the challenges and gifts we have brought in from previous lifetimes. They basically suggest that we all come into this life with some underdeveloped attributes together with some overdeveloped aspects in our characters. 

In Karmic Astrology, the South node tells us where we come from, who we were in our previous life and the skills we have already mastered. In a positive way, a natural talent or strength is usually reflected by the South node. Have you heard people say something like “Oh, definitely! He is a natural!” For example, teaching and passing on knowledge is the domain of Sagittarius, and I have seen many clients who are natural teachers and speakers have their South node in Sagittarius. I had a client who told me when he taught a class in front of 200 people for the first time, he felt somehow as if he had done it before. Iit felt familiar to him. This is exactly how South node works in our life. It shows our natural tendencies and the gift we have brought into our current incarnation. South node in Aries tends to give us the natural strength of independence; South node in Pisces makes us compassionate and loving, South node in Capricorn people tend to be very responsible and hard working…

South node reveals gifts, but it also is our comfort zone and could even become our blockage in life in the long run. The reason is because the South node traits are something we have already achieved in our past life and we were born with. When we came into this incarnation, there is a different purpose, and there is usually something different for us to achieve. The South node could be our safety net, which we could fall back on. But when attaching ourselves to our past, we stop exploring the new, and thus the karmic lesson we were born to learn in this lifetime is not being mastered. This is usually why when we hold on to our South node tendencies for too long, we tend to feel stuck and a lack of growth. Some people are so stuck in their South node that their talents and gifts from their past life would even stop working for them at some point. The client I mentioned above experienced the same. Teaching was his “comfort zone”, ruled by his south node in Sagittarius. After 7 years teaching, he felt something was missing. He even lost the the motivation to pursue his teaching career. Eventually he resigned from his teaching position at a local community college and embarked on a new journey in a completely different field. His exact words to me: “It’s not like I cannot teach. I actually am a very good teacher. But I am mentally tired of it. I feel there has to be something more inspiring for me to do.” That’s right, he said something “inspiring”. If there is one thing not gained from our South node, it probably would be new inspiration.

However this is NOT to say that everything we are good at is our South node talent and that we must abandon them. South node is a comfort zone or it could be a temporary haven for us. It could be used to save ourselves when we are in crisis. It is like a emergency box when we need it, but it is not the purpose of our life. The best way is to explore the potential of our North node (the lesson and learning we must do in our current life) with the assistance of our South node (the talent and strength we have). The North node and the South node are like a seesaw effect in our life, we constantly balance them. We take advantage of our gifts from the south node, but we cannot never rely on it forever; and yet we must be courageous enough to cultivate the habit of our North node, which will give us growth and development. The client I just mentioned left his teaching position as a career goal, but he should still keep using his skills back in college teaching time when he pursues his new career, such as his eloquence and his panache in public speaking. The fulfilment and happiness we experience from our north node is beyond materialistic success and professional status, it is a joy shining from within.

Because South node is from our past, generally speaking people tend to be more blind to their South node tendencies, and if they grabbed the opportunity to go through the North node “life lessons”, they will become more aware of their nodal energies later in life. Understanding North node in real life somehow feels like an epiphany. For example, I had a client who has South node in Libra in the 8th House. (Later in the next chapter, you will see the tendencies that need to be left behind for south node in Libra people.)  She was married for 25 years. During her marriage, she made tremendous amount of sacrifices for her husband’s happiness. On the other hand, she always felt her husband never understood her needs and rarely reciprocated in a fair way. But she didn’t do much about it because she wanted the relationship as her security net very much. When she was in her mid 50s, her husband suddenly decided he wanted a divorce. Her life suddenly fell apart. She was extremely distressed, sad and scared because she was forced by the Universe to learn her own karmic lesson---her psychological independence and self-awareness. It was many years delayed. She relied her entire happiness on her relationship with her husband. Now the husband is gone, she is no longer someone’s wife, and she no longer knew who she was and how to position herself in life. It took her a while to stand up again and see herself as an individual, but later she found her happiness by reaching her north node in Aries in the 2nd house, which brought much financial confidence, emotional independence and self-love for herself.

In the next chapter in my journal, I will write more in details about the attributes to develope as well as the tendencieis to leave begind for the 12 signs in north nodes. Remember to check your north node and south node to find your own life path.

A little big extra information: There are a lot more elements we must look at in a birth chart to find a balanced analysis, such your Sun and Moon relationship, your house ruler, your ascendant and midheaven(don’t worry now if you don’t what they are)… In relation to lunar node, it is also important to find out the rulers of your north node and south node to find success. For example, north node in Virgo is ruled by Mercury, and south node in Pisces is co-ruled by Neptune and Jupiter. If at the time of this person’s birth, Mercury and Neptune/Jupiter are in conjunction or in a harmonious aspect such as sextile or trine, the life lesson could be learned more smoothly and easily, since the bridge from the South node to the North node is already there. More challenging aspects such us opposition and square might cause some delay or difficulties, but it might require more active effort from our side to reach our north node potential. A female client of mine has her south node in Leo and north node in Aquarius, however there are not much Leo past life tendencies she carries, and it seems naturally she has embraced her north node traits at a very young age. When I looked closer at her birth chart, I noticed she had Sun (ruler of Leo) in conjunction with Uranus(ruler of Aquarius), which brought her south node and north node energy together for a smooth and early transition. Don’t worry if this doesn’t make much sense to you. In the following chapters we will spend some time looking at the planets and nodes relationships more in details. 

Letao~the Kingdom Healer

www.thehealingkingdom.com