In an astrological birth chart the Moon’s Nodes represent your journey across multiple lifetimes. The South Node, also called the Dragon’s Tail, is what you’ve done in past lives – the energy you brought into this life. The North Node, the Dragon’s Head, shows where you’re going.
An analogy is the education system. You go to primary school then high school and then university, college or some other form of tertiary education.
The lessons you learned in primary school aren’t repeated in high school. In primary school you learned to read, write, do arithmetic as well as lots of other important and useful skills. When you got to high school you didn’t have to learn these basic skills all over again because they were already well established – you could already read and write.
In high school you learn many things which may not seem useful at the time but are important skills and capabilities for your ongoing education. It’s only when you get into university or college that you find these skills and knowledge are useful for you.
The Moon’s Nodes represent a similar process but across multiple lifetimes. So what are the Nodes and how does this work?
What are these things we call the Nodes of the Moon? (If you’re not technically inclined you can skip this paragraph.) The lunar nodes are the orbital nodes of the Moon, that is, the points where the orbit of the Moon crosses the ecliptic. The ascending node is where the moon crosses to the north of the ecliptic. The descending node is where it crosses to the south. Eclipses occur only near the lunar nodes: Solar eclipses occur when the passage of the Moon through a node coincides with the new moon; lunar eclipses occur when passage coincides with the full moon. (Wikipedia)
In your birth chart the South Node represents where you’ve come from – the “been there, done that” part of your development. Consequently, it shows the area in your life where to tend to go to as your comfort zone. It’s also the place where you experience your karma most strongly. We should note here that your comfort zone is not necessarily a comfortable place but rather somewhere you are used to. This is why we often repeat destructive patterns – these are established habits and are hard to change if we don’t know what the underlying issue really is. (This ‘underlying issue’ may be the position of the South Node in your birth chart.) This doesn’t mean you’re ‘doomed’ to keep repeating this behaviour. Because the Nodes always work in pairs, it shows you where you need to be moving from and where you need to move towards.
The North Node is that area of your life you are learning and developing into.
Let’s have a look at a couple of examples: I recently did a reading for a lady with the South Node in the seventh house and the North Node in the first house. The seventh house relates to marriage and close intimate relationships, while the first house (directly opposite) is to do with appearance and personality and the way you show yourself to the world.
Having the South Node in the seventh house meant that this lady kept getting into relationships which were not supportive for her. She has a strong set of martyr and guilt genes when it comes to intimate relationships and this resulted in her subjugating her own needs and desires to those of her partner in a way which proved to be unhealthy for her. What came up for her, and was reinforced by other elements in her birth chart, was that she needed to focus much more on herself and her own needs. While she’s been living much of her life from a mindset of ‘should’ (“I should do this”, “I should be that”) she now understands that she needs to be living from the place of what she wants.
Conversely, someone who has the nodes the other way around, North in the seventh house and South in the first, means they’ve been focussed on their own needs in the past and have to develop the ability to connect with others more deeply. Intimacy can be challenging for this person as they have little experience in this area. Returning to my analogy of the school system this person is learning new skills in this lifetime which are important for now and going into the future. They will probably need a supportive (and patient) person to help them learn the lessons this life is teaching them.
To find out where your Nodes are and how they impact your life you’ll need you birth chart done. Contact me (email laurence@aviel.com.au or call 0412 613 613) and we can discuss how I can help you get clear about your soul purpose.