Lunar Nodes

Lunar Nodes offer an interesting perspective on a chart’s inner workings and a person’s destiny. Formed by the continually moving point where the Sun and Moon meet on the ecliptic, they are sensitive areas in a chart. They blend the ego based, personal drive of the solar part of a person with the emotional, changeable, intuitive lunar functions. The blending of the Sun and Moon energies makes the nodes important points and describes the lessons of the earth journey.

Below are ten ways to determine how the nodes function in a client’s chart and some advice to offer as a counselor.

1. The North Node by house placement describes a key focal point of life. It indicates how a person achieves a “successful” life from their point of view. If a person is NOT working on or in the North Node house, they will describe their life as being a failure.

Advice with clients:
• Create consciousness about the North Node’s placement.
• Explore how past achievements in that house were emotionally and goal/life fulfilling.
• Help a person incorporate more North Node activities into their life.

2. The sign ruling the South Node describes what a person does too much, too often or to their own detriment. It is where they create or desire excess.

Advice with clients:
• Explore the darker, more difficult parts of the sign to point out concrete areas where they over do things.
• Use the opposite sign as the solution to the excess. For example, Cancer South Nodes need to practice tough love and not give so much all the time to the entire world.

3. Examine the planets ruling the signs on the nodes, including their aspects, house placements, progressions and transits. This is where the action is!

Advice with clients:
• Describe the dynamic flow of energy for these planets ~ and the blocks to it. If a client can understand how they self-sabotage, they can push through to success ~ or at least stop failing.

4. Natal planets conjunct the South Node create a giant sucking sound in a person’s life. Major life issues around the planet’s nature as well as aspects to the planet are going to repeatedly appear. The South Node drains energy. It draws the energy out of the planet, creating physical as well as emotional problems.

Advice with clients:
• Recommend therapy or other healing modalities to encourage some understanding around the energy being lost. The goal is to help the person separate the planet’s energy from the obsession of the node. Please note that this will only partially help. The person must work their entire life to understand the impact of any planet joined to the South Node.

5. Don’t worry about planets conjunct the North Node. People and situations magically appear to guide life direction. Planets conjunct the North Node gently tug at a person to help them evolve and grow.

Advice with clients:
• Give the client keywords so they recognize their new guides the instant they appear.

6. Saturn rules the North Node in Vedic astrology. Look at the condition of the chart’s Saturn as well as positive or negative aspects to natal and progressed Saturn to gain insight into how the person feels about moving toward their destiny. Blocking aspects to Saturn often appear as limitations in the nodal area too.

Advice with clients:
• Help a person understand their Saturn energy and how to work with it in a productive manner to reduce the nodal block.

7. Mars rules the South Node in Vedic astrology. Look at the condition of the chart’s Mars by aspect, sign and house to see how the person wastes their energy. Positive aspects and progressions to Mars indicate the time is right to remove or eliminate addictions and obsessions.

Advice with clients:
• Expose the negative characteristics of their Mars energy to help illuminate how they are hurting their life.
8. The nodes are called the dragon’s head and tail. The dragon in mythology is not an easy beast to work with, much less to try and tame. It flies around, breathes fire and does what it wants to do when it wants to do it without much regard for the wishes of others.

Advice with clients:
• Remember you are working with a dragon when talking about the nodes in a person’s chart. Sometimes they breathe fire!

9. The Mars-like dragon’s tail describes a compulsive, driven place in the chart with no brain. It is where a great wasting of time, talent and skills can take place. It sometimes appears to be a gift, talent or skill but there is a trick involved. A person can spend their whole life living their South Node, it so easy and addictive.

Advice with clients:
• Help the client use the gift, talent or skill of the South Node to move towards the North Node. This can be hard to do!

10. The North Node is growth in a Saturn way. It doesn’t come easy and it takes a lifetime. Saturn words apply to the North Node.

Advice with clients:
• Help the client figure out their Karma, destiny, or path in life (whatever they want to call it).
• Remind them that this type of growth takes time, patience, humor and work.

The nodal axis is one of the most frustrating yet rewarding areas of a chart for you and your clients. Your client base will grow if you teach them how to work with their nodes and their energy.

Copyright © 2006 Anne C. Ortelee