What are the lunar nodes in the birth chart?
The Lunar Nodes in the birth chart are quite mystical. Some claim they reveal proof of past lives experiences. Is it true? I wouldn't know.
I'm an observer, and I'm not able to observe past lives. However I can do two things: Explore possibilities, and observe their influence in the birth chart.
Past lives or past memories?
Scientists recently explored the possibility of having memories of ancestors stored in our DNA, which I find to be a lead as valuable as the possibilities of reincarnation. I'll leave it to your personal beliefs and observations as it doesn't have any bearing on the core of what we're looking at: The impact of the position of these Nodes in the birth chart. What matters to us after all is what these symbols mean, and how they affect us.
The Lunar Nodes are the horseshoe looking symbols on the birth chart, and if you're not sure where yours are, click on the link to get your free natal chart and find out where your north node is.
South Node: What it means
The South node represents skills, lessons, energies that were already explored and mastered. Unless you have a planet conjunct the South node, you do not need to particularly reexplore this zodiac sign's energy. Typically, the South node represents elements that you have going on for you, qualities, strengths, and typically as much as you are absolutely pushed to use this energy to push yourself forward, the qualities that you have to develop are found in the qualities of the North node, the opposite pole.
South node energy is described as a comfort zone, although of course if you have planets square the north node or south node, this isn't true for you.
Often, you can read that you should "stay away" form the South node, but I'm not one to see why we should shy away from our strengths. It's more so to be understood as a balancing exercise. Let's say you're a fitness person, and have a very strong core, but weaker legs. Would you go at the gym every day focusing on your core, or would you be focusing more so on developing your lower body muscle? Of course, you'd balance out your weaknesses by using your strengths. This is, in my opinion, what the Nodes represent.
North node: What it means
The North node represents values and qualities that are yet to be developed. Unless you have planets conjunct the North node or in the same sign as your north node - in which case, congratulations, your weaknesses are little - you're meant to balance out your gym muscles by focusing on cultivating the qualities of the North node.
When considering the Nodal axis in the birth chart, there are a few things to be considered:
- The house placement of the Nodes
- The aspects formed to the Nodes
For example, let's say you have an Aries North node in the 7th house. You're meant to learn how to become more assertive and concerned with your personal interests. Now if you google up your nodes placements, you'd probably find a lot of articles telling you completely opposite interpretations as the 7th house is about partnerships which involves collaborating and relating, while Aries North node is about putting yourself first. What does it mean?
Well, interpretation is a fine art and it takes practice but in this particular case, we'd have someone who is learning how to be assertive and concerned with their personal interests (Aries), in particular when it comes to their relationships (7th). This person could have identified a lot (1st house) with the role of people pleaser (Libra) and is now meant to focus on inserting themselves in partnerships where their voice is heard and where they do not shy away from confrontation (Aries).
You can check out my series on the Lunar Nodes here, and if you dare, take a look at my 6-week Astrology class.