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We have private maps filled with our own topography of people, special places and events. Maps can contain the personal sacred places of one's joys or sorrows and we measure our orientation to these events in time, how much time has passed since an event or how much time is needed to reach an event. Maps and all their variations are central to how we move through our lives. Within astrology the horoscope is our map. It locates
us in a time and place and provides us with an orientation to
the rest of our universe. However, its brief extends far
beyond simply showing us time and space. It also informs us of
our relationship to that time and space and for many of us it
suggests ways of behaviour, ethics, and even our
responsibilities to our personal link with the cosmos.
A feature of all maps, private, philosophical or even spiritual and cosmological, is to define the limits of the known world, the edges and the boundaries, the place where our world ends and another may begin. If we do think of a chart as a map of our personal cosmology, an interesting question arises as to what in the astrologer's horoscope represents the edges, the limits of the defined world? To answer this question it is best to return to the origins of astrology. In its beginnings astrology did not actually include the concept of a horoscope, for the subject was born in a culture of sky watchers and sky readers. Indeed the role of the Mesopotamian astrologer-priest was akin to a sentry standing guard, watching for signs of a return to chaos in the heavens and thus, by reflection, chaos in the terrestrial realm. The duties of these sentries were to help protect the hard-won order gained by Marduk, the great hero, when he slaughtered the dragon of chaos, Tiamat. Unlike the later Greek cosmic myth of the Olympians overcoming the Titans, the slaughtering of Tiamat was not the end of the matter. It was an ongoing battle as there were times, such as at an eclipse, when the Sun would once again wrestle with this celestial dragon and chaos threatened to return.
As the horoscope developed into a cosmological map rather than a sky narrative, the important nodal axis was maintained by the Greeks and placed into their new idea of the horoscope. However, of all the changes in the use of horoscopes, the nodes have probably undergone more variation in their delineation than any other astrological point. For example, the Greek astrologer Vettius Valens (120 -175 C.E.) considered that the North Node acted as an amplifier of the nature of any planet near it, good if the planet was a benefic and bad if a malefic, and the South Node acted as a reducer of the nature of such a planet, good or bad.[3] Seventeen hundred years later, astrologer Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) saw the South Node as a negative place regardless of what planets were near it and the North Node as positive.[4] In comparison with these two ideas, in Jyotish astrology where the nodes are called Rahu (North node) and Ketu (South node), both are considered demons and thus both have a negative influence.[5] Through the work of Alice Bailey (1880 -1949) and esoteric astrology, the nodes in contemporary Western astrology have morphed into either a concept of karma where the North Node is seen as one's future life, or a dimension of seeking one's spiritual fulfilment, and the South Node is seen as that of the past, one's past lives or one's family history.
Taking this view of the nodes as the edges of our own personal cosmology, I see them like two gates in the personal 'walled garden of paradise'[6] or the world that we know, with each gate leading to different paths beyond it to the world unknown. One such gate could be the place where we encounter the new, where we feel the need to explore, and the place we seek in order to colonize new territory in our bid to move forward with our life. This is the gateway to the land reached by our intent, our planned excursion, desires and adventures. This gate is conscious, in front of us and with a large sign reading 'Go this way!
The other gate also opens to a path that leads outside our
personal cosmology. However, this gate does not call us
forward in a quest for adventure but rather sits quietly in a
dark forest, a gateway which is the opening into our world of
that which is not planned, that which is unintended. We come
across this place either by accident or when we are forced to
deal with it. This is the world of the unplanned.
We often see the South Node as our past and sometimes as our family history, as these can be often blamed for the unscheduled, unplanned disruption to our ordered lives. However, I think it is more interesting to consider it in a neutral fashion - where the order of our world can be disturbed, altered or even threatened in an unscheduled manner. Only discovered by accident, this gate can be left neglected, ignored or abandoned. Yet unforeseen events occur and we find ourselves having to deal with things not of our making and definitely not in our plans and the only effective way forward is to let go of focused intent and allow the winds of life to pilot our ship. Yet much can be gained when we find ourselves standing at this gate. The South Node gate is the way that things can enter your world which are beyond your imagination, beyond your ability to conceive of what you want in your life. It is the gateway that gives us the unexpected. Therefore in keeping with the original use and meanings of the Moon's nodes, as assumed by the Babylonian mythology, both nodes can bring chaos into our lives but also both nodes are the way that our world can expand with new ideas, skills and concepts. One node offers us expansion of our world by focused intent and the other by accident, one by the call to adventure and the hero's quest and the other by disruption through unintentional events. Hence the North Node is discovery by intent; the South Node is discovery by the accident.
Personalising astrological cosmologyHere are two examples illustrating this way of looking at
the nodes. Firstly, let us consider the location of the nodes
in the sky map of Barack Obama. At the time of his birth on 4
August, 1961, the North Node was moving over the star Regulus
in the constellation Leo. The place he wishes to influence, to
colonize and bring into his cosmology is represented by the
star Regulus, the place of the king.[7] So his intention is to
bring a new process to the idea of kingship and he actively
seeks leadership at all levels of his life. This is the place
where he battles, where he rises or falls, the place where he
brings order, or where chaos crashes into his world. The star
Regulus in the constellation Leo is the gateway to how he
moves forward in his life - he pursues leadership!
In his position he has great power but this power is not what will heal his nation's economy, the Urn of Aquarius. If he is to achieve anything in this area he has to learn skills and deal with issues which are out of his comfort zone and not of his intent. My second example is across the other side of the Atlantic
and is Queen Elizabeth II, born 21 April 1926. She came to the
throne at the time of the fading of the British Empire, where
the sovereign was an individual above taxation and whose
privacy was strictly guarded. Her North Node lies amongst the
stars of Gemini. Hence the place she wishes to influence, to
colonize and bring into her cosmology is represented by the
concept of polarities (Gemini). From seeing the monarchy as
separate, a situation of 'Us' versus 'Them', she has moved the
entire concept of the British Monarchy into the modern age of
communication, newspapers, internet and mobile phones and thus
reduced the difference between her family and that of the
British people. At times this struggle with the dragon of
Chaos has almost undone the monarchy, with scandals of leaked
phone calls, heightened media attention and a hunger by the
press for all things royal. However, somehow the Queen has
managed to bridge the gap between herself and the general
population by working with and understanding modern
communication. This has been her focused intent.
This is the area where she has had to find a different solution by having to revisit the events of British Imperial history and reshape her role and that of her nation's future beyond the outdated world of Empire. [NOTE: If you own Starlight, have a look at where your nodes are in the sky. You can do this easily by opening your natal sky map and finding the degree of your node on the ecliptic. Or, you can open your chart and run it forward or backwards in time to place the nodal axis on the ascendant/descendant of your chart. Then look at the sky map focusing on the horizon line. Where it cuts the ecliptic will show you the stars and constellations around your North Node and your South Node.] If you know the stars around your nodal axis look at your own North Node and think about what those stars represent. See the star myths of this part of the sky as describing how you seek to move forward in your life, what is it that provides the drive and the quest to your life. Look at your South Node and think about those stars as they will be describing what you avoid, or feel uncomfortable around, where you feel you have little or no power or control - where the unintentional happens, good or bad. Both sets of star myths will show you how things enter your world, one by intent and planning, the other by the unplanned, the unintentional.
Transiting Nodal AxisApart from the personal natal delineation of nodes, there is also the concept of the transiting node. This axis highlights a place in the sky that suggests the nature of the current struggle in the world, the theme that is filling the newspapers, that which is taking our focus and where we reach out to add to our world view, with potential success or potential chaos. In recent years the transiting North Node was moving through the stars of the Urn of Aquarius, just as the South Node was at the time of Barack Obama's birth. This began the issues with the need to bring order into our financial systems, the money matters or the wealth of the communities. This is our intent. What occurs by accident is represented by the South Node. This was then completing its journey through the stars of Cancer, the concept of family, of the small units within the larger system. Thus the transiting axis was showing us the collapse of the sub-prime lending system within the USA which lead to the banking collapse, the unplanned and unscheduled event. However, the South Node also suggested that by accepting this, rather than blaming or disregarding, and considering the wellbeing of the small units within the social system, the whole structure can move forward. In reforming the world's financial systems the world leaders are forced to consider the wellbeing of the smaller human units in the equation, rather than solely focusing on the large corporate organisations. This will be interesting to watch. As the transiting nodal axis retrogrades back through the constellations completing a cycle every 18.6 years, its moving point will reflect the shifts and changes within the world's news events, providing us with the large background themes to the emerging events on this small blue planet. In future editions of the Visual Astrology Newsletter we will explore this axis further. The aim of this article, however, was to revisit the meanings of the Moon's nodes and suggest that by returning to their original meanings of the battle ground between order and chaos, the edges of what is known and not known, we can gain deeper insights which are free of ideologies or spiritual overlays. We can, in fact, view them in a cosmological manner.
_____________________________________ 1. Christopher Walker, ed. Astronomy before the
Telescope (London: British Museum Press,1996),
p.42.
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