What are the North and South Nodes in Astrology?

My favorite part of doing a chart reading is exploring the Nodes of the Moon.

If you take a peek at your chart, you will note two glyphs that sit opposite each other. One looks like a horseshoe, the other like an upside down horseshoe. The former represents your North Node, and the latter your South. When reading a chart, astrologers look at the Nodes together, as two sides of the same coin.But what do they mean?

The lunar nodes are calculated mathematically, based on the positions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth at a specific moment in time. They represent the points where the Moon's orbit intersects with the ecliptic plane (otherwise known as the path the Sun appears to take across the sky).

The North Node signifies what you are coming into in this life. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the term “True Node.” The South Node signifies what you have already learned.

I describe it this way when doing a chart. The South Node is like an undergraduate degree. You have learned a lot, and no one can take that away from you. But rather than stay in your comfort zone, the North Node invites you to experience and learn something new, like you would in grad school.

I used to think of the South Node in terms of past lives you are coming away from, but these days I think of it like an alternate timeline. The Nodes are the true spiritual center of the birth chart, so whatever symbolic paradigm works for you is fine. The idea is, the South you’ve already experienced, and the North Node is new to you. That is why people often resist embodying their North Node until they are older. The North Node can sometimes feel like you’ve landed in a foreign country where you don’t know the languages or the customs. You may feel like “I don’t belong here.” But you do. You just need time to adjust.

The houses of the nodes play a part too, but for the purpose of this article, I am just focusing on the nodes in the signs.

The North Node will be traversing the sign of Pisces through late July 2026, which means the South Node will be going through Virgo. Interestingly, the Nodes take a retrograde path, as a matter of course. But they are not “in retrograde” in the way that we speak of other planets.

This cycle of Pisces/Virgo is an interesting one, in which we are called upon to tune into our intuition and imagination. Let the heart lead, and the head will follow.

Martin Shulman was a wonderful astrologer, whose books on karmic astrology had a strong effect on me during my formative years as an astrologer. His books are well worth a read.

TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR NODES ARE CLICK HERE

To look up your natal chart click here.

As always, if you are curious about your astrology chart, upcoming transits or want to book an Astrology-Based Counseling (ABC) session, or a tarot card reading: visit www.jilldearman.com.

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