North Node in Aquarius
July 26, 2026 to March 26, 2028
Whenever there is a major ingress, meaning a planet leaves one sign and enters another, I like to look back at the last time it occupied that sign. I don't bother doing this with the inner planets because they change signs all the time. The outer planets can take decades to circle the zodiac, so when they enter a new sign, I find it valuable to see what was happening during the last cycle.
The North Node is a bit different because it isn't a planet at all. It is a point created by the relationship between the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. It may be a "point," but it is hardly insignificant. It is the reason eclipses occur. When the lights in our sky turn off and on, affecting life here on Earth, it is worth paying attention to the message carried by the sign the North Node is traveling through.
I have two recollections where I felt the North Node in its sign in a very real way.
On September 11, 2001, I woke up early in the morning to my phone ringing. A friend called to tell me that another friend of ours who was in New York was alive. I remember saying, "Why wouldn't he be?" He answered, "Turn on your TV."
That's when I saw New York City, the Pentagon, and eventually Pennsylvania. As the news unfolded that day and over the next week, it became clear that so many of the people who died had simply gone to work that morning. I remember thinking about the North Node in Cancer and how it had been asking us to remember that family and human connection matter more than career.
A few years later, on August 29, 2005, I watched Hurricane Katrina unfold like the rest of the world. People stood on rooftops waving their arms. They wrote SOS with anything they could find. Neighbors rescued neighbors in boats. Pets were carried to safety. People climbed into trees. Every channel I turned to showed what felt like a vacuum of leadership, and I remember thinking, "For f's sake, can anyone step up for North Node in Aries?"
I called my senators, who were nowhere to be found. Then, almost for sport, I called the junior senator from Illinois. Someone in Barack Obama's office answered the phone. I asked, "What is happening to help those folks? What can I do?" I remember feeling relieved that someone in his office was already talking about resources and ways people could help.
I could probably do this exercise for every sign because I am old enough to have watched them all. But I think you get the idea.
On July 26, the North Node leaves Pisces and enters Aquarius.
The last time the North Node was in Aquarius was from December 18, 2007, through August 21, 2009. There was a brief wobble into Aquarius a few days earlier before it slipped back into Pisces, but December 18 marks the permanent ingress.
So what happened during that period that reflects a North Node in Aquarius and a South Node in Leo?
First, what do those signs represent?
To boil it down, Aquarius is about the collective. It is about people, communities, innovation, technology, grassroots movements, and asking whether progress benefits everyone. It is "We the People." It asks, "Does this technology work for all of us?"
Across the sky sits Leo. Leo is comfortable with top-down leadership, centralized authority, monarchy, celebrity, status, and personal recognition. At its best, Leo inspires. At its worst, it becomes consumed with "me," "mine," and an attitude of "Look at me." The South Node in Leo can become overidentified with celebrity culture or concentrated power at the expense of the greater good.
Now look at the headlines from that last cycle.
The Bitcoin White Paper was released, introducing a decentralized financial system built around peer-to-peer networks instead of centralized institutions. I am not a Bitcoin fan, putting it mildly, but I can certainly see the Aquarian symbolism.
Barack Obama was elected president through one of the strongest internet-driven grassroots campaigns in history. His slogan, "Yes We Can," is almost pure Aquarius. The emphasis was on we, not me.
The Nodes often bring events that force our attention. Think about the theatrical power of an eclipse. The lights go out so that we notice something we have been missing.
During that cycle, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsed. Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme destroyed billions of dollars in wealth, and charities across the country found themselves scraping his name off buildings. There is something unmistakably South Node in Leo about concentrated power, status, and wealth collapsing under its own weight.
Fidel Castro stepped down after decades in power. You could argue that should have happened years earlier, but sometimes the South Node in Leo has to show us what happens when leadership becomes too centered on one person.
Then there was oil. OPEC pushed crude prices close to $147 a barrel before the market broke, increasing demand for renewable energy and alternatives. I also remember the CEOs of the American automobile companies flying first class and on private jets to Washington asking for a bailout, only to have the public ask a simple question: "You make cars. Why didn't you drive?" They drove the next time.
Are you seeing the pattern?
Near the end of that North Node in Aquarius cycle came one of the most Aquarian stories imaginable. Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in January 2009. Aquarius has long been associated with aviation, and Sully's calm, technical skill, teamwork, and focus on saving every passenger feels like Aquarius at its best.
So that was eighteen years ago.
Now we begin another North Node in Aquarius cycle that runs from July 26, 2026, through March 26, 2028.
It is impossible to predict exactly how this cycle will unfold, but I suspect we are going to see another round of questions about centralized power versus the collective. People who spend their lives promoting themselves, surrounding themselves with praise, and confusing celebrity with leadership may find that the cultural winds are shifting.
Those who treat the world as though it exists only to serve their own interests may also discover that the clock is ticking on those behaviors.
On the other hand, if you have an idea that strengthens your community, this is your moment. If you are ready to work with others to build something that serves more than yourself, step forward. If you are tired of spending hours liking celebrity posts on social media and instead find yourself drawn toward stories about people solving problems together, pay attention. That is the direction of this cycle.
A great deal will be revealed over the next eighteen months. When you combine the North Node's move into Aquarius with Pluto already traveling through Aquarius, this has the potential to become an even more significant chapter than the one we experienced between 2007 and 2009.
A note; the first iPhone arrived in 2007, but during the last North Node in Aquarius cycle the smartphone revolution took hold. Apple's App Store launched in 2008, Android entered the market, and millions of people suddenly carried the internet in their pockets. Today that technology is living, breathing, and pulsating in our hands and, in many ways, our psyche. I don't think it is a stretch to imagine that the technology born during the last North Node in Aquarius will become one of the defining stories of this one. Perhaps this is the cycle when we decide who technology serves...or who ends up serving it.
Before I wrap this up, I want to give a shout out to the late Jan Spiller. If you have never picked up her book Astrology for the Soul, do yourself a favor and add it to your library. Jan was one of the astrologers who brought the North and South Nodes into the mainstream of modern astrology. Her writing is warm, practical, and full of insight. I don't always land in exactly the same place she does, but I have learned a great deal from her work over the years, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what their North Node and South Node are saying in their chart.
I found that once I started "doing" my North Node, even though it wasn't always comfortable, doors began opening that never would have opened otherwise. Read the sign and the house, then pay attention to the part of your chart where these eclipses will be taking place between 2026 and 2028. The Nodes don't simply describe eclipses. They ask something of us. When we answer, they have a way of opening paths we didn't know were there.
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