North Nodes --Lesson Part 1

North node/South Node Part 1


I have been pondering the news of late and I find myself nodding my head quite a bit thinking, ‘Feels like the North Node’. I suppose it is no accident that I am seeing The Node’s influence more on this Aquarius lunar cycle than other lunar cycles since the New moon was conjunct the North Node and the full moon was conjunct the South Node in Leo. It is clear that both energies are out in full view and I thought I would take a moment to bring you up to speed on the Nodes since a lot of people are in the dark about these powerful doorways.

For those of you who do not know about the nodes, they aren’t planets or asteroids. They are points. “Huh? Points? What does that mean?”

First let’s go over grade school astronomy. The Sun travels across the sky past all the constellations. This we know. At the same time, the Moon goes around the Earth. Again, something we know. Now, imagine the path the Sun takes around the zodiac as a highway. And then imagine the path the Moon takes around the Earth as a highway. Those two highways actually cross each other in two spots. Those spots or points are called The North Node and The South Node.

Here is a link to see it


Those spots, just like planets are in the astrological signs. The North is in one sign and the South node is in the opposite sign. For example, right now The North Node is in Aquarius and the South Node is in Leo.

It usually takes about 18 years for the nodes to travel through all twelve signs but unlike the planets, the nodes move backwards. Meaning the North node travels from Aries to Pisces to Aquarius to Capricorn, all the way back and then starts over again. And as the North Node travels, its partner the South node will be in the opposite sign but also traveling backwards.

Of course, every 18 years, the nodes will be exactly where they were when you were born. This lines up basically around ages, 18, 36, 54, 72 and 90. And you often will see some kind of break out or adjustment during those nodal returns. When I was 18 and 36 I had some break out experiences. Things that made me really re-identify my life and my future. Of course, I have a North Node in Scorpio so that demands a breakthrough. Perhaps a bit dramatic since Scorpio has a ‘change or die’ motto. Had I been lazy and been like my Taurus South node, I would have tried to hang on to the status quo and kept my life safe. Had I done that I promise you I would have missed out on a lot of goodies that only came because of the roads I took that stretched my North Node at those ages.


With slower moving planets and that also applies to the nodes, they influence a large group of people. After all anyone born about six or nine months before or after you has their North Node in the same place as you. Where it gets personal is in the house. If you want to find out more about your own north node and where it is in your chart take a look at this link


Take a read and see if you can feel your North node.

On part two we’ll talk about the influence of the Nodes on the world at large.

Crystal Cave

Look at that photo. It looks like something from a SciFi film.

ETA: Those are people in those orange jumpsuits....that should give you an idea that those are are super huge crystals.

I am sharing it with you for no other reason than I think it is remarkable. Here's the whole article from National Geographic.

Nothing compares with the giants found in Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals. The limestone cavern and its glittering beams were discovered in 2000 by a pair of brothers drilling nearly a thousand feet below ground in the Naica mine, one of Mexico's most productive, yielding tons of lead and silver each year. The brothers were astonished by their find, but it was not without precedent. The geologic processes that create lead and silver also provide raw materials for crystals, and at Naica, miners had hammered into chambers of impressive, though much smaller, crystals before. But as news spread of the massive crystals' discovery, the question confronting scientists became: How did they grow so big?

ETA: I just found out National Geographic channel is airing a program all about the crystal cave on Sunday March 8th! Set your TIVO

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/giant-crystal-cave-3569/Overview?rm=1

"Oh, Mr Full Moon---Chiron is calling!"

Full Moon Report

As many of you know, the New Moon which you can find here, I asked all of you to dig in hard and resist temptation to be negative. I still stand by that analysis of the 28 day Aquarius Lunar cycle. But at the same time I must admit that this Full Moon On Monday Feb 9th, might push you a bit towards melancholy and negativity. You see not only is it a Full Moon it is also a lunar eclipse. And it has got a couple of aspects that are a wee bit challenging.

With a lunar eclipse the sun shines on earth in such a way that there is shadow over the moon. That is a pretty powerful ego for the sun, right? Well, now add to the equation that the moon is in Leo which has its own huge ego. So, now we have ego on ego. Yikes! Expect Egos to flare up next week in the news and perhaps personally!

In conjunction (literally and figuratively) with the all this is Neptune adding some visionary, unworldly, mystical, cosmic and delusional, drunk thinking and then Chiron the great wounded healer is in the mix conjuncting the Sun and opposing the Moon.

If you don’t know about Chiron he has a great story. He was a centaur (half man half horse) born from a god (father) who turned himself into a horse so that he could be with a beautiful mortal woman (Mother). Isn't that just like those darn greek/roman gods? Always turning themselves into something to boost their lives. Kind of like Wall street Bigwigs. Anway, when the beautiful mom birthed her half human half horse child she ran for the hills (small minded bitch) abandoning poor Chiron. Fate stepped in and Chiron ended up being raised by another god where he learned all kind of great crafts and learned subjects and ultimately becoming the most eduated Centaur and later he became a teacher to all and was beloved by everyone. Unfortunately one day at a wedding full of debauchery another centaur got drunk and accidentally wounded Chiron. He retreated to take care of his wound, but later he was asked to give up his life to help others of which he agreed. Eventually, he was made into a god.

As you can see, where we have Chiron in our chart can be an area where we both excel and hurt ourselves. Trust me, as one who has it in the 11th house, it can be hard on friendships! Sigh. Anyway, with this full moon we will find Chiron on the Sun right next to Neptune.

We have a lot of ego, lot of tension, shadows on others, digging in and then Chiron adding his two cents, well, I expect someone will screw something up royally. But this big fat screw up will ultimately serve others in the long run. In our personal lives we might want to be extra cautious during the Full moon phase (3.5 days). No sense shooting ourselves in the foot! Perhaps we can meditate on things we would like to see in our world and see what it might bring.

For more on Chiron go here and here

I have mentioned before that I think Bill Meridian's article about The Federal Reserve is a must read for anyone interested in money and astrology.

Particularly you might find this passage noteable. It sounds familiar doesn't it? Yeah, blame Pluto once again. It is driving back and forth over the Fed's chart for most of 2009.

More recently, we can look at the passage of Pluto as having described changes in the Federal Reserve System. From the fall of 1971 until the fall of 1972 Pluto passed back and forth over zero Libra. The president was given the power to nationalize the bank industry via the Fed in what has become known as the Economic Emergency Act. In June of 1980, stationary direct Pluto made its last square to the Fed's Mars. The Monetary Control Act was passed. This act essentially gives the Fed the power to reduce bank reserve requirements to zero, granting the power to inflate to infinity. Almost as important was the provision of the law that enables the Fed to purchase any debt. This means that the Fed is no longer limited to purchasing U.S. government debt but can purchase obligations of corporations or of bankrupt nations. Efforts to find out whether this power is being used to bail out bankrupt countries have been blocked. The Fed simply refuses to reveal whether they are purchasing foreign debt, information that their publications formerly disclosed. Again we see the South Node in the third house and the Mercury-Saturn opposition at work. (It is amusing and yet tragic to note that when I contacted the Fed to receive samples of the publications distributed to the public, I received a comic book. The comic book blamed inflation on Arabs, greedy businessmen, and housewives.)

Ray Merriman Article REPOSTED

I just was poking around on the Mountain Astrologer Website and I see that they have reposted an article by Ray Merriman from their summer of 2007 issue. It is an article projecting what is going on with world economies between 2008-2011. Naturally, those of you who already knew we were heading into a big tsunami of hurt with Pluto's move into Capricorn are not surprised by the state of our financial affairs. But, of course Ray who is one of the brightest astrologers around lays it out in even more detail. And of course the fact that he wrote this article in early 07 and was on the money is no surprise to me! In honor of this week's saturn/uranus opposition (and we'll have more of it in 09 and 10) take a read of this article.

carry on.

Saturn in Virgo---The value of thrift.

In honor of the opposition this week between Saturn and Uranus I would offer up something that is perfectly in tune with Saturn in earthbound Virgo.

Being good stewards of our land and being good stewards of our properties is all about Saturn in Virgo. How we eat, what we eat, what we buy, what we use and also....drum roll..what we throw away is all apart of the work we are currently doing as Saturn transits Virgo.

I invite all of you to watch this small video. It is not long and it is not laborious. It is smart and pithy and extremely educational. And it is perfect for where we are right now astrologically speaking. The Story of Stuff

Saturn Oppose Uranus: Bitch of a teeter totter

February 5 will be the second part in our five part miniseries entitled “Saturn Oppose Uranus -- what a bitch of a teeter totter!”

Of course I am writing that with tongue in cheek because even though these two planets are creating tremendous chaos and tension in the world there are also some perks emerging.

First, let’s look at the dates where Saturn and Uranus are exactly opposite each other.

November 4, 2008
February 5, 2009
September 15, 2009
April 26, 2010
July 15, 2010 * Aries/Libra

Now look at that first date: November 4. Does that date look familiar? It should, it was the date of the general election where Barack Obama morphed from the junior senator of Illinois to the 44th president of the United States. That would be Uranus taking hold of the world and saying, “I want change.” And many will say that is a perk.

But at the same time and with the same amount of willpower Saturn in Virgo is saying, “I want structures that work from the ground up. And if they don’t work, ‘eff em”

On the big picture it is interesting that Obama’s pick for cabinet choices are screwing themselves with Nannygates and IRSgates etc. He could be the agent of change (Uranus) but if his choices aren’t walking their talk (Saturn Virgo) they are out of here (opposition).

That is the picture on the big level but what does it mean to us on a personal level? Well, somewhere in your chart you have Virgo and you have Pisces and where those houses are in your chart you are experiencing a major tension. There is a part of you that just wants to collapse and get lost on your bed and dream about stuff. And at the same time there is this other part of you that wakes up every day promising yourself that you will absolutely take care of everything on your “To-Do” list. As you can tell this would be quite polarizing. I mean I was sick for a few days and I laid on my bed watching one movie after another. I loved it but I equally loathed myself because I had so many tasks that needed to be handled. And then when I felt better and took care of all the tasks that needed to be done I longed for getting cozy in bed. Talk about ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

The key to all of this in my opinion is to do the hard work of Saturn in Virgo and build upon your dreams--Uranus in Pisces. Of course this is not easy work and frankly it is my opinion that one of the reasons why we are going to have this aspect five times is that it is going to take us until Fall of 2010 to really understand what are our dreams.

Sure, right now, a lot of people think their dream is, “Get a solid job so I can keep my house, my child in private school, my this and my that.” I hear you, I am not immune from this thinking. But ask yourself if your dreams are only serving to keep the same old dream in place and if the answer is ‘yes’ than you are missing the point. Uranus in Pisces is not about last year’s dream or five years ago dream or three years ago dream. It is about the dream that make sense for now and the current future. And in case you haven’t noticed the future has changed. It is important now for the dreams to make the shift. So, what if Great Spirit (Uranus in Pisces) hears your desire to hold on to the status quo but it is looking at you and thinking, “Hmmm, I’ve got other plans.” Such as what if you might be better served living in a different town with a different community? Or maybe, “Your skills and talents need to be used in another way.” It is probably going to take the whole 18 months to get your attention.

That is not to say I don’t I think we are getting glimpses of our path and our future. I know my own visions are like reflections on water. Not quite in focus but it seems like a hint of an image I might know.

On Thursday while the aspect is exact, take a look at your world. See where you feel like a teeter totter? Take a few minutes and reflect on the tension. Then write the following affirmation: “I am happy and grateful that I building upon my dreams.”

Even if you feel like you aren’t doing it. Please suspend reality and go into that gray area and consider the fact that you are building on your dreams even if you don’t know it.

Also, I highly recommend this nice article all about Saturn Oppose Uranus by Kelly M. Beard