The Moon’s nodes, or lunar nodes, are two fascinating pieces of the astrological jigsaw that is your natal chart. Many people believe that the North and South nodes hold the key to understanding our karmic life lessons and discovering a sense of purpose in this earthly lifetime. Whether or not you believe in past lives, discovering the sign and house position of your lunar nodes should give you food for thought.
What are the Moon’s Nodes?
The nodes are not planets or planetary bodies of any kind; they are points in space. Seen from earth, the Sun appears to move in a giant oval path across the sky during the year – astrologers call this apparent path the ecliptic. At the same time, the Moon is orbiting around the earth. The Moon’s orbital path intersects the ecliptic at two points, one to the North and one to the South – these intersection points are the nodes, or to be more precise, the Moon’s North Node and the Moon’s South Node.
What Does the South Node Mean in Astrology?
Of the two lunar nodes, the South Node represents the qualities, characteristics, traits and experiences that you came into this life already carrying. If you like, you could say that the South Node is indicative of your past life or past lives. Alternatively, we can say that these qualities are extremely comfortable within you.
However you choose to look at the astrological South Node, the point is that that these are qualities, experiences and issues that you must move beyond in this lifetime. If you believe in karma, this is your karmic debt to be paid. If you don’t, just think of it as you needing to move beyond these easy things and on to more challenging matters.
What Does the North Node Mean in Astrology?
By contrast, the astrological North Node represents qualities, traits and experiences that you do not yet have, but which you should strive to achieve or attain. The North Node shows us how to grow and develop, moving away from the comfort of the South Node and into uncharted territory.
Taken together, the two lunar nodes in your birth chart illustrate a key life lesson that you should aim to learn during this lifetime – a key part of karmic astrology.
The lunar nodes are always directly opposite one another in the celestial sphere – this is what’s known as the nodal axis. This means that if your South Node is in, for example, Leo, your North node must necessarily be in Aquarius. If your South Node is in your 4th house, your North node must necessarily be in your 10th house.
This is a list of how the astrology sign and house opposite pairs line up:
Aries is opposite Libra
Taurus is opposite Scorpio
Gemini is opposite Sagittarius
Cancer is opposite Capricorn
Leo is opposite Aquarius
Virgo is opposite Pisces
1st house is opposite 7th house
2nd house is opposite 8th house
3rd house is opposite 9th house
4th house is opposite 10th house
5th house is opposite 11th house
6th house is opposite 12th house
What is Your Karmic Life Lesson According to Astrology?
With this in mind, let’s take a look at some interpretations for the nodes through the zodiac signs and astrological houses.
South Node in Aries or 1st House / North Node in Libra or 7th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable with selfishness and used to putting yourself first. This may be because you have been badly hurt in a previous lifetime, or simply that your soul had to put its own interests first in order to survive. Whatever the reason, you’ve arrived in this incarnation with a strong sense of self-preservation, but that can be a hindrance to you.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to commit more fully to a loving partnership. This may mean sacrificing some of your independence, learning to compromise or learning to trust more. You may also need to develop tenacity within your personal relationships as you may give up too easily or quickly when a relationship needs work. Through understanding your own approach to love and relationships better, you can achieve soul growth and greater happiness.
South Node in Taurus or 2nd House / North Node in Scorpio or 8th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable with possessiveness, envy and material greed. You may have been financially secure in a previous lifetime, or you may have lost everything and therefore your soul learned to hold on tight to whatever you had Whatever the reason, your craving for material advancement can be a double-edged sword in this lifetime.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to be less envious of others and more secure in your own self. Jealousy and resentment are difficult for you to overcome, especially if your career or work is neither emotionally fulfilling nor well paid. However, within you, you have great inner resources. You have the emotional depth to move beyond materialism and to learn to place a greater value on the intangible blessings of life.
South Node in Gemini or 3rd House / North Node in Sagittarius or 9th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable being fickle, flighty and restless. This may have its roots in a lack of confidence in a previous lifetime, which led to you always moving on before you had time to fail. You can certainly be charming and engaging, but there is a certain superficiality in your base nature which you need to leave behind in order to grow.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to gain a deeper wisdom, through learning, self-teaching or formal education. It’s also important for you to develop staying power. Have the confidence to see something through, even if it does not go as well as you had hoped. By accepting difficult intellectual or professional challenges and persevering through them, you can attain great spiritual and personal growth.
South Node in Cancer or 4th House / North Node in Capricorn or 10th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable within the confines of family life, and perhaps overly attached to the past or to sentimentality. In many ways, you are like a child seeking protection and oversight from family, perhaps due to a troubled childhood in a past life. You struggle to attain emotional security, so you cling to whatever you can.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to seize control of your life and to be fully responsible for your actions and decision – to be a grown up. This means being entirely present in the moment and not being afraid of the future. In order to achieve success and material security, you will have to take some risks – that is all part of the learning and growing process and is a necessary spiritual step forward for you.
South Node in Leo or 5th House / North Node in Aquarius or 11th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable demanding attention and being in the limelight, perhaps having been royal or of some considerable status in a previous life. However, this desire for adoration cuts you off from deeper, more fulfilling relationships in your community and in society, and is holding you back.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to understand true friendship and companionship, which includes stepping back and allowing others to bask in the sun. You can be very fickle or standoffish in your friendships but creating a deeper and more sincere connection with those around you will bring you a huge amount of spiritual insight and growth. Find a connection to wider humanity.
South Node in Virgo or 6th House / North Node in Pisces or 12th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable being self-critical, blaming yourself and accepting guilt and blame from others. This may be due to the position you held in a previous lifetime, or it could simply be that part of your subconscious mind feels that you can never be good enough. Whatever the reason, this harsh view of yourself is harming, not helping.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to surrender to the divine spark within you. This means accepting that you are good enough, that you do enough, that you have enough and that you simple are enough. This is not necessarily about being more assertive with others, but more forgiving of yourself. View yourself as others see you and exercise some self-compassion if you truly intend to grow.
South Node in Libra or 7th House / North Node in Aries or 1st House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable craving love and affection, needing approval from others. You may have been emotionally vulnerable in a past life, or continually let down in love. This has led to trust issues, or to co-dependency problems, which are preventing you from reaching your full potential.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to become more self-sufficient. Seek approval only from yourself and take care to maintain a certain level of independence even within your most loving relationship. Learning to maintain your own identity is a crucial part of your spiritual growth in this incarnation, so never be afraid to speak out and to make yourself heard. You are not simply part of a pair.
South Node in Scorpio or 8th House / North Node in Taurus or 2nd House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable with emotional drama, often manipulating it or creating it where it needn’t exist. This may be because during a previous lifetime, this was the only way you could seek attention. Or perhaps you are simply psychologically addicted to drama. Whatever the cause, it’s important that you start to find peace in order to move on.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to seek serenity. Try to rise above drama and a need for control. Pour your considerable energy resources into self-improvement in a way which satisfies you – learning new skills for example – rather than using your time and energy to manipulate others. In order to grow during this lifetime, seek comfort from mother earth and find quiet in her beauty.
South Node in Sagittarius or 9th House / North Node in Gemini or 3rd House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable rushing to judgment and expressing your opinions, whether they are based on fact or not. This can lead to you alienating others or provoking conflict where none need exist. In order to grow during this lifetime, you may need to adopt a more conciliatory, compromising approach.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to keep questioning – but to listen to the answers you are receiving and to respect the opinions of others. Studying philosophy or ethics would give you a broader insight into how you can agree to disagree. Keeping an open mind and a tolerant attitude is essential for your spiritual progress during this incarnation.
South Node in Capricorn or 10th House / North Node in Cancer or 4th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable in the public eye and very conscious of your social status. You may have worked hard to achieve status in a previous life and now do not want to lose it. However, your desire to look good in the eyes of others – rather than in your own eyes – is counter-productive to your spiritual growth.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to look within for praise. Be your own biggest fan, rather than relying on status symbols or the approval of others. Relinquish some of your material ambitions in order to spend more time around your loved ones or simply enjoying life and all of its pleasures. There is more to life than work and status but until you understand this, your spiritual growth will falter.
South Node in Aquarius or 11th House / North Node in Leo or 5th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable blending in with the crowd and you do not like to stand out. This may have been necessary for your survival in a previous lifetime, or perhaps you simply lack the confidence to let your own light shine. In order to advance spiritually, however, you must come out of the shadows.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to boost, highlight and showcase your individuality in whatever way you feel comfortable. This may mean changes to your personal image or to the way you interact with others, or it might mean giving yourself permission to do your work in a different way, or to be more creative with your hobbies. You are unique but in order to grow in this incarnation, you must allow that uniqueness free reign.
South Node in Pisces or 12th House / North Node in Virgo or 6th House
Your starting point:
You are comfortable with chaos; you like living a loose, unstructured life and you’re happy to let the dice fall as they will. This may have suited you in a previous lifetime, but in this incarnation, you will need to learn to take more responsibility for your life. You have great compassion, but because of your lack of boundaries, others take advantage of this.
Your spiritual mission:
You should aim to create some order, structure, balance and routine in your life. This includes setting boundaries for how others may treat you, and it also includes eliminating your constant vague worries by actually having a plan. This may not sound like much fun, but your soul needs to learn to take care of itself rather than simply adapting to circumstances. Be proactive and be in control if you wish to grow spiritually.
