The Nodes in Astrology
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Historical Use of the Nodes
With this weeks eclipse, it seems an opportune time to discuss the nodes in astrology. In a way that seems very true to their nature, there is a somewhat amorphous understanding of how we started to use them and what they actually mean. Most people interested in astrology are familiar with the symbolism of the eclipse dragon, where the North Node represents the head and the South Node the tail of a cosmic dragon that spans the zodiac and causes eclipses by blocking out the Sun or Moon with its head or tail. However, this symbolism appears to enter the astrological lexicon rather late with the influence of Arabo-Persian astrology and can be traced to Sasanian astrology, itself an amalgamation of Greek and Indian techniques and beliefs with a Zoroastrian interpretation and influence.
Identification of the South Node with past lives and the North Node with future lives is even more modern, being presented by Dane Rudhyar in 1936 and being heavily influenced by Theosophy. With that comes the presentation of the South Node as a place of comfort and stagnation and the North Node as a place of challenge and achievement. These associations are a prominent aspect of Modern and Evolutionary Astrology and in turn have influenced neo-Vedic astrology. Neither Western Traditional or Vedic astrology originally had a heavy focus on the nodes but we do see their use beginning in early Hellenistic astrology and becoming defined in the Indian traditions. However, neither particularly associated them with past or future lives.
In Hellenistic astronomy we first see the identification of the nodes in the 2nd century BC by Eudoxus. However, there is no association with a dragon, snake, heads, or tails. The Greeks already had a working understanding of astronomy and identified the crossing point of the ecliptic path of the Sun with the orbital path of the Moon as causing the lunar and solar eclipses. During the late Ptolemaic to early Roman period the nodes were incorporated into the astrological tradition and presented in Hermetic texts.
In the 1st century CE Dorotheus of Sidon discussed the influence of the lunar nodes on human affairs when the Moon was transiting those areas of horoscopic charts. He believed that the Moon on the North Node would act through increase and the Moon on the South Node would act through decrease. The nodes were also used by Valens in the 2nd century CE, but do not feature in every chart. Valens saw the nodes as a negative influence, particularly when conjunct, square, or opposite the Moon. They tainted whatever they touched, being connected with periods of darkness and heralding major events.
In the late Hellenistic astrological tradition, use of the Nodes became fully integrated by the work of Rhetorius in the 6th or 7th century. Rhetorius uses a similar interpretation as Dorotheus of Sidon did in the 1st century, with the North Node increasing the influence of the planets and the South Node decreasing the planets influence.
When Indian astrological texts begin to emerge in the 3rd century CE there is no mention of the nodes in horoscopic astrology. However we do see the inclusion of the nodes in the propitiated planets, with Rahu representing the North Node and being included in the eight dashas. Rahu is presented as the eclipse former. Ketu as the South Node emerges later and is initially connected with formlessness and considered a comet. We do see Rahu mythologically and artistically presented as having an oversized head and Ketu as serpentine. They were both viewed as distinctly demonic but along with the two luminaries and five traditional planets were incorporated into Hindu temples and honored in an attempt to win favor and negate their evil influence.
The nodes are not used in horoscopic astrology in Indian texts from the 3rd century, the 4th century, or the 6th century. This changes in the 7th or 8th century in the Parashara and we begin to see their use in texts based on that tradition. In Vedic astrology the entire chart is viewed as karmic and the North and South Nodes are not presented as having any increased karmic influence over any other planet. There is imagery where they are represented by a snake and their effect as the venom from a bite that causes illness or harm. They are both viewed as difficult and destabilizing, but the South Node was more so.
The story of the eclipse dragon comes from the work of Abu Ma’shar in the 9th century. He was particularly interested in the mythological history of astrology and presented a story of Thema Mundi where the birth of the universe involves this cosmic dragon. He places the head of the dragon in Gemini and the tail in Sagittarius at the creation of the cosmos and uses the dragon to explain the retrograde planetary rulership of Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, and Aquarius. Abu Ma’shar also used the North Node as a place of increase and the South Node as a place of decrease, in line with the Hellenistic tradition, but doesn’t seem to view either as inherently negative in influence.
This eclipse dragon symbology is firmly integrated into the Medieval and Renaissance astrological transcripts of Byzantine Rome from the 13th -15th centuries, seemingly becoming incorporated with the translations of the Arabic astrologers Mashallah and Abu Ma’shar during the 11th century. The Arabo-Persian astrologers reintroduced lost Hellenistic astrological concepts but also incorporated Arabo-Persian theories that can be traced to the Sasanian astrological tradition.
Our modern interpretation of the nodes can be traced back to Rudhyar’s 1936 book The Astrology of Personality and Schulman’s 1975 book Karmic Astrology: The Moon’s Nodes and Reincarnation. Schulman especially seems to have influenced a large number of modern astrologers, however his theories do not come from traditional Vedic or Western astrological traditions. Instead both astrologers seem to have been heavily influenced by Theosophy philosophy, Theosophy being a religious system that originated in the US in the 19th century under the primary influence of the Russian spiritualist and mystic Madame Blavatsky.
If you are interested in the nodes through history I recommend also listening to episode 290 of The Astrology Podcast by Chris Brennan where he and his guest Ronnie Gale Dreyer discuss the Indian/Vedic history of the Nodes in depth and Adrian Pirtea’s article From Lunar Nodes to Eclipse Dragons: The Fundaments of the Chaldean Art where he discussed how the dragon terminology entered Western Astrology.
How I Interpret the Nodes
So, with three different astrological systems for interpreting the nodes and with all being somewhat modern in development, give or take a millennium, How do you decide which to use? Is it the oldest of increase and decrease or the newest of past and future lives? Personally, when I have a question on astrological interpretation I learn through observation. Which in this instance has led to something of an amalgamation of previous theories in my interpretation. Like Vedic astrologers I do see the entire astrological chart as karmic in the traditional sense, though since I focus on transit astrology I have found the Western astrological system to be more relevant and concise.
This may be because it is the one that I learned first, and am far more familiar with, but also if you look at the theories that they are formed on you see Vedic is much more concerned with the progression of souls across lifetimes and Western is more rooted in what we experience in this life. When I use the karmic terminology related to the nodes I am using the informal definition that connects it to fate, destiny, cause and effect. It is related to what we do in this life, and how that comes back to impact us.
With this understanding the North Node to me is a place where fate and destiny align in a way that presents an opportunity to seed our future. Something that is going to expand over time. What is done during the period that this point is triggered in a chart is going to eventually come back to us, for better or worse, and it is our own personal decision and actions that will shape what is returned. The South Node is the place where we harvest what we have sown. Where consequences condense and we will have to deal with the repercussion of the actions and energies that we have put into our lives, through specific situations.
There are three cycles that primarily affect this primary action of sowing and harvest. There is the cycle from North to South Node, and vice versa, that occurs with the Sun’s transit every 6 months. There is the greater cycle that occurs as the nodes transit through each sign, taking roughly a year and a half. Then there is the greater cycle of the 18.6 years that it takes for the nodes to completely transit the zodiac. Each of these deserves attention, so we will cover the nodal cycles in a future blog.
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