Latest / Astrology for Beginners / Signs or Houses? A Deeper Look at the Lunar Nodes

Transcript

Signs or Houses? A Deeper Look at the Lunar Nodes · Astrology for Beginners

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Astrology for Beginners podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Stefanie Kate Boucher, and I am so glad you're here.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast for you if you've ever been curious about astrology,
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: if you've wanted to understand your natal chart or make sense of what's happening in
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: the sky,
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: but maybe it's felt overwhelming, complicated, or hard to know where to begin.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: My goal here is to break things down in a way that's clear,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: grounded,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: and completely usable in real life so that over time,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: you begin to understand your own chart and the language of the stars.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for being here and sharing your time with me.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome back to Astrology for Beginners.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got a really good question from a listener recently about the lunar nodes
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: and I thought it was worth talking about here because I I am going to take a guess
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: and say that she is not the only person who has wondered
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: about this particular question.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I won't read the whole question here,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: but it was essentially something along the lines of,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: when we're interpreting the north and south nodes in the natal chart,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: which matters more, the signs or the houses?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a second layer to her question, too,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: because she noticed that in her own chart,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: if she switches between Placidus and whole sign houses, her nodes change houses.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: The signs, of course, stay the same.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But, of course, a different house placement changes the overall interpretation.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So which placement should she be paying attention to?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Which placement should any of us be paying attention to?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I will be answering that in today's episode.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: First, though,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to mention quickly that on September 22nd and 23rd,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hosting a two-part virtual workshop with my friends over at Tending
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: the Sacred called The Moon and Your Nervous System,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding Your Emotional Wiring.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to use the moon in your birth chart as a lens for understanding some
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: of those emotional and nervous system patterns that you carry,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: why certain situations affect you more strongly than others,
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: your instinctive reactions,
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: what helps you feel safe and regulated,
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: and how Some of the patterns that,
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: you know, you may have carried with you for a very long time.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about moon signs,
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: house placements and aspects,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: but you definitely don't need to be an astrology expert to join us.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: The whole idea is to use astrology as a tool
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: for understanding your own emotional patterns a little more deeply and
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: then learning how to work with them rather than against them.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you like the moon as much as I like the moon,
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: or you just want to understand yourself a little better,
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to have you join me.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link in the show notes if you'd like to find out more.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: A little earlier than that,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: though, I'm also hosting my next moon circle on Wednesday, September 9th.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the day of the actual new moon itself.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a couple days before,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: but I will give you the scoop on all of the energy of this new moon so that when
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: When it arrives, you'll know just how to work with it.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is the first lunation to happen also after this last lunar eclipse
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: that we just had and the eclipse season.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to sign up for either of these events, again, there are links in the show notes.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, as far as this episode,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: when it comes to lunar nodes, what matters more, the sign or the house?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the short answer is both.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Both the sign and the house are important,
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: but they're telling us different The signs are essentially going to describe
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: the underlying nature of the developmental arc that you're working with.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the houses describe which parts of your life you'll be using primarily to work
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: with that developmental pathway.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And before I go any further with that,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want to clarify something from an older episode of this podcast.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening for a long time,
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: you might remember that, well,
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was maybe two or three years ago when I recorded it,
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: but I did an entire episode introducing the lunar nodes in a very basic way.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in that episode, I suggested starting with the houses and then bringing in the signs.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I essentially treated the house axis as the primary developmental story and
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: the signs more as describing how you might go about working with that story.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And while I don't think that that framework was,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: necessarily wrong or anything, and I still think the houses are extremely important.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: They most certainly are.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say that my understanding of the nodes has evolved since then.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: This has happened as I've continued studying them and working with them in more and more charts.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Spiller's work has pushed me to think a lot more deeply about the signs of the nodes.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know,
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: these days,
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really think of the signs as simply just describing how you pursue
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: the lessons of the house.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And instead,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think of the sign axis and the house axis as,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: two distinct but kind of equally important and connected layers of the nodal story.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially,
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: the signs describe the underlying developmental pattern,
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: or you might say maybe the psychological pattern, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are the qualities,
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: tendencies,
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: and ways of operating that may feel very familiar at the south node
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: and qualities we're learning to develop and integrate through the north node.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: The houses describe the areas of life and the kinds of experiences,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: specific experiences,
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: which we're likely to encounter and work with so that we can work with
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: that particular developmental pattern.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then we need to synthesize the two things.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking at nodes in a chart I actually think it can be helpful to start
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: with the signs now and work toward understanding what the nodes mean in
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: that context.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you have kind of a strong grasp of that consider what
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: that developmental story might look like as it plays out through
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: the particular houses that they're in.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, does that mean that the signs are more important than the houses?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think that's really true.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're both important,
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: but they're just giving us different pieces of information that we ultimately have
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: to put together.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I know many of you have heard me talk before,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: in terms of planets and everything too,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: about houses describing where something is happening in the chart.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the lunar nodes can be especially confusing for people.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of people.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is really one of the trickier parts of the chart,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think, more so than the planets or the angles, because...
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, they come as a pair, which complicates how we interpret them.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And second, they're slow moving.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: they stay on a particular axis for about 18 months,
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: which means that everyone born during this 18 month period has their nodes in
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: the same sign.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so people can tend to think, well,
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: the houses must matter a lot more because that's the part that's unique to me.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I could have been born on any day in that 18 month period at any time of day
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: with any rising sign and had the nodes in those same signs.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this part, the house part, is what makes me unique.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a viewpoint that we hear and read a lot, and it is true in a way.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: The house placement is more unique to you than the sign alone,
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: but they're still working together to tell the story,
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: just like all the other placements in your chart have a sign and a house
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: that work together to tell the story.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And last...
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think the notes are also confusing because we tend to hear,
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know, fairly simplified descriptions of them, at least in the beginning.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is intentional because,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: it's nice to be able to synthesize something complicated down and distill it down
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: into something easy to explain and easy to understand,
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: at least for beginners especially.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we hear that the north note is where you're going.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the direction you're being pulled in, developmentally speaking.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the next leg of your journey, while the South Node is where you've already been.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's something you've done a lot of before.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially,
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: we hear that the North Node is what you're supposed to become,
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: and the South Node is what you're supposed to leave behind.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the gist of what we tend to hear most.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And again...
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's overall, you know, true.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Those statements are really helpful starting points,
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: but there's of course a lot more nuance involved.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So really,
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: when we talk about the North and South nodes together,
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: you know, the nodes form an axis.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: They are two opposite ends of the same thing.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a polarity inherent between them, a kind of tension, developmentally speaking.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Between two different ways of operating.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now the nature of polarity is that one side isn't necessarily supposed
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: to completely win out over the other.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's a push-pull there.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to learn to find some way of working with both ends of the axis.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: The north end It does describe a developmental direction,
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: but that doesn't mean the South Node simply disappears.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: The South Node describes ways of being,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: ways of operating in our lives, ways of functioning that are very familiar to us.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like the mode of operation that we default to.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have developed this way of being over time.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of competence there.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily something we're supposed to get rid of entirely,
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: because the South Node is often where we find some of our deepest competencies,
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: talents, and connections.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: But what's often the case is that in the process of developing those qualities,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: in the process of getting really good at operating out of that archetype,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: we have We may have become over-reliant on operating in that way.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we may also have leaned far into some of the shadow qualities of that archetype.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's actually what we're trying to let go of, using those shadow qualities.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we do that by leaning in to the positive qualities associated with our North Node.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: If your south node is in Pisces,
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: for example, you may be very comfortable moving through life in a very Pisces way.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: You may be imaginative and intuitive,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: spiritually inclined, perhaps, compassionate and sensitive.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: You may be very good at going with the flow rather than trying to control everything.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there may be a real natural openness to things that aren't necessarily concrete
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: or easily explained.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And these can be all very beautiful qualities.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: What might also happen is that you become very over-reliant on this way of operating
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: or you veer too often towards some of the shadow expressions of Pisces.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe there's a tendency to flow a little too much, right?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it becomes difficult to bring whatever is in that beautiful imagination into the real world.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Things can remain intangible or undefined, and practical details can get overlooked.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe boundaries become too porous.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: There can be so much sensitivity to other people,
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: for instance,
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: or what's happening around you,
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: that it becomes difficult to distinguish between what's yours
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: and what really belongs to somebody else.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there's a tendency towards escapism,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: like retreating into fantasy or checking out in some way when dealing with
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: the practical realities of life, you know, that feel difficult.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, none of this means Pisces itself is a problem.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean someone with a Pisces South Node is necessarily going to do all
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: of these things.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: These are just some examples of what over-reliance on that archetype might look like.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: The South Node,
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: with the South Node,
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: you're always going to have access to the positive aspects of the archetype.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your chart isn't asking you to stop being imaginative or spiritual or compassionate.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: What it may be steering you toward, though,
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: is letting go of some of the over-reliance, especially around the shadow expression.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you do that?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: You may ask.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can do that by learning to develop some of the positive qualities of
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: the opposite sign.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, that would be Virgo.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that means learning how to bring more discernment and definition to things.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: How to focus on details and create more order.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: How to stay present with what actually needs to get done.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or how to take something that may begin as some kind of intuition,
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: like maybe an idea or a feeling, and turn it into something tangible, right?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And service could be part of this too.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Pisces can have enormous amounts of compassion and sensitivity,
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: and then Virgo,
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: the opposite sign,
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: can help give that compassion somewhere to go by finding practical ways to be useful
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: and helpful.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the North Node points to qualities we're developing and learning to integrate.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And those qualities may initially feel less familiar or less comfortable.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we tend to really like defaulting to our South Node because it's easier.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Developing the North Node can sometimes feel tedious.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It can be a pain in the neck.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: But somewhere inside of us,
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: we may recognize or know that these are qualities that we need to develop
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: and we keep feeling drawn towards them.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the goal isn't necessarily to abandon one end of the axis and live entirely at the other.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, we're learning to integrate the two and find balance between these two things.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: In this example, a person isn't asked to stop being Pisces.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: They don't need to give up their imagination,
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: their intuition,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: or their compassion and turn themselves into some hyper-organized Virgo machine.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: they might actually learn how to just use Virgo's discernment and practicality
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: and detail-orientedness to give some of those Pisces gifts a container.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: The imagination can then become something real.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: The compassion can become meaningful service.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: The intuition can coexist with discernment.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: The ability to flow and surrender can coexist with enough structure to get somewhere.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So how does this tie into the houses now?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Again, what we just talked about in terms of signs is the underlying nature
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'll say again here that I love Jan Spiller's work on the lunar nodes.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you have not read Astrology for the Soul, please go find yourself a copy.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: It may blow your mind with its accuracy.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's phenomenal.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: But in the book Astrology for the Soul,
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you have read it,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: you will know that her chapters are organized primarily around the signs of
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: the North Node, and her descriptions can be incredibly detailed.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've found them to be strikingly accurate in my own experience.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't think the houses were irrelevant.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: She looked at both.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And one useful way of thinking about her approach is that
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: the sign again describes something about the psychological shift that's taking place
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: while the houses describe the kinds of life experiences that
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's stay with that Virgo North Node example for a bit longer here.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Someone could have a Virgo North Node in the 10th house.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Someone else,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: maybe someone born very close to the same time when the nodes were on
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: that same axis, could have that same Virgo North Node, but in the 4th house.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're both working with that same underlying Virgo Pisces nodal polarity.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're both learning in some way, shape,
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: or form to bring greater discernment,
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: practical engagement,
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: and more groundedness to some of the sensitivity,
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: imagination, or fluidity represented by Pisces.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: But where that developmental story is playing out could be very different.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take that person with the Virgo North node in the 10th house first.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: That means their Pisces South node is in the fourth.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: There may already be a lot of familiarity with that Pisces way of operating.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: In the private parts of life, right?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Through home, family, emotional foundations.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe family relationships have involved some degree of merging or a lot of sacrifice, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or boundaries that haven't always been particularly clear.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a very rich...
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: There could also be a really deep sensitivity to family members or an ability
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: to kind of just like intuitively understand what other people need.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pisces is really good at that.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: With the North Node in the 10th,
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: some of the developmental pull is toward the public side of life.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Career, vocation, visibility, their place in the world.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this person may be learning to take some of that Pisces sensitivity
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: or imagination and And actually do something concrete with it in the outer world,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: They may be developing greater competence or practical skills through their work.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe their career requires them actually to be detail-oriented
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: or would have them use some sort of, I don't know, methodology, right?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe...
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: They gradually become known for being someone who can solve problems really well
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: or is really good at improving things or someone who's providing some kind
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: of useful service.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So now you can see how the sign story,
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: that sign's developmental story and the house story are working together there.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if we flip the houses,
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: let's say that the second person, again,
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: has that exact same nodal sign,
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: but their Pisces south node is in the 10th house and their Virgo north node is in
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: the fourth, right?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Opposite.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now that Pisces familiarity is showing up much more in The public or vocational part of life.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: So
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: maybe in the past they've been really sensitive to other people's opinions
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: or expectations about what they should do with their lives.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps there's been a tendency to sacrifice themselves to their work or
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: to something larger than themselves.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result,
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: they've kind of lost themselves to their work or they've lost their private lives
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: to their work.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps their career itself has simply been very Piscean, right?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Creative, spiritual, compassionate, you know, and centered around helping other people.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: But now the Virgo North Node is pulling some of that developmental attention, right?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Toward the fourth house,
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: toward home,
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: toward family,
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: toward their private life,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: you know, toward the foundations that support everything else.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't necessarily think that means they need to go home and,
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: you know, organize all of their closets or anything.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I know like Virgo in the fourth house can feel like that, but I don't think that's it.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think it could mean learning greater discernment and having better boundaries
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: and systems,
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: within the home,
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: within the family,
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: within family relationships, like establishing healthier boundaries.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, maybe even something like having more supportive routines in their private life.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Paying attention to the ordinary things that make life actually function well.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Tending practically to the needs of home or family.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or even developing just like an inner foundation that feels a little less chaotic
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: and a little more grounded.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: So since these two people...
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Have exactly the same Virgo Pisces sign axis.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're working with many of the same underlying developmental themes,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: but one is working with Pisces in the fourth,
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: moving toward Virgo in the 10th,
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: while the other is working with Pisces in the 10th and moving toward Virgo in
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: the fourth.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Same signs, completely different arenas of life.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I mean when I say we need both.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can see the houses are very important
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: in interpreting how this nodal story is going to play out.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So again, the signs tell us something about what's happening developmentally, right?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the houses show us where we're likely to encounter that pattern.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Where some of the familiarity of the south node may already exist and where we are
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: to develop and practice more of those north node qualities.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then we put the two together.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this I think is a good segue to our friend's house system question.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because remember I said that this person had nodes that shifted houses when
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: the house system changed.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're someone whose nodes changed houses,
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you switch between, say,
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Placidus and whole signs or equal houses and whole signs,
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that means your entire nodal interpretation falls apart.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: First, remember that your nodal signs haven't changed at all.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a Virgo north node,
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: you're still a Virgo north node no matter what house system you're using, right?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: What is changing is the house,
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: the area of life through which we're interpreting that nodal development.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a couple of thoughts here.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: First, personally,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am open to the possibility that more
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: than one house system can give us useful information.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to think of them as different lenses,
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: like lenses on a camera that we can use to look at ourselves through, right?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way I feel about planets that change houses in different house systems too.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Some people have very strong preferences for one system over another,
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: but for me, I'm very open to looking at both or multiple systems.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's possible that both are giving us something useful and that we are working
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: on more than one lesson here.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Humans are so complicated.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to categorize us or put us into simple little boxes.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's entirely possible that you have more than one developmental arc
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're doing a little bit of both,
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe the interpretation can be somehow blended.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: if that Virgo North Node in the 10th also shifts to the 11th
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: in another house system,
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: maybe you're working out that Virgo development in your career and in the groups
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: and communities you belong to.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe your career is one that deals with 11th house things,
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: large organizations, groups of people, audiences, networks, right?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there can be overlap there.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Alternatively,
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know, if that idea doesn't resonate with you, then you can experiment a little.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Look at your nodes in Placidus.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Look at them in whole sign.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Check other house systems if you like other house systems.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the actual events in your life.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are the recurring circumstances that you can't seem to get away from?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: The challenges, relationships, developmental experiences that you've had throughout your life.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where do you see that?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you may find that one house system describes your lived experience much more convincingly.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or you may find that you see something meaningful in both.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's another thing I'd think about here, and that's nodes that change signs.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and I'll tell you what I mean here.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Using myself as an example,
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: my nodes don't change signs necessarily by house system,
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: but there is a thing called true nodes and mean nodes.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are actually two ways you'll commonly see the lunar nodes calculated.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: The mean node smooths out some of the irregularities in the way
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: the nodes move around and give us an averaged position.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: The nodes are kind of wobbly.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: The true node accounts for this wobbliness,
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: and these movements and gives us,
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: kind of like a more precise take on where the wobble was,
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: I guess you'd say, you know, at the moment of your birth.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Different people have different preferences about which one they use.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: OK, so lots of modern astrologers use the true node and some people deliberately use the mean.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the time,
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: the difference between the two is small enough that it isn't going
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: to dramatically change your interpretation,
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: but it can affect the exact degree of the nodes,
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: which might change How tightly they're aspecting something else in your chart,
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: if your nodes are making aspects.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if your lunar nodes happen to fall right near the beginning or end of a sign,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: the true and mean calculations can actually put them in different signs.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is the case for me, in fact.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: I go from having lunar nodes at 29 degrees of one sign using true nodes
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: to zero degrees of the prior sign using the mean node.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this begs the question, could both be at least a little bit accurate?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And in my case, this is just me speaking for myself.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I do find some accuracy in both.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: The true node feels a little more resonant for me,
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: but the mean nodal degree does not feel wrong.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: It does not.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: It does kind of feel like it's a slightly less potent,
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: but still very,
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: very present developmental storyline that is playing out alongside my other one.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now if we really want to get complicated,
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: we could also say that if I were using whole sign houses and
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: the nodes change signs using true nodes versus mean nodes,
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, then the nodes would not only be changing signs, but also houses.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know,
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: in that system,
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: then we have nodes that are changing the sign axis and houses, right?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're really getting into a quagmire.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I won't go through all of that whole story here.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: I, needless to say, have found what feels true for me.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't rule out the idea that more than one thing can be true simultaneously.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's one more piece of the original question
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: that I think is worth clearing up and that's transiting nodes, right?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: This listener was wondering whether transiting nodes might be more about signs
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: because the nodes are moving through the same signs for everybody collectively
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: while everyone's houses are different.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think let's turn this around slightly,
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: you know, that the sign placement of the transiting nodes describes signs.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Part of the collective astrology we're all experiencing.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, for example, the nodes are moving through the Leo-Aquarius axis.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's happening for everyone.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking at the themes involving this sine axis.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: But Aquarius and Leo fall in different houses depending on your chart.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly how we begin to personalize this transit.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: For one person,
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: that nodal axis might be activating the first and seventh houses
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: and bringing up themes around self and relationship.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: For another,
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: it might fall across the fourth and tenth houses and coincide
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: with developments involving home and family versus career and public life.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So once again,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: we need both to help us determine first the nature of the developmental story and
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: The signs tell us something about the nature of the story.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: The houses help us understand where that story is showing up for us.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this transit with this recent nodal shift,
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: it's actually a really interesting opportunity for us all to study our own charts,
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can study your own chart through this transit.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the nodal sign axis as your anchor because,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: that isn't changing anytime in the next, you know, not quite 18 months, right?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then compare...
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And see what your actual experience tells you.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, this is always one of the best ways to learn astrology, right?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not simply by memorizing what a placement is supposed to mean,
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: but watching how the symbolism actually works.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is how people's views in astrology keep changing for their entire life,
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: no matter how long they study it,
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: because you just keep taking in more information and seeing more things over time.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's all for now, everyone.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that if you want to sign up for my virtual workshop called The Moon
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: in Your Nervous System or my New Moon Gathering for the Virgo New Moon,
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: those links are in the show notes.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's all for now, everyone.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week and I will see you next time.