Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of astrology with Alice. Today
we were returning to some birth chart basics by doing
a whole episode on the north and South nodes. So
this is similar to what I did with Saturn a
couple months back, where first I really want to go
over what do the nodes mean in your birth chart
and also some variations they can take throughout various signs
and houses of your chart. And then in the second
portion of the podcast, I want to get into different
niche things you can look at with the nodes, like
nodes in sinistry, the transiting nodes, and also the timing
of eclipses which is signified by the transit of the nodes.
So it's kind of a deep dive into a lot
of different things. Also, I really want to get into
like nodal oppositions and nodal returns, which we'll do. But yeah,
this hopefully can be like a resource you can return
back to get further insight into how do I interpret
this part of my chart. Before we get started, I
just had a couple of announcements. Want to thank everyone
for all the feedback on the Urinus transit episodes. Put
a ton of time and energy into recording those and
thank you to everyone that wrote in like we got
such good stories. Those continue, like the transit stories episodes
continue to be my most watched videos on YouTube, and
I wanted to call that out because that's what I
do in my workshops on substack. So if you're really
interested in like how do these transits and timing techniques
play out in real people's lives and wanting more of
that content, Every single month on substack for paid subscribers,
I host a live workshop where the first half of
the workshop is me teaching on a niche astrology topic,
and then the second half is people sharing their charts
and we get into like, Okay, how did that actually
show up for you? What is your real lived experience
with this transit or this solar return or this annual
perfection year. So it's a great learning resource if you
want to join our community over there on substack. The
next live workshop I'll be hosting on substack is going
to be on Sunday, May thirty first, and that one
will be a deep dive into Uranus, Pluto and Neptune transits.
I want to look at when they make exact aspects
to natal placements in your chart, and hopefully we get
some people sharing about experiences they've had when they've experienced
those bigger, more transformational transits, and also stay tuned for
in depth Gemini Season monthly horoscopes coming in about a
week from now. I think I'm going to publish those
on May twentieth. So that's an in depth look at
all the transits happening throughout Gemini season and what they
mean for your specific rising sign, a really helpful guide
for what to expect for the next month. So with
that being said, let's get into looking at the north
and South nodes and what they represent in your birth chart.
So I like to think of the entire birth chart
as like your purpose and these lessons that you're working
to understand more fully or tap into over the course
of your entire life. But within that whole birth chart,
I do like to zoom in specifically on where's the
north node and where is the South node? Because I
feel like when you lean more into those parts of
your chart, you automatically become more fulfilled and kind of
aware of natural skills you may possess, specifically with the
south node, whereas the north node kind of shows, okay,
what am I here to achieve what may feel uncomfortable?
But what do I need to develop more fully to
feel more fulfilled in my life? So personally, whenever I
feel off course or kind of like stuck or frustrated,
especially in terms of like career, I'm always like, wait,
what does my north node represent? Like how can we
develop that a bit more in order to feel like
happier with where I am? And I don't like to
think of the south node as being negative in the
north node being positive. It's really not that black and white.
Kind of what I just said before is like the
south note is skills you may come into this life
already possessing, like those qualities of the south node and
also the house in which it's placed, maybe just like
natural skills you have, but also like what feels comfortable
to you, And maybe you don't even recognize that as
a skill because it's just something that's more automatic and like, Okay,
that's just a part of my life, whereas the north
note is definitely something you're more aware of because it
does feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable in what it represents. Like
the sign and the house placement can feel scary at first,
especially like in the earlier part of your life until
you get these like bigger transits activating the nodes. It's
almost like you want to stay in the comfort zone
of the south node, but you need to leave that
eventually and lean into the uncomfortable like qualities of the
North node. And yeah, we'll get into this more. And
when we talk about transiting nodes, but at the timing
of like a nodal opposition or a nodal return, you're
really asked to check in with those natal no replacements
in your chart, like what is the sign what is
the houseplacement of the northern south nodes? How can we
release like unhealthy attachments in these areas and maybe lean
more into things that work for me now? And sometimes
you may encounter experiences that push you away from holding
on so tightly to the south node and move you
more towards the purpose represented by the North node. So
first I want to start out by going over the
nodes through the specific signs and houses of the chart
and how they function differently when they appear in different
signs and houses. So also just a backtrack, like if
you're completely unfamiliar with what the north and South nodes
are on the YouTube version, I have diagrams popping up,
but they're the horseshoe shaped symbols in your chart. The
north node is the upright one and the south node
is the like upside down horseshoe. But it's always important
with the nodes, or any other planet in your chart
for that matter. The nodes actually aren't a planet, but
any other chart placement for that matter, always to look
at like, Okay, this sign in which it falls represents
the traits you're working to develop, whereas the house placement
in which it's located is where are those traits being
carried out? Like where is the action happening in like
one specific area of your life. And so since the
nodes are always in opposite signs, opposite houses to each other,
you're really working to establish a greater balance between those
two signs in those two houses throughout your life. It's
like you can't put all your energy into just one
of those houses without forgetting like the themes of the other,
and you kind of have to blend them and find
a way to make them work together. So I want
to start off with an example of someone who has
the south node in ares in their ninth house in
the north node in Libra their third house, So we're
going to blend both this sign and the house and
like how this has manifested for this person. But with
the south note in the ninth in aries, like there's
always just been a huge interest for this person in
foreign travel and like they're really not afraid, Like Aris
has that sense of like bravery and courage and independence
to travel solo to different countries and parts of the world,
and that's like a huge passion of theirs, just like
independence comes naturally to them. But with the north note
in Libra the third house first, like looking at that
topic of Libra and how that's so much about partnerships
and compromise and like learning how to work with people
that area of life has felt scary for this person
or just like Okay, I don't want to lose myself
in a relationship, or I don't know if I can
rely fully on someone else, Like I'm used to just
doing things myself and making my own decisions without really
needing to take someone else into consideration. So a lot
of what they're learning throughout this life is like how
do I show up as a more effective partner and
specifically through third house topics, because that's where the north
note is located. It's also like how do I take
what I've learned through these foreign travels and the knowledge
I've gained through this, and how can I apply it?
How can I apply it to like daily communication based
work and for them specifically, like filmmaking is a huge
interest also like quick social media clips kind of finding
ways to bring humor and like just everyday like accessibility
to like these bigger picture topics that they're wanting to
share about. And it's also like developing relationships through those
passions to like working on something like a film or
a social media work or I don't know, project someone
else is putting out, Like how are you learning how
to compromise and work together with someone on those communication
like third house topics. And this similar theme of like
partnership for self would also come up if you have
the north and south notes in the first and seventh
houses of your chart, Like maybe with the south note
in the seventh house, you're learning how to overcome like
codependent patterns and like being like overly relying on other
people or kind of like losing your sense of self
and relationships. But that may feel uncomfortable to like spend
more time alone getting to know yourself or like doing
things just for you and developing confidence in who you are.
While if it was flipped and it's like north nodes
in the seventh house south notes in the first house,
maybe again kind of like this example I just went
over of like a south note in Aris, for instance,
in a north node in Libra, it's there is more
of a like comfortability with being alone and doing things
on your own, where you really actually do need to
lean more into being comfortable opening up to people and
being part of like a partnership. And you may also
find with that no real placement that you can accomplish
a lot more with the help of other people, Like
things may just like open up and come more naturally
for you when you do learn to like get over
that fear. Then I also want to look at the
example of like having a north node in the tenth
house or the south in the south note in the
fourth house, or vice versa, like south note intent north
node in fourth Like I find a lot of the time,
it's a lot of lessons in life come through finding
this balance between like career and what do you want
for yourself in the world and what do you want
to achieve versus like duties you have to your family.
So specifically with the north note of the tenth house,
maybe you need to lean away from being like so
overly dependent on family or like looking to family for
direction or letting them dictate like how you live your
life and then going out on your own and discovering
your own ambition or like your own leadership qualities and
figuring out what do I actually want to commit to.
While if it was reverse like south note intenth, that's
probably something you're already comfortable with and maybe like overworking
or like taking on too much, maybe like a weakness,
whereas it's kind of like, okay, maybe you need to
reel it back in and like focus more on how
if family like isn't something that feels super comfortable to you,
how can I create a family on my own that
does and kind of find a stable like home environment
for myself. But again going back to like what signs
are these nodes placed done as well, So a tenth
house north note in Leo, it's like, Okay, you're finding
your way in your career and developing more of a
name for yourself at work through Leo like quality, so creativity,
maybe fashion performance, like being comfortable, being more seen by people,
whereas like a north note in Gemini in the tenth
House would be more about, okay, how are we developing
different ways to communicate in my career or writing skills
or public speaking skills and kind of learning all this
useful information and putting it towards these bigger career projects
and opportunities. And then to give another sign example, let's
look at like the north note if you have the
north notdon Virgo and the south note in Pice, maybe
like the topics associated with pisces, like being more spiritual,
being more into mental health, or finding time to be alone,
and like being so selfless and like giving to people,
that may be something that comes naturally to you, whereas
the Virgo traits may feel unfamiliar, like okay, how but
it's kind of like you have to lean more into
the Virgo traits of finding a greater routine for yourself,
not getting so lost in like the mental stuff and
coming back down and like realizing, how can I take
better care of my body? How can I nurture myself
in that way? And how might routine and I don't know,
finding time for exercise or like being more structured with
like meal planning or schedules. How is that not necessarily
a bad thing or like a boring thing? And actually
how might it bring you greater in our peace and
maybe help with the mental health or a spiritual stuff
represented by Pisces and like we can reverse this same
thing where it's okay, maybe you're already comfortable with the
Virgo like routine stuff, and I would say with a
south note in Virgo, maybe there are like some perfectionist
tendencies or like I don't know, a tendency to like
overwork yourself, whereas with the north node in Pisces, it's like, okay,
maybe you step back from like obsessing over the little
detail so much and look at what is the bigger
picture I want to work towards. How can I find
deeper meaning in this work? And how might there be
spiritual interest you want to pursue further rather than just
like things that are seen in like you're in your
everyday life. And then I'm thinking of like another sign
example came to me of like the Leo Aquarius axis,
which is interesting because we're about to go into that,
like in general, as the transit North node moves into
Aquarius and the Transit South node moves into Leo, and
with those two, it's like Lee is so much about
like the self and doing things that serve your own
personal creativity and like putting yourself first, whereas Aquarius is
about doing things that help other people or being part
of like a larger community, like what serves the community,
or how can you develop greater connections with others? So
like we're all about to experience this of how can
we put like our own ego stuff aside and our
own like obsession with ourselves becoming like less important to
do things that serve other people. But it could be
interesting to go back to, Okay, what was happening in
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen when the North node was in
Leo and the South node was an Aquarius. I feel
like there was this theme around that time of lean
more into your personal creativity and develop like what sets
you apart instead of trying to blend in with like
group mentality type of thing. Then I quickly just want
to run through other ones I haven't touched upon yet,
like six in twelfth House North nodes. I just find
that's a life that's a lot about balancing work you
do for other people and like again kind of not
overworking yourself or not taking on too much and losing
sight of the bigger picture. It's also about like learning
how to blend spiritual interests with the work that you're doing,
or doing work that feels like it has a deeper
meaning or is helping people in a bigger way and
figuring out what that means for you. And then I personally,
I have my north note in the Fifth House, my
south note in the eleventh. If you have it reverse,
maybe you feel some of these themes too, just like
in the reverse of it. But I do find that
it's easier, like, especially when I was younger, to just
go along with what other people were doing and instead
with the north note in the Fifth House, it's like, Okay,
how do I show off my own creativity and not
care so much about getting criticized for that or I
don't know. Also, like the topic of children, like the
Fifth House is literally pregnancy in children, And for a while,
like didn't have an interest in children, didn't think that
was something that I wanted as an adult, but it
was so interesting, like at the time of my nodle
return in my late twenties, like at twenty eight years old,
when actually no, sorry, that was my nodle opposition, but
still like huge transit involving the nodes. That was like
when the first inkling of okay, wait, I actually do
want to have kids in the future that started to
come to me. So becoming more comfortable with like the
relationship I have with children too, in addition to building
more confidence and like self esteem and not being so
afraid to share off my creativity. But yeah, over time,
I've noticed like a pulling away from the eleventh House
almost or just like a need to approach the eleventh
House in a different way, like, for instance, instead of
like joining a sorority in college, like that did not
work out at all for me. I found it super
frustrating to be like forced to act a certain way
or attend certain meetings that didn't really make sense to me.
But like, through the creative work and like the astrology
that I do, I'm again finding myself back to like
how can I create greater community around what I do
and wanting to explore that further. It's kind of like
not needing to think like the group, but still needing
to create some type of balance with my own creativity
and community stuff throughout my life. So again, if you
have fifth and eleventh house nodes, maybe that's relevant for
you too. And then I think the only house placements
I haven't touched upon our second and eighth houses. Those
have a lot to do with money and becoming more comfortable,
like recognizing the value you bring to work. I would
also say it has a lot to do with like
merging finances with other people, or becoming comfortable allowing people
to step up and pay for you, or sharing resources
in a bigger way like that would be something that
may feel scary if you have the North in the
eighth house, whereas if you the South node, maybe it's like, Okay,
you're used to getting financial help from other people, but
in this lifetime you're working towards the second house of
like creating your own wealth and recognizing the skills you
bring to the workplace and setting certain rates for yourself
and speaking up about like okay, I need to make
this much money. The second eighth nodes are great for
like people who want to work for themselves, like entrepreneurial
type endeavors would definitely lean into that if you have
second and eighth house north nodes. And that's something that
comes up a lot when the nodes transit through your
second and eighth houses, like a desire to quit such
a structured work environment and go off and do your
own thing and take greater control of your finances. So
it's kind of interesting, how, like what's even if you
don't have the nodes in like a certain house, Like
you're obviously only going to have them in two houses
of your chart, but like you're gonna get the activations
of all twelve houses so many times throughout your life,
Like how can you fir or grow into one specific
house that the north note is transiting while releasing Maybe
I don't know, patterns holding you back or mindset's not
serving you in the house that the south note is transiting.
Before we get further into nodal transits, though, I just
wanted to speak a little about the north and south
nodes in sinistry. So this is like for those of
who aren't familiar with sinistry, it's when you overlay someone
else's birth chart on top of yours and look at
the chart comparisons. So I actually find the notes to
be so interesting in sinistry, and people that just feel
very familiar to you, like it's an easy type relationship
or like an instantaneous like I feel like I've known
you before. This person feels like home. I find that
a lot with south node connections in sinistry, which is
like representative kind of like of what the south node
represents in your birth charts, stuff you're already comfortable with.
So when someone's planet touches your south node, you're already
comfortable with them. Whereas when someone's planets touch your north node,
maybe that's a relationship that requires more effort and work,
and maybe that's a relationship that's not that easy. But
through the experience with that person, like you're forced to
grow in a bigger way and really important relationships in
your life. You will notice connections with the nodes, whether
that's someone's moon falling on your north or south node,
or maybe your node is on someone's mid heaven. And
it could even feel like if you have strong nodal
aspects with someone, like the way that you met could
have felt like faded or like how did we meet
in such a random way, like we were just always
meant to meet, Like I have a good astrologer friend
who also lives in Brooklyn, and we were at the
astrology conference Norwak in Seattle in twenty twenty two, like
across the country. I just happened to sit next to him,
didn't know him at all. We get to talking, we
find out we live in this same exact neighborhood in Brooklyn,
two blocks from each other, while we're at this conference
in Seattle, and then through that we developed a relationship.
Back in New York, he hosted like astrology salons at
his apartment and I've learned a lot from him, and
we have really strong nodal sinistry. He's like a Sagittarius rising.
I think my north node in Sagittarius falls exactly on
his ascendant and my south node falls exactly on his descendant,
like to the degree. And that that's just like someone
in my life where it's like how did I meet you?
Like out of all those people at the astrology conference,
out of all the places we could have been from,
we end up living two blocks from each other. Besides
looking at exact aspects made with the nodes in someone
else's chart, you can also look at like what houses
do my nodes activate in that person's chart, and what
houses in my chart do the other person's nodes activate? So,
for example, like my dad's north node falls in my
second house. He's a north note in Virgo and that's
my second house, and then his south node falls in Pisces,
my eighth house, and like he manages a lot of
the finances around my business. He helps me with my taxes,
so that like, even though that's not like the whole
relationship that we have together, it is interesting. It's like
that's not always the parent child dynamic that you have,
like a parent helping your business. So that's become really
key in our relationship over the years, and I believe
it's due to that like nodal activation. But like you
could see, okay, the people that you work with, for instance,
like to their nodes fall in your tenth fourth house
access or your six twelfth or again like your second
eighth is there like that work career like setting going
on in the relationship. I've also like had roommates where
like their north note is Scorpio that falls into my
fourth house, and it's like literally that's someone I lived with.
My sister north node falls in Libra, that's my third
house of siblings, like her literal north node is in
my third house of siblings, and that's our relationship. So yeah,
it can be very literal, like what's the vibe of
the relationship, how did you guys meet? What are the
qualities you're working on in this relationship? And yeah, what
are you working towards as like a partnership basically, Now,
let's get into the nodes in transit. So you're obviously
you're born with the north node in one house of
your chart, the South note in another. But where the
nodes currently are, they move backwards through the zodiac signs,
So if we're starting in Ares, they'll they won't move
on to Taurus, like the North note will move backwards
to Pisces and Virgo, and then it'll move back again
to Aquarius and Leo and so on and so forth,
so they'll move against the direction of all the planets.
And the North and South notes spend about eighteen months
in one sign in one house of your chart, so
you'll get this year and a half period of like
intense focus on the two houses that the north and
South nodes are activating during that time, and the nodes
are the biggest Transit four change. They really show where
are you experiencing these major endings but also new beginnings.
How are you wanting to shift your life in a
bigger way? What are you working hard to develop versus
like what are you feeling called to release during that
year and a half long period and out of the
entire eighteen months or so that the North and South
nodes transit through a pair of signs. So like, for instance,
the North note is still in Pisces. It's been there
since January of twenty twenty five. It will finally leave
Pisces at the end of July of twenty twenty six,
so we just got a couple months left of that.
And same with the South note in Virgo, it's been
there the whole time the North node has been in Pisces.
If you have planets in those two signs, or like
whatever sign in north and South nodes might be transitting
at any given time, you always want to look at
in does the transit North node of the transit South
node reach an exact chart placement? So I talked about
in like the Astrology of pregnancy episode, how when the
north node met up with my Pisce's moon to the
exact degree. That was the month that I got pregnant,
not any other month out of the north node transiting
that sign, it like had to activate the moon exactly.
And also like, for instance, when my husband and I
met and started dating, the North node was transitting through Gemini,
his seventh house, and he is his venus in Gemini,
and our relationship started and got going when the North
node exactly moved across his venus in Gemini. So out
of that entire seventh house transit, the most pivotal thing
in the relationship happened when it hit that exact natal
placement to the degree. And also like if you don't
have planets in the first or seventh houses, but the
nodes happened to be transiting there, check like when do
they hit the exact degree of your ascendant and your
descendent access That might be a key month in terms
of like realizing really important things about your identity and
like what you want for yourself. That would be the
theme of the ascendant versus like is there something pivotal
happening in a relationship also at that same time or
are you making realizations about what do you want for
what do you want out of a partner in the future. So, yeah,
exact timing of when nodes hit natal placements is so
key to look at. And in addition to that, you
can also track like what are the eclipse dates during
a specific year, because the transiting nodes indicate what signs
the solar and lunar eclipses are happening in. So we've
had eclipses obviously across Pisces and Virgo for the last
year and a half to two years now, and out
of the entire time, has there been a specific eclipse,
like if you have Pisces or Virgo planets, has there
been a specific eclipse that has hit an exact chart
placement like, so you'll want to note, okay, out of
these six eclipses occurring or so across Pisces Virgo, like
which one falls the closest to my son or my
mid Heaven or my Saturn And you can look at, Okay,
that eclipse represented by the transitin nodes is going to
represent like a bigger shift going on in my life
having to do with the topics of that planet also
with the nodes transiting through just like these two signs
these two opposing signs, you will also want to check,
like what are the houses and the signs square to that.
So again going back to how the north nodes in
Pisces south loads in Virgo, you can look at what
houses are associated with those signs in my chart, but
also what houses are associated associated with Gemini and Sagittarius
because those are square, and do you have planets there?
And have those planets been a bigger deal with the
Pisces in Virgo nodal transit too, Like just because they're
not exactly aspected, still, the fact that they're even just
square to this nodal transit will make them more relevant
during that time. And yeah, as we look ahead to
the second half of twenty twenty six and into twenty
twenty seven, as the north node moves into Aquarius and
the South node moves into Leo around late July of
this year, you can know like after that point, moving
into second half of twenty twenty six, there's gonna be
a new energy where these two new houses of your
chart are activated and you're wanting to see growth happen there.
It's like, Okay, we're finally pivoting away from Piss's Virgo
now and Leo Aquarius is about to demand a lot
more of our attention. What houses are those two in
your chart? Like how are you now trying to strike
a balance between those two areas? And really like when
the nodes first and are a new house and new
sign of your chart, it can feel like abrupt almost
like wait, why does this area of my life? Like
why does it suddenly need change now? Or again? Like
kind of uncomfortable, especially with the north node transit. But
over the course of that eighteen month nodal transit through
a pair of opposing signs, you get more comfortable and
like you learn the lessons and you make the changes
associated with that nodal transit. But yeah, if you revisit
the episode I did last September called Embracing Change with Eclipses,
I did a bit more on like Piscey's Virgo eclipses specifically,
and if you want to read more into that. And lastly,
I just want to turn back to talking a little
bit about nodal returns and nodal oppositions. I get a
ton of questions about these two transits. A nodal return
is when the transit north node returns to the sign
in which your natal north note is in. So if
looking at your birth chart, you have your north node
in your birth chart in Aquarius, in your south note
in Leo, you can know, Okay, the next year and
a half to two year period with the nodes, with
the transiting nodes now moving into those two signs, are
about to be really pivotal for me. I find the
time of nodal returns and for contacts like this happens
every eighteen to nineteen years in your life. So your
first nodal return in your lifetime does not happen until
you're eighteen or nineteen years old, and then you get
another one right around the age of like thirty six,
and then you could keep going like in eighteen nineteen
year increments from there. And these ages are big deals
because it's like, Okay, you've been living your life one
way up until that point, and then maybe at the
time of a nodal return, something may feel a bit
off or like you're being nudged back in the direction
of like hey, don't forget what the north node represents,
like maybe the south node stuff stops working so easily
around that time, and things may fall away from your
life that are represented by your natal south node placement,
but opportunities surrounding the north nodes start to open up
a lot more at the time of a nodal return,
and within those eighteen nineteen year increments, every nine years
you'll get a nodal opposition. So the first one you
get is at age nine, and then the second one
you get is in your late twenties, kind of the
lead up to the Saturn return age twenty seven twenty eight,
and then again I guess the next one would be
early forties. What is nine years on from thirty six,
I guess like around forty two forty three, that critical
period that's like a huge age just in general, like
early forties. I'm curious to see what happens when I
get there myself. But I would say the way a
nodal opposition might be different is that, rather than like
moving away from the south node so much, you're being
asked to embrace the south node because the transit north
node has reached the sign in which your natal south
node is located. So it's kind of like, Okay, how
are there limiting patterns or limiting beliefs that I'm still
holding on to the area of the self node. How
can we release that but also learn to develop healthier
traits associated with the self node, like not forgetting it entirely,
not moving away from it entirely, but changing up your
approach to that part of your life. So like going
back to let's say you have your natal south node
in the sixth house and at the time of your
nodal opposition, the transit north node moves into your six
house and meets up with your natal self node there.
It's not so much about like releasing situations from work
or having negative experiences involving your job come up, but
more like, Okay, how can we redefine the relationship we
have to work, health and routine And maybe one way
of going about these areas isn't working well for me anymore.
But how are we now finding deeper meaning in the
work that we do, or new opportunities that feel more
in line with who you are as a person, or
starting to open up in your career. So yeah, nodle
oppositions and nodal returns there not the most comfortable, but
they really set you off. I like to frame them
as like, Okay, it's a check in to be like,
am I doing what's most in line with like what
I want to be doing, And then they kind of
push you off in a new direction if that's not
the case. But yeah, that's all I have on this
episode of the North and South Nodes. These little bite
size birth chart placements slash transit episodes are super fun
to do, so let me know if there's specific ones
you really want me to do next in the next
few months. Other than that, I'll see you back here
next Thursday for the Gemini season Monthly Forecasts