Lunar nodes

Definition

The lunar nodes are the pair formed by the north node and the south node, the two mathematical points where the Moon's orbit crosses the plane of the ecliptic. They sit one hundred and eighty degrees apart and form an axis across the zodiac. Astrology reads them as one biographical unit of two opposite ends: the north node names the chart's direction of growth and the south node the territory of already-developed skill.

In context

If your lunar nodes form the Aries-Libra axis, the chart sketches a biographical arrow that travels between solitary initiative and relational adjustment as two complementary poles of the same path. The nodes complete their cycle every eighteen and a half years or so, which associates certain ages (the nodal returns) with stretches of vocational pivot. The pair is read as one axis, never the north node on its own without the south node, because the arrow loses meaning if you only look at one end.

To go deeper

The lunar nodes belong to the geometry of the lunar orbit:

• North node: ascending end of the axis.
• South node: descending end of the axis.
• Eclipse: syzygy sharpened on the nodal axis.