On the 5th May 2020, the Lunar Nodes will shift into Sagittarius and Gemini until 2022 after travelling through the signs of Capricorn and Cancer since mid-2018.

The Lunar Nodes are travelling beacons of life lessons and fated encounters that stir us closer to our karma. In their 19-year journey around the zodiac, they bring a rich array of experiences, felt collectively and personally. Having completed their journey through Capricorn and Cancer where we endured a two-and-a-half year journey around the topics of family, ancestry and the deep shadow work of inherited patterns, the Lunar Nodes will now bring to focus a collective search for truth and information and how this connects us to renewed beliefs and a vital re-education phase to bring us into a new paradigm of life.

South Node vs North Node

The Lunar Nodes are comprised of two elements – the South Node and the North Node. Both of these invisible moving points, along with the Sun and Moon, are what determines the creation of an eclipse. The Solar and Lunar Eclipses are New and Full Moons that occur within 17 degrees of the Lunar Nodes and share the same thematic influences over us, except with magnified intensity. If our life was a movie, the nodes would set the scene while the eclipses would mark the dramatic moments. I’ve written a detailed article around the nodes and eclipses in my previous article “Understanding Eclipses”.

The South Node, or Ketu, symbolises the concept of decrease, withdrawal and emptying. The South Node will bring these reductionist concepts wherever it travels to in our charts, forcing fated separations, decrease and emptying to these areas.

For example, the shifting of the current South Node into Sagittarius, a sign associated with travelling and foreigners, echoes the collapse of the airline industry as the ban on travel continues due to Covid-19. The last time the South Node was in Sagittarius in 2001 / 2002, we saw significant security restrictions to airline travel as a result of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

The North Node, or Rahu, symbolises the concept of increase, gain, ambition and drive. The North Node will expand and magnify the areas of the chart that it travels through, stimulating our desires, ambition and insatiable greed around those topics.

With the shifting of the current North Node into Gemini, a sign associated with communication, a worldwide telecommunications restructure into the new 5G network is gaining momentum. And, despite the current global recession, 5G is one of the few industries currently expanding its workforce. At the last North Node in Gemini period back in 2001 / 2002, the 3G network was auctioned to private operators, enabling a future today where mobile phones are considered a basic human right.

From data to knowledge

The archetype of Gemini, ruled by the messenger of the Gods, Hermes, symbolises the need to connect and obtain information. Its placement in the zodiac is directly opposite of the Jupitarian-ruled sign, Sagittarius, which is concerned with transmuting this information into higher knowledge, embodied learning and a meaning for life.

The past 40 years has seen the world rapidly transition into an information age where data is now a valuable commodity. The insatiable greed for data when the North Node is in Gemini, as seen in the above examples of 5G and 3G implementation in 2020 and 2001 respectively, can also be seen if we go back to the previous occurrence. At the 1983-84 North Node in Gemini event, we saw greater advancements of communication technologies including the digitisation of the data network, introduction of optic fibre networks and the emergence of software based systems and EFTPOS machines for cashless payments. At this time, DNA profiling was also developed and is now in wide use by forensic scientists when gathering crime evidence. It was also at this time when the AIDS pandemic was in full swing. 1983 was also the year Edward Snowden was born – see below for more.

Fast forward to 2020, we can see this archetypal multivalence manifesting across these same areas. Technology was, and is, the enabler for data and solutions to support these global challenges and as history shows, we always seem to feel technology calling more when the North Node enters Gemini. Bandwidth consumption is at an all time high as people take to the internet to connect for work, social, health and education needs – all the while, having every facet of our online lives being recorded and pieced together in a clearer, more insightful profile. It makes me wonder what will come of all this data? Perhaps a withdrawal (South Node) from what we believe (Sagittarius) our lives to be? How ironic that isolation is bringing us the greatest level of physical privacy, yet, our online doors are wide open to strangers.

Squaring off with Neptune

Looking forward, I’m extremely cautious of the Neptune square that will be present at all of the six Sagittarius and Gemini eclipses until the nodes shift signs again in 2022.

The archetype of Neptune is one of dissolution. It dissolves, merges and permeates all boundaries like the gas giant it is, seeking unification and purity. Yet, this planet is highly nebulous and impressionable, with an ability to shape shift into whatever influences are around it.

When Neptune shows up in event or horary charts, I’m inclined to think (where relevant to the context) deception, fraud, disappointments and a lack of transparency. When I see this in natal charts, it often shows up as victimisation, martyrdom and projection of ego. Add to this the aggravating and conflicting nature of the square aspect, the celestial symbolism points to some subtle yet sinister processes at play when the eclipses occur in Sagittarius and Gemini during 2020 and 2021.

I feel that these six eclipses squared to the sneaky Neptune, may bring about a global narrative around the possibility of secrets being withheld from us. I’m not suggesting at all that this is a contrived plan, but the combination of a global health crisis, forced isolation, online connectivity and a beefed up 5G network does seem to be a potential opportunity for malicious interception during a time when we may be under the hazy spell of Neptune, and while Rahu (North Node) the insatiable dragon’s head is devouring all the data (Gemini) he can get to.

On a personal note…

Bringing this nodal shift into the realm of our personal life, we can expect to see a microcosmic version of this search for information and a great need for connection, and adjusting to a new meaning of life or personal truth, as the nodes transit through these two signs and as the eclipses unfold. The polarity of Sagittarius and Gemini is also associated with education, so we may also experience the acts of teaching or learning  in the houses containing these nodes.

The South Node in Sagittarius can signify the loss or withdrawal from bigger plans or visions we once made, possibly around the time when the North Node was in Sagittarius around 2011/2012. Any decreases or losses experienced this year based on these grand schemes can be symbolised as a purification towards greater personal wholeness. The house in which the South Node falls into will also point to the area of life that this waning energy is entering (eg. 11th house of friends and networks or 7th house of relationships).

The North Node in Gemini can signify the ambition and hunger you have for data, information and social connectivity.  This may stimulate us to become more savvy and alert about the information we’re receiving and become more consumed by the act of assimilating data. The house that the North Node falls into will also give some hints to what areas of life this could be felt (eg. 5th house of children, 4th house of home and real estate).

Edward Snowden

Those born with the South Node in Sagittarius and the North Node in Gemini will naturally have these archetypal influences projected onto their life stories.

One example is Edward Snowden, an American National Security Agency subcontractor turned whistle-blower, leaking top-secret information about surveillance practices that he found to be “…about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation… They’re about power”. Snowden was charged with violations of the Espionage Act and currently living in asylum in Russia while he continues to speak about his work.

Snowden was born just before the northern hemisphere summer solstice in 1983, with the Sun at 29 degrees Gemini, conjunct the North Node at 25 degrees and Mars at 24 degrees of Gemini. One of the classical analogies associated with the North Node is of an enthusiastic soldier obsessive about gaining new territory. The signature of Mars (soldier) closely situated with the North Node and Sun (life purpose) clearly illustrates how these archetypes have manifested in his life.

Snowden writes:

“I did a dangerous thing for a man in my position: I decided to tell the truth…..My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”

And so he did. Meanwhile, all of this happened during the time in which the transiting nodal positions had reversed from his natal position, signalling an emptying of information to the people (South Node in Gemini) in order to bring truth and gain back civil rights (North Node in Sagittarius). This is a brilliant example of how the nodes operate – a see-sawing effect of increase and decrease which flip across our charts every 8.5 years, highlighting areas of our consciousness that we seek to empty and areas we seek to gain.

Remembering that the next six eclipses will be squared to Neptune, another interesting configuration in Snowden’s chart is that Neptune is closely conjunct South Node in Sagittarius. The truth (Sagittarius) being concealed (Neptune) to the public became Snowden’s karmic life mission (South Node).  Meanwhile, with the transiting South Node in Sagittarius manifesting as our temporary travel restrictions and home isolation, Snowden – with a natal South Node in Sagittarius – finds himself living permanently in exile in a foreign land, unable to return to his home. The similarity of planetary alignments between Snowden’s chart and the current skies speaks volumes about the whole technology / privacy / foreign movement landscape.

Only time will tell what will really come of these interesting moments we find ourselves in. If it is the case that we are the pawns of a deceptive higher power, perhaps it may be the generation of people born between 1992-1993 and 2011-2012 who came in with a mission to expose the truth, having their natal South Node in Gemini / North Node in Sagittarius, that may be able to save the day. In the meantime, the best we can do under the current influences is to continually feed our personal truths with objective information which can only be discerned appropriately when we remain grounded and balanced.

If you’d like to find out more about how the nodal shifts may impact your natal chart, consider booking a natal consultation.

Image source: Andrew Martin