The Polarity Potency

How the Lunar Nodes illuminate our karmic past and evolutionary path

Illustration by Rotislaw Tsarenko

In astrology we can, and often should, look at one thing at a time. This is a necessary place to start, and it’s a repeatable strategy to make sense of all the individual parts that make up the whole… the whole of us, the whole of our birth chart. We put one thing at a time under a microscope and really feel into how and where this shows up in our lives, our relationships, our worldview, or how it lives in our body. We can return to these individual parts over and over, often finding that each time we slip one under the magnifying glass it’s evolved again. We keep looking in this way, going deeper and deeper. But we also must return, again and again, to the bigger picture, to zoom out and feel into the interrelated parts across the chart. We unfold layers of truth and look from multiple angles.

Astrology is a language of symbols, layers, repeating cycles, it is a game of inception. The zodiac is a wheel, a circle, divided into parts.

We start with 1: We look at one planet at a time, one sign at a time, one house at a time, in order to glean their uniqueness, their part in the cosmic play. We have to examine each part of ourselves closely to understand the specificity, the individual gifts and challenges of that part.

Next is the beautiful geometry of 2: The polarity. The signs and houses directly across from each other in the zodiac, holding each other in sacred balance. The tension and strength of equal force pulled in two different directions.

I love the word polarity. The sensation of the word conjures a feeling of power. Attraction. Repulsion. Connection. Not just the pull of two extremes across from each other, but the still, quiet force at the exact middle point between them. The shared root, the anchor, that allows them to both pull so hard. They need the counter balance of the other to know who they are.

Artist unknown

Every polarity has a beautiful, tensile equilibrium so they can co-exist and co-exert. Two halves making a whole. Every person, every birth chart, contains all of these polarities. Each of us is a full circle, we have all the signs, all the houses, all the polarity energy.

Beyond the template of the sky and the chart itself, there is a very prominent polarity that every person comes into this life expressing: the Lunar Nodes. You have a South Node and a North Node. These are not planetary bodies, they mark the relationship between our two luminaries: the Sun and the Moon. They are the two mathematical points where the Moon’s orbital path around the Earth crosses the ecliptic (the Earth’s orbital path around the Sun).

The lunar nodes are polarity embodied. Forever locked in perfect opposition.

In your chart, they tell a karmic story and reveal an evolutionary pathway for your life.

Karma in this context is not the cause-and-effect kind that’s thrown around casually, like if you steal something from someone, someone will steal something from you.

In a deeper, spiritual context we have built up karma throughout our past lives by repeating and indulging in specific mindsets and patterns. Karma is habit. We have mastered a certain way of being and doing. In our current life certain emotions, behaviors and experiences will feel automatic and natural to us subconsciously. They are the path of least resistance and exertion.

When we incarnated this time, we came in with a very solid set of instincts, a subconscious worldview, and strong karmic programming, mirroring that which we have repeated and mastered in our previous lives. The South Node in our chart shows us where we get stuck repeating these same unconscious habits and patterns that shape the story of our life over and over. While they operate mostly subconsciously, they influence our emotions, behavior, passions, habits and vices. It is the path we will likely start to take by default. It shapes what our comfort zones are and where we’re likely to get lazy, self-righteous, or stubborn.

We can interpret how this shows up in our life by looking at what sign our North and South Nodes are in and in what houses they are. They will always be opposites, in a perfect polarity.

The nodes are sometimes represented symbolically as the head and tail of a dragon… where you’ve come from and where you’re going. What you need to find, eat, ingest, digest (the head/North Node) and what you need to release and expel (the tail/South Node).

Illustration by Theodore Nadejen

The work is not to reject the sign of your South Node. Your South Node sign has just as much potential as any other sign. But, the sign of our South Node does indicate a specific kind of energy that we have in some way gotten too stuck in, that needs to be alchemized into a higher, more balanced and pure expression.

Our task is to recognize this unconscious bias that our South Node generates in us and to uproot it, so we don’t remain stuck. It’s an important marker that gives us deep information about our karmic past and what we’re ready to heal, evolve and claim in this lifetime.

The North Node shows us our evolutionary pathway, our potential, it symbolizes the cutting edge of our growth, it tells us what we must become in this lifetime, to undo the repetition of our karmic wounds.

Every sign in the zodiac is equally important and valuable. Each sign expresses itself in and through us along a spectrum: from the lowest possible expression to the highest possible expression. The particular way a sign manifests along this spectrum varies based on the particularities of the sign and of the individual person, but it’s good to realize that all signs have shadow, un-evolved, destructive potential and pure, elevated potential - and everything in between.

Astrology gives us a framework, a language and an understanding of what each of the signs need to emerge and evolve along this spectrum. AND how each sign can be balanced and purified in relationship with their polar opposite.

A salient metaphor I’ve been using for the lunar nodes, especially as it relates to the power of the polarity, is a seesaw.

We come into this life with a force of gravity pulling us to repeat what we know. The weight is in our South Node.

But the power of the polarity is balance, it is in each side providing a counterbalance to the other, so when most of the weight is on one side, we have to exert effort to bring the North Node into balance with the South Node. We need to build that muscle, and it’s not a muscle we’re used to using.

If we can simultaneously bring awareness to our South Node patterns and tendencies and call on our wisdom and discernment to help us release the ways we keep ourselves stuck in the unconscious South Node energy, we can bring the polarity into balance even more effectively.

Here’s the coolest thing about this... The more we stretch, reach, practice, and learn to embrace and embody the sign and house of our North Node, the more we are purifying the energy and expression of our South Node. We are taking all that mastery and strength and bringing it into equilibrium with its opposite, unleashing the full power of the polarity. This is how we actively participate in our own evolution, growth and build a greater sense of purpose and personal power.

Let’s apply this with an actual example.

Let’s say your South Node is in Cancer, so your North Node is in the opposite sign of Capricorn. You come into this life with a heavy dose of Cancer tendencies, instincts, habits, and likely some of Cancer’s favorite vices… your life may start to take shape in a Cancerian way, because the gravity of the past is pulling you back onto that familiar path.

With the South Node there, we must consider the shadow sides of Cancer, what you might be repeating and getting stuck in. These patterns could be an unconscious tendency toward self-sacrifice - nurturing and prioritizing others while ignoring your own needs and desires; being afraid to take risks or make big changes in your life even if you’re unhappy; having a habit of isolating yourself or feeling like your home is the only safe place; or feeling extreme emotional sensitivity that makes relationships challenging.

Your Capricorn North Node points your inner compass to the balancing antidote.

The evolved expression of Capricorn is becoming self-sufficient, responsible, grounded and realistic, direct and reliable, devoted to practical hard work. There is importance around building our legacy, what will we leave behind when we’re gone? Capricorn can be deeply caring and loyal, but it is balanced with confident independence.

Intentionally practicing and developing more of these Capricorn qualities will start to counterbalance the weight of your Cancerian karma.

But this is rarely easy. Our North Node will challenge our fundamental assumptions about life. We may have a subconscious resistance to where it wants us to go, because it is uncharted territory. It may feel exciting, and we may sense a deep cellular draw to it, but it will also feel foreign and can make us nervous or tenuous about fully embracing it.

But this willingness and work opens a portal to so much more personal power. If we believe our birth chart is a map, this is where the treasure lies. This is what we came here to do so our soul can evolve and so we can live a more fulfilling, purposeful and peaceful life while we’re here.

Artist unknown

The other essential layer with the Lunar Nodes is the polarity of the houses. These are actually more specific to an individual, because the lunar nodes remain in a pair of signs for around 1.5 years, so anyone born in that timeframe will have the same nodal signs.

The houses in the birth chart represent different areas and themes of our life. When we have planets, or the Lunar Node, in a house, it tells us there is concentrated energy in that part of our life. The house our South Node falls in tells us the area of life where we have strong past life conditioning, or where there has been too much emphasis.

If your South Node is in the 7th house, the house of partnership, it tells us that close partnerships were a major focal theme in past lives. You might have had a tendency to seek partnership/love as your primary objective in life, forgoing the development of deep self-knowledge and self-love, or of finding your own purpose and path. Maybe you lost our autonomy within a partnership, maybe you took on your partner’s beliefs, customs, or worldview automatically and neglected to do the soul searching required to develop your own.

The same nodal principle applies to the houses - the South Node House has the strong weight and gravity behind it. We must consciously strengthen and focus on the themes and activities of the North Node house to bring our life into better balance, and to purify the way we are engaging in that South Node area of life.

The house on the other side of this polarity is the 1st house, the house of the Self. Having the North Node in the 1st house means that in this lifetime you need to prioritize your own freedom, autonomy and independence. You need to develop your own beliefs, worldview and have more personal authority over your choices and the direction and structure of your life. If you are in a partnership, having freedom to think for yourself and have a strong sense of self-agency is essential.

Then, we need to look at the sign and house together, for each node, to get a more detailed picture of the karmic story.

We take what we know about a Cancer South Node and we look at it within the context of the house of partnership. Now we see more clearly that a karmic pattern of self-sacrificing, of being intensely nurturing and putting others’ needs first, has been concentrated specifically within your romantic partnerships. That is the area of your life most in need of examination, awareness and healing around this karmic pull.

The Capricorn themes of the North Node: responsibility, hard-work, discipline, building our legacy, these are specifically important within the context of developing our core identity. An intentional focus on figuring out who we fundamentally ARE, and are becoming, is part of our legacy, and the hard work of figuring this out must be done with a great deal of independence. It is vitally important to choose a partner, if you do, who is genuinely able to grant you a lot of freedom and autonomy to set the course of your own life.

The final step in mapping out our natal Lunar Node story is to look at any important relationships/aspects between our Lunar Nodes and our other planetary placements in our birth chart, which can tell us even more about what resources, strengths and challenges we might experience while following this evolutionary pathway.

The Lunar Nodes are a uniquely powerful element of our birth chart that can give us a key to understanding the evolutionary journey of our soul in this current lifetime and across lifetimes.

Artist: Rithika Merchant

I have always felt a strong pull from deep within me, to figure out what I am really here to do, how I can best be in authentic service to others in the most potent and powerful way, through sharing my unique talents, strengths and voice. Being in relationship and study with my own Lunar Nodes has given me tangible, specific guidance. A clear direction to set my compass toward.

My North Node is in Gemini and Gemini is the sign of communication, writing, speaking, and teaching. This very piece you are reading is a product of me evolving and following my North Node path by committing to a practice of writing, of sharing my voice, my message, my perspective and passion for astrology more widely.

This is an emergent process. It takes a willingness to stretch, to feel awkward and unsure sometimes, to set my will toward something outside my comfort zone, to try. And every time I do I feel something magical inside me stirring. A spark of clarity and resonance starts to brighten the path.

The Lunar Nodes help illuminate our soul’s journey if we are willing to look, to engage with those parts of us, to question our assumptions, and strive for the fullness we came here to embody and express.

If you want to dive deeper into the power of your own Lunar Node story, I always offer 1:1 readings where I can guide you into that exploration and clarity.

In a few weeks I will also be launching a unique 3-part mystical intensive offering, in collaboration with my two brilliant, magical, inherited sisters - and my part will be all about your Lunar Nodes!