Beginner Astrology: The Nodes

In last week’s blog post, I gave you all insight into what I’ve learned about courage and staying true to an authentic life path. Before we get into this week’s astrology lesson on following your life path, go ahead and revisit that post for some courageous inspiration. Trust me, our most courageous pursuit in this life will be the internal pilgrimage from our South Node (comfortable / karmic) behaviors + programming into our North Node (growth / future) soul purpose + grand life lessons.

Astrology is much more than just a sun sign or a horoscope, although information about both of those things is extremely valid! But your sun sign is really just the tip of the iceberg on your nautical mission into astrology. I know the first time I saw the wild configurations of a birth chart felt like slamming into a glacier Titanic style. This amount of new information can be jarring, and learning how to read a birth chart (for yourself, and especially for others) is a devotional path of research, integration, practice, and patience.

To be transparent, I am also fairly new to the path of learning deeper Astrology, but deep enough to give some insight on basic principles (let’s call this a cheat sheet). My hope is that these high-level overviews of astrological topics will inspire deeper research on your end, a pursuit I will gladly provide you resources for! Stay tuned for the end of this “astrology quickie,” where I’ll give you a list of podcasts, websites, and books I am currently digesting to learn more about astrology myself.

Whether you’re a beginner (apprentice, like myself) or well-versed (master) in astrology, brushing up on the basics + zooming out will help you remember the bigger picture + themes of the discipline. Often, when we get too granular, we lose sight of the original spark + passion which drove us to study something so complex in the first place. You ever find yourself grueling for hours over a topic, hobby, or craft and asking yourself “why did I subject myself to this confusion + difficulty..” then you read / hear / see something that causes pause, and you’re able to honestly say “oh, because I love this shit.” Well I’m here to say I’m studying astrology, it is confusing + new + overwhelming, and I do it because I love this shit. I hope you do too!

But even if you’re not interested in studying astrology, there are valuable lessons here for you as well. The study of your personal astrology + life path is literally the journey of understanding yourself, your life, and your relationship to others + the universe. So think of this as studying yourself + your soul purpose instead of studying a practice that’s been around since 30,000 BC and you’ll be able to find value in the cosmos as well.

When we’re looking at living your most authentic life through the lens of astrology, we need to look at our North Node and our South Node. Before you look at your North and South Node, you’ll need to understand what the heck those are, and also where to even find them.

Step 1

Let’s get you access to your birth chart! If you haven’t already indulged in Cafe Astrology or subjected yourself to being bullied by Co-Star, you may not know where to start. Totally cool, I’m here to give you the beginner’s tips. My first birth chart investigation started with Cafe Astrology’s birth chart calculator. I definitely recommend using it as well! This site will give you all the information you need to summarize the planets / transits / trends in your chart.

(Reverse, reverse)—what’s a birth chart?

The most succinct definition of a birth chart I’ve found comes from Vanessa Montgomery in her book Star Power (a read I definitely recommend for anyone kicking off their astrological studies):

“A snapshot of the Sun, Moon and planets (the sky) at the exact place and time of birth – each person has a unique birth chart depending on where and when they were born. It’s depicted as a 2D circle with 12 pieces representing the zodiac signs. The chart begins on the left-hand horizon line that intersects the circle horizontally, known as the ascendant. The chart is read anti-clockwise from that point. Astrologers rarely use the term horoscope for a birth chart, instead shortening it to ‘chart’, ‘birth chart’ or ‘natal chart’. ‘Horo’ means hour while ‘scope’ means view, so, simply, ‘view of the hour’. The horoscope column you see in magazines is an interpretation of a chart calculated for that day, week or month. The birth chart is a horoscope specifically calculated for the time and place of birth of an individual.”

Step 2

Now that you have your birth chart calculated, you’ll be able to identify your North Node—labeled as such in the charts provided by the website. Your North Node will be identified by a specific zodiac sign, and that’s where our general understanding of our authentic life path can begin.

Bear in mind that birth charts are dense and every placement within them comes with layered meaning, down to the degree a zodiac sign or planet exists in the chart. Understanding these layers will take hours—years—of research + reflection, so don’t sweat understanding all of it immediately. For now, let’s call this blog post a scratch on the surface or your study, an inspiration to encourage you to dive deeper!

Now that you’ve identified your North Node zodiac placement, you can also identify your South Node placement because the South Node will be the exact opposite sign / same degree as your North Node:

opposite signs in the zodiac

So if you’re like me and your North Node is in Virgo, that means your South Node is in Pisces because Pisces is the opposite sign to Virgo.

But what are the nodes and why do they matter?

Well, your North and South Node are here to inform you of the biggest lessons you’ll be learning on your authentic life path.

Your South Node

signifies your karmic past, this placement embodies all of your comfortable habits, patterns that you have accumulated over multiple lifetimes, the characteristics within you that you will need to release...to move away from, to grow beyond. The South Node is your comfort zone, the version of yourself you will be forced to grapple with and eventually move past in order to effectively follow your authentic life path—that’s your North Node.

Your North Node

embodies your soul’s potential, the habits and behaviors that you will need to develop on your path in order to find greater happiness and fulfillment that is authentic to your true nature. On this journey to discover yourself, the goal is to evolve from your South Node into your North Node. This transition will test you + push you for your entire life...which means there is plenty of time to learn and grow, but it also means that any devolution or stubbornness around expanding past your South Node will present the same challenges to you over and over until you are willing to change, or at least willing to try.

“Stop endlessly wishing for better times and work consistently to create them instead.”

Every birth chart and every soul path is different, so I encourage you to deep dive into what your North / South Nodes mean for you + your authentic path of growth. We are quite lucky to have so much information at our fingertips, so I encourage you to google what lessons you need to learn based on which zodiac signs are tied to your North + South Node. Use that information as a very light introduction into figuring out how to serve your true nature, but don’t take it as a solid fact either. There are too many layers to your soul, and your birth chart, to invest too much belief in just one area of the chart. It’s the relationship of all planets, signs, houses, aspects, and transits that build the puzzle of your life’s journey.

For now, use your North Node as a north star of sorts, begin to ask yourself each day how you may be able to serve your true nature, and begin to release the habits + patterns that no longer serve you (your South Node).

For example

my South Node in Pisces shows me that I’m prone to escapism, unrealistic fantasy, playing the victim, passivity, and being easily seduced or charmed…

While my North Node in Virgo encourages me to solve problems with facts + hard data, set clear boundaries, pay attention to details, and build a sense of structure + personal responsibility in my life.

Knowing this, I can begin to forgive myself for times that I used daydreams to escape my reality or remained too passive to follow my own intuition, because that is a program which I carried into this lifetime. But forgiving myself for falling back on these habits isn’t valuable if I’m not actively pursuing a more structured and grounded approach to my life, a pursuit I can work toward thanks to understanding my North Node. By embodying the traits of my Virgo North Node, I am becoming more aligned with my authentic nature, and growing in the direction I am meant to be headed.

The same goes for you, as you begin to recognize these themes + patterns in your life and start reprogramming your behavior to better serve your truth.

Authentic life paths and past life karma is just another casual Saturday read, isn’t it? I know this work can seem overwhelming or difficult, but it is necessary for growth.

“The journey from South Node to North Node takes work, but so does anything worth doing. Obstacles are just strategically placed hurdles meant to show us our own inner strength and courage.”

I’m here to support you on this journey, be it your general life path or your pursuit of learning more about astrology! Drop a comment below or DM me on instagram to chat more about the Nodes, or any astrological questions we can explore together. Have a badass week, fam!

As I promised, here is a list of resources for any beginner looking to dive deeper into astrology

Jessica Lanyadoo

Star Power

Vanessa Montgomery