Dane Rudhyar - How to Interpret the Lunar Nodes.pdf - adios39

Part One

The Lunar Nodes in Natal Astrology

What is called in astrology the lunar nodes are the two ends of the line of intersection

between the plane of the ecliptic (i.e., the plane of the earth's yearly revolution around the

Sun) and the plane of the Moon's monthly revolution around the earth. The zodiacal signs

and degrees exist on the ecliptic plane, and the two points at which the Moon's plane

intersects the zodiac are indicated by the degrees (i.e., the longitude) of the Moon's nodes.

These two points, being the ends of a line, must obviously be in opposition to each other;

thus, if the North Lunar Node is at 10° Aries, the South Lunar Node has to be at 10° Libra. I

mention this merely because an ephemeris mentions only the zodiacal position of the North

Lunar Node. This position actually is a "mean position"; but as the nodes are not actual,

concrete entities but refer to the interaction of two cycles — the lunar month and the solar

year — the mean position of the nodes seems to be more significant than their slightly

different actual position.

The line of the lunar nodes, which I shall call the nodal axis, keeps shifting along the

zodiac. It makes a complete revolution in 18 to 19 years. Hence, if a person is born when

the North Lunar Node was at 21° Pisces, some 18 and two-thirds years later, the North

Lunar Node will return to the same position. About nine years after birth, the North Lunar

Node reaches the position which the South Node had at birth.

The motion of the nodes refers to the factor of celestial latitude. At the North Lunar

Node, the Moon passes from the hemicycle of south latitude (i.e., south of the plane of the

ecliptic) to that of north latitude; and the opposite occurs at the South Node. The entire

nodal cycle of the Moon is said to begin at the North Node. Because our civilization and its

traditions give a symbolic positive and spiritual meaning to the northern hemisphere and

the north pole, the North Lunar Node is given an equally positive meaning, for it marks the

entrance of the Moon into the regions of northern latitude. At the South Lunar Node, the

Moon leaves these regions and begins to have a southern latitude. The lunar nodes are,

therefore, the points at which the Moon has latitude 0 degrees. This can be checked in the

ephemeris by comparing the zodiacal position of the North Lunar Node and the zodiacal

position of the Moon on the day this Moon is shown to have "latitude 0° North" (column

marked "Lat").

I shall deal with the motion of the lunar nodes and the 19-year cycle it produces in a

Part Two of this article. What we must first clearly understand is the meaning of the nodal

axis in birth-charts and of the symbolic division of a birth-chart into two halves by this axis.

It is an important subject, particularly at the level of a psychological interpretation of the

natal chart of an individual person.

The Meaning of the Nodes

As the Moon reaches its North Node and enters the area of north latitude, it is as if it were

opening itself to cosmic or spiritual influences symbolically represented by the North Pole

and, more specifically, the pole star. Thus, the North Lunar Node represents the point of

intake of spiritual cosmic energies; and it was called the "Dragon's Head" — the nodal axis

being symbolized by a dragon. The South Lunar Node was the "Dragon's Tail." From a more

strictly biological and functional point of view, the North Lunar Node refers to the mouth of

an animal and the South Lunar Node to the organs of evacuation, which means both the

anus and the procreative organs from which the seed goes forth.

The fact that the South Lunar Node refers not only to the point of excretion of waste

materials, but also to the release of seed materials (fecundated or not) is still not

understood by most astrologers today, though I have stressed it for some thirty-two years.

I recall how I came to realize this fact when studying Richard Wagner's birth-chart and

finding the South Node in his tenth house. Surely, I felt, this often-called "point of self-

undoing" does not have a logical place in the house referring to the professional life of this

great genius whose works have brought to him social immortality and influenced countless

millions of human beings. Then it suddenly came to me that if the South Node truly

represents a function of evacuation or release, procreation at the biological level and artistic

creation at the cultural level constitute also a process of release of materials which the

organism seeks instinctively to eliminate.

French composer Saint-Saens used to say: "I compose just like an apple tree produces

apples." The true creative artist releases almost automatically art products which his

organism produces spontaneously and of which he seeks to get rid. He acts in relation to his

culture or to a special group of people constituting his potential public as a male fecundating

a female. The biological or ideological sperm is evacuated; and, if it is not, frustration and

tension are usually the results — unless the person is a yogi, who, according to a traditional

process, is able to "transmute" his seed into spiritual energy, in which case we can see at

work the symbolism of the great serpent who swallows his own tail.

This South Lunar Node interpretation agrees as well with what occurs in the monthly

cycle of women. The ovum is released every month at the South Node of the female body,

but it is not fecundated. It is waste material, menstruation; and its frequent discomfort or

cramps is a South Node phenomenon, just as is the daily process of excretion.

The essential fact is that these South Node processes are automatic ; they should

demand no effort if human beings lived natural and healthful lives. But also they have no

personal meaning unless the organism — biologically or emotionally — is disturbed, tense,

and under psychological pressures. The great artist or philosopher, in times of cultural

harmony in a steady society, releases his mental-cultural "seed" naturally into an expectant

and receptive public with whom communication is easy, smooth, and elating. He is the

fecundator of his race.

However, this fecundation, just because it is spontaneous and nearly automatic, may

make of him a "sacrifice" to humanity. He pours of himself unceasingly into his community;

and he has, therefore, very little left for his own personal growth and spiritual

transformation . In that sense, this South Node activity is actually a form of "self-undoing."

Wagner remained until his death a rather unregenerated personality. I have known, in my

early youth, the great French sculptor, August Rodin (I was for a brief period his secretary);

and he was indeed in daily contacts a cantankerous old man who treated his son very badly.

Many a genius is so enthralled by his creative activity that it becomes truly a spiritually self-

defeating process — just as are all automatic processes and all activities and capacities

which one takes for granted. In another sense, the "Don Juan" figure of the legend is a

South Lunar Node polarized person.

Nevertheless, one has to be very careful not to give a necessarily negative meaning to

the South Lunar ode in a birth-chart, especially in terms of events . It may refer in any

case to a sort of "bondage" — but it is often a very special type of bondage; it may mean

the fulfillment of a racial karma , a kind of sacrificial offering of self to humanity. At this

point of the birth-chart, the past compels; but the outcome may be magnificent in terms of

social or cultural results. If one believes in reincarnation, one can say that a capacity

developed under stress through past incarnations now produces automatically splendid

results; and this may apply to a statesman or inventor, as well as to a creative artist — in

all cases, to what we call, often without discrimination, "genius."

If genius implies a kind of automatism — however difficult the conditions of the

creative act may be if society is not receptive — talent by contrast demands effort. So does

good assimilation of food require the effort of mastication. At the North Node — the

symbolical mouth — one ingests food, whether it be physical or ideological. To eat well,

which means prolonged chewing, is a conscious, deliberate activity. It requires a choice, a

selective process. At the North Node, an individual builds himself up. He does not give out;

he takes in. But what he takes in can poison him! He may be careless or greedy in his

choice of food. If he lives in our present-day society, he has a hard struggle — if he wants

to eat only healthful and unadulterated foodstuffs — and this is true at the intellectual-

cultural level as well as that of body nourishment. This is the tragedy of our age.

The Nodal Axis in the Birth-Chart

The Moon's nodal axis has been said to be an "axis of fate"; and much of personal fate

indeed is a function of the person's ability to make the best of the demands and

opportunities of life and society around him. Perhaps more than any other factor in a birth-

chart, this axis deals with the relationship in depth of the individual to his environment. It

deals with the give and take experienced by a man in relation to the "field" in which his

existence unfolds and with the way he is able to actualize his birth potential underneath all

surface events.

This is where what are unfortunately termed "fate" and "free will" interplay. No

individual is totally free or totally compelled. The Existentialistic philosophy of French

thinker Jean-Paul Sartre, in its glorification of an absolute and unconditional freedom,

makes no sense at all; it is basically a doctrine of compensation for despair — truly a South

Node philosophy tragically seeking to "raise itself by its bootstraps" and passionately,

irrationally to deny man's sense of being totally compelled by a disintegrating civilization,

the absurdity of which "nauseates" the oversensitive and overly intellectualized, lonely

individual.

The nodal axis divided the birth-chart into two equal halves; so, of course, do the natal

horizon and natal meridian. Much has been said concerning the respective characters of the

eastern, western, above-the-horizon, and below-the-horizon hemispheres of a chart; the

preponderance or absence of planets in each of these hemispheres has been given

meanings of various kinds. A similar approach can be used with reference to the Moon's

nodal axis, as Marc Jones once pointed out and as I stated in my book Astrology of

Personality in 1936.

If one does so, however, one should realize that the whole chart is being looked at in

terms of the Moon's basic function. This function refers to man's capacity for intelligent

adjustment to his environment for the purpose of gaining a maximum (or optimum) of well-

being and happiness or comfort. The Moon, by revolving constantly around the earth,

generates, one might say, a protective electromagnetic envelope (or shield) as well as

focusing and distributing the energies of the Sun and the planets upon our globe and all

that lives on its surface.

What the ancient astrologers called the "sublunar sphere" is a vast cosmic field defined

and outlined by the cyclic monthly revolution of the Moon. It resembles a kind of matrix;

and as such, it gave rise to the connection between the Moon and motherhood. The mother

sees to it that her still helpless infant is protected from injurious impacts and that his needs

are satisfied. The baby becomes the center of her cyclic daily activities, and she attends first

of all to his feeding and elimination — i.e., to his physiological nodal axis.

Later on, as the child matures into the a self-reliant adult, he normally develops his

own Moon function. He is supposed to find his own individual mode of adjustment to

everyday life's challenges and opportunities. There are times when new powers or capacities

for adaptation are built; others, when these powers are put to work and energies released.

However, an individual is born with the Moon either in northern or southern celestial

latitude; this means on one side or the other of its nodal axis.

A nodal hemisphere begins at the Moon's North Node and progresses in the natural

order of zodiacal signs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.). Lyndon Johnson , has his North Node

at 1°41' Cancer; his natal Moon at 9°8' Virgo has a very high north latitude. It is, thus,

located in the North Node hemisphere. His basic lunar emphasis throughout his life is on the

building of new faculties or power of control over his environment. If one adds to this the

massing of Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Moon, and Mercury in his first house and his "New Moon"

type of personality, one can readily understand his insistent and expansive ego, his over-

eagerness to stress "greatness" — first of all in himself — and, therefore, his extreme

sensitiveness to criticism. He seems to be at the start of a new cycle, building himself up,

while being raised to a pinnacle of power by a strong wave of destiny.

Dane Rudhyar - How to Interpret the Lunar Nodes.pdf

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