On May 9, 2017, the North Node entered the sign of Leo/the South Node entered Aquarius and on May 10, 2017, we welcome the full moon in Scorpio.
The Scorpio Full Moon is known as the Buddha Moon, as it legend that the Full Moon in Scorpio was the moon under which he was enlightened. Scorpio is a sign associated with the mystery, and so this moon does carry with it a mystical energy – and Scorpio, the sign of transformation & rebirth – lends itself well to alchemical processes of all kinds.
In some years, the Scorpio moon can feel ominous and foreboding, like sinking into the depths of the abyss – but this year it feels quite transformative, opening, synchronistic and positive. And this, I believe, has a lot to do with the fact that this full moon is also aligning with the transition of the North Node from service-oriented Virgo into creative & light-hearted Leo.
In looking at the charts for these two events, there is a feeling of peaceful surrender as well as powerful manifesting potential, inspiration, and focus that is currently being felt, and will continue to define the next 18 months for the duration of the North Node's transit in the sign of Leo. The energies of this full moon are highlighting the process that we are about to undergo. There is a sense of freedom from past emotional & spiritual dramas. It seems as if these things are suddenly falling away naturally and effortlessly – allowing for the potential of the Leo North Node – the TRUE WILL – to begin to emerge like the lotus from the mud. The fact that these two events are aligning bodes well for the transformative potential of this next 18 months. In fact, it may just be that there is a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel.
The North Node in transit represents the direction we are headed collectively. The South Node represents the shadow elements we must strive to overcome. As the North Node crosses into Leo, it brings a pleasant buoyancy after what has been an arduous transit of the nodes through Virgo/Pisces. Leo is all about living from the heart, self expression, play and creative will. Immediately, I have found the energy to be focusing and very much assisting an intuitive push to shape life around fulfillment, happiness, and creativity.
The past few years working with the Virgo/Pisces nodes, we should have clarified a lot about what wasn't working for us and needed to be surrendered -- now the energy is propelling us into the next phase -- that is, to live more embodied in our true purpose and embrace the mission of our natal Sun. The sun sign, the one we all pretty much know, is the one that represents what it is we have chosen to be and embody in this lifetime. When we are fully inhabiting our sun sign, we express ourselves freely and utilize our natural creative resources in a fulfilling manner.
The sign of Leo teaches us that when we live from the heart in the truest sense, whatever that means specifically for us, we are able to shine in a pure way that inspires other people to live from their heart. The highest vibration of Leo is one of heartfelt connection, joyfulness, and wholeness in self expression -- creative acceptance and perfection. And that, pretty much, is what the transit of the North Node through Leo for the next 18 months, is all about. What does it take to be ourselves truly and fully?
The greatest barrier to the process, of course, would be the other side of the nodal polarity, the South Node which represents tendencies that we are to leave behind, overcome, and transform throughout this time period in order to garner the positive results we are desiring. In this case, the Leo North Node’s counterpart is the South Node in Aquarius. A sign that’s all about rebellion, revolutionary ideas, and being in your head about stuff. While Leo encourages sustained, creative action – Aquarius is about coming up with the way society should be from the long view, in an impartial manner. But life is never completely devoid of partialities and the encouragement at this time, very much, is to evolve through the HEART first and foremost.
I suspect there will be some challenges with this, because the fact is we live in a very Aquarian world. In particular, American Life is very Aquarian. We're all about individuality, freedom, and "justice for all." In this day and age, we still fight for the ideals of freedom and equality in our culture -- and this is often by pointing out that freedom and equality have never existed in this culture. It is truly a strange conundrum... a society that cares a lot about equality, but never practices it? It’s the perfect picture of Aquarian ideals vs. Aquarian realities.
What strikes me about this also, is that astrologically we are at the very beginning stages of approaching what is referred to as the "Age of Aquarius." An Age is a 2,150 year period determined by the precession of the equinoxes -- e.g. the slow cycle of the earth's "true north" over time through the zodiac. The actual transition from Pisces to Aquarius is not for another couple hundred years, but we are close enough that the rumblings of change have already begun. In the past century we have become: more technological, more intellectual, more logical, more inclusive & tolerant of different humans, yet more detached from each other simultaneously. We are ruled by our ideas and ideals, and can even fall into identifying with ideas as who we are. All of these things are Aquarian in nature.
But despite the fact that many of these things have been overall positive towards the evolution of humanity… Aquarius definitely has a shadow side. Think 2001: Space Odyssey when the computer takes over the ship. Viewing everything in life as fundamentally mechanistic and becoming dependent on manmade systems to solve our human needs, no matter how useful and smart, has its own way of backfiring.
Of course, every social media post about the Top 10 Ways to Know if You're in a Relationship with a Sociopathic Monster Hater, is most likely well meaning. We are basically in a cultural rebellion against the messed up ways of a bygone age -- a time when people were even deeper in darkness and living under social conditions which encouraged division and war -- and at the same time we are still dealing with & recovering from those wounds in an immensely visceral way. While this is a necessary, important process to endure, at the end of the day -- all of the information, logic, pathologizing and debate over how humans should behave if they were good people who followed the rules of good peoplehood are not going to fundamentally address the true desire... which is CONNECTION.
We've lived in a world divided. We've wanted to create one where all kinds of people are appreciated and respected. And yet, most of the time we just end up arguing on the internet over verbiage and projecting our worldview with even greater persistence. We see an archetype and presume to understand the whole without any nuance -- even when the archetype that we see and project upon is the archetype of the person who doesn't see the archetypes. We value ideas so heavily that it clouds our perception of the authentic truth, which can only be found through the heart. The irony, of course, is that we've conditioned ourselves to trust logic over everything, so we can't even see that we've erred. By the standards of this time and place, adamantly clinging to your opinion is basically as good as being "right." And being "right"... or at least unrelenting in your perspective... is seen as a form of integrity or moral high ground.
The Piscean age which we are concluding now, is called the Dark Age, or the "Age of Confusion." This is because the Archetype of Pisces basically represents the dissolution of things, and in these millennia Piscean-type ideological struggles have defined the overall ethos of humanity. Humanity has, for as far back as we can remember, been an emotionally fickle and irrational beast with no moral compass whatsoever, except those ascribed to it by the prevailing current. The world was ruled unequally and brutally, with endless battles for dominance. So now as we approach the Aquarian age we are beginning the process of purging these ways of being in favor of the Aquarian desire for a more equal and just world. The logic-ing, the analysis, the desire to understand where we've went wrong is absolutely all important, necessary, and a natural part of the process. As we move further into the Aquarian age, the world will continue to move in a more and more democratic direction. From my perspective, it is the natural flow of things. But it is not a process without pitfalls.
In light of the Astrology of these times, the greatest strain on humanity today, as I see it, is our unsustainably active minds & egos. We're constantly thinking, nervous, analyzing... and rarely are we really living fully and completely in our own hearts. We are concerned with wanting to fit in with society, yet also strive stand out in our uniqueness, but never too much, because being too weird is also uncool – and as such we don’t always LIVE in the wholeness of who we really are and could be. Curiously, as we've become more interested in human equality and more exposed to the myriad of cultures and ideas, we've also become more homogenized in our mentality. In striving for unity, we resist it at the same time. Everything is happening on this brain level of what to do, what to say, what not to do, what not to say, but we still struggle with the goal of the whole thing, which is true sharing, generosity of spirit, and wholeness of being for all people TOGETHER. What is simple has become complex – and so in turn we must take what is complex and bring it back to what is most simple, most fundamental, and most honest.
The work of this time, for the next 18 months, is going to really strike us in the place of wanting to understand who we are and how to live our lives from our truest and highest form of will and self expression. It will remind us of the power of our influence when we are truly creative and take real action. Leo’s inspiration will help GROUND the Aquarian thinky thoughts, if you allow yourself to feel it. Leo is not about what that person over there is doing, it’s about what I can do. What I can contribute. What is within MY power and authority? What can I create to better the life situation? How can I shine… in a positive, PRODUCTIVE, manner.
With Saturn, Uranus, and the Nodes all in fire signs, it's about finally learning to walk the walk, not just talk or think about what's good. It's all about initiative, leadership, personal responsibility, and integrity -- the REAL kind of integrity -- which is flowing in accord with something more true, the flow of our inner being.
It's very interesting to me that the past year and a half we've been culturally purging the issues of Pisces and now we are going to be working through Aquarius. The shifting of the tides here certainly feels relevant to the big zoomed out picture of humanity's evolution of consciousness overall. This is a major time of karmic release for humanity and for our planet. On the surface it definitely doesn't always look pretty -- but I still have the feeling that, despite all appearances, it is actually evolving towards something more integrated.
With that, it is time to sign off for today. I hope this was helpful & if it resonates please share with your friends. Peace on your journey.
