Lunar Node

The Lunar Node is the point where the Moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic, the Sun’s path across the sky. The North Node describes the direction in which growth feels unfamiliar but useful; the South Node sits exactly opposite and describes what comes naturally and therefore pulls back. The nodes are read as a pair: the sign and house of the North Node are the task, the sign and house of the South Node are the support you should not get stuck on.

A node is not a body but a geometric point: one of the two places where the plane of the Moon’s orbit crosses the plane of the ecliptic. The Moon’s orbit slowly turns, so the nodes move backwards around the circle. The true node is computed from the Moon’s instantaneous orbit and swings around the mean node by one and a half to two degrees; MIRA shows the true North Node computed from the NASA JPL DE440 ephemeris. Eclipses happen when the Sun and the Moon are near the nodes at the same time.

Look at the sign and house of the North Node for the direction of development, and at the opposite sign and house of the South Node for the habitual way of acting. The house of the node depends on the birth time: with an approximate time it stays approximate.