The North Node~Your Soul Messenger

"The North Node is the single most important
point in the chart...it describes what your Soul wants to learn and
experience in this life. It is a Soul Messenger."

Have you ever wondered what life-lessons and experiences
your Soul wants to have in this life? Do you know what you truly yearn for?

Unique insights into these questions are found by using the ancient
astrological technique of examining the North and South Nodes of your astrological chart. Soul purpose and life direction questions are profoundly significant, and the Nodes in your chart address those questions from the perspective of your Soul---instead of your rational mind and ego.

The re-incarnational theory behind this is simply that your
Soul chose to be born at a certain time and place so that it would carry over
the gifts and challenges from previous lives, and that your chart reflects the
original Soul intention on coming into this world.

The great psychologist, Carl Jung, believed that the time of birth was not a coincidence

but was a mysterious synchronicity that reveals a great deal. He used astrology in his
practice with his clients, and found that it simply worked. So what may seem
unimportant to you--your birthday, time, and place is actually a profound tool;
an oracle. And what may look like a mystery to you, is not a mystery to the
astrologer who can read the meaning contained in the chart.

Lets see how this works. There are three pivotal key-points
in solving the mystery: the Sun, the North Node, and the South Node. . When an
astrologer looks at your chart, these pointsthese clues--are described in some
detail by their sign, house and aspect positions. But we don't need to get
complicated, lets look at it briefly:

Your Sun sign, reads like a personality description
presenting all the positive and negative ways you can "play out" your
Sun sign. For example, as a Gemini Sun, you can play out the flirty, fickle,
uncommitted aspects of the sign or you can use your great breath of knowledge
to live a very full life in which you make wise and helpful decisions. You are
the communicator of the zodiac. From the Souls perspective you chose to be born
a Gemini in order to play out the highest octave of the sign. Thats the first
clue to the mystery: look to the highest possible use and talents in your Sun
sign. Almost any astrology book can help you with this.

The second clue is the North Node. Many astrologers today
believe it is the single most important point in the chart. It is unique to
each person and describes what your Soul wants to learn and experience in this
life. It is a Soul Messenger, describing the evolutionary needs of your Soul.
When we act out the qualities of this Node we heal and nurture ourselves.
It tells us in what area of life we need to bring emphasis, and some of the
ways to do it. The North Node has a sign, a house position, and aspects, and is
an excellent suggestion---similar to the idea of a personal guiding North Star.

By contrast, the South Node describes the qualities brought
over from our previous life, and describes how we lived when we were young. Our
deeply habitual ways of being and thinking are shown here, and as we mature we
tend to act out the qualities of our South Node less. It shows both the
unhelpful and negative qualities that our Soul wishes to move away from, as
well as containing what Carl Jung talked about as the "gold in the
shadow". This gold is the unconscious unrecognized talents and
abilities that we bring over from a former life or that are simply latent or
repressed qualities. It is wise to uncover and use the gold in the South Node,
while leaving the negative old patterns behind, and to move in the direction of
the North Node.

Most astrologers would agree that the South Node reflects
karmic qualities of our previous life, describing the unfinished business
and things that we didn't 'get quite right.' Although there are gifts and
talents shown there, it is the North Node that points to the qualities our Soul
wants to use and acquire in this life. So when you have a chart reading, take a
long look at what your North Node tells you, even if it feels a little
unfamiliar and challenging. It offers a potent suggestion.

So how does this all work together in a chart? Lets look at
my chart as an example. My Sun is in Libra, North Node in Taurus in the 2nd
house, and South Node in Scorpio in the 8th house. "Houses" are the
areas of life where things get acted out, and the Nodes are each in different
houses. In many ways I acted out my South Node till my Saturn Return at age 28.
I have tended to learn things the hard way, to be ungrounded and to go to
excesses when I was young. It has taken me a long time to live into my true
profession as an astrologer. I married late, and after 20 years of marriage was
divorced for five years, and then I remarried my first husband. We've been
married now since 2001, and continue to do the wonderful/horrible work that
soul mates do with each other---we help each other grow. His independence and
my desire 'to merge' are not comfortable together, yet I can see how he
naturally pushes me to live out the independence and grounded values of my
Taurus North Node. I encourage and stimulate the curiosity and expansiveness of
his North Node in Gemini. There's grace and grit here; a true marriage.

My South Node in Scorpio suggests that my Soul purpose is,
in part, to move away from hurtful melodramas and to ground myself in my own
talents and resources. It speaks of the desire for serenity and to move away
from the dramatic reactivity and the excesses of my earlier years and former
life. Ive needed to take on the qualities of loyalty and persistence of the
Taurus North Node and to find the sacred in the commonplace, which is a
beautiful quality of that sign.

The "gold" in my Scorpio shadow-South Node is my intuitive ability and emotional intensity.
One could speculate that with my South Node in Scorpio (conjuncting Jupiter, the planet of expansion and privilege) I may have been the 'power behind the throne' to someone of importance, and was used to enjoying the largesse of another person and a more dramatic life. That is not the case in this lifeI need to use my own resources and power based on that
grounded Taurus in the 2nd house of personal values and resources. The Universe gives me strong hints whenever I move into territory that is not
my own to claim anymore.

My Sun sign in Libra wants serenity, harmony and beauty. Yet
it thinks in terms of opposing ideas, and about the paradoxical nature of life.
I can get easily stressed, yet look poised. The North Node points to the
necessity of creating calmness and living off my own values and resources. It's
also significant that I have no earth signs in my chartexcept the North Node in
Taurus, and yet I was unconsciously drawn to compensate for that (the pull of
the North Node) as I make pottery as well as do astrology. For many years I
lived in a stone house, and married an earth sign, Virgo. Jungian psychologists
would call this the unconscious compensation of my inferior function; the
sensate.

An astrologer sees a chart like my mine and says this is an
air and fire sign personality, whereas a Jungian therapist would say I was an
intuitive-thinking type. This is labeling, and just the beginning of a deeper
discussion, but its still useful.

The movement towards the North Node is a continuous
process, not just one decision you make. For me, I needed to get lost, and
found, many times--- I divorced and remarried the same man. I write and do
astrological counseling, which is my true vocation, but I have followed several
gods home. I continually need to recommit to ever deeper levels of grounding
and persistence in my work and life. Serenity and home life is very important.
I know I survived a difficult family karmic inheritance, yet I strive to act
out the highest octave of the Libra Sun which pulls me towards tactfulness and
deep thinking. And that South Node in Scorpio still tries to seduce me in every
way you can imagine.

So, I come back to the chart and to the astrological work
again and again as a spiritual practice. It helps me remember my commitment to
the work of being a healer; an intuitive astrologer who is grounded and
practical. Astrology reflects the internal dialog between the different
parts of oneself, but at least now I know who to listen to and why. I am
grateful to have this divinatory tool that helps make conscious what is
unconscious in the psyche, and I delight in sharing the gifts of this Soul
Messenger to whoever asks.

ElizabethSpring, MA, is a counseling astrologer and
therapist who has studied astrology and the psychology of Carl Jung since 1969.
She has studied and taught in England, Switzerland, and California, and has
been a professional astrologer since 1992. She specializes in relationship,
career, and soul direction and life purpose issues. Consultations are done by
phone or at her office in Wickford, RI. Other articles can be read on http://www.elizabethspring.com/