May 6, 2020 – January 18, 2022
The nodal shifts are some of the most significant astrological events because they represent a turning of the collective seasons. Just as we have the earthly seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter each year. We also are a part of larger seasons, and to a great extent, the nodes tell us which season we are in and channel our focus accordingly. Just as the nesting and rationing of winter does not feel energetically aligned to the long warm days of summer, the overall influence of a nodal period is the macro-level backdrop that influences all of the other transits and celestial events.
The nodes describe the complex inter-relationship between the sun, the moon, and the earth. Twice per calendar year, for about a month each, the sun moon and earth are lined up directly. When we have new moons and full moons during this time, they are ECLIPSES, due to their precision. However, the SIGNS of the zodiac where these alignments occur shift gradually over a predictable period. They change pairs about every 18 months: these are the nodal shifts.
For the past 18 months, the nodes have been in Cancer and Capricorn. It is remarkable to note that the day that the North Node moved into Cancer on November 7, 2018 was the day that a record number of women were elected to the US House of Representatives. Cancer represents the feminine and the mother archetype. Since that time we have seen unprecedented shifts in our cultural norms around gender roles, including the #timesup and #metoo movements, and sweeping calls for accountability with regards to sexism and sexual violence.
During this timeframe we have also grappled with the shadow side of Cancer’s opposite sign, Capricorn. While the North Node represents the area of progress towards the future- in order to reach that potential, we have to examine and release shadow aspects and behaviors of the South Node sign. Capricorn is associated with Big Business, institutions, the government, bureaucracy, patriarchy and the status quo. We have also had to examine where institutions and structures we have previously relied on and taken for granted, have shown themselves to be outdated or inadequate.
In many ways the transition now into Gemini and Sagittarius is a perfect continuation of these conversations, but with a new energy and emphasis.
While Cancer and Capricorn as a pair are sometimes referred to as the “security axis”, Gemini and Sagittarius are the “learning axis”. With Cancer and Capricorn we are interested in examining and improving how we feel safe and supported, both at home (Cancer) and in our larger collective society (Capricorn). In Gemini and Sagittarius we are interested in learning new ideas and information (Gemini), and coalescing them into coherent world views and belief systems (Sagittarius).
If the past few months of adjusting to a radical new reality with COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that some of the institutions we have relied on (Capricorn), have been built on faulty premises and belief systems (Sagittarius). For example, businesses and governments built on the idea that continual growth and exploitation of the planet and the labor force is sustainable/desirable/the only or best option for “a healthy economy”. This has been shown to be false. Our economy is perilously delicate, and our infrastructure woefully unprepared for both managing large scale medical emergencies and supporting smaller more localized economies.
What do we do with all of this new information and realizations we have had in the past several months? We immerse ourselves in Gemini and Sagittarius. With the North Node in Gemini, we have the chance to upgrade our learning, our thinking, the information and ideas that course through our system and inform how we see the world and what we believe is possible. In Sagittarius, we allow those thoughts and ideas to merge and form a new worldview, a new belief system, a new way of understanding the world and our place in it.
However, to truly have the highest vibrational experience of this 18 month Gemini/Sagittarius nodal period, there is a cost: it is releasing the old. The old ideas and belief systems, the ones that don’t work any more, the ones we inherited and did not examine, the ones that have cast us into a dangerous dance with the finite resources of our home planet.
The North Node in Gemini represents open-mindedness to new ideas and information. We could all use some bright minds and fresh solutions to the situation we find ourselves in. Thinking outside the box is a Gemini speciality. So is building bridges. Of all the signs, Gemini is the one most excited about learning a variety of different (even sometimes contradictory things) and finding ways to merge, link, and understand them as part of a system. This is just the kind of thinking we need right now. It calls for nuance and paradox to be examined with curiosity.
However, this is exactly where we butt up against the shadow side of Gemini’s opposite sign, Sagittarius. In its highest vibrational sense, Sagittarius is about the incredible trust, openness, and courage that comes from having unwavering faith in and connection to our generous and abundant spiritual source (God, Spirit, the Universe,..). But in it’s lowest vibrational sense, Sagittarius is wasteful and excessive, and also full of arrogance and dogmatism that their belief system/their God/their way of life is the only one and the ‘right’ one. We run into major problems with extremism and religious zealotry in the realm of Sagittarius.
We will also need to remain aware that we don’t get lost in the shadow side of Gemini where an abundance of ideas/information/possibilities becomes overwhelming and clouds our vision, leading to scattered behavior and a taxed nervous system.
So what can we expect between now and January 2022 when the nodes shift again?
High Vibrational Potentialities:
- Brilliant outside the box thinking and solutions
- Bridge building: between communities, cultures, ideas, norms
- New ways of communicating (ZOOM is the perfect example)
- Increased focus on and care for our local communities and neighborhoods
- Increased understanding of how our thoughts (Gemini) and beliefs (Sagittarius) impact our realities (Law of Attraction) becoming more widespread and well-understood
- New information sharing apps and technologies
- New news sources rising to prominence and popularity
- More people emphasizing, and demanding coverage of, POSITIVE news and not just the onslaught of negativity and fear that comprises “news”
- A trend toward letter-writing and all forms of keeping in touch and communicating, new and old
- New philosophies and belief systems emerging from science, academia, and the mainstream and alternative cultures that are more supportive of humanity and the planet
- Critical revision of dominant beliefs systems such as neo-liberal capitalism and social Darwinism
- Increased tolerance for people from different cultures
- Increased online education opportunities, both formally and informally
- Mainstream education adapting to the online environment
- People having more than one job or career
- Acceptance of humans as multi-faceted and multi-talented rather than people being railroaded onto a narrow linear path or singular ‘career’
- Total revision of tourist economies and travel norms
- Decreased cultural acceptance of inherited traditional norms and belief systems
- Increased circulation of spiritual ideas and information
Low Vibrational Potentialities
- Increased extremism
- Wide fluctuations in the stock markets with increased speculative investing on new technologies
- Increased polarization between different groups, fueled by negative media
- Collapse of certain economies that were reliant on international tourism
- Collapse of certain transportation companies or industries
- Loss of mooring to a collective reality: people ignoring what they don’t want to hear and living “their truth”
- Misunderstanding and blurring of the lines between “my opinion” and “the truth”
- Rise of gurus, charismatic leaders and despots
- False teachers and false teachings
- Becoming lost or overwhelmed in new ideas or information
- Social media addiction
- More vicious online bullying and ‘heated debates’ in the mainstream media
- Increased censorship of free speech
We have the opportunity now to define and create what Charles Eisenstein calls “The New Story” about ourselves as humans and our relationship with Gaia. Rather than merely struggle to get ‘the machine’ re-started after this long pause, we must take the opportunity to adjust the settings and run a NEW program. The insightfulness and intelligence of Gemini is our ally in this process. Gemini’s eloquent delivery will help us spread new (and old ‘forgotten’) ideas effectively. And Gemini’s attachment to their local community and neighborhood will help us improve the whole by taking on what is most immediate and relevant to us individually.
I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!
x Aurora
*Artwork by @triplefloral
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