Release Karmic Blocks: Your North Node by Both Sign + House

For more than a decade, I’ve seen North Node awareness transform lives.

As of this writing, I have been studying astrology for more than ten years. While there are numerous niches within the field in which one may specialize, early on I developed a particular interest in the North Node: the north star of our lives that points us toward our karmic growth.

In my decade of astrological service, I have seen the revelation of the North Node guide friends and clients to leave unhappy jobs and move across the country only to see their life unfold seamlessly into its best; to transition more peacefully into partnership and parenthood; to explore their creativity and discover their true vocation; to uncover deeply rooted psychospiritual blocks that had thwarted their progress all their lives. 

The Nodes of the Moon represent the evolution of our consciousness: the reason we incarnated physically, the life lesson we’re meant to learn. They sum up our essential Selves and all we have been, done, thought, and experienced, in this lifetime and others before (or simply earlier in this life, if you don’t understand reincarnation). Technically, the North Node is a mathematical point defined by the place where the orbit of the Moon crosses the ecliptic, the path of the Sun from the point of view of the Earth. The Moon represents our subconscious workings: the ego as it has grown, accumulated wounds and skills, and evolved; the ecliptic indicates our intentions for what we will materially manifest in this life. The Nodes of the Moon therefore indicate the nexus between where we’ve been and where we’re meant to go. They are the closest thing we have to a map for our own specific, individual life.

Something I love about astrology is that it is an archetypal system that deals with the paradox of dichotomy: the notion that every duality ultimately dissolves into a singularity. Every pair of opposites are just flip sides of the same coin, and without both sides, the currency would be worthless. There are twelve zodiac signs, but these sit on six axes: each sign has its opposite and each pair of opposites takes opposing approaches to the same deep desire.

Every nodal axis is therefore seeking the same thing, but the way we instinctively go about getting it (with our South Node) is no longer working for us. We’ve overdone it and now it’s time find balance by learning the opposite approach. That’s where the North Node comes in.

The North Node signifies what we have to learn in this lifetime, while the South Node opposite tells us both about our natural gifts and our karmic debt. The South Node reflects our past, both positive and negative, and the comfort zone where we get addictively stuck. The North Node is our discomfort zone: what does not (typically) come naturally or easily, what we resist, what we need in order to mature. We went to excess in the past and our task now is to use what we’ve learned while compensating for that excess. It is never about entirely leaving the South Node behind, but learning to balance the axis in a healthy way.

The North Node is not destiny, it is not inevitable; it has to be worked on, consciously, though not always in the way we expect. Some paths are easier than others, depending on the unique birth chart and personal placements: an earth North Node for someone with a heavy earth chart may be easier, but throw in a fire placement squaring the nodal axis, or some difficult aspects to the North Node ruler, and you have some specific challenges to overcome. It all depends on the chart.

The Nodes of the Moon only change signs approximately every 18 months, so the signs are often shared with the majority of our peer group. What is specific, however - down to the precise minute of your birth - is the house where the North Node is placed. I have found that the house placement is often even more relevant to the individual’s struggles than the sign.

However, you’ll find information on the North Node through the houses lacking and at best, formulaic. Most house interpretations for the North Node only copy the interpretation for the ruling sign of that house rather than accurately explaining the specific challenges of the sign in that house. (Each sign is associated with a specific planet and house, and while these rulerships are essential knowledge in interpretation, they each represent distinct aspects.) In other words, most interpretations conflate the sign with the house rather than treating them as distinct.

To my knowledge there is no resource online or in a book that specifically interprets the North Node in each sign AND house. This is essential because a North Node in Capricorn in the 6th house is very different from a North Node in Capricorn in the 11th house, for example. And what about nodal inversions - when the North Node is placed in the opposite house from the one naturally ruled by its sign, as in a North Node in Capricorn in the 4th house? Each of the 144 combinations of sign and house requires a unique analysis.

That has been my goal in writing these guides. Understanding that there are deeply unconscious blind spots in our psyches and how to break through them to reach our highest, truest potential - to follow our karmic path of ascension - is how knowledge of our unique North Node placement, by sign and house, liberates us to reap the rewards of lifetimes.

I hope this work helps you as much as those I’ve known before.

Stella