The Authenticity Axis
Having the North and South Nodes in the 5th or 11th houses and/or in Leo or Aquarius places you on the Authenticity Axis. This axis deals primarily with placing the ego (Leo/5th) in society (Aquarius/11th) and finding a balance between them. It’s a fixed axis of value and uniqueness, hierarchy and equality, performance and observation, the personal and the collective: you may see yourself as superior to others in some way, see everyone as equal, or both at the same time. In any case, your task is to find your role to play in the grand design.
House 5 is ruled by Leo and the Sun, which, of course, if the giver of life around which our solar system revolves. Leo is the king, a noble and courageous leader who is both generous and strong, warm and authoritative. The 5th house encompasses all forms of pleasure, creative hobbies, children, play, and short-term love affairs. Opposite Leo sits Aquarius, ruling the 11th house and governed by Uranus, the planet of individuality and surprise. There’s an inherent contradiction to Aquarius: the Water Bearer is actually an air sign, and Uranus, planet of individuality, rules the 11th house of all humanity as one large group. Leo may be king, but Aquarius is Robin Hood: always rebelling against the established order for the cause of greater equality. However, they are both attached to their unique individuality - sometimes too attached.
Your life path involves balancing your uniqueness with everybody else’s, and finding a way to contribute your authentic self to the world without too much ego. “I am special and so is everyone else” is a major theme of your life. Your karmic classroom is in how you perform your identity in groups and society at large, and finding a way to do so that strikes a balance between authenticity and putting on a show. The fixed axes deal with value - so issues of self-worth, whether you love or loathe yourself too much, are signs of imbalance.
If your North Node is in the fifth house or Leo, it means you need to put yourself and your own desires first. You’re a natural humanitarian with a love of justice and you know what it means to be dedicated to a cause greater than yourself. But you have to accept that, yes, we are all one, but oneness is as emotional as it is intellectual. You can’t always go it alone, nor can you remain aloof and emotionally cold. In the past, you’ve tended to detach and intellectualize things, maybe even keeping relationship platonic when you really want more; now, you need to not only get in touch with your emotions but also express them, especially creatively. Air internalizes things intellectually; fire asserts itself outwardly. Whenever you have an air South Node and a fire North Node, your natural tendency is to avoid conflict at the expense of intimacy; you’ve got to learn to put yourself on display in a way that still feels true to your values. Let go of your need for collective approval and instead express yourself creatively - regardless of what anyone thinks. Stop resisting the spotlight and friendzoning your lovers. Connect with the children in your life and let yourself have fun.
If your North Node is in the 11th house or Aquarius, you have just the opposite problem: the spotlight feels so natural to you that you don’t realize when you’re stealing it from someone else. You’re a natural entertainer, but the “Life of the Party” mantle isn’t your burden to bear alone. Relax - people will still have fun even if you’re not in charge! Learn to work together with others towards a common goal instead of making it your mission to lift everyone else’s spirits. They can lift yours, too. And while your enthusiasm can be contagious, you may sometimes need to step back, be more objective, and involve others as equal partners instead of bossing them around. Beware of your need for attention and seeing everything you do as an extension of yourself (especially your children, if you have them). Learn to raise everyone to your level and see them as equals. Fire asserts itself outwardly; air internalizes and intellectualizes. Whenever you have a fire South Node and an air North Node, your natural tendency is to get stuck in ego-performance mode at the expense of others’ feelings; you’ve got to learn to pause, stop seeing the world as a stage, and instead put yourself at the service of others. Let go of your need for attention and learn to see others’ self-expression as being just as important as your own, not as a threat to your uniqueness.
Occasionally, people may have inverted nodes: this would mean you have your North Node in Leo but in the eleventh house, or in Aquarius in the fifth house. In that case, you have a much more delicate balance to strike. The priority then is to either (with an eleventh house Leo) use your natural leadership skills to benefit society as a whole; or (with a fifth house Aquarius) to bring a detached humanist attitude and sense of equality into romantic relationships, creative play, and the lives of children. In both cases, you’ve got to understand the valid role of the ego as well as its limits, seeing everyone’s ego as equally valid.
Egalitarianism is the central power of this axis: learning to see oneself as neither better nor worse than others, because self-loathing is just as unhealthy and egoistic as narcissism. Yes, you are a unique person with a special role to play in the greater design; but so is everyone else, and you need every musician to feel heard in order to play a beautiful symphony. And yes, everybody is equally important… including you! You, too, have an important role to play in the grand design. You might not know what it is, or you might not feel that what you do is special or important, but it is. Trust that.
The Authenticity Axis is about balancing a light-hearted approach with a fearful one, love with friendship, elitism with equality, leadership with democracy, our natural children with adopted ones, individuality with conformity, rebellion with service, creativity and imagination with truth and observation, limelight with backstage, egoism with altruism, spontaneity with reflection, our individual goals with our collective dreams.
This axis is about finding our part in the whole and learning to play it beautifully, with equal parts humility and confidence. Like all astrological axes, it’s about balance - it isn’t about feeling bigger or smaller than anyone else, but learning our right size in all situations. It means valuing one’s own contributions as well as those of everyone else, including all living beings. It means knowing how to have fun for yourself while also doing something for the greater good. When you master this axis, you will have a healthy sense of self-worth, confidence without egotism, and intellectual humanism without a loss of emotional connection. Ultimately, it is about balance. Perhaps you are already on your way.
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