The Possession Axis
Having the North and South Nodes in the 2nd or 8th houses and/or in Taurus or Scorpio places you on the Possession Axis. Of course there is the level of material possession (income from one’s own efforts versus income from others), but perhaps more importantly, it deals with psychological possession - of oneself and of others. It’s a fixed axis of give and take, value and security, preservation and transformation, strength and power: you may be deeply rooted in your own power, seek power through others, or a bit of both. More than likely, you know what is truly valuable - or your destiny is to find out.
House 2 is ruled by Taurus and Venus, which rules beauty, wealth, love, sensual pleasure, and all that is valuable. Taurus symbolizes strength, tenacity, and willpower; but Scorpio represents a different kind of power, the cunning power of sharp perception and deep insight. Taurus will charge at its prey head-on, but a Scorpio will sneak and sting. Scorpio rules the 8th house and its governing body is Pluto, who transforms everything through the powers of death and rebirth. The 2nd house governs income we earn through our own skills and efforts; the 8th house deals with what we gain from others, whether through marriage, inheritance, institutions, or government. Taurus/2nd house seeks peace at the expense of change, while Scorpio/8th house seeks change at the expense of peace. Both are powerfully possessive, but Taurus focuses on self-possession and Scorpio is concerned with possessing others.
Your life path involves balancing self-mastery with a savvy approach to relationships and the outer world. “Mine versus ours” is a major theme of your life. Your karmic classroom is in the intersection between finances, relationships, and the relative independence that intersection may or may not bring. 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 second house or Taurus, it means you need to develop self-worth, including cultivating your own skills and your own set of values by which you can lead a life worth respecting. You innately know how to evaluate other people: you see their strengths, their weaknesses, and how to help or hurt or use them to your own advantage. You have to accept that your security won’t always come through other people, though - you’ve got to derive a sense of security from within. Whenever you have a water South Node and an earth North Node, your natural tendency is to get lost in a sea of emotion (your own or others’) at the expense of practicality and self-respect; you’ve got to learn to see emotional boundaries as part of emotional health, and allow everyone (including you) to take responsibility for their own feelings and survival. Let go of your need to possess or control others and instead focus on mastering your skills and yourself.
If your North Node is in the eighth house or Scorpio, you’ve got the opposite problem: you know your own worth, your own values, and how to achieve a sense of security with them; but you tend to be too rigid about these things, and too attached to what is familiar and certain. You need to learn to value other people, their ideas and belief systems. You have to accept change and transformation as natural parts of life and growth, and let go of who or what no longer serves you. Don’t let uncertainty threaten your security. Whenever you have an earth South Node and a water North Node, your natural tendency is to be too independent and ignore feelings (your own or others’) at the expense of everyone’s emotional wellbeing; you’ve got to learn to see emotional health as equally important as physical health, and be humble enough to depend on others for support. Let go of the need for independence and to keep things the same and instead embrace intimacy and transformation through others - in business and in pleasure.
Occasionally, people may have inverted nodes: this would mean you have your North Node in Taurus but in the eighth house, or in Scorpio in the second house. In that case, you have a much more delicate balance to strike. The priority then is to either (with an eighth house Taurus) bring a healthy sense of self-worth into intimate relationships, business partnerships, or delicate dealings with mutually held resources; or (with a second house Scorpio) to welcome or even initiate transformation in your personal values, self-worth, earned income, and possessions. In both cases, you’ve got to understand what is valuable to you and more importantly, why.
Exchange is the central power of this axis: learning to see that giving and taking are never a one-way street, never a one-sided process, but instead one unitive process in which value of various kinds flows back and forth to and from you constantly. You are always giving; you are always taking. You are always involved in some kind of exchange. With that exchange comes transformation: because everything is constantly being exchanged, constantly in flux, it is constantly transforming - yet the exchange continues eternally.
The Possession Axis is about drawing power from within and from without, feeling stable and secure on your own or through others, pragmatism versus intuition, preservation versus transformation, what we possess materially as well as psychologically, valuing ourselves and valuing others, and maintaining a healthy sense of self-worth in a world where we’re constantly relating to other people.
This axis is about balancing a sense of security rooted in ourselves with the security we derive from our relations with others. Like all astrological axes, it’s about balance - it isn’t about complete independence or complete dependence, but learning to meet in the middle. It means cultivating one’s own skills as well as valuing those of others, including all living beings. It means knowing how to give value and how to accept it from outside. When you master this axis, you will have a healthy sense of self-worth, security without codependence, and a well-rounded set of values. Ultimately, it is about balance. Perhaps you are already on your way.
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