SHAMANISM and MY NORTH NODE

The North Node I interpret as the place of greatest potential growth in the chart. It is where life will tend to lead you. I guess it shows us what we are here to learn. It is not generally an easy place, because otherwise we probably wouldn't learn anything.

Mine is in Scorpio. Jupiter is my only personal water planet, and even he, with his generosity and connection to meaning, is edging towards the transpersonal.

So my Node pushes me towards learning about personal emotion (water) through the death and rebirth processes that are basic to the Scorpio paradigm. Pluto is the ruler of Scorpio, and I have natal Sun opposite Pluto. The death and rebirth processes have been activated for me when my Sun-Pluto is transited by outer planets. 

Scorpio, being ruled by a transpersonal planet (Pluto) is a transpersonal sign: you need something bigger and wider going on in your life if you are a Scorpio, that maybe involves helping others go to their dark places, or you will end up frozen, like the Medusa, mired in self-hatred. A similar principle applies to Aquarius and Pisces, ruled by Uranus and Neptune respectively. Aquarians can end up seriously cranky if they are not transmitting their progressive ideas, while Pisceans will tend to self-medicate if they do not create an outlet for their compassion and imagination.

My Scorpio North Node is conjunct Jupiter and Neptune in the 3rd House. So there is a load going on around it that is transpersonal.

Neptune particularly askes me to surrender to the spirit in doing the transformational work with others, and Jupiter adds growth and meaning. Being 3rd House, it can be through my writing, as I am doing right now. When I write, I follow my spirit, I don't plan it out in advance.

But it is also through the Shamanic work that I do.

 

Photo © Jesse Wild

 

When I journey, I am taken over physically (that's me in the photo). I call it Shapeshifting, and it seems to be allied to the way Shamans work in the Far East. It is a lovely place to be. The spirits, or whatever you want to call them, move through me. I surrender to them. I move as they want, I use my voice as they want. It is a deep and nourishing experience, and it may take some hours to arrive fully back in this world.

 I came to this way of working through trance dance: the deep, rhythmic beat that gets into your body and takes you places. In medieval times, they had dancing in churches. It was banned, because it gave people their own connection to the Spirit. The connection between Body and Spirit has been returning in recent times. Nowadays I don’t need music or drumming: the connection is always there, over my shoulder. And it seems to be effective in helping move energies along for other people.

I have been bringing the writing and shapeshifting together over the last 18 months in the fantasy trilogy that I am writing. I am currently on the 3rd volume. It is partly an exploration of Shapeshifting, and partly an attempt to bridge the old cultural divide between Spirit and Reason, God and Lucifer.

As an astrologer, my spirits are in the sky. But they still move through me, just as when I am doing my shamanic work. Which makes them the same kind of thing, a Neptunian thing. Also, Astrology divides the chart into the 4 elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water, which are more fundamental than the signs. They are used in a very similar way in the Medicine Wheel, which I wrote a book about 2 years ago. So there is the more rational, 3rd House connection between those 2 callings of mine.

The astrology reading offer remains open indefinitely on my Medicine Wheel book and my Astrology book, Surfing the Galactic Highways: buy either of them and leave a genuine rating on Amazon, and I will give you a free (and thorough) astrological consultation.

The North Node

I’ve been toying with the idea that the North Node becomes more visible as we get older. The (North) Node, you could say, describes what we are here to become for karmic reasons, it describes the deeper issues that will sort, that will become empowered, if we become that Node. Because these things are deep, they are hard to see; in fact our life may apparently have had little to do with the Node, until after 40 years we look back and see how it all adds up.

So I dragged a few names out of my famous people list to see what turned up. Elizabeth II of England has Angular Node in Cancer, conjunct Pluto and trine to Saturn-MC. That is a powerful placement, and shows how seriously (Saturn) she takes her vocation (MC) that was given to her (trine) by her people (Cancer) who are the source of her power (Pluto). As she has got older, so has she become the matriarch (Cancer) of her country.

President Kennedy did not live long, so his ‘later life’ is his reputation since his death. His Node is in Capricorn, opposite Pluto. He is remembered as a great president (Capricorn, a sign of leadership and authority), and this is partly because of his early death (Pluto).

Rupert Murdoch has Node in Aries, conjunct Uranus and square to Saturn and Pluto. A very powerful placement. He has maintained his ability to fight and to initiate (Aries) into his old age, and continues to be a mould-breaker (Uranus-Node, which Obama also has.) It’s not necessarily very pretty having Saturn and Pluto in square to the Node, and you don’t feel there is much that Murdoch would not do in pursuit of power and wealth.

An odd one: the Batman story seems to keep going, with yet another re-invention in the last few years. I wondered if he has Node in Scorpio (re-invention continuing into old age), and sure enough he has. The chart I use is that for the first publication on 1st May 1939. Note that Batman does not have superpowers, unlike the Incredible Hulk etc. This is reflected in the astrology, where the superheroes tend to have Jupiter-Chiron aspects: superpowers (Jupiter) created by a wound (Chiron e.g. the Hulk’s exposure to radiation, Superman losing his family and home planet as a baby.)

Bob Geldof has the Sun conjunct Neptune of a musician and the Sun conjunct Saturn of someone who is determined to achieve; but as he has got older, so has his compassionate Node in Pisces become more prominent, through Band Aid etc.

Margaret Thatcher has Node in Leo. She was a singular leader, unable to adapt as time went on (fixed Leo) and adopting regal airs (Leo). She is loved by many (Node trine Venus) yet also did a lot of damage on a human level (Node square Chiron).

Prince Charles has Node in Taurus, conjunct the Moon and in a Grand Trine with Saturn and Jupiter. So here we have issues of wealth, which on the one hand Charles is comfortable with and which gives him security (Moon in Taurus), but which he has also grappled with (Node), using his wealth to create sustainable, healthy projects, such as his organic farm and the village of Poundbury in Dorset. This is the aspect of Taurus as Values: what value do I place on money, what do I consider important about money?

The answer that is perhaps predominant in our culture is that money is a value in itself, and the more you have of it, the more ‘value’ you have. The Taurus-Scorpio Nodal axis is interesting in this respect. There is often some kind of struggle around money and material values with this placement. While Taurus Node asks us to look at what value we place on money, Scorpio Node asks us to understand the power of money.

Getting that power right is what it is all about. With money we can have power over others. It can also have power over us, when its lack makes us feel disempowered, or when its presence makes us feel substantial and powerful. Money is a power, and that cannot be wished away, but its real power is as a resource to make things happen. We can do things, meaningful things, with money that we could not otherwise do.

So money in itself is not evil, and being wealthy does not make you bad, despite what Jesus said about camels and eyes of needles. (Who’d want to go to the Christian heaven anyway?) Like anything, it is about why you want it. It is an energy, and it can be used in healthy and unhealthy ways. Getting this one right is the lesson for many Scorpio Nodes, in the context of the general Scorpio inquiry into the nature of power.

Like Batman, however, Scorpio Nodes (such as myself!) also need to continue to re-invent themselves into old age.