The lunar nodes axis is read as a direction to take and an acquired habit to move beyond, always in the conditional.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
An axis that tradition reads as a compass: where to head, and which acquired habits to move beyond.
A reading that gives direction without confining you: a heading rather than a destiny.
The word “karmic” comes from a recent tradition; the astronomy of the nodes, for its part, commits to no belief.
The Moon does not follow the Sun’s path, the ecliptic, exactly: its orbit tilts a little over five degrees away from that path.
The two cross only at two opposite points, the nodes. At the ascending node, the Moon passes from the south side of the ecliptic to the north side; at the descending node, it crosses back to the south. In charts they are called the North Node and the South Node, and they are treated as an axis, since they are always exactly opposite each other. This axis turns slowly backward through the zodiac, in about eighteen years and seven months, at a rate of one sign roughly every eighteen and a half months. The page shows the current axis and its upcoming sign changes.
| North Node | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| ♓︎ PiscesSouth in Virgo | January 29, 2025 | August 18, 2026 |
| ♒︎ AquariusSouth in Leo · current | August 18, 2026 | March 7, 2028 |
| ♑︎ CapricornSouth in Cancer | March 7, 2028 | September 24, 2029 |
| ♐︎ SagittariusSouth in Gemini | September 24, 2029 | April 14, 2031 |
A reading of the sky to take as food for thought, not to be followed blindly: the dates are calculated, and what tradition associates with them is reported in the conditional, announcing nothing. Why?
The North Node, or ascending node, is the point where the Moon climbs toward the north.
Modern Western astrology would make it the direction to take: what you reach toward, a quality to cultivate, an unfamiliar but nourishing territory. In the Indian tradition, it is called Rahu and is considered greedy: the desire for the world, ambition. The sign it occupies at birth would give the meaning of the quest, reported in the conditional.
The South Node, or descending node, is the opposite point, where the Moon goes back down.
It would show what you already know: acquired talents, habits, a comfort you would need to let go of in order to move forward. In India, it is called Ketu and symbolizes letting go. Ancient tradition, for its part, called it the dragon’s tail and judged it rather heavy. These readings are images, valuable for what they inspire, not for any demonstrated effect.
Greek astronomers called the nodes “the anabibazon and the catabibazon,” the ascent and the descent.
Medieval Latin astrologers spoke of a dragon whose nodes were the head and the tail, an image that echoes the Indian legend in which the demon Svarbhanu, beheaded, became Rahu and Ketu and sometimes swallows the Sun and the Moon, hence eclipses. The idea of a “karmic” axis, with the South Node as the past and the North Node as the future, dates from the 20th century: it spread with works such as Karmic Astrology by Martin Schulman (1975), steeped in belief in reincarnation. Whether or not you subscribe to it, the idea remains a symbolic reading, which proves neither a past life nor a predetermined destiny.
The Moon does not circle in the plane of the ecliptic, that of the Sun’s apparent orbit: its orbit is tilted from it by about five degrees.
The two planes intersect along a line, whose ends are the nodes. When the Moon crosses the ascending node, called the North Node, it leaves the south side of the ecliptic for the north side; the descending node, called the South Node, brings it back south. The two are always 180 degrees apart.
This line is not fixed. Because of the pull of the Sun, it turns opposite to the motion of the planets and makes a full circle in about 18.6 years. A distinction is made between the mean node, which moves backward steadily, and the true node, which departs from this mean by two degrees at most, following the Sun’s perturbations.
An eclipse happens only if the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up near a node. That is the reason for their ancient importance. In modern astrology, the nodal axis is read as a direction: the North Node would suggest what to move toward, the South Node what is already familiar. These readings are conventions of tradition, resting on no measurement: only the calculation of positions and eclipses is astronomical. The site’s pages on eclipses and on the current sky show where the nodes are, without drawing any event from it.
Babylonian astronomers had spotted the eclipse cycle tied to the nodes, and the Saros cycle of about 18 years.
Indian astrology names the two points Rahu and Ketu. Medieval and classical Europe speaks of the head and tail of the Dragon, after the figure of an animal swallowing the Sun or the Moon; William Lilly, in Christian Astrology (1647), uses caput and cauda Draconis. 20th-century astrology added a reading of personal evolution to them. The mean node formulas are those of Jean Meeus.
The schools first differ on the calculation: mean node or true node, with Indian astrology often preferring the former.
They then differ on meaning. Classical authors see points of benefit and loss in them, moderns an axis of direction and learning, others a mere eclipse marker with no reading of character. None of these readings has been verified.
The authors and texts that establish or discuss the lunar nodes, with the passage when it is known.
Head and Tail of the Dragon (caput and cauda Draconis).
Mean node (formula) and the 18.6-year cycle.
True node (the Moon’s instantaneous orbit) and mean node (Meeus formula), calculated by the site’s engine.
The site calculates the mean node, which moves backward at a steady pace, and the true node, which oscillates by less than two degrees around it because the Sun’s pull disturbs the Moon’s orbit. The first suits astrologers who prefer a regular pace, the second those who follow the actual Moon. Both are calculated to the arcminute, and the difference only rarely changes the sign shown.
Twice a month, the Moon crosses the Sun’s apparent path, the ecliptic: these two crossings are the nodes. There is nothing to see in the sky: these points are purely geometric. When the new or full moon occurs near one of them, an eclipse becomes possible. That is why their axis matters in the eclipse calendar.
The mean node advances at a steady pace, moving backward through the zodiac. The true node takes into account the disturbances in the Moon’s orbit and oscillates on either side, by less than two degrees. The difference is small; it matters only on days when a node is close to a sign boundary.
About eighteen and a half months on average, but the length varies from one passage to the next depending on whether you follow the mean node or the true node. The North Node moves through the signs in reverse, for example from Leo toward Cancer, and completes a full circuit in eighteen and a half years.
According to modern astrology, the North Node would be a direction to explore and the South Node an acquired habit to move beyond. Indian astrology speaks of Rahu, desire, and Ketu, detachment. These are symbols, which everyone reads in their own way, with no demonstrated effect.
Because 20th-century authors linked the South Node to a past, sometimes a previous life, and the North Node to a lesson to learn, tied to belief in reincarnation. This is a recent convention, not a classical doctrine. You can take it as a metaphor.
It is the place where the Moon crosses the ecliptic heading north. Its opposite, 180 degrees away, is the South Node. In a chart, modern astrology reads it as an axis of orientation, according to tradition: this reading is a convention, with no verified basis.
The mean node advances at a steady speed, the true node departs from it by two degrees at most. The difference can change the degree, rarely the sign. The site offers both. Many Western astrologers use the true node, others the mean, with no consensus.
An eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up near a node, that is, when the Moon truly crosses the plane of the Sun’s orbit. Eclipse seasons thus come back about every six months as the nodes move.