WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

photo credit

A number of people have asked me to explain my title: When Worlds Collide. Some pointed out that when searching for the lunar nodes it would be helpful to have these keywords at the beginning of the title. Favoring artistic style above search engine optimization, I stuck with my title. I’m a great fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, especially the song with the title I took, and the line: But when worlds collide, I’m going to get you some terrible thrills. If you watch for it you’ll see, stuff happens at the nodes.

     What are the worlds to which I refer? To borrow a term from the Game of Thrones, they are the Realm of the North and the Realm of the South. Our day to day exterior life takes place in the North. This is the world of matter, of physical reality, where people act out willfully for practical, tangible ends. The Realm of the South is the other world that is not defined by physical law and not amenable to the five senses. This is the realm of the spirit, which has its own rules (often at odds with those that govern physical reality). We live in a duality: we all are one, and, the one is all. Although as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience,’ the bottom line is, to varying degrees, we encounter both.

         The nodes and their rulers distinguish the two types of experiences quite clearly. If the North Node or North Node ruler is energized, it’s time for the ego to express itself visibly in the manifest world. If the South Node or South Node ruler is activated, it’s time for spiritual understanding, and/or to act as a part of an encompassing whole and contribute to the greater good.

          The two worlds intersect at the nodes. (In Greek, the word node means knot, which ties things together; the word also means swelling or complication). At the lunar node, contents from each realm are exchanged; the tangible world gleans spiritual insight, or, the spirit world becomes physically grounded. When a planet passes through a node, there is always an event.

         The North Node resembles the Ascendant and allows the outward expression of the ego. At the North Node, expect a human-type experience. At the North Bending (a point analogous to the Midheaven), anticipate a spotlight shining brightly on the ego (for good or for ill). At the South Node, physical accruements are shed, much like Inanna, the Sumerian queen, shedding clothes as she descended into the ‘Great World Below.’ The South Node is a place of loss, physical vulnerability, weakness, or self-sacrifice, counterbalanced by a strong spiritual force. Planets reaching the lunar South Node, typically encounter (from the point of view of the ego) substantial physical loss, or are required to labor on another’s behalf. There is a wounding; yet, as Rumi counseled, ‘the wound is the place where the light enters you.’ The South Node carries the promise of both injury and enlightenment. The South Bending resembles the I.C. and is the point furthest from the manifest world. Planets traversing this quiet wasteland are at a point of maximum spiritual receptivity and understanding. Here the main event happens on the inside, remaining largely invisible.

        Thus, by looking at transits from the perspective of the nodes, the astrologer can predict with great accuracy the quality of an event.  Nodal connections point to the times when the outer and other worlds intersect; and when worlds collide, a door momentarily opens and facilitates an exchange of wisdom between the two realms.