Nodes

Carl G. Jung says he always had cast a horoscope in difficult cases.

In astrology that is centred on the Moon's two Nodes (from an axis), it is held that interests and preoccupations glide along from the south node to the north node - If it fits, is sums up a life's foremost direction, and may tell of life's meaning or purpose. There are books about nodal astrology. However, interpretations differ a lot. Professor James Lewis:

The point at which the Moon moves northward – with respect to our terrestrial perspective – as it crosses the ecliptic is the north lunar node; correspondingly, the point at which it moves southward is the south lunar node. The lunar nodes are extremely important in Vedic astrology . . . The north node is seen as representing an area where development is needed, with the south node symbolizing talents already developed. Most astrologers agree that there is an unconscious dynamic at work in the nodes, represented by the nodes' signs, houses, and aspects. (Lewis 2003, 758)

Vedic astrology also relates the lunar nodes - the south node Ketu and the north node Rahu - to constellations somehow, and Western astrology usually applies the Moon's Nodes to star signs, which are differently placed around the Zodiak than the star signs. Further, the gap between constellations and signs around the Zodiak widens year by year, to meet again in estimatedly some 25,600 years. For all that, here is what Dr. Prem K. Sharma tells:

The house and the sign where then north node (Rahu) is posited signifies the areas of a native's life, which need to be developed in the present life. Similarly, the house and the sign where the south node (Ketu) is posited, indicates past developments and thus the hereditary-traits of the native due to his/her past karma (natural law of justice based on one's actions). (Sharma 2007, introduction)

Dr Sharma also says, "Pearls are not gathered by surface riders, only deep divers harvest them (Ibid)." But let us be a little shallow here; it could still go a long way: Let us apply astrology teachings on the nodes of the moon without taking into account so very much from any constellation perspectives. Why not? Star signs are of 30 degrees each, but constellations are of irregular polygon shapes and unequal length, of different shapes, all of which may call for assumptions. The ancient Vedic astrology relates to constellations anyway.

Can nodal horoscopy amount to tell how people differ? It requires that the individuality (soul) is kept out of it.

The horoscope interpreter also keeps an eye on remarkably harmoniously aspected planets and other markers (such as by the angles called "trines" and "sextiles"), and patterns are seen in some cases, but not all horoscopes have marked and clear-cut patterns either. The study demands a look at some main figures (and outlines) at least.

A reading from a birthday chart should not contain many outright guesses: "Restrict what you tell to what may be safe -" And what is largely safe? It may be to study the chart of someone who has lived most of his or her life, allowing for deep changes of heart and conduct also, and compare with the biography. After that, to the degree dominant features are seen in the chart and they seem to match significant or even striking features or the life, or major life happenings, you may "milk" those comparisons a lot for what they could be worth.

Luther and the Issue of Mother Worship

"Who's your Mommy now?"

Among the doctrines of the Catcholic Church, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is "Mother of God", always a virgin, the new Eve, mother of the living and Queen of Heaven, and "The Blessed Virgin is the perfect realization of the Church's holiness." This is what the Roman Catholics have to feel certain about - on faith, officially.

Luther's Reformation became less focused on pampering, for what it is worth. Luther held fast to the belief that Mary was a perpetual virgin and the Mother of God. Throughout his lifetime, Luther referred to Mary as the "Queen of Heaven", but he warned against people using the term too much. Then, how much is "too much"?

Lutherans subsequently hold Mary in high esteem. Protestantism usually reject the practice of directly addressing Mary and other saints in prayers of admiration or petition, as part of their religious worship of God. As for the Bible, it says a virgin that is made pregnant out of wedlock, without screaming, has to be stoned on the doorstep of her father's house, and Jesus vouces for that Law of Moses.

Mary got pregnant with Jesus without being married, and according to the Law, such a woman was to be stoned on the doorstep of her father's house. If the Law had been put to use then, there might not have been any "Hail Mary"'s in the world. (Deuteronomy 22:20,23,24)
The son she gave birth to without being stoned, thanked for it by telling the Law was to be valid down to the smallest dot. (Matthew 5:17-21) He insisted on things that would have had his mother stoned to death with him in her belly. . . .
Jesus also shamed her thoroughly when he asked who was his mother and brothers, and then pointed to his disciples and said they were his mother and brothers (Matthew 12:48-49). So he downplayed Mary and his brothers.
Luke tells that all the people in the synagogue of Nazarath, where he had grown up, once got furious with him, got up, drove him out of the town and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. If his family and kin were among all those synagogue-goers and the tale is true, he might hold no small grudge . . . (Luke 4:28-29)

At any rate, it stands out he took a stand for the Law and against his mother and his own fetus life that depended on her. "But we ignore all that, for our show must go on," showed the rising clergy that ran the early church, and learnt how to hail the executed Jesus and his not-stoned mom as The virgin, an eternal virgin although she had many more children says the New Testamen.

The Gospel of Mark 6:3 and the Gospel of Matthew 13:55-56 state that James, Joses (or Joseph), Judas, and Simon were brothers of Jesus, and sisters of Jesus are also mentioned.

Nuns go for loving God and not any reformer. Martin Luther might have sighed, "One more dame in vain." He was an ex monk who married a twenty-six years old nun he had helped escape from her convent. She was Katharina von Bora. They had six children. She had not been equipped with female breasts and more in vain.

"There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage," said Martin Luther. It means: He did not know any better.

~ೞ⬯ೞ~

Lunar Nodes and the Life Cycle

Margaret Jonas has compiled and edited a book of Rudolf Steiner views that relate the human being to the solar system, mainly. Her Astronomy and Astrology (2009) shows how Dr Steiner allotted essential meanings to the planets, and told we need to free the will. Further,

Rudolf Steiner aimed to show that it is not necessary to reject any connection with the stars and planets in order to be a fully modern person, and indeed the pursuit of it with the right understanding gives a far greater meaning to our earthly lives. Moreover the spiritual beings are waiting to hear from human beings on earth (Jonas 2009, 8).

In "The Effect of Lunar Nodes on Human Biography: Our Hidden Plan" (2003), Susanne Donato tells, as Jonas does in her sixteenth chapter, that Rudolf Steiner explained how "the macrocosmic breathing process in the heavens" is related to a breathing process in the human world:

In human biography, we find this rhythmic cycle in the lunar nodes rhythm or moon nodes. . . .
What are these lunar nodes . . .?
The points at which the orbital paths of the sun and the moon intersect are called lunar nodes. . . .
After 18.6 years this intersection point has traversed the entire ecliptic (360°) and stands in practically the same place as it was 18.6 years earlier. In reference to human biography, it means that after 18 years, 7 months and 9 days, the ascending lunar node is again standing at the same place as it was at the time of a person's birth. . . .

Donato, further, "The lunar nodes occur at exact intervals, to the day. However, the node-related events can happen over weeks and months, as everyone knows." - Everyone?

We can understand the astrological or astronomical exact lunar nodes as the turning points where our past that has been worked through can become our future – or where everything can come to a standstill. Only when the turnabout succeeds can we proceed in harmony with our birth

- an innate design or scheme of a sort.

Steiner and Donato further relate the north and south nodes in a horoscope to decisive, progressive phases of human development. Moreover,

The signature that we recognize in the lunar nodes at birth we will find again in all the later lunar nodes during our lifetime. For one, it is the decision to say goodbye to conditions that no longer offer us possibilities for our inner and outer maturing process . . . we feel uncomfortable, lonely, misunderstood, and constricted by conventions and rules. We feel insignificant and unimportant. We get into controversies . . . these birthing processes also do not happen without labor, pain, and discomfiture. Injuries during these births cannot be ruled out. The birthing process can go quickly or slowly. It can be light or accompanied by dramatic events. (Donato 2003)

Capsules

The first lunar node transit of personal dealings and family changes.

18 years, 7 months and 9 days after birth has to do with breaking away from one's family . . . the beginning of a new independence.

The connection to parents loosens . . .

As a 19-year-old we have perhaps left school with a sense of relief and lightheartedly left our parent's home. [Further,] tests of the heart and demand courage and self-confidence. . . . We are moved by such questions as: What is the meaning of my life? . . . We question ourselves about the right education, the right career. . . . we also, at the age of 18 or 19, want to inwardly stand upright.

The second lunar node transit, related to social dealings or changes. At the time of the second lunar node at 37 years, 2 months and 20 days, the third birthing process takes place. Now it has to do with unwinding oneself from larger social connections that hinder or cripple the pre-birth impulse. . . . Now the questions arise: Have I found my place socially? . . . am I welcome with my special abilities?

If the answers are not positive in the context of social associations, then new social connections are sought. . . .

Oftentimes, there are surprising changes in careers at this time. . . .

We can understand the second lunar node as the following: Search for our own place of soul; our soul home. By developing our soul-forces, our heart-forces, we can also make ourselves spiritually at home in our own social environment.

The third lunar node transit: "Supra-personal human." The third lunar node, occurring at 55 years, 10 months and 28 days, almost 56, brings further social leave-takings and new orientations . . . we often come to an inner distress. . . . We take stock of ourselves: Was that all? . . . Do we still have anything to say to one another? . . . Encountering serious illness and death also becomes more frequent. How many people at this time become ill with cancer, have a heart attack, or suffer the threatening climax of a chronic illness? . . . We become contemplative. . . . What deeper meaning does life have? . . .

The title over this period of our lives could read: How do we see ourselves being seen in the world? . . . Where is my distinctive place in a . . . lasting house? . . . (The Spiritual Home is Sought)

The fourth lunar node transit: Wisdom dealings. occurs at 74 years and 5 months. For whoever has attained to a certain wisdom and has resolved the tasks of the previous lunar nodes, in accordance with his or her individual possibilities, for that person the heavenly realm becomes permeable and he or she can let some of their wisdom radiate into his/her surroundings.

The fifth lunar node: Battered or Solved (Dead). is at 92 years, 1 month and 9 days and nowadays is more and more often experienced.

Some radiate fitly, others are on a downward, darkening spiral, getting better at being pessimistic, it might seem. Wisdom and a certain pessimism can both take into account all of humankind.

The Descending Lunar Nodes

The descending lunar nodes occur halfway between two ascending nodes, i.e., in the 9th year, 27th year, and so forth. Donato says that events having to do with the descending lunar nodes are seldom outwardly apparent, but are times of quiet separations and changes and take place in the deeper layers of our being:

The signature of the half-node is a initial, tender suggestion to find what the compelling task of the next ascending node will be. On the other hand, at this time another chance presents itself to resolve whatever was not accomplished during the previous node.

Our Life's Meaning and Design

We carry with us as a hidden plan from birth, says Donato, a desire to create something to outlast us and to achieve self-realization also. And we want to carry something into the world that only we can bring. A common danger is that we totally go submit to superficialities and thereby lose ourselves. The lunar node transits repeatedly usher us to the way back to our paths of destiny and our original tasks.

The first lunar node in the realm of the personal,
The second lunar node in the realm of family, friends, and career, if any fit is had,
The third lunar node in the realm of the supra-personal human.

Lunar node designs "call forth renewing energy from our inner self . . . At first, this something new announces itself through inner alienation, upheavals, and partings. We feel . . . helpless."

But then thoughts are got and courageous decisions are made. "Whether the lunar node process brings about dramatic change or occurs practically unnoticed varies from person to person and can be different from node to node. . . . If a person can lead a life that is in harmony with her or his birth-impulses, the lunar nodes can pass almost unnoticed. But [with] intensification of those impulses.