North Node in Libra/South Node in Aries - This Nodal position requires much learning about self-sacrifice and the needs of other people. All the lifetimes of work spent on building self-confidence and esteem must now be transferred to others. The Libra North Node keeps the individual from adding to his sense of self-identity any further. He must guard against strong ego influencing his current life actions. His long standing me-first attitude now brings him sharp and painful experiences as he is learning the lessons of cooperation. He must slow down and make sure that all he works for is meaningful, in his marriage and close partnerships as well as all his relations with others. He has to learn to take the sharp edges out of his life and start to balance. While the center road seems less attractive to him, it is still the only path he can have towards happiness. Ultimately he must learn the very subtle lesson that his strong pioneering individualism isn't actually meant for himself at all, but rather to equip him better so that he can provide other with a more harmonious life. Many individuals with these Nodes have a tendency to be contrary. The experience of listening to other people is a new one which they find objectionable when they feel it hampers their forward motion. In past incarnations, progress was all important, and getting there first was part of the highly competitive Arien drive. This carries over into a definite closed-mindedness which the Libra North Node will ultimately open, showing to the individual the other side of the coin which he had never before thought was important enough to recognize. Selfishness and vanity of all sorts must be curbed unless the individual wishes to find himself alone. Usually he feels himself being driven towards something, yet he doesn't understand what or why. Through the Libra North Node he is now to reconsider his goals and objectives so that his Arien energy is put to some useful purpose. He changes his mind often and allegiance to a single cause is not one of his finer attributes. Past incarnations have made him accustomed to a constant impatient restlessness that still has a tendency to keep him on the move. He knows that he is to give rather than to receive in the current life, yet he finds it difficult to cope with such karma with his full heart. The Martian quality of the South Node impatiently pushes him in new directions. Upon arrival at each destination, however, he finds the gossamer cloud of Libra in the middle of the seesaw, and is surprised to see that the goal was not the goal at all, nor was the destination the end of the journey. Puzzled and confused, he sits in the middle, trying to evaluate the circumstances which he hopes will point the way towards his next successful drive. And yet each goal, each ambition, each sprint of running and striving brings him to Libra -- the half-way point! Finally, out of sheer exhaustion he makes the amazing realization that the second half of the journey involves other people. He has to learn the karmic lesson that he is not alone. Until he learns to share, something always comes up to put the brakes on his efforts. Eventually he is brought to the realization that winning or losing the game is much less important than the fairness with which it is played.

Many individuals with these Nodes are highly opinionated as a result of selfish or bigoted past-life attitudes. Now it is time for the shoe to be worn on the other foot. Much of the current life's events are painful blows to the ego. The individual has to guard against becoming embittered as he sees many of his own wants and desires being taken away from him and given to others. At first his natural tendency is to be jealous. He wants to fight back for all those things he feels he has lost; yet the more he fights the more he loses. Eventually, drained of much of his inner resources, he must surrender his selfish ego and accept living in a world built on sharing. Until he overcomes his South Node, his biggest frustration is the witnessing of other people receiving all that he himself has wished for. He doesn't quite yet understand how this works, and is puzzled at why all the things he has ever wanted are coming to people around him and yet not to himself. He hardly realizes that all his desires, wants and wishes are actually designed for others. He is mentally energizing the wishes of people around him so that he can ultimately be an instrument for their fulfillment. In actuality he is earning himself a new place in the world by living through the karma of selflessness. Still, the insistent urges of the South Node keep pulling him backward, often making him feel that this is a lesson he would rather not yet learn. He must try to resist past-life tendencies to make waves for he is now capable of witnessing disharmonies between people without taking sides. Often he is thrown into the position of referee, whereby in helping others to become more objective, he in fact helps himself. The more he can get others to cooperate, the more he can learn to do it himself. Underneath all the hustle and bustle, this individual is learning to see the consequences of his actions before taking them. In effect, he must learn to look before he leaps! For many with this Nodal position, there is a deep-seated anger coming out of the past-life memories of frustrations which block the self-expression. In this life, there is usually a very pleasing physical appearance, which is part of the karmic lesson in vanity that the aries South Node is here to overcome. Any narcissistic residue also causes difficulty in marriage as this is the battleground where the war between love of another and needs of the self must be fought. The balance between Aries/Mars and Libra/Venus is a difficult one to achieve. The Aries South Node constantly seeks to assert its needs, while the Libra North Node seeks nothing for itself but to love others, regardless of their demands. This individual can feel love for others best only after his own needs are fulfilled. Until the desires of past incarnations are left behind, the incessant pulling of his subconscious demands continues to be so strong that he has a tendency to drain energy from other people, actually putting them to sleep. In effect he is a walking anaesthetic, constantly wondering why people avoid talking with him for more than a few minutes. He would like to talk for hours, if only to continue the focus of attention on himself. But in his private moments, he is deeply saddened by a sense of loneliness and the knowledge that his relationships with others are so far short of what he would like them to be. There is nothing subtle about this Nodal polarity. Happiness comes only after he is forced to re-evaluate his desires and truly discovers that they involve other people. The ego-self must be abandoned and with it a heightened sensitivity to the needs of others acquired. The Libra North Node is one of the most difficult to achieve because the Aries self-love looms as such a large hurdle to overcome. Still the individual must overcome if there is to be a new cycle for him, and he will find the key to this new cycle as he begins to reflect back upon himself through the eyes of others.

The house position of the South Node indicates the area where insatiable desires of past incarnations are still demanding priority. The house position of the North Node shows how fulfillment can be reached through self-sacrifice, cooperation and the expression of unselfish love to others.

from: Schulman, Martin, Karmic Astrology - Volume 1, 1975, Samuel Weiser, Inc., New York

North Node in the 4th House/South Node in the 10th House -- This individual must learn to overcome the karmic feeling that he is the vital center of all situations around him. He comes into the current life with subconscious memories of a past sense of dignity, which leads him to believe that at least certain areas of life experience are beneath him. His prior incarnations have put him in the position of being captain of his own ship, if not the commander of others. As a result, he is used to assuming an authoritative position whenever the weakness of others triggers his powerful need to take charge. He enjoys the role of protector and goes to extremes in filling his life with those whose very weaknesses put them under his dominion. By so doing, he is constantly testing his own power to stand tall. This is a lonely position, for here the individual is so concerned with his self-appointed mission, that he never allows others to see into his real self underneath. What he shows is a facade or the uniform of the role he feels obliged to play. In the current life, he goes through experiences which teach him to come down off his skyscraper and make sure of the foundation underneath. It is in the area of his most highly intimate relationships within his own family that the stage is set for his lifelong battle in an attempt to gain control of his own roots. Many with these Nodes have one unusually demanding parent whose expectations encourage them to believe that they are truly destined to achieve a position of sitting on top of the world. As a result, they are discontented with whatever situation they are in, for always it falls short of what they feel they were meant to do. The karmic lesson here is that "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The individual must overcome his readiness to forsake what he has for the possibility of attaining what he doesn't. So unwilling is he to see himself in a back-seat position that when circumstances force him to do so he may, in extreme cases, even contemplate suicide; for he firmly believes that without achieving some great destiny, life is utterly worthless. This incarnation brings him through the experience of facing the conflict between a career for himself and the demands of his family. He must learn maturity, for with all his projected strength, power and dignity, he is nearly a cripple when it comes to solving his own emotional problems. He must examine his roots and after pulling his head out of the clouds of his past, build a practical foundation for his future. Eventually he learns that his organizing for others is merely a distraction from putting his own life in order. The relationship established with parents early in life is more important in these Nodes than in any other position of the zodiac. Here the individual will spend much of his life energy attempting to be totally free and independent of his parents, yet always conscious of how much he needs them. Nevertheless, the reaction patterns to life continue to show a definite parental defiance, masking a strong need for parental love. The soul is at a point in karma where he feels unappreciated for all his efforts. The past incarnation residue is based on achievement for the sake of recognition and appreciation.

Now, achievement is to be its own reward. The soul must stop trying to gain audience for its deeds, realizing that the audience will always be there if the deeds are great enough. It is in this process of seeking an audience through which the individual tends to lose himself. He must literally transform his fourth house into a new birth of emotional attitudes, learning the lessons that when a man stands on tiptoes he is unsteady. His life is like the beautiful orchid: a splendid sight to behold when raised and nourished under the most delicately controlled environmental conditions, but once the orchid is prepared for display, it is snipped from its roots, insuring wilting and certain death after a short time. This individual will be faced with the choice of being the overlooked orchid growing in a garden of thousands, or sacrificing his own happiness to be the beautiful flower on someone's lapel. As soon as he overcomes his past-life need for display, he can start to grow to the maturity he is so desperately seeking.

The sign which contains the South Node indicates the ways through which he still overemphasizes his importance. The sign which contains the North Node shows how he can grow to become in substance so emotionally fulfilled that he no longer has to equate his happiness with his soul memory of prior-life personal esteem.

from: Schulman, Martin, Karmic Astrology - Volume 1, 1975, Samuel Weiser, Inc., New York