North Node in Aries/South Node in Libra - Here the soul is learning the lessons of self-consciousness on the most elemental levels. Experiences in prior incarnations did not permit the Self to form as a singular identity. Now the individual is paying the price for the indecisiveness of his former lives as well as learning how to rise out of his confusion by developing “one-mindedness.” Highly susceptible to flattery, he goes far out of his way to do the things he believes will please others, but because he has not yet himself gone through ego identification, he becomes confused as to what course of action to take. Always trying to balance those around him, he finds himself to be the eternal referee between two or more opposing ideas, people, or conditions. Standing in the middle, he assumes the role of the buffer trying desperately to bring harmony to both sides at the same time. From moment to moment and day to day, he seesaws from one side to the other hoping that he will never be required to take a definite stand! In prior lives he judged his happiness by the successes or failures of those close to him. Now he continues to identify his life through others. His confidence can easily be shattered for he hardly yet knows who he is. By confusing the collective needs of others with his own unrealized desires, he makes himself susceptible to long states of depression. Still no matter how drained he feels, he continues this past-life pattern of seeking out people with whom he can identify. At times he develops resentment at his inability to pull the opposite parts within himself together. Yet he is so used to entertaining solutions to contrary ideas that he keeps creating more. He is attracted to music and the arts, feeling comfortable in an environment that is gracefully delicate. When circumstances around him become coarse or brittle he loses control. He doesn’t like to live alone but desires to be left alone. For his own peace and tranquillity he must learn to overcome his enormous sensitivity to all the disharmonious needs of those around him. He does this best by dropping the attitude that he must fight for his very survival and refocusing his attention on what positive thoughts help him to develop his own identity. In past incarnations there was great sacrifice to others which was not fully appreciated. Now the soul reincarnates with traces of resentment at not reaping the rewards of its efforts. This brings out the contrariness of the Libra South Node and actually prevents the individual from finding his real Self!

The North Node can come out only when the South Node is brought to the highest possible karmic level. Thus, this individual will achieve his greatest potential after he learns to serve willingly, without desiring any rewards beyond his own self-growth. He was impressionable in other lifetimes. Now he spends at least the first half of his life coping with the leftover residue of his own gullibility. As the years pass he becomes an avid reader, which helps him to crystallize his thoughts. Still, there are so many past-life habits of indecisiveness that he finds it extremely difficult to make concrete decisions. Always liking to see both sides of everything, he divides himself in half at every crossroad. When these divisions become so painful that he can no longer bear his own indecision, he starts to reach for his Aries North Node. Ultimately, he learns not to be afraid of taking a stand for what his higher Self senses is Truth. He reaches this by teaching himself to be an individual, rather than an extension of somebody else. Still, he must build on his prior incarnations which taught him how to love rather than hate. Thus, as he starts to find himself, he must still be mindful of how his newly-discovered assertiveness influences those close to him. For short periods of time he will have to isolate himself in order to gather his strength. His biggest lessons center around learning how to make his head rule his heart for he sill melts too easily at the slightest attention. Of all the zodiac, this individual has the least amount of past-life experience in examining himself. Now he must find out who he really is! In the current life he is destined to make the transition from the reaper to the sower, whereupon every thought becomes a creative seed for his new beginning. The house which contains the South Node shows the area in life where too much past identification with others inhibited self-development.

The house which contains the North Node designates the area where the Self is now experiencing its birth. Once a new sense of Self-identity is achieved, this individual will feel like Columbus discovering America; and the most amazing part of his discovery is reaching the awareness that it was there all along, but he never knew it.

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

North Node in the 12th House/South Node in the 6th House -- Here the individual undergoes a crisis in consciousness. Whether he is actually aware of it or not, much of his life is spent in deep thought. He finds the physical world exhausting. From time to time he has to deal with illnesses which take him out of the competitive arena, strongly afflicting his abilities to work. When he is working he finds conditions intolerable. He feels rather underpaid or at the very least unappreciated for all he has to offer. He becomes so wrapped up in the circumstances surrounding whatever he is doing that he allows his attitudes towards his job to permeate all areas of his life. He has much prior-life memories of order and organization, yet everywhere he goes he sees chaos. In past incarnations he was a perfectionist, critical of the world around him. Now the imperfections he sees weaken him to the point that he feels unable to cope. The world is perceived as not quite giving him all that it could. Some with these Nodes tend to dwell in self-pity, while others nourish an embittered resentment. There are feelings of jealousy directed towards other people’s well-being, which they perceive as being less earned than their own. Usually there is an inflated sense of ego at the source of the problem. The self as developed in past incarnations is now seen as a perfected ideal, stationed above the rest of humanity. In his own private thoughts this individual will rarely admit that he has a tendency to look down upon others. Yet, secretly he sees everyone as less perfect than himself. He would sooner go unemployed than work at a job which he feels is beneath him. It is certain, however, that circumstances will force him to do such work even though it is against his every principle. Having tendencies to internalize his anger at feeling put down he creates one very real illness after another, until ultimately he reaches a point that he feels justified in blaming his work conditions for his poor state of health. Carrying a past incarnation feeling that society has shut him out, he sees himself as a neglected child deprived of the central core of richness in life which is there for others but somehow not for himself. He spends too much energy trying to impress others and not enough in developing a fullness within himself. More than anything else he must learn to look inside, where he will find the answers to all of his problems. Many with these Nodes watch life pass them by, spending too much of their time and energy wrapped up in petty thoughts. There is a strong residue of past-life nervousness in the sixth house South Node wherein this individual literally eats away at himself by trying to digest into his system of order every tiny detail that comes to his attention. He must learn how to discriminate between what is important in terms of his life’s values and what are just transitory upsets which will pass in due time. Through his constant questioning he creates for himself a sexual problem, rooting itself deeply in fears of failure. And so unable is he to face his fears that he will compound the problem by developing a pattern of abnormal sexual response designed to mask his feelings of inadequacy. Though he tries not to, he keeps seeing himself as a helpless pebble on a beach of thousands. In prior lives he managed to control his universe. Now the world seems larger than he would like and he does all he can to prevent himself from feeling too small by comparison. His growth starts the moment he begins to see himself not only as a part of a greater whole but containing within himself the essence of the entire universe. He must break his past incarnation tendency to put the world in little boxes and search for the seed of all within himself. Here he will find the abundant richness he has been so desperately seeking. Periods of forced isolation help to bring him to a higher consciousness through which he ultimately learns that things can be different without one necessarily being better or worse than the other. By going deep into himself he will realize that all of life’s conditions depend entirely on how much he can relinquish his hold on trying to overturn the world and rechannel his energies towards overturning himself. He does well by immersing himself in the works of a large institution where he can develop a group-consciousness, focusing on the collective good of the whole rather than dwelling in the collected residue of his past-life bitterness. He will be tested many times in the areas which help him to develop compassion, until he ultimately sees that judging others actually prevents his own happiness.

His past-life karma is erased when he learns how to flow rather than allow his life to keep interrupting itself by petty distractions. He must attune himself to the essence of the universe rather than attempt to sort everything into neat little compartments. The compartments are like a house of cards, and only after they topple does he start to realize that his purpose in life is very far from what he originally thought. He can then learn how to loosen up and bathe in the beauty of all God’s creation, rather than seeing only a part of God and calling the part he sees All. As soon as he can greet change willingly, bending while the winds of circumstance flow through his being, he is on the path. Eventually he will leave the world where people manipulate each other and walk through the doorway to a higher harmony. In preparation, he must transcend the subconscious past-life memories of physical problems that still weigh him down and start to climb the cosmic ladder which leads to the realization of his soul. He must learn how to appreciate the wonder of all he sees without enmeshing himself in the details of why or how. His life will represent the ending of an idea much as the works of Dante symbolized the end of a period in literature. When he accepts this, his life’s work can be a great culmination of all that has come before him. Although his work may bring him behind the scenes there is a good possibility that it can come to public attention. He must also learn that the physical state of his health is totally dependent upon the purity and stability of his inner mind. Truly this is the Nodal position of mind over matter, and the life will be a karmic transition from the world of matter into the consciousness of infinite light.

The sign which contains the South Node indicates the ways in which former incarnations brought the individual to preoccupy himself with physical matter. The sign which contains the North Node shows how he can now transform his soul into the pure essence of Divine Mind.

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