This article is from my monthly column in Supernal Magazine, November/December 2023 edition
In the window between July 2023 and January 2025, we’re expanding our healthy sense of self identity as the north node moves through Aries, while we release where we might have been overly focused on interpersonal harmony as the south node transits Libra.
The karmic nodes of the moon shift into a new sign axis every 18 months or so, developing us in the future oriented energy of the north node as we release the outdated expression of its counterpart south node sign.
The Aries and Libra axis is about the self and its projection out into the world, and the adjustments we make in facing and relating to others. This is the ‘me’ and ‘we’ axis, so our approach to relatedness is changing through this timeframe at personal levels, and also in collectives between countries and groups.
Ultimately, we’re finding ways to be ourselves and stand in our own identity while being able to relate harmoniously with others standing in theirs.
Martial heat
In light, the warrior energy of Aries and its ruler Mars is dignified and benevolent as it asserts for truth and justice. In shadow, Aries can be full of battle-lust to achieve a ‘me’ and ‘mine’ agenda.
While the north node is a positive energy, it expands what it touches, so in Aries this can manifest as heightened aggression and less willingness to compromise.
Extra martial energy will be felt in late November when feisty Eris, the dwarf planet named after the Greek goddess of discord who was angered at her exclusion from a wedding, joins the north node in Aries.
Eris’ brother Ares is the god of war, and the siblings both carry a martial energy that can be quick to pick up arms or otherwise cause chaos when hurt.
Well used, the conjunction of Eris and the north node helps us further step with courage into our true identity and right to be the self, however, if experienced in shadow there can be conflict.
In the Greek myth, Eris’ hurt and anger at being excluded led her to throw a golden apple among the wedding guests addressed 'To the fairest' to cause mayhem as they fought over the title.
War and peace
Set on Mars, the 2012 movie John Carter shows the power of disruption to create conflict when villain Matai Shang throws a metaphoric apple among the masses to incite division, using the results for his own purposes.
Matai Shang says to John Carter - We don't cause the destruction of a world, Captain Carter. We simply manage it, feed off it. On every host planet it always plays out exactly the same way. Populations rise. Societies divide. Wars spread. All the while, a neglected planet slowly fades.
The Aries/Ares god of war archetype at its best comes into play as heroic John Carter helps by using his martial mastery to protect and defend others from those who tyrannize, to serve the principles of Libran justice and peace.
This story shows also shows the Aries and Libra dynamic in the personal relationship sense. John Carter’s hurt from losing his wife leaves him selfish and alone for a while, but when he forms a new love relationship it inspires him to step up in his true greatness to use his martial gifts for good.
Always the energies of each sign in an axis support and call forth one another as an inseparable pair. We can’t do Aries well without embracing Libran qualities and vice versa.
Eclipses and nodes
The moon's nodes are points in space calculated from the position of the sun, moon, and Earth. When a new or full moon occurs near the nodes, eclipses happen and bring great change in the signs they occur in, adding to the transformational power of the nodes.
In both lunar and solar eclipses, the sun and the moon do not need to be on the exact point of the moon's nodes, but just close enough for their light to be partially blocked. That is why when the nodes are close to switching signs, we still experience eclipses in the signs the nodes are not yet in or that they recently exited.
Personal impact
In our astrology charts, the houses or life realms where we have Aries and Libra are evolving, with the future-focused growth in Aries and the purging of what no longer serves in Libra.
We're prodded to address where we’ve expressed shadowy expressions of Libra like people-pleasing, indecision, and glossing over troublesome areas in relationships that require confrontation.
This nodal transit will bring clarity, crisis, or a culmination to bring a course correction as we address things head on to become more aware of our self-identity, and willing to courageously lead with that sense of ‘I am’ despite social pressures.