Meaning
The Moon's orbit is tilted about five degrees to the Sun's path, so it crosses the ecliptic twice a month at two opposite points, the lunar nodes. The North, or ascending, Node is where the Moon passes northward; the South Node is always exactly opposite. Eclipses happen only when a new or full moon falls near one of them. The line of nodes turns backwards through the zodiac once in 18.61 years.
Medieval astrology called the North Node the Dragon's Head, Caput Draconis, and, as Lilly sums up "the constant opinion of all the Ancients" in 1647, held it masculine, of the nature of Jupiter and Venus, and "of himselfe a Fortune". The medieval lists gave it an exaltation at 3° of Gemini, which Ptolemy does not and the Indian tradition does not.
Modern astrology reads the North Node as the direction of growth and the South Node as what is familiar; some schools tell it as a story of former lives, a twentieth-century reading that we label as such and never state as fact. Our keywords are "direction, growth, purpose".
True or mean
The mean node moves smoothly backwards; the true, or osculating, node, computed from the Moon's orbit at the instant, wobbles around it by up to about 2° and is briefly direct at times. Both are conventions, not one right and one wrong: astro.com shows the true node, Astro-Seek and the Indian ephemerides the mean. Our tropical chart shows the true node, labelled "(true)", within 0.006 arc second of the independent check; the Jyotisha chart uses the mean node, as Indian practice does.
In our chart
The North Node is drawn on the wheel by default and takes aspects from the ten planets at half their orbs. We no longer list "North Node opposition South Node": it is exact in every chart by definition, so it says nothing. In Jyotisha the North Node is Rahu, one of the nine grahas, with a Vimshottari period of eighteen years.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Definition
- The ascending node of the Moon's orbit, computed from the Moon's orbit at the instant (osculating) sourced
- Medieval name and nature
- The Dragon's Head, Caput Draconis: masculine, of the nature of Jupiter and Venus, "of himselfe a Fortune" (Lilly, 1647, giving the ancients' opinion) sourced
- Medieval exaltation
- 3° of Gemini; not in Ptolemy, and the Hindus give the nodes none (al-Biruni) disputed
- True or mean node
- Both are conventions; astro.com shows the true node, Astro-Seek and the Indian ephemerides the mean disputed
- Modern reading
- The direction of growth; the South Node as what is familiar. A twentieth-century reading; past-life versions are not fact sourced
- Our keywords
- "direction, growth, purpose" our construction
How the schools read it
- Medieval and Renaissance
- The Dragon's Head, a point of increase, of the nature of the benefics; Lilly calls it Anabibazon.
- Modern Western
- The direction a life grows towards; some schools add stories of former lives, a twentieth-century reading.
- Jyotisha
- Rahu, a graha in its own right, with its own period in the Vimshottari dasha; the mean node by default.
- EsoTerrier
- The true node, labelled; half orbs; keywords "direction, growth, purpose", our own words.
Claims about it
-
The "true" node and the "true" Lilith are the accurate ones.
disputedWhat the record shows: "True" means osculating, from the Moon's orbit at one instant. The true and mean nodes are both conventions, up to about 2° apart; the osculating apogee swings about 30° around the mean. We show the true node and the mean Lilith, labelled.
