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One of the more significant astrological shifts taking place this year is about to change the direction of our individual and collective evolution throughout the next 18 months.
July 17, 2023, brings a shift of the lunar nodes from the Taurus-Scorpio axis, where they have been situated since January 2022, to the Aries-Libra axis, where they will remain until January 2025. The invites us to cultivate a new and different relationship to authenticity, courage, action, desire, and selfhood.
What Are the Lunar Nodes?
In astrology, we look to the lunar nodes for insights into our purpose, soul growth, destiny, and evolution. Much like destiny itself, the lunar nodes aren’t tangible objects. Rather, they are two mathematical points in space delineated by where the Moon’s orbit intersects the Sun’s apparent path, or ecliptic.
The north node represents the direction toward which we are individually and collectively evolving. It sits in the opposite zodiac sign to the south node, which represents what we are releasing. Our individual purpose is influenced by the location of the lunar nodes at our birth, and our shared destiny is defined by the movements and cycles of the lunar nodes at the current moment.
The signs holding sway over the lunar nodes are the same signs governing the eclipses that occur during those 18 months. These astrological events usher in fated opportunities and invitations tied to destiny.
What the North Node in Aries and South Node in Libra 2023 Mean for Your Sign
The nodes work with signs that are opposite to one another, which means a movement toward one direction is a natural movement away from the opposing direction. Also, each sign of the zodiac contains a primal or lower expression and an evolved or higher expression.
As the north node shifts into Aries and we are invited to explore the higher expressions and potentials of this fiery sign, we naturally move away from the lower, or more primal expressions of Libra, found in the south node.
Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, born of the all-encompassing consciousness of All That Is. It is our introduction to a separate self, an individual self, an “I.” It is a zodiac sign of fire, fueled by inspiration, passion, desire, and direction. Aries is here to begin, spark, create, and forge a new way. It needs freedom, independence, and empowerment to move where it’s guided, create where it’s inspired, and take action based on its innate knowing.
As an archetype, Aries exists within each of us. As the north node shifts into and journeys through this sign, we are invited to reach into our reserves of courage. The courage to be wholly and independently you. The courage to claim your desires and take action toward your vision. The courage to say yes to yourself, even when that means saying no to others.
Sitting on the other side of the axis at the south node is Libra. If Aries is the Self, Libra is the Other. It is partnership, collaboration, and the other perspective. Libra harmonizes the environment through intuitive adaptation, always keenly aware of what other need at any moment to arrive in a state of peace, harmony, and fairness.
Although Libra has the potential to hold a beautiful medicine of diplomacy, grace, and elegance, our journey into the realm of the south node highlights the potentially harmful dimensions of the air sign. These are the aspects that, as a collective, we are ready to heal and evolve. These include needing to be so in tune with another that we leave the needs of the Self. Also, needing peace and harmony so much that we fall into unhealthy pleasing, passivity, and turning an eye away from that which is not peaceful yet still requires our attention.
The upcoming 18 months are an exploration into where and how we tend to others to the point of losing the Self, where and how we adapt to the environment to the point of losing the Self, and where and how we compromise on the desires and way that call our name so that another may shine.
During this time, fears and beliefs around not being capable as an individual Self come to the surface so that we may heal them. Also, the aspects of Self that we may have placed to the side or ignored return to the forefront and remind us what matters and what we deserve.
This time is offering healing to fears of what others think of us, and where and how we allow others’ perceptions to rule us, control us, and hinder us. It asks us to bring love to the parts of ourselves we have given up in the name for another so that we may revive these parts of ourselves and come into a fullness of our individual self.
Your Invitation
Astrology is continuously asking us to change, whether through the daily movements of the Moon, the seasonal changes of the Sun, or the planetary bodies that shift once every so many years. In this way, it mimics life. We need to continue to meet new opportunities, invitations, and challenges, which is reflected in the way the Earth shifts through her seasons, the way our bodies change, age, and decay. All that we know is change, whether subtle or overt, quiet or loud, inward or tangible. Our existence is that of change.
There is a freedom that comes with claiming yourself, your path, your passions, and your needs, and this is the invitation of the north node in Aries. To channel more of your life into yourself, your desires, and your fulfillment.
There is a focus on the self throughout these next 18 months, and a healing of the beliefs, wounding, patterns, and outside noise that tries to tell us this focus is selfish. We each have our own path. We each have our own passions. We each have our own needs. We each have our own worlds that live within us and dreams that call us toward them. This chapter is a reminder that your path, passions, needs, dreams, and all of who you are are worthy of time, attention, energy and focus.
As you tend to the fires of passion that burn within you and no one else, that fire begins to grow. It fuels you. It motivates you. It inspires you. It guides you. And it propels you forward. It burns so bright and beautiful that we cannot resist moving forward with it. And it burns so bright that you cannot sit still. You must move toward the dreams that are for you. And you must do it for yourself.
The shifting of the lunar nodes can be understood esoterically as a force inviting us into our destiny and purpose, or it can be regarded as the inevitable and obvious movement, change, and growth of life over time. Either way, they represent a new theme, a new focus of consciousness, and a new direction of growth that we are exploring, whether we are aware of it or not.
Learn more about the influence of astrology in your life, including astrological events the Moon cycles, your Sun and Moon and rising signs, how journaling can help you connect with the current influences, and more with Jordane Maree at Girl and her Moon.
About Our Contributor
Jordane Maree is the founder of Girl and Her Moon, a platform and community exploring Soul through the lens of astrology, tarot, and energy healing. She is a writer, intuitive astrologer, energy and soul guide, and host of Girl and Her Moon, The Podcast. She is inspired, every single day, to be the mirror for you to see all that you truly are, you in all your infinite abilities, in total expansion, in infinite opportunity and love.
