The Dragon Traversing the Places of Goddess and God
Having just entered my nodal reversal during my 3H year, I thought it would be a great time to discuss how the Nodes transiting through my 3H and 9H went for me. This was such a subtle yet impactful transit for me, and I wish to share my experiences with you, so that those of you who might be going through this transit currently, or soon, will have a better idea at what lies ahead. Nodal transits can pack a punch, so it’s important to understand the origins and significance of these astrological points, in order to better navigate this 2 year (approx.) period.
A diagram showing the Moon’s and Sun’s path, as well as where they would intersect.
What Are the Lunar Nodes?
Before we jump into my personal experience with this nodal transit, let’s briefly touch on the lunar nodes and what they signify. Much like lots or angles, the lunar nodes are calculated points and aren’t physical points in the sky, the way the planets or luminaries are. Instead, they demonstrate where the Moon’s orbital path intersects with the Sun’s ecliptic; giving two points in the sky that are exactly 180°apart. In astrology, the Ascending node is referred to as the North Node, Head of the Dragon or Rahu (☊), while the Descending node is referred to as the South Node, Tail of the Dragon or Ketu (☋); the terms you use largely depend on the branch of astrology you’re practicing.
The Lunar Nodes in Astrology
In Arabic texts, it is said that an eighth “planet” was the cause of the solar and lunar eclipses, given the name al-Tinnīn (the Dragon) or al-Jawzahr (from Classical Persian Gawzahr). The planet was then split in two, meaning to represent the Head (ra’s) and Tail (dhanab) of the mythological dragon (Carboni, 1997, p. 23). In Hellenistic texts, any mention of the Nodes was usually linked to malefic delineations, but thankfully far more understanding and nuance was provided later on, by medieval Arabic astrologers like Abu Ma’shar and al-Qabīsī (Héloïse, 2024, p. 16). In the present day, Héloise notes that modern astrologers place an overly strong emphasis on the Nodes pointing to karmic energy and dealings (2024, p. 14), and I have to agree with this. Until I did some research myself, that was all I really heard about regarding the lunar nodes on social media.
However, the nodes are far more complex than that. In Dykes’s Introductions to Traditional Astrology: Abu Ma’shar & al-Qabisi, it is noted that:
the nature of the Head of the Dragon is increasing; indeed if it were a lucky [planet], it adds to the good; but if there were a malevolent star in it, [it adds] to the bad; but on the contrary, the Tail [is] decreasing what it finds. How-ever, the Head [is] good with a good one, bad with a bad one. But the Tail [is] bad with a good one, good with a bad one. (Dykes, 2010, p. 267)
Essentially, the North Node augments or highlights the nature of the planet it touches, whereas the South Node mutes or diminishes their qualities. So for example, if the North Node conjoins Jupiter or Venus, it’ll be an overall positive transit, but if it conjoins one of the malefic planets, the outcomes will more negative than usual. The South Node has a “reverse” effect where it diminishes the power of benefic qualities but ameliorates the condition of malefic planets as it “mutes” their harsh nature; making a conjunction with Venus less sweet, but one with Mars more bearable. Now that we have a general understand of what the Nodes represent in a chart, let’s take a look at how the Nodes in Aries-Libra affected my chart specifically.
My Experience With the Nodes in My 3H and 9H
A screenshot of my natal chart from AstroGold.
As you can see when referencing my natal chart, I have and Aquarius rising, giving me an Aries 3H ruled by a Leo Mars in the 7H and a Libra 9H ruled by Venus in the 9H. My 3H is empty, however I have a stellium in my 9H including Venus, the Sun and Mercury; making this nodal transit a pretty potent one. Héloïse notes that when the North Node transits the 3H and the South Node transits the 9H there’s “a greater appreciation for your local space and neighbourhood and wanting to get more familiar with your environment… [and spending] more time with siblings/familiar acquaintances and [no particular] desire to travel long distances” (2024, p. 88). All of this really shows a shift away from 9H topics, in favour of 3H topics, which is evidently the focal point of this particular transit.
Libra South Node Transiting the 9H
Since I have a lot of personal planets in this house, I felt the South Node part of this transit more intensely than the North Node part. When the SN made it’s way into my 9H on July 17, 2023, I was three days out from going on vacation to Croatia. This would of course be the calm before the storm, as I would be heading off overseas to renew my visa for my job immediately afterwards, then flying back to start working. Right from the start, the ingress was an intense one for me, and I was almost immediately made aware of the fact that I would be experiencing 9H topics far differently than I have been up until this point.
During these first few months, I found myself frequenting familiar places (3H) but feeling like a foreigner in these spaces (9H). This was especially true when I came back to my hometown while renewing my visa. I noticed that I didn’t remember what streets to take anymore, or what local bars/restaurants were open and running; things I took pride in knowing off the top of my head before. I think for the first time in my life, I felt like a stranger in my hometown, and as a 9H stellium who always wanted to live abroad and get away from my hometown, I dreamed of the day that this sort of thing was a reality for me. However, it was far less enjoyable than I though it would be; if anything it felt weird and disorienting.
My Lot of Fortune was at the bendings of the lunar nodes on September 10th, which is when a point in the sky is exactly 90° from both nodes forming a square aspect. Even though I could only find sources mentioning planets at the bendings, I believe that it was still able to accurately show a pivotal moment in my life. Coupled with the fact that I entered a major peak and loosening of the bond L2 period (from Eros) on the same day, it was very clear to me that a lot of things were going to be shifting in significant ways, and things won’t be the same moving forward. Only three days after the square was exact, I would be leaving my hometown for the last time and to this day, I haven’t given much thought to when I’d return to visit. I will be getting more into this in my 3H section, but it was clear to me that my stomping grounds were located in another part of the world now.
The next big hit from the South Node when she finally conjoined my natal Mercury at 16°35’. This was coincidentally around the time when my parents came overseas and I accompanied them to visit my sister working in the south of France. When Mercury is conjunct the South Node the native might be thought of or spoken about in a way that is out of their control. The people around them might be inclined to “misconstrue their ideas or even tell stories about the native that are outside of their control” (Héloïse, 2024, p. 59). Given that I was spending time with my family after several months apart, you can imagine how this manifested in my particular instance. I definitely felt like even if I was expressing myself adequately, my thoughts/ideas were being misunderstood and turned into something entirely different. When this aspect was exact on February 21, 2024, my parents and I were leaving after visiting my sister. With Mercury known to represent siblings and the South Node indicating a decrease/muting of a planet’s nature, I found it pretty on the nose that this would be the first time ever that my sister was being left alone in a foreign place to work, and wouldn’t be accompanying us to Paris.
Even when this transit ended, I could still feel the damage done by the SN. In general I felt like my voice wasn’t being heard and that what I was saying wasn’t being taken as seriously as it would’ve been had someone else said it instead. I had to actively fight this feeling of being overlooked and still push for what I wanted, which was really tough at this time. Unfortunately this extended to my desire for learning, reading, and certain spiritual practices. No matter what I did, it felt like my heart and mind weren’t in it, making it very hard for me to progress and lean into the activities I usually enjoy so much. This sentiment only started to fade once the SN started applying to my Sun, which was by far the most tame SN conjunction I had during this transit.
Around the time that this aspect was exact (July 7, 2024), I was feeling a lot more social and wanting to spend time with others. However, I wasn’t too keen on delving into my personal life in these social settings, which made me opt for interactions with familiar acquaintances and people in my immediate vicinity (hello North Node in my 3H!) Deeply sensitive and personal topics were reserved for a select few at this time, as I felt like it was the best way for me to process and deal with things happening behind the scene. Though I’d usually take a vacation in other countries over the summer, I decided to spend a good chunk of it exploring my surroundings and nearby areas instead. Funnily enough this aspect happened around the time that I started being really turned off by the thought of travelling abroad somewhere, which again highlights this “muting” of 9H topics.
The last — and by far WORST — hit from the South Node in Libra, was to my poor domicile Venus on December 5, 2024 shortly after the exact aspect. Given that I had already started paying more attention to the South Node’s presence in my 9H, I was nervous well in advance, but I could have never expected things to unfold the way that they did. Within an hour of the exact conjunction, my boyfriend (Libra Moon) got the news that his younger brother (Libra Venus + Sun) suffered from a stroke while studying abroad with his girlfriend. He needed to go into surgery and though he has made a miraculous recovery since then, at the time we really didn’t know what to expect. To add another layer to all of this, I had done a Year Ahead reading for my boyfriend’s mother (Taurus Sun) two weeks prior where I predicted this exact type of thing happening during that specific profection month. She had been going to specialists more frequently, so I thought it was regarding her body/health instead of her son's (3/4 of the family is Mercury ruled so knowing who is who gets tricky sometimes).
Though this is a rather dark example of this transit, I thought it was important to share as thinking back, I remain stunned at how literal this SN-Venus conjunction manifestation was. Héloïse notes that this aspect can “represent sorrow, conflict or difficulties with women in general or women who are maligned…” (2024, p. 53), but when considering this example, I think that this can be extended to those who are astrologically under Venus’s influence as well. Everyone in my boyfriend’s family has at least one planet or their ASC in a Venus-ruled sign, so it’s no wonder that this transit involved all of them in the end, especially because they live nearby.
All in all, the South Node’s trip through my 9H was generally a bummer and definitely kept 9H topics in my life feeling stagnant throughout the year. As a proud 9H stellium, I was shocked at just how lacklustre and sometimes dark the 9H became during this time, and am honestly excited to get deep into 9H topics again, now that the South Node is my 8H’s problem! :)
Aries North Node Transiting the 3H
Even though my natal 3H is empty, I definitely felt the effects of this transit; so to all of those who believe an empty house means nothing’s happening, I am here to convince you otherwise! I must admit though, the changes that I noticed to 3H topics with this transit, was in a far more gradual manner, as the 3H encompasses things like your immediate environment, neighbours, public transportation/commuting, short trips.
One thing that I only noticed after the North Nord ingress into Pisces, was just how wired and somewhat stressful day-to-day life actually was. It’s like the second I stepped out of my house, the entire world was buzzing with energy and I had to keep up. I noticed myself hastening my general pace, whether I was going to the store across the street for groceries, or to the city for the entire day. Everything was really fast-paced and I did run quite a bit in the metro and train stations regardless of whether I was using transport for work or my own leisure. I also realized that my neighbourhood in general seemed to be way louder than before; I even witnessed a couple of drunk street fights from my window. The Aries archetype was continuously shining through in these 3H topics, and I can certainly say that since the Virgo-Pisces ingress, this area of my life has calmed down quite a bit!
The 3H is also the place of ritual, which is the more practical side of spirituality when looking at the 3H-9H axis. I definitely felt a push to dive more deeply into the day-to-day aspects of my astrological practice, as I invested far more time, energy, and resources into my rituals than I ever had in my life. It became a form of intimate expression for me, as I would weave my current essence into the process and use it as an outlet for the heaviness brought on by the South Node in my 9H. It wasn’t enough to just know about the planets, lunar mansions, fixed stars, etc., I had to be fully immersed in them too, and engaging in ritual was the best way to do it! Instead of being an old poem, planetary hymns became a poetic map of the cosmic knowledge I had learned over the years. They not only told stories of the god’s and goddesses, but of how each of their natures inevitably came to influence my life as an astrologer, and human being. I can’t even begin to compare the drastic shift in my approach from before this transit up until the present; it’s something I am honestly quite proud of!
Another huge thing I noticed is that I started prioritizing my needs above other people’s comfort, as I wasn’t interested in compromising crucial aspects of my life that I fought very hard to build up in the first place. As a people pleaser, this is something I am constantly working on, so this shift was one that I welcomed quite a bit. Héloïse notes that when the lunar nodes are on the Aries-Libra axis “relationships become less diplomatic and the self is brought to the forefront of [one’s] awareness; a desire to break free from compromises and truces of peace become more pressing…” (2024, p. 99). I definitely got some push back for this decision, but I quickly realized that people who genuinely cared about and appreciated me were actually quite supportive of this shift. Stepping into that Aries energy as a Libra can be daunting, so I was grateful I had people in my corner cheering me on and looking out for me.
On my birthday last year I entered a 3H Mars year, so as you can imagine, this most likely made the Aries North Node transit even more noticeable for me. Three days before my birthday, my entire building was suddenly covered with scaffolding and construction workers. This was only supposed to be a 14 day ordeal, but here we are well in Aquarius season and there seems to be no end in sight. Unfortunately the construction sounds were exactly like what you’d expect when the North Node is in Aries: loud, incessant, disruptive, and at time slightly overwhelming. I had a sheet of metal almost fall on my head, which is about as literal as it can get! Since I’m assuming that this is my Mars year story, I’m hoping (and praying lol) that this will end once Mars is direct; however I noticed the shift in energy since the North Node left my 3H.
All in all this was a pretty eventful lunar node transit. Now of course, not every lunar node transit is going to be as “in your face” as this one was for me; like everything in astrology, it all comes down to your personal chart and how the nodes and other planets are placed. The lunar nodes certainly deserve more attention, as they can speak to many pivotal shifts when transiting personal placements and houses activated by profection. If you got to the end of this article, thank you so much for reading! I really wanted to create something a bit more personal/anecdotal, in order to illustrate how the lunar nodes going through the 3H and 9H might look for those who have this transit happening or coming up in the future. If you’d like to discussing topics like the lunar nodes, in the context of your own natal chart, you can always book a consultation with me here.
Bibliography
Carboni, S. (1997). Following the Stars: Images of the Zodiac in Islamic Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 23.
Dykes, B. N. (2010). Introductions to traditional astrology: Abū ma’shar & Al-Qabīsī. Cazimi Press.
Héloïse. (2024). Untangling the Nodes - Guidebook.
