An idea in astrology that I have known about for the last couple of years, but that I haven’t dug into much, is the idea of your North Node.
You come into the world with the skills and habits of its opposite, the South Node.
The idea is that your destiny and life satisfaction lie in the direction of your North Node.
It is based on the concept of past lives.
On the one hand, I don’t believe our destiny is locked in at birth, as some people have proposed.
Nor do I think that when we die, we are necessarily reborn into this world.
On the other hand, I do think our fate is somewhat spelled out for us at birth, because I don’t believe we come into the world as a blank slate (tabula rasa, as the philosophers call it).
And I do believe in karma and potentially that we are reborn after death, just not necessarily into this world or onto this planet. Perhaps, but that seems limiting to me.
So, I guess I am agnostic about this concept of a South Node (previous-life habits, skills, and patterns) and a North Node (your developmental journey in this life).
Thus, I am fine using it as a potentially helpful intuitive guide.
It might help one ascertain what to focus on to live a richer life.
My South Node is Capricorn. This means that my natural habits and patterns are:
Over-Control: I tend toward rigid structure versus letting things flow naturally.
Carrying the Weight Alone: I tend to be a natural stoic, capable in a crisis and able to do the heavy lifting without asking for help.
Guarding Resources: I naturally step into hyper-vigilant tracking and like to stay practical in my decisions.
Suppressing Vulnerability: I seek mastery of subjects, desire status, and bury deep fears and grief while keeping up a calm exterior.
Guilty as charged!
What does my North Node in Cancer say I should focus on doing in this life?
Well, when I first began to read about this, I found it to be a bit squishy, and I had a hard time understanding it.
However, now that I have studied it a bit more, it makes more sense.
In this lifetime, if the theory is true, I should focus on developing these sorts of habits:
Financial Independence: Earning my own income, managing my own investments and savings, and avoiding complicated situations involving tangled resources.
Emotional Self-Soothing: Learning to nurture my feelings, address my inner needs, and avoid burying my emotions behind a stoic facade.
Valuing Comfort and Simplicity: Recognizing that wealth is achieved partly through emotional richness (experiences of joy), security, and a peaceful environment (my inner Bilbo Baggins).
Setting Healthy Boundaries: Stepping back from taking responsibility for other people’s crises and drama so that I can protect my own energy and time.
In a word, I read that I am to develop “self-reliance.”
No wonder I have always gravitated toward Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalists, right?
To do so means I need to develop skills in financial literacy and become independent in my money decisions.
Check. I have done a pretty good job of this.
I should learn to trust my gut instincts and tap into my intuitive knowing more than trying to analyze a situation to death.
Uh yeah, probably need more focus on this.
Should I put together a checklist? (LOL)
Separating my self-worth from being productive and in control is also critical.
I can do this by recognizing that my value as a person comes from just who I am and what I genuinely care about, not what the world or others demand.
Sign me up!
It’s fascinating because I leveraged some of my South Node skills and habits to get to FIRE.
Yet my motivation for doing so was based on what the North Node says will bring me more meaning and satisfaction in this life.
And if this astrological theory is correct or helpful, it now says to let go of, or at least loosen up considerably on, those South Node skills.
What to do instead?
Dang if I know.
My first inclination is to build a spreadsheet and track changes.
Oh well, I guess some things don’t come easy, even when easing up is the goal.