North Node in Gemini, South Node in Sagittarius: A Retrospective
Collective & personal lessons to consider:
2 things can be true at once
Personal opinion ≠ the truth.
Popular opinion ≠ the truth either.
We can be right + wrong simultaneously.
Too many cooks = a dangerous kitchen, sometimes.
Reality only becomes reality when it’s shared.
Key dates:
May 5th, 2020: North Node enters Gemini, South Node enters Sagittarius
June 5th, 2020: Lunar eclipse in Sagittarius at 15º42’
November 30th, 2020: Lunar eclipse in Gemini at 8º45’
December 14th, 2020: Solar eclipse in Sagittarius at 23º06’
May 26th, 2021: Lunar eclipse in Sagittarius at 5º29’
June 10th, 2021: Solar eclipse in Gemini at 19º42’
December 4th, 2021: Solar eclipse in Sagittarius at 12º16’
January 29th, 2022: North node enters Taurus, South Node enters Scorpio
The north and south nodes (also often referred to as Rahu and Ketu) moved into Gemini and Sagittarius, respectively, on May 5th, 2020, sweeping us into a new eclipse cycle that would complete on January 18th, 2022. To be clear, the lunar nodes are not physical bodies but the points in the moon’s ecliptic at which eclipses take place; like eclipses themselves, they are strange by nature, and in transit they indicate weird influxes and outfluxes, unexpected rises and falls, decreases (south node) and increases (north node). They’re always exactly opposed to one another and, in general, the lunar nodes represent a polarity we are learning to better balance, a polarity that is always in flux, wobbling and dipping in and out of black and red waters. The nodes are the head and tail of the dragon that gorges itself silly and shits the bed just because it didn’t want to get up. They stir things up and move ‘em around. They’re the deliverers of fate.
The lunar nodes operate from a position of “let go or be dragged.” They both sound a siren we can’t ignore, one wolf in each ear. With Rahu in Gemini and the Ketu in Sagittarius, we’ve been terrorized by waves of ever-changing, never-ending news cycles and we’re either ~doom scrolling~ and dissolving into TikTok just to escape for a moment (Gemini on a dark night) or becoming further entrenched in equally doomy conspiracy theories and political dogma (Sagittarius on a dark night). It feels like we’re trying to outrun our own tails, our pubescent uncertainty, and the shadow of humanity. Gemini loves information, media, differing opinions (and advocating for the devil), peers and peer-review, the facts (even though/especially when they’re slippery and in motion), talking (and talking shit), hearing, frenetic activity, humor, and above all else, variety. It’s an air sign; it thrives on exchange. Sagittarius loves faith, belief, optimism, conspiracy theories, exploration, adventure, and above all else, personal experience and freedom. It’s a fire sign; it thrives on action.
The last time the nodes were in these signs was in the year and a half following 9/11. Sound familiar? Back then we were doom shopping instead. We were still projecting The Enemy™️ onto anyone we could, spinning and hanging in webs of lies as we clung to where we’d been, and killing others in the name of “freedom” in attempt to outrun our own shadow. It didn’t work then, it won’t work now.
In an ideal world, the north node in Gemini and the south node in Sagittarius would manifest not as a period of running nor overstimulation, but as a period of questions: questioning what we see, what we believe, what we “know” or have taken for granted. What is true? Who says it’s true? Everything is up for debate. Are you speaking your truth or your programming? Reminder: programming comes in all shapes and sizes and culty “spiritual” and “political” programming is all the rage right now. The road to hell is paved with the belief that we (or you) are “waking up.”
Robert Fludd, From Utriusque Cosmi (1617)
Questions to keep in mind while parsing through where–and who–you’ve ended up on the other side of the north node in Gemini and south node in Sagittarius:
How much information are you taking in on a daily basis? Is it too much? Do you feel overwhelmed or confused? Maybe taking some time to enjoy the silence is in order. Do you feel like you’ve found the Truth? Where is that truth felt in your body? Bodily sensations carry weight – if it feels exciting, it’s probably more dopamine than truth. If it feels calm and centered, stay with that feeling. Do you feel resistance to opposing opinions? Can you see value in other perspectives?
This is a period of listening, learning, considering all sides and seeing them as pieces of a whole, and then bringing it back to center. Finding true resonance outside of the tidal waves. The lunar nodes represent two opposing angles and we are forced to listen to the wolves in both ears, remembering that it’s not a matter of one or the other, but often both or neither. In Gemini and Sagittarius, this means we’re being asked, over and over, to reevaluate our sense of what is true, and our methods for arriving at that truth.
At some point in 2021, I had a conversation with my father’s longtime girlfriend (a nurse and a Mercurial force of a woman – a Gemini sun/midheaven and Virgo rising, Mars, Uranus, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta) about the unending pandemic and why it’s inspired such friction and confusion, and she said something that clicked the last piece of the puzzle into place for me: we have been bombarded with way, way too much (north node!) ever-changing information (in Gemini!), and we don’t know how to live with something so uncertain.
Living through unprecedented times (a phrase I once mocked but can no longer deny, despite the cyclical nature of existence) is too much even without the 24/7 onslaught of terrifying news and the many, many intense responses and retaliations (some righteous, some utterly deranged) to these events. We’re rightfully scared, and in response to this “too much”, so many of us have dug our heels into the comfort zone of the south node, Sagittarius style: “This is what *I* see. This is what *I* believe. This is the Truth because *I* saw it.” It’s all pretty reasonable – everyone finds their control in different places. The pandemic dissolved what we thought we knew for sure (and isolated us). While the north node in Gemini–and those of us who leaned into it–ran its hands through the devouring quicksand, sifting for whatever information could empower it and keep it safe, even if only for a moment, the south node in Sagittarius–and those who felt safest with it–ran offshore, bucking the science and peer-review for the personal experience; “I did my own research,” says the south node in Sagittarius and its Jupiterian disciples.
Though throughout this time we’ve seen some heartening triumphs of humanity in the style of Jupiter–people willing to go above and beyond for others in everyday ways, the unofficial slogan “we’re all in this together” (true or not), people who put others’ safety and health first, people creating videos and pieces of writing and art and memes to keep our spirits up, people making masks from their homes, people protesting injustice with a level of fervor we haven’t seen in some time–through the south node in Sagittarius we’ve also seen grotesque disfigurements of Jupiterian energy. A planet that has such beauty and beneficence bursting from it, such generosity of spirit, incredible powers of teaching and healing fell so far to its dark side in the face of fear. Paranoia. Massive distortions of truth (and intense commitment to the idea that it’s other people who are distorting the truth). Fear-mongering. Far-flung collective and individual delusions. Extreme and all-consuming conspiracy theories of all shapes and sizes. Deluded rejection of verified election results. Droves of people feeling so certain, from the safety of their armchairs, that masks–pieces of fabric with little difference from the clothes we have been mandated to wear all our lives–are being used as tools of oppression. An American president encouraging all manner of delusion, swearing we’re doing just fine, instigating and stoking the most rank of Jupiter’s flames. Holding tight (or clinging) to spirituality and astrology and all kinds of spiritual practitioners out of the desperate need to make sense of things that are so big and so scary. Screaming at the people we love. Prophecies of end times. But the vast majority of these things we’ve done as a collective were ultimately done to protect ourselves mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and to keep ourselves feeling safe through a time of terrifying uncertainty during which we have known, whether we consciously or outwardly accept it or not, that death could easily be at our literal doorstep. None of these responses are actually unfathomable. They’re all understandable. We are all looking for a light in the dark.
Through the north node in Gemini, we’ve seen Gemini energy stretched and skewed, amplified and exaggerated. The media, and our consumption of and participation in it, was particularly interesting. An endless news cycle reminiscent of the post-9/11 news cycles (the last time the north node was in Gemini). Social media absorption and scrolling ourselves into oblivion. We have been suffocated by the media, as they seemed intent not on keeping us dutifully informed but keeping us anxious day and night without respite. The always-changing and always-conflicting information about the airborne virus that affects the lungs so deeply (Gemini is an air sign and it is associated with the lungs). A deranged, arguably unprecedented media campaign against a deranged president (a Gemini sun who happed to have been born during a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius). The sudden collective awareness of the reality of racism. The people who still want to deny its existence. The mass protests following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others. The breaking down of huge ideologies into bite-sized tweets and Instagram infographics. People compulsively sharing these bites in attempt to perform awareness. The rise of a thieving astrologer, and the rabid, rapid campaign to not just hold her accountable but destroy her. The development of a movement to cancel “cancel culture.” (The canceling of canceling feels ultra=Gemini.) These are all things that were made larger and more pervasive by the Gemini north node’s tendency toward rapid spread of massive amounts of information, while Saturn in Aquarius provided the structure of global social networks of people and ideology beneath them. See also: the sudden rise in popularity of governor of New York (a Sagittarius sun and likely Gemini moon, depending on his birth time) followed by removal from office before the end of this cycle, the relatively fast production of the vaccines, the repeated flip-flopping of perspective and ideology, and the meme-ing of a pandemic and the perceived looming of societal collapse. The list goes on. The north node in Gemini swallowed us whole.
Many of the events and overall energies of 2020 through 2021 have been extreme, but none of us are entirely unreasonable. We’re in a horror movie funhouse and we’re just looking for the fucking door. It doesn’t matter if all we could find was a glowstick to light the way. It’s a light and we needed a light. The north node in Gemini and the south node in Sagittarius represent, in my eyes, the two halves of society over the last year and a half: one side hoping more more more information will save us, and the other believing that belief will keep us safe. It’s the trying task of keeping those two in balance that has burned us out and left us feeling kind of hopeless. We have not succeeded in gracefully walking the tightrope. Instead, the two nodes of the moon have fed one another, as they do. The lightning-quick Mercurial spread of Jupiterian ideologies and dogma.
This eclipse cycle saw many of us confined to our homes, first diving into the best of Gemini and learning new things (making sourdough bread or plotting a new business or whatever everyone was doing?) and then succumbing to the worst: doom-scrolling and dissociating. Many others embodied the south node in Sagittarius’ in their faith in the future and willingness to bring whatever light they can to the dark, or in their desperate clinging to perceived freedoms of the past and to personal opinion over peer review, opinion presented as fact, conspiracy theories, and rabbit holes that feel spiritual but are really just unproductive ways to escape. It can feel like we’re being contained because we can’t “do” in the way we’re used to. But there’s freedom in the mind, in exploring different outlooks, and learning from a book is not always worse than learning from experience.
For me, this nodal transit manifested as my first-ever true doubting of my Spiritual Beliefs™ (the roots of which were arguably established the LAST time the nodes transited these signs) for fear that I’ve been living a delusion. It’s good to have some healthy Mercurial skepticism. But I’ve spiraled myself into a mental and physical breakdown over the last year and a half, and the first card that fell was the one with the picture of the moon as The Fool; I began to fear–with frightened hands but steady vision–that everything I “believed” was actually crazy and wrong. Today, I don’t care so much about that. I care about surviving. Only a few things have always been laced into the fabric of human life – things like eating, sleeping, desire, fucking, caring for and helping one another, learning, pleasure-seeking, intoxication (as much as I hate to say it!), and spirituality, or a way to make meaning and sense out of the things we experience. These things have always been with us in one form or another, for the entirety of known history. Deluded or not, they’re here for a reason: to help us survive, to remind us that not everything is always so dark and unknowable. I care about all of us surviving and thriving and moving toward a future of wellness, peace, and abundance. And that spoons us directly, but ever so gently, into the next nodal cycle – south node in Scorpio, north node in Taurus, coming to a world near you January 18th, 2022.