North Node in Taurus, South Node in Scorpio January 18th, 2022–July 17th, 2023
*If you’re looking for information on Natal South Node in Scorpio, North Node in Taurus, visit this link!
Collective & personal lessons / themes to consider:
☆ Simple pleasures and wellness ☆
☆ Sustainability and long-term solutions ☆
☆ Love ≠ pain ☆
☆ Safety is slowly cultivated and grown strong ☆
☆ Collapse of The Tower vs the abundant nurturance of The Empress ☆
(tensions between those clinging to safety and those clinging to destruction)
☆ Satiation, pleasure + wellness > deprivation and defense ☆
☆ Healthy interdependence ☆
☆ Less psychology, more somatics ☆
☆ Climate change, agriculture, fertilizer, money, sewer/septic systems ☆
☆ Prices of food and other goods may continue to inflate ☆
☆ Defense discussion / adjusting military spending ☆
☆ Less dark media, more romcoms, comedies, and deep, artsy stuff ☆
☆ Exposing what is hidden, in the name of the greater good ☆
☆ Balancing the ~bad bitch~ with the romantic ☆
Who is affected?
Everyone!
Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius are advised take special notice.
Key dates:
November 19th, 2021: Lunar eclipse in Taurus at 27º17’
January 18th, 2022: North node enters Taurus, south node enters Scorpio
April 30th, 2022: Solar eclipse in Taurus at 10º35’
May 16th, 2022: Lunar eclipse in Scorpio at 25º16’
October 25th, 2022: Solar eclipse in Scorpio at 2º07’
November 8th, 2022: Lunar eclipse in Taurus at 15º59’
*April 20th, 2023: Solar eclipse in Aries at 29º52
May 5th, 2023: Lunar eclipse in Scorpio at 14º52’
*July 17th, 2023: North node leaves Taurus and enters Aries, south node leaves Scorpio and enters Libra
*October 14th, 2023: Solar eclipse in Libra at 21º10’
October 28th, 2023: Lunar eclipse in Taurus at 5º03’
*Starred dates indicate events within the Taurus/Scorpio eclipse cycle, which officially concludes with the last lunar eclipse in Taurus on October 28th, 2023, but are not in the signs of Taurus/Scorpio. Eclipses take place when the new and full moons occur within 17º of the north or south node and therefore they can sometimes occur in the neighboring signs. With this cycle, there is significant overlap.
As a world, we’ve spent a long time in lack, pain and fear. We have been surrounded by death for years, intimately aware of its smell. On January 18th, 2022, the north and south nodes (also known as Rahu and Ketu) will enter Taurus (north node) and Scorpio (south node), at long last, highlighting individual and collective lessons in balancing in this polarity. This is our time to bring the Scorpio/Taurus axis into balance, to treasure what we do still have, to take pleasure in what is available to us, and to let go of the collective attachment to destruction. We have to be willing to release our attachment to turmoil, living in the shadows of the psyche, and endings/metaphysical death while avoiding false security, greed, and obstinacy. Indulge in what pleasures and safeties you do have. Keep each other safe. Turn the compost pile once more and then use it to grow the garden that will feed us long into the future.
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 high-strung 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 north node and south node represent two extremes we’re wrangling with. The way to steady the impact of their turbulence is to hold both, gently and reverently, one in each hand.
The nodes have occupied Sagittarius and Gemini since May 5th, 2020. During this time we’ve seen massive conflict over truth, information, and belief – themes intimately tied to these two signs. The Gemini north node has smothered us in ever-changing information, unsure of what’s fact and what’s fiction, finding that what feels so certain tonight may not be so in the morning, feeling reality fragment and shatter in our hands. Many have clung to the known safety of the Sagittarius south node and took shelter in its dogmatic wisdom, prophetic doomsday proclamations, and conspiracy theories on politics (or “politics”), health, spirituality, and everything in between. 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. Neither is right on its own. The pieces of this jigsaw puzzle never quite fit together.
”Strip-search your inhibition
Go get your grave embossed
Weed your rotten wisdom
It won't turn the future off.”
(Kevin Devine, a Sagittarius sun, “Albatross”)
In 2022 and 2023, through the south node Scorpio we’ll see the culture shift from this heavy reliance on personal opinion and conspiracy theories as misdirected ways to escape the chaos, to instead relying on destructive, apocalyptic shit on steroids in a misdirected effort to feel in control of the chaos. Within the fixed modality (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) there is always danger of fighting and clawing for control, as if to prove something, and it’s imperative that we not engage in this fight. We cannot afford to slip from projecting fear into polarizing opinions and conspiracy theories only to claw at new ways to find control. The south node in Scorpio finds safety deep in the earth and psyche, and in solid defense. It’s psychological, shadowy, familiar with loss, often silent. At its worst, it operates from the subconscious and can be destructive, secretive, isolating, power-hungry and invasive.
We want control because we want to feel safe, and in so many ways the world is not safe right now. The nodes in Gemini and Sagittarius squared Neptune in Pisces, highlighting some of its decade-long lessons on self-deception, culty dogma, martyrdom, conspiracy theory, spirituality, and the great lengths we’ll go to dilute fear by projecting it onto something more manageable, something we perceive ourselves to have control over. It’s easier to believe the problem is being required to wear a face mask (a piece of fabric hardly different from the pants we’re also required to wear to the grocery store; something we can technically refuse or protest and feel momentarily empowered in that) than it is to recognize that the real problem is an innate, primal fear of a virus that is completely beyond any of our control. Going way back to the very first month Neptune was in Pisces, way back in 2011, this same basic practice of projecting all fears onto one seemingly-manageable object showed itself in the way that many Americans reacted to the long-awaited killing of Osama bin Laden – the mangled euphoria was palpable, as if killing one person could somehow make the world right again by virtue of man-as-symbol alone. (Astonishingly, it did not.)
[It’s worth mentioning, too, that prior to 2020, the south node had last entered Sagittarius in 2001, about a month after 9/11, and Osama bin Laden was killed when the north node was in Sagittarius. Time is a cyclical spiral, the same themes from only slightly different angles. Interestingly, at the time of the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the nodes were–you guessed it!–in Sagittarius and Gemini again. These transits are huge because the south node in Sagittarius emphasizes fanaticism, and because the United States is a Sagittarius ascendant. Countries can have birth charts too!]
So much of what we have to do to turn the tsunami-like hell of the present (and future foretold) into a playful wave begins with cutting back the brambles and ground cover to make our way down to the root of the problem–the best function of the south node in Scorpio!–and then using that awareness to change our relationship to safety, security and pleasure, finding new (deeper? more feral? more sustainable?) ways of feeling GOOD and safe–the best of the north node in Taurus. The south node in Scorpio is content to stay in the pruning and composting phase, lulling itself to sleep with buzz of the hedge clippers and power grabs. But oh, what magic happens when we find the strength to stretch our stiff necks and awaken, and to be with the setting AND the rising. Over the next 18 months, if we manage to look ahead, we can make a real effort to take some of this decaying matter and turn it into fresh humus. We can fold into the battered pain, terror, anger and loss of the last 18 months, and the last 18 years, and make something of everything we’ve been through. We can emerge from wherever we’ve been with respect for the process of death – with respect for the venom that killed us – but still be reborn.
The north node in Taurus is hungry for what the eventual garden will produce, the safety, satiation, and pleasure it promises. The north node in Taurus is the late night cocktail, the sweatpants or silk robe, the hearty dinner after a menagerie of coffins and lost time. We can get carried away with how fertile, abundant, steady and ready for love and lust we find ourselves at this time, as we remember that there is so much to be here with, at last (especially with Jupiter dipping in and out of Pisces and Aries all year). We have to be careful to indulge in the pure, simple pleasures of life (food, sex, love, laughter, catharsis, shelter, connection, conversation) without drowning or escaping. We have to remember to pray to the past, present and future simultaneously. At her worst, the north node in Taurus is insufferably obstinate, stuck in her ways, immovable in both opinion and direction, argumentative, controlling and stagnant. At her best, she is powerfully grounded, alight with the divinity of physicality, the earth itself, and bodily ecstasy, and she has the ability to invoke steady, long-lasting changes that keep us safe. She, too, wants to make something of what we’ve been through. Through her, we can plant and tend to the garden that will feed us come summer, and for generations fanned out into the future.
Looking ahead, 2022-23 feels like a battle between those who wanna hold onto what joys remain and those who wanna ensure collapse just to wipe the slate clean and start anew. Both are wrong and unbalanced on their own. How can we hold both? I wanna see something slower, something that moves at the metered pace that fixed signs are meant to move at. Something we take in with ease and savor, something we take our time with. I want us to be able to keep coming back for more for years to come. Remember poring over something. Remember sinking into something. It’s magical to let something just barely graze your skin, but only when in balance with soaking it in through your pores. Consuming only when you let it consume you too, intimately aware that what lives will one day die and what dies will one day feed life, in touch with the frank reality that everything we consume will eventually be returned to the earth, until we are returned to the earth ourselves.
There are pure, bare, earthly delights right here; heaven is ours to create, as a world, if we want it. The earth is a blessed paradise that we are lucky to have, and it deserves to be cared for like a lover. The earth isn’t separate from us. We are the earth, and our relationships, our senses, and art make life worth living. In 2022, the time is ripe to try to embrace life with care, whatever that looks like. May we consider what is ethical (the nodes and eclipses will square Saturn in Aquarius), sustainable (they will conjoin and oppose Uranus in Taurus), and renewable (the nodes themselves), remaining ever-aware of the presence of danger, death and decay (Scorpio south node) that is sewn into every life – the many lives and deaths that had to happen in order for us to live.
May the north node in Taurus signify an increase in comfort, wellness and stability and not obstinacy, over-consumption and greed.
May the south node in Scorpio come with the release of fear, darkness and loss.
May we find control in using pain as fertilizer to grow a nourishing garden.
And may we always hold both, gently and reverently, and may we find pleasure, even in the dark.
xo,
June
P.S. Keep reading for more specifics & practical predictions and advisement for this cycle.
Long-term solutions, sustainability, agriculture, bodily wellness, fertilizer, climate change, and sewer & septic systems
The north node in Taurus spotlights and fixates on sustainability and permanence – environmental sustainability, financial sustainability, sustainable health practices, sustainable work practices, reliable and sustainable friendships and other relationships. Less “momentary” success, fewer temporary gigs & money-making schemes, more focus on long-term solutions and overall wellness, inside and out. Climate change is major within this cycle, and extreme weather is practically a given going forward.
These are repeating themes in the astrology of 2022, as we start the year off with Venus retrograde in Capricorn & Juno in Capricorn, then Mercury goes retrograde in Aquarius and re-enters Capricorn too. Through these transits we’re reevaluating commitments, sifting out anything that can’t withstand the weathering test of time. Uranus remains in Taurus, nearly halfway through its eight-year stay. Uranus in Taurus centers on two primary themes: biological, agricultural and financial innovation (for better and sometimes for worse; “innovation” is a loose term), and most importantly, coming back to ourselves–our true nature–to root back into what is most sustainable, planting and tending to the trees that will feed us for generations, knowing that the future is dependent always on what we do right now. We must address climate change, now. With Uranus in Taurus continuing to square Saturn in Aquarius on and off throughout the year, there are similar themes of struggling to break free of the past to emerge into the future refreshed, sustainable and progressive but in sync with the earth.
Scorpio is associated with that which is “underground,” and the excretory system. The south node itself is an expression of elimination, and all forms of clearing out, too. (It’s said that eclipses on the south node, or the “tail of the dragon”, can “trigger” diarrhea, while eclipses on the north node, or the “head of the dragon”, are associated with vomiting!) In a very literal way, the south node in Scorpio has major sewer and septic system vibes. Watch for issues and overflows, take care of your drains and get your septic tank pumped if you’re overdue.
The connection between the south node in Scorpio and excretion extends to all kinds of waste we create as a world. Both key players in the cycles of life, Taurus grows and feeds and Scorpio eliminates and breaks down. Waste-reduction may be a big topic over the next year and a half, and we may see more awareness brought to the immense issue of food (Taurus north node) waste (Scorpio south node), especially here in the United States, and exactly what happens to our garbage and waste in general. Things both material and immaterial do not just disappear because we don’t see them, and this nodal cycle aims to make us aware of that on all levels. On a practical, personal level, pay your trash bill, keep your cans clean, and choose to donate or resell over throw away when possible. Buying things secondhand is always advisable, and the north node in Taurus encourages us to ditch fast fashion and buy what is more likely to last years or even decades when we’re able to. Repairing > repurchasing, now and always.
Nature’s way of dealing with waste is to compost it and turn it into fertilizer. Issues relating to fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and soil depletion could come into play here too, along with many other Taurean themes of agriculture, an ongoing focus with Uranus in Taurus as well. Perhaps we will crack open the conversation around sustainable farming practices and how our current practices have depleted our soil and caused great disruption to our waterways and their inhabitants, as well as to the pollinator populations (bees in particular, but not exclusively) that we quite literally rely on for our survival. The environmental impact and cruelty of factory farming and agricultural practices–a leading driver of climate change–is another distinct possibility for discussion. Can we use this energy to discuss food deserts and environmental racism? Or the over 13 million people who are going hungry or living without food security in the United States, one of the wealthiest nations in the world? How about the 30-40% of food that is outright thrown away in the United States while people are starving? Can we discuss the below-bare-minimum wages that make healthy food unattainable for so many of us? Can we discuss work hours (and the system’s dependence on the clearly-outdated nuclear family) that make rest, home-cooked meals, and time spent with family impossible, and long-term the impact this has on our mental and physical well-being? Can we bring the climate change emergency to the forefront of our minds and discussions, and keep it there? Can we talk about our dying oceans? Can we, at the very least, stop soaking our own lawns in herbicides and explore what the earth’s wild plants have to offer? And can we get fucking passionate?
Advocating for systemic change in whatever way we can is critical. We can all do something. Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus are about moving toward sustainability, and cultivating real security and safety for all of us, stripping away societal constructs that have given some of us material security and safety at the expense of both human and non-human beings. The nodes entering Scorpio and Taurus further intensify this process.
Money/finance, military defense spending, rising prices
Taurus is often associated with money, but it’s also one of the most passionately anti-capitalist signs there is; it’s a sign that values sustainability, the earth and its cycles, the ways of nature, rest, play, pleasure, health, and often minimalism or at least eco-consciousness. It also values security, safety, and comfort – three things that are, in the modern world, inextricably linked to money, but Taurus is not innately conflated with money. In fact, Taurus very often digs its bullish heels in on very fuck-the-system, anti-establishment, anti-capitalist points of view. (See: Taureans Karl Marx, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and many, many others.)
Scorpio, traditionally ruled by Mars and represented by the Scorpion, can show up in the world as defense – both personal defense and military defense. With the nodes in Scorpio and Taurus, I’m very much anticipating more debate and division on military (Scorpio/Mars) spending (Taurus/Venus), particularly in the United States as it goes through multiple exact hits of its first Pluto return in its 2nd house (the house of finance and security) in 2022. As a country, beginning in autumn 2022 we’ll also be experiencing our Mars return in the 7th house… for 7 months straight – a transit that screams "defense” (and “defensive”) and will likely conjure up questions on why we spend more on defense than the next 11 countries combined. Pay close attention to what comes up around this subject at the very end of 2022 in particular.
As many have noted, the north node (increase, inflation, rising) in Taurus (“money”, food) could absolutely correlate with prices on food and other goods continuing to rise. This also makes sense with the nodes/eclipses squaring Saturn – something being “backed up” or blocked (this square could also show up as breaking through–or eclipsing–blockages to new legislation on any number of issues relating to Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius). But I also like to consider the opposing point of view. It’s possible that this could also be a time of great abundance (Taurus north node! Jupiter in Pisces!), when there is more than enough for all. Idealistic, but we need some idealism.
Additionally, we don’t need astrology to tell us that cryptocurrency will continue to be a hot topic over the next year and a half (and beyond). I’m tired of hearing about it, and perhaps by the end of an eclipse cycle like this one that is sure to be over-saturated with financial conversation and debate, we will all be. However, I’ll be watching for sudden changes and quakes in the crypto sphere over the next year and a half, particularly around eclipse seasons (Taurus and Scorpio seasons).
Media
Since Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008, a cloud of darkness (A.K.A a newfound awareness of reality) descended upon the earth, and media reflected our awareness in the strangely dark, gritty direction it took; there are so much horror, apocalypse, and crime movies, shows and games out there and so little of the lighthearted media that can be leaned into for momentary relief during dark eras like these. The south node in Scorpio feels like a time to bring this into balance.
The sign of the south node often signifies negative traits we’re holding onto, and I anticipate this to be a time when artists, filmmakers, and perhaps musicians fall to one extreme or the other, into either the sharpness of Scorpionic darkness, or the earthly awareness of Taurean warmth. This is an ideal time for expressions of darkness through beautiful, deeply imaginative and creative art to rise to the surface; to take what has felt so ugly and turn it into art. Make America romantic again? I’m also gleefully anticipating the return of romantic comedies, and perhaps comedies in general.
2022-2023 is a time for embracing life again. For bringing into balance life and death, in and out, light and dark, and uniting these opposites in the name of love. Taurus, ruled by Venus, can be flowery but it is not weak or shallow. It’s firm moss, deep earth, steady, old trees, dependable perennials. Taurus and Scorpio are the earth writhing in passion every spring and fall, dripping flowers and brilliant leaves, each season with its own unique, intoxicating scent. It’s passion for the cycles of life that unites these two opposites and we can blend the two together in the art and media we make to reflect the times.
Psychology, somatics, interdependence, hedonism, and The Empress vs The Tower
Scorpio is tied very much to psychology. At the most basic Mars-ruled level, it’s good to understand “the enemy”’s motivations. Scorpio wants to slice open the surface and peer into the pit of its prey and its beloved. It’s also rare, however, that I meet a Taurus who isn’t into psychology too. Taurus is earth at its finest, and it, too, goes deep.
While the nodes are in Scorpio and Taurus, it’s important that we not overindulge in our Scorpionic attunement to danger and secret motivations hidden within the psyche, and keep it in check with grounded Taurean energy that focuses on sustaining well-being, so that even as the earth moves beneath us, we will remain steady. And on the other hand, we can keep the Taurean tendency to over-insulate itself in warm cozies in balance with the Scorpionic awareness of the sharper points of reality. While Scorpio protects itself and maintains its security via defensive (and sometimes offensive) war tactics, Taurus knows that we’ll be okay no matter what lies beneath. Both are necessary.
While Scorpio is identified with psychology, Taurus is connected to somatics. It seems that we’ve all been deep into shadow work (a term I kind of hate but use anyway) for the last several years (shout out to Saturn-in-its-domiciles-since-2017), but we’re in need of balance here too. The nodes in these signs speak to the fact that while psychology–and especially inner child work–is a miraculous and necessary place to start untangling our inner webs (my favorite reading to do is my Shadow Work + Inner Child reading!), we cannot go all the way with the power of Scorpionic shadow work and piercing insight alone. So much of what we call “emotion” is bodily (I spoke on this in my post on the Full Moon in Cancer). There is immense wisdom in the Taurus north node for embracing the body and moving through emotion and trauma by way of the body. During this nodal cycle, anticipate a continued rise in body-centered healing modalities, embodiment practices, and a more holistic, wellness-focused approach to mental health.
The Taurus/Scorpio axis is heavily associated with the life and death cycle and thus easily represents the role that fungi play in that cycle. Expect to see more conversation on and monetizing of the healing potential of mushrooms of all kinds, and perhaps especially the role psilocybin can play in psychiatric treatment. With Taurus’ affinity for plant medicine, we can expect herbal treatments and supplements to become a topic of debate in a general sense too. On a similar note, this transit certainly doesn’t hurt the move toward legalizing marijuana either.
The (kind of laughable and now very capitalistic) “self-care” movement is likely to keep growing too, though it may also face some unexpected criticism and opposition through the eclipses, Uranus in Taurus, and as we, as a world, feel our division take on this new nodal polarity. I’d love to see the self-care movement shift its focus to changing the systems that require us to bubble-bath our way through the day just to live to see another day.
We are living through what many have described as a “Tower moment” – referring to the 16th Major Arcana card in tarot, which represents the moment when everything we’ve always known collapses, when lightning strikes the structures that held us up and they crumble beneath us, throwing us from our ivory towers and into the wild unknown. Doomsday-heralding, apocalyptic, the-end-is-near, “look on the dark side and wipe the slate clean” Tower-worshipers versus those who want to hold onto what joys remain, white-knuckled and wide-eyed, shouting “let us live.”
The ideal outcome is The Empress herself: warm, abundant, fertile and in touch with human and non-human nature. Let us bring the south node in Scorpio and the north node in Taurus together by truly embracing the wild unknown, and making it known without caging or domesticating it. Growing safety and trust in ourselves and each other, slowly, from the ground up. Materially, we can each personally do this through embracing the natural world, foraging, ceasing the use of unnecessary herbicides, letting our lawns run wild, having earth-shaking sex, making art straight from the soul. We can focus on wellness, wholeness, relationships, advocating for systemic change, helping others to be safe, showing them they’re safe here with us and that they will be provided for in times of need, embracing the cyclical, seasonal nature of the earthly experience, and making space for "the soft animal of your body [to] love what it loves” and be what it is, ever in flux, whether it’s a snake coiled, snapping, or sun-bathing. Please, please, let us regard this entire existence and all of its deserts and forests as equally divine. Let us laugh and cry.