posted March 24, 2005 12:32 AM            

Well, anyhow, they're my thoughts.

posted March 24, 2005 12:40 AM              

What are Lunar Nodes?

Lunar Nodes, also called the Moon's Nodes, are the points where the Moon's orbit of the Earth intersects the celestial ecliptic - the narrow band of space described by the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The points in the Moon's orbital cycle where it crosses the ecliptic are of particular astrological importance, bringing the Earth-Moon system into line with the solar system, and so relating individual will to the will of the wider cosmos, and conferring a sense of fatedness and externally chosen destiny to whatever contacts the nodal axis in the nativity.

Where the orbit of the Moon around Earth crosses the ecliptic in a northward direction is known as the North Node, the Ascending Node, the Dragon's Head, Caput Draconis, or Rahu. Where it crosses the ecliptic in a southward direction is known as the South Node, the Descending Node, the Dragon's Tail, Cauda Draconis, or Ketu. The South Node is always exactly opposite the North Node, and as a result only the position of the North Node is shown in ephemerides.

posted March 24, 2005 12:44 AM            

The Sun - Moon reference points in financial trends seem to be where the ecliptic is intersected by:

* the plane of the Earth's equator. These two planes cut at the: spring (vernal) equinox point - 0
Eo (0 Aries) & and the autumn equinox point - 180 Eo (0 Libra). As viewed from the northern
hemisphere, the Sun passes from below to above the celestial equator at the spring equinox
and from above to below at the autumn equinox.

* the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth. (The Moon's orbital plane is inclined 5
degrees to the ecliptic.) The points where these two planes intersect are called the Moon's
north & south nodes, 180 degrees apart on the ecliptic circle. The ascending or north
node is the point where the Moon crosses from below to above the ecliptic. The descending
or south node is where the Moon crosses from above to below the ecliptic.

What appears to be so important is the change in orientation of the Sun and Moon relative to the astronomical planes. However, the terms above/below depend on viewing from the northern or southern hemispheres. Therefore it is only reasonable that both points in nodal point pairs are pertinent in cycles of financial distress. The equinox points move clockwise (retrograde) against the background of fixed stars, while the Moon's nodes also move clockwise around the ecliptic circle in the nutation cycle of 18.6 years. These cyclic phenomena arise from the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on the Earth’s equatorial bulge.

The Earth bulges slightly around the equator with the distance between the centre and equator being 0.3 per cent greater than the distance from the centre to the poles. The plane of the equatorial bulge is tilted in relation to the ecliptic by 23.5 degrees (called the obliquity). Both the Sun and Moon gravitationally pull on the Earth's equatorial bulge. The Moon tugs at this bulge to ally with the Moon's orbital plane, while the Sun pulls it to align with the ecliptic. The combined effect is to try to decrease the angle between the Earth’s equatorial plane and the ecliptic, but the Earth resists such forces as it rotates with angular momentum. These competing forces result in the Earth's spin axis describing a double conical motion (one each for the north and south poles) around the perpendicular (90 Ao) to the ecliptic. The overall impact gives rise to two important astronomical phenomena.

Precession of the Equinoxes. The equinox points rotate retrograde (clockwise) very slowly against the background of fixed stars completing a cycle about every 25,800 years. Around 200 BCE, the spring equinox point (0 Eo) was sited in the constellation Aries, but now it is in the early part of the constellation Aquarius. The orientation of the north pole also changes very slowly in relation to the background of fixed stars. Currently the north pole points to Polaris (or Pole Star), but in around 12,000 years the brilliant star Vega will be the new pole star. The precessional movement is not perfectly regular because the Sun and Moon gravitationally pull in different planes and their positions constantly change in relation to each other and the Earth.

The Nutation Cycle is caused by a very slight elliptical nodding of the Earth's axis, which is superimposed on the precessional motion due to the pull of the Moon on the Earth. Thus the double cone described previously is in fact a corrugated or wavy cone. This nodding shows up as the north node’s retrograde (clockwise) movement around the ecliptic circle, taking 18.6133 tropical years to complete one cycle of the ecliptic circle from spring equinox to spring equinox.

A number of other Sun - Moon cycles are crucial in financial trends and arise in the ecliptical and angular circles.
http://www.davidmcminn.com/pages/smnum56.htm

(bold is mine)

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The North and South Nodes

The Earth orbits the Sun in an oval. Picture this in your mind. Now, pass a plane through that oval. No other planet orbits the Sun and stays entirely on that plane. They all pass through it, two times in each orbit. The Moon passes through it, too. The next place the Moon will pass through this plane (called the ecliptic) is the North Node. The last place it passed through is the South Node. Most charts include the North and South Node. They are always in opposition (in other words, always directly opposite each other). If a chart shows only the North Node, you know the South Node is directly opposite the North Node. They are also usually moving in retrograde motion.

The North Node is destiny and change. It is what a person is learning or working toward or growing into in this lifetime. The South Node is where that person has been in most recent past lives.
http://thewanderinghermit.com/x-astro/evenmore.htm

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Notes on Retrogrades
The Sun & Moon never turn retrograde. The Moon's Nodes are always retrograde.

Usually the planetary energies flow outward "in the pursuit of" the various energies represented by the planets. But with retrograde planets the energies are turned back inward on the person & no longer is the fulfillment of this planetary pursuit to be found "out there" but within ourselves, contrary to what we may observe in others having the same planets direct.

With retrograde planets you have a great opportunity to gain a better understanding of the areas signified by the retrogrades & at the level indicated by their signs.

The retrograde effects usually register on the plane of activity that is represented by the element that contains the retrograde planet.

There is always an inversion effect from the retrograde. Its effect goes more to the subconscious level & represents a turning inward upon the self in some way. This effect is always present but sometimes quite subtle.

Most important: When the retrograde planet is angular, or in the same sign as the sun, or if the retrograde planet is already in high focus or the ruler of the chart: It can dominate the personality.

The retrograde will affect most noticeably the house containing the retrograde planet. It will also have an effect on the house it rules, & on the houses containing planets that aspect the retrograde planet.

While retrograde planets do not deny, they do delay events in our lives.

http://www.north-node.com/tutorial/planets/retrogrades.html

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Hope that helps some. I'm assuming (dangerous I know) that interpretations for the nodes are thus accurate regardless of direct or retrograde action being specified. Anyone know for sure?

posted March 24, 2005 03:43 AM            

True nodes are used by some Astrologers who, as I understand it, try to follow the exact path of the apparent intersections with the ecliptic and thus make allowances for the 'wobble' in the Moon's orbit. For short periods the true nodes can be in direct motion. Traditionally astrologers use the mean nodes and most books and teachings tend to assume that you will be using the mean nodes.

My advice would be to ignore the true nodes at least until you know enough to begin to make an assessment of the difference (I've not reached that stage yet). http://www.tarotforum.net/archive/index.php/t-7133.html

I'm going to see what else I can look up. This seems to explain why some sites say that the nodes are always retrograde and others refer to direct motion. Mean node versus True node. But I need to do some more research.

posted March 24, 2005 03:57 AM              

This is a good article! Check this part out:

quote:

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The Nodes do not move at an entirely predictable speed and vary from day to day. They are either calculated as “True” or “Mean.” True is the ' exact' position of the Nodes at any given time, while Mean is the presumed position based on the average speed. With the assistance of computers, most astrologers have opted to use the True Node, but the matter of which is more eloquent is still debated. The Mean Node is always retrograde, whilst the True Node may occasionally be direct, as if it's wobbling. That's because the True Node takes the gyroscopic relationship of the Sun/Moon into account. It may be argued, then, that it now makes little sense to use the Mean Node when it is just as easy to calculate the True Node.

However, this is somewhat illusory, since "in the strict sense of the word, even the ”true” nodes are true only twice a month, viz. at the times when the moon crosses the ecliptic. Positions given for the times in between those two points are just a hypothesis. They are founded on the idea that celestial orbits can be approximated by elliptical elements. This works well with the planets, but not with the moon, because its orbit is strongly perturbed by the sun. Another procedure, which might be more reasonable, would be to interpolate between the true node passages. The monthly oscillation of the node would be suppressed, and the maximum deviation from the conventional ”true” node would be about 20 arc minutes" See the Swiss Ephemeris for further explanation. I would therefore recommend experimenting with both systems. An obvious advantage of using the Mean Node is that it is what was used traditionally, so most commentaries of the meanings will have used this method.

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