Planetary Transits and Cosmic Interplay for the week of Nov 4–10
For about the last year-and-a-half we have had the two nodes of the Moon (Rahu and Ketu as they are known in Vedic Astrology) in the signs of Leo and Aquarius. Unlike all the other planets, they move counterclockwise through the zodiac and finally, they will be ingressing into the signs of Cancer and Capricorn. This will put to rest, to some degree for now, issues related to Leo and Aquarius that we all have gone through to various extents. This has been especially prominent as Rahu and Ketu represent the eclipse junctions of the Sun and Moon and we have gone through a series of eclipses this past July.
What this means going forward, being that the nodes are in different signs, is that the backdrop of the growth indicated by these planets will be changing their dynamic. Previously, with the axis of Leo and Aquarius it was a lot about one’s ego challenges. This might have regarded learning to become who one is and what defines one most especially within the context of what separates one from the group that they are around. Then spice that up with all the other planets’ influences and you get an idea of what this previous year-and-a-half cycle of the transits of Rahu and Ketu were really indicating.
The thing with these nodes is that they are always 180 degrees away from each other in the zodiac at all times. They represent opposite polarities of an underlying issue that is being presented. I refer to this as a paradox because that is typically how it feels. With Leo and Aquarius, it was a lot about experiencing the paradigm of working for the greater good of the community while learning to express one’s own individuality. This is where a lot of our conflicts in life occur—when we are pressed up against two simultaneously opposing forces.
The key to working with this energy is not to lean one way or the other or to forsake one direction of the pendulum and only incorporate the opposite; it is to integrate the two energies. With Leo and Aquarius, for example, it was about learning to use one’s individuality to better serve the greater community. This is absolutely paramount to understand when working with the energy of the nodes in that it indicates an apparent paradox that needs to be integrated. The second takeaway when talking about the nodes is that it is occurring because it represents an opportunity to expand one’s consciousness and to learn some incredibly profound life lessons. This is not an arbitrary happening, but a potential for serious growth as an individual. With that said, it will more than likely be experienced as a growing pain because the mind and ego typically like things to work out logically and simply.
With that out of the way, let’s look towards what the signs of Cancer and Capricorn represent. Cancer is about adapting to one’s surroundings whereas Capricorn is more about doing the work that needs to be done now. Cancer (being a water sign) is about being fluid. In fact, I like to attribute the energy of Cancer to that of flowing water, much like a river. Capricorn (being an earth sign) is more about the concrete things that need to be done and especially in the awareness of things that need to be changed or repaired. With this idea here, we can start to get a picture of the paradox of letting things be versus that of needing to fix things. In fact, the paradigm of fixing versus adapting is a really simple yet really profound expression of the energy being presented.
To further refine this point, Capricorn is very much related to a very narrow set of beliefs that one has. It is very much fixated on being aware of problems and faults and of being ready to just go straight at what is needed to be done right then and there. It is the energy of doing what needs to be done in a very practical and pragmatic way. Cancer, on the other hand, like with the river analogy given earlier, is about letting things be and accepting things for what they are. With Cancer, problems are ignored to a certain degree because they are seen as things to navigate around and to move on to new things. It’s about being comfortable with the way things are. The lesson to be learned here is to only focus on the things that need fixing that will bring about greater enjoyment. Life is full of flaws and imperfections but not every thing needs to be focused on—but neither should things that aren’t working be ignored. It is about finding a balance between acceptance and being overly critical.
Another interesting factor to look out for is that Cancer is said to represent foreign places and Capricorn is said to be related to one’s village. This can be a time when one is trying to feel at home with where they are or is feeling like they need to go somewhere completely different from where home is. The integrative lesson here is about learning to incorporate a new level of flexibility to an old pattern or, in looking at it from the opposite perspective, to incorporate stability in one’s new endeavors—to be welcoming of letting old patterns of stability help to guide one’s new paths. It’s not out with the old and in with the new, but of using what we learned from the old to make the new better. New paths don’t have to be completely foreign, but should be grounded in what’s worked before.
Now in looking at the placement of the two nodes, we have Ketu moving into Capricorn and Rahu moving into Cancer. What Ketu shows us is that there is greater comfortability and more karmic experience with old belief systems of how things should be done, seeing what needs to be fixed, being practical, and of being critical. What Rahu is showing us is that getting in with the flow, adapting to one’s surroundings, and accepting things how they are is either something that one isn’t as adept at or very possibly what one takes too far in its extremity at times. This shows us that the provocation for consciousness expansion will tend to revolve around needing to let go of a certain long standing narrowmindedness, but not to abandon it completely. There will be an instability around wanting to just let it all go and throw away the past, but that is not what this is about. Metaphorically, this is about not completely disregarding your elders and the inherited status quo, but building upon the solidity of this foundation and adapting it to work with modern times.
It is also important to remember that we are just at the beginning of this energy shift and that the effects of the other planets will really modify this energy in various ways. I will talk about this in further detail when those times present themselves, especially during upcoming eclipse periods. For now, I would recommend to be ready for a change of perspective that can be jarring to a certain degree and to use this shaking up of your proverbial snow globe as a time to re-examine your situation so you can learn to be more accepting of changes in the future. In your proverbial boat, I would recommend to make sure that your anchor is solid but not too heavy to be moved because in the upcoming times new courses of direction will present themselves.
