In November the
muted Moon will turn from the bottom of the valley of diminished amplitude and
begin its 9 year return to maximum.
Most of us are familiar with the North and South lunar nodes as
indicators of where a luni/solar eclipse can occur, but another very
fascinating quality of the Moon’s motions is indicated in the signs of the
lunar nodes. The South node is always
opposite the North so I will just talk about the latter.
When the
North node, also known as the dragon’s head, is in the sign Libra, as it is
now, we see the Moon well below the high ecliptic in Cancer and well above it
in Capricorn. At the bottom of this post
the first Stellarium screenshot shows the Moon in Cancer for this month below
the ecliptic. You can confirm that it is
above the low ecliptic in Capricorn 2 weeks before or after by downloading Stellarium
and clicking through the days.
When we say
the dragon’s head, or North Node is in Libra we mean the Moon crosses above the
ecliptic in Libra. Wherever the dragon’s
head is located tells us where the Moon crosses above the ecliptic every
month. The wild thing is that 'spot,' marked with a little squiggly thing to indicate the dragon's head in charts, inches
backward around the zodiac every 18 years. This cyclic motion that appears against the
familiar forward motion of the Moon and Sun is called precession. There’s a good meditation right there for
those who are inclined to go beyond the cookbook predictive recipes. A good place to begin might be imagining a
thread in a story that always plays through all the successive events in
reverse. How does that information
gathered from the past inform the way we approach oncoming events?
Aside from
measuring events against this slipping cycle, another analogy could be
imagining a character’s view of a parade if they run along the street toward
the marchers approaching them. The
interesting thing is that as the dragon’s head backs from Libra to Aries and
the Moon crosses above the ecliptic in Virgo (11-10th sidereal hours), then Leo
(9-8th), we see it start to climb up toward the level of the
ecliptic as it passes every month through the Cancer high point.
This is
another one of those concepts that is incredibly simple but very difficult to
conceive in our earth bound minds. We
have become so used to using clocks to measure time that we have lost the
ability to imagine ourselves on a planet with a Moon that traces a beautiful path
above and below our ecliptic. I won’t go
further into this here. I do invite you
to investigate further and allow yourself the pleasure of knowing the the
amazing ins and outs and ups and downs of the Moon.
One of the
best resources for understanding the Moon’s cycle is the NOAA. They have some great drawings to help picture
the motions of the Moon with Earth and how they change over time. Understanding Tides and the Motion of the Moon
