North Node in Aries

Who we are at the core is something we all need to deal with. Without growing that sense of self, without forging our own identities, life would be stagnant. What would be the point? What we do to advance our own goals and ambitions, to forge who we are… that is the essence of the North Node in Aries.

The Basics on North Node in Aries

North Node

The North Node is known by a few other names. In Vedic astrology, it is Rahu. Another name for this is the Dragon’s Head. It is the goal, the destination of the journey of our lives.

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, and is a cardinal fire sign. Aries is ruled by Mars, the red planet and god of war. Things tend to get initiated and kick things off with Aries placements.

In a natal chart, the North Node is the lifetime goal or purpose we strive to grow towards. It’s one of the main lessons we have in this lifetime.

In transits, the North Node indicates what we are collectively moving towards. Where the North Node is at any given time will denote the themes playing out both in our personal lives, and in the lives of broader societies. Governments, companies, institutions, even larger collective destinies are shaped by this.

When the North Node is in Aries, our collective drive is toward realizing our own dreams, goals, and ambitions. The question becomes “how do I grow? What do I want?” There’s an urge and a spark to initiate and get things done, the will of others be damned.

South Node

The South Node, or Ketu in Vedic astrology, and the Dragon’s Tale in other parlance, is the opposite of the North Node. The South Node is where we’re coming from. It is the comfort zone, where we retreat to sometimes when the going gets tough. To stay in the South Node domain is to stagnate.

Libra is the sign opposite from Aries. Libra is the seventh house of the zodiac, and is the sign of social butterflies, partnerships, and our longer-term relationships. Libra is ruled by Venus, a planet associated with love, relationships, money, and attraction. It’s a cardinal air sign, and is powerful in its own right. People come together or split apart by the balancing of Libra’s scales, in a sense.

In a natal chart, the South Node represents what we’re coming from. Past life influences tend to play a role with this, and how that came about before we came into this life will shape how this entry point plays out in this lifetime. A seed can’t grow if it stays in the ground and never breaks through the soil, however. It has to move on. A journey can’t be completed if one stays at home all the time. One must venture out and explore.

In transits, the South Node denotes themes that play out in terms of holding on. It’s an element of the past, of past actions, victories, and defeats. This also plays out in the histories of different people, places, and organizations. What helped build things up until this point.

When the South Node is in Libra, we are called upon to look upon our partnerships and relations, and ask if these are truly good for and serving us. If these relationships were good, then it’s a good base for growth and will support us in our journey towards improving our selves and reaching for our destinies.

If those relationships and bonds, however, are not happy or good ones, if they have been holding us back, then that’s a different matter. This becomes a time where outworn links are needed to be severed, or at the very least some major boundaries imposed so we can grow. To stay in detrimental unions at this time will stunt our growth and prevent us from advancing to the next level.

Keywords and Types of Events

• “My way or the highway”
• Pursuing ambitions
• Pursuing personal goals
• Journeys of discovery
• Asserting ourselves
• Dissolving outdated unions and partnerships
• Independent action
• Explosive and provocative events that alter the course of history
• Getting the ball rolling

Current/Most Recent North Node in Aries

North Node entered Aries on July 17th, 2023 at 8:01 PM UTC / 1:01 PM PDT. This came a short time after the New Moon in Cancer’s peak intensity, and formed what amounts to a Cardinal Grand Cross with the Nodes and Pluto retrograde in Capricorn. New starts, new beginnings, and of course, new endings are highlighted with this shift.

Mars in Virgo and Saturn retrograde in Pisces are also a major factor in the nodal shift occurring as of this writing. This is adding to the tension and frayed nerves now.

Transits During This North Node in Aries

Around October 4th, 2023, Mars on fixed star Spica conjuncts the South Node in Libra (so opposing the North Node in Aries). Tensions could flare in disputes with this aspect, and some breakup energy is very likely with this placement. This is doubly true as this makes a weak T-Square apexing Pluto retrograde in Capricorn, and is dangerously close to being a technical “fourth impact” of the U.S. Pluto Return (despite Pluto being slated to not precisely conjunct the point where it was when the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776).

Mars square Pluto is already trouble. With the Pluto placement in Capricorn, there’s some real government and institutional drama forming. Political violence is one potentiality of this T-Square.

On October 14th, 2023, New Moon Libra will make a weak conjunction to the Libra South Node and weakly oppose the Aries North Node. This will usher in a lunar cycle that will continue the themes of partnership and union reevaluations. A few days later, on October 18th, 2023, the Sun and Mercury in Libra tightly conjunct the South Node. If there are arguments regarding past actions and misdeeds, they’ll come to the surface now. Especially as Black Moon Lilith in Virgo opposes Saturn retrograde in Pisces. Don’t count on karma not coming back to bite those who have done wrong.

November 29th, 2023 brings us Venus conjunct Libra South Node and opposing Aries North Node. Again, more past relationship and partnership issues coming to light. By this point, Saturn’s resumed forward direction and makes a weak square to Mars. This continues the overall tension.

January 10th, 2024 brings Sun in Capricorn square the Aries/Libra Nodes. As this is the start of the U.S. presidential election year in full force, there’ll be questions as to which way the nation will go: embrace the future, or cling to the past.

Near the end of January, Mars conjunct Mercury in Capricorn squares North Node and Chiron in Aries, and South Node in Libra. There is a potential for a flash of conflict with this configuration. Fortunately, an Earth Grand Trine involving Moon and Black Moon Lilith in Virgo, Venus in Capricorn, and Jupiter in Taurus, kited by Saturn in Pisces may yield some potential solutions and diplomacy. Backroom dealmaking is extremely likely. This could even be a conflict with a pre-ordained outcome. January 28th, 2024 especially warrants watching.

On February 6th, 2024, Venus in Capricorn squares the Nodes and Chiron in Aries. I could see a monetary or banking crisis form around this time if institutions are not careful.

February 13th, 2024: Moon in Aries joins Chiron and North Node. Right before Valentine’s Day too. This kicks off a Yod from Moon-Chiron-North Node in Aries, sextile Mercury in Capricorn, apex Black Moon Lilith in Virgo. This may not be the most romantic day with a lot of obligations in the background. February 14th is in the middle of a week on a Wednesday in 2024, so this should be expected.

March 18th, 2024 brings North Node and Mercury together in Aries, square the Moon in Cancer briefly. Some decisions possible regarding our feelings about our home and family lives. Chiron’s close to the North Node still too at this point. Potential spike in divorce and separation filings?

April 4th, 2024 gives us Sun conjunct Aries North Node. Spring will be getting under way in the Northern Hemisphere by this point, and we’ll be ready to move forward with some of our more personal goals.

April 17th through April 25th brings a lot of action with Venus crossing the Aries North Node, and then a week later Mercury stations direct on the North Node as well. This is a week where an old flame could come back to tempt you. Keep your will strong and the eye on the prize around this time. Jupiter and Uranus conjunct in Taurus may prove to be helpful, albeit with some deep emotional uncertainty with their own opposition to the Moon in Scorpio briefly on April 25th.

May 19th, 2024 expects forceful actions in regards to independent plans when Mars conjuncts the North Node, and the Moon in Libra crosses the South Node. We’ll have objectives we want to get through, but some lingering doubts regarding how this affects loved ones may weigh this down.

June 22nd through 26th, 2024 brings up questions about family and your goals when Mercury, and then Venus in Cancer square the Nodes. Be alert for any important family discussions now.

July 2nd through July 4th, 2024 brings Sun in Cancer square the Nodes. A good time to think about the home life you want, and to think about where you want to be in this in the future.

August 23rd through September 6th, 2024 gets interesting as Black Moon Lilith crosses the South Node in Libra. Long-running relationship questions will come to the surface around this time, and we won’t be able to ignore the impacts. This could be a past lover or interest (very likely with Mercury retrograde in Leo concurrent with this transit). Past infidelities are also very likely to come to attention. Venus in Virgo opposite Neptune retrograde at critical 29th degree of Pisces, with fixed star Scheat, also adds to the impact. Poisonings, self-medications, and addictions may also be a factor with this. Do be careful.

September 4th gets very interesting as Venus joins Black Moon Lilith on the South Node. You will not be able to put off the relationship issues for much longer once this transit passes. If things are going to not work out, they will be very apparent now.

September 15th, 2024 gives us Mars in Cancer square the Nodes. Use protection if you don’t intend on having children around this time. Or, the previous Venus-Lilith-South Node conjunction could be the time this is a factor, with this Mars transit a follow-up. If you hooked up with an ex, you’ll learn why that was a mistake here. Expect fireworks.

September 29th, 2024 gives us Sun and Mercury crossing Libra South Node. Work out the partnership issues now. You may be able to resolve past grievances and concerns here. Keep a cool head if able, as Uranus will be on fixed star Algol at this point!

December 23rd, 2024 we see Sun in Capricorn square the Nodes. This far into the Winter Solstice season, and as the North Node is approaching Pisces by this point, the question becomes whether we learned what we needed to regarding our own self-interests versus the interests of other important figures in our lives. This is also in the post-election period where the buildup to the certification of the Electoral College votes will take place. Let’s hope we have a smoother count than in January 2021 this time.

From January 6th, 2025 on until the North Node leaves Aries on January 12th, Mercury square the Nodes, with North Node with fixed star Scheat functions as a warning against deceptive situations that could serve to derail what we’ve built over the previous eighteen months. After the 12th, the North Node enters Pisces and the South Node enters Virgo, closing this cycle for another seventeen years.

Previous North Node Aries Periods

December 26th, 2004 to June 22nd, 2006

Quite a few notable events here, explosive in their own ways.

• February 10th, 2005: North Korea reveals it is in possession of nuclear weapons. This has the effect of greatly increasing the cost of any conflict in or around the Korean peninsula.
• February 14th, 2005: YouTube launches, forever changing the landscape of the Internet and ushering in an era of video-on-demand.
• February 20th, 2005: Hunter S. Thompson dies by suicide.
• March 29th, 2005: Johnnie Cochran, O.J. Simpson “Dream Team” defense lawyer, dies from a brain tumor.
• May 19th, 2005: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith released in theaters, completing the “prequel trilogy” and finally showing us the fateful events of how Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader.
  • This fits with the North Node in Aries theme, as this movie showed just how fragile democracy is and can fall if the conditions are right.
• June 23rd, 2005: Reddit launches, evolving the forum format for discussing a wide variety of topics.
• July 19th, 2005: John Roberts initially nominated by George W. Bush to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court that would have been left by the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor.
  • However, he would again be nominated on September 5th, 2005 after William Rehnquist, another Supreme Court justice dies. (O’Connor would remain active for awhile yet, and Roberts would fill Rehnquist’s vacancy instead).
  • Roberts is confirmed to the Supreme Court on September 29th, 2005.
• July 20th, 2005: James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, dies.
• August 12th, 2005: NASA launches the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
• August 23rd-30th, 2005: Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas and devastates a wide swath from Louisiana to Alabama. This became the costliest hurricane in U.S. history and was responsible for an enormous amount of damage and loss of life.
• October 2005: First signs of trouble in the U.S. housing market, which begins to puncture the bubble. This would continue well into 2007.
• October 24th, 2005: Rosa Parks, civil rights activist, dies.
• October 31st, 2005:
  • Samuel Alito nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President George W. Bush.
  • Two more moons, Nix and Hydra, are discovered orbiting dwarf planet Pluto, joining Charon in Pluto’s moon system.
• December 23rd, 2005: First announced drawdown of U.S. Forces in Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
• January 19th, 2006: New Horizons launched by NASA, which would later make the closest flyby ever to Pluto.
• January 31st, 2006: Samuel Alito sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• February 11th, 2006: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots a lawyer while hunting.
• March 10th, 2006: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars

April 6th, 1986 to December 12th, 1987, Excluding May 5th to 8th 1986

The excluded dates can be explained by a “wobble” in the movement of the Nodes. This has the side effect of the nodes briefly going in the opposite direction for a few days, sometimes at the time of a sign change.

One major event comes to mind during the initial entry into the 1986-1987 Aries North Node period: The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl on April 26th, 1986. That was absolutely an explosive event that set major changes in national identity in motion. In short, it helped accelerate the demise of the Soviet Union, and also set back the adoption of nuclear power as an energy source.

Other events during the 1986-1987 North Node in Aries:

• August 20th, 1985 to March 4th, 1987: Iran-Contra Affair. This began during the previous North Node in Taurus period, however.
• May 16th, 1986: Release of Top Gun in theaters, which becomes the highest grossing film that year.
• May 25th, 1986: Hands Across America forms a 6.5 million person human chain from New York City, NY to Long Beach, CA to raise money for fighting hunger and homelessness.
• June 5th-11th, 1986: Excedrin tampering crisis (cyanide), highlighting the vulnerability at the time of over-the-counter drugs in the United States.
• September 5th, 1986: Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking, resulting in 21 deaths during the incident.
• October 11th, 1986: Meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland to discuss missile arsenal reduction. (These particular talks were not successful).
• January 22nd, 1987: Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer commits suicide at a press conference on live television, protesting his innocence over a bribery conviction and resulting extreme sentence (maximum of 55 years in prison) pending.
• June 12th, 1987: Ronald Reagan’s famous speech at the Berlin Wall.
  • “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
• September 25th, 1987: Varroa Destructor, an invasive parasite that infects honeybees, found for the first time in the United States.
• October 11th, 1987: The first National Coming Out Day is held to celebrate the second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
• October 14th-16th, 1987: Jessica McClure, a young girl at the time, falls down a well in Midland, TX. She is later rescued after 56 hours of work. Waterjet cutting, a newer technique at the time, is instrumental in this.
• October 19th, 1987: Black Monday stock market crash.
• December 2nd, 1987: Hustler Magazine v. Falwell reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ultimately rules that parody, even that meant to cause distress, is protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
• December 8th, 1987: Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an arms-control treaty that banned land-based missiles of varying ranges.
  • The treaty affected both conventional and nuclear-armed missiles, and did not apply to air or sea-based missiles.
  • The treaty was later suspended by the United States under Donald Trump on February 1st, 2019. Vladimir Putin would pull Russia out in response a day later. Full withdrawal occurred on August 2nd, 2019.
  • China was not a signatory to this treaty, with arms buildup in the Pacific used as the justification for the later demise for this treaty.

In Closing

To sum up Aries in North Node, it’s a time of fated events that help reshape who we are. The dissolution of old partnerships and unions can be set in motion when the counterpart South Node in Libra is in effect during these times too.

If we embrace the Aries North Node times to the fullest, we can make enormous strides to change our lives for the better and get us into a place where we can be proud of what we’ve become. It’s not a time to retreat to abusive or stale partnerships that are holding us back from growing.

Do what is best for you and your future. That is the lesson of the North Node in Aries.

Appendix A: North Node in Aries Dates

All date/times in this table are in YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm UTC format for simplification and standardization. Table is currently from the years 1900 to 2099.