Chiron square nodal axis, life path, skipped steps

Hello. Hope you are all well!

I have taken a long hiatus from astrology due to undertaking a very draining doctorate which I got this year. 😀. Finally! So, astrology’s call has been beckoning me again, along with reflections on post-doc life. And I seem to have hit on something in my natal chart that I had previously missed. I have Chiron (in Taurus and the 11th house) square my nodal axis. I realise this will be common for those born around the same time as me. However, I have always felt as if I have been developing both my nodes at the same time; but not always constructively and treating them as separate entities has done me more harm than good.

As you can see, I’m a Leo 1st House north node. My north node ruler is also my chart ruler which is in a Sag stellium in a packed 5th house (can a chart get any more fire and Leo esque?). My life seems to be punctuated with bouncing across the nodes, I.e. being very NN and then circumstances ‘forcing’ my to focus more on my SN and vice versa. The bouncing isn’t helpful and I want to make more of a concerted effort to blend the nodes better together rather than experiencing them separately.

I’ve recently been trying to get my head around Chiron in my chart. I definitely have friendship wounds and my friendships seem to be short rather than long term (with a current exception of two lovely ladies with strong Libra signatures in their chart which I’ll come back to). I am also any only child who did not have anything in common with the family I was born into. So, I have always felt like an outsider and loner which has helped me develop Leo 1st House NN attributes. I do independence very well. I also do self-expression very well. But, interestingly, my PhD was on community development (11th House) and how the Self (1st House) and the Other (7th House) relationships manifest to impede (wound) community development processes. So, there’s quite a bit of energy going on here.

Getting into Chiron and understanding my karmic wound has introduced me to my ‘skipped step’ / the bends in my chart. And it is here I need help. According to both Jeff Green and Judith Hill, I seem to have a reversal of nodes. The SN was the last node to conjunct my natal Chiron. This is what Jeff Green says:

“If the node that last formed a conjunction is the South Node, then that is the node that the person must consistently orientate to. This means that the North Node and its planetary ruler are consistently developed via the South Node by house and sign and the location of its planetary ruler. What a planet squaring the nodes means in this example is that the North Node has already been acted upon prior to the current life; thus, it is not 'new.' The person will already be familiar with the dynamics of it. Again, the issue is one of consistency. When Pluto is squaring the nodes, these same principles apply and include its polarity point.”

If you look at my chart, it is full of Leo and fire energy. My Asc and MC are also fire. I have a fire stellium. I live alone, financially independently, and have travelled and lived in a number of countries. Yet, according to both Jeff Green and Judith Hill, I should actually be focusing more on my SN, I.e. Aquarius and Libra energies. Both my closest friends who I’ve had since starting my PhD have multiple planets in Libra with one having a stellium in Libra in the 7th house. It seems I am being ‘pushed’ to develop more SN energies. Most astrology books / forums say that this is a ‘bad’ thing and that you should focus on developing the NN path. I’m just wondering, with my particular birth chart, whether I’ve already done that and now it’s time to focus more on the SN? TBH, I think I have been doing that anyway with the fact I have been working in academia since 2011 and doing a PhD. I’m never going to go ‘full’ Aquarian or Libra as I’ve developed the Leo NN in the 1st path considerably and it is a fundamental part of who I am.

So, the questions are: should I be looking to integrate my SN more? Should I be focusing on integrating Chiron more in the nodal axis? Or is this all a distraction from my NN path? Transit SN was also the last to conjunct my natal Chiron (in 2013) and I just hit a nodal return which explains why these issues have come to the fore. I’m also experiencing transit Jupiter opposite my natal Chiron.

Thoughts and opinions most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

I have Chiron in the 10th square my 1H NN as well and i am interested to hear any update here.. if you are still around.

The task is to integrate the nodes, to integrate what you bring in to this life with what you are called cultivate in this life.
So we bounce back and forth; that is how our life, how Life, works.
And Chiron's influence accompany your natural movement back and forth, pointing out your sensitivities and supporting your healing path.
I like to ask myself, 'How simple am I willing to let this all be?"
You may want to feel into that idea a bit...?

Hi Nica

The NN represents whatever life is bringing towards us, and the SN represents how we are oriented to life as a default. The Moon is how we experience this ongoing tension moment to moment between our default orientations and the experiences life brings in.

When there is a skipped step to the nodes it is signalling a strong necessity for a more nuanced integration between the polarity of the nodal axis to occur. Depending on which node last conjunct the skipped step, it signals a necessity to re-address particular issues related with which ever node last formed the conjunction, which is the causative factor for the occurrence of the skipped step.

In your case with Chiron, it is signalling that there is a necessity to go back and re-address certain issues within your Aquarius/7th house SN that are the causative factors for the Chiron skipped step.

But the crux is that it is only through your ongoing developments occurring via the NN that you are able to reach certain points or thresholds within which you are then able to become conscious of the things that need to be re-addressed.

From what you have written, it sounds to me like you are already doing this, and quite naturally, and especially with the NN in Leo ruled by the Sun which (in JWG’s theory) is a symbol of the current life purpose, your life in a way is specifically set up for you to be able to re-address these SN issues that are the causative factors for the Chiron skipped step.

But to reiterate again, the NN is what helps you reach these certain points or thresholds to become aware of what is in need of being re-addressed - and it can only occur in this way, because the NN experiences, what life brings in, is what enables you to see the SN issues in a different way than before. It is through this process that you are then able to attend to the skipped step and SN issues.

Also remember, the nodes, and the signs, are part of an axis - where you are at the centre. When we are delineating these things, it is helpful for our minds to differentiate and segregate, but ultimately our aim is to get to a point of feeling ourselves within the centre, and this is ongoing, moment to moment - which we naturally do anyway, but our minds have a habit of making it seem, and even desiring to do it, otherwise.

Aquarius in the 7th is about detachment, rejection, rebellion, decondition, liberation within relationships. And naturally through doing this we manifest the Leo 1st polarity, of forging and actualising a more self-determined, self-defined expression of ourselves.

But within that default orientation to decondition and liberate within relationships, we can sometimes do too much of it (SN), to the point of becoming disconnected and alienated (Aquarius) from aspects of ourselves, of who we inherently are (Leo/Sun), that we then have to recover lost territory, and disowned parts of ourselves. But the crux is that, this reintegration that occurs is done in new and more conscious ways.

Chiron in Taurus 10th is about wounds related with our personal values, specifically the one’s related with our sense of personal authority. So the disconnection and alienation above has resulted in these issues related with Chiron, and it is through becoming conscious of, confronting and healing these issues, that the SN orientations can be re-addressed, and a more nuanced integration of your nodal axis can occur.