The Moons Nodes in Action

Copyright 2015
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Copy Editor: Anne Whitaker
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Writing from the Twelfth House 2015

Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Astronomy and Symbolism
Chapter 2: Case Study 1
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and a Sheep called Dolly
Chapter 3: Case Study 2
Marc: a Life through the Nodal Lens
Chapter 4: Case Study 3
Four Nodal Moments
Conclusion
Index of Charts
Bibliography

iii
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5
23
81
123
149
159
161

Introduction to the 2015 edition

THE MOONS NODES IN ACTION
Never say never! How true this is. I thought Id never be
able to resurrect the whole text of The Moons Nodes in
Action from its cyber-grave of apparently un-openable files
going back to the 1990s. As we all know, that decade is
literally prehistoric in Internet terms.
However, I reckoned without the ingenuity of my colleague,
Willie Miller of co-occurrence, whose company has thus
far published three elegant e-versions of my books. It has
just done the same for the e-book you are about to read: a
research study I wrote to complete my three-year Diploma
from the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London,
awarded in November 1998.
At that time, the Centres Director Dr Liz Greene described
The Moons Nodes in Action as a superb thesis I was
of course, delighted to have my work described in those
terms. But life moved on, other projects beckoned. The
thesis gathered dust, the files slowly became antiquated. ut
I never lost my interest in the Moons Nodes
any people myself included find the oons Nodes
fascinating. What you will shortly read is a comprehensive,
original piece of research, born from my curiosity and
interest over many years. As fellow writer and astrologer
Paul F Newman says in his generous preface:

 this book is about. Nodal Returns, Nodal synastries,

Nodal trawls and Nodal moments. A knowledge-gathering
journey through the lives and charts of the famous and not so
famous yet with the excitement of a personal quest and the
inestimable benefit of coming through the pen of a gifted writer.
Herein are facts not theories that you can use to enrich your
own astrological interpretations and personal understanding of
the Moons Nodes in Action.
I have decided to offer out this research as a free gift to
any student or teacher of astrology who wishes to add to
their existing knowledge of the Moons Nodes, not from a
theoretical basis, but as they actually operate in the lives of
people both famous and ordinary.
Please note that the study was written in 1998 and I have
chosen not to update it, but simply to present the research
as it was completed at the time. Being aware that other
astrologers have published their own research since then, I
am happy to make my small contribution, albeit somewhat
retrospectively!
The Nodal Return cycle is 18.6 years. When I wrote the
study, the North Node was in the sign of Virgo. I have just
realised that it returns there in November 2015, the year my
research is finally published in its entirety, eighteen years
after I first began to write it in the autumn of

ii

Preface
THE MOONS NODES IN ACTION
Introduction
By Paul F. Newman
The Moons Nodes, so we are taught, are an essential
component of any horoscope. Flip through any astrological
magazine and you will be hard-pressed to find a chart
without them. Traditional, experiential, psychological,
mundane - you name it - the Nodes are always there. But
what exactly do they mean?
In Vedic astrology this is quite clear cut. The Moons Nodes
refer to karma, and their importance is immense. But then
every Vedic astrologer believes in karma and reincarnation
as a cultural doctrine anyway, which is not necessarily the
case with all Western astrologers and their clients. Astrology
- pure astrology - does not operate through belief alone.
That is, you do not have to believe in anything you can
not prove because astrology works anyway. As Anne found
when researching the powerful effect of the Nodes for her
Diploma in Psychological Astrology which has later become
this book, there was a dearth of text-book certainty about the
meaning of the Nodes - once you removed the reincarnation
angle. Her dissatisfaction sprang from the fact that the
available literature was mostly theoretical. People knew
about Nodal returns and Nodal transits but had little idea
of what to expect in the real world when they loomed.
Few studies, if any, had employed a Charles Carter type
approach of dispassionately observing and tabulating what

iii

actually happened to people when the Lunar Nodes were

activated or were natally strong. Astrologers generally
agreed that the Nodal axis was some kind of developmental
path but would usually shy away from interpreting it in the
more concrete terms afforded to the planets. The Nodes,
after all, were only abstract things. You couldnt see them in
the sky. You couldnt even visualise the mechanics of how
these invisible circles were crossing each other above our
heads in their regular cosmic sweeps unless you were an
unusually scientifically minded astrologer (or astronomer).
et, other abstract points in astrology (even the art of
ortune) did not command the same universal respect as
the Moons Nodes, so wasnt it about time we gave their
effects more study?
And that is what this book is about. Nodal Returns,
Nodal synastries, Nodal trawls and Nodal moments. A
knowledge-gathering journey through the lives and charts
of the famous and not so famous - yet with the excitement
of a personal quest and the inestimable benefit of coming
through the pen of a gifted writer. Herein are facts - not
theories that you can use to enrich your own astrological
interpretations and personal understanding of the Moons
Nodes in Action.

Paul F. Newman
Dorset, England. August 2001

iv

Introduction
Its an important antidote to the potential inflation of
astrologers to realise that .
of the population manages
to get through life without the help of astrology.
Similarly, large numbers of astrologers no doubt do good
sound work without paying too much attention to the
oons Nodes. As far as I can gather, the attribution of
significance ranges widely: from astrologers who start their
readings with the Nodes, and who see the axis as powerfully
illustrative of the developmental path of the individuals
soul through successive lifetimes, to those who are aware
of what the axis means in general terms but dont actually
bring it into their work much.
So - how significant is the Nodal axis Are astrologers
missing something really important by not delineating it
in their readings, both natally and in terms of its transiting
cycle oes it say something specific Or does it act as a
reinforcer for information about a persons life pattern
which can be derived from other chart factors These were
the key questions I had in mind as I began writing.
This book is called The

oons Nodes in Action.

hy

ecause I find myself unsatisfied with a lot of the material

I have read on the Nodes, interesting though some of
it is. The main reason for my dissatisfaction is that the
literature is mostly theoretical. There is very little specific
examination of the Nodal effect at work in peoples actual

lives, with the exception of amela ranes book1 which is

thoroughly rooted in case material. owever, its value is
limited for me by my own scepticism (in the open minded
sense of the word) regarding the question of reincarnation.2
I realise that what I want to do in the book is not to
spend a lot of time regurgitating theory already available.
Summarising its core is sufficient for my main purpose,
which is to test out the theory in the actual practice of
real peoples lives and see whether it holds up. This is
something I can do which hasnt been done to a detailed
degree to date.3 In the research process I may even come
up with some new angles on the Nodes! These are my aims
and aspirations as I settle down to the task in hand.
In framing the case material I decided that it would be more
1 Draconic Astrology by Pamela A. F. Crane, Aquarian Press, 1987
2 Note: I am interested in the approach to the Nodes which involves belief
in reincarnation, being attracted to the idea that we live successive lives; it has
certain logic to it. The notion that the great cycles of birth, growth, decay, death
and endless return should not apply to the human spirit and its development,
that we should get only one crack at the slow, complex business of realising
our potential, seems inconsistent. I have had a few very peculiar and striking
experiences in my own life, for which the hypothesis that I have had other lives
is the only one that makes any kind of sense. Being a Romantic in spirit, I like
the idea of this life being just one stage in an awfully big adventure.
However, I am also a pragmatist, taking the view that I can only effectively
write about things which are within the knowledge and experience I have had
to date, limited though I am happy to admit that certainly is. It may be true that
the Nodes have profound symbolic clarification to offer re previous lives, and
our connections with key other people in those lives - but I cannot offer any
empirical observations on this topic.
3 Note : as yet I havent read either Melanie Reinhardts Incarnation, the Four
Angles and the Moons Nodes ( Volume 8, CPA Press, 1997 ), or Direction and
Destiny in the Birth Chart by Howard Sasportas ( Volume 10, CPA Press, 1998
) for what I think are fairly obvious reasons! I dont want to be intimidated by
their work, and at present its too close to home since Im a CPA student. If I
discover later that Melanie and Howard, too, have done detailed work on Nodal
case material, at least mine will be different, and I will have added something
more to the testing out of Nodal theory in practice.

effective from a research point of view to offer different

takes on the Nodes in each case study, than simply to use
the same take for each one. I was intrigued by a comment
made by Robin eath in the letters pages of a recent issue
of The Mountain Astrologer:
.. astrology appears more and more to behave like a
hologram. ou can perform almost any technique with the
data, turn the chart inside out or slice it up, and still the
symbolic pictures remain.4
Since a large part of the impact of his statement lay in its
confirming in cold print a suspicion which has been swirling
around in my own mind for some time now, I was particularly
interested to see whether any hologram effect relating to each
subjects natal Nodal pattern might be detectable at the core of
all the case studies, on completing them.
In ase Study One, I have written about ary Shelley from
the perspective of her authorship of rankenstein, and set
the boundary of her first Nodal Return. She conceived the
book in
, the summer of her th year and her first
Nodal Return wrote it over the following autumn, winter
and spring saw it published on the first day of
- just
after her th birthday. I have looked at the Nodal synastries
between her chart and those of five key people whom I
consider to have been potent catalysts for her authorship.
I have analysed the Nodal relationship between her natal
chart and several key events germane to the writing of
rankenstein. I have also tracked some resonances from
4 The Mountain Astrologer, Issue 78, April/May 1998, Letters p 11

the modern myth ary Shelley created in rankenstein,

over nearly two centuries to its undoubted current relevance
as contemporary science moves faster and faster into the
realms of science fiction. This case study therefore contains
the first ever synastry between a dead person and a live
sheep!
In ase Study Two, I have adopted a different approach,
doing a Nodal trawl first of all through my subject arcs
whole life to the age of . Secondly, I have analysed the key
turning points of his life - identified by arc, not by me and examined how they link in with his natal Nodal pattern.
In ase Study Three, I thought it would be interesting to
analyse four Nodal oments from the lives of two famous
people, and two ordinary ones. These are moments which
the two people known to me, Anna and Andrew, knew
without doubts at the time were major and life-changing.
I decided that two famous peoples moments also fell into
the same category the first, the announcement in anuary
that former astronaut ohn Glenn was due to return to
space at the age of . And the second, the car crash which
ended the life of iana, rincess of ales.

Note on confidentiality:
Marc, Anne and Andrew are not the real names of my subjects. All three read
and approved the final version of their life stories prior to my submitting the
thesis for assessment. They also gave full permission for their stories to be
included in any subsequent publication.

Chapter one
Astronomy and Symbolism
The aim here is to summarise and provide some discussion
of the core astronomical and theoretical basis from which
the case studies are written. The information provided is
derived from reading, and from impressions gained from
observation of the Nodes in action in my personal and
professional life before testing it out in practice through
the research done for the case material. I have left out
observations on all kinds of interesting facets of the Nodal
picture, eg the Saros eclipse cycles, which were not directly
relevant. General sources will be found in the Bibliography;
specific quotes are footnoted.
The Moons Nodes
The Moons north and south Nodes are not planets
but are the two points at which the Moons monthly path
crosses the Suns annual path (ecliptic) around the Earth.
These are abstract points, but astrology accords them the
power and effective status of planets ( definition from
The Practical Astrologer by Nicholas Campion,Times
Mirror Books 1987, p12.)
The eclipses
There are thirteen lunations or New Moons each year,
in which the Sun and Moon share the same zodiacal
longitude. At least two of them are solar eclipses, and occur
during the twice yearly eclipse seasons, each being a period

of 37 days when the Sun in its orbit crosses the Nodes,

applying for 18.5 days/degrees then separating for the same
measure.
At solar eclipse times the Sun, Moon, Earth and Nodes are
aligned in the same plane, so that the Moon blocks the Sun
totally or partially from the Earths view. A total solar eclipse
occurs when the Node and luminaries occupy the same
zodiacal longitude up to an orb of +/- 9 degrees 55 minutes.
A partial eclipse occurs from an orb of +/-11 degrees 15
minutes up to an orb of +/-18 degrees 31 minutes.( Annular,
partial or total solar eclipses can occur from an orb of +/- 9
degrees 55 minutes to +/-11 degrees 15 minutes.)
Lunar eclipses occur in the same eclipse seasons - again a
minimum of twice a year. At these times the Sun, Moon,
Earth and Nodes are aligned differently, with the Moon
opposite the Sun in zodiacal longitude. In this case, the
Moon moves opposite the Sun through the shadow of the
Earth often taking on a reddish/coppery tone which is very
dramatic to watch. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the
Node and luminaries have an orb of up to +/ 3 degrees 34
minutes. A partial lunar eclipse occurs from an orb of +/- 6
degrees.
There is a regular rhythm to the alternation of solar and
lunar eclipses first with one Node, then the opposite one,
six months apart. The Nodes themselves regress at 1.5
degrees a month through the zodiac, following the regular
pattern of the eclipses as they thread their way through
time and space. The North Node returns to its own place,
having completed a 360 degree cycle through the entire

zodiac, every 18.6 years. The eclipses, like the New Moons,
also have their return cycles, the most striking being the
Metonic returns in which an eclipse recurs on the same day
and the same degree as it did 19 years previously.
Nodal symbolism - summary
In symbolic terms, the Nodes offer insights not so much
into an individuals personality as into their life pattern, and
with this the developing and unfolding of their relationship
with issues of direction and of meaning.
Thus the natal Nodes, their location by signs and houses,
and their links with planets and angles, sketch out a map
of what the persons route may be, some of the conditions
which might be encountered, and the main paths s/he is
likely to be inclined to explore.
As life unfolds, the transiting Nodal axis, transiting planets to
the natal Nodes, and progressed planets/Angles triggering off
the natal Nodes, show important points of challenge and the
potential to take a step further along the road of actualising
full potential. The eclipses are of critical importance in
highlighting transitional points which have an especially
powerful feel to them. Alexander Ruperti puts this really well:
Eclipses simply measure intense confrontations with all those
things in human nature which hinder spiritual progress by keeping
one in a rut, albeit a comfortable and happy rut. They are
opportunities to use the past and the present - all that one has
previously acquired, as well as where he stands at a given moment
- in order to build a more creative future. Since they always

challenge an individual to discard all limiting influences and to

start something new, they may be stressful times.
(my emphasis)1
The soli/lunar relationship
The Nodal axis is a reflection of the soli/lunar relationship.
The Sun moves very slowly indeed compared to the Moon
- one degree a day, when the Moon moves thirteen to
fourteen degrees. If we transpose this astronomical fact
into the symbolism of the unfolding of the progressed
horoscope throughout a lifetime, we can see that by the age
of 60, the Sun in an individuals life will have progressed
around only one sixth of the zodiac. The Moon, however,
will have completed two whole journeys round the entire
zodiac, and the first quarter of a third one.
Thus we have two very different types of energy, and
relationship with time. The Moon seems much busier
and more active than the Sun, much more driven towards
ranging over a spectrum of different types of experience,
and experiencing faster change. Despite all this activity,
it nevertheless goes through the same cyclic routine
month after month, year after year, century after century,
millennium after millennium, albeit changing its starting
and ending points very gradually as it moves through the
heavens. The Sun seems much more inclined to take its
time, to process and make sense out of experience.
Liz Greene in The Luminaries clearly illustrates this point:
1 Cycles of Becoming by Alexander Ruperti, (USA) CRCS Publications 1978, p
72

So the Moon, our antenna for lifes perennially changing

drama, goes out and soaks up a little taste of experience, and
then comes back to offer its responses to the Sun for processing.
Then the Moon ventures forth again, and another chunk of life
is absorbed and brought back home. Lunar encounters with
life, as the Moon progresses through the twelve houses of the
horoscope, eventually build up a reservoir of experience which
the Sun can gradually transform into my vision of life, my
worldview, and my identity .....Without the Moon, there
would be no connection with life or other people.2
In the Sun - Earth - Moon system, the Moon represents
the container which makes ordinary life on Earth possible,
keeps its rhythms going. But both Earth and Moon are
subordinate to the life-giving Sun; must turn towards it,
honour it. Without the Sun, neither Moon nor Earth could
exist. There could be no life, in the terms in which we
understand it.
There is something in us, culturally, nationally, and
personally, which is inimical to change of any kind; which is
purely instinctive and irrational in response to life, needs to
feel connected to the patterns and rhythms of time, nature,
local and family custom, and habit. This part of us likes to
know and work from what we can do and can comprehend.
It seeks safety.
There is nothing wrong with this fundamentally lunar
approach. We need it. But stagnation would result if there
were nothing in life to present a challenge to this way of
2 The Luminaries by Liz Greene & Howard Sasportas (USA) Samuel Weiser,
Inc 1992, p 206.

being. The contrasting solar impetus is to get out there,

risk, learn and grow, expand our vision to encompass more
than the purely material - find out why it is that we are alive
at all, ask questions regarding what life might mean.
There is a beautiful passage from Genesis, the first chapter
of the Christian Old Testament, which runs thus:
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
This Christian imagery vividly conveys the contrasting
life principles illustrated in astrological symbolism by the
Moon, and the Sun.
The archetypal relationship between fundamentally
contrasting and complementary principles is at the heart
of existence at every level - without that there could be no
collective or individual life at all.
Another way of imaging the Soli/Lunar link is through
mythology. In Greek myths, the Sun god Apollo is often
seen pitting his solar power against that of the female, lunar
goddesses whose realm concerns the limits imposed by
time, the body and mortality, and fate - the very limits which
Apollo seeks to defy.
The Sun symbolises our drive towards individuation, the
pursuit of our personal destiny, shadowy and chimeric
though it may often seem, if indeed it is ever even
glimpsed. The Moon symbolises our rooting in the Earth

10

plane which gave us our life, to which we are subject

through our physicality, where we must live out our span as
dictated by the limits imposed by our mortality.
North and south - spirit and matter
If the dialectic as just imaged and described is held at the
core of the soli / lunar relationship, what take, slant, or
angle on that dialectic is provided by the North and South
Nodes as distinct, for example, from what is provided by
contemplation of either the New or the Full Moon? As
Alexander Ruperti eloquently puts it:
.....as the Ecliptic (geocentrically considered) reveals the
relationship of the Earth to the Sun, and the Moons orbit
reveals the relationship of the Earth to the Moon, and since the
nodal axis is the link between the planes of these two orbits, the
nodes may be said to symbolise the relationship of the Earth to
the two Lights - the Sun and Moon.3
Thus the Nodes can be interpreted as revealing particular
points of dynamic tension between the contrasting drives
of Sun and Moon, points where the product of the struggle
between the two must be earthed, and take some definite
form in a way which has a profound influence on the
life pattern of the person (event, organisation, nation)
concerned.
As the Moon moves in its monthly orbit, its checkpoint
for crossing the Ecliptic is the North Node, latitude zero,
3 Cycles of Becoming by Alexander Ruperti, (USA) CRCS Publications 1978,
p55

11

the beginning of two weeks travel in Northern latitude. At

the end of this phase, the checkpoint of the South Node is
reached, also latitude zero - the start of two weeks travel in
Southern latitude.
At the North Node gateway, the Moon can be viewed as
orienting itself toward the pull of the Sun, an orientation
lasting for the whole period in which it is travelling in
Northern latitude. Traditionally, as Ruperti puts it, the North
Node connotes .....a point of divine protection or providence
or of success through the use of the spiritual will......4 In the
natal chart, a planet or planets closely square the Nodal
axis on the northern side falls on the northern bendings5,
emphasising that planets role in driving the future
development of the individual concerned. The transiting
Nodal axis with a transiting planet squaring it at the
northern bendings, eg the recent transit of the Nodes/Pluto
which arrived at exactitude in mid-May 1998 at 7 degrees
Virgo/Pisces/Sagittarius, challenges the individual/nation/
collective concerned to face and take on the challenges of
the future in relation to the radix planets/axes picked up by
the transiting pattern.
On arriving at the South Node gate, the Moon symbolically
turns its back on the challenge to grow, become all it can
be, through exercise of maximum awareness aided by the
strength of spiritual will, and moves into the fiefdom of
matter and the concerns of the material world. This period
lasts for the duration of the journey in Southern latitude,
and represents a time of taking whatever perspective has
4 Cycles of Becoming by Alexander Ruperti, (USA) CRCS Publication 1978,
p55
5 The Structure of Cycles by Joseph Crane, pp 73-4 from The Mountain
Astrologer Issue 77 Feb/March 1998

12

been gained in the Northern journey, and perhaps, at best,

integrating it with that part of life which will always have to
be lived in the material and physical dimensions. Transiting
planets at the southern bendings6 partake of this tone. Natal
ones at that point emphasise inherited challenges which
tend to hold the person back, and really need to be grappled
with if he/she is to move on.
Again, as Ruperti puts it, ....this alternating orientation first
toward spirit and then toward matter is the key to the meaning
of the nodal cycle....7 I think that it also offers us Earthlings
a very profound piece of cosmic advice, especially to
those inclined to think that the spiritual dimensions are
innately superior to merely earthbound concerns. For the
last two thousand years, the Christian West has had great
trouble with the relationship between spirit and matter.
The summits of our achievements and the nadirs of our
destructiveness are connected to the imbalance which exists
within our culture between those two great poles. The
tension between them has been the fuel which has driven
us, for good and for ill.
But the body is the carrier of the soul. We should strive
to value them both equally. There are many metaphors
to be derived from this essence. One is that the quest for
meaning and significance, represented by the Sun, has to
have a home base, represented by the Moon, from which
to start the journey, to which to return at the end of it. The
Odyssey could never have been written without Ithaca......
6 The Structure of Cycles by Joseph Crane, pp 73-4 from The Mountain
Astrologer Issue 77 Feb/March 1998
7 Cycles of Becoming by Alexander Ruperti, (USA) CRCS Publications 1978, p
55

13

So it is important not to forget, whilst contemplating

the different emphases given by the North Node and its
Southern opposite that the whole axis needs to be taken into
account if one is to appreciate the full depth of symbolism
on offer. At core, the challenge is that of finding a way to
reconcile spirit with matter in finding as effective a way as
possible to live on the Earth to which we are bound. The
Nodal axis speaks not only about the thrust to reach as
full as possible actualisation, but also about valuing and
appreciating, and if possible integrating, the gifts which
were ours as we embarked from the starting point.
Both individually and collectively, the more prominently
placed the Nodal axis in the Horoscope, the more vivid the
dialectic as described above within the life of that individual,
nation, and event.
Both North and South points have their own seductions.
The challenge to move on, explore, become all you can
be offered by the North, is exhilarating, exciting - but also
frightening, and hard work! Its easier to stay in bed than
get yourself sitting in front of the word processor, excited at
what you may achieve.... but fearful of where you may fail.
Staying South is very tempting - its the comfort zone, its
the family base and its past history, the place of safety where
we know who and where we are, what our talents are, and
what we can comfortably cope with - but staying there
cannot reveal ....what we may be....8

8 The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, Act iv,

Scene v, Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be from The
Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Oxford University Press, 1955

14

Thus the natal Nodal Axis symbolises a lifelong struggle.

Identifying with the South Node position too strongly
means leading a life which depends on using the abilities
we already have to keep us safe from risk, challenge and
therefore growth; whose main priority is comfort; whose
mode is a habitual and largely automatic response to life.
Taking up the challenge of the North Node, on the other
hand, brings with it a life which feels meaningful and
open to new experience; which takes opportunities to
develop innate talents and new insights and skills through
responding positively to the impetus for change; whose
mode is of acceptance of conflict and discomfort as a
necessary part of developing as a person.
At the heart of the fullest, most creative expression of
the struggle both collectively and individually lays a deep
paradox - to move on as human beings we must individuate,
follow the path of the North Node, and leave the South
Node behind. But we must also make the return journey, to
honour that which we ideally do not leave behind at all, but
incorporate in our movement towards our own destiny.
The unfolding picture
When I refer to nodal moments in the case material, I mean
points where the transiting Nodal axis is triggering the
natal chart; and/or when Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto are transiting the radix Nodes; and/or
when there are significant progressions to the Nodal axis.

15

My own favourite indicator is the transiting Nodal axis

itself, which has a return cycle of 18.6 years. I think it is
useful to see challenges towards growth occurring with
transits and progressions as being enfolded within the
developmental pattern shown through this cycle.
I have found (as one might expect!) that the more
emphasised the radix Nodal axis is, the more important
are the milestones that the Nodal returns, and transits/
progressions to the natal Nodes, bring.
It is possible in the natal chart to describe both ends of
the Nodal polarity and make a clear distinction between
them, as has already been demonstrated. But the whole
axis and its planetary links need to be taken into account in
assessing the key features of what the life pattern demands
of its owner. You miss half the picture if you only focus on
one end.
This point becomes clearer, for example, when attempting
to assess the impact of the transiting Nodal cycle on an
individuals chart. The first step is to identify which pair
of houses the axis is emphasising; this reveals those
dimensions of life which are up for challenge and change.
Between mid-March 1997 and mid-March 1998 the Nodes
regressed from 29 degrees to 10.5 degrees Virgo. During
this time period there were three eclipse seasons in March,
September, and February/March. The eclipses ran thus:
9.3.97 Solar eclipse to South Node, 24.3.97 Lunar eclipse
to North Node, 1.9.97 Solar eclipse to North Node, 16.9.97
Lunar eclipse to South Node, 26.2.98 Solar eclipse to South
Node, 13.3.98 Lunar eclipse to North Node.

16

It can be seen that during the year in question both ends

of the Nodal axis were triggered in an alternating pattern
by both Solar and Lunar eclipses, strongly potentising the
relevant spheres of life. The outcome would depend on
what natal planets/angles were also being triggered. I doubt
if its possible, even by spending an enormous amount
of time tracking very subtle factors, to show the specific
internal and external manifestations, from month to month
or year to year, of the alternating movement from focus on
spirit (North) to focus on matter(South) and back again as
life unfolds.
It is the overall impact which activity by conjunction to North
and South Nodes, or square to the whole axis, has on the
unfolding life pattern that matters during a particular period of
time.
Levels of manifestation
I have noted over the years both from my own life, the lives
of friends and family, students and clients with whom I
have worked, how often the Nodes are prominent at births,
deaths and marriages - the three major defining points in
anyones life, regardless of their levels of awareness or how
assiduously they either pursue or avoid questions of what
lifes deeper significance may be.
The Nodes have been persistently linked with the workings
of Fate since the very beginning of Astrology as a body of
knowledge: many modern astrologers tend to gloss over
this issue, perhaps because we have culturally subscribed
to a world view since the Age of Reason which is deeply
offended by the notion that there is anything on Earth

17

that human beings cant control. However it is becoming

all too clear as we approach the end of the century, the
millennium, and the Piscean world age, that even our
ability to comprehend, much less control, the sheer
complexity of life is much less than we thought.
Life by its very nature is always changing; but the changes
mirrored in patterns involving the Nodes, particularly when
the axis or related planets or angles are being activated
by eclipses, seem to have a particular quality about them
where the struggle towards individuation from the grip
of the personal - and often the family - past is powerfully
highlighted.
The interface between Fate (literally, it has been written)
and Free Will appears, to our very limited knowledge, to
be indeterminate, shifting. At Nodal times it is as though
the atmosphere of that interface thickens, becomes highly
charged with significance: events occurring and paths
chosen seem to have a particularly potent feel to them.
These can be viewed as times of crisis when, in Robert
Hands vivid phrase, the past has minimum hold upon
the present, but the present has a maximum hold on the
future.9 There can also be a profound sense in the moment
that something other is at work, impelling ones actions,
ones choices.
9 Saturn, Action & Career Crises by Robert Hand, p 116, from The Astrology
of Crisis, edited by Noel Tyl, ( USA ) Llewellyn Publications, 1993

18

Retrograde/direct nodes by transit

In contemplating the symbolism attached to the frequent
movement of the Nodal points between direct and retrograde
motion, it appears to me to mirror a generally recognised
truism about how life proceeds, ie three steps forward, two
steps back or (very occasionally!) five steps forward, one step
back, or one step forward, four steps back. The preceding
assessments are made by most of us, either on the forward or
the backward scale depending on how good, bad, indifferent or
traumatised we feel about any given day, week, month, or year.
I think this accurately reflects the long, slow process of
reaching out, assimilating, developing insight, and moving
on we all go through with varying degrees of success and
failure throughout our lives - with all the mistakes, stupidities,
unconscious compulsive reactions, poor judgements, and
retreats woven into the process along the way.
The alternating retro/direct movement of the Nodes is
contained within the larger movement of the axis as it
moves backwards through the Zodiac, returning to its
starting point in an individuals life every 18.6 years. What
could this mean? Isnt evolution meant to be a forward
moving process according to conventional wisdom?
There is much truth in the adage that life has to be lived
forwards, but understood backwards. There is a quality
of mystery about the Nodes in action. My feeling is that,
similarily to those great milestones in life symbolised by
progressed New and Full Moons, what is offered in terms

19

of more effective defining of the level on which life can

be lived, simply cannot be grasped clearly at the time.
Perhaps one of the meanings which can be derived from
contemplating the retrograde motion of the Nodal axis, is
that only by looking back when some time has passed, can
the true nature of the opportunity which was on offer at a
critical Nodal point be understood.......
There is also a deeper perspective from which the
retrograde Nodal motion can be viewed. It occurs to me that
it could be a metaphor for the process of entropy, i.e. the
progressive running down of all systems towards decay and
dissolution, which as far as we know scientifically, governs
the entire cosmos. In relative terms to Earth and Moon,
the Sun is immortal - the body lives out its span, decays
and dies - but the soul goes on in its everlasting journey,
perhaps through successive lifetimes, purifying its essence
as it goes. But even the Sun, we now know, will one day die,
as will our solar system and the galaxy to which it belongs.
Like anyone else with any imagination and sense of wonder,
I have been stunned by the magnificent images brought
back in the last couple of years from the depths of space by
the Hubble telescope. One image in particular stands out it looks like a huge eye staring out from space. It is, in fact,
an image of a black hole, circling round the outer fringes of
our galaxy, fuelling its journey by consuming the exploded
matter of decayed stars. Its the most powerful image of
entropy that I can envisage..... 10
10 The Sunday Times, 31.12.1995

20

And where does everything go at the end of time and space?

As far as we can envisage, all journeys end with the trip
home..... back to the Source. We cannot know with our
limited intelligence who, what or where that may be. But
all religious traditions carry at their core the notion that all
things emanate from the One, or the Source, and are bound
to return there in due season.
Perhaps the retrograde motion of the Nodal axis, acting as it
does as a focus for the Sun - Earth - Moon system on which
our lives primarily depend, is a potent reminder of that.

21

22

Chapter 2: case study 1

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and a sheep called Dolly
Introduction
Mary Shelley was born on 30 August 1797 as aberrant
storms swept Europe, the tides of political passion
generated by the French and American Revolutions still
ran high, and the Romantic1 movement in literature was at
its height. Her life profoundly, dazzlingly and poignantly
reflected her time.
I have chosen her for several reasons. The first is purely
subjective. rom the moment I first set eyes on her
horoscope it has compelled and fascinated me. As an
astrology teacher, I have used it in most of my interpretation
classes since the late Eighties. The second reason also arose
some years ago, when I realised that she had conceived
the plot of Frankenstein the summer before her 19th
birthday, and finished writing it before she was twenty. or
me, this highlighted the 18.6 year Nodal return cycle, the
significance of which I had by then begun to observe.
Then looking more closely at the 12th house placement of
the North Node in her chart, and how it linked so strongly
with upiter, ranus and luto, set me reflecting upon how
and why she as such a young woman had been chosen
to offer us a warning via Frankenstein, her masterpiece,
of what the consequences of humans stepping over
1 Romanticism (the Romantic Movement) - c/f The Oxford Companion to
English Literature Editor M. Drabble, Oxford University Press 1995, pp 853-4.

23

Fig 1

24

moral limits in the pursuit of scientific discovery might

be. This warning has resonated down the decades since
Frankenstein was published in 1818; it is more relevant
than ever as we approach the millennium, and the pace
of technology-led progress leads us fast into dangerously
uncharted physical, emotional, ethical and spiritual
territory.
I was watching a TV programme on the development of
the horror movie genre not long ago2, in which there was a
dramatic re-enactment of the famous night of the 16 June
1816 in Geneva in which the poet Byron proposed that he,
their friend Polidori, Marys husband Shelley, and Mary
all write a ghost story. The TV programme followed with
an enactment of the early hours of 22 June 1816 - Europe
was being ravaged by terrible storms, repeating the theme
present at Marys birth, when Mary had a ghastly waking
dream in which the core plot of Frankenstein came to her.
I thought that the chart of this dream should have powerful
Nodal links with Marys chart. It did - even more so than I
could have hoped. Thus my case study began to come into
focus.
There is a great deal to say about Mary Shelley. But I will be
exploring her life only until the start of her second Nodal
cycle, keeping my focus on relationships and events which
led to her authorship of Frankenstein.

2 The series was entitled Nightmare - the Birth of Horror (BBC2) presented
by Christopher Frayling. This particular episode - Frankenstein - was
transmitted on 17.12.1996.

25

Mary Shelleys Horoscope: the Nodes and their natal

links
The North Node falls in Gemini, the South in Sagittarius.
To me this denotes a life path centred round the
conceptualising and disseminating of information and
ideas. Sagittarius on the South Node shows philosophy,
education and learning, and the developing of an ethical
base for life as well as a desire to proselytise from that base,
as a fundament to Marys life. Love of learning, a restless,
questing, travel-oriented spirit, and an appreciation of
the perspective which comes from exposure to different
languages, cultures, and a broad knowledge base, all
characterised her inherited gifts and the cultured context
from which her journey through life began.
It also suggests, taking the wide conjunction to the
Moon to back this up, a longing from the beginning for
a grand, adventurous life - for a life infused with vision
and the possessing of a big canvas upon which to paint
a vivid picture. Her political and artistic context was the
aftermath of the French and American revolutions and the
impact they would have on the fabric of her time - and the
Romantic movement in art and literature into which her
nature fitted so well.
Also indicated in this linking of South Node and Moon is a
distaste for the restrictions of the ordinary and mundane,
and the potential for arrogance through conviction of ones
own rightness. Blakes famous line the road of excess leads

26

to the palace of wisdom3 also comes to mind. Playing Big

Momma Benefactress to a bunch of gifted but feckless,
frequently penurious fellow writers seemed to take up an
extraordinary amount of her time and resources throughout
her life - one can see her penchant for this role in South
Node in Sagittarius conjunct the Moon in the 6th House!
The North Node in Gemini conjures up the image of a
thrust towards taking the gifts she was given and putting
the inspiration provided therefrom into words, getting her
ideas out into the world. It also denotes frequent changes
of environment whilst attending to this core task - and
sibling issues playing an important part in the whole
scenario, as indeed they did with her step-sister Jane/Clare/
Claire Clairmont (who liked changing her name!) dogging
Marys footsteps for much of her life. Restless movement
and frequent change were very much part of Marys
and Shelleys life - perhaps the North Node in Gemini
demanded this as a way of shaking free her ideas.
When contemplating the location of the North Node, in
the 12th house in one of the Gauquelin plus zones4, the
image of the big picture comes in again, from a different
perspective. Here is someone the thrust of whose life path
demands an offering of her ideas in such a way as to reflect
the hidden, unconscious currents running beneath the
surface of her time - and perhaps a sending out of images
which would be borne on those currents to provide insights
to generations as yet unborn.
3 from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake. Proverbs of Hell
- Plate 7, from Collins Dictionary of Quotations, editors N. Jeffares & M. Gray,
HarperCollins 1995.
4 Gauquelin Plus zones re the 12th house - c/f Written in the Stars by Michel
Gauquelin, Aquarian Press 1988 p120.

27

The location of the South Node and Moon in Sagittarius in

the 6th House, opposite the North Node in Gemini in the
12th, conjures up a picture of the visionary writer, in touch
with the currents of the collective unconscious of her time
through the 12th house Node, having to struggle to extract
her vision from the mire of the mundane which was forever
besetting her, as the contradictory 6th house location of the
glamorous South Node conjunct Moon in Sagittarius shows
all too clearly.
The nuts and bolts of ordinariness - of the body, of routines,
of maintenance tasks which keep the main thrust of life
running smoothly, strike me as a major provenance of the
6th House. Mary had trouble with ordinariness all her days
- until he died Shelley protected her from the sharpest edges
of their constant financial troubles. She regularly moved her
goods and chattels, relatives, friends and children around.
Her health was always delicate, childbirth drained her,
and the deaths of three of her children made it impossible
for periods of time to dredge up any inspiration to offer
through the 12th house North Node.
Looking at the planets aspecting the Nodal axis offers
further sharp images of the nature of her lifes path and her
struggle to actualise it. Mary had a strong masculine side
which her horoscope clearly portrays. Jupiter is retrograde
in Aries in the 11th House, exactly trine the South Node,
sextile North Node. A quote from E.W. Sunstein sums this
up:
Aspiration, enthusiasm, challenge, active mind and spirit, and
optimism were among her cardinal qualities.......... it was her

28

incapacity for resignation to cold reality that eventually wore her

down.5
The location of Jupiter, ruler of the Moon and South Node,
in Aries in 11th shows how group associations, frequently
involving famous men, usually encountered at home,
shaped her lifes path. Jupiters falling on the southern side
of the Nodal axis, trining/sextiling the Nodes, indicates
gifts from the past which could be used productively by
Mary in actualising her full potential - as indeed they were.
There was her father the renowned social philosopher
Godwin and his salon, which brought Mary in contact in
her youth with eg Coleridge. Hearing him reading from
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner had a profound impact
on her which came out much later in some of the imagery
in Frankenstein6. She met her husband Shelley through
Godwin when Shelley was a young acolyte. She met Byron
through Shelley. It was in the company of Byron and others
that she was challenged to write the ghost story which
became Frankenstein.
Perhaps Jupiter in Aries - retrograde - shows an early
leap to fame (with transiting Jupiter conjunct her Moon
when Frankenstein was published) which was never to be
replicated, although she remained in the public eye as a
writer, editor and critic. I think it also shows the arrogant
and unrealistic side of her optimism. For example, by
eloping with the still-married Shelley in her teens in the
early 19th century, and having an illegitimate child, she
flouted convention to such a shocking degree that she was
5 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p 402.
6 Muriel Spark Mary Shelley, p159.

29

never ever accepted back into the mainstream of society,

despite her expectation that this would eventually happen.
This social ostracism caused her great pain all her life
although she eventually learned to live with it.
Uranus (ruling MC and dispositing Pluto) in the fourth
house in Virgo, squaring the Nodal axis, is the most vivid
significator for her unorthodox inheritance, her own
defiance of convention, her connection with Shelley, and
her authorship of Frankenstein which assured her place in
literary history. The significator is strengthened if we extend
it to include the Uranus /Mercury midpoint, Sun/Venus
midpoint, and Mercury/Sun midpoint - all square the Nodes
between 18 and 20 degrees of Virgo. This major T-square,
as we will see as the case study unfolds, is powerfully linked
with key individuals in her life who challenged her to grow,
and with events critical to the unfolding of her destiny.
Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus is the full title
of ary Shelleys first and most famous book. In the myth
of Prometheus lie core images of Marys own origins; the
times in which she lived; the essential nature of Percy
Bysshe Shelley born like her with Sun conjunct Uranus;
the way in which she defied convention the price she paid and, most of all, in the central theme of her masterpiece.
Like a number of modern astrologers I am inclined
to associate the planet Uranus, mythologically, with
Prometheus. I am particularly in debt to Richard Tarnas for
his fine essay rometheus the Awakener7 which argues a
persuasive case for this association.
7 Richard Tarnas Prometheus the Awakener - Auriel Press, Oxford, 1993

30

In essence, Prometheus in Greek mythology was a Titan

who stole some of the fire of knowledge from the gods and
gave it to humanity to help them in their development. For
this hubristic act the gods punished Prometheus savagely.
He was chained to a rock, and during the day an eagle came
and pecked out his liver, which grew again during the night
so that he could be subjected to the same pain the next day,
ad infinitum.
The myth of Prometheus speaks most vividly, dynamically
and poignantly of the human condition. We seem driven
by an unceasing restless quest to push back the frontiers
of knowledge, thereby defying our limits as mortal human
beings chained to the programmed lifespan of the body and
the inexorable cycle of birth, growth, flowering, decline and
death which governs everything in existence.
I perceive the struggle to be what we can most fully be,
through being forced to confront our limits, or choosing
consciously to wrestle with them, to be at the heart of the
soli/lunar dialectic which the Nodal axis seems to focus.
Combining Uranus with the Nodal axis conjures up a
particular dynamic:
t was as if each ranus aspect re ected the liberation of
a specific archet pal impulse rometheus liberating the
Mercury impulse of ideas and language and communication,
for e ample or liberating the enus impulse of art and beaut
and lo e......... ach natal aspect between ranus and another
planet seemed to represent a distinct mutual activation of the
corresponding archetypes.8
8 Richard Tarnas Prometheus the Awakener - p39.

31

This quote applies very clearly to Mary Shelleys

horoscope, with its powerful Nodal/ Uranian/ Mercurial /
Venusian emphasis through the dominant T-square and
corresponding midpoints.
To appreciate the full challenging, mould-breaking power
of Mary Shelleys vision and its expression in her writing,
imaged symbolically in the above T-square, it is important
to look at the overall context in which the planetary/Nodal
pattern is set.
The T-squares mutability shows the ceaseless reaching
out into the realm of ideas and their expression which
so characterised Mary Shelleys life, and the state of
restlessness and dissatisfaction which was typical of much
of it. The Gemini/Sagittarius combination has already been
discussed - Gemini, Sagittarius and dominant mutability,
without anything to ground them and give them substance,
could have produced a life with a lot of hot air being
generated with no great end result.
But Virgo in the fourth house demands of mutability, of
Gemini and Sagittarius, that they earth, take shape, serve
in some way - that they base themselves somewhere, take
root. Planting in carefully tilled soil, tending and growing,
then harvesting, are all images conjured up by Virgo. Mary
Shelley had to produce something unusual, something
startling, from the carefully prepared and planted
intellectual and political soil of her early nurturing. That
something, shown by the Sun conjunct Uranus in Virgo
and its attendant pattern would need to break through the
bounds of convention regarding the social mores of her
time.
32

We can see through her biography (C/F Appendix i) how

fully she lived out the Promethean imperative symbolised in
her horoscope, in her personal life - and the price she paid
for that.
In the story of Frankenstein, the issue of the rupturing
of the integrity of the body is central to the whole plot.
Frankenstein creates a unique and uniquely repugnant
body, from the stolen parts of corpses. In this he is striving
for a form of physical perfection which is unique - he
is going where no man has gone before, and creating
life itself, thus taking on the role of the Creator. The
punishment of the gods for Frankensteins spectacular piece
of hubris which goes horribly wrong makes for reading
which still chills one to the bone.
Nature brings its rhythms, its cycles, its seasons - and we
are firmly rooted in the physical. irgo tells us this clearly.
So the body itself, and the seasons and cycles of human
life, and what happens when that is artificially ruptured in
the name of progress and change, are centrally important
factors in the themes of Mary Shelleys writing.
Uranus in Virgo and the attendant midpoints closely square
the Nodal axis from the northern side. To me this speaks
of Mary Shelleys path involving an invocation, through
her presentation of Frankenstein to the world, of the future
impact of scientific advance on the very smallest, most
intricately detailed threads weaving the tapestry of physical
life - our DNA and our genes.
It is useful to contemplate the wider symbolic influence
of the Uranus/Pluto cycle, in trying to create a context for
33

Mary Shelleys vision which stretches from just before her

birth to our own time. She was born five years after the
Uranus/Pluto opposition in Leo/Aquarius. This opposition
was exact at 21 degrees Leo/Aquarius - closely sextile and
trine her Nodal axis, close to her MC/IC axis - in 1792, the
year of the foundation of the first rench Republic, three
years after the French Revolution. Revolution was in the air
of these times - political, social and scientific as befits luto
in Aquarius. The old order was inexorably being challenged,
breaking down, changing.
When Uranus and Pluto then met in Virgo during the
1960s, we had a unique decade of social, political and
scientific revolution: the rench student riots of
,
protests in USA which led to the end of the Vietnam War,
and the micro-technology revolution leading to our current
computer dominated, internet facilitated global village.
With Plutos entry into Sagittarius in 1995 and Uranuss
entry into Aquarius the same year, we had the first sextile
from the 1960s conjunction, and the fruiting of the microtechnology revolution accelerated. Amongst many stunning
developments since then of a scientific and technological
nature, we have had the rise and spread of the internet,
and a major acceleration in the pace of the human genome
project to map all our genes, which has led to increasing
knowledge of how to manipulate the fundamental
structures of both human and animal life.
The presentation to the world of Dolly the Sheep on 26
February 1997 was a major event in the boldly going
juggernaut of contemporary science. It has also generated

34

tremendous public unease and disquiet as we see nature

being manipulated, often grotesquely, on a regular basis.
Frankenstein as an adjective is often to be heard these
days Frankenstein food for example. Furthermore, the
initial choice of name for the famous sheep was Mary - after
Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.9
Examination of the symbolism of Uranus dynamic
placement in Mary Shelleys horoscope, then tracking the
Uranus/Pluto cycle to the present day, shows the powerful
thrust to use her inherited gifts not just to create an
image of the Promethean changes which were occurring
in the pursuit of scientific progress in her own time. The
12th house location of the Gemini North Node, and the
northern location of Uranus, powerfully evokes the capacity
that visionary artists - painters, musicians, writers - have
always had : to offer up images of the far future. The myth
which Mary Shelley created in writing Frankenstein is
still full of vibrant life nearly two hundred years later. I
will be discussing the striking links between Marys and
Dollys charts later in this case study, as well as offering
some comments on the reasons for the myths continuing
potency.
The pre-natal eclipses and Mary Shelleys horoscope
As discussed in Chapter One, the role of the eclipses, as
galvanisers for the energy shifts that push individuals
to become what they can most fully be, is central to the
Nodal story. Mary Shelleys pre-natal total solar eclipse at
3.5 degrees Cancer (9.6.1797) runs through her whole life
9 from Peter Clarkes Diary, Sunday Times, 30.11.97.

35

as a key point of significance, in terms of connections to

the most important people and events in her life which
shaped her destiny. It appears in the first house of her natal
chart, within one degree of exact conjunction with her 2.5
degrees Cancer Ascendant conjunct Saturn (Descendant
ruler). It exactly squares Venus (12th House ruler), which
conjuncts Chiron in the 5th House. It also squares Mercury
(12th House Node ruler) in the 4th House, and opposes the
Sagittarian Moon (Chart ruler) in the sixth House.
This solar eclipse is therefore an extraordinarily potent
force, driving Mary forward to give creative form and
meaning, through her writing and her powerful links with
the collective unconscious, to very painful experiences of
separation and loss in relationships, involving children,
partner and mother. The driving power of her own painful,
bleak feelings of emotional insecurity and woundedness
can be felt almost palpably from the planetary symbols.
The pre-natal total lunar eclipse at 19 degrees Sagittarius
(24.6.1797) is just as clear in the thread it runs through the
weave of her whole life, key people, and significant events.
It appears as the exact South Node degree in her natal chart,
widely conjunct the Sagittarian Moon chart ruler, exactly
trine Jupiter her South Node ruler in the eleventh House.
This pattern, and the powerful Nodal T Square involving
Uranus the MC ruler and its links, has already been
discussed. I think the lunar eclipse casts a bright light on
her inherited gifts from the past, but the strongly northern
emphasis which the Uranus/Mercury midpoint brings to
the Nodal axis means that the lunar eclipses energy is also
enlisted in the service of the future. There is a strong pull

36

towards the past and a retreat from her destiny indicated

by the South Node conjunct Moon potentised by a lunar
eclipse - but Uranus wont allow it, nor will Sagittarius
which is a future-oriented energy. hat this strong conflict
evokes for me is a poignant sense of Marys
having to struggle to extract her vision from the mire of the
mundane which was fore er besetting her as the contradictor
6th house location of the glamorous South Node conjunct Moon
in Sagittarius shows all too clearly.........Her health was always
delicate childbirth drained her and the deaths of three of her
children made it impossible for periods of time to dredge up an
inspiration to offer through the 12th house North Node.
I will track some of the most obvious pre-natal eclipse links
with key people and events at the end of each following
section. There are also other striking eclipse links,
apart from the pre-natal ones, which I think are worth
mentioning.
Key relationships and Nodal Links
It is rather difficult, perhaps presumptuous, to attempt
to state who have been the most important people in
anyones life. But from the perspective I am offering on
the Nodes, I would assess her parents William Godwin,
Mary Wollestonecroft, and her husband Shelley as the key
enablers over time in the expression of Mary Shelleys gifts.
I would also add two others, as vital catalysts in Marys
capacity to conceive of and give birth to Frankenstein.
irstly her baby daughter ary, her first, illegitimate child:
born on 22 February 1815, died 5 March 1815. And secondly,
Byron.

37

The Synastries - 1
Fig 2

Fig 3

38

Fig 4

Despite her childs very short life and tragic death, I believe
that without such brutal experience so young she would
have lacked the emotional depth, plumbed by experience,
to portray with such a moving sense of desolation and
loneliness the plight of the abandoned Monster in
Frankenstein. By the time she conceived Frankenstein on
22 June 1816, whilst still only eighteen, and sat down to
write it on 7 October that year, she had experienced one
childs birth and death, and her second childs birth on 24
Jan 1816. Two days after starting to write Frankenstein, her
half-sister Fanny committed suicide. Shelleys wife took
her own life on 15 December. She and Shelley married on
30th December - and some time in December she must
have conceived Clara Everina. By the 13 May 1817, the day

39

she finished Frankenstein, she was five months pregnant

with her third child. I cannot recall any writer having such
a devastating personal context, so young, within which a
classic of world literature was conceived and came to birth.
Mary had very mixed feelings about Byron, as had everyone
who ever met him. His combination of beauty, charisma,
predatory, powerful and amoral sexuality, linguistic and
artistic brilliance, moral equivocation, aristocratic origins
and the wealth and power which went with it, all repelled
and drew her in equal measure. There is no doubt that his
presence in her and Shelleys lives acted as a major catalyst
on the conception of Frankenstein. Indeed, it was Byrons
glamour which drew the Shelleys and their family to join
him in Geneva in the summer of 1816.
It was in Byrons residence at Villa Diodati, where Milton
had once stayed, after a night of reading chilling tales,
that he issued the famous challenge to Mary, Shelley, their
friend and physician Polidori and himself that each should
write a ghost story. Less than a week later, in the middle of
a violent storm, the sleepless Mary had a waking nightmare
or hallucination in which she saw the scientist she would
later call Victor Frankenstein overseeing the hideous
phantasm of a man10 which he had created from corpses.
Given the significance of all those mentioned to the
fashioning of Marys destiny, one would expect to see
powerful Nodal links between her chart and theirs.
10 from the Authors Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition, 1831, p 9.

40

Mary and Wollestonecraft, Godwin, Shelley, baby Mary,

and Byron: the Charts.
There are many powerful and moving links between Marys
overall chart and the charts of each person appearing in
this section, and indeed in the various synastries. But apart
from the occasional other link which is too striking to resist
mentioning, I am confining my comments to Nodal links.
Primarily, how the charts tie in with Marys Nodal axis;
secondarily, how individuals Nodes link in with Marys
own Horoscope. So immediately visually striking are these
Nodal links that a commentary is scarcely required!
Mary and her mother, Mary Wollestonecraft
In Mary Wollestonecrafts chart, Pluto at 25 Sagittarius in
the 5th house squares Uranus in Pisces in the 8th - the
waxing square of the Uranus Pluto conjunction which
charged up the industrial revolution. This links with Marys
South Node conjunct Moon at 19 and 27 Sagittarius in the
6th house and squares her North Node ruler Mercury at
28 Virgo in the 4th. The midpoint of her mothers Saturn
conjunct Uranus, 21 Pisces, squares Marys Nodal axis and
opposes her 20 degrees Virgo Mercury/Uranus and Sun/
Venus midpoints.
What an inheritance for her daughter! The overall feel
of this is of Wollestonecraft handing on the baton of her
creative power of expression as fuel for her daughters
need to propel her ideas and concepts out into the wider
world. Saturn, Uranus and Pluto in the mothers chart are
picked up by the Nodes in her daughters. These disruptive

41

The Synastries - 2
Fig 5

Fig 6

42

Fig 7

Fig 8

43

energies would emerge and be given worldly form in

her daughters scandalous, defiant, unconventional life,
expressed through her 10th house as her writing and her
all-too-public life with Shelley.
This inheritance also gives Mary the task of giving form
to images of the turbulent and powerful disruption which
modern science was to bring to the very core values of
life itself. Through Frankenstein, Mary warned us of the
dangers to which the hubris of modern science, with its
disregard for the ancient rhythms and patterns governing
all levels of earthly existence, would expose us all. As I write
this (17 November 1997) there have just been recent reports
in the papers that, in the move towards human cloning,
one eventual outcome - of growing headless human bodies
for use as spare parts for surgery - is being thought of as a
possibility.......
At a more personal level, there is such poignancy in seeing
Wollestonecrafts South Node at 8 Capricorn/North Node at
ancer being picked up by arys Saturn rising in the first
house at 9 Cancer. The legacy of maternal deprivation and the
loneliness welling up from it which was to colour Marys whole
personal life with its dreadful losses, and play an important
part in shaping her writing, is starkly pictured here. The Moonruled North Node in Cancer in the 11th house also speaks
of Wollestonecrafts commitment to her fellow women - an
example which her daughter would live out in her own life in
her defiance of traditional restrictions on the role of women in
society, and pay for by social isolation.

44

Mary and her father, William Godwin

Godwins chart and Marys Nodes have equally powerful
links. Godwins Nodal axis widely crosses Marys at 11 Virgo/
Pisces to her 19 Gemini/Sagittarius. What Mary and her
father did NOT share was emotional intimacy; what they did
share was a restless and questing intellectuality and need
to study, learn, share ideas, and work to bring their ideas
to fruition. The most striking link is shown in Godwins
Mercury/Uranus midpoint in Pisces in the 10th house,
exactly opposite Marys Mercury/Uranus and Sun/Venus
midpoints at 20 Virgo, forming a close Grand Cross with
Marys Nodal axis.
In this one can see clearly how Godwins revolutionary ideas
sparked a bright fire in arys developing political and
intellectual life from an early age. He was her main teacher
(she was never formally educated) and she was an eager,
avid, and very hard-working pupil. This habit of study and
learning continued in the company of Shelley. No matter
what turbulence they were going through, reading, writing
and discussion of serious literature took up hours daily for
all their years together.
One can also see through the Sun/Venus/Uranus/Mercury
links between their charts what a catalyst Godwin was for
linking her with unconventional, revolutionary male writers
who would play such an important part in the unfolding of
her lifes path. Growing up, her home had some of the most
famous men of the age come visiting. She heard Coleridge
read from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner when she was

45

still a child.11 She met Shelley through her father. And she
met Byron through Shelley.
It is quite stunning to note how Node, Sun, Uranus and
Mercury are in almost the same alignment, though in
different signs, in both father and daughters chart. How
could she do other than marry a Sun/Uranus man?
Mary and Percy Shelley
As indeed she did.....I would urge the reader to read Emily
Sunsteins account of Mary and Shelleys life together. The
story bowls along at a merry and turbulent pace, leaving
the reader exhausted and marvelling. Only the blithe
energy and naivet of youth saved the pair of them from
going completely round the bend.....and many of their
contemporaries probably thought that they already were!
Their Nodes form a grand cross, with Shelleys North
Node in Virgo, just as Godwins was. Shelleys Nodal axis
at 25 Virgo/Pisces thus picks up Marys 20 Virgo Mercury/
Uranus and Sun/Venus midpoints, again bringing a similar
tone to the links between Mary and her father. So there
is the same atmosphere of sharing a restless and questing
intellectuality and need to study, learn, share ideas, and work to
bring their ideas to fruition which I commented on in Marys
relationship with Godwin.
What is strikingly different is brought out in the symbolism
of Shelleys Moon/South Node midpoint in Pisces in the
12th house - falling in Marys 10th house, square her 12th
house North Node. I would take from this strong image
11 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p40.

46

of a deep soul bond between the couple, and of Shelleys

powerful empathy for his wifes links to the collective
unconscious, hers for his, and the undercurrents running
beneath the times in which they both lived. Shelley was a
great supporter and enabler of his wifes work, as she was
of his: he wrote the first preface for Frankenstein for her12
and after his death she edited and put together an acclaimed
version of his collected works.13 But the feeling I get from
looking at those mutual 12th house/Pisces Moon/Nodal
links is that they were not really of this world, either of
them. They belonged to the realms of the unconscious, of
the imagination, of dreams and prescience....the universal
sea to which Shelley returned very literally before he was
even thirty.
There was an unworldly unrealism about them both,
which can be seen in the frequent periods of chaos in their
domestic life and their frequent immersion in tides of debts
and pursuing creditors - Shelleys Moon/S Node midpoint
opposite Marys Mercury/Uranus Midpoint, square her
North Node in Gemini in the 12th House/South Node
in Sagittarius in the 6th, offers a stark picture of the less
rarefied and more worldly manifestations of their mutual
Nodal links. They were great writers and visionaries, but
pretty hopeless at managing the affairs of ordinary life.
Mary and baby Mary
The strong Nodal links here tell a poignant story. The childs
12 Preface to Frankenstein written by Shelley 14 May 1817.
13 Publishing of Shelleys complete works by Mary Shelley. Decision to
publish in uly
first volume appeared late anuary
ource mily
Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality pp 340-346.

47

MC conjunct Neptune at 19 41 Sagittarius, square Mercury

conjunct Pluto at 20 degrees Pisces, plugs in exactly to
Marys nodal axis T- square with the Uranus Mercury
midpoint at 20 degrees Virgo. At a human level one can
imagine breathing difficulties leading to death (the child
was found dead in her cot on the morning of 6 March but
may well have died the night before) - and on Marys side,
the shock and horror with which this discovery was greeted.
At a more spiritual level, the two charts combined pattern
of Neptune/Pluto/Uranus/ Mercury with her 12th house
Node in Gemini evokes a feeling of darkly visionary
capacities of expression being kick-started by such a
traumatic and early experience of loss.
We see also that baby Marys North Node in Cancer square
Jupiter square Mars/South Node picks up her mothers
Saturn rising in ancer - a powerful set of significators
for blocked growth, and reinforcement of Marys primary
wound, ie maternal loss. She lost her mother when she
was a baby, and now had given birth to a child who would
shortly be lost to her. In this pattern we can also see the
motherless, desolate Monster of the book - longing for the
expansive potential of human relationship and forever cut
off from it, tormented by his own loneliness, grief - and
ultimately, anger.
Mary and Byron
The first thing which hits the eye is that ary and yron
have virtually the same angles, with Byrons Saturn falling
with Marys Pluto on their mutual Aquarian Midheaven.

48

Surely a relationship fated to send powerful images of the

shadow side of scientific progress out into the world......
The Nodal axes are linked, with Byrons North Node
in 25 Sagittarius, Part of Fortune at 27, and conjunct
Marys Moon at 28 Sagittarius and her South Node at 20
Sagittarius. Shelleys North Node is 25 Virgo, and Godwins
Moon/ North Node midpoint is with his Mercury at 25
isces. So one has a potent image of all these influences
stimulating her restless, questing, writers spirit to make
something on a large and visionary scale come into being which it did, in
the year of her first Nodal return.
Continuing with Byron and Marys Nodal links, his 12th
house Jupiter/South Node in Gemini falls on her 12th
house Gemini North Node; his Venus/Pluto in Aquarius
midpoint in the 9th house trines those links, and
quincunxes her Mercury/Uranus midpoint in Virgo in her
4th house. The picture conjured up by those combined
energies is of the relationship with Byron, and the challenge
he threw down that fateful night at Villa Diodati, acting as
a potent catalyst for the release of her creative potential as
a writer. It also suggests the birth of something dark and
fated from their connection, which would ripple out into
the collective from their time to the future, via the dark
underground currents of the 12th house.
Mary Shelleys pre-natal eclipses and the synastries
As can be seen from the discussion in this section already,
the bold threads of Marys pre-natal solar eclipse at 3.5
Cancer, and pre-natal lunar eclipse at 19 Sagittarius,
both weave their way through all the synastries with

49

unmistakeable colour and impact. The solar picks up

Godwins 12th House rising Mars exactly, with his
Ascendant - Chiron - Moon conjunct Venus T square. It
then draws in Wollestonecrafts Nodal axis, Shelleys MC/
I axis, yrons Ascendant/ escendant axis and his first
House rising Mars. Baby Marys Mars is exactly opposite
her mothers pre-natal solar eclipse, which further weaves
in with the childs Nodal axis - Mars - Jupiter T square.
Because Mary Shelleys pre-natal lunar eclipse is her South
Node degree, one can see its impact running through all
the comments made on the links between Marys Nodal T
square and the key people discussed.
Both those eclipses occurring over two months before her
birth are powerfully configured in the structure of arys
horoscope. Contemplating them, their symbolism in
Marys birth chart, and their strong links with the charts
of Godwin, Wollestonecraft, Shelley, Byron and baby Mary,
leaves me with a real sense of a life whose purpose was
already sketched out before her birth: those key people
would be catalysts for the unfolding of her destiny.
Key events and Nodal Links
1. Mary and Percys declaration of love
and their elopement
ary first met Shelley when she was fifteen, on th
November 1812. In the spring of 1814 she met him again,
and their relationship began to develop. At this point he
was unhappily married with small children. On Sunday
June 26, in the evening at sunset, at the site of her mothers

50

The Events - 1
Fig 9

Fig 10

51

Fig 11

grave where ary often went for solace and reflection, they
declared their love for each other Sunstein describes this as
the evening....that decided her destiny.14
In this chart the elements we can be sure of are Pluto at 21
Pisces, falling in Marys 10th house, opposite her Uranus/
Mercury midpoint at 20 Virgo in the 4th house, creating
a grand cross with her natal Nodes at 19 degrees Gemini/
Sagittarius. This gives a strong feel of an event occurring
which was heavily fated, destined to alter profoundly her
direction in life thereafter. The restless travelling writers
life which they were to lead is also evoked. Pluto/Uranus/
14 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p 74.

52

ercury carries a strong charge of defiance of the power of

the prevailing social order- and the price.
Neptune in Sagittarius falls in Marys 6th house, conjunct
South Node, square Pluto in Pisces in her 10th.I think
this shows how her act of commitment to Shelley opens
her up as a channel for the archetypal forces of power and
imaginative vision which would result in her creation of
Frankenstein. It poignantly speaks of a longing for worldly,
bodily connection with her soulmate.
If the speculative time is accurate, then we see the Part of
Fortune at 20 Virgo completing a T Square with Neptune
and Pluto, emphasising the Grand Cross formed by the
two charts. The elopement chart has an exact time. This
venture involved secret flight to the continent, thereby
taking an inexorable step in the eyes of the world, especially
Godwins. He was appalled. To make matters worse they
took Marys step-sister Jane (Clare/Claire) Claremont with
them. Godwin didnt speak to Mary for nearly three years
until the couple married after Shelleys wifes suicide. (But
it didnt stop him continually borrowing money off Shelley
who continued to provide it!)
In this chart the Neptune/Pluto square is once again
present, with the Moon joining Neptune at 19 Sagittarius
conjunct Marys North Node in the sixth, square the Part of
Fortune again, at 15 Pisces conjunct Pluto in Marys tenth.
This pattern shows similar issues to the Declaration chart,
but Moon/Neptune in Sagittarius shows action in the
world (Marys 6th house) generated by romantic love and
longing, ill-judged and planned and ending in penniless

53

return on Sept th. A flight over water (the nglish

Channel) is also indicated in this chart.
2. Dreaming Frankenstein.....and getting it published.
... out of that ampire laden fug of gruesomeness nown as
the nglish othic omance onl the forbidding acrid name
Frankenstein remains in general usage.....15
Muriel Sparks evocative phrase sums up Mary Shelleys
singular achievement. Perhaps Frankenstein alone survives
because it is unique. As Muriel Spark puts it:
Frankenstein then was a best seller it occurred at the
propitious moment when it was necessar for wor s of fiction to
produce, not only repellent if vicarious sensations in the pit of
the stomach but m emphasis speculation in the mind.
Mary Shelley went further than anyone else in her
speculation in the mind. She was writing during the
Romantic period in English literature when the fusion of the
ways of thought of two epochs was generating creative conflict
in the artistic, scientific, religious and political life of the
time. Those two epochs were the era of eighteenth century
scientific rationalism represented in her childhood by her
father, the social philosopher Godwin, and the nineteenth
centurys Romantic response, represented as a contrasting
childhood influence by the Romantic poet oleridge. She
listened to many conversations between these two men as
she grew up.

15 Muriel Spark Mary Shelley p 153.

54

The Events - 2
Fig 12

Fig 13

55

Mingling in Mary were two contrasting streams of

thought and feeling, the scientific and the Romantic - an
appropriate reflection of her own temperament, which was
predominantly earth/air on the one hand, and strongly
fire/water on the other - and of the detached scientist
Frankenstein and his turbulently emotional creation, the
Monster.
This fusion of the ways of thought of two epochs occurred,
then in ran enstein and ga e rise to the first important
e ample of that fictional genre which was later endorsed b
Wells.......16
In Frankenstein we can see the Promethean march forward
of human scientific endeavour which takes the view, largely,
that if it can be done, it should be done - in the name of
scientific progress. This view doesnt see ceaseless moral
and ethical questioning along the way as any part of the
scientific project.
... erhaps a corpse could be re animated gal anism17 had given
to en of such things perhaps the component parts of a creature
might be manufactured brought together and endued with ital
warmth.18
We can also see throughout the book the horror and
revulsion of the Romantic temperaments response to
the notion that the fundamental mystery and grandeur
16 Muriel Spark Mary Shelley p 159.
ui i alvani for definition of alvanism c f ncyclopaedia ritannica
Micropaedia Ready Reference Book 5 (Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 15th
Edition 1995) pp 98/9.
18 from the Authors Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition, 1831, p4.

56

of human experience and endeavour could be reduced to

a pitifully hubristic attempt at playing God, by cobbling
together bits of corpses and attempting to animate the
frightful travesty thus engendered.
The backdrop to the night when Mary Shelley dreamed
Frankenstein was singular. Europe was again being ravaged
by terrible storms which had last been seen in the year of
her birth in
. The cultural cross-currents of scientific
rationalism, and the Romantic Movement in art and
literature, were creating a turbulent stream in the collective
unconscious of the time.
Foreground energies were provided by the alchemy of
Byron, Shelley, Mary and their friend Polidori and their
reading and discussion, late into the night while storms
and rain lashed their villa, of volumes of ghost stories
translated from the German to the French19 The latest
scientific ideas of the day were also discussed, and taken as
far as their imaginations, fuelled by the gruesomeness of
their reading material, could stretch.
Within Mary herself, concentrated in a young but
passionately, painfully and dramatically lived life, was a
deep well of experience, intense feeling, and the drive
to express herself. The qualities of the time, and her
immediate surroundings, functioned like electrical charges
which galvanised her own depths, connected as they were
through her 12th house Node to the collective pool.

19 from the Authors Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition, 1831, p2.

57

When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could

be said to thin .
imagination unbidden possessed and
guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind
with i idness far be ond the usual bounds of re erie. saw
with shut e es but acute mental ision saw the pale student
of unhallowed arts neeling beside the thing he had put together.
I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then,
on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life.......
rightful must it be for supremel frightful would be the effect
of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of
the Creator of the world.20
The horoscope for the dream is stunning. Aries rises,
conjunct Marys Jupiter, indicating the fame the book
would bring her. The Asc/Desc axis of Aries/Libra is
supremely appropriate for a tale which concerns the
relationship between Frankenstein, the pioneering creator
of life, and his creature the Monster, whose alienation
from the warmth of relationship with his master and the
rest of the world drives him to vengeful murder. The chart
significators paint this vividly - enus, escendant ruler,
trine Saturn square Pluto conjunct Chiron. Venus is 19
Gemini in this chart, closely conjunct Marys North Node.
The first house Taurus oon, ruling the I , falls exactly on
Marys 12th House cusp - a potent image of an imaginative
response to the currents of the collective unconscious
requiring to be given concrete form. Marys radix Saturn
rising falls on the 1C of this chart. At the core of the story
was her own frustrated longing for maternal nurturing,
and the pain of her own motherhood already at nineteen
20 from the Authors Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition, 1831, p5.

58

deeply scored by the death of her first child. ut she gives

form and structure to her pain, using her imaginative gifts,
by sending the work out as a lesson and a warning to the
collective through an inspired work of literature - the Dream
charts IC conjunct Mercury in Cancer, MC Capricorn, ruler
Saturn in Aquarius in 11th, sextile Neptune in Sagittarius
in the 9th House - all these are highly appropriate
significators.
The Nodal links are striking. The 3rd/9th House cusps of
the Dream chart exactly conjunct Marys Nodal axis. Both
Nodal axes are conjunct - and part of a very powerful T
Square involving the outer planets: Neptune conjuncts the
South Node in both Horoscopes, falling on the 9th cusp of
the Dream Chart. Neptune squares Chiron Pluto which falls
in the 12th House of the dream chart, and Mary Shelleys
tenth. The Dream charts T- square falls on Marys radix
T-Square.
The overall feel of these potent links is of Mary, through
her story, being able to connect to, and give form to, some
of the archetypal threads running through the weave of the
time in which she lived. With her 12th/6th House North
Node falling on the 3rd/9th cusps of the Dream Chart, and
Pluto/Chiron in the Dream charts 12th house, square its
own 3rd / 9th cusps and Marys Nodes, there is a feeling of
prescience, of foresight concerning wounds to come in the
human collective, generated by the combination of these
two charts.
The Publication chart is also graphic, but in a more cerebral
way as befits the nature of the occasion. In the ream

59

chart Uranus was approaching conjunction with Neptune,

which was exactly on Marys South Node. In this one, 17.5
degrees Aquarius rises, trine Marys North Node sextile
Jupiter. Uranus rules the chart, and is placed in Sagittarius
(conjunct MC in Sagittarius) conjunct Venus, Neptune and
Jupiter, in the tenth house - this stellium is draped round
Marys South Node conjunct Moon, with the Venus/Uranus
midpoint exactly conjunct Marys South Node. The shocking
and scary nature of the book, as well as its visionary
message, is well conveyed through these significators
with the addition of the Chiron/Pluto midpoint exactly
square Venus/Uranus - exactly plugging into Marys Nodal
T-square.
I think the indications of the books enormous success are
well conveyed in the charts Jupiter Neptune conjunction
in the 10th House, conjunct Marys Moon South Node
conjunction in her 6th House - as well as Marys Jupiter
sextile the charts Ascendant.
There is a strongly Promethean tone to the Publication
chart, echoing Marys own. Mary in publishing Frankenstein
breaks through the bounds of convention again, regarding
what was thought fit for a woman to do in the time in
which she lived. She also challenged expectations of what a
youthful person could produce - it was hard to believe that a
nineteen year old woman had written this book - and there
were many who erroneously believed for some time that it
was the work of her husband, Shelley.21

21 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p 156.

60

In the spring of 1818 the Shelleys and their entourage set

off for Europe again. By June, now living Italy up in the
Apennines in Bagni di Lucca, Mary had learned from letters
and reviews that her novel was a sensation. Along with the
expected denunciations for impiety and extravagant wildness,
critics lauded the boo s highl terrific power.... 22
In the Publication chart and its links with Mary Shelleys, one
can see the striking foreground dominance of the outer planets
in relation to Marys 12th House North Node in Gemini. She
hadnt just written a book - she had distilled from the collective
undercurrents of her time the most powerful dilemma of the
age, a Promethean one. Is it right for humankind to strive to
transcend the limits of our physical bodies and the cycle of
time which demands decay and death as the price of life, just
because science gives us the power to do so? Frankensteins
profound impact on public consciousness, from its own time
and down the generations that followed right up until the
present day, can be seen especially in the many and varied
cinematographic versions of the book from the first American
film adaptation of
onwards. As mily Sunstein puts it:
n
oris arloff became the monster for millions and the rest
23
is history.
3. Enter Dolly.
r ran enstein wore a wool sweater and a bagg par a......
r an ilmot the first man to concei e full formed life from
adult bod parts since ar helle s fictional mad scientist.
Wilmot may not look the part of Frankenstein, or God the
22 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p 155.
23 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality - p 398.

61

ather but he played it. (my emphasis)

I believe that the reason for the continuing potency of the
books effect is that the dilemma Mary Shelley so graphically
portrayed is with us still, and still unresolved, as the above
quotation shows. It is absolutely contemporary - from the
Science (Biology) Section of Time Magazines 1997 The
Year in Review.24
On 26 February 1997, shortly after the Jupiter Uranus
conjunction and its attendant 5 degree pattern linking
Saturn, Mars, Pluto, Jupiter and Uranus in a unique
planetary alignment on 15 -16 February 1997, Dolly the
Sheep was presented to the world.
Andrew Marr, Editor of the Independent, offered the
following front page headline:
In the past few days, we have lived through a change in
the human condition as momentous as the Copernican
revolution or the splitting of the atom25
This dramatic statement introduced the news that a team of
Scottish scientists had successfully produced a sheep cloned
from one cell of her genetically identical mothers udder.
President Clinton was so concerned by this development
that he asked a national ethics board to review the moral
implications, and present their report within ninety days.
For weeks afterwards, the papers were full of intense
24 from the Science (Biology) Section of Time Magazines Time Annual 1997
The Year in Review (Time Books 1998), p116.
25 The Independent Wednesday 26 February 1997.

62

The Events - 3
Fig 14

Fig 15

63

debate. As the New Scientist put it on 1 March 1997, under

the headline .....one giant leap into the unknown....
Extraordinary, stupendous, mind-boggling and
frightening were the words on everyones lips. They said it
couldnt happen before 2050, but now that an adult sheep
has been cloned, there seems to be no technical reason why
we should not do the same with people...
President Clintons ethics committee reported back on
7 June 1997.The conclusion was that cloning of human
beings is morally wrong, and should be banned...
hen I first read about how olly the sheep had been
cloned, ie that an electrical charge was run through the
genetically altered egg to vitiate the cloning process, I recall
being rooted to my chair, feeling chilled, as a vivid cinema
image of Frankensteins Monster vitiated by the lightning
bolt came to me. What had Mary Shelley foreseen? Her
biography shows clearly that she had a streak of prescience
with regard to upcoming events in her personal life. The
Node position in Gemini in the 12th, square Uranus,
sextile Jupiter, suggests sensitivity to collective events as yet
unformed.......
In my monthly Study Group which I run for ongoing
students as a forum to present charts, I sometimes
introduce world event charts, and certainly could not resist
producing Scotlands chart in March 1997. Scotlands Asc/
Desc axis is 6.5 degrees Leo Asc /Aquarius Desc, and there
is 7 degrees Aries/Libra MC/IC - so it is strongly plugged
in to the unique planetary line-up just mentioned. During
the tutorial I told the students about my powerful flash

64

of Mary Shelley/Frankenstein when reading about how

Dolly had been created. Having just that week obtained
Dollys chart, I had the idea of putting Mary Shelleys chart
positions round the acetate of Dollys chart, in red pen. I
put this very hurried piece of work up on the OHP. I wont
forget the quality of the silence which fell in the room as the
students looked at the synastry.
One could write a whole case study on this synastry alone.
ut the first comments the students made were on the
powerful Nodal links.
Once again there is a significant tie-up with arys Nodal
T- Square: Dollys Venus Mars conjunction in Gemini in the
eighth, square her isces oon in the fifth, falls on arys
twelfth House North Node, with the Moon placed in her
tenth house. Dollys square provides a striking image of the
artificial separation of the growth and incarnation process
shown by the Moon, lifes container, from the sexual
meeting of male and female shown by the eighth House
enus ars conjunction. arys first ouse rising Saturn
in Cancer squares Dollys Saturn/Nodes Chiron/Sun/
Fortuna/Mercury opposite Jupiter grand cross.
These cross link-ups are potent and poignant. They carry all
the personal and collective themes I have been presenting
throughout this case study. There is even an un-mothered
sheep - not carried in a womb, birthed and gently nudged
onto her feet and into her life by her own mother - but an
artificial creation from, of all parts of the maternal body, the
udder.

65

There are many other Nodal links, too numerous to chart

them all in detail. Here are a few examples: Percy Shelley
and Dolly have the same Moon to one degree of exactitude,
squaring Marys North Node. Dollys Nodal grand cross
plugs in to the Asc/Desc of the Dream chart. Dollys Asc/
Desc axis runs through the Publication charts Nodal axis
- the Sun of the Publication chart links closely with Dollys
Nodal grand cross, the two Suns in fact opposite each other.
Furthermore, the Moon/Venus Mars square in Dollys
chart picks up the MC/IC axis and attendant Uranus/Mars/
Chiron T square in the Publication chart.
ery significantly too, in terms of the resonance over time,
is the fact that Dollys 0 Sag Pluto is in waning square to
Mary Shelleys Pluto, which is at 29 Aquarius conjunct her
MC at 27 Aquarius. (Dollys IC is 23 Aquarius.......) It is very
apt that Dolly should appear under this waning square,
as a potent symbol of a major concrete outworking of the
revolutionary social, political and scientific ideas current
under the Uranus Pluto opposition immediately preceding
Marys birth.26 Furthermore, when Dolly was announced
26 NOTE The Jupiter Uranus year of 1997 is probably the most overtly
Promethean year humanity has lived through, the central event of a Promethean
nature bein the first ever clonin of a mammal, ma in the clonin of human
beings a frightening but not unlikely next step. (cf my own study From erotic
bathing to star gazing - the Jupiter Uranus Year for a presentation of some of
the collective and individual effects of this conjunction).
At the point of exact conjunction in February 1997, Jupiter disposited the
current position of Pluto in Sagittarius, and Uranus disposited Mary Shelleys
Pluto; the conjunction and its attendant pattern plugged in exactly to
Mary Shelleys ninth house cusp at 5 Aquarius. It is an interesting piece of
synchronicity that 1997, the conjunction year, is the bicentenary of her birth,
and there has been something of a Mary Shelley revival. There was an exhibition
in Rome in August, her birth month. (The Times, 28.8.97, p15) The National
Portrait Gallery mounted a major exhibition on Mary Shelley and her mothers
lives and work, Hyenas in Petticoats, in London over the winter........and on
November10th, a front page headline in The Times reported that a childrens
story by Mary Shelley, lost for 170 years, had just turned up in a trunk in a villa
in taly s already mentioned in ref iv, ary, after ary helley, as the first

66

to the world, ranus was making its first sextile from the
Uranus Pluto conjunction of the 1960s.
Mary Shelleys pre-natal eclipses and the event charts
Once again, one sees the pre-natal eclipses as stunning
foreground images in all the event charts. The links
between the 19 Sagittarius pre-natal lunar eclipse and
Marys chart have already been covered by the discussion of
the Nodal links between Marys chart and key events, since
19 Sagittarius is her South Node degree.
3.5 degrees of Cancer, the pre-natal solar eclipse, is conjunct
the Sun in the 6th House of the Declaration chart, opposite
the Neptune/South Node midpoint in the 12th House.
This strongly resonates with the nature of the event: the
declaration in the world of a longing for profound union of
body and spirit. It falls in the 12th House of the elopement
chart (very apt for a clandestine event under cover of
darkness!); closely square the Aries MC/Libra IC. The
ream chart finds it in the rd ouse, conjunct the Sun
and probably the IC. In the Publication chart it falls most
appropriately in the 5th House, opposite an 11th House
Sun and Sun/Jupiter midpoint, square the Mercury/Mars
midpoint in the 1st House. This offers a clear picture of a
challenging piece of writing, destined to bring fame to its
creator, being offered up to the wider community from a
visionary creative source.
I find the links between the pre-natal solar eclipse and
choice of name for the famous sheep, who was in the end named after Dolly
Parton.

67

Dollys chart particularly striking, plugging in as it does

to Dollys 8th House Mercury/Fortuna/9th House Sun
conjunction, completing a grand cross with the Nodes,
Chiron, Saturn and Jupiter.
Dreaming and Publishing Frankenstein: eclipse seasons
Mary Shelley dreamed Frankenstein on June 22 1816. The
transiting North Node had recently returned to its natal
position at 19 Gemini, and was still retrograding through
the 12th House. On 27 May 1816 there was a solar eclipse
which fell in Marys 12th House, at 5.5 degrees Gemini,
triggering her Sun/Mars, Neptune/Ascendant, Uranus/MC,
and Uranus/Pluto midpoints. On 10 June there was a total
lunar eclipse - on the South Node, at 19 degrees Sagittarius;
her pre- natal lunar eclipse. The new moon on June 25,
three days after the dream, fell on 3 degrees 47 minutes
Cancer - her precise pre-natal solar eclipse degree, just out
of the 18 degree orb limit required to produce an eclipse.......
The eclipse season within which Frankenstein was
published on 1 January 1818 saw the North Node
retrograding through the middle degrees of Taurus. The
total solar eclipse of 9th November 1817 fell on 16 degrees
20 minutes Taurus, almost exactly conjunct Mary Shelleys
12th House cusp, triggering her Mercury /Ascendant
midpoint in the 3rd House, and Moon/Venus midpoint in
the 6th. Furthermore, this eclipse degree appears as the
exact South Node degree in the Publication chart, the Nodes
making a grand cross with its Asc/Desc axis at 17 degrees
Aquarius/Leo. This axis falls in Marys 9th/3rd House,
sextile her Jupiter and trine/sextile her Nodal axis - quite

68

a symbolic recipe for literary success within an innovative

field of work!
The lunar eclipse of 23rd November at 1 degree 13 minutes
Gemini closely echoed the pre-Dream solar eclipse at 5.5
Gemini, and fell again in Marys 12th House, squaring her
powerful Pluto/MC/Mars/IC line-up, conjunct her Mars/
Pluto and Sun/MC midpoints. The eclipse degree becomes
the Part of Fortune degree in the 10th House of the
Publication chart, opposite a 3rd House Mars in Gemini,
square a 1st House Saturn in Pisces.
Enter Dolly: eclipse seasons 1997/8
Dolly was presented to the world on 26 February 1997. The
transiting North Node was at 28 degrees 44 minutes Virgo,
exactly conjunct Mary Shelleys North Node ruler, Mercury,
to the minute, and squares her Moon at 28 degrees
Sagittarius, on that day. The total solar eclipse at 18.5 Pisces
on 9 March fell in her 10th House, square the Natal Nodal
axis, and Marys pre-natal lunar eclipse at 19 Sagittarius.
The following lunar eclipse on 24 March at 3.5 degrees
Libra fell on her Venus Chiron conjunction at 3.5/5.5
degrees Libra, square her Asc/Desc axis at 2.5 Cancer/
Capricorn; square her pre-natal solar eclipse at 3.5 Cancer.
In the autumn, as the controversy raised by Dolly raged on,
the total solar eclipse of 1st September 1997 at 9.5 Virgo fell
on Marys Sun Uranus conjunction. The following lunar
eclipse on 16 September at 24 Pisces squared once again
Mary Shelleys Nodal axis / pre-natal lunar eclipse degrees.

69

The transiting Nodal axis by then was exactly forming a

grand cross with Marys natal Nodes.
The cloning/genetic engineering debate continued. The
following spring was notable for an American doctor
announcing that he was going to go ahead with attempting
to clone a human being, despite the findings of resident
Clintons ethics committee the previous June. Suspicions
were being voiced in the press that the race towards cloning
the first human was probably on, being conducted behind
the scenes. The feeling now is that human cloning is just a
matter of time.
And the eclipses? The total solar eclipse of 26 February 1998
at 8 degrees Pisces opposed Marys Sun Uranus conjunction
from the 10th House. The following lunar eclipse on 13
March at 22.5 Virgo once again made a grand cross with
her natal Nodes. The prevailing pattern in the heavens that
spring involved luto/Nodes/ upiter in the first decanate of
the mutables, picking up Mary Shelleys Mars/Sun/Uranus
conjunction from 1 to 12 degrees of Virgo.
When I made all these correspondences, spanning nearly
200 years of time, I felt awestruck. My overwhelming
impression, once again, was of a life moving inexorably
towards its destiny, with the Nodes, and their agents the
eclipses, providing both the route maps and the galvanising
energy. The Nodal and eclipse patterns of Mary Shelleys
natal horoscope stand out as symbolic images of the
threads weaving the individual herself, the modern myth
she created, and this time and place when the myth is
powerfully potent in collective consciousness, into the
tapestry of history.
70

4. And finally......
I had occasion recently to look out the horoscope of the
20th century, set for London. This is an extraordinary
horoscope. Images leap out: of the centurys restless hunger
for challenging the frontiers of knowledge at every level,
of its turbulence, violence and revolutionary spirit, of the
breakdown of conventional and traditional life patterns and the price paid for all that change.
I looked at the chart - and looked again. There was
something about it which strongly reminded me of another
chart. Intuitively I went for Mary Shelleys - and was riveted.
Marys Nodal axis is exactly conjunct the 20th century
one, her 12th House North Node in Gemini falling on the
centurys South Node. Both land on the centurys Neptune
Pluto conjunction midpoint, in the ninth house, exactly
square Marys Mercury/Uranus and Sun/Venus midpoints.
Her Sagittarian Moon, widely conjunct the South Node,
falls on the centurys Saturn almost to the minute. Both are
conjunct the Galactic Centre. Her Sun/Uranus midpoint
falls in the 11th house of the centurys chart, exactly square
its Uranus in Sagittarius in the 3rd house. The centurys
exact Chiron Mercury conjunction in the 3rd house falls on
Marys South Node within a degree of exactitude.
Other links are equally stunning. Marys Saturn rising in
Cancer falls exactly within 20 minutes of the centurys
Midheaven, its Sun Mars conjunction on the IC falling
opposite Marys Saturn. The centurys Moon on the
Capricorn IC is exactly conjunct Marys Desc.

71

The pain and alienation of peoples increasing separation

this century from ties of kin, tradition and nation, and
the ancient rhythms of Nature itself, in the wake of fast,
unprecedented, technology-led global change, and Marys
prescient capacity to evoke this, I think lie at the heart of the
astounding synastry between the two charts.
This has been a century like no other. There have been
huge leaps forward in improvements in standard of living
and vastly expanded ranges of potential through which
those lucky enough to live in the developed world can
experience life. There is also a heavy price to be paid - and,
increasingly, we are now paying it. In her portrayal of the
questing, brilliant, restless, hubristic Dr Frankenstein
prepared to take on the role of Creator in his ruthless
pursuit of scientific progress unfettered by moral concerns
or even self-doubt, and in her portrayal of the intelligent,
sensitive, lonely, alienated and ultimately destructive
Monster, she is offering through her famous novel a
warning for the future - and presenting us with an essential
duality of the century in which we live.
With extraordinary clairvoyance and integrity Mary Shelley
recognised that what her father trusted as the promise
of mankind...... was also its gravest threat. It is perhaps
her greatest and most characteristic accomplishment
in Frankenstein that the issue remains unresolved and
unresolvable. 27

27 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p132.

72

Appendix i: biography in summary

I am indebted to Emily W Sunstein for her immaculately
researched, detailed, scholarly and extraordinarily vivid
MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality, which brought
Mary Shelleys life and times marvellously alive. I also
greatly appreciated the tart clarity of Muriel Sparks
appraisal of Mary Shelley as a writer and critic.28
Mary Shelleys life, as indeed her husband Percy Shelleys,
has been subject to many interpretations over the years. The
basic facts are as follows:29
Her mother was the progressive feminist writer Mary
Wollestonecraft, her father the equally progressive
philosopher and writer William Godwin. Mary was born
on 30 August 1797, and her mother died on 10 September,
in her late 30s.This early loss left a painful emotional void
in Mary. Her father re-married in 1801 when Mary was 4,
bringing her a stepmother whom she always hated, and
two step-siblings Charles and Jane. She grew up in a highly
intellectual household with distinguished literary visitors
eg the writers Samuel Coleridge and Leigh Hunt. Her
precocious intellectual development was nurtured by her
father.

28 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - published 1792 the feminist

social study cum manifesto that first made omen s ri hts into a cause mily
unstein
omance and eality ohn op ins niversity
ress, altimore
p
29 Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality (John Hopkins
niversity ress, altimore
uriel par
ary helley onstable
ompany, ondon,
art ii ritical pp
to
, especially hapter
on ran enstein have ta en the facts for the bio raphical summary from
unstein s boo

73

She first glimpsed ord yron in

, and briefly met
Shelley on 11 November 1812. In the spring of 1814 she
met Shelley again. On Sunday June 26, at her mothers
graveside, they declared their love - an evening that decided
her destiny. They eloped to Europe (Shelley was married)
on 28 July and returned to London on 13 September to set
up home together. On 22 Feb 1815 their daughter Mary was
born prematurely. She died on 5th March. On Jan 24 1816
their son William was born.
On ay
, having previously met yron, they sailed
to Italy with Marys step sister Jane, newly pregnant by
yron, and their son illiam. On ay
they had their
first meeting with yron in Geneva. On the night of
une
yron proposed that they all write a ghost story. In the early
hours of June 22, Mary had the dream/nightmare in which
the plot of ran enstein came to her.
On
August
, the party minus yron returned to
ngland and settled in ath. On October , ary began
to write ran enstein. On 9 October, Fanny, Marys elder
half-sister, committed suicide. On December 15, Mary and
Shelley had news of Shelleys wife Harriets suicide. Mary
and Shelley married on December 30th, witnessed by her
stepmother and father William Godwin, who had disowned
Mary since her elopement whilst still continuing to borrow
money from Shelley.
On the
ay
ary finished writing ran enstein,
and on the 14th Shelley, who had supported and encouraged
her throughout the whole process, wrote the preface. It was
eleven months after her dream. In late August the book

74

was accepted for publication; on the last day of 1817 she

received her first bound copy of the volumes. The official
publication date was 11 March 1818, in London, although
the book was actually published on 1st January 1818.30 On
the 12 March 1818 the Shelleys and their entourage left
England for Italy, where Mary was to remain until July 1823.
y the summer of
she knew from letters and reviews
that her novel was a sensation. y the time she returned to
England the novel had soared beyond literary success into
the domain of a classic31
On 2nd September their second daughter, Clara Everina,
was born in London. On September 24, she died in Italy,
in Venice. Their 3 year old son, William, died in Rome on
7 June 1819. On 12 November 1819 she had Percy, the only
child to survive of the four who were born. She never fully
recovered her physical health or emotional resilience after
these terrible losses. In her depression following Williams
death she withdrew from everyone, even her beloved
Shelley, for long periods.
ut her worst loss was yet to come. She and Shelley were
sharing Casa Magni, a large converted boathouse on the
Gulf of Spezia with various friends in the summer of 1822.
In the spring her half-sister Claires daughter Allegra by
yron, died of typhus in her convent school. On
une
Mary miscarried at 3.5 months and nearly bled to death.
She, Shelley and their friend Jane Williams had bloody
nightmares and frightening visions and premonitions that
month. On 1st July Shelley left, Mary begging him not to go,
from ally avis of ata lus
mily
unstein

er source imes anuary

omance and eality p

75

,p

to sail to Genoa with Edward Williams to meet other friends

there.
On the 19th July, their friend Trelawny told Mary and Jane
that he had seen their husbands bodies washed up on the
shore near via Reggio. They had apparently drowned in
a storm on July 8th. Over 15/16 August 1822, Trelawney,
watched by friends unt and yron, performed the grisly
task of exhuming and cremating Shelleys and Edward
Williamsons bodies on the beach where they had been
washed ashore. Quarantine regulations prevented the
bodies from being buried.
In 1823, on 25 July, just before the ninth anniversary of
her elopement with Shelley on 28 July 1814, Mary Shelley
returned home to England with her half-sister and her one
surviving child. She was never to live abroad again.
Since this case study concerns her life up until she wrote
ran enstein, I shall be very brief in giving a summary of
the rest of her life until she died of a brain tumour at the
age of 53 on Feb 1 1851, attended by her devoted son Percy
and his equally devoted wife Jane. Emily W Sunsteins
conclusion to her book puts forward the essence of Mary
Shelleys life very clearly:
Mary Shelley was an important Romantic who survived
into the Victorian age. Her private life, career and works
are a rich resource for that historical evolution, a broader
mine than those of her great associates, Shelley and
yron, whom kind death saved from erosion. ar from
being subjected to romantic turbulence, she chose it.

76

Aspiration, enthusiasm, challenge, active mind and spirit,

and optimism were among her cardinal qualities, contrary
to the impression that she was temperamentally cool,
quiet and pessimistic......her creative and scholarly works
establish her as a major literary figure of the first half of the
nineteenth century. She belongs among the great editors
for her editions of Shelleys works.....Perhaps she will be
best remembered for her perception in ran enstein and
he ast an, that the Promethean drive is at the heart of
human progress and yet a bringer of new ills if not focused
on ethical means and ends; and even so, if Nature shrugs
we perish. In that ambiguity she may be said to have
heralded the consciousness that distinguishes the PostModern from the Modern Age.32

mily

unstein

omance and eality pp

77

THE CHARTS: THEIR PROVENANCE

I have used the True Node for all the charts throughout
the thesis. This is because the True Node gives the actual
position on the day, whereas the Mean Node gives a position
based on average motion, which sometimes overlaps with
the True position, but can be as much as 2 degrees different
depending upon the time of year. I prefer to use the True
position.
Page 38 Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin Shelley, 30 Aug 1797,
London, England. Time: 23.20 local time. Source: Paul
Wright, strolo y in ction, Anodyne Publishing 1988,
quoted by her father, present at her birth.
Page 38 William Godwin, 03 March 1756, Wisbech,
England. Time unknown. Source: Astrological Association
ata ank - from Sally avis.
Page 39 Mary Wollestonecraft, 27 April 1759, London,
England. Time unknown. Source: ife and eath of ary
ollestonecraft by Claire Tomalin, Penguin 1977, p 13.

N : I do not have times for ollestonecraft or Godwin,

and have used Noon charts for them for two main reasons.
They were both public figures, destined to lead a public life,
and lived long enough for their contribution to be made and
seen, despite in Wollestonecrafts case her premature death.
age
ercy ysshe Shelley,
Aug
, orsham,
England. Time: 22.00 local time. Source: merican oo
of harts by Lois Rodden, Astro Computing Services,
1980, quoting fathers and grandfathers statements in his
biography .

78

age
ord yron,
an
, ondon, ngland. Time:
14.00 local time. Source: merican oo of harts by Lois
Rodden, Astro Computing Services, 1980, quoting family
records in ritish useum.
age
aby ary Shelley,
eb
, ondon, ngland.
Time unknown. Source: Emily W. Sunstein MARY
SHELLEY Romance and Reality p 97.
NOTE I have no time for baby Mary and have used a
Sunrise chart for her. This is because her life dawned,
but never came to fruition because she lived for only
eleven days; so a sunrise chart seemed more symbolically
appropriate.
Page 51 Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin/Percy Shelley:
Declaration of love: 26 June 1814, London, England. Time:
in the evening at sunset I have set the chart for 9 pm sunset approx. Source: Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY
Romance and Reality p74.
Page 51 Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin/Percy Shelley:
Elopement: 28 July 1814, London, England. Time: 04.00
local time. Source: Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY
Romance and Reality p75.
Page 55 Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin: Dreaming
ran enstein: 22 June 1816, Geneva, Switzerland. Time:
even the witching hour had gone by before we retired
to rest. When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not
sleep.....My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided
me.....
Source: Authors Introduction to the Standard Novels
Edition of Frankenstein (1831) pp 8-9.

79

N : I decided to set the chart at . am local time. This

would give her time to get upstairs, get ready for bed, and
settle down for sleep. The dream came before she went to
sleep. So this can only be an approximate time - but I was
intrigued to note that the Ascendant of the chart, 19 Aries,
is Marys natal horoscopes Jupiter degree!
Page 55 ran enstein, Publication day: 01 Jan 1818, London
(Hatchards bookshop, Piccadilly), England, Time: 10.00
local time. Source: Times 01 Jan 1818, p4 - from Sally Davis,
DataPlus UK who also suggested the time as a reasonable
time when the book would have been available to be
bought.
Page 63 Dolly the cloned Sheep: 05 July 1996, Rosslyn
Institute, nr Edinburgh, Scotland. Time: 16.00 hours local
time. Source: Caroline Gerard.
Page 63 Chart of the Twentieth Century: 01 Jan 1900,
London, England. Time: midnight local time. Source:
Melanie Reinhart, CPA seminar on Psychosynthesis,
London 17 September 1995. NOTE: I decided to leave this
chart set for London, since in 1900, London was the key city
of the ritish mpire which was still the dominant world
force.

80

Chapter 3: case study 2

Marc: A life through the nodal lens
Introduction
I chose Marc (51) as my second case study for several
reasons. Firstly, since the book concerns the soli/lunar
relationship it was particularly important that the sexes
were balanced, and that I wrote about a man next. Secondly,
having written about a famous dead person, I wanted to
write about a living person whom I knew personally and
with whom I had worked.
I had been wondering who my subject could be - then
whilst looking through my
astrology case file, arcs
chart caught my attention. He has almost identical Nodes to
ary Shelleys. is are
degrees
r Gemini/Sagittarius
hers are degrees
r Gemini/Sagittarius. Although
located in different houses, arcs are in the th/ th as
distinct from arys th/ th, there is a strong link with
ranus. arcs ranus is in the th ouse conjunct an
th ouse North Node. arys ranus squares the Nodal
axis. There are further links. arys r upiter at Aries
sextiles her North Node: arcs r upiter at
ibra trines
his North Node! arcs Sun/ enus midpoint is conjunct
his North Node. arys Sun/ enus midpoint squares her
North Node. is th ouse Aries oon sextile Node also
resonates with arys Sagittarian oon widely conjunct
Node.1
1 Note: at the time of this selection the transiting North Node was at 19 Virgo,
con unct first house rania in my chart, s uarin
arc s Nodal a is and ary
helley s

81

Fig 16

I thought it would be most apt to choose a male partner

for Mary Shelley with clear Nodal connections between her
chart and his. I leave the Reader to note the strong echoes
which I think there are between Mary and what drove her,
and Marc and what drives him.....
I have known arc now for about ten years initially as a
counselling client when his marriage was breaking up, then
as an astrology client, then as an astrology student - Marc
studied with me for about a year and has maintained an
interest in the subject. I now see him every year or two for
astrological taking stock sessions.
Approach
I have chosen to approach the Nodes from a different
perspective in this case study. For Mary Shelley, I took the
first Nodal return and used that as my boundary point.
For Marc, on the other hand, I have ranged over his life to
date. I have been very fortunate in having the assistance of
a subject who is so articulate. (See ppendi ii for detail re
method adopted and questionnaires used.)
Marcs horoscope: the Nodes and their natal links
The North Node falls in Gemini, the South in Sagittarius.
As with ary Shelley, this denotes a life path centred round
the conceptualising and disseminating of information and
ideas. Sagittarius on the South Node shows strong roots
in philosophical enquiry as a first approach to life, as well
as a love of learning. What is it for? may well have been a

83

frequent question of his when he was growing up, as well

as What does it mean? A strong emphasis in his home
environment on the value of a good education seems very
likely. If not directly exposed in his young life to other
languages and the ways of other cultures, the South Node
in Sagittarius suggests a wandering masculine spirit as
part of the family inheritance. Perhaps he had close male
relatives who told him stories of their travels when he was
a boy, which inspired his adult love of travel - mentally and
spiritually, more than actual physical travel, in his case.
It also suggests, taking the strong fire/air emphasis of
arcs chart to back this up as well as upiter sextile South
Node in Sagittarius, a longing from the beginning for a
grand, adventurous life - for a life inspired by his vision,
or by values which he could admire and aspire towards.
Also indicated in this linking of SNode and a predominantly
fire/air chart with no earth is a distaste for the restrictions
of the ordinary and mundane, and the potential for
arrogance through conviction of ones own rightness. The
Sagittarius/Gemini Nodal axis, backed up with three planets
in Gemini, indicate a man inclined to proselytise. This is
fine if the soapbox and the audience is big enough, but
could be wearying in a narrower, more personal context.....
The North Node in Geminis location in the th ouse,
South Node in Sagittarius in the 5th, once again brings up
the fire/air nature of arcs horoscope, and emphasises the
restless, creative streak in his nature. In the fifth house one
identifies what ones creative gifts are: in the eleventh they
are offered to the human group.

The natural ruler of the eleventh, ranus, in Gemini in

the th ouse conjunct NNode in the th, has a strongly
political, humanitarian, idealistic feel to it. Adding the
trine from upiter in ibra in the rd ouse to the NNode/
Uranus combination in the 1Oth/11th, one gets a very
strong feeling of a man who gains great pleasure and
a sense of purpose from sharing ideas with others in a
political context - commitment to a political party through
NNode/ ranus in the th/ th, and beliefs/ideals which
influence his career direction, through ranus th ouse
location backed up by a Mercury/Sun conjunction also in
the th.
bertin in OSI has this to say with reference to upiter/
Uranus/Node: the ability to show oneself cheerful, gay and
hopeful in the presence of others - the ability to share joy
together with others, to strive together with others for a
common purpose.
One gets the feeling from looking at arcs chart from a
Nodal perspective that his drive to offer his creative gifts
to the group focuses more on intellectual, political and
idealistic objectives than on, for example, the very physical
and personal goal of having children as an expression of
his creative drives. He has no earth in his chart as well as
its being strongly fire/air. is rising ars in eo in the th
ouse, sextile both upiter in the rd and ranus in the
th, suggests again energy being directed more to group
idealistic and spiritual outlets than physical, personal ones.

einhold bertin

ombination of tellar n uences

85

nc ,

arc doesnt have children and from my many discussions

with him, it appears clear that he never wanted them - and
has chosen two key female partners who felt the same.
e has been very much influenced and inspired by close
women friends and helpers, more so than one might expect
from a man of his generation the NNodes position on the
midpoint of the Asc and a ninth house Aries oon vividly
illustrates the quality of his connection with the feminine
principle in general and key women in particular. Forceful,
fiery women have had quite an impact on his life!
All this optimistic, fiery, outgoing energy coupled with
considerable intellectual gifts, ease and fluency of
expression and a wide ranging mind, all linked in with the
11th House N Node, suggest someone who is a doer and an
achiever, as indeed Marc is. He has been an urban planner
for approaching
years. In recent times, his team has
gained public recognition for award-winning work.
ut the hiron upiter conjunction in the rd ouse, sextile
Mars, trine the NNode/Uranus conjunction and opposite
the th ouse Aries oon, suggests not only gifts and
achievement. arc was born on a balsamic oon running
below the surface of his entire life, there has always been an
undertow of world-weariness of what does it matter anyway,
of strong potential for painful disillusion as a counterpoint
to the brightness of the gifts with which he came into this
world.
Thus Chiron linked in to the Node and its attendant
planetary pattern speaks powerfully in arcs life. It tells of
a life full of bright gifts underpinned by a powerful, painful,
instinctive understanding of the fundamental loneliness

of us all, especially through Saturn in Cancer in the 11th s

T-squaring of the Ninth ouse Aries oons opposition to
hiron conjunct upiter in the third. Saturn also connects to
the North Node by semi-sextile, thereby forming an integral
part of the complex Chiron Node pattern.
The wound in Mark stems from his gut awareness, which
many people can avoid but he cannot, of the isolation
into which we are all born from which intimacy may
temporarily insulate us, but which can never be gainsaid.
No amount of love offered is enough to assuage this wound
fully - and the pattern challenges Marc to a struggle to make
peace with his inner bleakness by journeying within, and to
the realisation that no human partner can provide fully the
salve that is required.
However, one can also see from the more positive facets of
the pattern, flowing from the hiron upiter conjunction
in the rd house, that arcs struggle to make sense of the
wounds he has received has deepened and enriched him as
a person over the last decade. It has also brought him into
contact with rich sources of knowledge, and with individual
people who have helped him gradually towards a broader
and deeper experience of life than would have been possible
had he remained identified purely with the strongly
political, intellectual and rationalist sides of himself. He is
much more aware, and respectful, now of the enormously
powerful, sensitive, bleak and easily wounded feminine side
of his own nature. He is still striving to bring this side into
balance with the restless, endlessly curious, inspirationseeking, rationalist masculine spirit which has driven him
all his life.

87

I see the North Node as a primary significator for revealing

the direction an individuals life must follow, if he or she
is to arrive at as full an expression of the souls blueprint
as is possible during this particular lifetime. The planetary
links to the Nodal axis, I believe, encode symbolically the
terms of reference of the struggle towards entelechy3, and
also convey something of the nature of that struggle. We
are all challenged to a greater or lesser extent to integrate
the masculine with the feminine dimensions of our own
being. arcs Nodal pattern shows with great vividness how
central for him is an honest response to that challenge, in
translating his lifes considerable potential into positive
outcomes of both an outer and an inner nature.
arc was
when luto entered upiters sign in
1995, beginning a long opposition to the Mercury Sun
conjunction ( ercury rules his North Node, upiter his
South Node, the Sun rules his Ascendant in
eo which
sextiles the North Node). Since then he has been grappling
with core issues, the outcome of which will determine
the shape of the next phase of his life. As Saturn has been
transiting the 9th house, and during 1997 triggering the
powerful pattern described in the paragraphs above, the
inner struggle has become more focused.
Do I see my career through to its Saturn Return or do I take early
retirement? How do I deal with my political disillusion, now that
Scotland looks as though it will indeed get its own Parliament,
when I dont believe this is anything more than an offering
lassical ree ord, (entelecheia), meaning that which
ives form or perfection to anythin
horter ford n lish ictionary
dition have used it in the sense of that hich a person is at best able to
become

88

of token power? (Marc has been a member of the Scottish

Nationalist party for 30 years) What are the core components
going to be to the next stage of my life? In what form will I next
be offering my creative energy to the human collective? What
does my life mean, what are my spiritual values?
ut there we must leave arcs future as it gradually takes
shape in its own time, and turn now to surveying his life to
date.
arc s horoscope the Nodes and the unfoldin picture
Introduction
As can be seen from ppendi ii, before drafting the
case study I did a considerable amount of preparatory
groundwork with arcs assistance. I went through the
information related to the various Nodal periods as detailed
in ppendi ii, finding that for every year of his life (
) except
,
,
, and
there was significant Nodal activity by both transit and/
or progression. I looked up the above missing years
and in each case found significant Nodal activity. The
questionnaires out of necessity had had to be selective - in
the apparently missing years there was Nodal activity
relating to significators I had left out, eg in
the NNode
transited over the IC. I had not included Nodal activity
involving the Angles in my questionnaires - just planets and
the Nodal axis itself via transits and progressions.
I had never done a Nodal trawl through an individuals
whole life before, and the result gave quite a clear message.

89

The Nodes are present in one combination or another,

bearing witness to the developing process of an individuals
life, every year.
I did a much quicker trawl through my own and a couple
of family members lives via their charts, and found much
the same thing. Although more trawls of this type need
to be done for comparison, it seems pretty likely that one
would find the same kind of overall picture in anyones life,
given the fairly rapid movement of the Nodes through the
zodiac, although the precise combinations from person to
person would of course be unique.
There is such a literal quality, also, to the Nodal pictures
which emerged in arcs life. Out of many possible
examples, here are one or two. rom August
until
Spring , upiter transited back and fore over arcs
NNode in Gemini in the th. There were two major
biographical points: first, the period described his first year
at a new primary school to which he transferred when his
parents moved area. Second, the newly crowned Queen
visited his town, and we were all trooped out to wave to
her. To offer another example, Chiron transiting his North
Node in Gemini from September
to une
, joined
by an opposition from transiting Saturn conjunct South
Node in Sagittarius from March to November 1987, earned
the following trenchant piece of description from Marc:
Misery. then More misery.
Having found that Nodal activity was woven into the
planetary tapestry of every year, it then became important
to find out whether particular patterns involving the Nodes
stood out at times which were recognised by Marc, either

at the time or in retrospect, as turning points. After some

reflection on how to approach this stage, it dawned on me
that lying in one of my files was just the right material.
ast anuary (
), a couple of weeks after reading my
painstaking first eighteen page draft, incorporating his
biography and the full significators for the Nodal periods on
which I had asked for feedback, Marc sent me the following
summary which I have incorporated here in full.
arc s sub ective perception of the pattern of his o n life
The following is my own view of the pattern of my life, driven
solely by my own memories and perceptions, not by the need
to respond to a framework which has been offered to me, and
which may therefore to some extent distort my true feelings. It
might be interesting to see how this compares with the other
version
May 46 to August 57
Essentially happy childhood, with no more than the average
number of scares and alarums. Clouded towards the end - 53 to
56 - by unhappy events in my fathers family. But perhaps not
enough to dent the onward momentum of my life at the time.
After all, passing my quali4 in spring 57 was a major triumph for me and for my family.

passin the uali a cottish e pression hose e uivalent in n lish is

passin the eleven plus the e amination hich before comprehensive,
non streamin secondary education as introduced under the ritish abour
overnment of
, had to be ta en at the end of primary education to
determine hether the pupil proceeded to a technically or academically oriented
secondary school

91

Fig 17
Turning point 1

Fig 18
Turning point 2

August 57: TURNING POINT 1

Transfer from primary school to . Academy senior
secondary].
August 57 to April 66
I now think it was the transfer to the Academy - NOT
my fathers problems - that was the actual trigger for a
downturn in my life. (...from arcs biographical notes... I
was barely in August when I started, and emotionally
younger than that. In retrospect, the decision to send
me early to the Academy was definitely a mistake - I was
intellectually - but not emotionally - ready ...) The Academy
destroyed my self- esteem. That made strong parental
back-up especially important, and perhaps it was more
damaging to me than it might otherwise have been that my
dad had his own problems at this time. y dads problems
would doubtless have impacted on me in some more or less
challenging way, but on reflection I think the actual positive
damage was done by my too-early transfer to secondary
school.
The end of this period - saw my first faltering - and
unsuccessful - steps towards the opposite sex.
April 66 - TURNING POINT 2
Started going out with eatrice. onderful from the first.
iterally like the sun coming out from behind the clouds.
After my previous difficulties with other girls, it was easy
and natural with her. Positive explosion of self-esteem as a

93

result. In those days, I used to write my name on the sleeves

of the records I bought. p till early , the signatures tend
to very small. After that, the writing is huge and scrawly. It
tells a story.
In actual fact, the whole year of
deserves mention as
an annus mirabilis in my life. It started badly and ended
sadly, but in the course of it, I started going out with my
future wife, and had my first foreign holiday, and saw
octor hivago for the first time.5 ike
- see below was a year of coming into my own. It is almost as if I
came into my own in two instalments and .
April 66 to May 73
Rising graph. A time not without its ongoing troubles.
I hated my University course, but forced myself to go
through with it because I thought my life would be wrecked
if I didnt get a degree. y dads troubles didnt resolve
themselves till arch , and the preceding mas, when he
was suddenly taken off into mental hospital, was in a real
sense the nadir of my life. But the simple fact is that, after
Beatrice, the tide was running for me not against me - I
couldnt be stopped.
May 73 - TURNING POINT 3
inished my post-graduate course and finally finished with
school. Great sense of release. appily married, plenty of
uote from arc s bio raphical notes
th Nov
a
octor hiva o
for first time
N
ery stron resonance ith themes of
personal freedom dealt ith in the film
e sa this film times

money. This is the moment of finally and fully coming into

my own. See previous comments re
.
May 73 to May 79
The high plateau of life. Happily married, well off, active in
SNP, empowered, full of a sense that life had meaning and
purpose. Ominous signs during last year May 78 to May
79.

Fig 19
Turning point 3

95

May 79 - TURNING POINT 4

hatcher ife plan derailed in one day Nothin has ever
been the same since (my emphasis)
May 79 to January 86
Material aspects of life still as favourable as before, but
increasingly grim struggle to recapture some sense of
meaning. Change of job - disastrous. Death of father
- ecember
- was the moment I finally lost my grip, but
full implications didnt come home to roost until.

January 86 - TURNING POINT 5

Sudden collapse of intimacy with my wife.
January 86 to January 88
Pure, unadulterated misery

Note n response to my identifyin

as a ey date on hich tr
ranus as e actly con unct his Node at
de rees
minutes a ittarius,
arc responded thus
can you pic a date, or hat
y th
eddin anniversary and the effective end of my marria e eatrice s affair
had be un the previous summer
as una are of this, but had been a are
of increasin a
ardness in our relationship, and tensions ere buildin
n
, made a se ual approach to eatrice, hich seemed reasonable
to me on our anniversary, and as rebuffed ith some abruptness omethin
e ploded in my head e perienced a split second of blindin fury hich
uic ly controlled, only to discover that it had been replaced in my heart by an
icy coldness fell out of love ith eatrice in that instant after
years of
closeness and affection

Fig 20
Turning point 4

Turning point 5

Fig 21
Turning point 5

97

Fig 22
Turning point 6

January 88 - TURNING POINT 6

Caitlin (his current partner)
January 88 to Present
Upward track again, but with many wobbles. Domestic
happiness restored, but the rediscovery of a sense of
purpose in life has proved elusive.

98

Marcs turning points - an examination of the Nodal

patterns
It struck me on re-reading arcs own summary of his life
pattern, and his identification of turning points, that this
provided an excellent opportunity to analyse the Nodal,
planetary and eclipse pictures on each occasion and see if
there was anything about them suggesting they were out of
the ordinary.
TURNING POINT 1: EARLY TRANSFER TO SECONDARY
SCHOOL: SPRING/SUMMER 57
arc passed his qualifying examination for a place at senior
secondary school in the spring of 1957, and began attending
.. Academy in August
. The transiting NNode was at
Scorpio in the th ouse in arch
, squaring his
Asc/ esc, then th ouse ars in uly
. That year,
the progressed
/I axis was at degrees
minutes
of Taurus/Scorpio, square the ars/Ascendant midpoint
at degrees minutes eo in the th ouse. he North
Node tri ered this po erful, fateful pattern in uly
,
then the ars/ luto midpoint in late August, and luto in
October. The Nodes crossed his I /
at Scorpio/ Taurus
in anuary
. urthermore, transiting Saturn crossed his
5th House SNode in December 1957, just at the end of his
first term, and was active at that point until the mas of his
second year, with a final exact transit over the summer of
1958.
The one total solar eclipse of the season, at Gemini, fell
on une
e actly conjunct his Uranus/Node midpoint

99

on his th house cusp, close to the progressed Sun at

degrees Gemini. There were two total lunar eclipses, one on
November
at
Taurus, the other on
ay
at Scorpio, both closely squaring arcs Asc/ esc axis as
the Nodal axis crossed it.
This conjures up pictures of a core struggle in a very
young person to hold on to some sense of personal
identity and worth whilst being severely buffeted by the
dark, impersonal, destructive and transformative power of
luto. ranus/Node in Gemini being triggered suggests
the premature pitching into a higher level of intellectual
challenge than he could cope with. The feeling of struggling
just to survive comes through very clearly from the
above patterns. There is also a poignant feeling of loss
of innocence, and having to face too soon the fact that
the world is a brutal, competitive place in which a bright
intellect is insufficient for protection.
TURNING POINT 2: APRIL 66: GOING OUT WITH
BEATRICE
Interestingly, although arc gives . . as the day he
asked eatrice out, he also gives the date of . . as the
day he saw her at a wedding and conceived the idea that
I would like to go out with her. Although the Nodal and
outer planet aspects are roughly the same, they are closer
for the date in arch, than the date in April - suggesting
that the conception point is more potent than the birth
moment! On . the key difference is that transiting
upiter at Gemini was conjunct his NNode for the second
time (the first time was when he and his school mates saw

the new ueen!) whereas it had passed on by April. The

transiting Node in the th ouse, opposite its position
in
, is at
Taurus, again squaring the Asc/ esc axis,
conjunct progressed
at nearly
Taurus, and picking
up the total lunar eclipse degree of . . featured in
Transiting Saturn at . isces in the th ouse squares
the Nodal axis and its
position. Opposite Saturn are the
big heavies ranus and luto, conjunct in the nd ouse
at
irgo - in all, a grand cross with the natal Nodes.
Transiting Neptune also features, at
degrees of Scorpio
in the th ouse, quincunx the radix NNode and transiting
upiter, conjunct the South Node.
The overall feeling is of a powerful, fated encounter - Pluto
once again strongly emphasised - which will lead him to
redefine both where he is coming from and where he is
headed, centred on the sphere of relationship. Neptunes
presence in the th in Scorpio emphasises his longing for
connection both at a body and soul level - and the Nodess
th ouse location emphasises the shared path in life
through their politics which he and Beatrice were to have
powerfully in common.
The most significant eclipses of the season also bring
echoes of
The total solar eclipse of . . falls at
Gemini, widely conjunct the Sun/ ranus midpoint
in the th ouse in
the total solar eclipse fell on
the Uranus/Node midpoint. The annular solar eclipse
of . . fell at
Taurus in the th ouse, conjunct
arcs
/Node midpoint. The last (annular) lunar eclipse
of the season falls on the . . at . Taurus, within half
a degree of arcs idheaven. The progressed oon at

. apricorn picks up
Capricorn.

arcs pre-natal solar eclipse at

There were nine years, half a Nodal transiting cycle,

between
and
, hence the Nodal and eclipse
resonances.
TURNING POINT 3: MAY 73: THE END OF FORMAL
EDUCATION
Marc completed his post-grad course and his higher
education with a great sense of release.
The first point of Nodal significance to record is that
he was by then
and this was the year of the NNodes
return to the South Node position in the th ouse in
Sagittarius. There is immediately a strong link with
,
also concerning his education this was the position Saturn
had reached at the end of
, the end of the first term
of secondary schooling featured in
. Furthermore,
Saturn by transit exactly conjuncted the Uranus NNode
conjunction in May 73, opposite its own position during the
period, and square its
position. Gemini was
the critical solar eclipse degree for
- another potent
connection between two educational turning points.
Transiting ranus in ibra conjuncted natal hiron and
upiter in the rd ouse, opposite the oon, making an
exact trine to the Uranus/Node conjunction semisextile
Saturn in May 73 - the whole natal Nodal pattern being
triggered by transiting Uranus trine Saturn!
I find this a bright set of images for a combination of

achievement through hard work rewarded, and a joyous

sense of liberation. ranus foreground presence as the
dominant outer planet is very appropriate for this particular
turning point.
There were two total eclipses that season. The first fell on
. . at . ancer in the th ouse, picking up the
oon/ upiter, ars/ ranus, ars/Node and ranus/
Asc midpoints. The second, on the . . , fell at .
ancer in the th ouse conjunct enus, triggering the
Mercury/Mars, and Sun/Pluto midpoints. Interestingly
and appropriately at the time of arcs entry into the
structured world of work as an urban planner, both eclipses
picked up arcs pre-natal solar eclipse at
apricorn.
The progressed Asc at . irgo trined that eclipse the
progressed oon at . Aries squared it. The overall
pattern speaks of dynamic creative intellectual achievement
and the start to offering that creativity to the collective as the
Nodal axis transits the 5th/11th Houses.
TURNING POINT 4: 3 MAY 79: THATCHER
In the biographical profile he sent me, arc described
November 1973, when the Scottish Nationalists won a
famous election victory in Govan, as the start of his serious
political involvement. e was still , and that November
the th ouse NNode crossed
Sagittarius, South Node
Gemini in the th - his critical Asc/ c midpoint! This
point describes the coming together of who he is with
what he aspires to offer the collective through his life path.
Finding a focus for his political drives as the North Node
crossed this axis I find wonderfully appropriate.

By 1979 he had become prominent in the Scottish National

Party, as a socialist within it.
That summer, he described his life thus: the outward
flavour o this date is utter and total immersion in and
commitment to, an external cause that was on the verge of
achieving revolutionary change and thereby giving shape,
validity and meaning to my life.
In this summer of hope and expectation for him, and for
Scotland, upiter was (for the third time) exactly conjunct
Uranus NNode - and Neptune, on the South Node, was
e actly opposite.
is own words vividly express the astrological symbolism
poignantly so, in view of the shattering of his dreams which
would shortly occur... arcs words to describe
are far
more eloquent than mine could be: I realised on 3.5.79 that
life as I had known it was over.
The astrology is at its most eloquent and powerful here.
The transiting N Node in the nd ouse in irgo has just
squared its own position at
Gemini in the th ouse,
and squares ranus exactly, forming a Nodal grand cross
worth Uranus as the focal planet. Transiting Uranus in the
th ouse at Scorpio quincunxes NNode. Transiting
Neptune retrograde is once again exactly on the South
Node. Transiting luto at
ibra in the nd ouse has
just crossed Chiron, and is e actly on upiter, in the same
position as ranus as durin
, triggering once again
the whole structure of the natal Nodal pattern. As if that
wasnt sufficient, ars on the day is at . Aries, opposite

transiting Pluto, conjunct the natal Moon and further

setting off the whole Nodal pattern.
The only total solar eclipse of this season, on the . . ,
falls at . isces, exactly opposite Saturns future position
at
irgo, just about to turn retrograde, on election day,
squaring arcs th ouse ercury/ ranus midpoint, his
Sun at . Gemini, and e actly hittin his Neptune luto
in ir o first house midpoint. Adding in progressed ars
at
irgo with the progressed
/I axis at Gemini/
Sagittarius creates a mutable grand cross potentised by a
Pisces solar eclipse. The sudden shocking death of a hard
worked - for dream leaps out of this symbolic pattern.
The first total lunar eclipse of the season, at
ibra on
. . , falls on arcs Neptune. The second one, at .
isces on . . , squares the natal Nodes from the th
ouse. The last (partial) lunar eclipse of the season, at
irgo on . . , puts in place the last leg of a Nodal grand
cross - shortly to be followed by the crucifixion and death of
arcs hopes and dreams for his country.
TURNING POINT 5: JANUARY 24 1986: END OF
MARRIAGE
I have put the full text of arcs feedback re the end of his
marriage under note (vi). The essence is that, on
,
in a split second of blinding fury... replaced in my heart by an
icy coldness... I fell out of love with Beatrice - after 20 years of
closeness and affection.
On

..

transiting

ranus was at

degrees

minutes

Sagittarius, conjunct his South Node at

degrees
minutes Sagittarius - absolutely e act. The progressed MC/
I axis is at degrees minutes irgo/ isces exactly
square arcs ranus/N Node midpoint. arcs description
aptly sums up the way Uranus works in its most extreme
manifestation - sudden, unexpected, cold, separative, and
absolute. The rest of the astrology is just as final. Transiting
Pluto at 7 degrees Scorpio is about to retrograde over his
IC, following the transiting SNode at 5 Scorpio, opposed
by the North Node travelling at 5 Taurus conjunct the MC
on the th ouse side. This echoes the NNodes position
conjunct the IC in
( anuary
) lso in
, the last
(annular) lunar eclipse of that season fell on the . . at
. Taurus, within half a degree of arcs idheaven.
Saturns position at this turning point is at Sagittarius,
exactly square its position at
in 1979, evoking the
grand cross solar eclipse pattern present at that turning
point.
The two key lunar eclipses of the / season carry the
same sense of finality and the same eerie resonances
with
. The total lunar eclipse of . . at Taurus
falls on arcs
, opposite transiting NNode/ luto on
the . . , at Scorpio, conjunct the I , and transiting
SNode/ luto. The (partial) solar eclipse of . . falls at
Taurus, conjunct arcs th ouse
/NNode midpoint.
his echoes
, the start of the relationship, when the
annular solar eclipse of . . fell on the same point. The
last (partial) solar eclipse of the / season, eloquently,
at Aries, conjuncts arcs ninth house oon, thereby
sextiling the North Node and triggering the whole natal
Nodal picture.

In the symbolic Sunrise chart for . . the transiting

oon is at . ancer, conjunct progressed Sun at .
ancer, opposite arcs fifth ouse pre-natal solar eclipse
degree at . apricorn. I find this striking piece of soli/
lunar symbolism very affecting... as though the Fates were
that day busily engaged in re-aligning the male/female
principles in his life. Come in, Marc and Beatrice... your time
is up!...
A final ironic touch, signifying that this ending was part of
arcs being pushed out into a deeper and wider experience
of life in general and relationship in particular, is offered
through the placement of transiting upiter on . .
.
It is at Aquarius, conjunct arcs esc, trine the NNode
ranus. And upiters position in
when he began with
eatrice
Gemini, conjunct NNode/ ranus, e actly trine
its future position when the relationship was to end......
TURNING POINT 6: CHRISTMAS 1987: CAITLIN
After years of miserable realisation that his marriage was
over, Marc did the typical male thing, and proposition (ed)
aitlin at the mas
o fice art They then began their
affair in anuary
, and are still very much together.
Although there are some Nodal significators for that
time, as with Beatrice the most vivid ones appear at the
conception time of the relationship I decided to use the
conception month as the Turning Point for that reason. In
his biographical notes arc reports going in to a city office
to hand in a job application in October 1983 (no date given),
and seeing Caitlin there. I didnt speak to her, but I did notice
her, and asked a friend.... who she was. He got the job and
from then on, he and Caitlin were colleagues.

The transits given are for 1 October 1983.The North Node

has just made its second Return and at Gemini is exactly
on the Node/Uranus midpoint, retrograding into the 11th
ouse, with the South Node on the th ouse cusp very
appropriate for a love affair which began in a group context!
This links closely with
when the total solar eclipse of
the
/ season fell on Gemini. Sagittarius, too,
represents the position of Saturn in the winter of 1957
which features in
. At that stage in his life the th/ th
pairing of Houses expressed itself at a different level,
reflecting him taking his creative energy and struggling to
set it in the wider group context of his first senior school.
Furthermore, there are also echoes of
, the start of his
relationship with eatrice in arch
, when Saturn was
in the th ouse at . isces, squaring the
position.
s Nodal axis, at the end of his formal education in ay
, has the North Node meeting the South Node, at
Sagittarius.
Saturn at that point was crossing the NNode/Uranus
conjunction, highlighting Gemini yet again.
In
, Thatchers election victory on
ay
, the
North Node is at
irgo, making a grand cross with the
natal Nodes. upiter is at Gemini, the NNode/ ranus
midpoint, and Neptune is exactly on the NNode ranus
by transit quincunxes it from Scorpio. Two of the lunar
eclipses of the
season of
/ , at
isces then
irgo, weave in with all the other links. In
, the end of
his marriage on . . , ranus the major significator falls
e actly conjunct the South Node at
degrees
minutes
Sagittarius.

ontinuing with the significators for

, the conception
month of his relationship with aitlin, we find other clear
Nodal links. Transiting luto at . ibra in the third
house, approaching his I , quincunxes the Node/
midpoint in the th ouse, the same midpoint triggered
by the solar eclipse of ay
which featured in
, the
start of the relationship with Beatrice. Transiting Neptune
in the th ouse, very appropriate for romance, is at .
Sagittarius, in a separating conjunction with his SNode,
e actly opposite the enus/NNode midpoint in the th
House.
The progressed Asc/ esc at
irgo/ isces is within a
degree of exactly squaring the NNode/ ranus midpoint,
as it approaches a grand cross to the radix Nodal axis
progressed enus at
eo in the th ouse has just
crossed radix Mars, and sextiles the North Node Uranus
thereby triggering the whole Nodal pattern. Could he have
been heading for a clandestine new relationship which
would shake up the status quo, one wonders !
The eclipse season of
/ offers some striking
emphases. The partial solar eclipse of . .
falls at
Sagittarius, conjunct the 5th House SNode, opposite the
Pluto/MC midpoint in the 11th House. The following total
solar eclipse on . . at
Gemini exactly triggers the
NNode and its attendant natal pattern, also resonating
back through all the previous
s The lunar eclipses have
a literal flavour: the first on . .
at . ancer in the
ouse is conjunct arcs enus/ ortuna conjunction,
opposite his pre-natal solar eclipse degree of 13 Capricorn.
The second, on . . , falls at
apricorn, exactly
opposite enus/ ortuna.

There is the Nodal clustering effect present in this turning

point, just as the others. ut there is a strongly enusian
and Neptunian feel, denoting the beginning of romantic
love foreground ranus here emphasises the buzzy
excitement of the brighter face of Uranus. Pluto is not
such a threatening, dominant figure as in previous turning
points. Altogether, one gets the feeling that the relationship
with Caitlin, although sure to bring the usual afogs , is
more about sensual pleasure and good companionship than
about gut-wrenching life changes in the future.
In addition to analysing in detail the six Turning Points
identified by arc, I thought it might also be useful to list
in ppendi ii, along/with their astrological significators,
his maternal grandfathers death, his brothers birth, the
familys relocation when arc was , his fathers death,
and the moment he described as the Nadir of my life as
further illustration of the kind of Nodal pictures which form
at undeniably potent points in life.
The fact that every single Turning Point reported by Marc
plugs in closely to the Natal Nodal axis and its links, is quite
stunning and thought-provoking. I will have more to say
about what I think the research on arcs life reveals in the
Conclusion to the book.

from nne hita er s econd ear

ortfolio another fuc in
opportunity for ro th
uote from one of my counsellin supervisees on a
bad day

Appendix ii: Marcs life:

nodal periods outline
It would have taken up too much space to include Marcs
14 pages of biographical notes in this Appendix, and also
revealed more personal detail, albeit anonymously, than
would have been comfortable. But I have quoted from these
notes at several points during the case study. The outline
below consists of the key periods of Marcs life with the
main transits and progressions listed, in response to three
separate sheets I sent out, asking first for responses to the
transiting Nodal Cycle, secondly to transits of planets over
natal Nodes, then progressions of planets to natal Nodes.
These were then synthesised.
I have left in one or two sentences here and there which
I thought might be of interest. I have also included
in this section the other significant events apart from
Marcs chosen Turning Points, which are illustrative of
the way Nodal clusters form, especially with Pluto to the
foreground, on such key occasions.
These are: maternal grandfathers death January 1951;
brother Russells birth October 7 1952; family move to
district outwith Glasgow November 1952; Nadir of life 7
February 1967; fathers death 8 December 1984.
NOTE:
TYPE 1 = Transiting Nodal Cycle
TYPE 2 = Transits of Planets over Natal Nodes
TYPE 3 = Progressions of Planets to Natal Nodes

111

EARLY LIFE 1946 - 1951

Period 1: 8/8/46 to 24/5/47: Type 2 Transiting Uranus conj
NNode/Gemini/11th H
Period 2: 28/1/48 to 17/9/48: Type 2 Transiting Jupiter conj
SNode /Sag/05th H
Period 3: 1/3/50 to 1/11/50: Type 2 Transiting Chiron conj
SNode /Sag/05th H
Period 4: Early Autumn 50: Type 3 rogressed oons first
crossing of NNode
Period 5: 31/8/50: Type 2 Transitting Saturn/Virgo/2nd H/
square Nodes
Maternal Grandfathers death? Jan 1951. Transiting NNode/
isces/ th/first square Nodes Transiting Neptune/
ibra/ rd conj hiron upiter trine NNode transiting
Pluto/Leo/12th/ conj MarsAsc midpoint sextile NNode
PRIMARY SCHOOL YEARS 1952-1957
Brothers birth October 1952 Transiting NNode conj Desc in
Aquarius, trine NNode radix + transitting Neptune/Libra/3rd
H conj Chiron Jupiter sextile NNode radix + transiting Pluto ex
conj Asc sextile NNode + transiting Neptune/Libra/3rd H conj
Chiron Jupiter trine NNode + transiting Uranus/Cancer/11th H
semisextile Uranus NNode midpoint
Move to district outwith Glasgow November 1952 Transiting
NNode/Aquarius/6th H trine NNode Uranus midpoint opp
Mars Ascendant midpoint + transiting Pluto ex conj Asc sextile
NNode + transiting Neptune /Libra/3rd H conj Chiron Jupiter

112

trine NNode + transiting Uranus/Cancer/11th H semisextile

Uranus NNode midpoint
Period 6: 13/8/53 to 4/4/54: Type 2 Transiting upiters first
crossing of NNode/Gemini/11th H
Period 7: Summer 55: Type 3 Progressed Mercury conj
NNode/Gemini/11th H
Period 8: Early April 55 to Mid March 56: Type 1 Transiting
NNodes first crossing of SNode/Sag/5th H
Period 9: Jan/ Feb 57: Type 3 Progressed Moon/Virgo/2nd
first square of Nodal axis
SECONDARY SCHOOL YEARS 1957 - SUMMER 1964
Period 10: 12/1/58 to 8/10/58: Type 2 Transiting Saturn in
Sag conj SNode in 5th H
Period 11: January 60 to December 61: Type 3 Progressed
MC/Taurus/10th H semisextile NNode 11th H/Gemini
Period 11 Most Potent Point: December 60
Period 12: January 61 to December 62: Type 3 Progressed
Sun conj NNode/Gemini/11th
Period 13: Summer 64: Type 3 rogressed
passage over SNode/Sag/5th

113

oons first

UNIVERSITY YEARS: AUTUMN 1964 - SUMMER 1973

Period 14: Age 18; late August 64 to mid August 65: Type1
First Nodal Return to radix NNode/Gemini/11th
Period 15: 1/4/65 to 1/3/66: Type 2 Transiting Chiron/
Pisces/8th H square Nodes
Period 16: 23/7/65 to 15/2/66: Type 2 Transiting Jupiters
second passage over NNode/Gemini/11th
Period 14 Particular Focus: Third week Feb 65 to Third
week March 65.
Period 17: 17/3/66: Type 2 Transiting Saturn/Pisces/8th
square Nodes ( just after transiting upiters second
passage over NNode/Gemini/11th)
Period 18: 24/9/66 to 30/6/67: Type 2
Period 19: 21/9/67 to 17/7/68: Type 2 Transiting Uranus
(ruler Desc, placed 10th H) conjunct Pluto (ruler IC,
placed12th H) Virgo/2nd House square Nodal axis,
operative for this whole time
21st Dec 66. Dad taken suddenly off to mental hospital for
drug treatment for depression. VERY dismal moment in
life. (Note: this was two days before Pluto went retrograde
23/12/66 - 20.5 Virgo - exactly square natal Nodes)
7th Feb 67. NADIR MOMENT. Family dog had to be put
down. Vet visited house and administered poison. Mum
and I then had to watch dog take about an hour to slide
downhill and die. This while Dad still in hospital. Almost
certainly the nadir of my entire life. (note: transiting
114

NNode/Taurus/10th square radix Pluto [IC ruler] /12th

ouse, transiting Pluto/Virgo/2ndH square radix Nodal axis
at this point.... a Pluto/Node double whammy!) Not in terms
of intensity of grief - but in terms of a generalised feeling of
abject misery/pointlessness. Afterwards, I had to take dog
out into garden and bury it.
Period 19: 21/9/67 to 17/7/68: Type 2
Period 20: Autumn 71: Type 3 Progressed Moon/Pisces/8th H
2nd square to Nodal axis. ALSO Transiting Saturn/Taurus/10th
semisextile NNode June 1970 to April 1971 AND transiting
NNode/Aquarius/6th H opp radix Pluto conj Mars square radix
MC/IC axis (June 1971 - Jan 1972)
Period 21: 2/10/72 to 19/5/73: Type 2 Transiting Saturn
conjunct NNode
EARLY MARRIAGE, BUILDING A CAREER, POLITICAL
LIFE: 1973-9
Period 22: Age 27; end October 73 to end October 74: Type
1 Transiting NNodes second passage over SNode/Sag/5th H
Period 22 Particular Focus: Third week April 74 to Third
week Aug 74 Transiting NNodes second passage over
SNode/Sag/5th H, followed by opposition to radix Uranus/
Gemini/10th
Period 23: 5/7/77: Type 2 Transiting Jupiters third passage
over NNode/Gemini/11th
Period 24: Jan/Feb 78: Type 3 Progressed Moons second
passage over NNode/Gemini/11th
115

POST-THATCHER POLITICS, CAREER CHANGE, FIRST

MEETING WITH CAITLIN 1979 - END 1985.
Period 25: end 1978 to end 1980: Type 2 transiting
Neptune conjunct SNode/Sag/5th AND transiting Saturn/
Virgo/2nds second square to Nodal axis (Oct 79 to June 80)
Neptune retro 23/3/79: About 3 weeks after the 1979
Referendum. (Scotland)
Period 27: Age 36; late March 83 to mid March 84: Type
1 Second transiting NNodal Return to radix NNode/
Gemini/11th H
Period 27 Particular Focus: Mid Sept 83 to 3rd week Oct 83:
Advert for job in GCPD spotted and application lodged Oct
83.
Period 28: Summer 84: Type 3 Progressed Moon/Virgo/2nd
Hs third square to radix Nodal axis.
note: Marcs father died on 8.12. 84 I lost my grip on life
the day my father died. Transiting Saturn in Scorpio/4rh
quincunx NNode/Gemini/11th, + transiting NNode separating
conjunct radix Sun/mercury conjunction/Gemini/ioth applying
square Asc, + transiting Moon conj NNode, + transiting
Uranus/Sun conjunct SNode opposite Uranus conjunct NNode
+ transiting Neptune opposite Venus + transiting Pluto conjunct
IC.

116

END OF MARRIAGE - ADAPTING TO SEPARATE LIVES

1986 - 88:
Period 29: 24/1/86 to 14/11/86: Type 2 Transiting Uranus
conjunct SNode /Sag/5th H
24/1/86 - can you pick a date, or what?? My 16th wedding
anniversary and the effective end of my marriage.
Period 30: 8/3/87 to 21/11/87: Type 2 Transiting Saturn
conjunct SNode/Sag/5th
Misery.
Period 31: (1.9.86) to 1/6/87: Type 2 Transitting Chiron
conjunct NNode/Gemini/11th
More misery.
And my brother emigrates to Canada July 87.
A NEW RELATIONSHIP STARTS, AND SELFDEVELOPMENT WORK, 1988 -1995:
Period 32: January 88 to January 90: Type 3 Progressed Asc/
Virgo/2nd H square Nodal axis
Period 32 Most Potent Point: January 89: 88/89: my first
Xmas/New Year as a single man. Perhaps the decision to
take Caitlin to Ottawa (to meet his brother). Or was that
December 88?

117

Period 33: 18/6/89: Type 2 Fourth transit of Jupiter conjunct

NNode/Gemini 11th
Period 34: Autumn 91: Type 3 Progressed Moons second
crossing of S Node/Sag/5th H
Period 35: January 92 to January 94: Type 3 Progressed MC
conjunct NNode/Gemini/11th
Period 36: 12/6/92 to 15/9/92: Type 2 Transiting Pluto /
Scorpio/4th H quincunx NNode/Gemini/11th H
Period 35 Most Potent Point: January 93. Perhaps the period
of deepest depression about prospects of selling my flat,
and about prospects of getting all flat owners to pay their
share of fixing city centre flats leaking roof.
Period 36: Age 45; early August 92 to late July 93: Type 1
transiting NNodes third conjunct ion with SNode/Sag/5th
Period 37 Particular Focus: Last week Jan 93 to 2nd week
March 93 transiting NNodes third conjunction with
SNode/Sag/5th (exact)
Period 38: June 93 to June 94: Type 3 Progressed Sun
semisext. NNode/Gemini/11th H
ept
sold aitlin s at she moves into mine
become a proper couple.

Period 38 Most Potent Point: December 93 Progressed Sun

semisextile Node/Gemini/11th (exact)

118

Period 39: Mid October 94 to Mid July 95: Type 2 Transiting

Chiron/Virgo/2nd second square Nodal axis
Period 40: 24/4/95 to 18/1/96: Type 2 Transiting Saturn/
Pisces/8th square Nodal axis
Period 41: June 94 to June 95: Type 3 Progressed Sun conj
Saturn semisextile NNode/Gemini/11th H
Period 41 Most Potent Point: December 94 Progressed Sun
conj Saturn semisextile NNode/Gemini/11th H exact
Period 42: 23/11/95 (exact): Type 2 Transiting Jupiter conj
SNode/Sag/5th
Nervous time because of approach of Reorganisation
(31/3/96).
NOTE Strathclyde Region ceased to exist on 31/3/96.

119

THE CHARTS: THEIR PROVENANCE

I have used the same format for all the Turning Points
charts : a triwheel with Marcs natal chart in the centre; his
progressed chart for the year(and month/date) in question
in the middle wheel; and on the outer wheel, a sunrise chart
for the relevant date or start of the relevant month. I have
specific dates for three of the six Turning oints charts. or
the others, I have used the first day of the month relating to
the relevant Turning oint. Not having any specific times,
I have used sunrise charts as a symbolic time measure. To
give consistency, I then calculated the progressed charts
using the GMT times which came up for the sunrise
charts.
Sources :
The source for all the charts was initially Marcs 14 page
biographical summary to which I have already referred
in the References and Notes section, and in Appendix ii.
Secondarily, Marc sent me his own subjective perception of
the pattern of his own life which is reproduced in the text
of the case study. The same information re-appeared there,
framed as Turning Points.
i ) Turning oint : ......... Academy arc identified
August 1957 as Turning Point 1, but described passing my
quali in Spring 57 as a major triumph. I discuss the
period Spring - end of 1957 in the text, highlighting August.
The relevant charts were set for 1 March 1957, taking the
month of the passing of the exam as the conception date
for this Turning Point.
C ii) Turning Point 2 : Beatrice - start Marc described

120

the start of Turning Point 2 as April 1966. But in his

biographical notes he mentioned that he saw Beatrice on 23
March and decided then that he would like to go out with
her. I noticed that the Nodal picture was somewhat more
powerful for the conception date of March 23, so decided to
set the charts for that date.
C iii) Turning Point 3 : Education - end. Marc gives May
as the point he finally finished with school so I set
the charts for the symbolic date of 1st May 1973.
C iv) Turning Point 4 : Thatcher. In his biographical notes
Marc gives the General Election date of 3.5.1979, saying
life plan derailed in one day.
C v) Turning Point 5 : Marriage - end. This Turning Point
is highly specific to a split-second occurrence on .
.
A detailed quote from Marcs biographical notes is given
under References & Notes (vi.)
C vi ) Turning Point 6 : Caitlin - start. In Marcs subjective
perception of the pattern of his own life included in the
text, Marc gives this Turning Point as January 1988,
and the Nodal links are certainly striking then. However,
sticking with the impression I was forming that in these
Turning Points the conception date seemed to yield the
more vivid symbolism, I again used Marcs biographical
notes to find this point which goes back to October
as the month in which he first saw aitlin. (see text for
further detail). acking a specific date, I set the chart for
the symbolic one of 1 October 1983. Once again, the Nodal
picture was more striking for that date than for January
1988......
Cvii) Marc X - natal data withheld for reasons of
confidentiality. Source : irth ertificate.

121

122

Chapter 4: case study 3

Four nodal moments
Introduction
Having completed two lengthy case studies, each offering
a different take on the significance of the Nodal axis, I
thought it would be interesting finally to look at the Nodes
from yet another perspective. or this chapter I have chosen
four different peoples lives: two men, and two women; two
well known, two not. rom those lives I have chosen key
defining moments, points at which one would expect to see
strong Nodal signatures.
1. John Glenn
The extraordinary upiter ranus year of
saw space
exploration of an especially boldly going kind being a very
high profile human activity. The renovation of the ubble
telescope in mid-February enabled the most fantastic
pictures of the outer boundaries of our galaxy and beyond to
be sent to earth thereafter. The Voyager space craft landed
on ars in early uly. The Saturn space probe was launched
in mid-October.
Then, in mid- anuary
, former astronaut ohn Glenn
hit the news again around the world. As Scotland on
Sunday1 said in its Newsweek (World) section for Friday
anuary th:
1 Scotland on Sunday, 18 January 1998.

123

 ohn lenn the first merican to or it the arth in

is
to return to s ace at the age o
announced. long
serving
senator lenn ill e art o the cre o the ne t
s ace shuttle mission having o ered himsel as a human guinea
ig or scientific or on the ageing rocess as it o erates in
ero gravit .
agreed to lenn s re uest or a lace on the
shuttle ecause o his e erience and the act that he remains
su er fit.
The first thing to strike me was the chronology years
separate the current announcement from Glenns first trip
into space: two whole Nodal cycles. The charts relevant to
this announcement tell a most vivid story, with the Nodes
very much in evidence. irstly, Glenns natal chart.
Nodal Moments 1
Fig 23

124

Fig 24

Fig 25

125

The NNode is placed in ibra, in the th ouse, suggesting

a team player, a man whose path involves entering into cooperative relationships with others for the common good,
operating from a creative base. enus the NNode ruler
in the th ouse in Gemini, holds a prominent position
square the
/I axis, reinforcing the links with others as
an important part of his direction in life. What turns him
on, drives him, is pioneering risk-taking. His 5th House
ruler is ars which is conj the th ouse ruler, the Sun,
in the th ouse in ancer, square the Nodal axis. This all
suggests a pioneering, creative, adventurous voyager with
a strong sense of connection to national pride ( SA is a
ancer/Sagittarius nation) - who also needs to put himself
in crisis situations which make him feel at his most vital
and alive. eing blasted off in a rocket to become the first
S citizen to orbit the earth would seem to fit the Nodal
picture rather well!
e has what I call the public service axis - irgo/ isces on his
/I , with upiter in the Ninth conj Saturn in the
th - the upiter/Saturn midpoint being the
degree.
This is very contradictory - one the one hand we have an
ambitious, perfectionistic man very much at home with
bureaucracy and the fine details of administrative work. On
the other, these fine details and formal structures - perhaps
in the realm of public health if we take the sextiles to a
strong ancerian/ th ouse emphasis into account, have
to be in the service of the big picture, the grand scheme.
upiter in the th rules the chart, after all..... upiter is also
in the Gauquelin plus sector2, conjunct the Midheaven
2 Michel Gauquelin, Written in the Stars, Aquarian Press, 1988, pp 72-5.

- the placement for politicians and actors. Despite the

innate modesty and pragmatism of Virgo which is not a
sign known for inflation, this man needs to perform, to
prosyletise - not for the hell of it, but in the service of others.
Saturn is also in a Gauquelin plus zone3 - the culminating
position for prominent scientists or doctors.
oth planets are opposite ranus in rd ouse and square
enus, ruler of NNode, th and th ouses, in the th
House. This is a rich set of images - of a man who can
knuckle down to the demands of ambition and structure,
but also needs to challenge the established order and/or
peoples view of him. After orbitting the Earth, he went on
to be an executive with oca- ola, then into politics. There
is a maverick feel to the pattern - a man whose path is very
much connected to working with others on common goals,
but who also needs to dance to his own tune. The strong
ranian oppositions and square also conjure up an image
of someone who will challenge the limits set regarding
what Man and man can and should do, those set by ageing
and mortality being one of them.
ow appropriate, then, that the Nodal axis and eclipse
seasons potentising his th/ th,
/I and then th/ rd
ouses from the Spring of
to the Spring of
should bring him to the worlds attention again - offering
his services to the human community as part of the crew
of the next space shuttle mission ........ as a human guinea
ig or scientific or on the ageing rocess as it o erates in
ero gravit .
agreed to lenn s re uest or a lace on the
3 ibid, pp 75-7

shuttle ecause o his e erience and the fact that he remains

super-fit. (my emphasis)4
I have chosen the day the announcement was made as
Glenns Nodal oment - with the ebruary
day
that he first orbitted the arth, as a parallel one. ooking
at Glenns progressions and transits for the anuary
day is very interesting indeed. The Nodal axis by transit
is crossing the angular T-square discussed above, and
transiting luto (which crossed Glenns natal Asc in
) squares the transiting Nodal axis and will soon involve
transiting upiter which moved into isces on nd ebruary
. The total solar eclipse at degrees mins isces on
ebruary, falling on his Sun/NNode midpoint, charges up
his natal T-square and transiting Nodes, luto and upiter.
The Virgo moon occupies 3 degrees at midnight on the day
of the announcement, thereby crossing the above pattern
during the course of announcement day.
The only progressions of note are striking: enus (NNode
ruler and ars (SNode ruler) conjunct at
irgo, conjunct
the Sun/NNode midpoint and the solar eclipse degree
- further emphasising the great dynamism building up
around his natal T- square. erhaps he is proving himself to
a woman in his life, who one might suspect would be much
younger?5
Theres an overall feeling of a grand, defiant, perhaps final
4 Scotland on Sunday, 18 January 1998. Quoted from Newsweek (World)
section for Friday 16 January.
5 Note: the overall cast of this chart suggests a problem in common with
JFK and Clinton, to name a couple of rather well-known role models whose
combination of Libran charm, Aries machismo and liking for risk-taking, and
Cancerian/8th connection to the dark waters of feminine sexuality and the
pursuit of power, seemed to have caused them allegedly to need to remove their
trousers in risky situations on a more frequent basis than most!

assertion of personal potency in the face of death, whilst

taking on a challenge which should also benefit the human
community by advancing the sum of our knowledge,
suggested by the natal planets, transits and progressions.
This is the ultimate taking-on of the Nodal challenge to be
all you can be. es and ho grand i die in the attem t
one imagines lenn sa ing. hat a a to go
Finally - looking back at the chart for the actual day in
when Glenn orbitted the arth, we find striking links
to the transiting and progressed positions for the Return
announcement. The Moon is in nearly the same position,
approaching degrees irgo, conjunct luto at degrees
irgo, opposite the Sun, hiron, enus and the art of
ortune between and degrees of isces. The North Node
transits Glenns th ouse, as in the current picture.
ooking at the eclipse season for
- , the charging-up
period prior to the orbit in ebruary
, is compelling.
The total solar eclipse at . Aquarius on
ebruary
appears as ars conjunct upiter in the Return to Space
chart of
. The unar eclipse on nd arch
is
degrees irgo - this becomes the exact North Node degree of
the Return chart. On August
the solar eclipse is .
eo - ohn Glenns ars/ upiter midpoint ( th ouse) and
the Ascendant of the Return chart, square Chiron. The total
solar eclipse on ebruary
, immediately preceding the
orbit, is Aquarius: conjunct the ars/ ranus midpoint,
square hiron, of the Return chart, opposite ohn Glenns
enus/Node midpoint. The subsequent lunar eclipse on
ebruary
, at
irgo, is exactly opposite the
isces
Sun of the Orbit chart Return to Space, Mr Glenn - your
time is up!

2. Princess Diana
rincess ianas premature death on . . shook the
world. One would expect the natal Nodes, for someone who
became so famous and died so tragically, to be prominent
and connected to planets suggesting the turbulent nature of
her life and the brutal, sudden manner of her end.
I can clearly recall my first sight of ianas chart ( iv) in
. The natal T Square leapt out at me, the eighth house
NNode linked with ranus, ars and luto. Apparently I
remarked to a student of mine et she ll e the first heir to
the throne s i e to e divorced , a remark I had completely
forgotten until the student reminded me of it when I ran
into her ten years later. I also recall thinking that the chart
suggested someone who would live fast and die young.
ut I kept that thought to myself. Im pretty sure many
astrologers had similar reactions to mine, not voiced in the
public realm for very obvious reasons.
In the
annus horribilis of the ouse of indsor, the
NNode was transiting through Sagittarius across ianas
Ascendant, moving into the 12th House, and squaring her
natal Nodal T square right through until the summer of
, by which time the world knew that her marriage to
rince harles was over.
In the spring and summer of
, as her landmines
campaign gained momentum and popular press interest
in her connection with the `Al Fayeds in general and Dodi
first came across it in ynastry by enny hornton, p
1982.

130

uarian ress,

Nodal Moments 2
Fig 26

Fig 27

131

Fig 28

in particular began to mount, the NNode was in the late

degrees of irgo, moving to make its final square to her
Asc/ esc axis prior to her second Nodal Return in late
autumn
.
On . . the fatal crash occurred - the night before a total
solar eclipse. I have chosen this as the Nodal oment.
The chart for the time of the accident shows a powerful,
fated-feeling Nodal alignment: ianas natal Asc/ esc is
Sagittarius/Gemini, the Asc/ esc of the crash is .
Gemini/Sagittarius, the transiting Nodal axis is . NNode
irgo/SNode isces, about to cross the th ouse cusp on
its way home to its natal position. The transiting Moon is
in the th ouse at
eo, heading across ranus and the
North Node on its way to rendezvous with the Sun, about to
be eclipsed on luto.
132

The st September
eclipse at . irgo potentised
the natal Nodal T Square. The eclipse also semi-squared
her
, and triggered the Sun/Neptune and Saturn /
midpoints - very apt significators for ending her life against
a concrete wall, the centre of the worlds attention - and
for the stories of intrigue, drug abuse ( odi) and alcohol
abuse (the car driver) surrounding the whole tragic event.
Interestingly, transiting Saturn at Aries retrograding
from her I was exactly quincunx the transiting NNode,
thereby repeating the natal alignment between Saturn and
the North Node. In her progressed chart, the most notable
significator for a fated encounter with the dark forces in the
world is the progressed
at
Scorpio, square her North
Node/ ars midpoint the year she died.
Dianas pre-natal eclipses are starkly woven into the picture
of her death. The pre-natal lunar eclipse is . ibra, square
ercury, th ouse ruler in the th ouse - conjunct
progressed Venus at 3 Cancer, square the lunar eclipse
degree when she died - such a powerful significator for her
profound need to find emotional security in relationship as
a major factor in her death. ianas pre-natal (total) solar
eclipse is even more stark. It falls at . isces, conjunct
her rd ouse cusp, and becomes her South Node degree
square her Ascendant and that of the accident chart at the
time of her death.
The irgo/ isces axis is the axis of the hristian era - the
cross its most potent symbol. aving a Gemini/Sag/ irgo/
Note there are many profound lin s bet een iana s chart and the
UK chart. For me, the most striking is that Dianas pre-natal lunar eclipse at 3.5
ibra is con unct the
s sc ranus midpoint
hat a si nificator both for
a powerful, graceful female presence who would shake up the nations image of
itself, and bring the UK one of its most devastating shocks.....

133

isces/Nodal cross at the moment of ianas fatal crash, configured

with her pre-natal lunar eclipse degree, has a powerfully fated feel to
it, which seems appropriate to the spirit of our particular time and
what Diana in her life and the manner of her death seems to have
represented for many people. ere I quote from my own work:
.... n
ugust rincess iana the ne revolutionar international
ueen o hearts as illed and the hole orld ent into shoc and
mourning. odern glo al technolog ensured that her death made
instant orld headlines and her uneral on e tem er attracted an
audience o at least hal the o ulation o the glo e the iggest mass
media event in human histor .
he shoc ing challenge o this event to ritish tradition and its no
tottering monarch has een ro ound. he vast out ouring o collective
ain in res onse to this death goes ar e ond grie or a erson ho is
more o a s m ol than a real individual to most o those ho mourned
her. t has sho n us ho dee is our collective longing or a erson or
some a o living hich can heal the oundedness o s irit as a human
communit hich e seem to e eeling.
male sacrificial victim edeemer in the erson o hrist ho or the
hole o the hristian era has had the longings o millions or a ersonal
edeemer and healer o common human su ering ro ected onto him
egan this millennium and its tem estuous histor . erha s our collective
ro ections onto iana this time a emale sacrificial victim edeemer
are a o er ul s m ol o its ending

from nne
1997.

hita er upiter

ranus Ne s ash

134

draft art

ummer autumn

3. Andrew X.
In this example, Andrews Nodal oment is so closely
bound up with family fate issues that it is important to set a
biographical context before exploring the astrology.
Andrew was born in anuary
into a small seafaring
community, the only son of parents in their forties. His
two sisters were and . e was the late compensation for
what had become a deeply unhappy marriage. His father
had left his mother when their first daughter was only ,
but had returned because of the childs distress. He was a
colourful upiterian character who combined being a senior
local government officer with being a renowned poacher. A
heavy drinker, he was sometimes violent towards Andrews
Nodal Moments 3

Fig 29

135

mother. She was a sensitive, but emotionally immature and

unstable woman who acted out the victim to the bully in her
husband, whilst at the same time having highly developed
emotional blackmail skills and an unbreakable survival
capacity.
Much of his childhood was spent preparing to live out his
fathers unfulfilled dream of going to sea, and responding
to his mothers need for protection from his father. as
a raid to leave home in case he illed her. He felt desperately
pulled, because they both loved him and in their own ways
were good to him, whilst at the same time putting in place
conditions which threatened to blight his future life.
His father died when he was 21, just after the end of his
first disastrous relationship with a disturbed and needy
woman. His second major relationship which occupied his
twenties was equally disastrous. Not long after he eventually
extricated himself, his mother died, in the summer of
,
just before major exams which he nevertheless passed.
That summer he had an affair with Alexis, who he was to
discover over the months that followed came from a very
disturbed background. She went off the ill without telling
him until it was too late - she became pregnant. Andrew
and she decided to try and make the relationship work for
their childs sake, so she moved into his house that autumn.
She was prone to wild mood swings and outbursts of violent
behaviour.
Their child, a boy, was born in spring
and within
hours Alexis was expressing fears that she might harm him.

There followed a nightmarish nine months during which

Andrew looked after both her and the little boy. Alexis put
such pressure on him that he gave up his well-paid job to be
at home all the time.
In response to severe provocation, Andrew struck her on
several occasions - he was horrified, despising as he did
male violence towards women. He could see how he was
replicating his fathers behaviour towards his mother
as acing or the first time the ugl side o m o n nature. By
the end of
he had given up hope that the relationship
could work. e was afraid Alexis would become pregnant
again. He dearly loved his little son. He feared for his own
sanity.
The night that Saturn entered isces on
anuary
, just before midnight, he walked out. I have chosen
this as his Nodal oment. As can be seen from the
accompanying charts, the astrology is stunning.
Natally the South Node is in the th ouse, with ercury
conjunct at
apricorn, Saturn widely conjunct at
Aquarius. ( vi)This offers a powerful image of a man bound
to home and family both by a strong sense of responsibility
and a fear of change, fear of the disruption brought by the
new. The NNode in ancer in the th, however, points to
the need for Andrew to push himself beyond the restrictive
safety of his family roots, in order to create his own sense
of safety and belonging, through the pursuit of a life path
which embodies a belief in the value of caring for others,
and gives him outlets for his imaginative and emotional life.
The link between ancer NNode and art of ortune in eo

Fig 30

Fig 31

suggests that accessing his creative energy in a satisfying

way can be one reward of challenging the restrictive pull of
the Saturn/SNode position - and that he has the capacity
to rework the axis by bringing his capacity for mental
discipline and commitment to the welfare of others to bear
on his own creative work.
hen he walked out, his progressed Asc/ esc axis was
making an exact Grand ross with his radix Nodes, thereby
pointing out that a major challenge to become all he could
be, would be provided by a key relationship. The prog
Asc moving from ibra to Scorpio is significant. A major
issue with Andrew all his life had been his giving way
in relationships to the needs and demands of needy and
manipulative women - replays of his relationship with his
mother. But the prog Asc as it crossed the 4th House/10th
ouse Nodal axis was moving into Scorpio, a tougher and
more determined sign than ibra - pleasing others is not
Scorpios primary goal!
Saturn, ruler of both his I and co-ruler of his th, natally
placed in the 4th, brings in the joint responsibilities to
home (he was living in the family home left to him by
his father) and to his child. Transiting Saturn entering
isces in the th suggests, at one level, an end to selfsacrifice/ offering himself up to victims, being manipulated
through his compassion and his neediness. Saturns
dynamic opposition to the ars ranus midpoint at
irgo intensifies the theme of angry and radical rebellion
against service to others - furthermore Mars rules the Desc,
intensifying the relationship theme, and ranus co-rules
the 5th House of creativity and children. This powerful

energy surge activates the transiting Nodes at Sagittarius

/Gemini, heading towards conjunction with transiting luto
and radix enus. The overall pattern completes another,
mutable Grand ross - m out o here ant a igger li e
than this urthermore, the transiting Nodal axis is /
the radix
/I axis, and transiting
/I is closely
conjunct radix Nodes.
I have never seen such a powerful, fateful Nodal moment in
anyones chart. It speaks so strongly of the gate to the future
opening, offering a different level of expression of energy
than that dictated by the family past.
The eclipse seasons in the year prior to Andrews walkout are eloquent. The lunar eclipses of
ecember
,
une
, and
ecember
at
Gemini,
Sagittarus, and Gemini respectively, all charge up the
turbulent ars/ ranus/ luto in irgo opposite oon/
upiter/ hiron in isces as the transiting Nodes regress
through the th/ rd ouse. Images of the wounded family
past surging up through his life, of great anger towards the
feminine principle, of the build-up of battle rage running
with a huge sense of woundedness and neediness, and the
restless desire for pastures new, are powerfully evoked from
those images.
The partial solar eclipses, of
ay
at . Gemini and
ecember
at . Scorpio, both trigger the difficult,
combative Venus/Mars square which is also being transited
by Saturn square luto. The picture is of a relationship
explosion brewing up there were several explosive episodes

140

between him and his partner between those two eclipses.

Interestingly, the . Scorpio solar eclipse a month before
Andrew left picks up his pre-natal lunar eclipse degree
of 22.5 Aquarius which represents his 5t house cusp in
his natal chart, and attendant Saturn/ ranus and oon/
NNode midpoints. There is a powerful picture offered here
of his intense feeling for his child, and his sense of duty
and commitment, clashing with his self-focused, freedom
oriented drive to get out.
A further point of interest is that the full moon on
anuary, the day before he walked out, fell at degrees
minutes of eo - his pre-natal solar eclipse being degrees
and
minutes of eo. This alignment falling on his th
house eo part of ortune, triggering his natal Sun/ ranus
midpoint, adds weight to the existing emphasis on the
pull between his attachment to his son and the necessity
of freeing himself from circumstances stifling his creative
growth.
One year on, Andrew reported himself to be in good shape.
He has regular contact with his little boy. He has put up
barriers to Alexis powerful attempts at emotional blackmail.
He has been taken back by his former Company and is
working his way quickly up the promotional ladder again.
e will probably do an Open niversity degree and is
pursuing studies of a spiritual and symbolic nature. His life
feels far more creative, despite the pain of not living with
his child...
hat did the da le t no see as vital to the
rest o m li e. ad sta ed
ould have re eated m ather s
li e.... no eel have a good chance to ma e m li e m o n.

141

4. Anna X
Anna was born in the est of Scotland in
. I have
known her for over 10 years since she came to study
astrology with me in
. She is a big personality,
whose persistent courage, questioning spirit and lateral
intelligence I admire. Astrologically, she has a Scorpio
Ascendant with luto, her ruling planet, in eo square the
Ascendant from the ninth house, conjunct the South Node
in irgo. ( vii)
She has had a tempestuous life, having fought her way
from a very dysfunctional family of origin through family
crisis and tragedy, early motherhood and marriage, and
difficult, sometimes violent relationships with men towards
Fig 32

Nodal Moments 4

142

Fig 33

Fig 34

143

a greater understanding of who she is, what she can offer

the wider world, and in what form she should offer it. ast
year in a letter from Africa where she now works, she said
m inner li e is a ram ant east ith all sorts o uestions and
demands... To me this sums up what drives Anna!
The turbulent nature of her life, her perennially questioning
struggle towards a gradually widening perspective, and
her drive towards creating meaning for herself through
service to others are well described by the Nodal pattern
in her chart and its planetary links. Furthermore, Mars in
Scorpio from the th ouse trine the NNode in the rd
in isces, sextile the SNode in irgo in the th, shows her
commitment to fighting hard for what she believes in, and
what will serve the wider human community.
It also shows that she is called on to battle against the
darker forces in life and in society - she started her
professional career as a omens Aid volunteer in
,
with her three children aged , and under a year old. In
the same year her sister was diagnosed as suffering from
cancer; she died a month after Anna started her professional
training in September
. ollowing a custody battle with
her parents re her dead sisters little son Alan, he came to
live with Anna and her children in
, the same year that
she separated formally from her husband; he had left the
family home in April
.
In
she qualified as a social worker and got her
first professional job. y
, she was working as a
project leader for a major childrens charity, her mandate
being work with ethnic minority communities, anti-

144

discrimination and childrens rights work. In the early

autumn of
, as the North Node crossed her Ascendant,
she obtained a temporary Acting Assistant Directors post
within her organisation. She was getting very restless - her
sons had left home, her daughter was nearly sixteen and
looking towards university in a year or two. luto, her
ruling planet, was transiting the latter degrees of Scorpio,
preparing to square her Nodes from the first ouse. She
attended an evening tutorial I gave on the Nodes, and we
light-heartedly speculated on what might happen when
luto moved into Sagittarius - relocation perhaps
I have chosen Annas Nodal oment as th October
. On that day at . am she was successfully
interviewed for the senior post which she flew to Africa to
take up in anuary
. t is a ver significant da in her li e.
er mother was born on October
, and her sister
died on October
............
The progressions and transits tell a very clear story. The
progressed
is just moving into Scorpio, applying
conjunct th ouse ars, sextile SNode in the th ouse,
trine NNode in the third. rogressed oon is in the th
ouse in eo,- the ost concerns the el are and rotection o
children through a ma or children s charit - due to cross the 0
degrees irgo SNode in the th ouse when Anna went to
Africa in anuary
.
Transiting luto is in the last degree of Scorpio (re-entering
Sagittarius on November ) applying conjunct the

145

art of ortune at Sagittarius, square the Nodal axis at

irgo/ isces in the th/ rd ouses.
The transiting Nodal axis is also prominent, transiting Node
at
degrees ibra in th conjuncting the ars/Neptune
midpoint, triggering the Sun/ ercury midpoint. Anna had
parted from her long-term lover the previous year, the last
straw having been discovery of various of his infidelities,
and he went to work in Europe only weeks before she got
the African job. As the Node headed for her natal oon
ercury/Saturn Neptune square, a close woman friend
died: on 13 October, two days after her interview.
This pattern also foreshadowed her homesickness when she
first went to Africa, and the uncertainty of her daughters
home base. Initially she came out with her mother to Africa
but after a couple of weeks returned home to Scotland
where she is currently living with her father. The ill-health
centring round lung problems which Anna had to fight
from the end of
is also foreshadowed in this pattern,
although not manifesting acutely until the end of
/
start of
as the NNode crossed hiron at . degrees
ibra in the interview chart, squaring the nd ouse(note)
enus/Node midpoint in her natal horoscope.
However, Anna after a traumatic start seems to have
adjusted well. She has many areas of responsibility in her
job, and many stresses. One of the big satisfactions - and
her works main focus - has been her helping guide into
9 Note: when transiting Pluto moved from Leo to Virgo in June 1958, Anna
relocated from Scotland to England the following spring, just before Pluto went
direct at 1.5 degrees Virgo in May 1959.

law in the country in which she works, a hildrens Statute,

unique in Africa, founded on the N onventions on
the Rights of the Child. This was the outcome of a seven
year review of all existing laws which started in
. The
Statute became law in August
- with the North Node
in 20 Virgo in her 10th House, opposite her natal lunar
eclipse degree at
isces.
There are very strong links between the solar and lunar
eclipses of the November - season and the chart for
the interview on October
. uring this period, the
transiting Nodal axis is retrograding through the th/ th
Houses, providing very appropriate background indications
that a process is at work in Annas life which will push
her towards expressing her personal, pioneering creative
energies in the greater collective at a more challenging level
than she has ever done before. Her energies, as we have
seen, involve pioneering work for children - a very literal
expression of the th ouse.
The solar eclipses of November
and
April
,
at Scorpio and Taurus respectively, appear as the
Ascendant and escendant point of the Interview chart,
and echo Annas own Scorpio/Taurus natal axis. The
lunar eclipse of November
at
Taurus widely
conjuncts the oon and closely squares the
/I axis of
the interview chart, as well as picking up her natal luto/
Node, enus/Neptune midpoints.
The next lunar eclipse on April
at
ibra falls
on her natal Saturn/Neptune conjunction in the th
House. The autumn one at 15 Aries, three days before her

successful interview, falls on the natal 5th House cusp,

charging up her upiter/Saturn/ ercury T Square. The
final, total solar eclipse of that season falls on
October
at O Scorpio - conjunct her progressed Asc/radix ars and
the interview charts rising enus/Node conjunction. This
eclipse also triggers her radix enus/Node midpoint at .
apricorn. She hears at the end of October
that she
has got the job.
I think that Annas Nodal oment shows vividly the call
to e all ou can e which comes when the Nodes are
strongly activated and potentised by the energy charges
provided by the eclipses.

Conclusion
Major and minor Nodal activity
Transits and progressions weave in and out of life - there
may be years for example which are dominated by Pluto,
others by Neptune, or very heavily Saturnian years. There
are the few occasions eg where a planet changes sign by
progression, or the MC progresses over Uranus, or the
Moon. But there is Nodal activity of some kind going on all
the time, as the Nodal axis regresses through the horoscope,
transits come to the Natal or progressed Nodes, and
progressions touch off the natal Nodal pattern. The Nodes
appear to me to function both as witnesses (the Sun) and
midwives (the Moon), symbolic translators of the archetypal
energies of the planets into the medium of Life as it is lived
in the Sun/Moon/Earth system.
Where, then, does this leave the contention that Nodal
times have a particularly powerful, fateful charge to them?
That cant be true of every year in life, surely? If it were, the
intensity of it would pretty quickly reduce people to cinders!
What, therefore, distinguishes those special moments or
turning points in life where either at the time, or later, we
realise we have crossed an important threshold?
From the research done on Marcs life in particular, I have
concluded that there are two kinds of Nodal activity: major
and minor, as it were. As already discussed, there is always
some minor Nodal activity going on.
The really powerful major times on the other hand, which
are few in any lifetime, are characterised by not just one or
149

two, but a cluster of transits and/or progressions involving

the natal, and/or progressed, and/or transitting Nodes. The
outer planets, especially Pluto with its strong fated feel,
stand out. This was an impression I had already formed
after 15 years of chart reading - but Id never tested it out in
formal research before.
Pre-natal eclipses are very much part of the weave, as can
be seen from the case study material. The most striking
example is seen in Mary Shelleys horoscope where the
pre-natal solar and lunar eclipse degrees appear as the
actual Ascendant and SNode degrees in her horoscope, and
the charts of all the key people and events in her life with
reference to the authorship of Frankenstein.
Im quite clear now, as the Nodal axis regresses through
the chart, identifying via the highlighted houses the overall
territory up for change, that the transiting eclipses function
as battery chargers, gradually building up the energies
of the persons life in preparation to receive major change.
An image comes to mind here from the female menstrual
cycle, of the egg gradually being primed and prepared until
it is at its maximum point of readiness to receive the male
sperm, conceive and begin new life. I think the eclipses
begin their work of charging-up as soon as the relevant
eclipse season begins, which may be as long as eighteen

150

months before the turning point in the persons life

appears.1
The Nodes and the numinous
In allowing some images to rise which might help me
pull the threads of the thesis together, the one which most
persistently presented itself was that ghostly picture of a
mans head and shoulders which must be the worlds most
famous photographic negative - the one which appeared
when the photograph taken of the marks on the shroud
of Turin was developed.2 For many people throughout
the world, this is a sacred image of the crucified body of
Christ, and a central symbol representing the Christian
era. Regardless of ones religious stance, it is not hard to
see how this single awe-inspiring one-dimensional image
conveys the symbolic essence of what Christianity means.

1 Note: A very clear example comes to mind from my own recent life. In the
sprin of
decided that needed an office out of my home to create space,
mainly to write this thesis. My Asc/Desc axis is 9 Virgo/Pisces The Virgo/
isces eclipse season started on
arch ith a total solar eclipse at
isces,
opposite rania in my first ouse, closely lin in in ary helley s and arc s
Nodes t as at this time that chose arc as my case study sub ect n riday
arch sa the office decided on
arch to rent paid for settin up the
office from an insurance policy had ta en out years previously at the a e of
he NNode then as transitin the first decanate of a ittarius, s uarin my
sc esc t that time, had a feelin mi ht need money for some important
ploy hen
as
The middle period of the season saw me well settled into the writing as the 9
ir o eclipse fell e actly on my sc he day before the total solar eclipse of
ebruary
fell on the th ouse side of my esc, had a call from my
landlords sayin they needed to no by riday
ebruary hether
as
oin to rene my lease up on
ay since the buildin as bein sold
decided to rene for months and sent my che ue off ust before the lunar
eclipse on
arch at
ir o he lease runs out on November
the
day m due to raduate from the
he Ne
ncyclopaedia ritannica, icropaedia, ol , p , ncyclopaedia
ritannica th dition

151

It functions as a kind of spiritual hologram;3 in itself it is a

one-dimensional holographic plate. But when the light of
faith is shone on it, a three dimensional picture - physical,
emotional, and spiritual, of what Christianity means, arises
for the observer.
In contemplating the outcome of the research into the lives
of both Mary Shelley and Marc, the idea of the natal Nodal
pattern representing a symbolic holographic plate has taken
shape.
The true turning points in life seem to leap into three
dimensions - emotional, physical, and spiritual - from the
holographic plate on which the basic pattern of the persons
destiny is etched. That pattern is most appropriately carried
in the Nodal structure, which holds images of the light
of the quest for meaning through the Sun, reflection and
containment of that light through the Moon, and grounding
in Lifes unfolding process through their orbits particular
relationship with the Earths plane.
In every synastry in Mary Shelleys case; in every key event
in both subjects lives, running backwards and forwards in
time and in the symbolism of all the birth charts, one can
see, shimmering through the really critical turning points,
the ghostly, but quite distinct holographic plate of both
Mary and Marcs natal Nodal patterns. The Nodal Moments,
though sketchier because of their being only one section cut
through each subjects unfolding life pattern, nevertheless
holo ram is an ima e produced on photo raphic film in such a ay that
under suitable illumination a three dimensional representation of an ob ect is
seen
ford aperbac ictionary, ford niversity ress, th dition,

152

also carry within them the basic shape of the natal Nodal
blueprint. Robin Heaths comment bears repeating:4
...astrology appears more and more to behave like a hologram.
You can perform almost any technique with the data, turn the
chart inside out or slice it up, and still the symbolic pictures
remain.
Perhaps that powerful spiritual image of the sacred Shroud
arose for me because in reflecting on the meaning of what
I had seen at the core of all the different takes on the
Nodes at work in disparate peoples lives, I felt myself to
be in the presence of the numinous. I find it impossible
to describe adequately what I felt when I realised that in
Mary Shelley and Marcs lives, with each synastry and every
major event and turning point, the natal Nodes and their
attendant patterns had been painted, not faintly or casually,
but in bold primary colours that could not be missed. I had
a powerful sense of being in the presence of something
Other, something which was not circumscribed by the
mortality of one individual in one lifetime.
The resonances over long periods of time which were so
evident in linking Mary Shelleys Nodal pattern with the
contemporary controversy over how far humans should
overstep their limits in altering the very building blocks of
he

ountain strolo er, ssue

, pril

153

ay

, etters p

life, focused by the appearance of Dolly the Sheep - and the

links I found with my own horoscope, hers, and the time I
had chosen to write about her, really struck me.5
I did not expect my research into he oon s Nodes in
ction to present me with such a strong suggestion that we
all have our destiny, and that at certain potent times in life
there are events and turning points which are initiations
into the furtherance of that destiny - and that outwith our
lives there may be some intelligent Other observing and/
or guiding that movement. But that is the feeling which
persists in me as a result of my work.
I have always reacted with a degree of impatience to the
theorising, usually with little practical evidence to support
it, which takes place about the Nodes - now Im rather more
respectful! But it feels good to have done a fairly substantial
piece of practical exploratory work demonstrating the theory
in action. As the Indian astrologers have been telling us for
centuries, the Moons Nodes really do seem to be connected
to the workings of Fate in the shaping of personal destiny.

th ouse ranus at
emini, s uare st house rania at
ir o in
my chart, plu s into her hole Nodal pattern, pic in up her pre natal lunar
eclipse de ree at
a ittarius
y th ouse ars at
ancer is con unct
her sc pre natal solar eclipse de rees at
ancer er ars un ranus
is con unct my ortuna scendant, her hiron enus con uncts my Neptune,
er
luto
s uares my NNode
, her ercury trines my
NNode
and her Neptune s uares my ercury hart uler started or on the thesis,
by readin mily unstein s boo on ary helley, in mid uly
ith the
NNode at
ir o, and m finishin it no
ith the transitin Node at
ir o,
con unct her ars and my ortuna hope to raduate on November
,
hen the transitin Nodal a is ill be at
eo
uarius, e actly con unct
ary helley s
luto , s uare my NNode
Node
at
aurus
corpio it s hard even for a persistent pra matist li e me to disbelieve in fated
connections hen contemplatin all this

154

The Nodes, birth, death and rebirth

The Nodes have also struck me as having strong
connections, in the clustering effect I talked about, with
conception, birth and death, of either a literal or more often
a symbolic kind. I found it intriguing, for example, that
in the two of Marcs Turning Points which concerned the
beginning of the two key relationships with women which
would most powerfully affect his life, the charts for the
conception points of the relationships were more powerful
than those for the actual start of Marc going out with
Beatrice and then Caitlin. In Mary Shelleys case, the chart
for the waking dream in which she could have been said to
have conceived the idea which led to Frankenstein, was very
powerful.
All of the key moments in all the case material concern
conception, birth and death - literally, in the case of Princess
Diana. Andrews concerned the death of a relationship, but
also the death of certain pathological ties to the family past,
leading to the birth of an altogether more positive stage
of his life. Annas Nodal moment represented the birth of
a whole new cycle of her life; the date of the interview, 11
October, was also the anniversary of both her mothers and
her sisters death. John Glenns moment concerned his
rebirth as an astronaut, and also since he is 76 years old
could be seen as him intent on going out in a blaze of glory,
perhaps literally.
arcs first Turning oint represented the death of his
youthful image of himself as an intellectual achiever, and a
very painful birth into experiencing the more brutal aspects
of life as a necessary part of his life path. The election of

155

Thatcher in 1979 represented the death of his political

hopes for his country - the whole period since then for
him has been a long struggle for a man who needs the
inspiration of belief to guide and focus his considerable
energies and gifts.
y research has confirmed both the traditional view of the
Nodes connection with birth, death and rebirth, and my
own impressions gained over many years practice.
The Nodes in relation to other chart factors
I started out with certain questions. Do the Nodes say
something specific, or do they act as a reinforcer for
information which can be derived from other chart factors?
I think I have demonstrated quite clearly that the Nodes and
their attendant planetary/Angular links can be used on their
own to sketch out a clear picture of the basic structure of a
persons life path and the archetypal energies which need
to be responded to and brought into the journey, for that
person to be all they can be.
It appears that some lives are more touched by the hand of
Fate than others. It seems that strong outer planet links,
especially Plutos conjunctions or squares to the natal
Nodal axis, and strong prevailing major patterns eg Uranus
conjunct Pluto opposite Saturn conjunct Chiron linked to
the Nodes, bring some people a more challenging and Fatedirected life than others. Mary Shelleys chart is a very good
example of this, with Uranus, dispositor of Pluto conjunct
MC, conjunct her Sun and square her Nodal axis.

156

I have distinguished between minor and major Nodal

activity in transits and progressions, and demonstrated that
the major effect is what appears to be present when turning
points occur. This would suggest that in contemplating
the unfolding picture of a persons life, the combination
of Nodal activity with the foreground presence of outer
planets, especially Pluto, points out that something really
special is going on and should be carefully noted.
I also asked whether astrologers are missing something
important by not paying attention to the Nodes, natally
and as life unfolds. I think the answer to this is yes, with
particular reference to the transiting Nodal cycle and the
eclipse seasons which accompany them. The pair of houses
highlighted by the transiting Nodal axis and eclipses should
be carefully observed, especially if the pre-natal eclipse
degrees crop up in the form of a returning eclipse, or a
current eclipse is triggering natal patterns linked in to
either of the pre-natal eclipses.
I appreciate that we all need to earn our living and there
are a multiplicity of interpretive factors available which
would take all day to prepare if they were to be included
in every reading. We have to be selective. But having done
the research for this thesis, I think that, in preparing a
reading, if the clustering effect I have been discussing is in
evidence, it is important to pay particular attention to that
persons natal Nodal pattern and the current Nodal/eclipse
picture. The client is then likely to be bringing matters of
a life-changing nature to us for discussion, which offers us
roles both as observers and midwives; human agents in the
here-and-now of those mysterious watchers by the threshold
whose numinous presence in our lives is symbolically
represented by the Moons Nodes in Action.
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Index of Charts
Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 4
Fig 5
Fig 6
Fig 7
Fig 8
Fig 9
Fig 10
Fig 11
Fig 12
Fig 13
Fig 14
Fig 15

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and a sheep called Dolly

Mary Shelley, natal chart details
Mary Shelley - natal chart
William Godwin - natal chart
Mary Wollestonecraft - natal chart
Percy B Shelley - natal chart
Lord Byron - natal chart
Mary Shelley - natal chart (for easy comparison)
Baby Mary - natal chart
Mary and Percy - event chart - declaration of love
Mary and Percy - event chart - elopement
Mary Shelley - natal chart (for easy comparison)
Mary Shelley - event chart - dreaming of Frankenstein
Publication of Frankenstein - event chart
Dolly the Cloned Sheep - natal chart
Twentieth Century - event chart

Marc X - a life through the nodal lens

Fig 16 Marc X - natal chart details
Fig 17 Marc X - Turning point 1 - tri-wheel chart - transfer to secondary school
Fig 18 Marc X - Turning point 2 - tri-wheel chart - going out with Beatrice
Fig 19 Marc X - Turning point 3 - tri-wheel chart - end of formal education
Fig 20 Marc X - Turning point 4 - tri-wheel chart - 3 May 1979 - Thatcher
Fig 21 Marc X - Turning point 5 - tri-wheel chart - end of marriage
Fig 22 Marc X - Turning point 6 - tri-wheel chart - Caitlin

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24
38
38
39
42
42
43
43
51
51
52
55
55
63
63

82
92
92
95
97
97
98

Four nodal moments

Fig 23 John Glenn - natal chart
Fig 24 John Glen - event chart - in Earth orbit, 1962
Fig 25 John Glen - event chart - return to space, 1998

124
125
125

Fig 26 Princess Diana - natal chart

Fig 27 Princess Diana - naibod secondary chart
Fig 28 Princess Diana - accident

131
131
132

Fig 29 Andrew X - natal chart

Fig 30 Andrew X - event chart - walk out
Fig 31 Andrew X - bi-wheel chart - walk out and naibod secondary chart

135
138
138

Fig 32
Fig 33
Fig 34

142

Anna X - natal chart

Anna X - event chart - interview
Anna X - bi-wheel chart - interview and naibod secondary chart

160

143
143

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Background
The Astrologers Companion by Filbey and Filbey (UK )
Aquarian Press 1986.
A Dictionary of Astrology by Fred Gettings (UK) Routledge
& Kegan Paul 1985.
The Astrologers Astronomical Handbook by Jeff Mayo (UK)
L.N.Fowler & Co Ltd 1982.
The Practical Astrologer by Nick Campion (UK) Cinnabar
Books 1993.
Encyclopedia of Astrology by Nicholas de Vore (USA)
ittlefield, Adams
o
.
Cycles
The Lunation Cycle by Dane Rudhyar (USA) Aurora Press
1986.
Cycles of Becoming by Alexander Ruperti (USA) CRCS
1978. Chapter 3 The Sun-Moon Cycles.
The Luminaries by Liz Greene & Howard Sasportas (USA)
Samuel Weiser, Inc 1992.
Sun Sign, Moon Sign by Charles & Suzi Harvey (UK)
Aquarian Press (HarperCollins) 1994.
The Structure of Cycles by Joseph Crane pp 73-4 from The
Mountain Astrologer Issue 77 Feb/March 1998.
The Moons Nodes
An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness by Donna
Cunningham (USA) CRCS Publications 1978. Chapter 12
The Neglected Nodes of the Moon.
The Astrology of Self-Discovery by Tracy Marks (USA)
CRCS Publications 1985.Chapter 4 The Lunar Nodes : Our
Life Purpose.
161

The Astrologers Node Book by Donna VanToen (USA)

Samuel Weiser, Inc 1981.
Draconic Astrology by Pamela Crane (UK) The Aquarian
Press 1987.
Karmic Astrology The Moons Nodes and Reincarnation by
Martin Schulman (USA) Samuel Weiser, Inc 1975.
The Karmic Journey by Judy Hall (UK) Penguin Arkana
1990.
Eclipses
The Eagle and the Lark by Bernadette Brady (USA) Samuel
Weiser1992.
Eclipses : Astrological Guideposts by Rose Lineman ( USA )
AFA Inc 1995.
Lunar Shadows by Dietrech J. Pessin (USA) Galactic Press
1997.
Encyclopedia of Astrology by Nicholas de Vore (USA)
ittlefield, Adams
o
. clipses: pp
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (UK) Penguin Popular
lassics
(first published
)
MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality by Emily W.
Sunstein (USA) John Hopkins University Press 1991.
MARY SHELLEY by Muriel Spark (UK) Constable and
Company 1988.
CLONE The road to Dolly and the path ahead by Gina
Kolata (UK) Allen Lane 1997.
Hyenas in Petticoats by Woof, Hebron & Tomalin (UK) The
Wordsworth Trust 1997.
TIME Annual 1997 The Year in Review (USA) Time Books
1998.

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Anne Whitaker has been an astrologer since the 1983 Jupiter-Uranus conjunction
in Sagittarius. She also has a long background in adult education, social work,
counselling and supervision. Anne holds an MA degree, postgraduate diplomas
in education and social work, and the Diploma from the Centre for Psychological
Astrology (1998 London, UK).
Based in Glasgow in Scotland, she can be contacted at
Writing from the Twelfth House, Astrology: Questions and Answers
and her Facebook Page
Annes other ebooks can also be purchased from either of the above sites:
Rumbold Ravens Magic Menagerie (illustrated childrens poetry book)
Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness
(an open-minded take on paranormal experience)
Jupiter meets Uranus
(a great introduction to how astrology works at the individual and social level)

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