Squares to the Nodes
Often referred to as “Skipped Steps,” squares to the Nodes often show up in the native’s life as repetitive opportunities to choose how to deal with the energies and experiences related to the squaring planet, whether in a way that fuels and leads them toward their soul growth (North Node) or in a way that keeps them repeating negative experiences and caught in a karmic battle with themselves and others and stagnating (South Node). A nodal square often indicates something we need to heal within ourselves, and perhaps even within our ancestral lineage, and sometimes these lessons and experiences can be harsh, even traumatic.
Every square in a chart represents an inner conflict or a challenge to choose how to respond, with either fear or with love, moving in the direction of our evolving self (North Node) or our unevolving self (South Node). This is true even when we consider squares that don’t involve the Nodes. How we respond to conflict often determines how we grow, or how we stagnate. We often don’t feel like we have time to respond because when triggered or in survival mode, we tend to blindly react, which usually comes from fear (a trauma response) and produces more karmic results that we then get to try to work out the next time the trigger occurs, which it inevitably will.
One thing is certain with nodal squares: we will get to experience, and thus experiment with, the full range – both the higher and the lower expression of the squaring planet’s (or planets’) energies, the positive and the negative – multiple times, throughout our lives, so that our soul gets the full experience of what it is working with so we can learn from our mistakes, pain, and heartache, and begin to make informed choices. In other words, we learn what we need to grow.
Even once we feel we have learned the lesson, and thus feel we have evolved and grown toward our higher selves in the direction of the North Node, we will keep getting “batting practice.” It will never end in this lifetime. It can be frustrating to realize this but when framed as batting practice or even as Continued Education Units (CEUs) you need to complete to retain your professional license (*races off to create a certificate in Evolutionary Soul Growth), you can begin to see the nodal squares as reminders, teachers, and guides to help you stay on your path.
People we interact with can trigger a square to our Nodes through our synastry with them, as well. A partner’s planetary square to our Nodes can act as a sometimes harsh, but often also quite magical reminder that we need to choose wisely to stay on our path toward evolutionary soul growth. These can feel irritating, to be sure, but they usually do help us snap into place, and these people often present us with life lessons that help us to evolve.
This usually creates a conundrum in romantic relationships because we tend to want these relationships to be smooth and supportive, but with squares from one partner’s chart to the other’s Nodes, the romantic partner represents what will turn out to be a never-ending reminder or challenge – just like the squares to the Nodes do in the native’s natal chart – to continually check how you are showing up in the relationship, how you are choosing to handle your triggers, and how you are addressing your own healing and growth so that the relationship can thrive as a combined whole. These can produce positive outcomes when the squaring planets are supportive in nature, but when the malefics are involved (Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and sometimes Uranus and Neptune), it can sometimes be experienced as never-ending combat, condescension, domination, chaos, and abuse. These tend to be those relationships we categorize as “Lessons” that are, in the end, best learned from and transcended. (The malefics can be wielded positively, but it takes an individual who is adept at consciously transmuting intense energies into intentional, productive outcomes without exerting control over others.)
Like people we interact with, transits can also trigger these nodal lessons as they are also bringing the planetary energy to us and act as potential awakening agents. Outer planets with slow orbits (Saturn-outward) tend to cause the most disruption, but also the most potential for growth, if we are paying attention and doing the work the transiting planet is asking us to do.
I want to point out that the orb I use for nodal squares is quite wide, up to 10° on either side. This pulls in a wide web of influence that often brings into focus troublesome areas that the native can feel, but perhaps didn’t quite see clearly before that range was allowed. I find it quite illuminating and clarifying to both the internal and interpersonal struggles experienced.
The ruling planet of the South Node is what Evolutionary Astrologers refer to as our personal identity planet. The sign and placement of this planet is key to unlocking the details of how your journey through any nodal squares will play out for you.
Planets in Square to the Nodes
Below are general descriptions of each of our main planets in square to the Nodes (including Pluto). Please note that the sign and house placement and retrograde status will influence this further, as well as the sign and house placement of the Nodes themselves and any other aspects to these placements. The ruling planets of each, as well as dwarf planets and large asteroids, are also significant and can fill out the whole story. A reading with an astrologer will help you to interpret the story of your chart, including any squares to the Nodes that you may have.
SUN: You will find yourself repeatedly dealing with hubris throughout your life. Getting the right balance between confidence and arrogance is key. You need to learn to gracefully balance the attention that you seek for yourself and the attention that is centered on others. Lessons will come in the form of not getting the recognition you crave.
A partner’s (or transit) Sun square your Nodes will put their ego or ability to suck up all the attention and accolades in a position that outshines yours, causing you to have to find appropriate methods to stand up for yourself and your need to be seen and appreciated.
MOON: Your task will be learning to get your emotions under control, both your inner experience of them and your outer expression of them. Integrating your inner child into your adult self will be key to these lessons. Healing from and overcoming childhood trauma may be a part of your lesson and the only way to get out of your own way and to stop blocking your own evolution.
A partner’s (or transit) Moon square your Nodes will put their emotional needs and experience at odds with what you feel you need to do to advance yourself. You may feel obligated to caretake them and tend to their emotionality at the expense of leaning into your purpose. You will need to learn to not allow others to parentify you and make you accountable for how they feel, leaning into what is true for your own emotional well-being and ensuring your own needs are met first before you offer any assistance to others. Put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others is applicable advice here.
MERCURY: Knowing what to say, how much of it to say (or not say), and when to speak or hold your tongue is your lesson. An inability to retain information, scattered attention (ADHD), neurodivergence, mental illness, or feeling chronically misunderstood may be a challenge for you.
A partner’s (or transit) Mercury square your Nodes may cause you to feel misunderstood, both in speech and in your intentions, or others may accuse you of frequently interrupting them or of talking over them – or of talking too much or even not talking enough. It is also possible this partner has ADHD, or possibly a learning disability or even mental illness, which causes you to need to either learn to adapt to their neurodivergence or find a healthier way of relating.
VENUS: Learning to love and value yourself, as opposed to giving yourself away in the name of love, will be your lesson. You may also experience trials and tribulations with money, your looks, and your popularity. You may experience painful rejections, poverty, and insecurity on your path to growth.
A partner’s (or transit) Venus square your Nodes may cause others to seem to be more attractive and have more money than you and have an easier time in social situations than you do, causing you to need to learn to find confidence and value in yourself without comparing yourself to others.
MARS: Keeping your anger and your temper in line is your lesson. Learning the difference between being a warrior and a criminal (fighting only when you have to protect others as opposed to fighting solely to victimize others) is key. You may experience others’ violence as a personal lesson.
A partner’s (or transit) Mars square your Nodes may cause others to be frequently combative with you and push you to take action that you may not feel comfortable with or prepared for. This will ultimately teach you how to stand up for yourself and to learn when to fight and when to walk away.
JUPITER: As the great benefic, Jupiter bestows blessings all around. The lesson with Jupiter square the nodes is to learn healthy boundaries and how to say No, knowing when enough is enough. Lessons will come from overdoing it with both positive and negative experiences. Struggling with maintaining a healthy weight is common with this placement, as are tendencies toward exaggeration and stretching the truth, which ultimately teaches you to have integrity as you deal with the negative consequences of going too far.
A partner’s (or transit) Jupiter square your Nodes may present with others’ issues with gambling problems, risky behavior, addictions, and with integrity and being truthful. This will ultimately teach you how to discern when enough is enough.
SATURN: You will be given experiences that will help you learn to master the balance between self-discipline and authoritative control, personal accountability and integrity and projection of blame and shame onto others. You may experience others asserting their authoritative control and shame/blame projection onto you so that you get a clear understanding of what true integrity feels like.
A partner (or transit) with Saturn square your Nodes may act as an authoritarian or treat you with condescension. This will ultimately teach you how to have healthy boundaries and self-discipline, so that you can be your best self without needing to tear another down in the process.
URANUS: Are you bucking the system or traditional ways of doing things just because you can, or because you have invented a better way of doing things that benefits everyone? Your lessons will come from experiences that teach you how to harness your rebelliousness and ingenuity for good and not just for the sake of creating chaos. You may experience profound and abrupt changes and losses, as well as unexpected gains, as part of your soul growth.
A partner (or transit) whose Uranus squares your Nodes will feel like an agent of chaos in your life and take you on a wild rollercoaster ride that may leave your life in shambles. They may treat you with hot and cold behavior, one day loving and the next completely absent. This will ultimately teach you where your limits are and how to have the self-respect to step away from situations that are not beneficial for your current and your future well-being.
NEPTUNE: You will experience the full range of Neptune, which will be an ongoing, interesting, and ultimately enlightening experience because Neptune has a very wide range, a literal ocean of experience. You get to learn how to use imagination, spirituality, and enlightenment productively as opposed to getting caught in delusion, depression, limerence, addiction, and escapism. You will likely experience manipulation, deception, mental illness, disillusionment, abandonment, isolation, otherworldly imagination and creativity, ecstasy, wonderment, and spiritual unity and insight both from/with others and within yourself on your journey. I liken this to traveling across a psychedelic ocean filled with mesmerizing beauty as well as with destructive death-traps, while riding a unicycle across a tightrope. It’s far better to use a ship (Saturn) for stable passage and healthy boundaries, and dip into the ocean when it’s safe to do so; leaning on Saturn protocols will assist this difficult natal aspect.
A partner (or transit) whose Neptune squares your Nodes may be (or may bring people or experiences that are) emotionally, mentally, or physically unavailable, elusive, avoidant, disruptive, unreliable, deceptive, manipulative, delusional, confusing, contradictory, mentally ill, dreamy, romantic, spiritually enchanting, inspiring, and your fantasy come true all at once. Your lesson is to learn to discern fantasy from reality and to not go chasing waterfalls or trying to fix, heal, save, reform, or rescue anyone but yourself in relationships. It can also be a call for you to experience the full range of the Neptunian psychonaut journey and learn how blurry the lines are between genius and lunacy, between compassion and codependency, between this world and the next. Leaning on the spiritual and creative side of the Neptunian experience will help preserve your sanity and keep you from getting lost in the murky depths of delusion and addiction. I find Saturn protocols help balance the loss of boundaries experienced in the nebulous alt-dimension of Neptune as well - the stable ship on the Neptunian sea with all its wonders and perils on all sides. This planet is probably the most difficult to endure as a transit to the nodes for all its travails and its long transit time.
PLUTO: This placement ensures you will experience power used in every way possible, from power painfully lorded over you while you are completely powerless, to you wielding it yourself in dominating fashion. Your lesson is to learn that true power is only ever one thing: power over yourself. In turn, you will learn that by controlling yourself, you will grow in power by empowering others instead of controlling them with your power. You will die (metaphorically) and be reborn multiple times in your lifetime as you learn these intense lessons about where you end, and where others begin.
A partner (or transit) with Pluto square your Nodes will be intensely magnetic, intrusive, controlling, and possibly even abusive. You will ultimately learn to heal your deepest traumas so you are not attracted (or attractive) to dangerous vampires and sociopaths who prey on your pain. You may feel exposed, vulnerable, and powerless either with this person or during this transit.
CHIRON: You are destined to both experience deep wounding and also to learn much about healing and deep medicine. You will advance yourself toward your North Node when you apply what you have learned about trauma, healing, and transformation toward assisting others in their healing; you will find yourself remaining stuck in your South Node when you remain caught in a trauma loop, repeating patterns of dysfunctional behavior and focusing only on your own pain instead of putting it aside to assist others. Helping others will help you to heal yourself. You will learn through teaching. The more you learn about healing and overcoming trauma, the more you can help others and thus find your own relief. Grief is never really overcome or gone, we just learn to carry it.
A partner (or transit) with Chiron square your Nodes indicates a clash between your desire to focus on the future and to grow and their psychological entrapment in their pain and trauma. You may find yourself wanting to heal them when they can only truly heal themselves. Healing and growth can come about from this aspect, but only if the Chiron person is willing to “Keep calm and carry on.”
