Introduction

This book contains my professional secrets: the methods I have used to successfully read personal astrology charts for the past twenty years.

Many of my colleagues think I’m psychic. That may be true, but it’s not the primary mindset I use when I look at an astrology chart. To interpret a chart with confidence and accuracy, astrologers must have a starting point—an area they focus on when they first look at an individual chart. It may be the Sun sign, or the position of the Moon, the Eclipses, the major aspects, the number of planets in Fire, Water, Earth, or Air signs—each astrologer has his or her own personal entry into accessing, “seeing,” and interpreting the rest of the chart.

I use the Nodes. The Nodes have never failed to give me the information I need to correctly guide the individual in achieving success, self-confidence, and balance within the personality. The accuracy of my readings is not due to “psychic talents” but rather to my attention to the activity of the Nodes.

When I look at an individual astrology chart, I first notice the position of the North and South Nodes of the Moon, by sign and by house. Then I notice the geometric relationships (called “aspects” by astrologers) that the Nodes are making to other planets, and any unusual circumstances with the planets that rule the signs the Nodes are in.* Suddenly, the whole chart comes alive and I can understand the individual challenges this person has, and the qualities of character that need to be developed for success and fulfillment in this lifetime.

 

ACCURACY

It is not necessary to have a belief in astrology in order for this book to be of value to you. Astrology, if explored from a psychological or scientific level, has nothing to do with belief. It’s practical. It has to do with gaining knowledge and doing experiments. Are the psychological profiles offered by astrology useful tools of self-knowledge for you? Are the timing predictions astrology can make (when based on your full birth chart) helpful in using your time more effectively?

In evaluating the truth of the material presented in this book, it is important to listen to your own inner knowing and past experiences. Regardless of what others may think, only you know the nature of your own internal battles.

If you choose to do some of the experiments suggested for balancing your North Node personality type, look to your own energy for confirmation of whether or not you are on the right path. If, after running one of these experiments, your energy level soars and you feel happy and free, you’re “on path”! Trust yourself. If not, try a different experiment. You will know if you are on track by whether or not you feel happy and/or free.

If some of the suggestions made in your North Node section do not “feel right” to you, then trust yourself there as well. It may be an area that you’ve already overcome or that, for some reason, is not fully applicable to you. It’s like trying on a pair of shoes—only you know whether or not they fit. Again, trust yourself.

Some of these suggestions might be frightening at first because they’re new for you. But if they feel right to you—if they seem accurate—take the risk and set them in motion. You’ll find yourself emerging from your experiment with a sense of fearlessness and self-confidence that’s permanent. You’ll know changes are taking place because things that bothered you just a few weeks or months ago won’t get to you anymore. Your friends may still be feeling those things, but you’ll be feeling something else—a peacefulness that has eluded you in the past.

For each of us, our deepest core issues are shown in the sign and house positions of the North Node at the time of our birth. However, in the process of writing this book, I realized I had unresolved issues in signs other than my own nodal sign and house. The difference is in the depth of the dysfunction. If a person has North Node in Cancer or the 4th House, the issue of releasing control, trusting, and openly sharing feelings is huge—it’s like chipping away at a block of granite! But someone whose North Node is in another sign may also have difficulty with sharing feelings openly. Reading the chapter on North Node in Cancer may help them heal their issues of vulnerability and suggest practical approaches to create balance and ease. The difference is that it won’t be as difficult to apply the suggestions in these “alternate” areas as it will be in the area of your own nodal placement.

For example, I have the North Node neither in Aries nor in the 1st House, but when I was working on the Aries North Node chapter I realized that I had problems with self-assertion and some of the other issues that those folks are working out. In the creative process of writing that chapter, something in me was healed and I spontaneously began asserting myself more constructively and being more honest. And my life became a whole lot easier! Once I “got it,” it was easy for me to adjust and change. However, in the sign and house containing my North Node, it’s a lot tougher. I started “getting it” twenty years ago, and I’m still working through it.

 

COMPASSION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE

When astrology is approached from a level of true open-minded understanding, it leads directly to unconditional love. When you fully understand a person’s inner mechanics and where their “glitches” are, how can you be angry with them? We are all doing the best we can with the light we have and seeking to overcome our imperfections. Why? Because it’s practical. The glitches get in the way of getting what we want. We are all in this together.

Sun sign astrology, such as the horoscopes covered in daily newspapers and magazines, are predictions that take into account only the sign position of the Sun. Full natal astrology takes into account the sign positions of ten planets (the Sun and Moon are considered planets in this context, as the galaxy is seen from the point of view of its effect on the Earth), the axis that was active when the individual was born, and several other points: the Nodes, Eclipses, and so on. In fact, each of us is entirely unique; a birth chart isn’t duplicated for 25,000 years because all the planets are traveling at different speeds around the Sun. In the moment you took your first breath, all of humankind—all the people alive at that time—passed through that moment with you. Everyone did the best they could to make the moment joyful for themselves, but then the next moment came along and humankind had to handle it—and the next moment and the next, on into the current moment. But the moment when you were born was stamped on the cellular level of your very being, and it remains a part of you.

With that connection, you took charge of purifying that moment for everyone else on the planet, and you alone have the power to perfect the moment of your own birth. It’s as though you took that sliver of time, slowed it down, and stretched it out to last an entire incarnation. And as you begin to work with that moment, taking parts of your “wiring” that aren’t working too well and adjusting them—thus creating happiness, laughter, and joy in your own life—the positive energy of these changes affects everyone else. Through your own personal life you are essentially altering a moment that occurred in the past, and when you change the past, it changes the present for everyone. I’ve heard many spiritual teachers say that the best we can do for others is to work on ourselves. We are all interconnected on the deepest level—we’re One.

 

INTERNAL WIRING

The astrology chart itself is actually a schematic: a graph that shows people’s “inner wiring.” The wiring in each of us is different. It’s not “good” or “bad,” it’s just wired the way it’s wired. Your birth chart provides a picture of the inner wiring you were born with, but what you do with that wiring is up to you.

When you can objectively see the patterns of your own behavior, you can make adjustments for more efficient results and better performance. When any miswiring is corrected, the result is a more smoothly operating life (first internally, and then externally). By having a clear picture of your inner wiring, you can become aware of the built-in “glitches,” and you can choose not to continue behaviors that aren’t working for you.

For example, if a person knew objectively (from seeing the graph of their birth chart) that they had a tendency to assume they already know the answers to everything, and thus become impatient and display a self-righteous attitude that isolates them from others (as would be the case if they had the North Node in Gemini or in the 3rd House), knowing about this tendency would allow him or her to consciously take more time to respectfully receive the factual input of others before venturing his or her own opinion. That single adjustment would make a major difference in the person’s social interactions.

We all have tendencies that lead to inappropriate behavior and feelings of isolation and unhappiness. The trick is to discover our own glitches and empower ourselves to avoid them. With this objective knowledge, we are no longer operating in the dark, not understanding why life keeps giving us feedback that makes us unhappy. Life is too short to walk around blindfolded. It is the intention of this book to clarify what works and what doesn’t within the twelve personality types depicted by the North and South Nodes of the Moon.

This book is predicated on recognizing that you are not just the sum total of your chart. The chart is a picture of your personality structure, but you are the factor that lies behind the chart and have the power to use the personality (the energies depicted in your birth chart) in any manner you choose. Whether you allow the personality to operate unconsciously, or you take charge and purify the energy so that life flows to your advantage, is up to you.

 

HOW TO WIN/HOW TO LOSE

There are ten different kingdoms inside the personality, represented by the ten different planets used in astrology. We can look at the graph of your birth chart and see that some parts of yourself are constantly battling with other parts, creating all kinds of conflicting energy. Other parts of you are in total harmony; there will never be a struggle in those areas of your life. On an even deeper level, we can see the foundation from which everything else in your personality is emerging. The intention of this book is to delve into that foundation, describe it, and make some adjustments to it. These adjustments will allow the energies of the planets to coexist in a more harmonious manner.

Imagine that there is a natural General within you around which everything else is willing to unite at a moment’s notice. All you have to do is sound the bugle call of that General, and right away the parts that are warring with each other will drop their weapons and line up behind the General. The parts of you that are at peace and perhaps getting a little lazy will hear the call, get off their duffs, and also line up behind the General. When this happens, you instantly feel united and centered, and the outer situations in your life begin to change. Most important, your relationship to those situations shifts. From this new vantage point you see clearly what to do, and the action you take will automatically succeed.

In your chart, the North Node of the Moon represents that General. Once you access the underlying formula for uniting and balancing your inner self, it’s like a particle of magic. It will work 100 percent of the time in every situation in your life, if you just “remember to remember” the formula and are willing to try running the “experiments” that will allow the inner energy—and thus the outer situations—to shift to your advantage.

In the beginning, doing these experiments may not be easy. It may even be frightening. For example, if you are in the group whose North Node is in Cancer, you don’t know that being vulnerable and revealing your feelings and fears is going to work out for you. You weren’t used to being vulnerable in your past lives; as a matter of fact, you may feel as though you’re going to die if you actually reveal your true feelings. Everything in you may resist it. And yet, if you do it anyway, a shift will happen for you. You’ll find that something did die, but it wasn’t you—it was a fear that had attached itself to you. When you ran the experiment, that fear dissipated and you emerged with a new sense of fearlessness and confidence. But it’s up to you. Nothing happens unless you take the risk; positive action is the remedy for fear.

In examining the position of your North Node, you are looking at the basic lesson underlying this entire lifetime. Therefore, the changes may not happen all at once. Keep in mind that as you take steps in a new direction, you’re going against habits that have become deeply ingrained over many incarnations. That’s why you need to keep remembering to remember to do things in a new way and keep moving toward resolution of the past life imbalances you’ve inherited.

The purpose of this book is not to give you another tool to “make yourself wrong” and pick out past life habits you haven’t given up. Its purpose is to show you how to experiment with doing things in a new way. You’ll find that every time you remember to apply the formula, the situation shifts to your advantage and the world validates you. Yet even in the face of success, sometimes remembering to apply a new pattern takes time. It’s a process, after all.

Simply reading the chapter on your North Node will make a difference and start a process of natural change. Practicing the suggestions will speed up the process, but ultimately consciousness alone can make the transformation. For example, if a person knew they would be hit by a truck prior to crossing a street against the light, would they do it? Of course not. We all want to experience pleasure and avoid pain. Being conscious of a negative repercussion is often enough to keep from putting the cause in motion.

 

ASTROLOGY, MATERIAL SUCCESS, AND SPIRITUALITY

Material fulfillment is never the key to permanent, unbroken bliss. It is always temporary, and dissatisfaction always follows on the heels of simple material satisfaction. The ultimate resolution to the search for happiness is spiritual. Yet sometimes there is a worldly desire deep within us that cannot be denied or forgotten—it must be materially realized to be released.

To illustrate this point, consider the story of a Buddhist Master who was getting on in years and noticed that one of his favorite disciples had still not reached full enlightenment and bliss. This disciple had been with him for three decades, had been totally devoted to his Master and strict with his practices, and yet he still had not reached that highest state. One day the Master said to his disciple: “Come, I am going on a pilgrimage and you may come with me.”

They walked for miles into the outlying mountain range. The days became weeks, then a month passed, and still they continued on their journey. One day the Master stopped and, pointing to a hill in the distance, said to his disciple: “Do you see that mountaintop?” The mist was just clearing from the top of the mountain, revealing a large castle at its summit shimmering in the rays of the sun.

Disciple: “Yes, Master.”

Master: “And do you see that home standing on the summit of the mountain?”

Disciple: “Yes, Master.”

Master: “For many lifetimes, you have desired a home and that desire has remained unsatisfied. It is the final thread that binds you and blocks your enlightenment and unending joy. None of the practices I have given you have dissolved that deep desire. Therefore, it must be manifested. That is your home now; you own it.”

At that instant, the disciple became fully enlightened.

Some worldly or material desires we can dismiss simply because they aren’t that important to us. After a time, we can let them go. Others will not leave us until we have manifested them on some level. Once the personality has been successfully integrated, desires that are of lesser importance begin to fade away, and those that demand manifestation can be more easily obtained in the material world.

It is the purpose of this book to offer a formula that will facilitate a practical reintegration of the personality structure, so that the individual can more easily gain the material experiences sought. Once the mechanism of self, or personality, is working efficiently and producing happy results in our daily lives, our basic needs are met and we become open to a higher level of happiness and fulfillment, beyond identifying with personal ego and gaining strictly material rewards. As desires are met and outer goals are no longer so compelling, the personality relaxes. Within this calm, we are open to higher states of consciousness and the deeper happiness that is our natural state: what the Bible describes as “experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.”