The axis of the North Node and the South Node, or Rahu and Ketu respectively, are one of the most important aspects of a natal chart, as they show where we’ve been and where we’re going – it’s where the past meets the future in the present, and there needs to be a balance, a center that is strong. It often shows our destined or soul’s intended life path, or what we’ve come here to create. The path from Ketu to Rahu is essentially like the path of your consciousness; similar to how the path from your Ascendant to your Descendant is the path of your body towards kama or desire.
We always begin with Ketu, because it is the foundation that needs to be stable in order for us not to fall into the seas of illusion and confusion of Rahu. The most important thing to know and understand about Ketu in your natal chart, is that if you seek to balance it, you need to approach it from the space of humbleness, openness and non-judgment – it is the “I don’t know”. Wherever in your chart Ketu is, whatever planets and houses, you need to approach these areas and theme of life from the “I don’t know”, allowing yourself the humbleness, openness and non-judgment. Only then, the path of Rahu will shape in a better way for you – because – at its essence Rahu is about discernment; and once you have the discernment and clarity, you don’t fall into the seas of illusion of Rahu, you begin creating from truth in the way you desires as part of your evolution. And during periods or transits of Ketu – also, try letting go that you know or how things should be, let the waves of life move you and show you the natural path of flow and the magic that life is, and that it is okay to trust – and you also see much more possibilities than before, whole new doorways open up for you.
Rahu, or the North Node, can be seen as the sculptor who sculpts something new – forms and creates something tangible thereby developing on an inner level also; while Ketu is the ocean of which we came, the inspiration flowing through us, the essence and the air, and those things within us that are familiar yet kind of distant or untouched now, from a past life, but still with us and also offering opportunities to be refined in this life.
There are many ways in which we analyze this axis: we look at aspects, signs and house placements, and we also look at the nakshatra of each Node, as these are the lunar mansions and doorways of deeper insight. Nakshatras offer a depth of wisdom through their many layers, and often times, we can just spend one whole reading discussing only the nakshatras and the Nodes – you’ll gain deep insight, and it’d sound like your life’s story. One of the reasons for that is because the Nodes hold within themselves all the other planets and energies, and it is also because we usually feel very connected to them – especially the South Node, or Ketu. What I have seen in my clients through my many years of experience is that we can often resonate more with our South Node than our Moon or even Sun.
Let’s begin, and first,
What are nakshatras?
Nakshatra is the term for lunar mansion in Hindu astrology; and a lunar mansion is like a segment of the ecliptic through which the Moon passes in its orbit around the Earth; you may think of them as constellations if you prefer. Our Moon’s nakshatra is most important because it essentially shows the seed or womb of which we were born, and the story of it may sometimes sound like our life’s story.
There are 27 nakshatras – and they are essentially the wives of the god Moon, called Chandra; and so together with the Moon we have the 28 days which is the Moon’s cycle. In Hindu myth, the story tells that Chandra went to Daksha, who was one of the divine king-rishis and agents of creation, and Dasha offered him his 27 daughters to marry. Each night god Moon would spend in a new wife’s bedchamber, lunar mansion; but Rohini was his favourite, and he’d spend extra time with her, which made all others jealous and angry, and Dasha banned Chandra to wax and wane in the night sky each month.
Each nakshatra is like a yoni, or a womb, a seed within a soil, which shows us our nature and nutritive needs related to that planet. This shows the feminine aspect of receptivity of nakshatras – receiving the seed that we are, and then nurturing it into being. So in this sense, the nakshatras show the kind of energy associated with each celestial body.
One thing to understand about the North Node (Rahu) and the South Node (Ketu) is that they are part of the same body – we are not meant to escape one or move away from one, because this will only create imbalance in the pole. We are meant to balance it out, because they are, and always will be, in a dance with one another; sometimes in life we’ll be more into one, and then we’ll take the movements towards the other, and in some ways, each always longs for the other and looks toward it for balance and comfort.
In ancient Bulgaria the symbol for the Nodes was a woman sitting on the Earth, with her eyes and hands raising towards her sky and her legs slightly spread on the soil. The South Node showed her open hands reaching towards the sky – thereby connecting to and receiving something from the higher realms; and the North Node was the person sitting with open legs, open thighs, sitting on the earth – thereby showing the strong connection to ground, soil, the material, and our ability to take spirit and then form it into matter.
So in this way, we take the essence of our South Node, an inspiration, a scent, a fire within our hearts, and then we form it into the material through our own efforts, hands, and willpower. This is why we’d often see the house of our North Node produce tangible results, though it can only happen through the consistency of our efforts and perseverance; the North Node is where we form things, we become sculptors and artists creating new art, so we’ll need discernment, values, perseverance, courage, self discipline, desire and going out in the wild unknowns for new perspectives and new insights to emerge and to be learned.
Each planet is related to an avatar or incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Ketu is connected to the first incarnation – to Matsya avatara, which is the fish incarnation of Vishnu. Vishnu decided to embody as Matsya to save Manu from an incredible flood on earth, after which Manu started another cycle of creation for humanity. The story goes that the fish is small then big then bigger as the story evolves and expands. Essentially, Ketu is the fish continually outgrows the body of water it is put into.
Rahu is the Varaha incarnation of Vishnu, which is the boar animal. Varaha is associated with the legend of lifting the earth, known as goddess Bhumi, out of the cosmic ocean, or the ocean of milk, and saving her, returning her to the universe. Basically, Hiranyaksha stole the earth and hid her in the ocean of milk, the primordial waters, and Vishnu appearing as a boar dove into the ocean and rescued her – he lifted her on his tusks and restored goddess Bhumi to her rightful place in the universe.
And this is the beautiful dance of Rahu and Ketu. Ketu is that which outgrows where it’s been, like the fish too outgrew her body of water and evolved to the next for a fresh new start. Ketu begins with a perhaps a feeling or level of limitation – how could we ever define within our human body all we’ve ever been to from a time before time beyond time; but each time the limitation is felt and we feel stuck in old patterns from past lives or early childhood, Rahu the boar comes diving in and pulling us out of the comfort zone as part of our path of consciousness evolution. Ketu will always feel familiar and comforting, but this is where we’ve been and it is time to go into the wild unknown territories developing new skills.
Destiny is an interweaving between necessity and freedom – necessity is the karmic impulse and the destined situations and people we will meet, and the freedom is that which we’ll choose to do thereafter. There are choices to be made always. Our natal charts show potentials, but it is up to us whether we can realize these dreams.
Now let’s go through an example.
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Rahu in Rohini, Ketu in Anuradha
To know where we’re going, we must first understand where we’ve been, so we’ll begin with Ketu. Anuradha is a beautiful nakshatra known as the path of pure devotion. These natives have spent many lifetimes in devotional pathways, developing their many spiritual gifts and talents. They may have many spiritual powers and gifts that have come through devotion, worship and their charitable pure natures, which they will continue in this life. It is said they have also awakened the kundalini and paid off their karma in the past life. To tell whether someone has done many virtues and good deeds in past life, thereby acquiring good karma, you can just see their character now – kindness incarnates as kindness, love incarnates as love.
Anuradha Ketu usually shows good karma (if supported by strong Moon, Jupiter and Saturn), intuitive gifts and natural knowledge of astrology and occult sciences, especially if they’ve been aligned to ethics, integrity and were responsible with their past life deeds and gifts. Please understand that these are only general descriptions, so some people with this nakshatra may not have been very ethical in the past at all, and now they’d need to balance this karmically; they’ll usually be very materialistic, cold and with blown egos.
For those who retained their spiritual gifts, and have continued their spiritual line of work, they are humble and more quiet about it; they may say something like “yeah, I am intuitive” or “yeah, sure I have spiritual gifts” but they will not really go into detail; what they call “intuitive” may essentially be powerful psychic abilities; they often read others like an open book at first sight, but will never say anything, they’ll just keep quite and maybe even act aloof. And the reason they don’t “market their psychic gifts” is because they have deep esoteric knowledge and align to the higher spiritual values of humbleness, and keeping things more private related to our spiritual gifts.
If they choose to continue their spiritual line of work, they need to price their services fairly and build value of the work they do and the wisdom they give to others; this is because in past lives they may have given it all away for nothing and have had their boundaries crossed, and their self value may have suffered with others taking advantage of their kindness and selfless nature. This is especially true if their North Node Rohini is in their 2nd house of self value and self respect; basically they shouldn’t sell themselves short. The higher manifestation of Anuradha is someone with high spiritual ethics, humbleness and deep wisdom, and they will not be all over social media – because they have a deep understanding of what spiritual work actually is and the true character of a spiritual teacher.
In this life they probably have natural knowledge of astrology, occult and mysticism etc., because they’ve been developing this for many lives; and they’ve been interested in that since childhood probably learning about it again, as it gives them comfort in the familiarity, it’s like a comfy old blanket.
They are very intelligent and have great investigative and mathematical minds; they probably love watching true crime series, wanted to be a detective or private investigator, or maybe solve math puzzles before bedtime.
Anuradha relates to the deity Radha, who was Krishna’s wife – and as this nakshatra is all about devotion, these natives are entirely devoted and committed to all they do and become passionate about – they go all in. They are also very good at creating spaces where others feel a sense of belonging, so whether it’s a website of sharing content and people learn and feel understood, or a literal building within their community, they make people feel understood and at home.
They have strong spiritual cores, deep faith and strong connection to the divine; they are very devoted to the divine, and may not share the depth of their personal faith with others, but they certainly have oceans of worlds within them. No matter how talkative they are and how much you may think you know them, they are actually very private people and will rarely actually “share anything”. They guard their privacy, but will tell you enough so that you think you know them, even though you never will.
This is a traveling nakshatra, and with Ketu especially, they may move residences, live abroad and travel across seas often. Anuradha is symbolized by the lotus flower – so they rise through adversity, create beauty and have strong courage of soul and will power. They are very imaginative, sensual, sensitive people, and quite romantic also; though they may often have some sense of detachment, so it is important for them to have partners who give them that space and understand their spiritual side which may sometimes prefer some alone time to do whatever they feel devoted or passionate towards.
And so, coming from these many lives of devotion and spiritual pursuits shows that while they may have developed amazing intuitive gifts and talents and deep esoteric knowledge, they may have become a bit too detached; and people may have crossed their boundaries because they were very giving and charitable. So in this life they need to develop discernment, boundaries, and reflect on what they may feel they are still devoted to from the past – because sometimes they may feel like an entrenched sense of loyalty towards people or things that they shouldn’t.
They are here to be pulled by the powerful fires of Rohini who will teach them all they need now. Rohini Rahu can create powerful creative energy and self suffiency, and when combined the native can truly create anything they wish and desire; after many lives of living for others and in a complete devotional way, their path of consciousness is now moving towards expressing their creative and spiritual talents, enjoying and experiencing themselves through the physical and building self value through their talents rather than giving it all away. Rahu Rohini is a sensual one, connected to the material realm; but that’s a good thing for Anuradha, because they need to now balance the spiritual with the material.
Rohini is the Moon’s favourite nakshatra – she is the one for whom the Moon would spend most times in her lunar chamber, and for whom he was banned to wax and wane. Rohini is the “red one”, and she’s found in the celestial eye of the bull within the Taurus constellation. This shows strong desires, sensual nature, determination, and it gives a person with this placement a powerful magnetic vibration. Their vibration is one for growth attracting abundance, wealth, luxury, success, and renown reputation.
Because Rohini is ruled by the Moon itself as her lordship, Rahu in Rohini natives touch other people’s hearts. They have deep emotional influence and impact on others, so it is up to them how they choose to use this power; some people with this Rahu placement will have massive egos and things can go really astray, while others with this Rahu may be the real masters and guides. Integrity, humbleness and the native’s true character is what will shape this energy. They hold great power within their aura and charisma, and they have amazing creative abilities – very artistic with many talents, gifts and skills.
They have desire for pleasure and beautiful things – beautiful photography, fabrics, food, bodies; so in order not to over-indulge and get into additions, it is best if they focus on their creative pursuits and pour that desire into their creativity.
And the reason for their sensual and desirous nature is actually helping them because with Anuradha, they probably spent lifetimes giving up all they had, renouncing the material, and now they need to balance this out – gain some pleasure for the material, build self reliance and money through their creative skills, enjoy and experience life through their senses, while still being connected to their spiritual nature. Both can co-exist; and actually, respecting the material is respecting the spiritual, because they are all of one. Beauty is God given – to be able to enjoy the scents of flowers, the world through our senses is a gift. The way of beauty is the way of life is the life of love.
It is just about remembering not to over-indulge, stay in humbleness despite their vast knowledge of the esoteric, and practice some temperance and balance. Rohini being ruled by the Moon shows the need for spiritual connection and patience. The Moon represents our desires, particularly our emotional desires which we act on without processing them spiritually and intellectually, and hence, in the mythology god Moon, Chandra, sleeps with Jupiter’s wife without thinking twice about it. And so, Rohini needs to stay connected to its spiritual core, and temper any addictive or pleasure seeking temptations, so that it doesn’t waste its creative energy and go off into extreme listfulness, hedonistic lifestyle, and continuous pleasure seeking without any love.
From Anuradha Ketu, Rohini Rahu seeks to pull you into creating beauty in this world – to touch people’s hearts and move them through your magnetic energy and past life spiritual gifts. You are here to create and to protect your creations – and to protect all that matters to you most deeply with the people in your life. Rohini Rahu can sometimes have a warrior energy, and are strong protectors of those they love in their life, and especially with Anuradha’s devotion, they are here to set boundaries and have discernment and keep things sacred to them. Rohini Rahu is here to experience wealth, renown, distinction, luxury, success and abundance – and that’s what their energy attracts and magnetizes towards them.
Another thing they seem to attract though is jealousy, and just as in the story with the other 26 wives being jealous of Rohini, people can get really jealous of them. They just have a magnetism in their aura that others don’t have; and even if you copy exactly what they do and look like, it’d still have no effect. If it’s a woman with Rohini Rahu, men tend to get really obsessed and besotted with her, mesmerized completely.
In the myth we saw how after the other wives were jealous, Chandra was banned and made to wax and wane in the night sky each month, so often times these natives leave deep impact on others; they are hard to forget, and have a hold on people even if they’ve only met them briefly, and may also cause inner transformations in other people because of how they feel about these natives, or how much they’ve loved them, because their overall energy creates emotional change and movement within the hearts of others.
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