Directions: Study the interpretation of the North Node in Scorpio below. Then, take the quiz to see how well you understand its impact on your life! After all, reading means nothing if you don’t fully understand it. Access the quiz via the link at the bottom.
The traditional interpretation of the North Node in Scorpio is that it gives the individual great stamina and a drive to succeed. The Dragon’s Tail in Taurus indicates sensuality and a material preoccupation, although it may also be a sign of physical laziness.
In the past, you focused on the importance of the material world. As North Node in Scorpio, you may have many lifetimes doing manual labor and got accustomed to doing things “the hard way.” At your worst, you refuse to observe and learn from those around you, having to discover the danger of things which others can appreciate through watching. You have a desire for sensual pleasures and nice things, although if you are not careful, you can become possessive and materialistic, hoarding all items that cross your path. You do not need these things in your present incarnation, and the sooner you learn to let go, the better, because folks with this placement have the potential to be among the happiest and most creatively and spiritually fulfilled people on earth. This deep creativity and originality can be seen in the work of natives Louis Armstrong, Federico Fellini, Moliere, Prince, Beethoven, Coco Chanel, Walt Disney, Copernicus, Dave Brubeck, and Spike Lee.
Your task in this lifetime is to reach for the regenerative powers that lay dormant within you. It is no coincidence that Franz Kafka, born with the North Node in Scorpio placement, wrote a famous story called “The Metamorphosis.” You are destined to transform yourself completely. Let go – of old habits, unnecessary “junk,” false beliefs – and you will begin the path of spiritual growth. Burn your bridges as you move forward for you do not need to ever look back. What lies ahead is far better than what has held you back.
While you may have the natural tendency to husband resources as a bulwark against life’s vicissitudes, you are better off giving and receiving help from others. If you are not spiritually aware, you may still find yourself trapped in the thinking that you should not give without there being something in it for you. You can cure this by participating with others in joint ventures. You should find good karma in these endeavors.
You have developed over many lifetimes a great deal of will power. However, the emphasis in this incarnation will shift slightly to self-discipline and insight. Avoid simple formulas for success. Spend your time getting to know yourself and understanding your own psychological issues, analyzing the true and complex motives of others. This is your path to happiness.
Resistance to change is the biggest obstacle to spiritual growth for the North Node in Scorpio. Your soul remembers the pleasures of a routine life spent in great luxury. Without material well-being you may feel threatened, insecure, and materialistic at first. This is when you resort to being possessive and stubborn. However, the longer you dig your heels in, the worse the eventual upheaval will be, for you are destined to undergo continual transformation. Be forewarned that resistance will be very costly. Learn to welcome change as a way of life –or you will find yourself in one crisis after another. Once you do start to ride the waves, you’ll experience greater spiritual joy than most others can imagine.
There is some sadness in the North Node in Scorpio nodal placement. As Martin Schulman writes, this individual “would like to rest, thinking his soul journey is over. So tired is he, from past life memories of the yoke of his earthly burdens, that whatever the cost he would like to feel settled.” But do not settle. Rather, your karmic destiny is transformation, in the process of which you may be stripped of all that you thought was dear to you. If you give it up willingly, like fellow claimers of the North Node in Scorpio John Paul II and Osama Bin Laden, you will receive in exchange great fulfillment and happiness, but if you are stubborn and have it taken from you, like Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, or Emperor Hirohito, both born with the North Node in Scorpio, it can be quite painful. It’s your choice. Hold your possessions with an open hand of appreciation for the fleeting nature of beauty and life or clench them with a tight fist of fear.
At age 49, Charles Bukowski, born with this placement, was offered a chance to leave his position at a post office and write full time. In a letter he explained: “I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy … or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.” Only by leaving the comfort and security of that position did Bukowski fulfill himself creatively.
In some extreme cases, the individual’s transformation may be so severe that they spend the end of their life alone, stripped of everything but a physical self, like Marlene Dietrich who was bed-ridden and living in seclusion her last ten years on earth. We may also consider the case of Abraham Lincoln who led the country through its most intense and violent transformation. It is well known that the president did not favor the radical change which ultimately resulted from his election. It was only after being forced into several difficult positions that Lincoln finally came to accept the nation had to evolve or die. One wonders if he would consider the loss of his own life a price worth paying. Surely he is a national hero, but the lesson for the North Node in Scorpio person is one of caution here: Cooperate when you see change is called for so the transformation may be gentle and fulfilling; you will find great peace from living in harmony with your soul, tapped into your deep spiritual power.
At the end of his book On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, who also shares this placement, writes, “[W]hilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” Like Darwin, those with North Node in Scorpio must embrace life’s constant changes, for as Schulman says “out of the symbolic death of all he ever possessed will come his new life.”
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Recommended reading:
Karmic Astrology, vol. 1, Martin Schulman
Astrology for the Soul, Jan Spiller
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