ON ASTEROIDS, NODES AND NAMES

Students of astrology early on become familiar with the Nodes of the Moon but few bother themselves with the Nodes of the planets, far less the asteroids. Yet asteroidal Nodes do have relevance, sometimes even in a highly significant way. The Nodes are the points where the plane of the orbit of the asteroid cuts the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Viewed heliocentrically the Nodes form an axis where the North or Ascending Node is exactly opposite the South or Descending node.

As with the Lunar Nodes The North Node connects to ‘reception’, ‘uptake’ and ‘association’ whereas the South Node refers to the opposite qualities of ‘departure’, ‘release’ and dissociation. We tend to find receiving easier than releasing, which is why the North Node has a better press than the South Node. Clearly, any planet whether in the natal horoscope or by transit, which aspects one Node must also form a complimentary aspect to the other.

There is a group of asteroids called the Centaurs. They have highly elliptical orbits and long orbital periods, which at aphelion can place a few as remotely distant from us as Pluto. The first one to be discovered of these was Chiron. The name is all-important. In mythology Chiron suffered long from a wound inflicted on him by an arrow from Hercules. Chiron is also a comet and from the earliest times comets were feared as harbingers of disaster. It is no surprise therefore to find in astrological terms that Chiron is seen as a significator of woundedness, initially-and hopefully later, of healing.

The North Node of Chiron is close to 29 degrees of Libra, so this point in a horoscope could reflect an association (North Node) with woundedness (Chiron) in a relationship (Libra).

The greatest crisis of my life occurred in 1983 when I suffered an agonising divorce. As my marriage fell apart transiting Saturn and transiting Pluto, which had been in my 7th house for some time, now crossed the North Node of Chiron and the above noted possibility became reality.

There are other less dramatic but nevertheless interesting indications of the importance of an asteroidal name in combination with the North Node.

My natal Sun is at 19 degrees of Aries but this is also the location of the North Node of the asteroid Bach. As a schoolboy I learned to play the piano and often had to practise the composition of a Johann Sebastian Bach. Later, in my healing work, I learned to use and still today prepare flower essence remedies as initially advocated by one Dr. Edward Bach. Today, I reside in Wales where occasionally someone in the local language will address me as ‘Bach’ meaning ‘small, or young one’.

So what significance does an asteroid have? Maybe more than you bargained for.

NOTE: Many computer programs routinely offer ephemeris data on Chiron, Ceres, Juno, Vesta and Pallas Athene – the most important of these minor planets. Their North Nodes are listed in ‘The Ultimate Asteroid Book’ by Dr.J.Lee Lehman, copyright 1988 and published by Whitford Press, West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Roy MacKinnon.