What you need to know about the lunar nodes entering Aries and Libra

Collage of two Aries rams on a Libra scale

When: July 17th, 2023 – January 11th, 2025

What: The lunar nodes pass through Aries and Libra

Takeaway: The nodes of the Moon (aka the places where eclipses happen) are about to get a complete makeover. The North Node will enter Aries, where the thrill to accomplish, achieve, and lead rush to the forefront. And the South Node will enter Libra, where respectability politics and the need to please will be released. Pace yourself — for the next 18 months, we’ll be embarking on a totally new eclipse journey.

The lunar nodes are switching signs

On July 17th, the hungry North Node of the Moon enters Aries, while the releasing South Node of the Moon enters Libra. This switch in signs will usher in a time where self-focus is amplified and interpersonal harmony is decreased. It will become all the more important to see ourselves as leaders among leaders, each doing our part to acknowledge our agency and apply it to creating good for the whole.

When the lunar nodes change signs, we begin a new learning path in the areas of our natal chart connected with those signs. Wherever Aries and Libra are in your chart, those house themes will be your teachers for the next 18 months. The part of your chart that contains Aries will be a place of increase and hunger and the part of your chart that contains Libra will be a place of letting go and purifying. On a collective level, the North Node in Aries stimulates our bravery, boldness, and desire for excitement, while the South Node in Libra helps us release what is no longer ours to carry, especially within relationships and social justice issues.

What are the lunar nodes?

The lunar nodes are points in space calculated from the position of the Sun, Moon, and Earth. These points have historically been perceived as danger zones because when a New Moon or Full Moon occurs near the South or North Node, eclipses happen. For this same reason, many cultures have depicted the nodes of the Moon as a dragon chasing the light of our two luminaries. The North Node represents the head of the dragon, bringing increase, rapaciousness, and striving to wherever it is located in your natal chart and in the sky by transit. The South Node, or tail of the dragon, denotes a dwindling, a surrender, a sweeping away. It brings purification and release wherever it is in your natal chart and by transit in the current sky. 

Unlike the planets, the lunar nodes are mathematically calculated points that move in a generally retrograde direction. This makes them move backward through the Zodiac, which is why they are moving from Taurus and Scorpio into Aries and Libra. Since this is the typical direction of movement for the nodes, their retrograde motion does not have the same effects or meaning as planets in retrograde. While the lunar nodes appear to travel backward through the Zodiac, and will likely appear retrograde in your birth chart, their actual movements tend to wobble back and forth. On July 17th, they are wobbling back into the cardinal signs Aries and Libra.

Moving from fixed signs to cardinal signs

This switch in signs, from Taurus and Scorpio to Aries and Libra, is also a switch in modalities. There are three sign modalities: cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Taurus and Scorpio are both fixed signs, which stabilize the existing season,  and Aries and Libra are cardinal signs, so they initiate the new season. The nodes will journey into mutable signs, which release one season in preparation for the next, in 2025.  

The nodes’ transition into the cardinal signs of Aries and Libra means that we’ll experience a hunger to launch our individuality at the same time as we itch to purify any relational or people-pleasing patterns that have passed their best-by date. The lunar nodes are, by definition, extreme — they live on opposite ends of the zodiac — so It will be important for us to carve a middle path, checking our desires to go it alone.

The flickering of the lights we live by

Since the lunar nodes are part of what causes eclipses, most of the eclipses over the next 18 months will occur in Aries and Libra. At these times, the lights we live by become temporarily obscured. Because of this, when we relied on the Sun and the Moon for light, eclipses were viewed as especially ominous. Even today, eclipse seasons tend to be volatile periods. They bring about plot twists, unstable thoughts or emotions, and energy drains. Maintaining inner and outer balance during the windows between eclipses is difficult, so we must be extra aware of our hunger and desires before taking action during these times.

Note that in both lunar and solar eclipses, the Sun and the Moon do not need to be on the exact point of the lunar nodes — just close enough for their light to get partially blocked. That is why when the nodes are close to switching signs, we still experience eclipses in the signs the nodes are not yet in or that they have recently exited. The solar eclipse in Aries on April 19th, 2023, exemplified this, as the New Moon in Aries was close enough to the North Node in Taurus that it created a solar eclipse. That will happen again on October 28th, 2023, when the Taurus Full Moon will occur close enough to the North Node in Aries to form a lunar eclipse. This will be our final eclipse in Taurus, wrapping up the story that the lunar nodes in Taurus and Scorpio brought us. 

While the North Node is in Aries and the South Node is in Libra, we will experience eclipses on the following dates:

  • Solar eclipse in Libra on October 14th, 2023, at 10:55 am PT
  • Lunar eclipse in Taurus on October 28th, 2023, at 1:24 pm PT
  • Lunar eclipse in Libra on March 25th, 2024, at 12:00 am PT
  • Solar eclipse in Aries on April 8th, 2024, at 11:20 am PT
  • Lunar eclipse in Pisces on September 17th, 2024 at 7:34 pm PT
  • Solar eclipse in Libra on October 2nd, 2024, at 11:49 am PT

If you have the North Node in Aries and the South Node in Libra in your birth chart, this is your Nodal return

Is your natal North Node in Aries and South Node in Libra? Are you around 18, 36, 54, or 72 years old during this 18-month period? If so, you are in your nodal return. To find out where the lunar nodes are in your birth chart, check the Me tab in the CHANI app or pull up your chart on our online tool. Being in your nodal return means that you’re on a path to finding more equilibrium between your individual drives and your interpersonal relationships, clarifying what you’re most hungry for in this life and what needs to be set free. The lunar nodes return to their place in our natal chart every 18 years, making the ages above pivotal times for growth. For more on the nodal return, as well as other astrological milestones, check out our Astrological Timeline of Your Life post.

6 ways to work with the North Node in Aries and the South Node in Libra

    1. Discover what your insatiable hunger is trying to tell you. Instead of seeking instant gratification, investigate what your ambition is communicating about your deeper needs and how your needs impact others. Journaling, therapy, and meditation are all tools that can help you trace your desires to their deeper, more mysterious roots.
    2. Slow down. Let your calendar reflect a gentler pace. The nodes will be in Aries and Libra for 18 months, so you have ample time to examine intimacy, individuality, creativity, and the ways you express yourself. Eclipse seasons may feel like pressure cookers, but you can work through that urgency by focusing on what’s in front of you here and now. Question the urge to rush. Nine times out of ten, that urgency is avoidable or self-concocted.
    3. Pay attention to what is out of balance in your relationships or relationship patterns over the next 18 months. What needs to be released, reimagined, or redefined so that you’re not compromising your energy, boundaries, or wholeness? The same tools above — journaling, therapy, and/or meditation — can help you identify the balance between your needs and how you prefer to be in relationship with others.
    4. Listen to the Astrology of the Week Ahead podcast for the week of July 17th, 2023, as well as Your Reading in the “This Week” section of the CHANI app home page for a more in-depth look at how the lunar nodes switching signs will impact you.
    5. Learn how the lunar nodes are influencing your birth chart by checking the Transits tab in the CHANI app. You can also find out how your rising sign will be impacted by reading your Current Sky horoscope for the North Node in Aries and South Node in Libra on the home page.
    6. Explore the Guided Meditation, Journal Prompts, Altar Suggestions, and Ritual in the “This Week” section of the CHANI app home page and learn how the new story of the lunar nodes will be unfurling for you.

Looking for more intel? Read your daily horoscope:

Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra 

Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces

Then download the CHANI app on iOS or Android for additional horoscopes, meditations, affirmations, readings for the current Moon phase and sign, and more.