Nodes, Wobbles, Eclipses and Jean Harlow

- By e~collage

The Moon’s Nodes are retrograde more often than they are direct, pulling on the subconscious life and trying to integrate them with current life situations. When the nodes are direct, there is a “karmic, straight-path forward manifestation” Most software allows you to choose either Mean or True nodes the difference is Mean Nodes are always retrograde and are averaged out to ignore wild perturbations, while True nodes are just true just twice a month, when the moon crosses the ecliptic, and demonstrate the relationship between the Moon, the Earth and the Sun.

Carl Payne Tobey and the Wobble

Astrologer Carl Payne Tobey (1902-1980) discovered in a vast number of major disasters when the Sun and Moon are square the Moon’s Nodes.

Tobey wrote that just using the “conjunction” was a mistake, that the real key was T-Square against the nodal axis to the Sun (the two nodes will always be in opposition — the nodal axis — so it their square that makes the difference). He called this a “Moon Wobble,” because the Moon is “wobbling” in its path by declination. Tobey wrote we experience a significant likelihood of massive environmental damage with loss of life and property when the Sun forms an aspect to the nodes of 0°, 90°, or 180°; he also increased the nodal orb to five degrees from the traditional 1.

During the Wobble, the Sun creates an energy similar to that associated with the eclipses or the new or full moon. While the Dragon’s Head has a favorable astrological impression, a melding of Venus and Jupiter, the Dragon’s Tail is malefic, blending Mars, Saturn & Uranus that undermine our best intentions, and encourage us to revert to karmic destructive or separative patterns.

Nodal Degrees

Tobey called the degree where the North Node is found was “Karmic”. As shown below in the 1930s actress Jean Harlow, she has a North Node at 11 Taurus 35 Taurus. According to Tobey, the twelfth degree of every sign is the nodal degree — and he would look for aspects to it. Thus for Jean her NN in the eight house is conjunct Saturn and sextile her midheaven.

The South Node, opposite is an empathetic point in the horoscope, and not given the same amount of weight as its boreal brethren. Tobey wrote that when the Nodal Degree is activated by either a progression or transit, significant karmic events can be expected. To illustrate this, we will use Miss Harlow’s map as it fits the pattern almost perfectly.

Nodal Returns

The Moon’s nodes move back by transit to their birth position once every 18.6 years. This means that in our 19th year, we have a Nodal Return and 37th, 55 ^1/2, 74^th and 93^rd birthdays.

As the Nodes are an axis, halving this period gives the Nodal Opposition, the Counter-Nodal Return, when the transiting North Node is with the natal South Node and vice versa. So our 9^thbirthday often symbolizes the end of childhood, and out 18 ½ a graduation from high school.

The 28^th birthday is the turn to Saturnine adulthood (or for Jean Harlow when genetics and her unfortunate habit of dyeing her hair with peroxide took its toll, read more at Slate about that). The 37^th – 55^th is when we are established in our career and at our peak earning years. By our 66^th year, we traditionally retire and have some leeway in our life, when about at 9 years later at 74.5 illnesses, deaths or moving to a retirement home issues crop up.

The transiting nodal axis is the effect that others have on activating our chart — other people will play an important role in current situations. The difference is when a transiting planet is activating natal nodes, the person will apply the energies ascribed to the planet, but when the transiting nodes affect a natal planet an outside influence triggers them.

Jean Harlow

In Miss Harlow’s chart, she has a North Node (NN) in the Eighth House conjunct Saturn. The Eighth house is always the historic home of Scorpio and through its ruler Mars, sex appeal. But it is also a house of legacies because Mars is associated with the Grim Reaper who cuts one down in life.

Here, Harlow has a NN suggests her strong sex appeal with Plutonian white hair and curvy figure that Mars would love (Pluto and Mars are the Lords of Scorpio) but as the NN is aligned with Venus and Jupiter, women instead of being jealous would agree! Yes, she is a blonde bombshell! She’s gorgeous! They would exclaim and rush to the beauty parlor to emulate her.

Capricorn hugging that NN would suggest at some point she would have to pay the piper for that allure, particularly as it is sextile Neptune, who never forgets an obligation for what the heavens so generously bestowed, but that always seems so far away particularly when one is young and pretty.

Harlow obit. Png — The “Acute” Sunburn In The New York Times Obit Was Actually Jaundice.

Speeding ahead to June 6 1937 (Jean died on the 7th) we see the North Node is in the same place as is Saturn and between them lovely Venus opposed by Jupiter at 14 Scorpio, the Ruler of the Eighth House suggesting an overload to her genio-urinary system. Oddly enough, she died just a short time after Pluto was discovered.

Jupiter square her progressed Mars at 13 Aquarius, the other Ruler of Scorpio, is in the Fifth House of creativity. It is also Square her progressed NN suggesting a total attack on her internal system from an external agent — this killed her. Her Midheaven at 06 Cancer is sextile to the NN, in this case is not a good thing, because it is abetting the whole process of a kidney failure (with friends like these!) The only good thing about this is that she was probably unconscious suggesting talking was difficult, so we assume she was in a coma at that point.

The fateful “Nodal Degree” is at 12 Taurus, a symbol of “Window Shoppers” a symbol of human imagination in the sphere of self-awareness. Its keyword is visualization and represents positively the potentials of human achievement but negatively, the realization that all desirable things (in this case life) are beyond one’s reach.

RIP.

Footnotes

Having viewed about 1000 charts now, I have not found that this Nodal agreement in natal charts works as well as it did for Miss Harlow.
Miss Jean Harlow is #433 in the Jones 1000. Dr. Jones at 7:30 PM instead of our 7:40.
Download Miss Jean Harlow dies here.
Mr. Carl Payne Tobey’s lessons can be read here. He wrote lots of magazine articles on his work, many of which were published in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine.
The obit and memoriam clips are from the New York Times newspaper, Times Square, New York the June 8th, 1937 edition.