This is a question I am often asked: how should we interpret the lunar nodes or the Black moon transiting a particular house? A particular planet? Forming an inversion or a return to their birth positions ? Etc.
So here I will outline certain general principles for interpreting these transits, to help you understand what is unfolding karmically.
First of all, the present transits of the lunar nodes or the black moon weave our fundamental karmic unfoldment, they must always be related to what they symbolize in the birth chart.
I remind you here that I have covered, in dedicated articles, each of the Black Moon positions and the lunar node positions in the birth chart.
If, for example, one has a Black Moon in the first house or a North Node in the first house in the birth chart, then their various developments in current transits will shape how one can evolve one’s personal assertion, self-confidence, initiative, or defensive capacity. These different points may refer back to the birth position, though experienced differently in the moment.
It’s essential to clearly restate this: present-day karmic transits can only be understood in relative connection to what they already imply in the birth chart regarding fundamental karmic realization.
The transits of the lunar nodes and the black moon directly and simultaneously indicate, in the sky of the moment, how karmic realization must unfold during the period.
Continuing with my example of a black moon or north node in the first house in the birth chart, if the present transit of the black moon or the north node falls in the tenth house, this simply indicates that, schematically, one’s karmic realization of personal assertion must now pass through, or be reinforced within, the socio-professional sphere !
In absolute terms, it’s not much more complicated than that, and this principle can actually be applied to various planetary transits, which weave the present according to the planetary function they represent (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc.).
Karmic transits, however, have the particularity of needing to be understood within a long-term, even very long-term perspective, something that remains very much in development.
We cannot necessarily expect complete realizations or full sublimations in the present moment; rather, they are like small steps or successive leaps that bring us closer to our goals, to our incarnation path.
This is logical, since the symbolism of the north node itself indicates a fundamental developmental direction, something not easily achieved or mastered, but more of an axis toward which we strive over the course of a lifetime. It’s therefore not something that can be fully or easily reached in the present.
With karmic transits, we are not dealing with the same kind of objectifiable effects as with personal, social, or transpersonal planets, which often have clearer manifestations in the present. Here, things may remain on a more unconscious or compulsive level (a bit like Pluto transits).
If a lunar node or the black moon in transit touches a birth planet, then that planetary function enters, during this period, into the karmic realization being required in the present.
For example, if the South Node transits our natal Neptune, this may indicate that we must draw upon our already-acquired Neptunian foundations and translate them into something, focusing on them for a time.
Again, since karmic transits operate more on an unconscious or compulsive level, we should not expect every aspect they form to manifest clearly in the present. Their evolutionary work may remain internal or subjective.
It’s therefore important to rely on as many cross-checkings as possible to help interpret them, obviously with other Transits, but also with Secondary Progressions.
The interaction between these factors helps clarify the nature of the evolutionary processes underway, as well as their potential depths, manifestations, or sublimations.
Among these cross-references, there are generic karmic cycles that will naturally be more sensitive, and these involve their evolution in relation to their own birth positions: phases of squares, opposition or inversion, and return.
The black moon cycle lasts roughly 9 years, and the lunar node cycle is about double that (around 18 years) so we can divide these phases into four parts.
For example, an inversion of the lunar nodes marks a mid-cycle evaluation, an opportunity to refocus on one’s fundamental karmic path, to understand the birth chart, the nodes, and the black moon, and to either weave a new alignment with the north node’s realization or to sublimate fears linked to one’s Shadow.
This refocusing may depend on the full set of predictive cycles active at the present moment; thus, karmic transits cannot be isolated from the rest of the sky or over-interpreted on their own.
A return to the birth position signals a kind of reset, the need for a new impulse, a new beginning, a new dynamic regarding fundamental karmic realization of course.
See also my article: How karmic transits act in your daily life, which complements the points discussed here.
As well as my article on the different incarnation seeds, as there is inevitably a direct link to understand between them.