What Does It Mean To Be Human?

 Pluto Square The Nodes

We have a very important transit slowly applying: Pluto square the Lunar Nodes. 

Pluto is now at 0° Aquarius, and the Lunar Nodes are at 3° Taurus and 3° Scorpio. 

Pluto will square the Nodes for the following months; the exact square will happen on July 23rd, 2023, when Pluto will be back in Capricorn at 29°, and the Lunar Nodes at 29° Aries and Libra. 

This is a potent transit we are already feeling, because Jupiter – currently at 2° Taurus, and approaching the North Node at 3° Taurus – is adding an extra oomph to an already intense transit. 

What to expect when Pluto squares the Lunar Nodes?

The Lunar Nodes play a special role in astrology. They are not actual planets or physical bodies like the Moon or the asteroids. They are mathematical points found at the intersection of the path of the Sun with the path of the Moon. 

The Nodes are basically derived from the Sun and the Moon – the most important astrological archetypes. 

The Sun and the Moon represent our core identity – Sun, our spiritual, Yang identity, 

The Moon, our physical, Yin identity. 

The Nodes work in the background, supporting the agenda of the Sun and the Moon. 

Think of the Lunar Nodes as a compass.

When we get lost, when we deviate from our physical – and spiritual – path, we use the compass to recalibrate. 

Our life is a windy road with ups and downs. 

The Nodes, just like a compass, will always show us the overall direction (the North Node will point towards the North, or the future, and the South Node towards the South, or the past). 

When we get lost, we use the Lunar Nodes to come back on track. Our life is a perpetual movement from the South to the North Node and back. 

The Lunar Nodes show up a lot in family members’ synastries. 

When we have a Lunar Nodes transit, we usually have an important family event. 

The Lunar Nodes suggest that we might be more tightly linked to our family members than we think we are. The Lunar Nodes are the invisible family ties; who we are (the Sun and the Moon) is also a reflection of the genetic imprint of our parents and ancestors. 

In our chart, 

the South Node points to behaviors, mental models and genetic memories we have inherited from our family. 

And the North Node (the opposite point), to our opportunities to adjust our karma and bring in new life, new opportunities, and new genetic code. 

What about Pluto?

Pluto is the planet of complete and total transformation. Pluto strips everything down to the barest basics. Pluto is the planet of Truth – Pluto will relentlessly dig to find the Ultimate Truth, no matter how deep it has to go into the underground. 

What happens when we have a Pluto aspect? 

The planet – or astrological archetype, like in the case of the Nodes – is stripped of superficial layers and reduced to its core, atomic function. If Pluto makes an aspect with Venus for example, Pluto reduces Venus to her core Venusian expression.

Pluto Square The Lunar Nodes Nodes – One Step Forward

Now that Pluto aspects the Lunar Nodes, Pluto will again reduce the North and the South Node to their basic compass function. 

Pluto squares the Nodes – this is a transit that evolutionary astrologers call a “skipped step”. 

Pluto is at the midpoint of the two Lunar Nodes, so it’s with one foot in the past, and the other in the future. Pluto acts like a bridge, like an evolutionary step forward.

Pluto square the Lunar Nodes’ mandate is to heal generational wounds, and re-write healthier, more constructive behavioral patterns.

The North Node in Taurus is concerned with the future. 

Who am I growing into? 

Who do I want to become? 

The South Node in Scorpio is our past. 

What’s in the baggage I carry? 

What do I really need, and what can I drop? 

What’s a structural part of my identity – and what is not? 

Pluto square the Lunar Nodes will help us understand the subtle ways our identity is shaped by our upbringing, by our family and our formative years. 

We believe we are 100% unique individuals, but genetically, at least, we are 50% our father, and 50% our mother. We are a unique gene combination, that’s true, but who we are is not entirely our choice. At least not the South Node part of our identity. 

Pluto square the Lunar Nodes will expose the limitations of behaviors and mental models (South Node), that have been pushed onto us, but that no longer serve us. 

Pluto square the Lunar Nodes will also expose those so-called ideals or goals (North Node) that are not necessarily an expression of who we truly are (easy to get confused when we grow up with top-down education and copy-paste Instagram role models). 

Pluto is now at 0° Aquarius – the very first degree of Aquarius. Aquarius is the sign of the collective. Aquarius is the water bearer – the most human sign of the zodiac. Pluto’s previous transits in Aquarius have coincided with the emergence of humanism, respectively democracy. 

Pluto Square The Lunar Nodes Nodes – What does it mean to be human? 

That’s a fair question for Pluto at 0° Aquarius. In our desire to spread Aquarius’ humanitarian spirit we may come up with various initiatives to make sure everyone is looked after. 

But when we help some people we automatically exclude others. 

How do we make our judgment calls? 

And how many of these judgment calls are based on our own Lunar Nodes conditioning? 

Perhaps you too have been judged based on who your parents are, or from what kind of family or culture you came from. People didn’t see Sarah, or Tom – but the “so and so’s child”. 

How many times have you judged others based on their upbringing? 

• What does it mean to be human? 
• To come from a certain cultural background? 
• To like certain music? 
• Have a particular fashion style? 
• Follow a particular spiritual or political movement?

Perhaps being human means none of this. 

Being human is what’s left when we are stripped of all these layers. 

Being human is not what makes us different from each other – but what makes us similar. 

What we all share in common. 

We all want to be seen for who we truly are – for our human essence. 

When we exclude – or paradoxically, when we try to include everyone, we move away from what really matters – our humanity.

When we enforce rules to protect our humanity, we go against the very essence of humanity and adulthood, treating people like children. 

I remember some research done in the insurance industry. 

Companies that asked for multiple data points, signaling that their customers are future delinquents – got more claims and frauds than companies that had more relaxed underwriting requirements and treated their customers with trust and respect. 

When we ask our friends, coworkers, neighbors, customers, or Facebook group members to “follow the rules”, “be kind” or “don’t spam”  guess what – they will unconsciously look for ways to bend the rules, to be unkind and to spam.

When we tell people to follow rules, we operate from the Capricorn-Cancer, parent-child axis. 

And when we’re the parent, the other party becomes the child.

Pluto In Aquarius – A New Paradigm

When instead we operate from the Aquarius-Leo axis, we act from our humanity-individuality axis.

We trust the individual because we know we’re all in this together (Aquarius), at the same time respecting their individual choices (Leo). 

With Pluto squaring the Nodes both from 0° Aquarius and from 29° Capricorn, we will learn some important lessons around what it means to be human, sovereignty and personal responsibility (0° Aquarius) vs. old lessons around power dynamics, victimhood, and parent-child behavioral models. 

Pluto will spend a few more months at 29° Capricorn – and then it will be back in Aquarius for good.

We still have time to tie loose ends and reflect on what we’ve learned from the 20-year Pluto in Capricorn era, and what we want from Pluto in the Aquarius era. 

And the Pluto square Lunar Nodes transit is an excellent opportunity to reframe past-due conditioning, and change our life for the better.

in, Astro Butterfly