Published 4 Jul 2011 • Updated 4 Jul 2011
Tonight I was,once again, reading a manuscript of Vetius Valens, when I noticed something he wrote about the Nodes.Vetius Valens,was a jewish astrologer ,who walked across the desert, from Egypt in roughly 400 B.C into Greece.He wrote in a riddling style to throw off readers who would use his knowledge for ill.His knowledge is so powerful that in the hands of the wrong people this could be a problem.
Valens explains that the astrologer should look at the North Node in a natal chart,whatever it squares becomes unfortunate and the planet that rules the zodiacal sign it is placed in cannot accomplish much.
This idea flies in the face of the seventeenth century astrologer,William Lilly and others who view the North Node,Rahu,as a benific placement:a point in the chart from which benefits will accrue,but does not surprise those of us who also know Vedic Astrology.Rahu,the North Node,described poetically as a transparent blue umbrella,in Vedic poetic language is a powerful,but not particularly sweet placement.
Rahu,in Vedic symbolic parlance is associated with poisoning,foreign matters,suffering,powerful energy,renegade behavior,the sending of energy,magic and weirdness of all kinds.
I love to put the disperate ideas from such traditional astrologies together,they form a symphony of marvelous knowledge,without cancelling each other out.