When Brilliance Must Be Hidden

The 36th hexagram of the I-Ching system of divination has several names — the Dimming of the Light, When Brilliance Is Hidden, the Wounding of the Bright — you get the point. It’s an appropriate symbol to draw from given the current astrological weather.

In addition to the eclipses in Scorpio and Taurus (which was the last full lunar eclipse until 2025), the Sun (the Divine spark we carry into this life to shine and share), Mercury (the intellect that serves as a messenger between our inner and outer realities), and Venus (the resources we need to transcend our perception beyond survival) have all had to run the gauntlet of the South Node in the last couple of weeks.

The South Node & Liberation

The South Lunar Node (aka “Ketu” in the jyotish system) is symbolically representative of the karmas (results of previous life’s actions) and wisdom (skills and experiences) accumulated after multiple lifetimes — or, in the beginning part of this lifetime, if you don’t subscribe to incarnation as a system). In session, many of you have heard me say that the South Node represents your “adventure prep and survival training” that you’ve drilled until it’s instinctive and enables you to handle and navigate the experiences craved by the North Node in the terra incognita of this lifetime.

It is thought to “spiritualize”, “disappear/make unavailable”, (or by contrast) “discharge/manifest” whatever it touches — in the natal chart or by transit. Both Western and Vedic astrologers tend to regard it as a malefic — an influence that is experienced as difficulty and disruption. However, in the jyotish/vedic system, it’s through embracing the truths and “realities” of the South Node that we achieve moksha (freedom from samsara — the karmic cycle of death and rebirth) not the desires and illusions of the North Node that draw us into the maya (“illusion”) of embodied existence.

The Axis of Incarnation

Without writing a whole primer on Hindu and Buddhist thought on this subject (because I certainly would count myself as qualified to do so), it is important to interject here that the North and South Nodes exist as an axis and it can be said that life is a journey of integrating the two. One of the best ways to learn is via the “play” of the North Node — trying on different identities, experiencing the dualities of embodiment and fluctuation of emotions. Immersing ourselves in this “illusion” — like engrossing ourselves fully in playing a game or sport we begin to learn what never changes.

Our given circumstances, resources, ability, and skills to play are determined by the South Node — which means wholly leaning into them are we able to play — freed by imposter syndrome.

It’s when we get caught up in the game of the North Node without mastery of the South Node that we can be plagued by feeling unworthy, inauthentic, insecure — like the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz waiting for someone to pull back the curtain and discover that he isn’t some all powerful being but simply a man pulling levers and working smoke and mirrors.

That insecurity can accumulate — triggered by influences in and to the natal chart — and result in the traumatic (yet liberating) process of ego death — a journey of “self undoing” that leads to “Self Realization”.

That’s when the South Node often kicks in. In my own experience, the South Node makes things VERY REAL so you can close the affected chapters in your life out; and, in doing so, develop the wisdom and understanding needed to see past the illusion to the truth — of your Self (vs. your self) and of a wholistic reality.

Sometimes this happens in very welcome ways (e.g., the IRL manifestation of project one has poured one’s blood, sweat and tears into that then allows one to “level up”, giving birth to a child that ends one understanding of individual identity). Other times, it’s through shock, loss, and heartbreak that Ketu “frees” us from the past (e.g., the end of a relationship, losing a job or money).

Either way, there is an experience of “the darkening of the light”.

The Darkening of the Light

Since the nodes shifted into Taurus and Scorpio at the beginning of 2022, wherever these two signs sit in your chart, there has been a driving obsession with establishing stability, a binary of understanding (truth vs. lies, dependability vs. flakiness), finding fertile ground, living in the present in a very embodied way, sensuality, resource security, “realness”, immutable order, mastery of the external — that’s the North Node in Taurus.

BUT to get to that Shangri La of a full larder, a completely transparent and committed relationship, stable and abundant cash flow, solid ground under your feet, there’s that pesky South Node in Scorpio to deal with. Wherever Scorpio sits in your chart as been typified by encountering and grappling with uncertainty, life and death, insecurity, trying to hold on but having to purge, picking one’s way through the complications of nuance that refuses to coalesce into something easily categorized, accepting that something dear must end in order for new beginnings to germinate, mastery of the internal.

The South Node in Scorpio has been MANIFESTING these REALITIES so that we exercise our skills of self mastery, grasp of power dynamics, and, most importantly, recognizing and integrating our vulnerabilities in order to ACCESS the dreams of the North Node in Taurus.

In the last several weeks, this has truly played out as described in the the I-Ching’s Hexagram #36 — which ultimately advises that, when life is a shit storm, to turn our focus inward and meet ourselves where we are — not throwing our energy out into the world towards where we want to be. While often fate makes it impossible to avoid getting swept up into the pull of current events, we can pull our focus inward to that which remains constant despite the arrow of time’s forward progress.

With the Sun, Venus, and Mercury having passed through the South Node, our understanding of these planets has had to confront our previous use of these energies by completely discharging them, emptying their tanks totally so that there isn’t anything left — freeing us from being beholden to the desires, insecurities, expectations that had been attached to our — understanding of life purpose (Sun), our values (Venus), how we connect our inner world with external reality (Mercury).

This process has turned us into ourselves for the Winter, when the light naturally darkens, tasking us with the challenge to use what we’ve learned about change and yielding to establish solid, reality based foundations wherever Taurus is in our charts.

One of the primary reasons the Earth is the only planet in the solar system capable of sustaining life is because of the churning of its molten core. This churning generates the magnetic field around our planet that shields it from cosmic radiation. Once that core solidifies, this will become a truly a planet inimical to life as we define it. This is the image to guide these times.