FOURTH HOUSE NORTH NODE / TENTH HOUSE SOUTH NODE

[from the book, "Karmic Astrology: The Moon's Nodes & Reincarnation" by Martin Schulman]


You must learn to overcome the karmic feeling that you are the vital center of all situations around you.

You come into the current life with subconscious memories of a past sense of dignity, which leads you to believe that at least certain areas of life experiences are beneath you.

Your prior incarnations have put you in the position of being captain of your own ship, if not the commander of others. As a result, you're used to assuming an authoritative position whenever the weaknesses of others trigger your powerful need to take charge.

You enjoy the role of protector and go to extremes in filling your life with those whose very weaknesses put them under your dominion. By doing so, you're constantly testing your own power to stand tall.

This is the loneliest position for, here, you are so concerned with your individual mission that you never allow others to see into your real self uderneath. What you show is a facade or the uniform of the role you feel obliged to play. In the current life, you go through experiences which teach you to come down off your skyscraper and make sure of the foundation underneath. It is within the area of your most highly intimate relationships within your family that the stage is set for your lifelong battle in an attempt to gain control of your own roots.

Many with these Nodes have one unusually demanding parent whose expectations encourage them to believe that they are truly destined to acheive a position of sitting on top of the world. As a result, they are discontent with whatever situation they're in, for it always falls short of what they intended to do.

The karmic lesson here is that, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." You must overcome your readiness to forsake what you have for the possibility of attaining what you don't have.

So unwilling are you to see yourself in the backseat position that when circumstances force you to do so, you may even contemplate suicide in extreme cases; for you firmly believe that without acheiving some great destiny, life is utterly worthless.

This incarnation brings you through the experience of facing the conflict between a career for yourself and the demands of your family. You must learn maturity; for with all your projected strength. power and dignity, you are nearly a cripple when it comes to solving your own emotional problems. You must examine your roots and after pulling your head out of the clouds of the past, build a practical foundation for your future.

Eventually, you learn that your organizing for others is merely a distraction from putting your own life in order.

The relationship established with parents early in life is more important in these Nodes than in any other position of the zodiac. Here, you will spend much of your life energy attempting to be totally free and independent of your parents, yet always conscious of how much you depend on them. Nevertheless, the reaction patterns to life continue to show a definite parental defiance, masking a strong need for parental love.

Your soul is at a point in Karma where you feel unappreciated for all your efforts. Your past incarnation residue is based on acheivement for the sake of recognition and appreciation. Now, achievement is to be its own reward. Your soul must stop trying to gain an audience for your deeds, realizing that the audience will always be there if the deeds are great enough. It is in this process of seeking an audience through which you tend to lose yourself. You must literally transform your 4th house into a new birth of emotional attitudes, learning the lessons that when a person stands on their tiptoes they're unsteady.

The lfe of the person standing on his tiptoes is like the beautiful orchid: a splendid sight to behold when raised and nourished under the most delicately controlled environmental conditions, but once the orchid is prepared for display, it is snipped from its roots, ensuring wilting and certain death after a short time. This individual is faced with the choice of being the overlooked orchid growing in a garden of thousands or sacrificing their own happiness to be the beautiful flower on someone's lapel. As soon as you overcome your past life need for display, you can start to grow to the maturity you're so desperately seeking.

The sign which contains the South Node indicated the ways through which you still overemphasize your importance. The sign which contains the North Node shows how you can grow to become, in substance, so emotionally fulfilled that you no longer have to equate your happiness with your soul memory of past life personal esteem.