Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy and dated history, with sources. Documented traditions and folklore. Modern lunar astrology · symbolic, not predictive.

Planets and points · Intermediate

Lunar nodes

Also called nodes, nodes of the Moon, Rahu and Ketu

The two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic; eclipses happen near them.

The nodes move backwards around the zodiac once every 18.6 years. Astronomy uses them to predict eclipses. Modern Western astrologers often read the North Node as a direction of growth and the South Node as what comes easily or is familiar; in Indian astrology they are Rahu and Ketu.

The astronomy
Eclipses occur only when a new or full moon falls near a node.
  • Kind: Astronomy, Interpretation
  • Tradition: Shared across Western traditions
  • In this site’s birth chart: used

Related: North Node, South Node, True Node, Mean Node

Written for Cool Moon Facts in its own words. An astrology source documents what astrologers believe or practise; it does not establish that astrology works.

All terms · Your birth chart

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