In a lecture in Dornach, Switzerland, on April 16, 1920, Rudolf Steiner explained how the macrocosmic breathing process in the heavens is connected to the microcosmic breathing process in the human world and comes to expression through a rhythmic time cycle of 18.6 years. In human biography, we find this rhythmic cycle in the lunar nodes rhythm or moon nodes. According to Steiner, important things are happening with the human soul at these points in time. The nights that a person lives through at these points in time are the most important nights of a person’s life. There it is, where the macro cosmos completes its 18 breaths, completes one minute. And it is there where the human being, in a way, opens a window to a wholly different world.
What are these lunar nodes whose influence upon human lives is noticed again and again over a vast cycle of time?
The Astronomic Lunar Nodes
First, let us ask the astronomers and allow them to explain to us the movement of the heavenly bodies. We will assume the vantage point of earth. Seen geocentrically, the sun orbits the earth. We call the orbital path that it delineates thereby the ecliptic. The moon also orbits the earth. Vis-à-vis the sun’s path, the ecliptic, the moon’s orbital path is inclined about 5°. (Note: In astronomy, the ecliptic is the Sun's apparent path across the sky over the course of a year, while elliptic refers to an oval shape (an ellipse). Simply put, the ecliptic is a specific celestial path, whereas elliptic describes the shape of an orbit.)
What are these lunar nodes whose influence upon human lives is noticed again and again over a vast cycle of time?
The Astronomic Lunar Nodes
First, let us ask the astronomers and allow them to explain to us the movement of the heavenly bodies. We will assume the vantage point of earth. Seen geocentrically, the sun orbits the earth. We call the orbital path that it delineates thereby the ecliptic. The moon also orbits the earth. Vis-à-vis the sun’s path, the ecliptic, the moon’s orbital path is inclined about 5°. (Note: In astronomy, the ecliptic is the Sun's apparent path across the sky over the course of a year, while elliptic refers to an oval shape (an ellipse). Simply put, the ecliptic is a specific celestial path, whereas elliptic describes the shape of an orbit.)
The arrows show the direction of the moon’s orbit. The earth is to be thought of as in the center of the orbital paths
The points at which the orbital paths of the sun and the moon intersect are called lunar nodes. Because the moon completes an orbit around the earth in one month, in this period it intersects the sun’s orbital path twice, one time in a northerly direction called the north or ascending lunar node, and a half-month later in a southerly direction called the south or descending node. Within these monthly repetitions, the intersection point moves retrogressively through the ecliptic. After 18.6 years this intersection point has traversed the entire ecliptic (360°) and stands in practically the same place as it was 18.6 years earlier. In reference to human biography, it means that after 18 years, 7 months and 9 days, the ascending lunar node is again standing at the same place as it was at the time of a person’s birth.
Everyone can paint for themselves the picture of the dramatic consequences of our insisting on staying in the womb. So we decide to give up the protection and safety of the mother’s organism. During the difficult and painful physical birthing process, we pass through a door to the other side and our independent life begins. At first we take elementary steps: the first breath, intake of nutrition, and digestion. Also for the first time, the organism must adjust to changing temperatures. Suddenly, we are exposed to previously unknown and, at first, apparently threatening experiences.
The signature that we recognize in the lunar nodes at birth we will find again in all the later lunar nodes during our lifetime. For one, it is the decision to say goodbye to conditions that no longer offer us possibilities for our inner and outer maturing process. Often, this decision will first channel itself in unconscious levels of our being and will at first only express itself in that we feel uncomfortable, lonely, misunderstood, and constricted by conventions and rules. We feel insignificant and unimportant. We get into controversies with parents, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. A yearning grows within us to do everything differently and begin something totally new. Then, more or less consciously, old securities are given up in order to accommodate our inner growth.
Just like physical birth, these birthing processes also do not happen without labor, pain, and discomfiture. Injuries during these births cannot be ruled out. The birthing process can go quickly or slowly. It can be light or accompanied by dramatic events. Dr. Frank Nager, a cardiologist in Zürich, says in his book, Goethe der heilkundige Dichter (The Dramatic Birth of Goethe), “Who came into this world half-choked, dark-cyanotic, and appearing to be dead. After this very first, early brush with death, the first and fourth lunar nodes also brought the poet to the brink of death.”
As an exercise, do the following.
1. Create a drawing of the elliptic, orbital path of the moon around the earth
2. Determine your moon nodes by marking the year and month of your moon nodes. For example, say you are born on May 1, 1952, your first moon node (age 18.6 or 18 years, 7 months and 9 days) will be December 9, 1970, your second moon node (age 37 or 37 years, 2 months and 20 days) will be July 20, 1989, your third moon node (age 56 or 55 years, 10 months and 28 days) will be March 28, 2008, your fourth moon node (age 74 or 74 years and 5 months) will be October 1, 2026, and your fifth moon node (age 92 or 92 years, 1 month and 9 days) will be June 9, 2044 ...
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