I’ve been seeing a lot of commentary on this event, specifically described as bringing a fated meeting, love, or benefit into the life. In my view this isn’t quite accurate. Can it bring that? It’s possible, of course; but the North Node, a point of extremity in the Moon’s cycle, I interpret in the natal chart as indicating our ultimate life direction–not an end point or goal, but a heading, like finding a region on a map (the sign) and moving toward it throughout our time here. In a transiting situation, like now, this brings, in matters of the natal House where it falls, something Venusian related to aspects of our Path/ current life direction. These may touch on issues around our relationship to the energies of the sign where it occurs and/ or our relationship to Archetypal Venus energies: Love, partnership, the Arts, social interactions, assets/ income, or those natal Venus energies found by House location, House rulerships, and/ or Venus’ sign in the natal chart. We have to customize our assessment of a transiting aspect’s impact on the individual–it takes some parsing, especially if the aspect makes contact with other natal placements–and typically the meaning of this will fit well into some scenario we’re currently part of. Naturally, the conclusions we reach, and the intensity or lack of it we experience, will be different for each of us.

What would I read as bringing a fated meeting, inevitable reward, the creation of something (in the Arts, particularly) that defines who we are? That would be transiting Venus meeting our natal Vertex. The Vertex is a point of intersection, where the ecliptic and the prime vertical meet; it’s opposite point is the anti-Vertex, and like the Nodes and the Sun-Earth axis, Vertex and anti-Vertex are always located exactly opposite each other in the flat chart. Anything touching the Vertex, by natal aspect or transiting contact, takes on a definite, life shaping aura. It marks points of crucial decision making, encounters that mark direction altering milestones or experiences, and even if the astrological event seems to occur without causing a ripple, it can often mark a time we will look back on as important because we reached a particular conclusion or make one of those passive, anti-choices that end up determining so much of our way forward. This, too, must be customized, with focus on our relationship to the transiting energy natally, and to what it rules or contacts.

Some may feel that the North Node and the Vertex are essentially the same thing, but I would argue that the North Node is about our choices, and the way the Universe will nudge us in a particular direction, one we have a Soul deep need to explore and experience; the North Node is our True North, a compass point we inevitably orient ourselves to. On the other hand, the Vertex strikes me as involving the orchestration of a great many external elements; those encounters or events or even acts of creation (or, more likely, their recognition) largely happen to us, even when we are catalyst or initiator. One is the Universe gently pulling us, the other is the active hand of the Universe reaching into our lives and shuffling the deck, putting a card that we must play in front of us, challenging us to see the import of the moment, and its potential consequences. We can only hope to recognize those moments, when they come.