to the challenge. But the Leo energy of that South Node can help you get started and get comfortable because Leo knows a lot ­- perhaps even too much - about getting attention and getting what it wants. Aquarian individuality in the part of the birth chart where the goal is to develop a strong sense of self that you assert in the world, combined with the pull of a karmic history of comfort with one's own specialness can certainly be a recipe for over-the-top overachievement: individuality pushed to the point of eccentricity and isolation; brilliance and inventiveness squandered on self-satisfying intellectual tours de force signifying nothing of real value; independence and a taste for freedom pushed to the limits of exile. Be careful. Once you get going, one of the big challenges could be that you're marching so much to your own drummer that no one else is in the parade.

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The comforts of partnership can also call loudly from your Seventh House South Node. When contending with the world's response to your unique spin on life starts to wear you down, it may become tempting to return there, especially if the partnership in the karmic past was a personal one with lots of Leo romance and sheer fun. But if you linger too long with the romantic sweet talk and hand-holding, the Universe may have to give you a wake-up call, most likely by sending along a partner who's expecting to be the center of your universe as well as their own.

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Now get out there and make a difference! Your way.

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HOUSE 2: Values 

Welcome to putting the world-class intellectual strengths of the Aquarian energy you're learning about to the task of identifying and acquiring exactly what you need in order to fee safe and secure. In this lifetime, using that left-brained objectivity and originality to assure that you have the independence and freedom to be yourself is part of the core curriculum. And, if leaving a better world behind than the one you found is high on your priority list, welcome to a lifetime where you can make that happen.

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We know that challenge is hard-wired into the North Node assignment, and this one is no exception. Grandstanding your brilliance for its own sake can become a real temptation, but succumbing to it would represent a definite retreat to low-end South Node in Leo attention-mongering behavior, so be careful. And in your Eighth House karmic past, there were probably deep, intense, turbulent relationships where you courted others' validation and approval and sought the security that they could provide by a childlike willingness to do virtually anything to be loved and taken care of, even if it came at the cost of your own precious freedom. Alternatively, you might have invoked Leo's noblesse oblige sense of entitlement to coerce everyone in your "realm" to take care of your needs and wants, including the fulfillment of self-indulgent whims that grew out of serious violation of the "when is enough, enough?" clause in the karmic contract. Either way, in this lifetime, letting someone else do the heavy lifting in the security department simply won't work.

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Let those brain cells fire away. It's for your highest soul growth, this time around.

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HOUSE 3: The Mind​

Wow, are you going to like it here! The brilliant intellect of the Aquarian energy you're learning about likes nothing better than to gobble up information and experience, the more eclectic and original the better. And Aquarian energy knows lots about group dynamics, so that's going to help you in the "spread the word" department.

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So far, so very, very good, but make no mistake - there are some very real challenges with this assignment. First of all, you're going to have to pace yourself when it comes to the rest of us, who may not be as quick on the uptake or have access to the same phenomenal amount of left-brained data storage that you do. This means you may have to cultivate a little more patience than your quick, lively intellect is comfortable with. And it may be hard for you to make room for information that doesn't comply with your own high standards of relevance and accuracy and importance: you're going to have to learn to remember that it may be just right for someone else.

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Then there's the matter of the strong Leo energy calling to you from your South Node in the Ninth House. This energy was very comfortable expecting others to follow the royal lead in all matters in the regal karmic past, including and especially frameworks of belief about the world and your special place in it. In extreme circumstances, dissention from the ranks might even have invoked an "Off with their heads!" Life was set up back then for you to believe that you knew it, all whether or not you did, and you bought in to the whole shebang. Why wouldn't you? We all know the story of the Emperor's new clothes.

 

That was then. This is now. It's an all-inclusive point of view that's needed. Leave the crown and the cape in the closet.

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HOUSE 4: Home​

Welcome to a lifetime of using the brilliant Aquarian energy you're learning about to connect and participate in family life; to discovering how, through experiences on the home front, you can create strong foundations and security that can be with you wherever you go. The good news is that Aquarius is very comfortable in group environments, and feels secure when it's part of something larger than itself, which is what family and clan is all about. The challenging news is that Aquarian energy is hugely individualistic and needs a lot of freedom to express that uniqueness, and so may bristle more than a bit in the closeness of conventional family life. Welcome to a lifetime of learning that you can be yourself and still not have to go it alone.

 

As you already surmise, this can be a pretty tricky bit of business, but paradox is not front page news on the North Node journey. How do you connect to the Fourth House of Home and all that it represents without detaching or objectifying too much, when detaching and objectifying is part of the Aquarian karmic assignment? How can you stay true to your own unique individuality when loyalty to the family ethos is a big part of the equation and there are strong rewards for being part of the clan?

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You can call on the warmth and generosity and loyalty that are part of your Leo South Node legacy to help you make the connections you came here to make. And the Tenth House placement of that node, with its history of success, and perhaps even prominence, in the outside world where people don't know your personally can help you feel comfortable when you need to break out of the mold and be yourself.

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Still, that South Node presents its own very real challenge. If juggling the demands of this lifetime's assignment gets too wearing, it could get awfully tempting to escape in a Tenth House kind of way, most likely by re-climbing the public stairway to the stars, a scenario that would be right up Leo's regal alley. Be careful: You might think you were climbing forward, but what you'd really be doing is sliding back.

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Be yourself. Connect with family. You can do it!

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HOUSE 5: Creativity​

Wow - brilliance and original thinking in the House of Creativity. Not a bad combination, I'd say. The Aquarian energy you're learning about likes nothing better than the freedom to claim its individuality, and its way of thinking outside the box can add real excitement and originality to this assignment. Get this journey right, and it won't matter to you if trees are puce and grass is vermilion, or whether or not the color stays inside of the lines, and the rest of us admiring your work will recognize its genius. Still, Aquarius is much more comfortable as one among many, and the Fifth House asks you to stand in the spotlight and shine. Its call to surrender to spontaneity and unedited creative self-expression can be unsettling for detached, objective Aquarian energy. Are you starting to get a feel for the complexity inherent in this assignment? You're right on the beam. Welcome to the paradoxical, exciting and phenomenally rewarding terrain of the karmic "switcheroo," the situation where the themes of this lifetime's assignment bear a striking resemblance to the experiences of the karmic past.

 

Your North Node sign of Aquarius is naturally associated with intellectual brilliance and an aptitude for understanding the dynamics of what makes groups tick, but it's staked in the stand-out-and-shine, creative, self-expressive Fifth House. And vice versa. Your playful, creative Leo South Node, which loves nothing more than to be the center of not only its own solar system, but everyone else's as well, is planted in the group-oriented I'm-only-one-among-many clubhouse of the Eleventh House. In this lifetime, it's going to be hard to know if you're moving forward to the North Node or back to the South. In fact, there could even be times when you literally won't know whether to join a group initiative to help earthquake victims on another continent or sign up for the starring role in the community theatre production of "Anthony and Cleopatra."

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Yes, this is certainly a challenging assignment, but it need not be daunting because you have everything it takes to reach the goal. Leo South Node experience can help you step forth into the spotlight when the Aquarian preference under performance pressure might be to step back, detach, and lose yourself in the audience. Your Eleventh House karmic history of knowing how to get accepted and belong can help you connect to this lifetime's audience. Missteps and detours and dead ends are part of the "switcheroo" deal, so go easy on yourself: You're learning a complicated lesson. Just keep the most positive qualities of your North Node sign and house in the forefront of your consciousness as much as you can. When you have the reversed sign and house situation, it's often an indication that you're working on an issue that takes more than a single lifetime to master.

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Just use your noggin. You'll figure it out.

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HOUSE 6: Service​

Step lively - this assignment speaks straight to the heart of the humanitarian Aquarian energy you're learning about. The team is waiting to get started and we need your contribution. We've got important work to do here in this part of the chart, work that can make a real difference to people who need our help. There's lots of room for that bright, thinking-out-of-the-box intellect that you're shining up in this lifetime as well, things like an innovative idea about a new group work process that cuts out duplicate effort and doubles efficiency; or a magic bullet, out-of-left-field approach to a chronic problem that no one has been able to solve up until now.

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Just don't forget that challenge is hard-wired into the karmic assignment, and it's beaming right at you from your South Node, over there in the hugely compassionate but hugely unconscious Twelfth House. It tells us that you've spent some karmic time strutting your Leo stuff out in the spotlight, and that you're at pretty high risk of unconsciously falling into those kinds of outworn patterns in this lifetime, if you're not careful. There's no doubt that the legacy of Leo's management and leadership skills can be very useful in the House of Service, helping to keep us going in the right direction. But it can be all too easy for that adorable Leo inner child to act up at what's guaranteed to be just the wrong time, like staging a big "pout" when you don't get picked to be a team leader. You might even take a turn in a Southerly direction and regally walk off the job if you don't get the recognition or respect you feel you're entitled to. You'll need to pay conscious attention to all this, of course. It's what the journey is all about, of course.

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"Hail, Hail the gang's all here." Let's get going. Leave the crown in the closet.

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HOUSE 7: Partnership​

Welcome to a lifetime of exploring the uniqueness, individuality and smarts of the Aquarian energy you're learning about through the give-and-take balancing act of committed partnership. Are you starting to think that this might be a pretty tricky bit of business? You're right. Aquarian energy has a huge need for freedom and is most comfortable either on its own, or relating as one-among-many, and the Seventh House very definitely asks you to engage in the intimacy of one-to-one. How do you connect without detaching or objectifying too much when detaching and objectifying is part of the karmic assignment? Or without retreating to the safety in the numbers of a group? How can you stay true to your own unique individuality when compromise is fundamental to successful partnership? Welcome to a North Node journey rich in paradox.

 

The good news is that in the karmic past, you learned to integrate the warmth, generosity, and loyalty of your First House Leo South Node energy into the very definition of who you are. This legacy can be very helpful in this lifetime as you seek to connect to another person. (And Leo knows a lot about romance, if the relationship is a personal one.) Thanks to Leo's strong sense of self, you're not likely to easily fall prey to one of the biggest obstacles to successful partnership: losing yourself in the relationship. However, as you know, Leo energy loves the limelight, and the First House environment is all about "Me! Me! Me!", so there is a definite possibility that you could err on the side of expecting to be the dominant influence in the partnership if you allow yourself to fall back to the low-end side of the South Node. Look for the signals. If things get out of balance on the relationship see-saw, the Universe will be happy to deliver a message that you've wandered off-course, most likely by sending you attention-mongers and "drama queens" of either gender for you to relate to. If this happens, it's time to regroup before you can continue on the journey North. Are they trying to tell you something about yourself?

 

Be yourself. Be a partner. You can do it.

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HOUSE 8: Transformation​

Welcome to using the world-class intellectual strengths of the Aquarian energy you're learning about to move through the deep, mysterious waters of the Eighth House in order to claim the treasure of your own power. Welcome to using that power to heal and transform yourself and others, and to make a difference in the world. Aquarius is fascinated with puzzles and mysteries and anything off the beaten track, and the Eighth House is full of these things, so there's a lot of good bait to hook you right in to this assignment. But you'll be traveling along at least part of the journey with a partner, and bonding with and trusting another person by sharing what you know and who you are is definitely not comfortable terrain for freedom-loving, independent Aquarian energy. It must be said, however, that if the relationship turns out to be a personal one, you'll be definitely on board in the excitement, romance, and passion departments.

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The generosity, warmth, and romance of your South Node Leo energy can be terrific assets when it comes to making a personal connection in this lifetime. But we look to the South Node through a darkened lens, which colors that Leo energy with a self-referential point of view and a huge taste for the spotlight, characteristics that could make the true sharing and give-and-take that are essential qualities for creating and sustaining an Eighth House kind of relationship a monumental challenge. Add the "do it yourself" spin of the Second House South Node experience, and the challenge multiplies. What's more, the Second House is a very material, earthy piece of astrological real estate, a hand-in-glove fit for Leo's love of the "good life lived large," so succumbing to "Midas Touch" temptations is a real possibility. You're certainly going to need self-awareness and self-discipline, or you could miss this lifetime's opportunities for growth and contribution.

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Remember the phoenix.

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HOUSE 9: Expanding Horizons

Wow - intellectual brilliance and original thinking in the house of the "higher mind." Definite potential for a great match, I'd say. The Aquarian energy you're learning about likes nothing better than to think outside the box, which is just the approach needed for the Ninth House challenge of widening your perspective and connecting up huge quantities of fascinating dots of information. And Aquarius knows lots about group dynamics, so that's going to help you when it's time to share your views and conclusions and experiences with the rest of us.

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So far, so good. In fact, it might even be starting to feel like you've got the winning ticket in the cosmic job description lottery, and that could be. Still, there are some very real challenges, make no mistake about it. First of all, you're going to have to work at keeping your mental feet on the ground. Far-ranging theoretical wizardry that can't link into the mindset of those here on this earth-bound planet might be exciting to you, but it won't get you the A+ you're looking for on this assignment. (And we know how much Aquarius loves that A+, don't we?) You're going to have to cultivate some patience and acceptance for those of us that operate at a slower intellectual pace than you do - and we are an army! Indulging yourself with Aquarian intellectual elitism will join up quickly with the Ninth House "pomposity propensity" and you could find yourself preaching to an empty choir loft despite all your growing knowledge about group dynamics.

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And the regal Leo energy beaming toward you from the South Node isn't going to help much at all in the "keeping it humble" department. Leo just loves standing out from the crowd in the comings and goings of the Third House day-to-day world, and is more than content to stay within the warm and familiar spotlight of the known. This can put a huge drag on efforts to widen your perspective and expand your horizons in this lifetime.

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Just use your noggin. It's for your highest soul growth this time around.

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HOUSE 10: Authority​

Welcome to a lifetime of using the originality and brilliance of the Aquarian energy you're learning about to assume a position of leadership and authority and make a contribution to the larger world you live in. Aquarius' ease in group situations and its effectiveness when part of something larger than itself are a natural fit with this assignment. Perhaps your role will be to head up some humanitarian effort in a war-torn land, or to take the lead in the government that is spearheading that effort. Maybe you'll be a world-famous rock star fronting and organizing a major "Aid" concert, or be the person in charge of a small-town program to personally greet soldiers returning from the war front as they reenter the country. The size of the pond isn't what matters. What matters is that you'll be a pretty big fish in it, making a positive difference in its ecology.

 

Now, challenge is hard-wired into the North Node job description, and this assignment is no exception. A look over to your South Node can give us some perspective. The good news is that the Leo energy there provides a legacy of leadership skills and of being at ease in the spotlight, and this can certainly help you step forward onto the public stage of this lifetime's assignment. And with that South Node in the Fourth House of Home, you've got a support system and refueling station when you need a respite from the pressure and demands of work out in the larger world. But it all adds up to a history of having been some sort of a star in the family solar system in the karmic past, and of having been very comfortable in that privileged status, so it won't be easy to leave that environment and resume the challenges of the journey North when the time comes. You'll have to be strong in your resolve. But don't worry - someone will answer when you return again and knock at the door.

 

The world needs to make a step in a positive direction and you're just the one for the job. Get out there and get going!

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HOUSE 11: Goals & Groups

A double "Welcome Home" to you, dear voyager. Wow! You're learning about friendship and alliances and group participation, and that's exactly what this part of the birth chart represents. You're exploring how to leave the world a better place for having spent this lifetime here, and that's exactly the focus of the work of this piece of astrological real estate. You're figuring out how to belong without either abdicating too much of your individuality, or pulling back and detaching too much from the group you want to be part of, and the group here is figuring out how much they're willing to stretch to accommodate your membership. Yes, the North Node assignment is sounding loud and clear.

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But challenge is always hard-wired into the work, and for you with the doubled-up opportunity, the other side of the coin is double-thick as well. Did you catch a glimpse of that merry old soul with the lampshade smashed jauntily on his crown back there in the Fifth House where your Leo South Node is staked? Sure, the audience is cheering and clapping wildly, including that lovely lady standing just barely outside the spotlight, but let's just say that the excesses of Fifth House pleasures and privileges in the karmic past doubled up the likelihood of a serious flirtation with the "Emperor's new clothes" syndrome, which can lash you tightly to your South Node if you're not careful.

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Hail, hail the gang's all here. Let's get going! Leave the cloak and crown in the closet.

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HOUSE 12: Spirit

Well, well, well: the humanitarian knocks at the door of the house where compassion lives. What a combo! There's no question that this is a very good energetic fit from some important perspectives. The Twelfth House's sensitive envionment can soften and personalize Aquarius' brilliant ideas and grand scale, though somewhat impersonal, approach to making the world a better place. And Aquarius can provide objectivity if the Twelfth House's waters impede progress by becoming either too calm and nebulous, or too stirred up with emotional turmoil. Yes, there's a lot of reciprocity in this combination. Of course, the waters here are deep and peaceful and given to quiet and solitary pursuits, the perfect environment to make connection to ones inner self and to Spirit. But Aquarian energy is much more comfortable having a bunch of buddies along on any expedition, so adjustment will be needed. And it won't be easy for that brilliant Aquarian energy to suspend total reliance on its left-brained logical approach to life and surrender to intuition and feeling, which are the guidance systems of choice in this place where softened boundaries, not pin-point clarity, infuse the environment.

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Now let's look at your South Node in the Sixth House. With Leo energy there, you probably got lots of attention and were probably always a leader as you went about the business of helping others live better lives. But it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Leo wasn't all that comfortable giving and not getting service, and probably acted out more than a little in that karmic past. That acting out will make a loud noise to get your attention and pull you back to the South Node in this lifetime if you're not careful.

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Left brain or right? Clarity or sensitivity? Alone or among many? You'll work it out.