Inciting Destiny: Uranus conjunct North Node
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
In early January, I watched Uranus retrograde closer and closer to my North Node. I was hyped in anticipation, yet melancholy, because I knew the two would not align. Uranus was set to go direct before it would reach my North Node.
When a planet appears to be moving backwards in the sky, we call it a retrograde (and they appear to do so because the planets move around the sun, not earth!). Uranus’ orbit is 84 years, so it’s possible many people will never experience Uranus conjunct their natal North Node in their lifetime.
But for me, Uranus had already passed my North Node — three times—a first pass, a retrograde back over, and then a third pass. I simply wasn’t aware of it at the time.
Uranus is the planet of innovation, sparks of genius, freedom, breakthroughs. It was discovered during the Age of Enlightenment. The North Node represents destiny, fate, or one’s karmic path. When they align, I would expect to be gifted an idea from the ether on par with the invention of electricity. A light to where I’m meant to go.
I looked up the dates.
The first time Uranus was conjunct my North Node, I received an email from the animal shelter, confirming a dog I’d inquired about was available, and that I could schedule an interview. Two days later, I brought Bambi home. But there’s more to this story!
Two months earlier, I’d seen Bambi on Petfinder, emailed about her, and was told due to “enormous interest” in the dog, they were no longer taking applications. By some miracle (fate?!), she was back. The story I’m told is that she was adopted by someone else but didn’t get along with their other dog. (And I whisper lovingly to her, you and I were meant to be...)
My North Node is in the astrological sign of Taurus, which is themed on patience, sensual pleasure, food, leisure, and nature. Case in point: Bambi loves belly rubs, meal time, and long walks. In fact, when I would glimpse at her blissfully napping while I worked at my computer, I would wonder: why? Why am I not also napping?
I looked up the two other exact dates, and found an email to my writing group about all the career fears that delayed my dream of writing fiction, and on the third exact date, I booked a photographer for headshots because I was finished with my novel and wanted to celebrate the “new me” that had emerged.
As a fiction writer, I can’t help but see my act in bringing home Bambi as the inciting incident which propelled me into leaving my startup role to take on a more Taurean existence of daydreaming and creating, writing a novel … about food scarcity and characters who face imposter syndrome and survivor’s guilt as they resist their own destiny. Nope, I couldn’t have written a more “Uranus conjunct North Node in Taurus” novel if I had tried.
While Uranus is done with my North Node, i.e. the position that the North Node was the day I was born—Uranus continues to move through the sign of Taurus until 2026, bringing up heavy themes around the environment and currency. The transiting North Node (i.e. where it currently is, so affecting everyone) moved into Taurus on January 18, 2022. Transiting Uranus will meet the transiting North Node this summer.
Thus, the experience I had on a personal level is on track to play out for the greater collective, globally. Shall we all adopt a dog? I say yes!
If my learnings can be of any prediction, I see the theme as finding comfort outside your comfort zone. Allow yourself to rest, to enjoy what you eat, to stop doing the frenzied “flapping” type of work that feels busy but moves nothing forward. It can feel like stepping into thin air, to rest. But when you plant a seed, you just have to wait and trust.
