Ramblings, Reflections and Ruminations of Daniel Giamario | Oct 29, 2024 |
Introduction
This October 10, I turned 76 and completed my fourth Nodal Return cycle. With this writing I will reflect on my life inquiry as well as share some new insights about the Nodal Return and Nodal Reversal initiatory processes. The Lunar Nodes are such foundational features of my life’s work and the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm™ / TOTAMS Astrology, that it seems timely to add to our understanding of these important life phases along the timeline of our lives.
Age 76 – The Fifth Cosmic Breath
One of my many influences has been a form of astrology known as Astrosophy, which originated out of the work of Rudolf Steiner, developed by Elizabeth Vreede and Willi Sucher. More recently, I have gone back to the writings on astrology of Steiner himself, in particular his thoughts in the early 1920s. I found his teachings on the Lunar Nodes to be revelatory and much in resonance with the views of the Turning of The Ages Mystery School.
The first breath at birth establishes the natal North Node / South Node axis. This is the first inbreath. Each Nodal return at intervals of 18-19 years is such an inbreath. Each Nodal Reversal, 9-10 years later, is the outbreath. Thus, at my fourth Nodal Return I have just taken in my fifth “Cosmic Breath”. Later in this article I have some new research to share about these Nodal Return and Nodal Reversal timeframes and will go deeper into the question of what the intent is of these most important timeframes of initiation along the archetypal timeline of our lives.
The Sun-Moon-Earth Relationship
The three primary relationships between Sun, Moon and Earth are all between 18-19 years in duration:
- The Saros cycle is 18.04 years. This is the cycle of eclipses, based on the syzygy of the Sun, Moon, and Lunar Nodes.
- The Lunar Node cycle is 18.6 years. This is the return of the zodiacal degrees of the Lunar Nodes to their natal position, marking a Nodal Return, or to their opposite positions, marking a Nodal Reversal.
- The Metonic cycle is 19 years. This is when at a Solar Return there is the recurrence of the original/natal angle of the Sun and Moon in the same signs. This pattern recurs as follows: Nodal Returns at ages 19, 38, 57, 76 and 95; Nodal Reversals at ages 8, 27, 46, 65 and 84. All forming a pattern of 19 years.
A fourth factor is the Lunar Standstill season – as we are in the midst of – that also beats to an 18-19 year pattern which will be considered later in this article.
It is the weaving together of the outlined major three cycles that forms the basis of the initiatory timeframes. New insights have emerged as to the dating of these timeframes. But before we get there, we need to take a good look at …
The Intent of Nodal Returns and Nodal Reversals
Nodal Returns and Nodal Reversals can both be considered as a time of “alignment or re-alignment with the original intent of an individual’s life purpose, relative to that person’s life phase. For example: At birth occurs the first “cosmic breath”, revealing the main themes. The first outbreath begins at age 8, followed by the second inbreath and re-alignment, beginning around age 18. These are times of receiving guidance from our higher intelligence, or as I like to call it, our future self reaching back to us to get our attention. There is, however, a significant difference between the two.
The Nodal Return has a jupiterian flavor. It is visionary and exploratory. It can be likened to entering into a “pregnant void” or a field of all possibilities. In Buddhism, this is known as the Tathagatagarbha, the eternal and immutable matrix of all reality, the womb of the absolute, the seeds of possibilities. Here, the navigation strategy is to throw everything up in the air without attachment and be wide open to all possibilities. As the timeframe winds down, what comes through can clearly indicate the way forward. The Nodal Return is like a New Moon relative to 18-19 years.
In contrast, the Nodal Reversal has a saturnine flavor. It requires greater objectivity. In apprehending insights about life purpose and a heightened sense of whether your life is on track or not, a realistic assessment is required. This would not be based on concepts of right/wrong, good/bad, and especially not of success/failure. Instead, what is required is an examination of the probability of alignment with life purpose if continuing on the same path. Often, course corrections are required. Not to re-aligning with life purpose at these times creates repercussions clearly felt from the subsequent cycles. An example is the first Saturn Return at age 29-30, following on the heels of the Nodal Reversal at 27-28. Whether the re-alignment happens or not determines whether the Saturn Return is a coming of age in your power or hitting the wall hard! The Nodal Reversal is like the Full Moon of a Cosmic Breath, with the possibility of expanded awareness, but also of being forced to see the shadows.
Determining the Initiatory Timeframes
For many decades I have created the initiatory timeframe of Nodal Returns and Nodal Reversals using the Metonic Cycle and the return of the Nodes to the original zodiacal degree (or the opposite) as the bookends of the timeframe. This has worked well. But honestly, I always felt that something was missing, and it could be better. As I now discovered, the eclipses and the Saros cycle are the missing pieces!
Over the years, I have done a considerable amount of work with eclipses. I even have directly experienced all four solar eclipses that crisscrossed the continental United States from 2012-2024. And though I have developed novel and useful ways to work with eclipses, I have never done much at all with prenatal eclipses. Not so anymore – in a recent conversation my friend and colleague Gemini Brett suggested the solution! He has done a considerable amount of research on prenatal eclipses. This upgrade now includes using all three 18-19 year patterns to frame the windows of initiation:
Prenatal Solar Eclipse: Note the Saros, eclipse degree, and eclipse path, as all can be relevant.
Birth: First Cosmic Breath establishing the original nodal degrees and Sun-Moon angle
The following is based on my birth date, Oct.10, 1948. When researching your own pattern – which I highly encourage! – it may vary slightly.
Age 7.7-9.4, First Nodal Reversal: about 20 months, from a Saros to the Metonic to the Nodal reversal degrees.
Age 17.6-19, First Nodal Return: about 17 months, from a Saros to the Nodal degrees to the Metonic
Age 25.7-27.9, Second Nodal Reversal: about 2 years 3 months, from a Saros to the Metonic to the Nodal reversal degrees.
Age 35.6-38, Second Nodal Return: about 2 years 5 months, from a Saros to the Nodal degrees to the Metonic.
Age 43.7-46.7, Third Nodal Reversal: about 3 years, from a Saros to a Metonic to the Nodal Reversal degrees.
Age 53.7-57, Third Nodal Return: about 3 years 4 months, from a Saros to the Nodal degrees to the Metonic.
Age 61.7-65.3, Fourth Nodal Reversal: about 3 and a half years, from a Saros to a Metonic to the Nodal Reversal degrees.
Age 71.7-76, Fourth Nodal Return: about 4 years 4 months, from a Saros to the Nodal degrees to the Metonic.
Age 79.7-84, Fifth Nodal Reversal: about 4 years 3 months, from a Saros to the Nodal Reversal degrees to the Metonic.
Age 89.7-95, Fifth Nodal Return: about 5 years 3 months, from a Saros to the Nodal degrees to the Metonic.
This is a work in progress. I have used the Saros of the prenatal Solar eclipse for the Saros pattern of the Nodal Return. I have used the prenatal eclipse of the age 8 Reversal for the Nodal Reversal Saros pattern. There may be other ideas about this. I have even thought of using the Saros of the prenatal Lunar eclipse for the Saros pattern for the Nodal Reversal timeframes. The timeframes would be approximately the same with either. I am open to other thoughts about this.
These enhancements to the timeline create a larger context for understanding the Middleworld life process. Only the four seasons of life within the archetypal lifespan of the human being has a higher context. The gear change points can be slightly expanded with this new framework and the archetypal lifespan may well be 95 – from the third Saturn Return to the fifth Nodal Return = six Cosmic Breaths!
The 0 Aries Point and the Lunar Standstill
As mentioned above, the cycle of Lunar Standstills, often known as the phenomenon of out-of-bounds Moons is also related to our topic. I have written and spoken of this quite a lot and won’t go into the whole story here. For a deeper dive, I suggest my Lunar Standstill seminars with Gemini Brett
Here we have yet another 18-19 year pattern, when an extreme Southern or Northern declination of the Moon journeys beyond 5 degrees of the ecliptic. The exact center point of a standstill season is when the North Node is 0Aries. This will happen January 11, 2025. Several years on either side of 0Aries witness extreme OOB Moons when near the Solstice degrees. An additional and fascinating 18-19 year pattern is created.
During the last 100 years the 0Aries points were: June 21 2006, December 2 1987, April 19 1969, July 26 1950, December 28 1931 and June 6 1913. I see these times as pivotal turning points, even representing timeline splits for global humanity.
The Turning of The Ages Mystery School perceives the timeframe of a Great Turning of The Ages as being 1962-2034. The current lunar standstill is the fourth and last standstill season during The Great Turning.
The 18-19 year patterns of the relationships between Sun, Moon and Earth have their most magical possibilities when natural and human-made structures (hierophanies) connect with – as above, so below – the Sun, Moon and Earth. Global humanity has for millennia worked with eclipses through ceremony as well as megalithic structures, medicine wheels, kivas, and even zenith tubes. But how about when the Moon or Sun is seen skimming the horizon, or passing through natural rock formations, or resting on an altar, or inching up the edge of a cliff, or lighting up levels of a pyramid? All this and more have been ceremonialized, and valued by our forebears as high magic. And what if the Moon was “walking on the land”? It will happen again in 2025!
Callanish 2025
This past June, a group of 28 gathered at the stone circle complex of Callanish for our annual TOTAMS All School Gathering. It was a great group, and we even had several days of spectacularly clear weather. However, the nights of the Moon “walking on the land” were cold and clouded over. Yet, it cleared up just after most everyone else left and our group was miraculously gifted in that seven or eight of us did indeed see the low Moon pass across the stones. As far as I am aware, our group was the only one that witnessed this. We have the photos!
Having said that, I have great news! We are returning to Callanish in 2025! From June 7-13 we will again gather at the wonderful Doune Braes hotel. There will be space for 22 people. I intend to attend once more myself.
So, if you had desired to be part of this epic adventure last year but were unable to, here is another chance. This is such a blessing! Due to the 0Aries point being in January, for two years in a row the Full Moons of June have the near exact low pass over the land and stones. Callanish was built to see the Moon pass through the stones for a period of 18 months. The only difference is that in 2024, the Full Moon was almost exactly at the June Solstice whereas in 2025 it will be the week prior.
Reflections on Being 76
Using this expanded understanding of the nodal initiatory timeframes and having just completed taking in my fifth Cosmic Breath at my Metonic 76th birthday last month, I have been reflecting my swiftly passing life. Several things I can easily recognize. Here is a brief sketch.
At my first nodal return (age 17.6-19.1) I truly did realign my life. As a college student, I shifted from a Physics major to Eastern Philosophy and aligned with the burgeoning counterculture, much to the chagrin of my army officer father. I also discovered astrology.
My second nodal return (age 35.6-38.2) saw me leaving corporate America and moving to Hawaii where I first became a full time astrologer. This was also when the first wave of my astrological organization was formed: The Harbingers of the Turning of the Ages. This felt like a powerful re-alignment.
During my third nodal return (age 53.7-57.3), however, I was lost in an extremely addictive and damaging relationship and failed to re-align. The signs were clearly there but got ignored! Consequently, my second Saturn Return was a brutal wake-up call.
This past nodal return, the fourth (age71.7-76), has almost exactly corresponded with the Covid1984 period. Also, these years have seen the birth of the third wave of the school, The Turning of The Ages Mystery School. These events galvanized my even deeper commitment to authentic organic original human 1.0, a human with Soul and Spirit, and with a connection to God / Great Mystery, rather than AI, the digitalization of everything, and the trappings of technocracy.
Over the coming months I will reflect much more on all of this, including the Nodal Reversals. What has become clear so far is that what did happen at each return with regards to my life’s work was that I did “throw everything up in the air” to see if there was some other calling to change course into. But every time I have done this, a unique form of astrology, the emphasis on the Turning of The Ages, and the creation of a school has always come floating back down, asking to be re-animated.
Am I Complete?
A number of close friends have recently passed while being in their fourth Nodal Return. More than ever, I am aware of my mortality and was curious to explore if I was complete. I did not feel to be, but one never knows what Great Mystery has in store! The last four years have been among the most active and productive years of my life. I am so grateful to have my health, a really compatible partner, an international client base, good friends, and an evolving and growing Mystery School. I had always desired to be alive in these times, if only to see “what happens” at a great Turning of The Ages. To be able to continue actively contributing is even better! I have shared before that blues musicians and astrologers never retire.
As my friend Rich Silver said: “Not retire, but Refire!”
I shall continue to be committed to aiding anyone who desires to discover, align or re-align with their Life Purpose and find their place on the wheel. Equipped with such knowledge and with that alignment it actually does not really matter what happens in the world. All signs do point to an end and a beginning, an Alpha and Omega. Though Great Mystery is unknowable, myself and the school do desire to act in accordance with the plan of Gaia, the Sun, Christos-Sophia, and Archai Michael as best we can.
I also commit to the Turning of The Ages Mystery School that has as an essential objective to connect with and nurture what my early mentor Dane Rudhyar referred to as “Seed People”. As Rudolf Steiner suggested, a Mystery School of as few as 50 or 60 individuals whose hearts and minds are in resonance, can change the world.
To conclude, I suggest that you explore your own timeline and see if this framework is helpful and can add to your life inquiry. I invite your feedback!