3 Keys to Working With the Lunar Nodes in Pisces and Virgo

If you watch the ocean for long enough, you will see a pattern to the tides: the way they rise and fall, when they reach their highest highs and the lowest lows. It’s not a mystery: it’s cosmic clockwork.

This same clockwork brings cycles to our lives as well, pulling some themes in and out of focus. When you recognize the pattern, you can see when the story is about to change and ride the waves to harness greater alignment.

One of the patterns that portends a change in the focus of our story is the transits of the Lunar Nodes, which change signs every 18 months.

On January 11, at 6:01 pm ET, one of the major changes of 2025 arrives as the Lunar Nodes leave the signs of Aries and Libra and move into the Pisces/Virgo axis, where they will remain until July 26, 2026.

Here’s what you need to know about this moment, and the next 18 months.

What are the Lunar Nodes?

The Lunar Nodes are not actual planets or objects in the sky. They are mathematically-calculated points that represent where the moon, in its orbit around Earth, intersects with the ecliptic — the apparent path the Sun takes around Earth.

There are two nodes: a North Node and a South Node.

The Eclipse Storyline

When a new or full moon happens within a certain distance from either node, we get eclipses — when the light of the luminary is temporarily blotted from the sky.

Eclipses often mark significant turning points in our lives, and important markers in our life story. Following the location of the Nodes tells us what areas of our lives will be impacted in the coming cycle of eclipses.

We will have 3 eclipses in each of the signs over the 18 months of the nodal transits. Taken together, the eclipses are a storyline that is showing us a lesson we need to learn.

Because eclipses happens when a new and full moon come close enough to the nodes, we already had the first eclipse of this new series in September 2024, with the lunar eclipse in Pisces.

Symbolism of the Lunar Nodes

Symbolically, ancient astrologers viewed the nodes as akin to the head and tail of a dragon. The North Node represents the head, or mouth of the dragon: what we’re hungry for, what we can’t get enough of, what we desire, and what we are heading toward.

The South Node represents the tail of the dragon, or the excretion point: what we’re being called to release. It also represents what we are already comfortable with, our natural skills and our habits.

The Cycle of the Lunar Nodes

The Nodes generally travel in retrograde (“backward”) motion around the Zodiac, and are always opposite each other. This means that they bring focus to a pair of signs on the zodiac wheel.

Since July 2023, the North Node has been transiting through Aries, while the South Node has been transiting through Libra. On January 11, they shift to the Pisces/Virgo axis.

The Full-Circle Moment – Every 18 Years

The nodes take about 18 months to transit through a sign of the zodiac, and 18.5 years to complete their cycle around the entire zodiac. If you were born with the North Node in Pisces and the South Node in Virgo, the next 18 months is your “nodal return” — a time of great shifts.

The last time the North Node was in Pisces and the South Node was in Virgo was June 2006-December 2007.

Think back to what projects you started, or what lessons you learned, during that time. This transit will brings something from that time-frame “full-circle.”

The Turning Point – Every 9 Years

Every 9 years, the nodes transit through the same axis in reverse, with the North Node in the opposite sign. If you were born when the North Node was in Virgo and the South Node was in Pisces, this is your nodal opposition.

The last time we had a nodal transit through the Pisces/Virgo axis was from November 2015-May 2017, when the North Node was in Virgo and the South Node was in Pisces — the mid-way point of this cycle.

This upcoming transit marks a turning point for something that we began in that time frame.

Lunar Nodes in Pisces and Virgo: What it Means

On January 11, the North Node will move from Aries into Pisces, while the South Node moves from Libra into Virgo. This shift pulls our focus to the Pisces/Virgo axis for the next 18 months, and the work of balancing the tensions between these two archetypes that exist within us.

Pisces Significations

Pisces is a sign of faith, idealism, dreams, intuition, and emotion. It is the ocean of oneness, a place where boundaries blue and all beings merge into one consciousness. At the extreme, however, Pisces can be a place of escapism and fantasy — where idealism loses touch with what’s real or practical. The North Node in Pisces can help us hone our intuition, enhance our empathy, and tap into greater faith and trust, although it can also cause a swell in misinformation, escapist tendencies, and spiritual bypassing.

Virgo Significations

Virgo is a sign of practicality, critical thinking, and realism. As an earth sign, it is a place of hard work, organization, and effort. At the extreme, Virgo can be self-critical, perfectionistic, and controlling. The South Node here can help us release the tendencies of perfectionism and control that lead to fault-finding, over-analysis, and over-thinking. but it can also cause us to let go of our healthy skepticism that helps us avoid the traps of disinformation and false prophets.

3 Keys to Working With the Nodal Transits in Pisces and Virgo

Here are 3 key themes of the nodal transit through Pisces and Virgo.

(1) Discernment

The invitation of the next 18 months will be to act with discernment: to find the equilibrium between productive idealism and fantasy, aligned intuition and delusional desire, and skepticism and trust.

Our work is to deepen our relationship to our intuition, our faith, and what we cannot see, while releasing ourselves from the constraints of impossible ideals and expectations.

(2) Adaptability

The shift of the lunar nodes from Aries/Libra to Pisces/Virgo marks a shift from cardinal signs to mutable signs. Cardinal signs initiate the seasons, while mutable signs transition from one season to the next. Mutable signs are of “two natures” as they carry the energy of one season into the next season.

The nodal transits through Pisces and Virgo can mark a period of rapidly shifting information. It will be important to stay open and receptive to new information, and ready to pivot as we adapt to a changing landscape.

(3) Integration

One of the lessons of the Pisces/Virgo axis is that practicality and spirituality can co-exist — and, indeed, must co-exist if we are to stay healthy and productive.

The nodal transit through this axis reminds us to integrate our spiritual practice into our daily lives. We can elevate even the most mundane tasks through intention, devotion, and dedication. By releasing our rote, unconscious habits and creating practical rituals, we can infuse our days with meaning and purpose.