Each of the hexagrams has a biological equivalent in our body. As the planets move through the zodiac, they activate the hexagrams in sequence and this results biologically in physical, observable patterns within us. The patterns are fixed in their sequence and can be read in the ephemeris.

The Nodes of the Moon move contrary to the planets through the zodiac, retrograde. In that, they reverse the vital patterns created by the planets. Their basic particularity is their direction.

Their second particularity is that they don't fix any lines of the Rave I'Ching as the planets do. In the geometry of our lives they bring us to places that fulfill the specific themes.

On July 2 the axis of the Nodes changes from 36/6 to 22/47. While the South Node remains in the emotional center, the Solar Plexus, the sequence is opposite to what we are used to in our biological patterns: the planets move usually first through gate 22, then through gate 36. The experience each time is whether the externally displayed style (22) is able to survive the following trip through the tunnel (36). As a result, many people are in the habit of displaying a smile while going through the valleys of their lives, to not show a sign of crisis.

The night the Titanic sank, the Moon moved in accustomed sequence through exactly these two gates 22 and 36. For hours after the collision the orchestra had orders from the captain to continue playing, to improve the mood: with Grace (22) into the Darkening of the Light (36), or with the evening gowns into the life­boats.

It is remarkable that two months ago, when the South Node entered gate 36, the Titanic exhibition was opened in Hamburg. Gracefully exhibited there are sunken remnants, rescued from the depths, the Darkening of the Light. Even though there's a lot of criticism about the appropriateness of the style, the congruity is apparent to those knowing Human Design: the movement of the South Node now is exactly opposite to the Moon's that fateful night. Since the Nodes are about geometry, this exhibition is the ideal place to recognize something about the theme of this catastrophe in ourselves, physically and emotionally.

So the Nodes travel the reverse Titanic route for us now. From the past and the depths of our souls they uncover emotional patterns which we might have thought or hoped to have lost in the dark a long time ago, or at least to be able to master with grace.

Each of us has past experience with change stored deep in the emotional system and has established emotional habits (styles) to deal with crisis and change. In the geometry of life, the Nodes now give us crisis (36) first. Only after that will we be able to see whether we're still able to maintain our smile and style in the face of change. The experience of the past couple months will be contributing to possible new styles in the future. Besides old emotional mud there's often a treasure arising from the depths and abysses, important and precious soil for the new.

Gate 36 is in the Sensing circuit, the circuit of finding sense and comprehension, and is the possibility for change based on experience. Since the emotional center is a motor, it can build up a lot of pressure and frustration if it cannot manifest. But every old pain, every rising emotion has something to tell that is worth listening to. In the process it is just important to not identify with it: it is the past.

If you think that the crisis is over with the Nodes' gate change on July 2, remember, that like any chart, every moment also has a Design, the unconscious half of the whole. For 88 degrees of the Sun, about three months, after July 2, the axis of the Nodes will still be 36/6 unconsciously.

In Human Design there's a single line in which Mutation and change manifest as something really new: gate 12, line 6, Metamorphosis. As the South Node is about to move into the same channel, into gate 22, another look at the sinking of the Titanic: what at that time was thought to be unsinkable, sank. Now, what we thought sank long ago, is coming back to light with the possibility for a new style (22). Like in gate 36, there's the potential for pressure and frustration if it cannot manifest through the Throat, so keep observing the transits.

By the way, as the Titanic sank Pluto was in gate 12, its Design position in line 6.

30 June 1997, Human Design Network Newsletter
translated from German by Chaitanyo

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