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Duality
We live in a world of perceived duality—black/white, good/evil, male/female, yin/yang, pain/pleasure, Spirit/Matter, etc.  In most cases, we all tend to accentuate one side of each duality and avoid, deny or minimise the other side.  The path back to Oneness—back to Love—lies in the synthesis of all dualities.  For this, each side of a perceived duality must be acknowledged equally.  Both sides are equal partners in Creation—without one, the other could not exist.  It is the same with the zodiac pairs—each pole requires the other in order to manifest at all in reality.
 It may as well be said now that duality is an illusion of our perception of reality.  To the degree that light (and Love) are polarised (dualised) we find ourselves in relative ‘darkness’.  To the degree that we can balance and synthesise the dualities, we become conscious of our true nature as Love—we transcend the illusion of a dualised reality and we perceive actuality.  We perceive the hidden unity, order, balance and perfection of the universe.  We are said to have become ‘en-light-ened’.

Spirit and Matter
 Spirit and Matter are perhaps the most important duality that we perceive.  In physics, Spirit and Matter are called energy and mass.  One of Newton’s laws states that ‘energy and mass are conserved in space and time’.  Ergo, Spirit and Matter are conserved in space and time.  What does this mean?  It means that the balance between Spirit and Matter is maintained—more Spirit, less Matter—less Spirit, more Matter.  Only forms change—for example, if you burn a house down, the form of the house changes.  Some of the Matter of the house is converted to energy—heat and light.  Some of the house remains as Matter, but in a different form—ashes, for example.  The ratio of Matter to energy may have changed, but the sum total remains constant.
 You yourself consist of a perfect balance of Spirit and Matter, (or energy and mass.)  This totality is all light.  Physicists are beginning to understand that everything in existence is light at various degrees of polarity.  Matter is nothing more or less than polarised light.  We are truly beings of Light.  Consciousness is nothing more than the degree to which we realise that we are Light and that our true nature is Love.  Lesser consciousness indicates more polarised or dualised light.  Greater consciousness indicates less polarised or dualised light.  As we become more spiritually attuned, our Spirit to Matter ratio alters—this is what ‘en-light-enment’ means.

Trinity
What is required for the balancing and synthesis of dualities to occur?  This brings us to the idea of the Trinity.  When your perceptions of a given duality are balanced and you are in total appreciation of both sides of the coin, it allows the entry of a third force from Above.  This is what the Christian religion calls the descent of the Holy Spirit.  When this third force enters, you transcend the previous boundaries of your consciousness and understanding and move into the next concentric sphere of consciousness and understanding about the given issue.  The steps towards this ultimate state of balance (also known as Unconditional Love) are: acceptance, forgiveness, indifference, appreciation, Gratitude and then Unconditional Love.  This is what is meant in spiritual lingo by learning your lessons, paying your karma, or absolving your sins.

Unity
When you have learned to love all aspects of a particular issue equally, your Gratitude - saying ‘thank you’ - can take you to a higher level of understanding, fusing the previous duality or polarity into one.  Thus, Trinity becomes Unity.  This synthesis is called Evolution—it births light and Love.  Then you move on to the next issue in your life that you have yet to Love.

The Zodiac Pendulum
Coming back to the zodiac now, each pair of opposite signs represents a particular path back to Unity... back to Oneness.  The equal understanding, appreciation and experience of each side of the pairs is a lesson in Love.  Each pair is a puzzle to be solved.  Each pair, perceived as a duality, is a key to Unity in the pair’s particular issues.
 In reality, we swing from one pole to the other and back again, cyclically, like a pendulum.  The pendulum swing can take lifetimes to go from one pole to the other or, if we are more evolved and wiser, it can swing more rapidly.  The faster you swing from pole to pole, the closer the opposites become in time and space.  The closer in time and space you perceive the dualities, the closer you are to synthesis and to Love.  As the swinging of the pendulum becomes infinitely rapid and the movement smaller and smaller, you approach total blending of the two poles in an infinitely vibrating, but motionless homeostasis: Love.
In this way, each zodiac pair is truly a lesson in Love and potentially reveals to us our own nature as Love and light.  When you have, relatively speaking, transcended the perceived duality of a particular zodiac pair, you then connect with your Higher mission with respect to the pair: you become of Service to others and to the planet in this area.
We are all working through various of these zodiac pairs and their associated lessons at any given time in our lives.  Some pairs are more relevant to some people and others to other people.  Astrology is the study of deciphering which pairs are relevant to you at any given time of your life.  The most important pair, however, that remains for a lifetime and influences everything else in your life, is the zodiac pair associated with the Nodes of the Moon.  What are the Nodes of the Moon, you ask...

The Moon’s Node’s
So let’s look at the Moon’s Nodes.  What is a Node?  Basically, a Node or nodal point represents a cross-over point where diverse energies become momentarily fused into Oneness... a kind of focal point, too.  The Moon’s Nodes are the two points, exactly opposite to one another (surprise!), where the Moon passes, in it’s orbit, from above to below the plane of the ecliptic and vice versa.  What is the plane of the ecliptic, you might ask?  The Sun spins, like all the planets.  Therefore, it has an equator.  If you were to extend the equator of the Sun out in all directions to the limits of the solar system, the resulting plane is the plane of the ecliptic.  All planets are in constant motion in relation to this imaginary plane.  The Moon and its Nodes are also in constant motion in relation to the Earth, to the Sun and to the zodiac.  (See diagram)
Physics and astronomy tell us that anything that spins creates a magnetic field... so it is with the Moon orbiting the Earth... both are spinning... in themselves, around each other and around the Sun.  The Nodes of the Moon are the focal points of a magnetic field that influences all life on Earth.  Furthermore, these Nodes themselves are moving slowly in relation to the signs of the zodiac as seen from our perspective.  When you were born, the Nodes of the Moon were in a particular pair of zodiac signs, each opposing the other.  Because of the enormous influence of the associated magnetic field and the influence of the pair of the zodiac signs and their associated issues, your very life’s path and purpose are molded and influenced by these Nodes.  The Nodes of the Moon, when considered in the natal horoscope, can tell a lot about your life’s path, purpose, lessons, gifts, weaknesses, etc.

Zodiac Animals
 Let’s look now at each of these six pairs of zodiac opposites and explore their specific affairs and issues.  The soul’s path, seen in the natal horoscope, is articulated by the zodiac pair associated with the North and South Nodes of the Moon.  The South Node of the Moon represents where you have come from... what you bring into this lifetime... gifts, talents, karma, lessons, blockages, obstacles, weaknesses, etc.  The North Node represents where you aspire to in this lifetime... your spiritual goals, aims, potential... it represents the main focus of your life’s path and purpose in this lifetime.  The synthesis of both South and North Nodes is the synthesis of what you are when we come into life with what you have learned, understood, assimilated and loved in this life.  That synthesis, ultimately, is the awakening of Love.
 Refer to the chart at the end of this article for your Moon’s Node positions.

Aries/Libra
 This polarity is the expression of self/others, me/we, egoism/altruism, inner strength/outer weakness, solitude/relationship, etc.  If the pendulum swings too far towards Aries, then you believe that you need no one else.  You become a law unto yourself.  The inner loneliness and isolation that this kind of stance brings naturally encourages you to swing back the other way if you are ready.  The expression, ‘No man is an island’ is the balance for this Arian stance.  One of the chief features of the Aries signature person is the hidden need for approval from others.  In this way, the door to potential acknowledgment of the value of others is kept ajar.
 If the pendulum swings too far towards the Libran stance, then you find yourself invariably giving your power away to others.  Inner truth is sacrificed for the sake of social harmony and a peaceful life.  The thorn in this peaceful life is the inevitable feeling of self-depreciation and of resentment towards others.  As a result, as a Libran signature person, you will always find yourself in situations of great imbalance and conflict.  This is the other side of the coin saying to you, ‘When are you going to stop being a doormat?’
 The perfect marriage of the Aries/Libra polarity is the balance between self and others.  There is an invisible line around you over which no other shall step.  There is a line beyond which you don’t step into the space of others.  Paradoxically, there is no line between you and others because what you do for yourself, you do for others.  What you do for others, you do for yourself.
 The highest understanding and resolution of the Aries/Libra paradox is the realisation that others are a perfect reflection of you.  What you see, judge or love in another is what you are seeing, judging or loving in yourself.  If you infatuate another, you are seeking to love that part of you that you ascribe to them.  If you are resentful of another or judge them, you are in judgement or resentful of the parts of yourself that they reflect—you are seeking to love those parts in you.

Taurus/Scorpio
 This is the polarity of organisation/chaos, construction/destruction, material security/material chaos, total trust/suspiciousness, peace/war, etc.  If you swing too far towards Taurus, you become too fixed, complacent, materially oriented, trusting to a fault, indolent and attached to your comfort.  When you find yourself in these states for too long, either you get bored and this impels you to make changes or life deals you some swift and dramatic crises to wake you up from your slumber.  Within this pole is the need to control everything material.
If you swing too far towards the Scorpio pole, you become excessively destructive, chaotic, materially scornful, jealous and envious, suspicious and over-protective.  This pole is the ‘shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later’ stance.  Within this pole is the need to control Spirit.
Everything in the life of these two polarities points you towards the real security that can only be found in Love.  The Taurean security leads to boredom and stagnation—the Scorpio security leads to hatred and resentment of the things that it strives to control.  The two poles together are a good illustration of the 4th Ray of Creation—the Ray of Harmony through Conflict.  Only when you relinquish your need to control, handing over your will to the higher power of your Higher Self, do you begin to understand that only in Love do you need no security.  Love is the answer to all questions.
In addition, the Taurus/Scorpio polarity requires a balance between Spirit and Matter.  In the real world, this blended dichotomy acknowledges equally the processes of construction and destruction—of war and peace.  War without peace brings chaos.  Peace without war brings stagnation.  Real harmony is a balance of both.

Gemini/Sagittarius
 Here we have the polarity of knowledge versus experience, of information versus broad conceptualisation, of the deductive versus the inductive, of the particular versus the general, of fragmentation versus unity, etc.  The Creation of the solar system comes from a ‘cone of illumination’ originating in the centre of the galaxy.  This Creation is described above as a movement from the ONE to the MANY.  The centre of the galaxy is in the constellation of Sagittarius and the Creation of the solar system is a breath from Sagittarius to Gemini.  This is a path from the Oneness of Love and light to the ‘many-ness’ of polarised Love and light—from the general to the particular.  The return journey of Evolution is a journey of synthesising the fragments (Gemini) into Wisdom (Sagittarius).  So the cycle repeats eternally.
 On Earth, if the pendulum swings too far towards Gemini, then you are ‘in the head’.  You get stuck in masses of information that have no unifying understanding.  You are taken this way and that way by your thoughts, impulses and external stimuli in a random way.  Gemini is the height of specialisation—the exploration of the ‘particular’.  When you go too far in this direction, you lose the bigger picture—you lose touch with meaning in your life.
 When the pendulum swings all the way towards Sagittarius, you lose touch with details.  You bask in the grandiose pictures of wisdom and order.  Free from the laborious and boring details of the lesser populace, you are free to invent and float freely in the realm of pure ideas—metaphysics without the constraints of boring information!  Alternately, you become an adventure on a journey that requires no thought or introspection—all is given from life itself.  The only trouble with these stances is that you lose touch with reality!
 Without the process of manifestation, which is the Creative process of finer and finer detail and diversity into Matter (information—Gemini), the undifferentiated Spirit (Sagittarius) cannot know that it exists.  Without the process of evolution, which is the process of synthesising and unifying fragments into the greater whole (Sagittarius), the fragments (information—Gemini) would simply dissolve into chaos.  The two together make up the cosmos—the cyclic principle and process of Creation and Evolution.
 Spirit without knowledge is impotent (the enlightened idiot).  Knowledge without Spirit is empty (the idiot savant).  What this is saying is that the potential balance of the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity lies in the simultaneous pursuit of knowledge and the unifying wisdom that ties that knowledge together.  Taken together, you are growing in consciousness—growing towards Love.  As the magnificent plan of the cosmos unfolds from the knowledge collected you cannot help but be awestruck by the realisation of the divinity behind everything in the cosmos.

Cancer/Capricorn
 This dichotomy is the expression of the polarities: being cared for/caring for, dependence/independence, support/non-support, fluid/solid, organic/structured, warmth/lack of warmth, embryonic/fully formed, growth/decay, idea/form, Spirit/Matter, etc.
 The Cancer extreme seeks warmth, caring, nurturing, looking after, etc.  This is hearkening back to a time before self-determination and responsibility were required.  There doesn’t seem to ever be enough love for you when you are at this extremity—it is a bottomless pit.  You are dependent upon others for our emotional needs.  The world around you , however, seems cold and uncaring.  This is literally a foetal response that does not want to accept personal responsibility for your life.  The cold and uncaring world around you (Capricorn) is trying to get you to grow up—to take responsibility—to nurture yourself, to look after yourself.  At this Cancerian extreme, you are in birth without growth and maturity.
 The Capricorn extreme is only interested in practical matters.  Responsibility is more important than care.  In this space, you don’t have time to worry about those who cannot worry about themselves.  You bury yourself in work, creating structures against the emptiness you feel inside.  You see the world as a commodity that you can shape—beat into form.  The trouble is, once you have built the structures, who is going to inhabit them.  In your extreme coldness and pragmatism, you repel others who could teach you the warmth that could fill these empty structures.  At this extreme, you are in death without having lived.
 The lesson here is that you are seeking a balance between care and responsibility, between being nurtured and nurturing self, between being supported and supporting self, between being looked after and looking after self.  Warmth, care, nurturing (Cancer) without form and structure (Capricorn) remains embryonic and unmanifest—thus it turns inwards into the bottomless pit of despair.  Form and structure without warmth, caring and nurturing remains empty—it remains inanimate and lifeless.  This also leads to isolation and despair.
 Where then is the blending of these polarities?  It is a question of a balance of dependence and independence.  The perfect marriage of the Cancer/Capricorn dichotomy includes both dependence and independence in every person.  In caring for others, you seek to learn how to care for yourself.  In caring for yourself, you are preparing to care for others.  In taking responsibility for your life, you are preparing for taking responsibility for others.  In taking responsibility for others, you are learning to take responsibility for yourself.  The blending of these two sides is Love.

Leo/Aquarius
 This is the polarity of ego consciousness/collective consciousness, individuality/blending with the masses, autocracy/sociocracy, inner focus/outer focus, self-approval/collective approval, individual creativity/the creative masses, the sun/the stars, the local picture/ the galactic picture, my will/thy will, geocentric/heliocentric, I am/we are, etc.
 When the pendulum swings too far towards the Leo pole, you begin to think that you are the centre of the world—that everything revolves around you.  You are the stage, the actors, the play, the playwright and the light.  All others are stage-hands and audience. You are the chosen—the one born to lead and to hand down to others from ‘on high’.  The trouble is, that deep inside, the real truth is known, if not consciously.  The seeking of approval, adulation, and attention is no more than an unconscious desire to rebalance the lack of self-esteem that you feel inside.  Your self-worth is depreciated privately and exaggerated publicly.   Without others, where would you be?  While outwardly espousing your superiority, you are really run by your need for adulation, approval and attention from others.  You are a slave to popular opinion of you.
 When the swing towards Aquarius is exaggerated, you espouse high ideals of brotherhood and collective benefit, technology and spirituality while doggedly asserting your own independence, being deliberately contrary and going against the flow!  While outwardly being a ‘people person’, you are inwardly cut off, aloof and alienated.  Without other people to interact with you feel empty and alone—you are dependent upon other people being around.  And yet, you outwardly assert your independence!  This Aquarian stance is one of the more perplexing puzzles to those around it.
 A healthy sense of self-worth (positive ego—Leo) is a necessary requirement for a collective society (Aquarius) to function properly.  You only need to look at the failures of Communism around the world to see illustrations that support this statement.  A society with no individual leaders becomes a society run by committee.  According to the joke, the definition of a committee is: a life form with more than six legs, but no brain!  Anywhere you look in nature you will see hierarchical structures—class systems and pecking orders; to think that Man can rewrite nature’s plan and introduce a classless system is not so much an Aquarian stance, as one would think, but is redolent of Leonine arrogance.  Conversely, true self-worth and a healthy ego are not possible until you witness your actions having a true benefit to all around you; and this does not necessarily mean that you seek to please everybody around you all the time!
 The synthesis of this Leo/Aquarius polarity consists of true self-appreciation—not inflated or depreciated.  Each person in such a society recognises his or her true place. You learn from those who have walked further down paths that you wish to travel and you teach others who wish to walk down the paths that you have already travelled.  We are all teachers and students, leaders and followers amongst geniuses.  The Leo/Aquarian leader will acknowledge and draw upon the individual talents of each person in their group, acknowledging that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  True self-worth of each member is the result.  True self-worth has another name: Love.

Virgo/Pisces
 We come finally to the Virgo/Pisces polarity.  This is the polarity of Many/One, fragments/wholeness, detail/vista, meticulousness/vagueness, discernment/lack of discernment, cynical/gullible, concrete/dreamy, earth/heaven, body/soul, healer/healed, excessively defined/undifferentiated, etc.  Perhaps this polarity most clearly illustrates the path of Creation (Pisces to Virgo) and Evolution (Virgo to Pisces).  It also traces the breakdown of health (Pisces to Virgo) and the healing of sickness (Virgo to Pisces).
 When you swing too far towards Virgo, you become engrossed and obsessed with the details, the fragments, the definitions and categorisations.  You lose the big picture, the vista, the plan, the total design, and the soul within.  You only see duality.  You mis-perceive that the world needs fixing.  You become stuck in definition and categorisation—if something cannot be touched and classified it may as well not exist.  The body becomes the focus.  The desire to fix the world comes from the innate wish to synthesise the fragments within your own psyche—to heal the polarities.  What you see in the outside world that needs fixing is a reflection of that which you wish to fix within yourself—that which you wish to Love.  The extreme Virgo stance is cynicism without Faith.
 When the Pisces polarity is exaggerated, you wish for Oneness and merging so much that you don’t care about the details.  You avoid definition and concretising your perceptions.  You fall prey to any and all outside influences, thinking that Love will look after you.  This stance is prone to losing touch with earth, body, reality and practical concerns.  This is the stance of Faith without discernment.  Here, Spirit is unmanifest—it cannot know itself, but instead merges willy-nilly with whatever influence it encounters and calls itself this.
 The solution of the Virgo/Pisces polarity  lies in the acknowledgment that without Matter, fragmentation and duality, you have no possibility of become the conscious masters of your own evolution.  In fact, you have no possibility of becoming conscious to your true nature as Love.  You are descended into Matter and form—into duality.  The journey ‘home’ is to take the Matter, form and duality and synthesise all opposites.  This synthesis is the revealing of Love.  Without descending into ‘darkness’ you cannot know that you are light.  This return journey is the journey of healing—the healing of all fragmented parts.
 Your total journey of descent into Matter, duality and fragmentation (Virgo) and then back to Spirit (Pisces) is a microcosmic reflection of the whole of Creation—it is a hologram.  When polarities are healed you birth light and know that you are Love.

The Sacred Marriage
 Each of these astrological pairs offers us another way to evolve and to reveal our true nature as Love.  In each pair, both sides of the equation are equally required.  This is a sacred marriage.  When we exaggerate one side and deny or condemn the other, we are playing the game of the illusion of reality.  In actuality, each side points us back to the middle—back towards Love.  Our lives vacillate between these poles in the dance of Creation.  The length of time it takes to swing from one extreme to the other determines our degree of wisdom.  The faster the swing and the more narrow the angle of swing, the more wise we are.  As the swing approaches infinite speed (the speed of light) and zero angle, we experience Love; we have solved the zodiac and gone beyond paradox into a new concentric sphere of understanding and consciousness.
 A marriage or partnership is the ideal environment for the solving of the zodiac paradoxes—for the revealing of Love.  Contrary to popular belief, however, your perfect partner—your soul mate—is not one who is like you in every way.  It is one who is perfectly opposite to you in every way!  This is because Love is birthed from the synthesis of opposites—of dualities.  Until you have worked through each of these zodiac pairs, through many lifetimes, you are not ready for your true soul mate.  In the meantime, you are in training with each and every partner you have, learning to love all aspects of yourself equally.  Each aspect acts as a beacon pointing towards your true nature as Love and light.  Your partners reflect the ways in which you are not Loving yourself and you reflect their issues back to them.  The more you can see yourself in your partners and love yourself for what you see, the more your true soul mate will ‘appear’ in your current partner.

Conclusion
So, isn’t it amazing to think that meaning, purpose and the lessons of Love are built into the very fabric of the cosmos through the tapestry of zodiac constellations and the spinning planets!  It is a Dance of Life... a Dance of Light... a Dance of Love.  The solution to all the zodiac pairs is Love.  Beyond paradox lies Love.  Love is the answer to all questions.