The North Node conjuncts Saturn about once every 11 or 12 years, and those people born with this placement do not have the easiest time in life. The combination of the two energies is like pressing the gas pedal – North Node- and the brakes – Saturn- at the same time and wondering why you’re not moving forward. To see if this conjunction affects you, here are the last six conjunctions:
October 6, 1956 in Scorpio
May 2, 1968 in Aries
July 8, 1979 in Virgo
January 21, 1991 in Capricorn
June 5, 2002 in Gemini
Sept 15, 2013 in Scorpio
The next one will happen next year on April 18, 2025 in Pisces.
The people born at the 1979 conjunction have a particularly hard time because it was square Mars that year, and Saturn square Mars on its own is already a very frustrating go-stop placement. This has been my puzzle to piece together and it hasn’t been easy to understand. The North Node is craving to move forward, Mars is trying to move forward, but Saturn is the big, cosmic leash, the big “NO” hanging out in the sky. If Saturn is moving forward at all, it’s painfully slowly, and his energy is all about discipline, containment, smallness, obstacles, and discouragement, and it will punish you for taking steps forward that aren’t replete with obstacles. If you move forward too fast for him, he will unduly hold you back so that you’re late for whatever timeline is important to you.
To add insult to injury, if it wasn’t enough to want to move forward and take positive action, but not be able to, the concept of the North Node in Indian astrology adds a dimension of moral judgement. The North Node — or as Indians call it, Rahu — is an area of our chart that we should develop because it’s what our soul incarnated to develop towards in this lifetime. It’s a part of our charts that was under-developed in our last lifetime, and it would be irresponsible not to tend to it.
On the other hand, I’ve also heard Western astrologers say the North Node is just a craving, and it needs to be brought under control or regulated. So either way, we’re facing a pretty harsh moral judgement if we neglect our Saturn. To those of us born on the 1979 conjunction, with our go-stop-go energy, life gave us absolutely no choice but to learn about Saturn.
Astrologer Ryan Kurczak says that when you have Saturn conjunct Rahu,
“You have to develop your capacity to work hard.
You have to develop your capacity to bear suffering and sorrow.
You have to develop your capacity to be disciplined.
You have to develop the capacity to do the tedious work to make things successful.
Those little things you just hate doing, but you’re going to have to do them. … Saturn-Rahu people tend to have a real hard time with structure and discipline. What they need is… to set up their life in such a way that is orderly: you do the same thing everyday, you get up at the same time, go to bed at the same time….”
Kurczak, Ryan, Saturn and Rahu Conjunctions, Astrologically-Speaking (North Node).
For a while, I’ve been trying to find people born at the 1979 conjunction to see what they’ve learned about handling this passive-aggressive energy. As an impatient person, I want to move forward, but I’ve learned that if I move too quickly, Saturn will go the extra mile to put an obstacle in front of me, or throw a monkey-wrench in my plans to slow me down. So sometimes I’ll restrain myself to honor Saturn, and keep myself small, and then when I think things are going well, then I’ll move forward and hit another obstacle or a big “no”. I’m curious how other Summer 1979 babies navigate this tension.