One of the questions I believe we are all longing to know and understand is what is my calling? Some people misunderstand this to be their vocation or work. I prefer to call it your life work… the work you need to do to evolve as a person.
I found valuable answers to this question by my study of Western astrology. To get insight into one’s calling; you take a look at the placement of what is called the North Node.[1] Opposite to that is the South Node which identifies the life area’s with which you feel most comfortable, the experiences and qualities that come naturally to us, that are over-developed, and that we tend to fall back on.
For balanced self-development, to feel fulfilled and happy we need to focus on and develop aspects of ourselves represented by the North Node. Consciously working on these “life lessons” can bring us to increased happiness and fulfillment. Not moving beyond the qualities of our South Node, especially at the expense of developing our North Node, could be a source of unhappiness.
I was surprised to learn that my North Node is in my fifth house in the sign of Aquarius, The fifth house is the signifcator for children, having fun, pleasure, and, most importantly, creativity through writing. This threw me for a loop, as it was the polar opposite to how I had lived my life.
Yes, I have always liked my share of pleasure and fun, but the pursuit of creativity seemed like something I had left behind years ago and came second to work. In fact the dream of a more creative-based career was snuffed out long ago when I was 18 and told by my practical and truly remarkable mother that I had better like waiting tables if I planned to continue wanting to be an actress. Yes being an actress and reading books were my first love. Although I was an English literature major undergraduate, and have always wanted to write, I felt I had developed a kind of mental block about my capacity to be creative, or to write. This is all changing now.
Accessing this knowledge has helped me to make sense of decisions I made in the past and guide me towards decisions I might make in the future. If you would like to learn about the placement and meaning of your North Node, contact me directly for a life coaching session atto help you shed light on your calling skyler@skylermadison.com.
[1]. All astrology is based on the exact geometry between the placements of the planets, starting at the moment of one’s birth. The nodes are calculated by where the ellipses of the orbits of the Sun and Moon cross one another. In the horoscope, the North and South Nodes are exactly opposite each other.
To this day, it is not completely understood why it is that we dream. There is consensus, however, that without dreams we suffer both physically and psychologically. Many mental illnesses are considered to go along with with sleep irregularities, because poor sleep compromises the dream state. The brain is wired to dream, and the correlation between lack of dreaming, disturbed dreaming, and mental illness is very high. “Insomnia and depression are so strongly linked, some experts believe they are flips sides of the same disorder” (Naiman, 2011, para. 2).
I think most people would think that losing weight makes you happier? The research shows it doesn’t in the long run. Losing weight, just like falling in love or getting a promotion creates a short term bump in happiness but after a while you return back to where you were. Could this be one reason why so many people regain their weight? One question I ask people I coach that is very enlightening is: what do you want by losing weight that you don’t already have? Or what are you hoping that losing weight will do for you? These powerful questions are what lead us to the unresolved issues that need to be worked on so that the weight loss is illusory.