Questions

Azarial

I was looking over my birth chart this morning, and something struck me as being a little odd. Three of my planets are in retrograde, and so is my true node. Is this common? I never knew true nodes could be in retrograde. How does this affect someone? I included my chart from astro.com to make it easier to see what I'm talking about. My chart just feels so wierd to me, lol.

born on 26 April 1978 local time 6:30 am
in Minot, ND (US) U.T. 12:30
101w18, 48n14 sid. time 20:01:25

Planetary positionsplanet sign degree motion
Sun Taurus 5°54'48 in house 12 direct
Moon Sagittarius 20°55'31 in house 8 direct
Mercury Aries 14°55'07 in house 12 direct
Venus Taurus 29°00'51 in house 1 direct
Mars Leo 6°04'02 in house 4 direct
Jupiter Cancer 2°16'25 in house 2 direct
Saturn Leo 23°39'10 in house 5 stationary (D)
Uranus Scorpio 14°45'23 in house 6 retrograde
Neptune Sagittarius 17°58'08 in house 7 retrograde
Pluto Libra 14°45'00 in house 6 retrograde
True Node Libra 5°33'58 in house 6 retrograde

House positions (Placidus)
Ascendant Taurus 25°34'42
2nd House Gemini 20°12'48
3rd House Cancer 9°04'39
Imum Coeli Cancer 28°14'56
5th House Leo 22°36'27
6th House Libra 0°34'14
Descendant Scorpio 25°34'42
8th House Sagittarius 20°12'48
9th House Capricorn 9°04'39
Medium Coeli Capricorn 28°14'56
11th House Aquarius 22°36'27
12th House Aries 0°34'14

Major aspects
Sun Square Mars 0°09
Sun Sextile Jupiter 3°38
Moon Trine Mercury 6°00
Moon Trine Saturn 2°44
Moon Conjunction Neptune 2°57
Moon Sextile Pluto 6°11
Mercury Quincunx Uranus 0°10
Mercury Trine Neptune 3°03
Mercury Opposition Pluto 0°10
Venus Square Saturn 5°22
Venus Conjunction Ascendant 3°26
Saturn Trine Neptune 5°41
Saturn Square Ascendant 1°56
Neptune Sextile Pluto 3°13
 

dadsnook2000

Retrogrades

Retrogrades, for the planets, are apparent directions of motion. This caused by our relative proximity to the Sun and our speed in orbit compared to their far distance from the Sun and the apparently small amount of yearly movement that they have. Whenever the outer planets are in a zone that is 120 degrees from the Sun, measuring along the zodiac in both directions, the planet may be in retorograde motion. For some, the zone is tighter, for others it is looser depending upon their distance from the Sun.

The Moon's true (north) node or nodal axis is another thing. There are some 30 basic components that affect the movement and interrelationship between the Earth and the Moon. The various combinations of these many factors will lead, at times, to the mathematically determinable fact that the nodal point is moving forward or retrograding. As a general statement, the nodal axis retrogrades during its entire cycle of some 18+ years. There are only short alternating cycles of several days each when the true node moves "forward", yet the overall result is "two steps forward, three steps back." The node, overall, retrogrades. Many astrologers just use the mean node. I've never seen a delineation change because the true nodes position was slightly different from the mean node's position. Dave
 

Azarial

Thank you very much for the information dadsnook, I'm going to have to buckle down and do a lot of reading about this.