☍ Opposition
Mercury opposition North Node
The thinking argues with the direction. Read as talking yourself out of it, which the tradition frames as a habit rather than a verdict.
- Angle
- 180°
- Orb used
- ±6°
- Type
- Hard
- Bodies
- ☿ ☊
What these two are about together
Thinking and the direction of development. Associated with learning as the route forward, and with the difference between what a person already knows and what they will have to.
What a opposition does
An opposition puts two planets exactly across from one another, in signs that are traditionally paired rather than unrelated. It is read as tension between two things that genuinely belong together, which is what separates it from a square. The tradition frames it as a problem of balance and, very often, as something a person meets through other people rather than alone.
How it reads
The thinking argues with the direction. Read as talking yourself out of it, which the tradition frames as a habit rather than a verdict.
In practice
Read as a see-saw. Whichever end is being favoured, the other end is being neglected, and the aspect tends to describe the swing between them rather than a settled position.
What to watch for
Projection. Oppositions are the aspect most associated with meeting your own unowned half in somebody else and disliking it there.
The two planets
Mercury: Mind, language and how you process
North Node: The direction of growth, and the thing you have no practice at
Mercury and North Node at other angles
- Mercury conjunction North NodeTwo bodies at the same degree, acting as one
- Mercury semi-sextile North NodeThirty degrees apart: neighbouring signs, with little in common
- Mercury semi-square North NodeForty-five degrees apart: half a square, and read as half its weight
- Mercury sextile North NodeSixty degrees apart: cooperation that has to be taken up
- Mercury quintile North NodeSeventy-two degrees apart: a fifth of the circle, and the odd one out
- Mercury square North NodeNinety degrees apart: two things that will not sit still together
- Mercury trine North NodeA hundred and twenty degrees apart: the same element, working together
- Mercury sesquiquadrate North NodeA hundred and thirty-five degrees: a square and a half
- Mercury quincunx North NodeA hundred and fifty degrees apart: two things that cannot be compared
Find this in your own chart
A reading like this only tells you what the pairing is associated with. Whether Mercury and North Node actually make this angle in your chart depends on your birth date, time and place.