Aries - Libra axis: the will to live or die
Who is in charge of our survival and ending?
When we consider “autonomy” as it relates to the Aries North Node, we usually consider the prioritization and emphasis of our individual, active decisions and preferences as they relate to our living experience. But, at the very root of Aries energy, we encounter our will to live which boils down to the fundamental aspect of human life: a beating heart, lungs full of breath and a functioning brain. So, what can we say about autonomy when we are unable to breathe or think on our own?
Terri Schiavo & the Aries North Node
You may be old enough to recall the Terri Schiavo case of the early 2000’s - a long, drawn out legal battle and media tempest over the removal of the 41-year old’s feeding tube after she had been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, between the years of 1990 and 2005.
Her illness and death had been the focus of a major medical, legal, theological, ethical, political, and social controversy and the results of her case threatened to undo at least 30 years of ethical and legal progress that has enabled individuals the freedom to control and limit medical interventions performed on/for them. As the Aries North Node often elicits, her case highlights the deep divisions and fear within our society regarding life and death and the role of the government and courts in life decisions.
In February of 1990, Terri suffered a cardiac arrest caused by an eating disorder and electrolyte imbalance that left her brain starved for oxygen. She was resuscitated after undergoing life-saving measures but never regained consciousness. After being hospitalized for several months, brain scans revealed severe atrophy to both of her cerebral hemispheres. Clinically, Terri was stabilized into a persistent vegetative state (PVS), but sustained a poor prognosis of an irreversible condition with no hope for recovery.
After several weeks, Terri was transferred to a rehabilitation facility. Because there was no advance directive, Michael was appointed as Terri’s formal guardian on June 18, 1990, by the court, with objection from Terri’s parents and family. In the hopes of bringing Terri home for her care, Michael received some nursing training; however, an attempt at home care proved too overwhelming for him and Terri was returned to a chronic care facility after 3 weeks.
Two months later, Michael took Terri to California to pursue experimental treatment to restore her level of consciousness. The treatment failed and they returned to Florida in January 1991. By 1994, Michael appeared to have changed his belief from, Terri would recover, to the belief that she would never improve. He elected to not treat infections that had developed due to her catheter placement and requested Terri’s status be changed to “do not resuscitate,” requesting she legally be allowed to die. When the care center challenged his request, Michael transferred Terri to another facility, spurring years of legal battles and government intervention.
Terri did not have a living will — which is the center of her story. Her husband, Michael recalls his wife had once said that should anything happen to her, she would not want to be kept alive on a machine. However, her parents refused to accept her diagnosis and vigorously opposed their son-in-law’s decision to have her feeding tube removed and to discontinue life-sustaining measures. Seven years of litigation generated over 30 legal opinions, which ultimately supported Michael’s decision on his wife’s behalf. Despite her parents appeal to the Florida District Courts, Circuit of Appeals and the Supreme Court, Terri’s feeding tube was removed for the last time, resulting in her death on March 31, 2005.
Nodal Influence
The North Node was transiting Aries during the height of the Schiavo’s legal battles and Terri’s death, prompting moral and ethical arguments around the issues of decision making as it relates to one’s bodily autonomy and their right to die. At the heart of this conversation is the axis of subjective individual experience (Aries) versus the individual relationship we share with others (Libra). While Terri did not have a health care directive, one could argue her will was carried out by-proxy through her husband. However, Terri was also part of a larger familial entity and her parents believed that because families share a bond, each member has a duty to care for the other, weighing decisions and consequences and having a say in end-of-life decisions.
Who is the decision maker when we don’t have consciousness? Legal solutions to familial disputes in cases like Terri’s are inherently divisive because they rest on the procedural solution of privileging one family member as the decision maker (Aries), versus gathering a consensus from the whole (Libra). Aries is autonomous, self-directed and attuned to the needs of the Self — especially as it relates to one’s physical life. The Libra South Node emphasizes the foundations of maintaining relationships, which include compromise, negotiation and diplomacy, but also the court systems and the government, who repeatedly intervened in Terri’s case.
Bobbi Kristina Brown & the Libra North Node
Terri’s story highlights a tragic experience that many families face and the heartbreaking decisions that follow. Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, was in a similar media spotlight after she was found unresponsive, face-down in a bathtub, on January 31, 2015.
However, in Bobbi Kristina’s case, her family became the decision-makers and ultimately isolated her then-fiance from having contact with her while she was in a medically-induced coma. Unsurprisingly, the North Node was transiting Libra at that time. She died in hospice on July 26, 2015.
At the time of her accident on January 31st, the North Node was exact her timelord (Jupiter) in Libra at 12°. The day she died, we see the rulers of the North and South Node making significant aspects to her moon (health, body) and her IC (death, resting place, family). Mars, ruler of the transiting South Node was conjoined her natal moon in Cancer. Venus, ruler of the North Node, conjoined her IC at 00° Virgo and was stationing retrograde.
The exalted ruler of the Libra North Node is Saturn. I find it interesting that Jupiter, her timelord and ruler of her 7th and 10th houses, opposed her natal Saturn and squared transiting Saturn in Scorpio at the time of her death, which speaks to challenges and endings she was facing in her personal and public life.While never criminally charged, her fiance, Nick Gordon, was found liable for her death, with allegations that he had violently attacked her days before she was found unresponsive and given her drugs that may have contributed to her death.
Unlike Terri’s case, Bobbi was not legally married, so her extended family entity was the legal voice for her health care and end-of-life decisions. Libra rules the courts and justice systems, seeking consensus through weighing facts and consequences and the North Node here seeks objective balance and justice through reason. Bobbi’s fiance, Nick, was not included in these decisions due to suspect over his involvement with her untimely death and their general discomfort with their relationship, but the family did not opt to pursue criminal charges, instead seeking justice via a wrongful death civil suit.
Cardinal signs are initiators and lead us into new territory where we cannot go back to the way things once were. The Aries - Libra nodal axis illustrates the challenges of independence and the maintenance of companionship and asks us about who is in charge of our survival: do we depend on ourselves or others? The death debate still divides us.