Thread by @TechnicalyAstro

The nodes and their misconceptions
#Astrologyfacts
North Node (Rahu)

True Node
Mean Node

South Node (Ketu)

There are so many names with the name Node that one may get confused what all this means.

So lets start and understand one by one
The Nodes
The Moons Nodes

The Moon is moving in our solar system.
It has a path.

A lunar node is either of the two orbital nodes of the Moon, that is, the two points at which the orbit of the Moon intersects the ecliptic

The ascending (or north) node is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic hemisphere, while the descending (or south) node is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic hemisphere

The North Node has two nicknames– 
True Node and Mean Node.

Because of the variations in gravitational pull between the Earth and Moon there is a wobble effect on the position of the Node.

True Node takes into account of this oscillation(wobble) whereas the Mean Node takes the average.

True Node is the exact location of the Moon’s Node while Mean Node presents the average location of the Moon’s Node at the time.

So
The True Node can at times appear stationay or be in direct motion whereas the Mean Node is always Retrograde.

So when a astrologer says that North Node(Rahu) is always Retrograde, it means he/she is basically talking about the Mean Node(average) as a North Node whereas the True node can be direct also for a little time interval.