← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 44/235
South Node
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The South Node is the point where the Moon, in its monthly orbit, crosses the ecliptic heading south. It always lies exactly opposite the North Node, so a chart shows the two as a single axis, and like its partner it marks where eclipses can occur. Calculators often show only the North Node; the South Node is simply the same degree in the opposite sign.
Motion
Because it is the other end of the same line, the South Node moves exactly as the North Node does: backwards through the zodiac, about eighteen months in each sign, round the whole circle in roughly 18.6 years. The mean node is always retrograde; the true node, which these charts use, wobbles and now and then appears to stand still or move forward briefly.
In the tradition
The tradition called it the Dragon's Tail and treated it as the opposite of the Head: of the nature of Saturn and Mars, Lilly says, a point that diminishes, drains or undoes what it touches, just as the Head increases it. A planet conjunct the Tail was thought to be weakened, or to bring loss in its matters — though with a malefic the Tail could also lessen the harm. Like the North Node, the South Node rules no sign, holds no essential dignity and casts no aspects of its own.
How it is read
Modern astrologers usually read the South Node as the familiar end of the axis: skills, habits and ways of being that come naturally, sometimes described as inherited or carried from earlier in life. These are real strengths, but leaning on them too heavily can keep a person from the growth the North Node invites. The reading is one of balance rather than rejection: the South Node is a resource to draw on and, where it has become a rut, something to loosen.
A South Node in the 7th, for instance, inclines toward ease in partnership and adapting to others, with the North Node in the 1st inviting a person to stand more on their own.
In transit
When the transiting South Node crosses a natal planet or angle, it is often read as a time of release: a matter connected with that planet winds down, simplifies or is let go, making room for what follows. Eclipses falling near the South Node are traditionally associated with endings and clearing.