South Node
The South Node is the point where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic heading south, always exactly opposite the North Node. It represents ingrained tendencies, comfort zones and patterns carried from the past. Its gifts come easily — real talents live here — but staying anchored to them stalls development.
past, comfort zone, habits
Overview
Where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's, descending.
The South Node is the mirror gate of the eclipse axis — the crossing where the Moon heads south. Astrology reads it as the past tense of the chart: gifts already acquired, patterns already worn smooth.
Mythology
In the Vedic telling the South Node is Ketu, the severed body of the asura whose head became Rahu: a trunk without appetite, often drawn as a serpent's tail crowned with a flag — the part that has already consumed and now releases. Ketu is the significator of liberation: detachment, austerity, and the wisdom left over when desire has burned through. Medieval astrology called the point Cauda Draconis, the dragon's tail — the releasing, expelling end of the axis whose head devours.
Interpretation
The South Node is always exactly opposite the North Node, closing the eclipse axis. It represents ingrained tendencies, comfort zones, and patterns carried from the past — whether that past is understood literally, as previous lives, or symbolically, as early conditioning and inherited habit. What it marks comes easily: real talents live here, along with the temptation to retreat into them. Staying anchored at the South Node brings ease but stalls development; its gifts are meant to fund the journey toward the opposite point, not to replace it.