Meaning
The South Node is the descending node: the point where the Moon crosses the ecliptic going south. It is always exactly 180° from the North Node, so it moves with it, backwards round the zodiac in 18.61 years, and shares its sign pair and its house axis. Eclipses fall near either node.
Lilly in 1647 gives it its old names, "The Dragons Taile Catabibazon", the counterpart of the Head, which he calls Anabibazon. He reports the ancients' opinion that the Tail is feminine and "cleane contrary to the Head", and adds his own experience that it makes the malefic planets worse. The medieval lists gave the Tail an exaltation at 3° of Sagittarius, opposite the Head's in Gemini.
A modern reading
Modern astrology often reads the South Node as what is familiar or already learned, a comfortable groove, and some schools as a past to be left behind. That reading is about a century old, not traditional, and we never present the past-life version as fact. Nor is the South Node bad luck: the old label of "contrary" is history.
In our chart
We list the South Node in the points table, labelled as the true node's opposite, and do not draw it on the wheel. It takes no aspects: before October 2026 every chart printed "North Node opposition South Node, exact", which is true by definition and told no one anything, so the owner retired it. The mean South Node is also computed, up to about 2° from the true one, and the Jyotisha chart uses it as Ketu, one of the nine grahas, with a Vimshottari period of seven years.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Definition
- The descending node, always opposite the North Node sourced
- Medieval nature
- Feminine and "cleane contrary to the Head" (Lilly, 1647, giving the ancients' opinion) sourced
- Medieval exaltation
- 3° of Sagittarius, opposite the Head's in Gemini; not in Ptolemy disputed
- Mean South Node
- Also computed, up to about 2° from the true one sourced
- Modern reading
- What is familiar or already learned; in some schools a past to leave behind. About a century old, not traditional sourced
- Our aspect policy
- No aspects, since the owner's decision of 2026-10-11 our construction
How the schools read it
- Lilly (1647)
- The Dragon's Tail, contrary to the Head; in his own experience it made the malefics worse.
- Medieval lists
- Exalted at 3° of Sagittarius, as the Head at 3° of Gemini.
- Modern Western
- The familiar, the already learned; past-life readings are a twentieth-century addition.
- Jyotisha
- Ketu, a graha with its own Vimshottari period of seven years.
- EsoTerrier
- Listed with no aspects; never read as bad luck.
Claims about it
-
The "true" node and the "true" Lilith are the accurate ones.
disputedWhat the record shows: "True" means osculating, from the Moon's orbit at one instant. The true and mean nodes are both conventions, up to about 2° apart; the osculating apogee swings about 30° around the mean. We show the true node and the mean Lilith, labelled.
