This understanding of the South Node comes primarily from Evolutionary Astrology as taught by Jeffrey Wolf Green. EA sees the natal chart as a map of the Soul's evolutionary goals for this life, within the context of many lifetimes.

About the South Node

The South Node and North Node are the Nodes of the Moon. To understanding the Lunar Nodes, it’s essential to understand the nature and function of the Moon itself.

The Moon carries the emotional imprints from our early childhood. These are mostly unconscious, but they set up our "safety zone"—what feels familiar, comfortable and safe. (Even if your childhood was objectively unsafe, that lack of safety will feel familiar to you.)

The South Node is like the Moon of the Soul. It represents the identity structure of our prior life, as well as relevant emotional imprints (karma). It shows what we have become familiar and comfortable with.

By "relevant", I mean we don't work on every bit of our Soul evolution in every lifetime. We pick a particular set of circumstances and identity to play out certain themes in order to evolve on a Soul level.

Think of your entire lifetime and ego structure as the "car" your Soul is driving to get to its destination (i.e. evolving in a particular way). Part of this car includes the past life emotional imprints that are relevant to the current life's lessons. The South Node, by sign and house, its ruler, and all aspects to both, show the relevant past life context. (See the Karmic Axis report for more). So essentially the South Node shows the past life "car" that you were using before, and that your Soul is used to driving around in. It's comfortable and familiar, but we are meant to learn how to drive a new car in this life (North Node) in order to learn and evolve in new ways.

Your South Node is how you have known yourself (your prior identity). Pluto is why you chose that identity structure in prior lives. (See Pluto section below).

The South Node is neutral information

There is often a question of what we should do with the South Node. Are we meant to move away from it, leave it behind? Or does it represent gifts we can use in this life?

To answer this, think of your own past in this life. Should you move away from it? Are there gifts in it? It depends on what your life has been like, and it's likely both. It's not so much that you need to ignore it, or avoid it—in fact, you may need to grapple with it and resolve issues related to it. At the same time, there are likely things you have learned that are still useful to you as you move forward. Other things you may be done with, and feel ready to release in order to explore new territory. On the flip side, there is a danger that if you stick too much with what is known and familiar, you will be avoiding your own growth.

The South Node just describes what happened. There is no value judgement to it. It's up to you to figure out if there is karma left to resolve, and what about your past you want to let go of or continue to utilize. The main danger is stagnation—resisting the North Node because it is unfamiliar and the opposite of the strategies you are used to relying on. The more difficult your South Node experiences were, the more likely you will cling to your comfort zone.

Pluto’s relationship with the Nodes

In Evolutionary Astrology, Pluto and its polarity point (the house/sign opposite Pluto’s house/sign) represent the Soul's evolutionary intention, and the South Node represents how your Soul has been living out that intention in prior lives. The North Node represents what will help it learn in this life.

You can complete the following sentences to get an idea of how this works in your life:

• In past lives, my Soul was learning (Pluto's sign/house) through (SN's sign/house) experiences, which now feel like a comfort zone for me. I know how to meet my (Pluto's sign/house) desires through (SN's sign/house) strategies.
• In this life my Soul wanted to evolve by integrating (Pluto's polarity point sign/house). The more I resist that, the more I will experience (NN's sign/house) confrontations that force me to integrate that lesson. Ultimately, I will more deeply understand (Pluto's sign/house) through these confrontations that force the integration of the polarity point.

If you have a planet at Pluto's polarity point, that will emphasize it and give you more clues as to your evolutionary situation.

Evolution and resistance

Pluto doesn't have to involve confrontations and dramatic situations, but it's more likely if you have hard aspects to Pluto. Resistance and confrontations to our resistance are mostly an unconscious process. You may not really see how it has played out until you look back and realize what you have been forced to learn due to decisions you felt compelled to make. That's how Pluto feels a lot of the time.

It’s not necessary to consciously try to evolve. Evolution generally just means "experiencing your life". You will naturally evolve by living.

Usually people start studying this system because their evolutionary process is painful. That is due to attachments, which create resistance. In that case, the best thing to do is to try to release your resistance and be willing to evolve.

Here are some intentions/prayers to release resistance:

• I intend to see the truth of this situation
• I want to see the truth more than I want to keep my attachments
• I don't know how to let go, but I am willing to
• I am ready to let go of this pattern; please show me how

Planets squaring the Nodes

If you have planets squaring the Nodes (which represent "skipped steps"), this means you've done both Nodes before and they may both feel familiar (or you may have resistance to both, depending on how your prior lives have gone). In this life you are always meant to continue to evolve through the North Node, but if you have skipped steps, you also need to resolve these.

To figure out which Node you will be resolving a skipped step through, imagine your natal chart on the ground and stand on your skipped step planet, looking inward to the center of the chart. The Node to your left is the one you will resolve your skipped step through.

I used to think I had to do something resolve my skipped steps but the process will actually play out by itself (after all, most people don't even know they have nodes, and they are evolving just fine). You don't have to do anything special, but if you want to speed up the process, just be wiling to release resistance (see above) and cooperate with your life path.

Your life really belongs to your Soul and will unfold according to your Soul’s goals and evolutionary curriculum. You, as a human trying to make sense of it, are kind of just along for the ride. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The South Node in synastry

If you have a strong connection with someone and you have South Node contacts, it's likely you knew each other in prior lives. That would not be true with everyone—only with people you've actually met and have some kind of connection with. (Meaning, don't go look up celebrity charts and do synastry on them and convince yourself you've had a past life with your celebrity crush. That's not how it works. If someone is meant to be in your life, they will show up in it.)

If you or your partner have a planet squaring the other person’s nodal axis, that represents a skipped step from prior-life relationships that you need to work out in this life. For example, Mars squaring the partner's nodes could indicate violence in a prior life that could show up as distrust in this life.