South Node

south nohd

sanskrit: Ketu · latin: Cauda Draconis

Definition

The South Node is the point where the Moon's orbital path crosses the ecliptic — the Sun's yearly path — as the Moon moves from the northern to the southern half of the sky. It is a calculated point directly opposite the North Node, and the two share an axis that drifts slowly backward through the zodiac at about 19° a year, one full circuit in 18.6 years. It is one of the two points where eclipses occur. Across traditions it carries other names, including Cauda Draconis (Latin for "Dragon's Tail") and Ketu (Sanskrit).

In Tradition

In Hellenistic, medieval Latin, and modern Western practice the South Node is read as a point of release and outflow — letting go — the structural counterpart to the receptive North Node. Vedic Jyotish knows it as Ketu, a "shadow planet" tied to moksha, or spiritual liberation. Modern Western evolutionary astrology — Steven Forrest, Jan Spiller, Jeff Green — reads it as the pole of familiar, habitual patterns, set against the growth direction of the North Node.

In Practice

Astrologers find the South Node from the lunar nodal axis in an ephemeris — a table of positions — where the smoothed "mean node" and the moment-to-moment "true node" can differ by up to about 1.5°. Its sign and house show the area of life where you already feel competent and fall back on practiced responses — often the path of least resistance. In evolutionary readings, the contrast with the North Node sets up a developmental polarity. In horary and traditional practice the South Node is read as releasing or dissipating the meaning of any planet sitting with it, judged through sect-sensitive rules inherited from the Arabic tradition.

Historical Origin

The lunar nodes appear under the Sanskrit names Rahu and Ketu in classical Vedic texts, including the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. The Latin terms Caput Draconis and Cauda Draconis enter Western astrology through the medieval Arabic transmission of late-Hellenistic and Indian material; Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae (13th century) gives a sustained traditional Latin treatment. The Sanskrit-Greek-Arabic-Latin chain is one of the clearest cases of several traditions converging on a single technical point.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading