What Are My North and South Nodes? A Guide To Self-Discovery

The South Node/North Node placements in your natal chart can tell the best possible outcomes for your soul journey and self-discovery.

Your South Node/North Node placements are a revelation of why you’re here, in this particular timeline. The North Node represents the qualities you should embody to reach your highest potential. Meanwhile, the South Node is your soul’s history. It represents where you came from.

If you’re unsure what your North and South Node signs are, here’s an easy and free-to-use birth chart calculator where you can pull up your birth chart.

The South Node/ North Node Briefly Explained

These two Lunar Nodes are not celestial bodies or planets. Rather, they are the two points of the Moon as they move through the ecliptic. Hence, your North and South Nodes are calculated based on the location of the Moon’s orbital points or “coordinates” on the day you were born.

The nodes of the Moon move in retrograde and pass by the different zodiac signs and houses, taking about 18 years to make a complete cycle or nodal return. When the nodes return to where they were located when we were born, a shakeup of our core belief systems, relationships, and career paths could take place. A lot of times, unfinished business and unresolved trauma resurface during these nodal returns, which we could either run away from or face head-on.

In Vedic astrology, the North Node is Rahu, or the head of the dragon. The South Node, on the other hand, is Ketu, the tail. So, where the North Node rules aspirations, goals, and purpose, the South node is the patterns to break and karma to release.

Revealing Your Karmic Path

Because these two Lunar points in the natal chart reveal patterns and purpose, the sign where the nodes sit naturally reveals your karmic path. The North Node represents the lessons we have yet to learn and cycles to break. Whereas, the South Node discloses the important past life experiences that can help you transcend to a higher sense of self and transformation.

The North Node is your “destiny.” Meanwhile, the South Node represents the mistakes and the aspects where your soul fell short. To further explain, here are some examples of South Node/North Node characteristics to remember.

Examples Of South Node Traits

Aries South Node

People born with an Aries South Node were most likely to have lived a past life of power, ambition, and drive. Your individualistic nature may also have caused your downfall.

Think: Kings, political leaders, and conquerors.

In this lifetime, learn to embrace your vulnerability, create a community, and share your power with the world.

Scorpio South Node

A person with this Lunar node placement will have likely lived a past life filled with immense loss, grief, and trauma. In this life, Scorpio South Nodes tend to seek and attract the darker belly of life, which gives them a tendency to become toxic. Your life purpose will likely evolve around transmuting pain into power, and darkness into light.

Capricorn South Node

South Node in Capricorn’s life lesson to learn is to balance the head and heart. People with Capri Lunar Nodes likely have childhood wounds that cause them to be hypersensitive to rejection. So, they need to develop self-respect without external validation, have a good grip on their emotions during conflict, and learn to let go.

Gemini South Node

People born with this placement are witty and communicative but can also be tactless and a gossip. Their past lives may have given them natural charisma. However, Geminis’ mouth may have also gotten them into deep trouble.

So, your karma will most likely involve harsh lessons on the power of words, discernment, and keeping certain things sacred.

South Node in Sagittarius

Sagittarius North Nodes have that itch for traveling, exploring, and getting out of their comfort zone, almost always despising routine. This is most likely because their past lives forced them to stay still or limited.

In this life, you need to learn that consistency and stability are not bad things and that you don’t always have to run away from yourself.

Libra South Node

Libra South Nodes are breaking past life karma involving fickleness, and superfluity. In this lifetime, you are learning to be of service to others, standing up for the underdog, and pursuing altruistic ideals. Be a team player, and always remember that small, good things can make a big difference in the grand picture.

Examples Of North Node Traits

North Node in Aquarius

Aquarius North Nodes are all about advancement and uniqueness. As far as Aquarius is concerned, theirs is about changing the conventional (i.e. broken) systems of society. Aquarius are spiritually gifted, revolutionaries and innovators. If you have this placement, your life purpose will likely involve shaking up the status quo.

North Node in Pisces

Pisces North Nodes are intuitive daydreamers with lofty ideals. Pisces North Nodes most likely come from a structured, almost paralyzing past life environment. Their life purpose now is to flow. And they should share their creativity, compassion, and intuitive qualities with the world.

Taurus North Node

Anyone with this Lunar node is born to transform their lives into one filled with beauty, stability, luxury, and light. In this lifetime, Taurus South Nodes’ purpose is to learn to let go of attachments that no longer serve them. Create a life that sparks joy and brings you the most abundance.

Cancer North Node

North Node in Cancer was born to be surrounded by loving, nurturing, and caring people. They are here to establish strong family roots and create balanced, reciprocal relationships. After all, if your South Node is in Capricorn – it’s a placement with past karma of always being the one to carry all the burden. In this life, learn to balance out your masculine energy, and embrace the softness of life.

North Node in Leo

Leo is probably one of the best signs to have your North Node in, because this means you’re meant to have fun and let your light shine in this lifetime. With a South Node sign in Aquarius, this means you’ve lived your past lives of over-giving to others. In this lifetime, being the sacrificial lamb is over, and ruling the forest like a lion is the theme.

North Node in Virgo

Virgo North Nodes are some of the most hardworking and reliable people. Having a Pisces South Node, means you lived past lives pursuing spirituality and higher consciousness. Thus, your purpose now is to feel your body in the present moment. Practicality, self-awareness, and staying grounded are what will help you thrive today.

Knowing the characteristics of each zodiac sign as they fall into the South Node/North Node placements can be great guideposts to reaching a higher consciousness.

But at the end of the day, what matters most is not what you’re “supposed to be” according to your South or North Node, but the choices we make as we navigate through life.