Neptune or Pluto Conjunct South Node: Old Dreams and Deep Habits

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Here the outer planet sits on the other end of the axis: Neptune or Pluto no more than 8° from the South Node, and so opposite the North Node by the same amount. The free chart shows a short line to S.Node and a long one across the wheel to N.Node. Nodal astrology reads the South Node as the familiar side, a set of habits and talents that come easily and can turn into a comfort zone. A slow planet there is often described as a generation's inherited strength, something its members do well almost without trying, and also the place they tend to fall back on when the North Node's direction feels too new.

A noon chart for each day of 1900 to 2099 put Neptune on the South Node on 3,081 of 73,049 dates (4.22%) and Pluto on 3,318 (4.54%); one or the other on 6,344 dates, 8.7% of the sample. Leaving aside windows cut off by the edges of the sample, Neptune's 11 windows lasted 209 to 303 days and Pluto's 11 lasted 225 to 303 days, so each is shared by seven to ten months of births. The sign is shared too. For one person the contact gains weight through the house it occupies, which needs a birth time, and through aspects to the Sun, the Moon and the personal planets.

How it is often read

Neptune: an easy gift for the intangible. Astrologers often describe a native feel for mood, music, images or the suffering of others, a sensitivity that needs no training. The shadow side in this reading is drifting: escaping into fantasy, vagueness or self-sacrifice when concrete choices are due.

Neptune: practical aims on the far side. With Neptune opposite the North Node, the less practised direction is usually read as definite, worldly work in the North Node's sign, using the old sensitivity instead of hiding in it.

Pluto: crisis as familiar ground. A frequent description is someone who stays calm in upheaval, sees through pretence and knows how power works, because intensity feels like home. The risk is recreating crises or control games where none are needed.

Pluto: a lighter way forward. The North Node opposite Pluto is often read as an invitation to trust slower, plainer forms of change and to let others hold some of the power.

All of these are possible themes, not fixed outcomes. Node contacts are usually ranked below planetary aspects, and with a cohort sharing the placement, the personal story lies in houses and in ties to personal planets. The basics are in what the North Node and South Node mean.

The Node reaches Neptune first

As on the North Node, the Node passes each planet once per window, since neither Neptune nor Pluto ever moves backward as fast as the Node does. Neptune is always ahead of Pluto in zodiac order in these two centuries, so the backward-moving South Node meets Neptune first and Pluto later. The lag was 1.32 years for the meetings of 1916 and 1917, 2.3 to 3.0 years for the pairs from 1933 to 2036, and 5.56 years for those of 2083 and 2089.

Only at the very start of the period were the two planets close enough to share the South Node. An extra run with the same code over 1898 and 1899 shows Neptune's window opening on 16 May 1899, with the meeting on 15 August 1899 at 26°27' Gemini against a North Node at 26°29' Sagittarius, and Pluto joining on 18 September. From then until 24 February 1900 both were within 8° of a Gemini South Node. The 55 of those dates that fall in 1900 are the only ones in the 1900 to 2099 sample with Neptune and Pluto on the same Node at once. At London noon on 1 December 1899 the calculator has Neptune at 26°04' Gemini and Pluto at 15°49' Gemini, both retrograde, with the North Node at 20°46' Sagittarius and Saturn at 24°08' Sagittarius beside it. Pluto's own meeting came on 24 March 1900 at 14°48' Gemini. Gemini is ruled by Mercury and Sagittarius by Jupiter; the axis is described in North Node in Gemini or Sagittarius.

Later the gap between the two planets widened toward 60° and the long Neptune-Pluto sextile of 1941 to 2040, and the one not on the Node often sextiled it: Pluto was sextile the South Node on 1,075 of the 3,081 Neptune dates, and Neptune on 1,027 of the 3,318 Pluto dates, all in the windows from 1934 to 2036.

Short windows at eclipse time

Window length follows the Sun. Of the 22 complete South Node windows, the four with the Sun within 18° of the planet at the meeting, when Neptune or Pluto was moving forward near its conjunction with the Sun, lasted only 209 to 225 days, with 7 to 44 retrograde days. The eight with the Sun 90° or more from the planet ran 300 to 303 days, with 157 to 165 retrograde days. A Sun close to the planet on the South Node is also a Sun close to that Node, so the short windows fall in eclipse seasons.

Neptune's window of 7 October 1999 to 2 May 2000, 209 days, had only 7 retrograde days; Neptune turned direct on 14 October 1999 in the sample. The meeting came on 22 January 2000, with Neptune at 3°58' Aquarius and the North Node at 3°55' Leo at London noon, and the Sun at 1°46' Aquarius. A day earlier NASA lists a total lunar eclipse at 04:43 Universal Time on 21 January 2000; at London noon on 21 January the calculator has the Moon at 4°58' Leo on the North Node, opposite Neptune at 3°55' Aquarius by 1.05°, with the Sun at 0°45' Aquarius. A partial solar eclipse followed at 12:49 Universal Time on 5 February. For the first 69 dates of the window, to 14 December 1999, Uranus was on the same Aquarius South Node, as described in Uranus conjunct South Node. Aquarius has Uranus as its modern ruler and Saturn as its traditional ruler, and Leo is ruled by the Sun.

Pluto's shortest complete window, 30 April to 10 December 1952, lasted 225 days with 17 retrograde days. Pluto and the Node met on 17 August 1952 at 21°18' Leo against 21°18' Aquarius, with the Sun at 24°27' Leo. NASA lists a partial lunar eclipse at 19:47 Universal Time on 5 August and an annular solar eclipse at 15:13 Universal Time on 20 August; at London noon on 20 August the calculator has the Sun at 27°21' Leo and the Moon at 25°22' Leo, a few degrees past Pluto at 21°23' Leo. Neptune, at 19°31' Libra on the meeting date, was sextile the South Node by 1.78°.

Rulers on their own South Node

Pluto, modern ruler of Scorpio (Mars is the traditional ruler), sat on a Scorpio South Node from 21 September 1985 to 22 June 1986, 275 days, exact on 18 December 1985 at 6°33' Scorpio against a North Node at 6°32' Taurus. The Node moved back into Aries on 21 April 1986, so in the last two months the South Node was in late Libra, still within 8° of Pluto in early Scorpio. NASA lists four eclipses in the window, including the total solar eclipse of 12 November 1985 at 14:10 Universal Time; at London noon that day the calculator has the Sun at 20°03' Scorpio, the Moon at 18°39' Scorpio and Pluto at 5°18' Scorpio, 3.14° from the South Node. Taurus is ruled by Venus, and Pluto in Scorpio covers the sign.

Neptune, modern ruler of Pisces (Jupiter is the traditional ruler), had its Pisces South Node window from 27 April 2016 to 22 February 2017, 302 days, exact on 3 November 2016 with Neptune retrograde at 9°19' Pisces and the North Node at 9°19' Virgo. Neptune turned direct on 20 November in the sample, and the two stayed within 1° from 8 October to 23 November 2016, 47 days. For the first 207 dates, to 19 November, Saturn in Sagittarius squared both Neptune and the Nodes, a T-square with Saturn at the apex. At the annular solar eclipse of 1 September 2016, 09:06 Universal Time in NASA's list, the calculator has for London noon the Sun at 9°26' Virgo and the Moon at 10°22' Virgo near the North Node at 12°39' Virgo, Neptune at 10°39' Pisces opposite them, and Saturn at 10°04' Sagittarius squaring Neptune by 0.59°. The axis is described in North Node in Virgo or Pisces, and the sign in Neptune in Pisces.

With Saturn: 2019 and 2036

Pluto's 2018 to 2019 window in Capricorn, 20 December 2018 to 9 October 2019, exact on 28 March 2019, was shared with Saturn on the same South Node for 232 dates; Saturn conjunct South Node follows that year. The next Pluto window, calculated ahead, runs from 1 February to 28 November 2036, with the meeting on 20 May 2036 at 21°19' Aquarius against a North Node at 21°20' Leo and 39 days within 1°, from 3 May to 10 June. Saturn in Leo comes within 8° of the North Node on 19 May and stays until 25 August, opposite Pluto on all 99 of those dates. NASA's catalogue puts five eclipses inside the window.

Seeing it on your chart

Look for ♆ or ♇ next to S.Node with a short amber line, and a dashed red line from the same glyph to N.Node. The positions table should show the planet within 8° of the South Node's degree; the South Node is always exactly opposite the North Node. On 14.0% of the Neptune dates and 11.2% of the Pluto dates the planet and the South Node were in different signs, so compare degrees. Neptune and Pluto carry an R when retrograde at birth, the Nodes never.

If the birth time is blank, the chart is drawn for local noon as a reference point, not as a guess at your time, and the Ascendant, Midheaven and houses are left out. For this contact the hour hardly matters: 0.8% of Neptune dates and 0.7% of Pluto dates were the first or last day of a window. Which house holds the South Node and the planet can only be read from a known birth time. Try the free birth chart to see the lines.

Keep reading

• Neptune or Pluto conjunct North Node, the same pair on the growth end
• Neptune or Pluto square the Lunar Nodes
• Uranus conjunct South Node
• All aspect pages

To talk through a South Node Neptune or Pluto in the context of your whole chart, open Ask the Astrologist.