The end of the axis you already know
The south node is where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic going south. It sits exactly opposite the north node, and neither is ever read without the other.
The convention is straightforward: whatever the south node touches is something you can already do. That is why it becomes a difficulty rather than an asset. Competence you did not have to build is competence you retreat into.
Why it is not simply what to abandon
A great deal of writing treats the south node as a bad habit to be given up in favour of the north node. That reading is too simple and produces advice nobody can follow.
The more useful framing is that the south node is a resource with a cost attached. It works, which is exactly the problem: under pressure you will reach for it, and reaching for it postpones the harder thing the north node describes.
People who abandon their south node entirely tend to lose the competence without gaining the direction. The practical version is using it deliberately rather than defaulting to it.
The house is the reading
The nodes spend about eighteen months in a sign, so everyone born within a year and a half of you shares your nodal signs. The houses are yours and need a birth time.
South node in the tenth describes someone who retreats into public achievement; in the fourth, into family and privacy. Same signs, opposite defaults, and the house is what tells you which.
Aspects, and why they are listed against the north node
Because the two nodes are exactly opposite, every aspect to one is an aspect to the other. A planet conjunct the south node is opposite the north node, and a square hits the axis whichever end you measure from.
Listing both would print every contact twice. The calculator lists them against the north node, and the note on the page explains how to read a south node conjunction from that list.
Past lives, and doing without them
The south node is traditionally read as inheritance from a previous life. You do not have to accept that for the placement to work.
The mechanics are identical if you read it as material formed before you could examine it: family patterns, early conditioning, competence absorbed rather than chosen. What the placement describes is skill you did not earn in this life, and both explanations produce the same reading.
The past life calculator takes the karmic framing further and reads the twelfth house alongside the axis.
True node or mean node
The nodes wobble as the Sun perturbs the Moon's orbit, giving two measurements. The mean node smooths the motion; the true node tracks the instantaneous position and occasionally moves forwards.
They differ by up to about a degree and a half, enough to change the sign near a boundary. This calculator uses the true node and says so, since tools disagree and the discrepancy confuses anyone comparing results.
Without a birth time
The sign and degree come from the date alone, since the nodes move slowly. What you lose is the house, and for this placement that is most of the personal reading, because the signs are shared so widely.
Common questions
What does the south node describe?
Something you can already do without remembering how you learned it. That is why it becomes a default rather than an asset.
Should I give it up?
No, and advice that says so is unusable. It is a resource with a cost: it works, so you reach for it under pressure, and that postpones the harder thing the north node describes.
Do I have to believe in past lives?
No. The mechanics are identical if you read it as family pattern or early conditioning. Both explanations produce the same reading.
Why are aspects listed against the north node?
Because the two are exactly opposite, so every contact to one is a contact to the other. Listing both would print everything twice.
Do you use the true or mean node?
The true node. The two differ by up to about a degree and a half, which is enough to change the sign near a boundary.
Do I need a birth time?
For the sign, no. For the house, yes, and that matters here because the signs are shared with everyone born within about eighteen months of you.