The Descending or South Node in Western Astrology is associated with family ties/bias/beliefs/upbringing/past lives/inherited traits/talents and skills brought over from past lives.  The South Node may show an area of life where the person is proficient, but yet where little further growth will occur; the person’s “comfort zone.”

The Ascending or North Node in Western Astrology represents an unfamiliar territory to the individual where further development, although difficult and challenging , represents a great soul opportunity for growth and thus a key life opportunity for fulfillment and increased life satisfaction.

The challenge is not to leave  the South Node behind but to achieve a balance between the two, whereby the experience gained at the South Node can be used to further develop the themes represented by the North Node.

There has also been some suggestion that the South Node theme may be associated with something in an individual’s life that is an obsession and thus an  insecurity  because it so very much represents what is desired in the life. Success  in the area represented by the South Node can then again only be met through work focused on balancing the qualities of the nodes, in this case working on the qualities of the opposite sign (the North Node position).