Your Past Life in Astrology – North Node

Your Past Life and the North Node

Happy International Astrology Day 2026. This is one of the most important gifts I can pass on to anyone who is interested in her or his horoscope.

If you are a Premium Member you’ll know your North Node sign at a glance.

The sign of your North Node shows your last incarnation. Which year was that? Look up the tables. As part of this special event for International Astrology Day you can also listen to my podcast about the nodes, here.

Who Were You?

For experienced astrologers, there is a choice here between the True Node or Mean Node. (The True North Node or the averaged Mean Node). They are called Lunar Nodes because they relate to the position of the Moon.

I always use the True Node. It’s listed in the first column. So, for example, if you were born with the North Node in Pisces, you may have had a past life when the True North Node was also in Pisces (below) So that was 24th May in the year 1001 until 21st November in the year 1002. (Good luck remembering that one).

Clues to Past Lives

Automatic love for, or dislike of, a particular country or culture. If you can’t stand South America and Mexico, you may have fought on the opposite side in a war.

Taste in clothes, interiors, art and objects – particularly if it’s unusual – may indicate a happy past life in a particular era. If you’re mad about retro 1970s gear, you may have passed over in the Seventies and never really left it.

Whenever you have transits to your North Node by slow-moving outer planets, or the transiting Nodes themselves, a familiar theme will turn up.

If, for example, you have a North Node in Cancer and South Node in Capricorn, or even a North Node in Capricorn and South Node in Cancer, you may leave home for work or university. Or you may leave work or university for home.

The Differences Between North and South Node

You’ll sometimes read that you should live out the qualities of your North Node sign and let go of the qualities of your South Node sign. This is based on the idea that the North Node is the Dragon’s Head and the South Node is the Dragon’s Tail, so you should never consume what you excrete.

This rather strange theory is not proven at all by real life. In fact, verified AA rated charts of well-known people show that they live out the qualities of both the North Node and South Node sign in their lifetime. Why? Because they have no choice.

The Nodes are Fated

The North Node and South Node are fated. They move backwards in time, never forwards. So they go backwards through the signs, from Pisces to Aquarius, not Pisces to Aries.

They show a knot, figure eight or ‘eternity’ symbol if you draw them.  And that’s how they roll. When the nodes transit, or travel, across your chart, you get stuck in patterns from 18 or 19 years before.

That’s because the last time a particular North Node or South Node cycle unfolded, there was karma left from that time. You owe, or are owed. There was never closure.

As you might expect, the ‘eternity’ loop of the North Node and South Node means they repeat backwards every 18 or 19 years right through recorded history.

This is why Zane Stein’s tables (calculated with Stephanie Johnson’s AstroGold) take you all the way back to the year 1000 or so.

The Twelve Signs in Time

The North Node in a particular sign shows a theme in your life that is back in this one. The South Node is always opposite, and automatically in the opposing zodiac sign.

So if you have the North Node in Pisces (Pis) then your South Node is in Virgo. This helps understand the past life theme or story.

It is extremely common for family members and partners to reincarnate with you, following a soul agreement, in your life – between lives. They will reflect the theme of your North Node sign.

North Node – Your Sign and Your Past Life

Pis (Pisces) – Religion, hypnosis, the subconscious mind, your health and wellbeing, your daily routine and duty to others, your solitude, your work ethic. Typical past life? A monk.
Aqu (Aquarius) – Brotherhood and sisterhood, the group, club, team, community, circle, association, society. Its leadership was central. Typical past life? An army unit and key captain.
Cap (Capricorn) – Ambition, mission, status, being at the top, patience, social mountaineering – the family background and homeland pulled against it. Typical past life? Self-made success.
Sag (Sagittarius) – Foreign languages and travel, emigration, refugees, academia, publishing. Communication themes. Siblings and cousins matter. Typical past life? Migrant.
Sco (Scorpio) – Sex, death and money in no particular order. Marriage and mortgage. Family inheritance and wills are central. Typical past life? A partner or relative and a property issue.
Lib (Libra) – Professional, platonic or personal partnership. Enemies, opponents and legal battles. Typical past life? A marriage which was also a business partnership. Possible divorce.
Vir (Virgo) – Health, wellbeing, fitness, mental health themes. Work ethic, service and duty themes. Religion or spirituality pushed against this. Typical past life? Chambermaid, butler.
Leo (Leo) – Heirs, spares and pretenders to the throne. The royal bedchamber and courtship (even if you were not royalty). The group mattered. Typical past life? Family firm patriarch.
Can (Cancer) – Family, home town, homeland, patriotism, roots, history, property, home. Pushing against this was success and ambition. Typical past life? Land owner, farmer.
Gem (Gemini) – Siblings and cousins were central. Language, writing, speech, communication themes. Short journey themes. Typical past life? Town crier, messenger, teacher, traveller.
Tau (Taurus) – Wealth or poverty themes are typical as is a lifetime spent with waves of Communism, Capitalism or Socialism. Typical past life? A Wall Street trader in the 1920s.
Ari (Aries) – Fighting, battling (as a gladiator or soldier), competing in sport, leading the emergency services. A partnership worked against this. Typical past life? Army man.

North Node Dates in Your Past Life History

The quick and easy way in, is to look up the TRUE NODES column, find your North Node sign (abbreviated) and note the years it operated. You can go right through the tables until you find a year you speculate may have been important to you in a past life. And only you know that. Some people have vivid dreams when they have found a likely year, that convinces them they were really there. All times GMT.

TRUE NODES                                                 MEAN NODES