South Node in Scorpio, North Node in Taurus: A Skull Crowned with Roses

“Apparition II” by Odilon Redon, a Taurus sun conjunct Mars — an artist who merges Mars and Venus, like Scorpio north node/Taurus south nodes are learning to do. With dreamy butterflies against ghostly apparitions and abstractions of fright, this is a painting for this node combination to meditate on.

Natal Scorpio South Node

Scorpio south nodes have a tendency to ravage others in search of truth, hidden motives, something to pin inborn fear and jealousy onto. Finding something or someone that will validate your ultimately baseless and seemingly innate jealousy, fear of betrayal and hurt, and tendency toward relentless and often unnecessary defense is a primary driving force within you. It’s as if the south node in Scorpio is a searchlight looking for people and scenarios that will say to you, “Yes, you were right all along – you are not safe, you are not valuable because no one will ever see your value, and no one can be trusted, so wall yourself up in that castle, dig the moat deeper, build the walls thicker,” because if something in the outside world confirms these deep-rooted fears, that means you are right and you don’t have to change.

Scorpio is, in fact, a fixed sign – they fixate, sustain, and aim to prove. Because it is ruled by Mars – the planet that when expressed in its more challenging ways fixates on processes of lopping off, separations, and stressors – the south node in Scorpio is like the repeated, sustained slice of the scalpel; a surgical removal of anything that looks like “danger”, not just once, but on a daily basis; your scalpel always sharp and ready to go. You are the machete that slices through the thick forests that you imagine conceal all manner of secret treachery, and you don’t stop until the whole forest has been razed. You’re the stinger of the Scorpion’s tail, always raised high, glistening with venom. You have the relentlessness of both Mars and fixity. You may pride yourself on your ability to survive brutal circumstances, but that pride is not without a strong dose of resentment, and it never really feels empowering. And to the south node in Scorpio, this is the only possible way to live. No alternatives exist for you.

This is not true. There is another way. The alternatives are endless, in fact. Not everybody lives this way, and it’s not because there isn’t just as much potential for danger and pain awaiting them. Many others are just less likely to fixate on the danger. For Scorpio south nodes there is a natural draw to consistent instability, but you are destined to explore the alternatives.

“The Dream of Butterflies” by Odilon Redon

Natal Taurus North Node

With the south node in Scorpio comes the north node in Taurus; the nodes are always in exact opposition to one another and thus represent a polarity we are learning to balance. Most often, we begin life leaning toward the south node, and as time goes on we bounce back and forth between the two, like a pendulum swinging wildly.

Scorpio south node attempts to keeps itself safe by scanning for danger. The north node in Taurus knows that safety doesn’t grow from fixation on turmoil, destruction, danger, and all that is hidden. Instead, Taurus—ruled by Venus—fixates on creating opportunity for pleasure and wellness. It enjoys the simple pleasures in life – art, food, sex, the Earth. It tends to its own garden, planting seeds that will feed us long into the future. Taurus is slow, deliberate, and moves with the pace of the earth. With the north node in Taurus, you’re learning stability, slowness, patience. Expelling the least amount of energy for the greatest result, but never cutting corners; nothing good comes quickly and nothing momentary will suffice – always and in every area of life you are looking for something sustainable (Taurus is a fixed sign too), something that will not disappear, something that can be relied upon. People will hurt you. You will lose, and you will experience betrayal and humiliation. But as a Taurus north node, you are not to respond to the pain that is inherent in every human life by creating a shell, hiding, or living in near-constant fear and defense, enclosing yourself in your tower. Instead, you have a unique opportunity to lean toward an unseen alternative – creation, self-love, earthly pleasures, and inner stability.

From “The Temptation of St. Anthony,” by Gustave Flaubert (Scorpio rising and Mercury), illustrated by Odilon Redon (again, Taurus sun and Mars):

Lust: "My rage equals thine! I also yell; I bite! I, too, have sweats of agony, and aspects cadaverous!"

Death: "It is I that make thee awful! Let us intertwine!"

(Death laughs mockingly; Lust roars. They clasp each other about the waist, and chant alternately):

"I hasten the dissolution of matter!"

"I facilitate the dispersion of germs!"

"Thou dost destroy for my renovations!"

"Thou dost engender for my destructions!"

"Ever-active my power!"

"Fecund, my putrefaction!"

(And their voices, whose rolling echoes fill the horizon, deepen and become so mighty that Anthony falls backward as if thunder-stricken. A shock from time to time causes him to reopen his eyes; and he perceives in the midst of the darkness a manner of monster before him.

It is a skull, crowned with roses, dominating the torso of a woman nacreously white. Below, a shroud starred with specks of gold forms something like a tail; and the whole body undulates, after the fashion of a gigantic worm erect on end.

The vision attenuates,—disappears.)

Anthony (rising to his feet): "The Devil yet again, and under his two-fold aspect: the spirit of fornication, and the spirit of destruction. Neither affrights me! I repel happiness; and I know myself to be eternal. Thus death is only an illusion, a veil-masking betimes the continuity of life.”

Balancing Natal North Node in Taurus with the South Node in Scorpio

Taurus and Scorpio represent two crucial parts of the life-death cycle. Scorpio is the breaking down of that which has died, generating fertilizer from the rot of the past. Taurus puts that fertilizer to use by growing a flourishing garden that will last, perhaps literally, but certainly figuratively.

With the north node in Taurus and south node in Scorpio, you are here to feel reverence for death while choosing, endlessly, day after day, to embrace life. You are working together with other Taurus north nodes to bring into balance life and death, in and out, light and dark, and unite these opposites in the name of love and art. Taurus and Scorpio are the earth writhing in passion every spring and fall, dripping flowers and brilliant leaves, each season with its own unique, intoxicating scent. It’s passion for the cycles of life that unites these two opposites and we can blend the two together, especially in the art we make to reflect reality. You are intimately aware that what lives will one day die and what dies will one day feed life; you’re in touch with the frank reality that everything we consume will eventually be returned to the earth, until we are returned to the earth ourselves. As a Taurus north node/Scorpio south node, you have to remember that despite the endless cycling of time, the loss, the decay, and the pain, there are pure, bare, earthly delights right here and heaven is ours to create, as a world, if we want it. The earth is a blessed paradise that we are lucky to have, and it deserves to be cared for like a lover. The earth isn’t separate from us. We are the earth, and our relationships, our senses, and art make life worth living – these are truths worth knowing.

While Scorpio is identified with psychology, Taurus is connected to somatics. Though it is unfamiliar, there is immense wisdom to be found in the Taurus north node for embracing the body and moving through emotion and trauma by way of the body. It is very, very much worth considering body-centered healing modalities (as opposed to exclusively psychological ones), embodiment practices, and a more holistic, wellness-focused approach to mental health. You are an agent of change (a true gift of the Scorpio south node), learning to release pain and turmoil in the name of greater pleasure. 

Your north node in Taurus is saying, “We can’t barricade ourselves inside of a castle encircled by a moat and expect other people to fight off our army, swim the moat, break down the door and climb the tower just to stick by us, or to prove themselves worthy of our love.” Safety does not grow from fear, nor does it grow from defense. It grows from inner security, knowing that you will be okay either way. It is by focusing on wellness and this kind of self-trust that the key to successful, long-lasting relationships and a genuinely pleasurable life arise. Until you choose to be the source of your own stability, it may feel like everyone you love leaves, like you are trapped in a constant cycle of love and loss. Betrayal haunts you. You lose everything over and over and your trust in others is whittled away little by little. Everything you touch turns to ash. Your relationship with sex is strained, unhealthy, or overdone. It’s through the process of caring for your body, experiencing small pleasures, making art, focusing on your own long-term wellness, and finding inner stability that the things you’ve always wanted begin to fall into place. When they come, resist the urge to shift or project your center of security onto those things. It is you who is a place of safety. For yourself and others, you are an anchor and a home base.

Let the south node in Scorpio and the north node in Taurus come together by embracing the wild unknown, and making it known without caging or domesticating it. Growing safety and trust in yourself and with others, slowly, from the ground up, knowing all the while that when the pain does come, you. will. be. okay. Taurus, ruled by Venus, can seem flowery but it is not weak or shallow. It’s firm moss, deep earth, steady old trees, dependable perennials. You awaken and say, like a mantra, “The world that grows around me and that I’ve created for myself is so rich and abundant that I have nothing to fear. I have everything I need. I may be hurt, betrayed or abandoned, but I know that I will be well anyway.” You are the cycle of growth and decay, embodying just as much life as death.