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South Node and Pallas · the strategy already known
South Node in aspect to Pallas
Pallas works things out and the South Node has been doing it since childhood, so being the clever one is now a reflex rather than a choice. Problems are solved before they are felt, and situations that call for something other than a solution are handled with one anyway. The role was almost certainly assigned early — the sensible one, the one who could be relied on to think — and it has never since been possible to be anything else in front of the people who assigned it.
What each body brings
| South Node | the familiar, what is released |
|---|---|
| Pallas | pattern recognition and strategy |
The soft aspects (trine or sextile)
With a trine or a sextile the old competence is simply useful. The person designs, plans and negotiates without effort and does not need credit for it. Nothing here forces a re-examination, which is comfortable and is the only real drawback. It is one of the more comfortable inheritances a chart can carry and asks nothing in return.
The hard aspects (square or opposition)
Under a square or an opposition the reflex turns counterproductive. Analysis is deployed where presence was wanted, and the accuracy makes it worse rather than better. Not solving it is the discipline being asked for, and it feels to this configuration like withholding rather than like restraint. Presence is what was wanted, and it cannot be supplied in the form of a better plan.
The conjunction
Conjunct, working things out is the default. It is a considerable inheritance, and it can go a whole life without being asked whether the thing in front of it is a problem at all. Asking whether the thing in front of them wants solving is a question that has to be introduced from outside.
Reading it in a chart
The orb settles how strongly this shows: a contact within a degree is a defining feature of a chart, one at the edge of the orb is a colouring. The signs the two planets occupy change the manner, the houses change the arena, and a third planet touching either of them can change the reading entirely.