Mercury sextile South Node

What these two are about together

Thinking and what is already known. Associated with fluency in something learned long ago, and with the difference between knowing a subject and still being curious about it.

What a sextile does

A sextile is traditionally read as opportunity rather than event. The two planets are in compatible elements and can work together easily, but the tradition is specific that a sextile describes something available rather than something that arrives. It is the aspect most often described as a door that is unlocked and still shut.

How it reads

The old knowledge is genuinely useful. Associated with being the person who already knows.

In practice

Reads as ease that is not automatic. Where a trine tends to be used without thinking, a sextile tends to be noticed and then either taken up or left alone.

What to watch for

Nothing happening. A sextile that goes unused is the most common way this aspect is experienced, and it is not a failure of the aspect.

The two planets

Mercury: Mind, language and how you process

South Node: What comes easily, and what you hide in

Mercury and South Node at other angles

• Mercury conjunction South NodeTwo bodies at the same degree, acting as one
• Mercury semi-sextile South NodeThirty degrees apart: neighbouring signs, with little in common
• Mercury semi-square South NodeForty-five degrees apart: half a square, and read as half its weight
• Mercury quintile South NodeSeventy-two degrees apart: a fifth of the circle, and the odd one out
• Mercury square South NodeNinety degrees apart: two things that will not sit still together
• Mercury trine South NodeA hundred and twenty degrees apart: the same element, working together
• Mercury sesquiquadrate South NodeA hundred and thirty-five degrees: a square and a half
• Mercury quincunx South NodeA hundred and fifty degrees apart: two things that cannot be compared
• Mercury opposition South NodeDirectly across the chart: two ends of one axis