At the start of March, four of the ten major astrological planets were in Pisces, and with Jupiter in Scorpio, the celestial energies were swollen with the water element. By the time of the Pisces New Moon on March 17th, Mercury and Venus have moved on to Aries, re-distributing the elemental balance in the skies. With the Sun having recently moved through a conjunction with Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, the archetypal expression of the twelfth sign has been especially strong. The mythology of Neptune is linked with the ocean--waters so vast, deep, and powerful that humans have more easily stepped foot on the surface of the Moon than the ocean floor! Yet, despite this apparent inhospitality, it remains the primordial waters from which all life on Earth originated. The last sign of the zodiac, Pisces encompasses the potentiality of void as source.
This dual nature is emblematic of the Pisces archetype, as evidenced by its glyph of two outward-facing crescents attached and intersected by a horizontal line. This is not the microcosmic duality of human consciousness as represented by Gemini, but the macrocosmic duality that underpins the manifestation of Spirit as Earth. Digging further, we find the symbol for the sign is embedded in its name. Meaning “fishes,” Pisces is represented by two fish facing opposite directions. This deliberate opposition indicates the philosophical essence of the symbol--the concept of a visible duality existing within a hidden unity. Though the fish may oppose, they still swim within the same sea. Fittingly, it is the Mutable Water sign of the zodiac, and this combination of its adaptable modality and its intuitive element makes Pisces arguably the most sensitive of all the signs, most receptive to the signals traveling through the psychic sea.
For all its connection to the ocean, there is a quality of Pisces that is yet more cosmic. While the energy of its traditional ruler, Jupiter, is expansive, the energy of Neptune is diffuse, meaning its nature is to disseminate itself evenly across a given space. Water will always yield to gravity and find its level, but with the influences of Jupiter and Neptune, the Piscean influence often operates more like a fog--water in its most ephemeral form. Fog can be felt, but not touched. Fog exposes the hidden folds in the topography of the surrounding landscape, but also obscures the path immediately before us. In the way it diffuses the light, fog reveals to us the true nature of our senses--that they are limited, that they can be confounded, and therefore, they require our heartfelt discernment.
In Pisces, we have come full circle in the archetypal wheel, the point in one’s life journey where one prepares to shed the mortal form and reunite with Source. As the body ages, we lose the sharpness of our external senses, and through this experience we are compelled to atone with the quiet stirrings within us, the internal compass which has guided us throughout our lifetime, but were we to listen. This wisdom of experience serves to heightened one’s inner awareness to better hear these promptings, to resolve and redeem the mistakes and missed opportunities garnered along the way, as we prepare to end this life’s journey. Opposed to the analytical Virgo, this Piscean awareness does not demand an incisive intellectual focus, but rather is compassionately holistic. The motto for Pisces is I believe, suggesting the Great Mystery of Life and Death is too vast a concept for the human mind to dissect and categorize. At the threshold of Death, the path ahead is not clear. The blurring of certainty throws what we know into contrast with what we do not, and in the absence of knowledge, it is faith that carries us through.
A key concept for Pisces, therefore, is transcendence. Authentic attunement with the Great Mystery is to make the miraculous manifest, but, like the ocean, it is a way so vast and deep that we often do not learn to navigate this wisdom until old age. Of all the signs, Pisces is least yoked to the material plane. It is an energy that sensitizes the individual to one’s own spiritual nature, but that also leaves one susceptible to deception, illusion, insanity, and other mis-manifestations through the subtle realms. Transits through this sign stimulate one’s emotional nature, and heighten receptivity to psychic phenomenon and insights from the dreamworld.
To be able to ride its surface with grace, any surfer will extol the necessity of respecting the ocean and her power, which can be deceptive in its ferocity. Although Pisces season can be exciting with the richness of its energetic landscape, a certain maturity is required to handle the corresponding swelling tides of one’s internal emotional ocean. This new moon in particular will be challenged by its conjunction with Chiron, a lesser astrological body that is associated with one’s archetypal “wound.” Additionally, a square to Mars in Sagittarius will increase the tension. With no planets in Air signs, communication may be at a minimal, further frustrating one’s ability to express the profound feelings stirred up by this moon.
Respect the power of your own emotions by learning to read their arrival as they ripple through your being. By identifying the patterns that accompany your different emotional states, you can learn to rise above them like the surfer riding the waves of the ocean. The sources of emotional pain are the places where one feels an internal void. In correspondence, the lessons of Pisces are often centered upon sacrifice, a ritual of releasing. It is through practicing this that we may restore our faith, accepting that fulfillment is measured only in self-love, and not by way of external validation.
What feels heavy in your life? Let it go, and allow your natural buoyancy to return. Yield to the flow, having faith that the currents are leading each along their necessary path. Mercury, the Messenger, conjunct Venus in Aries may be energized to the point of combativeness, and additionally frustrated by the lack of a clear channel communication. Like fish facing opposite directions, we can only see from our own perspective, but still we share the sea. Mind your heart. Has the path of integrity become lost in an emotional fog? Release the need to “speak your truth” if doing so would potentially hurt others. Listen instead, and rise above by believing in the power of compassion. Claim authority over your wound and its triggers. The void is source--perhaps the pain of what you felt you have been lacking is simply showing you the source of self-fulfillment. Once you feel it, you can heal it.
