Reflections on Pisces, The Fishes
Day 3 of 12 Holy Nights
“It is those who get lost who find the new ways.”
-Nils Kjaer
As a mutable water sign, Pisces is the most changeable place in the zodiac. Water shifts and flows, expanding to fill available surfaces. It is deceptively beautiful and dangerously powerful. While it feels gentle and soft to the touch, water moves mountains. When the environment changes, and temperatures fluctuate, water changes with it - solid, liquid, or vapor.
When astrologers write about Pisces, it’s no surprise that they use words like inconstancy, unreliability, escapism, and altered states. It’s also associated with sleep, dreams, and the subconscious. Planets in Pisces can stimulate imagination and subtle connections that span the gamut from creative and artistic vision to illusion, delusion, and deception.
In August, I visited a friend’s beachfront home on the Pacific coast of southern Mexico. It was a remote location, next to an estuary and bird sanctuary. The host shared, “I never get tired of this view. It’s different every day.”
And it was. Every morning, the shape of the beach shifted as waves molded and carved it overnight. One day, the seas would be dark and rough; the next day, they would be transparent and smooth.
At sunset, birds flocked overhead, aiming southward to the trees. A few minutes later, the bats followed. The days had a rhythm, though the landscape and patterns shifted and swirled. I imagined what it might be like to stay in that place for a season or a year and experience the cycles of change. To know it intimately and still wake each day with wonder.
Is this what compels us to go to the beach and invest in houses near the shoreline? Why do people live on the brink of watery disaster even while rational logic would argue the foolishness of such a move? Something about the vast horizon, the rhythm of the waves, and maybe even our smallness in comparison, calls to the human spirit.
None of the planets in my birth chart are in Pisces, yet I’ve learned to love the sign and even aspire to it. Why?
In classical astrology, Jupiter rules Pisces, while modern astrologers assign it to Neptune. Neptune has been moving through Pisces since 2012. Maybe the gas giant pulled my attention to the sign, demanding my devotion? Passing through Pisces, it plays tug-of-war with my natal planets in Virgo (Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto) and forms a flowing trine with the Scorpio gang (Mercury, Venus, and Neptune).
Pisces calls me to put time in my schedule for rest, reflection, and daydreaming.
“It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
―Gertrude Stein
The Moon (card 18) is associated with Pisces in tarot decks. I first noticed the undulating wave pattern on the Thoth card. It evokes the feeling of gazing into the ocean, to a place of timelessness, another dimension. It’s a gateway to the imaginal realm.
Saturn rules the first decan of Pisces, and it’s an odd combo when the planet of hard work and discipline comes to a fluctuating, non-committal place. The tarot card associated with it is the 8 of Cups, labeled Indolence. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “an inclination to laziness; sloth.” Looking up sloth gets a bit more descriptive, as “disinclination to action or labor or spiritual apathy and inactivity.” Planets enter Pisces to slow down, rest, and turn their back on productivity demands.
Jupiter is the Decan II ruler, and the tarot card is the 9 of Cups. Labeled as Happiness, this is the sweet spot of personal fulfillment. Jupiter encourages indulgence, after all. Just give in. Sit. Dream. Build castles in the air.
The final decan is Mars-ruled, and the 10 of Cups is called Satiety. Merriam-Webster defines satiety as the “quality or state of being fed or gratified to or beyond capacity.” Mars doesn’t like boredom and wants action. It’s time to get up and get moving again.
“I met god this afternoon, riding on an uptown train
I said, "don't you have better things to do?"
he said, "if I do my job, what would you complain about?"
so I let it go to hell, now I have something to do
I said, "I let it go to hell, " does that sound familiar to you?
everything falls apart
then I get to try to put it back together
yeah, it falls apart
you can count on that, count on that”
- Lyrics from Everything Falls Apart, 1995 song by Dog’s Eye View
Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear how Pisces transits show up for you.
Tomorrow, into the fiery heat of Aries!
XOXO,
Denise
Hi Denise,
I truely enjoyed your paper on Pisces. Very grounded and non judgemental way to look at this sign. Thank you.
Denise.... I was excited to read your reflections on Pisces... and this essay delivered! Especially this: "Planets enter Pisces to slow down, rest, and turn their back on productivity demands." I love my Pisces placements and the way it (especially the first decan) shows up in my chart. :) My planets are so busy otherwise, so it feels like my prayers are answered with this one line. My prayers? "Let there be ease."