The zodiac sign of Pisces (19 February – 20 March) is symbolised by the Fishes.
Pisces occupies a significant place within the wheel of the year, symbolising the transition from winter's quiet introspection to the awakening of spring's vitality. As the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac, Pisces embodies the culmination of a cycle, representing both endings and beginnings.
In the Northern Hemisphere, Pisces aligns with the final weeks of winter, a time when nature begins to stir. It serves as a bridge between the depths of winter's hibernation and the burgeoning life of spring. This period encourages reflection, introspection, and spiritual renewal as we prepare to emerge from the darkness into the light.
Pisces' influence encourages us to delve deep into the recesses of our subconscious, confronting unresolved emotions and embracing the wisdom gained from past experiences. It invites us to surrender to the flow of life, trusting in the unseen currents that guide us toward our true path.
Symbolised by two fish swimming in opposite directions, Pisces embodies duality and the interplay of opposing forces. It reminds us of the delicate balance between the conscious and unconscious mind, the material and spiritual realms, and the individual self and the collective consciousness.
As we swim through the waters of Pisces season, we are called to embrace empathy, compassion, and unconditional love. It is a time for forgiveness and healing. Through acts of kindness and selfless service, we can align with the higher vibrations of Piscean energy, transcending the limitations of the ego and connecting with the divine within ourselves and others.
Pisces heralds the approach of the vernal equinox, a time of rebirth, renewal, and the emergence of new life. It invites us to release the old and make way for the new, trusting in the inherent wisdom of nature's cycles.
As we bid farewell to Pisces and welcome the arrival of spring, we carry with us the lessons learnt and the blessings received during this introspective and transformative time. With hearts open and spirits renewed, we can look forward to the promise of growth, expansion, and infinite possibilities that lie ahead.
Pisces is located in the northern celestial hemisphere between Aquarius to the west and Aries to the east. Pisces is often depicted as two fish tied together by a cord, swimming in opposite directions.
While the astrological sign Pisces per definition runs from elliptical longitude 330° to 0°, this position is now mostly covered by the constellation of Aquarius, due to the precession from when the constellation and the sign coincided. Today, the First Point of Aries, or the vernal equinox is in the Pisces constellation.
There are no prominent stars in the constellation, with the brightest stars being of only fourth magnitude. One star in the constellation, Alpha Piscium, is also known as Alrescha which comes from Arabic, meaning "the well rope," or "the cord." It is a binary star system, consisting of two stars orbiting each other.
The Pisces constellation contains several deep-sky objects catalogued by Charles Messier, including the spiral galaxies M74 and M77. These galaxies are relatively faint and require a telescope to observe. In the direction of Pisces lies a mysterious gravitational anomaly known as the Great Attractor. It is a gravitational focal point in space that influences the motion of galaxies within our cosmic neighbourhood.
Within the Pisces constellation, there is a dwarf galaxy known as the Pisces Dwarf. It is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 80,000 light-years away from Earth. There are two meteor showers associated with Pisces: the Piscids and the Pegasids. These meteor showers occur annually and are visible from Earth during specific times of the year.
The glyph represents two fish swimming in opposite directions which shows the fluid nature of the sign.
"Pisces" is the Latin word for "Fishes". It is one of the earliest zodiac signs on record, with the two fish appearing as far back as c. 10,000 BCE in India where various images have been found carved into rocks at Ratnagiri, and c. 2300 BCE on an Egyptian coffin lid.
Later the Indus Valley civilisation used fish to symbolise the divine source of life. Fish that resemble the ichthys with little fins or wings can be seen on many Indus Valley seals. They appear to represent the soul of ancestors, connecting the idea of fish with the afterlife and the gods.
This connection is also found in the Nommo, the ancestral spirits of the Dogon who we met briefly in Gemini Myths. The Nommo were described as amphibious fish-like creatures and were depicted with human bodies and a fish-tail. They were the first beings to be created by the sky god Amma, who sacrificed one of them and dismembered his body, scattering the parts around the world.
As mentioned before this was an allegory for the Serpent Bloodline who visited these tribes to impart them with knowledge. When arriving on boats on the horizon, it seemed like they were floating down from the sky, and they had evolved from aquatic apes, and spent a lot of time in the water and on the water in their boats, which is why they are associated with merman and mermaid type creatures. The dismembering of his body parts is an allegory for when our tribes mixed our genes with that of land apes and spread their genes all over the globe.
In Serbia, statues and figurines of river goddesses have been found in a settlement called Lepenski Vir. Dated between 9,500 and 6,000 BCE, it’s described as the first city in Europe which thrived on the banks of the Danube River where the people fished. The egg-shaped statue is called ‘Foremother’ and may represent a primaeval Mother goddess, dating to c. 7,000 BCE. She has a fish-like mouth and stands about half a metre high and was built into the stone floor of a house shrine.
The Piscean is seen as the most balanced of all the signs. This is why the two fishes are often shown in a yin-yang formation. The fish facing upwards away from the ecliptic is swimming towards the heavens or is seeking spiritual illumination. The other fish swims along the ecliptic, concerning itself with material matters.
Pisces is used to represent the Goddess much further back into the past because of its association with the Vesica Piscis. The curved H of the Pisces symbol converts into the Vesica Piscis when the curved sides are crossed to the opposite side of the central arm. Vesica Piscis means ‘bladder of a fish.’ This is derived from the intersection of two circles and represents the joining of two worlds: the divine and the human. The symbol represents the Great Mother goddess. It stands for the yoni, the entrance to the womb, which is also the entrance to the afterlife or spirit world.
Pisces is also sometimes represented as two dolphins, mermaids, whales and other sea mammals, and the dove. Non-animal symbols include wine and the vine. The Pisces being the most watery of all water signs, the sea is its domain.
In esoteric astrology, Venus was considered the ruler of Pisces, and prior to the discovery of Neptune in 1846, Jupiter was said to rule Pisces. Neptune is mostly considered the ruling planet of Pisces today because of its association with the Roman god of water and the sea, Neptune. The detriment, or the sign "opposite" to that which is deemed the ruling planet, is Mercury. Venus is exalted in Pisces, and Mercury falls in Pisces.
Many Christian symbols for Christ use the astrological symbol of Pisces, the fish. The figure Christ himself bears many of the temperaments and personality traits of a Pisces, and is thus considered an archetype of the Piscean. We are currently in the age of Pisces, once this age is over Jesus will no longer be the God of the age. Moreover, the twelve apostles were called the "fishers of men," early Christians called themselves "little fishes," and a code word for Jesus was the Greek word for fish, "Ikhthyes". With this, the start of the age, or the "Great Month of Pisces" is regarded as the beginning of the Christian religion. Saint Peter is recognized as the apostle of the Piscean sign.
Pisces has been called the "dying god," where its sign opposite in the night sky is Virgo, or, the Virgin Mary. When Jesus was asked by his disciples when the next Passover would be, he replied to them:
Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a water bearer pouring out water from a pitcher... follow them into the house where they entereth in.
—Jesus, Luke 22:10
This coincides with the changing of the ages, into the Age of Aquarius, as the personification of the constellation of Aquarius is a water bearer pouring out water from a pitcher, the water representing enlightenment for the people in the new age.
In Greek mythology, Pisces is often associated with the story of Aphrodite and Eros. According to one version of the myth, the goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros were pursued by the monster Typhon. To escape, they transformed into fish and tied themselves together with a cord. Zeus, impressed by their bravery, immortalized them by placing them among the stars as the constellation Pisces.
Typhon, the "father of all monsters" had been sent by Gaia to attack the gods, which led Pan to warn the others before himself changing into a goat-fish and jumping into the Euphrates. A similar myth, one which the fish "Pisces" carry Aphrodite and her son out of danger. Another myth is that an egg fell into the Euphrates river. It was then rolled to the shore by fishes. Doves sat on the egg until it hatched, out from which came Aphrodite. As a sign of gratitude towards the fishes, Aphrodite put the fish into the night sky. Because of these myths, the Pisces constellation was also known as "Venus et Cupido," and "Veneris Mater," the latter being the formal Latin term for mother.
The Greek myth on the origin of the sign of Pisces has been cited as an example of the fables that arose from the original astrological doctrine, and that the original intent of it was afterwards corrupted both by poets and priests.
Later on, the myth evolved again and the Ichthyes were re-imagined as Aphros and Bythos, the fish-tailed Ichthyocentaurs, or sea-centaurs, who brought Aphrodite to shore after she was born from the sea foam.
The ruler of Pisces is Neptune (for Romans) or Poseidon in Greece. Poseidon was originally an earthy fertility god and only later became associated with the sea. His other domains included earthquakes, floods, drought, and horses. Dolphins were his sacred animal and he was depicted with a trident on a chariot pulled by two hippocampi – horses with a fish-tail. He was known as the ‘husband of Earth’, in other words, the consort of the Mother goddess, which gives us a clue as to what happened.
In Mycenaean inscriptions, Poseidon is sometimes referred to in the feminine as Posedeia. She was the personification of the saltwater ocean. Amphitrite gave birth to the seals and dolphins, and ruled the sea with the Nereids – until Zeus gave dominion of the sea to his brother, Poseidon, and she was demoted to wife status.
Nereids belong to the category of Undines, elemental beings, or nymphs, associated predominantly with water. This group encompasses mermaids, naiads, and other female figures. Nereids specifically are sea nymphs often found in the company of Amphitrite and Poseidon, and are commonly depicted alongside dolphins and hippocampi. Generally beneficial to sailors, Nereids contrast with other undines who may be less reliable. Naiads, for example, are freshwater nymphs with a tendency towards jealousy, posing a potential danger. Bound to their specific bodies of water, they perish if their source dries up.
Undines, though human-like in appearance, lack human souls, necessitating marriage to a human for immortality. However, such unions typically end tragically for the mortal partner, as infidelity results in their demise. Committing to an undine lover entails accepting the prospect of a watery fate.
In Babylonian mythology, the constellation Pisces was depicted as a bird and a fish connected by a cord. The bird was known as ‘The Swallow’ and followed the line of the ecliptic, while the fish swam upwards. Together they were known as ‘The Tails’ or the ‘Tail of the Swallow.’ and were associated with the goddess Anunitum, also known as the Lady of the Heaven. She was often depicted as a fish goddess or mermaid and was revered for her protective and nurturing qualities.
The bird symbology comes from a Syrian myth. The story which is much like the Greek one tells of two fish who found an egg in the Euphrates and pushed it onto the land. A dove settled on the egg and it hatched, and out came Astarte, the Syrian version of Ishtar. In another version, the goddess who emerged from the egg was Atargatis.
Atargatis was the Syrian fish goddess of water and fertility and was also often depicted as a mermaid. Fish and doves were her sacred animals, and she had a son called Ichthys who was also a fish. She was worshipped with ecstatic rites by priests who did violence to themselves, like biting or cutting their own arms. They also castrated themselves and dressed as women.
In Hindu mythology, the constellation Pisces is associated with the Matsya Avatar, the first incarnation of the god Vishnu. According to the myth, Vishnu took the form of a fish to save the world from a great flood. He guided King Manu's boat to safety and later retrieved the Vedas, the sacred texts of Hinduism, which had been lost in the flood.
In Chinese mythology, Pisces is often associated with the legend of the Carps Leaping over the Dragon Gate. According to the myth, carp that successfully leap over the Dragon Gate waterfall are transformed into dragons. This symbolizes perseverance, determination, and the attainment of success against all odds.
Various indigenous cultures around the world have their own interpretations of the Pisces constellation. For example, in some Native American traditions, Pisces is associated with fish that bring messages of wisdom and guidance to those who listen.
Pisces is the compassionate mystic and dreamer of the zodiac. Symbolized by the two fish swimming in opposite directions yet bound together, Pisces embodies empathy, intuition, and the transcendence of earthly boundaries. Ruled by Neptune, the planet of spirituality and imagination, Pisces channels the ethereal energies of creativity, intuition, and spiritual awakening.
Pisces symbolizes the journey of spiritual evolution—the dissolution of the ego and the merging of individual consciousness with the divine whole. Like the fish swimming in the boundless ocean of consciousness, Pisces invites us to transcend the limitations of the material world and unite with the infinite cosmic flow.
Corresponding to the human body, Pisces governs the feet, lymphatic system, and pineal gland—areas rich in symbolic significance within esoteric teachings. The feet, symbolic of the connection to the earth and the divine, represent the pathway to spiritual liberation. It is through the feet that we ground ourselves in the present moment, anchoring our consciousness in the physical realm while remaining open to the higher realms of spirit.
The lymphatic system, symbolic of purification and detoxification, represents the cleansing of the body-mind-spirit complex. Like the gentle flow of the ocean tides, the lymphatic system removes toxins and negative energies, purifying the vessel and preparing it for spiritual transformation.
The pineal gland, symbolic of spiritual insight and higher consciousness, represents the gateway to the divine. Located at the centre of the brain, the pineal gland is regarded as the seat of the soul and the connection point between the physical and spiritual dimensions. It is through the activation of the pineal gland that we awaken to our true nature as spiritual beings, transcending the illusions of the material world and uniting with the divine source of all creation.
In esoteric lore, Pisces is associated with the dissolution of ego boundaries and the merging of individual consciousness with the cosmic ocean of consciousness. It is through the energies of Pisces that we surrender to the flow of divine grace, allowing ourselves to be guided by intuition, empathy, and spiritual insight.
Through the energy of Pisces, we can embrace the path of spiritual surrender and divine union, to dissolve the ego's illusions and awaken to the truth. As we honour the esoteric essence of Pisces, we recognize the sacredness of our journey—the eternal quest for unity, love, and transcendence in the boundless ocean of cosmic consciousness.
