Pisces, The Fishes
February 19th - March 20th
Mode: Mutable ~ Element: Water
Ruler: Neptune ~ Mythic Archetypes: Jupiter ~ Cassandra ~ The Lorelei, The Sirens ~ Odysseus ~ Penelope ~ Christ (Dionysus) ~ Perceval ~ Venus

Pisces is one of the earliest signs on record, for the two fishes appear on an Egyptian coffin lid dated c. 2,300 BC. The flooding of the Nile reached its peak when the moon was full in Pisces - Egypt became a veritable ocean which has always been the symbolic keynote of Pisces. We attribute its rulership to Neptune, who was the god of the sea, but before Neptune's discovery (1846), Jupiter was said to rule Pisces. However, if we reach farther back to the Olympian rulerships common in Plato's time, Neptune (Poseidon) once again appears as the ruler of the sign. And finally, Venus rules the sign of the fishes, where she is traditionally said to be exalted.

Neptune was an angry and vengeful god upon occasion. We tend to disregard this violent aspect of the ocean and to associate Pisces with the calm, tranquil aspect of the sea rather than with its storms. As Carl Jung pointed out, the ocean has always symbolized the group or collective mind (the collective unconscious). The position of Neptune in a chart typically shows the area of life where we are most likely to come into contact with primordial images and archetypes of the collective unconscious. It is precisely from these depths that artists and mystics are able to harness the visions, poems, paintings, or symphonies which fascinate and delight the rest of us. Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, was a Pisces. Under hypnosis, he was able to make contact with the collective unconscious and the Akashic Records to offer healing and advice to his many clients.

Pisces's symbol, the fishes, seem to be swimming in opposite directions, but bound together by a cord. However the east fish is swimming upward, away from the ecliptic toward heaven, seeking spiritual illumination, while the west fish swims along the plane of the ecliptic, concerning itself with matters of the material plane. This constitutes the primary conflict for Pisces, who is aware of both directions - and hesitant to choose and is responsible for alcohol and drug addiction for many Pisceans.