Illustration by Charlotte Klemm
Pisces or not, each sign has a presence in all of us. Most horoscopes just happen to focus on where the sun is in our charts, but astrology is a much deeper (and broader) practice. The signs are meant to comprise a wheel of archetypal experiences, and we call all 12 together the Zodiac. Each contains certain tropes and themes that all people can relate to or see reflected in their own lives. The differences that make up each individual are in the combinations and level of emphasis on the signs present in a given birth chart.
For example, I don’t have a lick of Pisces in my chart as far as the planets are concerned, but it still occupies one of my houses and lends its presence to other intricacies within my chart. And even then, there are still 30 days out of every year when the Sun travels through and within the sign; not having much Pisces in my personal chart doesn't stop the sun from visiting it each February, and it certainly doesn't mean that I can't relate to any of the wisdom the sign has to offer me. Incorporating the guiding principles of each sign’s solar “season” is a great way to learn more about each of them and an even better way to learn more about yourself.
What do the imaginative, mystical, emotive properties of Pisces illuminate in your life?
Each of the signs is an articulation of elemental energy: water, fire, air, or earth. Pisces is the last of the water signs and the final in the wheel of the Zodiac.
The three water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. They’re all highly emotional and intuitive signs, fluid and reflective like water. Water makes up the majority of our planet and is one of the key ingredients to life itself. We are just big sacs of wandering water when you get down to it. We need it so much that our bodies have evolved around carrying a large amount of it within us at all times. When we’re dehydrated, all the normal processes of our bodies stall or fade. We feel tired and unfocused. We get headaches and cramps where blood flow is restricted without a proper supply of water to fill the vast river system of veins contained within us. We need water to survive, but we need even more of it to thrive.
Cancer is ruled by the moon, and its water is most like the tides; we only see a small fraction of the power that moves the water in and out like breath against our coastlines. Scorpios are better suited for the deepest parts of the ocean where all manner of mysterious and alien life thrives, waiting for us to discover it, if only we dare to plunge so deep and far from the sun.
But Pisces are the rivers, the great connectors that move water from place to place and erode at what seems solid and stable. Pisces energy is introspective and sensitive, much like the freshwater ecosystems that thrive in rivers. It connects to land and sea alike, a vast network of channels and pools not unlike our own circulatory systems.
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From February 18th to March 20th, Pisces encourages us to look inside the facade that the energy of Aquarius cracked wide open. It wants us to pause and reflect, to breathe and recover after a long and trying journey. Pisces Season means it’s time to do the deep healing, feel the big feelings, and soothe our tenderest aches. It wants us to share these vulnerable moments with people who make us feel safe and connected. It urges us to find and name the things that make us feel alien and apart.
Sometimes it's better to point out things that evoke the general feeling of a sign than it is to throw around a bunch of adjectives that approximately describe it. If you're looking to inject more Pisces energy in the coming weeks, try tapping into some of the Totally Pisces things listed below:
An Incomplete List Of Things That Are Totally Pisces
R.E.M’s “Losing My Religion” (ESPECIALLY the music video. Sweet Jesus, there are few things in this world more Pisces than an R.E.M music video.)
Crying audibly in movie theaters
Flowers in the morning when the dew starts to slide down their petals
Secretly loving the Star Wars prequels
Un-ironically, that part in The Royal Tenenbaums where Margot gets off the bus and walks toward the adoptive brother she’s in love with in slow motion
(Literally nothing else Gwyneth Paltrow has ever done, besides real-life marrying the lead singer of Coldplay)
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash’s love letters
Lots and lots of Regency-era sulking
Delicate, intricate pastries at tea parties with your closest friends
Watching rain through a window
Old paintings of mermaids
In the Northern Hemisphere, Pisces Season occurs when things begin to thaw. Winter ends with Pisces season. The seasons are born again in Spring, but not now. Not yet. Now is still time to cook slow meals and enjoy the quiet pleasures of keeping warm indoors when the outside world is still harsh and cold. It’s that last bit of time where we’re able to think about the year behind us and the year ahead without being too far away from either one. Pisces season is a good time to let ourselves feel whatever large emotions loom over us, to make sure we’ve attended to all emotional wounds incurred in the months previous and ask ourselves which ones seemed worth the trouble.
If you really wanna get woo about it, find the closest body of water to you and go see it. Think about the cyclical nature of water, how it is always beginning and ending again and again. Consider how much of you is made from water, the cycles that your own life follows. What about them do you like best? What about them would you like to change? And, most important of all, how do they make you feel?
