Sun in Pisces

"Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem.  The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream."     —Michel de Montaigne, born February 28, 1533

An Overview of Sun Sign Characteristics for Pisces

   The ruler of Pisces is Neptune.  Its symbol represents a pair of sea horses or sea lions yoked together.  They dwell in the innermost regions of the sea, which is symbolic of life after death or regeneration.  The image also represents a duality, the struggle of the spiritual soul within the physical body.  In Pisces, these two natures are joined, yet very much separate. This conflict is sometimes an inhibition to natural expression.

Pisces are . . . is a difficult sentence to finish.  There are so many kinds of Pisces.  Strange statement?  Yes, because Pisceans are the most malleable of the twelve signs.  They possess a gentle, patient nature, but one that is in want of molding.  They can be impressed by and completely absorbed into their environment.  They are in need of a container which will shape them, guide them. Without this guiding form, this rudder, they tend to drift.

                        And gladdest hours for me did glide
                        In silence at the rose-tree wall:
                        A thrush made gladness musical
                        Upon the other side.
             
                        Nor he nor I did e'er incline
                        To peck or pluck the blossoms white:—
                        How should I know but that they might
                        Lead lives as glad as mine?
             
                        From: The Deserted Garden by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, born March 3, 1806
                        

Pisces adapts to their surroundings, good or bad.  They are generous, friendly, good natured people with a true sense of kindness and compassion. They are sensitive to everything around them including the feelings of others.  They are popular folk because of their easygoing and likable manner, which tends to mirror people they are with.  They have an uncanny sense of perceiving what a person is in need of, and delivering it.  They are not initiators, but rather allow circumstances and events to motivate them, and then they respond.  In this aspect, they tend to focus on other peoples problems rather than their own.

Where is the Planet Mercury in Your Birth Horoscope?

Of all the planets within our solar system, Mercury is nearest to the Sun.  There is a direct correspondence to this fact in the mapping of an individual's birth chart.  With the exception of the Moon, Mercury revolves through the zodiac faster than any other planet; yet its proximity to the Sun insures that its placement will always be near to or on par with the subject's Solar sign.

It is likely that you will be able to determine where Mercury was at the time of your birth without consulting an astrologer. By reading the three potential profiles, it is often uncanny how clearly one of them will fit to us. I thought you would enjoy trying this out for yourself. You can explore the three positions of Mercury through the following links:
      Mercury in Aquarius      Mercury in Pisces      Mercury in Aries

I am always interested to know what you think and discover. Feel welcome to write! Material is currently being developed on the other planets. If you are interested, we would be pleased to keep you updated on their progress. Just send me a brief request!

Sun Sign Personality Traits for Pisces

Pisceans are not practical people.  They are too ephemeral for normal day to day living in the 9-5 "practical" world.  They are sensitive and instinctual rather than intellectual or mechanical.  They lack decisiveness and are easily diverted from their purposes.  They are apt to live an ambitionless sort of life, searching for some career or meaning in which to pour themselves.  They discourage easily, and can become despondent, feel unappreciated and regularly move on to something or someone else.

When, however, they do find the right container, they are capable of some incredible deeds.  They will become completely absorbed in a chosen path, to the exclusion of everything else.  The 'absent minded professor', such as Albert Einstein, is a classic Pisces character.  They don't fare well in a controlled or fixed environment and generally rebel against convention.  Unlike the Aquarian, however, who will fight the establishment, Pisces wages only a personal battle.

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
      —Albert Einstein, born March 14, 1879

Pisces zodiac symbol in stained glass at Chartres cathedral, France.

Pisceans do best in an environment where they can exercise their imaginations and intuitive nature.  They are gifted artistically.  They are versatile and tend to understand things by absorption rather than logic.  They are receptive to new ideas and circumstances.  They possess wonderful creativity which is demonstrated in music, literature, drama and art.  They have an acute instinct for, and love of beauty in nature as well as the arts.  They appreciate luxury and pleasure, and are ripe for new sensations.  When they travel, Pisceans prefer remote, exotic places.

Pisceans rarely have an ego problem, and in their personal relationships and friendships tend to be very giving.  In matters of the heart, they seek a soul mate rather than a bed mate.  That is not to say they will not hop from bed to bed in search of this soul mate.  Pisces is a spirit on a quest for Utopia, and Utopia does not exist on this earth.  Pisces is easily misled because they want to believe.  No matter how often they are led astray by vacant promises, they keep the faith and go on looking for their personal ideal.  They are loyal, home-loving, kind and generous, but their dreamy and impractical natures are a source of distress to those close to them.

"Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved."
      —Victor Hugo, born February 26, 1802

Allegorical representation of Jupiter in Pisces,
seventeenth century European manuscript.

Vocational Interests Suited to Pisces Tendencies

In the career department, they are better working by themselves than for someone else.  Their empathy equips them for careers in charity, catering to the needy, as a nurse, looking after the sick, or as a veterinarian, caring for animals.  They have a love of water, and can be found in work that keeps them near the sea.  Pisces creativity includes a natural ability to imitate or mirror another person as well as enter into their feelings.  These attributes make them wonderful character actors, and many Pisceans find great fulfillment on stage or in films.

Pisces sense of others, is an ability that makes them effective in civil service and the legal arena.  Many in law enforcement and the judicial system are Pisceans.  Their intuitive and spiritual qualities can lead them into careers in religion or to service as mediums and mystics.  Still others are creative cooks and chefs.  Because of their versatility and plasticity, Pisceans often follow several vocations during their lifetime.

Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces within Gothic sculpture.
Amiens cathedral, France, thirteenth century.

The Lore of Pisces in Mythology

Mythology is closely interwoven with Astrology.  Despite all that we do not know about the origins of either lore it is certain that starwatching began with passion on humanity's first night beneath the open sky.  Somewhere in time, shapes were perceived, figures imagined, names given and stories were told about the densely populated tapestry of the heavens.  All elder cultures throughout the world developed tales of the constellations which over time were imbued with meaning to explain various phenomena of our existence within the cosmos.

Mythology in general is far more than a collection of "make believe" fantasies created by primitive societies to explain away what they could not understand.  The role of Myth in a society was to set the abstract complexities of Nature within a context of story that the human mind could comprehend.  Wondering long on what keeps the world from falling through space or whether the dawn will follow night is a costly distraction when there is hunting to do and crops to tend.  Story sets cosmic ideas in a scale we can relate to, human scale, which establishes a sense of accord and instills a faith that all is well with the universe.

Astrology and Mythology serve a similar function in this regard.  We benefit from Astrology not so much as a tool of fortune-telling but as a directional guide to understanding who we are individually and what our unique role ought to be in this life.  As Carl Jung stated, Astrology claims only that we each possess the qualities of the year and of the season in which we were born.  To discern just what those qualities are ... is as fascinating to each of us as the night sky.

The image of a great fish in the night's constellations
has been perceived for thousands of years,
by cultures throughout the world.

The constellation of Pisces appears as a fish swimming in the waters that pour from Aquarius.  In Babylonian times, this star formation was associated with the gods Oannes and Dagon.  These were water deities in the form of fish.  Also in this constellation is the Leash—upon which were tied the two fish goddesses, Anunitum and Simmah.  In Islamic astronomy, this area of the sky was known as The Large Fish.

In Greek mythology, Pisces is associated with the great beast Typhon.  This fearsome creature belonged to the earlier age of the Titans, and was a terrifying force even for the greatest of the gods.  At one time Typhon attacked Mount Olympus, abode of the gods.  To escape from his wrath, each deity took the form of an animal.  Zeus himself, shifted into the likeness of a ram.  Aphrodite, and her son Eros, escaped the beast by transforming into a pair of fish and swimming away into the Euphrates river.  The goddess Minerva placed the image of the fishes in the heavens so that the event would not be forgotten.

Aries - Taurus - Gemini - Cancer - Leo
Virgo - Libra - Scorpio - Sagittarius
Capricorn - Aquarius - Pisces

"It is played that a man may come to understand himself, that he may see what it is that he seeks and has sought to be; what he wants, and what, therefore, he is.  This is a knowledge which must be imparted to him from without.  Life is to man, in other words, to will, what chemical re-agents are to the body: it is only by life that a man reveals what he is, and it is only in so far as he reveals himself that he exists at all.  Life is the manifestation of character, of the something that we understand by that word; and it is not in life, but outside of it, and outside time, that character undergoes alteration, as a result of the self-knowledge which life gives.  Life is only the mirror into which a man gazes not in order that he may get a reflection of himself, but that he may come to understand himself by that reflection; that he may see what it is that the mirror shows."

—Arthur Schopenhauer, Born: February 22, 1788

Nicolaus Copernicus (February 28, 1473)
   Polish Astronomer, 'Father of Modern Astronomy'
Michaelangelo Buonarroti (March 15, 1475)
   Italian Master Painter, Sculptor
Michel de Montaigne (February 28, 1533)
   French Author, Essayist, "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself."
George Washington (February 22, 1732)
   American Revolutionary Leader, First President of the United States
James Madison (March 16, 1751)
   Foruth President of the United States
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767)
   Seventh President of the United States
Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788)
   German Philosopher, Author, The World as Will and Representation
Victor Hugo (February 26, 1802)
   French Author: Les Misérables; Notre-Dame de Paris
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 3, 1806)
   English Poet, Sonnets from the Portuguese
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807)
   American Poet, The Song of Hiawatha; Evangeline; Paul Revere's Ride
Honore Daumier (February 26, 1808)
   French Romantic Painter
Sir Richard Burton (March 19, 1821)
   English Explorer, Author, Poet, Translator of The Arabian Nights & The Kama Sutra
Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836)
   American Naturalist Painter
Pierre Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841)
   French Impressionist Painter
Camille Flammarion (February 26, 1842)
   French Astronomer, Author, Popular Astronomy
Rudolph Steiner (February 27, 1861)
   Austrian Philosopher, Founder of Anthroposophy
Enrico Caruso (February 25, 1873)
   Italian Opera Singer
Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875)
   French Composer, Jeux d'eau; Miroirs; Bolero; Gaspard de la Nuit
Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877)
   American Clairvoyant, The Sleeping Prophet
Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879)
   German Physicist; 'E=MC2'
Vaslav Nijinsky (February 28, 1890)
   Russian/Polish Master Ballet Dancer
Enzo Ferrari (February 20, 1898)
   Italian Auto Racer, Entrepreneur
Rui Ribeiro Couto (March 12, 1898)
   Brazilian Diplomat, Modernist Poet & Author
Linus Pauling (February 28, 1901)
   American Chemist, Author, Multiple Nobel Prize Winner
John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902)
   American Novelist, The Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1903)
   Scottish Scientist, Inventor of the Telephone, Co-founder of the National Geographic Society.
Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904)
   American Swing Band Leader & Composer, In the Mood; Moonlight Serenade
Theodor Seuss Geisel - Dr. Seuss (March 2, 1904)
   American Cartoonist, Author, The Cat in the Hat; Green Eggs and Ham
Lou Costello (March 6, 1906)
   American Vaudeville, Radio & Film Comedian
W. H. Auden (February 21, 1907)
   English/American Poet & Screenwriter, New Year Letter; The Age of Anxiety
Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911)
   American Actress & Sex Symbol, the Original Blonde Bombshell
Jackie Gleason (February 26, 1916)
   American Stage & Television Comedian, Dramatic Actor, Musician, 'The Great One'
Nat King Cole (March 17, 1919)
   American Jazz Pianist, Baritone Vocalist, First African-American Host of a TV Variety Show
Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922)
   American Beat Author & Poet, On the Road; Big Sur
Sidney Poitier (February 20, 1924)
   Bahamian/American Actor, Director, Author, A Raisin in the Sun; To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night
Jerry Lewis (March 16, 1926)
   American Comedian, Actor, Charity Director, The Stooge; The Nutty Professor; The King of Comedy
Harry Belafonte (March 1, 1927)
   Jamaican/American Musician, Singer, Actor, Civil Rights Proponent
Gabriel García Márquez (March 6, 1927)
   Colombian Novelist, Screenwriter, One Hundred Years of Solitude; Love in the Time of Cholera
Joanne Woodward (February 27, 1930)
   American Actress, Theatrical & Film Producer
Mikhail Gorbachev (March 2, 1931)
   Russian General Secretary of the Communist Party, Last Premier of the Soviet Union
Tom Wolfe (March 2, 1931)
   American Journalist, Author, The Right Stuff; The Bonfire of the Vanities
Rupert Murdoch (March 11, 1931)
   Australian Media Mogul
Edward M. Kennedy (February 22, 1932)
   Senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, The Lion of the Senate
Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932)
   American Country Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter, I Walk the Line; Folsom Prison Blues
Elizabeth Taylor (February 27, 1932)
   English/American Actress, National Velvet; Cleopatra; Butterfield 8; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
John Updike (March 18, 1932)
   American Author, Poet, Literary Critic, Rabbit is Rich; The Witches of Eastwick
Michael Caine (March 14, 1933)
   English Actor, Alfie; Educating Rita; The Cider House Rules
Quincy Jones (March 14, 1933)
   American Music Composer, Conductor, Producer
Jane Goodall (March 4, 1934)
   English Anthropologist, Primatologist, Author, Animal Welfare Advocate
Yuri Gagarin (March 9, 1934)
   Russian Cosmonaut, First Human in Space, First to Orbit the Earth
Rudolph Nureyev (March 17, 1938)
   Russian Ballet Dancer, Film Actor
Charley Pride (March 18, 1938)
   American Country Music Singer
Mario Andretti (February 28, 1940)
   Champion Italian/American Auto Racer
Raúl Juliá (March 9, 1940)
   Puerto Rican Actor; Kiss of the Spider Woman, Romero, Havana, The Addams Family
Bernardo Bertolucci (March 16, 1940)
   Italian Screenwriter, Film Director; The Last Emperor
George Harrison (February 25, 1943)
   English Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Film Producer, Guitarist for The Beatles
Lynn Redgrave (March 8, 1943)
   English/American Actress, Georgy Girl; Gods and Monsters
Roger Daltrey (March 1, 1944)
   English Rock Vocalist, Songwriter, Actor, Lead Singer for The Who
Liza Minelli (March 12, 1946)
   American Vocalist, Actress, Cabaret; New York, New York; Arthur
Billy Crystal (March 14, 1947)
   American Comedian, Actor, Film Director, Producer
James Taylor (March 12, 1948)
   American Musician, Vocalist, Songwriter; Fire and Rain, You've Got a Friend, Shower the People, Handy Man
Bobby Orr (March 20, 1948)
   Canadian Ice Hockey Champion
George Thorogood (February 24, 1950)
   American Musician, Singer, Songwriter; Move it on Over, Who Do You Love, Bad to the Bone
William Hurt (March 20, 1950)
   American Actor; Kiss of the Spider Woman, Children of a Lesser God, A History of Violence
Kurt Russell (March 17, 1951)
   American Actor; Escape from New York, Silkwood, Tombstone, Grindhouse
Ron Howard (March 1, 1954)
   American Actor, Film Director, Producer; Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon
Steve Jobs (Februay 24, 1955)
   American Entrepreneur, Co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc
Bruce Willis (March 19, 1955)
   American Actor; Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, Sin City, Grindhouse
Spike Lee (March 20, 1957)
   American Film Director, Actor; Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna
Holly Hunter (March 20, 1958)
   American Actress; Raising Arizona, Always, The Piano, Crash, Saving Grace
Jon Bon Jovi (March 2, 1962)
   American Rock Singer, Songwriter, Actor; You Give Love a Bad Name, Blaze of Glory
Javier Bardem (March 1, 1969)
   Spanish Actor; Jamón, jamón, Los Lunes al sol, Love in the Time of Cholera, No Country for Old Men
Lea Salonga (February 22, 1971)
   Philippine Vocalist, Actress; Miss Saigon
Erykah Badu (February 26, 1971)
   American Vocalist, Songwriter; First Lady of Neo-Soul
Drew Barrymore (February 22, 1975)
   American Actress; E.T., Charlie's Angels, Lucky You

                 'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
                   Till China and Africa meet,
                 And the river jumps over the mountain
                   And the salmon sing in the street,

                 'I'll love you till the ocean
                   Is folded and hung up to dry
                 And the seven stars go squawking
                   Like geese about the sky.

                 'The years shall run like rabbits,
                   For in my arms I hold
                 The Flower of the Ages,
                   And the first love of the world.'
                 
                  —As I Walked Out One Evening, W. H. Auden  (Born February 21, 1907)

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