Pisces Season
A deep dive into the deepest of the water signs...
We’re right smack in the middle of Pisces season (February 19 to March 20), so it seems only appropriate that we devote some time to extolling the many virtues of this watery, dreamy, intuitive, empathic sign.
Pisces is a mutable (meaning flexible) sign ruled by Jupiter and Neptune, which is the astrological equivalent of having Mama Cass and Sid Barrett for parents.
All the textbooks will tell you Pisces is poetic, artistic and expressive, deeply spiritual, but a tad unreliable and oversensitive, on account of all those messy feelings.
Pisces Problems
Let’s get right to the point, shall we? Pisces is up there with Scorpio and Virgo when it comes to being maligned by people who don’t know anything about astrology. Maybe it’s the symbolism, two fish perpetually chasing each other’s tails, that doesn’t exactly scream credibility.
But it’s also a fact that Pisces is right up there with Scorpio and Capricorn for being maligned by astrologers (who should know better!). Maybe it’s because Pisces have an unenviable place at the end of the zodiac, native to the 12th house of hidden enemies, prisons, hospitals, and “self-undoing.” [shudder]
Even that phrase “self-undoing” puts modern astrologers in an icky state of mind. On the one hand, we don’t want to be prescriptive, implying doom and gloom. We want to support and encourage, not predict. We want to explain in empowering, positive terms, not like those nasty old fortune tellers who give astrologers a bad rap.
But sometimes you just have to call the kettle black, and the truth is, Pisces is the sign most closely associated with some deeply uncomfortable (and uncomfortably deep) concepts, like addiction, mental illness, institutionalization, and yes, suicide.
Even religion and belief in the supernatural, also associated with Pisces, are not the kinds of things you’re supposed to bring up on a first date, or even a first consultation, even though they’re every day realities for most people.
The End of the Line
Let’s face it, these folks are holding up the end of the zodiac, a hero’s journey of cosmic proportions, with all the questions and contradictions inherent in “endings.”
Is this all there is? What does it mean? Who am I really, if I can play all these roles so convincingly? Does my empathy doom me to a life of service and bearing witness to people at their worst? What responsibility do I have to others, just because I can feel their pain as if it were my own? What about my pain?
To the Death? No, to the Pain
And there it is, that question of pain. That of everyone around them, of the world itself, the unbearable cacophony of the fear and trembling of 8 billion-plus humans suffering their own individual torments on a daily basis, not to mention all the animals (dear god, the suffering of the animals! It’s a wonder every Pisces on earth isn’t vegetarian, although a great many are) and then there’s the unquiet souls of the dead, to whom many Pisceans feel a direct connection.
What happens to a fragile, empathetic soul when they can tune into the suffering of others on a global scale—when, in fact, they can’t tune it out—despite the inconvenient way that it can make things like getting dressed and commuting in rush hour traffic, watching the news (dear god, the news!) and just being alive so unbelievably… painful?
Well, that’s often where addiction comes in… and that thorny topic of “self-undoing.” Is it really self-inflicted when bearing witness to so much pain makes self-abnegation, even annihilation, an act of mercy?
The Great Wall of Water
Most Pisces people don’t self-destruct, though. They simply put up a wall between themselves and the world, a valiant act of self-defence which signals, however subtly, do not enter. They are masters of compartmentalization. They’ll be the ones to execute any acts of “undoing” behind the wall, thank you very much.
That Pisces “wall” can take many forms, but they’re often the only way to protect their own sanity. Pisces doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being one of the most enterprising and entrepreneurial signs, but overwork is a very common wall they put up to avoid dealing with other people’s baggage.
Sorry, too busy building my empire to deal with this right now. The everyday minutiae of other people’s lives can be a little too much for Pisces, you know, the minutiae like returning texts and keeping appointments that most people just call “life.”
Another Pisces wall is that flighty, flaky, forgetful facade. They know what people say about Pisces, so if people want to believe they’re just so “out there,” can you blame them for leaning in when it gets them out of situations where they’d rather not be anyway?
Ah, but what do I know? I’m just a Virgo with no planets in Pisces, my opposite sign. Pisces is the energy I understand the least in the entire zodiac. There’s nothing in my chart that even hints at what those depths of emotion must be like to live with. My only water placements are Scorpio rising and Saturn in Cancer (which isn’t nothing, but it’s certainly not Pisces).
On the Brighter Side
They can be insanely creative, and prolific in so many different media, you wonder if they ever find time to sleep. They often have an effortless charm that comes across like a Cancer on their best day mixed with a Gemini on a day when they got their meds balanced just right.
People find themselves obsessed with the Pisces person in their life without really understanding why. They’re not especially available, or overtly flirtatious, they just seem to draw you in with that abyssal gaze and suddenly they’re confiding intimate details of their life in a hushed voice and you feel chosen.
Weeks later, you may wonder if you dreamed the whole thing. They haven’t spoken of it since, and everything seems fine on the surface. They are masters at seeming fine on the surface, even as they effervesce with apologies for some momentary lapse in engagement or theoretical failing on their part. They offer blanket apologies just in case they’ve wronged you in some way, or feel they may in the near future.
Big Pisces Energy
I could babble on in abstract terms all day, but sometimes a list of names really is worth a thousand words, so let’s wrap this up with a celebrity roundup of some of the most famous and infamous Pisces peeps in history.
Kurt Cobain, late great prince of grunge
Alexander McQueen, designer of exquisitely decadent, edgy couture
Michelangelo, painter of the Sistine Chapel and all-around Renaissance icon
Albert Einstein, the guy you picture when someone says “genius”
Steve Jobs, the guy who created the phone/ laptop you’re probably on right now
Fred (Mr.) Rogers, beloved childhood television host and humanitarian
Catherine O’Hara, legendary actress and comedienne
Glenn Close, dramatic actress with a flair for over the top antagonists
Simone Biles, five-time Olympic gold medal gymnast
So, on that note, go out and hug your favorite Pisces and enjoy the rest of this watery season. It’s all fire and Aries energy after this brief respite, folks!