The Fishes. The twelfth sign of the zodiac. Its symbol represents a pair of great sea-horses or sea-lions, yoked together, who dwell in the innermost regions of the sea; symbolical of life after death; of bondage - the inhibiting of self-expression except through others; and of the struggle of the soul within the body. The Sun is in Pisces annually from February 21 to March 20. Astrologically and astronomically it is the thirty degree arc immediately preceding the passing of the Sun over the point of the Spring Equinox occupying a position along the Ecliptic from 330° to 360°. It is the Mutable quality of the Water element; negative, cold, moist, obeying, fruitful; also effeminate, idle, sickly and unfortunate.
Ruler: Jupiter; or by some moderns: Neptune. Exaltation: Venus. Detriment: Mercury. Fall: Mercury.
Soulful Pisces
...Who prays, and serves, and prays some more;
...And feeds the beggar at the door -
...And weeps o'er loves lost long before?
...Poor Pisces.
Symbolic interpretation: Bondage, captivity; the inhibition of natural expression.
Silent, passionless, all-comprehending, granting to every creature the power to act according to its development and capacity. Its imaginative faculties are a great contradiction. The ability to abstract one's self from his immediate surroundings and throw himself into an imaginary life. often termed the Sign of Self-denial and of withdrawal; of the Messiah or Outcast.
Westward, and further in the South wind's path,
The Fishes float; one ever uppermost
First hears the boisterous coming of the North.
Both are united by a band.
Their tails point to an angle
Filled by a single goodly star,
Called the Conjoiner of the Fishes' Tails. - Aratus
First Decan: Verity, mystic, psychic; seekers of truth through psychic faculties rather than through the exact sciences; detectives of a high order, either materially or spiritually.
Second Decan: Self-sacrifice, lives hemmed around by restrictions, often voluntarily assumed, as the price exacted by the world for the sake of assisting in its progress; gets most from life through alleviating the distress of others.
Third Decan: Vicissitudes; sex decanate of the Sign of Imprisonment; eventful lives; wide variety of careers, recapitulating in their lives the events and conditions expected from other decanates; reach highest expression through psychic research, and in adopting and advocating a regime that best prepares Man for a life after death.
