The big astrology news is today’s Annular solar eclipse and New Moon happening in Aquarius at 28 degrees and 50 minutes. This also marks the start of Ramadan and the beginning of the Chinese/Asian Lunar New Year of The Fire Horse. The last Fire Horse year was 1966, with coup d’etats in Nigeria, Ghana and Syria, the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China, the first public address from Martin Luther King on Vietnam, space tech, and a truly horrible third space walk in which an astronaut lost 13 pounds, and almost of it was water. The first credit card was issued in Britain, with Barclays bank.
The Tarot card for 28 degrees of Aquarius is the clever, stealthy, diplomatic-or dishonest-Seven of Swords, complemented or opposed by the stamina and fortitude of Leo, the opposite sign of Aquarius, and the Seven of Wands.
Tomorrow we enter the starry territory of Pisces, the Heavenly Fishes as codified in Western/Tropical astrology with a history originating at 36 degrees latitude, first recorded in what was Babylon and is now modern Iraq.
Certain big fish are caught right now between the frying pan and the fire. But the very biggest fish of all will almost certainly escape the net altogether, and not end up in the pan.
It is time once again to go fishing…or diving with Pisces. What are its stars, what do they look like in the night sky, and what’s the ancient story behind it all?
Traditional Associations
Dates: 18/19 Feb to 20/21 March. Variable cusp depending on the leap year cycle
Ruling planets: Jupiter and Neptune (before Neptune’s official discovery in 1846, it was Jupiter)
Zodiac House 12: Endings, Resurrections, the Unknown, enemies, mysteries, all that is hidden.
Element: Water Quality: Mutable – versatility, changeability, the ending of one season and the beginning of another
Energy: Yin -receptive
Key phrase: I believe
Body: Feet, eyes, bladder
Homeopathic cell salt: ferrum phos…iron phosphate for the optimal carrying of oxygen throughout the body. Iron phosphate is not readily bio-available in other forms. Industrially, it is used in steel making and in batteries.
Birth Stone: Aquamarine the water of the sea but also amethyst, ruby, blood-stone and jasper. Aquamarine is the blue variety of beryl where Emerald is a green beryl. The aquamarine, a hexagonal crystal structure sometimes confused with blue topaz, is reputed to enhance foresight and clairvoyance.
Tarot cards: The Moon, The Hanged Man, Knight of Cups, 8, 9,10 Cups.
Meanings: The Moon, Mondays, tides, cycles, ebb and flow, feminine cycles, fertility, instinct, wildlife, walking on the wild side, hunting, fishing, psychics, ghosts, visions, dreams, delusions, madness, contamination, infection, delirium, fever, food poisoning, uncertainty, danger, confusions with documentation, risks in travel.
Astronomy
Pisces, the Latin plural of fish, is the 14th largest constellation overall, covering a large V- shaped region in the part of the sky known as The Sea or The Water.
Its stars are faint as seen from Earth —hard to see with the naked eye.
The fishes of Pisces are traditionally depicted as freshwater fish, koi carp, swimming at right angles to each other, one to the north and one to the west, attached by a cord. Its brightest star, Eta Piscium, also known as Alpherg or Kullat Nunu, is a bright giant star (G class) 294 light-years from Earth and has a luminosity 316 times greater that of the sun. Kullat Nunu is its Babylonian name. ‘Nunu’ means ‘fish’ and ‘kullat’ is a bucket.
My Pisces brother (a hobby fisherman in later years) when very small used to cry for his nunu. His blue, blue blanket. He would not go to bed without it, but still, he used to lose it. By the time he outgrew his love affair with the nunu, it was nothing but a small square of fabric no larger than a handkerchief, so often had it been torn, trimmed and mended.
The vernal equinox currently occurs during Pisces, 19-21 March, the astronomical marker of the start of spring in the northern hemisphere. Pisces is the month that carries away more of the frail and elderly more than any other month, just as we come to the end of winter, while the old saying went a “green winter makes fat the churchyard.” Pisces carried away my own mighty little mother in 2023. Still active and beautiful at 83, she had a fall, followed by pneumonia.
History and Mythology
Pisces is the sign of the thaw, the freshwater melt and the first spawning of the freshwater fishes, though depending on latitude and therefore temperature, some species may spawn sooner. Fish may rise again to the top to feed. Frogs and Toads will spawn.
The fish of Pisces are attached by a cord of stars, just as life and death are conjoined and cannot be separated. Pisces is not only the last sign of winter, moving into spring; it is the last sign of the whole zodiac year, the culmination of all the signs that came before it.
Egypt
“It (Pisces) is one of the earliest zodiac signs on record, with the two fish appearing as far back as c. 2300 BC on an Egyptian coffin lid ” -(Wiki) The two fish of the constellation Pisces were the offspring of the Great Fish. In Egyptian mythology, this fish saved the life of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and she placed this fish and its descendants into the heavens as a star constellation.
India
In Hindu mythology Matsya is an manifestation or avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu the Preserver who rescued the first man, Manu from a great deluge. (…and here we are again, back to the great flood stories of Aquarius) The Matsya may be depicted as a giant golden fish or as a merman, the half- fish half humanoid Lord Vishnu. Vishnu is the second god in the Hindu holy trinity (Trimurti) Brahma was the Maker, god of creation and passion, Vishnu, the face of light and preservation, and Shiva, the face of the dark, and destruction.
Greece
To the ancient Greeks, the fish were the goddess Aphrodite and her son, Eros, who were out walking by the Euphrates one day when a terrible monster rose up out of the water. This monster, Typhon, had been terrorizing the gods of Olympus ever since the war with the Titans. Typhon was a Titan, a son of Gaia, and he hated the gods of Olympus as invaders and upstarts who had overthrown and dispossessed his own, more ancient race of Titans. He was as tall as the heavens and his eyes shot flames. Instead of fingers, he had 100 dragon’s heads sprouting from his hands -for which one could read ‘flames,’ or magma.
Not one of the Olympian gods had the power to destroy Typhon, not alone. All they could do was avoid him or flee for their lives, which they often did by transforming themselves into animals. Aphrodite and Eros now transformed themselves into two fish (koi) and swam away. Ultimately, Zeus imprisoned Typhon beneath Mount Etna, but Typhon is still very much alive down there. This is a threat that never goes away; the threat of a potentially cataclysmic volcanic eruption, not only of Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples, but of Etna.
Rome and Early Christianity
Early Christians used the Fish as a symbol of their faith and called the TWELVE apostles of Christ the Fishers of Men (Pisces as the twelfth sign.) The secret code name for Jesus, Yeshua Ben Joseph- was Ichthys from the Greek meaning fish, it was an acronym Jesus- Christ- God- Son- Saviour.
The so-called Age of Pisces began 1 AD and- depending on your source, will end in 2150 when we enter the so-called Age of Aquarius, though some astrologers say we are already in that Age. More about the disputable astrological ages HERE
The Age of Pisces has seen the rise of the Monotheistic religions, Christianity and Islam. This current, much discussed brand new mini Age of Aquarius, 2024-2043, is supposedly a secular age, all about technology, progress, humanitarian enterprises and collectivism.
But there is so much more in the celestial mix than this. And now with Neptune in Aries, reinforced now by Saturn also in Aries, religion shows no sign of going away. Islam is fast on the rise in the west, Christianity on the wane in the west, with vacuums filled by socio-political ideological transmutations of the religious instinct. Identity politics weaponized for control of the general populace. New inquisitions.
The Pisces Archetype
In Tarot, whether the subject of any inquiry is male or female, Pisces is embodied as The Knight of Cups. In Arthurian legend this would be Sir Percival, or in later versions of the legend, Sir Galahad. This knight is a champion of the underdog, a protector, a lover, a bearer of grace. The healing chalice. This card generally translates as good news, a happy situation, recovery from illness, a new friend, an admirer, possibly a marriage proposal, news of a baby on the way, “my cup runneth over”.
Pisces combines imagination with the determination and self-sacrifice of a salmon fighting upriver to spawn, even at the cost of its life. New life must come, says Pisces, even if the death of the self is the price. Paradoxically, there may be a certain passivity, even inertia. This serves Pisces well at times, but may, in some cases, this same passivity may either work as an expression of resilience or may degenerate into the shadow side of Pisces, escapism, avoidance of responsibility, depression, alcohol or other substance misuse.
These individuals are natural artists, writers or musicians. Compassionate and sensitive. But while their steel may be hidden, all the same, it is there. Not much is said about this scaly Pisces steel. They can be tough, even hard in a quiet way. They don’t say much but watch the eyes harden. Cross the line once too often, you are gone. That is it.
Pisces needs variety. Desk-based work, although Pisces can certainly do it, and with considerable efficiency, it is not really their thing. They like to be on their feet, which are ruled by Pisces. They make excellent and approachable team leaders. Passing the buck is not their style. They will take on injustice, taking on those senior to themselves in status. But Pisces, unlike, say Aquarius, acts on an individual basis. Group actions, campaigns or crusades, do not sit naturally with their temperament, except just possibly for early Pisces, born close to the Aquarius cusp.
Later born subjects especially, born close to the Aries cusp 20/21 April, are especially the ‘doers’ of Pisces, and Pisces is brave. Very brave indeed. But these watery denizens need to guard their physical energy. It can be erratic, and their reserves once depleted, are not so easily restored as other signs. If they become prone to headaches at the back of the head, there may be related bladder infections or other issues.
Famous Pisces Sun Sign subjects
Michelangelo, Amerigo Vespucci, Copernicus, Vivaldi, Handel, George Washington, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Albert Einstein, Nat King Cole, Elizabeth Taylor, Nina Simone, Harold Wilson, Yuri Gagarin, Sidney Poitier, Steve Irwin.
Pisces 2026
Pisces planetary co-ruler, Neptune, aka the god Poseidon, The Earth-Shaker, is associated with earthquakes in not only the literal sense, but also the metaphorical sense.
We have been navigating fathomless waters of Saturn in Pisces since March 2023. Peculiar times. Borders and boundaries dissolved. Norms overturned. We are are increasingly on edge. The feudal overlords never went away, they just changed the basis of their wealth, and like the gods of Olympus they dwell in another realm, high above the laws that govern the rest of us.
“Can thou draw forth Leviathan with a hook?”
We can draw out fish, or even whales. But not the ever present Leviathan. We are being reminded in the most shocking way, that there has always been, and still is, a realm of power operating beyond all accountability, infiltrating political institutions, operating beyond the law, and that elements within both the political institutions and the law have been, and are actively complicit. The Law is not for them. Only for the little people. Still, they may have their gilded cages well and truly rattled from time to time, and maybe such a time is coming before too long.
‘No man is an island,’ wrote John Donne. We come in to this life alone. We leave alone. We are both the ocean and the land. Islands in archipelagos. But it is for sure, no-one can do it all alone. Or truly wants to. There are bridges. Lighthouses. Signposts. Harbours. There are boats.
Meanwhile Mercury is in Pisces from February 6-April 14. Intuition first, explanations second. Feelings work faster than thinking. Dreams are vivid. We may experience a ghostly visit.
And Venus is in Pisces from February 10 to March 6, 2026.
Pisces is a mutable sign. It deals in nuance, grey areas, entirely at odds with the rallying call to action of today’s New moon and the annular eclipse in Aquarius and the start of the lunar New Year of the Fire Horse. Venus in Pisces is haunted by memories and the longing for something that is difficult to define and hard to satisfy. Venus is exalted in Pisces, devoted, compassionate, exceptionally giving, and capable of sacrifice. We might rely heavily on our intuition with our finances and love life during this cycle, a sharp ear on the slightest hints. We may be sorting through old photographs, gravitating towards poetic, artistic objects, situations and people.
There is a deeply uneasy lull for the time being, but we can feel it building, that big things are stirring, a leviathan churning beneath the surface. Back channels on overdrive, calculating how to manage the public. We are hardwired to recognize injustice. We know that we are looking right at it.
Neptune is associated with The Hanged Man in the Tarot deck. Last year at this same time I drew this card together with The Hierophant, and had a feeling about the Pope, that his time was coming very soon. More usually, The Hanged Man is about taking time out. Stepping back to review, to rest, to recalibrate. Sometimes there is immaturity, innocence, naivete, and now someone has a lot of growing up to do, and they had better do it fast.
The Hanged Man is ready to sacrifice something for a greater good, accepting losses as a painful necessity. It is about looking at things from a new and different perspective. Perhaps less comfort, less trust, less complacency. More self-reliance, more rockiness of autonomy.
We are poised between the old social normalities we thought we knew, and that have faded out since 2019, and a new emergent collective normality.
The Sabian symbol for yesterday’s New Moon is the butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Nothing will be all bad, any more than it has ever been all good.
February 22 could be a turning point date in any manner of good ways with Venus trine Jupiter.
Thank you for reading.
Back soon.
True Tarot Tales 