Neptune was a prolific lover and seduced many nymphs. A Piscean does not like to be limited in love, and he may be drawn into many love relationships.
Neptune was a great conqueror, and claimed the Greek provinces of Attica, Thrace, Aegina, Naxos, and Corinth When the other gods refused to honor his claims, he sought vengeance by causing floods. A Piscean disregards limits and may be easily disillusioned. Insatiable desires may lead him to commit thoughtless acts and errors which are harmful to himself and his associates.
Neptune's emblem is a trident symbolizing the three elements of the human personality: the body, the intellect, and the soul. It also represents the past, the present, and the future. The trident is the symbolic key which opens our eyes to the invisible and permits access to other worlds. A Piscean is a person who encompasses the past, the present, and the future; within the same generalized and assimilative frame of reference. This type of world-view can lead him toward carnal desires (sensuality) toward intellectual skills (farsightedness), or toward the longings of the soul (spirituality). Harmony within a Piscean's deep inner world may produce an exceptionally powerful mystique.
Neptune was the father of two horses: Pegasus, the winged horse, who made a spring emerge beneath his shoes, and Aerion, the wild horse. Piscean creativity can produce poetic inspiration (Pegasus) or the most chaotic fantasies. A Piscean can fluctuate between depravity and saintliness (or he can display both at the same time).
The other planet governing Pisces is Jupiter, which is shared with Sagittarius.
Jupiter, the ruler of Olympus, had a paternal and benevolent personality. He imparted courage to tired heroes, and, with his thunderbolts, he maintained justice. A Piscean seeks membership in a community, and is desirous of comforting others. He has a sense of justice.
Neptune, representing the unconscious, and Jupiter, representing the intellect, embody two kinds of mental powers, like the two fish in opposite positions, which express the forces governing Pisceans. Self-fulfillment is sought through combining multiple tendencies. Under the influence of Jupiter, a Piscean may achieve his Neptunian ideals: he is guided by an intuitive concept of justice, and seeks to unify all of his own capabilities in behalf of a purifying ideal.
The Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system is the part of the body associated with Pisces. Lymph is derived from transudation of the blood. A quest for spiritual ideals is attributed to Pisceans.
Lymph is carried to all portions of the body through the transparent vessels Dissoluteness and collective instincts are also attributed to Pisceans.
These sources provide the zodiacal formula for Pisces: a person associated with Winter, mutability, water, Neptune, and Jupiter, represented by the lymphatic system. This formula can be described in the following manner:
A Many-Faceted Character
Despite others' efforts to pin him down, a Piscean always escapes. He is real, of course, but he also appears to dissolve into thin air. He is with us and somewhere else at the same time. He appears to grasp everything which we feel and, perhaps, to understand our expectations for the future. A Piscean does not experience the solitary pain of a lone individual; he experiences pain on a collective plane, with a melancholy heart which reflects all human suffering. In the same way, however, a Piscean can express joy to the fullest extent. These inclinations spontaneously draw him toward universal principles, as in the instance of D'Annunzio. A Piscean can be fascinated by the absolute, which he may express through seeking new horizons, like the explorers Jacques Cartier and Henri de Montcalm, or the astronauts Gagarin and Tarash.kovq.
Cosmic or Spiritual Thought
Pisceans are not guided by logic, but by pure intuition. This is not the penetrating intuition of an Aries; it is a vision of vast generalities. Pisceans have a comprehensive mode of thought, which is more easily expressed by symbols or metaphors than by rational discourse. The collective unconscious is profoundly present, as if the entire memory of mankind had chosen the Piscean as its vessel.
The world above is more interesting than earthly things, and a certain degree of selfcontrol is necessary if the Piscean is not to become detached from reality or spellbound by mirages. Many great astronomers were Pisceans who succeeded in giving their ideas a concrete form: Copernicus, Flammarion, Galileo, Le Terrier, Schoch. Nevertheless, spiritual instincts are sometimes so strong that there is a wholehearted devotion to religion, if the rest of the horoscope suggests these qualities: Clement VIII, Julius 111, Leo Xill, Paul 11, Pius XII, and many other Popes were Pisceans.
One figure from the beginning of this century who comes to mind is Rudolph Steiner, the father of a school of thought known as anthroposophy. He sought to establish a synthesis between Oriental and Western philosophies in order to attain universalism. Believing that cosmic thought or a universal reality capable of thought existed, Steiner investigated ways of gaining awareness in order to live in a more intimate relationship with the universe. The Piscean mode of thought can be symbolized by a telescope pointing toward the absolute.
Sacrificial Love
Pisceans feel the sentiments and impressions of others so deeply that they run a risk of forgetting their own identity and, without realizing it, they may begin to act as if they share the situation of the beloved. A Piscean in love displays more of the other person's qualities than his own.
Because he is extremely impressionable, anything may affect him and have an impact upon his entire personality, just as a stone thrown into quiet water produces expanding ripples. It is difficult for a Piscean to express his feelings, however. Aware of his fragility, he sometimes avoids excessively strong emotions, in order to pursue another path. It is not always possible to understand a Piscean's attitude. In his eyes, human beings are not confined to limits or to a specific profile. The Piscean can become enamored of persons who are exceedingly different, just as Chopin fell in love with George Sand, and he can display surprising devotion.
The Pisces ideogram consists of two fish, joined by a cord, although they face in opposite directions. This ideogram can be interpreted as a combination of two ways of life or two modes of thought expressing the ambivalent qualities of a Piscean. The fish also express alternating motion, from above to below, and then from below to above: this evokes a person who, after having descended into the physical world, longs for the absolute. Nevertheless, motion between the two opposite poles does not cease; it resolves contradictions within the Piscean personality.
1. Rudolph Steiner, Pensie humaine, Pensie cosmique (Human Thought, Cosmic Thought), Paris, La Science spirituelle, 1951.