The Story of Pisces
In Greek mythology, the two fish represent Aphrodite (Venus) and her son,
Eros (Cupid). How this came to be is related to the great battle between
Zeus and Typhon. Typhon was a terrible monster, created by Gaia (Mother
Earth) after Zeus had defeated his father, Cronos, in a battle for control
of Mount Olympus.
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Zeus battles Typhos
Black-figure Greek Vase
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After Zeus won that battle, he banished Cronos and the Titans, who has
supported Cronos and who were the children of Gaia, to Tartarus.
In revenge, Gaia created Typhos, who was said to be the most
powerful and evil monster there ever was. He was covered in snakes and had
wings that blocked the light of the sun. He was so big that his head
touched the stars. He breathed fire like a dragon and spat rocks from his
mouth. Typhos attacked Mount Olympus in an effort to restore Cronos to the
throne. All of the gods and goddesses were so frightened that they fled
into the woods of Egypt and disguised themselves as animals. Zeus was the
only one who remained behind to do battle with and eventually conquer
Typhon.
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Venus And Cupid
Guillaume Seignac, 1870-1924
French Classical Artist
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One day, as Aphrodite and Eros were walking in the woods,
they heard the monster crashing through the trees in their direction.
Aphrodite took Eros' hand and they ran to the shore of the sea, where they
turned themselves into fish and swam safely away. They tied themselves
together with a cord so that they would not lose each other.
After Zeus regained control of Mount Olympus, he immortalized their
great escape as the constellation Pisces, which he put under the protection
of Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea. The brightest star in the
constellation represents the knot, or the tie that binds. In some
variations of this story, Poseidon sent two dolphins to save them and these
are the two fish represented by this constellation.
Typhos was eventually exiled to Sicily, where Zeus dropped the great
volcano, Mount Aetna, on him. It is said that the rumblings, smoke, and
eruptions of the mountain still come from this terrible monster.
Pisces in Astrology
The energy of Pisces is soft and flowing. As the last sign
the zodiac, it is associated with escaping from the confines
of the mortal world and entering into the spiritual realms. It
is a mutable sign, which shows its changeable nature. It is
also a water sign, signifying its great depth of emotion.
When planets move through Pisces, our spirits want to fly free.
We feel no boundaries placed upon us. All of our
longings for beauty and love come face to face with the vastness
of the universe and our place within it. Our awareness of the
divine can lift us completely off the ground.
Ruled by Neptune, the planet of illusion and delusion, Pisces
brings us extreme sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of
others...so much so, in fact, that we often mistake them for our own.
Our sympathy and willingness to sacrifice is easily preyed
upon by unscrupulous individuals. We can fall into the role of
perpetual victim. It is easy to get caught up in the emotional
pitfalls of someone else's life. And then, we go to great
lengths to escape from them. Drugs and alcohol can be seductive
sirens.
Too much of this Pisces energy can be overwhelming to our
emotional system, leading to a sense of deep despair. At these
times, we need to connect with our higher power. Like the two
fish of the constellation, swimming in opposite directions, we
struggle with the dilemma of wanting to connect with the reality
of the earthly world while also wanting nothing at all to do with it.
Our task during these transits is to learn to tell the
difference between illusion and reality and get our feet back on
the ground. No one says it will be easy, but we CAN do this and
save humanity at the same time. Just look at Mother Theresa.
Quality: Mutable
Element: Water
Natural House: Twelfth
Energy: Yin (-) Feminine
Traditional Ruler: Jupiter
Modern Ruler: Neptune
Exaltation: Venus
Detriment: Mercury
Fall: Mercury
Key word: Empathy
Key phrase: I Believe!
Part of the Body: The Feet, liver, and
lymphatic system
Pisces in the Sky
Constellation Art from Stellarium
The constellation of Pisces is a faint constellation with several binary
stars that mostly require a telescope to be discerned. According to the
ancient Babylonians, Turks, Syrians, and Arabs, its stars create two fishes
joined together by two strands of knotted rope.
Pisces is the Latin word forFishes. The brightest star in
the constellation, AlRisha, translates from the Arabic to "the cord" and
sits at the point where the cords that are connected to the two fish are
joined. It is actually a pair of white stars.
The second brightest star, Samaka, is Arabic for "fish" and
lies along the asterism called the "Circlet", which represents the western
fish.
Due to the effects of precession, the Vernal Equinox has
gradually shifted west into the constellation of Pisces, just below the
Circlet. This is the point in time and space where the sun crosses the
celestial equator each year around March 21, on its way north. This point is
also known as the First Point of Aries.
This constellation also contains two known meteor showers. Although rather weak
and diffused, the Piscids and the less well-defined Gamma Piscids can be
seen from mid-August to mid-October. Perhaps the most important object
contained within its boundaries is the beautiful spiral galaxy M74.
The constellation of Pisces lies between the constellations
of Aquarius and Aries, southwest of Andromeda, and directly below the Great
Square of Pegasus. It can be seen rising in the evening sky during
September through January.