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Listen for Pisces and Pisces Rising

2013 Annual Horoscope by Eric Francis

Sign art by Debra Cortese.

Pisces Part One
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Pisces Part Two
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Music for Pisces – For the Lily Grows by Blue O’Connell
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Listen for Pisces and Pisces Rising | 2013 Annual Reading by Eric Francis
Full minor planet list for the day that the Sun arrives in your sign.

Nearly all astrologers have noted the inherent dualism of Pisces — you know, the two fishes swimming in opposite directions. Though the twins of Gemini usually get the honor of being co-chairs of the Dualism Committee, you have Gemini prominent in your solar chart (on the nadir or 4th house, your tap root). And for the first five months of the year, your ruling planet Jupiter is in Gemini.

So there’s added emphasis on those ‘two fishes’ for you at the moment, and Jupiter’s presence points to the conditions early in life (a 4th house matter) that led to your current expression of personality. (That’s 4th solar house for Pisces Sun, 4th house by whole-sign houses for Pisces rising.) I end this reading with a point that I’ve decided to bring to the top of the discussion.

Your dual natures are basically the introvert and the extrovert. This is not so much two different personalities (as it is for the twins) but two essential expressions of the same personality. One seeks and sees inwardly; one seeks and sees outwardly. If you take nothing else away from this reading, remember: you need to feed the fish who seeks within. And you need to encourage the fish who wants to seek in the outside world to do just that.

Both are essential to your wellbeing. It’s easy to emphasize one over the other; to get lost in your inner world, or to forget that it exists. Do what you can to maintain a balance here; it will help your home life and it will especially help your career. I cannot emphasize that point enough.

The theme of Pisces dualism comes up another way. You have Chiron and Neptune in your sign, which is about two modes of existence available.

They are, taken together, telling you that this is the time to create yourself — almost from scratch. You may doubt whether this is possible, though at this stage the question really is about whether anything else is possible. You have all the materials you need to work with. You have all the elements that will combine into the compounds making up the new structure of your psyche. But the challenge is not the structure; the challenge is the content of what you’re made of, which is changing.

You have many options, and I suggest you choose what seems to be the riskiest one — to identify with the love that you feel, as the full expression of who you are. If you’re one of those fortunate people who doesn’t think this involves taking a big chance, then you’re way ahead of the planetary wave. Most find it safer to identify with something else, though I suggest you count something other than safety as your top priority.

Indeed, this year is the time to take risks that you might not ordinarily take, mainly of an emotional nature. One of those would be identifying with the love that you feel, as opposed to the doubt, the conflict or the fear. By identify, I mean that in a direct way — who you feel you are; who you believe you are; what you focus on; what feels like you.

This is about more than what team is written on your t-shirt. It’s more like tuning in to the genetic code that influences the color of your skin, your hair and your eyes.

One aspect of your life right now is your emphasis on what has been called the healing journey, associated with Chiron. This would be something useful to identify with or to embrace as a core purpose for living. Yet you need a broader vision than that, and many factors in your astrology will support you in creating this. As ever, your direct participation and initiative are required, though what you have available are ample resources and support. The key is to remember that you’re the starting place, rather than anyone else.

Chiron and Neptune in Pisces

Let’s take this story one transit at a time, first focusing on the water signs. It’s easy to follow. The salient fact of this year is that we have more planets in the water signs than any time since, well, I really don’t know when — nothing comes to mind, and whatever it was, it wasn’t this watery.

It is rare to have slow-moving ‘major’ planets in all three water signs, as we will have starting in June and extending into 2014. This presence will emphasize some of the subtler elements present in the water signs that have been waiting to come into the foreground.

The main event is Neptune in your sign — the granddaddy of all the water planets, the god of the sea himself. This is a relatively new transit, and it marks the end of a long, old transit — Neptune through Aquarius, which went from the late 1990s through early 2012, a dark time in world history (comprising most of what we call the post-9/11 era). You may still be getting over the feeling of being lost, of not understanding yourself, or of wondering when this long journey across strange territory would be over.

The important thing is that it is over, and you can take up your life fully as an experience rather than just an idea of it. Outer planet transits can have a lingering effect, and you must guide your life out of this in conscious ways.

Experience for you means emotional contact. Here, Neptune is something of a dual influence: enhancing a certain kind of psychic contact, one that transcends the body and can see through the veils, and then at the same time evoking a potential sense of isolation or untouchability. Of all the many water sign transits, this may be the most challenging, because it involves the experience of expanded awareness and a subtle sense of being apart from, witness to or catalyst rather than direct participant. You have access to every potential, though be conscious of Neptune’s influence, which can slip in like a fog.

Part of what Neptune is suggesting is the need for boundaries, as in clear agreements and defined spaces, and for working doors that open, close and lock. Neptune is also demanding that you have a clear agenda and that you learn to focus your will and your energy. You have help in this regard from a number of other transits, the most meaningful of which is Chiron in your sign.

Chiron is another long-term visitor who will be with you through 2018-2019. If Neptune has a polar opposite planet, this is the one. Where Neptune is intangible, Chiron offers ideas and evidence. Where Neptune dissolves consciousness, Chiron focuses it. Where Neptune provides a distant calling, Chiron offers a clear and immediate signal.

Where Neptune provides the sensation of spiritual and the mystical longing, Chiron is called into direct healing, as well as participating in life and its many odd circumstances. Think of Chiron as being about applied spirituality, or indeed the application of any form of intelligence. Neptune is the calling and Chiron is about answering the calling.

There’s something about Chiron in your sign that implies coming of age, a symbol of maturity. It’s a sign that you need to claim the wisdom of your years, however many you may have, and of your lifetimes, however many of those you may have. There is something about being willing to take part in society in specific ways, applying your experience and your knowledge, and also applying your willingness to participate in a way that guides and teaches others.

Where Chiron is so prominent, there’s something as well about being willing to stand apart, perhaps even stand off to the edge. Chiron’s mode of participation is not your ordinary guy who shows up at the party. It’s more like taking over the healing clinic at Dance Camp, because you’re the one with the skill and experience to do so. It can, as a result, evoke a sense of being ‘off to the side’, with a key role but not exactly in the mainstream of social participation.

Chiron is never different for its own sake, which fits your Pisces nature of not wanting to spill the applecart. Chiron emphasizes difference as a matter of necessity.

This is to say, both of the slow-movers now in your sign offer an enhanced sense of what you might call a spiritual presence in the world, yet that may come with feeling like you’re not directly involved in the flow of events; but that’s not strictly true.

What is true is that you’re developing new modes of participation in the world; you are emerging with a new sense of existence, which may come with a sense of not quite fitting in, or of isolation or a bit of alienation. In the style of Chiron, your task is to put your limits to work for you in a constructive way.

Part of this process is recognizing that much of what the world offers, you don’t want and you certainly don’t need. Broadly speaking, this includes anything you see in an advertisement; most of what goes on around you on the social level; and most of what other people call relationships. I will come back to this in a little while; one of the boundaries you need is one between you and the insecurities of other people.

More in the Water Signs

By the time the Sun ingresses Pisces, Chiron and Neptune will have already been joined by faster-moving Mars and Mercury in Pisces. This is offering you options, and it’s suggesting that you can now assert yourself and your ideas. The suggestion here is that you’re the one who must bring yourself from the background to the foreground; from the sidelines to as close to the center as you find facilitates your growth and a sense of harmony with the people around you. Chiron and Neptune represent subtle shades of consciousness; Mercury and Mars represent more readily accessible ones, a common language with the people around you. In a sense, Mercury and Mars are inviting you to explore unusual qualities of awareness in ways that others will be able to relate to, and which will not be immediately recognizable as so innovative.

What is clear is that you’ll be participating in life in different ways from how you have in the past, though in ways for which you’ve been preparing for a long time. The key factor here is who you believe you are, and how you define yourself in the world; that’s at the center of ‘what happens’ and in many ways it determines what options are actually available to you.

Therefore, as you birth a new presence in the world, not merely a sense of who you are, or a role, but an actual new presence, focus on what you believe about yourself; become familiar with it; and make sure that you challenge those beliefs as you encounter them. Are they based in reality? Do they serve you? Do they serve the community around you?

I only ask because there are some potentially less self-supportive ideas floating around in your chart. One of them involves a tendency to heroism; that’s not your friend. Another is a tendency to strategize more than is healthy if you want to live spontaneously. I suggest you be mindful of any sensation of holding up the world, holding up the sky, or where the significance of what you’re doing turns into a burden on you.

To some extent you won’t be able to avoid a sense of necessity, because you have a strong calling to service in a world where there is much neglect and plenty that needs to be done. You must strive for balance and you need to have the support of those around you, and I suggest that you invest energy and intelligence into this agenda.

There are two more elements in the water signs — Saturn has been in Scorpio since October 2012, and Jupiter is about to arrive in Cancer in June of 2013. That equals a grand trine in the water signs, since all three water signs will have planets in them. Saturn in Scorpio for its part is emphasizing a need to make your plans tangible; having a vision is not enough. You must take steps to make your plans solid.

Saturn in Scorpio is also reminding you of the nexus in your life between your concept of sexual and your concept of spiritual, which are more closely aligned for Pisces than for any other sign. You may find yourself in the process of purging many prior beliefs and ideas that served to divide them, such as guilt, for example.

The idea that sex is not a natural, healthy experience, integral to existence itself, is the first thing to identify and address; this usually comes in the form of guilt instilled by religion. Saturn will be providing you with the strength and focusing power to do something about this.

Emphasizing this is Jupiter arriving in your 5th house, Cancer. If there was ever such a thing as a ‘good’ transit, this is one. Jupiter is in its sign of exaltation, that is, it’s a happy planet. The 5th is the expression of sex not as a matter of commitment, but rather for experimentation and creative expression. Jupiter, when it arrives in June, will feel like the addition of a missing piece to your emotional experience, and provide you with some opportunities to take creative risks.

Anything you do that involves personal expression, artistic endeavors or interpersonal relating will benefit from this transit, and you will experience the rewards of having done much to level out the playing field in this area of your life. In other words, while often these modes of expression end up as competitive games, they are less likely to feel that way.

Your personal goal in art, love or sex is not a game — it’s nourishment. This may be the thing that makes other people so confusing to you — turning nourishment into a game, a drama or a power trip. Anyway, it’s not any of these things to you, you know it, and you have a good chance of engaging at least some people on your wavelength and with your ethic beyond those on the levels that you normally encounter.

Having Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron and Neptune in the water signs is about as good as it gets for a Pisces. It’s too easy for you to feel like a fish out of water on this planet; when there is strong energy coming from the water signs, that helps you feel more at home here.

The Way Out of the Vortex (and Into Money)

Yet the grand trine also creates a special condition for you: a kind of spiral vortex that will require you watch trends carefully, since what exists at any given moment is going to be the thing with the greatest chance of multiplying. (Anyone with strong water sign placements in their natal chart needs to remember this, and especially anyone with a grand water trine.)

Grand trines, while considered ‘positive’ aspects because there are so many trines (which are usually said to indicate flow, opportunity and good karma), tend to magnify any trend that gets caught in them.

In the case of water signs, these would be emotional currents. You need to observe which way you’re tending to feel — basically, better or worse, over a period of hours or days. When you notice yourself feeling less good than the day before, or less good than you felt in the morning — and as soon as you notice — you need to take measures to turn the tide.

Fortunately, there is a kind of lever that you can access to help you do that. Turning the tide is never easy, and as we know here in the time of tsunamis and floods, water gets its way — including with a Pisces. The way out of the spiral, if you need a way out, is in the direction of Pluto in Capricorn. Capricorn, an earthy sign, bisects two of the water signs, forming what is called a kite pattern to the grand water trine. This is what you can think of as the grounded, solid expression of the water sign planets.

Simply put, when in doubt, or when you’re feeling good for that matter, take practical, forward-driven action on building your dreams. Said another way, the antidote to emotional involvement is practical action. This is taking place in Capricorn, which is your 11th house or solar house. The 11th is the house of dreams, visions and community; Capricorn is eminently practical, though it can have a constrained feeling.

Pluto is doing everything in its power — and that’s plenty — to open up that sense of constraint, and to give you the space in the world to build and create your dreams. If you’re looking for an astrological image of why it’s challenging for you to put your visions and your ideas into 3D reality, you might consider the presence of Capricorn as an 11th house influence. Pluto there is making Capricorn a lot more malleable in your hands.

As well, Saturn in Scorpio is working in concert with Pluto in Capricorn; the two planets now occupy one another’s signs, and they will until 2015. This gives you considerable leverage when it comes to building, crafting and shaping the world. You have a more authoritative presence in your community than you may recognize. I suggest you keep this in mind when you’re negotiating in any way with others.

Note, as part of this ‘community involvement’ piece, there’s something in here about money — perhaps the one relevant thing I can tell you. Developing your role in the community is the best way to invent your financial well-being, which is indeed an act of invention. There is little in the realm of finances that’s prefabricated for you, yet there are many ways you can take advantage of both your personal resources and the shaky state of the world in ways that are financially beneficial.

Notably, one of the most debilitating emotional loops people get into is the one about their finances. I’ve watched this over the years with a sense of curiosity and wonder: the struggle seems to be on two levels — one is about seeing one’s worth and noticing where it connects to the world; and the other is about focusing the discipline to make this connection viable.

Of all the arrangements of the houses, those with Pisces Sun or rising have one of the most useful setups for building their finances. You have Aries in the 2nd house — the house of your personal wealth. This gives you the ability to take initiative.

You have Capricorn in the 11th house — a house associated with the gains from business, representing a structure and a plan. Money is created by those who are bold and inventive about it, and it flows toward structure.

Right now you have both going for you.

Insecurity and Agreements

Regarding your personal relationships, I can sum up the energy this way. It may be easier for you to identify with love than it is for other people, and you need to make contact with those for whom it’s easier rather than more difficult.

Usually there is an agenda behind that difficulty, and it’s not your agenda, no matter how charming the person having a hard time may be. The insecurities of others are dangerous to your peace of mind. You have enough challenges in the way of maintaining your confidence, and you don’t need others influencing you in ways that undermine you — and that’s what can happen.

I suggest you be extremely wary of those who do not keep their agreements. If you notice a pattern, address the situation. The pattern may involve a tendency in certain others either to make vague agreements, or to miss the mark just slightly; the test of the problem is whether the situations influence you in a negative way, and when they do, it’s time to take action. This takes us back to our starting point of the grand water trine: what happens in your relationship experiences holds a lot of sway over your overall emotional state, and that state can gain momentum.

The abundance of water planets influencing you makes you more sensitive than perhaps you’ve ever been, and you simply must be aware of the role that people play in your life. Therefore it’s necessary to keep those influences positive.

For a number of reasons, you need an objective measure for this, and I suggest that measure be the tendencies of people around you to keep or break their commitments. One instance does not count; two may not count; what matters is a pattern that you document over a period of weeks or months. This is a depleting quality of relationship.

The people you want to choose from are those who take a nourishing approach. They nourish you, nourish themselves and have an abundance to share with those around them. That’s the energy you want to cultivate and grow; it’s where the pleasure and the fulfillment are, and it’s where you’re the most likely to find your true home.

Those Two Fishes — and Your Inner Twins

Speaking of home: Jupiter, one of your ruling planets, is in your 4th solar house (4th by whole-sign houses, for Pisces rising) — the one associated with your security base, your household and family dynamics. You have Gemini in this house, which suggests a ‘split at the root’ dynamic, or the sense of two different emotional bodies.

Isabel Hickey suggests that Gemini in this house is part of the dualism of Pisces, leading to two profoundly different natures as well as a restless spirit. As for the ‘two different natures’, that comes back to the two fishes swimming in opposite directions. One direction is out into the world — social and engaging. The other is deeply inward, wanting little contact with others.

You need to express both of these aspects of your nature. I would ask: does your home situation allow you to do so? Is there really a time when you can isolate yourself sufficiently to feel fully who you are? This is necessary. Both personal and professional obstacles to your introspective time must be removed from your path. This will positively influence both of those aspects of your life, by the way, which suffer when you don’t get proper introspective time.

I will end with a question, though — was your childhood suited to your having private time? Some kids have this, and some do not. If you didn’t, it influenced you; you may have been cut off from an aspect of yourself, and it’s now time to make contact with that aspect and bring it to the forefront of your existence.

As you feed both sides of your nature, you will feel yourself increase in stature in the world. You will feel your presence increase, and a sense of balance in your life. You will, I propose, start to feel like you belong on the planet — more than you ever have. You do belong here and it’s time you feel that way.

 

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Pisces computer chart.

Chart for the Sun’s ingress of Pisces.

Handwritten chart for the Sun’s ingress of Pisces.

Pisces minor planets.

List of planets in Virgo, opposite Pisces, at the Sun’s ingress.

Pisces minor planets.

List of planets in Pisces at the Sun’s ingress.

Pisces minor planets.

90 degree sort of planets in early mutable signs at the Sun’s ingress of Pisces.

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