The most mutable of the mutable, the flowiest, the flakiest, the most understanding, and most changeable, it is the ocean of Pisces.

I started this series with the cardinal water which I called the sea of Cancer, and have now reached the last expression of water, the changeable ocean of Pisces. The mutable signs have the ability to adapt, change and handle multiple things at once, so when we apply this adaptability to water which is already shapeless and will take the form of anything, we really do get an ocean of feelings.

Pisces is the feminine sign of all encompassing Jupiter. Like Sagittarius, Pisces is also looking to reconcile but if in the fiery realm of Jupiter we are reconciling man’s beastly nature with that which is Good, then in Pisces we reconcile experience and understanding. The constellation itself is represented by two fish chained at the mouth, one is visible, one is half gone, perfectly portraying the Piscean ability of coming to terms with different points of view which are circling around each other (and you know, all the…altering consciousness stuff).

We’ve moved on from fixed Aquarius which efficiently defines time and space through Saturn’s limit, letting the drops fall from the intellectual airy dimension into that of watery immersion.

All the water signs are empathetic, but Pisces scores higher on the caring scale not because it is more intense, but because it deals in universals. Cancer is very interested in personal things. The caring mother Moon will want to know what happened and nurture its close ones. In turn Scorpio, driven by Martial fury will leave no stone unturned searching for those who have wronged the people they are loyal to, but Jupiter is not so close and personal. Jupiter is giant and inclusive, it understands universal suffering which affects all living beings, and will sympathize with them. On the brighter side, unlike Cancer or Scorpio, Pisces will be over it tomorrow because it’s another day, making it the water sign which is best at letting go.

And speaking of letting go, Pisces are notorious for letting go of remembering stuff. Jupiter only knows that is not on purpose. It’s just hard to catch fish, try to think about it, they have scales but the only thing those defend against is being held in one place. And it’s not that Pisces doesn’t care about the appointment you made last week, but today is a different day, the waters have changed and does it really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? It’s not that Pisces wants to be unreliable, but it’s hard to build anything structurally sound on changeable waters. Who we are really is fluctuating from one moment to the other, but Pisces is the only one that truly understands that.

Mercury which deals with communication and factual information has both its detriment and fall in Pisces. That’s not to say Mercury in Pisces makes you dumb, but it does make you think about the whole universe at once making it hard to pinpoint details and think in a coherent linear fashion, but making it great for poetry, lyrics, and creative thought, like Maya Angelou, Elton John, Kurt Cobain, but also Alexander Graham Bell can testify.

Kurt Cobain was actually a Pisces par excellence, not only having 3 personal planets there, but also mentioning it both in lyrics and in his suicide letter (“The sad little, sensitive, unappreciative, Pisces, Jesus man. Why don’t you just enjoy it?”) Fact: Courtney Love is into astrology and she’s the reason we have the birth times of several 90s musicians. Thanks, Love! Kurt was actually Virgo rising, bringing that axis of opposition into the mix.

Since the zodiac divides symmetrically in whole numbers, we get 4 mutable signs of 2 polarities, one masculine pair, one feminine pair. Of course in symbolical terms feminine and masculine represent polarities of passive/active and yin/yang rather than actual gender. An active sign is more likely to do while a passive sign is more likely to receive. 

Both Virgo and Pisces being on the mutable yin axis, one of the Earth element and the other Water, they’re both willing not to change situations but to change themselves in order to adapt to the situations. This is a feature of all feminine or yin signs, but the mutable axis is made for it. Both Virgo and Pisces are of service, but while Virgo which has Mercury as ruler and in exaltation is interested in knowing all there is to  know, seeking to perfect that which has earthly form, Pisces is interested in understanding everything which exists and is not seen, what no one else knows. It’s why you’ll find Sun in Pisces placement in people like Eintstein or Galileo, but also Manly Palmer Hall, because Pisces understands there is way more going on than what you can see on a surface.

Jupiter wants to explore, we’ve seen this in the eternal Sagittarian pursuit, but if Sag is a hunter, Pisces is an internal explorer, it stumbles into mysteries and probes the depths of being and tries to understand and frame what is going on into the Bigger Picture.

Sure in Capricorn we’ve had the structure, and in Aquarius we’ve had the system, but in Pisces we have the ocean through which everything floats, the ether of Einstein, or the mysterious dark matter which is everywhere around us. Jupiter is all about philosophy, but the preaching part belongs to the active, fiery, masculine side, while the understanding, the bridging of perception belongs to the passive, watery, feminine side. It is in water things dissolve, it is in water things unify. And just like water, Pisces is very good at letting things come to it and accepting everything that is offered. Because it’s all part of experience.