Happy Birthday Pisces
Pisces
There is no sign more elusive to try to describe than Pisces, the Fishes, for this section of the Zodiac is as mobile as the astral world. On the physical plane, the oceans are its counterpart, the seas that toss and surge in sounding, raging fury; yet, the same waters may sometimes reveal the placid power of sweetest peace in idyllic, silvery calm, and the lovely lull and lakelike beauty that make cognizable the tune, tempo, and harmony of the spiritual worlds, calling up a vision of the divine, a touch with the transcendental, a union with the one life of love through the Word of the world, sounding as tranquil tone. This sign of spirituality is fittingly called ‘The Great Deep or Depth’.
The signs of the Zodiac most intimately connected with the psychic nature of man, the side least seen, yet incessantly active for good or ill, are the water signs, which with their houses and the planets therein, may be called the dispensers of destiny. In persons lacking in spiritual discernment, these forces may seem to suppress the personality, whereas in truth they enhance and enlarge the soul.
In Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces, those who are awakened recognize not only the building of the soul, but the builder also, for in these signs of soul-sensitivity are encompassed all inherent qualities of soul, the psychic-spiritual fruit and heritage of past lives, eventuating in the man himself. As these water signs show the soul quality and tendencies, so do their houses – the fourth, eighth, and twelfth – indicate the personal earthly conditions, which are invariably restrictive, limiting, and sorrow-producing. Their effective scope and power consist in personal activity that appears ineffectual: through denial, when the influence is in the twelfth house; or after long delay, at the end of life, in the fourth house; and even after death, in the eighth house.
Pisces is a dual sign, as the two fishes indicate. The fishes are bound to each other, denoting the destiny restriction, which gives less freedom of choice than is granted in the outstanding dual sign, Gemini. The twins have a free relationship; not so the fishes. Dual experiences arise in Pisces, bringing extremes in kind and nature, the native often being torn to shreds between two conflicting emotions. The Piscean rarely gains a true grasp of himself, for emotions play through his soul as the winds through an aeolian harp; his soul is easily influenced, or played upon by sympathy, for it is easy for him to put himself in the soul of another who suffers. This is the sign that causes one to be keenly receptive and impressionable to the moods and soul-conditions of others. Psychic supersensitivity and immense emotionalism are forces that need control and direction, for Pisces puts the soul en rapport with the soul world. As a result, one feels the forces of other souls here or elsewhere, be they embodied, moving on the physical plane, or in the world of the so-called dead.
In Pisces, as in all the signs of the Zodiac, one finds souls at all stages of evolution. Some Pisceans impart love, irradiating as spiritual light and supernal feelings. Others in this sign are imperfectly prepared for personal attachments. They may evince an intense thirsting desire for devotion and confidence with one part of their nature, while with their other part they show too weak a faith, too little trust, and have a tendency to withdraw. A lack of balance is in evidence, which points again to the dual quality of this sign. Too often, for want of proper perspective and right balance, the very reverse of what was envisioned as the ideal is achieved.
In this dual sign there sound the forces of destiny and divinity. It is here that the lowest and the loftiest reside – the darkness in which the light shines, and the light which ultimately transmutes the darkness of human brain-bound egotism. Man is chained to an earthly destiny so long as the darkness prevails and earthly desires are not exhausted. When the Ego begins to transmute its earthly desires and evolves toward the purity needed for a spiritual birth, then the light is perceived shining in the darkness, the light that ‘lighteth every man that cometh into the world’. This is the direction toward divinity.
In this sign of destiny one realizes the need for earthly birth. The limiting conditions of personal earthly expression are picked up here as the ‘moral bundle’ of past lives, the moral bundle that was checked in the soul world after the last death, before one entered the spiritual world. It is taken up again as one returns once more through the soul world to earthly incarnation. That which constitutes the ‘moral man’ and his make-up in the aggregate from his past lives, passes over into his experience as destiny, through the twelfth sign, Pisces. Jupiter and Neptune, rulers of Pisces, indicate the moral-spiritual quality and power of the Ego – the good and the ill – nay, more, they show what our relations are with the heavenly host. By their position and condition, we know whether we have earned their favor or disfavor.
The esoteric Christian teaching of the laws of rebirth and of destiny, the dual laws that lead man to the goal of god-hood, take effect in Pisces. The law of rebirth, of repeated earthly lives, each one of increasing fineness, has nothing fatalistic attached to it. On the contrary, it shows the definite and deliberate way toward the light that leads to liberation. The working of destiny speaks of the God within, forever guiding and leading man toward the goal. In esoteric Christian teaching, the negative idea of ‘sorrow and self-undoing’ becomes changed into the spirit that charges the soul with spiritual power, enabling one to lose one’s egotism and to find the spiritual love of the Lord of life, surrendering the lower, physical man to the spiritual Lord from heaven. Magnificent Christ-alchemy shows itself in the spirit of sacrifice inherent in Pisces, the real royalty that originates in this sign of renunciation, for renunciation and sacrifice must be made either freely or perforce.
The house on which Pisces stands, and also the position of Neptune, indicate the quality and type of sorrow, self-surrender, or sacrifice demanded. No matter what the talent of genius of a Piscean personality, there is always a background of obstacles and adversities. In Pisces, consecration through crucifixion leads to the consummate man.
People in the Fishes are seldom understood, or truly appreciated, yet these are the most self-effacing souls, giving with a joy in giving. None ask less for themselves than they do, and none can be trusted more implicitly when living in the higher side of the sign.
In Pisces, one can realize the Great Ocean or Deeps of the Spirit and be aware of the spiritual man and the life hidden away and buried within the physical man – the Christ who lives in the Earth and in the souls of humanity. The sense of universality makes Pisces the least personally possessive sign. It calls forth marked hospitality and generosity. The generosity of Pisceans extends not only to goods, but also to judgments; they are ever ready to forgive and to manifest their good will in loving deeds. Some Pisceans have an attitude of other-worldliness; yet, in emergencies and crises, no better help can be given than by the people of this sign of deep inner understanding and compassionate self-surrender and sacrifice.
The divinity of Pisces is such that those strong in this sign have a constant aching yearning, an intense urge, to merge the soul entirely and completely with the souls of others, to form one universal spiritual union. Pisceans, or those truly under the Neptunian light, experience spiritually; thus they have the faculty and forte to commune and to unite with others on the mental and psychic planes. The purer the Piscean, the more profound the communion and union with the feelings and thoughts of people and places and, yes, with the planet itself!
In this mergence with others on Earth and on the invisible planes, there lies danger and often damage, for if the Piscean soul is not positively endowed with the strong factor of a developed mind, if it is still tainted with atavistic clairvoyance – and these today are still legion – the risk of obsession by spirit controls and so-called guides, is great, and these forces are evil. One must not remain negatively psychic. So many, too many, born in or under this sign, or with the Moon in Pisces, are the victims of invisible spirits and of mediumism. Then the sense of hearing, which is ruled by it, is perverted to undesirable hearing of what astral entities convey.
As Aquarius and Uranus emphasize the one in all, the individual as a part of the whole, so Pisces and Neptune declare the all in which the individuality is merged in the collectivity of the Christ. ‘That they all may be one; as thou, Farther, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one’. (St. John 17:21,22) To grasp the secret of Pisces incisively, one must unite with the Spirit-life and love and light. If one would search into the meaning and mystery of this spiritual sign, let him search the scriptures, particularly St. John’s Gospel and, specifically, chapter seventeen, the priestly prayer of Christ Jesus.
As Aquarius individualizes and identifies the man in and through the Christ, so Pisces universalizes and unites the man in and with the whole Christ-life. Thus the soul that has become Christ-identified or individualized, can never become lost in the ocean of Christ-life. At present, there are not enough Christ-individualized men and women on the Earth. The world is witness to this deplorable fact in this time of Communism and of socialized schemes of life for mankind. Man must first establish his Christ-egohood, his true self-identification in the Spirit, before he can universalize his love as a world and cosmic citizen, in the new and true citizenship that awaits him. Enforced fusion is dangerous. The Christ-‘I’ and the Christ-‘YOU’ are both paramount in the soul that is keeping pace with man’s proper evolutionary development.
Pisces is called the ‘Universal Solvent’ or the ‘Great Deeps or Depth’. It shows the inhibited, the silent, the secret, and all that is mute and powerless of expression. Pisces is unlike Cancer, where feelings are awakened, and unlike Scorpio, where desires and feelings are brought to a centre and concentrated, for Pisces turns everything into muted emotion, deep and silent as the ocean. This great ocean of emotion is permeated with sympathy and love, as universal solvents. This is the sign of Parsifal, the ‘pure fool’, the guileless one, mute, timorous, and helpless, until through search and suffering, ‘by pity enlightened’, he attained to knowledge, self-knowledge, spiritual enlightenment, and the power to discriminate between good and evil. Then he became the ‘help-bringing knowing one’, the savior bringing salvation.
Very few Pisceans are egotists; in fact, they are in many instances deficient in self-esteem. The quality of humility that abides here can in positive souls create a mystic mood and beautiful reverence. Divinity and devotion reside here; but what if these forces are reversed? That reversal too often occurs and it tears the soul into shreds, rendering it lost and without true color, definition, or self-identification. Few souls can manage the mighty mood of this divine spiritual essence. It is easy for many to become materialists, or worse, utter negative and the sympathies unwise. Without firm inner direction in the Piscean soul, dereliction in some form may easily ensue; thus the highest may become the very lowest.
Zodiacal signs are difficult to explain in mere earthly language, for the language of the stars cannot be compassed or compressed into intellect, or mere earthly words. The signs are better understood by observing people who are in the various signs or under their influence. Pisces has been called by some ‘the dust bin of humanity’, with some relevancy. It has also been called ‘the dumb note’ of the Zodiac, and this, too, rightly. This so-called ‘dumb note’ has, however, become expressive in marvelous music, a music that voices what ‘The Heavens Are Telling’, such as the mighty music of Handel, whose Sun was in Pisces. Truly did Handel refer to himself as a musical amanuensis for the divine beings and for mankind, when he said, ‘the heavens opened to me’. The Neptunian note and the Piscean power – the utterance of divinity – are heard in Handel’s interpretation of the Spirit through the concordance of sound. Chopin, too, makes audible the music of heaven as it flows from the Neptunian fount of his Piscean Sun, expressed in intricate, yet exquisitely beautiful, ethereal tones.
The ear that is attuned to the divine knows instantly when Neptune and Pisces provide the power and inspiration, be it in literature, poetry, art, or music. There is a limpid purity of style, placid and picturesque, and a flow of utterance speaks of the highest reach of heaven, and an element so holy and ethereal as to declare the divine. However, when that which is holy and heavenly becomes inverted, evil is set in motion, and so Neptune and Pisces, in this Age of Pisces, invert the godly to produce monstrosities in art and in music – that devil’s delight, jazz – which have a disorganizing and destructive, rather than an upbuilding effect upon the vital formative forces and the soul of man. The paradox of Pisces is the light and the darkness.
Dual forces inhere in all the common signs, but they do to a marked degree in the Fishes. In this sign we see the strong expression of the logical mind with great intellectual development, and also the priestly, spiritual element. On the one hand, we see an Einstein, an exponent of the mathematical mind, the intellect calculating space while not truly knowing space. On the other hand, we see a combination of the logical and the spiritual in the great master man, priestly soul, seer, teacher, architect, artist, scientist of the visible and invisible, the spiritual virtuoso,
Dr. Rudolf Steiner. His thinking was scientific and precise in a very real sense; his whole life and teaching were highly spiritual, and his knowledge tells firsthand of the spiritual Christ-content of space and its significance for all future evolutionary cycles of time.
We meet a very highly evolved Piscean in this Christ-initiate, Rudolf Steiner, who had three planets in Pisces: the Sun in the degree of ‘Testing’, in the sense of examining and proving; and Mercury and Neptune conjunct at twenty-eight degrees, giving him a ‘direct, open line’ to higher worlds. His disciplined intellect was illuminated by divinity, so that through his writings and nearly six thousand lectures there flowed the wisdom of the Spirit, the power of positive, exact seership, with a capacity for skilled, firsthand spiritual investigation. So far as it is possible to make luminous the Mystery of Christ in language, Rudolf Steiner remains without a peer. He elucidated the mystery of mankind, which is inseparable from the Mystery of Golgotha, the unique Christ-event for the Earth. Steiner leads mankind to the Christ and to the reality of Spirit, the worlds of soul and Spirit, and their beings, in virtue of his self-earned expression of divinity in his earthly man.
True Pisceans are true teachers, for they carry within them a real priestly wisdom and love. Understanding and wisdom are not the fruit of the intellect alone. It is a strange paradox that, inherent in this sign of divinity, ruling this time, our present Piscean Age, there lie concealed forces and facts of the cosmos, yet confusion and world misunderstanding occur. Cosmos and chaos lie hidden here, in this sign of mighty mystery. The light is not recognized by the physical, brain-bound personality, fear-filled and tormented and tosses by seething secret hates and emotions.
There are intellectually, worldly Pisceans, and there are chaotic, other-worldly members of this dual sign of the Fishes. For perfect expression one must gain perspective both in the lower Ego and the Earth, and in the worlds of Spirit. True balance between this world and the worlds of soul and Spirit must be found if one would be whole. It is essential for Pisceans to become far stronger as physically conscious earthly Egos, and to use the mental forces far more effectively, so that they may stand stabilized as self-protected personalities. If not self-protected through this proper I-consciousness, they are apt to become the sport and prey of evil entities in the flesh or in astral bodies, seen or unseen. They then lack stability and logic, and are devoid of a sound social sense. They often become lost to themselves in the surrender of their souls to others, for the great difficulty in their sacrifice and self-giving is to retain, at the same time, their own personality. They need to learn to give themselves spontaneously in self-surrender, and yet be their own selves and not to neglect themselves.
In the sign of the Fishes, there is an immense, intense desire to help others and to give to all in need, especially to those who suffer and are ill-treated, to the extent of even denying themselves the comforts of life, sharing their ‘widow’s mite’, depleting themselves and making great sacrifices. There is a desire actually to make an oblation, an offering to the Lord as it were, in sacrifice for others. In one who is negative, this leads to the loss of himself in his own personality. This must be avoided or corrected, for the personality needs to be made positive and Christ-constructive in Pisces more than in any other sign. The greater the purity of the soul, the finer and fuller will be the flower of the Spirit in full Ego-consciousness, and the greater the capacity to comfort, to harmonize, and to consummate peace in the environment. This sign is correlated with the beatitude, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God’. Here is expressed and applied the spirit of forgiveness and love toward all, and the overcoming of evil through transmutation by the good, the only solvent.
Pisces is a psychic-sensitive sign that evokes spirituality and tends sometimes to other-worldliness. Pisceans are impressionable, and they ever seek to understand their impressions and intuitions, intimations that arise quite free of the brain and are realized, more often than not, as a psychic sensing. Many Pisceans get lost in the maze of the multitudinous ideas and impressions they continually receive from all worlds. They tend to become bewildered when there is confusion and pressure. Their best qualities are evident when there is an undisturbed atmosphere; then their mood of peace is powerful and profound, and their inspirations most active. The sign of the Fishes rules the feet, which bear some resemblance to attached fish. The feet denote an inner under-standing of life, also ‘treading the Path’, and making progress. In this respect, they are symbols of the spiritual life, and they also indicate what we mean when we say that the feet should be firmly planted on the earth. They give us our stance.
No sign more than Pisces needs to make itself positive on the physical plane, to allow the spiritual light to produce a true practicality on the personal, physical plane. The practical thinking of scientific logic is needed to insure a proper, wholesome, balanced personality. Without this correction, the soft, indulgent Piscean will too readily comply with the wishes and even the self-indulgence of others around him. Pisces is always ready to forgive and overlook all errors, mistakes, and sometimes even the effort which man must make to approach and pursue the Spirit of truth. ‘To know all is to forgive all’ is right if one is Christ-constructive in such an absolution; but, if such forgiveness degrades, and draws out further negation in the character, leading to worse chaos by neglecting to impart right truthful ideas and conduct, the resulting Piscean compassion will not be a wise compassion. It will be an unwise sympathy, degrading and destroying the soul, rather than exalting and elevating it.
Jupiter and Neptune rule the Fishes. The benevolent Jupiter is a planet of bonding good will, reverence, and creative cosmic thought. Neptune denotes idealistic devotion. In general, one may say of Pisceans, that they are sympathetic, emotional, benevolent good-natured, easy-going, patient, generous, hospitable, and that they love beauty and refinement in all things. Evolved Egos have a wonderful capacity for quite, tactful persistence when dealing with others. In spite of being shy and timid, they can show considerable dignity if anyone presumes to take advantage of their good nature and inoffensiveness; they detest anything vulgar or violent. Many have healing power, sometimes through their hands, but largely through their presence, which emanates peace and piety. The less evolved Pisceans, however, are themselves in need of healing of soul, for they are confused, disorderly, worried, mediumistic; they suffer from illusions, they have a weak will, and are too easily influenced by others. There is usually a deep religious feeling. Destiny is paid out in this sign which gives the destiny of sacrificial service. Renunciation is either offered willingly or imposed by destiny.
The true delight of this sign of detachment, discipleship, devotion, and divinity, is a devotion to the divine. Yet it is only by way of one’s self-designated and self-invoked destiny that one can approach this divinity. In this mute sign, one carries out a prolonged self-meditation, passing judgment upon one’s own self as a Christ-Ego, until at last the lower Ego merges with the higher, cosmic Ego, ‘the twain become one’ and enter into the light. Then does one have the power more quickly to dissolve one’s own ill destiny and to provide the light that dispels the darkness in the world.
There are centered in Pisces those forces that confer the archetypal value of the man, the formgiving cause, which brings him into earthly incarnation. Birth in a physical body is not ill fate if we take in the Christ; it is a real opportunity to grow in God through his Christ. The choice is ours! Destiny, or karma, will not be deplored if we realize that it is a progressive, developing force, bringing the experiences that are corrective and drawing us nearer to the goal. What is essential is that we have a right attitude. Poise in the presence of destiny is most needful to discharge the destiny rightly and to enhance the growth of soul.
The dual effect of the Fishes becomes evident in the fact that, on the one hand, this sign holds destiny that leads the Ego to an earthly birth and, on the other, it provides the means to overcome the evil destiny conditions, liberating one from the individual need for rebirth. However, so long as the planet is not redeemed, the Christed soul will want to reincarnate for the sake of humanity and to aid the Christ in the work of redemption. Pisces, the sign of ready renunciation and sacrifice, produces such saviors, as well as The Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, who, at the Baptism in the Jordan, sacrificed his body, so that the Christ could incarnated in it and consummate the Mystery of Golgotha, the greatest event of all Earth-evolution-the Sacrifice Supreme that brings salvation to our Earth and to mankind. In Pisces, the destiny of repeated earthly births, according to true Christian teaching, becomes not ill fate, but the joyous avenue of Christ-alchemy leading to mankind’s illumination and liberation.
O freighted I with love so great
That I with ease dissolve my ‘fate’!
So laden I with love alive,
My destiny doth come deprived
Of hate and hurt, of painful sting,
Of ev’ry bitter, tragic thing.
For all these pains I give full meed
Of praise to Thee, though I did bleed.
For ev’ry pang I thank Thee, Lord,
Not else could I sit at Thy board,
To take Thy Bread and drink Thy Blood
Which doth my soul with Thine full-flood.
Deep gratitude to Thee alone,
That I did reap as I had sown.
‘Twas Thou, my life who made the Way
To this royal magnitude today.
For now Thy light doth flood through me
And all I see is nought but Thee.
***
O stagger not but stand and take
Thy destiny which thou didst make!
Still thy complaint, and understand
‘Tis Christ who guides with loving hand.
O wander not with wounded air,
Nor longer grieve through mind’s despair.
Accounts do come for settlement
Today, that give Christ-betterment.
It matters not how rough my road,
How uphill be its climb each day;
It matters not how large the load
With Christ within to point the Way.
It matters much that I should hear
At ev’ry moment of my life
Thy voice, so clear, without a fear,
For Thou, my Lord, Thou art my life.
So is my life a wondrous one!
Now through my pains Thy place is won.
Thus doth my soul evaluate
Aright all things, so estimate
The lot and load my life must bear,
So that I take from Thee a share
Of Earth’s full burden here below
That sooner comes Thy fiery flow,
For this gross Globe must Gold become
When Thou art come in all the Sum.
Our Piscean Age: http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com/node/1712
Thank you to PoF for placing Rudolf Steiner's hand drawn Zodiac symbols with John Jocelyn's Zodiac writings; it is greatly appreciated.