PISCES

The Sun is now in the sector of the zodiac we call Pisces. I'm going to follow the syle of last month and present astrologer Ingrid Lind's view of this sign, as set out in her little book Astrology & Commonsense. It has been out of print for a long time, and it'd be a pity if her words were to be lost, for she often had a fresh take on things.

As before, and in the spirit of Ingrid Lind's writing elsewhere, I think we sould read any reference to "Piscean" as "Pisces-type". There are people whose natal Sun isn't in Pisces who display many (even all in some cases) characteristics of Pisces, due to some heavy emphasis on the sign in their natal charts

PISCES (from the book as shown):
Quality: Mutable
Element: Water
Ruler Jupiter. (Modern Ruler: Neptune)
Negative.

Like Aquarius, there is some confusion about rulership as Neptune has much in common with this sensitive Water sign. But for my part, and this a purely personal opinion, I find that Jupiter fits in too well to be discarded. There is a kindly warmth and a generous, philanthropic urge about Pisceans that could not spring from anything so nebulous as Neptune. The last of the emotional Water signs, we find none of the conflict that there is in Scorpio where emotions are ruled by Mars (passion) and where fixity adds to the difficulties. In Pisces water combines easily with mutability, for it is the nature of water to conform to the shape that contains it; Pisceans are the most adaptable of people. They like to be with someone stronger (a vessel as it were, to contain them) and they give in to others' wishes, not from servility but because they are naturally generous and amenable. Pisces is known as the actor Sign because of the ease with which Pisceans put on another personality. Where Aquarius has the positive urge to help humanity in a detached spirit, Pisces, impressionable and emotional, has kindly sympathy and readily sacrifices self-interest.

The evolved Piscean is patient, sympathetic and broad-minded; but it is obvious that such qualities can be put to good use or into sloppy sentiment or spineless dissipation.

In these brief descriptions I have tried to show how each Sign corresponds with a set of qualities and corresponding faults. If we are predominantly a gentle Piscean and nothin else in our chart introduces, for example, a Martian streak of aggression, then we can be sure that our reactions will fall largely within the limits of the basic character of the strongest Sign. For instance, if roused to anger the Piscean would show quite a different face from the Scorpion. His Jupiterian dignity would be aroused and he would make it quite clear that he was displeased; but there would be no instinct to hit out or wound, which would be the recourse of one strongly ruled by Mars.

Piscean Qualities
Patience, sympathy, philanthropy, self-sacrifice, sensitivity, gentleness, adaptability and talent for acting, dignity, tolerance.

Piscean Faults
Weakness, sentiment, playing the martyr, peevishness, deceit, hypocrisy, dissipation.

Personal experience of Pisces: I have Jupiter in Pisces exactly semi-sextile to Sun (it probably "softens" Aquarius a bit - no bad thing?) My husband has Mercury & Saturn in late Pisces conjunct Sun at 1 Aries. A lot of what was written by Ms Lind rings true for my husband - apart from "patient" and maybe "tolerant" - he's as impatient as the next Sun Aries person - and, on a bad day, about as intolerant too. He is very adaptable, moreso than I am. He took to life in the UK much more easily than I took to life in the USA!

A while ago I began researching my family history, and was able to obtain a birth certificate for my paternal grandfather, around whose origins there had always been some mystery. The mystery remains as to who was his father, however. But I now know I had a Sun in Pisces grandfather, born in Suffolk on 9 March 1882. He had Sun and Venus in Pisces, Mercury in Aquarius and a clutch of planets in Taurus. My Dad, and at least two of his siblings, and several of my cousins from that side of the family have Aquarius Sun - probably inherited from Grandad's Mercury! Grandad's youngest son, my Uncle Laurie, had Sun in Pisces, like his father as it turns out; he became a ship's captain (ocean liners), very appropriate for Pisces!

Below: At Uncle Laurie's wedding: Grandad with his 5 sons (he had 5 daughters too). Grandad second from right; my Dad second from left, Laurie third from left.

My Sun Piscean Grandad wasn't easy to get to know - a man of very few words. If my researches have uncovered accurate information, he'd had a very hard childhood. Born out of wedlock, his mother seems to have been disowned by her family. Mother and child were listed as living in a workhouse for some years. My grandad, when of age, left the south of England, walked up to Yorkshire (200+ miles) and found work as a shepherd in East Yorkshire. He met and married my Grandmother, served in World War 1, and after became a postman until retirement.

He used to take me to the movies once or twice a week when I was around 8 or 9. He was a great film fan, as was I. Other things I remember about Grandad: his hobby of mending old broken clocks, and his fascination with auctions (probably looking for more old broken clocks!) There was an auction room in our street, he'd attend the regular sales and bring us all manner of oddities, boxes of old books (which I loved to investigate), bits of furniture, which I'd use to furnish my "little house" in an old air raid shelter.....and so on. I wish I'd been able to get to know him better, later, but we lost touch after I moved away, and he died when I was around 19