Accepting and committing to Pisces
some talk about mess and some talk about sinking into it.
We can see the shore ahead: We’re almost to the end of our sojourn through Pisces, but I talk adjacently about the pileup in Pisces below and also it’s getting close to when I need to have this sent out, so, some brief notes:
Mercury is just about to creep out from under the Sun’s rays all the way in Aries. Exciting news for those of us with strong Mercury influence this year! Generally good news for communication and business.
This weekend the Sun will be conjunct Neptune in Pisces -- don’t overdo it on the wine, weed, or mushrooms. Make some sketches, sit by a breezy window, hug a friend.
It’s the last week of winter! Next week, when this newsletter comes out, the Sun will have moved into Aries. Congrats to us all.
Do something to support Palestinian liberation from the Isr*ali occupation forces. Buy eSims, call elected officials, register to vote if you haven’t and still can in your state, let me know what else you’ve seen that helps.
A short piece about mess.
When you’re talking about the mutable signs, you’re talking about overwhelm. Mutability implies multiplicity implies disorder implies complication implies alternatives implies adaptability. These signs are doubles: the twins, the wheat and the chaff, the centaur’s two halves, and the swirling fish. Within each elemental triad they are responsible for a uniquely messy phase in the cycle.
I think the water signs are good for understanding how this plays out.
You have the cardinal water sign Cancer which might represent intentional feeling, often focusing on making good. Cancer wants the comfortable, the enjoyable, has a focus on what isn’t and what should be.
The fixed water sign Scorpio is usually stereotyped as being intense and dark. This is a stereotype that is true. We can think about fixed-ness as density or heaviness and in the water signs this would be the densest and heaviest emotions.
With the mutable water sign Pisces, you have all the emotions. Every single one. The ocean, unencumbered and unconfined. Pisces reflects whatever looks into its waters.
None of those are better or worse and no one person is just “a Cancer,” “a Scorpio,” or “a Pisces”. I’m not saying that if you were born in late February then you’re a weepy, artistic, Pisces fuckboy. Possible, but not certain.
You’ll remember every astrologer’s favorite soapbox: we have a whole natal chart in us and identifying completely with the sign your Sun is in is uniquely modern in comparison to the very long and old history of astrology. Blah blah blay, yet I will disclaim every time.
Still, we all have Pisces in our charts. We are all familiar with mess whether we like it or not. In my opinion it’s a good game to look at where Pisces is in your chart and ask yourself how comfortable you are floating in those waters. Not swimming, but floating where the currents take you. What feelings does that part of your life bring up and are you comfortable with them? Do you even feel what they are? I often don’t.
I made my friend Brook who used to be a therapist tell me more about acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) because I think this kind of self-work reflects some really interesting features of Pisces. Basically ACT is an approach to therapy that centers mindfulness and acceptance of your experience. In ACT, you don’t get rid of bad feelings, you’re present to them. You experience your feelings and, often, grieve. Rather than struggling or strategizing your way out of your emotions, you… feel them. Radical tbh.
It makes sense for us to be afraid to approach things in this Pisces way. The Pisces way means diving into water that may have deadly unseen currents or may be completely still and cool all the way down. What Pisces demands is a release that is often very uncomfortable to us because there is nothing clearly defined there. We want to scurry across to the other side of the Zodiac, to Virgo, where we might feel a sense of control.
However, I think that Virgo control as a “way out” of Pisces problems is an illusion. It does not work. Virgo is as much a mutable sign as Pisces. Maybe more familiar, more sturdy. It’s an earth sign. But it’s a sign that reflects the sorting, the combining and separating of the annual harvest. As much as it’s about work and about organizing, Virgo is deeply present and tactile. So if you’re really manifesting Virgo’s ethos then you’re manifesting something quite present and real. I’d argue that you don’t get to that unless you also learn to float in Pisces’ ocean. You don’t get Virgo without Pisces and vice versa. The best of Virgo shows up when we have access to our feelings and the best of Pisces shows up when we are present to the world.
Your level of comfort with these messy things depends on a lot. We could say it depends on the rest of your chart (where is Jupiter and in what condition?) or we could say it depends on what kind of self work you’ve done. But however comfortable you’ve gotten with that mess, the reality is that it does not go away forever. You don’t accept it once and call it good. Making good with Pisces, your Pisces house, and the planets involved is an ongoing and active process.
Whether the mutable sign in question is Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius, or Gemini, the underlying premise is one of being right where you are. Feel what you are feeling, do what you are doing, believe what you believe, and think what you think. With the Sun, Saturn, Venus, and, soon, Mars, in Pisces, there’s a lot of planetary heft visiting the “feel what you feel” part of your birth chart. A good time to be gentle with yourself and, if you feel like it, cry.
If you’re like me and this is a struggle, here are some suggestions I coerced from my friend Brook:
Use a literal feelings wheel. Practice naming what you feel in a given moment, about something, for someone. Don’t worry about explaining, clarifying, caveating. Just look at the wheel, notice inside, and (Sutton voice) name ‘em.
Release yourself from having to approve of your feelings or your situation. This kind of blew my mind. Brook said: Acceptance isn’t approval. Most people try to make themselves feel okay about something and call that acceptance (or they can’t make themselves feel okay about something and claim they can’t reach acceptance) but that’s avoidant and not the point!
Have empathy for yourself and put yourself in your own shoes (Brook’s words). I like this for Pisces because we can visualize that space as truly boundaryless. Perhaps too woo-woo for some (you’re reading an astrology newsletter, I remind you), but what if we’re all equal manifestations of the beauty that is life?? Imagine it!
A bonus: consider using acceptance statements throughout your life. Like affirmations, but more grounded. Put these on your phone or fridge or mirror: this feeling will pass and I will be okay, I’ve dealt with hard stuff before and I can deal with this, and (my favorite) this moment is the result of a million other moments.
Always a lot of credit goes to the people who have been my teachers, both directly and through their freely shared knowledge, and so many books.
