Pisces, the twelfth sign in the zodiac, belongs to those between the dates of February 19th and March 20th. Learn all about the Pisces sign below.

Pisces Zodiac Sign Traits

Smart, creative, and deeply intuitive, Pisces can be close to psychic. Pisces feel things deeply, and have incredibly strong gut reactions. A Pisces “knows” things from deep within, and can often judge whether a person or situation is good or bad. That doesn’t mean a Pisces ignores the logical part of their brain, though. Deeply intelligent, Pisces have a profound respect for the power of the human mind.

Pisces signs are sensitive, and get along well in small groups of people. Sometimes, a Pisces may feel like they have an internal and external self, and they may need to spend a lot of time solo to recalibrate those two halves of themselves. A Pisces is rarely lonely when they are by themselves, and have an active imagination. Creative, Pisces love spending time reading, exploring or creating art or music, and understanding their emotions through art.

Those with the Piscessign may seem quiet but they are incredibly strong and have a very strong sense of right and wrong. Their moral compass, along with their gut, guides them well. When a Pisces speaks up, people listen. Pisces tend to take in everything around them, and they are great people to ask for advice on pretty much anything. While Pisces has strong convictions about the best way for them to live, they have a “live and let live” approach when it comes to others, and are accepting and nonjudgmental of all.

Pisces’ Greatest Gifts

A Pisces has a great gut and great intuition, which can guide them well, and help them make creative or intellectual leaps other people might not be able to see or consider. Deeply imaginative, Pisces can happily spend hours daydreaming, and are often just as surprised as the rest of the world when the pieces come together in an amazing way. Pisces don’t necessarily work the same way as other people do, and they may be able to get things done incredibly quickly. But it’s not that they’re that much faster than other zodiac signs. It’s that the time they may have been caught staring into space are times that are deeply valuable to them, and necessary for any creative process. The more a Pisces understands how they work and respects that process, the better they are.

Pisces’ Greatest Challenges

Pisces signs can sometimes spend too much time in their heads, getting overly wrapped up in a problem and assuming there’s no solution. Pisces are always one of the first signs to lend an ear to others, but when it comes to asking for help — especially emotional help — Pisces can sometimes wall themselves off, assuming that nobody knows what they are feeling and not even giving anyone a chance to try. Learning how to open up can be a huge lesson for Pisces. Of course, the fact remains that no one can read a Pisces mind. Pisces sometimes feels frustrated that they are seen as “more complicated” than their peers, and that feeling can make them act or seem defensive. Pisces needs to learn to let down their guard, allow people to love them, and allow for mistakes to be made.

Pisces’ Secret Weapon

The realization that life is so much more than what we see. Pisces sign is in tune with the magic of everyday existence and can find beauty in all situations, even ones that may cause tears. Recognizing these moments of beauty and being able to share them with others is what makes Pisces a creative sign, and is also what makes Pisces a soulful sign.

The 5 Top Reasons to Love Being a Pisces

Your intuition is spot-on. No need to go on a date. You know that person is bad news from first look.

Your playful sense of fun. It may not be as obvious as other signs, but you have a childlike view of the world that you can unleash, spending hours happily looking for shells with your kids.

Your lack of judgment. What other people do is their business, but you’ll always take the time to listen to them and offer your thoughts and opinions — but only if asked.

Your love of nature. You truly believe we are all connected, and you inspire people with the way you understand the rhythm of the seasons.

Your cool factor. You don’t care if people think you’re cool — which makes you that much more impressive. You set trends, call the shots, and lead by example, and don’t even break a sweat

Pisces is the twelfth sign of the zodiac, and it is also the final sign in the zodiacal cycle. Hence, this sign brings together many of the characteristics of the eleven signs that have come before it. Pisces, however, are happiest keeping many of these qualities under wraps. These folks are selfless, spiritual, and very focused on their inner journey.

They also place great weight on what they are feeling. Yes, feelings define the Pisces zodiac sign, and it’s not uncommon for them to feel their own burdens (and joys) as well as those of others. The intuition of the Pisces-born is highly evolved. Many people associate Pisces with dreams and secrets, and it’s a fair association, since those born under this sign feel comfortable in an illusory world.

Pisces Symbolism + Myth

The constellation known as Pisces has been associated with many divine figures in history, such as Poseidon/Neptune, Christ, Vishnu, and the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Pisces is the Latin word for “fish,” and in Greek mythology, this constellation represents the koi fish that saved Aphrodite and her son Eros from the sea monster Typhon.

As a reward, the two fishes were placed in the heavens to shine for all of eternity. Venus, the Roman version of Aphrodite, is said to have an exalted position in Pisces, an affinity that echoes back to her gratitude for the fishes’ hospitality and help.

Pisces Element, Mode, and Season

Late Winter

Pisces season in the western tropical zodiac begins on February 19, commencing the final phase of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the time of year when the chill of winter is beginning to yield to the oncoming warmth of Spring, and the days are continuing to increase in light. The underlying seasonal sense that growth and renewal are soon returning to the world is mirrored in the reflective and inwardly creative imaginings of the Piscean archetype.

Mutable Mode

Pisces is the fourth and final of the mutable signs in the zodiac wheel, who all hold an energy of change, liminality, and adaptation at the end of one season, and the beginning of the next. Pisces begins the last phase of winter, when the cold season is less established, lending to the fluid and changeable sign qualities of Pisces.

Water Element

Pisces’s element is water, the second heaviest element, thought by ancient astrologers to be the fluid, adaptive, yet a tangible form of matter. Water represents the moistening and cohering principle that binds and connects all forms of nature.

Without it, nothing that takes a material form could “stick” together. Water fertilizes earth so that nature and creativity can incubate and bloom. Pisces’ creativity, intuition, imagination, and strong inter-relational talents are all akin to the connectivity of the water element.

Pisces Planetary Rulership

Domicile of Jupiter

In classical astrology, Jupiter is the planetary ruler of both Sagittarius and Pisces. Sagittarius was thought to be the day, or diurnal home of Jupiter, with Jupiter finding a second nocturnal home in sensitive and soulful Pisces. Jupiter has a full affinity with the imaginative and spiritual tendencies of this sign, but because it is in its nocturnal home, these themes take on a more interior and meditative expression.

This placement presents a more thoughtful, reflective, and gentle version of Jupiter’s bold planetary energy. Pisces is potentially the archetype of a more private and mysterious seeker than the ebullient, outgoing Sagittarius. Those born with Jupiter in the sign of the Two Fishes tend to have a strong belief in the unseen forces of the universe and are often mystic seekers and teachers.

Detriment of Mercury

Pisces is in polarity with the mutable earth sign Virgo. Ruled by Jupiter, Pisces likes to seek, expand, and dissolve boundaries, where Virgo, ruled by Mercury, likes to organize the material world, focus on fine details, and seek perfection. When in the opposite sign of its preferred home, Mercury is said to be in detriment, or at a sort of disadvantage in Pisces.

Imagine the planet of clear communication and information having to live in Jupiter’s boundless, philosophical world. Mercury may get lost, going “off-road” on adventures and storytelling tangents, and would find it difficult to communicate and translate its ideas.

The result is Mercury having to compensate and translate big Jupiterian philosophical ideas into day-to-day conversations. This could appear as a poetic and epic use of language, and a quest for truth in meaning in all intellectual endeavors.

It could also mean that those born with this placement may struggle with focusing on the day-to-day and may often daydream or lose track of time. They may have to work harder on creating intellectual structure and getting to the point. And while this planet-sign combination could present challenges and ways that these natives need to learn at their own pace, it could produce poets and songwriters as well.

Exaltation of Venus

Since Venus is exalted in the opposite sign Pisces, she is said to be in her fall in Virgo. While not in her domicile, Venus is still very powerfully placed in Pisces as an esteemed guest of honor. In Jupiter’s nocturnal sign, she has access to unique resources that help her deliver some of her most positive gifts and expressions.

Venus’ powers of love, attraction, beauty, and art blend well with Jupiter’s spiritual and affirming energies, giving natives with this placement some extra luck or ease in these matters. It can produce very sweet, sensitive, and loving people, who sacrifice themselves for the good of others. Natives with this placement may also have strong creative talents, taking their art to transcendent, inspiring levels.

Modern Ruler: Neptune

The circumstances of Neptune’s discovery are as transcendent and mysterious as this planet’s significations. Inspired by disturbances in Uranus’ orbit, Neptune’s founders followed theoretical calculations, and a sort of scientific “faith” in its existence.

It turns out it had been observed for centuries before but was mistaken for a blue fixed star. The affirmation of Neptune’s existence seems to have unfolded when the world’s perceptions and inventions caught up with a dawning reality of how expansive our universe truly is.

The illusory states that Neptune is connected to can even be connected to the way it casts an illusion on astronomers until they understood what they were seeing. The awe-inspiring and innovative themes surrounding Neptune’s discovery lend themselves to how Neptune earned its significations and connection as a modern sub-ruler to imaginative Pisces.

Pisces House Rulership

In the modern astrology system of the Twelfth Letter Alphabet, each zodiac sign rules one of the twelve houses in the birth chart. This innovation was created by psychological astrologers to match sign affinities to related house topics.

Pisces was assigned the twelfth house of isolation, confinement, and retreat since Pisces’ deep, reflective, and interior territory aligned with the concerns of this house. Since Pisces is ruled by hopeful Jupiter and transcendent Neptune, this system invites these philosophical and spiritual planetary sub-signatures to the twelfth house.

The Eleventh House

In classical astrology, Pisces’ planetary ruler, Jupiter, was said to find its “joy ” in the eleventh house of “good spirit” in the birth chart. This house, associated with friends, alliances, hopes, and gifts is a natural, affirming, and happy place for Jupiter to be in.

Since Jupiter likes to expand and affirm belief and faith, this house speaks to the opportunities that are available to us when we feel we belong to a loving community. With a connection to the Piscean planetary ruler, these communities could be social, but also spiritual, providing encouragement, validation, and support. The eleventh house is associated with alliances we form, and gifts we receive in our public or social roles, perhaps as an extension of our career activities.

Pisces Characteristics

Pisces’ personality traits are derived from its receptive, feminine, or yin qualities, making this sign oriented toward contemplation and engagement with inner awareness. Alive in both a Pisces woman or Pisces man, those born with the Fishes as their rising, sun, or moon sign have a mystical, intuitive, and transcendental dynamic in the core of their personality, an echo of the seasonal awakening in late winter.

As a mutable sign, Pisces holds adaptive, fluid, and shape-shifting qualities. Those with the sign of the Two Fishes prominent in their charts are sensitive seekers who have the potential to bring a soulful, healing energy to their relationships and communities.

Strengths

The primary Pisces’ strengths can be found in their tender, sympathetic, and receptive natures. Naturally compassionate and empathic, Pisces are wired to offer spiritual and artistic gifts to the world. These are the poets, musicians, painters, and intuitive counselors in our communities.

With Jupiter’s influence on the faith, belief, and sense of higher purpose, Pisceans can be counted on to offer help and healing support to anyone who is in need. These natives tend to drift through life on their schedule and follow an inner sense that life is unfolding as it should.

Idealistic and imaginative, those born under the Two Fishes’ sign have an otherworldly quality to them and seem to retain a sense of innocence and wonder their whole lives. These natives often believe in the good of others and will likely give the benefit of the doubt.

When they fall in love, Pisceans do so completely and will give much of themselves to their friends and partners to selflessly nurture a connection. Pisces natives seem to be born with an open conduit to the other side, and those with prominent Piscean chart placements are often mystics, mediums, and psychics.

While the rest of us may outgrow the playful reveries of our childhood, there is a part of the Pisces personality that never becomes fully practical or attached to material possessions. They often retreat into a meditative solitude to recharge and contemplate, a practice that is especially important to these sensitive souls. With few attachments, their mutable natures are ready to move and adapt to new surroundings or ideas, making it hard for them to get bored or stuck in a rut.

As the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac, the Piscean archetype is that of the old soul who may be living its last incarnation before ascending to the heavens.

Weaknesses

Some potential weaknesses in the Pisces archetype are rooted in their great strengths. Though natives from this sign are tender and sympathetic, they may take certain comments too much to heart and get easily wounded emotionally. Often creative and artistic, Pisceans may struggle with how to materialize their pursuits into a tangible, functional livelihood. Being naturally adaptive and changeable can be an asset, but it can also make it hard for these natives to follow through or stick with tedious details.

Following their sense of time and often getting sidetracked, those born under the sign of the Two Fishes need to somehow find a way to be mindful and respectful of others’ time. Those born under Jupiter’s benevolent influence like to believe in the good of others, but they must to be discerning and discriminating.

Selflessness and self-sacrifice are beautiful gifts that Pisceans offer, but this can lead them to be too needy, vulnerable, and codependent in love relationships. It may be a sad reality to accept, but these natives need to realize that others may take too much advantage if they cannot build their resilience, structure, and autonomy.

When it comes to offering their gifts to the world, boundaries are of prime importance to preserve the Piscean’s energy. Like all water signs, Pisces is vulnerable to absorbing toxic energies, so if they are offering healing or counseling work, they need to have cleansing practices.

Breathing exercises, saunas, smudging, and protective aura visualizations are all ways these natives can maintain psychic health. Enjoying solitude as well as retreating from time to time to recharge are important practices for Pisces as well, however, this needs to be kept in balance, as there can be a danger in withdrawing for too long.

These natives may begin to feel fearful of re-emerging and can get lost in escapism, self-medication, and avoidance. It will be important for Pisceans to seek support and counseling for themselves if they feel overwhelmed by the weight of the world’s emotional pain, as well as addressing their own emotional needs.

Piscean children will be well-nurtured if they are supported in their creative talents, and are encouraged to balance their sweet, giving natures with healthy boundaries. Play at times can be rough and tumble, so these young ones need guidance on how to let the insensitivity of others roll off their backs.

Pisces Life Purpose and Career

The voice of empathy, idealism, and mysticism comes forward in the Pisces mantra: I believe. Those born under the sign of the Two Fishes find purpose in exploring the unknown, by being of service, and in unique creative expression. Operating in the mutable mode, Pisces adapt and share their healing gifts with their communities, and channel their transcendental ideas into their creative projects.

With one foot in this world and one foot in the next, Pisces seeks to bridge the realm of the spiritual with everyday mundane realities. They are here to remind us that everything is sacred and that we all hold a spark of the divine within.

We all have Pisces somewhere in our birth chart, so we can look to the house that the Two Fishes rule to find the specific area of our life we approach in an idealistic, intuitive way, or where we need to call in mystery and creativity to master.

Pisces at Work

Pisces’ expansive, adaptive, and imaginative nature makes them uniquely suited for jobs where they can heal and support, or be creative and imaginative. This could take form in many professions and roles, but will likely not be found in jobs that are high paced, risky, or stressful.

These natives may need to cultivate a safe, private work environment, where they can connect, dream, and follow their intuition. Routine or structure don’t come natural to Pisces natives, so they can borrow the skills of their opposite sign Virgo, to learn how to create a schedule and a sense of material order. That being said, Pisceans are still very productive if left to their own devices, as they are often following a big picture or plan that others don’t yet perceive.

Those born with the sign of the Two Fishes prominent in their birth charts may not fit into many conventional jobs and may have to use their powers of adaptation to create new professions for themselves that do not yet exist.

The compassion and healing talents of Pisces, as well as the twelfth house connection to institutions, can lead these natives to roles as physicians and nurses in hospitals. And they may even also tend to those who are isolated in prisons and mental health facilities. These natives may also do work in rehab, assisting people with healing on a soul level from trauma and addiction.

Pisceans are natural therapists and counselors and may be suited for psychiatry and psychology roles. In this field, these natives can use their receptive and listening skills to support growth and positive life strategies.

With an interest in spirituality and faith, Pisces can be drawn to leadership roles in religious communities. Here, we may see them as chaplains or pastors at service, or in quiet retreat as monks or nuns. These natives may explore many facets of religious devotion, and are interested in the universal messages behind the various world belief systems.

Mystic by nature, these natives are curious about the occult and may go outside of society’s norms to practice spiritual devotion. They may have alternative belief systems or may work as psychics, mediums, or clairvoyants.

Wellness professions of all kinds would be well suited to Pisces, and we may find these natives teaching yoga, nutrition, and meditation to their local communities. They may prefer seeing people on a one to one basis, where they can offer personalized care and practices that suit the unique needs of their clients.

Pisceans may take to water-based professions like their fish archetype as sailors, divers, swimmers, and lifeguards. They may also enjoy roles in marine biology, or as oceanographers, with environmental protection in mind.

Those with strong Two Fishes placements in their charts can be found in creative professions of all kinds. With the modern connection to illusory Neptune, many of these folks are working in the film industry, either in front of or behind the camera. Pisces are often natural musicians, poets, fantasy writers, and artists, and explore universal messages with their various mediums.