Pisces - in these times
We hear it a lot, or at least I feel like I do. In these times… What does it mean? It applies to and is poignant for those who have lived in any age, not just this age. It acknowledges that the now of this time of our lives, of all our lives, and of human evolutionary history is greatly affected by our context. And that these particular times are different than all other times because they exist amidst the matrix of now - they are influenced by and a product of a plethora of beliefs, experiences, and contexts that define these times and our experiences in them and therefore us. More than anything else, our times color our perceptions and beliefs of the world and of ourselves as operators within that world. It is a phrase that reminds us that we are inseparable from the whole.
In these times, two realities greatly color our understanding of Pisces. The first is that we are totally and completely obsessed with doing. Our obsession with and commitment to doing is embedded in a belief of these times that our value is wedded to our productivity. This belief is clear in how we do everything in this culture. Even when it comes to leisure, we are often still very much on the move, attending events, classes, activities, etc. The belief in our value being connected to our productivity has also led to a toxic dynamic with our health and our bodies. How we care for our bodies has become part of our to-do list - rather than a kind, gentle relationship with our bodies we anxiously approach our health as a perfectionist quest to “better ourselves.” This in and of itself is a toxic dynamic - who said you need to be better, we are all whole just as we are.
The concept of bettering ourselves comes to us from a linear worldview that believes progress only moves in one direction - toward better. This is production-oriented, believing we must do, make, and achieve to be whole. We busy ourselves, thinking we are nourishing ourselves as we exercise, practice self-care, and eat healthily. All of these are lovely things to do, I am a proponent, but somehow doing nothing, just sitting and being, or daydreaming rarely makes the self-care list. And in fact, to put them on a list somehow nullifies them. In these times, we are so disconnected from any possibility that nothingness and the act of doing nothing could possibly have value that we have removed all possibility for it from the rhythm of our lives.
Just as human activity such as overfishing and disregard for climate change threatens the kelp forests of the ocean that collect carbon and provide shelter and food for a diversity of life, our obsession with doing threatens the shelter, respite, and nourishment that our own inner conscious can provide for us.
This is an old story, but not an ancient one. It used to be that there was time to do nothing built into the fabric of a day and the cycle of a year. In times before electric lighting people lived half or more of their lives in the dark. A time when doing nothing was expected. Time to do nothing but experience the self didn’t have to make the to-do list nor did one have to hustle to set aside time for - it was built into the fabric of life. This is Pisces’ territory - the exploration and experience of ourselves and the rest of the world in the dark.
The other piece of the collective consciousness that we need to understand if we are to understand our perceptions and beliefs about Pisces in these times, is our conceptions of spirituality. As an Inspiritual Minister, I’ve been a part of a lot of conversations about spirituality and what it is. Spirituality is something that varies with beliefs and ideologies across cultures and throughout history. Beliefs and values about how the world works and what defines reality have a great impact on conceptions of spirituality. It used to be that spirituality was considered to be a part of everything on earth. A spiritual worldview that we now refer to, in these times, as traditional, earth-based spirituality. During that time in human history, the world was under the influence of a perception that spirituality was a part of the world around us, and we as beings on earth were spiritual beings - a part of the matrix of life. Over tens of thousands of years, this perception has shifted slowly toward polytheism and monotheism. With polytheism and monotheism, we see a shift toward the center and source of spirituality as something that exists “up there.” We are still spiritual beings, but we are spiritual beings having a human experience, rather than a part of the matrix of all that is, we are little manifestations of an overarching spiritual force that is larger than us and exists outside of us - perhaps you call it God, perhaps you call it something else. We are separate from spirit and spirituality and spiritual practice becomes about specific practices and activities that connect us to this larger than life spiritual force.
The conception and understanding of spirituality as something up there or out there, larger than ourselves, is a deeply held belief of these times. So much so that it’s hard to imagine this could be any other way. And it doesn’t have to be another way, this perception of spirituality is perfectly fine. However, it does affect how we understand Pisces. Spirituality very well can be something that exists outside ourselves, or perhaps more accurately, our perception of spirituality is our experiencing in ourselves a connection to somethign larger than ourselves. This is a beautiful concept. But it is a concept, the idea that we now consider spirituality to be synonymous with these experiences shows us something about the times we live in.
Pisces is a mutable water sign. Water signs seek to feel their way through life, Pisces as a mutable water sign and as the “last” sign in the evolutionary journey of the Zodiac as we have taken it this time, wants to become even more formless than water already is. Pisces wants to spread out and experience consciousness itself. What is consciousness? That is a question philosophers have mulled over for millennia, but Pisces has no interest in answering the question, Pisces simply wants to feel and experience these states of consciousness themselves. An experience that sadly, we have relegated to purely spiritual endeavors. We have lost sight of the fact that experiencing our own consciousness can be a part of our existence rather than relegated to spiritual practice. The reality is that all of us experience consciousness all the time, we are all feeling through our lives, but we rarely become conscious of our consciousness. More often, it gets in the way of productivity and rationality, so we sweep it under the rug or cram it into a little box, a weekly therapy session, or an evening hot tub. We do our way through our lives, preoccupied with defining ourselves for what we do rather than for who we are - what we feel, experience, or perceive.
Pisces desires to connect with the raw, unfiltered states of consciousness that make us human and spirit. That we have reserved such inquiry for spiritual practice shows us something of the deficit of the human psyche, spirit, and imagination in the structure of our society in these times. Pisces wants to dissolve the boundaries between self and other, spirit and matter, conscious and unconscious, real and imagined. So full of love and compassion, Pisces wants to bring the truth of interconnection - the reality that we can both be and do, that we don’t have to see our conscious selves as separate from the rest of ourselves - and the experience of consciousness itself to the earth realm. Pisces is the human liaison between the experience of the inner world - raw, vulnerable, alive, and uncontrollable - and rational, linear society.
This can be a very criticized and scapegoated role in our society which does not in any way welcome this liaison. Too often Pisces is pathologized and ridiculed - accused of being a dreamer, or overly emotional, sensitive, irrational, impulsive, or out there… you can fill in the rest.
Pisces’ has a hard job and the sense of truth and connection it can experience in other states can become deeply appealing when back in the earth realm it is met with hostility and exile. Its shadow is that it can want to escape the earth plane and live solely in these various states of consciousness itself. Perhaps this is the calling for some, but Pisces’ job is not to transcend earth or leave it behind, it is to weave the realities of consciousness into the earth plane life. It is to act as that liaison even though it is rough - to experience the other world and share it. In essence, Pisces must learn to stay connected enough to the earth to effectively integrate. Integration is the real spiritual practice for Pisces. Most importantly, though we must remember that by slowing down to notice and experience consciousness itself Pisces is making any sense of ourselves possible. Without that experience, integration is just an imaginary dream of the future tripping among us.
Our culture pathologizes Pisces because we are afraid of what it can and will reveal. We believe that our survival depends on the rational doer in us, so we overdevelop that part and remain afraid of the lesser-known parts within us - those parts that we have been taught from a young age are irrational and unwelcome. We remain afraid of our and other’s consciousness because we don’t experience it enough. We worry about what will we find there, down in the dark, in the kelp forest of our souls - we forget that amidst the potential pain, possible terror, and power of our own emotions, we will also find shelter and nourishment.
Traditionally, Pisces is seen as the end of the evolutionary journey of the Zodiac. But in circular systems such as the Zodiac, there are no endings, only transformations. Pisces represents the descent that births new life - the primordial womb that begins and ends all cycles and imbues all life on earth with essence. In these times, Pisces reminds us that slowing down and experiencing ourselves as beings who feel and breathe is part of the cycle of production - the beginning and the end, the source and the womb from which all is born. In these times, Pisces has no better medicine to offer than to remind us to slow down and feel.