Pisces and Pisces

They gathered round him; all eyes averted from the thing that was coming aboard. They had no thought of fighting it. It was Fate.

Four Fish, when they’re involved in any sort of an association together (each Pisces person represents two Fish, you see, swimming in opposite directions), have several choices of behavior open to them. They can both get lost in the euphoric escape of drugs or alcohol … . . become exquisitely creative in many forms of mutual endeavor, from the arts to architecture … . . explore places like Oz and Wonderland … . . team up to teach schools of small minnows, patiently and perceptively… . or just swim and pal around together, avoiding the seaweed, making friends with the sharks, talking to the dolphins, waving cheerfully to the sea gulls overhead, frolicking through the waves, and playing tag with each other. The choices are much the same, in general, as when the other two Water Signs are involved in the same sort of 1-1 Sun Sign Pattern influence, although normally not quite so intense as the double Scorpion vibration—nor quite so materially oriented and possessive as the double Cancerian vibration.

There’s a certain softness and placidity inherent in the Pisces Sun Sign, which may, in varying degrees, diminish vitality of motivation and consequent action. Pisces people are usually extraordinarily sensitive or psychic, although the quality often manifests itself in a passive way, the Fish depending upon dreams, intuition, and instant impressions in his (or her) daily, personal life. The drive and forcefulness that creates mystics who are also great leaders is sometimes lacking, Pisces preferring to spread their light quietly, behind the scenes.

Albert Einstein and Rudolph Steiner, both Pisceans, had other powerful planetary configurations present at their births which considerably diluted the dreamlike, procrastinating quality of the Sun Sign and made them practical visionaries.

Two Pisceans must always be aware of the various aspects of the negative polarity of Neptune’s psychic bequest to them: delusions, false illusions, idle daydreams, and self-deception, as well as the subtle temptation to mislead others in some way. Much will depend upon the Moon Signs of the two Fish, as to their individual destinies and the fate of their 1-1 association. If the Sun-Moon exchange between the two nativities is favorable, harmony will be easy. If not, much watchfulness will be required, lest they drown one another’s initiative and ambition.

There’s a good chance that there’ll be a scattering of petty bickering, crossness, and irritability between them now and then, but generally, they won’t face the kind of difficulty understanding one another’s basic natures they experience with other Sun Signs, such as Gemini and Sagittarius, for example. The Neptune-ruled not only easily comprehend each other’s secrets and elusive personalities—they also possess an instinctive sympathy for one another’s woes and sorrows. It’s rare for two Fish to meet and not almost immediately sense this empathy, never mind the other planetary positions in their birth charts. All 1-1 associations feel the same mutual familiarity, but none of them sense it so quickly and so deeply as Pisces and Pisces (with the possible exception of a couple of Scorps).

These two gravitate toward each other naturally and smoothly. Often, they’ll meet at the seaside, or over a drink, whether it’s a glass of Perrier water, or something stronger. They can, of course, also meet in a concert hall, in the park, in a hospital, newspaper office, the theatre, a convent, a monastery, or a science lab … . . involved in any sort of occupation or career that allows Pisces to provide some kind of creative service to others (if only to entertain them) with minimum authority required—and maximum freedom permitted.

Pisceans are ordinarily outwardly gentle, soft-spoken, and accommodating. They’re not perfect, they have their naughty moments, but the Fish aren’t usually inclined to make a major issue out of a minor slight. They bear their troubles rather lightly and casually, and when the burden becomes too heavy, the Fish are more apt to simply drop the problem and walk away from it than to struggle in futile fashion, fighting fate—or what they view as the inevitable.

To illustrate the quality of accommodation, which is so ingrained in the Neptune nature, check the table of contents in this book. You’ll notice that all the other Sun Signs are listed in columns of gradually diminishing length. Since Pisces is the last sign covered in the compatibility analysis of each of the previous associations, by the time I reached the Pisces compatibilities (while blocking out titles), it was clear that it could contain only one chapter—that of Pisces-Pisces—all other Pisces relationships having already been discussed at the end of each of the other eleven Sun Sign sections preceding the Piscean one. Not wanting to slight my Neptune readers, I tried several variations of format, to rectify this seeming ill-treatment of the poor Fish. But each change I tried was confusing in relation to all twelve Sun Signs. Finally, I decided to leave matters in their natural astrological order, realizing it wouldn’t make a particle of difference to Pisceans. Your average gentle Pisces soul expects to be last, to have least, to end up with the smallest piece of fudge cake, and to be the one head in the crowd most favored by a low-flying flock of pigeons. Believe me, Pisces folk might be nervous if they saw an entire section of twelve chapters devoted exclusively to them.

The Fish will feel more secure when they discover themselves hiding, as usual, in among the other Sun Signs, making their own individual compatibility associations with other signs difficult for the rest of the readers to find. They like it that way. All their friends will have trouble locating them and learning how they get along with people, isn’t that right, Pisces? But you’ll know where to look for yourselves, even though you may be overlooked by everyone else. (Aren’t you always?) It doesn’t ruffle your calm to be last, with the least instead of first, with the most—because you remember the biblical warning that he who is first shall be last and he who is last shall be first. And what was that other Pisces promo in the New Testament? Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth? Poor Neptune souls. If they ever did inherit the Earth, the inheritance taxes would probably shrink it so they’d be left with only the Bronx—and maybe a small slice of Siberia.

There’s this medium-famous Pisces rock singer from Indiana (I won’t embarrass him by using his name, he has enough problems), but during his very first television appearance, after the big build-up by the announcer and cheers from the studio audience, he began to play and sing his hit record—and after just two bars, he dropped his guitar pick down inside the hole in the instrument. Fortunately, the show was taped. That sort of thing frequently happens to the Fish.

Pisces men, women, and children are always being overlooked by friends, neighbors, relatives, and business associates—sometimes even by their own lovers or mates. But you needn’t feel sorry for them, truly. Actually, they prefer to enjoy the passing scene around them while being unobserved themselves. Pisces is deliberately unobtrusive. These two aren’t in the habit of carrying large banners, spelling out HERE I AM! in bright red and yellow lettering (they hate wearing name tags at conventions), and so, a couple of Fish can easily pass, almost completely unnoticed, in a crowded room—unless, of course, one of them should happen to become tipsy from too much tequila and knock over the aquarium or the potted ferns, which would cause the unfortunate Fish to blush, and suffer acute shame, not because of being tipsy or clumsy, but because of attracting so much unwelcome attention. There are a fair number of Pisceans who are in the public eye, through their choice of profession, but they never really enjoy it, and I never knew a Fish who complained about not being in the public eye. You must always think of the symbol of the sign, in the case of Pisces, the Nature fish. Would you say that trout, salmon, or any other kind of fish are apt to leap up out of the water, just to be noticed?

It’s no wonder they hide, with all those fishermen out to hook them painfully in the mouth, then leave them to die slowly in a basket, gasping for breath, telling you that it doesn’t matter, because the fish is a cold-blooded animal. Anyone who’s watched a fish thrashing about in agony wonders at the kind of intellect that claims this creature feels no pain or terror. The cold-blooded animal is the fisherman, though he may have no deliberate intention of unkindness. Not every nervous system in nature is identical, but the will to live is equal in all, through a kind of consciousness unknown to humans—yet as to its level of awareness, perhaps very akin, who knows? Certainly not insensitive scientists, hunters, or fishermen.

Thanks to their mystical inheritance from the Nature fish, which symbolizes the inner nature of Pisceans (as the inner nature of all twelve Sun Signs may be found within the symbol of each), those ruled by Neptune are not driven to seek self glory aggressively. If glory should decide on its own, so to speak, to descend upon them, they’ll resign themselves to wearing its mantel, uncomfortably, at best. The typical Piscean will never enthusiastically pursue fame. He or she merely bears it, as another of life’s many burdens. For example, neither did Pisces actress Elizabeth Taylor willingly pursue it, as she’s the first to profess, confess, and freely admit.

Such humbleness is a fine and spiritual thing, but as all qualities of the Sun Sign are intensified and sometimes overbalanced in all 1-1 Pattern vibrations, the double Pisces association must be careful that this normally admirable trait doesn’t cause them, when they exaggerate it in Neptunian unison together, to lose all incentive for actively participating in the life stream. The richness of their creative and other contributions is sorely needed by a jaded, glutted world.

Whatever their other planetary positions in their birth charts may be, any two Pisceans who are brought into close contact will never fail to be aware of the amazing depth of the ESP channel between them. In illustration of this mystical Neptune link of extrasensory perception between Pisceans, I’ll share with you its manifestation between my Pisces next-door neighbor and close friend in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Ruth Cook, and her son, Mike, who’s also a Pisces Sun Sign.

When Mike was a teenager, and was sometimes late getting home at night (as youngsters are, whether they live in a tiny town, high up in the Rockies, or in a major city), because he was involved in the excitement of the various festivities of his local group of buddies, like basketball games, shooting pool, hiking, and such—Ruth worried. Not much, being a typically tranquil female Fish, but she worried. Since she and her husband, Lowell, didn’t have a telephone at the time, there was no way for her to get in touch with him. No electronic way, that is. But between two Fish, such problems of communication are easily solved.

Piscean Ruth merely sat down in a chair in the front room, closed her eyes, and quietly meditated, imaging her son’s face and flashing him the telepathic message: Mike, it’s too late for you to be out on a school night, and I’m concerned about you. Get yourself home right away.

Over and over again, repeatedly it happened. Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, her Piscean son would invariably stop talking, suddenly, in the middle of a conversation with his friends, his eyes misting with a faraway look (which was more than a little odd on certain of those nights when he was maternally telepathed while he was in the Cottage Inn, chalking his cue stick, as the band was playing loudly). Finally he would mumble, in a trancelike daze: Say… . uh, look, I think my Mom needs me for something. I’ll see you later. Then he’d leave, rush home, open the door, and he and his mother would exchange a deep, knowing Neptune smile, as she said softly, Well, it’s about time you got here.

It should be noted that all is not sweetness and serenity between two people ruled by Neptune. If one has a conflicting Moon Sign, like Gemini or Sag, a gulf can develop, which is not so easily bridged. Such Luminary inharmony between their mutual Suns and Moons can cause them to get caught in the cross-currents, and chill each other occasionally with silent accusation (the worst kind), sullen detachment, or deceptive answers. But when the Moon of either is deposited in a sign of the Water Element or the Earth Element, the harmony of their relationship will usually be marked and extraordinary … as well as their mutual mental telepathy.

Both Fish understand the crosses Neptune people are called upon to bear, like the unjust attitudes of people not similarly motivated, who are overly anxious to accuse the Fish of being sneaky, or lying. This occurs because of the sometimes extreme contrast between the idealistic and altruistic motives of Pisces—and the devious and detoured routes they occasionally follow to achieve a desired goal. Not all, but many Piscean people are guilty of the frustrating habit of avoiding total truth, to a lesser or larger extent, but the underlying reason is the same which lies behind all Pisces attitudes and actions—to avoid outright abrasive confrontation, which would serve no purpose and only wound unnecessarily.

The Fish shrink from stormy emotional scenes and ugly personal vendettas. They’d rather lie by omission than hurt—or be hurt. Yet one Piscean will normally be more likely to level with another Fish than with any of the other Sun Signs, probably because they realize the futility of trying to fool each other. Consequently, two Fish will often speak the whole truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be, when the discussion is between them alone. They can trust one another, you see, not to cause a loud, abrasive, ugly scene.

For all of their virtues of humility, patience, and unselfishness, two Pisceans aren’t unduly demonstrative in displaying their respect, regard, or affection for each other. Understanding and sympathy may flow freely between them, but it isn’t always expressed in visible, tangible ways, so they’ll both have to work on this cold fish quality they each project and readily recognize in one another—but seldom in themselves.

There’s a beautiful part of the Pisces nature two Fish can magnify when they’re together, to the benefit of both themselves and all the rest of us, who so need their calm tranquility and compassionate, listening ear. They possess the rare grace to accept negative or upsetting people and situations—including their own mutual problems—with a kind of gentle resignation. They both comprehend that their human weaknesses (and those of others) are always entwined, somehow, with good intent—and Neptune softly whispers to them that resisting evil only gives it more strength. The Pisces ability to shrug complacently when things go wrong, refuse to make mountains out of molehills, stir up a storm in a teakettle, or cut down a beanstalk for no reason … leaving poor Jack to fall to the ground with a thud … is such a lovely thing. So, there’s a giant at the top of the beanstalk. So what? A giant has no power over four Fish who can, the two of them together, abracadabra him into a docile creature who will invite them to his castle to listen to him play and sing jolly giant songs.

That’s the Piscean formula for magic. Love and mercy. It works every time—and how much more so when the Fish splash it on one another, along with a few sprinkles of the marvelous Neptune humor that allows typical Fish to laugh at themselves, without the burden of false pride restricting their laughter. That’s a talent few possess, which constitutes part of the great golden treasure of those who may appear to be last with the least—but who were born wealthy with wisdom, and generously endowed with the fabulous riches of inner serendipity. King Midas himself should have been so lucky!

Pisces Woman and Pisces Man

Oh no, he isn’t grown up, Wendy assured her confidently, and he is just my size. She meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she didn’t know how she knew it, she just knew it.

Gently floating around in the sometimes serene and placid, sometimes choppy and churning, atmosphere of the Bronx in New York, is the dearest, nicest, spunkiest, wisest, and most patient female Fish in this or any other ocean. Her name is Pauline Hoffenberg Goodman.

Any Pisces female who imitates petite Pauline’s winsome ways can count on charming her male Fish into the net of romance without the slightest trouble. Pauline is the epitome of Piscean grace, humor, and feminine glamour—and the astrological counsel given to lady Pisceans within these pages reflects her personal, unerring instinct for delicately weaving those subtle Neptune nuances which make the Pisces woman the secret ideal of every male Fish in the world. Besides all that, she’s a delicious and delectable cook. What more could a male Piscean dreamer ask? Poetry? Pauline is also poetic … and as pretty as a pink geranium.

Actually, every Pisces woman possesses a satisfactory share of Pauline Hoffenberg Goodman’s qualities, traits, and talents—so it’s no wonder the Pisces man who’s in love with a Neptune lady feels he’s finally managed to swim past all the dangerous, dangling hooks of the aggressive females who are trying to land him … into the cool, clear waters of the kind of love he’s been searching for ever since he was hatched near the beautiful waterfall of tears he subconsciously recalls. He remembers thinking, as a tiny tadpole, that teardrops are lovely things, crystal-prismed and rainbow-hued, when the Sun shines through them. Then he grew up, and one bright, miracled, many-faceted morning, he realized, with a ripple of joy, the answer to his tender tadpole riddle. Suddenly, he knew that love was the sunbeam which could shine through the tears of his silent sadness … and transmute them into sparkling spectrums of light.

The waterfall memories of the female Fish are exactly like his. She too recalls the wistfulness of her own genesis moments, when there was a dream too lovely to describe, gently wafting over her heart like a mist … faintly promising a tomorrow as free and faerie-like as yesterday’s forgotten Eden. All her life she’s wondered, secretly and silently, if that dream was real … or only an imaginary fragment of happiness and serenity. She’s quietly and patiently waited for it to reappear, to manifest from the mist of memory … and the times when she’s been disappointed—just when she thought it was about to envelop her heart again—are countless.

Then she looked into his eyes—and wonder of wonders? She saw her dream reflected there, as in the still pool of a pine-scented green wood … smiling back at her in beautiful recognition. She saw herself in his eyes. Just as he saw himself in hers.

It would be divine if we could sign off right here, with the wonted faerie tale ending of they-lived-happily-ever-after. But that’s not allowed. One must first pass through the Black Forest and fight off all those lurking dragons, witches, ugly toads, and Incredible Hulks who loom and lurk in the lagoons, waiting to capture these Pisces lovers, then separate them and drop them down into the terrible well of loneliness—KERPLUNK!

I do so hate to switch from the poetic to the prosaic (as does every Fish ever born, in every way), but we must move along to the more mundane matters of Neptune compatibility before we enjoy the rewards of solving the tender tadpole riddle.

As with other doubled-up 1-1 Sun Sign Pattern lovers, two people ruled by the same planet (in this instance, of course, Neptune) must face the certain increase and intensification of both the positive and the negative aspects of their own personalities. With the Pisces-Pisces couple, the positive qualities they share and therefore will find easy to multiply together are: gentleness, sensitivity, imagination, creativity, compassion, perception—and a great deal of cleverness and wit—plus the good sense not to stand in each other’s light … or shadow.

The negative Piscean weeds they’ll have to prune (perhaps even stomp on) lest they choke and strangle the lovely flowers of their romance are: too much daydreaming, idleness, laziness, confusion, untidiness and chaos, procrastination, fears, phobias, and various forms of neurosis, the temptation to tell fibs—and the odd habit they might drift into of playing doormat to each other.

These two assuredly do have a sizable number of dragons, polliwogs, witches, and such to fight off as they tremble through the dark forest, don’t they? Never mind. They have all sorts of magic to use to banish the goblins who threaten their happiness. And as everyone knows (or should know), even the most TERRIBLE trolls and trogs (not frogs, they’re nice—trogs) are terrified of magic.

The private anxieties of Pisces are also doubled (even quadrupled, considering that there are four Fish between the two of them) when these lovers plunge into an emotional relationship. If one of them has a strong Moon Sign or Ascendent, preferably in the Earth Element, he or she can be a veritable anchor of stability for the other. (A Water Element Moon Sign or Ascendent is lovely for harmony, but we’re talking about protective stability.) Without such support from their mutual Luminaries and Ascendents at birth, these two face the danger of either fretting themselves into fantasies of fears—or gliding casually through a love affair or a marriage which is too fragile to be lasting.

There are Pisceans who are afraid of their own shadows. There are others (called Whales) who fear neither man nor beast. At least, they claim they don’t. It’s always good to remember that what Pisces says is not necessarily what Pisces means, at all times. Some Fish fear themselves, rather than outside circumstances or people, never pushing ahead, and therefore missing opportunities for anything they really want to do. Then too, there are the playful, perceptive, and absolutely brilliant Dolphin types.

The peculiarly sympathetic nature of the Pisces woman and the Pisces man can cause them to be ultrasensitive to sense impressions, which are sometimes misleading. If the birth chart of one of them contains more planets in Earth than that of the other, the more earthy Piscean might accuse the less practical one of refusing to face facts, of viewing things through such pastel-tinted glasses that dangers are not recognized because every potentially serious situation seems to be bathed in a luminous veil of beauty, which is but a seductive illusion. This is actually the germ for all Neptune fears and phobias—the memory of having such a golden haze fade into a shrouded grey cloud of fog too many times. Yet, one of the two Pisceans in the relationship may cling to the illusion, knowing it’s more real than what appears to be the truth—and surprisingly often, through sheer persistence of faith, even proving it’s so. When that happens, it’s called a miracle. It’s no accident that so many of the saints were born under the sign of the Fish.

It’s possible that either he or she is a Fish swimming in the wrong direction, behaving as though life itself is a dream, and that’s a bit too much Neptunian make-believe for the other. Or, one of them could be the Whale-type Piscean, who scoffs at the esoteric, ignores all spiritual truth, is loud, talky, pushy, and aggressive. When these Whale Pisceans behave in such a manner, diametrically opposed to his or her natural Sun Sign qualities, as I’ve stated elsewhere in this book, it’s symptomatic of some form of neurosis of the heart, mind, or soul. A bashful Ram, an impulsive Bull, a careless and carefree Crab—like a brash, markedly extroverted Whale—are all inwardly unhappy people denying their own essences.

Either the male or female half of this Neptune team might be a domineering Whale or an embittered Fish, who has seen too much of life’s ugliness, and has retreated into romantic promiscuity or cutting speech to hide a broken heart, stemming from a crushed faith. If so, the stronger Piscean will need to handle the other with much compassion. It takes unending patience to rescue such a Whale—or Fish—who is floundering in his or her murky waters of disillusionment, and swimming upstream, against the true current of Pisces experience.

A Pisces woman is well qualified to snare a male Fish in a net of love, and keep him there. She’ll intuitively sense that he doesn’t like probing into his private thoughts. A bossy mate would never to able to hold this man, and the female Fish, if she’s a typical Piscean female, is submissive without being masochistic. She’s intelligent, even wise, yet still vulnerable enough to appeal to the sense of masculine protectiveness within him he so needs to have nurtured. Conversely, she needs a mate who is tender enough to handle her own extrasensitive feelings with consideration, and no one can do that better than a Pisces man.

Their physical union will seldom be unduly passionate and demanding, but then, not everyone needs wild jungle thrills every night. This doesn’t mean they’ll lead a sterile sexual life. In fact, the sexual experience between two Pisceans can be deeply intimate, in the true sense of intimacy. They can escape into their man-woman love from the dark, dreary, mundane drabness of the material world around them, as Nature fish escape from the stale inlets and bays into the cool, green ocean, sparkling in the sunlight, soothing the shore with soft, splashing waves in the moonlight. Sex between these two can be exactly like that—clean, fresh, free—and continually flowing with the mystical poetry of romance. The knights of the medieval days and their ladies fair must have known similar physical expression of their love.

If a Pisces woman notices that the male Fish is somehow dissatisfied and unhappy with his work, despondent around the house, and appears to be increasingly secretive, withdrawn, and cool … she might try listening more carefully to his song of lonely. If she tries, she’s the one woman who can explain the lyrics to him, since Pisceans are very seldom self-analytical, for all their intuitive sense of the feelings of others. He was born under the vibrations of Neptune, and so he instinctively knows that man is a spirit—he has a soul—and this is what he longs to recapture, his soul! His secret dream is to stride mountains, swim rivers, climb trees, run through the grass in the rain—barefoot, without shoes—to live his nights and days unburdened by possessions, unrestricted by society’s hypocritical dictates. Like Francesco de Bernardone, of Assisi, the Pisces man is at heart a spiritual beggar, yearning privately to follow the bright song of the meadowlark, wherever it may take him. But the modern-day materialistic world permits him neither to confess nor to express his inner longings.

Unless he finds a way to aggressively pursue his real goal, the male Fish can drown in frustration, sometimes sadly turning, in quiet desperation, to the release of disappointment, through the escape of aimless wandering… . alcohol, or drugs. He needs a woman who can understand, who won’t bind him by the chains of her fears—or condemn him for the passion of his spirit.

As for the female Fish, her changing moods and periodic teardrops, her long spells of silence … nearly always mean that she, too, wishes they could leave behind them the confining aquarium of their existence and swim into wider vistas of wonder and excitement … to rest awhile on calm and peaceful lakes of placidity … then travel on to beckoning mysteries beyond the faraway horizons. As patient as she is, the Pisces woman gets weary of reading about the adventures of others who dare to drop responsibility and chase the wilder winds out yonder… so weary that, after a while, like the Gaelic Kathleen, even her voice is sad when ere it speaks.

All she seeks is a light touch on her hand, some sign, some answering light in the eyes of her Pisces lover or husband that says he does—oh! yes, he does know how wistfully, yet urgently, she wants to trade security for freedom. Then they can leave together, never mind whether or not it’s time for a vacation. Neptune’s insistent alarm clock is ringing, telling them both it is time to follow their dreams—now or never.

That’s when they should run right out and buy a couple of tickets for Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Switzerland, or Tibet. Money? All they need is enough cash for the transportation. Food and shelter will be provided in all sorts of mysterious and unexpected ways by Providence, as surely as with the birds in the sky and the lilies of the field. This Neptune-haunted man and woman know that better than anyone, but they tend to forget it from time to time, when they allow concern for the morrow to take over and smother them. For, when a Pisces man or woman is working at something he or she enjoys, the channels for material security are thrown wide open—like a window to the future.

When they allow themselves to live and love freely, two Fish can become Dolphins, playing happily and wisely together in perfect peace and contentment. And there will be less chance that the fishermen of the cold, hard world, who dangle their sharp hooks in the water to catch the Fish unaware, will be successful. One can warn the other to avoid the tempting bait.

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