Pisces zodiac star sign facts, horoscope and traits

Pisces [19 February - 20 March] | star sign, horoscope, astrological and zodiac facts

August 8, 2018

Pisces is the twelfth astrological sign of the zodiac spanning 19 February – 20 March. It’s also a water sign – the others being Scorpio and Cancer. Pisces’ symbol is the fish.

The colours associated with Pisces are mauve, lilac, purple, violet, sea green and blue. Its celestial bodies are Neptune and Jupiter. Pisces is associated with the mutable quality; that of change, endings and new expectations.

Dates: February 19 – March 20
Symbol: The Fish
Element: Water
Colour: Mauve, lilac, purple, violet, sea green and blue
Day: Thursday
Celestial: Mercury
Quality: Mutable
Most compatible: Virgo, Taurus
Birthstones: Heliotrope, jade, quartz, sapphire
Scent: Sandalwood, marine, aqua blossom and spearmint

Traits of a Pisces

Strengths: Wise, musical, compassionate, artistic, gentle, intuitive

Weaknesses: Can be fearful, overly trusting, prone to sadness, bad with criticism and keen to escape the dulls of reality

Pisces are usually friendly, faithful souls who often enjoy the company of a mixture of fish in the sea. Their selflessness and willingness to help other people makes them good friends, as does their intuitiveness and empathy – traits of a water sign.

Those born under the Pisces zodiac can be generous and highly compassionate, making them great companions able of achieving strong emotional connections with friends.

Pisces get their intuitiveness from their ruling planet Neptune, this often helps them to express themselves, sometimes in the form of artistic or musical talent.

The downside to a Pisces is that sometimes they can be keen to swim away from reality, being fearful of what lies ahead. Being overly trusting can also leave them open to being taken advantage of – a friendly fish to a lure.

The solution? Swim strong little fishy! Let criticism float by you, not drag you down to the depths of sadness. Place your trust wisely and don’t get too led astray by the distractions that pull you away from the shoal of your close friends.

The Pisces constellation

The Pisces constellation lies with Aquarius to its west and Aries to its east and intersects with the ecliptic and celestial equator.The Pisces Constellation

There are various notable stars in this constellation, the highest magnitude of which is Van Maanen’s Star – a white dwarf at 12.35 magnitude.

Other stars include Alrescha (‘’The cord’’), Fumalsamakah (‘’Mouth of the fish’’), Revati (‘’Rich’’) and Alpherg (‘’Pouring point of water’’).

Deep sky objects in the constellation include the spiral galaxies M74 and NGC 488, HGC 520 – a pair of colliding galaxies and CL 0024 and 1645 – a massive galaxy cluster that lenses the galaxy behind it to create arc shaped images of it.

The galaxy 3c 31 has a supermassive black hole at its centre and the jets caused by it are some of the largest known objects in the universe extending several million light-years.

Pisces in History and Mythology

Pisces is the Latin Plural for fish. One of the earliest zodiac signs on record, the two fish symbol appears on an Egyptian coffin lid from circa 2300 BCE.

In Ancient Greek and Roman mythology Pisces is sometimes represented as the koi fish who helped Aphrodite and her son Eros (Venus and Cupid in Roman mythology) escape from the monster Typhos – the ‘father of all monsters’, who had been sent by Gaia to attack the gods. Another myth is that the fish carried the egg from the Euphrates River to the shore which Aphrodite subsequently hatched from. Pisces may also be related to the ichthyocentaurs Aphros and Bythos (Half brothers of the centaur Chiron) who were said to have lifted Aphrodites (Venus) out of the sea on her famous cockle shell. Ichthyocentaurs were sea gods with human torsos, horse bodies, fish tails, lobster claws and horns.

In Syrian mythology the sea-centaurs may be related to the divine fish that carried Astarte to shore from the water.