Pisces is a large but faint zodiacal constellation that is best seen from early October through late January. It is surrounded by the constellations of Aries, Whale, Aquarius, Pegasus, and Andromeda.On a clear and moonless night, about 75 faint stars can be seen with the naked eye in the constellation Pisces. Only three of them are brighter than the fourth magnitude.
Venus and her son Cupid while sitting on the bank of the Euphrates suddenly saw Typhon, the enemy of the Gods, approaching them. They leapt into the river and were saved from drowning by two fishes, who were afterwards placed in the heavens by Venus in gratitude for their help.
Ptolemy makes the following observations: “Those stars in Pisces which are in the head of the southern fish have the same influence as Mercury, and, in some degree, as Saturn (subtle, studious, keen and profound mind, often shameless liar, interested in occult or serious subjects): those in the body are like Jupiter and Mercury (religious mind, thoughtful, philosophical, writer on religious or similar subjects): those in the tail and in the southern line are like Saturn, and, moderately, like Mercury (profound liar, thief, blackguard, scandal and slander). In the northern fish, those on its body and backbone resemble Jupiter, and also Venus in some degree (contented, happy disposition, honorable, philosophical mind, legal or ecclesiastical preferment, help through women. If rising or culminating, honor and riches): those in the northern line are like Saturn and Jupiter (dignified, pious, conservative, acquisitive, retentive. Honor and preferment if culminating).” By the Kabalists Pisces is associated with the Hebrew letter Pé and the 17th Tarot Trump “The Stars.” Pisces, the Fishes…The figures are widely separated in the sky, the northeastern one lying just south of beta Andromedae, headed towards it, and the southwestern one east from and headed towards Aquarius and Pegasus, the lucida (Alrisha) marking the knot of the connecting bands. Both are north of the ecliptic, the first culminating on the 28th of November, and the second about three weeks earlier. In early days they were shown close together, one above the other, but in reversed directions, although united as now.
By reason of precession this constellation is now the first of the zodiac, but entirely within its boundaries lies the sign Aries; the vernal equinox being located in a comparatively starless region south of omega in the tail of the southwestern Fish, and about 2° west of “a line from alpha Andromedae through gamma Pegasi continued as far again.” This equinoctial point is known as the First of Aries, and the Greenwich of the Sky; and from their containing it, the Fishes are called the Leaders of the Celestial Host…
The 26th nakshatra, Revati, Abundant or Wealthy, lay here in the thirty-two stars from zeta northwards, figured as a Drum or Tabor. But the manzil (Moon Mansion), Batn al Hut, the Fish’s Belly, or Al Risha’, the Cord, and the corresponding sieu, Koei, or Kwei, Striding Legs, were formed by sixteen stars in a figure 8 from psi Piscium to nu Andromeda, and mainly lay in this constellation, although beta and zeta, in Andromeda seem to have been their determinant points. All of these stations, however, may have been even more extended, for there certainly is “a perplexing disagreement in detail among the three systems.”
Al Biruni asserted that “the name of the sign in all languages signifies only one fish,” and it is probable that the original asterism was such, for, according to Eratosthenes, it symbolized the great Syrian goddess Derke or Derketo, and so, later, was named Dea Syria, Dercis, Dercetis, Dercete, Proles Dercia, and Phacetis…But the Greeks confounded this divinity with another Syrian goddess, Astarte, identified with Aphrodite (Venus), who precipitated herself, with her son Eros (Cupid), into the Euphrates when frightened by the attack of the monster Typhon; these becoming two fishes that afterwards were placed in the zodiac. Latin classical authors, with the same groundwork of the story, made Pisces the fishes that carried Venus and her boy out of danger, so that, as Manilius said, Venus owed her Safety to their Shape. The constellation was thus known as Venus et Cupido, Venus Syria cum Cupidine, Venus cum Adone, Dione, and Veneris Mater; and it has been Ourania and Urania, the Sarmatian Aphrodite Gad the Marauder…
In early astrology the constellation appropriately was under the care of the sea-god Neptune, and so the Neptuni Sidus of Manilius; and it was the Exaltation of Venus…Thus it naturally ruled the Euphrates, Tigris, and the Red Sea, and Parthia; but in later days was assigned to the guardianship of Jupiter, whose House it was, reigning over Egypt, Calabria, Galicia, Normandy, Portugal, Spain, and Ratisbon. It was predominant in influence with mariners, and had charge of the human feet; the designated color being a glistening white, as of fish just out of the water; and it was fruitful, like its namesakes, for, according to Manilius. “Pisces fill the Flood.”
Ptolemy distinguished the members of the constellation as epomenos,” the rear or eastern,” and egoumenos, “the front or western “; the Southern Fish being his notios; a precaution rendered necessary by the frequent confounding of these three by classical writers. A notable instance of this is seen in the Poeticon Astronomicon, where our Pisces are made to receive the water from the Urn. In Humboldt’s Cosmos they are Pisces Boreales. The constellation is popularly thought to have taken its name from its coincidence with the sun during the rainy season; and the symbol for the sign, , to represent the two Fishes joined; but Sayce thinks it the Hittite determinative affix of plurality.
The folk engendered by the two Fishes, the last of the signs, will possess a love of the sea: they will entrust their lives to the deep, will provide ships or gear for ships and everything that the sea requires for activity connected with it. The consequent skills are numberless: so many are the components of even a small ship that there are scarcely enough names for things. There is also the art of navigation, which has reached out to the stars and binds the sea to heaven. The pilot must have sound knowledge of the earth, its rivers and havens, its climate and winds; how on the one hand to ply the mobile helm this way and that, and brake the ship and spread apart the waves, and how on the other to drive the ship by rowing and to feather the lingering blades. The Fishes further impart to their son the desire to sweep tranquil waters with dragnets and to display on shores which are their own the captive peoples of the deep, either by hiding the hook within the bait or the guile within the weel. Naval warfare too is of their gift, battles afloat, and blood-stained waves at sea. The children of this sign are endowed with fertile offspring, a friendly disposition, swiftness of movement, and lives in which everything is ever apt to change.
The Sign is pictured as two large fishes bound together by a Band, the ends of which are fastened separately to their tails. One fish is represented with its head pointing upwards towards the North Polar Star, the other is shown at right angles, swimming along the line of the ecliptic, or path of the sun. The ancient Egyptian name, as shown on the Denderah Zodiac, is Pi-cot Orion, or Pisces Hori, which means the fishes of Him that cometh.The Hebrew name is Dagim, the Fishes, which is closely connected with multitudes, as in Genesis 48:26, where Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons, and says, “Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” The margin says, “Let them grow as fishes do increase.” It refers to the fulfilment of Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The multitude of Abraham’s seed is prominent in the pronouncement of the blessings, where God compared his future posterity to the stars of the sky, and the sand upon the sea shore. “A very great multitude of fish,” as in Ezekiel 47:9. The Syriac name is Nuno, the fish, lengthened out (as in posterity).
Indeed, this sign of PISCES has always been interpreted of Israel. Both Jews and Gentiles have agreed in this. ABARBANEL, a Jewish commentator, writing on Daniel, affirms that the Sign PISCES always refers to the people of Israel. He gives five reasons for this belief, and also affirms that a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn always betokens a crisis in the affairs of Israel. Because such a conjunction took place in his day (about 1480 AD) he looked for the coming of Messiah…
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wikkipedia
Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson.
Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard H. Allen.
Astronomica, Manilius.
The Witness of the Stars, E. W. Bullinger.
