Aries: independence + integration

We begin the zodiacal cycle with the Sun transiting across the constellation of Aries. This marks the zodiacal new year, the beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and the Spring equinox. It is a time of renewal, of life returning to a sleeping environment.

The words of Aries are “I AM.” This archetype speaks to individuality while encapsulating the oneness of the collective. At first glance Aries may appear selfish or self-interested but in it’s most empowered expression, the individuality is wholly integrated into the collective One. The baby of the zodiac is much like human baby who may present like a tiny tyrant but who have not yet developed a distinction between themselves and others. Their demands are not tyrannical, but an assertion of willful desire for collective needs to be met. Like the Warrior who may be seen as bold, brash, and ego driven, empowered Aries offers these qualities to the collective with the wisdom and purpose of selfless devotion to the common good.

The lessons of Aries are of independence and integration, assertion of will, ambition, leadership, and pioneering or initiating action. Aries is called to go first, to bleed first for the cause, to start sh*t. Without a leader, or at least someone willing to go first, we are stagnant and stuck in chaos without a beginning or an end. The bravery, independence, and audacity of this archetype teaches us the value of the individual in service to the collective.

While independence is one side of the spectrum navigated by the archetype of Aries, the other is integration. As shown in the etymology of the word, integration embodies oneness, wholeness, completeness. Empowered independence is not about isolation or detachment from the collective, it is the embodiment of leadership that is conscious of and devoted to the community it leads. Integration is not the loss of individuality to the group, but the awareness of unity and wholeness in the self.

Selfishness is the art of Aries. To articulate need and desire, is what this archetype teaches us. While we cannot guarantee receipt of our needs and desires, we are nearly promised never to receive them without asking. We may risk disappointment or the vulnerability of exposing our will, but this act of vulnerability is the price we pay for a chance to have our needs and desires met.

In American culture, independence is a highly glorified quality. From a therapeutic perspective however, this privileging of independence can present some concerning issues. While it is often Libra, the opposite sign from Aries, that is associated with codependency, the other side of the codependent coin is hyper-independence. This is the deluded belief that an individual can ‘do it all alone.’ The behavior that insists on never sharing it’s needs for fear of exposing the need to receive support or worse, asking and being rejected. Not only does absolutely nothing occur in a vacuum on our planet, but humans are a pack animal, communally oriented and requiring of family, a village, to achieve anything.

While leadership is an honorable quality, it is nothing without a community to lead. The same is true for the archetype of Aries; independence is noble but without a sense of integration, connection to the collective, it is isolated and adrift without purpose.

Pisces: connection + boundaries

Pisces is the zodiac symbolized by two fish swimming in opposite directions. This image reminds us that two things can be true at once, drawing on the mysticism and the vast unknown associated with Pisces.

Pisces navigates the spectrum of boundaries, moving from boundlessness that leaves us with nothing to connect to and boundaries that create healthy and sustainable connection. It describes how vulnerable we become to losing ourselves to substances, experiences, and relationships without boundaries. On the other hand it represents the boundaries that endorse healthy connection and inspire a love solid enough to hold onto.

It is the mutable, meaning flexible and changeable, water sign and the last archetype in the zodiac marking the death and rebirth of cycles. In many traditions and certainly Tropical Astrology, water signifies emotional and intuitive powers. Combine the mutable mode of adaptation and responsiveness with the sensitive and emotive properties of water and we have the highly intuitive, creative escape artist that is the sign of Pisces.

Pisces is poetry, the lyrical reality, the liminal space where dreams materialize and riddles are the best questions to ask. This archetype is as much blessed as it is cursed by porosity, a lack of boundaries that leave this narrative plenty of opportunities for martyrdom and sacrifice. Perhaps the most ‘spiritual’ of the signs, Pisces offers lessons in allegory and symbolism. It is best described in metaphor if we hope to capture the mythical siren that is Pisces.

The nature of Pisces is mystical, dreamy, and highly changeable which can lead us down tangential paths when trying to capture the meaning of this elusive archetype. I often find myself struggling to put the Piscean archetype into words, instead becoming distracted or losing my train of thought as the phantasm of this archetype blurs definitions. Pisces is associated with illusion and delusion and often teaches lessons of faith by demonstrating what is not real and what cannot be proven, requiring us to discern for ourselves the meaning and pathway that inspires us.

The ancient ruler of the sign of Pisces was Jupiter. This affinity describes the faith-based lessons of Pisces through the expansion and ascendance articulated by Jupiter. In 1846 the planet Neptune was discovered and then identified as the ruler of this aquatic sign. This era was marked by a number of archetypally relevant discoveries including significant developments in pharmaceuticals and photography. Both pharmaceuticals and photography are fraught with complex layers of illusion and delusion. Both fields hold mysterious narratives such as ghosts captured on film during the early days of photography that were actually the photographer passing through the image while the very low sensitivity of the film required the subject to stand still for a while to allow the image to develop on film. This would create a blurry image of the “ghost” while the subjects believed they had been visited by a deceased ancestor while holding very still for the portrait. The use of photography in court can also offer some concerns for deception as so much faith is put in what we see when in reality, much can be manipulated or mutated to create an illusion our eyes can easily believe. Meanwhile, pharmaceuticals and the industry that has manipulated and contorted the art of pharmacology and herbalism has created a complex narrative of illusion in response to diagnoses of delusions. Pharmaceutical treatment of mental health produced innumerable opportunities for distortions of reality which mirrors the fantastical and hallucinogenic properties of Pisces seamlessly. Corresponding with the chemical sensitivity, the emotional manipulation, and the discrepancies in perception of reality the Pisces archetype and natives navigate narratives of addiction, escapism, and the vast subconscious.

The connection between Pisces and mental health goes deeper than pharmacology as it reflects the unseen, the emotional, and the subconscious areas that are explored and ideally integrated in mental health practices. The porosity of this archetype makes lessons of boundaries a key theme in the Pisces narrative. Whether they are boundaries of abstinence or discernment, limited access to resources or relational, boundaries are the balm to the sacrificial nature of Pisces.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486)

The planet Venus is exalted in Pisces, an alignment best articulated by the enlightenment of compassion, the highest form of love. The love Venus brings to a Piscean landscape has the opportunity to spread with the boundlessness of the kind of love we associate with spiritual leaders like the Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed. It is the ideal love, without restriction or regulation. It is the fantastical love of fairy tales and our wildest dreams. The sensitive and flexible environment that is Pisces, provides the perfect context for the subconscious to come to the surface and intuition to be explored. This same context can induce the urge to escape and dissociate. Where feelings are expressed with vulnerability and fantasy can be articulated without shame, that is where love thrives, where Venus flourishes.

Venus’s exaltation in Pisces also ties together the connection to Neptune. The Greek counterpart to Venus, [the origin of Roman Venus appears to be missing] Aphrodite, was born of the sea, Neptune’s domain.