Zodiac sign

Pisces

Direct answer

Pisces is the twelfth zodiac sign: mutable water, traditionally ruled by Jupiter and modernly associated with Neptune, linked with compassion, imagination, surrender, mystery, and spiritual permeability.

Zodiac SignsThe Great Almanac DictionaryUpdated 2026-09-26

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At a glance

In astrology: Pisces is mutable water, opposite Virgo, and closes the zodiacal sequence before Aries begins again.
Found in: Zodiac Signs
Related: Zodiac, Sun Sign, Moon Sign, Rising Sign

Deeper Almanac guide: Pisces zodiac guide. This dictionary entry is a concise definition page; the linked guide remains the long-form topic page.

The zodiac constellation figures ranged along an engraved ecliptic — Zodiac field guide · visual guide **Pisces**
Pisces is mutable water, traditionally ruled by Jupiter.
The sign glyph and elemental field orient the archetype without reducing it to a stereotype.

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What sets Pisces apart

Pisces is the twelfth and last sign, mutable water, where the zodiac ends before returning to the equinox at Aries. It is drawn as two fish bound by a cord and counts as bicorporeal. It holds an exaltation and a fall together: Venus is exalted at 27 degrees in the later tradition, while Mercury falls at 15 degrees and is also in detriment, since Virgo opposite is its own home. Jupiter rules it, and Neptune is its modern co-ruler since 1846.

Sun enters: about 19 February
Exaltation: Venus, at 27 degrees in the later tradition
Fall: Mercury, at 15 degrees, which is also its detriment here
Traditional ruler: Jupiter, also ruling Sagittarius
Modern ruler: Neptune, assigned after its discovery in 1846

Often mistaken for something else: Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, is a separate southern constellation. Pisces is the zodiac sign of the two fish.

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Pisces in the traditional textbooks

Pisces is Jupiter's night sign, and Venus is exalted in it at 27 degrees while Mercury falls at 15. Firmicus describes it as feminine, double, moist, fertile, scaly and mute, with one fish going south and the other north. Ptolemy says it tends to shrink and misshape the body. Abu Ma'shar gives it the feet, and Dorotheus lists it among the fertile signs.

Ruler: Jupiter. Ptolemy gives it to Jupiter because it is in trine to the houses of the luminaries, airy and fruitful. Its detriment is Mercury, the ruler of Virgo, the opposite sign.
Exaltation in this sign: Venus at 27 degrees. Fall in this sign: Mercury at 15 degrees.
Triplicity (water): Venus by day, Mars by night, Moon as partner (Dorotheus).
Nature (Abu Ma'shar): cold, moist, phlegmatic; taste salty; feminine, nocturnal; winter, two-bodied, with its end point equinoctial.
Ptolemy's class: bicorporeal (mutable). On the body, it tends to shrink the body and to misshape it.
Body (Abu Ma'shar): feet.
Wind (Firmicus): the west wind.
Lands (Abu Ma'shar): Tabaristan, the northern Byzantine lands to Syria, al-Jazira, Egypt, Alexandria, the Red Sea.

The bounds and decans of Pisces

The widest bound is Venus's, at 12 degrees, and the narrowest bound is Saturn's, at 2 degrees. Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, holds the bound at 13 to 16 degrees and the second decan.

Here are the Egyptian bounds of Pisces, counted from 0 degrees of the sign:

Venus: 1 to 12 degrees (12 wide)
Jupiter: 13 to 16 degrees (4 wide)
Mercury: 17 to 19 degrees (3 wide)
Mars: 20 to 28 degrees (9 wide)
Saturn: 29 to 30 degrees (2 wide)

Laid over the three decans of Firmicus Maternus and al-Qabisi, they fall like this:

The first decan, degrees 1 to 10, belongs to Saturn. The bounds inside it: Venus 1 to 10.
The second decan, degrees 11 to 20, belongs to Jupiter. The bounds inside it: Venus 11 to 12, Jupiter 13 to 16, Mercury 17 to 19, Mars at 20.
The third decan, degrees 21 to 30, belongs to Mars. The bounds inside it: Mars 21 to 28, Saturn 29 to 30.

The stars of Pisces, and what the sources say it symbolizes

Hill says Lent anciently began with the Sun in Pisces, which he gives as the reason for the fish diet, and that the fish was a symbol among early Christians. The Age of Pisces has its own page for the dates. The ichthys acrostic reading of the fish symbol is a separate and well-documented story and has no zodiac link.

Ptolemy gave the stars of Pisces these planetary natures, in the first book of the Tetrabiblos:

the head of the southern fish, Mercury and some Saturn
the body, Jupiter and Mercury
the tail and the southern line, Saturn and some Mercury
the body and back of the northern fish, Jupiter and some Venus
the northern line, Saturn and Jupiter
the knot star, Mars and some Mercury

The story behind Pisces

Pisces carries fish symbolism and belongs to the mutable signs.

The spiritual meaning of Pisces

Spiritually, Pisces asks what must be released into mercy without abandoning discernment.

Why Pisces matters

Pisces matters because it shows where a chart softens boundaries, absorbs atmosphere, imagines alternatives, grieves, forgives, and reaches for the unseen.

How to read Pisces

Astrologers reach for Pisces when interpreting spirituality, dreams, art, compassion, confusion, escape, sacrifice, and the house where life asks for surrender or imagination.

Pisces in practice: an example

Pisces on the tenth house may bring public work through art, healing, service, spirituality, music, or compassionate institutions.

Where readings of Pisces go wrong

It is a mistake to reduce Pisces to weakness. Pisces can carry profound imaginative and spiritual resilience.

Sources and editorial method

This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.

Source: The Great Almanac Dictionary
Category: Zodiac Signs
Aliases: Pisces sign, Pisces zodiac sign
Last updated: 2026-09-26

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ZodiacThe Zodiac is the twelve-sign wheel used as astrology's core sign language. Sun SignSun Sign is the birth sign of the Sun and the most familiar doorway into astrology. Moon SignMoon Sign is the birth sign of the Moon and a key indicator of emotional patterning. Rising SignRising Sign is the sign on the eastern horizon at birth and one of the most personal chart factors. ElementElement groups the zodiac signs into fire, earth, air, and water. ModalityModality describes whether a sign initiates, stabilizes, or adapts.

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