Pisces

What is Pisces like?

Pisces is kind, creative and very open to what other people feel. Sit next to a Pisces on a bad day and they will know about it before you have spoken. They cry at adverts. They lend money to strangers. They have a song for every mood, and they will send it to you at the right moment.

The imagination is huge. Pisces daydreams the way other people breathe, and much of the world’s music, poetry and film came out of minds like this one. They can be somewhere else entirely while nodding at you across a table, and they may come back with something beautiful.

They are also funnier than the dreamy image suggests. There is a soft, slightly surreal wit here, a way of seeing how strange ordinary life is. Pisces gets on with almost everyone, partly because they hardly ever insist on being right.

What are the weak spots of Pisces?

Boundaries are the sore spot. Pisces takes in other people’s moods like a sponge, and may not notice they are carrying them. They can give away time, attention and the last of their patience, and only feel it when there is none left. Time alone is not a luxury for this sign.

There is also a wish to escape. When the real world gets too sharp, a Pisces can drift off into sleep, screens or a long imaginary life. A little of this is rest. A lot of it means the post goes unopened.

Clear plans are not their best subject. Dates slide, keys vanish, and "I’ll get to it" can last a season. People who love a Pisces learn to send a reminder, and to enjoy the very good reason that follows.

Who does Pisces get on with?

Pisces usually gets on best with the other water signs, Cancer and Scorpio, who need no explanation for a sudden silence. Taurus and Capricorn are good matches too, because earth gives water a place to rest. Virgo, the opposite sign, can be a beautiful match: Virgo keeps things running, Pisces keeps things magical, and each has what the other lacks.

Fire and air signs may find Pisces hard to pin down, and Pisces may find them too loud. Gemini and Sagittarius are fellow mutable signs, so nothing much gets decided, though the conversation is excellent. As with every pair, a sun sign is a small part of it. The compatibility pages look at more.

What is Pisces like at work?

Pisces does best where sensitivity is a strength. Music, art, film, nursing, counselling, charity work, marine science, and any job that helps people tend to suit this sign. They bring a rare kindness to a workplace and often have the idea nobody else could have had.

They find strict structure hard, and harsh managers harder. Given a gentle deadline and a kind word, a Pisces can do remarkable things. As a colleague they are the one who noticed you were sad, and left a biscuit on your desk.

How does Pisces handle money?

Pisces tends to have a loose, trusting attitude to money. It flows in and it flows out, often toward other people. Numbers can feel unreal, and bills can feel like a rude interruption. Many of them do best with a simple automatic system, so that the sensible part happens while they are thinking about something else.

What does the Pisces symbol mean?

The symbol is two fish, tied together and swimming in opposite directions. In one Greek story, Aphrodite and her son Eros turned into fish to escape a monster, and tied themselves together so as not to lose each other in the water. The glyph shows two curves joined by a line. It is a good picture of the sign: one part in this world, one part in another, and a thread between. The constellation is faint and long, and because of the slow wobble of the Earth, the spring equinox now falls among its stars.

Neptune is the modern ruling planet of Pisces, and Jupiter is the older one, so this sign gets both the dream and the generosity. See what the sky is up to on the Pisces horoscope. To find out where Neptune sits for you, draw a free birth chart, and if the whole thing makes you want to go and lie in the bath for a while, that is very Pisces of you.