A Pisces Prelude: What Lurks Beneath?

Finding a way to embrace your inner Biden and Trump.

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“To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.” —Herman Hesse

ALTHOUGH PISCES IS THE CLOSING SIGN of the Zodiac, it forms the background from which the new cycle—commencing in Aries—will emerge. This backdrop is clogged with a mish-mash of inspiration and possibility, each vision oscillating daily. It’s what we love (and find most infuriating) about the sign.

Is the Piscean stuck in what’s behind them or already experiencing what lies ahead? Presently, we’re all feeling a little bit of both—the stress of not having reliable footing and a sense of reality we can trust. But that’s the Zen nature of the Zodiac’s closing chapter. Alan Watts called it “the wisdom of insecurity.”

I think everybody can relate to the self-doubt that proceeds the commitment to a new direction in life, and this condition of uncertainty is an integral part of the Piscean ‘style’ or ‘function.’ Another version of the Hesse epigram above would read: “Chaos needs to be acknowledged first before being converted to a new order.”

The three water signs—Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces—share this necessity for ‘preliminary uncertainty.’ The water triad’s notorious moods are part and parcel of this tendency to be seemingly present while the bulk of their attention is rummaging around in their unconscious. This is how they progress, which can be maddening for the rest of us. Ask them their reasoning for this or that, and they’ll say, “I dunno, it’s just a feeling I have.”

This downward-upward condition is also mirrored in nature. Before a seedling bursts free from the soil, all of its initial energy is spent sending its radicle—its primary root—deep into the Earth. Once anchored, it concentrates on its second phase, pushing its first leaf up and out—toward the Sun. “Oh! Now I see what you mean.”

Presently, with a stellium of planets—and Sunday’s upcoming lunation—in Pisces, we’re about to sink deep into this preparatory phase—a long two-year passage before assuming a new collective dream when Saturn conjuncts Neptune in February 2026.

It’s fascinating to note that this Saturn/Neptune conjunction will land at the most supercharged and volatile point of the Zodiac—zero degrees of Aries—the point that marks a complete break from the past as the new cycle jumps headfirst into untried (Aries) territory.

It makes sense that much of our focus today is on what can’t be seen or comprehended. Doubly so when you consider that come early 2026, what lies beneath and behind us will no longer fit with the impetus we’re set to release.