August Full Moon

The Pisces Paradox: Simultaneous Existence as Finite Human and Infinite Spirit 

by Rachel Howe of Small Spells

In some ways, Pisces represents death. As the last sign of the Zodiac, Pisces contains the dying light before renewal of the self in Aries. In the darkness of the dying light, we can find insight and peace. Pisces is also the pathway into the spirit world, as of course, so is death. In Pisces is where we find our spirit self, the eternal self, the expansive self, the inter-connected self. Pisces loses the ego, and finds the soul. Ego as a construct is a tricky one; it allows us to function by providing a framework for the physical self, but it also places limitations and restrictions on the possibilities of the energetic self. Through time, the ego begins to function in response to a traumatized self rather than in response to the true inner self. It forms protections around wounds, rather than providing structural support for the potential energy of the soul.

When Pisces is in the highest manifestation of ego-less self, it can facilitate ecstatic re-connection with Source. Time falls away, wounds from the past are healed in the present and vanish, where a limitless expansion of personal energy can be felt, and where all creative and generative energy is seen, supported, and loved. When Pisces is in its lower vibration, it is a snake eating its own tail—simultaneously nourishing and killing itself, while being both the nourishment and the killer. We all carry the potential for connection to the divine within us, but we can choose to invite it or reject it, to see it or deny it. As humans, we wish to enter into the welcoming home of spiritual connection, but we have to learn the Pisces truth that this home is within each of us, not outside of us. We can become the lover and the beloved both, the creator and the created: the snake who gives birth to herself, no longer eating herself. 

Pisces knows what this tastes like, what it feels like: the bliss of wriggling out of the entrapments of the physical and all its trauma and corresponding armor. Pisces thrives in ultimate freedom of the self to transcend. But when that connection is tenuous or the full connection is kept hidden or out of reach, Pisces slides into escape mode. The ecstasy of the soul flying free is hindered by the needs of the body and the mind, especially their need to continuously reinforce false patterns and beliefs about the self as a whole, about the limitations of the physical self. And so if Pisces cannot reconcile this fundamental contradiction between the material self and the immaterial self, through finding the divine in the intersections of the two, through falling in love with the paradoxes of being a spiritual human, then it will fall into a liminal space of negating the body while also not fully accepting the invitation to enter into the spirit world. It will stay suspended in this space of neither, a dream-world of partial immersion in either the human world or the spirit world, never sewing together both experiences into a holistic completion.

The symbols of esoteric knowledge illustrate the lock and the key. Pisces is traditionally shown as two fish swimming away from each other, while still next to each other. One is human, one is Spirit. One is life, one is death. The symbol shows the contradiction and the circular nature of being alive. Because I will die, I am alive. My death reinforces the fact of my living. But because I am also a microcosm of the divine, I will not die. My eternal nature belies my death, which belies the fact of my living. The paradoxical nature of being both human and finite, and spirit and infinite, while in connection with Source energy, in ceremony or in meditation, is no big deal. We understand it because it is in our nature to fundamentally feel and know the nature of Source. While sitting in connection with Source, feeling at home with Source, our minds can understand and will accept this illogical premise. But without that connection, our minds do not accept it. We look for ways out of this predicament.

In the same way, we can spend our lives trying to escape the predicament of living while knowing we will die. Even while typing these words, I feel the stigma around naming death so blatantly. I feel an urge to soften or disguise the truth that we all know. But we know it only superficially. Our minds know it, and perhaps sometimes our bodies feel it. But we don’t let our emotions really feel it, and therefore we block our souls from fully integrating this truth into our lives. The struggle of Pisces is to live in the truth of death and life co-existing in all of us. The aim is about bringing light to this difficult truth, bringing it to the surface, and integrating the light and the shadow. Like a Full Moon, where the Sun and Moon oppose each other, face each other, see each other, validate each other, balance each other, love each other, allow each other, and support each other, Pisces lives between the conscious and the unconscious. To ascend into its higher form, it must acknowledge and accept both, even as they contradict each other.

Working with astrology is all about finding balance, and using all the multifaceted pieces of the cosmos to learn how to make adjustments. Full Moon energy is a culmination, it is like a full cup, so it’s a good time to evaluate how you’re working with the many streams of energy that we can tap into to create our lives with value and purpose.

Suggested Affirmation: “My human self and my spiritual self are in balance. My unique human gifts are amazing tools that I can use to create a support system for myself, one that allows me to connect with the divine, and allows Source to express itself through me. Humanity and divinity walk hand in hand in every moment of my life.”

Excerpt is from Many Moons. Buy here.