Pisces, the Fishes, is the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac. Its name derives from the Latin piscis (fish), a direct translation of the Greek Ichthyes and the Babylonian Nun (the fish). In the Egyptian decanal system, the sign was represented by a pair of fish tied together, evoking the two fish of the Greek myth of Aphrodite and Eros who transformed into fish to flee Typhon.

Position on the Tree of Life

Pisces is attributed to Path 29, which connects Netzach (Victory, Venus) to Yesod (Foundation, Luna). This path stands at the threshold between the emotional and the astral realms, where the boundaries of the self dissolve into the primal waters of the unconscious.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

Pisces is a mutable water sign, traditionally ruled by Jupiter and exalted by Venus. In the Hermetic order, its planet is Neptune where visible, but the older attribution (used in Liber 777) retains Jupiter as the celestial expression of abundance and expansion through surrender. Its element is water in its most diffuse and oceanic aspect—the sea of dreams, illusions, and boundless compassion.

Historical Context

Pisces has held profound significance across traditions. In Babylonian astrology, the Fish god Oannes emerged from the waters to bring civilization. The Hebrew letter Qoph ( ק ), meaning "back of the head" or "the eye of the needle," is associated with Pisces, linking it to sleep, prophecy, and the passage through narrow gates of death and rebirth. In the Greek magical papyri, the fish was a symbol of the soul’s journey through the underworld. The early Christian adoption of the ichthys as a secret symbol drew directly on the Piscean age, representing Christ as the great fish who guides souls through the waters of death. In the Zohar, the fish of Pisces are said to represent the hidden righteous ones who sustain the world without being recognized—a fitting emblem for the sign’s themes of hidden sacrifice and spiritual dissolution.

In the Golden Dawn system, Path 29 is the path of the High Priestess, the card of the Moon, whose imagery of two dogs howling at a moon with a path leading to distant mountains echoes the twin fishes of Pisces. The path is associated with the magical image of a bearded man wading in water, holding a fish—a figure of the initiate who has crossed the abyss of illusion.

At the scale step of Path 29 in the table of Liber 777, Pisces appears with its traditional correspondences: the Hebrew letter Qoph (number 100), the color white flecked with purple, the scent of ambergris or musk, and the plant life of narcotic herbs such as the poppy and the lotus—substances that induce the dreamlike state consonant with the sign’s watery, liminal nature.