Water · Mutable
Pisces
The Fishes, the 12th sign of the zodiac year, usually printed as 19 February – 20 March.
- Element
- Wateremotion, intuition and attachment, in the tradition
- Modality
- Mutablethe signs that close a season, traditionally read as adapters
- Traditional ruler
- JupiterAssigned before the outer planets were found
- Modern ruler
- NeptuneAssigned after this planet's telescopic discovery, centuries after the traditional scheme was fixed.
When the sun actually crosses
The moment the sun enters Pisces and the moment it leaves for Aries, each year from 2015 to 2026, in UTC to the minute.
| Year | Sun enters Pisces | Sun leaves for Aries |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 February, 23:50 UTC | 20 March, 22:45 UTC |
| 2016 | 19 February, 05:34 UTC | 20 March, 04:30 UTC |
| 2017 | 18 February, 11:32 UTC | 20 March, 10:29 UTC |
| 2018 | 18 February, 17:18 UTC | 20 March, 16:15 UTC |
| 2019 | 18 February, 23:04 UTC | 20 March, 21:58 UTC |
| 2020 | 19 February, 04:57 UTC | 20 March, 03:50 UTC |
| 2021 | 18 February, 10:44 UTC | 20 March, 09:37 UTC |
| 2022 | 18 February, 16:43 UTC | 20 March, 15:33 UTC |
| 2023 | 18 February, 22:34 UTC | 20 March, 21:24 UTC |
| 2024 | 19 February, 04:13 UTC | 20 March, 03:06 UTC |
| 2025 | 18 February, 10:07 UTC | 20 March, 09:01 UTC |
| 2026 | 18 February, 15:52 UTC | 20 March, 14:46 UTC |
VSOP87, checked against published equinox and solstice times.
Which dates can be Pisces
Since 1920 the sun has entered Pisces on 18 February or 19 February, and left it for Aries on 20 March or 21 March (UTC). On those dates the sign depends on the year, and in a crossing year on the hour; each date's page gives every year.
In the tradition
In Western astrological tradition, Pisces is classed as a mutable water sign. Mutable signs are the signs that close a season, traditionally read as adapters, and water signs are traditionally associated with emotion, intuition and attachment. Its ruling planet in that tradition is Jupiter; present-day astrology assigns Neptune instead.
These are associations reported from tradition, not claims about anyone born under the sign.
Venus and Cupid in the Euphrates
Hyginus takes the story from Diognetus Erythraeus. Venus and her son Cupid had come to the river Euphrates in Syria when Typhon, the monster of the Capricorn story, suddenly appeared. They threw themselves into the river, changed into fishes, and so escaped.
The Syrians who lived near the river afterwards stopped eating fish, Hyginus says, for fear that in catching one they would seem either to oppose the gods' protection or to trap the gods themselves. In a later chapter, on the Southern Fish, he gives the two Fishes a parent: the Southern Fish saved Isis when she was in labour, and as a reward she placed it among the stars together with its young, the pair of this sign.
Hyginus, Astronomica, book 2, in Mary Grant's translation (1960), chapter 2.30, checked .