Pisces

Does my personality and sense of self match my star sign? The short answer is – yes.

The long answer is… well, it’s a bit more complicated.

Zodiac, schmodiac

What most people understand as their zodiac sign, their horoscope, or their ‘star’ sign, is in fact – to astrologers anyway – their sun sign. Your sun sign is the sign the sun was in when you were born, which changes each month, giving twelve different sun signs – or zodiacs – in a year.

But in your birth chart, the map of the moment you were born, also sit the moon, the other eight planets in our solar system, the moon's nodes, and asteroid Chiron (plus some astrologers include other asteroids as well). So at least twelve moving pieces will map onto a person’s birth chart differently based on the time, date, and location of birth.

So. To go back to the question:

I am a Pisces sun sign, but I also have the moon and two planets in Pisces - what in astrology is called a stellium, which means I carry a lot of Pisces energy!

So it’s no surprise that I would feel very Piscean – it can be difficult for me to know if I am feeling my feelings or someone else’s; I am a dreamer, and I trust unfailingly.

A different story – of house and home

My husband’s birth chart, on the other hand, tells a different story.

When I first looked at his chart, which was also when I first started studying astrology, I couldn’t make it make sense – his chart did not match up to the person I know. He has his sun in Sagittarius, or you could say, his ‘star sign’ is Sagittarius. Sagittarius, the adventurous, life-of-the-party, larger-than-life, and honest-to-a-fault fire sign. Not really my husband – not unless he’s had quite a few drinks.

And then I learnt more – I learnt about houses, and I learnt about aspects, how the positions of planets influence how they relate to each other. My husband’s sun is in his 4th house – a watery house, having the effect of ‘dampening’ the fire in his Sagittarius sun sign. The house of family, and home, meaning he might prefer to be an ‘armchair’ Sagittarius, cosy in his own home.

And what should be next to his sun, but Uranus, the planet that rules Aquarius – one that has strong rebel, non-conformist tendencies. And while I have planets all sitting together in Pisces, giving a concentration of Piscean energy, my husband has other elements in his chart that together give him a lot of Aquarian energy. So despite his sun being in Sagittarius, he can feel more like an Aquarius.

Talking ‘bout my generation

My husband and I do have something in common with each other in our birth charts. We both have Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in Libra. These planets are slower moving outer planets, often considered generational planets – Pluto, in particular, is often deemed the planet that designates the generations.

Pluto in Libra corresponds with our generation, the Xennials, the micro-generation between Generation X and the Millenials. Libra is the sign of relationships and partnerships. We are a generation that is said to be rethinking relationships, moving beyond traditional partnerships to lean more on friendship circles and ‘tribes’; we are the “Friends” generation.

This is certainly true for me – my Pluto in Libra is also in my 4th house of home, and when my husband and I decided to buy a home, we brought our housemates with us, and have continued to sharehouse even as we’ve had children.

Libra is also an air sign, representing communication, science and information, and in 1980, Saturn and Jupiter met in Libra, giving the next 20 years through to 2000 an air flavour. And we saw this in the rise of the internet and the tech boom. So we are also a generation that grew up with analogue 'technology', but has adapted quickly to communication in the digital age.

Overlapping this period was also when Neptune, the planet of dreams and illusions, was in Sagittarius, the sign of the wanderer, making us part of a generation that seeks to lose ourselves through travel.

And we did see that: as my generation came of age, travel became something that everyone did, like a right of passage, just like having sex and taking drugs was for the previous generation. This was made possible by Lonely Planet guides, cheap flights, and then even more so when Couchsurfing and AirBnB came along – an era which now appears to be coming to an end.

Is it in the stars?

Or really, is it in the planets?

As well as having an impact on global events and whole generations, the movement of the planets can affect individual, day-to-day lives. Most people now understand that when Mercury is retrograde, you can expect tech issues or miscommunication.

Expert astrologers can often ‘predict' events in people's lives by looking at planets' transits against their birth charts. I can see themes for the year based on which houses of my chart the planets are transitting through. As an example – the past few years have been difficult but transformative years for my relationship. For my husband, the same planets are currently transiting his house of work and day-to-day routines, and he is currently experiencing challenges with work and his routine in general.

If you are reading a horoscope for the day, or month, or year, as you might get in a newspaper, it can hold more 'true' if you read it based on your rising sign rather than your sun sign, as it will then tie in with your houses in your chart.

And yes – transits can also mean meeting people, and there is a branch of astrology called synastry, when you can look at how your chart lines up to another, such as a romantic partner, a business partner, your child, or a parent, and you can see the impact you might have on each other.

How it all began – family constellations and the moon

And this brings me to how I first got into astrology.

My interest in astrology started with a 15-minute reading I booked, just for fun and out of curiosity. I cried during the reading – I had never felt so seen in my entire life. Yes, in just 15 minutes, a complete stranger saw right into my soul.

Not only that, but in typical disorganized Pisces fashion, I had missed the email that had asked me to send my birth details beforehand to allow the astrologer to prepare my chart. So they were looking at my chart for the first time while also trying to explain it to me.

Several months later, I watched an online video explaining moon signs, which is how we deal with our emotions. The astrologer broke it down by element: the earth signs, fire signs, water signs, and air signs.

As it happens, in our little family of four, we each have our moon signs in a different element, and I couldn’t believe how accurately the way she described the moon signs matched up to how each of us processes our emotions.

And yes, I have now been over my kids’ charts many times to see how they might experience my parenting, so I can make adjustments to how I parent. With knowledge of each of our charts, I have also been able to be more understanding of my husband, and also of myself.

Being human

And that ultimately, is how astrology won me over. I have always been interested in psychology and what it means to be human, which I guess has always really been about wanting to grow as a person. One of the issues with both psychology and personal development is that it can feel like there is one ‘right’ way to be human. Astrology does away with this.

It can still be a tool for growth – parts of your chart point to traumas to be integrated, and areas of potential growth; there are 'low', and 'high' expressions of the traits of each sign, and each individual has free will in how we express the themes of our chart.

But with all the different parts of a birth chart, and all the different configurations they can make, it becomes clear that there are an infinite number of ways to be human, just as there are an infinite number of stars in our universe.

And in that way, I suppose you could say, that yes, you can look to the stars for the answer to what it is to be human.