Monday

Venus in Pisces (and music)

Marc Chagall - La Baie des Anges



Pisces being the last sign of the Zodiac closes the cycle by incorporating a little bit of all the other signs into one. If this didn't make it difficult enough to explain, it comes with the extra bonus of being ruled by foggy Neptune, the planet famous for undefinition, fantasy and mystique. In this sign, Venus assumes a chamaleonic profile, being able to mirror and assume any character because they will identify with everyone and in that sense be a lot of people at the same time. Lyrical evidence is available: Paula Cole (who is an Aries) sings: I know who can love my many selves, the wife, the bitch, the rapunzel...Chan Marshall (Cat Power) (Aquarius Sun) sings: he was someone I could learn from, someone I could become. Kurt Cobain (Sun in Pisces) sang: I'm not like them, but I can pretend. Confusing is the term. It's as difficult to define as it is to control (just try to grab a live fish and you'll see how they slip through your hands!).

Naturally this identification with all of mankind has a lot to do with their extreme sensitivity and empathy to other people's feelings. With Venus in this sign, the person will undoubtedly be sensitive not only to their partner but to everyone else as well, which can lead to suffering as they so easily slip into other people's shoes and feel their pain. Paula Cole sings: Believe me, I know the feeling. Been around the world, in many situations, been inside many heads in different positions (Cat Power). Pisces dissolves into the World: I am not unique, we are all leaves on this great big tree, this tree that is life, that is God, that is you, that is me. As Kurt Cobain sang: All in all is all we all are.

In the same way Neptune is able to dissolve all frontiers, Venus in Pisces is able to love without boundaries, meaning that they can love everything and everyone. Jealous partners beware! Pisces are interested in whatever the rest of the Zodiac doesn't pay attention to and, in love, this often means falling for the underdog, the underprivileged or the misfit. They find the concepts of saving and healing romantic and often their emotional liasons involve taking care of someone in need or being taken care of. Norah Jones (Sun in Aries) sings: I cry if you hurt, I'd give you my last shirt because I love you so. She also admits: I love you when you're blue. Kurt Cobain wrote: I'll kiss your open sores. The inequality between partners doesn't frighten them off and they'll be happy providing for the other person or the opposite. Paula Cole has a bunch of lyrics on this topic: I am the one you will call when alone and I am the one who will give when she's gone and so I give / I feel so lonely for hope and company, I don't take much and I give everything for free.

The use of the word sacrifice is very common in describing in certain relationships where one partner gives up on their personal aspirations to serve the other, seemingly not minding the sacrifices they have to make.(You can use me if you want to, I know you need me just like an old soft shoe). The truth is Pisces' real aspirations are connected to a transcendant world, not the material. Cat Power sings of this other world: we won't have a thing so we've got nothing to lose, we can all be free, maybe not with words...but with your mind. Paula Cole wrote: I won't find happiness looking outside myself/ looking within I can see beyond my sight, the cities, the sky, the planets roll by.
So even if it may seem that they are being taken advantage of, they are more concerned about their dreams than what happens in front of their eyes (but you can't kill my spirit, it's soaring and it's strong). In fact you may notice that they are often seemingly "in another World". Damon Albarn (songwriter for Blur)(Sun in Aries) sings: sorry but I'm not really listening, I've got my mind on something. He adds: the whole world could have passed through me but I don't know that it means much to me.


On the other hand, there are some benefits in being the victim. It may seem silly but victims do have power above their aggressors, by making them feel bad and sometimes Pisces secretly wants that power. I lost count of the times Jon Bon Jovi (JBJ) (Sun in Pisces) mentions victims in his lyrics for Bon Jovi, people are often victims of love: You're the victim, it's in your eyes, I'm the suspect and love's the crime / you gave it all, then you gave more...you'll pay the cost like it's your cross to bear. And they don't complain (throw me in the fire and I won't throw a fit).


In love, as in other areas of life, they are extremely ambivalent and unprecise, leading to greater difficulty in the expression of their multiple emotions - how can they explain themselves if they feel that something is both good and bad, or that in between two options both of them are equally valid? After all, it was a Pisces man that told us everything was relative (Einstein)! Cat Power sings: I don't know what is worse and I can't tell you what is the best. JBJ's expression: Damned if you don't need me, damned if you do. He also sings wisely: Only fools are know-it-alls. Kurt Cobain asked: What is wrong with me? What is what I need? What do you think I think? Damon Albarn confesses: I'm not sure what to say. This may be quite a despairing situation for their loved ones but what if Pisces secretly enjoys being misunderstood? It is now time to make it unclear.../Sometimes I can't find my way (Cobain). Cat Power asks: Do you happen to know where I am from? I'm lost in this. Norah Jones confesses: I'm too foggy today/ I wonder who I am without the warm touch of your hand.


We are talking about a spiritual love, perhaps in its purest form. Venus in Pisces can be literally interpreted as love as religion, as a way of transcending, hence why Paula Cole sings: I believe in love to be the way to find our inner light. JBJ has plenty of songs mentioning belief, as if love is source of hope: If you don't love me - lie to me 'cause baby you're the one thing I believe / In a world that gives you nothing, we need something to believe in. In his hit Keep the Faith he concedes: It's hard to be strong when there's no one to dream on.


We are also talking about a lot of Neptunian idealisation, where the Venus person projects their ideal romantic qualities in their loved ones in a way that can be described as blind (JBJ sings: Blind love is true). Sometimes it's hard for this idealisation to survive the harsh aspects of reality leading to strong disillusionment. That's the biggest danger for Pisces who can become extremely disencouraged by the shattering of their illusions. Lyrical evidence is abbundant here: Cat Power and her famous: Once I wanted to be the greatest, no wind of waterfall could stall me, and then came the rush of the flood, stars of night turned deep to dust. Paula Cole is sad too: I didn't know life was this hard, Oh momma, my innocence has been torn. JBJ concurs: It was all so simple when you were to be queen and I'd be your king, I guess those dreams got lost. In another song: I had a taste, you were my fantasy but I lost my faith when I hit reality. Damon Albarn asks: Please don't bring me down. Paula Cole is the voice of lost dreams: Where is my John Wayne, where is my prairie song, where is my happy ending, where have all the cowboys gone?

When faced with disappointment, Pisces turns to escapism either by fantasising, daydreaming or something of more serious consequences like alcohol and drug use. This happens because: I can't face the truth (JBJ) or the Damon Albarn explanation: you're taking the fun out of everything, you're making it clear when I don't wanna think. Hence the frequent references to alcohol: Wine, for me it helps me to forget that we're just born to die / I tried to drown myself in pity but the whisky kept calling your name (JBJ). Unlike Scorpios, Pisces do not seek control, on the contrary: Oh I love, love to lose control. And they tend to do everything in excess, not knowing how to discriminate (no boundaries, remember?).

But love itself can be seen as a form of escapism with Venus in Pisces. Paula Cole sings: I wanna be drunk, I wanna be high on you. Norah Jones asks: Can I fly right behind you and can you take me away? JBJ: Give me something for the pain (...) to get me through the night, something like you. Damon Albarn's version: I'm leaving town to run away, run into your twisted arms. Also from Blur but a song written by Piscean Graham Coxon: Take me away from this big bad world and agree to marry me. In another Blur song the question: where's the love song to set us free? In a way, with Pisces in the scene, love can also be about healing: Lord I need to find someone who can heal my mind.


Unless they pursue a spiritual goal, being alone is not ideal. They crave being in love, even if with a cause or with God. Venus in Pisces has some trouble trusting the other person at the beginning (as other Water signs) but when they do, they're capable of complete devotion, care and tenderness (tender is the touch of someone that you love too much), sometimes to the point of emocional dependence. It seems that this being the sign of mirrors, having the "other half" is very important: It don't matter how strong I think I am, I always need another heart...to help me see myself.


This isn't the most regular of partners, certainly not the kind that makes plans for the future, but if you're able to make the most of their flow of emotion, not expecting them to commit to you for life, you can expect happy times (if you let me live my life, i'll stay with you to the end). Venus in Pisces makes their own moral conduct rules in love and, as they're open to all possibilities in life and have trouble saying a straight no, fidelity is not their strongpoint (I deceived cause I'm not that strong). They can easily feel attracted to just about anyone (JBJ sings: seems that there's more pretty women than there are fish in the sea), but if they say: it didn't mean anything!, they actually speak the truth. Being the most easily bored of all signs, they strongly rely on their fertile imagination to nourish their romantic necessities and this is in fact the most creative of all Venus signs, as their fantasy sees no boundaries (we'll float around and hang out on clouds). They are extremely romantic about life as a whole and their lyrics reflect it. Bon Jovi has plenty: When you breathe I want to be the air for you, I'll be there for you, I'd live and I'd die for you, steal the sun from the sky for you, words can't say what love can do. Norah Jones too: Come away with me and we'll kiss on a mountaintop.

The most important thing of all is Venus in Pisces is able to love you for what you really are (If you come here all you have to do just you be you / Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be) and who never wished for a love that is close to unconditional?

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