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here that we can see the genius of men such as Einstein - where the melusine, the glimpse of other realms and of a universe barely comprehensible to the ordinary mind in its majesty and infinity - is translated through the human brain, offering to the world a charting of the unknown waters.
Obviously, not every Piscean is an Einstein or a drunkard. But perhaps the task of every Piscean is to come to terms in some way with the transpersonal realm, and to have the courage to be its mouthpiece. Here we find the poets and musicians, the great actors and playwrights, the visionaries and mystics who attempt to bring to ordinary life a glimpse of something else. This can be through a work of art, or it can exist in the humblest expressions of human love.
It is not easy, perhaps, to be born as Pisces. Many Pisceans simply cannot accept the size of the challenge. And, after all, who can blame them? It is not easy to make peace with melusine; and our education does not help us, since it tends to emphasize that anybody with the secret life of the Pisces must be at best a lazy daydreamer, and at worst emotionally disturbed. The fairy tale world in which many Pisces children live is criticized, bludgeoned, mocked or argued out of them very early. And it's important to remember here that Pisces is a mutable - that is, a changeable - sign, malleable, easily influenced, often hungry to please. Pisces is more easily distorted, more easily pressured by a hostile environment, than any other sign. So the melusine calls unheard from the depths of the soul, and the average Piscean disguises himself from himself by a rationalistic attitude toward life.
Another important mythological motif that tells us something about the Fish is the Christian myth itself. When I use the word 'myth' here I do not mean to imply something true or untrue, but mean it in the sense that all myths are apertures into another world. If one is a Christian, then the New Testament is truth while the religious symbols of other faiths are myth; if one is either non-Christian or open-minded, one can see that all myths describe God. So let's look at the Christian myth.
The Christian era is sometimes known as the Age of Pisces. Without going into lengthy explanations about precessions of the equinoxes and other astronomical phenomena, let's just say that about every two thousand years a new zodiacal sign colours man's history and culture. You can see the traces of this sign at work particularly in the religious symbols that emerge during the time it is in power. The Fish is one of the great symbols of Christianity; and in this symbol can be found many important themes that pertain to Pisces, both in this broad way and in the individual life of the person born under the sign.
Firstly, there is the aspiration. Before the coming of Christianity, man and God were two different things; there could be communication between them, there could be enmity or friendship; but man was not like God and God was not like man, and never the twain could meet. But one of the essential meanings of the Christian myth is that God incarnates as man: that there is a halfway point, an intermediary, a bridging of the two worlds. We are back to our friend the melusine here. But, instead of melusine, read soul or spirit. So, we can, if we want to consider the religious aspect of Pisces, say that there is a strong awareness in many Pisceans, especially the more mystical ones, of themselves - and the whole of mankind - being some kind of halfway house between animal and divine.
You can imagine that this creates problems. Being aware of two dimensions like this is pretty confusing, especially when the one tends to pop up when the other should be operating. No wonder Pisces is said to be confused a lot of the time.
Second to the aspiration is the urge towards self-sacrifice. Now this can be of the noblest kind, and one of the characteristic renditions of this can be found in the lives of the Saints. These figures - whether one believes in Saints or not - are in a sense the epitome of this side of Pisces. Everything devoted to the ideal - whether it is God, a country, a
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