Rewind: The Deeper Meaning of Venus in Pisces

Hey, everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Today we're going to take a look at the deeper meaning of Venus in the sign of Pisces.

This is a rewind episode I am doing in order to give myself a little bit of time to recover and turn the page on the Kickstarter campaign. Between now and the end of next week, there will be several rewind episodes that I'm playing because I am digging myself out of a huge hole.

We did so many live streams, produced so much content, and now we have a huge wave of backer fulfillment that we need to handle in this first week of January. So, as I make content about a week in advance, the first week of January is going to be really busy for our staff. We're trying to finish out the Kickstarter reward delivery and everything else.

On that note, there will be a little bit of original content that you’ll see next week, but there will also be several places where I’m plugging holes with rewind episodes. However, these rewind episodes are chosen because they correspond nicely with something that's happening in the sky right now.

For example, today we’re going to be looking at Venus in Pisces. It’s a rewind episode, but Venus just entered Pisces, so it’s a great time to revisit this topic.

I ask for your patience over the next week as my team and I work to get back on track. Once we do, our regular production schedule will be back in full effect. I really appreciate your understanding, as we’re just a small team, and it’s a big task turning the corner after such a huge project.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this deeper look at Venus in Pisces. Also, remember, if you missed something during the Kickstarter campaign, you can go over to NightlightAstrology.com and click on the 2025 Kickstarter. All of the class passes and rewards are still available. If you feel like you missed out and wanted to pick something up, we’re running that through January 8. I’ll remind you of that a few more times.

So, feel free to head over there and grab anything you missed, including horoscopes for the year ahead or the 2025 video, and all that good stuff.

And, remember to like and subscribe as we get into it. You can find transcripts of any of these daily talks on the website.

Enjoy today’s content and have a great weekend. Bye!

Hi everybody. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and this is another episode of Planets in Profile. In today's episode, we're going to take a look at Venus in the sign of Pisces.

Now, if you're new to this series, I've been tracking the movements of Venus and Mars through the 12 signs, somewhat this year in 2019, and some last year in 2018. I will be looking at all of the planets eventually in this series, but right now, I'm just focusing on Venus and Mars for the signs in particular. We've gone through quite a few signs, and in today's episode, like I said, we're going to be looking at Venus in the sign of Pisces, which is an interesting place for Venus. This is the place of Venus's exaltation.

This is a very powerful place for Venus, and there are reasons for this that are really interesting, which we're also going to take a look at. So, let's go ahead and get into it.

Basically, the thing that you need to know about Venus in Pisces is that this is the place where Venus is said to be exalted. Another way of thinking about exaltation is to think about a planet in its exaltation as being lifted on high, or being lifted up. So, it has a kind of exalted status. It sort of has a worshipful feeling, and it has the feeling of being, sometimes, very powerful. It can point to fame or high levels of success or good fortune.

Anytime a planet is exalted, you know, in the language of traditional astrology, it's a little like, for example, it's Aries season right now, the sun is in Aries. That's the exaltation of the sun. So, the sun is lifted on high in Aries. Every planet has a place where it's exalted. Every planet also has a place in the opposite sign of its exaltation, where it's said to be depressed or in its fall.

The basic meaning of an exaltation or depression has to do with the concept of fortune. All exaltations and falls are related to the Moon, who is the ruler of fortune. What is fortune? It's the world of change, the world of material fluctuations and change that moves in cycles and rhythms, as opposed to, or in relation with, the unmoved center of being, the pure conscious soul, or the pure conscious identity that we are, which is, in a sense, an observer and an unmoved mover, connected to the idea of God or divinity.

So, in ancient astrology, there is a kind of pure consciousness, and then there are things that change and move and revolve around it. We can see this from the fact that the entire meaning of the sequence of the Zodiac is derived from the idea of the Zodiac revolving around a pole star that does not change. The fixed rhythms of the cycles of the seasons that repeat over and over again are moving in a circle—a circle of change and fluctuation that moves around an unchanging center.

So, when we're talking about exaltations, what we're talking about is something happening within that realm of cyclical change, which is the material world that we live in. It's our bodies, the highs and lows of life. And when a planet is exalted, it is said to indicate things relative to the natural significations of the planet that are of high, exalted, lofty goods—usually sort of good fortune. That is to say, they are at a high point.

Venus is the natural ruler of love, beauty, harmony, sensuality, the senses, desire, jealousy and envy, lust, betrayal. These are all things that Venus can represent, as well as friendship, the arts, pageantry, jewelry, the beauty of flowers and nature. These are all things that Venus can naturally represent, right?

So, when she is in her exaltation, it's said that these qualities are all exalted. They're all sort of lifted up on high. That's what it means to say Venus is exalted in Pisces. But then we have to ask the question: why? Why is Venus exalted in the sign of Pisces?

There's good reason for this. The main reason is that Pisces is the sign that comes just before the spring equinox, when all of the quality of light during the solar year is moving towards a takeover of the Yang—the light principle—which is more closely related to the idea of that unchanging center. We can see this because, as we are approaching Pisces season, the spring equinox, the light of the sun is growing, the days are getting longer, and the sun is moving the arc of the sun. The ecliptic pathway of the sun is moving higher and higher toward the pole star in the north. As it lifts up, it's aspiring upward.

So, we have in Pisces the very end of winter, and the shifting and changing into the Yang, or solar half of the year, where everything is reaching high, upward toward that pole star on the spring side. That's where we get that kind of aspirational Venusian quality from. This is Jupiter's home sign. Pisces is the feminine abode of Jupiter. It's called a double-bodied water sign, and it is double-bodied because it's coming out of winter, as we just said, but going into spring.

So, it's of two natures. It has a little bit of winter, but is aspiring to come out of the darkness into the light. You always have this really two-sided nature to planets in Pisces. On the one hand, a planet in Pisces tends to represent something or someone potentially grappling with something a little dark or a little heavy, or a little depressive, a little wintry, a little dark and soulful. And then we have the other quality of moving toward the light, letting it aspire upward and outward.

So, there's this kind of conflicted relationship between darkness and light, with an overall aspirational quality toward the light. It's double-bodied, watery, feminine, very moody, feeling-oriented, and aspirational, like Jupiter, heading upward toward some bigger, unchanging ideal at the top.

Now, because spring is on the rise, and the light is on the rise, and we're moving out of winter, Venus is exalted here. Venus is related to springtime qualities, life, the proliferation of life, sex, and birth—the proliferation of plant life when it rains and it's warm outside. These are all Venusian qualities.

On the other hand, if you put Venus in Virgo, Venus is in her fall. This is because it's a hot, kind of dry time of summer, and things are declining down into the death of fall and autumn, where all of the natural Venusian qualities are falling. So, we say that Venus is exalted in Pisces because, at this point, that kind of appetite, desire, and sensuality of spring is stirring and rising to life.

This is considered to be a high place for Venus, a place that's naturally suited to Venus's romantic, imaginative qualities. It's a water sign—everything's getting wet and everything's starting to come to life around this time of year, Pisces time of year.

Now, Venus can never be more than a couple of signs away from the sun. So, for Venus in Pisces—and like all planets, really—you don't have to have it literally be spring where you live or at the time of your birth for Venus to express these qualities in a person's life. These are archetypal qualities; they're symbolic, they're derived.

They express themselves through the seasonal archetypes, but they're not caused by them. Ancient astrologers had it just the opposite way—that these natural archetypal qualities are what cause nature to express itself in the way it does, not the other way around.

But at any rate, another thing to note is that when Venus is traveling through Pisces, she is in the home of Jupiter. So, wherever she is and whenever she's in Pisces, you always have to look at Jupiter. Where is Jupiter? She's an exalted house guest in Jupiter's sign. This is another benefic planet that's related to very similar qualities: life, growth, proliferation, the great green light in the sky—that's Jupiter. Venus is very similar. They both rule the benefic aspects, like the sextile for Venus and the trine for Jupiter.

When Venus is in Jupiter's sign, she enjoys benefits from friends, lovers, and people who are important. You're looking at Venus significations receiving benefits—lovers, friends, harmonious connections, anything that's beautiful or sensual is on the rise and typically grants blessings or is favorable.

So, that's very important, but you have to look at where Jupiter is. If, when you're born, you have Venus in Pisces and Jupiter's in a really bad house, and it's, you know, messed up with its dignity or something else—receiving some hard aspects from Saturn—that will affect Venus.

And so it's always a very nuanced interpretation. Anytime you're looking at a planet in a birth chart, it's never as simple as saying, "Oh, Venus in Pisces is just like this." It always has to do with knowing the dignity of Venus, the tendencies of the sign that it's in, how it relates to that sign, and also knowing where the planetary host is and what kind of relationship Venus has with that host. Venus can't see the planetary host. Is she in aversion to it? Is she in a sextile or trine to Jupiter? Or is it an opposition or a square? If Jupiter is well-dignified or not, depending on Jupiter's condition in the chart, the whole thing is modified.

So, I say this not to discourage you. You can still hopefully gain a lot from hearing about Venus in Pisces, but also because people will sometimes say, "Well, my life is nothing like that, or I don't have anything like that going on in my life, and I have Venus in Pisces." One of the reasons for this is that often enough, we're not looking carefully enough

at the condition of Venus in aspectual relation, in house dynamics, or in terms of its host, Jupiter.

So, those are some good things you always have to consider when looking at Venus traveling through the home sign of Jupiter. She's a house guest. Yes, she's an exalted house guest, which means she gets along well with Jupiter, and Jupiter gives her a lot of good things—blessings, augmentation, growth. But, you know, it's always a tricky situation to look at the nuances of all the planets involved.

So now, what can we say about Venus in Pisces? How does Venus in Pisces behave? Well, first of all, we're going to say that she is Jupiterian. She's very happy in the feminine abode. She's very happy in Jupiter's home as well, so she expresses herself in grandiose ways. Right? Like, that's not bad for Venus.

Think about a beautiful play, a theatrical performance. Think about the over-the-top colors, voices, songs, and dance, and the amazing bodies of dancers. All of these things, when you see them on stage, in the lights, and you're taken into it, that's very Venus in Pisces. If you've ever been to Disney World before, some people can't stand it, but I was kind of taken by the magic of it with a three-year-old recently.

So, Venus in Pisces is like the over-the-top characteristics of Disney World—the magic, the imagination, the costumes, the colors, the dancing. It has that feeling to it. Anything that is Venusian, naturally from theater, performing arts, romance, beauty, friendship, love, harmony, music, and desire can become greatly enhanced. Made much bigger, because that's what Jupiter does. Jupiter augments and makes things grow and makes them bigger and larger and sometimes, over the top—way too grandiose, way too big.

And the part where this can get a little troubling with Venus in Pisces is that we have to remember that even though Venus is very happy in Pisces and represents a natural peak in fortune, like when Venus arrives in the sign of Pisces, it's usually like, "Hey, everything's going pretty well."

I'm enjoying really nice connections with people. I'm feeling like I'm really in love with my friends, or I've fallen in love with someone, or having a lot of nice romantic outings or something like that, right? But there's also this duality built into Pisces. There's the part of Pisces that is still like the first 15 degrees of Pisces, we say, versus the second 15. First 15 is more like winter, second 15, okay, spring's coming on. So there's a duality, and the darkness of Pisces has to do with wrestling with that. Which is fallen or that which is complicated, that which is dark and that which is more soulful, right? So not all of that is bad, either.

For example, let's look at some personalities and see how they express this duality. Let's talk about, for example, Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain, Venus in Pisces, right? Granted, he had his conjoined with Saturn, but Venus in Pisces in his chart—he's someone who doesn't like false. He's not the, you know, he's a grunge rocker, right? He doesn't fit the typical, like, "oh, everything's grandiose and romantic," but he is still romantic in the sense of being tragic. And that's the dark side of Pisces, right?

It's that entanglement with the material world that says, "I love you, but I hate you. I want you, but I reject you," like an addict, for example. "I can't be here. It's brutal here. I need a drug. I need something to make me feel better, but then I want the drug and it makes me feel better, but then it's a poison and I can't get rid of it. I need to get rid of it." So that kind of tortured back and forth between having a body and being in the material world and feeling like it's a horrible entangling web of karma and illusion. But then also, you know, feeling so much compassion and love and being able to see the shimmering of divinity within it.

Is this place good or is it bad? I can't decide. I'm torn apart. I'm torn apart. Is it a dream? Is it beautiful, or is it a nightmare? Right? This kind of duality that exists in Pisces can bring out this kind of romantic, grandiose quality as well as a real tragic, romantic quality. And obviously, if you read Shakespeare at all, you know that one of the greatest love stories of all time is also a tragedy—that they, in Romeo and Juliet. So there's this feeling of the complicated relationship that we have with life here, life in the world, where it's dark and it's wintery sometimes, and we're very entangled with the world here.

We're like addicts of the material world. We can't get enough complexity. We can't get enough stuff, right? But then, and then, we want to leave. We want to go to—we want to seek higher ground. We want to find religion, spirituality, something that really liberates or frees us. That's the movement upward and outward into spring. But we keep getting pulled down.

On the other hand, we don't want, you know, appreciate people like Marilyn Manson, right? Who absolutely, like, in similar fashion to Kurt Cobain, does not want some kind of rosy, happy-go-lucky superficiality. "Don't give me some Jupiterian, you know, like half-baked, you know, smiley face," right? "I want to, I want, if I'm gonna see something beautiful, then I want it to be real."

I mean, so there's that real dichotomy. It doesn't sound like Jupiter on the outset. On the outset, people are like, "That doesn't sound like Jupiter or Venus in Pisces should also be so rosy." But no, because we're talking about a true winter sign, but it's—and it's a yin sign. It's dark, but it has this kind of aspirational quality. So the feminine abode of Jupiter is like that. It's more conflicted about the light.

No, I mean, no surprise that people who have tried to rectify a chart for Jesus Christ always give him Venus in Pisces, right? If you look on whatever it is, Astrotheme, or I don't remember which website it is, but, and I looked up, you know, celebrities with Venus in Pisces, and the top of the list was Jesus. I was like, "Well, it makes sense," right? Here's someone who represents the conflict of, you know, the material world and the darkness of it—the crucifixion—but then the rebirth and the resurrection.

So there's also this side of Pisces that wants to bring the darkness into the light, but not in a way—often you'll see this with Venus in Pisces individuals—not in a way that's cheap or that denigrates, leaves behind, or casts out something valuable, right? So there's this very compassionate, this longing for everything to be included, even the darkness. Now that's Jupiter in a feminine sign, because Jupiter wants everything included. Jupiter is all about making bigger holes, but the dark yin half of the year is really reflective of our material condition and how complicated it is here and how heavy and how much suffering there is here.

So what is it that can embrace all of that suffering and bring it through? That's why you have the associations of Venus in Pisces with saints and martyrs and great sinners and, you know, people who have complicated, tragic personalities.

Okay, so let's give you a list of them: Martin Luther King Jr. Well, that's pretty obvious. There's a martyr for a cause, "I have a dream." Right? Notice, I always like this phrase—it wasn't "I have a plan," it was "I have a dream." It's a real, visionary quality.

Sorry if you can hear that, somebody's working on my house outside.

Justin Bieber. He's a complicated character, same, same thing. He's taking time off from his work right now for mental health problems, yet he's this beloved, kind of tragic rock icon. Kurt Cobain, same thing. His love life got involved with heroin in a really complicated way, but he—and he was kind of this "the sun is gone, but I have a light." He's a very complicated personality, but both beautiful artist and also sort of tragic. Heath Ledger, same thing. Vincent van Gogh, same thing. A very post-impressionistic artist. Look at his artwork. Look at Vincent Van Gogh's artwork. It has this quality of seeing something more in the world than what people commonly see, but it's not transcending the world. It's bringing something out of the world that's there already.

That's a very important Piscean quality. Marilyn Manson, goth, glam rocker. Penelope Cruz, beautiful dancer, but a kind of dark beauty. George Harrison, who was the spiritual member of The Beatles and became a bhakta, a yogi, joined the Hare Krishna movement. Same thing, and he was, by the way, he had his—if you ever watched the documentary "Living in the Material World," I think it's called. Brilliant about the spiritual legacy of his work.

Edgar Cayce, similar thing. He's a famous psychic who, you know, has this very complicated relationship to spirits and ghosts and, you know, dark things, but also has this kind of prophetic quality. Edgar Allan Poe, a dark tragic poet, who's, it's beautiful, but it's dark. Billie Holiday, same thing. Really troubled childhood, very complicated, soulful, dark, beautiful singer.

Jules Verne, epic. Around the world in however many days, I forget if it was 80 days or something. Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea—all of these grand adventures that capture the imagination, but they're very grandiose and Jupiterian.

Maya Angelou, similar thing. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," beauty and darkness combined, but with a redemptive kind of message. Sometimes tragic, but there's something beautiful about tragedy with all of these characters. Galileo, well beyond his time, a visionary, but also a martyr, similar to Martin Luther King. Moves everyone forward, but is caught up in the darkness of humanity.

Marvin Gaye, similar character. Peace lover, and yet he gets moved out of the—you know, he gets murdered. He's murdered by his own father, if I remember correctly.

Ravi Shankar, which is also he's a brilliant musician and one of the most well-known musicians in India, and a fantastic spiritualist as well. Jack Kerouac, crazy problems with drugs and tragedy, but in his life, in a sense, really sick as an individual, possessed with addiction and things like that, but this brilliant poet who moves us beyond the trappings of the material world to try to find something more.

All of these characters are like this. They have that duality built into them, but inherently in them, there's something uplifting and hopeful, even if the life is tragic. There's something that makes us feel like there was a bright, bright star in them that burned out. Like Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain, Martin Luther King, even George Harrison, to a certain extent. There was a feeling in his youth like he was someone who was instrumental in creating a yogic movement all over the world with the Hare Krishnas, which, of course, is very important to me, since I studied Bhakti.

So you get the feeling for Venus in Pisces. There's this built-in duality, and it needs the darkness and the soulfulness and the complications of being in the material world to be addressed. And usually, it comes out through a love—a way of glamorizing darkness, a way of embracing it and trying to lift it up, a way of eulogizing someone or something, a way

of dreaming something forward.

So it's like that. But remember, exaltations: A planet in its exaltation is almost always related to a planet in its fall. What goes up must come down. So there's always, in exalted planets, there's always some sense of potential for something that's really high up to fall down. What burns bright and fast and lifts up high, you know, it goes out fast and falls down. That's built into the meaning of Venus in Pisces as an exalted planet.

So hopefully this has been interesting to you guys. I'm going to try to get out of this one a little bit early before I say too much, and before the banging outside becomes too annoying. I hope you can't hear it too much.

Thank you all for listening. I hope that you, if you have questions or comments, reflections on Venus in Pisces, please share. We'll be doing a new one pretty soon on Mars in Gemini as well. So stay tuned for that.

All right, take care, everyone. Bye.