The longing for life and the Piscean quest
There are many people in the world who don’t feel connected to the manifested realm of borders and boundaries. The concrete and tangible feels like a prison that refuses to allow blending. One can only have relationships with people and things but there is no true merging taking place. A separate individual unit can engage with another but the differentiation remains a seemingly solid reality. In order to lose the perception of boundaries one has to disintegrate in some way, either through alteration to one’s physical state through sickness, through taking drugs or retreating into a dream/trance state that is more fluid than everyday reality. In astrology, Pisces is the sign that’s generally associated with life beyond the veil and the undifferentiated blissful unity that is our ”source”. The symbol associated with Pisces is the two fishes; one is swimming toward it’s separated individuality while the other is swimming toward dissolution and rejoining with life in it’s purest form.
The longing to ”go home” and escape the troubles of existence is very strong for certain people, yet at the same time, there is a fear of letting go of what is known. The two fishes are at odds with each other – to swim one way is to turn one’s back on something else. In this kind of setup it’s impossible to have the cake and eat it too, which sets up a lose-lose scenario. In the less conscious Piscean dynamic, either polarity is seen as an enemy to the other and is therefore despised and rejected. For example, one might think that physical reality is a hindrance to one’s connection to God and that one must have sinned or done something that resulted in exclusion from the kingdom. The physical existence is seen as a punishment or a cosmic bind to wiggle oneself out of. In an attempt to redeem oneself, the person resorts to serve a higher power, to do and think the right things while in a physical body. The feeling of exclusion is still kept intact through the process because one resolutely believes that separation is real – not mere fiction. The reversed expression of this dynamic would look something like being afraid of loosing one’s groundedness in the world. In this case, the dissolving forces are not a blessing but a curse that one has to protect oneself from. Physical existence is seen as the antidote to chaos and as something to hold on to – the enemy is seen as the great beyond.
To resolve this Piscean trapping of the mind, one has to look at the root of the conflict. The presumption that salvation can be accomplished through escape serves to uphold a dualistic belief system. Escape is only necessary when there is a belief in suffering, without it, there’s nothing to escape from. The concept of surrendering is also very Piscean, but for it to be possible to give up resistance (which is implied in surrender) the mind has to recognize that there’s something to surrender to. It’s impossible to be rid of the unwanted if one secretly believes that the unwanted makes the wanted possible. If this is what one believes, the impulse to uphold dysfunction is quite strong and it can be done in the most sophisticated ways. A lot of helpers and healers of all kinds make their living off of attracting self proclaimed victims who don’t know how to cope with the madness in the world or in themselves. They need some explanation or confirmation for the things that grieves them as to be able to live better lives. In therapy, people primarily try to understand and accept their less than ideal situation and see what practical steps they can take to ”escape” or ”undo” their unpleasantries. They claim to want healing while being unwilling to accept themselves as healed. There’s usually always something lacking from the completeness they seek, even if that thing is minor. The so called ”humble” claim of always being a work in progress and never being done with healing sounds very politically correct, but an attempt to keep oneself separate from eternity. To completely deny polarity seems to threaten the faint happiness that comes from avoiding the sadness. Some even glorify the polarity spectrum and bless life for it’s diversity. This would be similar to think that because God is both good and bad he is only good. It makes no sense, yet in desperation for some philosophy to hold onto people are willing to accept just about anything.
There’s no point in accepting unreality. The only thing that should ever be accepted is reality. To presume to know what reality is when one is completely blinded by illusion is not wise. It’s better to proclaim to know nothing and refrain from judgement, because it usually only serves to lead the mind into false perception. It’s difficult to avoid imposing meaning on the things one experiences, it’s a bad habit that has become compulsive in most of us. It limits experience and functions as a tool of separation. However, I want to clarify that it’s not a matter of denying the existence of images, it’s about denying one’s own interpretation of separation. To disbelieve the image of a thing doesn’t lead to anything except confusion. What the eyes see is usually quite obvious unless one is under the influence of drugs. If there’s a tree in one’s field of vision it is pointless to deny that it’s there. The important thing is to avoid to view the tree as a confirmation of exclusion from the one’s source. Don’t use images as a proof that the separation is real. Images are part of dreams and has nothing to do with reality.
In the Picean nightmare one is held apart from one’s source, longing to rejoin. One doesn’t realize that nothing is standing in the way of one’s joy except a stubbornly upheld unconscious thought system. The Picean quest is to go back to life in reality, away from cruelty and harshness. It’s a valid quest and arguably the only purposeful use of time, since time takes as much as it gives and does not serve eternity. What Pisces symbolizes is that the treasures one gathers in dreams are illusory investments. To place value on something that has no real value will prove disappointing and disheartening. To perceive the truly valuable one must invite it first, not ask for it to impose itself on one’s perceptual reality. Love must be invited while fear functions through attack. This is why the Piscean dynamic is receptive rather than assertive. To invite is to remain open while attack is to force reality to be something it’s not (or something one thinks it’s not). After all, the only reason one would impose one’s own view on life would be to protect oneself from alternative realities. Fortunately, there is only one reality and it doesn’t have to be protected because it has no competition.
Being seemingly separate or merged doesn’t alter reality. Images and perceptual errors only has as much power as one is willing to give them. There’s nothing inherently meaningful in symbols because they are empty vessels waiting to receive a function. Their function is determined by the mind and it’s chosen thought system. It could divide it’s symbols into good and bad, setting up a contradiction within itself while trying to get comfortable in the midst of discord. Alternatively it could see only good in all it’s symbols, overlooking their differences caused by the split.
