PISCES SEASON: CONSCIENCE OF COMPASSION
Compassion...moves us across the boundaries of the established norm, and often past the boundaries of safety, rushing headlong to do what it can to ease another's suffering.
- Deborah Adele
Compassion, translated from Greek in the New Testament, is splagchnizomai, a word which literally means ‘to feel in the bowels or inner parts’. This word was used scarcely and intentionally in ancient gospel because it indicated being so profoundly touched that the person feeling it would be moved to take immediate action to help ease the suffering of another.
Read that again. Immediate action.
In modern society, we confuse compassion with empathy. Empathy enables us to feel and understand the feelings of another, but it doesn't mean we do anything about it. We also might confuse compassion with pity or sympathy, which can be superficial and self-centered in that it primarily serves the ego of the person feeling it.
When we see something horrible happen and say "I have compassion for them/her/him, but I just can't (fill in action here)," we are actually severing the cord to our compassion.
We can't help everyone but we can work to cultivate this very important tool in collective liberation.
Pisces is known for its compassion. Interestingly, it's also known for an ability to dissolve boundaries. Sometimes we consider Pisces placements to be flaky, weak, over-sacrificing. This tells us a lot about what is valued in our society.
I don’t know about you but I’m not down for an individualistic culture which writes off compassion as codependency and lack of good boundaries. I'm not willing to dissociate from others' suffering in the name of "wellness". I don't believe that is what “living well” means. I refuse to disconnect from the most soulful part of me that is moved to help when there is hurt.
Compassion inspires and requires us to sacrifice our judgements, our preferences, our comfort, and yes, sometimes our safety. When you understand that your safety and my safety are inherently linked, compassion ensues.
Pisces and Virgo sit opposite each other on the zodiacal wheel. Virgo is a sign of service. Pisces is a sign of compassion. We can prepare ourselves for compassionate acts by practicing service.
Virgo is an earth sign and therefore, tends to have boundaries. This is very healthy and enables Virgo placements to consistently be of service without losing themselves. Virgo’s analytical process helps us cultivate self-awareness so we can divert to selflessness when possible.
In my experience, compassion really isn’t a choice. It just sort of shows up, takes you by the hand and leads you to what you’re meant to do. You’re job is just to get out of its way. Pisces is extremely skilled at melting this boundary but is not always conscious of this ability.
Pisces is often considered to be the sign that is not entirely of this world. In compassion, ego dissolves. Moments when I’ve felt touched by god, when I felt genuine fullness of spirit and otherworldly support, were in the midst of compassionate acts that I honestly don’t know if I chose. What I mean is, I don’t think the ego chose it. When there is no “I”, the soul is free to act compassionately.
This Pisces season, I encourage you to consider, experiment, uncover what it means to access compassion in a moment. Lean into service. Admire how skilled the ego is at interfering. Attempt to gently remove it. This is difficult so don’t get down on yourself. I spend most of my time in ego battles ;)
With Mercury, the ruler of Virgo, retrograding through the opposite sign of Pisces, you might just find that transcending this boundary is possible. If you find yourself moved, do something.