Illustration By Emma Greathouse

Mercury retrograde is finally over, and I don’t know about you guys, but I was definitely feeling the effects of it over the past few weeks, both negatively and positively. I’m happy we stuck it out, and it’s good to remember everything that happens is an opportunity for more growth, that’s always a reason to be grateful! 

This week, we’ll be getting into the sun, moon and rising signs and what they all mean. If you’ve ever heard anyone mention “your big three” they’re actually referring to those signs.

Let’s start with the most obvious one: your sun sign. This is the sign that you are probably most aware of, and it refers to your first instincts to life, a sign that makes mention of your ego and represents yourself in physicality. It’s pretty much your identity, how you express yourself and how you experience things. In simpler terms, it is the driving force behind your actions and surface desires. To find out your sun sign, all you need to know is the day you were born. You can easily look this up and find out what sign the sun was when you were born!

Your moon sign represents your emotions and who you are on a soul level. This has everything to do with your internal feelings and who you are when no one else is around. To find out your moon sign, you can just look up what sign the moon was on the day you were born. Finding out your sun and moon sign is pretty easy since it goes by the day and you don’t need your specific time for this. 

Your rising sign, also known as the ascendant, is expressed through your social situations and how people perceive you when you first meet them. The rising sign can have a lot to do with how you physically look as well. To uncover your rising sign, it gets a little more particular. You will need to know the specific time you were born. After knowing the date and time, you can reveal your whole birth chart here. For more insight in more simpler terms, you can also click here for a guide on what your big three may mean for you! Fun fact: When astrology was first discovered, when someone asked, “What’s your sign?” they were actually referring to your rising sign, not your sun sign! 

After uncovering your signs, you may realize that you resonate with your rising or moon sign more than your sun, and it’ll be a total revelation (just kidding —but not really). I find that although my Pisces sun is my only Pisces placement, I resonate with this sign so much. I am the biggest Pisces ever, while my roommate is an Aries sun and resonates with his Scorpio rising a lot more. It can be really fun connecting the dots and seeing what aspects seem to fit you!

Although we’re just focusing on our big three this week, it is important to note that when you were born, each planet was aligned in a specific zodiac sign. You’ll be able to see this in your birth chart. Each planet rules different things, and since we talked about Mercury retrograde and how it messes with communication, it’s easier to understand that Mercury rules communication and has a lot to do with how an individual communicates. For example, if Mercury was in Aries the day you were born, you can be very upfront and communicate in a very hotheaded way. (We will go more in depth about this later.) 

Now that we covered the heavy duty stuff, let’s get into the fact that the sun moved into Pisces on Feb. 18. This will be my 22nd year around the sun, and I am so excited for what this energy will bring in store for all of us! Pisces is a sign of creativity and leads us to become more connected to our intuition. Pisces is also a sign for escapism, so when the sun enters this sign, it can bring a lot of opportunities to dream about what we want for the upcoming months. This is a great time to meditate and get connected with our inner selves. 

Sometimes, especially in the emotionally detached sign of Aquarius that we just passed through, we forget to truly stay connected to our emotions and our higher selves. Since Pisces is a water sign and is notable for feeling things deeply, this is a great time to let yourself process those emotions. Transferring those feelings to something creative can be a great way to connect with your higher/inner self as well. This can mean painting, writing poetry, journaling or anything that feeds your soul. 

If you’re thinking about a project you want to complete or a business you want to start, taking this time to imagine how crazy and big you can go with it is a great idea. Pisces energy pushes us to dream crazy things and helps us to realize that anything is possible. 

This Pisces season will allow us to sit down with our thoughts, meditate, dream, create and heighten our intuition. This will be a great payoff once we head into Aries season with rejuvenation and ideas to implement our crazy dreams and ideas! 

Happy Pisces season!