Whenever Venus, the planet of love, moves through Pisces, someone falls in love with a ghost.
Not a person exactly, but an idea wearing a person’s face. A feeling. A possibility. A connection that feels profound in the dark but struggles to exist in daylight.
Venus tells us how we love, what we value, and what we are willing to give ourselves away for. Pisces dissolves edges. It blurs lines. It invites longing, fantasy, empathy, and spiritual hunger. When these two come together, love stops feeling transactional and starts feeling salvational.
That can be beautiful. It can also be dangerous.
The most common myth people unconsciously live during this placement is the mermaid.
She falls in love with someone from another world. She gives up her voice to be chosen. Every step she takes hurts, but she keeps going because love, she believes, should cost something. If she is patient enough, quiet enough, understanding enough, she will finally belong.
From a psychological perspective, the mermaid is Venus in Pisces without containment.
She represents projection. Jung would call it anima projection in full bloom. The psyche pours its unmet longing, desire, and spiritual hunger into another person and mistakes intensity for intimacy. The mermaid does not love who someone is. She loves what the connection promises.
This is where many people get stuck during Venus in Pisces.
They see the wound behind someone’s behavior and excuse it.
They feel empathy and mistake it for compatibility.
They stay silent about needs because naming them might threaten the bond.
She gives up her voice to be chosen.
That line lands hard because it describes a real survival strategy many people have learned, especially women and queer men. Self-editing. Pre-emptive accommodation. Softening desires so they don’t feel like demands. Enduring ambiguity because clarity might cost the relationship.
This is not weakness. It is adaptation.
Many people are not chasing romance during Venus in Pisces. They are chasing relief from disconnection. The relationship itself becomes proof of worth, safety, and emotional legitimacy.
But the mermaid myth has a cost.
She is chosen for how little space she takes, not for who she is.
And Venus in Pisces will happily let you disappear if you do not protect yourself.
But the mermaid is not the only water myth available.
There is another figure who belongs to Pisces, one who loves deeply without erasing herself.
Her name is Melusine. Or Ondine, depending on the version.
She changes everything.
Melusine is also a water being who enters relationship with a human. But she does not do it blindly. There are conditions. Boundaries. Rules around access and privacy. She does not offer total transparency on demand.
In the old stories, the bargain is simple. You may love me. You may live with me. But there are parts of me you do not get to see. Not because I am deceptive, but because intimacy does not require total exposure.
This is where the modern relevance hits hard.
The mermaid strategy survives by disappearing.
Melusine survives by regulating access.
That difference explains a huge amount about contemporary relationships.
The mermaid believes love is earned through accommodation. She does not name needs too soon. She avoids being difficult. She absorbs disappointment quietly. She becomes the emotional refuge, the safe place, the one who understands without being asked.
This strategy is rewarded culturally. The mermaid is praised for being flexible, low-maintenance, emotionally intelligent. She is easy to love because she asks for very little.
But she also learns that being chosen requires being smaller.
Melusine chooses a different strategy.
She does not give everything up front.
She does not explain herself endlessly.
She does not trade privacy for closeness.
In modern terms, Melusine keeps parts of herself private even in intimacy. She names conditions without apologizing for them. She notices when curiosity turns into entitlement. And when respect erodes, she leaves instead of negotiating her own disappearance.
This is why Melusine is punished culturally.
She is labeled guarded. Secretive. Difficult. Emotionally unavailable. In a world that equates intimacy with constant disclosure, Melusine’s boundaries are treated as a moral failure.
Venus in Pisces makes this especially hard because the pull toward fusion is strong. Saying no can feel cruel. Pulling back can feel like betrayal. Holding a boundary can feel unloving.
Melusine feels all of that and still holds the line.
From a Jungian perspective, this is the difference between unconscious participation mystique and conscious relationship with the unconscious. The mermaid dissolves into the connection. Melusine relates to it without losing her center.
Ondine, in particular, shows us what happens when love transforms you but does not erase you. In her story, love grants her a soul. It also makes her vulnerable. When the human violates the conditions of intimacy, she does not argue or plead. She returns to the water.
This is not punishment. It is correction.
The myth is clear. Intimacy without respect is not intimacy. It is extraction.
Venus in Pisces is the crossroads where these two strategies collide.
The mermaid dissolves here.
Melusine becomes clearer.
This placement does not ask you to stop loving. It asks you to notice what kind of love you are practicing.
Are you loving to be chosen?
Or are you loving in a way that preserves your voice?
This is especially important for those who are naturally empathic. Venus in Pisces heightens sensitivity, intuition, and emotional permeability. You feel into situations before facts are clear. You sense subtext. You pick up on pain.
This is a gift. It is also a vulnerability.
Without boundaries, empathy turns into over-functioning. You become the container. The fixer. The emotional anchor. You give more because you can feel more.
Melusine reminds you that understanding someone does not obligate you to stay. Compassion does not require self-abandonment. Love does not need you to bleed to be real.
Creatively, Venus in Pisces is extraordinary. Art arrives easily. Music bypasses logic. Images carry emotional weight. You are more receptive than productive. That is exactly how this placement wants to work.
Use it to receive inspiration, not to disappear into fantasy.
Relationally, this placement rewards honesty about limits. Clear language. Pauses before promises. One simple question asked often: does this nourish me or does it drain me?
Venus in Pisces does not want you hardened. It wants you porous with discernment.
The mermaid hopes love will save her.
Melusine knows love must meet her intact.
That is the evolution this placement offers.
What to Do While Venus Is in Pisces
- Create art without worrying about outcome or perfection.
- Spend time near water to clear emotional residue.
- Practice compassion without fixing or rescuing.
- Name your needs gently but clearly.
- Rest more than usual. Emotional sensitivity is draining.
- Listen to fatigue. It is information.
- Choose intimacy that feels calm, not chaotic.
What to Avoid While Venus Is in Pisces
- Romanticizing potential over observable behavior.
- Over-giving to secure connection.
- Confusing intensity with intimacy.
- Staying silent to keep the peace.
- Making promises you cannot sustain.
- Escaping discomfort through fantasy or avoidance.
- Believing suffering makes love meaningful.
Venus in Pisces is not here to drown you. It is here to teach you how to swim.
The mermaid shows what happens when love asks you to disappear.
Melusine shows what happens when love asks you to remain whole.
Choose accordingly.
