Constellation Piscis Austrinus Astrology

Constellation Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish, is a southern constellation sitting below constellation Aquarius, and between constellation Centaurus and constellation Cetus. Piscis Austrinus spans 20 degrees of the Zodiac in the Signs of Aquarius and Pisces, containing 2 named fixed stars.

This constellation is said to commemorate the transformation of Venus into the shape of a fish on one occasion when bathing.

Ptolemy gives no separate influence and describes Fomalhaut, but according to Bayer the constellation is of the nature of Saturn (disgrace, ruin, calamity. It rising, grave, thoughtful, melancholy, liable to disgrace, much care and anxiety, connected with building, mines and minerals. If on 7th cusp and Moon afflicted by Saturn ruler of 7th, a slovenly wife. If culminating, trouble through old people, disgrace, trade losses, deceitful associates, rise followed by fall. With the luminaries, lean and infirm, many miseries. If afflicting Mercury, deafness.) It is said to have an influence similar to Pisces, but in addition to augment the fortunes. [1]

In Greek mythology, this constellation is known as the Great Fish and it is portrayed as swallowing the water being poured out by Aquarius, the water-bearer constellation. The two fish of the constellation Pisces are said to be the offspring of the Great Fish. In Egyptian mythology, this fish saved the life of the Egyptian goddess Isis, so she placed this fish and its descendants into the heavens as constellations of stars. [2]

Piscis Australe (or Piscis Austrinus) “the Southern Fish”… is very unnaturally drinking the whole outflow from the Urn. This idea of the Fish drinking the Stream is an ancient one, and may have given rise to the title Piscis aquosus (piscis aquosi)… Bayer said that it partook of the astrological character of the planet Saturn. Gould assigns to it 75 naked-eye components. [3]

When the Southern Fish rises into the heavens, leaving its native waters for a foreign element, whoever at this hour takes hold of life will spend his years about sea-shore and river-bank he will capture fish as they swim poised in the hidden depths; he will cast his greedy eyes into the midst of the waters, craving to gather pellucid stones and, immersed himself, will bring them forth together with the homes of protective shell wherein they lurk. No peril is left for man to brave, profit is sought by means of shipwreck, and the diver who has plunged into the depths becomes, like the booty, the object of recovery. And not always small is the gain to be derived from this dangerous labor (implying that a diver’s life was usually an unenviable one) pearls are worth fortunes, and because of these splendid stones there is scarcely a rich man left. Dwellers on land are burdened with the treasures of the sea. A man born to such a lot plies his skill along the shore; or he purchases at a fixed wage another’s labor and sells for a profit what it has brought him, a pedlar in the many different forms of sea products. [3]

This first constellation is one of high antiquity, and its brilliant star of the first magnitude was a subject of great study by the Egyptians and Ethiopians. It is named in Arabic Fom al Haut, the mouth of the fish There are 22 other stars. The constellation is inseparable from AQUARIUS. In the Denderah Zodiac it is called Aar, a stream. [5]

References

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.57.
2. Condos, Theony; Eratosthenes; Hyginus, 1997, Star myths of the Greeks and Romans, p.163–164.
3. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard H. Allen, 1889, p.344-345.
4. Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, book 5, p.333.
5. The Witness of the Stars, E. W. Bullinger, Piscis Australis (18. the Southern Fish).