The Pisces archetype is associated with the image of the great mother, and her nourishing, protective womb represents the sea as a source for all life. The Egyptians held that water was "the beginning and origin of all things". This model has been outwardly expressed in many cultures and periods since early history, drawing on mythology, art, dreams and imagination.

The eternal mother, to who we are immortally bound, is the great archetypal image perceived as a figure that devours all life and naturally one fears such drowning and disintegration. The mother and the sea are symbolic forms of the anima archetype, and from the Jungian perspective it reveals the magical aspect of the unconscious luring the “ego” to its depths. However, Pisces is also the classic image of redemption and universal love, and its symbol - represented by two fish swimming in circular motion, signifies entering into the unknown and mysterious realm of the ocean --- leading us to the completed cycle of life. In the beginning of creation and the original state of perfection this symbol is thought to be represented by a pool, containing a circle or sphere.

In Pisces, Mother is an all-giving, all-sacrificing, all-loving, feeling, redeeming, selfless and devoted figure. On the one hand she is creative and loving and on the other, she is changeable, turbulent and destructive. Anything large and embracing in life represents this archetypal image, and in the myths surrounding the bond between child and mother it often depicts the smaller fish releasing himself/herself to claim his/her personal identity. Pisces represents fusion, but this also means difficulty in defining a clear and separate identity.

In an astrological sense I would personally interpret this kind of theme in the charts of those with hard aspects between the Moon and Neptune. In which case, Moon-Neptune contacts symbolise a mother who is lacking in boundaries, and points to an identity that may not be sufficiently formed. There is a need to fuse emotionally with those around her, and a very deep unconscious union between mother and child. Both are wrapped up inside of each-other by feelings of guilt, responsibility and emotional unity. Images of victimization make the child extremely sympathetic towards her, and it may be very difficult to find her own self-expression.

The fairy-tale of “Sleeping Beauty” could shed light on Moon-Neptune aspects in the horoscope, for this much loved story represents the awakening of a young female to her own identity and sexuality. Moon-Neptune individuals are emotive, sensitive, feminine and psychic to their very core, but Sleeping Beauties don’t like to wake up to reality, and the self tends to dissolve in all relationships and through enforced passivity, they cut off from autonomy, self-actualisation and independence. The Story of Sleeping Beauty is really about becoming an adult woman. It’s as though Moon-Neptune looks for a saviour who can make the aching and loneliness go away.

In the psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype – Jung wrote, “Nothing can exist without its opposite; the two were one in the beginning and will be one again in the end.” The 12th house represents the time of our gestation during which time we begin our development. The child’s total dependence on mother at birth describes a state where nothing individual is expressed.

”The main thing to note about the womb experience is that we are more or less immersed in a primal paradise. What the Jungians call “unroboric wholeness” ---there is no separation---- it’s pre-time and pre-boundaries. This is why we associate it with boundless and formless Neptune.

The womb is a kind of Eden. However, it appears that some wombs are five star wombs, while others are four star, three star, two star, etc. In the womb we register things via the mother. This is called “the umbilical effect” and the nature of what passes through the umbilical to the child is probably shown by what is in the 12th house…Anything in the 12th house is very deeply buried and free floating. Birth really means taking on a body and it heralds the beginning of life as a separate individual. The body is a boundary which distinguishes us from others. Actually from the first six to nine months after birth were don’t really “twig” that we are a separate entity. “ By Howard Sasportas – The Development of the Personality.

The 12th house is associated to our biological history, as well as the residue of all our ancestors. Gestation is the collective unconscious of which Jung stated contained an inheritance belonging to all man, and representing the creative potential of the unconscious mind. It is believed that throughout our incubation in mother’s womb she is extremely sensitive to all people and situations around her. Studies have found that pre-natal experiences can go on to influence the individual far into adulthood, even though we have no memory of this time.

These origins of influences greatly affect those with planets in the 12th house. Throughout pregnancy there is a psychic and hidden connection between mother and child, moving us with a quietness and beauty. The primal water of the womb signifies energies which are usually withdrawn, silenced, and unseen.

“At conception, we begin the journey of being drawn into form, and thereby separated from our original Source which is ever un-manifest. Birth is the delivery out of undifferentiated unity. We call this differentiated form our “physical body”. It is meant to be the “house” or “temple” for that part of us that carries the memory, in fact is still connected to Unity. We call this aspect of our being “Sprit” or Higher Self. Beyond that, there remains the Divine Source from which all things come. “ By Forrest