Why does it feel like chasing the horizon?

Are Sagittarius and Pisces compatible?

Sagittarius and Pisces are a square: fire and water, both mutable, three signs apart on the zodiac wheel. Since Ptolemy, astrologers have counted the square as a hard aspect, the angle of friction. Only the Suns are compared here. Venus, Mars, the Moon and the sign on the descendant carry the rest.

You're here because of someone.

The Sun signs say friction. Two whole charts say far more.

Your card is worked out from the day, the minute and the place you were born, not from a sign you share with a twelfth of the planet.

Every Sagittarius and every Pisces reads this page. Only your card knows you.

Find out your true compatibility.

Print my card$9.95 + tax Gift them a ticketand find out theirs

Admit one Sagittarius Fire · Mutable Nov 22 – Dec 21

Admit one Pisces Water · Mutable Feb 19 – Mar 20

□︎ Square · 90°Fire + water · both mutableA hard aspect, since Ptolemy

What it is: synastry, the art of comparing two charts

Comparing two people's charts has a name: synastry. Astrologers lay one chart over the other and look at the angles between the two sets of planets, the same angles the old books use inside a single chart.

Sun-sign compatibility is the shortcut version. It compares only the two Suns, and the angle between them is the aspect: four signs apart is a trine, two apart a sextile, three apart a square, six apart an opposition. Ptolemy called the trine and the sextile harmonious, and the square and the opposition disharmonious. ¹

Elements describe temperament (fire, earth, air, water) and modes describe pace (cardinal starts, fixed holds, mutable adapts). A pair can share one, both or neither. Sagittarius and Pisces share the mode but not the element: two mutable signs, one fire, one water.

Full synastry goes much further: whose Venus lands on whose Moon, where one person's planets fall in the other's houses, how the two descendants line up. Ptolemy himself compared the Sun and the Moon of both charts, not just the Suns. That is why the same Sagittarius can get on beautifully with one Pisces and not at all with another. ²

Why do Sagittarius and Pisces clash?

The traditional portrait: the same for every Sagittarius and every Pisces.

Sagittarius in love

Sagittarius loves the way it travels, in the old portrait: wide open, a little reckless, always up for one more adventure. Traditionally an Archer wants a partner who's also a co-pilot, and freedom inside the relationship, not outside it. Honest to a fault, the books say. Fence one in and it starts looking at the horizon.

Pisces in love

Pisces loves like a song you can't get out of your head, in the old books: romantic, devoted, and ready to see the best in someone long after the evidence runs out. Traditionally a Pisces gives everything and needs gentleness back. The fish can drift, the story goes, but it always swims toward kindness.

Together

Fire and water. Astrologers have argued about this pair for two thousand years. Fire says it out loud; water feels it first and says it later, if at all. Steam, or smoke?

Both mutable: two people who bend. Easy company, the old books say. Picking a restaurant, though, could take all night.

Two restless signs, both given to Jupiter in the old books: the believers of the zodiac. Sagittarius believes in the big idea; Pisces believes in the dream. Both are generous and both drift, and the square between them is about who's being realistic, which is usually nobody.

Where it comes from: comparing charts, from Babylon to your phone

Era by era, with sources. More in the Reading Room.

Ancientc. 450 BCEThe Babylonian zodiac settles into twelve equal zones, the frame later comparisons of signs are built on. ³
Ancient410 BCEThe earliest known horoscopes, from Babylon and Nippur, date to this year. ³
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's Tetrabiblos names the aspects between signs and calls the trine and sextile harmonious, the square and opposition disharmonious. ^4,1
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy files Sagittarius and Pisces together as bicorporeal signs: the double-bodied signs at the end of a season, which share in the weather on either side. ¹
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's chapter on the planets' houses gives both Sagittarius and Pisces to Jupiter, whose two signs he places in trine to the Sun’s and Moon’s signs. ¹
Classical2nd century CEIn his chapter on marriage, Ptolemy compares two charts: the Sun and Moon of one against the Sun and Moon of the other, reading trines and sextiles between them as concord and squares and oppositions as friction. ²
Classical2nd century CEHis chapter on friends and enemies does the same with the Sun, the Moon, the rising degree and the Lot of Fortune of both people. ²
Medieval12th centuryAbu Ma'shar's introduction to astrology circulates in Latin; the University of Edinburgh holds a 12th-century copy. ⁵
1800s1890Alan Leo's Astrologer's Magazine offers its annual subscribers a free horoscope by post. ⁶
1930s1937R. H. Naylor's newspaper horoscope, begun in 1930, is organised by the twelve sun signs. ⁷
1970s1978Linda Goodman's Love Signs is published by Harper & Row. ⁸
1980s–90s1980–1999Chart services run by computer arrive: Astrodienst in Zürich sells birth charts from 1980 and goes online in 1996. ⁹
Today202430% of US adults consult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller at least yearly, mostly for fun, according to Pew Research Center. ¹⁰

Worked out, not guessed

Sagittarius is sign 9 of 12 and Pisces is sign 12: three signs apart, 90°. Squares always share the same mode, never the same element or polarity. Of the 78 possible sun-sign pairings, 12 are squares.
Venus never gets more than about 47° from the Sun, so a Sagittarius's Venus is in one of five signs (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn or Aquarius) and a Pisces's in one of five (Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries or Taurus). Which one is a matter of the year and the day.

Why is it so hard to keep each other in focus?

The Sun can’t answer that. These four can, and your card reads every one of them.

Venus · how you love

How do you love, and how do they want to be loved?

That's Venus. It never strays far from the Sun, so a Sagittarius's Venus can only sit in Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn or Aquarius, and a Pisces's Venus can only sit in Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries or Taurus. Two people with the same sun sign can want completely different evenings.

Your card reads your Venus.
Mars · what you want

Why do you keep promising more than you can give?

That's Mars: desire, temper, the way you chase what you're after. It can sit in any of the twelve signs, so two Pisces born a season apart can want, and fight about, completely different things.

Your card reads your Mars.
The Moon · what you need

Why do they feel like home one day and a stranger the next?

That's the Moon: what you need when the door's shut and the day's gone wrong. It changes sign every two and a half days. If their Moon falls in your sign… well.

Your card reads your Moon.
The descendant · who you’re drawn to

Why do you keep falling for the same type?

That's your descendant, the edge of the seventh house: the sign setting in the west at your birth minute. Tradition reads it as the partner you keep noticing. It needs your birth time and place.

Your card reads your rising sign and your descendant.