Welcome to Pisces Season 2021: Here's What You Need to Know

Annually, from approximately February 18 to March 20, the sun moves through dreamy, empathic, and slightly psychic mutable water sign Pisces.

During this time, no matter your sun sign, you'll feel the effects of Piscean energy, which is all about dreaming, swimming in your feelings, wearing rose-colored glasses, expressing emotion through art, and getting in touch with your intuition and imagination. Pisces' chief goal is to understand humanity through a complicated tapestry of emotion, psychology, and spirituality while finding ways to hit pause on reality in order to nurture their own and their loved ones' hearts by playing in the romantic, ethereal, dramatic side of life. They're one of the most heartfelt, deeply emotional, and creative signs, but might struggle to keep their feet on the ground, as sometimes soaking up everyone else's emotions gets to be a bit too much. (

That said, it should come as no surprise that this time of year, we're content on hibernating away the last few weeks of what's technically winter, daydreaming about the warmer, brighter days ahead, and escaping everyday life with whimsical celebrations like Mardi Gras, Purim, and St. Patrick's Day. Pisces season was made for resting, romanticizing, and exploring all the emotions through your favorite artistic, escapist outlet (be that poetry, dance, theater, or belting out your favorite mushy love songs in the shower).

But while we can rely on the sun to slip us into Pisces season every February, the moon and planets move at different paces and patterns in our solar system, so we get a unique experience of each sign's season every year. Here's a glimpse at Pisces season 2021.

You'll spend a bit of time revving back up to full speed.

Pisces energy isn't exactly known for being fast and furious — leave that to Aries season, which starts on March 20th — but you can anticipate an especially slow-paced, confusing start to the water sign's season, thanks to messenger Mercury's retrograde, which lasts through February 20 but may be felt, thanks to the post-retrograde shadow, until March 13. (The post-shadow ends when Mercury, moving forward, returns to the point at which it started its retrograde, and depending on how the retrograde is hitting your natal chart, you might feel the aspect's signature technology, transportation, and communication snafus until then.)

Nonetheless, after February 20, you can feel more confident tackling all of those to-dos that are generally discouraged during Mercury retrograde, such as getting the ball rolling on new projects, signing contracts, or initiating important conversations. It'll also be an ideal time to look back on the last three weeks and consider any key reflections or emotions that came up while the information-gathering planet was moving backward. Basically, thanks to the sun's position — and later, Venus and Mercury — in deeply feeling Pisces, you'll be reminded that it never hurts to check in with your heart and your intuition before plowing full steam ahead.

You could take advantage of several planetary jolts of energy.

Although Pisces energy might be hazy, magical, and go-with-the-flow, the major meet-ups and clashes between planets could feel like blasts of caffeine you can harness to revitalize various parts of your life.

February 19, the planet of love, Venus, forms a square to the planet of sex, Mars, in Taurus. The result: A fired-up sex drive, cranked up volume on passionate exchanges and feverish, energized creativity, and spotlight thrown on any underlying conflicts with partners, friends, or loved ones.

February 24, Mars can urge you to take action once more — this time in a more focused, driven way, as it'll form a harmonious trine to powerful Pluto in industrious Capricorn. You could feel motivated to get after big-picture goals by speaking your mind and making a play for more power or a leadership opp.

February 28, the day after the Virgo full moon, you can take advantage of the grand earth trine, which involves three celestial bodies — the intuitive moon in Virgo, transformative Pluto in Capricorn, and aggressive Mars in Taurus — positively playing off one another to set the stage for making pragmatic moves that can bolster progress on long-term visions.

March 4, messenger Mercury pairs up with lucky Jupiter to amplify your optimism, social lives, and ability to deliver whatever message you've been aiming to get across.

You might need to rein in scattered energy.

After spending a couple of months in slow, steady, grounded fixed earth sign Taurus, the planet of action, Mars, will move into scattered, curious, communicative mutable air sign Gemini on March 3, where it'll remain until April 23. In turn, you could get a blast of energy that can be applied to intellectual, social pursuits, but it could be tougher to stay focused. You could feel like you want to do it all, and yet, you'll be easily distracted, pulled into interactions and activities that capture your attention in the moment and make it tough to complete what you started. For that reason, it could be wise to prioritize tasks that are more mercurial in nature, e.g. brainstorms, lively debates, and quickie texts or emails over drawn out meetings.

You'll have unique chances to feel deeply and dream wildly and freely.

While the sun in Pisces is enough to light your imagination ablaze, making it easy to connect with and trust your imaginative impulses, there are a couple other moments when you'll really be able to tap into that energy.

February 25 to March 21, sweet Venus, which oversees love, beauty, and money, will move through the sign of the Fish. This is a part of the sky it's comfy in — so much so that Venus is "exalted" when it is Pisces, meaning it can reach its highest potential in the romantic, fantasist water sign. The result: It's an organic time to express how you're feeling in relationships, experiment with your personal style, strengthen your self-worth, and steer toward moneymaking pursuits that are in tune with your heart.

March 10, the confident sun pairs up with spiritual Neptune in Pisces, which can magnify empathy, creativity, sensitivity, intuition, and the intensity of dreams. It's fertile ground for picking up on other people's energies and channeling complicated emotions into a productive outlet, like therapy, journaling, an artistic project, or a heart-to-heart.

March 13, the new moon in Pisces pairs up with romantic Venus and illusion-loving Neptune, bringing our most delicate, heartfelt feelings and daydreams to the fore and encouraging you to set intentions that stem from these poetic emotions.

You'll feel inspired to get out of your comfort zone.

Virgoan energy tends to be associated with organization, accountability, and showing your work. But the full "Snow Moon" in the mutable earth sign on February 27 will form a harmonious trine to rebellious Uranus in Taurus, stirring you to get real with yourself emotionally — and then come to terms with breaking free of a situation no longer serving you. In the midst of Pisces season, which can have you willingly wearing rose-colored glasses despite all the facts at hand, this can feel like a major (but ultimately welcome) wake-up call.

Maressa Brown is a writer and astrologer with more than 15 years of experience. In addition to being Shape's resident astrologer, she contributes to InStyle, Parents, Astrology.com, and more. Follow her Instagram and Twitter at @MaressaSylvie