The Southern Fish, the first Decan of Aquarius, provides further evidence that this sign was meant to depict the risen and glorified Redeemer pouring out the saving influences and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The people who truly benefit from these gifts and powers are the believers in Christ, the regenerate, and the saved Church, represented by the mystical fishes.
In this first Decan of Aquarius, we see a fish, Piscis Australis, drinking from the stream that pours from the urn of the beautiful One in heaven. This represents the acceptance of the invitation of Christ, who said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." The fish represents the coming from below, the drinking of the heavenly waters, and the sustained and expanded life that results from that drinking.
The mythic legends do not provide much information about the interpretation of this constellation, but they still offer some significant hints. Some say this fish represents Astarte, also known as Aphrodite and Venus, who transformed into a fish to escape the advances and power of Typhon. Astarte was the moon-goddess, the great mother, and the embodiment of the dependent but ever-productive feminine principle. In the symbology of the Scriptures, the moon sometimes represents the mother of the family, and both the woman and the moon represent the Church.
The Church is the spouse of Christ, the spiritual woman, and the mother of saints. The transformation into a fish is significant because all true members of the Church are transformed persons, made over again by the power of a new spiritual creation. This spiritual transformation enables us to escape the power and dominion of the Devil and to have our status and relations in the heavenly economy and kingdom.
The light of the true meaning of the constellation shines feebly through the dark and murky atmosphere of the pagan world, but wherever we see a distinct ray, it can be traced back to the figures of the primeval constellations and then to the sacred story of redemption through the promised Seed of the woman.
Scripture References
- John 7:37 - "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink"
- Ephesians 5:23-32 - "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church."
- Genesis 37 - "And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me."