Pisces (Meena Rashi) in Vedic astrology: the sign, its nakshatras, and what each graha does in it

Meena, the pair of fish, is the twelfth and last sign of the zodiac. It belongs to Jupiter, it is watery and dual, and it is the one sign where a graha reaches exaltation and another its fall: Venus is exalted here and Mercury debilitated. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) draws it as two fish, each with its head at the other's tail.

This page sets out what BPHS, Saravali and the other source texts behind this app say about Pisces, and how the engine turns the sign into the lines in your own chart. It describes rules, not people. To find out whether Pisces matters in your chart at all, start with the Moon Sign calculator.

Three different things are called "Pisces"

In Vedic practice, "my rashi is Meena" means the Moon was in sidereal Pisces at birth. The Moon crosses the sign in a little over two days: in this engine it made 134 passes through Pisces between 2020 and 2029, 55.3 hours long on average and never longer than 60.7. The next one runs from 15:04 IST on 23 October 2026 to 19:23 IST on 25 October. Moon sign and nakshatra explains why the Moon, not the Sun, is the default.

The Sun is in sidereal Pisces for about thirty days a year: from 06:50 IST on 15 March 2027 to 15:18 IST on 14 April 2027. The tropical zodiac used by Western Sun-sign columns puts the Sun in Pisces from about 19 February to 21 March 2027. The gap is the Lahiri ayanamsa, 24.2267 degrees on 6 October 2026 in this engine, as the Methodology page describes. So most people who call themselves a Pisces from a magazine have the Sun in sidereal Aquarius; only those born in the last week of that window have it in Meena. The Sun Sign calculator gives the sidereal answer.

The third meaning is Meena Lagna: Pisces rising on the eastern horizon at birth. At New Delhi on 6 October 2026 Pisces rose from 17:05 to 18:29 IST, about 85 minutes, the shortest of the twelve that day, against 141 for Cancer. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 37-38 lists Pisces among the signs of short ascension, with Taurus, Aries and Aquarius. The Lagna needs a birth time and a place, and the Lagna calculator computes it.

How the texts describe Meena

BPHS Ch. 4 describes each rashi in a sloka or two. Its lines for Meen (Sloka 22-24), with the general classifications of Sloka 3 to 5 1/2 and the parallel chapter of Saravali, give the following.

Two rows carry a disagreement. BPHS says Meen is strong at night; Saravali counts Pisces among the day signs. And while three texts put Pisces in the North, the diagram BPHS draws in Ch. 8 Sloka 6-9 to explain sign aspects sets Meen in the South-East. This engine uses neither attribute, so neither disagreement reaches your chart.

BPHS also gives Meen a varna class. This app uses that only inside the Varna koota of Kundli matching, where it is one point of thirty-six, and makes no statement about people from it.

The engine uses the rest of these attributes mechanically. The modality fixes where the Navamsa count starts, which signs Pisces aspects and which house is badhaka for a Pisces Lagna. The lord, Jupiter, decides the dignity of every graha placed here that is neither exalted nor fallen. The Kundali page also prints one curated temperament line for a Pisces Moon, "easygoing and learned, quick to discourage but equally quick to recover", and one for a Pisces Sun, "honest and even-tempered, discreet and easy to confide in". Those two lines are this app's wording, not a quotation from Saravali.

The end of the zodiac: Gandanta

Pisces ends where Aries begins, and the texts mark that seam. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 20-21 calls the ending portions of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces "Gandanta"; BPHS Ch. 92 Sloka 4 defines Lagn Gandanta as the last half ghatika of Meen and the first half ghatika of Mesh. Saravali attaches a fearful line to such a birth and a royal one in the same sloka; this page repeats neither. This engine does not flag Gandanta: a Lagna in the last minutes of Pisces is read as Pisces, and a few minutes of birth-time error there changes the sign. What an unknown birth time costs covers that risk.

Inside the sign: three nakshatras, nine padas

Thirty degrees of Pisces hold the last pada of Purva Bhadrapada, all four of Uttara Bhadrapada and all four of Revati, the twenty-seventh and last nakshatra. Each pada is 3 degrees 20 minutes and maps to one Navamsa sign. BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 12 starts the Navamsas of a dual rashi from the fifth sign from it, so those of Pisces begin in Cancer and end in Pisces itself.

Three consequences follow. A graha or Lagna in the last 3 degrees 20 minutes of Pisces is Vargottama, in the same sign in both charts. Venus's deepest exaltation, 27 degrees, falls inside that slice, so a Venus at her highest point is also Vargottama. And a third of the sign in which Mercury is debilitated is Revati, the nakshatra Mercury himself rules in the Vimshottari scheme. The Nakshatra calculator returns the pada, the Navamsa (D9) calculator the Navamsa sign, and Navamsa, the second chart covers how to read it.

The other divisions of Pisces

• Hora (D2): Pisces is even, so its first 15 degrees are the Moon's Hora and the second 15 the Sun's (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 5-6; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14).
• Drekkana (D3): the three decanates fall in Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio, the sign itself, the 5th and the 9th from it, so all three stay in water signs (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 7-8; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14).
• Trimshamsa (D30): an even sign reverses the order of an odd one, so 0 to 5 degrees go to Venus, 5 to 12 to Mercury, 12 to 20 to Jupiter, 20 to 25 to Saturn, 25 to 30 to Mars (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 27-28; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 15). The Jupiter portion falls in Pisces itself.

Dignity: an exaltation, a fall and an owner

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 lists the exaltation signs of the seven grahas, gives the deepest degree of each, and puts each one's fall in the seventh sign from it at the same degree. Meen is the exaltation of Shukr, deepest at 27 degrees. Budh is exalted in Kanya at 15 degrees, so his fall is Meen, deepest at 15. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 35-36 gives the same signs and degrees, and so does the introduction to Bhrigu Sutras.

Four rows move because this engine judges a graha in another's sign by the fivefold relationship with the sign lord: a natural relationship combined with a temporary one read from the chart. By BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 a graha in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from another is its temporary friend. For a graha in Pisces that means Jupiter in Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Sagittarius, Capricorn or Aquarius; then the Sun, Moon, Mars and Saturn all read as in a friendly sign. With Jupiter anywhere else, Pisces included, the Sun and Mars drop to neutral and the Moon and Saturn to an enemy sign. So a Moon beside Jupiter in his own sign is labelled "Enemy sign": that is the rule working as written, not a judgement on the conjunction.

Venus exalted, Mercury fallen

The engine labels Venus "Exalted" and Mercury "Debilitated" anywhere in Pisces. The exact degrees matter in one place. The engine's planetary-ray figure, taken from Saravali Ch. 36, measures each graha's arc from its own deepest fall and scales it to seven: Mercury at exactly 15 degrees of Pisces has zero rays, and Venus at 27 degrees of Pisces has the full seven. This app computes no cancellation of debilitation (Neecha Bhanga); a fallen Mercury is reported as fallen. Venus in Vedic astrology and Mercury in Vedic astrology cover the two grahas, and the Shad Bala calculator weighs dignity beside the other strengths.

Jupiter at home

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54 puts Guru's Moolatrikona in the first third of Dhanu and calls the rest of that sign his own house. Bhrigu Sutras adds that the whole of Pisces is his own sign. This engine agrees, labelling Jupiter "Own sign" at every degree of Pisces and scoring that as three quarters of full positional strength, where Moolatrikona and exaltation score full. Sagittarius is therefore the stronger of his two signs. Jupiter in Vedic astrology has the wider picture.

Ketu and Meena

BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 34-39 1/2 gives Kumbh as the own rashi of Rahu and Vrischik as that of Ketu, then adds that "some sages" make it Kanya for Rahu and Meen for Ketu. The introduction to Bhrigu Sutras cites Sanketanidhi for the same pairing. This engine gives Pisces to Jupiter alone and assigns the nodes no dignity, so a Ketu in Pisces carries no dignity label in this app. Ketu in Vedic astrology sets out what the sources do say.

Each graha in Pisces, as Saravali reads it

Saravali gives every graha a sloka or two for each sign. Its body, illness and sexual-conduct words are left out below, as they are throughout this site, and the table keeps what it says about character and work.

Read across the rows and the dignities show through. The exalted graha and the sign's own lord get the two best lines in the set, with no fault attached to either. The fallen graha gets a line that keeps cancelling itself: virtuous but unlearned, good at acquiring but without wealth. Mars, a natural friend of Jupiter, comes off worst, so these lines do not simply follow friendship. The Moon's line fits a remark in Advanced Predictive Astrology that Cancer and Pisces are her best signs, being watery and agreeable to the lunar nature.

The same book then modifies each line by aspect. Two of those lines, again paraphrased:

• Moon in Pisces aspected by Mercury: a king, highly intelligent, happy. By Jupiter: head of a district and very affluent. By Mars: slighted and without happiness, though valorous (Ch. 23 Sl. 80-85).
• Saturn in a sign of Jupiter aspected by Mercury: equal to a king, a preceptor, honourable and rich. By Jupiter: a king, a minister or an army chief. By Mars: mean and disliked (Ch. 29 Sl. 55-60).

Mars's aspect spoils the Moon's good line and lowers Saturn's. A sign line in Saravali is a starting value, and this engine issues none of these lines as predictions. BPHS names the sign in whole configurations too: Ch. 21 Sloka 12 says a person is learned and wealthy when Guru is in Meen with Shukr while the Lagna lord is strong and the Moon exalted.

Pisces rising: Meena Lagna

Saravali Ch. 48 Sloka 46-49 describes the Pisces-born as fortunate, respectable and famous, interested in knowledge and poetry, courteous and trustworthy, courageous yet modest, versed in music, virtuous and liberal. It then closes the whole chapter with a condition: the effects come to pass fully only if the ascending sign or its lord is strong. What a Lagna reliably fixes is which graha rules which house, and BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 43-44 reads that for Meen. The 1st house page covers the Lagna as a house.

The reasons are in the same chapter. Sloka 2-7 says any graha owning the 3rd, 6th or 11th gives evil effects, and those three houses belong to Venus, the Sun and Saturn: three of Parashara's four malefics. Mercury, the fourth, rules the 4th and the 7th, and the 7th is one of the two Marak Bhavas of Ch. 44 Sloka 2-5. Mars rules the other, the 2nd, which is why he is called a killer, and the 9th, a kona, which is why the sloka says he will not kill independently. This app reports the "killer" label and computes no death timing.

Mars and Jupiter are the centre of the chart. Sloka 11-12 says the lord of a kendra and the lord of a kona cause a Yog when they are linked. Jupiter rules the Lagna and the 10th, Mars the 9th, and Parashara names the pair together. This app's Yoga Karaka panel follows the sloka: on a Pisces-rising Kundali it lists Mars and Jupiter, with Mars and the Moon as auspicious, Saturn, Venus, the Sun and Mercury as malefic, and Saturn and Mercury as killers. These are roles from lordship. Note that the graha exalted in the Lagna, Venus, is a malefic for this ascendant. Where each one sits still has to be read from the chart. Mars in Vedic astrology covers the 9th lord.

The commentary on Jupiter in the 1st house in Bhrigu Sutras adds that Jupiter in Pisces in the ascendant sits there as lord of both the ascendant and the 10th, and names the Hamsa Yoga it forms. A translator's note in BPHS Ch. 59 cites Brihat Jataka for a Raj Yog from Saturn in the Lagna in Meen.

Which Mahapurusha Yogas can form

BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2 gives five Mahapurusha Yogas; this engine flags one when Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn is exalted, in Moolatrikona or in its own sign in a kendra from the Lagna. The kendras of Pisces rising are Pisces, Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius. That allows Hamsa (Jupiter in Pisces in the 1st or in Sagittarius in the 10th), Malavya (Venus exalted in Pisces in the 1st) and Bhadra (Mercury in Gemini in the 4th or in Virgo in the 7th). Ruchaka and Sasa cannot form: the strong signs of Mars fall in the 2nd, 9th and 11th houses and those of Saturn in the 8th, 11th and 12th. The Yogas calculator lists what your chart forms, and what a yoga in your chart means explains how to weigh it.

The badhaka house

This engine takes the 7th as the badhaka house of a dual Lagna, Virgo for Pisces rising, and uses it in one place: a graha there carries the note "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)" in the strength table. BPHS Ch. 50 Sloka 20-21, as this app's corpus has it, states the rule only for the movable signs, where the Badhak is the 11th. The app reads no event into the label.

Pisces among the signs: aspects and questions

BPHS Ch. 8 Sloka 1-3 gives the signs aspects of their own. A dual sign aspects the other three dual signs. Pisces therefore aspects Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius, and the same three aspect it back.

In horary astrology the modality carries the rules. Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 3 Sloka 5 says a fixed query ascendant brings some position or post, a movable one does not, and under a dual one "both results happen". Ch. 4 Sloka 1 says the two halves of a dual sign behave like a movable and a fixed sign for travel. This app's Prashna feature applies both as written: with Pisces rising at the moment of a question about gains or status it prints the "both results" line and scores it zero, and for a travel question it states that the rising sign on its own is not counted either way.

Two worked charts: Hamsa with Malavya, and Hamsa beside a fallen Mercury

These are illustrative births, not real people, both at New Delhi (28.6139 N, 77.2090 E). Every figure is this engine's output.

First, 30 April 2022 at 04:30 IST. Pisces rises at 20.15 degrees, in Revati. Jupiter is in the 1st house at 3.56 degrees, in Uttara Bhadrapada pada 1, and Venus beside him at 2.76, in Purva Bhadrapada pada 4. The engine labels Jupiter "Own sign" and Venus "Exalted", and flags two Mahapurusha Yogas at once: Hamsa, "Jupiter is in its own sign, Pisces, in your 1st house (a kendra)", and Malavya, "Venus is exalted in Pisces, in your 1st house (a kendra)". Venus comes out Strong, 14.63 of 20, and Jupiter Strong, 14 of 20. Both Mahadashas are graded "good".

Now set the lordship roles beside that. The Yoga Karaka panel lists Mars and Jupiter. Mars is in Aquarius in the 12th house, and the engine grades his Mahadasha "challenging" because of that house. Venus, the strongest graha in the chart, is on the panel's malefic list as lord of the 3rd and 8th. Both statements are printed. Chara Dasha opens with twelve years of Pisces and runs forward into Aries.

Second, 20 March 2023 at 06:30 IST, close to sunrise. Pisces rises again, at 5.14 degrees, and Jupiter is again in the 1st in his own sign, now at 22.04 degrees in Revati. Hamsa Yoga is flagged again and Jupiter comes out Strong, 14.5 of 20. But the 1st house also holds the Sun at 4.98 degrees and Mercury at 7.55. Mercury is debilitated and, little more than two degrees from the Sun, inside the 14-degree combustion orb this engine uses for him. He comes out Weak at 6.88 of 20, and his Mahadasha is graded "challenging". The engine also flags a Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga here, "Mercury and Jupiter together", because a kendra lord and the Lagna lord share a sign. One house holds two named yogas and a Weak graha, and the app prints all three lines without averaging them.

Timing: dashas and transits through Pisces

Dashas

Vimshottari Dasha starts from the Moon's nakshatra, so a Pisces Moon begins life in the Mahadasha of Jupiter (Purva Bhadrapada), Saturn (Uttara Bhadrapada) or Mercury (Revati), part-way through. The order from there is fixed: Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus. Eight of the nine padas belong to Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati, so Saturn's nineteen years and Mercury's seventeen are the common openings and Jupiter's the rare one. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator dates yours, and what a Mahadasha is explains the arithmetic.

For a graha placed in Pisces, BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 gives the test: its Dasha is favourable when the lord is in the Lagna, exalted, or in its own or a friendly sign, and unfavourable when it is debilitated, in an inimical sign or in the 6th, 8th or 12th house. This app grades Mahadashas "good", "neutral" or "challenging" on the same test. So a Mercury in Pisces is graded "challenging" in every chart. A Venus or a Jupiter in Pisces earns "good" unless Pisces is the 6th, 8th or 12th from your Lagna, as it is for Libra, Leo and Aries rising. The Venus Mahadasha covers her twenty years.

Pisces also has a period of its own in the sign-based Chara Dasha of BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 158-167. This engine places Pisces in an even Pad, with Capricorn and Aquarius, and counts from it in reverse: the length is the count backwards from Pisces to the sign Jupiter occupies, less one. That gives one year with Jupiter in Aquarius, eleven with Jupiter in Aries and twelve with Jupiter in Pisces itself. For a Pisces Lagna the sequence opens with Pisces and runs forward, to Aries and Taurus, because Scorpio, the sign in the 9th house, is an odd-Pad sign. Software that groups the Pads differently will show other lengths.

Transits

Transits are read from the natal Moon. The Gochar calculator counts each graha's sign from your Moon and applies this engine's rule set; for a Pisces Moon on 6 October 2026 it reads Jupiter in Cancer (5th) and Ketu in Leo (6th) as favourable, Saturn in Pisces itself (1st), Mercury and Venus in Libra (8th) and Rahu in Aquarius (12th) as testing, and the Sun in Virgo and Mars in Cancer as neutral.

Sade Sati and Ashtama Sani for a Pisces Moon

Sade Sati, as this app defines it, is Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon: Aquarius, Pisces and Aries for a Meena rashi. It is running now, in its peak phase. It began with Saturn in Aquarius, from 17 January 2023. The peak, Saturn in Pisces itself, runs from 29 March 2025 to 22 February 2028, apart from 6 June to 21 October 2027. The setting phase, Saturn in Aries, then lasts until 16 April 2030. The next one runs from 25 February 2052 to 5 June 2059. The app describes the period as "traditionally read as a time to consolidate rather than expand, not as an omen." The Sade Sati calculator gives the phase for your Moon.

Ardha Ashtama Sani, Saturn in the 4th from the Moon, means Gemini for a Pisces Moon: 30 May 2032 to 13 July 2034. Ashtama Sani proper, Saturn in the 8th, means Libra, where Saturn is exalted: 27 September 2041 to 12 December 2043, then three more months from 21 June 2044. The Ashtama Sani calculator checks both, and the Timing feature places them beside your dashas.

Common misreadings

• "I am a Pisces" from a Western column. That is the tropical Sun. The sidereal Sun is in Pisces from mid March to mid April, and your rashi is the Moon's sign, not the Sun's.
• "Venus is exalted, so Venus is good for my chart." Exaltation is strength, not role. For Pisces rising, BPHS Ch. 34 lists Venus among the malefics as lord of the 3rd and 8th, and the engine grades her Mahadasha challenging when Pisces is your 6th, 8th or 12th house.
• "Mercury in Pisces means a weak mind." Saravali's line for him is mixed: good conduct and fortune sit beside the lack of formal learning. The engine reports the debilitation, any combustion and the house as separate lines and makes no statement about intelligence.

How to check this in your own chart

1. 1.Run the Moon Sign calculator. Without a birth time it also reports the Moon at both ends of your birth date and whether the sign changed.
2. 2.Check the Sun with the Sun Sign calculator and the Lagna with the Lagna calculator. Then cast the full chart with the Birth Chart calculator. Note every graha in Pisces, its degree, its house and its combust flag.
3. 3.Look for Venus and Mercury first. In Pisces the label is fixed, so the open questions are the house and the distance from the Sun.
4. 4.If Pisces rises, read the lordship table, then find Mars and Jupiter: their houses and dignities carry the Yoga Karaka role. Then read the yoga list on your Kundali.
5. 5.Date the Dashas of the grahas in Pisces and of Jupiter, and, for a Pisces Moon, check Sade Sati, Ashtama Sani and Gochar.
6. 6.To verify a citation, the Sources page lists the texts this app draws on.

Frequently asked questions

What are the dates for Pisces in Vedic astrology?

For the Sun, about 14 or 15 March to 13 or 14 April each year. But Meena rashi usually means the Moon sign, and the Moon is in Pisces for about 55 hours every month, so no date range answers that.

Which nakshatras fall in Pisces?

The last pada of Purva Bhadrapada, all of Uttara Bhadrapada and all of Revati. Their Vimshottari lords are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury.

Which planet is exalted in Pisces, and which is debilitated?

Venus is exalted, deepest at 27 degrees, and Mercury is debilitated, deepest at 15 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50; Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 35-36). This engine applies both labels across the whole sign.

Which planets are good for Pisces ascendant?

BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 43-44 calls Mars and the Moon auspicious and says Mars and Jupiter cause a Yog. It calls Saturn, Venus, the Sun and Mercury malefic and names Saturn and Mercury as killers. These are roles from house lordship; where each graha sits still has to be read from the chart.

Does this app cancel Mercury's debilitation when Jupiter is strong?

No. The engine computes no Neecha Bhanga. A Mercury in Pisces is labelled debilitated and his Mahadasha is graded challenging; a strong Jupiter in the same chart shows up in his own lines.

Is Sade Sati running for Meena Rashi?

Yes. In this engine it began when Saturn entered Aquarius, and the peak phase, Saturn in Pisces, runs from 29 March 2025 to 22 February 2028 with a break from June to October 2027. The setting phase in Aries ends on 16 April 2030. The next Sade Sati for a Pisces Moon begins in March 2052.

Is a Pisces Moon compatible with a particular sign?

None of the source texts behind this app gives sign-to-sign verdicts, so this page gives none. Matching in the Indian tradition scores eight kootas from both Moons' signs and nakshatras; the Kundli Matching calculator and the Compatibility feature show each part of that score for two real birth dates.