Aries and Pisces compatibility: the last sign, the first sign and the line between them

Compare Aries and Pisces by sign or birth date

The two Sun signs are filled in below. Switch to two birth dates and we look up Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars for both of you, so you can read the placements for your own dates. Uncertain signs are flagged. No birth time and no account needed.

Birth-date positions use Swiss Ephemeris calculations based on NASA JPL planetary data. Read about the data and precision. The historical date tables below use a separate PyEphem calculation.

The last sign and the first sign

Ptolemy describes the bicorporeal signs, Pisces among them, as sharing 'at end and beginning, the natural properties of the two states of weather' (Tetrabiblos I.11). In his northern-hemisphere seasons, Pisces closes winter and carries a little of what comes next. Spring opens with Aries at the equinox. Read as symbolism, that gives this pair its question: is one of you ready to begin while the other is still finishing something?

Signs one apart form none of Ptolemy's four aspects, and he classes them as disjunct. Such neighbors, he writes, 'though they are two, bound the angle of one' (I.16). Today the angle is called a semisextile and often rated as awkward. A plainer word is adjacent.

I.19 adds a warmer link. It gives Venus her exaltation in Pisces, 'where the beginning of the moist spring is indicated', right next door to Aries, where the Sun is exalted. Two neighboring signs each host a planet at its best, and both are tied to the start of spring. Astrologers read that as tenderness on one side and warmth on the other.

The half-packed room: finishing before starting

One of you has found an apartment to share and wants to sign the lease this weekend. The other still has a half-packed room at their old place, a security deposit to get back and a goodbye dinner they haven't organized. Nobody's having second thoughts. One of you is ready to start, and the other hasn't finished.

It happens with a job one person has left but not stopped talking about, a friendship that ended badly, or a project one of you wants to wrap up properly while the other has moved on to the next idea. Astrology puts the starting on the Aries side and the finishing on the Pisces side, though either of you may be the one still packing.

Try a finish list. Before the next big start, each of you names the endings you still owe, with a date: hand back the keys by the 15th, send the last email to the old team, have the conversation you've been putting off. The starter helps with one of them in person. The finisher picks a start date once the list is done. That turns 'you're dragging your feet' and 'you're rushing me' into a shared list with dates on it.

The March 20 question: Pisces, Aries or the cusp?

Most date tables give Pisces until March 20 and start Aries on March 21. In US Eastern time, the last year the Sun entered Aries on March 21 was 1979. Since 1980 it has arrived on or before March 20 every year, and on March 19 in 2020 and 2024, as it will again in 2028. Farther west the change comes earlier on the clock, three hours earlier in Pacific time.

So a March 20 birthday can be either sign. For births from 1990 to 2026, every March 20 was at least partly Aries in Eastern time, and Aries held most of the day in 20 of those 37 years. The What's My Zodiac? lookup works out the Sun's sign from the birth date, time and place, so a cusp birthday doesn't have to be a guess.

Being born on the cusp doesn't make anyone half of each. At the moment of birth the Sun is in one sign or the other. If you feel like both, look at your other planets: plenty of Aries Suns carry Pisces placements, and the reverse.

Venus and Mars cross the border

Venus travels close to the Sun, so on dates near this border it often sits in the neighboring sign. Venus was in Aries on 33.8% of sampled Pisces Sun dates, slightly more than the 31.7% of sampled Aries Sun dates, and no Venus sign turned up more often on Pisces dates. Both Venus signs are in Aries in 10.7% of modeled pairs of Aries and Pisces dates, the top Venus pairing for these two Suns.

The border runs the other way as well. Mercury was in Pisces on 35.0% of sampled Aries Sun dates, and a Pisces Venus turned up on 24.1%. And Mars, the Aries ruler, was in Aries on 13.3% of sampled Pisces Sun dates, its most common sign there and a higher share than on Aries Sun dates (11.4%). So the gentle, passive Pisces of the stereotype is often carrying Venus placed in Aries or a Mars that likes to move first.

In love, that mix can work well. The Aries partner may bring a softer Venus than expected, and the Pisces partner more nerve. In bed, astrology pairs Aries directness with a Pisces wish for romance and atmosphere, so say which one you want tonight instead of guessing. In a fight, Aries tends to say it loudly and move on while Pisces goes quiet, which means the quiet partner may need asking twice and the loud one may need to wait. The Aries and Pisces calculator shows which side of the border each planet landed on, and the Venus lookup handles one birthday at a time.

The Aries and Pisces date-sample estimates

These estimates pair two dates drawn independently from the 1950–2005 sample, with equal weight for every date within each Sun sign. They describe planetary combinations, not observed couples or relationship success.

Most common Venus pairings in this model: Aries with Aries (10.7%), Aries with Aquarius (9.7%), Taurus with Aries (8.3%). Venus signs are listed in Aries Sun, then Pisces Sun order. Mars can occupy any sign with either Sun sign. The most frequent Mars signs on sampled Aries dates are Taurus (14.3%), Gemini (12.3%), Aries (11.4%), Aquarius (10.2%), and on Pisces dates Aries (13.3%), Taurus (12.3%), Capricorn (11.6%), Pisces (10.8%).

Planet signs come from one noon-UTC chart for every day from January 1, 1950, to December 31, 2005 (20,454 days), each date weighted equally. Pair figures combine an Aries date and a Pisces date drawn independently. The March 20 figures use the exact moment the Sun entered Aries each year, computed with PyEphem, re-timed on JPL ephemerides and converted to US Eastern time. None of this describes how couples behave.

Calculation method and downloadable date-sample tables

A friend with the next plan, a friend still on the last one

One friend arrives with a new plan every week. The other is still turning over what happened last time and wants to talk it through properly. Both conversations matter, and each friend can feel the other is skipping theirs.

Before you launch into yours, ask which one your friend wants today: what happened, or what's next. Don't assume they're ready for the same conversation you are. Signs of the water element tend to need time with a feeling before they move on, and fire signs tend to think by doing.

Where the Sun really was, and whose planets cross over

If the same disagreement keeps returning, ask what still needs finishing and what can begin without waiting. On Aries' other side sits Taurus, where the Aries and Taurus match turns on a question of pace instead; you can compare both with all twelve of Aries' pairings.

These are astrological readings, and your own history together counts for more. If one of you was born near March 20, start with the exact Sun degree, then check whose Venus or Mars has crossed the border onto the other person's Sun or Moon. A full birth chart built with a birth time and place gives that degree, and comparing both charts lists every contact between them.

Two couples on either side of the border

Compare two Aries and Pisces couples. In the first, both partners have Venus in Aries, which happens in 10.7% of modeled pairs, more than any other Venus combination. Affection on both sides is direct and impatient, and it could easily be the Pisces pushing to move in. Both may agree to move before either has dealt with the old apartment.

In the second, the Aries has Venus in Pisces and so does the Pisces. Now both lean toward tenderness and patience, and the Aries Sun is the only fire in the picture. Both may want reassurance before deciding, and someone still has to ask when they're ready to move.

Aries and Pisces questions