“TWISM” reads the tattoo on his arm. “The World Is Mine,” and all that is in it. Finally playing up to his awesome potential, surrounded by a stellar supporting cast and led by perhaps the greatest NBA coach alive, Shaquille O’Neal has matured far beyond the awkward braggadocio that marked both his bicep and his youth. He is quieter, more controlled and the reigning king of the NBA. Gone are the contrived movie roles and rap star doggerel. Shaq Daddy is focused and all about basketball. His Lakers are the undisputed favorites heading into the playoffs, and his own numbers have pushed him past the mercurial Allen Iverson for the league scoring title. Comparisons to Wilt and Kareem are on the rise. He’s even making his free throws! Who is this giant of a man who does everything in such a big way?

Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal was born on March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey. Astrologer Cynthia Withers quotes his mother, Lucille Harrison, for a birthtime of “around 8:00 am.” This means that Shaq is a Pisces with either late Aries or Taurus on the Ascendant. The Ascendant is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, and it shows the physical appearance and personality. Because Shaq has such a solid physique and ponderous personality, I prefer the Taurus Ascendant, but that could be mere speculation on my part. However, there is no doubt that Shaq is a Pisces.

A Typical Pisces?

Any astrology book will give you the goods on the typical Pisces. They’re sensitive and mystical, downtrodden dreamers. Shy and intuitive, they need shelter from the cruel world, seeking solace in art or selfless service to others, like Jackie Joyner Kersee, Julius Erving, Pete Rozelle, Charles Barkley...hey, wait a minute! Charles Barkley is a Pisces? I have yet to find an astrology book that describes Pisceans as great athletes, millionaires and business tycoons, but if you check the facts, that is a little closer to the truth. The Orlando Sentinel quoted a survey done several years ago that found more millionaires had Sun in Pisces than any other sign! So what gives? Will the real Pisces please stand up, or remain harder to pin down than ever?

How quickly we forget that before the discovery of the planet Neptune, Pisces was ruled by, or associated with, the planet Jupiter, the same planet that rules Sagittarius. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is athletic, expansive, given to excess and great good fortune. Sagittarians born under Jupiter’s rulership are expected to be the same. Neptune, the poetic, long-suffering and other-worldly planet, was assigned to Pisces, but apparently somebody forgot to tell the Pisceans. While many do exhibit unmistakably Neptunian traits, ranging from inspired artistry to drug addiction, many others are outrageously successful, rich and athletic. Shaquille O’Neal, for instance.

The duality of Pisces is a double mystery, wrapped in an enigma: two fish, tied together, swimming round and round, fighting over who gets to be on the bottom. If questions over the sign’s rulership leave us feeling confused, the Pisceans would probably prefer it that way. Every Pisces is different, and a close check of their birth charts should reveal which ruler, Neptune or Jupiter, is more influential. In the case of Shaquille O’Neal, it’s definitely Jupiter.

Bigger is Better

Everything about Shaq is larger than life, starting with his seven foot, 315-pound frame. If he does indeed have the sign Taurus rising, then his Taurus Ascendant makes a very fortunate, flowing trine  angle (120 degrees) to his natal Jupiter in Capricorn. Jupiter tends to expand whatever it touches, and this aspect to the Ascendant links that expansion to his physical body. Jupiter in Capricorn expresses the more materialistic, ambitious side of Jupiter, the “TWISM,” as it were. Shaq, the Pisces, is no philosopher. Even his forays into the more traditional Piscean  fields of acting, music and poetry were marked less by artistic inspiration than by a drive to be rich and famous.

Without limits, the mutable Pisces swims aimlessly in search of the unattainable. Shaq has been fortunate to find two Virgo partners, Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant, who provide the counterbalance to his Piscean susceptibilities, helping him to narrow his sights and focus on more immediate goals. He may never be a great actor or poet, but he can be a great basketball player and the Lakers can win a championship. Jackson may be just the antidote to Shaq’s perrenial championship choke, the mentor and mortar that holds the bricks together!