2026 ASTROLOGY FORECAST: The Ring of Fire
2026 arrives as a year of profound initiation.
In numerology, 2026 reduces to 1 (2+0+2+6=10=1) - the number of new beginnings, pioneering energy, and fresh starts. This initiation energy is underlined (and with several exclamation points) by the astrology of this year. We have the most significant astrological event of the year occurring at 0° Aries - the very first degree of the zodiac.
This is the year we've been building towards. The outer planets have been shifting into new signs through 2024 and 2025, laying groundwork for a generational transformation. In 2026, these changes crystallise.
How to work with this forecast:
Think of this year-ahead as a map, not a mandate. Astrology reveals timing and themes, but how you navigate them remains entirely your choice. The planetary movements and the interpretations I offer are invitations. You can choose to align your actions with energetic currents rather than swim against them, which makes things flow more easily. But it is always your choice.
The transits I have used to prepare the forecast are the major sign changes, retrogrades, eclipses, and significant aspects. But remember: your birth chart further personalises all of this. These are the weather patterns that we will all experience; how they affect you specifically depends on your unique astrological landscape.
2026: The Key Themes
A Year of Fiery Beginnings
Mars begins 2026 exalted in Capricorn - strong, directed, capable - and remains direct all year long. This is significant. Mars without retrograde means forward momentum is available throughout the year. There's no brake pedal, no forced review of our direction. The question becomes: where are we directing all this available energy?
The answer arrives on February 20th when Saturn and Neptune meet at 0° Aries - the most significant astrological event of 2026. This conjunction perfects just days after both planets definitively enter Aries, at the very beginning degree of the zodiac. It's the universe - or god, or source, or goddess - hitting the reset button on reality itself.
Saturn brings structure, discipline, and hard-earned wisdom. Neptune brings dreams, dissolution, and boundless imagination. In Aries - the sign of the pioneer, the warrior, the individual self - these two ask: What new reality are we willing to fight for? What dreams deserve our commitment? What structures need to dissolve so something truer can be born?
This conjunction occurs around the Spring Equinox, at the astrological New Year. Then throughout 2026, the personal planets activate this degree repeatedly, first via conjunction and then, around the Autumn equinox, by opposition. We are being called to balance self and other, independence and relationship, warrior and diplomat.
Neptune in Aries: A Once-in-a-Lifetime Transit
On January 26th, Neptune enters Aries where it will remain through 2039. We won't see Neptune in Aries again in our lifetimes (most likely, unless people actually do find a way to live forever).
The last time Neptune passed through Aries was 1861-1876 - the American Civil War era, a time of fundamental questioning about freedom, identity, and what it means to fight for ideals. Neptune dissolves boundaries and reveals what's been hidden. In Aries, it dissolves our accepted ideas about courage, independence, and self-assertion.
This transit is exciting but disorienting. Neptune in Aries says: What if everything you thought required fighting for could be achieved differently? What if your vision of yourself is too small? What if the warrior path looks nothing like what you've been taught?
From a systems perspective, this marks the beginning of the end of patriarchal structures, but empires don't fall quietly. Expect the death throes to be loud, confusing, and at times maybe frightening. Neptune brings both illumination and illusion. In Aries, we must learn to distinguish between sacred rage and destructive violence, between necessary boundaries and harmful separation.
The Air Revolution Accelerates
Technology and communication continue their rapid evolution as Uranus settles into Gemini (April 26th), Pluto continues through Aquarius, and both form ongoing aspects with Neptune in Aries. This long-running aspect - connecting innovation (Uranus), transformation (Pluto), and spiritual vision (Neptune) - isn't just a 2026 phenomenon. It's a multi-year pattern that will shape our world through the end of the decade.
Mercury becomes especially significant this year, ruling both Uranus in Gemini and the Virgo eclipses. Watch Mercury's three retrograde cycles carefully, they'll reveal where our thinking needs to evolve, where our communication systems are breaking down, and where new ways of connecting want to emerge.
The most volatile moment comes July 4th when Mars conjoins Uranus at 4° Gemini. Mars (fire and action) meets Uranus (electricity and disruption) in Gemini (air and communication) - a combustible combination! Expect breakthroughs, breakdowns, and explosive developments in technology, media, transportation, and information systems. This is the spark that could ignite the tinder that's been gathering.
Eclipse Shift: From Service to Identity
2026 sees the final eclipses on the Virgo/Pisces axis (focused on service, sacrifice, health, and transcendence) before the nodes shift to Leo/Aquarius in August. The new eclipse cycle asks different questions: How do you shine as an individual while serving the collective? Where does personal creative expression meet group innovation? How do you lead authentically in a world that's changing faster than we can track?
This shift from mutable to fixed signs, from an individual-vs-divine polarity to a self-vs-collective polarity, reflects the epoch change we're living through. The Virgo/Pisces eclipses asked us to refine our service and surrender our martyrdom. The Leo/Aquarius eclipses will ask us to claim our unique light while remaining accountable to the whole.
Venus Retrograde: Relational Reckoning
From October 3rd through November 13th, Venus retrogrades through Scorpio and back into Libra, a journey from the underworld of shared resources, power dynamics, and the taboo, back to the realm of partnership, justice, and balance. This is the 8-year return of the Venus retrograde cycle that last occurred in these signs in October 2018.
Venus in Libra is Athena with her scales, Ma'at with her feather - justice, fairness, taking no shit. Venus in Scorpio dives deep into what we really want beneath the polite surface, into power and transformation and the messy truth of desire.
The Venus retrograde shadow begins August 31st, meaning Venus occupies this Libra/Scorpio territory from August through December. That's five months dwelling in the realm of relationships, values, worth, and justice. And Venus opposes the 0° Aries point - that sensitive Saturn-Neptune conjunction degree - on August 6th from 0° Libra, bringing the relational reckoning directly to the year's most significant threshold.
This is personal and political. Individual and collective. Heart and power. The goddess returns to reclaim what's hers.
Jupiter in Cancer: Home Remedies
Throughout all this intensity, Jupiter remains in nurturing Cancer until June 30th, offering emotional support, protective instincts, and the reminder that home - however we define it - matters. Jupiter expands what it touches. In Cancer, it expands our capacity to care, to create sanctuary, to belong.
When Jupiter enters Leo on June 30th, the energy shifts from internal nurturing to external creative expression. But for the first half of 2026, as Saturn and Neptune meet and Mars charges forward and Neptune dissolves old certainties, Jupiter in Cancer holds space for our feelings, reminds us to tend our foundations, and offers the wisdom that revolution also requires rest.
This is not a time to harden or dissociate. Jupiter in Cancer says: feel it all, find your people, build your nest strong enough to hold what's coming. You're allowed to be soft even if the world gets hard.
Overall 2026 will be a momentous year. It asks everything of us and offers the support to rise to the occasion. The question is not whether change is coming - it's already here. The question is: who do you want to become as the world transforms around you?
2026 MONTHLY TRANSITS AT A GLANCE
JANUARY
The year opens with Mars exalted in Capricorn, joined by Venus, Sun, and Mercury - all opposing Jupiter in Cancer and forming supportive aspects to Saturn and Neptune (still in Pisces) and Uranus in Taurus. The personal planets move into Aquarius throughout the month, making multiple conjunctions with each other and with Pluto. Neptune enters Aries on 26th January, beginning its once-in-a-lifetime transit through 2039.
FEBRUARY
Eclipse season begins. The planets moving through Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus as it stations direct. Saturn enters Aries on 14th February. Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces (26th). The Annular Solar Eclipse at 28° Aquarius occurs on 17th February. The defining moment arrives on 20th February: Saturn conjunct Neptune at 0° Aries.
MARCH
Total Lunar Eclipse at 13° Virgo on 3rd March completes the eclipse season. Jupiter stations direct in Cancer (11th). Mercury stations direct in Pisces (20th). Venus and the Sun make contact with Neptune and Saturn in Aries, activating the fresh conjunction.
APRIL
Mars connects with Neptune (13th) and Saturn (19th) in Aries as the two outer planets slowly begin to separate. Venus meets Uranus in Taurus (24th) just before Uranus re-enters Gemini on 26th April, settling in for its long transit through 2032.
MAY
Two Full Moons bookend the month (1st and 31st). Mars in Aries squares Jupiter in Cancer (5th). Mercury and the Sun meet Uranus in Gemini. Pluto stations retrograde in Aquarius (6th).
JUNE
Venus and Jupiter conjoin in Cancer (9th). Venus in Leo opposes Pluto in Aquarius (17th). Saturn stations retrograde in Aries (23rd). Mercury stations retrograde in Cancer (30th). Jupiter enters Leo on 30th June.
JULY
Mars conjunct Uranus at 4° Gemini on 4th July - the year's most volatile aspect. Venus crosses the South Node. Neptune stations retrograde in Aries (7th). Jupiter in Leo opposes Pluto in Aquarius (20th) and trines Neptune in Aries. Mercury stations direct in Cancer (24th). Saturn stations retrograde in Aries (26th). Sun-Jupiter cazimi in Leo.
AUGUST
Eclipse season take-two. Venus in Libra opposes Neptune and Saturn in Aries (around the 6th, activating the 0° Aries point from 0° Libra), then completes the Sextile/ Trine with Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius. Total Solar Eclipse at 20° Leo on 12th August. Mercury in Leo opposes Pluto and conjoins Jupiter. Partial Lunar Eclipse at 5° Pisces on 28th August. Sun-Mercury cazimi in Virgo squares Uranus. Jupiter in Leo trines Saturn in Aries (30th). Mars in Cancer squares Neptune in Aries.
SEPTEMBER
Mars in Cancer squares Saturn in Aries. Mercury (10th) and Sun (23rd, Autumn Equinox) oppose Neptune from 0° Libra - activating the sensitive Saturn-Neptune conjunction point. Uranus stations retrograde in Gemini (10th). Mercury and Sun complete the Grand Air Trine with Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini.
OCTOBER
Venus stations retrograde at 8° Scorpio on 3rd October. Saturn stations direct in Aries (5th). Pluto stations direct in Aquarius (15th). Mercury stations retrograde at 20° Scorpio on 24th October. Retrograde Venus re-enters Libra (26th), making contact with Sun and Mercury along the way. Mars in Leo opposes Pluto, trines Neptune, and later trines Saturn.
NOVEMBER
Venus stations direct at 22° Libra on 13th November. Mercury stations direct at 5° Scorpio on 14th November. Mars conjoins Jupiter in Leo, squared by the Sun in Scorpio. Sun in Sagittarius opposes Uranus in Gemini. Mars enters Virgo (25th).
DECEMBER
Venus re-enters Scorpio (4th), remaining there through year's end. Mercury enters Sagittarius (6th). Neptune stations direct in Aries (8th December). Mars in Virgo squares Uranus in Gemini. Mercury in Sagittarius opposes Uranus, trines Neptune and Saturn in Aries, and sextiles Pluto in Aquarius. Sun and Mercury in Capricorn square Neptune and Saturn in Aries, trine Mars in Virgo. Mercury enters Capricorn (28th).
Key Retrograde Periods 2026:
- Mercury: 26th Feb - 20th Mar (Pisces) | 30th Jun - 24th Jul (Cancer) | 24th Oct - 14th Nov (Scorpio)
- Venus: 3rd Oct - 13th Nov (Scorpio/Libra), shadow 31st Aug - 15th Dec
- Outer Planets: Jupiter direct 11th Mar | Pluto Rx 6th May - 15th Oct | Saturn Rx 23rd Jun - 5th Oct | Neptune Rx 7th Jul - 8th Dec | Uranus Rx 10th Sep (into 2027)
Horoscopes for 2026
(Read for your rising sign, or your sun sign, or moon sign, if you don't know your rising).
Aries
Themes: Radical self-reinvention, spiritual identity, dissolving old definitions of courage
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries on 20th February lands directly in your sign, making 2026 profoundly personal for you. This is about who you're becoming - not who you've been told to be, but who you actually are beneath all the conditioning. Saturn asks you to commit to a new version of yourself; Neptune asks you to dream bigger than you thought possible. Together, they're dissolving rigid ideas about strength, independence, and what it means to be a pioneer.
Neptune remains in your sign through 2039, beginning a once-in-a-lifetime journey of spiritual awakening and identity transformation. You're learning new ways to be brave, new definitions of leadership, new approaches to taking action. It's disorienting at times - Neptune blurs boundaries you thought were solid. But it's also liberating you from old stories about who an Aries "should" be.
The eclipse shift in August moves from your 6th/12th house axis (health, service, spirituality) to your 5th/11th house axis (creativity, romance, friendships, groups). The question evolves from "How do I serve?" to "How do I shine authentically whilst contributing to the collective?"
Invitation: What version of yourself is ready to be born, and what outdated identity needs to dissolve to make space for it?
Taurus
Themes: Transformation of values, resources under renovation, embodied spirituality
Neptune leaving Pisces (your 11th house of community and future visions) and entering Aries marks a significant shift in how you connect with groups and collective dreams. The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in your 12th house on 20th February asks you to structure your spiritual practice, commit to rest, and build boundaries around your energy. What invisible work needs your attention?
Uranus leaves your sign in April after seven years of upheaval, settling into Gemini and your 2nd house of resources, values, and self-worth. The revolution moves from your identity into your material world. How you earn, spend, and value yourself is up for radical revision. The Mars-Uranus conjunction on 4th July could bring sudden changes or breakthroughs around money and resources.
Jupiter spends the first half of the year in Cancer (your 3rd house), expanding communication, learning, and local connections, before moving into Leo and your 4th house of home and family in July. The second half of the year brings growth and opportunity around your domestic foundations.
Invitation: What needs to change about how you value yourself and your resources, and what spiritual practices will support you through the transformation?
Gemini
Themes: Friendship revolution, communication transformation, collective innovation
Uranus enters your sign on 26th April, beginning a seven-year journey of personal reinvention. You're the lightning rod for change now - expect the unexpected, embrace your authentic weirdness, and prepare for accelerated evolution. The Mars-Uranus conjunction in your sign on 4th July is particularly potent - breakthroughs, breakdowns, or both at once.
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction activates your 11th house of friendships, groups, and collective dreams. Your social circles are transforming; old friendships may dissolve whilst new aligned connections form. Neptune in Aries through 2039 asks you to dream bigger about what community could mean, whilst Saturn ensures you're building real foundations, not just idealistic fantasies.
Mercury rules both your Sun sign and Uranus in your sign this year, making Mercury's three retrogrades especially significant for you. These are your recalibration periods - chances to revise how you think, communicate, and process the rapid changes you're experiencing. The eclipse shift in August moves into your 3rd/9th house axis, highlighting communication, learning, and belief systems.
Invitation: Who are you becoming as the world around you accelerates, and what old version of yourself needs permission to evolve?
Cancer
Themes: Career transformation, public role, nurturing leadership
Jupiter in your sign through 30th June expands your emotional capacity, self-confidence, and ability to nurture both yourself and others. This is your moment to grow into a bigger version of yourself - more feeling, more authentic, more unapologetically caring. When Jupiter moves into Leo and your 2nd house in July, the focus shifts to building security and valuing what you've cultivated.
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in your 10th house of career and public role asks serious questions about your professional path and how you're seen in the world. Are you building a career that honours your dreams? Does your public role reflect who you actually are? Neptune dissolves outdated professional identities; Saturn helps you commit to something more aligned, even if it's uncertain.
The eclipses begin the year in your 3rd/9th house axis (communication, beliefs, travel) before shifting in August to your 2nd/8th house axis (resources, values, shared finances, intimacy). The focus moves from what you believe to what you value and how you share power in intimate partnerships.
Invitation: What professional path truly honours both your practical needs and your deepest dreams, and what false choice between security and authenticity are you ready to release?
Leo
Themes: Expansion of vision, creative expression amplified, joy as resistance
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction activates your 9th house of beliefs, travel, higher learning, and life philosophy. Your worldview is under construction - what you once believed about how life works is dissolving, and something truer (if less certain) wants to emerge. This is spiritual work disguised as philosophical questioning.
Jupiter enters your sign on 30th June, beginning a year-long journey of expansion, confidence, and creative amplification. The second half of 2026 is yours to shine - but not performatively. Jupiter in Leo asks for authentic self-expression, generous leadership, and the courage to take up space without apology. Mars conjoins Jupiter in November, adding fuel to your fire.
The eclipse shift in August moves the nodes into your sign (North Node in Leo) and Aquarius (South Node), making you a focal point for the next 18 months. You're being called to step forward, claim your creative power, and lead from the heart whilst releasing old patterns of emotional detachment or excessive focus on the collective at the expense of self.
Invitation: Where have you dimmed your light to make others comfortable, and what would it mean to shine fully whilst staying grounded in authentic generosity?
Virgo
Themes: Intimacy transformation, releasing perfectionism, shared resources
The final eclipses in your sign occur in February and March, completing an 18-month cycle of self-refinement and health focus. The Total Lunar Eclipse at 13° Virgo on 3rd March is a powerful release point - what harsh self-criticism or impossible standards are you ready to shed? The eclipse axis has been teaching you about service versus sacrifice, analysis versus paralysis.
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in your 8th house brings deep transformation around shared resources, intimacy, trust, and psychological depth. This is about dissolving rigid control whilst building real boundaries - a paradox Neptune and Saturn will help you navigate. What needs to die so something more alive can emerge in your intimate life?
After August, the eclipses shift to your 12th/6th house axis, moving the focus from personal identity to spiritual practice, rest, and the invisible work that sustains your daily service. Mercury rules your sign and the new eclipse axis, making your three Mercury retrogrades crucial recalibration points throughout the year.
Invitation: What would it feel like to be soft, imperfect, and still completely worthy - and how might that radical self-acceptance transform your relationships?
Libra
Themes: Relational transformation, partnerships under review, justice and balance reclaimed
Your opposite sign receives the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in February, activating your relationship axis powerfully. This isn't just about romantic partnerships - it's about how you relate to others, how you balance self and other, how you maintain your equilibrium whilst others transform around you. The 0° Aries point asks: who are you when you're not trying to keep the peace?
In August, Venus opposes this conjunction point from 0° Libra - your sign. Then Mercury (10th September) and the Sun (23rd September, the Autumn Equinox itself) follow. You're being called to bring balance, justice, and relational wisdom to the year's most significant threshold. Your diplomatic skills matter, but so does your ability to take a stand.
Venus retrogrades through Scorpio and back into Libra from October through November, spending five months total in Libra/Scorpio territory. This is deep relational work - reviewing partnerships, values, worth, and what you're willing to compromise versus what's non-negotiable. The eclipse shift in August moves the nodes into your 11th/5th house axis, asking how you balance group belonging with creative self-expression.
Invitation: Where have you sacrificed too much of yourself for harmony, and what does true balance actually require from you now?
Scorpio
Themes: Partnership evolution, Venus retrograde reckoning, power and vulnerability
Venus retrogrades through your sign from October to November, with Mercury joining the retrograde party in Scorpio simultaneously. This is intense, intimate, transformational work around relationships, desire, worth, and power dynamics. What do you really want beneath the surface? Where have you given your power away, and where have you wielded it unconsciously?
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction activates your 7th house of partnerships - both personal and professional. Relationships transform, some dissolve, new ones form on firmer yet more mystical foundations. Saturn asks for commitment and structure; Neptune asks for surrender and trust. Together they're teaching you that real intimacy requires both vulnerability and boundaries.
The eclipse shift in August moves from your 11th/5th house axis (friendships, creativity, romance) to your 10th/4th house axis (career, home, public and private life). The focus moves from how you play and connect socially to how you balance professional ambition with domestic foundations. Jupiter in Leo (your 10th house) from July onward expands career opportunities and public recognition.
Invitation: What does true intimacy require from you - and are you willing to be both powerful and vulnerable enough to receive it?
Sagittarius
Themes: Daily life reinvention, health and work, belief systems shifting
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction lands in your 6th house of daily routines, health, and service. Your everyday life is being restructured - what work feels meaningful? What health practices actually serve you versus what you think you "should" do? Neptune dissolves rigid routines that don't honour your spirit; Saturn helps you build sustainable practices that do.
Jupiter spends the first half of the year in your 8th house (Cancer), deepening your capacity for intimacy, shared resources, and psychological transformation, before moving into your 9th house (Leo) in July. The second half of 2026 is your natural territory - expanding beliefs, exploring new philosophies, potentially travelling or teaching. This is where you come home to yourself.
The eclipse shift in August moves from your 10th/4th house axis (career and home) to your 9th/3rd house axis (beliefs, teaching, communication). Your worldview and how you share it becomes the focus. Mercury's retrogrades through water signs this year (Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio) ask you to slow down your usually quick mind and feel your way through decisions.
Invitation: What daily practices and work would genuinely nourish your spirit, and what "shoulds" about productivity are you ready to release?
Capricorn
Themes: Creative emergence, joy reclaimed, foundations for play
Mars begins the year exalted in your sign - strong, directed, effective. You start 2026 with momentum and the capacity to build. The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in your 5th house asks you to commit to joy, creativity, and what makes you come alive. This might sound frivolous to your pragmatic nature, but it's not. Neptune says play is sacred; Saturn says it deserves your serious attention.
The year asks you to balance building (your natural gift) with allowing spontaneity and creative expression. Jupiter in Cancer (your 7th house) through June expands partnerships and relational opportunities, before moving into Leo and your 8th house in July, deepening intimacy and shared resources. The second half of the year asks you to trust others with your vulnerability.
The eclipse shift in August moves from your 9th/3rd house axis (beliefs and communication) to your 8th/2nd house axis (shared resources, intimacy, values). Questions evolve from "What do I believe?" to "What do I truly value, and am I willing to share power in order to access deeper connection?"
Invitation: What would it look like to take your joy as seriously as you take your responsibilities, and what might that commitment to aliveness create?
Aquarius
Themes: Home and belonging, emotional foundations, roots and revolution
Your sign hosts a stellium of planets in January, all making contact with Pluto in your sign. You're still in the midst of profound personal transformation - Pluto's transit through Aquarius is reshaping your identity, power, and purpose. The year begins with intense personal focus before the energy shifts elsewhere.
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in your 4th house activates home, family, roots, and emotional foundations. This is deep work around belonging - where is home for you? What does family mean beyond blood? Neptune dissolves old ideas about security; Saturn helps you build foundations that honour both your need for roots and your revolutionary spirit. You can be both grounded and free.
The eclipse shift in August moves the nodes into your 7th/1st house axis - relationships and self. The next 18 months will illuminate the balance between your independent Aquarian nature and your capacity for true partnership. Jupiter in Leo (your 7th house) from July onward expands relational opportunities and asks you to consider: who sees the real you, and are you willing to be seen?
Invitation: What does "home" mean to someone whose nature is revolutionary, and how can you build emotional foundations that support both your need for freedom and your need to belong?
Pisces
Themes: Communication shifts, Neptune's departure, new spiritual chapter
Neptune leaves your sign on 26th January after 13 years of dissolving boundaries and heightening your already sensitive nature. As Neptune enters Aries, you might feel both lighter and more solid - your edges return, your sense of self becomes clearer. This is the beginning of a new spiritual chapter, one where you learn to be both compassionate and boundaried.
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in your 3rd house transforms how you think, communicate, and process information. Your mind is being restructured - less fantasy, more inspired vision. Saturn asks you to give form to your insights through writing, speaking, or teaching. Neptune ensures your communication stays connected to something beyond pure logic.
The eclipses begin in your sign (North Node) and Virgo (South Node), completing in March. You're releasing old patterns of martyrdom and victimhood, claiming healthier boundaries and more sustainable service. After August, the eclipses shift to your 6th/12th house axis, asking how you balance daily work with rest, service with spiritual practice, doing with being.
Invitation: As Neptune leaves your sign, what aspects of yourself are ready to solidify, and what new relationship with the spiritual realm wants to emerge now that you have clearer boundaries?
.
