Stop Hiding, Start Belonging: Lammas Astrology Forecast 2026
Welcome to Lammas kindreds, or Lughnasadh, or, just late summer. I am still feeling the friction of the neopagan wheel of the year names, as I explained in the last forecast).
I use Lammas, partly out of habit and partly because I find it sits more easily with me than Lughnasadh (as I am not Irish), but Lammas has its own tangled lineage too, a Christian "loaf mass" grafted onto older harvest customs. I know some folks don't like the Christian overtones, and that's valid.
Whatever we call it, here's what's happening.
You'll notice I don't include a full list of transits here. I used to in the monthly forecasts, but I feel like a list of dates and aspects is a bit too granular and not that helpful in this more thematic forecast. I am focusing on the energetics of what the sky is showing us, and that's what you'll find here. If you want the granular weekly detail - I get it, I like that too - I offer that in Moonday Magic Mail. A weekly email which includes the transits for the week, with interpretation and suggestions for using the energy. You can find out more and sign up here.
August, in Wales, usually feels hotter than July (dog days and all), even though the light has technically already started to wane. The days are still long, but visibly shortening now. I can still feel summer in my bones (and on my skin) but I know it can't last, and that makes every sunlit evening more precious.
This is a season of gratitude.
The first week or so is pretty quiet transit wise and then, on the 12th of August we have a new moon and total solar eclipse at 20 degrees Leo, a south node eclipse, which tells us straight away this is about release before beginning. It's sitting opposite Pluto in Aquarius, so we have the sign of self and heart meeting the planet of death and transformation directly. In medical astrology, Leo governs the spine and the heart and this season is asking for us to have strength - also associated with Leo in tarot - in both.
The eclipse lands in the middle of a very busy fortnight for Mercury, who's moving through Leo at the time. Between the 10th and the 17th, Mercury squares retrograde Chiron in Taurus, opposes retrograde Pluto, trines retrograde Neptune, sextiles Uranus, conjuncts Jupiter, and trines retrograde Saturn, several of these in the same handful of days. Mercury is right there in the midst of the eclipse Leo/ Aquarius energy, showing how to speak it, understand it, name it. This will be a bust time for communication, and potentially travel too. On a world scale we may have revelations about things that have been happening behind the scenes. On a personal scale I feel that this period of time is going to give us really useful information about what this new era - with the outer planets all speaking to each other - is going to mean for us.
On the 22nd, the Sun conjuncts the South Node in Leo just before crossing into Virgo, another touch of release before the sign changes. Mercury retraces almost the same steps a few days later, into Virgo on the 25th, immediately meeting Chiron, gently rather than in tension this time. I think what's being asked of us in this eclipse season is to allow a true ending. Not a tweak or optimisation, but a real shift in how we understand ourselves and how we show up in the world. The self that walks out the other side of this eclipse portal will not be the same self that walked in. And that is as it should be.
And this energy matches with the late summer/ Lammas vibes too. Every harvest has a reaping in it, and reaping is a literal death. The reaper isn't just a symbol of endings in the abstract, it's the actual price of the harvest, something living has to be cut down so the grain can be gathered in. And that literal - and metaphorical, I suppose - death is what will sustain us through the dark part of the year.
What I believe is being asked to fall now, to be sacrificed, is the "safe", masked way of showing up in the world. If you have felt that you are performing self, rather than inhabiting that space - perhaps being a bit smaller, a bit more palatable - then it will be more difficult to sustain that performance after this eclipse window. And that continues throughout the next couple of years with the Aquarius/ Leo axis being activated by the nodes.
I appreciate that that's uncomfortable. It's truly vulnerable to show our real selves to the world because it feels really risky. Real life doesn't come with a script. There's no witty line ready at the right moment, no neat resolution by the end of the scene. We are just improvising, all the way through. So shit goes wrong. We say the wrong thing, behave weirdly, people might not like us - actually, some people definitely won't like us. But that's ok. (Telling myself that too). This eclipse season is helping us to align with the people who are able to see us fully, and us them. It's encouraging us to find our people.
There's a softer side to this season too. The days around the eclipse also carry a romantic, almost otherworldly charge. There may be a pull toward deep feeling, or transcendent connection, the sense of meeting someone or something that feels fated. I don't think that's separate from the sacrifice we've been talking about, it's part of the story. When we stop performing a safer, edited version of ourselves, we open the door to a kind of closeness that the masked version could never reach. Real intimacy needs the unrehearsed self in the room. It's worth watching for this in your own life over these weeks, and worth a small reality check too, when feelings are running this high, it's easy to idealise what's in front of us rather than seeing it clearly. The over-idealising and the genuine opening can both be true at once.
Underneath all of this unsettling stuff, we have some fantastic long-term support. The outer planets, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, are holding a supportive formation with each other this year (some astrologers are calling it Barbault's basket), and this is a long lasting formation, as these planets move so slowly. This Lammas we get that structure/ basket lit up again and again by the faster moving planets as they pass through. Each one giving us more insight into the new epoch we have crossed into this year.
The Sun crosses it and we will probably feel it as identity, as light, as our sense of self meeting this shape directly. The Moon crosses it and we feel it in the body, in our dreams, in our habits. Mercury crosses it (twice in this season, once through Leo, once through Libra) and something starts to become understandable, nameable, literal. Between the 12th and the 21st of September, Mercury in Libra runs through Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter in quick succession, five contacts in nine days, tracing the whole shape, like a torch sweeping a room.
This basket doesn't meet every part of us the same way, though. Where it touches Leo, through Sun, Mercury and Jupiter, it comes as opposition, friction, something to reckon with. Where it touches Aries and Gemini, it comes as ease, support already working with us rather than against us. So this won't feel identical for everyone, or even for every part of any one of us. The parts of us that most want to shine, to be seen, to matter as individuals, may be the parts meeting the most resistance right now. The steadier, more instinctive parts of us though, will likely find this new structure a genuine ally.
Mars adds an additional thread woven through it all. Back in April, Mars stood shoulder to shoulder with both Saturn and Neptune in that crowded Aries stellium. Now, months later and settled into Cancer, it checks back in with each of them from a new angle, squaring Neptune on the 17th of August and Saturn on the 1st of September. This directly references back to that April spring meeting. It's a second beat in a story already in motion since spring, protective instinct meeting first fog, then structure.
Venus is kind of doing her own thing, really living a smaller version of the main story. She spends most of this spoke in Libra, her own sign, trine retrograde Pluto and opposite retrograde Neptune early in August (so still touching the basket), before a steadying opposition to retrograde Saturn on the 21st, calling for clarity rather than drama. She moves into Scorpio on the 10th of September, where that earlier trine to Pluto sharpens into a square now she's changed sign, and where she meets Chiron directly too. By the end of August she's already entered her shadow period ahead of the autumn retrograde, so whatever she's exploring in Scorpio now is a first pass, not the final word. She'll be back to walk this ground properly later in the year. Chiron turns back on itself in this season too, retrograding out of Taurus and into Aries on the 18th of September, a reminder that healing rarely moves in one direction only. Sometimes we take two steps forward, one back. That's ok.
So, the main storyline for this season is the eclipses, but really that is augmenting and making visible the bigger shift that we are already into this year. There is no return to "normal". We are creating something different now. And we are being called in to play our part. The August eclipses sit on the Leo/Aquarius axis. This is a story that only began in February this year (right at that very intense start to the year many of us are still recovering from). But we're watching an older story play out here too. The lunar eclipse in Piaces (August 20th) is the last Pisces eclipse on the Pisces/Virgo axis, but that axis isn't completely finished with us yet, there's one more, in Virgo, in February 2027. We're standing in the overlap. One story ending. Another beginning. That's often how it goes when we are being our authentic self and living in rhythm with all that is. Endings and beginnings rarely arrive tidily separated from each other. Learning to roll with this is part of our work in this new epoch.
So that's the overall shape of this Lammas/ late summer season. Heat, harvest, and a necessary and sustaining sacrifice of false self. And gratitude too, that we get to be here and experience this world and this life. Let's go.
If you want journal printables inspired by the astrology of this Lammas season you can find that here.
THIS SEASON'S MICROPRACTICE: Gratitude for Fleeting Pleasures
Once a day, whenever you can, name one good thing from the day that you know won't last.
So, not just something good. Something good that is passing, or passed. Perhaps the particular gold of the light at 7pm. A conversation that happened today, with this person, in this mood. The last of the tomatoes from the garden. The heat on your skin before fewer, cooler days.
You can write it down, say it aloud, or simply hold it in your mind for a breath. If you want a fuller version of this practice, it's also where the gratitude journal wildcard spread in this season's toolkit comes in, a place to gather these moments over the whole season.
This isn't about forcing positivity, or pretending everything is fine when it isn't. Some days may not have something, and that's ok. This is about letting yourself feel the preciousness of what's passing, and also allowing for the bittersweetness of that. It's a way of habituating ourselves to ending things with love. That noticing is its own act of showing up unmasked, letting yourself care about something you can't keep.
THIS SEASON'S RITUAL: Sharing your self
The word companion comes from the Latin com, meaning with, and panis, meaning bread. A companion then, is someone we share bread with.
The Christian tradition took this same root and narrowed it into communion, bread shared in a very particular, doctrinal way. That's not what we're doing here. We're reaching past that, back to the older, human truth behind it. Sharing food with someone is one of the oldest ways folks have said, I trust you. I want you near me. You are safe at my table.
Given everything this eclipse season is asking of us, showing up unmasked, finding the people who can actually see us, this feels like the right ritual for this Lammas.
Here's the invitation. Make something to share. It doesn't have to be bread, and it doesn't have to involve an oven at all. A loaf, yes, if that calls to you, but just as easily a cake, biscuits, a simple meal, anything you can make with your own hands and your own choices. Shop-bought is completely fine too, if that's what your body and your capacity need. This isn't a test of skill or effort. It's an offering.
The part that matters is the choosing. Pick something that feels like you (not what you think a Lammas offering is supposed to look like). Sweet or savoury. Plain or elaborate. Something from your own heritage, or something you just love the taste of. Let the choice be an act of showing your self, before you've even shared it with anyone.
Then share it. With a partner, a friend, family, your community, whoever feels right. If you don't currently have that person, or you're not ready yet, that's alright too (this eclipse season may well be nudging you toward finding them). You can still make the offering. Share it with spirit, with your ancestors, with the land itself. Leave a portion outside, or sit with it and speak your intention aloud. The sharing is real, even without another human person in the room.
As you offer companionship - self with other - you might want to say something like this to yourself, or aloud:
This is a piece of myself. Freely given. May it be received well.
Horoscopes for Lammas Season 2026
(Read for your rising sign, or your sun sign, or moon sign, if you don't know your rising).
Aries
There's a familiar way you've learned to shine, be adored, create, play, that has served you for a long time, and this eclipse is asking you to loosen your grip on it, even though it feels like part of who you are. Perhaps it's a version of romance, or a creative identity, or a way of being seen that once felt exactly right and now feels like it's asking too much of you to keep performing. Release isn't rejection of what was real and good in it, it's just recognising its season has passed. What you're moving toward is less about your own individual sparkle and more about where you belong, the friendships, communities, and causes that need the fuller, less performed version of you. Let yourself be pulled there, even if it means being less the centre of attention and more genuinely part of something.
Taurus
There's a familiar version of home, family, or emotional safety that you've built and maintained, often quietly, often at real cost to yourself, and this eclipse is asking you to release your grip on keeping it exactly as it's always been. Perhaps a role within your family has become too small for who you actually are now, or a definition of "home" needs to widen. What you're moving toward is less private and more visible, your public role, your reputation, the mark you're actually here to make in the world. Letting the old foundation shift doesn't mean losing your roots, it means trusting they'll hold even as you stand somewhere more exposed.
Gemini
There's a familiar way you've been communicating, showing up for your local community, or relating to the people closest to you day to day, and this eclipse is asking you to let go of a version of it that's become more habit than truth. Perhaps you've been saying the safe thing rather than the real thing, or staying small in conversations that matter. What you're moving toward is bigger, your beliefs, your worldview, the wider horizon of what you actually think is true and worth learning. Trust the pull to think and speak beyond your usual circle, even if it means outgrowing some familiar exchanges.
Cancer
There's a familiar relationship with your own worth, resources, or what you value that has shaped how safe you let yourself feel, and this eclipse is asking you to release an old, well-worn version of it. Perhaps you've tied your worth to something that no longer reflects who you're becoming. What you're moving toward is deeper and more entangled with others, real intimacy, shared resources, the kind of closeness that asks you to be truly seen rather than just self-sufficient. Letting go of the old story about what makes you valuable opens the door to being valued for who you actually are.
Leo
This one is personal and direct for you, this eclipse sits right on your own sense of self, identity, how you walk into a room. The familiar way you've learned to show up, perhaps performing a slightly smaller or more palatable version of yourself, is what's being asked to fall away, right at the root. What you're moving toward is real partnership, relationships where you don't have to edit yourself to be met. This season may ask you to let people see you before you know how you will be received, and that's exactly the point.
Virgo
There's a familiar pattern in what you keep hidden, private, or unresolved, perhaps old grief, old spiritual questions, parts of yourself you've never quite brought into the light, and this eclipse is asking you to loosen your hold on keeping it tucked away. What you're moving toward is far more practical and visible, your daily routines, your work, how you tend to your body and your health. Let whatever surfaces from the hidden places actually change how you structure your ordinary days, rather than staying separate from them.
Libra
There's a familiar role you've played within your friendships, your community, or the causes you care about, often the reliable one, the connector, and this eclipse is asking you to release your grip on that particular version of belonging. Perhaps you've been showing up for the collective in a way that's cost you your own creative spark or your own joy. What you're moving toward is more personal, more playful, more about your own self-expression and what genuinely delights you. Let yourself matter as an individual - your own self - again, not just as part of the group.
Scorpio
There's a familiar public role or reputation you've built, often through real effort and real skill, and this eclipse is asking you to release your attachment to a version of it that no longer fits. Perhaps ambition has meant performing competence or control rather than showing your actual self at work or in the world. What you're moving toward is closer to home, quite literally, your roots, your family, the private foundation you return to. Letting go of the old public mask makes room for a role that's actually built from who you are, not who you thought you needed to be seen as.
Sagittarius
There's a familiar belief system, worldview, or sense of what's true that has guided you for a long time, and this eclipse is asking you to release your grip on a version of it that's become more comfortable than accurate. Perhaps a belief about yourself, your path, or the wider world needs to be let go of rather than defended. What you're moving toward is closer and more everyday, how you communicate, your immediate community, the conversations happening right in front of you. Trust the smaller, nearer truths as much as the big ones you've built your identity around.
Capricorn
There's a familiar way you relate to intimacy, shared resources, or transformation itself, and this eclipse is asking you to release an old, protective version of how you manage that closeness. Perhaps you've kept a tight grip on control in relationships or in what's shared, as a way of feeling safe. What you're moving toward is more straightforward, your own sense of worth, your values, what you actually need to feel secure in yourself. Letting go of old control doesn't mean losing safety, it means finding it somewhere steadier, inside yourself rather than in managing everything around you.
Aquarius
This one lands close to home, the eclipse sits on your relationships, your closest partnerships, the people you stand opposite in life. The familiar way you've shown up for others, perhaps accommodating, perhaps merging a little too much with what they need, is what's being asked to fall away. What you're moving toward is more fully yourself, your own identity, your own body, your own way of walking into a room without needing a partner there to make it "safe". This season may ask you to be more individually visible, even within your closest relationships.
Pisces
There's a familiar rhythm to your daily routines, your work, or how you tend your health, and this eclipse is asking you to release your grip on a version of it that's become more about coping than actually caring for yourself. Perhaps you've been pushing through in ways that no longer serve you. What you're moving toward is more inward, your spiritual life, your rest, the hidden parts of yourself that need quiet rather than more doing. Let go of the old way of managing your days, and trust that slowing down is not the same as falling behind.
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