2026: Year of a New Dawn. An Astrological Analysis of the Year Ahead
- Alexandra
- Sep 1
- 13 min read
The year of 2025 was big. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest ones we’ve had in a while. But 2026 is just as – if not slightly more intense – than 2025. As a matter of fact, astrologers in the early 20th century looked ahead to the astrological event of the mid-2020’s and said: “Oh, this is going to be an intense and interesting time!”
Yes. Yes, it is.
But just because there's a lot going on doesn't mean that we won't have many blessings to look forward to... or that we don't have agency. Because we do.
Astrology both works on a collective level – which is to say, its effects can be seen through a social and political lens – and personally for each individual in their own lives and individual growth. The latter is determined by your unique astrological blueprint (natal chart) and your choices in how you play the hand you’re given. In a nutshell, you’ll notice the energies astrology brings and meet its themes… but what you make of them is in your hand.
This article tries to both speak to the collective and the personal level. However, it can't bring as much specificity for YOUR unique chart as booking a professional reading does.
Also, a little bit of housekeeping: there will be links to articles in this one that discuss the astrological event in question in more depth. However, I won't link every single event since I also have a compilation article right here with all relevant links for 2026 included.
So, why is 2026 so big?
There are 12 major players in astrology that hold sway over how big, or better, how intense, a year is going to be. (Plus, there’s minor players – but we’ll get to that later).
Those players are: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, Chiron, and the axis of Lunar Nodes (which I’m counting as one, since they’re symbiotic).
Of all of these players, some of which take decades and one of which takes more than a century to finish its orbit… 11 out of 12 change signs. So, we have 1 planet holding down the fort while 11 out of 12 bring change. And the (astrological, not astronomical) planet that keeps the course is… Pluto. The planet of transformation, in-depth processes, power, rebirth, secrets, the hidden worlds within our worlds, and politics. This is not a stability-bringing planet, especially not in the sign of social change (Aquarius) that it's currently in.
So... every single planetary player is bringing us an energy of newness and upcoming difference.
But what is that going to bring? And what can we build on to nourish ourselves a bit better? Both questions will be answered here, so let's jump in.
New Beginning, Change, and Agency
What's going on astronomically?
Since 2025, Neptune (165-year-orbit) and Saturn (29 ½-year-orbit) both started of closing out their stay in the last sign of the zodiac, Pisces. They also began their new journey in the first sign of the zodiac, Aries. This is incredibly rare, as this also means that they walked hand-in-hand between the first and last signs of the zodiac… which last happened before our A.D. time system became 4 digits long (the 9th century A.D.). Plus, Chiron, a major asteroid with a 50-year-orbit, wraps up its journey through Aries that started in 2018 and enters Taurus... however, it's not fully going to switch signs yet as it re-enters Aries one more time before transitioning for good in 2027.
What does that mean?
Neptune is all about spirituality, intuition, compassion, kindness, our ability to see beyond our own ego, and a higher vision. Its shadow sides are also themes around delusion, addiction, martyrdom, and sacrifice that isn’t needed. On January 26th, 2026, it ends its 14-year-long journey in Pisces (and 165-year-long cycle overall): this means that all the ways in which those themes impacted us personally and collectively for the themes of numbness, addiction, drugs, fantasy, and codependence (to name a few) come to an end. Plus, on a collective level, we move into a completely new cycle of social change and politics.
Neptune next enters the sign of Aries (starting a new 14-year-long journey and 165-year-long journey), which is all about agency and compassion in action. Themes around intuitive guidance/illusion about the self come to the surface; so do themes around the idealization of the fight, competitions, and our heroes/allies as well as villainizing the people we fight against. Humanitarian efforts and inventions that help change the world for better are going to be really prevalent. We’ve already gotten a preview of this energy between March 30th and October 22nd, 2025, but January 26th, 2026, is the real beginning as it’s Neptune’s full entry into this sign. This event lasts until March 2039.
Phew! What a major deal, right? Well, we aren't done yet.
Also moving from Pisces to Aries is the planet Saturn, and it amplifies and supports the large-scale change Neptune is making through practical means. Saturn is all about finding, creating, and testing pre-existing structures and building firm foundations. It’s about limitation, boundaries, calcification/consolidation, gaining mastery, and dealing with the necessities in life. It’s also about elderhood and maturity and often seen as a harsh task master… as it teaches us assignments of personal growth and real-life changes. On Valentine’s Day, it ends its journey in Pisces that started back in March of 2023 and starts a new event and wisdom-journey in the sign of the warrior, self-mastery, knowing your own desires, and new beginnings. We’ve already gotten a preview of this energy from May 25th – September 1st, 2025. It’ll last until April 2028.
On its own, Saturn makes us face who we truly are, how we show up in the world, and how we realize (or don't realize) our desires.
This is something that another event in Aries also picks up on.
Chiron has been journeying through Aries since 2018, showing us our wounds and bringing us healing in the realms of identity and false beliefs about the self, anger, desires, pioneering abilities, action, and much more. For the majority of the year, this player remains in its last leg of its journey, which brings us breakthroughts and final tests. There will be a brief phase in which Chiron moves into a different sign, but we'll cover that later.
Chiron in Aries reveals our true desires and helps us heal the wrong impressions we got about who we truly are. It allows us to reclaim our power where we lost our agency (both because of outside circumstances and because we didn’t realize what power we had to begin with) and allows us to create a new beginning and forge a new path.
Put together, all these three players, that each carry massive weight on their own, become even stronger... and the themes that they bring is self-knowledge and mastery (though it may not come gently for all) and new beginnings. Aries is very quick to bring change, and it's very big on us as individuals deciding to make change.
A.k.a., it's giving YOU more power to create the life you want, should you put in the work. But we aren't done.
Quick Change
What is happening astronomically?
Uranus wraps up its 8 year stay in Taurus (2018-2026) and enters Gemini, starting an event that lasts until 2033. This is an event that only happens once every 84 years.
What does it mean?
Uranus is the planetary player of liberation, change, unexpected events, individuality/autonomy, and everything that revolutionizes the status quo. It used to be in Taurus, the slowest, most stable, and most change-resisting sign of the zodiac. Doesn't mean nothing happened here: Taurus also signifies food, land, money, the body and, hm, has body autonomy and unforseen stuff regarding it possibly been a theme since 2018? I think I have to think about that one. The changes under Uranus in Taurus went very deep, but they were often slow and felt like they had to be hard-earned. We also experienced change in areas where we really didn't want to, and the way we held our revolutions/rebelled was by embracing the natural world (a lot of times).
Come April 26th of 2026, and Uranus leaves this stabilizing sign and changes into the sign of Gemini… the quickest sign of the zodiac, one of air, one of the mind, learning, information and logistics (including things like travel). We've already gotten a preview of this from July 7th to November 8th, 2025.
As resistant to change as Taurus is, so open to it is Gemini. It’s already about flexibility, intellectual malleability in many ways, the curiosity that drives us to this place and that, a heady energy all about information and testing a perspective out to see if it’s the truth. It’s quite polarizing – both because people love or hate Gemini but rarely feel neutral about it – and because Gemini creates two worlds where there used to be one. It sees life through the lens of many different fractals, rather than a cohesive whole… and Uranus in Gemini creates that reality, rather than just reflecting it. It enhances our differences so we can embrace our individual point of view... but that comes with the price of losing true understanding of each other.
The planet of change in the quickest sign of the zodiac means that life is going to change very rapidly at least some of the time during the next 7 ½ years, but especially in 2026 when the event starts. Its polarizing and fractalizing impact means that we won’t see all people moving through this at the same time (though we’ll all move through change eventually), but see people split off into groups who go this way, or that. Mini-groups and camps form, schools of thought already there become more individualized and different from each other. This is amplified by Pluto in Aquarius which underlines our differences, and Neptune and Saturn in Aries that emphasize identity and self-development.
On the plus side, this event also frees our voice and liberates us from constrictions on our ways of thinking. Epiphanies come, information is revealed that was hidden and suppressed before (both due to Uranus and Pluto). Cognition – the entire way we think – will change, and the way we communicate will become a rapid avenue and theatre for change. Much more so than ever before, with Uranus in a favorable aspect of amplification to Pluto in Aquarius. Groups that used to be whole break apart. Sometimes, on a country-wide level, rather than “just” in our personal lives (though this might happen for you, too).
Beyond that, learning becomes a potential far beyond what we’ve known and education changes – which is a good thing, because it needs to, thanks to Pluto in Aquarius’s introduction of A.I. to the broad masses. Themes around twins and multiples and the way this shapes us, as well as neurobiology and neurodivergence rises and will be understood better… so we can (Neptune in Aries) actually help and understand people in ways we didn’t before. Digital twins and related misuse of information/piracy instead of privacy is also going to become an issue.
The red thread between Uranus in Gemini, Neptune and Saturn in Aries, and Pluto in Aquarius is the world becoming okay with people’s differences. The ways people don’t fit in. The ways we think differently, the different gifts we have as individuals become something we don’t pathologize (or victimize ourselves for, which was a shadow of Neptune in Pisces 2011-2026). What makes us different and individuals is emphasized. And that’s a very good thing that will, with time, create opportunities.
Revealing the True Self, Releasing the False Ideas About the Self
Astronomical event:
Lunar Nodes move from Pisces and Virgo to Aquarius and Leo (2026-2028), Jupiter enters Leo (2026-2027), plus all the Aries stuff going on.
What it means:
Long story short, the Lunar Nodes are about collective and individualized growth and soul-led events that feel like they were orchestrated via higher guidance. The North Node (now in Pisces, changing into Aquarius as the year goes on) is about what we’re growing towards, calling in, developing, and needing.
For the first half of 2026, this is Pisces: compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, intuition, and rest. From July 27th, 2026, onward, this changes. Now, we have an emphasis for creating change, forming an opinion and sticking with it, for embracing what makes you Other and bringing it to the world… and for heightened social awareness, too. In a nutshell: it's time for Aquarius now.
Conversely, the South Node is about what we’re building on and purifying. As the North Node brings in the future, this point is about creating right relationship with our past. For the first half of the year, it's in Virgo and all about work-life-balance, health, devotion, and routines. Come July, the theme changes to Leo... the sign of who we are authentically.
The South Node here allows us to strips away false versions of self and allows us to build on the true self we already discovered. Of course, this is also aided by Chiron healing our wounds around our identity and power in Aries, and Neptune and Saturn in Aries as well: identity and the question of who we are are both big deals this year. What makes the South Node in Leo different is that it also rewards us for showing up and being seen, for giving our gifts to the world, in appropriate ways. It helps us find joy in these times, too, and allows us to build on our pasts when the past provides solid building ground – while Chiron, Saturn, and Neptune emphasize newness and new beginnings.
Jupiter also changes into Leo in Summer of 2026, on June 30th. This brings expansion, focus, consciousness, blessings, and a journey of generating wisdom through experience into the same area the South Node targets as well. (While the Nodes stay here until 2028, Jupiter only stays for a year). So, being yourself brings blessings to yourself and others. Also, becoming yourself is a journey requiring you to embrace your unique gifts and heal self-worth issues (if there are any).
One of the reasons for the latter theme is Jupiter immediately interacting with Pluto in Aquarius and the Aries-planets as soon as it changes sign. This in turn brings us major opportunities if we wish to bring our gifts and talents to the world: either by allowing us to plant seeds to do so later, or by teaching us important lessons so we can do this in due time, or by actually putting us in front of the proverbial audience/allowing us to give our gifts in other ways – and be seen and recognized for doing so. But it's probably going to be hard some of the time. Blessings don't always come wrapped in a bow, sometimes we have to do something to achieve them.
This is a very intense and change-bringing event that impacts us personally and collectively. The way we interact with the world at large changes, our self-worth is up for transformation, and some of us might have experiences with crowds and publicity that change them for good. One of the themes we’ll likely be guided to learn is to know when to disconnect from our need for a stranger’s validation, and in finding/prioritizing the path that leads us to inner peace.
The advice I can give is to learn to not care so much about being validated by people who don’t know you very well. While this is easier said than done, it not only makes Summer and Fall of 2026 easier, it also is the major theme of this year anyway. Good luck!
Grounding, Safety, and Stability
What happens?
Jupiter continues its journey through Cancer (June 9th 2025-June 30th, 2026), plus Chiron enters Taurus briefly June 19th to September 18th, 2026 (and then fully 2027 onward until 2034).
What does it mean?
Before Jupiter moves into Cancer, it actually brings us a massive blessing that we really, really need in this time of change: grounding, stabilizing, and nurturing energy coming for us that we can build on: Jupiter, the planet of blessings, in the sign of home, family, and nurturance, the sign that allows us to find and build safe havens, and that’s all about protection and finding and creating shelter. With Jupiter here in Cancer, we can find emotional grounding and nourishing slowness even while everything else speeds up around us.
During this time, we can truly create the home and environment, habits and loving relationships that helps us feel supported during these times of change. And Jupiter is not alone.
We already discussed that Chiron will be in the sign of identity, healing our sense of self etc., for quite a while this year. But between June and September, Chiron enters the sign of Taurus, of the body, stability, resources, and peace. This is actually a very welcome energy as Chiron is about generating wisdom and Taurus is about wisdom, the simplest form of it. Chiron also aids us in seeing what we need to heal and in providing this for us. Chiron in Taurus thereby shows us where and how we need stability and, with time, helps us bring this.
However, Chiron in Taurus might also show issues (globally and/or individually) with food, nature, climate, resources, body issues, and body image. If this is something you’re struggling with, please seek the help you need and know that you are not alone.
Depth and the Emotional Heart
One last theme of 2026 is emotions running high and compassion abounding.
The Astrological Reason Why:
While Neptune, Saturn, and Chiron in Aries, Jupiter and the South Node in Leo, and Pluto and the North Node in Aquarius all deal with our identity in many ways, shapes, and form, and while Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius also emphasize how different we are, we also have the added theme of returning to compassion, loving people as they are, and deep feeling.
This is due to Jupiter in Cancer (until June 30th), the North Node in Pisces (until July 27th), and the 3 Mercury Retrogrades of the year (February-March in Pisces, June-July in Cancer, and October-November in Scorpio) directing our awareness to all of those themes. Venus turning Retrograde in Fall of this year in Scorpio and Libra also emphasizes the same thing.
Conclusion:
So, we’re not just turning into people who discuss ideas cognitively, we’ll also care for each other… something else emphasized by Neptune and Saturn in Aries, as together, they create practical compassion in action. This year is about breaking open and being our sensitive and vulnerable, heart-centered selves, even though so much is turning toward taking action, changing the world, and creating the lives we wish to lead.
Our hearts remain the compass. And our intuition helps us, too.
A New Dawn Arises
2023-2025 were years of preparation. We saw parts of what was coming (astrologically speaking) and frameworks for future changes were laid. In some cases, people may have already initialized changes as well.
But now, it's time to really face the new dawn of an era. The dawn of the life we're meant to live.
This year is going to be memorable.
Note for Readers in 2025: There is so much more to be said...
And said, it will be. But for now (August 2025), we'll leave it here. When Summer turns to Fall and the date of January 1st 2026 draws closer, personal predictions, specific advice to information on what we'll see in the world, and other helpful tidbits will be added to this site, to use and inform you for your discretion. But since it's still mid-2025... we'll leave this here for now. Happy rest of 2025,
Alexandra
Astrology from the Soul
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