February is a “3” Universal Month [1 (2026) + 2 (February) = 3] in a “1” Universal Year. The energy of the month is dominated by our first Mercury retrograde of 2026, Saturn re-entering Aries, and the beginning of eclipse season.
The Set Up
We begin the month with a major planetary pileup as the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto are all in the fixed air sign of Aquarius. Additionally, retrograde Jupiter is in Cancer, Saturn is in Pisces, retrograde Uranus is in Taurus, and Neptune is in Aries. By the end of the month, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus will have moved on into Pisces, and Saturn will have entered Aries. Mercury will also retrograde, and Uranus will station direct.
The Nitty Gritty
February is one of the biggest months of 2026, energy-wise, as it includes three major astrological events: the first Mercury retrograde of the year, the beginning of eclipse season, and Saturn’s return to Aries. These events will dominate this month, creating vibes that will feel deep and intensely meaningful, but also at times unfathomable. All eyes are on Pisces and the two signs on either side of it (Aquarius and Aries). We are on the precipice of something, right at the very edge. Some of us are going to want to free jump and get the inevitable over with, while others will pull back in fear. This is going to create a big divide, and it looks like each side cannot understand the other.
Pack your very best patience if you can, and try to find some middle ground. It may not be possible.
Saturn enters Aries
If you’ve been following along for a while now, you might remember that THE big astrology of last year was many of our planets (the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune) crossing over the border between 29° Pisces – the end of the horoscope – and 00° Aries, the beginning. This represents a major ending and the beginning that necessarily follows. Notably, both Saturn and Neptune crossed over into Aries and then stationed retrograde, reversing their paths right back into Pisces soon after, where they remained through the rest of this year.
This was the setback. Two steps forward, one step back.
Now, on 2/13, Saturn will re-enter Aries and stay there. Happy Saturn Return to all of you Saturn in Aries folks! Anytime Saturn changes signs is a big deal, as it only does so every 2.5 years. Each time is a new start, a new day, complete with new challenges represented by its sign placement. But only once every 28 years, Saturn crosses the threshold of the horoscope and enters 00° Aries once more. This isn’t just a beginning, it is THE beginning.
This is the cosmic right time to start a significant project if (and this is a big if) you are personally willing to put in the hard work to get it done. Triflers need not apply. If there is one piece of advice that should reverberate throughout all talk about astrology its that you should not, under any circumstances, fuck around with Saturn. You WILL find out, and it will not be pretty. I don’t want to hear any of this “but Saturn is my bro” nonsense, because the planet of consequences is nobody’s friend. That isn’t to say you can’t work with Saturn, or even reap extreme benefits from doing so – consequences can be rewards just as much as they can be punishments – but Saturnian work should never be undertaken lightly.
A caveat to all of this: Aries is the sign of Saturn’s fall, which is a fancy way of reminding y’all that Aries is the opposite sign of Libra, Saturn’s exaltation. In Aries, Saturn can make people extremely foolish. People can start thinking that they can do it all themselves, and that they don’t need other people after all, or at all, really. This goes doubly for Americans in particular, but also for anyone who was raised in a Western culture that overly prizes individualism over collectivism. Through Saturn’s exaltation in Libra, we can see the very plain message: we all benefit from working together.
We are seeing this playing out horribly in American politics right now, as the MAGA-dominated ruling elite are valuing might-is-right (definitely a Martian/Aries ideal) and extremism, things associated with immature Saturn in Aries behavior. Immature Saturn in Aries says “only I matter”, and everyone will have to grapple with this reality – to a greater or lesser degree – over the coming years.
The biggest issue with this immature Saturn in Aries behavior is that the consequences still come. How quickly those people hit that wall will depend on many factors, many of which are related to levels of privilege. When Daddy has all the money in the world, you can afford to fail at a business venture. When we make people in power immune to prosecution, they can afford to maim and kill. I speak of these realities because they are all a part of the harsh, Saturnian experience. Sometimes Saturn in Aries demands physical violence (that is, again, the martial Aries way) and sometimes it demands the balancing of scales, through the courts, the way of Libra, Aries’s cosmic opposite.
Both of these things will likely be strongly in play over the next two and a half years. That should not come as a surprise to anybody whose been paying attention.
These battles stretch far beyond the individual for most of us; Saturn isn’t a personal planet, after all. But we still have to live in this world. The best way to manage Saturn in its fall is to get back to the nitty-gritty, the day-to-day activities that get you through this shitstorm, but also the ones that bring you joy or solace. Saturn in Aries can be overly individualistic in its worst form, but it does give us a deep, unending energy to fight. To resist. To be resilient in the face of adversity.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing planets in their detriment as all red flags and danger signs. Certainly, some astrologers will paint this in that light. But each sign placement of Saturn is necessary; it is a part of the endless circle of life. Pisces in Saturn made many people overly complacent, revealing the bad actors. Now we know who they are. You can’t move forward until you’ve culled the ties that are holding you back. That is what this transit is made for. It’s not pretty, but it IS necessary.
Our Lights: the Sun and the Moon
As the Sun moves through Aquarius, it squares off with Uranus in Taurus on 2/16 (incidentally, for the last time before Uranus enters Gemini later in the year). It is otherwise unaspected until it enters Pisces on 2/18 and conjuncts the North Node on 2/27 during the middle of eclipse season. What’s going on doesn’t feel overly personal, at least not until Mercury retrogrades at the end of the month.
The month begins with a full moon at 13° Leo on 2/1. When the full moon falls on the 1st, we can interpret that as a sign of intensity in the month ahead. The energy, rather than waning, as is typical in the cycle from full to new, will either gain in intensity or stay at a sustained high. This makes a great deal of sense considering that our new moon on 2/17 is a solar eclipse. This is our event horizon, sucking us down and into the unknown of the eclipse cycle.
Still, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Our full moon on 1/2 sits at 13° Leo, widely conjunct to Mercury (19°), Venus (18°), and Mars (06°) – this day, of any day in the entire month, might feel especially personal. The Sun is in its exile, opposed to the Moon in the sign of the Sun. Emotions can get quite volatile under the light of a Leo full moon, especially for people who are caught up in their own egos. This is the height of midwinter, when some people forget that they will ever see the Sun again.
I’m not a big one for Imbolc, which is usually celebrated on the 1st or 2nd of February, but I think a lot of the ideas that go along with this holiday will be useful here. Be your own light. Make your own light. Do what you need to do to remember that things will get better, spring will come again, and nothing lasts forever in our ever-turning world. Leo is a fire sign, so candle magic or fire magic are highly augmented during this lunation, as is all work with the Sun, weak as it is in the Northern hemisphere during this time.
Whether you view the Sun as the child, eternally born in the spring and set to die at the winter Solstice, as a friend and/or foe who gives and takes life at will, as a living god in their myriad of forms, or anything in between – this is one of our two Sun-days of the year. And this one falls on a Sunday. This is highly auspicious.
Eclipse Season and our Solar Eclipse at 28° Aquarius
Our eclipse season begins on 1/17 with a solar eclipse at 28° Aquarius. This is what all of this fuss all month is about (well, this AND Saturn). This is an off-element eclipse, meaning that the lunar nodes are still on the Pisces-Virgo axis (water/earth), but this eclipse is in Aquarius, an air sign. This makes this eclipse a bit precognitive; later this year, our lunar nodes will switch to the Aquarius/Leo axis, and we are getting a bit of a sneak peek into what is yet to be.
Circle 2/17 on your calendar because this is going to be a huge deal. As well as being a solar eclipse, the Aquarius new moon is (almost) always the day of the lunar new year (this upcoming year is the year of the Fire Horse), and this year it also coincides with Fat Tuesday, the end of Mardi Gras/Carnival, and the last day before Lent. I know some of y’all are already rolling your eyes because you don’t believe in the lunar new year, or you are not a Catholic. That’s not really the point. We’ve got a major confluence of cultures: witches (new moon), most of the Eastern nations (lunar new year), and Catholics all over the world, all in synch with one another, focused on one single day. A day that is also eclipsed.
That’s a significant part of the earth’s population all focused on one day. That doesn’t happen very often – on 1/1, during significant religious holidays, and during the eclipses and equinoxes. Note that each of these are also strong, power days.
It’s also worth noting that the Sun and Moon will be tightly square (within 1°) to Uranus in Taurus. Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius, and the great unmaker, which seems relevant here. Sun square Uranus, technically exact the day beforehand, is one of our Red Flag days of the year. It’s likely this energy will carry into the eclipse, so the day should be approached somewhat cautiously. Avoid explosives, physically and metaphorically.
All of this makes it appear this will be an overcharged, energetic day. Those who enjoy significant amounts of energy will love this; those who get overwhelmed, not so much. Where do you fall on this scale? Do you tend to get really turned on by eclipse energy, or do you feel overwhelmed? Do you have planets within 05° (23° in the air/fire signs to 03° in the earth/water signs) in conjunction, square, opposition, or trine to this solar eclipse?
If you want to fuck around with eclipse magic, this is the day to do so. This energy can be used to shift fate and light a fire in your own life. Expect any energy cast within 12 hours of this lunation (exact at 7:01 AM EST/UTC-5:00) to take off running, and account for that in your magic. This is not for the faint of heart; if you are not prepared to find out, DNI. Many planetary magicians warn against working with eclipse energy, and with good reason. I don’t necessarily agree with them, but the advice remains sound.
Despite the new moon, this is not the day to call in solar energy; remember that the Sun is being eclipsed by the moon, which is physically moving in front of the Sun and blocking its light. This eclipse will not be visible to most of us, but that does not negate its effects.
If working on the eclipse proper isn’t your thing, you have two weeks post-eclipse (until 3/1) to do magic that is empowered by eclipse season without the wild magic edge of working with the eclipses more directly. This is the eclipse window, sometimes called the eclipse “portal” (which I kind of hate because of its association with the new age crowd, but it’s not the wrong word either).
Standard eclipse season advice applies: eclipses act, at least partially, like time out of time. Metaphorically, we could call it Vegas: what happens in eclipse season stays in eclipse season. That gives you some idea of how magic in relation to eclipses needs to work; it is supercharged by the eclipsed energy and our connection to the lunar nodes, but it also needs to break containment, somehow. The lunar nodes are often called the Nodes of Fate; historically, they were known as the Dragon of Fate. The North Node/Head of the Dragon points toward the future, and the South Node/Tail of the Dragon points towards the past. This isn’t really the “what comes around goes around” woo modern idea of fate, and it doesn’t negate free choice. (Nothing in astrology negates free choice for fuck’s sake)
But it is an opportunity to access the predestined fate you were given at the moment you took your first breath. Whether you do so, as always, is up to you.
There is a famous saying among astrologers: trust what arrives or leaves during eclipse season – those doors are opening or closing for a reason.
The two biggest dates during eclipse season are, of course, our solar eclipse on 1/17, and our lunar eclipse on 3/1 – but second to that, we should include the day that the Sun enters Pisces on 1/18 and the day the Sun conjuncts the North Node at 09° Pisces on 2/17. Those are days to do solar magic with eclipse energy, if you so desire.
I will write about this upcoming eclipse season in the weeks ahead – stay tuned!
Mercury Retrogrades 22° Pisces
On 2/11, Mercury enters its pre-retrograde shadow at 08° Pisces, unofficially beginning our first Mercury retrograde of 2026. I say “unofficially” because the average layperson only considers their retrogrades proper, the days that Mercury moves in backward motion, to be of note. But Mercury’s retrogrades (and all retrogrades) happen in three parts: the pre-retrograde shadow, the retrograde proper, and then the post-retrograde shadow. Without acknowledging all three parts, we are missing the whole lesson of retrograde cycles.
As Mercury retrograde, it will pass over 08°-22° Pisces three times in total: first moving forward in its pre-retrograde shadow, a second time in retrograde moving backwards, and a third time as it moves forward once more. This puts a significant emphasis on 08°-22° Pisces and any planets (in the skies and in our charts) that make a strong aspect (conjunct, square, or opposition firstly, and trine secondly) to it. This lesson is told in three parts.
I will use the tried-and-true hole-in-the-ground metaphor.
1. (pre-retrograde shadow) Oh, I fell into a hole in the ground. I didn’t even see it here. It definitely isn’t my fault because I didn’t know there was a hole.
2. (retrograde) FUCK! That same hole! Why is it still here? I guess I need to climb out again, and maybe I should look out for it next time.
3. (post-retrograde shadow) Hey! There’s that fucking hole! It felt like shit to fall in, and I had to climb back out, and it took all day. I will walk around it this time.
At least, that’s best case scenario. Some people never see, and some people never learn.
In this way, retrogrades are a time of retrospection. They tend to slow time down and give us space to turn inwards. They are better used to rethink, reconsider, and reconstruct (sometimes even deconstruct) than to start new things or move forward. Each planetary retrograde’s effect falls within its domain; in Mercury’s case, that is communication, technology, and travel. We can expect the effects of this retrograde to fall somewhere within these domains.
As a personal planet, Mercury’s retrograde affects everyone to a greater or lesser degree. They are most likely to impact those with planets in Gemini and Virgo (Mercury’s natural rulership), those born when Mercury is retrograde, those in the fields of Mercury’s domain, and those whose natal birth charts are strongly impacted by the current retrograde.
We should also note that Pisces is the sign of Mercury’s exile and Mercury’s fall, the “worst” placement for Mercury in the horoscope. This retrograde will be especially deep and emotional, something that doesn’t bode well for the planet of communication. Expect miscommunications, tech snafus, and travel delays, just at baseline.
I’ll write more about this particular retrograde as we get closer to 2/26, the day Mercury retrogrades at 22° Pisces; stay tuned!
Our Personal Planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars)
I’ve already talked about Mercury extensively, so I won’t focus on them other than to mention that they enter Pisces, the sign of their exile and their fall on 2/6, where they will remain for most of the next three months. This is the long game; people are going to be uncommunicative and dysregulated for a hot minute, so we might as well dig in and pack every bit of patience and understanding that we can manage. Communication gets rough every time Mercury enters Pisces, and we are experiencing a retrograde on top of it.
The upside is that Venus also enters Pisces on 2/10, and Pisces is the sign of her exaltation – the BEST placement for Venus. This helps to even the score a little bit, vibes-wise, because Venus is universally loving and forgiving in Pisces. Mind you, although everybody deserves to be loved (I won’t budge on this point, sorry, not sorry), not everybody deserves to be forgiven. We do need to watch out for people pleasing and being taken advantage of while Venus is in mutable water.
Venus and retrograde Mercury meet up in conjunction on 2/28, solidifying this point. Sometimes love flows best with distance and boundaries. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
As for Mars, he is finally falling behind the faster-moving planets and remains in Aquarius all month long. This isn’t the best Mars placement; we may be too slow (Saturn) and too fast (Uranus) at the same time. This will likely be background noise compared to the other, more pressing planetary aspects.
Looking Ahead
March looks somewhat easier than February, but it does include our second eclipse on 3/1 and most of Mercury’s retrograde proper, so it won’t be “easy”. Emotions will be heightened but mostly unconscious; it’ll be a good time to pack your proverbial umbrella to help avoid other people’s storms. Things will start to settle out more as we enter Aries season on the Spring Equinox, on the same day that Mercury stations direct.
The Details
2/1 – Full Moon 13° Leo
2/3 – Uranus stations direct 27° Taurus
2/6 – Mercury enters Pisces
2/10 – Venus enters Pisces
2/11 – Mercury enters pre-retrograde shadow 08° Pisces
2/12 – Mercury conjunct North Node 09° Pisces (1)
2/13 – Saturn enters Aries
2/16 – Mercury in Pisces trine retrograde Jupiter in Cancer (1), Sun in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus, Venus conjunct North Node 09° Pisces
2/17 – Solar Eclipse 28° Aquarius
2/18 – Sun enters Pisces
2/20 – Saturn conjunct Neptune 00° Aries
2/22 – Venus in Pisces trine retrograde Jupiter in Cancer
2/26 – Mercury retrogrades 22° Pisces
2/27 – Sun conjunct North Node in Pisces 09° Pisces
2/28 – retrograde Mercury conjunct Venus 22° Pisces