The Astrology of February 2026: Call Your Bluff

We enter February with Neptune already in Aries and not planning on returning to Pisces for over a hundred years. The age of streaming media, binge watching series, Marvel, LOTR, weed gummies, opioids, fentanyl, Netflix’n’chill, viral memes, ayahuasca retreats, and micro-dosing are coming to a close. Mimicry, nostalgia and escapism are soon to return to normal levels, leaving us all somewhat wiser as far as general spirituality, awareness of the field, and how toxins permeate pools but also we might all feel a bit regretful thinking back over how much time has slipped away while we were in an immersive, passive daze. Instead, hitting the throttle a bit more is what delivers the hypnotic dose now, inviting us to widen our perceptions to whatever appears directly in front of us, and has us searching for stimulants which can render us alert and ready for action. Much of this contributes to 2025-2026’s ‘reality is tripped out after being in the virtual for too long’ feeling where we escape into IRL to get time away from the internet rather than the other way around. In the mythologically saturated real world of action and reaction we can dream about what we might do if we had the skills and energy for it, and fantasize about challenges and the dazzling sparks that would fly if we were to pull the trigger on initiating activity in our lives.

(above Richard Hamilton)

Francisco Goya

Only days after Neptune ingresses Aries (on January 26th) Mercury returns to visibility for the first time since January 8th, followed by Uranus stationing direct on February 3rd. A few days after that Venus returns to visibility as well (for the first time since December 4th), only to immediately square now direct Uranus, readying to move out of Taurus. Days after that Mars returns to visibility (for the first time since December 9th) followed immediately by Saturn’s ingress into Aries and then the first Aquarius eclipse ruled by that newly ingressed Saturn. Much of the return to the future that got rolling in early 2025 only to roll backward by the end of the year suddenly flashes forward over this short period of time delivering us with almost head spinning speed into a chronologically accelerating mode of movement. Aries is new in the way that it fires the starting pistol for things just beginning to happen and Aquarius is new in the sense of pioneering, innovating, upgrading and progressing into unfamiliarity. That hypothetical bleeding edges, whooshing forward in the plot while an impulse to pop things off and get moving becomes not only obligational but also trance inducing, is significant, as it’s in high contrast to the slurry of yesteryear sewage and recently malfunctioning methodologies working together to only backslide us for the time being of this past fall into early winter. Uranus turning direct while all the inner planets are coming to square the outer planet who’s become ready to finish the final material and substance shifting table-flip within Taurus, tectonically trading a quaking disruption out of a puzzling which never seemed to be able to conclude. The floor underneath you needs moving and it’s this rush of progressive thinking suddenly catching energetic fire which foregoes stable traction for a rodeo conveyor belt off into new territory entirely.

Tschabalala Self

We might be thankful for the Full Moon in Leo on February 1st, which blooms with resonant authenticity and celebratory mojo to offset the abundance of hypothetical thoughts, conceptual evaluations and off map tactics all suddenly emerging into visibility simultaneously. Prepare for a bunch of unfamiliar ideas to be communicated surrounding what people have been thinking, doing and desiring behind the scenes, in their lab or only in their heads . Like a transmission from an alien culture, it might need a translation effort normally beyond our scope to wrap our minds around. Get your sci fi caps on, as reality might seem weirder than fiction here. It’s kind of like an elemental landslide squeeze which ejects us from the mists of the past and gets us hitting the ground running with all the terrain rearranging as we obstacle course our way through in a kind of delirious mind blown state. For some this will feel chaotic, and for others it will feel invigorating, depending on how much you run smoothly on water/earth vs air/fire. If you’re looking for fuel in the tank you’re going to get it.

John Northcote Nash

Uranus is still just stationing here, moving slow and won’t be out of Taurus until late April, so despite the tectonic quaking mentioned above, and sudden shifting of ground, this will happen at different rates for different people and in most cases still requires a build up of momentum. Aries obligates 'doing', Saturn making us responsible for putting the energy in to get an outcome, and pulling it off both accurately as well as in the right timing. We’ll be building muscle as we operate against obstacles, the upside being we’ll likely lose ourself in the hypnotic motions of it, and only later on notice we’ve become a more formidable force than we previously were. This requires both food and rest, which Jupiter is here to remind us of in Cancer, where he is still lending the wisdom of patience so, hopefully, despite getting riled up, we don’t remove ourselves from our comfort zones completely. A good place to begin is simply by removing our security blankets. What are the outdated versions of ourselves dependent on which doesn’t fit the more mature beings we’ve become? It’s time for these infancy attachments to be shed allowing for us to step more into our power and upgrade our lives in unforeseen and yet to even be predicted ways.

Gustave Doré

Venus being conjunct the Dragon’s Head in Pisces during the North Node Solar Eclipse in Aquarius is also significant. Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, who is in Cancer ruled by the Moon, who is in Aquarius ruled by Saturn, who is in Aries in mutual reception with Mars in Aquarius. There is a feedback loop going on here, within which Venus plays an interesting role by being fused with the turbulent manifestation gates as they open, while she is also ruling the now direct Uranus which the eclipsed New Moon squares. This is Venus in Pisces now free of both Saturn and Neptune. The North Node injects a plot accelerating agent which compels further participation with the worldly story-line surrounding immersions, flows, improvisations, ambiances, vibes, atmospheres, conditions, empathic fields and holistic coherences which Venus rides upon the wavelengths of, desiring unrestricted romance, creative freedom, boundless beauty, and saturated aesthetics. Saturn ruled Aquarius can be, as we saw throughout the technocratic heavy and restrictive period Saturn was in his home sign 2020-2023, severe and dispassionate. The cocktail of planets in this array leans more into the liberatory end of Aquarius’ spectrum, but with Saturn and Mars in mutual reception there’s no reduction of severity. It may be that people are going more out on a limb to do what they want, or at least what their impulses drive them to do, and they’re certainly caring less about how that effects anyone else as this limitless desire drive goes exponential, clashing against Uranus, wrestling with the final hunk of the last many years’ stable-yet-stubborn regularity being chucked into another area of the world-scape.

Gustave Doré

The Sun will also ingress Pisces and conjoin the North Node before February is through, and when it does, and our focuses are dilated to universal scope, Mercury turns retrograde still in piscean waters, having us sailing around in a fog navigating blind by instruments alone attempting to get a fix on where we lost our position, attempting to regain bearings. This makes sense in the days just after Saturn and Neptune make their only conjunction after all this close proximity together across two signs. Here reality and unreality seamlessly blend, which can mean many things; imaginal, fantastical, delusional, mythological, archetypal, intoxicated, mystical, synthesized, simulated, deceptive: but either way as its Aries with Saturn there the implication is you must respond real or not. Saturn says this is all part of the strategy, which is not running like your traditional chess match whatsoever. This is a more late degree Aquarian game, which slips the shackles of predictability, and is on the escape from any rules really whatsoever. It’s an agile long game of conceptual jumps, chains of short term targets that lead to non linear gain, an anti-method, something that hacks how materialism is supposed to be concretized.

John Northcote Nash

Watch the macro for some feisty instigation subterfuge. And watch your own life with alert calm and a completely outside the box tactical sense to make some bounds towards satisfaction without limits. As you’ll hear again and again now that Saturn and Neptune have fully set up shop in Aries: don’t waste your energy, don’t waste your breath, don’t blow your cover; strike while the iron is hot, and do not strike when it is not. The game most certainly will shift as you’re playing it, so be prepared to not know what is going on. Rely on your mystical sense, your extrasensory awareness, and keep your autonomy in mind. See you in unfamiliar territory out on the high plains drift. Winner takes all, but this doesn’t necessarily mean there is even a clear winner and a loser, just an abundance of opportunity for everyone to acquire much needed fulfillment in a world gone totally mad and pretending to be very threatening, both when it means it and also when it's bluffing.

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Francisco Goya

NOTES

Mercury invisible 1/8/26

Mercury visible again: 2/1/26

Venus invisible: 12/4/25: 6:42am est

Venus visible again: 2/8/26: 9:45pm est

Mars invisible: 12/9/25

Mars visible again: 2/12/26

Roy Lichtenstein

1

Mercury returns to visibility: externalization of communication, logistics, exchange, increase of vibrancy and signal in ideas, analysis etc.

Full Moon Leo: climax of subjective cycle blooming in self expression, authentic resonance, exhibition, attention, celebration etc. Juxtaposition of stellium in Aquarius, what is central and decentral, familiar and unfamiliar, energetic and intellectual

3

Uranus stations direct: turning of the plot within reorganizing and rearranging our baselines towards the final phase of building momentum for material change and radical adjustment of substance, methods and rhythms

5

Mercury square Uranus: integrating new innovative concepts in narrative tension with final momentous changes to baselines

6

Mercury ingress Pisces: fluid thinking, improvisational logistics, loose language, amorphous ideas, empathic logic, holistic thinking

8

Venus returns to visibility: externalization of desires, visible aesthetics, concievable values, appearance of quality, newly budding creativity and romantic elements

Venus square Uranus: the integration of new creative concepts or romantic upgrades and progressive aesthetics in narrative tension with final phase of shifting material baselines in a radical way, also governed by the tension introduced from these progressive and liberating conceptual evaluations and fresh beauty ideas

Nancy Graves

10

Venus ingress Pisces: everything’s beautiful, boundless romance, amorphous aesthetic, flowing desire, holistic values, love of improvisation

12

Mars returns to visibility: externalization of energy, actions, tactical visibility, fidelity of maneuvering, open conflict, newly emerging confidence in ability and skill

Mercury conjunct NN: compulsive thoughts, manifestation of ideas, accelerated logistics, especially surrounding improvisational and holistic logic and language

13

Saturn ingress Aries: obligation to conserve energy while being effective, building skills, responsibility for your capability, striking while the iron is hot, autonomous action tested, independent infrastructure, performance limits

16

Sun square Uranus: narrative tension between objectives to integrate innovative vision with final shifts to the material baselines

Mercury trine Jupiter: loose language, holistic ideas and empathic thinking harmonized with coherence of what is nourishing and philosophy of fulfillment

17

Solar eclipse in Aquarius: strong compulsion to increase and manifest the integration of innovative, progressive concepts and upgrade structures and systems.

Venus conjunct NN in Pisces: the above augmented by a compulsion to manifest a creativity, beauty, romance, aesthetic flow state and to remove boundaries restricting flow of quality

18

Sun ingress Pisces: vision, objective and focus of the whole, all, ambiance, vibes, conditions, atmosphere

20

Saturn conjunct Neptune: obligation to act directly, build formidable skills, strike with accuracy, control impulses fused with perception widening saturation augmenting energetics, and adding a hypnotic dynamic to activity

22

Venus trine Jupiter: atmospheric quality and ambient values harmonized with coherence of available resources and nourishing or nesting philosophies

Salvador Dalí

26

Mercury stations rx: rethinking sequence begins surrounding improvisational logistics, holistic ideas and loose language

27

Sun conjunct NN: Compulsion to increase objective vision of atmospheric conditions and improvisational flow

Mars square Uranus: progressive tactics and innovative maneuvers in narrative tension with final phase of shifting baselines of material and methodology

28

Venus conjunct Mercury RX: fusion of rethinking improvisational logic with love of boundless beauty

Henri Rousseau