The Moon will begin a new phase with the Sun—during a solar eclipse—near the last degree of Aquarius on February 17, 2026 at 4:01 a.m. Pacific time. This eclipse will be “annular,” not full. The Moon will look to be centered in front of the Sun, lending the appearance of a ring of fire around the Moon.
This eclipse will be visible primarily in Antarctica. Few of us will see the ring of fire. But eclipses hold symbolic power, with effects said to last for months. A solar eclipse is a New Moon super-charged with the dynamism of the sign involved.
The February 17 New Moon is also the Chinese New Year, celebrated by a large part of humanity. We begin the year of the Horse, emblematic of forward motion.
At this lunation, the Moon and Sun will be conjoined at 28 degrees, 49 minutes of Aquarius, meaning that the next day, they will both have moved on into Pisces. Mars is also moving, more slowly, through Aquarius, and Pluto is ensconced in Aquarius until the 2040s.
Aquarius is our fixed air sign, associated with realms that are mental and interconnected.
In my post about the Leo Full Moon of February 1, I noted that astrologers assign Aquarius to two different planetary “rulers.” Traditionally, Aquarius is ruled by Saturn, the visible planet furthest away from the Sun. Saturn is the G reat Teacher of limits, structures, mature and sober wisdom. But after Uranus was discovered in 1781, modern-era astrologers began to correlate Aquarius with an entirely different set of themes, including iconoclastic thinking, technology, and egalitarianism. The result is that there are (at least) two schools of thought about the Aquarian archetype, variably, as a bringer of retrenchment or revolution.
Adding confusion is the glyph for Aquarius, two parallel wavy lines, and the moniker of the Water Bearer. Aquarius is not a water sign, though the word includes “aqua.” The ancients named Aquarius for the constellation of stars it looks like, as signs and constellations were, long ago, synonymous. To the ancients, the constellation Aquarius looked like the mythical figure of a Water Bearer, one who pours the sustenance of life from an urn for all who thirst. When modern astrologers linked Aquarius to the egalitarian-ish political revolutions of the late 18th century, the symbol of the Water Bearer was apt. Aquarius became linked to humanitarianism and democracy.
Uranus makes sense as the ruler of the February 17 Aquarian eclipse because the closest transiting aspect is a 90-degree square between Uranus and the Sun and Moon.
Uranus is a force of rebellion and sudden disruptions. It would be trite to say that shocking events may occur around the time of this New Moon solar eclipse because our days are now full of shock-and-awe. Astrology is less useful for precise prediction than it is for general forecasting and interpretation. A quick transit between the Sun/Moon and Uranus does not an historical epoch make.
What’s better for looking at long-term trends are the cycles between the slower moving planets. Saturn, the traditional ruler of Aquarius, changes signs only about every three years. Saturn entered Aries on February 13 and will conjoin with Neptune in Aries on February 20. These two outer planets meet up only about every 36 years. They have not conjoined in the fire sign of Aries since 1703.
When outer planets meet at their infrequent conjunctions, they set off a new cycle of themes relevant for all on Earth. Saturn is realism. Neptune is dreams. Aries is forward motion and the survival instincts worth fighting for. The conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in Aries highlights questions of how to act fiercely to make shared dreams come true.
The old Nike running shoe slogan told us to “Just do it,” which sounds too vaguely simplistic. My astrologer friend Eric Meyers counseled more subtly in a recent blog post: “Do something about it.” Aries is highly individualistic, and each of us can do our part to relieve what ails us. “Saturn in Aries,” Eric wrote, “involves maturation by strengthening one’s resolve, potency and ability to be the change we want to see in the world.”
What an eclipse brings is a sky dance of obscuration and revelation with the Sun and Moon close, by degree, in aspect to the nodes of the Moon. The lunar nodes are the invisible points where the Moon’s orbit meets the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. These points, called nodes, speak to destinies both individual and collective. The February 17 solar eclipse falls close to the future-oriented north lunar node, now in Pisces, the sign of unlimited compassion for all.
When it comes to doing one’s part to make dreams become real, there will be no better time to set one’s resolve—not during the eclipse but in the days that follow, when the first light of the crescent Moon will show its presence in the sky.
Blessings for the Aquarius New Moon eclipse!
~ Sara
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
Leave a Reply