01/26/2026
Neptune enters Aries this week (Jan. 26, 2026, at 9:34 a.m. Pacific Time). You might remember it dipped its toe into Aries last year on March 30, after spending about fourteen years in Pisces, and then turned retrograde back into Pisces on October 22. Now it leaves Pisces for good—or at least until the year 2175—and once it’s settled into Aries, it won’t leave that sign again until May of 2038. So, this is a big, long-term shift we’re really just beginning to feel.
Before its brief 2025 foray, Neptune was last in Aries from April 13, 1861, through April 7, 1875. Neptune is often described as our collective dream, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and where we’re going. One figment of the Neptune-in-Aries dream is the idea that a single individual—or a single nation—can save the world. And it’s hard not to think about that when you notice that Neptune entered Aries on April 13, 1861, one day after the American Civil War began.
With so much emphasis on the individual will and the heroic self, this can be a challenging transit for building societies and for truly working together, which is arguably humanity’s natural inclination. At its best, Neptune in Aries can inspire courage and vision. At its worst, Neptune can slip into delusion, distorted thinking, and a lack of judgement that, in extreme cases, can tip into violence.
I’ve got Sagittarius rising, and I’m an incurable optimist—or at least I’ve always thought of myself that way. For most of my life, I’ve assumed that no matter how much I might disagree with my fellow humans, if I were to keel over on the sidewalk one day, the people around me would rush over to help. I don’t assume that quite as easily anymore. And it feels less about political or ideological differences, and more about how far people have drifted from our shared social center, especially since the Covid pandemic.
It will be interesting to see how society fares during this transit of Neptune in independent Aries, especially over the next couple of years as Saturn also moves through Aries (beginning February 13). That combination raises some important questions about responsibility, leadership, and what it really means to act with courage—for ourselves, and for one another.
(All artwork is by April Elliott Kent of BigSkyAstrology.com)
