The New Moon’s Energetic News: Aquarius – 17 February 2026

by Lynne Hyde

We are in the times now that astrologers, all over the globe, have been anticipating for years, maybe decades; it might as well be eons. We are coming to an astrological moment in eternity that can’t be found in the astrological tables that have been carefully recorded throughout the ages. We have never seen Saturn and Neptune join at the most powerful degree, of zero Aries, while Pluto and Uranus evenly aspect this potent, birthing point. The first, fiery breath of the zodiac is being inhaled deeply right now, and we nervously watch to witness what the exhale of manifestation will unknowingly create, as we are at the beginning of a new “Era on Earth” and no one really knows yet what this means…   

Neptune moved into Aries January 27^th, not to return to Pisces for another one hundred sixty-four years, and Saturn marched into Aries on February 13^th, just four days before this New Moon.  They both will join exactly, at the same degree and minute of Aries, a few days from now, on February 20^th. Aries is about the first impulse; it’s the fearless step of raw beginnings; it’s the blazing fire in the atom of the life force from which all creation unfolds. The energy is fierce, forceful and concerned with the survival of the fittest; it is warriorlike. We move from Pisces and being passive, empathetic and confused, into being direct, knowing what we want, need, desire and even demand.  Aries is ruled by the planet Mars.  It’s time for action now. It’s time to be assertive, it’s time to take care of ourselves, it’s a time where we must learn how to become independent.

This New Moon, occurring at the penultimate, twenty-eighth degree of Aquarius, will be the first cycle with this sudden flame present and burning. The energy is shifting now; we are turning a long-awaited corner. We will surely feel the heat this month. Anyone that has planets at the start of Aries, Libra, Capricorn or Cancer will be more personally affected and may feel the scorch of disruptive change in some area of their lives.  It’s a month like no other, as not only is the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune taking place but the New and Full Moon are both eclipses and Mercury will be turning retrograde February 26^th.  

With all three major astrological events occurring at the same time, we may feel like life is moving too fast; we may be overreactive, quick to anger, and we may feel like we are trying to stay balanced on an uneasy and unsettled edge. The Aquarian eclipsed winds are blowing strongly and possibly chaotically now, as Aquarius is everything but stable. It can be a place of free-floating anxiety, that for no reason, is found trembling in our spheres. The essence of this eleventh Sign of the zodiac is about progressive thinking; breaking out of the box, following unusual, nontraditional ways, daring to be unique. It’s about gathering with groups of like minds and caring for universalness – what’s good for the whole and not just the ego-driven self. Aquarian energy can condone rebelliousness.

This month we have both a New Moon and a Full Moon Eclipse, meaning the Sun, Moon and Earth are in close to exact alignment. We are in eclipse season, a lunation cycle with ten times the strength and importance than others.  Eclipses occur in pairs, at the new and full moons, twice every year. Under eclipses, rulers and leaders are known to fall, storms are more likely to unfold and erupt as Earth can’t contain all the energy, and striking events occur that mark time in history. During eclipses life unexpectedly embeds its stains on Earth’s quiet, white blankets…

Uranus at twenty-seven degrees of Taurus is almost exactly squaring (90 degrees -challenging) this New Moon Eclipse. Uranus is associated with and said to rule Aquarius. It’s the planet of radical change. These changes can be breakdowns, breakthroughs or both. With Uranus so prominent, in aspect with this eclipse, no one can predict or imagine what will unfold.  Hold onto your hats this month, as the roller coaster of life is wildly moving and most likely out of control…

The reverberations of retrograde Mercury are starting to be sensed fluttering through our words and thoughts, and our situations are starting to quiver and quake as this cycle begins. Mercury recently entered its shadow area, which is the zone of the degrees in the zodiac from where a planet turns retrograde and then turns direct. Mercury, the planet of thought and communications, will turn directions at twenty-two degrees of Pisces on February 26th and start moving direct, ahead of the Earth, at eight degrees of Pisces on March 19^th.  If you have any planets between eight and twenty-two of Pisces, you’ll be impacted with more oddity and confusion than others. It’s good for all to slow down and take on as little as possible, as everything takes more time with the planet that takes care of our daily details in reverse motion. It’s supposed to be a time for pause and reflection.

Mercury will be changing directions in Water Signs all three times this year. Emotions may be swirling up too close, where we feel them strongly and moving down too far, where they get repressed and may splatter all around, where everyone is tremendously oversensitive. Our thoughts are interlaced and tangled to our feelings, where we may not be able to make too much sense of them in the following weeks to come. Allow and accept the blue river of sacred sentimentality to flow in dual directions in this time of Aquarian cool rationality.  

Writing this has me on the edge of my seat, cringing… It is a great, grand, never-experienced, new beginning, but it’s also the movement through a monumental crevasse.  We don’t know if we’ll fly high in the thrill of new possibility or fall off the cliff of infinity into nothingness or complete destruction.  Our protection lies in forming a never-before trusted relationship with our fervent intentions, our strong wills, our masterful souls, our authentic emotions, and with our courageous desire to learn what it ultimately takes to live fully and forever…        

Title Image Credit:    Image by Alexa from Pixabay