Horoscope Principles for the week of January 26, 2026
War is destructive, not glorious. Violence is harmful, not noble. Using power to control is abuse, not safety.
Keep these principles in mind as we enter a new 14 year time period of Neptune in Aries, starting Monday, January 26, 2026. This type of time period is marked by idealism and propaganda around what it means to be a good soldier and fight for what you believe in. While fighting for what we believe in sounds noble, this time also creates confusion about what we can believe in and trust.
To have reliable beliefs, and know what we can trust we have to build connection and integrity between our minds, emotions, bodies, and spirits. Most of us have experienced some form of disconnect of one or more of those, whether it is from high control religion, academia, trauma, or other cultural conditioning.
This time invites us to define the boundaries around who we truly are and what we stand for.
Also, I literally watched another person get murdered by the police as I was writing this. And you will probably wonder which one it was because there have been so many. We need to know where our boundaries are and act on them.
Photo by Tsuyoshi Kozu on Unsplash
For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:
Neptune ingresses into Aries on January 26, 2026, at 9:34am. Neptune was first in Aries in March-October 2025, and so that gave us a preview of this 14 year transit. Neptune is associated with spirit, boundarylessness, idealism, and confusion. Aries is a cardinal fire sign, meaning it initiates passionately and sparks situations to life. Aries is ruled by Mars, the god of war, and time periods of Neptune in Aries tend to be marked by idealism around war and soldiering. For example, during the American Civil War, Neptune was in Aries, and during early battles, people had such unrealistic ideas of war, that families were bringing their children and planning basket lunches to watch the fighting. Soon, the nightmare of war set in, and disillusionment followed. The shadow side of Neptune’s illusions is the disillusionment of reality.
Last week, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus conjoined Pluto in Aquarius. This week, on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at 3:01pm Pacific, Mars conjoins Pluto. This is the god of war and the god of the underworld colliding, and it is marked by extreme power struggle. Around the globe, protests are happening right now over tyranny, and the Mars/Pluto conjunction asks us to look deeply at our shadow and capacity for violence. Whatever anger we have repressed is likely to come exploding to the surface if we do not invite it intentionally into our awareness.
Mercury and Venus go conjunct in Aquarius on Thursday, January 29, 2026, at 2:17am. This asks you to not just think about, but also communicate what you appreciate about your community and the progress your community has made. This is a good transit for writing or calling your representatives to tell them what you care about (or sending a loved one an early Valentines card).
The Full Moon in Leo is happening on February 1, 2026, at 2:01pm Pacific. This is also Imbolc, the holiday that marks the transition from the dead of Winter into the emerging Spring. This holiday honors the goddess Brigid (pronounced BREED). Brigid is associated with hearth and warmth, healing, protection, inspiration, and creativity. This time is associated with the shedding of the serpent, a symbol of transformation, and the welcoming of spring. At this full moon, the Sun will be in Aquarius, opposing the Moon in Leo. This shines the spotlight on tension between the self and the ego and the needs of the collective. Honoring Brigid during this time can allow for flexibility and newness in how we encounter that polarity.
These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of January 26, 2026:
Aries Rising: When we ignore or minimize truths that are available to us, we are responsible for that internal cover up, even if we are not responsible for the truth itself. For example, this week and last week deep and shadowy experiences in your friend and social groups have been popping up like zits that need to be popped. If you ignore them and shove them down, they are likely to keep bubbling up, each time more poisonously than the last. It takes courage to face the truth, admit you were wrong about a friend or a group, and change your mind. You have that courage.
Taurus Rising: Release all fragility your ego has nurtured around your public life and career or you’ll be crushed by it. Our egos are what define our preferences and who we are as people. They are healthy parts of our identity. When we have over-inflated or fragile egos, we can become reactive and punishing to other people, and this is a problem, but having an ego is healthy, and we all have them. You are going through transformation in your career, and this week it puts your ego to the test, pushing up any repressed wounding in that area. If you can step back from reactivity, care for yourself and your ego, and allow the pressure from the universe, you can uncover wounds you repressed that deserve healing. True healing of our egos is not repression. It respects who we are and our boundaries, while also being respectful of other people and their boundaries.
Gemini Rising: First, if you travel this week … don’t. Second, if an institution is not loyal to you, that is the first sign that it does not deserve your loyalty. You may have a certain sense of freedom, progress, and community service related to the institutions you align with, and that does not need to change. But, this week unearths anything that may be buried under justifications, excuses, or “I’ll look at that later” thinking. While it may not have felt like repressing problems at the time, this week puts intense pressure on anything below the surface. If there is anything you’ve set aside or put into shadow, this week it will emerge from the shadow lit on fire. Some intentional digging into your belief systems, institutional loyalties, and how they fit your integrity may help reduce the destruction.
Cancer Rising: Safety first. If you are going out protesting, or even going on a date, memorize a safety person’s phone number and make sure the people you love know where you are. Your transits don’t necessarily mean anything bad will happen, but you, as a Cancer rising, know that it never hurts to be safe. Your transits can indicate explosion or unearthing of secrets around sex, other people’s money, or inheritance. This may also relate to idealism you have around your career or public-facing life. You have enormous luck related to being who you are right now, though, and rather than using any explosions this week to shut yourself down, ask how they can help you become more nurturing to yourself.
Leo Rising: The more you push a beach ball down in a pool, the higher it jumps out of the water when you release it. Any repressed or unspoken conflicts in your partnerships are likely to bubble (or explode) to the surface this week unless you are intentional about excavating what you have put into shadow and bringing it into light. While any of us bypass problems, you may have a tendency to be open minded in partnership, rely on your open mindedness, and not realize that you actually have pretty established standards of expectations until they get to an explosion point. You can be open minded and still have standards. In fact, open mindedness without standards is codependency.
Virgo Rising: Mask up. Take your health seriously this week, and don’t take any unnecessary risks around your daily routine and physical safety. Anything you’ve been avoiding related to your physical health is likely to come to a boiling point this week. Even if you need to consult multiple experts about a health issue, listen to the experts. Take your medicine and vitamins. Go to the ER right away if you get hurt. Listen to your body. If you and your partners are having trouble communicating about money, do it in writing, and read what they say to you multiple times to avoid confusion.
Libra Rising: We can’t share secrets if we hide them from ourselves. We can’t equip the next generation with wisdom if we are not willing to experience the discomfort of truth. You started to experience a stripping, unearthing, and transformation in your fifth house of children and creative projects in January 2025, and this week power dynamics in that area are activated. As Gloria Steinem said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” If your creative projects or children are demanding truths from you this week that are triggering, give yourself some space to be pissed off before you pressure yourself to engage.
Scorpio Rising: Pushing problems in your home life under the surface is like taking poison and expecting it to fix the leaks in your roof. It’s just not how physics works. While you may think of yourself as open-minded when it comes to your home life, you actually do have set standards that you follow and expect others to follow. If you are able to intentionally identify expectations that you have not acknowledged, you may still experience conflict at home this week, but it may ease some of the pressure so that the lid pops off, rather than exploding. This week initiates a time of idealism related to your physical health and daily routine. One way to channel this in a productive way is to intentionally incorporate spiritual practice into your day. Don’t let idealism make you skip your doctor appointments.
Sagittarius Rising: Make your protesting and your sex safer by following the boring guidelines and not indulging in over-optimism. Sorry to be a downer. This week, clashes in your local community come to a head (I wish I meant that as a euphemism, but I mean it literally). Memorize a trusted friend’s phone number before you go out, and if you want to blow off steam with a sexy revolutionary, use protection. Smoothing things over with open mindedness can help in some situations, but this week, practical reality will catch up with you if you have bypassed protections.
Capricorn Rising: Balance your checkbook rather than ignoring your bills. Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away, and when you know damage has happened, you can start to heal it. If a drain on your abundance or damage to what you value happens this week, it is likely that last week gave you a hint of what is coming. That doesn’t necessarily make it less shocking. If you experience harm from this, sit with what that means for you and get support. This experience is in service of transforming your values and how you see abundance not just for yourself, but also for how you engage with community.
Aquarius Rising: When we confuse ourselves for our egos, we get trapped in a room with no exits. Our egos are what define who we are and our preferences. A healthy ego is important to being able to connect with ourselves and others. And also, how you see yourself and the face you put to the world is going through an intense transformation. The ego wounding you experience this week can show you where this transformation needs to focus or secrets you’ve been keeping from yourself about who you truly are and the standards you have for yourself and others.
Pisces Rising: What you say out loud sometimes gives more insight into what you are thinking than meditation or journaling. For you, try all three this week. If there are secrets you have kept from yourself, like most of us do, about how you feel, what you think, and who you are, this week will trigger those. If you struggled with mental health last week, this week is likely to intensify that. Say your thoughts out loud, write them down, look at them as though they were completely separate from you. Your thoughts are not observations about life, they are just a byproduct of your brain, which is an organ like the others in your body. With thoughts, you might not be aware that they are lies until you say them out loud or see them on paper. Be skeptical about what your brain tells you. Thoughts are most often lies given to us by dominant culture.
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