Overview of Aries Season 2026
March 20; 7:45 am PDT — April 19; 6:39 p.m. PDT
Despite their reputation, we need malefic planets. They keep the benefics in check. They bring balance to desire, greed, and pleasure; their consequences teach and guide. The opposition, an aspect of two extremes, is the nature of Saturn. Finding balance and harmony is an always shifting, constantly adjusting reality. Benefics, Venus and Jupiter, can soften the hard edges of malefics, Mars and Saturn. Finding equanimity amid attachment to pleasure and aversion to pain is the path. Desire forms attachment and anger brings delusion. Learning to discern this within oneself is an oft-repeated lesson.
Like increases like, and opposites balance. How do you return to center when veering off-balance? In yoga, this is called pratipaksha bhavana, or cultivating the opposite. Imbalance can arise through patterns of thought or action. Pausing, shifting course, and replacing repetitive or negative behaviors can bring balance.
What is your anchor, your truth to return to when feeling unstable in a sea of change? What do you have faith in? Everything in this world is always changing, breath to breath, thought to thought. This Aries season is a good time to reconnect with or discover what this is for you, and then to practice remembering it. This next month will offer many opportunities for refinement.
Overall planetary positions during Aries season 2026
• Mercury: 08°29' station direct Pisces to 07°12' Aries
• Mercury in shadow 2/11 to 4/9 (8°29'-22°33' Pisces)
• Venus: 17°35' Aries to 25°00' Taurus
• Mars: 14°11' Pisces to 07°57' Aries
• Jupiter: 15°13' to 17°31' Cancer
• Jupiter in shadow 8/17/25 to 6/6/26 (15°05'–25°09' Cancer)
• Saturn: 04°07' to 07°52' Aries
• Uranus: 28°18' to 29°40' Taurus
• Neptune: 01°46' to 02°53' Aries
• Pluto: 05°00' to 05°26' Aquarius
Week-by-week breakdown of major transits
Week of Mar. 15–21
Mar 15: Mercury conjunct Mars
Mar 16: Moon enters Pisces
Mar 18: Venus square Jupiter
Mar 18: Sun trine Uranus
Mar 18: New Moon in Pisces
Mar 18: Moon enters Aries
Mar 20: Sun enters Aries
Mar 20: Mercury direct Pisces
Mar 20: Moon enters Taurus (square Pluto)
Mar 21: Mars trine Jupiter
Welcome to spring: this is when the Sun crosses the Aries Point, zero degrees Aries, the Vernal Equinox. The Sun is exalted in Aries, cutting through the just-reached balance of dark to light, tipping the scales and bringing longer days, until reaching the summer solstice.
This Aries season, we begin to emerge from the liminal eclipse portal, catching our bearings, trying to make sense of the velocity of change and overwhelm we endured during such a short period of time. This first day of spring brings a trifecta of movement, perhaps providing a soft landing before things heat up shortly: the Sun and Moon enter their regal signs, Aries and Taurus, respectively, where they are exalted, and Mercury (finally!) stations direct on the same day of the Sun’s ingress (still in Pisces and in shadow until April 9, but forward movement is progress). However, with the Moon square Pluto, there is a rumbling beneath the surface, a sense things are about to get serious.
Week of Mar. 22–28
Mar 22: Sun conjunct Neptune
Mar 23: Moon enters Gemini (squares Mars)
Mar 25: Sun conjunct Saturn
Mar 25: Moon enters Cancer (squares Saturn)
Mar 27: Moon enters Leo (opposes Pluto)
This week, the Sun meets up with the historical Saturn–Neptune pairing that crossed the Aries threshold on Feburary 20. A conjunction that promises to shake up world order, leadership, borders, and foundations. On the 25th, fallen Saturn is in the heart of the exalted Sun. For a brief period, secrets are exchanged, deals are made, a mission planned, before Saturn continues the process of weakening under the Sun’s beams, soon emerging on April 10 in the evening sky — the dim, brown star heavy overhead just before sunset.
Saturn is in the cyclical process of dying — the annual pattern of phasing from morning to evening star, turning retrograde in Leo season, coming into an opposition with the Sun in Libra season, stationing direct in Sagittarius season, meeting cazimi with the Sun in Aries season next year, and then rising again as morning star in Taurus season. What is hidden between the Sun and Saturn now will come to a crossroads in Cancer season, and then likely to a head in Libra season.
Get Astrology Rhapsody’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Week of Mar. 29–Apr. 4
Mar 29: Moon enters Virgo (opposes Mars)
Mar 30: Venus enters Taurus
Mar 31: Moon enters Libra (opposes Saturn)
Apr 1: Full Moon in Libra
Apr 3: Venus square Pluto
Apr 3: Mercury trine Jupiter
Apr 3: Moon enters Scorpio (squares Pluto)
Venus returns home this week, but Pluto overcomes from a square, keeping things tense. Pleasure comes with a cost. Secrets in friendships and relationships spoil. Cleaning can’t quite rid the grime. The Moon makes hard aspects to malefics, dropping the mood even more. Restrictions and limitations or conflict of some sort could be imposed somehow when Saturn and Mars are in the glow of the Libra Full Moon.
Week of Apr. 5–11
Apr 5: Moon enters Sagittarius (squares Mars)
Apr 5: Sun square Jupiter
Apr 8: Mars sextile Uranus
Apr 8: Moon enters Capricorn (squares Saturn)
Apr 9: Mars enters Aries (Mercury exits shadow)
Apr 10: Moon enters Aquarius (conjoins Pluto)
This will be our last Jupiter-ruled Moon harmed by malefics before Mars’s ingress into Aries on the 9th. Mutable Moons will be least harmed for a bit since they will be out of aspect from harsh malefic rays until June 26 — when Mars finds Gemini. But Uranus can bring instability to her once the planet of revolution and rebellion enters Gemini later this month.
This week, the mood is somber but those at the top are talking the talk. Exalted planets, Aries Sun and Cancer Jupiter agitate and frustrate. Mars picks up strength and stirs up conflict when he comes home — toe-to-toe and face-to-face with Saturn. Mercury departs from a two-month shadow period, bringing resolution to delays and annoyances since mid-February, and trining, now-direct ruler, Jupiter, breakthroughs are supported.
Week of Apr. 12–18
Apr 12: Mars conjunct Neptune
Apr 13: Venus sextile Jupiter
Apr 13: Moon enters Pisces
Apr 14: Mercury sextile Uranus
Apr 14: Mercury enters Aries
Apr 15: Moon enters Aries (conjoins Mars & Saturn)
Apr 16: Mercury conjunct Neptune
Apr 16: Mars sextile Pluto
Apr 17: New Moon in Aries
Apr 17: Moon enters Taurus (squares Pluto)
Apr 18: Mercury sextile Pluto
Spirit returns. Hope blossoms. The mind begins to feel clearer, sharper. There’s a desire to plan, to move forward, but obstacles slow things down. Some can be maneuvered, others we must gradually come to accept.
Week of Apr. 19–25
Apr 19: Moon enters Gemini
Apr 19: Mars conjunct Saturn
Apr 19: Sun enters Taurus
Apr 20: Mercury conjunct Saturn
Apr 20: Mercury conjunct Mars
Apr 21: Moon enters Cancer (squares Mars & Saturn)
Apr 23: Moon enters Leo (opposes Pluto)
Apr 23: Venus conjunct Uranus
Apr 23: Venus enters Gemini
Apr 25: Moon enters Virgo
Apr 25: Sun square Pluto
Apr 25: Uranus enters Gemini
Reality returns. Frustration builds. Delays and conflicts are unavoidable. Uranus slips into Gemini, shifting the storyline. Duality and uncertainty loom. Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus begin a fresh alignment, easing the flow of their communication network, unfolding a process of transformation, invention, and discovery for the next seven years.
Now, all modalities are occupied by slow-moving planets: Pluto in Aquarius (fixed), Neptune and Saturn in Aries (cardinal), and Uranus in Gemini (mutable). There is no avoiding the trip line, each planet will always connect with at least one of these bodies. And the Moon will carry their glow from above to the earthly realm below.
Understanding the planetary signatures in your natal chart can shed light upon and bring validation to your life circumstances and experiences.
Your unique chart is not an algorithm — its voice and the stories it tells are more nuanced and personal than what general web searches and AI provide. And AI often gets things wrong. It doesn’t fully understand the language and translation of Traditional Astrology.
**From October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, I am on staff with the Nightlight Astrology need-based reading clinic, hosted by my teacher, Adam Elenbaas. Sixty-minute consultations are just $49. If you’re interested in scheduling a reduced-rate consultation, you may schedule an appointment with me here.**
I am a traditional astrologer in contemporary times. I use a combination of traditional and modern techniques in practice and consultation. If you’d like to learn more about your own natal chart, you may schedule an astrology consultation at astrologyrhapsody.com. I help my clients understand their charts beyond impersonal apps and social media forecasts and offer individualized examination and explanations specific to their unique charts and timing periods.
Published 3/20/26; 1:17 a.m.; 06° Sagittarius rising, received by Mercury in Pisces, Jupiter exalted; Moon in Aries enclosed by benefics.
