!! OMG Stars: 2026 horoscopes for the year ahead !!

Dear readers,

Oh boy.

I haven’t written horoscopes now for several months, having hit a serious wall of writer’s block at the end of the summer coupled with the inability to write about astrology that felt increasingly spooky, describing a political climate that is indeed also quite spooky. OMG.BLOG approached me to write a 2026-upcoming-year astrology post that could deviate from usual form, so here I am doing so. I’m writing a long form introduction discussing this year’s astrology at large, followed by a few keywords for each sign to take into 2026.

An aspect of astrology I cannot participate in and deeply resent is doomstrology. As a counselling astrologer I always want to hear when clients have been told something terrifying about their own astrology that has made them feel doomed (it’s almost always bullshit). I avoid clickbait astrology sources that tell us every eclipse is gonna change our lives (it’s probably just gonna change our mood). So when I have to deliver truly not great news as an astrologer I can feel a bit resentful, or at worst like I’ve cried wolf on optimism.

2026 is one of those years. Astrologically this is a decisive year characterized by tons of change, dynamic planetary movements, and an unusual conjunction Chris Brennan is calling a “reality distortion field”.

Part of why I avoid doomstrology so much is that I know how seriously people take things. I can’t tell you how often someone has come up to me to tell me about an off handed comment someone once made about their astrology and how it’s always stayed with them. But when done well, astrology gives us a language for talking about hard things that we already know are happening. We already know this moment is tumultuous. I watch fascism emerge on my tiny glowing rectangle of bad news like an extremely bleak spectator sport while trying to work and keep my laundry under control. The astrological descriptors for this time aren’t telling us anything we don’t already know, just like telling someone that their Moon in Pisces means they’re extremely sensitive is not something they don’t already know about themselves. Astrology often surprises me in how a moment or personality unfolds (often for how literal it is), but never for describing something that comes out of left field. 

The “reality distortion field” Chris Brennan describes is the conjunction of Neptune an Saturn in Aries occurring first February, and once again in April. They already came into this position once last August, so it’s familiar to us, but this year’s conjunctions will be important because neither planet will move back into Pisces as they did last fall. Think about this as these planets having tested the waters before but are now fully in it – or, as the case may be with moving into Aries, they previously lit a match that went out but now they’re starting a fire.

This conjunction takes place at zero degrees of Aries – the very beginning of the sign, and since Aries is often considered the beginning of the Zodiacal year, it’s sort of like Midnight on New Year’s Eve…but with this astrology, it’s like if a really major new item happened exactly at Midnight on New Year’s Eve. Saturn is structure and boundary, where Neptune is spirituality and illusion, so together they both dissolve structure and dispel illusion.  The last such conjunction happened in 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet Union and an astrological moment we’ve been referencing a lot throughout this decade. These signifiers combine to form an astrological sentence that’s about dissolution and newness, the need for bravery, and a shift into individual thinking. 

Throughout Neptune’s journey through Pisces, that lasted from 2012 until this year, we saw a rise of interest in community care, collective action, and spiritual growth. We also saw this alongside weaponized therapy speak encouraging people to protect their own peace at the cost of relationships, a position not rooted in emotional bravery but in putting your head in the sand to avoid conflict (in my own humble opinion). The forthcoming astrology in Aries asks us to be deeply brave and to believe in ourselves. It asks us to consider the use of our anger, and how to be direct and structured with it. This year’s astrology rethinks our collective opinions about violence, with Aries the warrior always raring to go into a fight. I’m already noticing a lot more posts on my feed about violent vs. nonviolent resistance, as if a fog is lifting (or descending) around us asking how much peaceful protest has been accomplishing for us. 

As an astrologer, I tend to follow the movements of the outer planets more than the inner. The fast-moving inner planets describe our day to day life and relationships: a Mercury retrograde describes your inconvenient day, a Mars square your energized afternoon, or a Pisces moon your foggy brain. The outer planets describe what is fated. We can’t control these events in our lives. The outer planets – Jupiter through Pluto – the signs they are in, and the relationships they form, describe the shape of the world we live in. We don’t think about them as much when they’re talking easefully to each other. But in years like this, when they’re all in conversation and they’re all changing sign, it’s useful to take note of what they’re doing and see how they can help us articulate the global moment we live in. This is a time to be brave, be honest, and be curious, and to take our heads out of the meme-ified sand they’ve been stuck in.

In solidarity,
Amelia

Horoscopes are written using whole house calculations and are meant as inspiration and affirmation. Specific calculations are made for the rising signs, but if you don’t know your rising sign, you can read for your sun. You can access your birth chart at astro.com, café astrology, or many other apps and websites using your birth date, time, and location. You can also find out lots of personal information by booking a reading with me here.

Aries

This is a big year for your sign, but you likely will not not feel personal repercussions. At some point in the next two and a half years, Saturn will conjoin your Aries placements, and within the next thirteen, Neptune will do the same. These are long form transits you can’t plan for right now. In the now, focus on the way we are looking to your sign for guidance on how do to what you do.

Particularly for people with no Aries placements, or with weak Mars placements, it can be hard to access the kind of immediacy of emotion your sign possesses. Remember that your anger can be a gift when directed in the right place.

Be wise and scrupulous with yourself, seeking outlets for rage that act not only in your best interest, but our collective need.

Taurus

2026 is the end of Uranus’ nearly 8 year journey through your sign, and its departure into Gemini. This means your sign of stability is finally free of the solar system’s greatest agent of chaos.

Whatever your Taurus placement, but particularly so for Taurus risings, this brings some relief to your personal life (but Taurus risings, be ready for that chaotic energy to start acting on your resources). Find the stability we know you for to act as a source of grounding for the people around you.

Your sign—which rules gardens—can help everyone else quite literally remember to touch grass.

Gemini

This year Uranus moves into your sign, after spending the last seven years messing up Taurus’ carefully organized home. Gemini is much better prepared to handle the chaos and electricity of Uranus, so while I do feel the need to warn you about this upcoming wild astrology, I also think that for your sign it could be a little fun.

Particularly if you’re Gemini rising, this will be a long period of external circumstances bringing change to your inner world. If nothing else, Gemini, I promise it’ll be interesting.

Cancer 

The movement of Saturn and Neptune into Aries is a stressful placement for Cancer, a sign which loves and needs interconnection. Aries is the sign of the individual, who wants bravery, who wants to compete, who wants to win. These are not generally Cancer’s favourite activities. This astrology will ask you to get a bit tough. It’s important, Cancer, to do it your way.

I (Cancer rising) once had a very beloved mentor told me I would need to grow some balls. Note 13 years after that moment, I don’t think they were wrong, but it was not the way I needed to hear that (I’ve personally never wanted balls). What I did need was to learn not to be a doormat, and to express my needs before they became an emergency.

Use this astrology to work on that, Cancer, and you’ll show us how to lead with love.

Leo 

One thing about your sign and this astrology, my Leonine readers,  is that your lot loves a story to tell, and something we are gonna get out of this year is stories. They may not all be particularly happy or uplifting, but I’m counting on your sign to be the one that watches what is happening to recount it later.

Picture yourself in old age telling young people about 2026. What do you want to be able to say? To be able to say you did? Leo is a fixed fire sign, and of all the fire signs, is the one most about our relationship to needing and watching fire.

Leo is the bonfire that warms us as we sit and talk, Leo is the symbolic flame in many cultures and religions. Think about what you want to stay burning for this year.

Virgo 

The last thirteen years have had Neptune in your opposing sign of Pisces, and the last two and a half have seen a copresence of Saturn, so you’ve been in some quite literally oppositional astrology for a number of years now. Particularly for Virgo risings this has likely meant at least a couple years of feeling like a victim of circumstances, and that your one-on-one relationships have really challenged your sense of self.

As the two gas giants move along, think of reclaiming your sense of self. The astrology of this year is tremendously focused on the individual as a concept and archetype: think about how you express yourself, your needs, and your ideas, Virgo, against a rather loud and expressive world.

Libra 

The big shifts into Aries this year bring a lot of astrology into your opposing sign, and particularly for Libra risings this will mean at least one point of some rather personally challenging astrology. That will take place from Saturn at some point in the next two and a half years, and from Neptune in the next thirteen, so it’s not necessarily an immediate worry, but just know that the overall energy and how it may affect you will be about relationships.

Libra is the sign of partnership, while Aries is the individual. Libra seeks balance and harmony, Aries seeks competition and triumph. We will need you, Libra, to be the sign that reminds us of romance. Reminds us of the need for connection and the need for comfort.

While the world is running off screaming, you can of course join in battle (literal or metaphorical), but you can also lag back to tend wounds.

Scorpio 

The past several years have been heavily about your fellow water sign of Pisces, Scorpio, and this has meant the astrology has been in at least partially familiar territory. As we move into heavily Aries astrology, this becomes less so. Scorpio and the other water signs are about emotion, intuition, and connection: Aries is about competition, bravery, and the individual will.

Scorpio and Aries don’t always know what to do about each other. Where I think your sign will work well in this astrology is as an archivist. Of all the signs in the Zodiac, Scorpio has the longest and strongest memory, often holding on to things even to a fault (I’m sure I’m not telling you something you don’t know).

Use these powers to observe and remember, Scorpio. Remember what you’ll want to be able to share later, remember what might otherwise be forgotten. This is your role in whatever we are calling the present.

Sagittarius 

With the movement of Saturn and Neptune into Aries, we are getting big astrology in your fellow fire sign. You have in common with Aries energy, creativity, and impulsivity, but you differ on method and goal. Aries wants immediacy, Sagittarius is curious enough to be (A LITTLE) more patient. Aries wants to win, Sagittarius just wants to know. Aries dives in head first out of excitement, Sagittarius does for the plot.

While the astrology of this year runs off screaming into the future, Sagittarius, think about how we grow through hard times. Your sign is fundamentally about growth, learning, and expansion, and you will probably need to remind those around you that if nothing else, we are doing that right now.

The astrology of this year will ask all of us to grow into the bravest versions of ourselves: lead by example, lead by fire, and lead by curiosity.

Capricorn 

With Saturn and Neptune moving into Aries, these two gas giants enter a sign that really doesn’t much get along with your own. Capricorn and Aries are both cardinal signs: both signs that like to be in charge. Saturn was in your sign from 2017-2020 – rather a few unchill years – and while that time was definitely challenging for your sign, it also provided a few years in which we looked to structure and order to tell us what to do. Not so right now, Capricorn.

I kind of think of the late 2010s as being the last time I had any faith left in electoral politics, for example: the astrology of this year has the dangerous capacity to be very every-person-for-themselves. Capricorn, you like to be in charge, and your way of doing so needs people to be in charge of, and in this odd way, I would describe your sign as being more collectively oriented than Aries.

I never thought I would ask this of a Capricorn, but I think in this wild year you can remind us that leadership done well is something we do with and for other people, and that when done for personal gain, we get… Well, you know exactly who we get.

Aquarius 

Aquarius, I’ve been asking your fellow fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio to be maintainers for us in some way or another. Your signs’ general search for knowledge means I think you’d be interested in knowing that pattern, but also in knowing what’s particular about what I want you to maintain for us. Taurus asks us to remain grounded, Leo is holding the stories, Scorpio the memories, and from you, Aquarius, I’d like you to remind us how things can be different.

It’s always fascinating to me that Aquarius, sign of change and chaos, is a fixed sign, but this speaks to the very Aquarian/Octavia Butler-ism that “The only lasting truth is change”. Your sign can look at the circumstances and see how they could be different, your sign can look at a room and see what is missing, and your sign can tell those around you all of this.

Use the bravery of this Aries-heavy astrology to find it within yourself to tell the people around you when the house is burning down. We don’t always want to hear it, but your sign has been gathering enough knowledge to both see it and come up with a solution.

Pisces

While this year’s astrology brings some heavy and complex planetary placements out of your sign, I can’t imagine that will bring immediate relief. Neptune and Saturn riding through Pisces brought some very confusing astrology to your life, particularly tough for a sign that already isn’t the most…clear-minded of the Zodiac. Your sign is also the most collectively conscious of the Zodiac.

Your fellow water signs Cancer and Scorpio share some of this burden, but where Cancer wants to take action by caring, and Scorpio protects by remembering, Pisces just feels without general direction or outlet. I will invite you to look to your Aries friends (or perhaps any Aries placements you may have) to find an outlet for all those Piscean feelings.

Keeping them locked in is a recipe for an absolute flood: emotions, whether from your own life or those felt by being in trying times, will find a way to leak. You need to find healthful and helpful ways to let them out so that you do not become an ocean of everyone else’s unexpressed thoughts.

OMG Stars is our astrology column written by queer astrologer Amelia Ehrhardt (@amelia.np.e).