02/21/2026
STAR 🌟 NOTES: February 18, 2026
✨Consciousness Revolution ✨
Dear star friends, Bonjour!
Sending warm and smooth waves to everyone. Thank you for joining me to reflect on the totally new and unprecedented energies flowing strongly throughout February, and all year. I sense a consciousness revolution sweeping the globe, which can feel subtle at times and also intense in other moments. This post is longer than normal, so please get comfortable and take your time to read and record your own personal insights and reflections. I hope it will offer useful guidance that you can come back to many times over the next few days.
There is also a lovely grace energy flowing underneath it all. “Grace is how you accept and love each other forward and is one of the most important elements of 2026.” ~Archangel Gabriel through Shelley Young
Here are the main astrological events: On January 26, Neptune entered 0° Aries for 13 years. On February 13/14, Saturn entered 0° Aries for 3 years. On February 17, we had a New Moon Solar Eclipse and the start of the Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse. On February 20, Saturn and Neptune finally come into an exact and super rare conjunction at 0° Aries, which happens only once every few thousand years.
0° Aries is the reset ignition point of the whole Zodiac energy system that unleashes the life force of the Spring Equinox. It represents a powerful rebirth in the cycle of all life — an exciting rising of energy that is incredibly palpable. What is more sacred than the rebirth and regeneration in nature every spring?
I recently discovered a beautiful anagram: ARIES = ARISE! This word magic beautifully reflects the rising of new, fresh, creative, inspirational energy through all of humanity and our home planet in 2026.
Aries is the inner Warrior/Leader/Hero/Pioneer, the most primal of all archetypal energies. There is a passion rising everywhere to boldly proclaim and protect the right to exist and thrive in this world. It asks us to BE who we truly are, every day. It is inspiring us to challenge the rules of the game of life that have favored the few over the many for too long — rules that don't honor truth, equality, and integrity. It means no longer saying yes when we mean no, no longer staying quiet to maintain peace. Where in your life does your soul want to express your personal truth more clearly and passionately than ever before?
“As above, so below. As within, so without.” Our personal growth nurtures the collective healing journey. “It takes great courage to question your existence, and even greater strength is required to know and recognize the truth when you see it. When you are willing to know and face personal truths, you contribute to building the frequency of consciousness required to uncover and release the truth of human history. Self-empowerment is about examining yourself and knowing how and why you function as you do, and magnificent opportunities and freedom abound whenever you choose the path of self-empowerment to co-create your reality with the universe.” ~Barbara Marciniak, Path of Empowerment.
Let’s now review the importance and essential functions of Saturn and Neptune. Fundamentally, Saturn symbolizes responsibility, life mission, healthy boundaries, and soul maturity. It is what makes something feel tangible through rules, frameworks, accountability, structure, and consequence. If Saturn is the 3D reality we can relate to, Neptune is the meta-level reality — the deeper reality underneath the forms. Neptune represents the dream world and anything that is abstract, mysterious, or nebulous. This eclipse season and the potent activation of Aries energy are lifting the veil so that we can more clearly see through the illusion.
“Many human beings have been reluctant to step into their own authentic power. They have been content to allow others to make decisions for them. When leadership goes awry, it pushes people out of complacency with their own lives and makes them explore what power is, how it should be used, and how to support systems that match their core truths and are congruent with their beliefs. While it can be uncomfortable, it is the impetus for people to start to pick up the reins of their own life expressions and become more involved with how they wish to see the world at large. It is a necessary and integral aspect of the shift of consciousness on your planet.” ~Archangel Gabriel through Shelley Young.
Neptune, as the last planet in our solar system, is also the gateway to infinite imagination, multidimensional experience, spirituality, and universal love. It is time to allow ourselves to envision a more evolved and compassionate future. In its highest expression, the Saturn-Neptune alignment represents spiritual maturity: accepting full responsibility for our life choices and committing to live life in a sacred, conscious, embodied way. We are doing a deep investigation into our personal and collective values — our deepest soul treasure. Can we feel a greater devotion to our authentic life purpose and anchor more spiritual magic into our everyday life?
Welcome to eclipse season! On February 17, we had a New Moon Solar Eclipse in the late degrees of Aquarius. Even though the Sun shifted into Pisces the very next day, we will feel the influence of the inner Rebel Genius for many days and weeks because eclipse energies resonate for six months, until the next series of eclipses. Humanity is expressing a very strong impulse for more freedom, more independence, more equality, and more community collaboration.
As an Air sign, Aquarius activates new powers of the mind and intellect, like galactic lightning — revealing new insights, discoveries, and awareness of what was previously hidden or repressed for a very long time. These revelations and disclosures will come to a culmination at the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in early March. One important aspect of freedom is feeling ease inside yourself, no matter what is going on in the outside world. The world is not as divided as we are led to believe.
Multidimensional living is being totally present physically in our body and also taking time to observe the world from a much higher and wider perspective. Do you ever imagine seeing the world from an eagle’s nest high on a mountain or from a vantage point far in space? This is a rich Aquarius gift that allows us to shift into a cool, calm, and dispassionate mindset at any time. In one breath, we can imagine and feel the fresh mountain air on our eagle wings and dance between form and formlessness.
A solar eclipse is like a turbocharged New Moon that can accelerate beginnings, but rarely in obvious ways — because something is being eclipsed. We don’t see the complete picture yet; it’s the beginning, not the culmination. A solar eclipse can often reveal what has already shifted beneath the surface, and our job is to recognize that with awareness. Something has become undeniable now.
The synergy between this eclipse, Aries rising, and the Year of the Fire Horse is creating powerful waves of evolutionary change and strong forward momentum on our path. We can harness this power to rev up our personal energy engines in our body, heart, and mind to embrace the new momentum. Where do you want to go? All this cosmic and psychological turbulence can feel challenging, messy, and overwhelming at times, with cascading emotions from moment to moment. As reality is transforming right before our eyes, we need to soothe our nervous system on a regular basis through breathwork, nature immersion, and anchoring peace in our mind and body every day.
Life is not a race. It is a journey. It can be fun and necessary to go fast, but we must also know when to gear down, stop, refuel, and recalibrate our engine for efficient performance. Mercury will be retrograde for three weeks, from February 26 to March 20, near the exact moment of the Spring Equinox when the Sun enters Aries. This synchronicity is fascinating. This spring we will feel another strong burst propelling us faster into the New. In 2026, the universe is reminding us to accept that we are powerful beings and manage this power more consciously. We cannot avoid dealing with power; we will always be tested to see how we will use it.
In this New Moon Eclipse sky, Uranus formed a tight square to the Sun and Moon in Aquarius. This four-week lunar cycle contains a lot of unpredictable Trickster energy. Let’s expect unexpected changes and remember to loosen our grip on trying to control everything. Uranus invites us to embrace more experimentation, doing something new and different with grounded, mature courage to reclaim our divine soul spark. We will never know what we are capable of if we don’t try new things, and we always learn from our experiences.
This Solar Eclipse is a vast choice point. I notice many people are creating new healing or teaching programs that use the word Reset in the title. We are letting go of old narratives and breaking free from old programming, karmic, and generational loops. Healing work is a necessary part of life. To what extent is fear driving our daily thoughts and motivations? It is time to clear old emotional residues from past traumas in our energy field. There are many techniques to do this, but strong focus and intention are the most important aspects.
We are learning to recognize fear and anger faster in ourselves and others, and to understand that grief is a part of rage. Aries fire can be impulsive and destructive when expressed unconsciously as strong emotional reaction. It could take some time to learn to wield this new Aries firepower, so let’s be patient in this process and remember Saturn’s teaching about responsibility and focus. We have 13 years of Neptune in Aries to become adept with spiritual fire magic. What old patterns are you ready to release once and for all?
I think that we will also learn more about the deep purification power of fire in sacred ceremony and ritual to enhance healing and inner energetic reorganization and recalibration. In 2026, we are peeling off old layers and trying on a new version of ourselves — a new identity that we have been contemplating for some time.
The fire magic of Aries also reminds us to feel sparks of joy and self-love more often. Self-love is self-care, self-acceptance, self-presence, and self-respect. We can give ourselves permission to make any changes to feel more nourished, happy, and healthy. When we release old programming and return to the core of our heart’s magic, we feel extraordinary love and beauty.
Remember the grace I mentioned earlier? Venus is exactly conjunct the North Node in Pisces at the time of this New Moon Eclipse. Venus magic is strongly woven into the energetic fabric of this eclipse cycle for at least six months — like all eclipses — but even longer this time because of the immensity of the zeitgeist. We are planting very important seeds that will grow for many years and decades to come. What lights you up? What brings you true and deep joy, bliss, and fulfillment? I see humanity learning to become smoother and more intuitive surfers of evolutionary waves propelling us faster into the brand-new energies of 2026 and 2027.
2026 is all about energetic realignment — and a rising in love. Take some time to feel what is calling you forward in your personal evolutionary journey this year. Feel what is true and what is illusion in your life and in the world. Visualize yourself as a deeply rooted seed nurtured in Mother Earth that sprouts new life, bursts through the ground, seeks the Sun, grows strong, and blossoms into new life expression.
Voilà! I hope you enjoyed this reflection, and if you did, I invite you to join me on Patreon to show a bit of love and receive all my posts directly in your inbox. Please reach out if you would love to dive deeper into the powerful guidance of your own birth chart, a Forecast reading, or a Relationship reading. It is my deepest honor and joy to do personal readings.
Light and grace,
Richard 💜
https://www.richardmaletteastrology.com/readings
Email: richard.malette8@gmail.com
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