Fall of 2026

by David A. Wheatley

​Earlier this year, the oft-mentioned Saturn-Neptune conjunction happened at the zero degree of Aries. Much was said about it, though mostly it was difficult to be precise about world impacts, except to say it should be an epoch-shaping period. Technically, the two planets conjuncted and separated, and in the minds of most people, the event was over. But it isn’t over, and it won’t be until Saturn is out of Aries. 

These two powerful, often contrary forces in our psyche, sharing the same sign after a conjunction, are considered by many astrologers to be in conjunction in a greater dimension than their physical placement, as long as they are in the same sign. They shared presence in the sign of Pisces, but they didn’t meet up until they both arrived at zero degrees of Aries. They both had a disorienting impact while in Pisces. Neptune was in its favorite sign of nebulous meaning, or it could mean whatever a psyche wanted to shape it as. Facts were fiction. Saturn was largely crippled in Pisces and could not regulate structure and make us face facts. They are now both in Aries. Saturn is retrograding and will not conjunct Neptune in this backsliding motion, but it is still within the orb of influence following their conjunction, and that orb will narrow to within 6 degrees or so by late 2026 before Saturn turns direct and continues to pull away from Neptune until leaving Aries mid-April 2028. At that time, Saturn and Neptune will resume functioning free of the chemistry their conjunction spawned. 
Saturn turns direct on December 10th this year. Two days later, Neptune also turns direct and resumes separating from Saturn as the second peak of its chemistry with Neptune in Aries begins to fade once and for all, but very slowly. 

Saturn, Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus, because of their mutual retrograde and direct motion, remain in a remarkable group of sextile and trine aspects waxing and waning over the next few years, a very long period of peak astrological evolution by forces outside human conscious control, forcing changes on humanity. Overall, the aspects bring a positive forced change from the point of view of the psyche, which is where these energies have their origins and natural environment. The manifestations in our lives, because they come from the outer planets, feel out of control and at times incomprehensible. It is out of control, out of human conscious control. They are incomprehensible unless we are able to have our consciousness hosted on a very broad, elevated level to get the picture, which almost no one can reach. Our little biological Earth brain is wired for life on Earth's 24-hour sundial. 
But we can get glimpses of what’s going on, and as long as we accept that our glimpse, subject as it is to personal points of view, could be misleading and try to keep an open mind, it is at least entertaining, if not therapeutic, to be prepared for changes out of our control. 

​This is where astrology is very helpful. Taking a look at trends, seeing where the current in the river ahead may be going, and being prepared for a bend in the stream. 

USA

The most obvious poke in the ribs right now is from Saturn. It moved mid-summer to conjunct the US natal chart’s position of the 10th house Sun and made a square aspect to the natal placement of the USA natal Chart Saturn’s position, which in the US chart is in the first house of the refined US natal chart cast for July 4th 1776 at 11:15 AM in Philadelphia.
Saturn conjuncting the Sun is always a drag on energy, literally and metaphorically. Saturn is retrograde now and will extend, deepen, and repeat this aspect until April of 2027. There’s no recovery from being under this single influence until then. Looking at the upcoming election, I am expecting results that most likely bring in a new balance of power in government to be suspended, held up, until legal hurdles are cleared by April. Don’t expect to see a new government seated in place in January. Expect delays.

Having said that, overall these outer planet influences are positive, though you might fairly wonder how it is positive to have this electoral process suspended. The experience of the monkey wrenches in the gears of life deepens the conviction that changes must happen, and that Saturn has to show how dysfunctional the existing structure is before we find the resolve to accept the responsibility for changes. Two people seldom have a divorce because they are happy; they usually go through a lot of discomfort before finally tearing their agreement up and making a new one: divorce.
One of the usual consequences of transiting Saturn squaring its natal position in a chart is a forced reckoning of finances. This period often coincides with painful financial stresses. Saturn, as Lord of karma, is presenting a reality of our making, an accounting, and asking how this adds up. As usual, Saturn is very blunt; for those who have been honest and faced reality, Saturn says, “Very good, you can continue.” For those who have dodged reality and only pretended to be responsible, Saturn unravels the rational consequences.
Saturn in Aries can do what it could never do in Pisces, and that is chop things down to size and demand the bills be paid. Neptune in Aries can’t do what it could in Pisces: dwell in delusion. This is a reversal of past years in which every curtain pulled over your eyes while these two were in Pisces is pulled back. This is particularly true for the USA because of how transiting Saturn is in conjunction with the US natal 10th house Sun and in a confrontational square with the US natal Saturn. The natal 10th house Sun implies that the whole world is watching and the debacle is broadcast for all to see. The 1st house natal Saturn in the US chart is a serious clash with traditional values, how the US has thought itself defined. Saturn often presides over wisdom; this is the lack of it. One thing Saturn dislikes is overly complex, muddled-up decoration. Saturn likes a smoothly running, honest, and direct presentation. It trims away the excess if it has to; it points out where human thinking has overdone it and wants us to simplify. Refocus. This is a wake-up call.
While some people who dislike the current leadership might feel this is overdue, there are many ways this can be approached, and some of them they still won’t like. To trim waste, for example, the USA could withdraw from the level of support it gives NATO. In fact, the government has already announced it will withdraw 25,000 US soldiers from NATO. I don’t think this was an economic decision; it was political. But the net result is that Saturn is trimming expenses. For those looking to see the administration caught in a debacle of its own making, the entire nation won’t see Saturn in severe mode until it is at the tail end of Aries and entering the US 8th house, in mid to late 2028. At that time, a severe, long-lasting period of financial hardship will begin. What’s coming up in the next six months is a warning. As it comes over the Christmas season, I would liken it to the traditional Christmas character in Dickens ’ classic, Jacob Marley’s ghost coming to warn Scrooge that he had better reform before the chains he has forged in life drag him into hell.
I don’t expect any reforms to collectively come now. In order to do what must be done later, the US has to go through the next couple of years, as it has the last couple of years to find the motivation to make major changes and do what happened the last time Pluto was in Aquarius, spurring the American Revolution and rewriting the Constitution. Because the one we have doesn’t work anymore.
In 2027, Uranus transits to almost conjunct where it was in the natal US chart, stimulating, just as it did in 1776, the spirit of revolution. Uranus goes retrograde and does not culminate this transit until the Spring of 2028. Once again, we have a critical astrological transition happening in the Spring of 2028 in advance of the US election for a new president. The previously mentioned transit was Saturn entering the US 8th house and entering Taurus, where it will dampen all economic ideas of expansion and force contraction. The US will survive by benefit of experiences in its past. How did we survive the last time we faced such challenges? And by that I would compare it to a depression and a world war. The 8th house digs into our collective unconscious memory of similar experiences and tries to benefit from the investments we made in the past. Investments can be material, and they can also be simply valuable. We did this before; we can do it again. Prior experience is an 8th house trait and has an affinity for Pluto/Scorpio, though it is happening with Saturn in Taurus, the sign of Mother Earth. We don’t easily survive if Mother Earth is working against us. Taurus is THE Earth sign, from where life flows. Saturn entering Taurus is Mother Earth under duress, in a restrictive pattern. Taurus feels a love of expression for the beautiful in life, but Saturn denies a lot of it and keeps things simple. In the US 8th house, it means the US must rely on old skills, old resources, old investments of energy. Not necessarily monetary, though one would gladly pay for the benefits of past promise.
As Uranus transits into conjunction with its natal US chart placement, it sextiles the US North Nodes, another reminder or stimulant for recognizing the value of the place the USA held in history and a longing to restore it. Quickly. Uranus wants an instant result and, for example, may decide the way to get it is to fully subscribe to the most Uranian element in our world today: AI. Artificial Intelligence will likely be renamed to something that doesn’t sound plastic and manufactured. Something like Assisted Intelligence. It will take a seat next to human leadership in an effort to quickly restore the nation to what it feels is a lost historic virtue in the world. Be careful what you wish for, etc. But we need to do something, and we need to do it fast.
 That shiny new thing, ya, let’s use that.  

Trump

Earlier this summer, transiting Saturn made a challenging square aspect to President Trump’s natal Mercury in his 11th house. Mercury, as the machinery of the conscious brain, was being afflicted by transiting Saturn, restricting his mental functions. It's easy to call it dementia in an 80-year-old man, but not all 80-year-olds have Saturn squaring their natal Mercury. In any case, Saturn is doing what Saturn does; it’s breaking it down. According to one’s life habits and inherited tendencies (ancestral life habits), Saturn wants to clear out the nonsense, which in this case is a large percentage of the total. All of us have to surrender to time, and the ego never likes it when it happens. Saturn will continue this process in this aspect into early January. It went retrograde in this aspect directly on his natal Mercury, which means Saturn slowed down and focused with greater intensity specifically on this degree of his natal Mercury. Not a great trait going into an election. It will reach bottom by early December. I would say at present, in late September, the president is saying and acting more unstable than he usually does. It will get worse.

​Transiting Uranus will eventually make a sextile to his natal Mercury in the summer of next year. At that time, President Trump will be quite vocal in advocating radical ideas, likely inspired by foreign nations, as Uranus transits his 9th house. Friends of his in foreign countries may openly talk about bold new perspectives that range from possibly brilliant to completely insane. I would say that because transiting Uranus is entering a difficult square to his natal Pluto in his 12th house, his ideas are true to his nature (12th house psychology) but toxic to others and considered insane. But to each his own.
Transiting Pluto in his 6th house of physical health is approaching an opposition to President Trump’s natal Pluto in his 12th house, at which time he should be living in a comfortably well-managed senior facility.  That’s also in 2027-28. 

Putin

​The chart for Putin most relied upon has demonstrated some reliability but cannot be confirmed as 100% accurate for the birth time. I continue to use it with some confidence; the house divisions may be a little off, but the planet positions are accurate. ​

With Uranus’ move into Gemini this year, it has at least two major impacts. As noted, Uranus will arrive at and commence a return to its position in the US natal chart, an important cycle made much more potent with Pluto, Neptune and Saturn all forcing evolution together in their harmonious sextiles and trine aspects. In Putin’s chart, it’s a cause for upheaval as transiting Uranus is about to conjunct his natal Moon. Granted, the position of his natal Moon may be early or late by a degree or two, but as we have it, inevitably his natal Moon will be conjunct by Uranus by the Spring of 2027. It will most likely be a very dramatic event, and this might help nail down his time of birth. As it stands, his natal Moon is in his 5th house. In general, it’s a changeable influence on all 5th house affairs, including his personal children, but also the children of Russia who may rebel from his authority. Uranus is a rebellious influence; it defines individuality and often in dramatic, never-before-seen ways. Putin is expected to call up hundreds of thousands of Russian youth to be sent with minimal training to fight Ukraine. While Ukraine’s rate of killing Russian soldiers is phenomenal, so too are Russian soldiers failing in their mission and opting to defect or be caught. The Kremlin is kidnapping young Russian men; neighbors are being rewarded in cash for turning in a young Russian male of eligible age to go to the front and fight. With the recent success of attacks on Moscow, Russian elites and their children are experiencing firsthand what they did not for the prior four years of war with Ukraine. The war is no longer somewhere else; it is in major Russian cities, affecting the families of Russia’s elite citizens. A youth movement in Russia would deprive Putin of the raw material he most needs: manpower. Conscripting hundreds of thousands of young Russian men is also causing a labor pool shortfall. The Russian economy already has enough problems; it doesn’t help to lose trained labor.
Uranus in transit conjuncting Putin’s natal Moon suggests a reprogramming of his relationship with his “homeland” and his belief in their faith in him. This will happen quickly, because change can come rapidly with Uranus. He will be undercut in the connection he felt existed between “his people” and his sense of Russian greatness.
This by itself does not require him to fall from power.  However, in the Spring of 2027, transiting Saturn will oppose his natal Saturn, and regardless of his exact birth time, this is a reckoning with reality.  Transiting Saturn first opposes his natal Sun in March, then Saturn and Venus. Opposing his natal Sun is debilitating to his vitality. This is especially true if the birth time is anywhere close to correct, as the opposition to his natal Sun is from transiting Saturn in his 6th house to his 12th house. Supposedly, Putin, like Trump, is surrounded by people who only tell him what he wants to hear. Learning that young Russians do not back his historic crusade to restore the Soviet Union or Russian empire would be robbing him of the illusion of Russian greatness.
Between now and then, there’s a question of Russian meddling in NATO countries. Will this lead to a wider war, or even a major war in Europe with NATO? 

NATO

​Astrologer Nicholas Campion, President of the Astrological Lodge of London, England, published a book of world horoscopes including major world organizations and economic associations. His chart for NATO, cast August 24th, 1949, is set for 5 PM in Washington, D.C., where the agreement was signed. ​

This chart shows natal Venus at almost 5 degrees of Libra, in the 11th house. For an organization of sibling nations on Earth, the 11th house is very important. Many nations that may not be particularly close, and some that are, are in a binding relationship that isn’t strictly business or romance. Its friendship is based on life’s realities. Venus is a nice, uplifting touch most of the time, but Venus is also, on occasion, a warrior goddess. She has all kinds of chemistry in her nature. Earlier in 2026, Saturn opposed this natal position of Venus in NATO’s chart. Neptune never quite made it there, going retrograde a hair before the exact opposition early in the summer of this year.
Saturn will come within less than two degrees of opposition by late November, and Neptune, which never quite got there, will get there exactly beginning in February of 2027 and reaching exact or peak opposition in the second half of April, lasting into early summer. We’ve already seen how the Spring of 2026 was charged up in the charts we’ve looked at, those of leading nations and leaders. Beginning in November of 2026, there’s a threat to the security of NATO, and yet it remains a little ambiguous exactly what the threat is. Early next year, through springtime, Neptune’s powers of delusion are activated by opposing Venus. A seductive offer. Both Saturn and Neptune, while transiting the opposition to the NATO natal chart Venus, make a square to the natal chart 5th house Uranus. A surprise move, a lightning strike, over before NATO has time to respond.
I would guess that Putin’s long-held belief that the NATO nations of the EU are thin-skinned and won’t launch or start a major war as much as complain loudly and launch their jets is correct. Mars will transit NATO’s 11th and 12th house late this year, conjuncting NATO’s natal Mercury next summer. NATO won’t make a bold statement on a unified stance until next July. 

Ukraine

​Ukraine has a lot of good fortune in its chart right now, and that will remain true for several months. Jupiter has been transiting in the late degrees of Leo and will turn retrograde and repeat the four conjunctions to planets in the natal Ukraine chart. The Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter in Ukraine’s 7th house will all be conjuncted by transiting Jupiter in its direct, retrograde, and direct-again motion. The chart I am working with places this cluster of four planets in the last decan of Leo, where Jupiter is hanging around. This is all very positive. ​

There is also a negative square that transiting Jupiter makes to the Ukraine natal 9th house Scorpio Pluto. Scorpio Pluto has a KGB quality about it. Spy stuff. The 9th house is a foreign agent working negatively to do harm to Ukraine, but everyone already knows Russia/Putin/KGB/FSB are hard at work trying to undermine Ukraine. Transiting Jupiter making a square to natal 9th house Pluto is a foreign agent, or an agent in another country, working to undermine Ukraine. Besides Russian agents in Ukraine, there are agents in friendly places like the USA and within NATO working to undermine Ukraine.  It’s possible that with Jupiter retrograde and direct over this cluster in the natal chart in Leo that a foreign agent is detected. But not exposed. With the potential deception/delusions already mentioned such an agent may be known privately, or suspected, and kept secret.
Putin has natal Pluto in late Leo in his 10th house. He is a known spy. Trump has Mars in late Leo in his 12th house, almost on the Ascendant. He could be working around or close to an agent working to undo Ukraine.  

IRAN

Iran’s natal chart has very powerful transformation going on. The Saturn-Neptune conjunction earlier this year was not exactly on Iran’s natal Moon, though once again I can’t be sure of the Moon’s position. It is probably close to that given that the chart popularly used may be a couple of degrees more or less. ​

Not knowing precisely which week doesn’t alter the powerful meaning of the meeting of Saturn and Neptune on Iran’s natal Moon and the sextiles from Pluto and Uranus from Aquarius and Gemini. These are historic transits connecting Iran’s natal Moon by conjunction as well as natal Mercury in Aquarius, soon to be conjuncted by transiting Pluto. This is followed by transiting Pluto conjuncting Iran’s natal Mars and the Sun in the coming two years. Iran will be on the march over the next few years. Unfortunately, while President Trump’s personal involvement was not required, as a catalyst, he has ignited something that will expand in a destructive way before its transformation is positive. Ultimately, Iran is going to have a profound destiny in transforming the world around it, which Pluto will bring at first with violence.  
Saturn and Neptune will conjunct the natal Iranian Moon separately, within a year of each other. Saturn has done so already and will again in November through January.  Neptune won’t get there until Saturn moves on in May of next year, in 2027. Saturn’s influence on the Moon is oppressive psychologically to the national identity. Saturn will move on in December of this year. Neptune will come into the conjunction with the natal Moon by the summer of 2027. This is probably the arrival of a new inspiration. The sextile from Pluto and Uranus on either side must bring a more positive evolution. Iran has, by the violent transformative forces we’ve seen, reached a greater significance in the region. Between December of this year and the summer of next year, a new inspirational figure will emerge, and the people of Iran will resonate with the new religious inspiration. This will likely come about by violence, very possibly more bombing and death in Iran between now and December, and the death of the existing leadership.
The new leadership will be a religious theocracy too. By mid-June, when transiting Mars conjuncts the Iranian natal chart’s natal retrograde Saturn in the Virgo 6th house, a pattern that they are very familiar with will resume. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. 

​David Wheatley can be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
​David is a gifted fine artist, muralist, and versatile "art detective".  
His professional art website is:  davidist8.wixsite.com/davidfinearts
He is also a musician, singer, songwriter, author, and an exceptional Tarot reader. 

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