In Times of Chaos, Look for the Pattern
Mercury in Pisces relies on inspiration to find its way into the meaning of the world. And as it trines Jupiter this week (Feb. 16, 2026, 1:31 pm PST, at 15º53’ Pisces/Cancer) at 16 Cancer, “A person studying a mandala in front of them, with the help of an ancient book,” Mercury is on the Sabian symbol 16 Pisces, The flow of inspiration. Here’s a thought to how we might put this lovely trine to good use.
When things seem chaotic, look for the pattern. You’ll always find one, if you look hard enough and long enough. Study your birth chart mandala. Consider what your ancestors did in similar situations. Gaze at the clouds and look for pictures. Use old wisdom and your own intuition to find the pattern.
Poking with Lightning Bolts
For most of my life, Aquarius has been a foreign land to me. Born with several planets in its opposite sign, Leo, I somehow couldn’t identify with the strong desire for independence and the unconventional nature of Aquarius – despite having my chart ruler, Jupiter, in that sign, and my entire life providing testimony to Aquarian traits.
As I grow older, I can more easily locate Aquarius on my inner landscape: the bracing snap of dry, frigid air, the glint of an ice skate’s blade hovering over a frozen lake, and a friendly, distant wave to fellow skaters. I recognize it in the sudden, violent protest that lets loose in me when I feel walls closing in, and in the itchiness that comes from having gone too long without time alone.
Aquarius’s contradictory nature reflects the tectonic clash of its two rulers: Saturn, the traditional ruler, lord of impermeable boundaries and fixed opinions; and Uranus, unrestrained and unpredictable. Often, Aquarius is interpreted by warmer natures as chilly and unfeeling, and when I’m in touch with that side of myself, I have to admit that there’s some truth to that.
The Aquarian nature doesn’t dare try to fit in, for fear of losing the qualities that make it unique. It’s the resistance we feel to being typecast or pigeonholed, and the absolute refusal to compromise our beliefs. There is something hard and detached in this sign – but it’s unruly and wild and beautiful, too.
This Aquarius New Moon/Solar Eclipse (Feb. 17, 2026, 4:01 am PST, 28.49 Aquarius) is on the Sabian symbol 29 Aquarius: A butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, and is square Uranus, with all the exciting unpredictability that suggests. We’ll find the Saturn side of our Aquarian selves affixed to an immovable surface, daring the world to unseat us. And near at hand will be our Uranian natures, poking us with lightning bolts, determined to propel us out of the chrysalis, and onto new and unexpected paths.
Pisces Soup
Moms in the farm community where I grew up had a soup recipe that went something like this: Get out a big pan. Add bits of all that stuff in the refrigerator that’s left over from the rest of the week’s recipes. Pour some water or broth over it and simmer it for a good long while. Serve it alongside some biscuits or cornbread, and you had dinner.
Let’s call it Pisces Soup – a bit of this, a bit of that, using up the remainders. Sometimes it tasted great, other times…not so much. But the fun part was that it was different every time you had it.
Pisces season is similar. All year long, we acquire leftovers from various endeavors: A new tablecloth from a flea market, a guitar we’d like to learn to play, a couple of books we’ve been meaning to read. When the Sun enters Pisces (Feb. 18, 2026, 7:52 am PST), it’s time to put some of those treasures to use, to make room for new experiences.
So, you touch base with a handful of close friends and invite them over for a potluck brunch. You spread out that special tablecloth, brew some coffee, and start a crackling blaze in the hearth. Friends trickle in with their casseroles and park themselves in front of the fire. A musician friend picks up your guitar and teaches you a few new chords. Someone else spies one of your new books on the coffee table, has read it, and is excited to share a few thoughts. Before you know it, everyone is chatting, eating, and smiling.
And what did you bring to the potluck? A bit of this, a bit of that – everything to make your very own, very tasty Pisces soup.
Big Changes in Small Lives
In 1989, when Saturn last made a conjunction to Neptune – that time in Capricorn – I was stuck in a stupefyingly dull, government secretarial job, the very embodiment of Saturn’s dry strictures. But I had a dream: to become a full-time, professional astrologer. I’d been studying with a wonderful, inspiring teacher for over a year, and I was as thrilled by astrology as I was bored and disenchanted with my day job.
By the end of that conjunction, I had rolled up my Saturn sleeves and taken the first step to make my Neptune dream into Saturnine reality, by taking my first paying client.
This week’s Saturn-Neptune conjunction (Feb. 20, 2026, 8:54 am), a collision between reality and illusion, is complex. You’ll be reading and hearing an awful lot about it, and none of your reading or listening will be time wasted. For example, you’ll learn about Saturn-Neptune and the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union at the conjunction of 1989; at the conjunction in 1953, the polio epidemic and Salk’s vaccine, the peak of McCarthyism, and the death of Stalin.
But I’m especially interested in how big transits like this one express themselves in the human-scale stories of regular people like you and me. Saturn and Neptune conjoin only every 36 years or so, so each of us lives through only two or three of them. And preparing to change my career was a huge story for me personally, even if it can’t compare to the beginning of the end of the Cold War, or Salk developing the vaccine that would have saved my mother from polio a decade earlier.
We’re all being impacted by the state or the world, the things that are being broken down so that a new vision can emerge. And at this Saturn/Neptune conjunction, at the first degree of Aries, you may very well be on the brink of one of your life’s personal Big Transitions. Where are you hoping to break down the limits that have you feeling stuck, to move in a new, exciting direction?
On the day of this conjunction, why not build a ritual that acknowledges this big moment? The house of your chart that holds 0 degrees Aries, and any planets close to this degree (or its opposite or square points: 0 Libra, Cancer, or Capricorn) describe how you’re being impacted, and where you are ready to manifest a big change.
Marvelous Stuff, Maybe Not Money
There’s an oft-repeated adage that if you do what you love, the money will follow. As someone who’s spent half my life doing what I love without having grown rich, I usually roll my eyes at such platitudes.
But substitute the word “money” with something like “satisfaction,” “compelling interest,” or simply “joy” – well, then I think you’re on to something.
Venus is the planet that explicitly points to the “love” part of that equation. And as it joins in a happy trine to Jupiter in Cancer this week (Feb. 22, 2026, 12:02 pm PST), love might indeed lead to financial gain, or it might not. Venus in Pisces generally cares more about emotional connections than about money. But this combination will almost certainly lead to new interests, broader horizons, and hearty laughs with good friends. And this is all marvelous stuff, even if it does nothing to enhance your bank balance.
Writing and images © 2017-2026 by April Elliott Kent
