Vernal Equinox 2026
Que la lumière soit
The Vernal (Spring) Equinox 2026 occurs on Friday, March 20, 2026, at 9:45 am CST. In Western Tropical Astrology, Aries season begins at the Vernal Equinox, when the Sun has seemingly ascended back to the equator from its southernmost position at the Tropic of Capricorn at the time of the Winter Solstice. I just recently noticed the due Eastness of the sunrise as I filled my kettle at the kitchen sink. The Sun, of course, is not the one moving, it’s actually the Earth’s tilting motion on its axis as it orbits the Sun that causes the Sun to appear to move north and south and back north and then south again in the sky throughout the seasons. At both the Vernal Equinox (which ushers in Aries season) and the Autumnal Equinox (which ushers in Libra season) we have a period of time of roughly equal day and night due to the Earth’s positioning on its axis relative to the orbit of the Sun. Pretty cool, hunh?
At the Vernal Equinox we’re also heading into the lighter half of the year, where the daylight hours will grow longer than the nighttime hours until the beginning of the return of the dark at Cancer season on the Summer Solstice, when the daylight slowly starts to decrease, until night and day are roughly equal again at the Autumnal Equinox. The Vernal Equinox is also the time that Persephone leaves her husband Hades and her role as Queen of the Underworld in Greek mythology, and returns to the Earth and to her mother Demeter, allowing for the Earth to once again become fertile for the next growing season. To honor our Earth’s balance of day and night at the Vernal Equinox and the entrance into the more fertile time of the year, we can use the quality of time to seek to bring balance to our lives by composting our past experiences, allowing them to nourish the seeds of new growth that are being sown at this time.
The idea of balance is interesting to think about, because balance is dynamic, not static. It’s not like we can find a place of balance and just stay there, we are always in motion while seeking that balance. Stand on your head, or even on one leg, for a period of time and you’ll soon catch my drift. When discussing the practice of yoga asana (posture), BKS Iyengar says that we must “in all asanas, ascend to descend and descend to ascend…We are not trying to break a piece of string by pulling in two different directions. We are seeking the balance of polarity, not the antagonism of duality.” (BKS Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Rodale, Inc.: 2005 p. 41) Like the Earth balancing on her axis, we seek balance through seemingly imperceptible motions occurring along a polarity.
Along with seeking that balance of polarity within ourselves at this Equinox, we also get to prepare ourselves to hit the ground running in true Aries fashion! I don’t know about you, but this recent late season blizzard has me coming out of my skin with cabin fever. It’s not cozy and fun to be snowed in anymore, and I’m losing my intrepid winter drive to put on layers and go play outside. I want to wear ONE pants and one pants ONLY. I feel like we’ve all fully experienced this winter’s penitence and now we deserve to move forward with our lives, in one layer of clothing.
The astrology of this year’s Vernal Equinox is very like the energy we just experienced at the Pisces new Moon, since they occur within about a day and a half of each other. Some key differences are that Mercury in Pisces is at the station degree AND minute, and will station direct within 5 hours after the Sun moves into Aries. The Sun at 00°00’ Aries is now conjunct Neptune at 01°46’ Aries and Saturn at 04°07’ Aries, which brings the Sun more fully into that Neptune/Saturn conjunction, as well as the Saturn sextile to Pluto in Aquarius that we talked about in the Pisces new Moon post. The ruler of the Sun in Aries, Mars, is at 14°11’ Pisces, applying (moving closer) to that trine to Jupiter in Cancer at 15°13’. Mars is also separating (moving away) from the wide conjunction to Mercury at its station degree in Pisces of 08°29’, as well as the North Node in Pisces at 08°54’. However! Although Mars is separating from that conjunction to Mercury, two things call my attention to this aspect, as if there may be some lingering unfinished business between these two planets, Mercury and Mars.
1. Mars is also closely parallel to Mercury, meaning that they are close in Declination (in latitude, on the horizontal plane), even though they are separating from their togetherness by degree in the Zodiac sign (in longitude, on vertical plane).
2. Mercury is stationing direct, and will change directions and once again catch up to Mars in late April.
It is as if Mars and Mercury passed each other in a long hallway on Sunday, March 15th and had a conversation - a likely heated conversation. Each has moved on in different directions from that conversation, but are still in the same long hallway. Mercury, scraps of painter’s tape in hand from the final walk-through of Pisces as an agent for Saturn and Neptune, stops to turn around and call out to Mars, “And another thing!”; a handy French term for this phenomenon is “l’esprit de l’escalier”. We’ve ALL experienced it, it’s that brilliant thing we should have said in the moment, but didn’t have the words for at the time - typically a very snappy, clever comeback; in the parlance of the 1980s, a Total Burn. Is Mars close enough to hear what Mercury has to say? If not, Mercury will catch up to Mars again on April 20 at 08°36’ Aries, so you can mark that date on your calendar and see if you’re ready to take action on something that has bubbled up somewhere between your intellect and your imagination, starting back on March 15 - the Ides of March no less, commonly thought of as a turning point in history. Ah, the symbolism - SO satisfying!
With Aries ruler Mars at 14°11’ Pisces applying (moving closer) to that trine to Jupiter in Cancer at 15°13’, there is an ease and flow that we talked about in the Pisces new Moon post, growing ever flowy-er, like the scarves and gown of a dancing gal grooving right up front of the crowd by the stage like there’s nobody watching. However, Venus at 17°35’ Aries is now conjunct Moon at 20°30’ Aries, and both are squaring that Jupiter in Cancer at 15°13’; let me tell you, those two are hanging back in the crowd and they are watching that dancing gal, and it feels like an uncharitable gaze. As they say in Lee County, these two might be being trifling little bitches about this flowy dancing gal. With Chiron also there at 25°03’ Aries, a sore point could be triggered, but you just keep on dancing and grooving with the flow, don’t you pay no mind to those trifling little bitches. You think Nita Strauss is gonna stop grooving in her flow cuz of some snarky-ass bitches watching her and pulling stupid faces? Unh-unh, no she isn’t. And neither are you, cuz you’ve already harnessed your inner Nita Strauss back at the new Moon. Keep in mind - this same strategy applies, even if that trifling bitchiness is coming from inside your own self.
The Sun at 00°00’ Aries is now conjunct Neptune at 01°46’ Aries and Saturn at 04°07’ Aries, which brings the Sun more fully into that Neptune/Saturn conjunction and the Saturn sextile to Pluto in Aquarius that we talked about in the Pisces new Moon post. With that, you know it’s Go Time. And once Mercury stations direct in less than five hours after the Equinox, it will REALLY be Go Time. What is ready to Go for you? What experiences from your past are you ready to compost back into the soil of yourself, to nourish what new life wants to struggle up out of that soil? I say struggle, because all new growth is a struggle, but remember! Aries is ruled by Mars, and affiliated with courage, because engaging with life is scary - for every single living thing. And what is courage but taking action, even though you’re scared? I looked up Courage in my fabulous Miriam-Webster New International Dictionary (unabridged and illustrated) from 1934 and found the following definition for Courage:
“That quality of mind that enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness; valor; boldness”
And to my delight, I also found this obsolete definition for Courage:
“The heart as the seat of intelligence or of feeling; hence, mind, spirit, temper, or disposition; also, a proud or angry temper, high spirit.”
So at the beginning of this new season of growth, where will you find your courage to make the ideal real and to transform yourself into the “wolf you need”? (Nita Strauss, The Wolf You Feed ft. Alissa White-Gluz) Will you find that courage in the heart as the seat of intelligence? In your spirit, temper, or disposition? Or within the quality of mind that enables boldness? If you can manage to recruit all of these areas to your cause, that would be the optimal amount of enforcements for you to take into this exciting and possibly scary new season of growth and possibility.
Seeking to bring balance to our lives by releasing our past experiences and allowing them to act as compost and nourishment for our future seeds of possibility seems to be a worthwhile pursuit at any time, but it’s worth utilizing this quality of time of roughly equal light and dark at the beginning of the lighter half of the year to lean into that attempt, knowing that we are supported by Mother Earth herself as our role model in this endeavor.
Happy Equinox! May your Spring be a wondrous one, filled with the magic and miracle of new life and creation.