The 17 February 2026 solar annular eclipse

The Lunar New Year on 17 February 2026 begins with a solar annular eclipse, thus ringing in the Year of the Fire Horse. To have an eclipse at the start of the Lunar New Year can be seen as being most auspicious as well as being ominous. We will have a look at the eclipse in what follows. Its major effects will be seen in Europe and the Middle East. Unless one lives in Antarctica, the eclipse will not be visible except for a slight dimming of the Sun in the extreme south of South America and Africa. For more, read on…

The eclipse takes place, as stated on 17 February 2026 at 12:01 UTC. It is a north node eclipse of the Solar Saros series 121. It will not be visible except over Antarctica. The chart for the eclipse is below (bigger):

Solar Saros 121 is a dying series of eclipses. This one is the 61^st out of 71 eclipses in the series. The annular (max.) eclipse will only be visible in Antarctica at Concordia Station at 12:31 UTC. Except for Concordia Station the eclipse path does not pass over any inhabited areas. Only the faintest penumbra, as stated will be visible over South Africa and Madagascar.

This eclipse features the Saturn/Neptune conjunction at 0° of Aries, which will be important when we look at the culmination lines for the eclipse. Although the eclipse series has entered the last 10 eclipses of the series, that doesn’t mean it will not produce effects. The eclipse axis is at the 29^th degree of Aquarius/Leo.

The Sabian symbol for the eclipse degree itself is as follows:

• • A butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.

The Sabian symbol for the reflex degree at the 29^th degree of Leo reads as follows:

• • A mermaid emerges from the ocean waves ready for rebirth in human form.

The overall sense in reading these two symbols is one of transformation and rebirth. This is enhanced by the square of Uranus to the eclipse axis from Taurus. There is an out-of-sign stellium of roughly 30° comprised of the Sun and Moon in Aquarius, Mercury, the north node and Venus in Pisces and Saturn and Neptune in Aries. The eclipse point is roughly at the midpoint between Venus and Mars. Mars is at the 20^th degree of Aquarius.

There are no out-of-bounds planets in this figure. There are a few midpoints formed by the eclipse point, as follows:

• • Sun/Moon=Venus/Mars: Venus/Mars midpoints are usually indicative of passion, sensuality, desire, artistic creativity and a lively expression of feelings and sentiments. In the negative they can point toward excitability, sudden outbursts of extreme passion and a strongly sensuous nature.
  • Sun/Moon=Mars/node: This midpoint indicates either a desire to cooperate, team spirit and harmonious cooperation or it can point toward the desire to quarrel and disputes in general.
  • Sun/Moon=Sun/Uranus: This particular midpoint indicates a progressive mind, reformist inclinations, as well as upsets. It can indicate sudden turns in life, change of place like vacation, states of tension, sudden adjustment to new conditions or circumstances. And of particular note this is found repeatedly in cases of military call up and of imprisonment. There is a connection with this midpoint with accidents or catastrophes in the negative. In the positive it points toward the carrying out of innovations and reforms.

The Sun/Uranus midpoint would normally be read as Moon=Sun/Uranus, but since we are dealing with an eclipse we can allow the eclipse point as a singular planet. However, in reading all these midpoints together they can point toward high emotional tensions, an emphasis on alliances and common cause, overreactions in some cases and on the other side plans coming to fruition, all in the context of either a reformist or a rebellious attitude.

For Sun/Moon conjunctions the sign in which they appear becomes of overriding importance. In normal lunations, as in new moons, the effect is not so pronounced. But in the case of solar eclipses the reading of the sign is of particular importance. Given that we can see this is a figure that signals change and transformation, the Aquarian placement of the Sun and Moon further enhances that idea.

The eclipse itself is weak with regard to the Saros series because the series is waning. But as an astrological figure we see a powerful concentration of planets within roughly 30° of arc, which is reflected in the culmination lines.

The culmination lines for the eclipse are shown below (bigger):

The culmination lines in this eclipse are of particular relevance to events we are seeing in the world. The eclipse culmination line runs through Brussels, Paris and Western Africa. Tensions are running very high in the EU at the moment due to EU politics, austerity, the Ukraine conflict, and exacerbated with the release of the Epstein files. The overall area of influence for the eclipse culmination lines is Western Europe as a whole, including Scandinavia. This is where the major tensions within Europe exist at the moment.

The Mars culmination line runs through the British Isles, the Iberian Peninsula, and far Western Africa. The British intelligence services will be particularly active with this eclipse, especially when Mars activates the eclipse point, which we will get to shortly.

One area in particular to watch is the military action in Ukraine, which receives the Saturn/Neptune culmination line as well as does far western Russia including Moscow, St. Petersburg and the regions bordering Ukraine. Turkiye is also affected, as well as the entire Levant region, Egypt, the Suez Canal, and Eastern Africa, including South Africa. We can expect to see major changes produced from this eclipse in those areas. Saturn/Neptune influences include dissolution of old order, new orders emerging and on the whole reflecting the transformative nature of this eclipse mentioned above.

The Jupiter culmination line runs through the Far East including far eastern Russia, influencing Japan, China, Australia and Indonesia. This eclipse will be most auspicious for those regions, especially for China given this eclipse begins the start of their lunar new year.

Effects from this eclipse will result quickly, with the first and main Mars activation coming on March 1^st, as in next month. But the effect will slowly build from the day of the eclipse on to the median activation date, then to subside in the subsequent couple of weeks. The eclipse will receive a double activation in the last two weeks of November this year from a Mars/Jupiter conjunction, which will likely finish the effects from this eclipse.

The eclipse will affect the Department of Homeland security (Uranus), which will be seeing backlash throughout the year for the actions of ICE officers, who at present have been given impunity by the Trump administration. We can probably expect other events from them that will cause increasing calls for investigations into their actions.

Donald Trump will be affected by this eclipse also, as the eclipse axis falls across his Horizon axis and his Mars. He is presently facing the most critical point in his presidency, caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place regarding Iran and Israel, an economy that is showing all the signs of a major disruption (regardless of what he says), growing revelations from the Epstein files and with an onerous solar arc of Neptune opposite his Sun (weakened heart function), which will be activated by a Mars transit at the end of March.

Both Israel (Mars) and the United States (Moon/8^th house) will be affected by this eclipse. The Israelis want war with Iran and the American public feels that the Israelis can instead go pound sand in the Negev desert. There is plenty of it there.

And it is of particular interest to note that Trump, Netanyahu and Israel all share the same Mars placement in Leo, separated by less than two degrees. Something has to give. Either the Israelis will have to make peace with their neighbors – on the terms of their neighbors – and give up their ambitions in the region or there will be a ruinous war for the region. The Israelis will be particularly aggressive through this eclipse period. It will be a period of testing for Trump’s leadership, too. Most people do not hold out much hope for that.

NATO (Sun) and the EU (Saturn and t-square) both receive emphases with this eclipse. The Munich Security Conference (MSC) which has just ended has set the tone for Europe – prepare for war with Russia, circle the wagons, face dystopia and never, ever make peace with Russia. In reality, the MSC was a myopic elitist echo chamber calling for re-colonialization of the Global South, spending big on ‘defence’, meaning American weapons, and the European public be damned. Well, support for such measures across the collective European public has plummeted to just over 25%. Put Simpliciously:

“The elites and their fourth estate grind their teeth over the lousy peons’ refusal to volunteer to die for the banking cabal’s ancestral blood feuds essential freedoms.”

In another way of stating the effects of this eclipse on the EU/NATO agglomeration, the bloc is facing increasing pressure from the public to cease and desist with all the talk of war, stop supporting Ukraine (which the public sees as a lost cause) and Israel (which the public now loathes) and to make peace with Russia. The public also wants to be rid of the stench of their present mid-wit leaders in Western Europe. And they definitely want a return to national sovereignty instead of the Brussels supranational state.

The effects on individual nations for this eclipse may come as follows:

In closing, for individuals the events to follow on from this eclipse will depend on which planets or angles in one’s chart are activated by it. If there are no activations, then there is nothing about which to be concerned. But if one does receive activations from this eclipse then one can expect strong effects from the planets or angles activated, since we are not simply looking at a single point, but as well a concentration of planets. Just for review, we have the following for individuals for a very brief and quick overview:

With little doubt we will see results from this eclipse over the next couple of weeks, events which may shake the foundations of many things about which we had taken for granted for years. Expect exposure of wrongdoings, definite changes in perspective and the need to protect one’s inner sense of center and security. But the overall sense is one of sudden change, but for the better in the long run. Look to the future and opportunity. And if something falls to the wayside it is better to simply let it go. A new world is emerging, responding to the rising call by humanity for freedom and justice.

Featured pic from Atlas of Solar Eclipses 2020 to 2045 by Michael Zeiler and Michael Bakich.