Astrological Calendar 2026 — Retrogrades, Ingresses & Moon Phases

The astrological calendar gathers the sky's headline moments into one running timeline: the retrogrades, the planetary ingresses, and the full and new moons that astrologers watch through the year. Instead of scattering these across separate almanacs, this page lists the next few months of events in the order they actually happen, so you can see at a glance what the sky is doing and plan around it.

Every date here is computed, not copied. Sigastra finds each event by root-finding on Swiss Ephemeris — the same high-precision astronomy engine, derived from NASA JPL data, that powers our birth charts — so a full moon, an ingress or a retrograde station lands on the exact instant it occurs in the real sky. All times are given in UTC.

A retrograde is an optical illusion with real astrological weight: from Earth, a planet appears to slow, stop, and drift backwards through the zodiac for a stretch of weeks before turning direct again. Nothing in space reverses — it is a trick of relative motion as our orbit overtakes the planet's — but astrologers read the backward phase as a time to review, revisit and slow down whatever that planet governs.

Mercury retrograde is the famous one, happening three or four times a year and traditionally linked to snarls in communication, travel and technology. Venus retrograde turns the focus to love, money and values; Mars retrograde to drive and conflict; and the slow outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn and beyond — spend months retrograde at a time, coloring longer seasons. You can always check the current status of the fastest and most-watched of these on our dedicated Mercury retrograde page.

An ingress is the moment a planet crosses from one zodiac sign into the next — the instant its ecliptic longitude passes a 30-degree boundary. Because each of the twelve signs spans exactly thirty degrees, every planet is always "in" one sign until it ingresses into the following one. These crossings mark a shift in tone: the flavor a planet expresses changes with the sign it moves through.

Fast movers ingress often — the Moon changes sign every couple of days, the Sun roughly monthly as it walks the wheel of the seasons, and Mercury and Venus every few weeks. The slow, structural planets are the ones astrologers circle in red: Jupiter changes sign about once a year, Saturn about every two to three, and their ingresses are treated as the opening of a new chapter. The calendar below flags each upcoming ingress with the planet and the sign it enters.

The Moon sets the fastest rhythm in the calendar. A full moon happens the instant the Moon sits exactly opposite the Sun and its whole face is lit — a traditional peak of culmination and release — while a new moon is the dark conjunction, read as a fresh start and a natural point to set intentions. This cycle repeats about every 29.5 days, giving twelve or thirteen of each per year.

Both are exact astronomical events, so they land on a precise date and time rather than a whole day, and the sign each falls in colors its meaning. For the full run of dates, times and signs, see the dedicated Full Moon Calendar and New Moon Calendar, or check the live phase and moon sign right now on Moon Phase Today.

A calendar of sky events tells you what is happening overhead; your birth chart tells you where it lands for you. The same full moon or Saturn ingress touches a different part of every person's life depending on which of their houses that sign rules — so the real value comes from reading the calendar against your own chart. To do that you first need an accurate chart, computed from your exact birth date, time and place.

Start with a free birth chart to see your planets, houses and rising sign from real astronomy. From there, Sigastra's weekly and monthly forecasts translate these upcoming transits into what they mean for you personally — live personal transits are part of the paid forecast — so the calendar stops being a list of dates and becomes a guide to your own timing.