The Second Horseman
Ultimately, it's about you choosing YOU.
“3 And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second living being say, “Come and see!”
4 And there went out another horse that was red; and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, that they should kill one another; and there was given unto him a great sword.”
TL;DR: The Great Reality Reboot
A little note to start: I did not use AI to write or polish the following behemoth of a post. However, as a courtesy since it is LONG, here is a TL;DR by Gemini (ChatGPT’s version was a snooze fest) for you so you can decide whether or not to devote the reading time:
If the “First Horseman” (Jan 9) was about clearing the wreckage, the Second Horseman—arriving February 26, 2026—is about the fire and steam of actually becoming a Self.
As Saturn and Neptune collide at the Aries Point, the “Great Reset” moves from theory to identity. We are moving past the “Great Power Wash” of our old delusions and into a period where we must choose: continue living an “outside-in” life of inherited patterns, or install a new Reality Operating System™ built on internal sovereignty.
The bottom line: It’s time to stop “smoking the TV” of false ideals. This transit is a 2.5-year autoclave designed to burn away who you were told to be, leaving only the person you are brave enough to actually become.
The Great Fire Germination
So, we’ve already had the “First Horseman” of the “Great Reset” — the Mars Cazimi on January 9, 2026.
As I said in my post A Tale of Two Years, this was meant to close out the cycle that started out in November 2023. Back then, Mars came together with the Sun in Scorpio — a sign ruled by Mars and whose predominant theme is the process of putrefaction. Mind you, fundamentally, Mars = on what and how energy is expended. For two years, Mars’ mission was to literally figure out how to purify the “toxic waste” and/or rebirth what was dead/dying (revealed by the South Node’s recent sojourn through Scorpio) in each house of your chart that it traversed between November 27, 2023 and January 9, 2026. Heaven help you if Mars was activated for you during that time period as it spared nothing to make sure you could only expend energy on work it wanted you to do.
On January 9, 2026, Mars’ agenda shifted to Regeneration and it will focus on this until March 20, 2028 (when the cazimi will be at 1° Aries — more on this later!).
What made this particularly a “horseman” of the “Great Reset”?
This was an extremely rare configuration for a cazimi (simplified definition: when one of the visible planets inhabits the same degree and sign as the sun) with both Mars and Venus entering the “heart of the sun” so that they were all in the same degree of Capricorn. The last time this happened was in June 1968 and the next time will be in September 2267. The fact that both Mars and Venus are simultaneously being thrown into a crucible to remove their “egoic” impurities before starting off on a new cycle resets not only on what and how we expend energy but also how we receive and what we value. Without turning this point alone into a full blown essay, think of it this way: 4 major areas of your life are currently experiencing a full reset because of this — that’s 1/3 of your chart.
Mars was in its “exaltation” sign of Capricorn. It’s exactly what it sounds like — a planet is elevated as if on a throne and being told basically that it can do no wrong. It sounds great until you think about: Being seen as a rockstar also means that you’re at the inflection point of external projection of greatness expected vs. internal cognition of the ability to deliver. (Keep this in mind since it’ll matter downstream.) Unlike being in its own sign of Scorpio in 2023 where it was calling the shots, Mars in Capricorn has to rely on Saturn (the ruler of Capricorn).
Saturn ultimately determines if Mars (as well as Venus) has the resources it needs to carry out its mission (but, more on that later).
So, first horseman’s job? Build the scaffolding for coherent social system and personal legacy from the carcasses Pluto’s passage through Capricorn (which ranged from 2008 - 2024 — if you follow the markets and politics, this should ping) left behind for fertilizer.
More simply put: this triple cazimi was the fire that germinated the proverbial coastal redwoods and giant sequoias of our life’s work — collectively and individually: We will never see their magnificence BUT we must do what we can so that those millennia from now will marvel at their wonder.
The Second Coming of the Age of Steam
WATER AND FIRE
The second seal cracked open as of Neptune’s entry into Aries on January 26, 2026. Is this necessarily war as John of Patmos penned in Revelation? I mean, c’mon, when has humanity not been at war? So, I’m not even touching that with a 10-foot barge pole.
Neptune, as I like to say in session, plays the role of the great power washer. You never forget when Neptune is playing a part in your life: You either feel like you underwent a decontamination scene in Silkwood (go look it up if you were born in the 21st century — trigger warning for the video below) OR like you’re waking up to the car in the front yard a la My Own Worst Enemy.
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Neptune’s role is to dissolve what is “untrue”. It’s general M.O. is to start with an ideal, a dream — something pure and beautiful and beyond the fallibility of this grubby material plane. You’re inspired and strive to be “better” than you are to achieve it — to turn it into reality but it’s always just out of reach. So the obsession and self delusion follow. You will “smoke the TV” to get to what Neptune is promising you. But dreams, by their very nature, cannot translate into reality without great sacrifice, and, ultimately, that sacrifice is the old identity that cannot contain the one who is able to embody the dream.
Neptune’s lallygag in Pisces started in 2011 and ended on January 26, 2026 — and it won’t dip its toes back in until 2188. While in Pisces, Neptune was particularly pernicious since Pisces is all about dreams, ideals, the collective unconscious, the direct experience of source/god, the meaning that drives being and thus Neptune so easily slipped its roofies into our drinks while we weren’t watching. And it took Saturn’s arrival in March 2023 to wake us up, make us drink water, sober up, realize that we’ve been chasing after rainbows that lead off cliffs and not to pots of gold or the happily ever after of the 10 of Cups — just in time for Neptune to go into Aries.
If Pisces is ultimately the liminal sign of the soul caught between heaven and earth, Aries is the embodied soul in a distinct, unique self. Aries is the baby straight out of the womb, its umbilical cord cut, its skin exposed to the air, wondering WTF is going on here?!?
So, Neptune here gives us a choice: Blue Pill and a life of pursuing an outside-in ideal of who you’re meant to be OR Red Pill and live in the vigilance of the inside-out process of self-acceptance, -realization, and -love?
Either way, in Aries, ostensibly the fieriest of the signs, Neptune bubbles over into massive amounts of steam.
Steam has a lot of uses, but, in order for it to be useful, it needs boundaries, pressure, direction. Harnessing it during the Industrial Revolution transformed humanity, and could potentially be at the root of many of the issues we’re facing now as a civilization. Steam power propelled us into a reality far beyond the capabilities and capacities of our physical and social evolution. Enter Saturn on February 13, 2026.
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real.
— The Unbearable Lightness of Being, MILAN KUNDERA
Saturn represents the material world particularly if we define the material world as the result of the karmas of our desires. Saturn rules both our actions (to obtain our desires) and their consequences (which we experience and resolve through interaction with the perceived reality).
Poor thing doesn’t do well in Aries mainly because it’s in a condition called “Fall” — the opposite of “Exaltation” (I told you it would come back). Saturn exalts in the opposite sign, Libra — the sign of consequences, measure twice cut once, mutually agreed upon terms. In the sign of the little “s” self that requires a “fuck around and find out” approach, Saturn doesn’t quite know what to do with itself — because it knows the cost of everything.
To paraphrase Gray Crawford from a webinar I attended many moons ago (so I can’t find the exact quote), a planet in a state of “fall” is lying on the earth looking up at the sky. If an exalted planet suffers the tension between projection and delivery, a fallen planet has virtually the opposite experience: It’s expected to be rubbish or to fail and so has the opportunity to self realize, break patterns and cycles, and define its own place. (This is where I’m so tempted to go on a tangent about why we need to redefine the lens of classical texts through our contemporary lived experiences.)
Applied to Saturn in Aries?
Firstly, remember that everything Saturn does is ultimately in service of 1) building systems of meaning that can withstand time and 2) sustaining a commonweal that optimizes the potential of humanity and the human experience. That’s where Saturn is coming from so it struggles with the Aries agenda of being singular, finding out the consequences after the fact, birthing a SELF.
So what is Saturn’s mission in Aries? The painful truth is that it’s all about finding out the pain of not standing up and being accounted for outweighs the fear of being judged and rejected. Saturn’s journey is to learn the consequences of NOT being true to your big “S” Self in the exercise of being an individual. It must run the gauntlet of being so fully YOU that you live in authentic relationship both with yourself and with others — that you create the systems and communities that are interdependent and holistic and stand the test of time. It sounds paradoxical.
SATURN RETURN
If you were born during any of the following date ranges, Saturn’s transit through Aries marks your Saturn Return.
April 7, 1996 – June 9, 1998
October 25, 1998 – February 28, 1999
March 3, 1967 – April 29, 1969
April 25, 1937 – March 20, 1940
How many times do we find ourselves dealing with unpleasant circumstances or relationship dynamics because we were afraid to say what came to our mind first and instead opted to couch it in diplomatic yet ambiguous terms? Or we didn’t do what was best for ourselves in situation because we didn’t want to rock the boat and wound up holding the short end of the stick? Or we didn’t pursue that whacky, out there goal that everyone told us would be impossible or selfish and wound up with lives that leave us counting time to the weekend?
When we choose the “shoulds” or the path that doesn’t rock the boat or the choice that supposedly isn’t “selfish”, what we wind up with is the exact opposite of what Saturn wants — incorrect boundaries, violated integrity, phony connection. If you can’t be completely comfortable with yourself and truly love and trust who you are, how are you ever going to be completely comfortable with another person or recognize when you are the recipient of love and trust?
Books are open!
POWER = ATTENTION + ENERGY / TIME
If you’ve gotten this far, I’d like to harken back to the beginning, when I mentioned that Saturn ultimately determined the resources Mars would have to execute its cazimi mission. Well, Saturn’s ability to fulfill its highest promise in Aries relies on Mars, and, at the Saturn/Neptune conjunction, Mars will still be in Aquarius — and that sets a particular tone (though Mars will continue through the zodiac during the entire stay of Saturn and Neptune). This is what’s called “mutual reception” or simply put a planetary apartment swap with Saturn in Mars’ sign and Mars in Saturn’s.
Some apartment swaps are easier than others. If two planets naturally get along, then they trust each other to “take care of their house”, and they’re comfortable in each other’s domicile for the most part since friends usually have complimentary tastes and behavior patterns. Also, there’s easy communication between the two — so, neither is shy or scared to call and ask where the good wine is stored or if a pipe bursts.
For those of you who voted on IG to receive the outline instead.
However, when planets don’t naturally have an affinity or are outrightly hostile to each other, we wind up in more of a “mutually assured destruction” kind of situation — neither is going to wreck each other’s home but they’d rather not be there and they thought of having to call the other one for help — yikes. But maybe (in the particular case we’re facing), they’ll work together because, at this very moment, we happen to have similar agendas. (In jyotish, this configuration is called “parivartana yoga” and some schools even interpret it as a full exchange — each planet behaving as if it’s in its own sign.)
Both Mars and Saturn respectively occupy each other’s “favorite” place so each will want the other to be on their best behavior and will do what it takes to set each other up for success. Bonus points for us. The other thing to consider going into this is that Saturn is the planet that signs off on what we’re enabled to focus our attention on and for how long whilst Mars is the planet that signs off on what and how we’re enabled to exert energy on. When you combine the two harmoniously, you get an exercise in power. When they clash, you get an experience of frustration.
The Second Horseman: A Reset of Our Reality Operating System™️
The second seal fully rips open on February 26, 2026 when Saturn finally meets Neptune at 0° Aries. Why? Because it’s the Spring Equinox point, symbolizing the collective “first breath” — the collective and individual “beginning point” of consciousness.
When the boundaries and pressure (to be a self/Self) of Saturn meet Neptune’s steam (dissolving what prevents the alignment of self and Self), we are thrown into an autoclave for the next 2.5 years and presented with the collective and individual opportunity to reset our “Reality Operating System” and grasp the real nature of power.
Do we have it within ourselves to rebuild 1:1, community, economic, political systems that support the process of responsive individuation and inspire each of us to contribute our particular gifts, value, insight, meaning into systems of collective care — for each other and our planet? Can we gather enough internal strength, imagination, and creativity to live in a world that isn’t based on extraction or relationships based on reactivity and inherited patterns of gender, provision, and exploitation? Can each and every one of us summon the courage to take the leap to demand coherence from ourselves and the systems in which we participate?
WHAT YOUR BIRTH CHART HAS TO DO WITH IT
Our birth charts give us an amazing tool in this reset: the ability to break free of a conditioned understanding of our experience of life — which is what we need to do in order to reset and create a new reality. There has been so much talk of “quantum jumping” or “switching timelines”, but it’s all a bunch of woo woo smoke out the ass without a reliable tool in hand. Enter your birth chart. I’m making it my mission now to liberate folks from the idea that you’re stuck with the gospel of reality that your Ascendant (or Lagna in jyotish) chart preaches.
The Ascendant chart (determined by the time and place you were born) represents not only the “first breath” (a theme) but also your “confirmation bias”. It’s the Conscious Mind sifting through external input to confirm what the prediction machine that is your brain has predicted reality to be and to identify if there’s a glitch. So, when we interpret your chart from this vantage, it describes what you believe your life should be — for better or worse. It’s why it’s the most accessible chart during initial sessions because you can actively confirm the resonance of the patterns identified because they’re the ones you are living to justify — even if they’re a result of other people’s choices and patterns.
For some, this ascendant chart is a functional reality operating system especially if those inherited patterns result in a life that works within the systems that they exist in and don’t cause enough “pain” or “disturbance” to warrant correction. You’ll know this is you if what you expect out of life aligns with your values, the values of your family, community, partner, and your actions get you the results that make you feel that your expectations have been met. Generally, speaking you’re “happy”, you don’t have peaks and troughs of emotion prompting you to feel disjointed from the reality in which you participate.
For others, the ascendant chart, at some point, becomes “not enough”. At some point, the native starts to feel a huge dissonance between who they growing to understand themselves to be, the results of the energy they’re investing into the world, and the projected expectations of their relationship and who they are willing to be. They actively want to quantum leap whether or not they use those exact terms and it’s right there — and it’s all about changing perspective — about changing to a different reality operating system.
In other words, you can change where you’re looking at your life from within the chart, For example:
The Part of Fortune “PoF” chart (in the Western classical tradition) shows your objective reality — what is actually happening to your body as it moves through this reality. I’ve recently started to heavily lean into this one myself since my PoF chart is dripping with “lucky girl syndrome” and that’s truly helped me reframe how I interpret my lived reality.
The Moon chart (a favorite in jyotish) looks at your life from the vantage of what gives you peace of mind and a sense of being secure and nurtured.
The Arudha Lagna chart (also jyotish) shows us the self that this reality expects us to be and will reward us for being (great for dealing with matters of career and public facing activities).
Or, if what you’ve been struggling with is living coherently with your sense of meaning, there’s your Part of Spirit chart, which shows how you use every single resource at your disposal to fully express and experience your soul through your life.
During the “Great Reset”, accessing these different ways of perceiving your lived experience and this physical reality is key in actively contributing to a new order that works better for yourself and everyone else.
KEY TAKEAWAY
With the coming together of Saturn and Neptune at the Aries Point, we will be challenged to enter into a new understanding of and way of moving through this physical plane. Going into it feeling agency over your own perception of the totality of your life is the highest expression of this transit event as well as the most empowering in the time to come.February Books Are Open
My books are open if you’d like to suss out how you can hack your chart and current transits to work with the Great Reset from a place of coherence and responsiveness.
