NEPTUNE ENTERING ARIES!!!

We’re about to undergo the biggest astrological shift of 2025, and one of the most significant events of this decade. On Sunday March 30th at 4:58am Pacific time, the planet Neptune will begin a new zodiac cycle and enter the sign of Aries!

It’s A Huge Deal

Transiting planets move at vastly different speeds. The Moon zips around the zodiac once a month, while the Sun, Mercury and Venus make a full cycle about once a year. The ingress of these personal planets into new signs is a common occurrence. For that reason, astrologers place much more emphasis on the movements of slow outer planets. That’s what makes this time so exciting: the three outermost planets (Pluto, Neptune and Uranus) are all changing signs within several months of each other. Neptune floats around the zodiac once every 165 years - and we’re about to experience one of those monumental birthdays for this planet. Sunday is so significant because it’s the first time that Neptune is breaking new ground in Aries since 1875, so in 150 years! After Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius, this is the second biggest astrological event of this era.

The Dates

When an outer planet like Neptune is moving into a new sign, it’s always a messy process. That’s because these slowboats go through long retrograde periods each year. Neptune will station retrograde in July 2025, and will back into Pisces again in October. This December, it’ll station direct again, and then re-enter Aries for good in late January 2026, staying there until May of 2038! Eventually Neptune will ingress into the next sign of Taurus, only to go retrograde again for another brief stint in Aries from October 2038 to March 2039, before it leaves this sign for another century and a half.

What is Neptune?

Neptune is the soulful planet of dreams. Named for the god of the ocean, it represents our collective emotions, reminding us that everything and everyone is interconnected. This is the planet of visionary creativity, oneness, transcendence, spiritual connection, faith, surrender, and the bliss of absolute divine love. Neptune is the last of the gas giants (and currently the outermost proper planet in the solar system recognized by astronomy). Beyond Neptune we find Pluto, Eris and the other dwarf planets, a host of trans-Neptunian objects (or TNOs for short), and then the vast expanse of deep space. Neptune is like the last stop before we reach the grand cosmos, and is often known as a nebulous veil or “window to the soul.” 

But this window can often be foggy, dirty or otherwise obscured - and Neptune is a notoriously foggy planet. It governs confusion, illusion, delusion and deception, or a loss of groundedness in collective reality. It’s related to overwhelm, escapism, numbing out, addiction, dependency, and other struggles with mental and emotional health. Boundless Neptune is famously empathetic and compassionate, but can also struggle with hypersensitivity, martyrdom, and a lack of healthy boundaries. But we can cultivate beneficial connections with this transpersonal planet through the breath, meditation and other spiritual practices, or our relationship to the natural world, of which we are an indivisible part.

Neptune or Poseidon, the god of the sea.

Neptune in Pisces

Neptune first dipped into its home sign of Pisces back in 2011. As the ruler of this sign, dreamy Neptune has much in common with mystical Pisces: imagination, intuition, sensitivity to paranormal and psychic phenomena, and a tendency to dissolve ego and boundaries. Much compassionate change has taken place during this era: civil rights have advanced for LGBTQ individuals and people of the global majority; our society has become more tolerant of relationship freedom, cannabis and other drugs, and various alternative lifestyles; there’s been a large-scale spiritual awakening, including meditation, divination and astrology; we’ve gained greater environmental awareness; revolutions like the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street, and movements like Black Lives Matter or Me Too, have pushed back against the harmful status quo of racism, sexism, capitalism and imperialism. But as the last sign, Pisces can also be associated with tragic losses. This era saw the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; a refugee crisis and continued struggles over national borders; and the rise of social media, with its associated escapism, misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, comparison traps, adverse mental health effects, and the advent of “doomscrolling.”

Moving into Aries

Almost everyone I know has been experiencing a profound fatigue recently. This is largely brought on by current events, such as the ongoing pandemic, political upheaval, and continued witnessing of multiple genocides. It’s also informed by less monumental astrological events, such as retrogrades and eclipses. I think this exhaustion is partly due to growing pains of the new Pluto in Aquarius era. But we should also remember that Neptune is at the anaretic degree of Pisces, which is the very end of the zodiac. This is the planet of fog and fatigue, ruling the transcendent last sign of the zodiac. Simply put, Neptune is tired at the tail end of its long, long journey - and we can all feel its weariness.

But a burst of energy is promised as Neptune crosses the Aries Point, the location of the vernal equinox, the end and beginning of the zodiac. We’re moving from loving, compassionate, forgiving Pisces into brave, direct, explosive Aries. Crossing the Aries Point is a culmination, a rebirth, a trial by fire - like the seeds that can only germinate under the extreme heat of flame. Pisces is associated with secrecy and that which is hidden; Aries bursts onto the scene for all to see. But birth is a famously messy and painful process, so there are no guarantees of comfort as the seed forcibly cracks through its shell.

Neptune in Pisces has been a period of collective confusion, the dissolution of old boundaries, and deep personal reflection. We’re caught between camps of free tolerance and draconic restriction, hardly knowing what’s true anymore as our world develops with exponential speed. In response, Neptune in Aries may bring us an era of civil unrest and widespread conflict, calling for bold leadership, systemic reform, and urgent direct action. We need to tackle the issues of climate change and global oppression of humans - all underpinned by late-stage capitalism and its ilk of imperialism, patriarchy, white supremacy and ableism. We can harness the energy of Aries in this time to broaden possibilities and forge new frontiers.

Aries is symbolized by the fierce, determined ram.

Neptune in Aries

Aries is the cardinal fire sign, associated with risk, adventure, challenge, competition, courage and independence. This is the astrological archetype of the protector - and Neptune in Aries brings us the idea of the spiritual warrior. Now, our souls will grow most rapidly when we face our fears and embrace the inevitable conflicts of existing in the world. Neptune’s connection to the great cosmic mystery is now animated by the primal life force of Aries, the pure energy of living, being, doing. As we move from the sign of the collective to the sign of the self, we can experience a spiritual awakening, an alignment of the soul and the will, growing into ever-greater wholeness. We can become empowered and manifest our desires. We can remember that the personal is political. In this symbolic death and rebirth, we’re reminded of our mortality and of the fleeting preciousness of life - and we’re motivated to fight for it, to passionately defend our values and human rights. And to do so, we need to pioneer empowering ways of relationship, connection and community, as many of us are already realizing.

Like any zodiac sign, Aries has its associated risks. The Ram can be combative, impulsive, self-centered, angry, violent, and a magnet for stress. This era might result in martyrdom, crusades, violent conflicts of belief, self-destructiveness, self-righteousness, and more myopic hubris. Evolving out of boundless Pisces, boundary-breaking Aries is a sign that needs to learn the wisdom of its natural limitations. As a pioneering archetype, this Aries time is likely to bring us new discoveries and technological progress (especially with powerful Pluto in futuristic Aquarius and inventive Uranus soon entering novelty-loving, idea-driven Gemini). The sudden ubiquity of AI, along with long-term pollution and extraction, already show us the dangers of these rapidly advancing technologies and their misapplication.

The Last Time Around

Neptune was last in Pisces from 1847 to 1862. Many Piscean events were occurring worldwide, such as the imperialism-fueled Second Opium War in China. In the United States, this was a Neptunian period of idealism, spiritualism, mysticism, utopianism, transcendentalism, humanitarianism, abolitionism and social reform. Meanwhile, the misguided beliefs of the Manifest Destiny era saw the expansion of white settlers across the country, violently displacing indigenous peoples. The nation was also becoming increasingly politically polarized, especially on the question of slavery.

Neptune entered Aries in 1862, and the Civil War followed in short order, succeeded by the Reconstruction era. The intangible ideas of the Piscean period became manifest through Aries. Movements for abolition, civil rights, women’s rights and labor reform continued. Literature and art took a turn toward realism and societal critique. Scientific and technological developments and urbanization changed the course of history, bringing improvements to daily life as well as conflict and environmental destruction.

Neptune was last in Aries during the American Civil War.

Relationships to Pluto & Saturn

Slow-moving outer planets Neptune and Pluto have been in a sextile for the last century, maintaining approximately 60 degrees of separation in the zodiac. The sextile is a stimulating, excitable, fiery relationship between planets. This aspect connects the spirituality and mysticism of Neptune with the subconscious and psychology of Pluto. In the current age, a spiritual path necessitates doing deep inner work, lest we spiritually bypass challenges with the “flight into light,” rejecting our shadows and further fragmenting ourselves. This is a time of integrating different parts of ourselves, the individual and the collective, and various levels of truth into further wholeness. And this shadow work requires bravery - which is the hallmark of Aries.

Meanwhile, Neptune and Saturn have recently been coexisting in the sign of Pisces, and Saturn is slowly catching up to even slower Neptune. The two planets will meet in a conjunction near the Aries Point in February 2026. Saturn conjunctions in this location tend to correlate with conflicts and shifts of political power, emphasizing the volatility of this moment. But Saturn also invites a serious, committed, dedicated approach to the great Neptunian work of dreaming a new world into manifestation, step by step and brick by brick. Saturn asks us to rise to the challenge and embody the future we want to live in.

The coming Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries, showing a sextile to Pluto in Aquarius

Conclusion

It’s clear that we’re living in scary, uncertain times. The astrological patterns for this era may look bleak, but I don’t think this tool should be used for fearmongering. The point is to gain greater perspective on the current moment and collective condition. Astrology doesn’t so much predict future events as outline probabilities, possibilities, and prescriptions for how we can best navigate this new age. As Neptune moves into Aries, work on connecting with this planet and further integrating the Neptunian aspect of yourself. Look into Neptune’s placement in your own birth chart - its sign, house, and aspects to other planets. Neptune is a generational planet, so understanding its sign in your natal chart will connect you to your astrological cohort and help you realize your role in this current era. Whatever it is, Neptune in Aries guarantees one thing: we’ll need to be brave for the rebirth that lies ahead.