#349-That We Must Take the Utmost Care”- Week of January 26, 2026

Tending the First Flame

This week carries the feeling of a true threshold—quiet, consequential, and far-reaching.

On Monday, Neptune enters Aries, beginning a long cycle that reshapes how meaning, courage, and responsibility are lived. This is not a dramatic event, but a change in atmosphere. After more than a decade of Neptune in Pisces—marked by porous boundaries, saturation, and confusion about what was ours to carry—the guiding question shifts:

Not What am I absorbing?
But Where do I stand?

Neptune in Aries does not ask us to feel more or imagine harder. It asks for self-location—the courage to inhabit a stance without collapsing into urgency or reactivity. The waters begin to recede. Intention starts to matter again, not as force, but as orientation.

Midweek, Mars conjunct Pluto in Aquarius brings collective pressure into focus. This is energy moving through systems—exposing where power has been distorted, coerced, or frozen in place. In Aquarius, the deeper question is not who controls, but how power circulates. What structures support life, innovation, and shared belonging—and which ones are straining past their limits?

Aquarius carries an alchemical gift: innovation, egalitarian vision, and the capacity to imagine beyond inherited hierarchies. This is radical change not for chaos, but in service of a more inclusive future.

Mercury conjunct Venus in Aquarius offers a moment for clear, values-based conversation. Say less. Mean what you say. Listen for coherence rather than volume.

As the week turns, the Full Moon in Leo arrives alongside Imbolc in the Celtic wheel—the ancient marker of returning light. Imbolc does not promise spring; it signals its first stirring. The ground may still look frozen, but warmth has returned beneath the surface. A flame is kept—not to blaze, but to endure.

The Leo Full Moon brings heart and creative life-force into dialogue with the Aquarian field. This is the conversation between individual expression and collective good. Not self-erasure, and not self-promotion—but the weaving of unique presence into life-giving change that serves more than oneself.

This is not a week for dramatic declarations.

It is a week for orientation.

Neptune in Aries does not reward urgency or spectacle.
Mars–Pluto in Aquarius does not reward force without wisdom.
The Leo Full Moon asks not for attention, but for heart.

Reflective Questions for the Week

• Where do I sense something wanting to begin, even if it’s still fragile or unnamed?
• What am I no longer willing to absorb or carry forward?
• How can my individuality serve life-giving change rather than react to pressure?

Let this be a week of keeping faith with what has just begun, even if you’re the only one who knows it’s there.

Podcast poem: Eagle Song by Joy Harjo

Transcript

0:07

Hello, welcome to Astrology Alchemy. I'm Sheila Bellagio, your host for this podcast. Alchemy is defined as a seemingly magical process of transformation. Spiritual alchemy is the process of pursuing the gold of your true nature. By transmuting the unrefined limiting parts of yourself. In this podcast, I'll offer you inspiring insights from current astrology cycles that support your path of turning your personal lead into gold. More resources are available at the website on the edges of change.com. Hello and welcome to episode number 349 of the Astrology Alchemy Podcast. I'm your host and guide, Sheila Bellagio, and this is for the week of January 26th, 2026. A phrase from this week's podcast poem that we must take the utmost care. A theme for this week, tending the first flame of a new era. This week carries a rare sense of threshold, not dramatic, but consequential. Something long underway, completes, and something far reaching quietly begins. On Monday, Neptune enters Aries beginning a cycle that will shape the collective field into the late 2030s. This is not a single event to track or interpret once it's a gradual, but unmistakable change in atmosphere. A shift in how? Meaning agency courage. And responsibility are lived for more than a decade. Neptune has moved through Pisces dissolving boundaries and certainties. Many of us learn compassion, imagination, and spiritual sensitivity. We also learned how easily saturation can turn into confusion. How porousness without anchoring leaves us absorbing fear, urgency, and toxic narratives that were never truly ours. If you want, you can go back to last week's podcast. I say a lot more about this. As Neptune crosses into Aries, the guiding question changes not. What am I absorbing? But where do I stand? This new era does not ask us to feel more, care more or imagine harder. It asks for self location, the courage to inhabit a stance. Without collapsing into reaction, righteousness, or urgency, the waters begin to recede. Heat gathers Aries as a fire sign. Intention begins to matter. Again, not as force, but as orientation. The astrology cycles in the rest of the week prepares the ground for that shift. Midweek Mars, the Warrior Ros archetype conjuncts Pluto, the transformer in Aquarius. It brings collective pressure into sharp focus. This is not subtle energy. It is the friction that arises. When will power and systems meet the demand for change? Mars, Pluto can expose where energy has been coerced, suppressed, or distorted, and where it's ready to be reclaimed and redirected. They meet in Aquarius. And this conjunction speaks less about personal dominance and more about structural transformation, old hierarchy strain. We know that fixed arrangements revealed their limits. The question underneath is not who controls, but how power circulates and whether it serves life. Innovation and shared belonging or merely preserves the status quo. The Zodiac sign of Aquarius carries a distinct alchemical gift, the capacity to imagine beyond inherited roles to value diversity and otherness. To design systems that honor participation rather than privilege. This is the sign of radical re-patterning, not chaos for its own sake, but change in service of a more inclusive future. The Mars Pluto conjunction here. It does not reward force. It demands discernment about where effort actually creates liberation and where it simply reproduces domination under new names. By Thursday this week, mercury conjunct Venus in Aquarius offers a different tone. Mercury is a storyteller archetype. Venus is the relational one. This is a moment for dialogue, not debate, for values articulated with clarity rather than performance Conversations now concede future collaborations, especially those that are grounded in shared principles rather than personal loyalty or fear-based urgency. Say less mean what you say. Listen for what carries coherence rather than volume. As the week turns towards the weekend on Sunday, we arrive at the full moon in Leo coinciding with in bulk in the Celtic seasonal wheel. This is a potent pairing. In bulk marks the return of light, not as visible abundance, but as the first undeniable, stirring beneath frozen ground. The seed has not broken the soil. The fields may still look barren, and yet warmth has returned. Milk flows again. A flame is kept not to blaze, but to endure. Inbook reminds us that beginnings are quiet, vulnerable, and easily extinguished. If forced too quickly into the open, the Goddess Bridget. Is connected to this holy time. She who feeds inspiration and creativity, which often happens very privately at the beginning and eventually grows into an expression externally. The Leo Full Moon brings this seasonal wisdom into dialogue with the aquarium field of the week. The Zodiac sign, Leo illuminates heart creativity and the courage to be authentically present. It's a powerful fire sign. Aquarius asks that individuality be placed in service to something larger than personal validation. It's an air sign of spaciousness. This is the ancient conversation between the one and the many. Not the erasure of the individual for the collective, not the elevation of the self at the expense of the whole, but the weaving of unique expression into life giving change that benefits more than oneself. Under this full moon, the question is not how do I shine? It is. What kind of presence strengthens the whole? This is not about performance branding or declaration. It's about tending the inner flame, the creative life force that wants to be offered with integrity, timing, and care. Taken together, this is not a week for dramatic gestures. It's a week for orientation Neptune, and does not reward urgency or spectacle. Mars with Pluto and Aquarius does not reward force without wisdom. The Leo Full Moon does not ask for attention. It asks for heart. The invitation is simple and not easy to stand somewhere to know what you will no longer absorb and to tend what has just begun quietly, faithfully. Before it knows its form. Here are several reflection questions for you to be with this week. And a reminder, these are listed in the show notes for the podcast. Where do I sense something wanting to begin, even if it's still fragile or unnamed? Where am I being asked to place my energy in service of life giving change rather than reaction I, and how can my individuality contribute to the collective? Without being consumed by it. Let this be a week of keeping faith with what has just begun, even if you're the only one who knows it's there. In the poem that stepped forward to honor the cycles of this week, these opportunities for deep interchange and collective change to reorient comes from the wisdom of First Nation peoples ancient knowing about how to be. In service to the whole while still honoring your deep individuality. It's called Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo to pray. You open your whole self to sky, to earth, to sun, to moon. To one whole voice that is you and know there is more that you can't see, can't hear, can't know, except in moments steadily growing and in languages that aren't always sound, but other circles of motion like eagle, that Sunday morning. Over Salt River, circled in blue sky, in wind, swept our hearts clean With sacred wings, we see you see ourselves and know that we must take the utmost care and kindness in all things. Breathe in. Knowing we are made of all this and breathe knowing we are truly blessed because we were born and die soon within a true circle of motion like eagle rounding out the mourning inside us, we pray that it will be done in beauty. In Beauty Eagle Song by Joy Harjo, this week may you have the courage to take the utmost care and kindness in all things with yourself and with any of those. Whom you see as other breathe in knowing. We are truly blessed because we were born. We were all born, and we will die within a true circle of motion. Bless you. Thank you. You have been listening to the Astrology Alchemy Podcast with your host, Sheila Lange. Resources are available at the website on the edges of change.com. Thank you for listening. Bless your alchemical journey to embrace the gold of your true nature.