New Moon in Aries April 2026: Six Planets Deep in the Sign of the Ram
On April 17, 2026, the New Moon at 27° Aries arrives flanked by five other planets in the Ram — a stellium so concentrated it rewrites the rules of what a fresh start can look like. With the wounded healer Chiron fused to the lunation, this isn't just ambition. It's ambition that knows where it hurts.
Photo: Raghav Modi · Pexels License
By Sera Vane·April 9, 2026·Updated May 15, 2026AI-assisted, editor-reviewed
Six planets in Aries. Let that land for a second. On April 17, 2026, the New Moon perfects at 27°28’ Aries — and the Sun and Moon aren’t traveling alone. Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune are all packed into the same sign, making this the most Aries-saturated lunation most of us will experience in our lifetimes. If you’ve been waiting for a cosmic permission slip to start something, this is less of a slip and more of a shove. But here’s the twist that makes this New Moon genuinely interesting: Chiron, the asteroid associated with our deepest wounds and our capacity to heal them, sits within a degree of the Sun and Moon. This fresh start comes with a catch — it asks you to begin from the place that still aches.
Chiron at ~26°41’ Aries (separating, under 1° orb)
Aries Stellium
Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Neptune — six planets
Notable Aspects
Mercury conjunct Neptune (0.59° orb), Mars conjunct Saturn (1.61° orb), Mars sextile Pluto (0.54° orb)
New Moon Phase Window
Approximately April 17–May 1, 2026
The Transit: An Aries Pileup Unlike Anything in Recent Memory
A New Moon happens every month. The Sun and Moon align, the sky goes dark, and astrologers talk about fresh starts and intention-setting. You’ve heard the script before. But this one breaks the mold. When the luminaries meet at 27°28’ Aries on April 17, they do so as part of a six-planet stellium — a rare clustering where the Sun, Moon, Mercury (at 3°23’ Aries), Mars (at 5°57’ Aries), Saturn (at 7°34’ Aries), and Neptune (at 2°48’ Aries) all occupy the same sign simultaneously. That’s an extraordinary concentration of planetary energy in the zodiac’s first sign, the archetype of initiation, independence, and raw courage.
A stellium this dense doesn’t just amplify Aries themes — it compresses them. Think of it as six different frequencies of energy all trying to express through the same narrow channel. Mercury in early Aries wants to think fast and speak first. Mars in Aries wants to act before the committee meeting ends. Saturn in Aries demands that all that impulsiveness answer to some kind of structure. Neptune in Aries dissolves the boundaries between what’s real and what’s imagined — and in a fire sign, that imagination burns hot. The New Moon at 27° sits at the far end of Aries, late-degree energy that carries the weight of completion even as it signals a beginning. This isn’t a tentative first step. It’s a running start.
Then there’s Chiron. At roughly 26°41’ Aries, the so-called wounded healer sits less than a degree from the Sun-Moon conjunction — close enough that its influence is inseparable from the lunation itself. Chiron in aspect to a New Moon says the fresh start you’re being offered isn’t a blank page. It’s a page you’ve written on before, one with scribbles and crossed-out lines and maybe a coffee stain or two. The beginning this transit offers is one that requires you to acknowledge what’s already happened — the failures, the rejections, the moments you didn’t back yourself — and start anyway. That’s not weakness. In Aries, that’s the bravest thing you can do.
The Mercury-Neptune Conjunction: When Intuition Speaks Aries
Buried inside the stellium is a conjunction that deserves its own attention. Mercury at 3°23’ Aries sits just over half a degree from Neptune at 2°48’ Aries — a fusion of the planet of thought with the planet of dissolution. Mercury conjunct Neptune in Aries is a strange and potent combination. Neptune blurs Mercury’s usual sharpness, which in water or earth signs can manifest as confusion, deception, or creative daydreaming. But in Aries — a sign that leads with instinct — this conjunction tilts toward a different expression: intuitive knowing that arrives before the rational mind can catch up.
Under this New Moon, the ideas that flash into your awareness aren’t necessarily logical. They might feel more like downloads — sudden, vivid, and oddly complete. The risk, of course, is that Neptune’s gift for self-deception gets a turbo boost from Aries’ tendency to believe its own hype. Not every flash of inspiration is divinely guided; some of them are just adrenaline wearing a prophet’s costume. The antidote is Mars conjunct Saturn, also active in early Aries, which provides a built-in reality check. Mars at 5°57’ Aries conjunct Saturn at 7°34’ Aries demands that your bold visions pass a feasibility test. Dream big, but build with materials that actually exist.
Who Feels This Most: Cardinal Signs and Late-Degree Aries Placements
Every New Moon touches everyone’s chart somewhere, but this one has clear favorites — and clear pressure points. If you have natal planets or angles between roughly 25° and 29° of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), the Sun-Moon-Chiron conjunction lands directly on your chart. Aries placements in that range receive the conjunction itself: a potent reset that may feel simultaneously exciting and tender. Cancer placements get a square — tension, emotional activation, and the kind of discomfort that forces growth. Libra placements face an opposition, which often manifests through other people reflecting back what you need to see. Capricorn placements receive the other square, one that challenges your existing structures and asks whether they’re still serving you.
The broader stellium in early Aries (Mercury at 3°, Neptune at 2°, Mars at 5°, Saturn at 7°) activates a separate wave of cardinal-sign placements between 0° and 10°. If your natal chart has significant points in that range, April 2026 isn’t background noise — it’s the main event. Even if you’re a fixed or mutable sign, you have Aries somewhere in your chart. Wherever Aries falls, that’s the area of life getting flooded with this concentrated fire energy: new impulses, urgent desires to begin, and the Saturnian demand that your beginnings be built on something real.
Venus in Taurus at 21°51’ and Jupiter in Cancer at 17°13’ offer support from the wings. Venus in her home sign provides grounding and a reminder that not everything has to happen at Aries speed — some things are worth savoring. Jupiter in Cancer brings an expansive emotional generosity that can soften the stellium’s harder edges. Pluto at 5°25’ Aquarius forms a sextile (a harmonious, opportunity-creating aspect) to Mars in Aries, offering a structural power boost to anyone willing to channel their Aries energy toward systemic change rather than purely personal ambition. Saturn’s sextile to Pluto, still active at 2°15’ orb, reinforces this theme: the builders and the transformers are working together.
Historical Parallels: When the Sky Last Looked Like This
The last time the Aries stellium reached comparable density was April 1861, when Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars clustered in the Ram. But 1861's version lacked Saturn and Neptune — the two outer planets whose conjunction in Aries is the real engine of April 2026's historic signature. Saturn meets Neptune only once every 36 years, and their conjunction in Aries is a 500-year event. That's why astrologers are treating this stellium as the anchor moment for a generational chapter, not just a monthly lunation. The 2026 version also carries Chiron within a degree of the luminaries — a healing layer 1861 didn't have. For a broader look at the other transit pile-ups feeding this cluster, see our March 2026 Aries stellium breakdown and the Saturn conjunct Neptune generational shift analysis.
The April 16-17 Peak Window: What to Track Hour by Hour
The stellium's maximum density is a narrow two-day window. On April 16, all six planets plus Chiron sit in Aries together — a configuration that won't repeat for centuries. The Moon enters Aries on April 16 at roughly 09:00 UTC, joins the Sun at the New Moon exactus on April 17 at 11:51 UTC (7:51 AM EDT, 4:51 AM PDT), then exits Aries into Taurus the same afternoon. That means intention-setting rituals land best in the 24 hours surrounding the exact lunation. Mars leaves Aries on April 22, Saturn stays through 2028, and Neptune is settling in for its 14-year residence. For the transits that dominate the second half of the month, track the Mercury-Mars conjunction and the Mars-Saturn conjunction. The stellium's energetic peak is April 16-17, but the Aries-flavored chapter the lunation opens runs for years, not weeks.
What is the Aries stellium in April 2026?
The April 2026 Aries stellium is a rare clustering of six planets — Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune — all occupying Aries at once, with Chiron also joining the pileup. The alignment peaks on April 16-17 when the New Moon perfects at 27° Aries, marking a generational reset.
When does the April 2026 Aries stellium peak?
The Aries stellium reaches maximum density on April 16-17, 2026, when six planets plus Chiron simultaneously occupy Aries. The exact New Moon perfects at 11:51 UTC (7:51 AM EDT) on April 17 at 27°28' Aries. The Moon leaves Aries first on April 17, the Sun follows on April 20.
Which zodiac signs are most affected by the April 2026 Aries stellium?
Cardinal signs feel the April 2026 Aries stellium most intensely. Aries placements between 25-29° receive the New Moon directly, while late-degree Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn placements get squares or an opposition. Early-degree cardinal signs activate the Mercury-Neptune-Mars-Saturn cluster in early Aries. Fixed and mutable signs still feel it wherever Aries sits in their natal chart.
How rare is the April 2026 six-planet Aries stellium?
A six-planet single-sign stellium is extremely rare. The last comparable Aries cluster occurred in April 1861, when Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars converged — but without Saturn and Neptune. The 2026 event is historic largely because Saturn conjuncts Neptune in Aries, a meeting that recurs only every 500 years and ignites a generational reset.
What should I do during the April 2026 Aries New Moon?
Set intentions that require courage, not perfection. This Aries New Moon rewards bold starts grounded in honest self-awareness thanks to the Chiron conjunction. Use the Mars-Saturn conjunction as a reality check for big plans, and watch for intuitive downloads from the Mercury-Neptune conjunction. Journaling your raw, unedited first impulses captures the transit's essence best.
