2026: INTEGRATION OF NEW PERCEPTION BY KATINA CASTILLO

Dear Mystic friends,

As always, it is an honor to offer you this general overview of the cosmic curriculum for 2026. As I sit in 2025 just after Lion's Gate, the smoke is beginning to clear. The heart is finally blossoming again after an exhausting year following the guarded condition of Mars. The red-hot planet first entered shadow in October 2024, which set off a volatile extended retrograde cycle that poked and prodded us all winter and well into spring 2025. Mars continued to have undeniable residual impacts on relationships of all kinds and the spirit of humanity overall as Saturn and Neptune birthed new levels of ego defense in its essential sign of Aries.

It has been a long, arduous, painful, and debilitating road for the inner masculine warrior in us all. Male-identified or -dominant personalities have been under great scrutiny and pressure to answer for their karma and intentions. We have truly been through a dense and nauseatingly cyclic portal of ego-death and rebirth, stretching us to the furthest edges of our capacity not to lose our composure or start up a conflict or just give up entirely. We were forced to rest despite all resistance to it and reminded that the road rolls out ahead over rocky and unseen terrain, so recovery is crucial. We're really just getting started now! All the real reasons we're here and the work that is uniquely ours to do is becoming apparent.

Both humbling and humiliating, the masculine side of our ego has faced itself, resurrected authenticity from illusion, focused on important self-work, and gotten back in the ring of life. This year, we can celebrate the fact that Mars is not going retrograde. Our willpower and drive will remain forward-moving. This time, however, it's the Yin feminine power to receive, gracefully flow, generously share, and remain attuned to the subtle and unseen that is to be refined into something even more precious and true post-retrograde. Venus will extend her stay in Mars' and Pluto's domain of Scorpio: sex and death magic, soul desires, the unconscious shadow self, wielding power and privilege. She will journey back to revisit her own mature sign of Libra to reevaluate how well-integrated her authentic values are in negotiations of agreements and contracts, as well as an honest assessment of how communication style is generating the desired feedback and results or not. We will likely recognize the dissonance between how we say things, what we share, and who we make alliance with versus the actual harmony, cooperation, and mutual respect we seek. By the end of 2026, the divine feminine force of earth will rise with great optimism, confidence, and openness to explore new possibilities well beyond the bounds of former conditioned limitations. 

We are being called to consciously recommit to our incarnation at this exact moment on earth. There is no escape. There is no better place than where we are. As we accelerate through awakening, it is imperative we stay connected to the reality of the earth beneath, within, and surrounding our every man-made creation. We are not leaving earth; we are coming in closer. We are not taking humanity to outer space. We are rooting down into the crystalline core. We are here to be mortal, and this is our gravity to tend. We are staying human at all costs. It is embodiment time. Descension as much as ascension. Polarity held in alignment through tension, core strength, and flexibility. We are earth. How can we best support the ecosystem of ourselves to attune to the outer stretches of our conscious imaginations while remaining firmly planted as a lightning rod?

We are called to embody our vision moment to moment, requiring patient presence in practice of mastery. Once again, we are humbled to turn our attention to the wisdom of earth-based Indigenous cultures and keepers that have sustained relative harmony against insurmountable odds throughout time. The ceremony isn't optional anymore. Everyone is in the room, on the medicine, and we're witnessing ourselves and others respond to the mind-altering stimuli. How will we move through this ceremony space? How will we present ourselves, behave, take care of our needs, and be mindful of others? What will we share, what tools will we bring, and what is our true intention for participating? 

Uranus entering Gemini to stay awhile as Pluto officially seeds the Age of Aquarius and Saturn conjoins Neptune in the first sign of Aries is a dare from 2026 to be fully present in feeling awareness of our bodies, choosing to see things as they are with curiosity and questions rather than stories and projections, using our breath  as a grounding force and listening for the sound of now. It's all going to come out. Whatever needs to be purged for shame to be released and perception to be made clear will be assisted by the Divine. Those of us comfortable in crisis will surely be called to be guardians, hold space, witness, and guide. Or perhaps we will be the ones to speak the unspoken, lead radical change by example, and more lovingly embrace being the outsider standing apart from the crowds.

My hope is that all our capacities and skills that come from difficult life experiences become truly purposeful now, in service to the liberation and freedom of all, beginning with our own wellbeing as our frontline for justice. We may be surprised to find that when we allow ourselves to live free of external validations and become internally sourced, we're a lot better off than we realized—whole even! And from that fullness, a natural inspiration to love, give, and serve springs forth. May each one honor the authentic life force that runs through the human vessel, and may all sacred needs be met. May we unite in the garden of the eternal perfection of NOW to enjoy what life we have left together.

ABOUT KATINA CASTILLO

KATINA CASTILLO is a natural born mystic and Master of Arts in Depth Psychology with specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous and Eco- Psychologies. She also holds certifi cations in Permaculture/Indigenous Sustainable Design, Agroecology, and Ancestral Herbalism. She has served as teacher, counselor, mentor, consultant and facilitator for more than 20 years across a broad network of organizations and communities dedicated to justice and wellness for all. Katina is her most natural, joyful self in nature, engaging in movement practice, prayer, meditation, and ceremony, with family, the animal world, and Spirit.