The Combustion Cascade: January 2026 Capricorn New Moon

Pamela McDonough
Jan 18
9 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

✨ A Message from Pamela

Early morning on January 18, the almost New Moon joins a very full house of planets in Capricorn! Mercury, Mars, Sun, Venus and Pluto are all present within one nakshatra, Uttara Ashadha, the nakshatra of permanent victory. However, we must first pass through the fire on the path to this victory.

This is a period of intense compression of planetary energies, where decisions must be made without illusions and forced choices must be accepted, potentially without a way to reverse them.

If you were born with any combination of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars in sidereal Capricorn, or if you are Capricorn rising, this New Moon will land with particular emphasis for you. To understand why, read my latest free Substack article on recurrence transits The Karmic Echo Part I: Transits of Re-Becoming.

Choose wisely. What you begin now may be difficult to undo...

Keep looking up ✨

Pamela

PS - This is an abbreviated New Moon guide–read the entire forecast here.

THE LUNAR LOWDOWN: THE PLANETARY PRESSURE COOKER

New Moon Snapshot: Your Lunar Coordinates

Date & Time: Sunday, January 18, 2026 — 11:51 AM PST · 12:51 PM MST · 1:51 PM CST · 2:51 PM EST (7:51 PM UTC)
Sign & Degree: 04°30′ sidereal Capricorn
Nakshatra: Uttara Ashadha — The Latter Invincible One or Latter Victory
Shakti: Apradhrishya Shakti — The power to give permanent victory
Deity: Vishvadevas — the Universal Gods
Ruling Planet(s): Sun (nakshatra), Saturn (rāśi)
Key Aspects: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Pluto all in Uttara Ashadha nakshatra; close trine to Uranus; Mercury–Mars graha yuddha in Capricorn within 1° (both combust); Venus and Pluto combust.

The Pivot Point: Navigating the January New Moon Pressure Cooker

This lunation is a trial by fire. Every planet surrounding the Sun is currently combust (invisible in the Sun's glare) and Mercury and Mars are also at war. The specific pressure points are:

The Planetary War: Mercury and Mars are locked in a battle (Graha Yuddha), where logic and communication is fighting against raw force and determination. Emotions can run high. Conversations can be pressurized and volatile. Stay calm, count to ten, breathe! Practice active listening and maintain a collaborative perspective when negotiating difficult conversations.
Through awareness and active listening, communication can remain constructive and respectful.
"Soul-er" Purification: Venus, Mercury, and Mars are all combust and undergoing a Solar (or Soul-er) purification that eliminates superficial desires in order to reach your core truth in order to focus on what really matters in your life. Take time to meditate and let go of any surface attachments that are draining you. Stay open to different perspectives and methods of expression.

The Pivot Point: The New Moon (with the Sun) are sitting smack in the middle of this planetary pressure cooker. Think of the New Moon as the "pivot point" of a seesaw—everything is leaning on this one moment as the Moon goes from waxing to waning. Your choices now will shape your future in profound ways. Remember that life is a journey filled with opportunities to learn and evolve.

The Underworld Witness: Pluto is the gatekeeper for this stellium of planets, nothing escapes the conjunction with Pluto between now and the end of January. In Uttara Ashadha, this adds a layer of irreversible transformation that is a rewrite of your long-term karmic contract.
Reflect deeply to grasp the more profound effects of these changes.

A Collective Turning Point: With the revolutionary planet Uranus sends a flowing trine and sparks to this "planetary pile-up." This influence adds additional volatility to the New Moon energy, especially the day of the New Moon. Take extra care with decisions made on or around January 18. Pause, breathe, and give yourself space before committing to anything irreversible.

How to Navigate These Energies

This New Moon is all about Determination. It’s the moment when you choose a path and let all other options fall away. Not the lighthearted manifesting New Moon energy.

What are you willing to bear? What are you willing to endure and defend? What victory are you willing to forge through this crisis?

Uttara Ashadha Nakshatra: Victory Through Endurance

The symbol for this New Moon’s star (Uttara Ashadha) is the Elephant’s Tusk. It represents a slow and permanent victory. It also has the power to endure and carry weight during a journey that is gradual and substantial. Uttara Ashadha encourages individuals to embrace this journey, recognizing the importance of shedding illusions, ego and aligning with a higher calling.

This incredible configuration of six planets, all combust the Sun forces a "brutal clarity." There is nowhere to hide from the truth. This is a forge where your intentions are stripped of illusion so they can serve something larger than yourself. Intention-setting cannot be postponed because there is no safe moment in January to choose. You must choose the fire.

Best timing for New Beginnings

Wait until the Moon begins to wax for New Beginnings: Jan 18 – 11:52 AM PST · 12:52 PM MST · 1:52 PM CST · 2:52 PM EST (7:51 PM UTC) and through Jan 19 – 1:21AM PST · 2:21 AM MST · 3:21 AM CST · 4:21 AM EST (9:21 AM UTC)

New Moon Rising Sign Guide

To experience the most accurate insights, use your Vedic rising sign rather than your Sun sign.

Haven't discovered your Vedic rising sign yet? Calculate your free Vedic Birth Chart to unlock these powerful New and Full Moon guides.

If you are in the planetary period (Vimshottari Dasha) or sub-periods of Moon or Sun, this Full Moon will hold even greater significance for you!

♈️ Aries Rising: Career Ignition Under Fire

Mars stands directly with this New Moon, but is locked in combat with Mercury while at the same time burning up within the Sun's glare. Professional goals and public reputation are being forged in a crucible. What emerges from this planetary battle in your career sector will be permanent, but it will demand surrender of control over the how and place your trust in the unstoppable motion of the what. Surrender meets raw determination. Especially when Mars meets Pluto at the end of the month in Uttara Ashadha nakshatra. The tusk that keeps pushing is the one that breaks through.

♉️ Taurus Rising: The Teacher's Sacrifice

Venus, your chart ruler, is hidden in the Sun's rays during and after this New Moon. This is unfolding in the part of your chart connected to your spiritual path, beliefs, and the role of teacher and guide. What must you release to truly embody authority? The intense compression of planetary energies strips away surface or inherited material, leaving only what can endure. What remains must be strong enough to pass through Pluto's permanent transformation and align with Uttara Ashadha energies that promise lasting victory.

♊️ Gemini Rising: Logic Meets the Underworld

Mercury, your ruling planet, is combust while at war with Mars, deep in your 8th house of transformation and shared resources. This is the realm of what cannot be spoken but must be understood. Your usual Mercurial mental agility faces something heavier and more primal. This New Moon demands brutal honesty about power, resources, and psychological inheritance. What you communicate now carries the weight of permanence.

♋️ Cancer Rising: The Partnership Crucible

Your chart ruler Moon is this New Moon, sitting at the exact center of planetary wars and combustion in your committed partnership sector. You're literally part of the fulcrum where everything rests. Partnerships reveal their essential truth when stripped of sentiment. What remains after this New Moon is intended to serve your soul's highest authority. The tusk breaks through together or not at all.

♌️ Leo Rising: Service as Solar Initiation

The Sun sits at the heart of this New Moon in your 6th house of service, daily routine and work, surrounded by combust planets in total compression. Your leadership is being tested through the daily grind—the unglamorous work Leo rising usually resists, the endurance of difficulty. What you're building in the trenches right now creates permanent victory if you can carry the elephant's weight without needing applause.

♍️ Virgo Rising: Intelligence Under Siege

Mercury, your chart ruler, is battling Mars in your 5th house of creative intelligence and speculation while combust. Your analytical gifts face trial by fire—every thought must prove its practical worth or burn away. This New Moon compresses speculation into certainty, playfulness into purpose. Whatever creative or intellectual project survives this crucible becomes permanently embedded in your dharmic path.

♎️ Libra Rising: Home as Battleground

Venus burns in at the very foundation of your chart at this New Moon, asking which version of security and emotional peace you're willing to defend. Venus, your chart ruler is completely invisible in the Sun's glare through mid-February, during which time it will be revealed what was always meant to anchor you. The planetary compression here demands you choose: comfort or truth, familiarity or permanent transformation. The elephant creates immovable shelter through sheer presence.

♏️ Scorpio Rising: Courage Burns Brightest

Mars, your chart ruler, remains combust and at war with Mercury in your 3rd house of communication and courage. Your natural intensity faces an unusual challenge: speaking truth when the messenger itself is invisible and burning. This New Moon tests whether your power comes from what you say or what you embody. The compression forces permanent decisions about siblings, neighbors, close friends and daily interactions. Victory here is measured in consistently showing up.

♐️ Sagittarius Rising: The Value Inquisition

This New Moon piles in with five other planets into your 2nd house of wealth and speech while Jupiter, your ruling planet, watches from airy Gemini. What you say now—and what you choose not to say—creates permanent value changes and new financial trajectories. The combustion burns away inflated personal values, leaving only what your soul can carry. Pluto's presence makes all of this non-negotiable: your worth and values is being rewritten at the cellular level.

♑️ Capricorn Rising: Self as Solar Forge

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Venus—all combust and packed into your 1st house—while Saturn, your chart ruler, tries to hold steady with nebulous Neptune in Pisces. You are literally standing in the midst of the New Moon, the fulcrum of this entire karmic compression. Your identity undergoes trial by fire, burning away everything that isn't essential. This is your permanent victory forming in real time, requiring you to surrender who you thought you were for who you're becoming. The elephant's tusk is your spine.

♒️ Aquarius Rising: Liberation Through Dissolution

The entire planetary compression in your 12th house happens while Saturn, your traditional ruler, attempts support from nebulous Pisces, where Neptune dissolves everything in its path. What's burning away now is meant to burn—old patterns, expired karma, the weight of others' expectations. This New Moon offers liberation through loss, and the loss must be total, but it does not have to be literal. This can be loss of deep psychological patterns that no longer serve you. Pluto ensures whatever dissolves now won't return in the same form. The elephant carries its tusk through every realm.

♓️ Pisces Rising: Networks Forged in Fire

Six planets packed into your 11th house of community while Jupiter, your traditional ruler, remains retrograde in Gemini. Your social realm (virtual and in-person) faces a swift and decisive reorganization. The connections that remain will be permanent, forged through shared experiences and values. This New Moon asks which collective dreams are worth the elephant's endurance, which victories demand your soul's full weight.

Moondance Astrology has been my heart's work for over a decade—a labor of love that asks for hundreds of hours and significant financial investment each month. I've chosen to keep this website free and without external ads because I want these insights to reach whoever needs them, regardless of circumstances.

This work exists because of readers like you. Your support doesn't just help with the practical side of things; it tells me this matters, that it's making a difference. If you've found value here, I invite you to become part of sustaining this work in whatever way feels aligned for you.

– With deep gratitude, Pamela

Learn More About Pamela, Professional Vedic Astrologer

Pamela McDonough combines ancient Vedic wisdom with practical experience from decades in the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds, offering a unique, grounded approach to astrology. In addition to her deep roots in Jyotish,

Pamela is also highly trained in Western astrology — including advanced techniques like astrocartography, secondary progressions, and solar returns. She often bridges clients’ understanding from the Western tropical to the Vedic sidereal system with clarity and compassion.Dedicated to empowering individuals with deep insights into their birth charts, her practice fosters personal growth and improved decision-making.

Through her consultations, clients gain clarity on career transitions, insight into relationship patterns, guidance on optimal timing for important decisions, and a deeper understanding of their unique life purpose and challenges.Clients appreciate her blend of practical life experience and astrological knowledge, often describing her intuitive, actionable advice as transformative in both career and personal spheres.

In her book "Vedic Astrology for Beginners", Pamela shares accessible teachings on the ancient art of Jyotish, enabling readers to navigate life's ups and downs with astrological guidance.

Ready for a transformative journey of self-discovery? Schedule a consultation with Pamela today and experience how her grounded, intuitive approach to Vedic astrology can guide you toward greater clarity, purpose, and fulfillment. Visit the reviews page. to read about the transformative experiences of her clients.