Iran 2026: Regime Change, Protests & The Saturn-Neptune Cycle

Iran is on the brink. Multiple astrological factors are speaking to the massive protests and crackdown happening there right now. And they're saying that this is only just beginning because just like Russia, Iran has reached a moment of massive cyclical significance. Could this be the end for the Iranian regime? This is World Astrology Report. I'm your host, Dan Waite, and welcome to another journey into the past to understand the present and the future. On December the 28th of 2025, protests began in Iran over the country's ongoing economic crisis. Iran is no stranger to protests, but these are the biggest the country's seen for many years. They began as protests over inflation in Iran's bazaars, but they've since morphed into wider anti-government protests. Iranian authorities have cut access to the internet and to telephone services, and according to reports from western news outlets, they've arrested around 17,000 people and more than 2,000 have been killed by the security forces. To be clear, I don't think it's wise to trust these numbers completely. They could well have been exaggerated by Iran's adversaries to put more pressure on the government, but in these situations we have to work to some extent with this kind of information. And it seems undeniable that the situation there is very serious. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the U.S. for inciting the protests, while U.S. President Donald Trump has said he's considering attacking Iran if it keeps cracking down on protesters. Maybe they've already done that by the time this video comes out. Iran is a country with a very long history and an extremely rich culture and heritage, but today it's ruled by a theocratic Islamist regime which took over during the revolution of 1979. And I think it's fair to say that that regime is repressive. It's one that forces people to live under Islamic law and women to wear hijabs and so on and so forth. There's much more to that story though because arguably the revolution happened as a consequence of western meddling in Iran's affairs and attempts to control the country's huge oil reserves, but we'll get into that later. Iran is known today as the principal adversary of Israel and for many years it's been a backer of Islamist organizations like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis of Yemen. And of course Iran and Israel fought a short war in June of 2025. The wider perspective which I discussed in my recent Venezuela video is that a global conflict which perhaps we should call Cold War II is currently underway, principally between the U.S. and its allies on one side and China and Russia on the other. Iran is allied with the latter and it's surely unwise to imagine that what's going on there now is unconnected with this bigger picture. That's some of the context. Let's start breaking down what's going on astrologically and thinking about why this is happening now. Right now the biggest event in the sky is the ongoing conjunction of Saturn and This conjunction will go exact on February the 20th of 2026 but the two planets have been pretty close to conjunction since spring of 2025. Now it's very well known in astrology that Russian history resonates strongly to the synodic cycle of Saturn and Neptune. You can go way way back in the history and see that the conjunctions of those two planets reliably bring very important events in Russia. Recently we saw the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the death of Stalin in 1953 and the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 but you can go as far back as the battle of Kulikovo in 1380 when the Russians turned the tide against the Mongols and you can see this pattern playing out. And guess what? Iran is another country whose history beats to this same rhythm. Let's go back in time and see this dynamic in action. The last time Saturn and Neptune formed conjunctions was 1989. This was a big year for Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has had two supreme leaders since 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who came to power in the original revolution and the current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. And the handover between them came when the first of them died on June 3rd of 1989 with Saturn and Neptune less than a degree from exact conjunction. It's rather similar to the Russia because the leader of the USSR Joseph Stalin died in 1953 at the previous set of Saturn Neptune conjunctions. Archetypally we could say that order or authority Saturn dissolves Neptune then order reconstitutes itself again in new form. That's the Saturn Neptune way and as a quick aside you may feel like order or structure or certainty have dissolved in certain areas of your own life but you're a bit unclear on the way forward. That's the fog of Neptune. When the Saturn Neptune conjunction separates towards the middle of 2026 you may start to get a clearer idea about the way forward even if it's hard to actually implement with Saturn in fall in Aries. Now if we go further back in time to 1979 the year of the Islamic revolution well in that year Saturn and Neptune were in a square aspect bringing a strong Saturn Neptune flavor to that moment. In 1952 and 53 came three more conjunctions of Saturn and Neptune in Libra. These were the ones that brought the death of Stalin. This period was also massively important in the history of Iran because in 1953 the Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a coup and that coup was secretly supported by the US and the UK who wanted to see the end of Mossadegh's government after he nationalized Iran's massive oil industry which had been dominated by British corporate interests. So once again at a Saturn Neptune conjunction we saw a change of regime of structure of order in Iran and if we go back to 1917 the time of the previous Saturn Neptune conjunction that was also a highly significant and difficult time for Iran. From 1917 to 19 Iran faced a great famine while being occupied by British, Russian and Ottoman forces during World War I. Around 2 million people died. During this period the Russian revolution of 1917 led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from Iran and after the first world war ended in 1918 the Ottomans also withdrew. In 1919 the British tried to get the Persians to agree to what's called the Anglo-Persian agreement or the contract of 1919 which would have given the British access to Iranian oil fields. The agreement was never ratified by the Iranians and it led to a massive anti-imperialist backlash that eventually took down the governing Qajar dynasty in 1921. So once again we find that a Saturn Neptune conjunction brought changes to power structures governing Iran and there was also a theme of foreign interference which seems to come up again and again. So in summary these conjunctions tend to bring changes in regime or destabilization to Iran as well as efforts by foreign powers to gain control of the country and its resources. Of course it goes without saying that the US and Israel would like nothing more than to see the end of the current regime in Iran so it's very interesting to see this historical pattern and what's going on in Iran right now. And it does make me wonder if what we're seeing right now is just the start of an impulse that could perhaps sooner or later lead to regime change in Iran. Before we move on though a question. Why is it that Iran resonates to the Saturn Neptune cycle in particular? Well Neptune is the planet of faith and the ideal while Saturn is worldly structures and authority. Saturn and Neptune in combination relates to communism and socialism which are attempts to bring a quasi-religious ideal into reality. The Iranian theocratic regime could be seen as a different expression of this same dynamic since it's a regime headed by religious leaders. And I'm really just speculating here but perhaps more generally there's something in the Persian soul that has to do with the urge to bring spiritual or mystical ideals into manifestation. But Saturn and Neptune isn't the only factor speaking to what's happening. It seems these events may also be a parting gift from Uranus. The planet of revelation and rapid disruption as it leaves the sign of Taurus for the final time this cycle. If you're enjoying this video please do me a favour and do subscribe and enable notifications to keep up with future episodes of World Astrology Report. And if you really like what I do here then please consider offering some financial support by signing up as a member here on YouTube to get access to the bonus sections of these videos or on my website which is where I have my best value offer because membership there also gives you access to monthly long form live streams or for that you can also join up on YouTube at Correspondent Tip. Now the next live stream will be taking place on Saturday January the 24th at 9pm eastern time and it will be about how to apply the extremely powerful Hellenistic timing technique Zodiacal Releasing to Mundane Astrology. Thanks for listening and now back to the video. I've been half expecting something like this to happen in Iran around this time for a few reasons. One of them is just that it would make sense that the US and Israel would be agitating for something like this to happen assuming that they have a hand in it which I think is probably to some extent a safe assumption. But another is astrological and it has to do with what we call the Geodetic Map which divides the world up into sectors each associated with the signs of the Zodiac. Here's that map and you can see that most of Iran is in the part allocated to the sign of Taurus although some of the most easterly parts of the country are in the Gemini Zone. Astrologers in the past would associate particular signs with countries. Interestingly William Lilly the famous English astrologer of the 17th century specifically associated Persia aka Iran with Taurus although this was before that geodetic technique had even been dreamed up at least to my knowledge. So the idea that Iran resonates to the sign of Taurus has been in the astrological tradition for a long time and the Geodetic Map also confirms this. To be clear like all countries Iran also resonates to other signs too but Taurus is one of them. Now in 2018 Uranus which is a highly disruptive influence moved into Taurus for the first time this cycle. When Uranus moves through a sign countries that resonate to it are going to be disrupted or reconfigured or freed up depending on the conditions there. Uranus particularly dislikes rigidity and I think it's fair to say that the Iranian Islamist regime displays a lot of that. Now just look at the countries in the Taurus zone and think about wars of recent years. Since 2018 we've seen conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and Sudan to name just some of them. All of these places have been in line for Uranian disruption and reconfiguration. To be clear Uranus doesn't always bring war but it often can. It seems to move countries into more freewheeling, libertarian, right-wing ways of being as well. It can bring movements pushing for freedom and attempts to disrupt overly restrictive or sclerotic state structures. So I've been expecting for a while that Uranus in Taurus would bring serious disruption to Iran either in the form of war or revolution or both. Of course in June of 2025 we saw the short conflict between Iran and the US and Israel and right now Uranus is making its final run through the last degrees of Taurus. It's currently retrograde in the 28th degree of that sign. It's getting ready to station direct on February the 4th in that same degree. Uranian energy is currently emphasized particularly for Taurus placements and this is also not a nice place to have Uranus stationing direct because it's pretty close to the fixed star Al Gol, the Medusa's head, which often brings horror stories of different kinds or themes involving the suffering of women and their overcoming of it. In the story of the Medusa she was originally a beautiful woman who was violated by the god Poseidon in Athena's temple. The goddess Athena doesn't punish Poseidon but Medusa transforming her into a hideous monster. As we saw earlier Iran has already seen more than 2,000 deaths in the protests if western media reports are to be believed. That's very Al Gol. And we've also seen striking images coming out of female protesters. For example Iranian women have reportedly been posting pictures of themselves without hijabs lighting cigarettes with burning images of Ayatollah Khomeini. That feels very Al Gol to me. A star that signifies female rage and injustice among other things. Uranus's influence is actually going to grow over the next few weeks as it gets closer and closer to its direct station and starts to move forward. On April the 26th it will leave Taurus for Gemini for the final time this cycle so its Taurus transit will be done. So it seems that this final move of Uranus through the last degrees of Taurus is bringing this Iranian uprising as a kind of parting gift. Something that often happens when a planet finishes its transit through a sign. But that's not all because we're also heading into eclipse season and there are some fascinating patterns involving eclipses and major events in the history of Iran. There are two natal charts that tend to be used for Iran and they are both moments in 1979 that relate to the revolution of that year. The first is taken for the moment that the previous supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile in France. It's time for the 1st of February 1979 at 9 33 a.m in Tehran and it has four degrees of Aries rising. You may be aware that there's a conjunction in Aries in February. The other chart is times for the moment when the revolution had succeeded and Khomeini declared the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran on April the 1st of 1979 at 3 p.m in Tehran. You always have to back test charts against what actually happened in history to see if they work. I've done that with both of these Iran charts over the years and I think that both do work to some degree. However if I had to choose one I'd choose the declaration chart. It seems to speak louder. Here's that chart and you can see that it has 17 degrees of Aries rising. Like the Khomeini chart it also has a strong Aries signature with the sun at 11 degrees of that sign and has a Taurus midheaven so there's that important sign for Persia represented in the chart. Now let's look back a little into recent Iranian history. Soon after the 1979 revolution in September of 1980 Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and the Iran-Iraq war which would last eight years began. The beginning of the war is generally dated to September the 4th 1980 when the two countries exchanged border attacks or to September the 22nd when Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran. Major shifts like this are usually signified by eclipses hitting important chart points like the ascendant, midheaven, sun and moon and that's what happened here with the declaration chart because on August the 10th less than a month before the war began there was a solar annual eclipse at 18 degrees of Leo very close to the ascendant of the chart at 17. That's a very direct hit the kind that you'd usually expect to bring very significant changes. The ascendant opposes the descendant and the seventh house which is the house of open enemies so it's not hard to see how this eclipse brought conflict especially since there's a Mars-Pluto conjunction in its chart. And actually if you look back at Iran's history you see that eclipses in the Leo-Aquarius axis reliably bring big shifts in Iran. Perhaps the biggest protests in Iran's history besides the 1979 revolution itself came in 2009 in what was called the Green Movement. On June the 15th 2009 up to three million people rallied in Tehran to protest against allegations of fraud in the election of then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2009 eclipses were taking place in the Leo-Aquarius axis as they are this year. On February the 9th of that year there was a lunar eclipse at 20 degrees of Leo which is very close to the ascendant of Iran. The moon in mundane astrology is the signifier of the people of the country and lunar eclipses often bring events involving the masses including protests. That lunar eclipse would still have been in effect come June 2009 when the protests began and for good measure in July there was a solar eclipse at 21 degrees of Cancer right on the Jupiter of the chart. Jupiter brings people and things together. Interestingly enough back in 2009 there was a conjunction of Mars and Venus as there has been in early January of 2026. On June the 15th that Mars-Venus conjunction was right on the midheaven of the Iranian natal chart. I did a lot more backtesting of the charts but that's all I want to show you now. The point is this chart works and guess what? It's coming under a lot of pressure right now. The first and most obvious signifier of what's going on at the moment in Iran is the position of Saturn and Neptune right now. Saturn is currently at 27 degrees of Pisces which is the degree of Mercury in the chart of Iran. What's more Mercury is conjunct fiery warlike Mars in that natal chart and when this Mercury-Mars conjunction has been triggered in the past we've often seen protests and riots in Iran. Mercury is the messenger the communicator and Mercury is seen as debilitated quite severely in Pisces. Free speech is not exactly a specialty of Iran's theocratic regime. And now with a transit from Saturn to Mercury we've seen the Iranian regime cut internet and phone services in a bid to throttle the protests. That's very simple but on-the-nose astrology. Now soon enough Saturn and Neptune are going to move beyond these last degrees of Pisces and form their conjunction at zero degrees of Aries on February the 20th of 2026. We've already seen that historically the Saturn-Neptune conjunctions have marked massive historical milestones for Iran and that these have usually involved changes to the Iranian regime. I wouldn't bet on that coming early this year but I wouldn't rule it out completely. What will also happen this year and in early 2027 is that heavy Saturn is going to make three conjunctions with the Sun of the Iranian chart. The Sun signifies the country's leadership and reputation. Those things are going to come under quite a lot of pressure. The first of those conjunctions comes on May the 19th of 2026, the second in October and the third and final one in February of 2027. The last time Saturn conjoined the Sun of this chart was April the 7th of 1997 and at this time Iran's reputation took a big hit because on April the 10th of 1997 the German court found four men guilty of carrying out killings of Iranian dissidents on behalf of the Iranian state at a restaurant in Berlin in 1992. This led to a major diplomatic crisis and EU sanctions against Iran. So we can expect that once again the Iranian leadership and reputation is going to come under a lot of pressure. There's also another difficult signature in Iran's chart which is a pressurized and tense T-square of the Moon, Venus and Saturn. That looks a little bit like the oppression of women to me. In April 2026 Uranus is going to return to Gemini and in the second half of 2026 it's then going to square Venus in the Iran chart and then in 2027 it will heavily stimulate the Venus, Moon, Saturn T-square in the chart. So all of this seems to signify a lot of turbulence in Iran and I think it's quite likely that foreign powers like the US and Israel will also intervene in Iran in an attempt to further destabilize the country and bring down the Islamist regime. I have other reasons for thinking that in particular Iran's 2026 Aries Ingress chart which is a chart that gives us an outlook for Iran's coming year beginning at the spring equinox 2026. That chart suggests to me that war could be on the horizon. In the bonus section of this video we look at that chart and we get further into trying to foresee what could be coming down the pipe for the country. That's it for now. Thanks for watching and see you again on this channel very soon.