Planetary Combustion Calendar 2026
In 2026, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are combust 12 times between them, with 11 cazimis inside the year. Each is timed to the second, and each planet has its own page of dates and patterns.
Where each planet stands
Each row gives a planet's state against the Sun when you opened the page, its next combustion and its next cazimi. Of the five, the next cazimi belongs to Mercury.
| Planet | Now | Next combustion | Next cazimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☿ Mercury | Under the beams until | to in 38 days, superior | at 11°02′ Capricorn |
| ♀ Venus | Clear of the Sun | to in 245 days, superior | at 19°06′ Leo |
| ♂ Mars | Clear of the Sun | to in 459 days, superior | at 1°00′ Aries |
| ♃ Jupiter | Clear of the Sun | to in 284 days, superior | at 7°41′ Virgo |
| ♄ Saturn | Clear of the Sun | to in 140 days, superior | at 17°40′ Aries |
2026 combustion calendar at a glance
The year in one table
In order of start date, with the exact conjunction for each. The longest is Venus's superior combustion of 70 days, which began in 2025.
| Planet | Conjunction | Combust from | to | Days | Cazimi | At | Signs crossed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ♀ Venus | Superior | 70 | 16°22′ Capricorn | Sagittarius → Capricorn → Aquarius → Pisces | |||
| ♂ Mars | Superior | 69 | 19°12′ Capricorn | Sagittarius → Capricorn → Aquarius | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Superior | 26 | 1°36′ Aquarius | Capricorn → Aquarius | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Inferior | 8 | 16°52′ Pisces | Pisces | |||
| ♄ Saturn | Superior | 19 | 4°43′ Aries | Aries | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Superior | 14 | 23°48′ Taurus | Taurus → Gemini | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Inferior | 11 | 20°42′ Cancer | Cancer | |||
| ♃ Jupiter | Superior | 23 | 6°24′ Leo | Leo | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Superior | 17 | 4°26′ Virgo | Leo → Virgo | |||
| ♀ Venus | Inferior | 10 | 0°45′ Scorpio | Scorpio → Libra | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Inferior | 7 | 12°10′ Scorpio | Scorpio | |||
| ☿ Mercury | Superior | 28 | 11°02′ Capricorn | Sagittarius → Capricorn → Aquarius |
2026 combustion dates by planet
Mercury combust dates 2026
Venus combust dates 2026
Mars combust dates 2026
Jupiter combust dates 2026
Saturn combust dates 2026
What planetary combustion means
A planet close to the Sun cannot be seen in the sky, and early astrologers took that literally: a planet hidden by the Sun could not show what it signified. Hellenistic authors already treated a planet under the Sun's beams as weakened; medieval authors added combustion and cazimi as the closer stages. The calendars here use the three distances most Western astrologers still use, all measured along the zodiac: within 17° of the Sun a planet is under the beams, within 8°30′ it is combust, and within 17′ it is cazimi.
A combust planet is read as weakened in proportion to how close it is, and as working for the Sun rather than for itself: its matters go on, out of view, and tend to serve whatever the Sun represents in a chart or a question. Under the beams is the milder form at either end of a combustion. Cazimi is the odd case, a planet so close that it is treated as sitting in the Sun's own seat and strengthened by it.
The five planets do this on very different schedules. Mercury is combust on 27% of all days, in short spells several times a year; Mars on 8%, in blocks of about two months every other year. The table below sets them side by side, and each planet's page explains its own pattern.
How the five planets compare
Two things set a planet's combustion pattern: how long the Sun takes to come round to it again, and how fast the two separate once they meet. Mercury and Venus also meet the Sun in two ways, passing in front of it while retrograde and behind it while direct, which is why their counts split into short and long combustions. Venus and Mars, moving nearly as fast as the Sun when they meet it from the far side, give the longest combustions and the longest cazimi windows, 1.7 days or more.
| ☿ Mercury | ♀ Venus | ♂ Mars | ♃ Jupiter | ♄ Saturn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cazimis | 69 | 14 | 5 | 10 | 11 |
| Cazimis in a calendar year | 6 to 7 | 1 to 2 | 0 to 1 | 0 to 1 | 1 |
| Days between cazimis | 43 to 70 | 287 to 296 | 769 to 802 | 395 to 402 | 378 to 380 |
| Days combust each time | 7 to 30 | 10 to 70 | 52 to 78 | 21 to 23 | 19 to 20 |
| Share of all days combust | 27% | 13.7% | 8.1% | 5.9% | 5.8% |
| Hours within 17′ (cazimi) | 5.7 to 24.5 | 8.3 to 56.9 | 41.7 to 63.4 | 17.2 to 18.7 | 15.6 to 16.5 |
| Retrograde at cazimi | 34 of 69 | 7 of 14 | 0 of 5 | 0 of 10 | 0 of 11 |
| Lined up with the solar disk | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
✦ Cazimi, the exception inside combustion
The word reached European astrology from Arabic, and William Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647) renders being "in Cazimi" as being "in the heart of the Sun". Lilly scored it among a planet's strongest accidental fortitudes, while combustion sat among the heaviest debilities. On these calendars a planet is cazimi while it is within 17′ of the Sun in longitude; how long that lasts runs from about 6 hours for Mercury passing in front of the Sun to 2.6 days for Mars.
Every cazimi of the year is listed with its sign and time on the cazimi dates page, and the guide to cazimi covers its history and use in electional astrology.
2027 at a glance
Planetary combustion FAQ
Which planets are combust right now?
None, as of November 9, 2026, at 15:37 UTC. The table at the top of the page shows the next combustion of each planet and updates to your own clock when it loads.
How many cazimis are there in 2026?
11: 6 of Mercury, 2 of Venus, 1 of Mars, 1 of Jupiter and 1 of Saturn. Each is counted in the year of the exact conjunction (UTC).
Which planet is combust most often, and which least?
Mercury spends the most time combust, 27% of all days from 2025 to 2035, in many short spells. Saturn spends the least, 5.8%, in spells of 19 to 20 days. Counted by cazimis, Mars is the rarest: 5 in those years, against 69 for Mercury.
What is the difference between combust, under the beams and cazimi?
They are three distances from the Sun, measured along the zodiac. Within 17° a planet is under the beams, within 8°30′ it is combust, and within 17′ it is cazimi. Tradition treats the first two as weakening the planet, more so the closer it gets, and the third as the exception that strengthens it.
Why are Mars, Jupiter and Saturn never combust while retrograde?
An outer planet turns retrograde around its opposition, when it is opposite the Sun, and is combust only around its conjunction with the Sun, on the far side. In the data every Mars, Jupiter and Saturn cazimi comes at least 121 days before the next retrograde station. Only Mercury and Venus, which pass between Earth and the Sun, are retrograde at some of their cazimis.
Are the Moon, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto ever combust?
The Moon is, around every new Moon, and traditional astrologers do count it, but it is left off these calendars because it happens every month. Combustion was defined for the planets visible to the eye; most astrologers do not apply it to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which were first found with telescopes.
Data and method
Every period on these calendars covers 2025 to 2035 and was computed from a high-precision ephemeris: geocentric, apparent positions in the tropical zodiac, with each orb crossing found to the second and the whole set recomputed by a second program as a check. Dates in sentences are UTC; tables switch to your time zone. The about page lists the conventions used across the site.
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