Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of April 14th, 2025: A tense start to Taurus season

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Episode 226In this podcast, New York Times best-selling author and astrologer Chani Nicholas discusses the astrology of the week and what it might mean for us all.The astrology of the week of April 14th, 2025, is a master class in engaging with friction. When Mercury and Neptune meet up in fiery Aries, details get lost, and the cosmic mood turns turbulent. Plus, the Sun faces off with the warrior planet after Taurus season begins, adding to the agitation. The next seven days challenge us not to get stuck in this funk but to work with it constructively. When wielded wisely, frustration can be generative fuel.Let’s get into it.This episode covers:Mercury’s re-entry into Aries on Tuesday, April 15thMercury’s conjunction with Neptune on Wednesday, April 16thMars’ re-entry into Leo on Thursday, April 17thThe Sun’s ingress into Taurus on Saturday, April 19thMars’ trine to Neptune on Saturday, April 19thVenus’ sextile to Uranus on Sunday, April 20thMercury’s sextile to Pluto on Sunday, April 20thThe Sun’s square to Mars on Sunday, April 20thThis episode was recorded on 03/26/2025.For more, check out your free daily horoscope on the homepage of the CHANI app — now on iOS and Android.The music featured in the podcast was created by Latashá.

Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie, Channy, Nicholas. And in this episode, we are talking about the week of April 14th and the astrology there within, if that's how you say that. Okay, so look, this week we have a couple, three, a few, very significant planets changing signs. Not like big, deal 2025, hold my beer, watch this kind of sign changes. But they are significant, nonetheless, they're significant for smaller time frames. The first thing we've got on the docket is the fact that Mercury is moving back into Ares. And as soon as it moves into Aries, it makes a conjunction. It meets up with Neptune, who is also just newly in Aries. So that

That means that this is a week, especially in the beginning of the week, that is dominated with conversations that we've never had before. You know, and you're like, wow, I didn't have that on my bingo card for 2025. Who knew? Another unprecedented. It feels like that. It feels like this is a conversation that is pretty wild, pretty out there, and definitely not something that I saw coming.

Why? Well, because Neptune has never been in Ares in our lifetime, right? It hasn't been there for like 165 years. So this is Mercury, the megaphone, the translator, the one who picks up whatever is around, right? A microphone is neutral, but it's going to amplify or record whoever is speaking into it. That's Mercury. So Mercury moves into areas on Tuesday. And it will bump into Neptune on Wednesday. And we're going to have like fire starter conversations. Neptune is the planet that is associated with the seas and the oceans and water,

but it's in a fire sign. So it's kind of like lighter fluid. And so when Mercury comes along, it's like we're having conversations where the fire is just spilling out everywhere. So it all depends on how we use it. Always. That's what astrology is. It's a archetypal experience. It's a piece of time that we're talking about. We're talking about the beginning of this week. And we're talking about what kinds of events are likely to occur. So it's more than likely that we're having conversations that are igniting something and also possibly spreading like lighter fluid that we didn't mean to go everywhere. So we've got to be somewhat conscientious. I don't even know if you've got to be careful. I don't know. It's up to you, right? Like, I think that on the world stage, we'll be having some very wild conversations where something is catching and going kind of like

a trail of lighter fluid that you didn't know was there until something got sparked. And then all of a And you're like, whoa, that went fast. So wherever Ares is in your chart, that is one of the experiences you might be having there. So make sure that the information that is getting out is the information that you want to get out. Because this is leaky information type of astrology, but it's also very illuminating and very startling and very captivating and very attention getting. So it's not like, oh, something's leaking and nobody's really need. noticing it and oh no, that's eventually going to be a problem. It's like right away,

it is a fantastic old kind of event where something gets said and it just goes like wildfire. So that's the beginning of the week. And then what happens is Mars moves in to Leo. So we've got Mercury in a fire sign, Neptune obviously in a fire sign. And then Mars is moving into another fire sign. Different fire sign, but still. And it's going to make that connection with Neptune. It's going to make a trine with Neptune right away. Now, there's a couple very important things we need to remember about Mars in Leo. This is where it's stationed retrograde on December 6th. So if we think back to November, the beginning of November, what was happening, who was in the news, what was in the news, a certain someone named Luigi Mangione was in the news, just saying.

We were in our first Mars in Leo opposing Pluto and Aquarius moment. As Mars was stationing retrograde, we had another Mars Pluto opposition in the beginning of November right before a certain country had their election. But that was when Mars was in cancer and Pluto was in Capricorn. So same series of events, just in different signs. But the beginning of December is when we had the Mars and Leo opposing Pluto in Aquarius. So we are revisiting that theme. Mars and Pluto will make its third and final opposition to each other on the 26th of April.

This is a very significant date in 2025's astrology. It's not significant in terms of like the next 10 years necessarily. but it's saying like a shorter time frame and again the span of time between December of 2024 and the end of April of 2025, there's something connected here. So we know that that's coming next week. So we're going to watch out for it. And before we get there, I don't want to jump too far ahead because these are small steps, but they're really important ones before we get there.

So Mars enters Leo on the 17th of April. It immediately makes a trine with Neptune because Neptune just moved into Ares and planets only make a trine or harmonious aspect when they're in the same element. So Mars is in a fire sign. Neptune's in a fire sign. And these two line up for us to get inspired to take action towards our ideal, to take action towards the fantasy, to make our dreams come true through the taking of action. Dreams do not come true unless we move towards them.

And Mars is a planet that teaches us how to move, and it's finally out of cancer. It has been in sticky, tricky, emotionally confusing, and feeling like all of our security systems are being attacked cancer since January. Since January 6th, Mars has been in cancer all the way until now, until the 17th of April. That is a long time for Mars to be in one of the hardest signs it can be in. So now that it moves into Leo on the 17th of April, it is a much faster pace that we're moving into. And when it makes this trine with Neptune, it is again like that feeling of,

of things catching fire in a good way, I think, in a way that's like, whoa, we can really move with our inspiration and we can really move into action. And this is the way we can go. And this is how we can fight for the things that we believe in. Remember, Mars rules Aries. So whatever is in Aries needs to have a relationship with Mars. So this is a good setup. This is a kind of like healthy setup, if you will. And it's a setup that encourages us to do the things that also will feed our inspiration and create more inspiration, like a good dopamine hit or a good way to get dopamine to inspire us to do the next thing that will also help us feel good, that is also good for us personally. But yes, collectively, this is a moment where we might feel like a swell of a

fighting spirit that also has within it a tremendous amount of compassion because it is. Neptune and Neptune in Ares is definitely about moving towards fighting for and being really fierce when it comes to our ideals and how we go about manifesting them. On the same day, on the 19th of April, the day that Mars makes a trine to Neptune, the sun moves into Taurus, which is a very different vibe, right? Grounded, steady, earthy, tourists. It's kind of nice to have something steady and grounded in my world. the skies now. But and also, by Sunday the 20th of April, the sun and Mars make a square

because there's this setup in the sky that says, well, all fixed signs are either squaring each other or opposing each other. Mars is in the fixed sign of Leo. The sun has moved into the fixed sign of Taurus. And now we're in some kind of sensation that feels aggravating. It feels annoying. It feels a little edgy and it feels a little grading. And it spurs us into action, but through discomfort. So we move from, or at the same time, we're having like one thing that's helping us to move in a way that feels inspiring and we feel like, oh, I'm so happy I get to move towards this thing or this even is easy in a way or this is lighting me up or inspiring me or group of people in a way that seems like, thank God, what a relief. And then at the same time,

there's this agitation that's happening that feels much more like a fight, like something that is like everybody's digging their heels in and there's a kind of gnarlier thing going on. Now, once we get into Sunday, once Mars makes that trine to Neptune, once we have that bout of inspired action, Mars then goes on to make that opposition to Pluto. So I just want to mention that by the time we get into Sunday, the 20th of April, and all the way through to Saturday, the 26th, but really like a little while after that, there is this tension and this friction in the air. And it's pretty hefty. So I want us to enjoy the good things that we can. I want us to enjoy the pockets of ease or the pockets of when we get to move in an inspired way in in whatever ease is available to

us, I want us to be like, okay, this is easy. I'm going to really like be conscious of this. I'm going to be enjoying this. I'm not going to take this for granted because there's something that happens and it doesn't necessarily mean that's going to happen in your personal life, but it could be happening on the world stage for sure that happens on and around April 26th. that again, is full of tension and friction. And there is a quality here that requires us to dig into something that is really ferocious, either inside us or having to contend with something that seems really unfair. But again, there is this quality of at the end of April,

us needing to do something that seems a little like David and Goliath matchup. Like Pluto is this like hefty, deity, god, planet of the underworld, amassing wealth and power. And Mars is no joke. Absolutely not. I think the hardest transits are when Mars is involved. Mars is a real headache sometimes. And it is that planet that spurs us into action, gets us to rally our courage, and gets us to change things. So Mars is very like above board in Leo at least. It's very like, this is what I'm doing up against Pluto that is like this subterranean power source. And so it's poking at something that is very deeply embedded in our society, in our world, in our culture, in our systemic inequality. And I just think that there's going to be another round of conversations about class consciousness.

and the need for it amongst all the other things that we obviously need to be conscious of, but an event or something that happens at the end of April that's going to bring that up again. Like, hey, all of these systems are set up so that we fail and we are left floundering that we actually suffer. There are so many systems set up in the world that are there to be. make bank and that bank on our suffering. That is real. That is where we are in time and space. That is not any kind of like doomsdaying anything. That's just reality. And when astrology like this comes around, it pokes at that. And because Mars is making that trine to Neptune right

before it makes the opposition to Pluto, I do feel like there's a tremendous amount of movement and we move up against something that cannot be ignored. And it's also the wrap up of this set of three oppositions between Mars and Pluto that happened at the beginning of November, 24, Mars stationed retrograde, the beginning of December, and then it made its second exact opposition at the beginning of January, and this is the third and last. So it's also wrapping something up, but it's connected to that storyline. So just thinking about beginning of November, I'm going to include beginning of December, because that's when Mars stationed retrograde, and beginning of January and the end of April.

There's some story here that is like this and then this and then this and then this. I don't know what it's going to be, obviously. I'm recording this in the past, but that's what I'm going to be looking for. I know I'm jumping ahead a little bit in the astrology, but I just want us to have that in our mind's eye as we go through the rest of the month. The other things that are happening on the 20th, on Sunday, again, I think the Mars square, the sun or sun square, Mars is going to be agitating, but I want us to use that agitation in the best way we can. What are we agitated to go and do, to improve, to make better, to work towards, to solve, to resolve, to resolve, to do anything

that's positive for us. Because those squares can really be so important in terms of us being able to take action. The other things that are happening are Venus is making a sex style to Uranus and Mercury is making a sextile to Pluto. So that's really nice. That's like seeking out pleasure in a new way, having fun, being experimental. like being very spontaneous. And then it's also having conversations that are very deep and cathartic.

And maybe the things that agitate us spur us into like, let's go try a new place. Let's go to a new art gallery. Let's go do something different. Let's go to a party that we wouldn't normally go to. Or let's have this conversation that I'm usually afraid to have, but I'm so agitated, I've got to have it. So again, the agitation isn't bad, but it can overwhelm the system when we just stay agitated. What is the agitation saying to us at the end of the week?

And what does it want us to do so that we can vent or let off some steam or process or have fun in a way that's like, okay, I just actually needed to like move the creative energy. I needed to move the stuck energy through in a different kind of way. Okay. So now comes the part of the show where we talk about questions that you have for me. If you have a question, please write in at the bottom of the show. this video or send us a little note over the emails. But if you're watching this on YouTube, please just leave a little comment. If you're listening to this on the app or wherever you get your podcast, feel free to write in and send us your questions. This is a question I have gotten a lot

about what is the post-retrograde shadow period all about. So this is the deal. For about 10 days, after Mercury has stationed direct, we are in the post-retrograde shadow period. So about 10 days before Mercury retrogrades, and then Mercury's retrograde for three weeks about, and then 10 days after Mercury Stations direct, we're still in the same storyline. So think of it this way. I walk down the stairs to go outside. And then I realize that I have forgotten my keys. I have to stop, turn around, that's Mercury Stationing Retrograde, go back up the stairs, get my keys, that's Mercury Stationing Direct, then go back down the stairs just to get to the door that I was at when I realized I forgot my keys.

So the journey of going down, pausing, going back up, getting the thing, pausing, going back down again, is the Mercury Retrograde and the pre and the post. retrograde shadow periods. Because the first time I go through the stairway and get to the door is the pre-retrograde shadow period. Before retrograde happens, Mercury moves through those stairs or those degrees of the zodiac that it's going to eventually have to go backtrack up or backtrack too. So Mercury is not retrograde yet, but pretend Mercury is me. I go down the stairs, get to the door. I forgot my keys. Retrograde. I have to go back. Get my keys. Station direct. Go back. I still have to go back down the stairs. I've already been here. And then I get to the door. And then I'm free. And then I get to go on a new adventure.

Got my things. Had to do the review. Had to go back and get the stuff. Maybe on the way I realized, I also forgot my phone. Good thing I forgot my tea. Or I forgot the thing that I was actually going to bring to the tailor to get fixed. and I realized like all these things that I forgot on the way back to get my keys. So the post-mercury retrograde shadow period is that period of time where we're like, okay, I've gathered my stuff. I realized what was broken. I did my best to fix it. And now I got to get back to where I was when the whole thing started.

So a lot of people find that the post-retrograde period is the worst. I don't really know why. I don't actually have a good astrological reason for it. And just let you know what I hear. But definitely the preview, like the pre-retrograded shadow period, it's like, is everything okay? I'm not sure. And then you're like, oh, God, no, it's not.

Okay, wait, I forgot the things. And then the going back up the stairs is just annoying, right? The actual retrograde's like, oh, God, I got it do. I'm late. And then the going back down the stairs to get back to the place that we were can sometimes seem like more work than it needs to be. Maybe not in my example, but in the actual 10 days after the retrograde ends, sometimes that's when we're like, oh, my God, wait, I forgot everything.

Maybe that's what it is. It's like, wait, hold on. I got my keys, but now I remember like, ugh, I was never going to even make it to the place I was going to. My Uber didn't even come or whatever. I didn't have my bus token. So it's that time where we might feel like extra scrambly after the retrograde's actually over. And I'm not saying this so that you can blame more time or more things going wrong on the Mercury retrograde.

Please don't do that. It doesn't make anybody look good. And it's not the best use of astrology. Although I will agree with you. Mercury retrogrades are generally annoying. And I will counter that by saying Mercury retrogrades give us the best fixes to the problems we didn't even know we had. So that post-mercure retrograde shadow period is just like that, oh, God, it wasn't even

just that. I had all these other things that I forgot to do or that weren't working or that, wow, there was like a whole host of emails that I missed, that kind of vibe. So for about 10 days after the mercury retrograde's done, we're still dealing with the aftermath. And then we're in the clear. And then a couple months later, we'll do it all again because Mercury retrograde's like three to four times a year.

three times a year. But that's a lot. It's a lot of time. So we're meant to be reviewing our lives and our process quite a bit. All right, y'all. Thank you so much for joining. If you find this kind of thing helpful, if you find this podcast helpful, please send it to a bestie. Please send it to somebody that you think might benefit from it. It helps us so much. I deeply appreciate when people tell other people about the work. It really helps it proliferate and go do its thing. And for the people that are like, do not talk to me about astrology, don't mention my name. Don't even, I don't, zip it. We don't, we don't need to convince anyone of anything. That's not why we're here. But I deeply appreciate you. So thank you, thank you, thank you for joining every week or whenever you come by.

next week we have that Mars Pluto opposition. It's gnarly. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to make us afraid of it. It's going to get us determined. And we're going to be like, I'm going to win. We are going to win. We have no other choice but to win. That's it. Bottom line case closed. Then we got to be like, okay, how are we going to do it? But this is about being up against something that feels hefty and deep. And there's a lot of subterranean stuff that comes up. And we are ready for it because it's happening. That's just the way astrology works, I think. On the heels of that, Mars, Pluto opposition is a new moon and Taurus that's going to have

the Mars Pluto opposition kind of baked into it. So we'll talk about how to be determined in the new and fresh starts that we're making with the new moon. All right. I'll see you back here then. And until then, sending you all my love, all the blessings. Bye for now.