Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of August 25th, 2025: Connection meets reflection, courtesy of Venus and Pluto

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Episode 245In 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 August 25th, 2025, centers love, beauty, and relationships. Venus (the planet of art and desire) moves into Leo, inspiring bold self-expression. With Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune also in the mix, our connections and creative projects get a boost. But as the planet of love faces off with power-driven Pluto, we’re asked to face our fears of rejection and intimacy. It’s time to dig deep, get vulnerable, and put in the work. Once we do that, there will be plenty of time to play.Let’s dive in.This episode covers:Venus’ entrance into Leo on Monday, August 25thVenus’ trine with Saturn on Monday, August 25thVenus’ sextile with Uranus on Tuesday, August 26thVenus’ trine with Neptune on Tuesday, August 26thVenus’ opposition with Pluto on Tuesday, August 26thUranus’ sextile with Neptune on Thursday, August 28thThis episode was recorded on 07/09/2025.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.

Three things about this week. It wants us to be in pursuit of the most pleasurable experiences possible. It wants us to be really dramatic about what we love and who we love and how we declare our love. And it wants us to dream as radically as we possibly can. Hello and welcome. This is the Astrology of the Week Ahead podcast. I'm your host, Channie Nicholas, your Astro-Best. in this episode. We are talking about the week of August 25th. All right, y'all, we're not quite in, I mean, we're in eclipse season. We are headed towards our first eclipse. Our first eclipse will be next week. It will be on September 7th. So we still have like a little bit of a minute before we get there. But you might start to notice a quickening, a pace that's starting to pick up.

and this week's astrology is going to lead to the drama of it all. Our biggest thing that's happening this week is that Venus moves into Leo on the 25th, on Monday the 25th, and immediately it makes a trine with Saturn. What does that mean? Well, Venus and Leo runs hot. It is a planet that's all about pleasure and how we pursue our pleasure. It's about delight. It's about art. It's about culture creation. And in Leo, it wants to do that in a very pronounced, very obvious, very creative way. This is about the beauty of self-expression. And what happens this week, especially Monday and Tuesday, like right at the beginning of the week,

is that Venus makes a connection to all of these slow-moving planets. So it trines Saturn. It sextiles Uranus. It trines Neptune and then it opposes Pluto. And that, in a nutshell, means that our relationships and our relationship to creativity, a relationship to beauty, our relationship to art is ever present and really important to focus on. And as we can do so, as we can free ourselves to be like, you know what, that is beautiful.

and I'm going to claim that as something that's beautiful. I'm going to claim my beauty as my own. I am going to style myself in the way that makes me feel good. It makes me feel like my body is a source of pleasure and that it is pleasurable to adorn myself. Like, this is Leo, where is your crown? How is your hair? Do you need a little dude?

Do you need a haircut? Do you need a little dye job? What is it that would make you feel just that? little extra jujjed. That is a good thing to do this week. Tell your bestie, go to the salon together, go to the vintage shop together. What can you repurpose? What can you restile? Look at your wardrobe. What can you like redo about it? How can you mix and match things in a different way? We want to feel vibrant and alive in the ways in which we are expressing ourselves visually, aesthetically, and in all of the ways. In terms of our relationships, this is a transit that will

be very loud about what works and what doesn't. On Monday, as Venus makes a trine to Saturn, it's giving a commitment and not commitment issues. It's giving like, oh, this is a good commitment. This is a relationship that I want to do long term. This is something that I want to work. work on long term. This is something that I want to create. This is something that I want to make. This is something that I want to make sure happens between me and another person or in terms of my own creativity, long term. How can I commit to it? How can I focus on what is needed from me over a long span of time? And it's like having a lot of endurance to do so. On Tuesday, Venus, This, again, does these three things, and they're very different. Venus makes a sex style to Uranus,

which gives us like an exciting, flirty, curious kind of energy. It's about doing something differently that is also easy to do or that creates a lot of excitement. There's like a new energy, you know, that expression, like new relationship energy when you meet somebody new and maybe you engage with them or maybe you don't, but there's that like vibe of like, oh, I've got a crush on somebody. And I'm not saying that that's going to happen for everybody, but there is that kind of feeling of like, oh, this is a new thing. And it's awakening my desire for pleasure, for relationship, for being in that moment of like, will they, won't they? Who knows? I like it. It's exciting because I don't know what's going to happen. And so it's a good day to seek that out. At the same time, Venus trines Neptune.

So it's very romantic. It's very idealistic. And all of this. bodes really well for all of our relationships and our relationship to our creative energy because Venus is an art curator, an art maker. It is the artist. So this is all really, really good creative energy. And because Venus is in Leo, there's this desire to be like, I need to express this. And this is how I'm going to do it. And that new relationship energy can be with that new creative impulse that surges through us early in the week. And then also on Tuesday, Venus makes an opposition to Pluto. So it ends up on this really heavy note. It ends up in a place that's going to give us a deep, profound experience. Sorry to say. I would rather it just ended on the like,

woo, vibes. That's cute. Love the new creative energy, new relationship energy kind of note. But no, Pluto's in the mix. So Venus opposing Pluto is going to be like, yes, vibes, great. And then once it gets to Pluto on Tuesday, it's like, done, done, there's something deeper going on. And there's a relationship issue that we need to get to the bottom of. We need to seek out. We need to do some soul searching. We need to have a little moment of like, is that me or is that them? I am I? Are they? What's actually happening? And we need to go deeper and investigate. And or it's really good for our creative projects in as much as it makes us go deeper. It makes us enter into a process that's going to be really transformative as we're like, what is important

to me, what do I value? And above all else, no matter what this is about, Venus helps us source out what we value, what we value in our art, what we value in our relationships, what we value and therefore what we attract or what we're attracted to. And so Pluto always makes us go down a couple of levels. Like nothing surface will suffice. This is about getting underneath and underneath to the root cause of something. So there is this thing that happens on Tuesday that gets us to go down to the root cause of a relationship issue. And when we do that and we sacrifice our ego, when we don't need to be right, talking to myself here, when we don't need to be prideful, when we can sacrifice all of that and be like, I would rather be a good partner.

I'd rather be someone who's a really good student of life than be right. Then these kinds of kinds of moments can be so profound because ultimately they teach us about what gets in the way of being intimate in the first place. And usually that's fear, whether that shows up as anger or resentment or coldness or bitterness or a distance or whatever we do in our relationships. Ultimately, I think most of the time it's because we're afraid of being rejected. We're afraid because we've been rejected. We're afraid of someone, you know, saying no once we are vulnerable. But this demands our vulnerability. So there's a lot of new exciting energy that happens Monday and Tuesday in relationships and in regards to our own creative energy and self-expression, very vibe. And it ends with

something deep, profound, and ultimately asks us to compost an aspect of our own. own relationship dynamic that isn't helpful anymore. It's a little like shadow work in terms of relationships. So what are you projecting onto the other person? What are they projecting onto you? How can you recall those projections? How can you take them back? Let everybody be themselves, let everybody have their stuff and kind of like own your own power, have everybody in their relationships, own their own power, own self, and then come together in a different kind of way. There's going to be some of that parsing out, possibly, that we need to do. So if you feel like there's, like, weird power dynamics at work or at the grocery store

or at your kid's school or, yeah, there probably is. Like, that's what Pluto tends to unearth, especially in an opposition. And it's like, oh, yeah, everything's going great. and then someone gives you like that look. You're like, what? What's going on? Investigate it. Like, don't get paranoid or whatever, but make sure that you're doing your work in the relationships when that kind of shadowy, irky, murky material starts to come up because there's something there to transform. On a social level, on a communal level, on a collective level, this can very much be about, you know, the stuff that lurks beneath the shadows.

Venus is also about justice. Venus is also about fairness. It is a planet that rules the sign of the scales, Libra. So it wants to make sure that justice is occurring. It's very concerned with what is fair. And when it's up against Pluto, it's like, that's unfair. That's a steal. That's like some kind of, like, you're hoarding wealth over there.

And because Venus can represent queer folks and femmes and women when it's pitted against Pluto, which is an underworld god of, you know, deity of power, it can be like, okay, where's the next patriarchal pyramid scheme power play coming from? Which, you know, in these current times, you don't need a transit from Pluto to experience, but there might be one that's pronounced this week, especially by the end of Tuesday. On Thursday, we get the signature that is about radical dreaming. This is a transit that wants us to be delusional on purpose. It is a transit that is saying to us, look, there's something very ideal here, but it's going to take a major break from what is traditionally done.

So if we want to live into the ideal of something, especially collectively, what do we need to break from in terms of the traditions that were stuck within, the systems that we're in? I'm talking about the sextile between Uranus and Neptune, which is very rare and very unique and very only of this moment, especially in these two signs, because these very slow-moving planets have just transitioned into these signs. So this is a signature that is really collective. It'll land in our personal life somewhat. And but also this is a big like mark of collective vism. And so we're being asked to be very, very radically awake when we are dreaming about new possibilities. And in terms of us being intentionally delusional. We probably need to be. I'm recording this in the past,

but, you know, I'm in 2025 with you, so I know the deal. We need to be very, very, very strong and determined in our re-envisioning of what this world could be. We also need to be exceptionally strategic and not delusional about all of the things that the opposition will do in order to get their way. So if we are dedicated to a dream or to a vision for the future, we need to be radically dedicated to it. We need to be willing to not go the normal route, not assume people will do play by the rules themselves. So if other people are going to break the rules, okay, I'm going to. to know that. What rules am I going to break in order to move towards this dream? Personally, collectively, and maybe we break rules, maybe we don't break rules, but maybe we be very,

very cognizant of loopholes, very, very cognizant of the ways in which the system could work for us. Could it work for us? Does it work for us? What part of the system works for us? What part doesn't. What do we need to reconstruct? What can't we reconstruct quick enough? So what do we need to do now with what we've got in order to be very innovative in this moment so that we can move towards the dream? All right. This week, I've got a question about Venus and if we should dress as our Venus sign. I say yes. I love dressing for the Venus sign. Depending on where your Venus is, where it's placed, what it's doing in your chart,

I also think dressing as your rising sign is very helpful. Honestly, I'm like, dress just in terms of whatever makes you feel good and dress in ways that makes you feel powerful. I remember when I first met my wife and I had, I was like dealing with like getting gray hair and I didn't really like it. And so this hairdresser convinced me to put blonde streaks in my hair, which really was not a good idea. But it was like, hide the gray. And I was like, okay, I'll try it.

And I did it. And then I was hanging out with her. We were just dating at that time. And I said, I don't know. I just don't feel very powerful with this hairdo. And she, like, dropped everything. And she was like, change it. Change it right away.

Change it right now. You cannot live with this hairdo for one more moment. And I was like, okay, easy. But she's also really right for me. Again, I've got a specific type of Venus placement. My Venus is very strong. Venus is very important in my chart. It facilitates a lot for me.

So I really need to make sure that my Venus is happy. And I think that that is a way for us to also facilitate attracting things into our life. So you could dress like the. sign that your Venus is in, whatever that means to you. I don't know, does it mean that Venus and Capricorn is like business attire? It means that like Venus and Earth signs are going to be probably a little bit more practical and like put together. Venus and fire signs are obviously going to be very loud. Venus and air signs may be a little bit more conceptual. Venus and water signs, maybe a little bit more fluid, maybe a little bit more mystical, magical.

But and also Venus in its own sign, Venus in Taurus, Venus in Libra, or Venus exalted in Pisces, is just going to have a capacity to present themselves or to create things that are really beautiful. So for example, Beyonce has Venus in Libra, which is an exceptionally powerful placement. She also has it with Pluto. and Jupiter and Saturn, which is exalted. So it's a whole combo. It's not just Venus and Libra, but if we're just talking about dressing like your Venus sign, I think it's very interesting because Venus and Libra is in its own element.

And what is she called? She's called Queen Bee. What is Venus? Venus is the goddess. And what do you give Venus? You give Venus honey. Venus is associated with bees. and honey, because she's, you know, the great goddess. And so someone with a super strong Venus,

Beyonce, is called Queen Bee, which is literally another word for Venus in its own sign. And I don't know, I think maybe you could make a case for her dressing more like her Venus placement than like her rising sign, which we just found out was Aries. Dressing like Aries is a little bit more like leather and straps and weapons, perhaps. I mean, not all, but, you know, it's like, it's pretty, it's ruled by Mars. So it's a little bit more like in combat. It's a little bit harsher. It's a little bit, you know, more about like the strength of it. And definitely she dresses in flashy, you know, ways and all of that kind of stuff. But there's something about that articulation of like her having the beehive and her being queen bee that's so perfectly articulated in how.

having such a strong Venus. So take that for what it's worth. Dress in the ways that make you feel powerful, that make you feel beautiful, that make you feel soft and open and receptive and magnetic and attractive. And if you're like me, that changes. Like sometimes I dress like my sun's sign because my son is sitting with other planets and it's a really potent signature and I feel more comfortable there. Sometimes I dress way more like my Venus. which is very different than my son. You know, so it's like I think I switch a lot, but they're definitely signatures that are embedded in my astrological chart.

And it's about more than just the sign that my Venus or my son or my ascendant is in. It's really about the cluster of planets, too, and what that might articulate for us. All right. I hope that helps. Thank you so much for your questions. Listen, come back next week. We got to talk about the lunar eclipse in Pisces that's happening on September 7th.

Y'all, eclipse season is here. Eclipse season started as soon as the sun went into Virgo last Friday. But we really get going once that first eclipse gets fired up. All right. Come back. We'll talk about it. Sending you so much love, many, many, many, many, many, Venus and Leo blessings. Bye for now.

Thank you.