Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of December 11th, 2023: A New Moon in Sagittarius, and a supportive start to Mercury Rx

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Episode 156 In this podcast, New York Times bestselling 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 December 11th, 2023, features an imaginative New Moon in Sagittarius. On Monday, Mercury (the planet of communication) sextiles Venus (the planet of love), helping us to communicate in affirming ways that solidify our bonds. On Tuesday, there’s a New Moon in Sagittarius square Neptune (the planet of illusions), prompting us to daydream about our highest ideals. Also on Tuesday, Mercury stations retrograde, triggering the usual snafus and miscommunications — but with a supportive twist since it is happening between Venus and Jupiter. On Saturday, the Sun squares Neptune, encouraging us to take a sweet and adventurous escape. Use this time to reflect on the past year and ease into the last few weeks of 2023.  Looking for an astrological map, compass, and companion for the coming year? Check out our 2024 Astro Planner. It’s filled with rituals, reflections, exercises, astro cheat sheets, planetary movements, and daily and monthly calendars that allow you to map out your year, track your intention for each day, and make the most of 2024’s astrology as it unfolds. You can order yours at chani.com. But warning: It’s almost sold out, so act fast. This episode was recorded on 10/26/2023. 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.

Okay, yeah, it's the end of the year. It's definitely time to reflect about what worked this year, what did not work, what needs to be composted, what needs to be highlighted, and what needs to be prioritized for the next go-round. And we're helped out this week with this reflection process, given the fact that yes, It's time for another Mercury retrograde. In this podcast, we look at the astrology of the upcoming week and how it will be landing for all of us collectively. For a more personalized reading that dives into the ways that this week's astrology will play out for you,

download the Chania. Hey, y'all, if you're looking for an astrological map, compass, and companion for the coming year, check out our 2024 astro planner. It's filled with rituals, reflections, exercises, astro cheat sheets, planetary movements, and daily and monthly calendars that allow you to map out your year, track your intention for each day, and make the most of 2024's astrology as it unfolds. You can order yours at chani.com, but warning, it's sold out last year, so act. Hello and welcome.

This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your host, Chani Nicholas, and in this week's edition, we are talking about the week of December 11th. So we're halfway through the month almost, pretty much. By the end of this week, we will be. And it's the last couple weeks of the year. I'm hoping that the world's noise starts to turn down. at this time, or at least there's less busyness for us to tend to in at least one area of our

life, maybe a couple. But sometimes this is also like the mad dash to the end and there's also just too much to do. So if you're in the middle of preparing things, of purchasing things, of getting things together for whatever it is you're about to do during the last couple weeks of this year, Mercury's retrograde might mess some things up for you. However, I'm going to go out on the limb here and say that the beginning of this retrograde is actually really helpful. I know that when I say that, I often regret it. But there's something here. here to focus on in terms of at least a little piece of good news. If this is a retrograde, and if a retrograde is a reversal, it is a retrograde, given the fact that a retrograde is a

reversal is about pausing, looking back, because it's mercury, it's about communications, so we can think editing, rewording, reworking, reorganizing our thoughts. then we want to look back with this retrograde and look at how much we have grown, how far we have come, just how much progress we did make. Maybe it has nothing to do with all the progress you wanted to make. Maybe you had some other preconceived notion about where you should be right now or what you shouldn't have done. but I suggest throwing all of that out the window and at least for the beginning part of this retrograde, looking back on the year and being somewhat grateful for the opportunities that came in that encouraged your growth, encouraged your own expansion, even if it was difficult, encourage you to stretch beyond a place that maybe you even knew you could go to. to and the ways in which you were met by life with a philosophy of abundance and how maybe you met

life with a philosophy of abundance. I'm saying all this because Jupiter is in the mix here. Jupiter is the planet of abundance and prosperity, but also of goodwill and of seeing the cup as half full and of assuming that things are going to work out. And Jupiter and Mercury just made a trine and they're going to make another one during Mercury's retrograde. And then they're going to make another one in January once Mercury has stationed to react. So there are some dates that are tied together here.

And I'm not sure if they will jump out at you, if you'll recognize them off the bat. But they are December 7th, December 18th, and then January 19th. And these are all the times that Mercury and Jupiter make a trine with each other. It's before, during, and after the retrograde. So next week, Mercury and Jupiter will make that configuration on Monday the 18th. So there's that piece. There's also the fact that on Monday, December 11th, Mercury as it's stationing retrograde is in a sex style to Venus. So right now, Mercury is in between making aspects to Venus, planet of sweetness and passing love notes and saying affirmations that feel good and help us connect to other people, especially when Mercury and Venus are together. It's very much about communicating in a way that creates relationship or, or,

or bonds with each other. So Mercury is stationing retrograde in between Venus and Jupiter, the two best planets that it could do that in. And it's stationing retrograde in Capricorn. Capricorn is really constructive. It is practical. And it's productive. So I do think that because Mercury is stationing retrograde

in between these two helpful ditties, this helpful duo, that, This is a moment, and I'm only talking about the beginning of the retrograde because it does get weird later in December and definitely in the first little bit of January. So I'll mention that in a sec. But this moment from now until Mercury enters Sagittarius, which is on the 22nd of December. So from December 12th to December 22nd, the first 10 days of Mercury's retrograde, I think are full. with a lot of positive reviews or the things that go wrong are for our best. We could just assume that anyways in life.

Like that's just a helpful assumption. Maybe in most cases, maybe not every case, but maybe in a lot of cases. I'm talking about minimal things going wrong. That if things aren't working out, if things aren't working, if they're not going, if they're sticking, if they're just seeming like, maybe this isn't a good idea. pausing is going to be so helpful. Or we're getting helped out because things aren't working out. That's my soapbox speech about the beginning of this mercury retrograde.

Again, until December 22nd. And actually, December 22nd is a really special moment, December 21st and 22nd. I'll talk about that during that week's reading, but it is the solstice and a mercury kizmi at the same time. It's such a beautiful moment, December 21st slash 22nd. before Mercury enters Sajj. It's such a gorgeous renewal. I'm really, I'm putting a lot on it. Maybe I'm putting too much on it. But it's going to be a beautiful reset, I think. So just keep that in mind, December 21st. Beautiful time to set intentions for 2024. Beautiful time to do ritual,

beautiful time to speak aloud, how you want to show up in the next coming year. Gorgeous moment. Okay. From now to then, It's Mercury Retrograde. There are going to be communication issues. There are going to be snafus. Things will go sideways. But again, I think it's going to be for our benefit. And I think we're going to feel supported in it if that's even possible.

And I encourage us all to look back as if we are our own personal Mercury Retrograde, look back with fondness and a sense of appreciation for a lot of. everything that went our way, even if it seemed to not go our way at first, but eventually realized, oh, that was the best thing to have happened, looking back on 2023 with some appreciation through the lens of gratitude and see what happens. I want you to obviously, I want us all to obviously look back and say, ah, I'm not going to do that again. And I need to take accountability for this and all of that. But okay, so we're looking through the the lens of mercury retrograde at the year. I do think good news is coming Monday. I do think good news

is coming next Monday. So Monday the 11th and Monday the 18th, I think are going to help us to reconnect with someone or pick up a stitch that we need to pick up. And I say this a lot in this week's readings, but because we're going to circle back around to whatever is going on that's good last week, next week, this week in January, mid-January, there's going to be conversations that we have, there's going to be information that we receive that maybe we can't get to until mid to late January, and that's okay. Just like put a pin in it, put a reminder in your calendar, put something somewhere so that you don't forget about it, so that It doesn't get lost in the goings-on of the end of the year.

But I hope that there's some really good generative discussions about what it is you want to create come the new year. The other thing that is happening this week on the 12th, the same day that Mercury Station's retrograde, is a new moon and Sagittarius. Now, the other thing about this week, the thing about the new moon in Sagittarius is that it's in a pretty tight square to Neptune. hear my voice kind of crack. It's in a tight square to Neptune. And that is a signature of getting lost, feeling a little swept away, wanting to escape, wanting to ride off into the sunset and forget about all of our responsibilities,

which is like, yes, it's almost the end of the year. good Lord let us escape into something that feels like a sweet surrender and a wonderful fantasy. We definitely are in need of. And maybe it's not always the most practical thing. So this new one is really good for dreaming. It's really good for fantasizing. It's really good for imagining the ways in which we want to be in our lives. Imagination is the key to our liberation, personal and personal.

and collective. So this is a beautiful new moon to center what we believe in, it's in Sagittarius, in our fantasies, New Moon Square, Neptune, and to really allow ourselves to dream what would a world liberated look like? What would it look like if I didn't feel guilty about A, B, C, or D, which I shouldn't feel guilty about or anything that you want to fantasize about that is about your greater good, our collective greater good. This is a beautiful new moon to use to imagine those possibilities. And because the sun perfects finishes the square to Neptune over the course of the weekend, we're definitely going to want to blow off some steam. We're definitely going to want to spend the weekend escaping into anything that feels like a wonderful fantasy, even if it's temporary.

So my warning with this always is don't get too derailed if you don't want to get too off the trail of your life, but use the energy as you need to nap extra long, cook all day, whatever feels like a really helpful and also like exciting. This is the, it is Sagittarius season. This is the Sun and Saj. So whatever also feels like a adventurous escape. Definitely, I think we're going to need it. All right.

Sending you so much love, many blessings. I hope this Mercury retrograde is what it looks like. I hope that my read on it is as fortuitous as it seems. Again, it's still Mercury retrograde. We're still going to have to, deal with like did my order go through is the thing going to arrive in time i thought i checked the box that said i didn't need to sign for it but the mail person is not delivering it unless i'm there and i can't get there you know like it's mercury retrograde but there's a lot of good stuff here so

listen deeply listen to the messages that are giving you the tips and tricks you need and listen deeply for the abundance and the sweetness and the help that is around. Because I do think that is what Mercury is trying to get us to tune into, at least again from now until the 22nd of December. From the 22nd on into about the 10th of January, 22nd of December to the 10th of January, it might feel a little funkier. Mercury stations direct on January 1st, so that's nice, but it still has some kind of hazy weird stuff to go through. But by January 10th, we are off to the races. It's a very exciting second half of January. I do a whole reading for you on the Chani app. The year ahead readings, the first quarter of the year reading, talks all about

why January is so superpowered and why it is for you. So check that out. Hey, y'all. Thank you so much for leaving. a review in the App Store. We deeply appreciate it. Wanted to leave you with this one called Where Would I Be Without My Channy App? If we were boats, the Channy app would be the state of the art navigation technology. Can you get places without it? Yes. But once you invest in it, you won't go seafaring without it.

Much love and many thanks to all of Team Chani. Okay, y'all, that's the reading for the week. I will see you back here next week where we will talk about this gorgeous, beautiful solstice slash Mercury Kazimi that I'm so excited about. Bye for now.