Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of December 15th, 2025: A thoughtful Solstice & New Moon

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Episode 261In 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 December 15th, 2025, closes out old cycles and kick-starts new ones. The New Moon in Sagittarius asks us to reflect on what we’ve achieved this year, both personally and collectively. And the Solstice calls us to block out the noise for a minute. It might feel like you’re up against the clock as 2026 approaches. But now is actually the time to slow down. When you stop to think, you clear space for what’s coming.This episode covers:The Sun’s square to Saturn on Tuesday, December 16thThe New Moon in Sagittarius on Friday, December 19thThe Sun’s square to Neptune on Saturday, December 20thVenus’ square to Saturn on Saturday, December 20thThe Solstice and the Sun’s entrance into Capricorn on Sunday, December 21stThis episode was recorded on 11/13/2025.For more, check out your free daily horoscope on the homepage of the CHANI app — now on iOS and Android.Want to know what Chani’s reading beyond the astro? Join her book club, The Next Chapter, to explore her favorite titles and build community around books that reckon with and reimagine the world we’re living in.P.S. If you’re looking for an astrological map, compass, and collaborator for the coming year, check out our 2026 Astro Planner. Packed with 300 pages of practical magic, it was crafted by a team of trained astrologers, which means it has everything you need to manifest your best year yet. Order yours at chani.com. But don’t snooze — it sells out every year.The music featured in the podcast was created by Latashá.

Three things about this week. One, we are closing it down. You don't have to go home, but you cannot stay here. Number two, we are going to be honoring the dark. We are going to be honoring the creative spaces that leave us a little bit unsure of what to do next, but that also give us a tremendous amount of space. Three, we are going to use this week to get very meditative, to get quiet, to go inward, and to listen to that soft, still voice within that will tell us exactly what we are going to be doggedly and decidedly committed to in 2026. Thanks to you all every single year, we totally completely sell out of the Chani Astro Planner.

And I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this year's. 20206 is full of 300 pages, of rituals, of reflections, of details about every single astrological transit that you need to know about this year. This is how you plan for a year. year of success. This is such a lovely companion to the weekly readings on the Chani app, to the yearly readings on the Chani app, to the daily horoscopes on the Chani app, to all of it and then some. You get to understand like, oh, yeah, that's what she was talking about there and here and, oh, this is how I see it showing up in my life. It has daily little journal prompts and reflections.

It has new moon, full moon rituals. And as always, sets of the cutest stickers you've ever seen in your life. They are the collages from the Chani app. You get to work with them in your little astro planner. My favorite is also the monthly pages because you can just get to understand like what is going on for the month week to week day to day all at the same time. And I extra extra love the mood of the month section. Every single month we have written out a synopsis of what this month is all about. And then you can do a little tarot card pull, write your tarot cards down for the month. At the end the month, you can go back and be like, uh-huh, yes, I was the fool quite a bit, wasn't I? But like I said, every single year, they sell out. So go ahead to channy.com to grab yours.

Now, I cannot wait to see what you do with this year. Hello and welcome. This is the Astrology of the Week Ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie, Channie Nicholas. In this week's episode, we're talking about the week of December 15th. This is the deal, y'all. We are at the end of a lunar cycle. This week brings us a new moon on Friday. We are at the end of a season. This week brings us a new season. It marks the solstice in the northern hemisphere. That's the beginning of winter. We are also at the end of a solar cycle. In many ways, we can think of the December solstice, the winter solstice. at least in the northern hemisphere, as the beginning of a new solar cycle. Why? Because much like the new moon,

it is the time where there is the greatest amount of darkness, right? So in the new moon cycle, in the new moon phase, we have no light at night. There is no moon to see by. And at the winter solstice, there is the least amount of light to go by. So it's the great. So it's the great greatest amount of darkness before we hit the turning point. And from the winter solstice onward, the light increases and grows each day. Just like at the new moon, it is the darkest point in the luter cycle. And then from there, the light increases each day. So we have a new moon on Friday and the solstice on Sunday. That means that we are spending this week, meditating, clearing space. And when I say meditating, you don't have to literally sit down and meditate.

You don't have to literally close your eyes and close your ears and turn off your phone for 10 minutes every day, although I highly recommend it. But you don't have to literally do that. By meditate, I mean I want us to be in a posture of listening. I want us to be in a posture of quieting down the need to respond to everything and instead just to increase a little bit the capacity or the skill to be aware of what is there. And this is why? Because the solstice, and of course new moons, but the solstice is an amazing time to plant seeds of intention for the next season because with the light of the sun increasing every day, so too can our intention, just like planting seeds at the new moon. It just so happens with the new moon that's happening on

Friday isn't amazing. But it's okay because the solstice is always, because the solstice we just look at as like the solar event in and of itself. So the new moon that's happening on the 19th is sitting in a square to Saturn and Neptune. So what it is good for. And it's also happening at the very end, end, end, end, end of Sagittarius, which kind of makes us feel exhausted, right? So it feels like we're a little exhausted until the solstice, because we're just at the end of the solar season. We're at the end of the year. I was trying to think of adjectives to describe 2025. And I'm also trying to be polite and a little bit more PG than I would like to be. Listen, this year, the year 2025, you know,

we said was going to be a game-changing year. And it has. It has changed the game. We're playing a different game now. I mean, we're still playing the game. We've always been playing. But I think so many more of us are so much more aware of what the game we're in actually is. It's a little hunger games, e, if you will. So knowing that, bearing that in mind, what do we want to do? do with that knowledge. This year has been historic for some of the most horrific reasons, but also for some of the most incredible moments of solidarity and of victory. There have been victories this year. And I deeply, deeply desire that we all look back at the onslaught and the horrors that we've faced and look at the things that have.

have helped us to become victorious. We have won some ground. We have overcome a lot of inertia. We have shifted the conversation in massive ways. And I know we are not out of the woodwork. I know the work that is ahead of us. Trust me, I really do. And I want us to all be so clear-eyed or so-clear-eyed. you're headed about what we are looking at when we look at this moment and when we look into the future. And I really think it is so imperative to pick out the things we did correctly or the things other people did that were successful, that were impactful, that changed things, and say, look at where we won. Look at what we overcame. Look at where we are now as compared to this time last year. I want us to do that collectively. This podcast is much more about the

collective kind of situation than it is about the personal. I go deeply into the personal in your weekly readings in the Chani app. So when you want to do the personal stuff, that's where you go. But just to say, I want us to do that personally for the solstice. But for the reasons we do this podcast, I want us to do that collectively. I want you to not let the negative voices and the critical only voices that are in your head or maybe online diminish the actual work and labor and heart and soul that people have poured in to movements and organizations and moments this year, moments that are connected back to a million other moments over many, many years and decades. And we could say also, of course, centuries.

So I want us to see ourselves in a long line of work. I want us to see ourselves in a long line of victories. I want us to see ourselves in a long line of continuing what we need to do in order for future generations to have something, to know. that we were here and this is what we did with what we had. We have such a short amount of time here on earth, such a tiny, tiny, minute little fraction of a moment, a speck of time here on earth. What are we doing with it? I want us to use this week to meditate on all of the things that went well, that worked, that shifted, even if it wasn't quote unquote enough. It shifted something in the world and in ourselves. I want you to think about it personally and I want you to think about it

collectively. What has shifted? What has broken through? What have your breakthroughs been? What have our breakthroughs been? And what are we refocusing on, rededicating ourselves to come 2026? I want us to use this week to do that for a couple of reasons. One, because the light is diminishing each and every day more and more and more and more and more until there is a rebirth. There is a lunar rebirth and there is a solar rebirth this week. I'm sorry to be northern hemispheric focused, but it's where I am. So, and if you are in the southern hemisphere, there are these two energetic shifts that are going on. Yes, you're going into more darkness, but there is this new moon and a change of season. And so you can still think of working with it in terms of planting

seeds for what you want to do for this next quarter of time until the equinox. I think it's really important to work in these sections of time. I like working from solstice to equinox and equinox to solstice. So I would love us to think about what it is that worked, spend the week just mulling over and being meditative in your thinking process or as you wash the dishes or have a shower or do the laundry and just be like, can I put my mind on what work? worked. Can I put my mind on what felt like a success? Can I put my mind on what I've grown or what we've grown or where, again, I've had a breakthrough? Can I put my mind on those things? On one hand. And then as you start to move through the week, I also want you to be feeling a sense of I'm clearing

space. I'm clearing space for a new cycle. I'm clearing space for a new pocket of time, both in terms of lunations and in terms of solar cycles and seasons. I'm coming to the end. Collectively, we're coming to the end of many things. Lunar cycle, solar cycle, and calendar year, right? So we're like really all on the same page. It doesn't always happen, but here we are. We're on the same page. We're moving towards the end of things. How am I feeling about the ending of things? what are the things that I wish I would have focused on this year that I didn't. What am I not going to get derailed about next year? But again, I would recommend saying just like in this next season, between this solstice and the next equinox, what do I need to focus on?

And the reason why I want you to be more meditative and a little bit more quiet or listening to that quieter, stiller voice inside is because I want to. us to allow things to emerge in ourselves and in our lives. We get really stuck in our head, which, you know, our mind is an amazing thing. But I want us to, instead of trying to overthink and be complicated about what I should, you know, put on my bucket list or put on my checklist, I also want us to practice being in a space of appreciation, practice being in a space of awe or being in a space of like, I'm cleaning things out, I'm clearing things out, I'm allowing some things to go, I'm opening space up. And as you're doing that, like literally clean out a couple of drawers or, you know, reorganize your socks or your pens or something that helps you to feel like,

oh, yes, I'm sorting through things and I'm realigning myself and all of that. Because I really do believe those external activities really help us internally. Whatever that, whatever does that for you, you don't have to organize your pens. But I bet it would be cute. As you're doing that, just listening, like, what is the thing that wants to come and just see what is emerging? Once you let some of the noise of the world drop away, like don't have your phone on, don't have a podcast on, don't have music on even. I mean, you can't. But you know what I mean? Like let yourself get a little bored or let yourself get into spaciousness. Do not try to fill up your days with everything. And I'm sure you still have work to do. And there's also this feeling of like, I got to finish this thing before the end of the

year. I've got to finish this before the office closes. I've got to do this before the season ends. I've got to do this before the calendar turns over. All the things that were like ending, ending, ending. We've got to get things in before the end of the fill in the blank. So I'm not saying that you won't be busy, but I am saying that I would like you to kind of focus on the in-between moments and just listening. What is it that I'm wanting to make space for? What is it that I'm wanting to dedicate myself to? What is it that I want to plant as a seed of intention for this next solar cycle. And then on Sunday, we practice doing that by being like, okay, these are my intentions. And again, I don't want you to think about intentions for 2026 as a year in total.

You can if you want, but shorten it. Have it be a shorter pocket of time. Next 12 weeks from this solstice to the equinox, 12, 13 weeks. What is it that I want to focus on? What is it that I want to prioritize? What is it that I value and that I want to place on the altar of my days, on the altar of my life, and say, this is the thing I am going to move towards. So thinking of how we do that collectively together, thinking of how you do that in your own personal life. Okay. That's my main soapbox speech for the week.

That's what I really want us to focus on. you'll hear me say something to the, to a similar degree on your reading this week. And then I go into the literal astrology in terms of how it lands for you. But just to say on Tuesday, the sun and Saturn make a square. And then on Saturday, Venus and Saturn make a square. And so Tuesday and Saturday kind of like bookends the week with this feeling of get it down, still pare it down. I've been talking about pairing things down for a long time now because Mars and Saturn we're making this square and now the sun and Venus are going to have like a reverb of it. It's not as severe as when Mars does it. But again, it's still echoing it. It's like, okay,

not excess right now. We're not doing excess right now. We're stripping things down. We're boiling things down. We're moving towards a new thing. You don't want to take everything in the kitchen sink with you. Let it go. What are you willing to let go? So that's Tuesday and Saturday. The new moon's on Friday. Like I said, it's square Saturn and Neptune. So it feels like it's stuck between a weird place and a hard place or like a delusional place and an overly identified with material reality place.

So it doesn't feel like the best new beginning to work with per se. But it is a good reminder to be closing things. down to allow ourself time and space to say like, okay, I want to close this. I want to put a lid on this. I want to close the loop on this. I want to pack this up. What would it feel like to close the year down in a really conscious way? So using it to distill whatever it is we've learned from this maybe more challenging last month or so. Okay, I've learned this thing and I'm going to take that seed of knowledge and wisdom and take it with me into this new season, cycle, lunar phase, whatever you want to think of. And Saturday, we've also got the Mercury Square, the nodes,

which feels also important in terms of a conversation that we have that is like, oh, I missed that. That was a, I missed that step. I missed that piece of information. Now I've got it. Whether I like it or not, here's the info. So listen in for the conversations that are important. Also on Saturday, the sun squares Neptune, which can have us feeling the need to like let some of the overly rigid timing of our life kind of go. So sleep in on Saturday. Just don't miss that phone call. And then Sunday's the solstice. So we'll send out a blog post about the solstice. In the Chani app, there is a ritual, a guided meditation. I suggest you have some kind of celebration. Call the light back in. Maybe it's just you and your cat and your houseplants, but invite some

friends over, call the light back in, bring the light in metaphorically into your life, bring the friendship in, bring the love then, bring the good food and drink in, bring in the merriment, bring in the joy, bring in whatever lights you up on Sunday, on the 21st, on the solstice. And you'll be tapping into something that most of our ancestors did the world over for most of human history, because this is the time where, you know, in the northern hemisphere, the sun is reborn. It's a big deal for most people. Again, the world over. Okay, now a question from our audience. Thank you for using the Channy app to leave your audio questions. Here is this week's.

Jenny, hi, I love you. Okay, so my question is about the North Node and South Node. So, of course, I know how they move throughout the sky. And right now we're in Virgo and Pisces. And it's this kind of like year and a half to three year long period. And the North Node is what we're hungry for more of. And the South Node is what we're letting go of. My question is, for example, if I have Virgo in my 10th house,

does that mean that I'm just going to be hungry for more career recognition? or does that mean that more career recognition will come into my life? Like, do the nodes just represent what we want more of, or does it represent the themes that we can kind of predict coming into our lives? I just love some more clarification on that. Thank you so much. Great question. Okay, so the South Node is in Virgo right now.

So whatever house contains Virgo in your chart, it is getting a dressing down. It is getting a cleaning. I want you to think of it, the South Node. as a literal drain point. So if it's moving through your 10th house, it means there's something that you're losing. There's something that you're letting go of. There's something that you're releasing. There's something that you're putting out into the world. So for some people that have Virgo in their 10th house, aka Sagittarius risings, you'll notice the loss of a job or the loss of a role at work or the loss of staff or the loss of a business deal or the loss of some part of your reputation.

Now, that's not a bad thing, the reputation part. Maybe you're stepping down from one thing that you do, but it's in order to make room for something else. Maybe you're putting out a massive project and you're just like, okay, I'm leaving it all out on the field. And after you do that, you might not have a lot to like a lot of energy to go with for the next thing. Like, it might be a release point and then you just have to wait a little bit for things to fill up. The nodes will only transit through a part of your chart for about a year and a half. It's about 18 months. So it's not actually that long, but it doesn't mean that we won't still have eclipses in and around there.

So wherever the South node is, there's a healing, there's a clearing, there's a letting go. And sometimes there's what feels like or actually is a loss. it is one of those things where it's like, okay, we're pulling the plug on the drain. I hope we got everything out of the tub that we didn't want to go down the drain. Sometimes you're like, oh, no, everything went down the drain. I didn't mean for that to happen. Listen, with the Virgo South Node Transit, I personally have noticed how it takes a lot. Like it just kind of, because Virgo is ruled by Mercury and Mercury is about details and data and specifics,

we've lost a lot of details and data and specifics. And a lot of details and data and specifics have been released into the world. So you can think of it both ways. But I've noticed it like, wow, we missed what? Did we miss? And then now it's going to cost us what? Is it costing? Oh my gosh.

Mercury is also, again, Mercury rules Virgo. So mercurial things are going down or they're being washed away or they're being released. Mercury also rules sales and money. Like it's Mercury is the merchant. So sometimes we can notice a loss of money or a loss of accounting or a loss of data or a loss of the fine-tuned details in the house that is containing Virgo in our chart. Now, if Virgo is your first house, that might be a loss of an identity or a loss of energy or a loss of a sense of self that you thought was so secure and so sturdy. And you're like, oh, actually, that's not really how I identify. If it's in your second house, it could be money. If it's in your third house, it could be words. It could be your writing.

You could be releasing a book. Or you could be, oh, no, I just, you know, deleted a whole manuscript. You know, like, it's a combination of things. Now, where the North Node is transiting, Pisces right now, and it depends on when you're listening to this, it could have already changed. But where the North Node is transiting, there will be an increase of activity. It's not that you want more necessarily, although you might, but you'll notice there's an increase of activity. It's not that we want less where the South Node is happening, although we might,

but it's that there's a decrease of something. There's a loss of something. There's a letting go of something. There's a release of something wherever the South Node is transiting. Wherever the North Node is transiting, there's going to be an increased chaos. There's going to be increased activity. There's going to be an increased opportunity. And maybe there's an increase of your own appetite for that thing, but not necessarily. It doesn't have to always be that way. You might notice that it's describing something that's happening in your life, not that it's something you're feeling. Or you might notice that it is something you're feeling and not only what is just happening. Or you're the increase of the feeling or your feeling increases for

your desire or your desire for something increases. And so therefore you start to attract more opportunities because it's what you're focusing on. It's what you're noticing. So it can be a combination of those things. Remember, nodes are where eclipses happen and eclipses are chaotic. They're a mixture. They're exciting. They're wild. I wouldn't say they're good or bad. They're not necessarily thought of as quote unquote good for like astromagic or for manifesting, you know, for doing things with astrologically speaking. But they're just charged points. So charged letting go. is the South node and charged increase is the North node. So that might be something you experience externally. It might be something you experience internally. And of course, one impacts the other.

So it might be a little bit of both. And I think it's really helpful to look at your South Node transit or wherever the South Node is transiting in your chart to be like, okay, I'm going to just work on healing. I'm going to work on letting go of control in this area of my life. And I'm going to be very mindful of what I don't want to lose of what could go down the drain. And where the North node is happening, you could go, okay, there's probably going to be an increase of opportunity here. So, what part of that opportunity do I want to focus on? Do I want to call in? Do I want to have more of? Do I feel like, oh, yeah, that would be a good, that could be a really good fit for me. So thinking about that. And then when the eclipses happen, they are pronouncements or announcements.

or exclamation points of that experience because they are the like, bam moment that brings something through or bring something into being. And actually what I want you to do is right now, go to the Chani app and go to the home page. And under today, if you scroll down, you'll see what's happening in the sky. And if you click through, eventually you'll get to your north and south node horoscopes.

And these will tell you exactly where this is how. happening for you and what it means, what to look for. Did you know there was like 13 extra horoscopes in the Chani app? There's your daily horoscope up at the top. And then under the moon phase, there's the what's happening in the sky. And there's a set of 13 horoscopes that tell you where every single planet is in the sky, in your chart right now. Every single planet is transiting through some part of your chart right now. And these horoscopes tell you where and what it means and what to do about it. All right, Chelle, I hope that's helpful.

I'm sending you so much love, so many blessings. Come back next week. We're going to talk about Venus entering Capricorn and why it's so important for the beginning of next year and how to work with some, like, practical pleasure. Until then, happy solstice. I hope it's the sweetest. Invite me to your party.

I will be having a cup of mold cider with you. for you. Let us raise our glasses together to our future victories. Bye for now.