Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of December 29th, 2025: Welcoming 2026 with a Full Moon in Cancer

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Episode 263In 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 29th, 2025, wants us to feel deeply and think critically. Mercury, the messenger planet, moves into practical Capricorn, asking us to assess our goals and the resources we need to achieve them. And the Full Moon in Cancer stirs up emotions around home, family, and belonging. Let’s use this time to reflect on how we’ve grown over the past year, connect with our communities, and work toward systems of collective care as we move into 2026.This episode covers:Mercury’s square to Saturn on Monday, December 29thMercury’s square to Neptune on Friday, January 1stMercury’s entrance into Capricorn on Friday, January 1stThe end of Chiron’s retrograde on Saturday, January 2ndThe Full Moon in Cancer on Sunday, January 3rdThis episode was recorded on 11/14/2025.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.Ready for 2026? We have readings for that. Open your CHANI app and head to the “This Year” tab to listen to your month-by-month astro breakdowns from Chani Nicholas, read your horoscopes for the year (tailored to the four main areas of your life), and dive into the journal prompts, rituals, altar suggestions, and guided meditations that will help you navigate the astrology of 2026 as it unfolds. Btw, we’re never wrong.The music featured in the podcast was created by Latashá.

Three things about this week. One, communications are going to be a little bit messy in the beginning of the week. Two, as of the first of the year, we're being asked to get incredibly practical. And three, we are going to be in our feelings. 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 edition, we are talking about the week of December 29th, aka the last couple days

of 2025. Bye. It's been a century. And we're talking about the beginning, the opening chapter of 26. And it's going to be another wild year as far as the astrology tells me it's going to be. Hey, Astrobasty, good news. we have made our year ahead content four times more detailed, richer, more in depth. It's really like four times the readings. You have four astrological horoscopes for the year,

26. Instead of four readings for the year, instead of giving you a quarterly reading for the year, I have recorded 12, count them 12 readings for the year, one for every single month, because I need you to understand. the astrology month by month. It is a wild year and we're going to make the most of it understanding when to go, when to hold them, when to fold them. You get the idea. There's also a bonus year at a glance reading. I cannot wait for you to dive in. Head to the Chani app now and go to the Your Year tab. I'll see you over there. Look, the most important thing to remember, as I've been saying here and everywhere over and over and over again is that this is a really good couple of weeks that we have to work with in 26. The opening chapter of 2026,

aka the first couple of weeks of January, have some really good moments in them. They are special. They have special things imbued in them. Now, the last couple of days of the month, the 29th of December. It's interesting because the 29th of December, Mercury Square is Saturn. The 29th of December is really good for whittling everything down and like making a list and being very, very conscientious about what it is we're communicating, what it is we're choosing, and being very limited about what gets on the list. So if we're making, you know, if we're like trying to think about what it is we want to do in the next year, year, we started the week being really critical. And again, wanting to be really definitive.

By Thursday, we've got some messy communication. So it looks like New Year's Eve is like, wait, where did you say we were going? I thought the party was going to be like this. You told me the dress code was this. It's not. I mean, I don't leave the house on New Year's Eve. So I don't know about parties on New Year's Eve. But if you are going to one, I just want you to double, triple check that you actually have the address correct and that you have the dress coat, all the things that you might need because communications are going to be a little wonky on New Year's Eve night. They're really good for dreaming. They're not really good for details. But on the day, on New Year's Eve day, on Jan 1st, Mercury moves from a tricky,

slippery communication situation into Capricorn, which is a really great way to enter the year. if we're trying to be economical about things, right? Mercury and Capricorn is like, all right, what's the lay of the land? What are the goals? What are my resources? What do I have to work with? How can I utilize the tools that I have on hand? I don't need more than what is here. Watch what I can do with these limited resources or wait till you see what I can do with what we already have. I don't need access. It's about thinking in terms of utilizing what is here and now. and getting to work with that utilization. Now, on Friday, Kairon Stations Direct,

Kairon is, you know, a planet associated with wounds and healing and things that are a little bit hard. So there might be a little bit of a pain point. The only reason why I really bring this up, like Kairon transits aren't the most important thing out there. I just don't think they are. The day at stations, retrograde, or direct, it might start to pull focus, which can be important to listen to. But the reason why I bring it up is because it's happening a day

before the full moon and cancer. And the full moon and cancer is definitely bound to bring up some very intense feelings. This is why. It's sitting in a situation that is profoundly abundant and good and also challenged. Mars is in Capricorn. And Mars is in Capricorn. And Mars, sitting opposite of the full moon feels a little dicey or it feels like it's poking at what's tender. A full moon in cancer is glorious. It's a good thing. But again, it's going to also be a moment of big feelings because it's cancer, because it's a full moon, because that's the deal. Now, the moon is sitting with Jupiter in cancer and Jupiter and Cancer is exalted. So this is a good thing. This is a wonderful combination. But because it's sitting in opposition to,

to Mars. And because one year ago, Mars was in cancer. I don't know if you remember, but at the beginning of the year, it went from Gemini to cancer. And as soon as it went into cancer, some really awful hard things happened, at least in California. And we're coming up to the year anniversary of those really awful hard things happening in Los Angeles, the fires that devastated Los Angeles. And then we had, I don't know if you remember, an inauguration. And then we had ice descending into the streets, especially in the beginning in L.A. And it was just like L.A. was just hit one thing after the other with really devastating things to people's homes, cancer, and people's families, cancer, and our communities, really like the moon, our local life, our neighborhood. And so I just think that because this is the year marker, the year anniversary of all of that,

and then everything that kind of ensued from that, there will be, of course. And I'm just talking about L.A. and L.A.'s fires and the year mark of that. And of course, that's not everywhere. It's one city. There's billions of people on the earth. So obviously, that's not going to impact everybody. But I can't help, but because I lived through it and so many my friends and family lost so much and you didn't know a person in Los Angeles that hadn't been impacted by it. You just knew so many people that at least knew so many people or our neighbors. You know, it was just like everything. It was everywhere. It was everyone. And so this full moon happening as a kind of marker around the almost one year point of when the fires broke out

within a couple of days just feels like really resonant. And that's one literal translation of it for, you know, a large group of people, but a small group of people considering the entire world. But I just am using that as a kind of reference point for the feelings that are evoked when we have a full moon in cancer sitting next to Jupiter, which kind of blows everything up, but sitting in opposition to Mars. Now, Mars isn't a really good sign. Mars is in the opposite. place. So last year, Mars was in cancer, and the full moon happened with Mars and cancer. And so it blew up all of the feelings of being attacked from the inside and being in a really vulnerable situation where there was a loss of, again, home, family, and neighborhood. And just like a beginning of a loss of a lot of things,

especially if you live in the United States. And the beginning of a rally cry for people to come forth. Now, then after that, Jupiter moved into cancer, and Jupiter and cancer was much more like a solve. With Mars and cancer, it really felt like we were being attacked. And then with Jupiter in cancer, we're still being attacked, but there is a definitive mark from June of 2025 of uprisings. Of course, there's always uprisings and there's a lot of uprisings around the world. But there was a lot more that kind of coalesced it felt like, or it was another particularly potent time of people uprising, which was one of the marks of Jupiter and cancer. Now, this is like a mixed situation because Mars is in a really good sign now. Mars is in the opposite sign,

Capricorn, where it's exalted. And it's about to make a Kazimi with the sun on between the 6th and the 10th of January. There's these really interesting, really fueled, really good days. And this full moon is still articulating a pain point. And this full moon is, and this full moon is, is also articulating what we've learned since last January as a collective, as a group of people. Why? Because the moon is local. The moon and anything that happens in cancer, this full moon and sitting next to Jupiter, is talking about local good things, local power and how to build power. And so it also, I know we're just coming out of like New Year's Eve and who's going to want to do anything and all of that. But there's something about this full moon. I'm recording this also in

November. I just have to say. So I don't know what's going on in January. But it looks like this weekend, January 3rd, 4th, there's a culmination of something. And the something feels like groups of people or feels like there's a wave of response or there's a wave of feeling connected to one another or feeling like we all need to go pour out onto the streets right now or we all need to collectively care for each other in these ways. And that is essentially what we want to do with this full moon. How do we care for our own needs? How do we care for our neighbors? How do we care for our communities? How do we care for what is local? What is right around us? That is how we build power. That is how we build a sense of solidarity. And then the solidarity that we build in close connection

with us can then move out in ripples because each of us building, you know, in our little sphere of influence, then touches another sphere of influence, then touches another sphere of influence. And together we create these spheres that eventually connects across a lot. That's what solidarity is, right? We connect across many different lines when we have something to connect about. And we have so much to connect about. if you're not a billionaire, we have a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot to connect about. We have to take care of each other.

And so there's this feeling of something reminiscent about this time last year. And then there's also something reminiscent here about being in a better place, being better situated than we were last year. Like last year felt like this, we were being flooded. They were flooding the zone. And then we were also just being overwhelmed with the last. loss of security. This year is opposite. Mars is in a good sign, so we're able to fight for the things that we know we want to fight for, and Jupiter isn't a good sign. Jupiter last year was

in Gemini, so it couldn't really do that much for us. But now Jupiter is in cancer, so it's also, again, superpowered. And I think that on a personal level, this weekend is going to be really emotional, and that's good. I want to be emotional. I don't want to stuff down every night. negative feeling. I want to feel my rage. I want to feel my bitterness. I don't want to stew in it. I don't want to be ruled by it. I don't want to be, you know, unconscious of it. But I want to feel everything that goes into being a human. I don't want to numb out. I don't want to pretend like everything is good all of the time. It isn't. That's the point. We get to have a range, of emotions. We get to have a wide, wide variety of emotions if we're lucky. We get to have a wide

variety of experiences in life if we're lucky. God forbid everything be easy or okay all the time. That's not what we're here to do. That's not what it is to be human. I don't want to stifle the feelings that it requires to be fully engaged with this life. Because if I don't feel the sorrow, and the loss and the grief, if I don't remember what was hard last year or the year before or the last 12 months, then I'm not going to be able to fully feel the joy of our victories and fully feel the satisfaction of what it means to actually build solidarity, to actually build a movement, to actually have some wins. Because we've had some wins. We really, truly have. And it's unfortunate that it took this extreme kind of condition to bring out the fight in us or to bring out the strategy that we needed. But it is what it is.

We are here. So I want us to not fear what I'm saying and not be like, oh no, an emotional weekend. Be grateful for all of the feelings that you can still feel. They, they, in quotes, pointing in all directions, don't want us to feel. They want us to numb out. So everything we feel, is part of how we fight fascism. Everything we feel is part of what makes us human and it's only in our humanity that we can birth a new world or a new way of being in this world. Part of being alive right now is to refuse to numb out, to disassociate and to be engaged in ways that we are meant to stay engaged and that we are meant to show up for one another. So that's my little soapbox for the week. It is a full moon and cancer week. We want to be in the fullness and, you know, hold space for it

and know that it will ebb and it will flow and it will go. It'll come in, roll in and it will roll out. Nothing stays the same. Nothing is forever. Everything, everything, everything changes. And that is one of the main teachings of cancer and the moon. The moon belongs in. answer. It's really all about the moon. The moon's like, I change every day. My light changes every day. I get big, big, big, big, big. I get invisible. I go completely dark and then I come back again. And I am everything in between. And that is all of us, all of the times. The moon teaches us to be in flux and be in flow. And I just feel like this weekend is going to bring about a peak experience. And what I want us to remember is that we are able to, if we are able to, when we able to consciously be aware of how to take care of ourselves, how to nourish ourselves,

how to nurture ourselves and each other, we are, that is what it is to be blessed. That is what it is. To meet our own needs is to be blessed. That's an incredible privilege, incredible. And to be able to extend ourselves and offer something to somebody else, that's the meaning of this life. That is it, in a nutshell. We're supposed to serve each other. You're supposed to be creative, We're supposed to be experiencing all things, including joy, including grief, including all of it. And we're supposed to show up and give each other what we've got. If we do that, we will live a great life. And that's what cancer wants us to always, always, always remember.

So in the part of your chart that contains cancer, you're having a peak experience. It's also going to be commenting on all the things that have transpired in the part of your life that cancer rules and the part of your chart that cancer is contained within. because Jupiter has been there growing something. So I want you to think about what you've grown. Yes, over the past year, how you've been forced to grow yourself in the past year, but also what you've grown in this part of your life over the last six months. Go and listen to your reading for the week. Go and write in response to your little journal prompts in the Channy app and go and think about all that you've grown, all that's been painful and hard about it. But what has been giving you an understanding of

what is actually possible. Like, no, we didn't want these things to have had happened over the past year. Like, no, thank you. But they did. And how did it grow me? How did I take the opportunity to say, like, okay, well, I better show up then. If all of this is being threatened, I better learn how to show up in some very specific, strategic, skillful ways. All right, Shail, here is a question from the audience. Hi, Chani. I love that you're doing these voice memos now. And one question I've had for a long time is, does your big three matter that much? I feel like everyone's always asking, like, what's your big three? And are there other things that may be more important than that? Great question. Yes, your big three are that important. I'm just going to say it. They are because your rising sign tells us about the motivation for you coming into human existence. It's just like the rising sign. is the marker of your life. So nothing else in the chart tells us about the moment you were born and why you were born like your rising sign does. It's just our entry point into everything.

And then the sun and moon are the luminaries. There are only luminaries. And the sun obviously is like constant light. And then the moon ebbs and flows. And the sun is our soul. That's the way we shine. It is what my teacher, Demetra George, always teaches, the ancient said was a spark of divinity that's like the divine mind is planted in us and we can see it in the sun. And the moon is our body. It's our vessel for living. If we can have this like, you know, soul, this like solar force, but unless we have a body, we don't have a human experience. And so it's the soul, the body, the mind, the body, the memory. The moon is also our memory with our memory. With our memory is or how our memory is held in the body that our body keeps the score and that we are

built from the bodies of the people that birthed us and birth them and birth them and birth them. And so it's our lineage and our history and our connection to this physical space and time. So yes, they're very important. Now, other planets can kind of rival the like the kind of ways in which we live out our chart. So if you have a planet that is with your sun or with your moon or on your ascendant, those planets are going to be so key and so important. If there's a planet that is, say, sitting in your first house or fourth house or seventh house or tenth house and it's squaring or opposing your ascendant or your sun or moon, it can also rival. There's like conditions that

will make a certain planet really pop and really live in your chart. But I also want to say, you didn't mention this, but I always say this, the planet that rules your rising sign. That's the planet. That's your key in. That's your ability to be like, ah, that's the planet that steers the ship of my life, the planet that rules your ascendant. That's the direction I need to go in wherever it is in your chart, whatever sign it's in,

its condition, the planets it talks to. Those planets are going to be also steering the literal ship of your life. I feel like I'm always answering that question. So sorry if you're bored of hearing that answer, but it really all ties back to, a lot of these questions tie back to the ruler of your ascendant and how important it is. If you don't understand the ruler of your ascendant, the planet that rules the sign of your ascendant, then you're not going to understand the main thesis or at least one of the through lines of your entire life. That planet that rules your ascendant is driving you, is steering you. What does it want? What does it do? How is it coloring everything?

Where is it? What's going on with that planet? Find that in the Chani app, like go to the Ascendant in the Chani app and then click on it and it'll tell you what planet rules it and then click on that planet and read about it. Get obsessed with the planet that steers your life direction. get obsessed with the planet that rules your rising sign and so much will open up for you. Go check it out on the Chani app. I promise you you will not be disappointed. All right. So that's it for me. Now, look, next week we've got some stellar moments, astrologically speaking.

Again, from January 6th to January 10th, there's like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, really great moments to work with. So I need you to come back. I need you to get these. dates down and figure out what to do with them. I need you to go listen to your reading on the Chani app because I'm talking about it every week so that I'm preparing us and helping us plan for some major successes. We need to plant seeds next week of intention for where we're going and what we're doing so, so, so important because again, it's going to get messy soon. So we want to have some good

anchors. We want to have built something with the momentum to prepare ourselves for some of the deluge that's coming. Eclipse season is around the corner. Eclipse season. Eclipse season is coming in February. So we want to work with what we've got now because we know we've got to give up control in February for many, many, many reasons.

All right, y'all. I'll see you back here next week. Bye for now.