Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of February 23rd, 2026: Mix-ups and shake-ups with Mercury retrograde in Pisces

Starting point is 00:00:00 Three things about this week. Keep your receipts. Number one. Check your calendar and then check it again. Number two. Number three, check your sent folder. Do not send the email if you're not sure. When you are confused, know that confusion is its own information and its own answer.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Say to people, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Let me get back to you. Before we get into the Astor of this week, I just wanted you to remember that you have an absolutely free all access pass for 30 days to the Chani app. All you need to do is use the code support 30 because that is exactly what we wanted to do. We want you to feel supported through these wild times, astrologically and otherwise. Hang out with us, get some meditations, get some sleep stories, get some monthly and weekly readings, get it all here, enjoy, pass it on to your friends or anyone you think might have some need for this kind of support right now. Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead. I'm your host,

Starting point is 00:01:17 your Astro Bestie, Channie Nicholas. In this episode, we are talking about Mercury retrograde in eclipse season. Y'all, this is the week of February. February 23rd. If I haven't said already, last week, this week, next week, some of the most consequential weeks of 2026. 2026 kicks off with some very intense astrology. I'm recording this in January. I know everyone drags me for saying it. I don't know what's happening come late February. I hope it's surprisingly wonderful. I know that the astrology of last week was wildly turbulent, disruptive, game-changing, hate to use that word anymore, and a continuation of all that got set in motion in 2025, good, bad, ugly, and everything in between. So we are just, like,

Starting point is 00:02:17 fully engaged in this kind of like new era that started in 2025 because last week we had the Saturn-Neptune conjunction and an eclipse in Aquarius, a sign we haven't had an eclipse an eclipse in near the North Node in a couple decades. Saturn and Neptune haven't made that conjunction in three and a half decades. And it is significant, significant astrology. So these weeks surrounding that kind of astrology are really important. What happens now is, again, very significant, very consequential. sets the tone for a long time. And we're not out of eclipse season. We are not out of the shadows.

Starting point is 00:03:05 We have one more eclipse happening next week. And that eclipse is in Virgo. It is ruled by Mercury. What's happening with Mercury again? Oh yeah, it's stationing retrograde this week. Mercury stations retrograde on Wednesday, the 25th. of February. Not only is this a mercury retrograde in eclipse season, this is a mercury retrograde during an eclipse season where one of the eclipses is ruled by Mercury. So we know things are extra funky. We know that communications are going to be extra dicey. And we know that facts and data are more than likely to go missing and to be left out. Instruction, manoeuvre, annuals will not be present. That is a problem. That's when we're like, pause. I don't know. I don't

Starting point is 00:04:02 know how to put this thing together. I don't know where we're supposed to go. My GPS is down. I'm not moving right now. I'm not saying don't live life. I'm just saying when you don't have the facts and data that you need, how else can you get them? Second of all, Mercury is stationing retrograde in Pisces. I have nothing against Mercury in Pisces as a poetic, creative outlet. It is profoundly gorgeous. But Mercury is in both its detriment and its fall in Pisces. So it is without and without its resources. In terms of logic and logic and facts and data and getting things correct and, you know, putting things in their right place and category. We know that poetry, like, you know, mixes metaphors and gives us an understanding and

Starting point is 00:04:57 illuminates truth because of the way it flips words around and reconstructs our way of speaking. That is the gorgeous opening of poetry. But when you are trying to get to the airport in time, when you are trying to talk about constitutional rights, when you are trying to be in. in the facts and the data of something, a Mercury in Pisces retrograde is a whole other kettle of fish. And man is this kettle of fish swimming upstream. It is not going to be easy to come by the correct information right now, especially because the next eclipse is in Virgo. So it means that everything Virgo-ish, A.A. Categorization, getting things correct, being specific, is going to be disrupted. But not only, only, only, only that. It's also sitting near the South Node. The South Node is a loss of something. So already these eclipses that we've been having for a little bit in Virgo near the South Node have shown us,

Starting point is 00:06:10 massive losses of words, you know, like we're not allowed to say this word anymore or that word anymore. You can't put this in your grant application in the United States. You can't say gender. You can't say woman. You can't say, you know, you know the deal. There's lists of words that are like, you can't say this anymore. Fascism doesn't like words. It doesn't like to be able to have people describe their conditions, their oppression. They're oppression. their realities. First thing fascism takes is education. Virgo is mercurial things. Facts, data, precise, conversations, news, the likes. So South Note Eclipse and Virgo is coming up next week. The ruler of it is mercury. Mercury is not only retrograde, but it's in the sign of its detriment and fall.

Starting point is 00:07:05 all of this spells out double, triple, quadruple check that you have everything. This is a hard time to be signing documents. This is a hard time to be doing deals. This is a hard time to be making sure that you're correct. Even when you have the best intention of like, okay, I'm going to double, triple check everything, getting to the correct answer is going to be extra challenging. So we just need to know that. That's just what it is.

Starting point is 00:07:39 I also expect for there to be power outages and, God forbid, I'm knocking on everything. Websites going down and often social media apps do collapse momentarily during a Mercury retrograde slash eclipse. And the combo herein is definitely giving that. It's giving an Instagram crash, Twitter crash, whatever. We're talking about a glitch, a blip. Also, markets, Mercury is in charge of markets. So it's just like there's a loosening of all of that.

Starting point is 00:08:19 And then because next week we're going to have an eclipse as Mercury's retrograding through the opposite sign. And it just feels like, whoa, God, what are we about to have a blackout around? right? So, God willing, it's not anything huge. And it's really good to think about what do I have on hand that I might need? What kind of backups of documents do I need? Do I have? Am I making sure I'm retaining? Not to make you paranoid. Just to be like, let's put this little moment in perspective. It's not going to last forever. But it feels severe coming off the heels of last week's astrology. Again, I'm in the past. I don't know what's going on. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe this is the

Starting point is 00:09:04 easiest time in human history. Again, God's willing, it is. And I'm totally off the mark. And astrology is so wrong. The thing I will say, though, is that Mercury is in Pisces. And its ruler, the rulers of Pisces are Jupiter, exalted in cancer right now, excellent, although it's also retrograde, and Venus is the exalted ruler of Pisces, and Venus is there. So in another way, this Mercury retrograde isn't as bad as it could be. How about that? The loss of information isn't as severe as it could be, because there's something holding some of it in place. I'm reticent to say, it'll be a fine Mercury retrograde because we've got the beneficence supporting it. I hope that's the case.

Starting point is 00:09:57 But I just am reticent to say that, given the rest of the things going on in the world and in the skies, and just given the fact that I've thought that before and I have been duped and I do not want to be duped again. So I'm going to be making sure that as I go into this moment, that I have a sense of humor. because no matter how many times I'm going to check my own data and communications and receipts, something, something. The astrology will astrology me. Mercury will retrograde me too. I promise you.

Starting point is 00:10:32 It does every time. I always say, it's not that big of a deal. It happens all the time. And yet it feels like every single mercury retrograde brings about this massive, like, oh, God, I didn't know that was a problem. Oh, my God, that's such a problem. We need to fix that now. That's the positive thing about a mercury retrograde.

Starting point is 00:10:49 great. It shows you what was never working, what's about to break, what isn't going to work for very long. Like, hey, engine light, check it. That's the deal. Do not feel like, oh, I can put this off. Do not space out about your responsibilities, I think is a good thing to say here. On Friday, the sun makes a conjunction with the North Node, which is where eclipses happen, just reminding us we are in eclipse season. Just reminding us everything is a little shaky, a little joltie, a little ungrounded. To emphasize that, we've got Mars making a square to Uranus. Very shaky, very ungrounded, very volatile. So Friday looks a little volatile, except Mercury will back up into Venus. Venus will move into Mercury and there will be a conversation. There'll be some kind of sentiment

Starting point is 00:11:46 that will come to try to help. So, this is the deal. We're in these extreme astrological moments. We are in these extreme moments here on Earth. We could just say that everything feels very extreme. The good, the bad, this is very extreme. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad, but it all feels very extreme. Tense. And the astrology is reflecting that. And the astrology also says there's still something good here that wants to help us. And the help that comes right now, as I've been saying for a couple of weeks, is through Venus and Jupiter, through the benefics, through art, through pleasure, through play, through friendship, through connection, through beauty, through sharing of our abundance, through being generous, remembering the generativity of

Starting point is 00:12:40 generosity, if you will. I don't mean to sound trite. I don't mean to oversimplify, but literally sharing your sandwich with a stranger can be very fortifying or having somebody help you on the bus with your stroller can feel like, okay, that just saved my day. Little things like that, little acts of kindness I want you to know go a tremendously long way, if I can say it that way, right now. You don't need astrology to tell you that. We're in extreme harsh conditions in a lot of ways. And so a little bit of kindness really helps. And also the astrology is saying, okay, this looks messy and this looks turbulent. Like Friday's astrology is turbulent.

Starting point is 00:13:27 It is something where it might not happen in your personal life, right? But we're just feeling the turbulence of the world. Eclipse season is already turbulent. And then you threw on a Mars square Uranus. I mean, come on, you guys. What's the deal? But then you remember Venus is exalted, trining Jupiter that's exalted. And that's trying to help us stay in a flow state of just remember kindness,

Starting point is 00:13:58 remember connection, remember friendship, remember a little compliment can go a long way, remember to be the bestower of those kinds of blessings of reaching out to people, of being a friend when someone is in need and of also saying yes to whatever is offered to you, friendship, assistance, et cetera. All right, y'all, now it's time for ask me anything. I've got a question here from the audience. Thank you so much for sending in voice memos on the Chani app. Please do so if you haven't already. Hi, Chani. Something I've always wondered is if you have a stellium, but it's different than your rising sign, is there one that has more influence over the other? As a Scorpio rising, I tend to lean towards listening to the Scorpio of it all, but I do have five Leo placements,

Starting point is 00:14:53 not in my big three, but everywhere else. So just wondering what the difference would be, or which one might be stronger, or if that's the case at all. Thanks. Great question. If you have a stellium of planets in a certain sign, you can know this. That, sign, that style will definitely be dominant in your life. Also, the house that that stelium falls in will be a dominant place of your life. If you work that, you know, Venn diagram of the style of the sign plus the location in your chart, you will probably get a good amount of success because, especially if you have sun, moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn, or Jupiter as part of that Stelium, then you know that those are rulers of other houses in your chart. So every planet

Starting point is 00:15:49 rules two houses in your chart and the sun and moon rule one house in your chart. So if you have a group of planets, you know that they're in charge of, again, if it's the sun and moon, it's one house, but if it's other planets, the other planets that I mentioned, it's two houses in your charts. So you know that the owners of other places in your life are all conglomerated together in this one area of life. So if you focus on that area of life and expanding your understanding of it via what the significations are of that house, then you're going to feel quite illuminated, most likely. I'm like, oh, this is where so much of my life happens. Or when I do this, activity so much of my life happens. Like when I realized that the ruler of my ascendant was in my

Starting point is 00:16:36 third house of writing and ritual and the moon, like the temple of the goddess, I was like, oh, that's literally what I want to do. I want to write and I want to talk and I want to teach. And then it was like, because I have so much in that house, the more I did that, the more my life opened up. And so it's a kind of shorthand. It's not more important than your rising sign, though. The sign is just the location of where the planets are and the style within which they express themselves. Listening to your rising sign is a non-negotiable in this universe. Why? Because it sets up the house system of your chart. It tells us where everything else is in the sky right now and in your birth chart when you were born. So the rising sign, I would love us to get away from this idea of

Starting point is 00:17:24 I am more or less like my rising sign than my sun sign than my stelium than whatever. It's not really about that. There's a level of that for sure. But I'd like you to just not even have that question in your mind. Your rising sign tells us where you were on the planet when you were born. And then it tells us where everything else in the sky, it tells us how the sky was set up. So you don't listen to your readings based on a stellium that you have because that's just a group of planets floating in space. Your rising sign tells us the horizon, the eastern, horizon when you were born, which is the marker of your birth, which sets up again how everything else was situated. So try not to think about your rising sign as as like your full and complete

Starting point is 00:18:13 and total personality, because that's nothing, you know, it's a very important part of your motivation. It is your motivation. It's the marker of you saying yes to life. But throughout, through the reading lens, I'm talking to you about where things are in the sky, in your sky. and in this sky and how those two things overlap. If you listened to Leo rising or your stellium's, you know, reading, that's putting your ascendant in the same sign as your stellium. It's seeing your chart through the lens of a stellium, which is not as accurate, I don't think.

Starting point is 00:18:50 But if something major is happening in Leo or one of the other fixed signs, your stellum's going to feel it. That I want you to go to the transit section of the app for. then you'll read about what planets are being transited and when and what it means. And that will be more accurate than listening to a reading from the sign of a stelium that you have. I hope that's helpful. And always, always, always, you know, like if you have Scorpio Rising, where's your Mars? Where's Mars? Is Mars and Leo? Then that makes everything really important. If you have Scorpio Rising and you have a Stelium and Leo, that tells me you've got a whole bunch of stuff in the 10th House.

Starting point is 00:19:27 That tells me that career is so important for you. That tells me that shining out in the world is a non-negotiable for you. Finding your place in the world is an absolute must. If you've got five planets up there, it's huge for you. What kind of rock star are you? And then, you know, you want to know where your sun, moon and your Mars is if you're a scorpion rising. All right, Tiel. Some of your questions, I love answering them and talking about astrology.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Come back next week. We will talk about that wild. messy, misinformed, South Node Eclipse, Lunar Eclipse in Virgo. We're going to try to be as practical as we can with it because that's what Virgo is good at, and that's what might be missing from this time period because it's a South Node eclipse. South Node empties things out. So we do not want to lose the records and the pieces of paper and the facts and the data that we need. but we want to let go of perfectionism.

Starting point is 00:20:30 We want to let go of having to be right. And we want to think about what is it to be useful and what is it to be of service. Sending you lots of love, many blessings. Bye for now.

Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of February 23rd, 2026: Mix-ups and shake-ups with Mercury retrograde in Pisces

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