Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of February 3rd, 2025: Thinking big with the Mercury cazimi

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Episode 216 In 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 February 3rd, 2025, invites us to get chatty. The planets of expansion and communication are teaming up to deliver big news in a big way. Plus, a Mercury cazimi floods us with fresh ideas, intel, and inquisitiveness. The next seven days are all about sharing our thoughts with the world — the buzzier the better. Let’s get into it. This episode covers: Mercury’s trine to Jupiter on Monday, February 3rd Venus’ ingress into Aries on Monday, February 3rd The end of Jupiter’s retrograde on Tuesday, February 4th Neptune’s conjunction with the North Node on Thursday, February 6th Venus’ sextile to Pluto on Friday, February 7th The Mercury cazimi on Sunday, February 9th Mars’ trine to Saturn on Sunday, February 9th Mercury’s square to Uranus on Monday, February 10th The Sun’s square to Uranus on Tuesday, February 11th This episode was recorded on 1/17/2025. 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.

Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your Astro Bestie, Channie Nicholas, your host, in the apocalypse. Here we are. Folks, we are talking about the astrology for the week of February 3rd. I'm recording this January 17th from Los Angeles, California. So we've just been through a major. climate crisis situation, fires have ravaged certain parts of the city.

It's sunny outside. The skies are blue. It's weird, you know. It's like you know things are off, and yet things look like they're okay outside. And there's this sense that everything is shifting and that we've arrived. in a part of our collective history where we are now just in a different time frame. And I think we all share that feeling, whether you've lived through a climate collapse scenario recently or not, I think, while we're watching each other

or you've lived through some atrocious type of genocide, war, watched it. You know, like we are in this moment, of back-to-back cataclysmic events. And it's going to take a really, really, really robust sense of self and determination. And I think a different type of goal setting, if I may. Obviously, the most important thing that we can do in this moment is build community, is build communities of care, is take care of each other.

is be in the moment with one another and show up as courageously, again, as robustly, as fiercely, as lovingly, as determined as we can possibly do to save what we can, to preserve what we can, to fight for the things that need us. And this week's astrological signature is bringing that message home. not because I want it to, but because it is. Because I do think that there's something in the air of this week's astrology. And again, I'm recording this in mid-January. So I'm not too far out, but everything changes so drastically, it seems, day-to-day

that five minutes feels like a far way out in this world, in this situation. And this 2025, my goodness, our gods. So I'm recording this mid-January, and when I look at the week of February 3rd, there's a lot of excitement in the air. That might be a weird thing to say. It feels like a weird thing to say from my vantage point here, but I do feel it. I do sense it. I do think that there is a culmination of events.

And I think something is going to happen this week very, very serious. specifically with tech, tech industries, with social media apps, with whatever is going on in that domain. And because there's so many of us, hundreds of millions of people on social media apps, the world over, they really are this collective meeting place. And there's so much about communication and collectivity this week because the week is bookended by some very important conversations. On Monday, the 3rd of February, Mercury makes it trying to Jupiter.

Fine, it's not like the biggest astrology of the year. But Jupiter's stationing direct on Tuesday, the 4th, Jupiter's going to station direct, and it's in Mercury's sign. It's in Gemini. So it's all about the millions of different podcasts and the long-form podcast. Like Jupiter makes things big, but Gemini is about little bits of information. So it's like stretches the little bits of information out in these huge ways. And so when Jupiter is stationing direct or retrograde in this case direct, it's pulling

focused. And it's pulling focused in the style of Gemini. So it's pulling focus on our conversations. Mercury is just the translator. So Mercury is like, oh, let me pick up on this conversation that Jupiter is having about a turning of events in terms of our communication devices against. social media is such a huge communication device. We view it and we interact with it through a communication device, our phones mostly.

And so there's something here Monday, Tuesday that feels very pivotal, very important and in like an announcement in terms of something to do with comms, communications, etc. It's a good day to make an announcement, though, for like yourself, for your situation, for whatever it is you're wanting to do. and it's a good time to like be really forward thinking and really broad-minded and it will help us to have confidence in our conversations. And also maybe even it's a signature of thinking in a more positive kind of way. Like, okay, this is the scenario that we find ourselves in. What is possible given this situation? How can I make the most of this? And how can I be,

really, again, broad in my understanding of what's going on. Where is the opportunity? Mercury trying Jupiter as Jupiter is, like, woo, all the ideas, all the big conversations, all the opportunities. I'm just going to like conversate and articulate and think my way into bigger, brighter, bolder, pastures, futures, opportunities. You get the picture. And then by the end of the week, week. We're talking Sunday the 9th of February. Mercury and the sun are going to come together. We call it a Kazimi. It's a moment of absolute clarity. But these two are doing this in a square to Uranus, which spells out disruptive, radical, revolutionary conversations, ideas, and explanations of things. It feels like by the end of the week, there's something,

exploding onto the scene, the end of this week and beginning of next week, there's something exploding onto the scene. There is something that is like, whoa, did you hear? Which I know, it's like every five minutes, but here we are. And then next week we have like this big ruckus full moon in Leo that is square, Uranus as well. So we're moving towards something that is like, feels like a big event, looks like a big event, looks like a very dramatic event, looks like a very dramatic event, looks like.

like something that's going to get our attention. And it is something that is being announced. It's a piece of news very likely has to do with tech has to do with, again, the ways in which we communicate. So social media, email, techs, et cetera. Because Uranus, the planet that's square all of this by the end of the week and the beginning of next week is definitely about experimentation, if not about technology in and of itself. So there's just the, these themes that are being woven into stuff. Maybe it's an announcement that something good is happening, that we're keeping certain apps, that we're not being banned from certain apps. Again, I'm recording this mid-January. I don't know what's happening in the future, but that's what

feels like. It looks like something that's like, okay. Or, and also, this could be a moment that galvanizes people, and I do think that this is true for February and March, that we will be galvanized into a collective kind of moment, movement, uprising of sorts. There's this moment that is quick, but very punctuated with next week's full moon. And also on Monday, February 3rd, Venus very much in its pre-retrograded shadow, it's going to station retrograde on March 1st, Venus enters Ares. Venus and Aries does not care about keeping the peace. Venus and Aries is bold. Venus and Aries is like, I don't like that. I like this. It is upending anything that tries to maintain equilibrium for the sake of doing so. It's like no justice, no peace.

Sorry, that's not what we play here. Venus is really like attractive, hot, bombastic in Aries. Like it is in the sign of its detriment or its exile. So it works in the opposite way of what it normally likes to work in. So Venus is responsible for collecting us together. creating social cohesion, creating movements of peace and justice and equity and equanimity and beauty and love and relationship and pleasure and relaxation and less like hanging out in the garden and having things be easy. And Venus is going from its exaltation sign of Pisces on Sunday slash Monday to the place of its exile.

So exaltation up on high to exile, outcast. within a day. And we know it's going to station retrograde in March on March 1st. So that is a signal that something is stirring in the collective and the collective is not interested in keeping the piece. The collective is fired up about something or it's going to be. It's about to be. There's something here that's going to be like, well, this doesn't work for us as a group. So this is what we want to fight against. Now, I just want to say, I think I've said it in the past couple of episodes, the last time Venus did this exact retrograde. Because we have to remember, Venus retrogrades through the same part of the zodiac about every eight years, like almost exactly same days, same parts of the zodiac every eight years.

So eight years ago was 2017. And in 2017, around this time of year, around March especially, there were, well, no, even. in January through February through March, through the whole year, there were major uprisings that had to do with women's issues, with LGBTQ issues, with equity, with civil rights, there was Times Up, there was the Me Too movement, there was Emily's List, there was a record breaking number of women running for office in the United States. There were stuff all around the world that was a massive, you know, swelling. There was, did I say the Women's March? There was a Women's March. Of course, that was in January. But we're circling back to the same

piece of astrology. That Venus retrograde. Venus stationing retrograde in Aries, retrograding through Aries and moving back into Pisces. We're not going to get there till March first, but we're in it now. Can you feel it? Okay, so one of the things I want you to do is I want you to think back to this time of year in 2017. What were you learning? What were you going through? What was coming up for you? And what were you coming into your power around? I say that because, not because it's a Venus retrograde per se, but because this Venus retrograde is going to spend a lot of time in Aries, it's going to station retrograde in Ares. And Aries is about our, own personal energy and our ability to do things in the way that we want to do them and the way

that we need to do them. So I want you to think back to 2017. And then I want you to connect what the part of your chart that contains Ares means, both Aries and Pisces. So, for example, if you're Ares rising, then Ares is your first house of self. Pisces is your 12th house of behind the scenes. So we're connecting the first house and the 12th house. So we're connecting your sense of vitality, your style, your way of presenting yourself, back into the 12th house, which is a place of understanding how you self-sabotage, how you get in your own way, same, same, and all of the behind the scenes projects that you've got going on

and or all of the rest that you need. For Taurus Rising, this Venus Retarade will start in your 12th house and back up into your 11th house. So it'll mix themes of behind the scenes work, understanding how you self-sabotage, and moving back into your 11th house of groups and friends and associations. And there'll be some connection between those areas of your life. For Gemini Rising, it's going to start in your 11th house of friends. So there's going to be this emphasis on who am I in the group. How do I like do movement work with people? How do I do activism with people?

And then it's going to retrograde back into your 10th house of public life. And so it's going to be like, okay, who are the people that I want to work with and that I work alongside? And then how do I bring that out into the world or how does that connect with my career or my vocation or just my calling and my offering to the world? If you're cancer rising, then this is going to start in your 10th house. of career, which is all about how you're public facing. It's about your reputation, what you're known for. This is a time to kind of like double down and make sure that you are centering what you

value in this area of your life and in the world. Very important that you be bold and you be direct in terms of saying, this is what I value and this is how I'm going to risk things for what I value. And then it's going to go back into your ninth house of publishing, traveling, teaching, and long-term plans. So for all the signs that I just mentioned, I want you to think what was happening in 2017 in these areas of your life and what's coming back around now. Like for me, I always, I do well and I don't want to tempt fate. I'm knocking on wood. I have often gotten a great deal of insight through Venus retrogrades in the area of my life that is represented by the part of my chart Venus is retrograding through.

I'm not saying they're easy at all because they are about reviewing our relationships, our relationship dynamics, how we enter exit relationships, right? How we enter a relationship, how we exit one, how we work through the tough stuff in between is really, really, really important and really hard. So it definitely brings up all kinds of intimacy issues and pain points. But there is no way we can build movements that are effective at going up against oligarchies and plutocracies and all manner of regimes without understanding how to be with one another in difficult times. So I want us to remember that the personal is political in every way.

How we deal with our interpersonal stuff, projections, all the things, is part of how we build strong and effective movements. And it is imperative for all of us to risk our pride, to feel our feelings, to do the difficult work we need to do in relationships in order to move this world forward, not just to deal with our own personal relationships sagas and dramas, not to downplay them because they're, you know, but to actually recreate the world, we have to be able to find ways to do difficult things with each other and to be in difficult conversations, dynamics, all of that with one another. So this is our invitation to do that.

because doing movement work, doing activism, it's messy. It's imperfect. You know why? Because we're doing it. And we are all kinds of horrific and beautiful and wonderful and challenging and just absolute nightmares, right? I know I am. So anything we do politically or anything we're doing in the world is going to contain all of us. So doing this interpersonal work, I want us to remember, is part of of doing the world recreation work and the world transformation work. Okay, where were we? Leo. So I'm talking really about rising science here.

So Leo rising, I want you to think back to 2017, the Venus retrograde will start in your ninth house of long-term plans and travel and education, so learning, teaching, and publishing. And also what we hold to be true. Like, what is your North Star? What was it in 2017? What is it now? Are you being reoriented in some way, shape, or form? Then it's going to retrograde back to your eighth house of shared resources and money and contracts

and how you do exchanges with people, also taxes and debts and loans. So it's a good time to start thinking about making sure all that stuff is an order when and where and how you can. Then we've got Virgo. Okay. Virgo, this Venus retrograde starts out in your eighth house. The eighth house is also about sorrow and grief and loss. So you might be moving into a short window of time. It's not that long. It's February and March and like a little bit into February. Anyways, it's like maybe seven weeks,

period where you're looking at the relationships that have ended in your life. You're looking at any grief that you've had around, especially like friendships and, old relationships that maybe ended in a way that was heartbreaking, maybe was just difficult. There might be some of that of like a going back and sorting through the layers of grief and allowing yourself to grieve things that are over, grieve relationships that are over, but also for you, money, debts, taxes, loans, collaborations, make sure that you are showing up in a way that's really honest and like, this is what I need. This is what I have.

This is what I can do. This is what I can't do. then it's going to retrograde back into your seventh house of committed partnerships. So business partnerships, marriages of all kinds, platonic, romantic, et cetera. You're going to do some deep relationship work. Then we go to Libra Rising. Speaking of relationship work. So this Venus Retrogate is going to start in your seventh house of marriages of all kinds.

Be they business. And when I say that, I just mean commitments. Be they business, be they platonic, be they romantic. What was happening in 2017 in your intimate partnerships? Are you doing something now that feels like it's rhyming with that moment? It's related. It's a mirror image. It's part two.

It's like book two, book three, book whatever. But something is connected between that time and this time about your relationship stuff, about the ways in which you are in relationships working through relationship. dynamics, dramas, et cetera. Because it starts in the Aries sign, the sign of Ares, which is your seventh house of relationships, again, it's really in your face. So it's good because you know what it is. So what are you going through? And what are you also like reclaiming? Any retrograde, especially Venus and Mercury, are about retrieving some part of your energy. So this is about retrieving your energy from relationships that don't work, from relationships that you need to let go of,

or from old iterations of relationships and the need to go through a renewal process in the relationship that you're in. Then it's going to retrograde back to your sixth house. Your sixth house is a place of work and service. And you're going to review how you do your work life, how you are of service, and also your health. So it'll be a good time to think about health issues when Venus gets back there. We go to, I didn't really know I was going to do all the signs, but here we are. Then we go to Scorpio. So Scorpio Rising, think back to 2017, what important work projects or work relationships or health issues were up for you then and what's up for you now?

What is rhyming? What is mirroring? What is part two? What did you learn back then? What are you learning now? Then Venus will retrograde back into your fifth house of creativity and creative self-expression. So there's this connection. Remember, there's these connections between these two places in your chart. There's a connection between your work and your creative energy and your creative projects.

So what creative projects maybe are you making money off of or wanting to? And what are you reviewing now? What are you learning? What's the most important thing that's going on in these areas of your life? Then we get to Sagittarius. Sagittarius Rising 2017. Venus is going to start its retrograde in your fifth house of creative self-experience. What were you creating in 2017?

How far has it come? It's eight years later. What is it turned into? Maybe there was something about children, because this is also the fifth house. This is the place of children. This is a place of creative progeny, human progeny, whatever kind of progeny you're interested in being a part of bringing into the world.

So there might be something here about what you're bringing into, what you're birthing, what you're making manifest in this lifetime. And then it's going to retrograde back into your fourth house of home and family and foundation. And that is really important because that's where it's really tender. And we really want to focus on what it is we value in terms of home and family and how to center those things that we value in our creative life, in our home and family life. And there's a connection here. What did you learn as a child about being a creative individual, about being freely self-expressed?

Who was like, you can't do that? and you spelled that wrong and that's ugly and you're dumb and you can't write or paint or dance or bleh and how can this time period be about reclaiming yourself from any old stories or paradigms or stuff that you had to deal with as a child or from your past maybe there's even some kind of like artistic lineage that you're reclaiming from your family life from your you know there's a connection here next step is capric corn. This Venus retrograde is going to start in your fourth house of home and family and foundation. There is some kind of issue, situation, opportunity about a living situation, about your home.

Maybe it's you're redecorating. Maybe you're refurbishing. Maybe you're having to rebuild. Maybe there's something about where you live or how you live that's getting you to really focus on this area of your life. Maybe there's something that's happening in your family that you really need to pay attention to. Maybe it's something about your parents. Then it's going to retrograde back into your third house of your neighborhood and your local life and your daily life and your rhythms and your rituals and also your extended family. So I do think for a lot of you, it's going to be a time that's really focused on family, both like parents, grandparents, who you live with, how you create family, and then extended family and your relationships,

even friends that feel like family, there's going to be a lot of relationship dynamics about those people. And also where you live, your neighborhood, do you, like it? Is it a good place to be right now? Is it hard to feel comfortable? How are you making yourself cozy? And then there's also the part of the chart that's about like digging into your lineage. That's the first part of this Venus Retrograde. And you'll go back into maybe writing something about it or something about a writing or communication project. Okay, Aquarius. This Venus Retrograde starts out in your third house of daily life, local life, your daily routines. Can you center pleasure? Are you centering what you've done?

value. Can you make space for it? What are the things that you need to do on a daily level and a daily rhythmic kind of way that can bring back more connection and relationship building in your life? Can you do some nothing? Can you hang out with people? I know it's Venus and Aries, but there is some like, I need to initiate more social interaction that feels really good in my life. There can be a piece of that. There's also like something. about writing, something about studying, something about publishing, something about maybe a dissertation or do I want to go back to school or do I want to teach a course or, you know, what are you communicating or what are you wanting to communicate and how? Then it retrogrades back into your

second house of money. So it connects these two things. So there might be something about how you make a living and what you're writing or what you're communicating or teaching or learning and what you need to spend on it, what you can make doing that. There's something about these two areas of life. Again, 2017, what were you learning, thinking about reading, writing, communicating, putting out into the world, maybe you launched a website, maybe you launched a blog, maybe you launched a, I don't know, Instagram, what were we doing back then? Definitely Instagram.

How did it change your life? What did it's, you know, put into action? Also, there's a connection here between siblings and good friends and extended family. and how you make a living or maybe money, money issues with friends or money issues with family, possibly for some of you. Then we move to the last sign, which is Pisces, which is going to have a very important connection with this retrograde. So Venus is going to start its retrograde in your second house of money, how you make a living, how you support yourself. And then it's going to move back into your first house of self. What was happening in 2017 that was teaching, that was teaching,

you about how you need to support yourself, what to do to support yourself, and then what maybe kind of like style metamorphosis did you go through? This could be like a total makeover type of moment that could have something connected to your how to make a living livelihood scenario. So those are just some options to think about. I go through all of this in detail in your reading for the week. I don't usually go like sign by sign by sign in the week ahead, but I wanted to give you a flavor for what this upcoming Venus retrograde could mean. Venus has been in its retrograde shadow for a little while now, like a week in some. And now that it's in Ares, it's moved into this part of your chart where it's going to station

retrograde, which again, just feels like a hot topic kind of moment. And also because the week is filled with these insights and big conversations and turning. of events that have to do with communications of some kind. There's just a lot of energy. There's a lot of like fire and air in this week, which stirs everything up and gets a lot moving. There's a lot of movement in terms of, again, info, intel, and how we connect, Venus and then all of the Mercury, Jupiter, Gemini of it all. And Mercury right now is in Aquarius. So it's very much about the people and and how we are on mass doing things and what we want to do collectively and the power that we have. All right.

Can you believe that there's stuff I haven't even mentioned yet? On the 6th of February, which is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, on Thursday, the 6th of February, the North Node and Neptune make a conjunction. The North Node is where eclipses happen. it amplifies. It makes bigger. It makes more hungry. Neptune is a planet that unifies us. It is about the dream. It's about music. It's about art. It's about transcending the boundaries and limitations of life. It is about transcendence. And so it is a signature where people will be much less apt to check the facts and data.

So there's that. But it does signal a moment of, maybe even extreme hope or compassion or love or spiritual bypassing. And it's also wobbly. So I wouldn't hang anything on it, but it does feel like a moment that can bring us together. So there's also that. And it's a really important transit. It's one that I would say is much more rare than a lot of the other transits that are happening this week. So there's something here about

you know, agape, about the big love, about the interconnectedness between all things. But again, it's not necessarily, I don't know if it's rooted in anything that's tangible or anything long lasting because Pisces is a sign that is like, we let everything go. We let it all go. We float down the river of life. So things can be a little wobblier. And because they're less concrete, there's a way in which we can really be very open emotionally and like music opens us. Great movies or art opens us and makes us feel like, oh, wow, I love humanity for this, this moment. And then we, you know, go into the opposite sign, Virgo and we're like, why are you chewing so loudly? Paises is the, I can't hear how obnoxious you're being right now.

So there's a moment of heightened connectivity. I'm not saying it's bad at all. probably really needed and really good. And it's, it's not necessarily something that's long lasting. Okay. On the 7th of February, we've got Venus making a sex style to Pluto. Very deep and cathartic and sexy and va-va-voom. Love it. Also, maybe a little like power to the people kind of moment, maybe. Like, we could do anything together. Let's let it all, you know, up. And then on the ninth, of course, we've got that Mercury Kazimi that's square Uranus, shattering news, something's going to upend, some kind of proclamation, some kind of announcement that's going to be like, okay, now it's all different. Again, this is now where we are. Again,

I'm assuming it's going to have something to do with tech or something to do with our communications, the way we communicate, and a change that's happening there. We also have Mars, very much retrograde right now. Ruling that Venus that's in its pre-retrograd shadow about to retrograde, Mars is going to trine Saturn, which is nice. It's good. It's stabilizing. So we're, you know, like picking a lane and trying to like move in a direction. Mars is retrograde. So it's a little bit of like the waters are going backwards. We're a little upstream, perhaps, but it is a productive type of work about something that is maybe emotionally a little challenging. Well, y'all, that is the reading for the week.

I'm not doing an ask me anything this week because I did the little like mini readings for every sign for the upcoming Venus retrograde. But please, you know, comment below if you're listening to this on YouTube, questions that you have. You can always write into us. You can always DM me. see it but leave a comment under the YouTube video or or send us a note about a burning question that you've got and we might even answer it in the Down to Astro have you listened to Down to Astro

we have this whole other podcast called Down to Astro where we look at what has just happened in the world and what happened astrologically and we match the two like here I'm projecting into the future in Down to Astro myself Thea Anderson and Eliza Robertson two incredible astrologers that work on the Chani app team, we get together and we're like, okay, this is what happened on Earth. This is what happened in the skies. And this is how we see the astrology unfolding. So if you want to know like why, what part of the astrology was connected to that thing that just happened, that's where we do that work. So please go and visit us there. It's a really great podcast. We have a lot of fun doing it, even though we're talking about a lot of really

difficult things often. It's good to process with each other. You know what I mean? Okay, that's it. Next week, we're going to talk about the big, huge, bold, wild, full moon. In Leo, the most performative sign there is, square Uranus, the most disruptive, unique, experimental, avant-garde, planet there is. So I think next week is going to be quite a show. I think it's going to put on quite a show. So come back and we'll talk about that then. sending you lots of love, many, many, many blessings. Bye for now.