Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of January 16th, 2023: Mercury is direct, Aquarius season begins and there’s a New Moon in Aquarius

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

In this podcast, New York Times bestselling author and astrologer Chani Nicholas discusses the astrology of the week and what it might mean for us all. The astrology of the week of January 16th, 2023, feels like the true beginning of 2023. On Wednesday, Mercury (the planet of communication) stations direct in a helpful trine with Uranus (the planet of breakthroughs), broadening our ability to understand the solutions we need right now. Then the Sun conjoins Pluto (the planet of underworld journeys) and shines a light on the hidden truths we hold within ourselves and our society. On Friday, the Sun moves into Aquarius, marking the official start of Aquarius season. On Saturday, the New Moon in Aquarius occurs, offering a deep cleansing and renewal to the area of our chart that contains the water bearer. Finally, on Sunday, Venus conjoins Saturn and clarifies the containers we need to create beauty in our relationships. For more, check out your free daily horoscope on the homepage of the CHANI app. Android users can receive their free daily horoscope on the CHANI website. The CHANI app is currently only available for the iPhone, but we are working as hard and as fast as we can on an Android app. In the meantime, Android users can access our content by purchasing the Android Workshops on chani.com. The music featured in the podcast was created by Latashá.

In my humble opinion, 2023 officially begins this week. We have Mercury Stationing Direct. And then we have Aquarius season and right away a really beautiful new moon and Aquarius. All of this together spells a moment of major reset. And it signals a kind of green flag from the universe. Hello and welcome. this is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. And I'm your host, Chani, Nicholas.

In this podcast, we look at the astrology of the upcoming week and how it will be landing for all of us collectively. For a more personalized reading that dives into the ways that this week's astrology will play out for you, download the Chani app for iPhone. All right. So, as promised, Mercury is not going to stay retrograde forever. On Wednesday, January 18th, Mercury is stationing direct at eight degrees of Capricorn. And look, the cool thing is that not all Mercury stationing directs are made equal. Some of them

are still really challenging. This one is actually incredibly helpful. That's because Mercury is stationing direct in a trine, so in a helpful, flowing aspect to Uranus. Uranus is a planet of updates and innovation and breakdowns and breakthroughs. And when it's on our side, like it is in a trine, it's trying to facilitate a new perspective, helping us to see something in a different way. It's trying to broaden usually our ability to understand the solutions that we need now. It's like, hey, we need an update.

We need it a 2.0. We need to understand that we've grown. We're in a new place. And this is what we need going forward, at least for the moment. And Mercury Stationing Direct, again, if it's in a good situation and a good scenario, also gives us that kind of feeling. Now, two things are true. As Mercury Station's Direct, it's moving exceptionally slow. So it is still sticky.

I always equate it to when you're driving in a car and you're going forward and then you have to stop and go into reverse, drive backward, stop, go into drive and move forward. We're in that part of the scenario where we were backing up. Now we've stopped. That's what Mercury is doing this week. And then we're starting to move forward, but it takes a minute to get up to speed. So communications are still sticky, but it's in that pausing. and stopping where we get the information that we need, where we get and where we receive the update.

Because what's going to happen is Mercury is going to start to move forward and make an exact trine with Uranus. And again, this is all about solution. It's all about getting the upgrades we need. It's all about innovating in the necessary and needed ways for at least this first part of 2023. So that feels like a moment where we get to recalibrate, we get to review, we get to renew,

and we get to start that forward momentum process. And Mars has also just stationed direct. So the first part of January was all about starting out slow. And now that Mars is direct, and Mercury is now direct as of Wednesday. We're now able to integrate the lessons of both Mars retrograde and Mercury retrograde, because we're no longer reviewing. Now we're starting to piece it all back together and make it work, integrate it, and get going.

But not only that, on the day that Mercury stations direct, the Sun and Pluto come together. This is like shining a spotlight. into a cavern. The sun is light and Pluto is dark and Pluto is the underworld. And Pluto is those places in our lives and in our societies where things are secret and things are kept underground. So when we shine a spotlight on that, as Mercury is pivoting and stationing direct, it feels like kind of like a secret. could be revealed, or there's something that is asking us to investigate a little deeper. To pause? Wait, hold on. Did that sound funny to you? I have a weird feeling about that.

Let me just be still with this information and get to the bottom of it if I can. The sun conjunct Pluto, really anything conjunct Pluto, wants to get to the bottom of it. It's like, I'm not going to be satisfied with just a casual answer. I want to know why you did the thing. Like, what is underneath the reason why you acted that way? Or what is underneath this situation or scenario? What is underneath the story? Why did it take place in the first place?

So it could be a really good day for research. It's a really good day for investigations. And it's a really interesting day for truth. to come to light. And also for us to understand our own personal power. It definitely feels mysterious. Okay, then pretty soon after that, on Friday the 20th, the sun moves in to Aquarius. So Aquarius season begins on Friday, the 20th of January. And on Saturday, the 21st of January, we have a new moon in Aquarius. So Mercury has moved forward. A new sun sign season has begun. And now a new lunar cycle has also just begun. So again, it feels like, okay, this is the official start of

2023. We're back. We're here. We're ready to plant seeds of intention. We're ready to get going with the lessons that we've been reviewing. We're ready to do this. And this is a really nice new moon for a couple of reasons. One, Mercury and Mars. are now direct, so that's very helpful for the situation at large. But two, it's sitting in a sex style, so a helpful, excitable interaction with Jupiter, the planet of bounty and abundance. And really, if we're going to begin a growth cycle, if we're going to plant seeds of intention, Jupiter is a really nice kind of like miracle grow to add to the concoction. And it's also sitting in a trying to Mars, which again is newly direct. So that feels like a little extra courage,

a little extra va-va-voom, a little extra fuel for the engine. Interestingly, it's not the only thing happening in Aquarius. So the sun and moon come together in Aquarius. And then on Sunday, the day after, Venus and Saturn also come together. So there's two conjunctions. There's like a pile up, a stellium of planets in Aquarius. So, So there's the qualities of the sign that these conjunctions are happening in. And the qualities of Aquarius are all about a type of renewal, right? Aquarius is obviously the water bearer, pouring forth libations for the masses, giving energy to whatever situation. And Aquarius is always concerned with the whole, with the group, with the masses, with the people.

It's not a sign that is about the individual. It is about the collective. So the waters that Aquarius pours forth are for humanity. So there's this feeling of a kind of energetic offering and renewal that comes with Aquarius. Within Aquarius season, we go through the cross-quarter day, which is imbulk, which is the moment in between the solstice and the equinox. So it is a sign that marks a type of turning. It's not all the way spring, obviously, but we're like halfway in between in terms of when the sun moves through this sign. So there's a thawing out and there's an offering to the masses.

And so it's really about the vision that we have for the future and how we offer that to the world at large, to our communities. Obviously, Aquarius is an air sign. It's a water bearer, but it's an air sign. so it's incredibly intellectual. And its whole mode of being is to reach certainty, to understand, to study, to learn, to be able to intellectualize whatever it's curious about, and then to understand a system so completely

that it can dismantle it and disrupt it in the most important of ways. So we're having a new moon in this sign, and then we're having a Venus, Saturn conjunction in this sign. So there's a lot of things coming together. Venus and Saturn are not always so friendly, but they do have a lot in common. Venus is a planet that's related to what we call the night sect. So it's related to a group of planets that do not have anything to do with Saturn. Saturn is a day planet or part of the day sect. So they're on different teams. They have

different agendas. Venus is about pleasure and relaxation and it's again a night planet or belongs to the night sect. So it is that like nocturnal relaxation and exploration of all things, sensual and beautiful and wonderful and pleasurable. And Saturn is a day planet. It's part of the day sect. It's very much about boundaries. It's very remote. It is very concerned with the rules and the structures and the boundaries of something. So the planet of pleasure, planet of restrictions coming together, have very different agendas. It can be kind of a bummer, right? Venus wants to play and Saturn wants to work.

However, the intersection that they do have is through the sign that Saturn has its exaltation in, which is Libra. Venus rules Libra, and actually Saturn does really well in Libra. And that intersection is really interesting to explore because what actually creates something that's beautiful? It's all about the form and structure that we give our creative work. That's what actually manifests beauty in the world. And then what actually helps us to clarify.

our relationships and create containers where intimacy can happen. That's our commitments. We can have any kind of commitment we want, but when we're clear about the commitments and the rules and the ways in which we organize our relationships, we can actually experience a great amount of intimacy. And it's really hard to have a relationship without shared boundaries and without agreeing on a certain set of norms without making commitments to each other, whatever those commitments are going to be again. So we have a new moon in Aquarius, which means we're starting to seed something new in the part of our chart that contains Aquarius. And then we have a Venus-Saturn conjunction, which can feel a little stern, but it's all about committing to the beauty in our life.

It's about committing to the relationships in our life. And it's about committing to the ways in which we are centering what we value. Venus has a lot to do with what we value and what we desire. And when we commit to our values, Venus and Saturn, we can actually organize our life and our life's energy around those values. And for my experience, that's when we actually feel like we're leading and living out a meaningful life. So with this new moon, as we seed some kind of intention, as we plant some seeds in some area of our life, may we also be considering our values and how to commit more fully to them. so that long term we can feel deeply satisfied with how we've spent our time here.

Because like it or not, and this is a message from Saturn, that time is really exceptionally quick. It is fleeting and no amount of it is promised us. Also, on Sunday, Uranus and Taurus stations direct. So we have two planets stationing direct this week. So again, it does feel like there's a turn of. events, feels like we're turning over a new leaf, feels like we're entering into a new season, and we're starting a new lunar cycle. There is a lot to feel good about. That sun Pluto conjunction on Wednesday might feel a little intense. But again, if we use it to go deep, if we use it to

investigate, if we use it to research our feelings, a fact, a story, anything we're interested in, It can be incredibly transformative. If you want to know how to work with this new moon and you've yet to become a subscriber of the Chani app, you can always do so for a free trial. And in the workshop section of the app under the This Week tab, we have new moon alter suggestions, a new moon ritual, guided meditation, and journal prompts specific to this new moon. But definitely whatever you do, work with it because it's got a lot of really great potential. Thank you so much for leaving reviews in the app story. They mean the world to us. We read every single one.

I wanted to share one with you. It's called Many Layers of Helpful by Norm E. I downloaded this app because I was feeling a bit personally unmoored. I'm not a big astrology person, but I've always always. loved Chani's emails over the years. When I saw she had an app, I decided to listen to the weekly reading. And over the past few months, I've explored more and more of the app. It just keeps giving and giving and giving so many layers of helpfulness, supportiveness, and much-needed perspective. Just today, I used the journal reflection to start thinking of routines that support my

long-term plans. And when I felt my ire rising when looking at the comments on Instagram, never look at the comments, I decided to just set the phone down and move on because of Channey's wise reflections on Mars retrograde. I'm so grateful to Channey and her team for this beautiful gift. All right, y'all, sending you a lot of New Moon Aquarius season blessings. Bye for now.