Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of January 6th, 2025: A sticky start to the year

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Episode 212 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. With the astrology of the week of January 6th, 2025, slow and steady wins the race. Mars (the planet of action) retrogrades back into Cancer, confronting us with tough truths and tricky conversations. Later, the lunar nodes move into Pisces and Virgo, kicking off an 18-month journey of expansion and release. This period may bring growing pains, but that just means we’re making necessary progress. Let’s get into it. This episode covers: Mars’ retrograde into Cancer on Monday, January 6th Mercury’s square to Neptune on Monday, January 6th Mercury’s ingress into Capricorn on Wednesday, January 8th Mercury’s square to the lunar nodes on Wednesday, January 8th The lunar nodes’ ingress into Pisces and Virgo on Saturday, January 11th Mars’ trine to Neptune on Sunday, January 12th This episode was recorded on 10/24/2024. 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.

Hi, the following episode of the astrology of the week ahead was taped before I knew the election results in the United States of America. So if things sound aggressively positive, given the situation, that's why. I needed to get ahead of the game so that our team could go on winter break and things could happen in an orderly fashion. And this is what happens sometimes. So I hope. that the astrology still lands in a really helpful way, I just don't want you to ever think that I don't take an incoming fascist leader seriously. I take the situation that we're in exceptionally seriously. I think it's going to require all of us to do everything we can in every single moment that we can do it. And I'm here with you. We are in community together and I just

didn't want to have you thinking like, wow, is this so spiritually bypassy and has Chani totally lost the plot? I haven't. I'm with you. And in the new year, we're going to be doing episodes much closer to the time we actually air them. But until then, please enjoy and see how the astrology lands as I'm talking about it without knowing the type of world we're moving into. I hope you enjoy the episode. I'm going to hold your hand when I say this. You and I are going to do something challenging from now until April 17th. But I want you to understand one very important thing.

It is going to bring the biggest reward. we could dream of come June. Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. And I am your Astro Bestie and your host, Chani Nicholas. And this week, we are talking about the week of January 6th. And it just so happens that on Monday, on January 6th, Mars, very retrograde, just made in opposition with Pluto.

So last week on January 2nd, there was some very tense power dynamics and power struggles and emergent things that filled the air. They're probably still filling the air. You know, it is an anniversary of sorts. But on the sixth, Mars scuttles back into cancer because it's retrograding from Leo into cancer. And in cancer, it does difficult things. It asks us to do difficult things or we've got to do difficult things without the resources that we necessarily would like to have. So two things.

Mars and cancer is in a challenging situation and Mars retrograde is in a challenging situation. So when you double them up, it's, you know, all the more fun. And I want us to understand another thing. come June, Jupiter, the planet that arguably does some of the best work possible in cancer, is going to come into this sign, meaning this. From January 6th to April 17th, we've got Mars and cancer. It is retrograde until February 23rd, I believe. So that'll be the toughest segment of the work here.

And then it's going to still be in cancer until the end of April. But whatever work we choose to do, whatever work we're being asked to do, whatever work we've got to do with this situation, January, February, March, April. I want us to remember that come June, we are going to be given so many blessings and so many opportunities. for growth. So I want us to understand this thing. From now until April, if we put in some really good effort, if we cut things out of our life that are not working for us, if we make some difficult conversations, if we make some difficult decisions that we know we need to make and we say no to things that we know we need to say no to, we are absolutely, I promise you clearing space for some pretty immediate benefit.

Like it's not always immediate. We don't always get immediate gratification. And if you can think of June as fairly immediate in the grand scheme of things, then the work that we've got to do now, we might feel a little bit more encouraged to do it. We might be a little like, okay, great, I'm going to do this. This is good. This is good work to do.

And it is good work to do. because that's what Mars does. Mars is like, okay, well, where's your courage? What do you need to move towards? What do you need to cut ties with? Mars and cancer is tricky because cancer wants to create family, right? Cancer wants to create bonds. It wants to create something where safety is first and foremost.

But Mars is a planet of. action and going our own way and making sure that we can do things independently. And we can't rely on, nor can we get too comfortable in places that are too much about our security. And like safety is maybe too loaded of a word to say here because obviously we need to be safe. But then also obviously in a lot of parts of life, we aren't. And we have to to risk certain things for a greater sense of safety for all, right? Like, we can't get too comfortable or we can't get complacent in what it is that makes us comfortable. The cancer likes to get cozy. Cancer likes to be comfortable. And so Mars here is like the warrior, the one who's

not supposed to rely on comfort in a style that's trying to be comfortable. So, we've got something that doesn't make sense. We have a paradox here. The part of your chart that contains cancer is getting a major moment of excavation and aggravation and it needs your attention, like a lot. And so in this week's reading in the Chani app, I go into great detail about this part of your chart and what it might mean. But Mars and Cancer, as I say there, as you'll hear me say, and I've already said here, is kind of, it's phlegmy, right? Cancer is a sign of water, and if Mars is agitating and sometimes irritating and overheating or can do something to inflame the system and there's water involved or something that is sticky and mucusy,

It's like a congested type of feeling. It's a little gross. Mars and cancer can kind of create that situation. So what feels like, okay, this is this is like a deeply embedded family issue or something I've learned from my family. Or this is a sticky situation that I've got to try to find my way through. this is something that I need to rally my courage around. This is something that feels a little bit like quicksand. Like I can't just move in the way that I want to move as quickly as I want to because it's

a little bit of a trap. And that's the deal with the beginning of the year. So we need to be really strategic. We need, it's kind of like when you're, when you've had to rock your baby to sleep or when they've fallen asleep on you and you're like, okay, I've got the baby. I need to put them down for a nap. But if I move too quickly, the baby will wake up and I will be fucked. You know, like this is a situation I have to handle very tenderly. And there is that feeling of like raging infant with Mars and cancer. I'm not saying that people have that placement or raging infants.

I'm just saying it's the style. It's the combo. So we want to think like, how do we not wake the baby? How do we not move too quickly in this quicksand so we don't get like totally swallowed up by everything? We need to be able to have patience move in a way that is going to be productive long term and not disturb things that. don't need to be disturbed. And yet, we've got to do the things we've got to do, right? So we're in, again, a sticky situation. It's wet. It's sticky. It's not cut and dry. It's definitely not a dry situation. So, you know, that's good for some things and it's not good for other things.

We need to be able to say no to situations. And we need to be able to say no to situations. And we need to be able to cut things down, whittle them down. But again, it's the cutting that gets hard when everything is like gluey and sticky. So this is the condition that we're working with

as far as Mars goes. But and also, Mars moves into cancer and then by Sunday makes a really lovely trine with Neptune. And that's really helpful. It's like about, yeah, maybe movement

is a little hard right now, but we're wanting to move towards our ideals. And that's a good thing. Or we're trying to move towards something that is an ideal situation. If I'm going to think about what the ideal is, I want to orient myself towards that. If it's going to be hard and difficult and sticky and tricky, fine. I'm going to move towards the thing, though, that is best for me to move towards. Also on Monday, Mercury makes us squared in Neptune. Mercury is still in Sajge as of Monday. It's been there for forever. It's been there most of November and December and now into January. It's finally going to leave on Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday might feel a little mercury retrograde E with Mars moving into cancer, back into cancer. Again, it might feel like things are

a little sloggy. So it just might be a slow start to the week. Just know that. It's not going to be every single day that's going to feel like that with Mars and cancer. But especially Monday, Tuesday, it just might feel like what is going on and where am I? Then on Wednesday, Mercury finally changes signs. It moves into very productive, organized, strategic, wanting to win, wanting to figure it out, wanting to get to the finish line, Capricorn, and makes a square to the nodes that are also about to change science.

So I do think that Wednesday is going to bring about some pivotal, important pieces of information and conversations. So listen in. Other big piece of 2025s, astrology. Mars is a big piece of it, and on Saturday, the nodes change sign. Huge deal. The part of your chart that contains Pisces is getting a major boost of desire. I'm going to talk about the North Node in this week's Ask Me Anything question from the audience

because I think that the North Node is something that we might not, always consider in its like fullness. So I know in modern astrology, the North Node is considered a point of your, like, purpose or like that's where you're supposed to go to in modern astrology. That's not true in traditional astrology. I'm not saying it's not true, period. I'm just saying that traditional astrology doesn't look at the North Node like that. In traditional astrology, we look at the North Node as a place of like chaos.

It's a place where eclipses happen. So it's a place of like, oh, this is unsure, unsettled, unreliable. It's definitely a point of major activation. So wherever your north node is speaks to something that you're really hungry for. The north node is the hungry head of the dragon. The north node is moving into Pisces. That means that the part of your chart that contains Pisces is going to receive this desirous kind of influence over the next 18 months. So in your reading this week, I also go into the area of

your chart that contains Pisces. Check it out. Where is Pisces in your chart? This is getting a major moment from the North Node and we will have eclipses near this point and eventually we'll have an eclipse in Pisces about halfway through 2025 near the North Node, which will be a big deal because it's only the second time we'll have had that. The first time, was in September of 2024. Okay. So you can think back to September of 2020, and see, think about if something like big happened for you.

But again, remembering the part of your chart that contains Pisces, the house that Pisces is in is so, so, so important. Then we want to think about what this means for the world. Now, Pisces is a sign that talks about the dream and the ultimate kind of situation and compassion and oneness. And it's really not concerned with details and the logistics of things, which great. It's the poet of the Zodiac. We love it.

It is the big-hearted one who wants to make sure that everyone is cared for and considered and that there's a deep need to extend oneself out to everybody with Pisci. So there's a desire to do that. Hopefully, that desire will increase on the planet. A desire for care, a desire for compassion, a desire to be able to make sure that the vulnerable are considered in our equation. And Pisces loves some escapism. So the desire to escape might also start to really increase. The south node is going to be in Virgo because the south node and the north node are always in the opposite signs. So the south node is the tail of the dragon. North node is the hungry head of the dragon. South node is the tail of the dragon that sweeps everything away.

Now, when the south node enters a sign, it generally means that the significations of that sign decrease. We lose some of the qualities of that sign. So if we're going to lose some of the qualities of Virgo, maybe we're going to lose some desire for perfectionism. Love that. Maybe we're also, though, going to lose some desire for facts and data and details and discernment. Don't love that so much. So that's what we're going to make sure we keep our eye on. Now, the thing about the South Node in your chart, though, is that as it transits through Virgo, the part of your chart that contains Virgo is going to go through a huge clearing and a healing. And that can be exceptionally helpful. Not always easy, but really, really helpful. The first time we're going to have an eclipse

near the South Node in Virgo will be this March. Big deal. First one that's happened in a couple decades. So nodes are changing signs. We're not going to know the full story of this until the eclipses roll out here and the nodes take a while to move through this part of our chart. But those that access, the access in your chart that contains Pisces and Virgo, the houses in your chart that contain Pisces and Virgo are a big piece of 2025's astrology. And this is the first change in a series of many changes this year. Make sure you listen to your year ahead reading. We've got them for every quarter.

order of the year. I go very in depth into what each of these things means for you. Also, again, in your weekly reading, I do. Okay. That leads me to the weekly question from the audience, which is, how can I find my life purpose using my North Node placement? And my controversial take on this is that you cannot. That is not where I look for somebody's life purpose. It's just not it. To me, to me, life purpose is a combination of three slash four things. Your sun, your moon, your ascendant, and the ruler of your ascendant, right? So that gives us four. It's like three keys with a fourth element. Because your sun is how you shine. It's how you live out and express in the brightest way possible your life's purpose. The moon is your body.

It's your physical incarnation into this world. It is your needs. And it's how you unpack your life's purpose day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. Your ascendant is the most personal part of your astrology chart. Your ascendant is the you of your chart. It is your first house. It is the only part of your chart that is exclusively about you, your body, your appearance, but it's just the you of your chart because it is.

such a precise locator of your birth. It is about the exact time and the exact place that you were born. That's the rising sign. It's the sign that was coming up over the eastern horizon in the place that you were born at the time that you were born. It's very specific to you. It's the most specific thing to you in your chart. So the rising sign tells us about your motivation for coming into the body. The sun tells us how you're going to shine. The moon tells us. us what you need, how to nurture yourself, and how you're going to unpack your life's purpose a little bit at a time every single day. The planet that rules the sign of your ascendant, your rising sign, and where that planet is in your chart tells us the area of life that you

must go to in order to feel fulfilled. It's so important. When I give reading, I give reading, like when it's a first time client, I start with the ruler of the ascendant. I start with the ascendant and then where the ruler of the ascendant is. I don't even get to the center of the moon until I go through those two things and all that they mean. That's how important your ascendant and the ruler of your ascendant is. Then if you're born in the day, I go to your son next. But if you're born at night, I go to the moon next. Because if you're born at night, the moon is your light leader. If you're born in the day, the sun is your light leader. So day charts, I go to the sun first and then the moon. Night charts, I go to the moon first and then the sun. But that's only after I do the

ascendant and the ruler of the ascendant. I wrote a whole book on this. It's called You Were Born for this. And it keeps us rooted in those three slash four key components. It's also in the Chani app, talk about the three keys of your chart and how to best work with them. Because I think that when you locate yourself there in your chart, you cannot go wrong. You literally can't. You will you will not be able to not live a life that feels like it is of purpose if you're living out those things. The North Node will tell you what you're hungry for. It will tell you what you are insatiable for. If the North node is in your first house, if it's in your rising sign, it'll tell you about your life's purpose. It'll tell you about your motivation. Or if your north

note is by or sitting with the ruler of your ascendant, the planet that rules the sign of your ascendant, your rising sign, it will tell you like, whoof, you've got a huge desire to do this thing in life. But your North node will tell you where your insatiable desire for life is. And whatever it's doing, whatever else it's touching, will give us a tremendous amount of information about the part of you that's really restless. The North Node can help us to achieve a tremendous amount, but we also have to keep it in check because it will never feel fed. It will never have enough. It'll keep wanting and wanting and wanting and wanting. So we have to be in control of it. we have to be like, okay, look, this is actually good. I'm good. I don't need to have everything.

There's a part of me that will desire that, but I don't need to have it all. You know, like if your North Node is in the 7th House, you might desire a lot of relationships or a lot from the people you're in relationship with, but it's up to you to kind of check that and to fill your own need for intimacy as well as being in many different types of intimate committed partnerships. See what I mean? It's all about where it is. We have amazing write-ups about the North Node, both where it is in your needle chart and also where it's traveling through in the sky right now.

So I highly suggest reading both of those and your South Node horoscope and your South Node placement. It's a good time to you. As the nodes change, it's a nice moment to kind of reflect on how that works for personally. All right, y'all, go listen to your year ahead reading, go listen to your weekly reading, all the readings. But this is the time to dig into like, how is this year unfolding? What are the ways in which I can slow down January and February? Because the rest of the year is filled with so much change. You're going to be glad that you were maybe feeling a little

stuck at the beginning of the year. Maybe not feeling stuck. Maybe you won't be glad about that. But maybe glad that you couldn't move as quickly as your mind was telling you to or as the world was telling you to. If things feel a little slow right now, okay, that's where we are. Maybe we're a little stuck. It's fine. In the stuckness, there will be a point of release. We just can't be like moving around and thrashing around for no good reason. Conserve your energy.

You know that like trap that Hermione, and Ron and Harry fall into in one of the episodes, one of the books. And like the more they wriggle, the more stuck they get, that's kind of like a Mars and cancer situation, especially coming off of the opposition with Pluto. You want to relax. Relax into this moment. Try not to struggle against things you don't need to struggle against. Be with the tempo that is.

and then maybe we can slowly start to get unstuck from it all. All right. I'll see you back here next week for a reading on the full moon and cancer conjunct Mars. It's a big Mars week next week. It's a big cancer week. It's a lot of feelings. And we're going to talk about how to unravel them and parse them out and be able to understand what they are. So I'll see you back here next week.

Until then, sending lots of love, many blessings. Thanks. Bye for now.