Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of July 13th, 2026: Dreaming big with Neptune, Uranus, and a Cancer New Moon

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Episode 291In 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 July 13th, 2026, plants seeds for a new beginning. When Venus (the planet of beauty and connection) squares off with Uranus (the planet of surprise and upheaval), it requires us to get clear about what systems we’re disrupting and why. The New Moon in Cancer also wants us to get specific and offers some practical support to our most focused intentions. And as Uranus sextiles Neptune (the planet of ideals and fantasies), we’re called to align our actions with our hopes and dreams for the future — while Mars (the planet of action) sextiles Saturn (the planet of boundaries), bolstering our courage and the boundaries we need to move forward. You don’t have to dismiss your big ideas this week; just break them down into doable steps.This episode covers:Venus’ square to Uranus on Monday, July 13thThe New Moon in Cancer on Tuesday, July 14thUranus’ sextile to Neptune Rx on Wednesday, July 15thUranus’ trine to Pluto Rx on Friday, July 17thMars’ sextile to Saturn on Sunday, July 19thThis episode was recorded on 06/01/2026.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.

What's the one thing that you have time, space, and energy to begin this week? It's not everything. It's not a million things. It's not the biggest thing. It's about being very, very, very selective about whatever seeds you want to plant here and now because and only because you have the capacity to do so. and they are the most essential seeds to plant in this season of your life. Hello and welcome.

This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie. In this episode, we are talking about the week of July 13th. And friends, while we do have a new moon in cancer, which is all about nurturing and nourishing and planting a seed, it's good in a lot of ways because the moon, loves to be in cancer. So a new moon in cancer is always going to be especially potent. And it's also sitting in a square to Saturn who rises first in the morning because it's in an

earlier sign. It's in Ares. So there's a limited capacity here with this new moon. Okay. So we are talking about new beginnings that are actually possible to make. We're not talking about launching into some big new thing that we don't have the time, energy, or desire to do. Obviously, you wouldn't do that. But this is about making very small adjustments, very local little new beginnings, so that we can make the most out of the resources that we have. A new moon in cancer is always a gorgeous time to think, how do I need to reparent myself in this current moment? A new winning cancer is always a gorgeous time to think about how I can take care of my local environment, how I can show up as a good neighbor and friend and ally to all living things around me. That is what the moon does.

The moon rules cancer. The moon is local. The moon is about nourishment. The moon is also about conception. That's why a new moon in cancer is always going to be a little extra juicy, a little extra good because it's about all of those things or it magnifies the potential of all of those things. And but also Saturn is squaring this going, what are you doing? You don't have that. You don't have this. You don't have time for this. You don't have time for that. It's about being very, very narrow in our ability to be like this thing and this thing only is what I'm doing right now. Also, there's just a flurry of activity. I'm recording this at the beginning of June. I don't know what's going on mid-July. All I know is the astrology, and the astrology is

wild, y'all. All of those big outer planets, those slow moving, they're not even big, they're just slow-moving outer planets are starting to line up right now. I spent a long time last week talking about this. So if you want to go and listen to last week's podcast, please do. In short, what these next two weeks are really about, and it's really the whole month of July, but these next two weeks, it really comes to a fine point, is it is really about the future. I don't know what's going on in July, because again, I'm in June, but when I look at the astrology of July, it looks like, okay, whatever is happening in July is trying to carve out a certain type of theme that we'll be living into for a long time to come.

So it's very important to be telling the story that we want to live into. It's very important right now to be seeing ourselves as creators of the present moment. And look, if all else fails and everything goes down, like if we want to go worst case scenario here, because I know the world is hard and it gets bleak out there. So let's do it. Let's go worst case scenario. I want to go out fighting. I don't know about you. I want to go out sticking to my morals and my values as best I can in every given situation. I want to take care of myself. I want to take care of my people. I want to take care of my life. I want to take care of my dreams. I want to be doing the things that I love and fighting the fight that I believe in till the bitter end, to the beautiful end,

to the glorious end, to I don't know what kind of end that will be. None of us do. The fascists try to tell us that this is the end. This is inevitable. The robots are here. War is always, always, always, always. But that's not true. That's their story. How can we right now push back against that blaring narrative that is everywhere? It's the air we breathe, the water we drink, the earth we stand on. It's all, we're soaked in their narrative, in their reality. How do we push back against that to be like, no, this is my vision. This is our vision. This is the movement that I'm a part of. These are the movements that I am a part of. And this is our collective vision. This is their vision. This is their vision. This is my vision. This is how it all

overlaps and intersects. This is how it all supports each other. It doesn't have to be this way. This is not your party alone. This is all of us. And so while we're in these moments of extreme tension, And there is extreme tension right now because two of the things that are lining up are Jupiter and Leo and big inflated Leo. I just say inflated because it's Jupiter, not because Leo is inflated. But you know what I mean? It's like big. It wants to be king, really.

Jupiter and Leo is very like king-coded. I don't believe in kings. But we're living in this situation where that is where a lot of the energy. goes. Not mine, not yours, but theirs, right? Jupiter in Leo is sitting across from almost an exact opposition to Pluto and Aquarius. And then all these other outer planets are sex-styling each other and trining each other. Pluto and Aquarius is trining Uranus and Gemini, is sex-styling Jupiter and Leo is trining Neptune in Aries. Neptune and Aries as. and Uranus and Gemini are sexiling each other.

And all of this is going on. And it looks like a bowl. Looks like the shape of a bowl in the sky. And so there's an incredible amount of tension. And then there's an incredible amount of support and ignition and excitement. And it's all kind of contained, but it's all brewing. And it's really, really, really, really important that we are making use of all of our social channels, all of the spaces and the places, public and private, that we dream with one another,

that we communicate with one another, that we share leadership responsibilities with one another, that we remember that we are leaders amongst leaders, all in a unison and in a unified effort to move in the direction of life. of liberation, of being able to all receive sustenance and security and support. Okay. The specifics of this week. First step is Monday. Venus in Virgo, super studied, well-versed, very articulate, very specific, very hardworking, makes a square to Uranus. So this is all about doing something differently, and it's about being very specific about what we are rebelling against and why. It's also time to do something new in terms of our relationships or in terms of

getting out of an old pattern or an old system that's just boring at this point. Like, shake things up. It's time to wake ourselves up. And then Tuesday, we have the new moon in cancer. Again, this is a great time to be very specific. Again, specific. very direct about the thing that we might be planting or beginning. And the day of the new moon is really good for being still. I don't mean don't live your life and don't do stuff. Just have some stillness in your day. The moon is dark. We cannot see the moon. There's no light to go by. It's about going in. It's not about looking out. That's the full moon. The full moon's like, whoa, look at all that light at night. The new moon is.

like, whoa, mystery. Fascinating. Let me go inward. The new moon is about saying, like, wow, the moon disappeared. Will it ever come back again? And then like a day or two later, it starts to come back. The light starts to come back and it reemerges. And it's so beautiful. You know that like just a wisp of a crest of the new moon, that baby moon, that's like full of potential. That's when we start to move into action. The day of the new moon is like, Go dark, at least for a minute, at least for five seconds, at least for 10 minutes. Sit, allow yourself to empty out. Go back to zero internally. All the chaos of the world is still going to chaos. It's all be there for you when you're done.

But give yourself a minute on Tuesday to just go back to the basics. Go back to the ground of your being and just be like, what do I know? need right now? What is my body need? What food? What water? What comfort? What clothes? What hugs? What interactions? What can I do to just give myself what I need in the most basic and foundational way? Not basic as it's so basic. But yes, it's just basic. We forget to give ourselves the basics all the time. and that's what anything in cancer is trying to remind us of. Basics are powerful. They're the foundation of everything.

So on Tuesday, I really want you to just go back down to your foundational needs and ask yourself, in this moment, on this day, in this season of the year of my life, what do I need? And then just see if you can give that to yourself. keep it really simple. And then for the rest of the week, especially as the moon's light starts to emerge, see if there's a desire that comes out. You're like, oh, I could do this one thing. Again, it's we're working in a limited resource capacity. I don't want you to overwhelm yourself. Again, it feels like the world, it looks like the world's very overstimulated right now. So it's just about meeting those basic needs first and foremost. And then see if anything comes out of that.

Wednesday, Uranus makes a sex style of Neptune. This is like era-defining astrology in and of itself. It's very important. It's an exciting aspect. Uranus is about breakthroughs and innovations. Neptune is about dreaming and using our imagination. And this is why I say we need to be radically awake to our dreams. We need to be radically aligned with our hopes and our dreams.

We need to be radically, definitively, stubbornly in the practice of dreaming. Neptune is an Ares. It's a very creative, very inspired dream state. Uranus is in Gemini. It's about a new world order and a changing of how we relate to one another and everything in our life. So this is big, big, big astrology. It is happening in your chart.

go to your weekly reading to see what I say about it. It's definitely very big for Gemini's and Ares, but everybody has Gemini and Ares in their chart. And these two places in your chart, these two signs are helping each other out. These two parts of your life, these two parts of your chart, are in cahoots.

So you want to see what you can do with them. And then Uranus, one of these, is going to make a trine to Pluto. Now, both of them are in air signs. Both of them have something to do with technology, at least the sign and or the planet. So this is where it feels like, oh, what are the brologarcs getting away with? But again, I don't want to give them my imagination. I just also have my eye on them because I think that their intentions are evil and extractive,

which is to say evil. And I want to be like, what's the video surveillance? What is the, you know, techno-fascist state that we are going into ever more rapidly? How do we resist? How do we get creative about the ways in which we are resisting? How are we absolutely defending our land and our communities and saying no to data centers everywhere, anywhere, all the places around the globe? No, no, no, no, no.

And the parts of your chart that contain Aquarius, that's where Pluto is, and the part of your chart that again contains Gemini, are also in cahoots and helping each other. And there's a big flow here. So in your personal reading, I go into that as well. And then on Sunday, Mars makes a sex style to Saturn. Usually these two are at best frenemies, which I think is what's happening here. It's like Mars and Saturn are on different teams. They want different things. They're both baddies. They're both mollifics. They're both planets that are very hefty and are also going to help us to set limits, boundaries, defend ourselves, et cetera. So a Mars, Saturn, sex style definitely feels like, okay, what do we need to shape? What do we need to cut off? What do we need to say no to? What do we need to do and have courage about and have boundaries around in order to make this other thing happen? All right. Now let's take a question from the audience. Thank you so much for sending these in. They are so extremely helpful for me. Hi, Chani. My question for you is about Saturn placements, specifically Saturn placements that are in prominent houses in the chart, and even more specifically within angular houses of the chart.

Both me and my dad have Saturn in our 10th House of Career. It's also where my mid-heaven is. And then my mom has Saturn in her first house of self. And I was just wondering if you could speak to how Saturn might show up in our lives differently or more prominently than if the Saturn had been placed in a different house. Thank you. Well, we can definitely say that you have a very Saturn-9 family. And it all depends on what other planets are around.

what the signs are, like what is the rising sign, is one of your Saturn's in one of its own signs, or is it in a sign where it has great difficulty? All of these things will color and shape and give a translation as to how Saturn shows up. But and also, having Saturn in the first or the 10th is like the consummate critic. There's something here about that placement that is really powerful and really potent. And because Saturn is like the principle, it's like right, wrong, yes, no, it can be very concrete. It does make for a good social critic. It makes for a great writer oftentimes. Again, depending on the sign and other things in the chart, it makes for a really good editor. It makes for a really good shaper of things. Saturn also has a connection

to agriculture. It has a connection to bones and dirt and death and the endings of things in a lot of ways. And so, you know, if there's like a family business that has something to do with one of those things I just mentioned, you know, you never know, like these weird kind of translations can happen or these weird kinds of threads can kind of get pulled through the family. But it is also to say, like, just on a very topical note, Saturn in prominent places for all three of you is going to kind of feel like an intense setup. Like, who is going to be in control? Who is going to shape the thing?

Who is going to give me the rules? Like, do you all three have different rules? Do you all abide by the same rules? Rules become really big when Saturn is prominent. It would be so if it was in the seventh or the fourth. house as well in different ways, but there's this feeling of rigidity that can set in when Saturn is prominent in the chart, not in all areas of your life, but there's going to be places where you're like, these are the rules that I follow. I don't follow rules in this area of my life,

but I follow rules here. This is how I'm disciplined. Maybe not in all areas of my life, but here I'm disciplined. This is where I am an authority, not in all areas of my life, but here I'm an authority. And those are like Saturnian vibes. Now, if Saturn has a hard time and the sign that it's in, maybe that's really hard for one of you. Right. Like maybe if Saturn is struggling and it's prominent, then the struggle to move into your maturity, your integrity, your self-discipline, that can all get hard or be hard or be the main struggle of the life. It doesn't mean that you can't do it. I have a really hard Saturn, but I have found a way to be disciplined. I found a way to work really hard. I found a way to do the things that are really Saturnian in a way that I can do them, if that makes sense. It's like I had to

build my own system and I had to build my own thing. I couldn't fit into other people's systems and other people's discipline, but I got there, and it took a long time. The other thing about having really prominent Saturn's is that they are about delay, right? Saturn is about delay. So it can take us a while to move into our power, our purpose, our authority, our integrity, whatever. It can be a signature of being a late bloomer. And so maybe you all have that in common, too. So it's about thinking about like, what are Saturnian principles and how are they prominent in all of our lives in the same ways, in different ways, and in complementary ways, and maybe in conflicting ways. Depends, again, how you all kind of interpret that. But again, what signs your Saturns are in,

what planets are there with them, what planets are aspecting them, and all of those other astrological rules. Thank you so much. That was an excellent question. Thank you for sending in your questions. Please keep sending them in. Again, it helps me think about how to give you this information in the most helpful way. Okay. That's the reading. Come back next week because we've got the Jupiter-Pluto opposition, along with the Neptune Pluto sex style and Leo season is getting hot and bothered. Come back. We'll talk more about that then because, again, the last bit of July is wild. Like the last days of July, we've got a full moon and Aquarius. It kind of blows everything. up. So we're just now moving into this time in the later part of July that's really shaping the future.

We are part of shaping the future. We are not looking for evidence right now of our success. We are staying in the lane of our own purpose, fulfillment, integrity, and vision, right? We're not looking for proof yet. Or maybe ever. We just have to be in that vision for ourselves. We have to be in the possibility because otherwise we get clamored and clobbered with their inevitability, quote unquote, tactics, which are bullshit. And they're a spell that they're trying to put us under. But we are breaking that spell all the time, collectively together. Hang out with your besties. Remind each other of that. I love you. Thank you for being part of this community of resistance and possibility and of independent.

We are a totally independent media company. I don't take any money. We don't even have ads on our website. Have you ever noticed that? We have an ad free website. No ads there. No, I'm not, I'm not doing commercials on this on this little podcasty thing. We are an independently owned app and media company. And so when you join with us, it is in the spirit of that independence of not, being bought by corporate interests. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Sending you so much love. Bye, Bestie.