Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of July 14th, 2025: Get ready to make mistakes

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Episode 239In 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 week of July 14th, 2025, continues serving up confusion in our communications. Mercury begins its backtrack through Leo, calling lots of attention to all our crossed wires. And Mars meets up with the South Node in Virgo, prompting us to let go of the need for perfection in the fight for liberation and find a new focus for our critical eye. So check in with those close to you to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Now’s the time to double-check the details and ditch what’s out of date.Let’s get into it.This episode covers:Uranus in GeminiThe start of Mercury’s retrograde on Thursday, July 17thMercury’s sextile to Venus on Friday, July 18thMars’ conjunction with the South Node on Sunday, July 20thThis episode was recorded on 06/11/2025.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.

Three things about this week. It's going to be confusing. There's going to be tech issues and we're going to get things wrong and we're going to have to be okay with it. Okay, that's four things. Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie, Cheney Nicholas.

And in this episode, guess what we're talking about? We're talking about Mercury Retrograde. Why? Well, you know what she's up to. Foolery and making fools of us. can I just tell you a story what just happened to me? I just was preparing for this episode. I was like, oh, great, Mercury Retrograde is coming. I've got to do an episode about it. Every time I film or record something about Mercury retrograde, which I do in the future, right?

Like I do in the past about the future. So where I am right now, Mercury is very not retrograde. But just me even talking about it always ends up with some kind of snafu. So of course, course, I have a new camera, I have new equipment. I've spent the day figuring it out. I've recorded multiple things today. Fine. They were all fine. What happens when I went to record the episode of this little ditty, this Mercury Retrograde week ahead? Well, I recorded a whole thing and I was like, ooh, I'm going to just be on time. I'm going to be able to make it to my appointment. I'm going to be able to get everything in after I dealt with a whole bunch of like snafus in regards to the setup of everything. And then I go to turn the camera off and it says memory card full and

nothing had been recorded. Okay. So that's the deal that we're in. We are in Mercury retrograde land. Mercury doesn't station retrograde until the 17th of July. It will be retrograde until August 11th. So that's the time frame that we're in. But I just want to say that it's Mercury. It's a planet of communication. It's stationing retrograde in Leo. So it's going to be loud about it. It's going to be dramatic. It's going to be funny. It's going to be charming, maybe, charismatic, maybe. It's going to be really performative. It's going to be a clown. Mercury retrograde is already a fool. Mercury is already the fool or the one who makes fun of us, the clown, the mime. And then in Leo, it's definitely going to be. giving us a show. So our mistakes are going to be loud, right? The mishaps are going to be big. They're going to be like fireworks. The thing about this kind of mercury retrograde is we're going to have to swallow some of our pride. It will take up space. This is okay. It's fine. We'll get through it. It'll be okay. But the other thing is that Mercury rules two signs. It rules Gemini and it rules

Virgo. What's happening in Gemini right now? Well, a once in 84-year transit, Uranus, just entered Gemini last week. So we already know that the whole vibe of like communications and tech and anything to do with selling things, trading things, getting data straight is in a major moment of upheaval. So there's like chaos in the newsroom kind of vibes. Sorry to. say, but it's true. And then we've got Mars and the South Node meeting up, or Mars coming up to the South Node this week. As we are dealing with a Mercury stationing retrograde, Mars and the South node are coming together on Sunday, the 20th of July. And they're coming together in Virgo. And that's the other sign that Mercury rules. So Mercury is in charge right now of Uranus. God help us. And

of Mars and the South Node coming together. Now look, Mars and the South Node in Virgo are all about letting go of having to fight for perfectionism. We've got a fight on our hands and we cannot expect everyone to show up to the fight in the way that we think they should. That's the South Node in Virgo. Also, since January, since the South Node entered Virgo, we can say there has been a loss of words. There has been a loss of information on the internet. There has been a loss of being able to say, I don't know, words like woman or gay or trans or gender nonconforming or there's a certain administration in the world that is trying to make certain words irrelevant, illegal, unusually, not welcome here. The word woman is one of them. There's a list of words that the Trump administration

is trying to, you know, do away with. And then there are all the websites full of facts and data and science and medical information that have also gone down since January of 2025 or been at threat of or we've had to get information in different ways. There's a loss of actual facts and data. And Virgo loves nothing more than giving us the real truth, the actual fact, the actual data, the real thing that has been very specifically curated. And so with the South Node, a point of release or loss or letting go moving through Virgo, there's a lessening of that, which is very troublesome. And with Uranus moving into Gemini, there's like an amplification of chaos,

because it's Gemini, of both and-ness. And then there's also an amplification of the collective and what the people need and how people come together and do things differently together. So all I'm saying is that Mars at the South Node and Virgo is a time where we might be asked to wield our weapons of our mind in a specific way without the need for everybody to show up perfectly. Or it's a good time to think like, How do I get in my own way? How do I expect myself to be perfect? If I want everybody else to be perfect, how am I turning that inward? How am I harming myself by wanting the world around me to be perfect or by, by, you know, policing everybody else for lack of a better word? Sometimes that's the

exact right word that some of us need to use for ourselves. How do I unlearn that? How do I unlearn perfectionism? How do I unlearn policing myself and other people? How do I unlearn policing myself and other people? How do I unlearn white supremacy? How do I unlearn all of these really harmful ways of seeing the world or communicating with the world or being in relationship with people that distances me from them? And this is a week that might really kind of draw our attention in that place. Or it's just a good time to think about it. The Mars of it all being near the South Node does give me pause. It is a red flag in the air. Sorry to say, it is a point where I'm like, I don't like that so much. because the south node is an eclipse point. And so it's a point of something flickering off and on or something being a little chaotic. And Mars is already a planet that can be, you know, a little damaging or a little chaotic in and of itself. And so when it gets near a point in space that is

connected to a flashing or a flickering of our energy source and Mars is involved, it gives me pause. So on the world stage on a collective level, it's a good time again to help to turn down the volume on flare-ups or in anything inflammatory. It's good to practice that south node of it all and be like, how do we de-escalate this? How do I not need perfection right now? How do I not need to correct everybody? How do I, you know, deal with what is really in front of me? and how can I be an effective strategist in this reality in this moment? Given the fact that Mercury is retrograde and chaos abounds and there's not, you know,

a lot of clear information right now or the mistakes that we're making are really loud. And I always like to remind us that Mercury Retrograde is the perfect time to look back at the systems in our life, in our personal life, in our work life, any system that we're a part of, of and say, oh, this is going to malfunction for sure. Like, this is bound to break. This doesn't work. Why are we doing it like this? Or how have I been doing it like this for so long? This is not humane. This is why am I expecting perfection from myself when this system isn't even nearly functioning. So let me focus on the right things to be critical of. Let me focus my tool. Let me use my tool, the Mars, the sharp sword, the edge, to poke around at the correct things to parse out what isn't working.

So it is a really good time to do that and be like, let's just do away with that. That doesn't work. That's an old way of doing something. That's an outdated way of doing something. We don't need to do that. And as Mercury Station's retrograde on the 17th, it makes a sex style to Venus. So there is this moment over the weekend where it's like, wait, hold on. What works for you?

and really sitting down and asking our partners and our friends and the people that we're committed to, what works for you in this relationship? What doesn't work for you in this relationship? What do you want more of from me? What do you want less of from me? When do I get on your nerves? When am I a pain in the ass? Let me know. Let me know how I can show up and I'm not going to be able to give you everything you want. Like I'm, you know, I'm a human. Again, I'm not going for perfection. but why don't we review what works in the relationship? Why don't we review what we want to give each other more of? Why don't we review what's good here so that we can focus on that?

Okay, y'all, so that is the reading for the week. Not a 10 happens, which thank God, but I think the things that do happen are fairly significant. And I do think that this will be a very significant mercury retrograde. I'm sorry to say it. I'm sorry. There's just too many things happening in Mercury ruled signs for this, not. to be a moment of like, wait, what? Hold on. What happened? How did it happen? What happened with the system? What happened with the communication? And this is a really good time to be like, did you get my

text? Did I get the right info? Do I have the right directions? Do I have the right itinerary? What am I going to do if my flights delayed? Like, what am I going to do if there's, you know, things that can't connect here? Can I see something that looks like it could be a mess coming up ahead? And what can I do to get out ahead of it. What can I do to prevent a disaster from occurring if it's within my reach, if it's within my realm, if it's within the realm of possibility, I am here to make it so. And there's just going to be some things that are a mess and I'm going to be okay with it. I just am going to decide to be okay with it. I'm going to get things wrong. I'm going to say things wrong. That's what it is to be a human. Mercury retrograde or not, I'm going to be okay with it.

And I know that there's a lot in flux right now. I know there's a lot of information that's probably going to be missing or that I'm going to miss or that I'm not going to understand or I'm going to get wrong. And I'm going to have to circle back around and circle back around and circle back around and go back to it over and over and over again. And that's okay. I'll learn something here. So pay attention to where Leo is in your chart. And it will tell you a lot about what you're going to be learning and relearning and fixing and redoing. And then where Virgo is in your chart, you're going to be going through a cleanse. I'd like you to really think about how to not be critical with yourself as a first step of not expecting perfection from the rest of the world, let alone the

rest of the people in your life. Okay. The question that I want to answer today in the Ask Me Anything, thank you for your questions. Keep writing them in. I love them. is what if all three of my outer planets are retrograde in my chart? My answer is, yeah, sure, a lot of people have that. You know why? Because those planets are retrograde for about half of the year. So it just stands to reason that they would all be retrograde at the same time at some point. I mean, I don't have all planets, all three planets retrograde. But if I see that in somebody's chart, I don't really look at it. I don't really consider it. It is like last thing I would consider, almost, the last thing. I care more about if you had Mercury, Venus, and Mars all retrograde,

I would be like, whoa, this is massive because those retrogrades are way more rare and they're way shorter. So if you have Venus, Mercury, Mars, or any combination of those retrograde at the same time, that's a big deal. Jupiter and Saturn are like a middle deal. They're not that big of a deal. they're important. It's important to know if they're retrograde. But the last three planets that are retrograde so much of the time. And to me, don't rule a part of your chart. I'm just like, yeah, sure, they're retrograde. I don't know if they're at like zero degree of a sign. Maybe that would be interesting or 29 degrees of a sign that would be interesting. Or if they were conjunct something, or if they're about to roll into another planet in your chart that was faster moving, that would be

interesting to me. It's about like the relationship between that planet that's retrograde and other planets. Is it rolling back into an opposition with your sun by like degree? That would be interesting to me. So it's kind of about like who's coming up to meet that planet that's retrograde and who's not. But the outer planets are retrograde so often that it's just not, it's not a big news thing. It's not a red flag. It's not a really anything to me. It's more about where those planets are, who they're in relationship to and how closely they're aspecting another planet. Okay. I hope that helps. Send me your questions. Let me know if I can specify any part of this answer as well. All right, y'all. Come back next week because we've got a new moon in Leo that is very dramatic

and it is a very intense and potent press of a restart button in our life that is deeply transformative. Or we could just have a really long cat nap, which might be what I do. All right, I'll see you back here then. Until then, send you lots of love, many blessings. Bye for now. Thank you for watching. Share this episode with somebody if you found it helpful.