Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of June 22nd, 2026: Commitment, community, and the chaos of Mars in Gemini

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Episode 288In 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 June 22nd, 2026, closes one chapter and opens another. Venus’ trine to Saturn encourages us to fully commit to our creative plans and the power of our connections, to celebrate the beautiful history of those who came before us, and to take ownership of our own legacies. And as Mars ends its time in Taurus with a sextile to Jupiter, we’re given one last jolt of energy to finish the projects that need wrapping up before the planet of action starts stirring up chaos in Gemini. This is the time to lock in to your commitments, communities, and creations ahead of July’s game-changing astrology.This episode covers:Venus’ trine to Saturn on Thursday, June 25thThe Sun’s square to Neptune on Thursday, June 25thMars’ sextile to Jupiter on Saturday, June 27thMars’ entrance into Gemini on Sunday, June 28thThe start of Mercury retrograde in Cancer on Monday, June 29thMars’ conjunction with Uranus on Friday, July 3rdThis episode was recorded on 05/25/2026.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.

Some weeks are just for wrapping things up to clear space for this next new iteration of life and work in our world. Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie, Channie Nicholas. In this episode, we're talking about the week of June 22nd, which for the most part is like, okay, great, fine. It's got a couple little things. On Thursday, we don't even have any major thing until Thursday. We've got Venus making a trine with Saturn.

That's a new thing for Venus and Saturn to do in these signs. Venus is in Leo. It's really obvious. It's really flashy. It's here to get attention. But in a structure queen kind of way when it makes a trine with Saturn, which is to say this is a really good. moment for realizing the importance of symmetry and commitment and making sure that everything

has weighed in the ways that it needs to be. We have to be critical when we're making art. We have to be very cognizant of who we commit to, make sure that it is a union we actually want to be in. When we're creating something, we want to make sure we understand the ways in which this thing goes with that thing, how everything is weighed against the other. That's a Venus-Saturn kind of connection. So the beginning part of the week is really good for making things beautiful, for adjusting in the ways that we need to in order to make something long-lasting. And that something could be a creative process, a creative project, or a relationship. Also on Thursday, we have the Sun Square Neptune, which is a really great day.

for daydreaming. It's not major, major astrology, though, but you probably can hear in my voice that there's something big coming up. Mars is ending its travels through tourists about to enter Gemini. Now, that is a transit that happens every couple of years. It's not the biggest deal in the world. It's not going to be retrograde there. So why would this be something that would peak my interest, the interest of money, an astrologer. Well, just to say, just before Mars leaves Taurus on Saturday, it makes a sexile with Jupiter, which feels like fuel for the fire. It feels like it's going to help us to wrap this thing up. The part of your chart that contains Taurus has been transited for the last couple of weeks by Mars. We're now finishing something up there. Karan just entered Taurus. So

there's definitely still a lot going on in that part of your life, but Mars is leaving the chat. Mars is leaving the building. Mars is about to enter Gemini, which is massive news. On Sunday, June 28th, Mars enters Gemini and who is waiting there for it? Uranus, the queen of chaos, the planet of upheaval and change. and innovation and systems updates. And Mars is also a planet that can be very controversial. Mars is like a sword or a scissor or some sort of weapon or tool. And Uranus is like turbulence. And so we have to be very aware of how we are holding the sharp object. When things get bumpy, we don't want to misplace the thing that can poke or puncture. We don't want to have it loose about the cabin.

You know what I mean? Now Mars and Uranus making a conjunction in Gemini is not only likely to spur on many, many, many different wild stories. Many of us will have incredible tales to tell. It might even give us some new conspiracy theories. Not that we need it anymore. Got enough. Thanks so much. Got to figure out which ones have some truth to them and what part of that truth is connected to something called capitalism. You know what I'm talking about. But it might also be telling us something really important. This is what I'm talking about. In the chart for the United States, this country that I am living in, maybe not you. are, but this country that is really just the bane of the existence of a lot of the world right now. This country, when it was quote-unquote born or formed, when the settler colony that is

called the United States came into being. We have a chart for it. And in that chart, guess who was in Gemini? Yes, Uranus. Guess who else was in Gemini? Yes, Mars and Uranus were making a conjunction in Gemini when this country was born. Guess when they're going to make a conjunction this year? July 3rd, 4th. Oh, isn't that the birthday of this country? Hmm. Guess when else Mars and Uranus were in Gemini? Civil war, beginning of the Civil War. So it just seems to be a very interesting time for some nation states. And we'll have to see how a Eventful, the first week of July will be, and why it will be eventful and how it will be eventful. And if we're seeing rhetoric that feels like, oh, that's a weird reflection back to 250 years ago,

oh, that's an interesting reflection back to that time when we began the Civil War. Oh, that's interesting that those planets were there then and they're here now. it's a very disruptive combo. It's not going to last forever, though. Like Mars is not retrograde. Mars is moving along. Mars will retrograde at the beginning of next year. More on that later. But this is about something that feels very turbulent, possibly explosive, and ignites the kind of spirit that was here also during those times. It just so happens. Now, having Uranus and Gemini, is always really big for this nation state. It is. It's just like every time Uranus is in Gemini, this country finds itself at war in some way, shape, or form has since its inception,

since its, you know, creation. But it just so happens that two times that are very important in its history, Mars was also there. And Mars is a very fast-moving planet. So that's kind of starting. dark and strange and weird to me. Because Mars is in Gemina like every two years, so that's quite frequent. And both of the times where something major happened to this country, again, not every single time something major happened, but two of the big moments of this country's initiation, Mars is back here. So it's a great time to fight for our voting rights. But it's a great time to think about what we want to actually systems update. We know. We know. what's wrong. We know the issues that we face. We understand all too well, I think. Maybe not well

enough, maybe not all of us. We can always learn. I can always learn. I'm always learning about the ways in which all nation states function and all imperialism works and all the ways in which it dislocates us from our power and each other and life on earth. So there's always room to learn. And I think as we are fully deeply entrenched in all of the reasons why this thing that has been built is not sustainable and is not going to work. It's so important for us to think about where it is we're going, what it is we're creating, how it is we can be radically aligned with what this place and every other place on this green earth needs right now. And that is definitely a systems update, but not in some sort of weird AI slop kind of way.

You know what I mean? Not in some sort of like tech oligarchic bro suggestion in my every device kind of way. It's in a way in which you and I are learning how to reorder our world and our life. Because the last time Uranus was in Gemini was actually World War II creation of NATO, it gave us a new world order. And so Uranus and Gemini is telling us it's time for a new world order. And we have to do that individually and collectively. So if we're going to reorder the ways in which we are moving through the world, we're going to be fully cognizant of all the stuff that we were innocent to before, obviously, like, oh, I'm awake now. Oh, I didn't see that before. Oh, this is really

how this thing functions. I can't ever not know this now. If I know that, then my internal world gets reordered. And then the ways in which I move in the world also gets reordered. Because as we talked about last week, I start to center the things that I value. And then I start to attract more of that, which again, is very important astrology for the beginning of the week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, say Thursday. Venus trine Saturn is an invitation to a type of marriage. It's an invitation to a type of union. It's an invitation to a commitment, Saturn, to our values, Venus, because we love and center and enjoy the things that we value. Venus, Trine, Saturn. Venus Trine Saturn is like, I commit to you, I love you and we share the same values and we want the same things. And when we do that,

I mean, hopefully that's why we commit to one another as friends, as business partners, as lovers, as whatever, as all of it. I commit to creating this thing because this is what I value. And I want to see more of what I value in the world. That's the first part of this week. And then as we get into Sunday in this really disruptive, maybe even cranky, maybe volatile astrology starts to be like, hey, red flag here, red flag over here. We can be like, okay, yeah, that's what we don't want. I need to understand it. We need to talk about it.

And we also need to think about what it is we're recreating, what it is we're moving towards. what are the really easy, simple, gorgeous systems updates we can make? Which is an important thing to think about because next week, Mercury will station retrograde. And that is our three time a year moment to be like, okay, let's think about how we're doing this. This part of my life needs a systems update. It also gives us some intel into how this Mars Uranus conjunction is going to have. happen because its ruler is Mercury and it's stationing retrograde as Mars and Uranus are coming closer together. So it feels like a time where we're going to be like, wow, that's why that doesn't

work. And I'm no longer going to invest in any of that. But what else could I do? Like really thinking about what are we divesting from? And therefore, what do we have to reinvest in? Like, I'm just going to pull my resources out of this thing that is a whole heap of sorrow and problems and severe issues. I'm going to keep divesting from that machine. And then I'm going to keep accumulating my energy, my resources, my assets, myself. And I'm going to start and continue and double down and invest in the world I want to create. That is, I think, the only thing to do right now. So who are the candidates? Who, what are the businesses? What are the collectives? What are the neighborhood situations? What in your friend groups? What in your family life? What in your

personal life? Are you radically aligning yourself with? Because it is so key to living out and expressing your values in this world at this time. Venus is in Leo, y'all. It is time to be loud and proud and out there about what we value and why. And of course, in New York City and other places, this is Pride Week. This is the week where we remember Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and all our other transcessors and how they fought for theirs and our liberation and how we owe them everything. And that is another gorgeous way to think about Venus and Saturn. It's like Venus is justice and beauty and art.

And all of them were fighting for justice and they were making art all the time. their bodies were art, they put on plays. I mean, just go read Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline. It is such an important, gorgeous book. It is the thing to read for pride. But the Venus of them is the spirit of the artist. And Venus and Leo is so that. And then Trine Saturn is like, that's the history.

That's Saturn keeps the records. Saturn records everything. And so these two, making a trine on Thursday just feels really beautiful in terms of our ability to remember our history and to remember the lineages that we have to pull on. They lived in a time that didn't allow them to exist. And they lived so gloriously, so dangerously. They should have been protected. They should have been resource. They should have been all the things. And yet they weren't. And yet, they lived with flower crowns, creating art and theater and music and life and culture.

So much of what we have is from them and all that community, all those communities, all of our communities throughout the ages. Happy Pride y'all. Mars moving into Gemini on Pride, on the Sunday that is Pride. We don't know if it'll be like disruptive from the geckes. We don't know if it'll be disruptive from the moment it enters. It might be more like July 3rd, 4th feels like extra fireworks. Like, I hate fireworks. I wouldn't light fireworks on that day. I don't know how you feel about them.

But I feel like the world is traumatic enough without a lot more booming and all of that. But it does feel like maybe the fireworks will just be next level. Maybe they'll be extra dangerous. I don't know. again, I do not suggest fireworks on July 4th, but it looks like fireworks. It looks like something that is big and everybody's talking about it. And there's a potential there for things going a little awry, July 3rd, 4th. So again, that's next week.

So hopefully this week we can remember to commit Saturn to the things we love Venus. and that we create culture, we create joy, we create art no matter what we are living through, no matter what we are facing. Joy and glorious connections with each other is a part of how we survive and thrive. And it's a part of how we build movements that last. Venus is the connection, Saturn is the lasting thing. And the things that last are the things that make us happy and remind us to love and make us feel joy and make us feel embraced and brought in. And are just like a really good time.

So I'm hoping that that energy carries us through the week. And listen, on Sunday, when Mars goes into Gemini, there's a lot of systems updates. and the queer community is a community that knows how to be like, this is what we will make out of anything that we have at our disposal. That's innovation. It's not being greedy. It's not hoarding. It's not teaking and extracting.

That's not innovative. Innovation is being like, this is what we got. We're going to make it amazing. We're going to make it fabulous. Right here, right now. We don't need anything more than our own talent. Okay, now it's time for a question from the audience. Hello, Chani and the Chani team.

Such a huge fan of your app and your writing and your podcasts and everything that you do. I was wondering if you could speak in depth on the eighth house. I am Virgo Rising with my chart ruler Mercury retrograde at 5 degrees Ares and my son at 7 degrees Ares. So I'm experiencing a ton of major transits through my eighth house right now. Yikes. There appears to be a lot of disagreement on what it represents and why. it represents what it represents, and also people talking about transits in this house, things can get kind of scary. So I'd love if you could talk in depth about what this house means and signifies.

Thank you so much. Yeah, you know, astrologers love to argue about our craft and how it all works and what means what and who is right and who is wrong. But this is how I look at it. In traditional astrology, the ascendant is life. And so if the ascendant is found in the first house, which it is, the first house is the place of you and your life and your life energy and being alive. So we want to see like what houses are in relationship with the first house and which ones aren't by traditional aspect. So by sex style, which houses are connected to the first house, by trine, by squaing, by squaing,

square, by opposition, and obviously by conjunction. So these are the houses that are not in traditional relationship, meaning they are said to not be able to witness. They cannot see you. The 12th house, because it's right beside the first, so it's like right here, just can't see it's like right outside of my peripheral vision. The 12th house, the second house, although that's the least bad of the quote unquote bad houses, hard houses. The second. So, the second and 12th hug the first house. And if you go directly opposite, the sixth and the eighth are an indirect relationship with you with the first house. There's no traditional aspect to it. So that's traditional astrology. And that's why the 12th, sixth, and eighth house especially,

and to some degree the second house, are all said to be difficult houses. Now, you can have a million planets and all these houses, and that's your whole chart, and it doesn't mean you're doomed at all. But because the first house is you, those houses that aren't configured to you, you have a harder time accessing them. So the eighth house in particular is associated with death, which sounds awful. So if I have my son and ruler of my ascendant in the eighth house of death, What does that mean? Well, on one hand, it could mean that you're somebody who's very adept at helping people through massive transitions that either are or feel like a type of death or loss or grief.

You could be a grief dula. You could literally be a death dula. You could be an abortion dula. You could be somebody who does things that. that feel like really on the edge of life or death. This is also a place where a lot of people that have placements here might be very open to, very aware of spirits that have crossed over. So maybe you talk to dead people.

I don't know. I've definitely seen that with my clients. They are able to be like, oh yeah, your grandmother's here. You know, like it's like a nothing for them. And then the eighth house is also, because it's about grief and loss, it's also about mental health and what mental health is. So a lot of people here are incredible trauma-informed fill in the blank. Facilators, counselors, therapists, even like people that are on set, like anything that is about being trauma-informed or understanding trauma, especially if Mercury is there and Mercury is

the ruler of your ascendant. There's like a way in which exploring the human condition becomes so important and so valuable in your writing, in your teaching, in your talking, in your way of moving through the world. Mercury is the translator. Mercury is the informer. Mercury is the one who's going to bring the message. But Mercury is also like the part of us that teaches because we need to learn, that says because we're trying to to memorize, that writes because we're trying to understand. Mercury is always two things. And so if you have mercury in the eighth house, you're maybe wanting to learn about and then write about or talk about and listen to things about what causes mental anguish.

Why do we suffer? What is grief? What is loss? Like, what is trauma? And anybody who's written a book on it or anybody who's done their own self-exploration about, about their own grief process, maybe how to transit going through the eighth, there has an important placement there. But there's something there that's really key. Now, aside from all of that, eighth house is also about other people's money. So I know a lot of people that have really important things in the eighth house like Sun, Ruler the Ascendant, who are incredible accountants, managers, collaborators. People with things in the eighth house are like, oh, that's your talent. I know what to do with that. Come here. Let me show you. I'm going to plug you into

this thing and with this people and we're going to make tons of money out of this. Like people with eighth house placements know how to support or be in connection with or be in collaboration with other people's talents, resources, et cetera. Like incredible managers have this kind of placement or have a placement like that. And there's an appreciation for everything. that is outside of public view because it's a hidden house. So the hidden, the mysterious realms of grief and loss and trauma and healing from those conditions or healing despite those, you know, like understanding that realm of being. There's a mysterious quality here that's like psychologically what happens, spiritually what happens after we die. Where do we go? Where does the

energy go? What is this life? Like, it's an existential kind of crisis that we find in the eighth house. But we all have an eighth house. So if you have planets there, I'm wondering, you know, that's my question, are any of those themes prominent in your life and how do they show up? And when you move into them, when you work with them and you stop trying to push away from grief or loss or, you know, any of that hard stuff, what happens? When you do collaborate with people, what happens? When you do work with others in a way that's like assisting them to find their purpose and live out their dream, do you feel like you're in yours? And you're going to say yes to some of this and no to other parts. I'm just trying to give like a variety of what I've really come across with my clients

and with students that I've worked with. So the eighth house is like a glorious place. And people in my family have very important eighth house placements. Generally, you're very, very, very, very sensitive to what hurts, to pain, to trauma, to loss, to other people's pain, trauma loss. You know, like it's like, what are you picking up on? And because it's mercury, you're going to be like translating that. But you also have this collar, has the sun exalted in Ares. So you're going to be triumphant in this place in some way. Or there's going to be a desire to be triumphant. And the sun is the exalted ruler of areas. So there is a power there. So you also have a light in the dark and you're a power in a dark or hard place. So again, it depends on where everything else is. But I hope that

helps. But it's also about our ancestry. It's about inheritances. And so what are you inheriting? who has blessed you with something. Mostly it's about like physical inheritances, but I think we can stretch it to something greater, especially if we're talking about being connected with folks that have passed on, being connected with family members that have passed on. And I also know, you know, like I mentioned Tourmaline's book earlier about Marsha P. Johnson, that like she's in connection with Marsha. There's like this, this beyond just being in the body connection. And that's part of what the eighth house also brings us. So you might be somebody who's deeply like plugged in to somebody who was an artist, activist, important teacher guide,

somebody who lived before that is no longer in the body, but is very much alive and spirit. And you might be somebody that's translating that kind of information. We never know how, you know, the eighth house is going to fully live out and help us express ourselves because it is mysterious, because it is the place where we encounter life and death and the transition between being in the body and leaving or people being in the body and leaving. And like, what happens to their energy? What happens to their wisdom? What happens to their creative spirit?

What happens to their creative energy once they left the body? That can't die. Where does it go? Maybe you're somebody who, you know, like taps into it and is able to express it. Not that I'm saying that's what you should do, but some people with. eighth house placements do that or that is a way in which we can function in the eighth house. But definitely like healing in a psychological way might be some part of what you write about or something that when you write, you help yourself heal and find your way through whatever it is you're

working through and you're working your way around and you're working to understand. And that as you learn it, you also need to give it out, write it. teach it, talk about it, etc. Okay, I hope that's helpful. Come back next week. Not only is Mercury stationing retrograde, but Jupiter is changing signs. Jupiter is moving into Leo. Talk about loud. We'll get very, very loud next week. Come back. We'll talk more about that then. Happy pride. Thank you for being with us just so you know, if you didn't know, if you're on the Chani app, this is a queer-owned company. It's me and my wife that own this. So happy pride to us, to you, to all of us.

Bye for now.