Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of May 25th, 2026: Mars, Pluto, and a freeing Full Moon

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Episode 284In 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 May 25th, 2026, challenges us to keep our eyes on the prize. When Mars squares off with Pluto, tensions run high and we need to pick our battles wisely. Then, as Venus squares Saturn, our relationships come under review, and if we aren’t careful with our boundaries, we’ll get our feelings hurt. But the wild Full Moon in Sagittarius makes it all worth it — liberating us from outdated expectations and stoking our unfiltered creative expression. Now’s the time to focus and follow the energy that feeds you. If you do, it will set you free.This episode covers:The Sun’s square to the lunar nodes on Monday, May 25thMars’ square to Pluto on Monday, May 25thThe Sun’s trine to Pluto on Tuesday, May 26thVenus’ square to Saturn on Thursday, May 28thThe Full Moon in Sagittarius on Sunday, May 31stThis episode was recorded on 05/12/2026.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.

I need you to go pull up your chart in the Chaniap and go and see if you have any planets or points, like your ascendant, your mid-heaven, your I-C, or DC at 0-1-2, 3, 4, 5, or even 6 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, or Aquarius. If you do, you are most likely having a very extreme. experience of life. It might be extremely agitating. It might be extremely uncomfortable. It might just feel like life is very extreme in its presentation right now, which can be clarifying and helpful in that kind of extreme setup. And what is it trying to spur you into action about? Hello and welcome. This is the

of the Week Ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie, Channie Nicholas, in this episode, we're talking about the astrology for the week of May 25th. Wherein, on Monday, May 25th, we have a very agitating, very suspect little piece of astrology. It is Mars Square Pluto on Monday the 25th of May. And I say suspect because anything that happens in a friction, based aspect or relationship with Pluto is something to be wary of because Pluto is all about what happens underneath the surface. It's all about what is hidden. It is about power and influence and all of the things that we cannot see. And Mars is a planet of friction, of audacity, of bravery, and of conflict. So quite often when we have Mars and Pluto making a tense,

kind of aspect or in a tense friction-based relationship, like a square like it is on Monday, you'll have the powers that be, the sociopaths in charge, doing their thing, which is never good for humankind or the earth itself. So I don't know what's going on in May 25th, but if something is happening out in the world, that feels quite hostile, I would say that lines up with this. But that is not how this has to roll out. I am hoping it does not at all. I am in the month of May, so I'm not too far behind. It's May 12th when I'm recording this. So, you know, there's potential for everything right now. Everything is in flux. Everything's at play. I'm hoping that we get to May 25th, and it's not

something like it has been in the past couple of years when Mars makes a square to Pluto. We will see. We will live through it together. But what I do know is that this will show up in our own personal lives as some sort of power dynamic or power struggle. or and also an opportunity to focus our power, to focus our drive, to focus and channel our energy and our desire to win. Because if there is a positive part of a Mars square Pluto and there's something positive about every single astrological configuration, I was going to say under the sun, but it's involving the sun in the universe, if there is something positive and there is about everything, then a Mars-pluto relationship is something that is undeterred. It is unsweable,

immovable, especially because Mars is in Taurus and Pluto's and Aquarius, those are fixed signs. Those are signs that are confident, steadfast, and unwavering. And I would say that when Mars and Pluto get together, those words also apply to this setup. So this is about how we want to refocus and how we want to set ourselves up to say, I don't care what. I get it. We are in dire straits. Yes, that is where we find ourselves. So there is only one thing to do. And it is to win. I will get a lot. I will get. my fangs out, I will get my claws out. I will do whatever I need to do to harness the power of this moment and direct it towards our collective winning and liberation, obviously. So that's how we

start the week. It's severe. And these moments that feel severe or that look severe or that represent something severe, again, are important because they help us to parse out what is important in this moment. In moments of severity and in moments of extremes, we don't get to be wondering, pondering, what else could be. Yes, it's always important to dream. It's always important to imagine all of that stuff. But we have to pick aside. We have to get on the train, pick aside, stay on the path and fight. And that is what Monday reminds us to do. And when we do that and we remain as stubborn as necessary, we go really far. Because I often think of life as being like, you know, a parent of a toddler, because that's what I am at this very moment. And of course, I want to be

playful and compassionate and amazing and the perfect parent. But if I waver on the boundary that I've set, which I do all the time. And I'm always like, oh, gosh, okay, I've got a waiver. And then the next time I actually don't waver because I'm better slept. I'm better fed. I just have more resilience that day. I don't waver. And then my three-year-old is like, okay. I'm like, oh, my God, I've been giving in all this time. And I didn't have to. She's different every day. I'm different every day. It's always a different situation. It's not a totally fair one to one. But do you know what I mean? We have to be the unwavering parent on Monday. We have to be the one that is willing to say, no, no, I'm going to keep the boundary. And this is

what it's going to be. Because if I keep the boundary, it's kind and it's fair and it's loving to myself and everyone else, even though you're not going to like me for a minute. That's okay. You don't have to like me. And you can be that to yourself. It's okay. I don't have to like that I'm going to go do this hard thing, but I'm going to keep the boundary. I'm going to do the hard thing. I am going to be relentless. What is the one thing in your life you need to be relentless about? Maybe it's relentless compassion. Maybe it's relentless about one boundary that you're learning how to set. Maybe it's being relentless about one practice that you need to put into your life. Maybe it's being relentless about being honest with yourself. And when you're honest with yourself and very real and very

present to what's happening, what is transformed in your life? I say everything. Okay, that's Monday. Also on Monday, the sun squares the nodes. So it does feel like there is an important decision to be made or we realize there's a step that we've skipped. It also means we're right in between eclipses. So we're in between the last eclipse season and the next eclipse season. It won't start until August, but we're in betwixt it all. And so we're at like a pivotal moment. And already, we have this Mars Pluto set up on Monday. So it feels agitating. That's the other thing. If Monday is just incredibly frustrating, good. That's information. That's information. That's information that we need to be with, sit with, acknowledge. Like, oh, this is frustrating.

Okay. I don't have to change frustration. I don't have to denounce it. I might not like it, but it's just there for me to understand. This, I'm frustrated about this, meaning there's something about the situation that I want to change. And until I know what to change, I don't know what action to take. But I don't know what to change until I understand why I'm frustrated about something. So again, let yourself like dig into the trenches, get down to the root of a problem, get underneath the surface of things on Monday. Because when Pluto is in the mix, if we do that, we will be successful. If we go down and deep and into the unearthing process of a process of a situation, we will get to something really important.

our power, the truth, and the psychological or metaphoric gold of a scenario. And then on Tuesday, the sun goes on to make a trying to Pluto, very helpful. It's like, oh, all that deep, funky, weird underground stuff that I had to do on Monday. On Tuesday, I get to kind of alchemize it. And again, feel like I'm turning some of it into gold or I'm getting down to the gold of the situation. It's a very quick, very small transit, but it's helpful and aids us in digesting whatever came up over Sunday, Monday. And then on Thursday, Venus makes a square to Saturn. Now, this is good for our art because our art needs to be confined. It needs a beginning, middle, and end. Saturn's really good at

being like, this is a structure. And Venus is really good at being like, okay, let me fill the vase, the structure of the vase with beautiful flowers. If this, This is the canvas. This is where it ends. Then I'm going to fill the canvas with gorgeous imagery. If this is the film, this is the amount that I have, I will roll until I filled it all up. So Saturn is the structure and Venus is the beauty. And these two planets have a very special relationship with each other because Saturn is exalted

in one of the signs that Venus rules, which is Libra. And so the symmetry of something creates beauty, the structure of something creates. creates a container for the gorgeousness to live within, for the art to be made within, but also the boundaries help us to define and understand what our relationships are about. And so this is a really good day. Thursday's a really good day to do some boundary cleanup in your relationships, some recommitment or some constructive reconsidering, we can say, in our relationships or with our art projects, with our creative projects. It's a good day to edit, to refine, to reduce the noise, to pull it back, to strip something back and be like, what's important here?

What is the relationship between the colors, between the people, between me and you, between the sounds, between the way I want the words to flow in the sentence? This is about constructing the relationship either between you and somebody else or the elements of something that you're trying to create. And then on Sunday, there is a full moon in Sagittarius. And it is unfettered. It is unrestrained. There is no planet getting in its way. It is wild. It is free. It is adventurous. It is fiery. It is action-oriented. So I think this weekend is actually going to be really fun. I think the beginning of the week starts out kind of hefty, kind of grueling a little bit or very annoying or friction-based. Time to dig our heels in and get down and dirty. And then by Sunday, it's like, okay, let the doors open, open the windows, open the drapes, like let the air in, let myself go, dance like nobody's

watching kind of vibe. This full mood is really good for being re-inspired or reigniting some sort of inspiration in our life. It's really good for seeking out the knowledge or seeking out the traditions or seeking out the practices that help to center us in what is meaningful and what's most important in our lives. There is that job of being a seeker that we all have as human beings. It's part of what gives our life meaning. And anything that happens in Sagittarius reminds us of that. It's not about finding the answers, although that can be very rewarding. It's about being in the process of the seeking. That is what drives so many of us forward. And so one of the questions to ask with this full moon is what are you seeking and how do you know when you've fulfilled it? What fills you and fulfills you?

And the interesting thing about this full moon is that Jupiter, its ruler, is in cancer and there's no relationship between Saj, the full moon and Saj and cancer where its ruler is. So it can't see one another. But Jupiter is in its place of exaltation. And Venus and Jupiter are about to come together on June 9th. We talked a lot about it last week. Go back and listen to that episode. If you have forgotten what I said or you didn't listen to it, I want you to do something very special on June 9th because it's a very special rare astrological day that is imbued with beauty and gorgeousness and sweetness and luck and plenty. But this full moon is ruled by that, Jupiter. And because Jupiter's with Venus right now, there's a little extra luck kind of just out of sight, just like

waiting in the wings. And so it does still feel like this full moon, this Sunday, is fueled by something, maybe unseen. Maybe we can't quite get there right now, but there's something really good that's building alongside whatever this full moon is bringing us this weekend. I do think it's a really good full moon for parties, for partying, for enjoying ourselves, for celebrating anything and everything. It's like Monday is a hard work and Sunday is a celebration of that hard work. we need to have both. May this week bring us that kind of setup. Okay, now it's time for a question from the audience. Dear Chani, thank you so much for the work that you do. I feel like you're such a great source of support in these dire times and I found myself wondering the other day, what kind of

astrology, should we be looking out for a lottery ticket winning type of luck in our chart or in our collective experience? I think we need this kind of hope these days. So it would be interesting to understand how to recognize particularly lucky times and kind of direct our hope towards them. Thank you so much. I love this question. And I want to say top level answer is I will always tell you. I will always go on and on and on and on about the lucky astrology for two reasons. We desperately need to work with it, I think. But also because I think a lot of people hear the bad or the difficult first.

And so I always want to reiterate the good over and over and over and over and over again. So you will hear me say it. But basically, any time that Venus and Jupiter are making either a conjunction coming together in the same sign, making a trine coming together in their compatible elements. So say Jupiter is in cancer, Venus and Pisces, a trine from those two places is gorgeous. Or if one was in Gemini and the other one was in Libra, if they were in the same element, that's really good. Or if Venus and Jupiter are making a sex style with each other. And then after those configurations, I would say when Venus and Jupiter are opposing each other or even squaring each other. Anytime Venus and Jupiter are making

contact with one another, we want to be like, okay, ding, ding, ding, this is good astrology. Especially if the moon can be involved in some way, shape, or form, like if the moon is with Jupiter or with Venus or in another complementary sign, then it's all bets are off. Good, good, good. And when Venus is in Libra, Taurus, or Pisces, it's extra good. So if it's in one of those signs and it makes an aspect to Jupiter, excellent. If Jupiter is in Saj, Pisces, or cancer, and it makes a connection with Venus, extra, extra, extra good because those are the signs it does really well in. Now, Venus moves through a sign, depending on its speed, every couple weeks, sometimes longer, but it's not more than a couple months. Jupiter moves through a sign once a year.

So it takes a full year for it to get through a sign. So it's more rare for Jupiter to be in Saj, Pisces, or cancer. It can only be in one of those signs once every 12-ish year. But Venus will zip through the signs on a, you know, regular year plus basis. So Venus will be making aspects to Jupiter from a lot of different signs over the course of a year, most likely, depending on when it retrogrades. And Jupiter will be more the placeholder. Like Jupiter moves so slowly and Venus kind of like zips around. And so they'll be in relationships.

You want to catch them when they're in one of those good relationships, especially when they're in one of those good signs when one or both of them is in one of those good signs. That's like top tier, top shelf, top level. Then you want to look at when planets are in their signs. So the sun in Ares, that's where it's exalted, or the sun in Leo, that's, it's domicile, that's its home. The moon in Taurus is always great. The moon in cancer is always great.

And if the moon is doing something good with another planet, that's a good time. If the sun is in one of its places of strength and it's making a connection to, say, Jupiter or Venus, excellent. And that's the other thing. Jupiter or Venus connected to any other planet is very helpful, especially, say, if they, like, sandwich the planet. Mercury in Gemini or Virgo, excellent. Virgo is, like, extra good because it's a sign of its home and it's excellent. extra good. So that's good times for writing. That's good times for thinking. That's good times for making speeches and the like. When Mars is in either Aries or Scorpio or Capricorn, then it is superpowered. And that's really good astrology for strategy, for winning, for being determined, for cutting to

the chase, and for being brave. So it's not good for everything, but it's good for those things. And that's the thing is that each planet is good for its domain. But Venus and Jupiter are kind of just like good. I mean, they're good in a specific way, Venus for relationships, Jupiter for growth to be very, very, very, like, top level about both planets. To simplify both planets, that's what they're good for. But in general, if you just have like a good Venus Jupiter situation, it's just good for anything. It's good for everything. It's not bad for anything, except for austerity. It's not good for austerity. And if you have a good Saturn, then you want Saturn in Capricorn or Aquarius or Libra. I say that with a little bit of a laugh in my undertone because good Saturn can still be really harsh. Just like good

Mars can still be really intense and really cutting and really like that got a little close to the bone kind of feeling. You know? So it's really about like what planet does what and what you're trying to get good astrology for. But in general, you'll hear me. me go on and on and on and on and on and on about any astrology that has Venus and Jupiter together or Jupiter and the Sun coming together or Venus and the Sun coming together. Jupiter and the Sun happens once a year. Venus and the Sun depends again on its retrograde cycle. But those will be times that I'll be like, ooh, these are good. When Mercury and the Sun come together, which happens a couple times a year, I'll be like, oh, this is really good astrology. This is what we want to work with.

And we've got other planets with the sun. It all depends on what else is in the mix. So you want Jupiter and Venus to be supporting anything, everything. You want the moon in Taurus or cancer. You want the sun in Leo or Ares. And then you do want to work with Mars and Saturn. You just want to be very conscientious of their properties. Saturn is hefty and heavy and sometimes confining. And Mars is hot and hot-headed and sometimes either rushes or slices really deeply into something. So we just want to be like, okay, these are the tools I'm using and this is how I'm going to use the tools. And then there's things like this July, July of 2026, where all of the outer planets are lining up in these sextiles. Everything is going to basically be in this really

wild, unique setup. Neptune and Saturn are in Ares. Uranus is in Gemini and Pluto is an Aquarius and then Jupiter's going to move into Leo. And Jupiter and Pluto will be opposing each other, which feels a little gnarly. But the rest of them will basically be making sextiles and trines to each other. So when it's outer planets or when it's slower moving planets lining up like that, it's very like, wow, that is a very unique moment. I think what July is going to be good for, July of 2026 is going to be good for, is a flurry of messages and messaging. It feels like a lot of hot air. It feels like a lot of excitement. I'm not sure if any of it stays because it's air and fire. So it is really good for getting attention. It's really good for getting everybody involved. It's really good for getting

everybody on the chat engaged. It's really good for stirring up excitement. But I don't know where it's going. And I don't know who the excitement is for. So you can hear the weariness in my voice a little bit. I'm like, hmm, I don't know. But this summer when there's this really special lineup of slow moving planets, we know that there's a very kind of like auspicious signature in the skies for something that is going to affect us collectively. So here's to hoping. And that something really positive occurs for us collectively in July because we're going to need it because August is our eclipse season, which will be quite dramatic, I think. All right, I hope that answered your question.

Thank you so much for sending one in. And you, too, can send in a question. If you go into the Chiani app, there's a way for you to record your voice and leave me a question. I love them. I cherish them. I thank you for them. All right, y'all, come back next week. We'll be working a little bit more on that Venus-Jupiter conjunction that's upcoming on the 9th, which is not next week. But next week is actually pretty

open. Next week gives us a lot of room to move. Next week does bring Mercury into cancer, which is where it will eventually station retrograde at the end of June. Mercury will station retrograde. So we're going to do a little prep work for that as well. Okay. Sending you so much love so many blessings. Thank you for being here. Bye for now.