Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas - The Week of September 22nd, 2025: A strategic start to Libra season

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Episode 249In 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 September 22nd, 2025, is laser-focused on liberation. Libra season begins, spotlighting injustice and inequality, and the Sun faces off with dreamy Neptune, calling us to envision a better world. But with Mars (the warrior planet) in the mix with Pluto (the planet of transformation), there’s no settling for fantasy. Now is the time to remember our power — and the power of plotting our strategy.This episode covers:The solar eclipse in Virgo on Sunday, September 21stMars’ entrance into Scorpio on Monday, September 22ndThe Sun’s entrance into Libra on Monday, September 22ndThe Sun’s opposition with Neptune on Tuesday, September 22ndThe Sun’s trine with Uranus on Tuesday, September 23rdThe Sun’s trine with Pluto on Tuesday, September 23rdMars’ square with Pluto on Wednesday, September 24thThis episode was recorded on 7/21/2025.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.P.S. If you’re looking for an astrological map, compass, and collaborator for the coming year, check out our 2026 Astro Planner. It’s filled with 300 pages of rituals, reflections, exercises, astro cheat sheets, planetary movements, and daily and monthly calendars that will help you plan your year, track your intentions, and make the most of 2026’s astrology as it unfolds. You can order yours at chani.com. But don’t procrastinate — it sells out every year.

Three things about this week. One, it finds us in the midst of major change. Two, it awakens a hunger within us. And three, it wants to talk about what liberation ultimately means. Hello and welcome. This is the astrology of the week ahead podcast. I'm your host, your Astro Bestie, Channy Nicholas. In this episode, we are talking about the week of September 22nd.

y'all some of you are listening to this on september 21st because it does launch in the chani app on sunday in most time zones and that is the day of the eclipse the solar eclipse in vergo so you might be listening to this amidst all of that and it's not like everything happens on the exact day of the eclipse but this week is very much still eclipse season we are just coming off of the heels of the last eclipse of eclipse season. The first eclipse was on September 7th. The second is and was on September 21st. And these are times of big power surges. The light goes on, the light goes off. It's bumpy. It's irregular. It's exciting. There is a lot of change in the air. And probably for those of you, especially those of you that have a lot of Virgo and or Pisces in your chart, September

would have been, and probably is right now, a very lively time period. As always, I'm recording this in the past. I'm actually in July. I have no idea what's going on in September, but I do know it's eclipse season and that that is a segment of time. There's two eclipse seasons in the year, six months apart from each other. And these are like energetic corners of the year that we turn. We go towards eclipse season. We're going one way. Eclipse season happens and it moves us either slightly this way or that way, closes something, opens something, jolt something awake, awakens us to our shadowy material internally, personally, collectively, all of it, and then puts us along our merry way, sees us out the door. It's like, okay, I'll see you in six months,

bye. The eclipse on the 21st of September was the second in a series of four eclipses in Virgo. So really, we're just getting going into the story. We're not quite halfway in. We're like entry point to a halfway in kind of thing in terms of the area of our chart that contains Virgo, meaning there's a big story unfolding in your life that has to do with the area of of your chart that contains Virgo. For Liba Rising, this is about your 12th house. This is about your behind the scenes life, your behind the scenes projects. You're also your healing journey, understanding what it takes to heal,

understanding the determination that you have to heal something and important things happening in your subconscious or unconscious that kind of come to light. For Scorpio Rising, that's about your friends and your groups and your, people that you're connected to. For SAGE rising, that's about your career. This past eclipse is something big happening in your public life, in your career in terms of what you do that is public facing. Capricorn rising, this is about your studies and the ways in which you want to publish things and what you want to do in terms of travel. And then for Aquarius Rising, this is about your collaborations.

This is about your exchanges with people. This is about money owed, money made, debts, loans, grants, all of that, what happened in those areas of your life that was significant over the past couple of weeks, but especially over the past couple of days. Pice's rising people, these eclipses, the first one on September 7th was you, was in Pisces. So that's the you of the chart. And then this eclipse that just happened on September 21st is in your seventh house of relationships. That's the other person in the chart. So what happened in your relationships? What happened between you and them? What do you know about intimacy? what are you learning about intimacy? What are you learning about being in committed partnerships

and what is important for you at this time about those partnerships? Ares rising folks, this last eclipse was all about your health, your wellness, and all of your workflow, situations, schedules, systems, all of that. Those are requiring an update. And probably there was something big and important about either something to do with the body. or about something to do with a work project. Torres Rising folks, Virgo is your fifth house of creativity and creative energy. So what creative project has felt like joltie and maybe a little unpredictable but exciting and like it's got a lot of energy around it, even if it seems like,

I'm not quite sure how this thing is going to get out the door or how I'm going to actually make this thing work. But it's an important thing to focus on. Gemini Rising people, this is all your fourth house. So this eclipse season has stretched out between your fourth house and the first eclipse was in your 10th house of career. So it's very much about the inner experience and the outer experience, the private life and the public life.

Home, family, lineage, roots, ancestry was what the eclipse on September 21st was all about for you. Cancer rising people, this eclipse is all about your writing, your speaking, your teaching, your local life, your immediate environment. What has changed in your life since about March of 2025? Did you move neighborhoods? Did you start a writing project? Did you start teaching something? What has come forth as the most important thing to talk about, to write about, to teach about, or to be around? It's very much about, like, having things accessible to you day to day. and also the important conversations that coincided with this last couple of days, the last part of September.

If you're Leo rising, this eclipse is happening in your second house of money, assets, resources, and livelihood. So some of you will be putting out something into the world, like you'll be putting out a big thing that helps you to facilitate an income. Like a work project will get released into the world. Some of you will be doing some healing, cleaning out, clearing out, and cleansing in terms of your relationship to the material world. And what it is you need to release in terms of the ideas and the thoughts that do not serve your material well-being. Some of you will be working on things like mutual aid and how to move money and resources to folks that need it. Some of you will be working on things like mutual aid and how to move money and resources to folks that need it. Some of you will be doing a lot of work. So take care of yourself and fill yourself up when and where and how you need to. Make sure that you do not have financial leaks in your life. This is a South Node Eclipse. We want to make sure that the resources are going out in the way that we intend for them to go out in. Virgo Rising. Because this is a South Note eclipse, this is about you shedding an old identity or shedding an identity or shedding an identity. or making room for something new to come, making room for new energy.

It's like a deep energetic exfoliation, which it is for all of us. A South Node Eclipse, especially in Virgo, definitely wants to purify the system. Virgo is about digesting, and South Node is about scouring and releasing. And so we can think a lot about elimination and how elimination in all of its many iterations

has featured in our life over the past couple of days, maybe weeks, and also over the next week as well, because we're very much, again, still in eclipse season. It's the eclipse season aftermath or reverberations. But we want to make sure that we're still in that mind frame of like, how do I digest, how do I break things down? How do I integrate? How do I make use of this opportunity, this situation, this event that happened, and what is occurring in my life right now? So that's the precursor to this week. This week begins on the 22nd of September with Mars, the planet of war, the planet of conflict, the planet of aggression, the planet of strategy,

the planet of courage, the planet of doing your own thing because why don't we need to fit in with everybody else anyways? The planet that helps us go our own way is entering one of its own signs. In traditional astrology, Mars represents two signs or rules two signs. One is Ares. It's not where it is this week. The other is Scorpio. That is precisely where Mars is this week. So that bodes well for somebody's strategy. That bodes well for somebody's ability to like bear down and get the battle plan together and then go forth like nobody's business. Mars and Scorpio is unrelenting. We just have to make sure that we are unrelenting about the right thing. Mars and Scorpio is so dogged and so focused and so able to get into the nitty gritty and into the research of something. We just have to make sure that

we are that focused, that dramatically, intensely dedicated. to getting something done that is worth it. That's the one thing with Mars and Scorpio. It will not relent, but is it not relenting about the right thing? So as soon as Mars moves into Scorpio, it dun-da-dun starts to make a square with Pluto. It enters Scorpio on Monday. That is where our resolve starts to find us and we start to figure out exactly how we're going to win at the thing we need to win at. And we're going to remember that a part of winning is to

do things in secret. We can't put everything online. We cannot be captain obvious about all of the things. We need to be strategic about the ways in which we move overtly and covertly. By Wednesday, Mars exacts. It's square to Pluto. That means that we are in. a very intense week. This week demands that we focus. This week is such a good week to research something. This week is very good at getting us into tunnel vision, which I'm not saying is a good thing to be in. Sometimes it's necessary to be able to get down to the answer, to be able to get into the strategy, to be able to win the thing. We have to be exceptionally focused in tunnel vision. And sometimes it is absolutely not the best thing for us to do.

So astrology is just a reflection of what's going on. I will say that this week looks pretty hefty in terms of the world and power dynamics and power plays and power struggles and people that like to say, I've got more arms and weapons than you do. and just that like very tired patriarchal paradigm of who can be more destructive than the next one. I hope and pray that it's not like that, but because this is the world we live in at this moment, at least, and because those people seem to have a lot of ammunition, both literally and figuratively, with Mars, the planet that is about battle and is a bad.

about fighting being in a friction-based relationship, a square with Pluto, the planet of underworld themes and big huge reserves of power. I don't love it. I don't love it for the world stage and I don't love it for the power dynamics that seem to be predominantly impacting all of us. few tiny, tiny few men impacting so many people and not just people, all living things and organisms and the earth itself. So for us to think about where it is we can infiltrate, where it is, we can win, what it is we can strategize around is really important this week. It's really important for us to not get lost in the big huge moments of this is. what these dominating forces do. It's really important for us to know what those are,

but not to lose our entire energetic life force to it. This astrology is calling us to gather ourselves, to gather ourselves, and to direct our energy, to direct our focus at the next attainable goal. It's too overwhelming to think about everything that's wrong right now. It's too overwhelming to think about all the problems we have to solve. It's too overwhelming to think about the power differentiation in terms of money and systemic power that a very few have over the large majority of us. But what this astrology is good for is saying, okay, all that's true. And this is the one thing that I can do. This is the things that we can do. And no amount of structural power can get in the way of this kind of collective power.

hour. And we need to be so focused on the things that we can actually move and how we can actually move them. I'm talking about movement because it's Mars. And Mars finds a way to move through the heftiest of obstacles and the greatest, you know, seeming defeats. Mars is that part of us is that that life force that says, okay, but it's worth, it's worth the fight. And maybe you won't win. like who says you're going to win actually and please underestimate me try it try me let's go let's see how good your underestimation actually is there's always a way to win there is they're just think of all of the stories of winning that were so impossible that people were up against all of

these odds or a country or a group of people or whatever it is that we're looking at they were you know, going to be totally dominated by a bigger power. And yet they subverted it. And yet they won or yet they flipped things or yet they were a wrench in the works. Like everything we can do to make sure that we are unrelenting in our strategies, in our plans and in our ways of regathering ourselves, regrouping and moving forward towards what liberation and injustice could actually mean, I think it's the main point in life in times like these. I hate to say that phrase. In times like these. But in times like these, we do need to be totally, totally tunnel visioned. We need to be totally hyper focused on what it is we can win

and how it is we could win that thing now because all of it matters, any of it matters. Any of it matters. And remembering our power always matters, matters, matters. And this week is all about power and power dynamics. So don't give yours over. Don't give yours away to the big structures that are like, I'm going to be your overlord. There's a need to push back against that. And again, to do it in a more silent or even more stealthy kind of way. So that's the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of it. But Mars is going to be in Scorpio for many weeks to come. So we have a chance to work with these energies and this energy in this week and in the coming weeks. Also on Monday, we enter Libra season. Now, Libra season is all about justice. It is all about equality. It is all about balancing the scales. It is all about

pointing out what is out of balance and what is in balance. Right away, the sun on Tuesday makes an opposition with Neptune, which to me says we're going to be thinking about ultimate justice or the ideal kind of liberation. And that's good to dream about, but it's not good to get stuck there. We have to work with what we've got. We've got to work from the place that we're in. And it is far from ideal. Far, far, far, far from ideal. You don't even mean to tell you that. It's far from perfect. It's far from the situation that we would choose. It's far, far, far, far, far, far. from fancy. And the sun opposing Neptune can have this quality of wanting things to be better than they are, wanting things to be more beautiful than they are, wanting things to be in a kind

of ultimate situation. And they're not. But the sun quickly on Tuesday goes on to trine Uranus and then trine Pluto. And so there's a lot going on with the beginning of Libra season. It is energized. It is activating. And yes, it's good. good to talk about what the ideal would be. And then it's good to quickly move into our strategy and remember what it is we're working with and what it is that can be won in secret, in a covert way, in a strategic way, but also in a way that's like, yeah, this is far from perfect, but we got this. And I'm going to take that for now. This is going to be a win right now. And just keep it moving, keep it rolling. Do not give up. Do not give up. Do not give up. Do not

give up. Do not give up. That's what Mars in Scorpio Square, Pluto tells us. And that is what happens on Wednesday. So don't give up on the right things. Maybe give up on the things that aren't worth digging your heels on. Like, what are the hills that you actually don't need to die on? Get very clear on that. And then get very clear about the hills that you're like, this is it. This is where I, this is my line. This is my red line. This is my line. This is my line line. I do not cross this line. And knowing the difference between those two things is really good. It helps to save us a whole heap of energy, a whole ton of time, which is of the essence, especially right now. This week's question comes from a listener that wants to know what it means to have Mars transiting your first house. Very good question. Love it. It's different depending on your rising sign.

If you have an Ares rising or Scorpio rising or Capricorn rising, Mars transiting your first house could be phenomenal. Could be a time that's quite glorious for you. Could be a time where we see you on a winning streak. Depends on what the other planets are doing. But in general, Mars functions exceptionally well in those signs. It's at home in Ares and in Scorpio. And it is what we call exalted in Capricorn.

So Mars transits through the first house for those rising signs. So good. You're just like humming along. You are in your lane. You're getting things done. Hopefully Saturn isn't impeding anything and Pluto's, you know, being okay. But regardless, at some point, it's going to be a very superpowered, wonderful transit for you. If you have, let's say, I don't know, cancer rising or Libre rising or Taurus rising, a Mars transit is still going to be a time that's trying to activate you to move and do something challenging. But Mars has a much harder time in those signs. It doesn't mean it's a bad time for you, but it just means that the body might get a little agitated and overheated.

there might be some challenge to you. Because if you are one of those rising signs, again, Libra, Taurus, or Cancer, those are signs that want to create harmony and balance and connection and family and kind of like a steadiness in a way, especially Taurus and cancer. And like I said, Libra is a sign of peace. It wants to create balance and harmony. But Mars doesn't want any of those things. Mars is not about any of those things. So when Mars is in those signs, it's like, ooh, it's an uncomfortable kind of mix. It's kind of like, you know, if you, I don't know, hate wearing baseball caps and you have to wear one or you don't like your hair a certain way, but you have to wear it a certain way. You're kind of like, dressed up in something or you just, it's not you. It's not, it doesn't suit you. Those signs don't suit Mars necessarily. And so if you're going through a transit,

with Mars and those signs because that's your first house, it's, it's, might not feel good. That's the, that's the easy answer. It might not feel so good. It might feel really agitating, but you'll do really important things. You'll do some hard effing work in those time periods. For all the other signs, it's like, you know, six in one, half dozen the other. Mars and Leo is going to like amplify all of your Leo stuff. Mars in Aquarius is going to be like super brainiac. It's going to amplify you. It's going to amplify your body and what's going on in your body. So if you already are exasperated, overheated, full of inflammation, Mars through the first house is not going to be cute. It's just, it's going to,

it's or it's going to help you to be like, oh, that's what's getting me so inflamed. These are the things that I need to take action on doing so that I'm less inflamed. Mars will tell you what's wrong. Mars will also tell you, this is how you move and what's right about this movement. And yes, go, go, go. Like, if you have Saj rising and you have Mars and Saj moving through your first house, speedy, speedy, speedy, speedy, like this is just a go time. And if you are already going too fast and you're a Sajer rising and Mars comes through your first house, then, you know, that's not great. So it depends on where you're at, depends on where other things are happening in your chart. It depends on what other planets Mars is going to speak to, but it will tend to amplify the heat,

which sometimes that's good if you're running cold or you're stuck. But if you're already overheated, it can amplify that. If you're stuck and stagnant, maybe it'll give you the right amount of heat to start to move. If you're prone to irritation and you're not good at dealing with it, then Mars or your first test is going to aggravate your irritation. But if you need a little courage and you need a little kick in the, you know, you know what, took us, then Mars is going to give you that. And you can either resist it and be miserable or you can go with it and move. And no, like, okay, it's a hard time, but it won't last.

Like a Mars transit is going to be six weeks-ish if Mars is going at a good clip and maybe a couple months if it's retrograde. So give or take, it's not going to be years and years. It's not like a longer, like it's not Pluto, you know. It's not Uranus. It's not Saturn even. It's a couple of months, six weeks to a couple of months. So it's a shorter period of time. You can get a lot done and you can learn a lot about your own anger and your own irritation and your own inflammation and your own need to drum up and give yourself permission to be courageous. So it's about gathering your energy and focusing it in a direction. All right, y'all. Thank you so much. That is our episode, come back next week and we'll talk about Venus, planet of love and relationship and

affection, meeting up with the South Node in Virgo. All right, more then. Bye for now.