Welcome to Ghost of a Podcast. I’m your host, Jessica Lanyadoo. I’m an astrologer, psychic medium, and animal communicator, and I’m going to give you your weekly horoscope and no bullshit, mystical advice for living your very best life.

Darlings, welcome to another episode of Ghost of a Podcast. This week let’s do a little Astrology Hot Take about natal aspects and transits. What they hell do they mean? I’m going to tell you all about it. 

Let me just start off by saying I got a lot of questions from you guys from “How To Read A Birth Chart!” episode, and I’m excited that you’re excited. A lot of the questions were actually about aspects. Some of the questions that I got from you guys were kind of advanced enough that I would recommend getting a teacher and/or getting books that really teach you how to read a birth chart. And I always recommend—they’re super old school, and the references in them are dated, but I always recommend the book series called, The Only Way to Learn Astrology: The Basic Principles Book. Volume One. It’s by two women named Marion March and Joan McEvers. It’s a great series. It takes you all the way through how to read a birth chart, and it’s a really valuable resource for people who are good self-learners and want to have a systematic way of learning the basics. 

Let’s talk about aspects. So an aspect is the geometrical relationship between planets or major points. I personally work with the major aspects—that’s the conjunction, which is zero-degrees apart, so it’s two or more planets sitting on top of each other; the sextile, which is 60-degrees apart; the square, which is 90-degrees apart; the trine, which is 120-degrees apart; finally, I work with the opposition, which is 180-degrees apart. There are other aspects. Many people use inconjunctions; I do not. There are minor aspects. I do not use them. But you—if you’re interested in them, if you’re working with a teacher, and they are teaching you them, that’s wonderful. I just only work with those particular aspects. 

Now, we use aspects both in the birth chart and by transit and to describe transits. So when we’re looking at aspects in the birth chart we are talking about where the planets were at the moment and location and the date of your birth. And what we do as astrologers is we take a snapshot of the sky, and it tells us exactly where all the planets were, what degree they were in each zodiac sign, and then the mathematical relationship between them all. That’s your birth chart. It doesn’t change. I mean, you can progress a chart, but that’s advanced. We’re not talking about that right now. Your birth chart is your hard drive; it does not change. 

So when I talk about transits every week for your horoscope, what I’m talking about is the planets IRL, right now, where they are in the zodiac signs and the mathematical relationship that they are forming to each other. And then there’s another kind of transit, which is the planets IRL, in the sky right now forming a mathematical relationship to the planets in your personal birth chart. So one is a transit that is happening in the sky that is impacting us all, another is a transit that is happening to you personally. So other people might also be going through the same transit, but they’re not going to have your exact same chart, unless they’re your twin. 

So that all said, my loves and puppies, we’re going to start off by talking about natal aspects. With natal aspects, aka birth chart aspects, I personally use a seven-degree orb. For transits, I use a three-degree orb. Different astrologers work in different ways. This is how I was taught, and this is what I find to be very effective. But I want you to know that there are more than one ways of doing this, okay. I know astrologers who use much wider orbs than I do and who use smaller orbs than I do. 

So, basically, think of it this way. If in your birth chart you have a planet at let’s say ten- degrees of Capricorn, and there is another planet opposite it at ten-degrees Cancer—because Cancer is the opposite sign to Capricorn—then, well, that’s a very tight opposition within degree: ten-degrees and ten-degrees. But let’s say that same planet in Cancer was at three- degrees of Cancer. Well, it would still be an opposition. It would be a wide opposition because it’s seven-degrees away from ten. Ten minus seven is three. So, basically, any planet in Cancer at three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, or ten-degrees—that’s all an aspect. 

Ditto for the other direction. If we had that same ten-degree planet in Capricorn, and we’re looking for an opposition, if there is something positioned at seventeen-degrees or sixteen- degrees, or fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, or twelve or eleven-degrees, those are all going to be considered an opposition. Now it might sound really like, “Oh, well, that’s half the damn zodiac,” but really, we do not necessarily have that many aspects in our birth chart. So all to say that is how I determine an aspect. 

Now, if you’re looking at a computer program, and it’s showing you the wheel, which is the circle, right, your birth chart, and it’s showing you lots of crazy looking lines on the inside of that wheel, that is the drawing of the aspects. And in many astrology programs, benefic aspects, easy aspects, the sextile and the trine are drawn in one color, and then the hard aspects, as they are called or the malefic aspects, are drawn in another color. Now, you don’t seen conjunctions drawn. So this is where if you are actually trying to learn how to read aspects, you have to look at the numbers, and you can’t rely on a computer program to tell you because programs are sometimes wrong, and sometimes they’ll have their orbs set differently than you want to work with them. If I’m using a program, I will set it to a seven-degree orb for natal aspects.

Let me tell you what each aspect means, and then we’ll get into it as a transit. When you have planets conjunct, what you are talking about is planets that are sitting right on top of each other within a seven-degree orb. Sometimes when we’re dealing with planets that are out of sign, that looks like something like you have a planet at let’s say 27-degrees of Virgo and the sign right next to it is Libra. And, so, you can have another planet at let’s say two- degrees of Libra. Those two planets will be conjunct. They are within seven-degrees of each other, but in two different signs. And, so when that happens, in my view, it makes it a little weaker to have an out of sign conjunction, but it’s still a conjunction, and you want to consider the energies of both signs. Most of the time conjunctions are the same sign. 

When we have two or more planets in the same sign sitting right on top of each other, it is really hard to differentiate between the energies of those two planets. And this is a really important thing because for the person whose birth chart you’re looking at, it’s hard for a person to tell the difference between let’s say their Mars and Saturn if those two planets are conjunct. And the reason why that is is because whenever they go to do something Mars, Saturn is sitting there to be like, “Hmm, are you sure you can? It’s pretty exhausting. What are the consequences going to be?” And whenever you’re trying to structure your life, that Mars is like, “Okay, but shouldn’t we go, go, go, go, go?” 

Now, a lot of you send me in questions about stelliums. What a stellium is is three or more—or many astrologers will say four or more planets in conjunction to each other. In order for us to have three or four planets plus involved in a conjunction, that’s a lot of planets, and they can be in multiple signs, in two different signs, or they can be all in one sign. And one way the stellium—it really makes it hard for us to see things in any way other than the way of the energies of that sign, house, and that configuration of planets. Stelliums give us a very strong perspective, a really unified perspective. So if you have a stellium in Libra, you’re going to have a unified perspective of—it could be anything, indecision, uncertainty. It doesn’t mean necessarily that you are certain when you have a stellium. It means that you are all in on the thing that you are.

Conjunctions are what I would consider to be strong aspects. They are not easy, and they are not hard. They’re definitely strong though. So where you have conjunctions is a really great place to seek perspective. Because you have such a unified perspective, it’s not likely that you are going to have an easy ability to see other people’s perspective. 

Now we go to the sextile. The sextile is a 60-degree angle, and sextiles are lovely. They are a dynamic spark of energy. I love a little spark. You know what I’m saying? When we think about aspects in the birth chart, what you want to think about is kind of like each planet, think of it as an actor in a play, and the play is you. So each actor is having a conversation in a certain tone of voice. And when we are talking about planets forming a sextile to each other, they’re like, “Hey, girl, what’s up?” “Hey, not much. What are you doing?” “I’m having a good day. Are you having a good day?” “Yes. I’m having a good day.” They’re getting along. It’s pretty easy for them to get along, and they’re having kind of an energized dynamic as they engage with each other. Sextiles are lovely. 

The only downside of a sextile is that nothing pushes you to use a sextile because things come pretty easily. Things kind of happen, and so you don’t have to necessarily cultivate your sextiles because nothing is forcing you to or pushing you to. However, sextiles are your super-power. They are something that works well for you, something that if you choose to kind of make the most of it, you can make a lot of it. 

The thing about the harder aspects like the square, which I’m about to talk about, is they’re motivating. They kick your buns so that you actually use them. You know what I’m saying? So the square is a 90-degree angle between planets. Now, when we have a square in the birth chart, we have conflict, we have crisis, we have creativity, and we have motivation. Think about a square, a 90-degree angle, it’s kind of like, it’s motivating. It’s not comfortable. The conversation between planets in a square is, “Why are you looking at me like that? I thought I did exactly what you asked me to do.” “You did, but I don’t like the way you do it. You gave me side eye.” Now, I’m really bad at play acting, so I hope that this translates. I’m trying to talk as though I’m two planets. 

Let me take it a step further. When we look at something like let’s say the Sun and Venus, two lovely planets on their own. The Sun is your identity, and Venus is how you get along. When they’re forming a square, well, the problem becomes their conversation’s a little tense. And, so, a person with a Sun/Venus square maybe really kind of needy of attention, need a lot of validation or compliments in order to feel loved and liked. They might seek social validation or validation from things, from like what they own and class and money and shit like that. So that’s the downside of a square. It’s conflictual. 

The potential is that you make the most of it, that you are motivated to figure out your love life or your relationship to things and beauty and all of that kind of stuff, in my little example of the Sun/Venus square. The thing about a square is it is motivating, and we need motivation to come into greater wholeness and embodiment. When we have planets that are square to each other, they’re generally harder for us to manage in our youth. And through intention and effort we can use them and leverage them to be more dynamic and more creative in our adult lives.

Now, I will briefly pause to say something I’ve said on the show before, which is I have never seen a birth chart—never seen a birth chart of someone who created something of value in this world, whether artistically, socially, politically—I have never seen anyone innovate or be of service who didn’t have a bunch of squares and/or oppositions and/or conjunctions. Being fucked up, having difficult aspects in your birth chart—you want that, actually. I know it sounds like I’m being idealistic, but I promise you I’m not. We need attention in order to achieve creation. We need some sort of something to get through in order to have greater empathy, motivation, all that kind of stuff. 

So don’t fear your hard natal aspects. Don’t look at someone else’s chart and be like, “Oh, they’re all fucked up.” It’s not like that. If you leverage your difficult birth chart aspects, then you become a creative, dynamic person. You should assume everyone who’s ever created anything that inspired you, moved you, healed you, helped you, they have a fucked up chart, but they have worked on their fucked up aspects. Trust.

Okay, so now that brings us to a trine. A trine is a 120-degree angle between planets. And trines—the little symbol for the trine is a triangle. It’s just a lovely little symbol. Now, when we have planets that are forming a trine to each other, they are in the same element. So planets in earth signs only form a trine to other planets in earth signs. Planets in water signs only form a trine to other planets in water signs, and on it goes. When we have a trine, we’re having a flow of energy. And, again, like the sextile, it’s kind of an easy flow of energy. Things happen pretty organically. Things tend to kind of just work out where we have a trine. And that doesn’t mean we don’t have difficulty, especially depending on what planets are involved, but that we intuitively know how to work through that energy or that helpers emerge, whether those helpers are internal or actual people in our lives and resources that we have access to. 

Trines are really lovely, and they are easy to take advantage of without realizing it, okay. So where you have trines you want to really pay attention and see how you can leverage that, how you can have gratitude for what comes easy and where you could potentially work harder to have better results from that trining energy. 

Now, finally that brings us to the opposition. Oppositions are hopefully pretty obvious to you. They are when two planets or more are sitting 180-degrees totally opposite each other. Now, astrology’s all about interconnectedness, right. Everything in the chart is connected on some level or another to everything else. And, so, when we are looking at oppositions, it is valuable to note that all signs have an opposite sign, right. That seems pretty obvious. When you have two or more planets that are opposite each other in the birth chart, you have tension. The thing about polarization is that it’s tense. And when we have oppositions, we have a tendency to flip flop between extreme behaviors. So embodying one planet in the opposition and then the other planet in the opposition and having a difficult time finding that middle ground. 

Another common thing is where we have oppositions, we are more inclined to project out. So if you have an opposition between two or more planets, and one of those planets is hard for you to embody for whatever reason, then there is a tendency there to not own it. So an example of this might be if you have a Venus/Uranus opposition—this is something I see very commonly. With the Venus/Uranus opposition what it indicates is having inconsistency and a lack of stability in intimate relationships, like dating stuff. And, so, one way that that can get projected out is instead of owning. “Oh, I need a lot of space, and I’m not inclined to having super merged style of relationships”—Uranus needs lots of independence—what many people do is they project out and that means only being attracted to people who are strictly unavailable, only dating people who are never ready to actually commit or get serious, only falling in love with people who live in other countries or across the country you live in. This is where we want to really bring consciousness because if we’re projecting out a natal aspect, then it always feels out of our control. And the more that we are interested in our own nature and we work to embody the fullness of our own nature, the easier our lives get. 

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Okay. So now we talked about the natal aspects, let’s take a moment to talk about transits. Transits use the same math, right. It’s the same thing. A conjunction, sextile, yada, yada, yada, yada. But it is different, and it is different, as I said earlier, because we are talking about planets moving through the sky at this time forming an aspect to your natal planet. So it’s a foreign entity impacting your life. Which is why you’re going about your life, everything seems pretty fine; you knew you wanted to be a CPA. You’re walking around town being a CPA, all of a sudden, a Neptune transit comes, and it totally confuses you, and it changes your values, and it makes you question everything. And you’re like, “What the hell? I wanted this my whole life. I was certain I was going to be doing this, and all of a sudden, I feel different.” That all of a sudden, I feel different is generally described by transits. 

So I’m going to walk you through different kinds of transits. Now, the first one is, as we know, zero-degrees. It’s a conjunction. Now with transits I use a three-degree orb. And this is something that you hear me talk about week after week in the horoscope. I talk to you about these transits, and I give you the exact date. And depending on the transiting planet, it will last a different amount of time. And let me tell you why. The reason why is because different planets move at different speeds. So the Sun moves one degree per day. It’s very simple. That’s why we have Sun sign astrology because it’s very easy to track the movement of the Sun. 

Pluto takes 248 years to move all the way through all the zodiac signs So you can imagine that any transit from Pluto to anything in your birth chart is going to last you about two years. Neptune transits are going to last you a similar amount of time—a little bit less time, but about two years. A Saturn transit, it can last you a month. Honestly, it could last you a year. And that is because, in part, all of the outer planets, they Retrograde every year. 

So people get really kind of worked up about Retrogrades with the personal planets, and that is a wise thing, but with the impersonal planets, aka Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, they all Retrograde every year. So if you have in your birth chart any of those planets Retrograde, don’t trip on it. Don’t overthink it. And if you see those planets Retrograding at this time, again, I wouldn’t really overthink it, especially if you’re using astrology primarily for self-discovery and for understanding your own birth chart and the birth charts of the people you’re close to, as opposed to like social and political trends. 

So, anyways, when we have a transiting planet conjunct or conjoin our natal planets or points—and when I say points, I mean your Midheaven and your Ascendent—what happens is we become overwhelmed, and our very identity goes through a massive transformation. So think of it this way, it’s kind of like your planet is walking around town living its best life or its worst life, depending on the Goddamn planet, and then the transiting planet throws a blanket over that planet, and that blanket is in the shape of whatever the transiting planet is. It’s a weird metaphor but work with me. The point here is is that the planet in your birth chart that is getting hit by a conjunction becomes overwhelmed and surprised and directly, irrevocably impacted by the transiting planet for whatever length of time that it’s impacting you. 

Conjunctions are neither good nor bad, but, man, are they stimulating. When you’re going through a conjunction, you will feel it, and it will be pretty consuming. And depending on the nature of the conjunction, the transiting planet, and also the planet in your birth chart, it will feel completely different. But they are very powerful transits to go through. 

And if you’re talking about a transit from let’s say the Moon, well, that happens every month. The Moon takes 29 days or so to cycle through all the zodiac signs. So you’re going to go through every Moon transit every damn month. So don’t overthink those. They’re great for understanding yourself, but you don’t want to overthink them, IMO. But if you’re talking about something like an outer planet transit, some of those are once in a lifetime. Some of those are developmental and specific to your age, you know, like the Saturn Return or the Uranus Opposition. 

When we look next at Sextiles, transits that form a sextile to your birth chart planet, to your natal planet, those are easy to miss, actually, because they’re lovely. They are easy. You’re like, “I don’t really notice anything much because things are just kind of working out.” Or if you’re going through a really hard time in your life, and you go through a sextile, then you get like helpers; you get little breaks essentially. And while that’s really lovely and helpful, unless you know you’re going through a transit, most people, I find, don’t make the most of their sextiles. 

So if you find that you’re going through a sextile from a transiting planet, make a great effort to leverage it because by leveraging it what ends up happening is you have more dynamic interplay of energy. In other words growth, ease, good feelings, good times, or, if again you’re going through a shit period, your capacity for healing or for tolerating difficulty will be supported, okay. If you’re going through a sextile at the same time that you’re going through a harder transit, I often find that it becomes kind of like a supportive transit to that harder transit. 

Now the next thing. It’s the square. It’s the dreaded square. And I only call it the dreaded square because I have learned by reading your questions in my inbox for Ghost of a Podcast that y’all’s are scared of squares, and I want to encourage you to not fear the square. The square transit is upsetting. It brings up conflict. It brings up a crisis in consciousness. But thank God for those crisis in consciousness. We need to learn the lesson of the square. So a planet transiting your birth chart planet at a 90-degree angle is going to all of a sudden create upsets in your life. And the nature of those upsets will be interpreted by understanding the nature of the transiting planet, understanding the nature of your birth chart planet, and your natal aspects. Which is why I started off by explaining aspects and then went into transits because, honestly, my loves, transits is advanced astrology—not crazy advanced, but advanced. 

So what most people do when they’re starting to learn astrology is they’re like, “Ooh, I want to go straight to the predictive stuff.” But if you don’t understand the signs, if you don’t understand the houses, if you don’t understand the planets, and you don’t understand your natal aspects and how to fluidly read those things, then you’re not really going to be able to effectively understand how to interpret transits. So you want to really get all the steps so when you get to transits, man, you’re ready. 

So squares. When squares occur by transit we are being challenged to grow and to grow outside of our comfort zone. Generally, situations or people emerge in our lives to kick our butts or to force our hands, and they can be quite difficult. But when you’re going through a transit, holding your breath, complaining about it, resisting the work—all of those things only get in your way because the transit’s going to last as long as the transit lasts. And a lot of transits exist as part of a cycle of development. So you go through a square now and then x amount of years later or months later, you are going to go through an opposition between the planet that just was squaring you a few years back and itself. 

So, basically, what I’m trying to say is you cannot escape your birth chart. You cannot escape the work that you have come here in this body to this Earth to learn. I’m sorry. If you could escape it, honestly, I would have done the research and figured out how because it’s a real pain in the ass half the time. And I was really interested in figuring out how to get out of the work in my twenties. But, yeah, no, that’s not the work. The work is to accept, and from there mobilize, leverage, learn, move the fuck on. And squares are very fucking effective in helping you to do that. 

The downside of a sextile is whatever we establish in a sextile, right, let’s say you establish kind of a not so great habit, like let’s say social anxiety. And, so, you’re going through a lovely sextile, and you’re like, “Oh, great. I just started drinking more when I went out socializing, so now I don’t have social anxiety anymore. I’m able to socialize because I just get a little drunk.” Come the square, which is the transit that will happen after the sextile, yeah, maybe you have a drinking problem. Maybe you don’t know how to socialize outside of drinking. Or maybe the only people you have social access to are people who drink too much. And, so, now you have a problem. You have a crisis. And what do you do with that crisis? What do you do with that crisis? 

Some people in sextile transits find that their lives are unmanageable or unwell, and that’s because the systems they’ve put into place in their lives aren’t actually serving them to live better lives. And some people going through squares—transits that are squares—are actually like, “Wow. Shit is happening for me. Things are coming together. I’m having all these opportunities. And, yes, it’s a lot, and yes, I have to stay on my toes to make the most of it, but it’s not bad.” Do you see what I’m saying? Difficult doesn’t equal bad. Easy doesn’t equal good. You capiche me? 

Now, we go to trines. Trines are really important. Trines are, again, this benefic flow of energy. They are easy to miss, but when we make use of trine transits, man, does our lives really expand. And when we look at trine energy, like I said before when I was talking about the natal aspects, we’re talking about planets that are in the same element, so air trine to air, fire trines fire. And what’s really nice about that is to see when the planets transiting are in the same element as the planets in your birth chart how much easier it is to be effective, to mobilize, and to see how the flow of energy might trigger your inner resources, your willingness to try and be uncomfortable and put out effort. These things are really valuable because they don’t only teach you about the world; they teach you about yourself.

And that brings us to the opposition. The oppositions are tricky transits. They often bring up some drama in our lives. Just like I said about the natal aspect, oppositions will often present themselves as relationship issues. When we go through oppositions, there is often a person or a situation that is embodying the transiting planet. So that can look like, if you’re going through a Jupiter opposition, somebody pushing you to grow or a situation pushing you to grow. If it’s a Saturn opposition, it can look like a limitation, right. 

And, so, what you really want to pay attention to when you’re going through opposition transits is your willingness to grow and to come to greater balance. When I think of oppositions I am often looking at like, okay, so what is it that you need to come to greater balance and embodiment of? And sometimes what that looks like, when a planet comes in opposition to one of your planets in your birth chart, what this will often look like is you really needing to let go of control or you really needing to step into greater control. What it looks like is a confrontation with yourself, essentially—if you’re willing to deal with it on that deep psychological and spiritual level. When we go through oppositions, we are being challenged to really look at ourselves and to embody more of ourselves—to bend or break. And here’s hoping, my loves, that you are willing to bend when the time calls for it.

Now, my loves, that is just my Astrology Hot Take on aspects, slash, transits. I hope it’s helpful for you in your journey towards learning astrology. As always, send me your questions for things you want to learn more about. Is it the houses? Is it any particular special kind of whata, whata thing? You know, let me know. Let me know. 

As always, if you are not yet subscribed to Ghost of a Podcast, please do subscribe on whatever platform you’re listening to it. If you haven’t already picked up my book, Astrology For Real Relationships, I encourage and invite you to because it does break down all of the planets through every house and sign, and that shit is foundational for understanding all of the aspects that you want to start to apply to your birth chart. 

Wherever you are in your journey of learning astrology, I’m really grateful that you’re touching in with me and learning a little astrology with me. If you haven’t already heard episode 100 of Ghost of a Podcast, it dropped on Sunday, please do check in with it because I get into some transits for the week that are pretty damn valuable for you to know about. My loves, in the words of astrologer Linea Van Horn, may all your transits be easy ones.