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, it’s time to talk Mercury Retrograde again. And I say again because Mercury goes Retrograde a couple few times a year, every damn year. And what that means, my sweet loves, is that Mercury Retrograde is a predictable part of life and not something to be feared. I mean, listen, is it a total boner? Yes. Is it something that creates upsets? Sure, yes. But it’s kind of one of those predictable unpredictability’s in life that, if you understand it, if you accept it, then you can work with and around it. 

So we’re going to get into this particular Mercury Retrograde. A quick reminder, or in case you don’t know, Mercury is a planet that governs communications. It’s emails, conversations, DMs, your damn Zoom conversations—that’s very Mercury. Mercury is what you understand, what you say, what you hear, and the means for doing so. So whether it’s through talking, writing, yada, yada, yada—Mercury. 

Now Retrogrades, and let me just say, the word Retrograde refers to the movement and motion of a planet. So a planet is not in Retrograde; it is Retrograde. And grammatical errors like that are so Mercury Retrograde. Anyways, so Retrogrades always invoke the rule of re: reflect, reassess, review, realign. When we’re talking about something like Mercury, the planet of communications, it’s time to review our attitudes and opinions. It’s time to reassess how we communicate or how we listen. It’s time to be really patient because shit goes sideways during a Mercury Retrograde. 

Now, what I’ve done is I’ve pulled up the chart for this particular Mercury Retrograde, and it’s cast for October 13th of 2020 at 6:05 p.m. Now, whenever casting an event chart for something like a Mercury Retrograde, like an astrological event, the location is not appliable to all people. Which means we don’t look at the houses; we don’t look at the rising; we don’t look at the moon, simply because this is a global event. And I am going to look at it from my vantage point in Oakland, California if I’m looking at it for me, but if I’m looking at it for all of us, I’m going to go a little wider, you know what I mean? So we’re looking wide. 

Mercury goes Retrograde, like I said, 6:05 p.m., Pacific time at 11 degrees of Scorpio and 40 minutes Station Retrograde. And what has been going on for the past couple few weeks is we’ve been feeling the shadow of Mercury Retrograde. So, I don’t know, maybe things have been going a little sideways for you, communication wise. Maybe you’ve been having weird, random technical issues—classic Mercury Retrograde. Am I right? 

So what do we do? Do we lament? No, we don’t. We know better. Instead, we work with the energy. Every single time Mercury goes Retrograde, I just get a flurry of panicked emails and DMs from people being like, “I have to change jobs or buy a new car,” whatever it is,  “What do I do? What do I do?” And the answer is always this: you use your common sense. Your common sense says, “I know that I’m more likely to not read the fine print,” or “I’m more likely to misunderstand things, so I’m going to triple check.”  That’s all you do. Mistakes cannot be avoided in life. Problems cannot be avoided in life. It’s how you cope, that’s what we want to embrace. And, so, with Mercury Retrograde embrace that. 

We might not understand what we think we’re understanding. We might not of been as clear as we thought we were. We might not have read every line of the document, and, so, because of that, we want to just be more careful. You want to make sure that you don’t expect that things that start during a Retrograde are going to have a predictable lifespan. 

So on the same date, we have a Sun/Mars opposition, and it is exact on the 13th of October. And both of these planets, the Sun and Mars are forming a T-square very tight to Pluto but a little bit looser to Saturn and Jupiter as well. So, let me tell you what it means. Sun/Mars opposition is irritating. This transit is associated with feeling irritable, agitated, ego conflicts, frustrations, feeling this urgent need to express yourself or get something for yourself or get recognized, get validation. It’s very egocentric. Mars is the ego. The Sun is the will. These planets are governed by the Sun, Leo. Mars is governed by Aries. So you may have a couple feelings about those two particular signs and how they are reputed for a little bit of a look at me, look at me. Daddy, what do you think when you look at me? I don’t know why I said daddy. Probably because of Saturn, but, okay, let’s keep going. 

So with the Sun/Mars opposition, we know instantly that we are more likely to be attached to our thoughts and attitudes because we’re looking at the lifespan of this Mercury Retrograde, and we are more likely to need to really take a step back. Because when we look at the Sun/Mars opposition, let us not forget, my loves, Mars is Retrograde and will remain Retrograde throughout this Mercury Retrograde. So now we have Mercury and Mars both Retrograde. It’s a little bit of a yikes. We’ll get there. 

Okay. So this is likely to feel really irritating. You are likely to take personally the things people do or don’t do—the situations you encounter, right. This Mercury Retrograde will make it much harder to not snap at people because the Sun and Mars are going to be forming a T-square, in other words, a 90-degree angle to Pluto especially, but Jupiter and Saturn as well. What we can expect is a lot of defensiveness, a lot of intensity. A lot. 

And this is global; this is not specific to you or me, to the people in your city or country or whatever. It’s everywhere. And, so, we’re likely to see, both locally and globally, a lot of power struggles, a lot of power struggles as people strive to prove themselves and prove their dominion. And when I say people, I might mean the nerds you have to deal with in your day to day life. I might mean men with power or people with power. And I specify men because of Mars demarcating the male architype. 

We are looking at a kind of period with this Mercury Retrograde where we take things to heart. I want to remind you that what you feed grows. If you’re feeling defensive, if you’re feeling like the need to point blame, if you’re feeling the need to, I don’t know, punish others or yourself, I want to just encourage you to slow it down because this transit, this energy is power—it’s power. And power’s not inherently bad or good. Power is power. It’s what we do with it that becomes good or bad, right. 

And, so, I want to really encourage you to know that this is a period through November 3rd—I think I said 13th by accident. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Nobody knows. Mercury Retrograde—I’m likely to say something wrong over the next few weeks; bear with me. So between now and November 3rd, we are likely to have this really intense drive. And it’s not necessarily going to be governed by our wisest, our kindest, or our most empathetic impulses. Okay. 

And, so, within that I want to urge you to tap into humility. You do not need to respond instantly to all the things. Not all of your feelings come from wisdom. No matter how justified you feel, that doesn’t mean you are entitled to act in any damn way you please. If you hate me because I stepped on your foot, that does not actually entitle you to become a jerk who steps on feet. I don’t know, maybe you think it does, maybe that’s how your integrity runs; I’m not actually here to tell you how you’re supposed to think. 

But I would say when we allow the injuries that happen to us to compel us to become unkind people, people who don’t live in accordance with our beliefs and our values, then we kind of become the thing we hate, and that’s no fucking good, right. 

Now, I will tell you that it’s not just this T-square to be aware of; we also have Mercury itself forming an opposition to the planet Uranus. This intensifies irritability, nerviness, agitation. Unfortunately, this is a very sloppy opposition. Don’t get dirty, not that kind of sloppy. It’s sloppy like it makes us distracted, like we’re not as likely to think things through. Make a solid plan, okay. This Mercury Retrograde looks very ungrounding, unfortunately. 

Let me add to the mix that Neptune is opposite Venus. Okay, so Neptune opposite Venus can be very idealistic, very devotional, very loving. It can be spiritual. It can incline us to kind of place our values in such high regard that they become our ideals—that’s the positive. Now the negative is kind of the downside of that. It makes us so idealistic that we’re not rooted and netted in the here and now, in the present. It can incline us to believe falsehoods because they match our feelings, or they make us feel less than or more than others. This is a really tricky opposition, Neptune opposite Venus, because it does tend to incline us to seek leaders or stories that absolve us of responsibility. 

So this mess, all these transits I’m naming totally incline us to get overwhelmed, to seek scapegoats or defenses or blame towards the self or others and indicate the potential for major drama, both socially, politically, and very much so in your mental health. So let me give you some practical advice. 

Donate to Feeding America’s Corona Virus Response Fund. No one should go hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic. With school closures, job disruptions, and health risks, millions of Americans will turn to food banks for much needed support. They can’t do it alone, so if you can help, please do. Go to feedingamerica.org.

Okay, here it is. I’m going to give you some really simple steps. And I’ll say if you’re still like, “Wait. What’s Mercury Retrograde?” I’ve dropped other episodes about it. You can also visit Zodiac The Vote, where there’s a really simple explainer article that I put up about it just the other day, so you can go and read it there. 

But, okay, here we go. Here we go—what it is that you can do. Here are some pro tips. Pro tip number one: take notes. Write down your thoughts and your reactions. Mercury governs our attitudes and our beliefs. Make sure that you’re tracking your own attitudes and beliefs day after day. Because of Neptune and Uranus’s involvement, we may get really wrapped up in feelings and justify them with ideas and beliefs. So what you want to do is start tracking your beliefs, your attitudes—just create notes in your Dear Diary, in your phone, whatever helps. 

The second thing I want to advise you to do is track your values. Track your values. So most people have three to five things that they actually value, like truly value. I’m not talking ideals. I’m not talking about beliefs. I’m talking about values—Venus, right. The things that you really hold dear and see as central to being a decent and good person. Okay, jot those things down. Don’t be idealistic about them, and then make sure over the course of this Mercury and Mars Retrograde that you are acting in ways that actively reflect your damn values. Okay. 

Now, I am telling you this because of the Venus opposition to Neptune, but that’s not the only reason. The other reason why is because having Saturn so close to Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn and having a Sun/Mars opposition both form a square to those heavy hitter planets in such a heavy sign like Capricorn, this is a time where we may find when we look back that we have compromised our humanity as a self-defense for how badly we feel or how frightened we feel, and that is never the way. Because at the end of the day, my loves, so much can be taken from us, so much can be taken from us, but what can never be taken from you is your willingness to live in integrity, your willingness to strive, to have healthy, humane attitudes towards yourself, towards the planet, towards others. That can’t be taken from you. 

I mean, it can be really fucking hard. Life is very fucking hard, and sometimes and for some of us it’s a lot fucking harder than for others or in other times. This is a tough time. We are all dealing with difficult themes and issues—all of us. Some of us a lot more than others, but all of us. And when the collective is all dealing with fear and all dealing with threat, then the collective energy of entitlement for being defensive and being in our survival mechanisms gets intensified. You can’t control that. You don’t need to actually put a lot of fear into that. All you can do is you. 

And if you have a platform, and you have a field of influence, whether it's on social media or on business or in a classroom or whatever it is, if you can act from a place of integrity that reflects your values and your willingness and ability to check in and see when you’re wrong, that will really help. It will help you. It will help others. And that’s really the best part of the potential of this Retrograde season on a personal level. 

I want to give you one more word of advice for how to handle this Mercury Retrograde. Know your history. Retrogrades are a time to look back, look back at the patterns in your life, the patterns in—whether we’re looking at governance or we’re looking at systems, this is a powerful time to review, to look back and learn from your patterns. Learn from patterns in society. 

People can say any damn thing. What are they doing? What are they doing? At the end of the day, especially and in particular because of Mars’s involvement in this Mercury Retrograde chart, what we do is going to have great impact on others and on our legacy. Intent and motivation are not equal to impact. This Mercury Retrograde chart indicates that we’re all on call to really reassess and sit with our intent and our motivation, but also our impact. What are we doing, and what kind of cascade effect has our actions had? 

If you’ve got a criticism of a person—I’m not talking about a system, but of a person—and you speak your criticism, you tweet your criticism, you say your criticism, whatever, and it’s heard, do you keep on beating the drum? Are you trying to punish someone? We’re all revved up right now, and that can incline us towards acting in ways that are deeply punishing towards others when that actually isn’t our intent. It’s that saying it—Mercury—didn’t change the feeling—the Moon or Mars, depending on where the feeling is resting in the system. 

Speaking your peace, saying your truth, criticizing a system or a person doesn’t necessarily make you feel better. If you want to feel better, you’ve got to get out your spoon and start digging underneath the foundations of your own damn walls. And I say get out a spoon because it is slow work. When we’re dealing with Pluto, and we are dealing with Pluto in this Mercury Retrograde chart, we are dealing with our survival mechanisms. And if we come at them too strong and too hard, they’re basically designed in the human psyche to rev up. When we attack our survival mechanisms or someone else does, then we either shut down or fight back. Either/or. That’s how humans are wired, and that’s what Pluto teaches us. 

So get out that spoon, and slowly get to the roots of things—not too aggressively. Be interested in the roots of your reactions, the roots of your compulsions, the roots of your behaviors, and even the roots of your attitudes. And in the context of systems at play and larger social and political issues, understanding systems means looking back, looking back and understanding history, right. 

So I’ve given you lots of homework—some personal, some more, you know, I’m a concerned citizen. I’m very Saturnian, yada, yada. And I hope some of it’s helpful to you. I hope it’s all helpful to you. I’ll continue to break down this Mercury Retrograde throughout the coming weeks, and also I invite you to check out zodiacthevote.com if you haven’t yet, where there’s a team of astrologers who are creating thoughtful, insightful, and provocative astrology content to speak to the times. So it’s not about horoscopes. It’s about using astrology as a tool for understanding where we find ourselves right now and how to move forward.

There’s also voter registration information and other voting information that you can check out there. I do encourage you at this time to make sure you’re registered to vote. And if you are going to vote, vote early because Mercury Retrograde, I mean, it goes Station Direct on the day of the American election, but Mercury Retrograde during the largest vote by mail period that we’ve ever had in American history, I mean, what a damn mess. What a damn mess. So work with the information. Do everything early. Triple check. Do your best. And I’ll talk to you in a couple of days. Bye.