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.

Learn about colonialism—past, present, and ongoing. Educate yourself about whose land you’re living on, and, if you can, make a monetary donation or pay a land tax to that tribe. Visit Our Native Land at native-land.ca. The link is in show notes.

My darlings, welcome back to Ghost of a Podcast. This week I have a question from Sick Of Mansplaining. And she says, “Hi, Jessica. Thanks for your podcast—a safe place to reflect, explore, and pause. Here’s my question. Can we use astrology to improve the corporate environment one is currently working in, and, if so, how? In detail, I am lucky enough to have found a position with a permanent contract in my field of work and with a significant salary increase. Given the current economic conditions, I feel so blessed. However, my field of work is in IT, and it’s still men dominated. 

My employer is a very traditional public sector guy. As a woman in her forties coming from a national linguistic minority, I keep facing white, older, male co-workers from the national linguistic majority who mansplain, patronize, and use my input as their own. Any advice on how to stand up with grace—think RBG or AOC. That’s the fight mode. Now the flight mode: going freelance and doing consultancy work is an option on the backburner for better times, although I’m sure you experience mansplaining as a consultant too. Shout out to all the minorities out there, and thanks again, Jessica, for your unique voice on the net. I’m glad I found your content. Signed, Sick Of Mansplaining.” 

And she asks that I do not share her identifying birth information or her name, so there we go, not going to do it. So here we go. Lots of say here, Mansplaining. I’m going to call you Mansplaining. Although, you’re not mansplaining; they’re mansplaining. And I think that actually is the first thing I need to talk about here is that even though this problem has fallen upon your shoulders, and now you need to do something about it, the problem is not your problem. It’s their problem. It’s men’s problem. It’s also people from the national linguistic majority’s problem, so it might not just be men. 

It’s a really bizarre problem. When someone is able to speak multiple languages, and they are talking to someone who can only speak one, how the person who’s just speaking the one language somehow thinks that they’re smarter—I mean, please, people. If one is able to have mastery or some level of competency with multiple languages, that is a testament to their not just cognitive intelligence, but also language itself is it’s such a textual thing. Different languages and even different cultures kind of embodiment or presence with language—it’s social values and cues and emotion, and, I mean, language is so layered and so important. And it’s just so frustrating when you are the linguistic minority, and you are competent in multiple languages to not have that be held in high regard, instead there’s some sort of talking over or over explaining that can happen to people who are the linguistic minority. You didn’t need me to explain that, but here to say, I’m sorry. I’m sorry the world sucks.

Okay. To your question. We can use astrology to improve a corporate environment or any environment in that we can use astrology as a way to better understand our situation, why it’s happening, what we’re meant to get out of it, and the most effective ways of engaging. And, I mean, if you’re in a men dominated, uptight, old school, IT situation, you’re probably not going to get these guys to have more respect for you by being like, “Hey, I’m really into astrology, and I think it would help us.” I’m not guessing that was your plan anyways. But the way that it would be, of course, the most impactful is if it was used by the team as a resource, but that seems highly unrealistic. So I wouldn’t say astrology is especially helpful in that regard. But I will look at your birth chart and talk to you about what’s going on now, what is consistent in your own nature, in your own birth chart, and how to best cope with it. 

So before I get into your chart, let me just speak to something actually in my experience. Which is that I went to this place called the New School in Montreal, Quebec, where I’m from. It’s not related to the US New Schools. Anyways, I went to this New School, and it was a really awesome experience. And what I experienced was at the beginning of every class we would kind of contract out—the students and the class facilitators—how we were to be graded. And one of the things that we would talk about and contract out was not just verbal participation, but it was active listening. It was not just about somebody like me who’s got a big mouth and loves to talk and has an easy time hopping into conversation, but for a person like me, if all I did was talk over the course of the semester, that would come out of my grade. 

What active listening is about is not just communicating with body language, with eye contact, sometimes with language that you are hearing what the other person is saying, but it’s also recognizing that not everyone is going to be forceful and aggressive in a group situation, and it is the kind of responsibility of the people who are comfortable being forceful, who do have power in whatever way to identify other people in the room who are not taking up space actively and create space for them to do that, make it easy for them to do that. 

And the reason why I’m sharing this is because I actually learnt this in school, and I know most people didn’t. And learning how to become an active listener is a skill that I think we all would do well to cultivate. And, in particular, men and, in particular, people with power. And there are so many different ways for us to talk about power. And, again, in this context for your question, we are talking about around language and also around gender and race. 

Now, I want to really acknowledge that your need for men to become better active listeners or your colleagues to become better active listeners, there’s no magic wand you can wave to make them want to do that work because it’s work, right. But it is something that you can do a little bit of research in. And it is possible that it is something that you can recommend as a free or simple training to your manager. And that manager might be like, “Yeah. This is stupid. It has nothing to do with IT. We’re not doing this.” You might recommend it to your HR department at your company, and, again, they might be like, “Okay, cool. Great idea. We’re never doing this.” 

That’s all possible, but it’s nice to know that active listening is actually an important part of overcoming mansplaining. Because people who are mansplaining are not listening. That’s the move. It’s speaking over people. It’s explaining things that do not need to be explained, and it’s all wrapped up in not listening. And when they are listening, not communicating that they’re listening. 

And, so, a lot of times when people steal other’s ideas, they’re doing it because they’re trying to steal your fucking ideas, and also a lot of times people don’t even realize they’re stealing ideas. They’re like, “I had this great idea; I don’t know where it came from. It was this little voice that sounded like you. Maybe it had that accent you have, but it was all mine. It was all mine.” This is the fault of every individual who does it, and, also, because it’s a systemic problem, sometimes approaching it in a less personal way can be the most effective way of doing so. So teaching people how to actively listen can be really effective, and it can be a work around you having to actively confront the people in your work environment. 

You name RGB. You name AOC. These are two women who have dealt with a lot of confrontation, right. They have had to deal with a lot of bullshit from men, and they have had to deal with a lot of struggle. Now, RBG, of course, RIP. And AOC is very young still and still in early years of her career, so we don’t know how that all is going to play for her long term. I mean, I stand—you know, great appreciation and inspiration for me. 

But we can see that even when a woman achieves great power, there is this way that she has to hold it in consideration of men’s egos and even still is held to a different regard. And we know that this happens to people of color, to women of all races. It happens on lots of levels. And, again, we’re talking about systemic problems that are perpetrated by masses of individuals, right. 

Now to your chart and then a little bit more practical advice. So you don’t want me to share your specific birth information, but I can share this. You, my dear, are an Aries. You have a Leo rising in an Aries Midheaven. It would be easy to look at your chart and be like, you’re assertive—just be direct. Take up space, girl. Go do your thing. But the reality is you also have Mercury in Pieces in the eighth house. This predisposes you to actually having a soft voice, to not being comfortable with talking over people, interrupting people, being aggressive. It’s not how you prefer to communicate with others. 

Also, you have the Moon in Cancer in the twelfth house intercept. This means a lot of things, but in the context of this conversation, it is hard for you to validate your feelings. Your feelings are really strong, but it is hard for you to give yourself permission to fully have them. And, so, when other people or situations try to define you or try to minimize you, it can be quite triggering for you. And, so, when you get triggered, you may repress your responses or your reactions or you may pop off. It can kind of go either way. 

It is really important for you, for your emotional health, to work in a supportive environment. Now, you’re in IT, so that sounds hard to pull off. But what is really important for me to be communicating about these little astrological details is that you are not one thing; you are many things. You are assertive. You are self-assured. You know who you are in many ways, on many levels. You really know who you are, and you’re comfortable with it. And in other ways, you are introverted. You are more shy and soft spoken. You do not like to have to compete for space. You have very mixed feelings about conflict and battle. You’re not especially comfortable with it, even though you might come across as someone who is comfortable with it. It’s complicated. 

Let’s get into how it’s complicated. You have, in your first house, Mars in Leo, and it’s conjunct very closely to your North Node and then—out of sign, but still closely—to Jupiter. This conjunction is the focal point of a T-square between a Uranus/Venus opposition in Scorpio and Taurus respectively; those two planets form a T-square to your Mars North Node Jupiter conjunction in the first. 

So the upshot of this is that you have come here in this lifetime to be who you damn are. To give yourself permission to embody your own ego, your selfhood and, actually, to function in the world of maleness. So that doesn’t necessarily have to be men, but often is. And in particular, you’re in IT—you’re in the public sector of IT, so I don’t know what country you’re living in, but it’s not always the most diverse of environments, right. You have come here in this lifetime, in many ways, to learn how to fight. 

So let me talk about fighting for a moment. What is fighting? When I say fight, most people are going to think yell, scream, punch, kick. But there is fighting that exists outside of video game thinking. Fighting is holding your ground when others would have you sit down. Fighting is knowing your value and not letting anyone else define that for you. Fighting is actually a lot of things. It is in many ways actually having the strength of character that you can change when need be, that you can pivot. 

Having a strong ego does not mean cultivating dominion over others. Having a strong ego actually is more likely to mean that you are—have the capacity to collaborate intelligently with others. And, unfortunately, part of what that requires is the ability to recognize when others are not able to intelligently collaborate with you and to protect yourself from those people, and to not even personalize it because what is wrong with others is not a reflection on you; it’s a reflection on them. And it’s really important that you don’t just cognitively believe that, but that you actually have the capacity to hold it—hold it close to your chest. 

Whenever I think of Mars and Mars in Leo in particular, I think of courage and I think of taking part. And, so, as you deal with this inhospitable work environment, what is important is that you remember to keep on gathering yourself up from your heart first. And that means choosing yourself, right. That is really the theme here. 

Now, let me add to some complexity. Because in your birth chart Uranus forms a square to Mars, what can often happen is you can be abrupt or sharp in the way that you express your boundaries. And, so, that happens because you’re doing it out of a kneejerk reaction instead of a centered form of clarity and self-possession. So that’s where you want to be moving towards. 

Now, because you’re in your early forties, you’re much more likely to be at a place in your life where you’re able to truly embody and practice that North Node that’s conjunct to your Mars. So you’re probably better positioned now to embody your ego in a healthy way from the heart on out than you’ve ever been. And the shitty part is that you have to, right—it’s that the situation requires it. 

Now astrologically, you’re going through a couple pretty intense things. One thing is that you’re in the phase of your Neptune square to Neptune. This is a transit that happens to everyone in early mid-age, so in their early forties. And in your birth chart you have a Neptune square to Saturn, and that pre-disposes you towards kind of a depressive form of anxiety or an anxious form of depression. It’s just like questioning yourself in a way that isn’t always helpful. Sometimes it’s just kind of like a mental tick that generates anxiety. 

So having the transit of Neptune square to Neptune—what this transit wants us to learn, and the reason why it happens in early mid-age is because we are meant to change as we age. Our spiritual center needs to become more important. And part of what you’re going through now is the need for you to choose yourself in situations that are hard for you to choose yourself in and to center self-care. And for you that’s spiritual and emotional self-care alongside your strategic approach to making money, having a job, dealing with mansplainers. So that’s happening. 

The other thing that’s happening throughout 2020, and it will be over in December 2020, is you’re going through a Saturn opposition to the Moon. Now, Saturn opposite the Moon—it happens once every 29 years. It’s a big deal, and it’s depressing. This transit can make us feel really alienated, lonely, just like you can’t connect with people. And I imagine that so much of your question actually is about that, right. You are the linguistic minority in your work environment, and, also, you’re the gender minority in your work environment. You didn’t name your ethnic or racial identity, so I don’t know if you’re also a minority in that regard. 

Whether or not it’s your first time being in a work environment that can be alienating in these ways, it’s still likely to feel pretty rough right now. Saturn is transiting through the sixth house of your birth chart, which is the place of work. It’s where you find your job—not your career but your job, so your day to day life. And having Saturn moving through the sixth house can be a time where you just are not getting the kind of progress that you want. You feel stuck. You feel alienated. You don’t feel like you’re being recognized for what you’re doing, and you’re working kind of double time. 

Unfortunately, that’s common for this transit. And this transit actually is not going to last that much longer. You’re at the tail end of it. But in the meantime, while Saturn is opposite your Moon in Cancer, it’s likely to be fucking with you and feeling emotionally really rough. So I’m going to get to giving you some advice and practical applications of things you can do. 

But I want to acknowledge that how you feel is really important. And centering your emotional and spiritual self-care and support for the alienation and frustration that you feel is something to do outside of work, and it’s something you deserve. And you’ve named that you’re making a good income right now—fabulous. Pay a therapist. You know what I mean. Find somebody who you can talk to who you can sort through your emotions with. Because if all you’re doing is working at work and then you come home, and you’re working on yourself, and you don’t have some time carved out to have somebody kind of like hold space for you, that can be really helpful right now. It can be really, really impactful right now.

So this is going to be a bit of a rough minute through 2020. I got to say, I’m sorry, slash, also, here are some bits of advice that I am happy to give you, slash, also, feel bad giving you. The mansplaining from these white dudes—yeah, this is not on you; it’s on them. So I’m sorry that I’m giving you advice for what you should do because part of me just feels like burn it to the ground. Don’t do anything. Let them fix it. But that’s utterly useless perspective. So here we go. 

In regards to these dudes using your ideas—your ideas as their own. Because you have this Mars in the first house, you have it within your nature, and even there is great value to you being assertive in these situations. However, if you’re the only person, if you’re one of the few women, if you’re one of the few who are in the linguistic minority, then getting into a situation where you’re constantly correcting people, you’re constantly kind of aggressing towards other people, it’s a fucking set up. Because then even if you’re right, and even if you do everything right, you become kind of like branded as the defensive woman in the office or whatever it is. It’s a fucked up set up. So, unfortunately, this does require some maneuvering. And, again, my deepest apologies that I’m giving you advice on how to maneuver because it’s just a fucked-up situation. 

Okay, so the first thing is document your ideas, document your conversations. Unfortunately, I know it sounds litigious, I know it can be annoying, but if you have a conversation with somebody, and you gave them a bit of advice or you gave them a perspective, if you pop it in an email, and you share it with them, just to be like, “Hey, remember when we talked about x? It was a great conversation. I’m glad you liked my idea.” Pop it in an email. Start to have documentation. Some of the guys you’re dealing with will know exactly what you’re doing, and it may make things worse, and it may make things better for you. I don’t know. But it will be you taking an approach that is a little bit depersonalized because it will be consistently applied across your dealings with all of your co-workers, right. So that’s one strategy and approach. 

If there is an ally in your workspace that you feel that you can talk to, if there is a man who seems sensitive, I think asking them if they are interested or able to support you would be really helpful. Because the role of an ally can be that that ally kind of helps by putting themselves on the line, by them saying, “Hey, I’m noticing this thing is happening. Can we deal with this?” Or to just redirect conversation in a meeting. I fear that you would have named that there was someone in the environment that you could turn to in your question if there was an ally there, but it is worth me noting that there might be someone in the space that you can turn to and ask for help. And as I look at your birth chart, you’re not always great at asking for help, so that might be something you haven’t fully considered. And it is worth looking at. 

You’ve named that your manager is old-school, but whether it’s dealing with your manager or dealing with HR, there may be room for you to suggest a training in either active listening or a training in inclusion and diversity and how it works within your workplace. And if you are able to get HR or your manager to understand the need for this in 2020, God damn it, then they might be able to be the ones who spearhead it, and therefore, it is not on you totally. So these are some ideas. 

I think within this and consistent with your strong Mars conjunct to the North Node, I want to encourage you to keep a list of your accomplishments at work. Keep a list of the things that you know you have done and done well over the course of your life and at this particular job. This is not a bad idea for you in terms of strengthening your sense of self and your ego, but also if someone in your job tries to throw you under the damn bus, it’s not a bad thing to have that already compiled when you’re not as emotional so that you can send it off to be like, “Hey, I do all these things.” Or you can once a month reach out to your supervisor, your manager, whatever and be like, “Hey, I’ve accomplished all these things, and I just wanted to share with you that I think it’s going well. And this is what I’m planning on doing next month.” Or whatever. And it might seem forced or awkward or weird, but when you as an employee are doing well, it does reflect on your manager. It makes your manager look better. So there is a value in doing these things as a way to kind of cover your buns. 

There are absolutely easy ways to pop in a search engine, how do I deal with mansplaining at work? What do I say? What do I do? And, of course, I encourage you to do all those things. There are ways of being firm and direct when people start to talk over you. And to be like, “Hey, bro. I got this,” or “Hey, I was in the middle of explaining my perspective. Let me finish, and then I’d love to hear what you have to say.” 

The trouble is with your Mercury in Pieces, that’s not super comfortable for you. And then when you do it, because you have Mars in Leo in the first house squared by Uranus, it can come out a bit forceful or sharp. And, so, something you might want to do, which is a total pain in your butt, but something you might want to do is with a friend practice your tone of voice and come up with a couple lines that you memorize that you will say when someone interrupts you, tries to explain something you are expert in or something that you know about, or somebody maybe has mistakenly taken on your ideas their own. Come up with one or two lines, practice saying them. 

And I hate to say this, I hate to Tyra Banks you right now. Do you know what smeyesing is? It’s smiling with your eyes. It’s what Tyra Banks tells the models to do. Smeyes, smeyes, smeyes. And there is a value in practicing, and I know this is stupid and annoying, but there is a value in practicing putting a smile in the tone of your voice. And, so, you might want to like—if you have a friend that you could hop on a phone call with and practice vising [sp], that’s smiling with your voice—I don’t know. I’m making up words here, but communicating a smile with your voice. It’s something that takes practice if it’s not natural to you, but it can be very effective. It can be a very effective way of communicating. 

Because if you’re dealing with mansplainers, you are dealing with frail egos. And a frail ego often will overcompensate by being a huge jerk. You’re dealing with frail egos for sure. So communicating a smile with your voice—I’m vising [sp] right now, actually—is not a bad strategy, and it’s something that can help you.

Now, my dear, before I end, I want to say this one thing that feels really important. You are strong. You have come here in this lifetime to embody and embrace your strength. Within that you do have a responsibility to make sure that the ways that you’re acting, the ways—not only your intention, but your actual impact, like what you’re actually doing, that that is consistent with how you intend to be, that you’re not dumping all of your frustrations on one situation because you didn’t do it on the last 20 before it. There are ways that you do need to cultivate the emotional intelligence necessary for having a strong ego, for having a strong will, and really it does require emotional intelligence. 

But you are strong, and you absolutely are meant to take up more space, to be a leader in your life and potentially at work, potentially socially. But it’s actually—that’s not the most important part where your leadership plays out. Where it is the most important is the very first house way. It’s about the embodiment of your truth. It’s about you being a leader in your own damn life, of your own fate. Doing this is scary, and it will sometimes, like I said, kick up opposition. But it is your calling. It is worth it for you. 

And I don’t usually go this far in advance, but I’m going to tell you this. In 2023, which is really just a couple years away, Saturn is going to oppose your natal Mars and North Node and then, eventually, your natal Jupiter, so that little conjunction that I’ve been referring to. And that’s something that happens once every 29 years. So in 2023, it will have happened 29 years before. 

What’s really important for me to acknowledge about that is when Saturn sits opposite that Mars North Node conjunction, there will be meaningful consequences to how you show up with others, how you embody yourself. So this is a really powerful and effective time to be engaged in this work—this self-work, which is playing out and showing up at your actual job, but in many ways is part of your spiritual lessons. And, so, if you can kind of orient the challenges you’re dealing with around the cultivation and embodiment of your ego, you will get a lot more value out of this experience. 

You shouldn’t have to deal with this. This is not your problem; this is their problem. But on a spiritual level, if we can find the motivation, if we can find the reason why are you experiencing this and why now, it is preparation for that opposition that is coming for you. And, so, the stronger and the clearer your relationship to yourself, to your ego, to the embodiment of your right to take up space in a powerful way, that will make that transit in 2023 more graceful and easier to be in, which not a bad thing when it comes to Saturn transits. So, my dear, thank you so much for writing in and get out there and make some noise.

The Okra Project is a collective that aims to mitigate food insecurity in the Black Trans community. The project hires Black Trans chefs to come to the homes of Black Trans people or community centers, if they’re currently experiencing homelessness, to cook healthy, culturally relevant, and delicious meals. They feed bellies with great food and feed spirits with great fellowship. 

The Okra Project intentionally has never sought 501 (c)(3) status, so they can ensure that their money goes where it’s needed. Therefore, their work is maintained entirely through individual donations from people like you and everything helps. Learn more about their programing by visiting theokraproject.com or donate, and the link is in my show notes.

In a recent court reversal, ex-felons in the state of Florida must now pay fines before voting in November. This could seriously impede the ability of hundreds of thousands of voters to cast a ballot. It comes as no surprise that five of the six judges who supported the decision were appointed by President Trump. Help pay the fines on behalf of the ex-felons through the Florida Rights Restoration Council. They’re a grass roots, membership organization run by returning citizens who are dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions. Visit floridarrc.com to learn more or floridarrc.com/donate to give what you can.

It's pandemonium out here. It’s pandemonium. There’s so much going on. If you haven’t already heard episode 149, the mid-week episode that I dropped about Mercury Retrograde, I want to invite you to listen to that because I do get into the Retrograde, which occurs on the 13th, pretty in depth, and I do that by looking at the chart of the Retrograde. So for the moment that Mercury Stations Retrograde, there is a chart that can be cast for that, and this guy went ahead and did it. That’s me; I did it. I read the chart for you. I will, of course, give you a little more 411 here today. 

And before I get into anything more astrological, as of today, Sunday the 11th of October, Zodiac The Vote, my passion project, we dropped a Mercury Retrograde Voter’s Survival Guide, which you’re going to totally need. It’s downloadable to your phone. It’s clickable. It’s got lots of information about Mercury Retrograde and also voting in the US and voting in the US during a damn Mercury Retrograde. Of course, technically, Mercury goes Station Direct on the day of the American election, on November 3rd, but leading up to that point it’s a Retrograde, and so the bulk of American’s are going to be voting during the Retrograde. And there isn’t actually enough data about what happens during an election on a Station Direct. So we have data about what happens during elections during Mercury Retrogrades, but not during a Station Direct, so this will be a fact finding mission for us all. 

Okay, I started with the Retrograde, which is a mid-week thing. Let me get chronological, shall we? I guess this was very Mercury Retrograde of me to start in the middle and then back track to the beginning, and then we’ll hit the middle again as a family.

Okay, so this week I am looking at October 11th through the 17th of 2020. Is there a lot going on astrologically? Obviously. Obviously. And the way you can know that there’s a lot going on astrologically is because there’s a lot going on in the world, and there’s a lot going on within you—that’s your tip off.

On the 11th, we start the week off with an exact transit between the Sun and Jupiter. The Sun will be forming a 90-degree angle to Jupiter, aka a square. And this transit on its own, it’s not a bad transit. It can be a time where you’re willing to kind of take risks. It’s where you’re feeling more courageous. It can kind of like—if you’ve been in the dumps, if you’ve been feeling kind of heavy, this can lighten your load. It can just make you feel a little bit more willing to try new things or to put yourself out there, to take risks, to start something off, right. Jupiter gives us the energy we need to start a project or start a dynamic in our lives. Super cool, right. 

Okay, well, right, slash, also, in the context of all that we’re going through in the world, the downside of this transit is pretty meaningful and pretty specific. Jupiter is associated with the press. It’s stories. And with the Sun square to Jupiter we may see an increase in propaganda, in news that cannot be relied upon, in news stories or news sources that are not fully informed by facts, and our own individual impulse to run with it because it matches something we’re feeling or it creates a feeling that takes hold of us. So the downside of the Sun square to Jupiter can be pretty meaningful in the context of propaganda and false news, and that’s something that we all need to be deeply concerned with. 

So I’ve given you guys just last week some ideas about how to be a critical thinker and how to vet and source things, and just make it a practice if you can. And Sun square to Jupiter is going to make us all feel pretty impatient with restrictions, so depending on your nature and depending on what you think a restriction is, that could be a really—a big deal in the context of society, or it could just be like an annoying day. 

What I want to encourage you to do is look for the growth opportunity, aka the Jupiter associated with whatever struggles you’re engaged in. There’s always something. There’s always something that we can get out of even the worst of our circumstances. And sometimes it just fucking sucks that you have to, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done or that we can’t orient our thinking in that direction. When we orient our thinking in that direction, it doesn’t make us happier, it doesn’t even make things easier, but it gives us more meaning and value in our lives. And that, my friends, is totally worth it. 

This transit will be exact on the 11th. We’ll be feeling it still on the 12th, when Jupiter will form a sextile to Neptune. Isn’t that exciting? Jupiter sextile to Neptune is a lovely transit. And this is the final hit of this particular transit. So you may remember this transit occurred on February 20th of 2020. It happened again on July 27th of 2020, and then, again, it will happen for a third and final time on October 12th. 

And whenever we’re dealing with outer planets like Jupiter and Neptune forming an aspect or a transit to each other, what we want to look for is social trends. Now, Jupiter and Neptune are both the planets that are associated with spirituality, with ultraism, with generosity, and even with the process of healing that is not netted in pain and resistance, okay. They’re both expansive planets. So when they form a sextile to each other, a 60-degree angle, there is great potential for an increase in empathy, for a greater sense of regard for others, and even regard for ourselves for understanding the systems at play and our role within them. And Pluto and Saturn will both teach us those lessons as well, but in really different and much more heavy-handed ways. 

Jupiter and Neptune care. They’re really all about care. And, so, if you’re in particular interested in how this transit will impact you, look back to your Dear Diary or your calendar for those dates. And because these are outer planets, we want to look for not just the specific dates that I’ve named, but also around those dates. We’re going to get a lot of information about what we can expect personally around the 12th of October when we look at these other two dates—February 20th and July 27th. Now, if we want to understand the larger social trends, we can also look to at and around these dates that have already happened in 2020 to see the kinds of social trends that have been initiated and even perpetuated throughout time, and we can leverage them.

If you’re an organizer, an activist, a concerned citizen—learn. Learn from how history and astrology are interconnected in such a way that you can recognize the patterns that are at play and leverage the energy when it gets activated. It’s pretty exciting. I mean, honestly, it’s pretty fucking interesting. It’s worth doing a little bit of research. And, also, for me as—I mean, I’m an astrologer. I’ve dedicated the last like 25 years of my life to astrology, but the cool thing is about astrology, you don’t have to be an expert. You don’t have to be 20 plus years into your career in order to know, “Okay, so an astrologer told me these specific dates are relevant.” So you—you as an individual without a whole lot of astrological knowledge can just Google. You can just look back what was happening on this day in history, what was happening this month, earlier this year, or in any year. And you can use astrological data to start understanding and contextualizing historical events and anything that happened even yesterday—it’s an historical event, right. I think it’s interesting. I think it’s exciting. But of course, I do; I’m a damn astrologer. 

Okay, back to your horoscope. On this same date, on the 12th, we have Mercury sextile to Venus. It’s a lovely little transit. Not a big fucking deal, IMO. What this transit will do is simply make socializing and creativity a little easier; it will just create a little wind beneath the wings of your interpersonal dynamics. That’s nice. If you are a writer or writing is a part of your job or something around communication is a part of your job or your life, and you’re trying to figure out how to say a thing, this transit’s actually lovely for that. It really supports you being able to say a damn thing. 

Now, is that harmed by the fact that this is the day before Mercury goes Retrograde, and it’s deep retro shade? Yes, my friends. Yes, it is. Retrogrades as we know are absolutely the time for honoring the rule of re’s: reflect, reassess, revision, review, recalibrate. So on the 13th Mercury goes Retrograde, and as it does so you maybe noticing all kinds of annoyances. Are you noticing annoyances? I sure as hell am. Yes, I am. 

What kind of annoyances do you notice? It can be associated with technology. Luckily no one really uses technology anymore. Okay, wait. That was a joke. It was a stupid joke because, basically, we’re all trapped in our houses and using technology more than we ever have to stay connected to others. So super annoying. So sorry, but yes, you can be using an app that keeps on crashing. You may be having computer problems. You may write an email, and it’s really important; it’s really time sensitive, and you think you sent it and in a rush, you move on, and it’s in your damn drafts. There are so many kinds of stupid little ways that miscommunications can occur these days that are relatively new because so much of our life is communications, and it does rely on technology, and communications, technology take a hit when Mercury goes Retrograde. 

Now, additionally, we have a Mars Retrograde, which means defenses are up. So a miscommunication with heightened defenses—yikes. Listen, we can’t change other people. We can’t change the world. We can’t change the stars. But what we can do is bring awareness to what we ourselves as individuals are encountering and experiencing and take responsibility for how we choose to engage, both with ourselves, with other people, with our environment. 

And you can’t always make good choices. You’re going to fuck up—that’s life. But being willing to have a strong enough ego—Mars—to be able to say, “Huh. I made an error here. I made a mistake here. I failed in this way.” That’s a great thing. Each success that you have cannot define you. Just like each failure you perpetrate cannot define you. We are more than our individual acts. We are so much more. This is a time for reviewing our patterns and the story we tell ourselves—Mercury—about the impact of our actions—Mars. 

You’ve heard probably lots of people, including me, talk about the difference between intent and impact, right. So intent is actually Mercury. I mean, it can be other planets as well, but what we think and our plan, our ideas, that’s Mercury, and Mars is our impact. It’s what we do. It’s the energy with which we do it. It’s a really interesting moment astrologically to have both of these planets Retrograde when so much of society, certainly in the US and beyond, is really becoming more self-aware. The conversation around impact versus intent, it’s activated, right. 

So, anyways, Mercury Retrograde happening at the same time as Mars Retrograde is going to be intense. It already has been in its retro shade as it’s built up to the Retrograde. And within this I just, again, want to remind you to be patient with yourself, to be patient with others, to be patient with technology. And I only remind you to do this because you are unlikely to feel patient, and everyone around you is unlikely to feel patient. And, so, we just need to center it in our thinking and be understanding and somewhat permissive when we fail. That’s the only thing we can do here. 

Mercury Retrograde happens a couple few times a year, which means it’s a normal part of life. Think of it as like an East Coast in North America winter. It’s not like the earth is broken when all the leaves fall from the trees. We call that autumn, actually. There’s a name for it; it’s called autumn. And it’s a part of the natural cycle of what happens on this earth in that region. Similarly, Mercury Retrograde is part of our natural cycle. To not be over-reliant on external communication and instead turn within and to focus on internal processing—that’s what Mercury Retrograde wants of us, and that’s why shit gets wonky when we are over-reliant on external communication.

That’s not the only transit happening that day. No, it isn’t. And, again, you can listen to episode 149 if you want more on that Mercury Retrograde. But also, the Sun is forming an opposition to Mars Retrograde on the 13th. So we will be feeling it on the 12th, on the 14th, but it is exact on the 13th. You might feel it most intensely on any of those three days. And, damn, is this transit irritating. 

This transit is the struggle between your will and your ego. This transit is, “I want. I deserve. Why am I not getting what I want and what I deserve?” This transit is likely to trigger a lot of defensiveness, argumentativeness, irritability, anger, frustration even. The urgency you are likely to feel or the people around you are likely to be feeling, it’s probably misplaced, honestly. 

This transit, it kicks up passion, you know, fun, dirty passion, but also passionate dislike of something, a passionate frustration with a situation. It’s an urgent energy. If you don’t have skills accrued for experiencing and expressing anger and agitation, if you repress those feelings, you may feel really de-moralized around this day. You might feel really sad or exhausted. If you have tapped out your adrenals, if you’ve tapped out your physical vitality recently, you might just be like on the damn floor around this date. 

And, so, what you want to do is fortify yourself instead of kind of run your car with no oil or gas in it. And I use car as a metaphor, slash, also, Mars governs your physical car if you own one. 

So, okay, Sun opposite Mars is a frustrating transit. It only lasts three days, but it is one to really pay attention to. On a social level, there is a risk in the landscape of the kind of like heightened, activated time we are living through, we may see more aggression from men because, again, Mars. Mars is like male archetype. So when we talk about aggression from men, we’re talking about toxic males, toxic masculinity, specifically. 

We may see violence. We may see individual acts of violence or energy that is really violent running through the collective. You may need to stand your ground. You may need to fight back. This transit does not call for inactivity. This transit does not call for waiting for someone else to do it. This is a time to be a part of creating active solutions. So Mars and the Sun both want active engagement. So this is a time for being a part of a solution to a problem that you see. 

That might mean putting yourself out there for someone else. That might mean taking responsibility for how you feel and what you need. It could mean any number of things depending on your situation and your dynamic. But it is a time to be actively engaged and to know because Mars and Mercury are both Retrograde, you might not have all the information. You might be operating off of a misunderstanding. Here we are. Here it is. Life is complicated. 

But that’s not all. I got more to say. We got two more transits to talk about. The first one is on the 15th. We have an exact Sun square to Pluto. Now, Sun square to Pluto is another uncomfortable transit. You will be feeling this on the 14th, so it overlaps with the Sun opposition to Mars. You’ll be feeling it on the 14th. On the 15th, it’s exact. You’ll be feeling it on the 16th with the New Moon. 

But let’s talk. Sun square Pluto. Pluto is resentment. Pluto is shame. Pluto is intense. It is the destroyer and the creator. Pluto is our compulsions, our trauma history—the trauma that’s still in our bodies and in our psyches, and Pluto is a source of strength in that it is a part of us that can relentlessly commit to healing, to survival, and, eventually, to excellence. Pluto is a very complicated planet, and its impact on us socially, politically, and very much personally is profound. 

And, so, when we have a Sun square to Pluto, and I want to note that this is the third transit that I’m naming this week from the Sun to a planet, and the Sun is the identity. It’s the will, and it’s the sense of self, okay. It’s your center. And, so, the fact that there are three meaningful, intense, kind of tumultuous transits from the Sun to three separate planets does mean that if you don’t really know yourself, if you’re struggling with self-acceptance on a kind of fundamental level, this is going to be an especially upsetting week for you. Or could be an especially clarifying week for you—depends on how it goes, right. 

And I want to acknowledge that if that is something that you have been working on, that you do know who you are, you have been working to embrace yourself, there’s going to be like a next levelling one way or another that you might be experiencing. And keep in mind we’re all going through this, so it’s a mess. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. And mess isn’t bad. Sometimes to really clean your room, you need to make it a lot fucking messier, you know. We all are engaged in profound and meaningful healing, and we can’t heal without self-awareness. It’s just not possible. You can’t heal something that you haven’t first held. And here we go; this is the process of holding the thing, holding yourself, whatever it is. 

So back to the Sun square to Pluto. The Sun square to Pluto is transformational. This transit is going to confront us with something that we don’t want to face. Pluto generally requires that you let go of something, that you release something that is no longer serving you, but you are identified with. That’s not awesome. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. Let’s be honest. 

This transit may bring up struggle or conflict between yourself and someone else or yourself and yourself. Pluto is related to control issues. You sense of self control, your sense of agency or other people kind of trying to rule over you or force you in a position or put you in a box in some sort of a way. And, in particular, because Pluto is currently in Capricorn, really it is about someone or something trying to keep you in position or keep you in a box. And this can create a real crisis. This crisis can be a crisis that facilitates a breakthrough and healing or that feels really oppressive and limiting. 

Much like I was saying earlier, if you can find a way to dig deep within and center and prioritize the pattern that is playing out in your life and to recognize that some of this pattern may be related to systemic issues in the world that are not personal to you, and some of these things may be really personal to you, and to be able to create awareness about the parts that are personal to you and how you choose to engage, how you have engaged historically in your life, how you were raised to engage, to really get deeply psychological, that’s the best use of this transit. 

Pluto is investigative. Pluto is deep and churning. And, so, if you can use this transit as a way to leverage and inspire meaningful healing so that you can cultivate greater meaning in your suffering, in your struggle, and in your expansion and your abundance, all of it, that will improve the quality of your life. And if this day is shitty and hard for you, or these couple of days are shitty and hard for you, then finding some measure of meaning can really lighten the load. It doesn’t change things exactly, but it changes you within things. And that’s really powerful.

The Sun square to Pluto can kick up the need to trust someone or reveal to you that you’ve trusted someone in a way that wasn’t healthy for you. Because of the Mercury and the Mars Retrograde, again, I would not advise you to jump to conclusions. Allow things to percolate longer than you’re comfortable with. I return to a particular rule of 72 hours. If there’s something that feels really pressing, and you really feel like you need to talk to someone about it, and you really need to process with them, challenge yourself to see—unless it’s an authentic emergency—if you can sit on it for 72 hours. And see how your perspective and even the information you’re working with may transform and change over the course of 72 hours. Honestly, it can be really helpful. And it can kind of reveal to you what is compulsion versus what is authentic need. You might not be able to do this in this moment or in your current situation, but if you are, it’s a great practice to experiment with. 

Okay. And that brings us the to last transit of the week. It’s a New Moon. On the 16th of October, it is exact at 12:31 p.m., Pacific time. And, as you know, New Moons happen when the Sun and Moon are exactly conjunct, so they’re sitting at the exact same degree of the exact same sign. This particular New Moon, we have the Sun and Moon sitting at 23 degrees and 53 minutes of Libra. 

Having a New Moon in Libra is really about clarifying your relationship to yourself and potentially to others. So Libra is a very relational sign. It is a sign that seeks balance. A misunderstanding of Libra or Libra people is that you have balance. No, no, no. It is that in fact you are motivated to cultivate it, not that you inherently have it. The thing that Libra is also associated with, and I’m not talking about people who have the Sun in Libra; I’m talking about the sign of Libra, is the perusal of truth, of justice. It’s the scales. So issues of justice are really important—really important. 

Much like that Bernice King quote I shared with you in a recent episode, there is a meaningful difference between peace and justice. The downside of Libra energy is it can center peace at the expense of justice, diplomacy at the expense of truth. This is a time astrologically, this New Moon in Libra to really look at how you may be doing that in your relationship to yourself, in your relationship to the world, or to a particular person or situation in your life. Because Mars Retrograde will be sitting at 20 degrees of Aries, it will be forming a opposition to this New Moon. All three of those planets, Mars, Moon, and Sun, will be forming a square to Jupiter in Capricorn, Pluto in Capricorn, and Saturn in Capricorn. So this New Moon, because of the outer planets, Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn, and Mars’ involvement, is likely to be pretty fucking intense. It’s going to kick up feelings of competition, resentment, power, control, potentially a sense of helplessness or hopelessness. It’s a lot. Honestly, it’s a lot. Because, essentially, what’s happening is the Mars, Moon, Sun opposition is forming a T-square to that cluster of planets in Capricorn. 

If you don’t remember what the T-square means, just—hot FYI for you—check out episode 129 where I explain what a T-square is. But this particular T-square, what it’s going to do is it’s going to place a lot of pressure on long developing situations where there is a power struggle that is structural to your life. So that’s on a personal level. That might mean old shit that you have with your parents that you didn’t even realize was activated in your relationship with your bestie really gets activated, and you may act in a way that you did when you were 14 to your best friend who is not your parent. There is a way that we’re going to have certain things activated in the kind of structure of our relationship to power and control and self-governance and time and age. No big deal. No big deal. 

Okay. So that’s happening. Now, on a social level, I mean, your guess is as good as mine. Nothing much is happening in the world, so I can’t see how this would have any relevancy to anything happening socially or politically, right. 

Okay, so there’s a lot that might happen, and whatever it is that does happen on and around the 16th I will say is going to kick up a lot of feelings in everyone. It’s going to kick up a lot of defenses in everyone. And, for some people, that might mean that they feel inspired or entitled to act violently. So I want to urge you to be safe. I want to urge you to act in integrity, and I want to urge you to pick your battles with intention. Not every feeling needs to be acted upon immediately. It is okay to sit with your feelings, to determine what the best action to take is or even what those feelings are comprised of. 

Because this New Moon is in the sign of Libra, I want to bring your attention and focus it on what is right and fair and just. And try to pursue actions that reflect what you believe to be just, instead of getting caught up in defenses, which would be easy to do at this time. If the most fair thing you can do in a moment is sit down and listen, then I invite you to have a seat and listen. 

This energy is not great for listening; I’m not going to lie. You don’t want Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter all fucking around with the Moon and the Sun because it makes it so that there’s just so much kind of external energy that it can drown out your internal experience. So be with the vulnerability of that if that’s your experience, if that’s what’s happening to you personally. If you can choose to be in your vulnerability and find your truth within it, this can be really transformative. It can be really motivating. 

On the positive side—I’m kind of focusing on the negative potential because there is a fair amount of negative potential here. But on the positive side, you may find that you are able to activate and do what you’ve been intending to do, to actually mobilize and do what you’ve been intending to do but you’ve maybe not had the courage to do. So that’s a positive potential of this particular New Moon. 

Ultimately, this New Moon is going to be a test of your character. It is easy to be kind and patient when things are going your way. But when things aren’t going your way, when things are hard, when things are frightening, that’s the test of your character. I will remind and invite you to act with integrity and kindness and generosity whether or not anyone’s looking, whether or not it’s even important, but to center that perspective and that approach in all that you do. And that means in your relationship to yourself and not just in your relationship to others, and not just to your besties, but also to strangers. This is a heavy time. And you don’t need to feel great about it, and you don’t need to be thriving all the damn time. But a New Moon in Libra is a really potent time to choose kindness, to center the truth, and to orient your perspective and your actions towards what is just. 

Now, my loves, I’m going to do what I am trying to remember to do every week, which is repeat the transits of this week. We have looked at the week of October 11th through the 17th. And on the 11th, we have an exact square from the Sun to Jupiter. On the 12th, we have an exact sextile between Jupiter and Neptune, and, also, an exact sextile between Mercury and Venus. On the 13th, Mercury goes Retrograde. On that same day, the Sun forms an opposition to Mars, which is also Retrograde. It’s a Retrograde party. What are you going to do? On the 15th, we have an exact Sun square to Pluto, and then on the 16th at 12:31 p.m., Pacific time, we have a New Moon in Libra.

Thank you, once again, for joining me on this here little podcast and for doing your best even when you feel your worst. As always, you can join me on social media. I’m at Jessica Lanyadoo. You can also join me over at Patreon. Links to all these things are in show notes. If you get value out of the podcast, and you want to write me a little sweety review, I really appreciate it. I get really emo every time I read the reviews, and I really appreciate every single one I’ve gotten. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe except for the one that criticized the cadence of my voice—that’s how I talk. Come on, lady. 

Anyways, and of course, check out Zodiac The Vote at zodiacthevote.com to read articles from a bunch of amazing astrologers, who I am honored to call friends and colleagues. There’s some really wonderful, inspiring articles up, and for me, it’s really nice to know that there’s a resource to read astrology content from brilliant astrologers that reflects the times we’re living in. 

My loves, I will talk to you in a couple damn days. Bye.