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.

Hey. I have a very interesting question. It’s kind of loaded on lots of levels. So let’s go, my friends. And it goes like this. Okay. “In the past few years, I have noticed that my father uses coded language to talk about the danger of the predominately Black and Latinx neighborhoods that my friends live in and that I wanted to consider living in. Whenever I’ve tried to point out that his comments are racism, he fervently denies that he is biased, but insists that he is right. 

Despite voting for the first time in his life, thanks to my pleading, for Joe Biden, he has complained that he doesn’t like Harris several times. His only sided reason, when I’ve probed, being that she connivingly sold the campaign merchandise based on a quote she made from a primary debate. 

My sister has been told by him that she throws like a girl and has observed that he complains about his female coworkers far more than his male ones, occasionally referring to them as, quote, nasty women. How can I constructively address these issues with my father without him getting defensive and tuning me out as he seems to have done in the past? Please keep my birth information private.

Okay. Such an important question, Bad Dad. Yeah, I’m calling you Bad Dad. And it’s got a lot of really important layers. Now, one important layer is you did not say what your own race was. I am going to assume by that admission that you’re white. 

So there’s a lot of reasons why I chose this question. I think it’s an important one. I do not think you are the only person who is dealing with a close family member or loved one who you fervently disagree with about moralistic and ethical issues. 

This has been a period where people’s racism, homophobia, classism, and all other forms of problematic thinking have really come to the surface as really extreme, hateful views have become normalized. People just—they’re comparing themselves to much more egregious acts, and they’re like, “Oh, my micro oppressions or my non-physically violent racism isn’t real racism.” So this is a big thing that’s happening. 

Also, as we approach holiday season, more and more people are going to have to deal with their families, and that’s a real thing, especially when your family really strongly disagrees with you on things that you feel to be key parts of your values. So there’s a lot of things to acknowledge and talk about here. 

Your real question is layered because you’re asking me how can you constructively address these issues with your father without him getting defensive and tuning you out. So let me start with this. You don’t get to control how he feels. And this is so important. When we want someone else to listen to us, but we are not listening to them, on an energetics level, it doesn’t work. And that is the energetics explanation for why it feels like both sides are yelling at each other. Because we don’t want to listen to the other side—we don’t. 

And, so, I want to really pull—I want to be picky with your question because you’re asking me how to constructively address these issues. And I love that you’re wanting to be constructive, and I can empower you around tools with that. But what I can’t do, anymore than you can do, is control how he feels. If he feels defensive, then he feels defensive, and you don’t get to fix that. And you say he’s tuning out, but you also say that he voted for the first time in his life, which is a huge deal and because of your engagement. And he voted for Biden. So he didn’t vote with Trump’s hateful agenda. This is very important. 

And I’m not trying to be like, “And therefore, his sexism and racism is not a big deal.” I’m not saying that. But I’m saying he may be tuning you out when you say eighty percent of what you’re saying, but it sounds like he’s listening to you, and he’s learning from you as well. 

This gets me to something very, very important. Whether we’re talking about creating change in ourselves—not just figuring something out and having a new perspective because you read a blog, but actually creating change inside of ourselves, or if we are talking about changing, let’s say, a relationship, an old meaningful relationship like one we have with our family of origin or changing, I don’t know, anything in politics or anything in our social or public discourse, anything in our laws, it all takes time, and it takes diligence. 

And, so, when you ask me about getting him to listen to you without tuning you out, I want to say, honestly, you don’t know if what looks like him tuning you out in 80 percent of your conversations is actually the best he can do in terms of listening to you, and that you are making a meaningful impact over the course of time. So my guess is you weren’t just on your dad to vote for two months leading up to the election. It was probably a longer-term conversation that got him to make a change. 

As frustrating as it is to have to deal with all the things you’re dealing with in the world and with your dad, it’s really important to understand that if we are impatient for other people to come around to our way of thinking, if we are impatient for other people to make change, then our impatience—which may be very fucking well earned—actually can function at cross purposes with our needs. Because change takes time and unlearning takes time.

Now, you asked for me to not share your birth information, but I will say you are in your twenties, and as a person in your twenties or a person in your thirties, you may be feeling like you understand the world, and you probably fucking do. I’m not saying you don’t, but I am just speaking to a feeling here. You feel like you understand the world, and that this understanding of the world that you have comes from an educated place—you have lived experience. You have engaged with various forms of media that has educated you. 

And the way that the human experience works is that we have this lived experience, and it convinces us of truths, and they seem inalienable. They seem so evidential because we have evidence. We have experience. And I might look at your experience, and be like, that’s not real experience. You might look at mine, say the same damn thing. But regardless, our experience is what it is, and it informs our viewpoints. 

Now, when you’re dealing with somebody who’s an elder—who’s older than you and has more experience and is an older family member, for you to have the notion that you’re going to figure something out, and you’re going to explain it to your elder relative, and that they’re just going to be like, “Oh, snap. I had no idea. You’re right. Okay, moving along,” it’s idealistic. And there’s nothing wrong with it being idealistic, but where it gets you into trouble is when you think that the information you have and the lived experience you have is more important than his. 

And the reason why it gets you into trouble is because whether or not he’s cognizant of your attitude, and my guess is he is because it sounds like you’re very compelling, and you’re really trying to convince him—thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But what is happening inside of that is he knows that you already have decided that he’s wrong so that you don’t need to listen to him; you don’t need to understand him. So he needs to listen to you, and he needs to understand you, but you don’t need to listen to him, and you don’t need to understand him because you’re right.

Now, listen. Hey, listen, Bad Dad, my friend, I agree with you. You and I, it sounds like, have pretty similar fucking values. That said, if you want to constructively address issues around racism and misogyny with somebody who is in your life in a closed way—so I’m not talking about systems of power; I’m talking about individuals in your personal life—it requires you to listen. 

And this is really difficult. I don’t want to listen to people who I strongly disagree with or find deeply offensive. But the truth of the matter is, if you want to constructively address these issues, and you want to make sure that if you’re going to bother speaking on this stuff, it’s constructive, it’s impactful, and it has the capacity to make an impact over the course of life, then I’m afraid you’re going to have to listen to him, and you’re going to have to ask questions, and you’re going to have to listen to his answers. 

Because you use a lot of really important examples—the bit about your sister being told that she throws like a girl, I mean, that is a really very new thing—it’s not a new thing that that’s an offensive thing to say and a stupid thing to say, but it is a new thing that we have a social agreement that that’s not an okay thing to say. For a lot of people, they’re not going to understand why that’s offensive. 

I think it’s really important to listen, to ask your father something to the effect of like, “What does that mean, throws like a girl?” Let him tell you. It means you’re weak. It means you throw poorly. Let him say it to you. Let him tell you that that’s what he believes, and you know what? He might justify that belief by naming statistics that prove that females are physiologically weaker than males with upper body strength. And he might say that, therefore, he has a right to say throws like a girl and tell you exactly what it means. 

If you want to have a statistics conversation, you can do a little Googling and get ready for that. If you want to have more of an ethical and more holistic conversation of around that to compel him by winning his heart, then what you got to do is not let him determine the conversation completely. 

So it is possible to ask people questions, to authentically listen to them and to consider their perspective and their words in how you respond without allowing them to direct the conversation. It’s hard. It’s difficult. And it’s especially difficult with family because with family, we all kind of fall into childhood patterns—that’s very normal and human of us. 

But I kind of chose the softest pitch you gave me here by mentioning the throws like a girl. When he refers to female co-workers as, quote, nasty women, he’s quoting Trump. He’s quoting Trump. And it’s really important to understand that what Trump has done is he’s popularized a lot of language. He’s created a great deal of permission for people to act in a certain way and to be dismissive of others—that’s just real. That’s what has happened. 

And let me tell you the reason why Trump and people like him are so impactful is not because they’re geniuses, and it’s not because they’re right. It’s because their messaging is simple. Simple messaging is really impactful. Nuance, not as much. Sorry, World, I am obsessed with nuance, but here we go. 

So when your father speaks about “nasty women,” if you actually are talking to him and listening to him, and you say, “What makes her nasty? Tell me more about her.” If you really ask him what he means by that and you ask him to actually be present with what he’s saying, there’s room for an actual conversation that can be constructive. And he might not have the capacity or the willingness to have a real conversation with you half the time you try. This is the reality. We change hearts before we change minds. 

The reason why Trump has been so effective—so many reasons—but a big reason why Trump has been so effective is because he is speaking to hate in people’s hearts. He is speaking more honestly to fear in people’s hearts. Because where we have fear, we have all kinds of other defensive, hateful, scary, bad, sad, mad emotions. 

There are other ways to speak to fear in people’s hearts. There are other ways to bear witness to the fear in people’s hearts. And if you are—and you did reveal that you are a female—if you are a white woman, and you have a white dad, you are in a great position to have a real ongoing conversation. But it’s not going to be you say it once, and he gets it, and life moves on. It’s got to be an ongoing conversation. He will continue to be defensive. So will you. I mean, you say he’s defensive, but I have a really hard time believing you’re not defensive as well. 

So the key is when you start to get defensive to be like, “Oh, wow. I’m getting defensive.” Say it out loud. Own it. Be like, “I’m getting really defensive,” and model how you want him to process it, to be like, “Huh, I think I’m getting defensive because when you talk about these “nasty women,” I feel like you’re actually could be talking about me, and that makes me feel really badly.” I’m not saying get into martyr stuff. I’m not saying get into using your tears, your white lady tears to manipulate your dad—it’s not about that. It is about being able to model appropriate conduct with your father or with whoever it is that you’re dealing with. Because that is how you don’t let them direct the conversation. You can authentically listen without allowing the conversation to be dragged down to name calling and oversimplification of issues. 

As I said last week on the podcast, and I think as is very evident in the world that we live in, people who are racist and racism, let’s be really clear, is pervasive and exists on a massive spectrum. So does misogyny, and it is very hard to separate racism and misogyny and classism and ageism and a million other things. But telling a racist person, a person who feels empowered and entitled to act or speak on their racist values and positions that they are racist, it kind of gives them something to refute. When you say to someone you are racist; this is racist, they can easily get defensive and focus on you called me a name; I know I’m not that thing. 

So you might be more effective in asking questions that require your father to probe his assumptions instead of surmising it with a, all be it accurate, label. When you point out that his comments are racist, he doesn’t have to respond to anything about his comments. He gets to only respond to the label you’ve given him. 

Much like in episode 150, when the mansplain pain episode where I answered a question for somebody who’s dealing with mansplainers at work, it’s not—it’s fucked up. I’m sorry that I’m coaching you on how to talk to your father about things that, ideally, you should not have to educate your father about. But it’s working. You’re making progress. You’re making headway, and if you stay with this for years and years and years, you will make more headway. You can change a person’s mind in a conversation—seriously, you can. But it won’t stick if you don’t reach their heart. Period. It just doesn’t stick. 

But because it really sounds like you love your dad, and, honestly, from the very little information you’ve given me, it sounds like your dad loves you. There is authentic room here for you to make a difference, to continue to make a difference in his thinking. But within this, you need stamina. Because if your primary objective is to make radical change this month, then you’re probably going to come across as a bully, and he can respond to that. 

When we are having conversations with family members, with close people to us—and this is what I’m speaking to, I want to be really clear, is specific and unique to the people we have close and intimate relationships with—when we learn that they have harmful viewpoints and harmful behaviors, we do have a responsibility, in my view, to say something. We do have a responsibility, in my view, to not consent to be a part of it, to participate in it. Silence in the face of injustice is consent. We know this. And, so, you do have a responsibility. 

That said, you do not need to fight and talk about it in every single conversation because that’s not the most effective approach to most relationships. The more you talk about it without listening, without reading the room, basically, for whether or not he’s receptive, whether or not you said it in the same way 12 times already, then he’s going to have an easier and easier time tuning you out. 

It’s like ads. You ever watch TV or whatever, and you’re just like the first time you see an ad, maybe it catches your imagination. It’s like what’s going to happen next. I’m watching a story. I’m seeing and hearing things, and it’s sparking annoyance or interest or whatever it is. And then you’ve seen the ad two/three times, you just tune it out; you don’t even notice it anymore. Now, theoretically, eventually, it becomes a worm in your brain, and it makes an impact. That’s what advertisers are relying on, anyways. But the truth of the matter is, you’ve tuned it out, so it’s not a conscious thing. 

So you can try to wear him down like an ad for some cereal you never wanted to buy, or you can make a practice of listening. Listening to his receptivity, listening to what’s masquerading as defensiveness that might actually be fear, asking him questions and being interested in how it is that he justifies his attitudes, what lived experiences he has that inform those attitudes, then you will be better equipped to speak directly to what’s happening inside of him. 

If he has racist views, specifically about neighborhoods, did he ever go into those neighborhoods? Is it based on the media he watches, like TV and movies? What’s it based on? If you know what it’s based on, you can start to dismantle it. You can start to speak to it. And that is where impact can occur. 

Everybody has bias. Everybody has bias. Everybody of every race and every sexuality and every gender and of every body size and who likes every kind of music and consumes every kind of news has bias. It’s part of the human condition. It’s a shitty part of the human condition, but we all have bias. And we have bias because we live in a heavily bias world. We live in a world that is not just. It has never been just. And when we have systems reinforcing themselves that say all kinds of fucked up, racist, homophobic, misogynist things, we inevitably have those things in our heads and hearts. 

We all have to unlearn racism—all of us. We all have to unlearn misogyny and homophobia and all other forms of hateful thinking and feeling because we have inherited them from a fucked-up system. Some of us are a lot more motivated than others. Some of us have a lot more work to do than others. But there’s something, if you’re trying to change the hearts of people, there’s something very impactful from my view about being able to hold space inside of yourself for that. 

Now, listen, not everybody has to have this attitude, but I am really excited for the opportunity that exists over the holiday season, but honestly, just moving forward here in the United States for people—especially white people, but for all people, to have more nuanced and complicated conversations with their family members around issues related to justice and injustice. And those conversations are going to be more effective if you start with people where they’re at. 

If you start having a nuanced conversation with somebody about a topic that they do not have a nuanced understanding of, they’re going to have a hard time following. They’re going to feel alienated. There is nothing wrong with meeting people where they’re at and building from there. And, again, I’m talking about people with families and loved ones and friends. 

And once you find someone is abusive or disrespectful, someone is perpetrating harm, someone is—and don’t get me fucking started on this devil’s advocate bullshit that people do—somebody is like pulling their devil’s advocate thing that allows them to say shitty things and ignore what is ethical and right kind of in—out of like intellectualism or whatever. Once that occurs then you need to center your self-care within your approach. You don’t want to walk into walls and call it activism. 

If you want to be doing these forms of micro activism of talking to people and trying to reach people who need to be reached, then you need long game. You need strategy. It needs to happen over the course of time and not over the course of a meal or a conversation. So these are my—I would say they’re two cents, but I talked for a really long time. So I’m going to say those are my like seventeen cents for you, and I hope it’s helpful. And good luck with your bad dad.

We are going through transformational times, and whenever you are engaged in your own evolution, inevitably, you need a little help. And that is why I’m really happy to share with you Better Help. They’re committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, and it’s easy and free to change counselors if you don’t like the person you’re matched with. This service is available for people worldwide. 

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Okay, here’s some real talk. In order for any democratic president to get much done, they need a blue senate. It doesn’t really have to be that way, but that’s the way the GOP’s stall and block tactics work, and so, therefore, it is so. And right now, it all comes down to Georgia. 

So we’ve dealt with the election of the president, but we are not done with the larger fight. On January 5th, of 2021, Georgia has the opportunity to flip the US senate blue. And whether or not you’re in Georgia, you can get involved and be a part of turning that damn senate blue. Let’s get on it. 

Okay, so here are some organizations that you may or may not know of that you can donate to and volunteer with, and the links to them all will be in show notes. Now, a huge part of why the Biden/Harris ticket won the presidency is because of the vision and dedication of Black women across this nation. And one super star on the political scene is Stacey Abrams. I know you’ve heard of her, but let me just tell you about her organization Fair Fight, whose mission it is to advocate for free and fair elections by fighting voter suppression and promoting fair elections in Georgia, as well as around the country. You can donate to this organization and find out more about how to get involved over at fairfight.com. 

Now, there’s another organization I want to share with you, which is called The New Georgia Project. And it’s another Georgia based org that is making a huge impact. They seek to empower the new American majority, which they describe on their website as people of color, those 18 to 29 years old, and unmarried women. And they are empowering this new American majority to vote through advocacy and engagement. You can go to their website at thenewgeorgiaproject.org to donate and get involved. 

And, finally, you need to know about Black Voters Matter. Their goal is to increase power in marginalized, predominately Black communities. Effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny. On their site, they amplify the words of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” Get involved and donate at blackvotersmatterfund.org. Again, links to all three of these orgs will remain in show notes.

All right. Let’s do this, my friends. We’re talking astrology. We’re talking world stuff. We’re just talking, I guess. So for your horoscope, I’m going to cover the dates of November 15th through the 21st of 2020. But you know I got some shit to say before we get into le stars. 

Let me start off with COVID. Here in the United States, COVID-19 is just prolific. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what to say. It is so bad here. We are having record infections. People are getting so sick. People are dying. The toll this is taking on healthcare workers is just—it breaks my heart to think about. The long-term implications of the psychological and spiritual impact of COVID-19 are just really staggering to think about. 

I know we’re getting close to American Thanksgiving, where a lot of you have rituals that are heartfelt and meaningful to you. Personally, me, I don’t fuck with Thanksgiving. I think it’s a really problematic holiday. But I know that whether or not you agree with me on that, you may still have family or friend rituals that are a cause to come together and break bread, and to that I say, not this year, bitches. Not this year. 

This is not the time to be COVID stupid. This is not the time to be careless. Because, honestly, if you’re a carrier, if you make someone sick, you can be literally ruining a life. And more pressing for me, really, is if so many of us as individuals are just like, “Yeah. Yeah. I know it’s important, and I know it’s serious, but I’m not too worried about it myself. I’m not going to be too cautious myself,” then we’re never getting out of this quarantine bullshit, then we’re never moving past this. 

It will take all of us. And there is this thing called toxic individualism. And if you, my friend, are walking around without a mask, if you are hanging out in groups of people and not being careful, really careful, then this is a symptom of your toxic individualism. It’s something to think about. And I want to encourage you to be willing to be high maintenance, to be willing to be the one person in your family or your friend group who’s just like, “Uh-uh. I’m not doing that—not in the context of COVID. No fucking way.” 

You know what? So many of us are nurtured to be accommodating and not too much, and I would like to encourage you to say fuck that this year. You don’t have to be accommodating. You get to be too much. Is 2020 not too much already, I beseech you? I think it is. I think it is. And, so, if you not doing Thanksgiving or you not hanging out in groups indoors during a pandemic is hurting someone’s feels or seems dramatic to them, that’s about them. It’s not about you. It’s about them. I mean, it is about you, but good on you. 

So, I just, I don’t know. Every week I want to talk about COVID, but I know it’s on repeat: it’s the same thing over and over again. But clearly, it needs to be said. And I want to normalize talking about how we all know people who are not being especially careful, and you may not be being especially careful. And the consequences don’t just impact you and your friends and your love life, my loves. Don’t be an asshole. 

Okay. Thanks. Okay that’s actually not the main thing I wanted to talk about pre horoscopeishly. I want to talk about something super light. It’s the fact that the sitting president is saying. “Hey, bitches. It’s not a real election,” even though he objectively, for sure, lost the election—yay. Yay. Yay. Even though he, for sure, lost the election, he is saying I don’t believe it. It’s simply not possible. I am too beautiful and beloved, and no one would ever vote against me. I can prove it because I feel it. And people are backing him up. People are—and when I say people, I mean Republicans, obviously—are enabling him. He’s like changing up his staff. He is—he is really being quite clear that he has no intention of leaving. 

So there’s this thing called a coup. Have you ever heard of it? I’m not trying to scare you. I’m an astrologer, what do I know, really? But I want you to really pay attention to what’s happening because the behavior of this current president in the United States is really frightening, and it’s not something to be laughed away. It’s easy to make fun of him. It’s easy to just laugh him away because his all caps tweets are just ridiculous. So much of what he says is ridiculous. His hair is ridiculous. His spray tan is ridiculous. But what he does and the power he holds and the influence he is yielding over millions of people, that’s not ridiculous—that’s downright terrifying. 

So I really want to encourage you—and I know it’s exhausting. I know it’s exhausting, but I want to encourage you to know that this isn’t over. We’re still very much in it. And as an astrologer, I am constantly—and when I say constantly, I mean, for sure, everyday—constantly thinking about the value of prediction in the context of social and political issues. 

I’m thinking about how many people are asking me, “Oh, my God. I read this thing on blah de blah, and is this true?” and, “What’s going to come next? What’s 2020 going to look like? What’s going to happen with the great conjunction? What’s going to happen with the Pluto Return?” There’s so many things. There’s so many things. And the closer we get to the New Year, the more people are going to want me to predict what comes next. 

But this moment, it really needs you. And when we are too fixated on what comes next, we miss what is happening now. If you have the energy to be researching your crush’s birth chart, if you have the energy to be trying to project into what happens in December when we are currently in November, what happens in 2021 from 2020, from a political and social standpoint, if you are doing that as kind of like a doomsday prediction, then it’s not very helpful. It’s just an anxiety action. It doesn’t produce much of value. 

What I want to encourage you to do, if you’re going to look to the future, to do it from a strategic standpoint, which means you need to get organized. And if you want to use astrology and prediction as a kind of tool in your purse full of tools for organizing and strategizing, I salute you. But if you just want to use it as way to placate your anxieties or make them worse, depending on your mood or your nature, then I want to encourage you to pull back. This moment needs you. 

We are seeing the rise of strong men, of authoritarian and autocratic rulership globally—it’s not just in the US. We are seeing it all over, and as I’ve said on the podcast many times over the past couple years, one of the major players that I believe we have to thank for that is the transit of Uranus through Taurus. I have really been thinking about this and how this is functioning. Because as the planet Uranus—and I’ll remind you there are 30 degrees to each zodiac sign. From zero to ten degrees, we’re in one stage of a transit. From 10 to 20 degrees, we’re in the second stage, and then that third stage is the 20th through the 30th degree—29 degrees and 59 minutes. 

So we are moving, just now, into the tenth degree of Uranus and Taurus. This is a slow transit. As I’ve mentioned before, the last time this happened, this particular transit happened, many things occurred, including, but not limited to World War Two. So we had a time in history where there was a rise of strong men, and there was this kind of global rush to say who’s of value and who isn’t and to act on it. 

And this is what I can tell you—because so much of this is out of your control, so much of this can be frightening to hear, but here’s the thing that I can tell you about, really, if we use astrology as a tool for understanding what this is about, it’s when our individual security, our individual stability is more important to us than our values and our ethics, then we need a scapegoat when things get bad. 

Unfortunately, there are millions and millions and millions of people who will always prize and center their security and their safety and their stability over their values and their ethics. For some people, that can lead to incredibly nefarious behaviors, and for many other people, it starts real slow. You let things go because you’re focused on your family and your finances, so you vote for somebody who you know they do really shitty things, but you get a tax break. There’s ways that it can kind of eek and seem slow, and it can seem really distant the consequences, but it adds up. It adds up for you. It adds up for you spiritually. It adds up for you ethically. And it adds up for us all as a society. 

This is a time for all of us, but I’m going to actually say, especially those of us who have class privilege. And class privilege means you have money. Now, you might feel that you don’t have a lot of money. I have counselled enough people over enough years to have learned this fun fact. The more money you have, the more you’re going to compare yourself to people who have more money than you. The more money you have, the higher your standard of living, and so, the more money you’re spending, and so, maybe the more debts you have because you’re just spreading it out, and you know it will all come through in the end. 

So I’m not talking about how you feel about your finances. I am talking about the money you have. There’s a difference, actually. And the reason why this is especially important is because Taurus governs money. It’s material currency. So when we are talking about the transit of Uranus through the sign of Taurus, we’re not just talking about the value of human life, human freedom, human dignity, equity. We’re not just talking about those things—though you better believe we’re talking about them—we are also talking about money and the role that our finances, our individual possessions and security financially plays in our decision making, and whether or not and how in which we are willing to trade off our ethics for our finances and our security and comfort. 

If you have class privilege, which is relative, but if you have class privilege, you must understand that you have power. Money is power in a capitalistic world. We live in a capitalistic society here in the US, but the world is capitalistic as well. If you have economic power, it is really important to understand that you have the power to stop feeding entities—so I’m talking about corporations, politicians, whatever it is—that are not in alignment with your ethics. 

Now, for people who don’t have class privilege, they’re not in a position to do that. You’ve got to buy the thing that is most accessible. You got to spend your money where you can. So if you are not in that position where it is a necessity issue, it is more about you want to beef up your savings or whatever, this is fucking go time, my friends. I want to invite you to look at how you relate to your finances. I want to invite you to really consider the social and political power you yield with money and how you do or don’t take responsibility for that. 

Do you have a 401(k) or an IRA through your work? What’s it invested in? Do you know? Because if you don’t know, I invite you to find out and to change it up and to be high maintenance if you need to, to ask a million questions if you need to, but change it up so that you’re not invested in something that brings harm upon others or the world at large. 

Now, the other thing I want to say is you may not have cash flow, but you may have followers. And there is something about social currency—again, we’re talking about Taurus—that is really important for you to see the power in it. So if you have followers, and you’ve got a really gorgeous feed, and you’re not saying anything about what’s happening in the world, and you have not said anything about what’s happening in the world, I want to invite you to be brave—to be brave. 

Because if you say something political in public, people are going to come for you. People are going to shit on you. People are going to be critical of you. You might say it wrong. You might get schooled in public, and it might feel really shameful and bad. That’s the risk, right. But using power is always the right thing to do if you’re using your power in efforts to elevate those who don’t have it, right. 

I want to invite you to be brave and to amplify someone else’s voice. If you have social power and social capital through followers on social media, but you don’t have money, and that’s not the way you want to use your power, I invite you into that. This is not, okay, Trump lost, and we’re moving along now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I don’t know, maybe you’re a big fan of the two people who won, but first of all, Trump has not acknowledged that he’s lost—that’s really important, and many Republicans are backing him up—that’s really important. They are aggravating their base. To what end? you may ask yourself. 

The answer to the question of to what end is really important because the astrology of 2021 is not chill, my friends. None of this goes away. None of this goes away. 2020 doesn’t evaporate just because the Christian calendar changes years—that’s not how it works. It's time to gear up. It's time to gear up and get activated, to really make sure you are using your voice and using your power to the best of your ability in whatever ways you can.

I want to say one last thing about this. The zodiac sign of Taurus, so I’m not talking about people with the Sun in Taurus; I’m talking about the zodiac sign in Taurus, and everyone has Taurus in their birth chart, okay. It is a sign that is ruled by the planet Venus. Everyone has Venus in their birth chart. It is housed in the second house. Everyone has a second house in their birth chart. So when I’m talking about these energies, these Taurean energies, what I’m talking about is your feeling of stability and security. Your desire to not just be safe but to be safe in your body, to be safe in your home, and to have creature comforts accessible to you. That’s really what Taurus wants. Taurean energy, second house energy, Venus energy wants that kind of certainty that I’m going to be okay. 

There is nothing wrong with that, except the planet Uranus that is transiting through the sign of Taurus—Uranus is the great disrupter. Uranus is an earthquake. Uranus is the internet. Uranus is electricity and lightning. It is the great disrupter, and Taurus fucking hates that shit, which is why this transit is historically quite cataclysmic, and certainly, again, we are seeing it being really disruptive. 

When people’s finances are at risk, they throw away their values and their ethics. Not everyone, but a lot of people. When people are scared for themselves and their families, we have a harder time thinking about other people and their families. And, so, this is a really important time to look at your values. What do you value? How do you know you value it? Do your actions reflect your values? Because if they don’t, and this is just like a general truism, if your actions do not overwhelmingly, generally speaking, reflect what you value, then as you age, as you spend from 40s onwards, basically, your life will get harder and harder for you. You will be more and more confused by bad things happening and why even good things don’t feel good. 

It’s really important that we find ways of being brave in the face of our fears, strong enough to take risks, and when we fail—because we will all fail; we will all fuck up—to keep on trying, to try our very best to learn from our failures. Lament as much as you like. I’m a fan of the whinging. I want to whinge. I want to whinge all day. I’m not saying don’t complain. I’m not saying don’t be sad. I’m not saying don’t feel bad. I’m saying feel your feelings, indulge your impulses, and then, pick yourself up and keep on keeping on. I know it's a cheesy thing to say, keep on keeping on, but, hey, what am I going to do? I said it, and it's there. Okay.

Now we go to your horoscope. So this week we have some astrology to talk about. The New Moon on the 15th. Okay, so here’s the thing, I probably should have talked about The New Moon on last week’s episode because if you’re on the West Coast, as I am, then the New Moon was actually 9:07 p.m., Pacific time on the 14th. This is what I get from now and again looking at East Coast calendars. So, anyways, this is what I did. I made a mistake. Mercury shadow. We will blame it on that, okay. Thanks. 

So at 12:07 a.m., East Coast time on the 15th, we have a New Moon in Scorpio. It’s exact at 12:07 a.m., Eastern. And the Sun and Moon are conjunct in Scorpio at 23 degrees and 17 minutes. This is a really important New Moon, not the least of which because, Jesus Christ, it’s been a lot, right. We have all been going through a lot. And the thing about Scorpio is it is intense energy, but it also empowers us to be present with intensity. And that’s what we need right now is to be present with intensity. 

And, so, my advice to you for this particular New Moon in Scorpio is to carve out time, ideally on the 15th, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do, carve out time on the 15th or sometime around then to be emotionally present for yourself. That might sound anti-climactic. You might want some big ritual, and I’m sure somebody else is going to create that for you, but I actually think the most impactful use of this transit is to sit with your feelings, especially your intense ones. 

The zodiac sign Scorpio is related to Pluto. It is associated with resentments and pettiness and rage and guilt and all kinds of intense feelings. It is yearning and healing. It’s trauma, but it’s also healing from that trauma. It is transformation. Scorpio is a profound zodiac sign. And this once a year event of a New Moon in Scorpio is a time for getting present with profound feelings. 

Now, in this New Moon chart, we have a Venus square to Saturn. It’s a little wide. It’ll be exact later in the week. And this particular transit, it really brings into focus this question that I posed to you a minute ago around what are your values? How are you actually embodying your damn values? Is it evident to others what you deeply care about through your behavior, or is it all in your head? What needs to change? 

So another part of this New Moon chart is we have a Venus square to Pluto and Jupiter with the New Moon, okay. So this is a really tight—it’s a tight set of transits. Venus square to Jupiter and Pluto is going to accentuate the theme of values. And because of impulsive Jupiter and also, resentful, power oriented Pluto, you may find that you’re in a position where you really have a choice to make that tests your ethics or tests your sense of what is right. And it does so in a way that really makes you feel unsafe. 

Now, I’m not talking about physically unsafe. I’m talking about just not secure. And there’s a very important thing to talk about with safety because there’s a lot of contexts that the word safety can be used in. In the context of Venus, in the way that I’m talking about Venus at this time, I’m not talking about your physical safety. I’m talking about your sense of security and stability—your sense of normalcy being preserved. 

Feeling unsafe is not always bad. Being unsafe is not always bad. It is unsafe to learn new things. It is—it feels unsafe to be exposed to new ideas, and that is actually not inherently bad. Not all things that feel bad are bad. And, so, because of Pluto’s involvement in these squares and in this New Moon chart, there’s a real chance that you’re going to be exposed to something, either in your own thinking, in your own behavior or in your life or in the world at large that really challenges you and makes you feel really uncomfortable. And I will remind you that how you respond is of the utmost importance. With all this Scorpio, Pluto energy, the risk is you act out of your base impulses, your base feelings, your sense of self protection, instead of what is right. And nobody needs that, so be self-aware and rein that in. 

Now, the thing about New Moons is they’re a time not for letting go or releasing, even though Scorpio energies are really good for that, New Moons are a time for clarifying, coming into consciousness, getting present. So get present with this stuff. You don’t have to do anything immediately; you just want to get present with it. And if that sounds too simple, then you, for sure, need to do it. Just because something’s complicated doesn’t make it deep. So be in the simplicity—be in the intense simplicity of your emotions, without judgement, without an agenda, just with presence. I swear it’s actually really healing, and if you can find a way to make it a practice, it is transformative—truly.

On the 17th of November, we have a little Déjà vu situation. We’ve got Mercury opposite Uranus. Now this is the third hit of this particular transit. It occurred on October 10th and the 19th, so right before Mercury went Retrograde, right after Mercury went Retrograde, and now Mercury is direct. So we have its third hit. So you might want to take a peek in your dear diary or your planner or whatever at what was going on on and around those dates because those themes are likely to still be at play, my friends. 

So Mercury is, of course, your thinking. It’s how you listen. It’s communication. Uranus is unpredictable, and it’s a need for freedom and for things to be authentic. So whether we’re talking about a social level or a political level, secrets may be revealed, information may just pop out of nowhere, and you just be like, “Wait. What? I was not thinking this was going to be the thing that happened.” We expect the unexpected whenever Uranus is involved. 

Now, on a more mental health level, Uranus and Mercury are both related to your nervous system. And, so, when these two planets form an opposition, you might be feeling anxious as hell, just really nervy in your thinking. The tendency that most of us have when we feel anxious and nervy is to jump to conclusions, so I invite you to not do that. Easier said than done. Notice your thoughts. Pay attention to your thoughts. Be interested in the trajectory of your thinking and the patterns of your thinking, if you can, because your patterns are going to be activated at this time, and you won’t have enough information to take things at face value. 

If you get an opportunity on and around this day, it may be a bit of an easy come, easy go situation, or some opportunity that came to you around the other dates of the transit, the 10th or the 19th of October, they may actually like ‘boop’ away. So just to contextualize that, let me say, one of the meaningful lessons that Uranus transits can offer us is learning how to be present without attachment, to really be in the moment and to know that being alive, being free is only in this moment. So explore your relationship to attachment, to the way you think things are supposed to feel or what have you, and just notice your thoughts around it. Try not to attach, try not to jump to conclusions, and be interested in what comes up.

One last thing I’ll say is, if you have a hard time sleeping, this transit can be a real boner. You might want to soothe yourself with lavender or do whatever you need to do to really soothe your nervous system so that you can function in your life as effectively and kind of healthily as possible. There is no shame in seeking help. So if you need help, if you need to reach out to someone and have them talk you down from a bunch of assumptions or some sort of cyclical thinking that is really self-harm, essentially, reach out and do it. Because we are all under the influence of this transit, they might not be available. It’s not personal.

Now, on the 18th, we have another transit. This one is Sun sextile to Saturn. What a lovely transit. I love this transit. It’s not spectacular. It’s just stabilizing, and who couldn’t use just a little stability? I could. Could you? I could. 

So Sun Sextile to Saturn is just really good for taking care of business. It’s really good for getting grounded. If you’ve slipped with your self-care behaviors, or you haven’t been using your body, like exercising or taking walks or whatever, this is a great time to re-commit to these actions. Not in some grand and sweeping way, but just by doing it. Sun sextile to Saturn is great for just doing a thing, just getting it done. So just get it done, if you can. The transit will be effective on the 17th, 18th, and 19th, but it will be at its zenith on the 18th. So do what you can do. 

Now, unfortunately, Venus is forming a square to Saturn that will be exact on the 19th, but we’re going to be feeling it for the better part of the week. And, so, this larger theme that I keep returning to of your values, of your relationship to other people, your relationship to yourself, your relationship to your finances, Venus square to Saturn is going to call all that shit into question. That’s what it’s meant to do. 

I want to, again, encourage you, really encourage you, to be willing to have a difficult conversation with yourself or, potentially, loved ones about these themes. If you’re like, “Oh, shit, Jessica. I never thought about looking at what my company has invested in for like a 401(k) or IRA,” the Venus square to Saturn is actually a great time to do that kind of investigation because, you know what? It’s uncomfortable no matter what you do, so you might as well do something productive. 

And if you use the Venus square to Saturn as a time to become more educated and more activated and take more responsibility around your personal finances and how they affect the collective—so Venus is your personal finances, and Saturn is more of the collective—then the next time the transit comes around, you’ve used the energy, so it’s going to be less difficult for you. 

On a more personal level or interpersonal level, I should say, Venus square to Saturn feels lonely. It’s just a lonely transit, I’m not going to lie to you. Terrible fucking time for first dates. Now, some people might have a first date, and it’s like fate—let’s get married. But for most people, it makes us really self-conscious about the way we look and very self-critical. For most people, it makes us feel lonely because, again, Venus is a sense of interconnection to others. Venus seeks security and stability, and Saturn is the other planet in the zodiac that is, next to the Moon, I would say, those three are the most security-oriented planets. 

So Saturn is, “I’m alone. I will always be alone. I have failed. I have failed you. I have failed me. We will always fail each other.” It's very existential—total boner killer, bad news bears. And Venus is like, “But I just want to be pretty and be loved.” So when these two planets form a square to each other, it sucks. It makes us feel like, “Oh, not only am I alone, but I am alone because of something bad I did or something bad I am.” “Oh, this thing didn’t work out,” or “I don’t understand this thing,”  or “I don’t know how to do this thing. That must be because there’s something wrong with me.” 

This kind of thinking is wrong thinking. But it’s convenient thinking because thinking you’re the worst, in a way, is indulging the feelings without trying to find something constructive to do with them, without trying to find something to learn from your situation or your habits and your patterns. And, listen, I’m not shitting on that. I am a huge fan of indulging my negative narratives. Big fan. Do it all the time, and I will invite you to my pity party later. But it’s good to be aware of what you’re doing when you’re doing it so that you can have a hope of making a different choice. That’s all. 

So if you find yourself indulging some sort of negative narrative or feeling really lonely and woe is me, and I’m the only one who’s ever been single since the dawn of time kind of thing, if you’re really going there, just know that you’re going there, and that there is an element of choice in the story you’re telling yourself, and that there are other options. They might not be options you know how to choose at this moment—that’s okay—but there are other options. 

And just opening up that little bit of possibility and potential actually can change things in a meaningful way. Change things inside of you. Because when we change in relationship to our pain and our struggles, then those pains and struggles themselves start to change because we’ve positioned ourselves in a different way to them. So it doesn’t make your problems go away. There’s no magic bullet here, my friends. There is no magic, really. It’s about choice. 

And, you know what? A lot of us, a lot of the time cannot make better choices than the ones we’re making. That’s okay. But the more self-aware you are, the more you can see you’re making a choice, and you don’t know how to make a different choice, then the next time the emotion comes up, you might be able to catch it quicker and make a different choice. That’s growth. It doesn’t have to be quick. It doesn’t have to be all at once. It’s just the process. It’s the path, right.

Now, the last thing that is happening this week astrologically is Sagittarius season. On the 21st, the Sun moves into Sagittarius, and the energy moves a lot quicker. Giddy-up. Giddy-up. Giddy-up. So that could be really great. That could be really tricky—depends on the thing we are referring to. So the important thing to know is that there will be a beautiful shift in energy. 

I hope you guys don’t mind that I don’t really love to talk about Sun solar seasons. I just feel like of all the things in all of astrology that is the thing that is most written about and spoken about, and there’s so many resources for that. So I probably feel like you don’t really need that from me. But I invite you to send me questions if ever you’re like, “Hey, why are you glossing over Sun seasons?” I’ll tell you. I’ll talk to you about anything—not anything, actually. That’s a total lie. Anything about astrology, I’ll talk about it. So per usual, send me your questions for the podcast, if you have them.

But wait. I have moved too fast. Let me slow down and run through these transits one last time. On the 15th, we have a New Moon in Scorpio. We’ve got that Venus square to Pluto and Jupiter. On the 17th, Mercury forms an opposition to Uranus. On the 18th, there is a Sun sextile to Saturn. And on the 19th, Venus forms a square to Saturn. And then, finally, on the 21st, the Sun moves into Sagittarius. 

I thank you this week and every week for tuning into Ghost of a Schmodcast. If you get value from this podcast, please do give it five stars wherever you listen to podcasts or write a review. I super fucking appreciate every single review I get. So thank you for them. And stay engaged. Keep on doing the work and know that kindness isn’t just an intention or a feeling. It's an action. Bye.