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.

My loves, welcome back to Ghost of a Podcast. This week, I have a question that's maybe a little bit different because it's not really about a person's individual chart. It goes like this: "With everything in the world that's going on, it's hard to not feel overwhelmed and hopeless. I've been struggling lately to feel positive about the future if there is still such a large group of people who can't understand basic logic of how wearing masks is important and they're validated by the people in charge, let alone asking them to understand their role in oppressive systems. Is there any astrological events in the future that you're excited about or that indicate how we rise to this collective call of justice and equality? Not necessarily asking for predictions, but just something to look forward to."

This is a great question, and I want to thank you so much for asking it because I get this question in kind of a million forms from a lot of you. Sometimes this question is about systemic issues like the ones you name in your question, and honestly, there are ways that I get this question from you guys about your personal lives, like when is it going to get better? And there's a lot of layers to what I want to say, but the first and foremost is this: I am the wrong person to turn to for hopefulness because that's not exactly my personality. I am, after all, Sun, Moon, and Rising all in Capricorn.

However, using astrology as a way to kind of wait for brighter or easier days—it's kind of a misunderstanding of what astrology is and what it can do. What astrology does is it essentially tells the weather. It's like, "Okay, it's going to be dark and rainy." And it doesn't tell the weather so that you say to yourself, "Oh, life is jacked." Once you know it's going to be dark and rainy, don't wear sunglasses. Wear waterproof shoes, grab an umbrella, and get going. Right?

And so, as grim as the astrology is of this period in many ways, what it also is is an opportunity. You often hear me say in the weekly horoscope when there's an easy transit like a trine or a sextile—you often hear me say you won't really notice this transit unless you do something to activate it, do something to actualize it. Well, we had the opportunity, certainly in the United States, to confront systemic racism, the violence of policing. We have had tons of opportunities, decades and decades and decades and decades—hundreds of years is what I should be saying, but a lot of time to look at the ways in which the United States is built on stolen land and built by the hands of kidnapped and enslaved humans.

We have had ample time to confront anti-gayness and anti-Trans violence and policies. We haven't done it. I mean, we've done it. We've done more than nothing, but we haven't done it enough. Similarly, while we maybe haven't had a lot of time to orient ourselves around this specific pandemic of COVID-19, we certainly have had time to deal with our healthcare system. But we haven't done it.

What's important for me to say is that it is the most stressful astrology that is likely to produce the greatest activism, art, theory, etc. Unfortunately, social movements and even personal evolution more frequently comes out of turmoil and trauma than it does out of ease and privilege. And so there's a way that this astrology in this moment is what we have been waiting for. It is. It is shining a light on the shit that has been festering under the surface—not deep under the surface, although that too, but immediately under the surface of things. And it is not the light that has created the problems. The problems were there, and now there's no turning away from it.

So when you ask me if there are any astrological events forthcoming that I'm excited about, I mean, I'm not one to get excited about transits. No, not so much. But, again, that's more about my personality than anything else. But I can say that if what your question really is is what astrological events am I excited about because they indicate a rise from the populace, because they indicate the individual motivation for personal evolution from the vantage point of understanding that we are all in this together and we all have a shared collective responsibility to each other and to having spiritual and emotional integrity and to social justice, that's right now. That's right here, right now. If anything's going to get this dummy excited, it's that.

So I don't want act like this is like, "Yay. Everything is hard. That's good for us." That's not what I'm trying to suggest. But in terms of using astrology to understand this is stormy weather and there is more stormy weather to come—like a lot more, TBH. So don't get lazy. Don't tap out. This is not the time to falter with your self-care, and this is not the time to center your self-care above your engagement in the world inasmuch as is within your nature and your resources and your capacity.

This is the time to understand—as I'm mentioning every damn week and I'm going to continue to because I feel really strongly about this—finding your voice. This is the time to do it. What is your form of activism, microactivism, whatever it is? We don't all have to be organizers. We don't all have to be great speakers. We have to find our voice, and here's the thing. If you want to look at ways of working within the system, look at the house that Saturn is transiting through in your birth chart. That might be a great place to think about where you can be impactful. Currently, the planet Saturn is in the late degrees of Capricorn. If you can locate that in your birth chart, that can be really interesting for understanding your personal relationship to the system, to the structures that be. Saturn is linear reality.

Now, if your calling to be part of the system is more about the creative arts or the spiritual arts or being of direct service to people who are vulnerable in whatever capacity, you want to look to Neptune. Neptune is currently moving through the sign of Pisces. Where is that hitting your birth chart? Explore that. There, you're going to have data that is not just about you, but it's about you in the context of the collective at this moment.

And if you're a revolutionary—you want to blow up the system from outside the system, inside the system—if you really want to be involved in a way that is profoundly transformational, look to where Pluto is in your birth chart. Now, Pluto is also in later degrees of Capricorn. It's in the 20s. So you want to look to where that would fall in your birth chart, what house it falls into. And know that those are places that are being activated by current transits, and those are places within yourself that you can activate from. Now, you don't have to. But if you find that your way isn't conventional or your way isn't necessarily your full-time job, that's okay.

If you have a job and you're writing to me being like, "I am in a position where I don't know how to stand up for justice in the context of my job—scared of losing my job," or, "I just get emotional and I don't know what to do," this is a time for cultivating those skills. And what does it mean to cultivate those skills? It's emotional intelligence. It's being able to tolerate your overwhelmed or frightened feelings, your anger, your fear, whatever it is, and to make choices that reflect your integrity to the best of your ability, moment to moment, day to day.

That's it. We don't need blue skies and sunny weather in order to do our best. We often do our best in a shitstorm. And, lucky for us all, we're in the middle of a massive shitstorm. It's huge, and it's going to last some time. So I didn't really give you hope. I'm sorry. I didn't tell you anything terribly exciting. I apologize.

Now, I'll say one more thing. If you can, locate yourself in this moment. Center yourself. Remember who you are and what you care about, what's important to you. Live in a way that reflects your integrity in these times because these are the times that you're living through, and looking for easier days or brighter days—it doesn't actually help you to be here now and to make the most of what we're going through.

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

Support Black youth-led movements right now. The Minnesota Freedom Fund pays criminal bail and immigration bonds for those who cannot afford it as they seek to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing. They work with National Lawyers Guild and Legal Rights Center. There is an urgent need for supplies and support out in the field. Please connect to the groups doing the work, and some of those are Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, and North Star Health Collective of Medics. Love now, peace later. If you want the link to any of these organizations, they will be in the show notes. Give what you can.

My loves, it's time for your horoscope again. It's also time for me to talk about whatever the hell I want. It's Ghost of a Podcast. We're going to look at the week of July 12th through the 18th, 2020. And I really want to focus as much as I can on the psychological toll of this period that we're in. I want to just really acknowledge that the level of pressure that we're all living under is—it is hard to bear. I feel like maybe I talk about this every week, but it's really worth noting that this is a hard period. It really is a difficult period.

Things are moving quickly now. Mars is in Aries. That's what's happening. Things are moving quickly, and they're going to continue to move quickly for the rest of the year. And I want to talk to you for just a quick moment here about self-care. Week after week, I'm going to consistently encourage you to find your voice within microactivism—a term I did not make up. Do not give me credit for it, as we know.

I want to encourage you to find your ways of participating within the system to fight white supremacy, to stand up against anti-Black racism, to stand up for Indigenous rights and sovereignty, to understand that when we talk about the environment and when we talk about Queer rights and Trans rights, when we talk about ableism and when we talk about classism and when we talk about capitalism, all of these problems intersect each other.

If this is occurring to you or coming together for you in a new way or maybe for the first time, this is a lot. And if you are like, "Yeah, welcome to the party, everybody. I know this. I've known this, and I've been doing this work for a long time," it's a lot of fucking pressure to watch people around you all of a sudden have these epiphanies for things you're like, "I have been waiting on you. Where the hell were you?" It doesn't matter where you're at. Unless you're really just a jerk and you don't give a fuck about anyone, you're overwhelmed right now. You're in it right now.

I want to say to you stay with it. Stay with it. What is hard is not always bad. This is really hard, no matter where you're at, no matter what your identify is or what your relationship to activism is or to even considering social conditions. This is a really unique moment in time astrologically. There are so many things happening now. There have been so many things that have happened over the last six months astrologically and yet so many more to come. That's us not even talking about the Pluto Return of the United States in February of 2021. That's us not even talking about that. Right?

I want to say that you are here for a reason, and you have a role to play. And choosing to opt out, to do nothing, that's choosing a side. Apathy is taking the side of the oppressor, period. I don't think that apathy is driven by evil or cruelty, but unfortunately, what I know is that the behavior or the lack of behavior that comes as a result of apathy—that becomes cruel. It is enabling of the oppressors. It is letting others fend for themselves in an unjust and unfair system. That's not the way to be, right?

And so I want to just really hold space for it's a lot of pressure. Look, you're living in a special time. The astrology's big now. It was big yesterday. It'll be big again tomorrow. Who needs to hear that? I don't know. Do you need to hear that? I guess I'm saying it because I think you need to hear that. If you're looking for stability, if you're looking for the easy answer, the clear answer, the straightforward answer, you are not going to like this period of time. If you are looking to say, "Yeah, yeah, I know the world is hard right now, but I want to create stability. I want to know what comes next. I want to invest in my future based on the metrics of the past," I want to say to you, ouch. That's not necessarily a very reliable plan.

Look around you. Everything is changing. Our systems are changing. So let's say we see no revolution. Let's say we see no real progress. I can promise you this, not because I'm an astrologer but also very much because I'm an astrologer: if we don't make gains, we will have setbacks. If we as a collective are not able to come together and stand up for each other, if we're not able to come together and create systemic and meaningful progress, the powers that be—and let's be honest. The white supremacist fucking fascistic powers that be will make their own strides. They will have their own gains. And we cannot have that.

When we engage in healing societal pain and societal inequity, and when we engage in investigating our own bullshit, our own things that we need to unlearn, our own things that we need to evolve around, when we approach these things with perfectionism, then there's no room for mistakes. And if we're being perfectionistic and there's no room for mistakes, there's the problem: then you never get to evolve and grow and heal.

There needs to be room for our mistakes. And within that, there needs to be room for rest. There needs to be room for having days or weeks or months, or whatever it is, where you're like, "Oh, I don't have anything really valuable to add. I don't know what I think. I'm in a state of deep listening. I'm in a state of not being open." If you can practice having the emotional intelligence to know where you're at, what you won't know is what to do next, but you will be able to know what to do in the moment.

Emotional intelligence is of the moment. It requires the ability to be in the moment enough to be in your emotions. And so I want to really—I want to center you in this because the tempo is increasing of everything, and it is too fast to keep up with emotionally. Even if you are mentally very quick, even if you are—you've set everything up and you're behaviorally ready to go, it's really hard to stay emotionally present with everything that's happening.

And so I want to encourage you—I want to invite you into awareness that this is what's happening. And if you are overwhelmed, it is wise and healthy to think about what is sustainable so you can stay on this path instead of, "How do I fix it right now? How do I prove myself right now? How do I figure it out right now?" Now, that almost brings us to our horoscope.

Now, before I get into the exact transits of the week—which there are a few—I want to remind you that while on the 8th of July, so last week, we had that Mercury square to Mars as an exact transit—so annoying. Maybe it was motivating. Maybe it was clarifying for you. But it was kind of like a—it's an irritating and upsetting transit, right? Now, it's not exact this week. It won't be exact again until July 27th.

But in the weeks in between the 8th and the 27th, what I imagine we will all be feeling is this transit. While it is a wide transit—it is not exact—its influence will be felt. Do not be in such a rush to figure things out that you trip over your own words and your own actions and cause harm to yourself that could be avoided by being embodied for your thoughts and your actions.

As much as possible, notice how you're engaging with irritability, agitation, impatience, ego battles, and learn about yourself. Be interested in the kind of texture of your own responses, the texture of your own reactions. Be interested in your thoughts, your defenses, and don't be in such a rush that you try to force others to be somewhere they're not, because that will for sure come up for at least half of us that will want to rush other people to do something or to say something or to figure something out before they're ready. Don't bully yourself. Don't bully other people. You're going to want to, and other people are going to want to with you. Isn't that annoying?

I'll say one last thing about it, and then into your horoscope. If you want to know more about Mars—anger, irritability, agitation—and you haven't already heard it, listen to Episode 123, so my midweek episode about the planet Mars. It'll help you hopefully get some more sense of the energy that is running, really, July through January. Mars in Aries, it's a big moment. Learn a little bit about it. This episode I dropped was not about the Mars Retrograde—just a little heads-up. I'm going to drop another episode about the Retrograde on its own. But it's not Retrograde yet, not until September. So don't overthink it, okay?

Okay. So July 12th, Mercury goes direct. Thank you. So sick of that damn Mercury Retrograde. Honestly, it was fast. It was quick. It wasn't a long one. But when Mercury goes direct, it can often mean things start to clarify themselves. Things you couldn't figure out, people you couldn't get in contact with, conversations that just weren't quite gelling, start to come together.

Now, here's the thing. Mercury is in a shadow period before it's fully direct, and you just want to be as careful as possible. I wouldn't say, "It's the 12th; jump into contracts." If you can kind of start to clarify understanding and move forward with communications and negotiations, 'tis well played. 'Tis will played.

Now, another thing that's happening on the 12th of July is the Sun trine to Neptune. Sun trine to Neptune is a lovely transit that can pass without noticing it if you don't do something about it. This transit is excellent for spiritual work in general. Neptune is related to the subtle practices. So it's not necessarily about massive spell worker, you know, doing anything too big and bold.

Neptune wants us to get into the simplicity of things. It wants us to get really present. Honestly, the 12th is a great day to find a tree and sit at its base. The 12th is a really great day to point your face towards the Sun. Find the Sun. You know it's up there, just doing its damn thing. Chill with the Sun a couple minutes. Really be conscientious about breathing if you're someone who tends to hold your breath and be checked out from your breath. Drink tons of water. If you pray, if you meditate, this transit is delicious for those things.

Similarly, it's also really good for the high arts. And when I say the high arts, I don't mean when you get high and make art. Come on, guys. What I mean is the act of creation that inspires a sense of connection to something more. When we are creative in connection with our muse, with our sense of spirituality, it doesn't matter what the physical thing we're creating is. It's healing. So for you, it might be cooking. It might be needlepoint. It might be dancing. It might be singing. It doesn't fucking matter what it is. The act of creation is joyful and fosters a connection to something more. And that's what you want to do with this transit.

This transit's also really good for cultivating greater empathy. We could all really use that just across the damn board. So I see that transit, and I'm like, "Oh, maybe I'll take a day off of social. Maybe I'll just really practice being present with whatever it is in my immediate environment." It's a strategy I'm going to try to embody. We'll see. But Sun trine to Neptune is really good if you leverage it. If you don't really do much about it, you're not really going to notice much, not in the context of everything else we have going on in the world right now.

Now, on the 14th, we're going to have an exact Sun opposition to Jupiter. Let me just slow this down for a minute to say that on the 13th, we will be under the influence of both that Sun trine to Neptune and the Sun opposition to Jupiter, strengthening the implication that this is good for spiritual work. For you, if you're not that woo and you're not religious or anything like that, it might mean really just playing music that inspires transcendence. It might mean listening to a TED talk. You know what I'm saying? It doesn't have to be what we traditionally associate with spirituality or religion in order for it to be something that uplifts our soul and increases our capacity for empathy and grace.

So the Sun opposition to Jupiter is not all spirituality and connection, although that's the positive part. The negative part is that Jupiter is a planet associated with alcohol. It's associated with getting on a soapbox and preaching to people that may or may not actually want to be preached to. If you have preexisting issues with drinking, a.k.a. if you drink too much, if you know that's a pattern for you or something you're trying to work on, I would encourage you to take 72 hours off over the course of the 13th, 14th, and 15th. That's my advice.

In regards to kind of being too preachy, the problem that can come up with this opposition is it can get you into a situation where you're so identified with whatever it is you're dealing with, whether it's an idea, a project, whatever, that someone with a different opinion or a different point of view feels threatening to you. And instead of listening to them, you say to yourself, "For their own good, I shall explain it to them because if they don't see things as I see them, that's okay; I'll just explain it better."

Do not drag any horses, metaphorical or literal, to water and force them to drink, no matter how dehydrated they may seem. Sun opposition to Jupiter, you might be dealing with somebody else who's doing that with you, who's trying to strong-arm you into believing what they believe or seeing things the way they see it.

Now, let's make this more complicated, okay? I'm sorry. I felt like it was complicated enough. But you may remember there was a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction back on June 30th, right? I mean, there was one back in April, and then there was one very recently on June 30th. So that means that the planets Jupiter and Pluto are still really, really close to each other, so stands to reason if the Sun is opposite Jupiter on the 14th, guess who's opposite the Sun on the 15th. It's Pluto.

When we go through an opposition between the Sun and Pluto, there are things that we don't want to deal with that come up. Sun opposition to Pluto tends to trigger compulsions, obsessions, paranoia. If you have preexisting addiction issues—and when I say addiction, I don't just mean substance abuse. There are many addictions that we have which are essentially compulsions that we are habituated around as kind of a way of covering up or coping with emotions, emotions that we don't know how to feel or deal with. So any preexisting compulsions or addictions are likely to be triggered in this period.

Now, having Jupiter opposite the Sun, same time—because, of course, on the 15th we're going to be feeling both of those transits. Jupiter is just an accelerant, and Pluto wants to burn it all to the ground. Now, you may hear me say that and think in the context of social issues, this could be really good or it could be really bad. And I agree with you, ye who I have decided what you're thinking. Everybody's going to be triggered and activated this week around these transits, so especially from the 13th through the 16th. And because of this, we can expect unconscious or bad behavior from people.

Now, you're listening to this. You're taking notes. You're feeling into it, whatever the hell you do. So you know that you are likely to feel activated, and that means you can set intention around how you want to respond to your own shit, what kind of boundaries you want to or you need to assert with others. This is hard.

What you want to be able to do is develop the capacity to stay in it in as healthy a way as possible, to be as constructive as possible, not to minimize drama, not to minimize passion, not to minimize intensity, because if your primary ambition is to do one of those things, then you're not centering your integrity and you're not centering what is right and you're not centering the truth. Those are the things to center because when we don't center those things, Pluto brings us consequences. Honestly, most of the planets don't like it when we do that. And if that's something that you do frequently, you probably don't even notice that you do it.

So a couple other hot tips for this Sun opposition to Pluto. Do not cyberstalk people. Do not obsess on people. If someone said or did something that you think is shitty, if you feel that you need to say something, go for it. Say it, but don't obsess. Then you're just bringing harm to yourself. Really, you're harming yourself. Watch out for resentments. Watch out for old pains all of a sudden coming back up in your consciousness and feeling really raw and intense.

If you're sexually active, my loves, have safer sex. Really, I beg of you, have safer sex. And if you are not in a quarantine situation, if you don't have a pretty quarantiney lifestyle, hey, seriously—I know I say this every week, but this is a global pandemic, and it is getting much worse here in the United States. And it's really important in this period—honestly, it's like Mars in Aries. Seriously, it's important. But Sun opposite Jupiter and Pluto? Wash your damn hands. If you haven't for a while, watch a video from somebody who is in the science field reminding you how to handle your mask, what not to touch, what to touch—watch those videos again. It's the simple stuff. Do little reminders. Are you still doing the Happy Birthday song when you wash your hands? I bet you're not, but you should be.

This is the time to be thorough and to be concerned and to not lament in a state of concern, but instead to allow your concerns to compel you to action, and because Jupiter and Pluto are involved, I'll say compel you to righteous action, action that you believe is right and good and as pure as can be or true as can be. Capeesh? Yeah, capeesh.

Now, I've promised you a thing that I frequently forget—I very frequently forget. And that's that I'm going to repeat the transits. So, real quickly, let me say a thing. On the 12th, Mercury goes direct and the Sun forms a beautiful trine to the planet Neptune. Also, on the 14th, we have a Sun opposition to Jupiter. On the 15th, the Sun is opposite Pluto. In the mix of it all, we're feeling the vibes and the influence of Mercury square to Mars. What a life. What a time to be alive, I say.

Now, my loves, I thank you for joining me here for another week of this, my love note to you. And I want to remind you to send me questions. If there's a topic that you want me to speak about or if you have a question about your own personal life, send me questions over at ghostofapodcast.com because I love to answer your questions, because I love you. And love, my friends, is not just a feeling. It's a fucking action.