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.

Jessica:            I am so excited, Christine Schiefer, to have you here with me on Ghost of a Podcast to give you a reading. Welcome to the show.

Christine:        Thank you. I feel like I have to be fully up front because otherwise you'll just know in your secret heart of hearts. But I am so nervous, and I've done so many just regular podcast interviews now that being very nervous before them is not the norm anymore. I've never actually had a reading done before, so⁠—

Jessica:            Really?

Christine:        Yeah. A lot of this is very new to me. And I've always wanted to, so I feel like this is a very exciting thing.

Jessica:            Well, you're certainly woo enough to have your own reading at this point. So I'm very excited to be giving you one!

Christine:        Yay.

Jessica:            Very excited. And I guess as an aside, we should tell all the people they should listen to your podcasts.

Christine:        They're in the same vein as far as we talk about the same topics. And That's Why We Drink is the traditional one that I was⁠—it's not traditional by any means, but it's the first one, my OG podcast, where we talk about ghost stories and true crime. And then my brother and I host a podcast called Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet. All of these have a lot of words.

Jessica:            Chef's kiss. Chef's kiss.

Christine:        That's actually⁠—we did, I think, an ad⁠—

Jessica:            Yeah. We did an ad spot.

Christine:        ⁠—for your podcast. And that's how I originally found you and was like, "How have I not discovered this?" I was late to the game. And we read one-star Yelp reviews. So that one is not at all in the occult space. That's a nice break from all that.

Jessica:            I mean, it is a little spiritual if you ask me.

Christine:        There we go.

Jessica:            Yeah. It explores the complexities of human nature.

Christine:        Of human nature. Thank you.

Jessica:            Yes.

Christine:        Thank you.

Jessica:            No, thank you.

Christine:        We also talk about really dumb stuff, but it's all balanced. And then we just recently started one called Rituals, which is only on Spotify, where we talk about just, like, the history of the occult. So a lot of woo-woo stuff. I love it.

Jessica:            Let's get woo-er together.

Christine:        Yes.

Jessica:            Well, I'm going to share your birth information before I forget.

Christine:        Great.

Jessica:            June 4th, 1991, 12:12 a.m. in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Christine:        That's right.

Jessica:            Okay. What would you like a reading about today?

Christine:        Okay. The one thing that keeps coming back to me is that I do always try to get more into the kind of woo space, in that I've taken courses on Reiki healing, and my mom⁠—she, on the one hand, has a doctorate, so she's very on the right-brain side of things, I guess, but then on the other hand has a master Reiki certification. So there's a lot of stuff there that I've tried to kind of pick up. I've been practicing a lot of lucid dreaming and astral stuff and that kind of thing.

                        But I feel like I never really can get myself to the point where I'm practicing something regularly and really⁠—I'm always on the precipice of getting there. So that's one big thing that's⁠—I feel like I'm blocking myself off from these kinds of spaces. And I don't know why, because I'm so fascinated. I'm so interested. I've never even had a reading done, and I'm like, "How? Why?" I don't know.

Jessica:            I know why. I'm really excited to tell you I have the answers, but I feel like you're going to ask another question as well. So, if there is something else, what else is in there?

Christine:        I mean, maybe career-wise, I'm not⁠—I feel like everything's very happy and settled as far as just family and that kind of thing. So there's a lot of big question marks, but I'm kind of⁠—that's kind of how I vibe.

Jessica:            Right. It's kind of par for the course.

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            So okay. What I wanted to just make sure I said before we get into the woo stuff is that in 2023, I see a lot of changes for you. So much of it is essentially going to test how you've put your life together because⁠—

Christine:        (gasps)

Jessica:            Sorry (laughs). No pressure. Don't worry. But it looks like you take on a lot, and there's times where you just thrive in busyness, and then there's times where you actually really need to empty out. And so, if you have⁠—as it looks like you have⁠—a struggle with proportion of what is a sustainable, busy enough but not too busy life⁠—

Christine:        Oh yeah. Big time.

Jessica:            ⁠—this is going to be a period where you're going to have to deal with this in 2023. And you have a new baby, yeah?

Christine:        Yeah. She just turned one. So it feels new to me, but we've survived a year.

Jessica:            One is⁠—yeah, it's a new baby.

Christine:        It's a baby, right?

Jessica:            I mean, if it was a new job, it would be at a year, right? I mean, it's not a new pair of jeans, but she's⁠—so we're going to go with new. And some of it is still adjusting to parenting, or coparenting, hopefully, for you.

Christine:        Yes. Actually, you know what? That actually is one of the biggest, I guess⁠—biggest⁠, like⁠—I wouldn't say hurdle, but just a big, scary, looming thing because my partner, my husband, he was⁠—and I don't think he'd mind me sharing this, but he was laid off from a startup he was working⁠. And he was working from home, but it was like virtual telemedicine, and he was a provider. And he was laid off, and so he's doing the kind of stay-at-home dad thing. But I think there's a little bit of a struggle. And I travel a lot, so he's the primary caretaker a lot of the time.

                        And I think there's a struggle. Not that he minds doing it, but I think that classic struggle we see with a stay-at-home parent who wants⁠—who maybe needs⁠—some other stimulation or interest or hobby or whatever it may be. So I think I'm feeling a lot of pressures in that way of maybe I'm leaving too much to him. Does that make sense?

Jessica:            Let's talk about that because that's actually what I thought when I looked⁠—I kind of had a sense of the question you were going to ask, but then when I looked at your chart, I was like, "That's not"⁠—I mean, I see why that's the right question for you in general. It looks right now like that's the biggest deal. So⁠—

Christine:        Do you want to know that he's a Capricorn? Does that help?

Jessica:            Well, you know what? It's unnecessary for me to know, but it doesn't surprise me, looking at your chart, that you chose a Capricorn.

Christine:        Really? Okay.

Jessica:            Yeah. A little⁠—

Christine:        I always wondered about that matchup.

Jessica:            I mean, the thing is that a Capricorn is a good balance for you and does the perfect mishmash of being super annoying to you and super supportive to you.

Christine:        Right.

Jessica:            It's like a Capricorn is going to annoy you in just the right way.

Christine:        That's it.

Jessica:            And you have a lot of Capricorn in you. We'll get there in a minute. But as of January of 2022, you started to go through a once-in-a-lifetime transit called Pluto opposite Venus that's over November 20th of 2024. Pluto opposite Venus does a lot of things, but a big thing it does is it tests your relationship in regards to power struggles. And one of the most consistent things I see when people have a kid⁠—especially the first kid, but in general when people have a kid⁠—is it's a lot of power struggles between the coparents because all of a sudden, it's not like, "Oh, I'm going to go grab myself food and hop in the shower." It's, "Are you going to hold the baby so I can shower?"

Christine:        Right. Right. Who has eyes on the baby? Yeah. Exactly.

Jessica:            Yeah. Everything's a compromise. Everything's a compromise. And especially relationships that really thrive with independence and autonomy, it's rough on those relationships. And your relationship⁠—it looks like you guys are super peas in a pod, super intimate and close, and also pretty independent people.

Christine:        Yes. Yes. That's a great way to put it.

Jessica:            It looks like this year has been a great deal of pressure on both of you in really different ways. And what I see coming up⁠—it's really going to start in January of 2023. And⁠—well, I'm a liar. I guess it started in April of 2022, but then it's really going to kick in in January, and you're going to have⁠—

Christine:        [crosstalk]

Jessica:            Yeah. It'll only affect you through March.

Christine:        Oh. Okay.

Jessica:            It's meaningful. There's a series of transits that will be happening. You're going to be going through Saturn conjoining your Moon in Aquarius squaring your Midheaven in Scorpio and also squaring your Mercury in Taurus. So what this all means is that you both have to let go of something. You both have to compromise, and it's going to be in ways that are really hard on both of you, honestly. And that doesn't mean that they're bad. It doesn't mean there's going to be some sort of bad thing in the marriage. But it does make sense when you say he's been the primary caregiver. You've been traveling. So it's not just that he's been at home; it's that he's been home alone.

Christine:        Yeah. That's the big⁠—mm-hmm.

Jessica:            And your career has been popping off is what it looks like.

Christine:        Yeah. And we're just planning more and more travels.

Jessica:            Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so this means that he's really got to be the person who is either, A, willing to compromise, or B, able to be forthcoming about resentments and frustrations [crosstalk].

Christine:        That's [crosstalk].

Jessica:            Yes.

Christine:        I keep testing to just make sure because I'm like, "Oh God. I don't want him to suddenly keep it all in and then"⁠—

Jessica:            Yeah, wake up and be like, "I'm fucking done. This doesn't work for me." So he knows you're getting a reading; he's okay with me looking at him?

Christine:        Yes. Totally.

Jessica:            Okay. Will you say his full name out loud?

Christine:        So his name is Blaise with an S, Blaise [redacted].

Jessica:            He's ambiguous. That's the problem. Part of him feels like this cannot go on. He's super burned out. He needs help. And then part of him feels happy as a damn clam, like this is really working for him. He's grateful for the time. He is well suited to being the stay-at-home partner and parent. And that's why he isn't clear with you this isn't working, because there's moments where he's clear it isn't working, but there's plenty of other moments where he is clear it is.

Christine:        That makes so much sense. Yep.

Jessica:            And you are not well suited to being the stay-at-home parent.

Christine:        No.

Jessica:            You're not. You're not. You're restless. You like going and doing. And you're super introverted in some ways, but you're super extroverted in others.

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            You're really good at talking through things when you are ready to talk through things. But until you're ready, you are excellent, and I mean really good, at avoiding things, like in a way that is [crosstalk].

Christine:        Thank you so much.

Jessica:            You're welcome. You're very good at it. And so, if he's not pushing this, I could see why there would be no way in hell you would ever bring it up. But this is actually⁠—talking about this with him is not just an investment in coparenting, but it's also an investment in you feeling clean and clear about the growth you're calling in in your career.

Christine:        Yeah. That's⁠—because I think it also goes back, then, to that. It's just a big circle because then, if we're taking on new projects, I'm like, "Well, I don't know if I feel 100 percent about that," without full directive and full support from the other half of my team.

Jessica:            He's going to give you support. That's not the problem, which is cool. I think that he is really supportive of your career. When I look at this energetically, it looks like you bounce things off of him. You share ideas. You don't make decisions outside of him, exactly, but at the same time, things move quickly. And because you're in partnership with your career, things are more and more going in the direction where you are making decisions ultimately without him at this moment where he's at home more.

Christine:        And it's almost like I know he'll say yes, so I kind of just move on things and then get the permission later, which⁠—you know, probably not ideal.

Jessica:            I mean, it's ideal for you.

Christine:        Yeah. Well, certainly it is for me.

Jessica:            Yeah. It works for you. But it's ultimately⁠—it's not going to age well, the dynamic.

Christine:        Right.

Jessica:            And so this is a great moment to nip it in the bud. And nipping it in the bud might simply mean you have these kinds of conversations, and you decide, "Okay. If I'm committing to anything more than⁠—I don't know⁠—60 days of work, then I'm going to run it by you before I sign off," or, "If I'm going to be gone more than x amount of hours per month, then I'm going to run it by you before I answer."

Christine:        Like some parameter.

Jessica:            Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Think about it as polyamory or non-monogamy. It's like you can't just go in there, guns blazing [crosstalk]⁠—

Christine:        Like free-for-all.

Jessica:            ⁠—what the boundaries are. Exactly. Exactly. And I think that'll work for both of you because he doesn't want to micromanage you. He's not going to be that guy.

Christine:        No.

Jessica:            And if he did, oh, well beknownst to him, it wouldn't work.

Christine:        That would be really funny.

Jessica:            It would⁠—yeah.

Christine:        In the worst way. Yeah.

Jessica:            In the worst way. Agreed. Now, I'm not seeing that there's anything else that I'm supposed to tell you about that, but my question is do you have any other questions or anything else you want me to⁠—yeah, anything, now that we're there, that you want me to look at or speak to?

Christine:        For with the baby?

Jessica:            Well, we're kind of at an intersection between the baby, marriage, family, work.

Christine:        Yeah. It does sort of feel like something has to give, almost. And like you said, I'm not expecting some huge fallout or anything. But it just definitely feels very tenuous the way things are balanced right now, and so yeah. So, I guess, would your advice be to just⁠ open this to more of an open conversation?

Jessica:            Yeah. It is. Ultimately, the astrology behind what's happening is it's testing your emotional maturity and your ability to communicate. Did you just laugh at the concept of emotional maturity? Sorry.

Christine:        I'm like, "Great. That's just great."

Jessica:            I mean, that's what this is. You don't need to figure everything out. You don't need to have the answers for your marriage or for him. You don't have to have the perfect conversation. But you do want to kind of own that you know that things are⁠—strained is the way I would⁠—it's, like, tense.

Christine:        It is. Yeah.

Jessica:            And he's not asking anything of you. And that doesn't mean you don't feel that it's appropriate for you to offer something more. I mean, I look at this marriage, and I mean, you've already been through lots of trials. You are very⁠—you're just a team. You're together. This is it. So it's not a question where I'm looking at this and I'm like, "Well, shit. Are you going to make it through?" It's more a question of, "Okay. If you're building foundations right now, is this a solid foundation?" Because you know how it is. You can build and build and build on a house, but at a certain point, you have to reconcile for how [luggy 00:14:36] things are getting, essentially.

Christine:        Yeah. And I feel like I'm kind of taking off one direction; I don't want to leave him in a lurch. Even if our family's happy and together, I don't want him to ever feel like, oh, well, he missed out on x, y, z or feels unfulfilled in some way. I don't want that just for him personally.

Jessica:            Yeah. Yeah. And some of that is happening right now, to be frank. But that's actually not about you. That's about him.

Christine:        Right, right, right.

Jessica:            And it is really hard when you're in a partnership and one person is like, "I'm thriving at work. OMG."

Christine:        I know.

Jessica:            ⁠"I wasn't thinking about doing this, but this amazing opportunity came up." And the other person's like, "I don't know what I want to do." That's really a hard place to be, and all the more reason for you to ask, "What do you need when I am home? Do you want to be taking classes? What do you want?" and to be clear with him he doesn't need to want anything, but if he does, that you're aware that you're going to have to be flexible, if he knows that's not your forte⁠—but you're going to need to be flexible about how you organize your time and that you are willing to do that even if you don't know how that's possible at this time. You guys will figure it out.

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah. It makes total, total sense. Yeah.

Jessica:            This kind of brings me to the question that you first articulated, even though it was not the most⁠—

Christine:        I know. It's so funny. I'm like, "That just went out the…"

Jessica:            It went out the window, but it also didn't, because the thing about spirituality and you⁠—so you've got Uranus and Neptune in the North Node conjoined in Capricorn. Many people born in the early 1990s, like '90, '91, have this conjunction. But in your chart, it's intercepted in the twelfth house in the zodiac sign of Capricorn. What this means is that for you, your spirituality⁠—the concept of spirituality, but your spirituality⁠—is really private and, at the same time, a huge part of you, but also can feel really distant from you and like you don't know how to integrate it into your life.

Christine:        Absolutely.

Jessica:            On top of that, you've got Pluto in Scorpio conjunct your Midheaven. That means a lot of things, but one of the things it means is it gives you a fixation with the occult.

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            Let's add something else to the mix. You've got a Jupiter and Mars conjunction in Leo, which means that you're really just curious. You're like, "I want to figure out lots of stuff." It's philosophy. It's religion. It's spirituality. It's all the things.

Christine:        Yep.

Jessica:            And then the hammer comes down. You've got Saturn in Aquarius conjunct your Ascendant in Aquarius. So you're like, "And this is all cute and fun, but is it real? Because if it's not real, if I can't prove it, then it's just fun. We're just going to keep it fun."

Christine:        That's the freaking nagging voice in the back of my head anytime, and you know what? I will tell you a good example if that's okay.

Jessica:            Yes, please.

Christine:        A couple weeks ago⁠—so my brother-in-law and his wife just had a baby. They were expecting, and she was probably eight months pregnant. And I sometimes have⁠—I don't know what I call⁠—I call them dreams to just explain them to people, but it is when I'm in that kind of hypnagogic state before I fall asleep. And the next morning, I looked at Blaise, and I was like, "Oh my gosh. I think I know what they're going to name their baby." I said, "I think they're going to name him [redacted]."

And he said, "No. My sister-in-law, she's Hawaiian, of Japanese descent." And they were really trying to find a name that honors her heritage. And I was like, "Okay. I must have just had a weird thing." Well, lo and behold, a few weeks later, baby was born, and that is the baby's name. And stuff like that⁠—it happens, and then I'm like, "Well, I'm just having a weird dream." And then I never know how to really pin it down because part of me in my head is like, "Well, maybe I just thought it sounded nice, and that was a good guess."

Jessica:            I mean, even the way you just said that of, like, "I don't know how to pin it down⁠"— and this is the thing that's so hard about spiritual stuff. Not religious stuff, because religion comes with rules, and it's like good/evil, action/consequence. And the thing about anything that falls under any form of uncolonized, unfettered spirituality is that it is unprovable, un-pin-downable. I mean, it can be evidential; there's literal evidence. But when we don't have systems for making proof articulated, it's easy to explain things away.

                        And whenever we have twelfth-house planets or placements, we know that one or both of your parents repressed their spirituality anywhere from a year before you were born until you were seven years old because they were trying to prove how serious and smart they were. I'm guessing that's Mom.

Christine:        Oh. Wow. Yeah.

Jessica:            Yeah. And so what happens when a parent represses their energies is that⁠—even if they're doing it for a perfectly valid reason⁠—is that they're modeling for the child, "This is not healthy. This is not safe. Don't do this." What about your dad?

Christine:        So my dad was raised very, very strictly Catholic, and I was raised Catholic as well. R.I.P. to that. I'm still recovering, as I like to say. But I went to Catholic school 16, 17 years, the whole nine yards. But my dad was raised very Catholic, like Latin mass and all that, back in Germany. But it's very weird because his side of the family has a lot of stuff that we don't really talk about that I hear smatterings of, like my dad, for as Catholic as he is and was, is a huge believer in astral travel. And because these kind of things happen so often in my family, all the women on that side of the family have a lot of just history with everything from dowsing rods to astral projection to⁠—I mean psychic stuff.

Jessica:            So it's your dad's side that I'm seeing⁠—

Christine:        I think so.

Jessica:            ⁠—in your twelfth house, not your mom's.

Christine:        I'm wondering, because when my grandmother⁠—she passed away a couple years ago. Before she passed, she suffered from Alzheimer's for a long time. And I remember visiting once all the way in Austria, and she kind of took me aside and said she had to talk to me. And she was, at this point, really not grasping who I was or anything, but I think she had a moment of clarity. She brought me upstairs, and she showed me some⁠—I think it was a set of dowsing rods and something else. I don't remember exactly. I was probably like 13.

                        She said, "My mother and my grandmother were healers in their villages, but then when the Nazi regime took over and everything, we just obviously had to leave that behind us." But she had this striking moment of clarity, and she said, "I just want you to know that that's something that runs in the women in this family," this healing, whatever. And then, all of a sudden, she kind of turned back around and looked at me and was like, "Who are you?"

Jessica:            Wow.

Christine:        I was like, "Oh my gosh. What just happened?" And that's something that I've kind of always carried, but I don't really know what it meant or if it meant anything. But⁠—

Jessica:            It definitely means something. I mean, so much about leaving behind witchiness⁠—

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica:            ⁠—I mean, we can call it in a number of things, but ultimately witchiness⁠— was essential for Germans during⁠—

Christine:        Survival. Yeah.

Jessica:            Yeah. The war. Yeah. I mean, it was not a safe time for anyone who was outside of that norm. And so there is a lot of generational trauma. Whenever we see twelfth-house placements, we know, again, it's like it's in your father and his line to be like, "Okay. We're not going to put that front and center. We're just going to push it as far down as we can."

But there's this way that when I look at you energetically, it's like part of you really wants your woo; you want access to your spirituality. And then part of you uses it as a way to scare yourself. And then part of you is just like, "I know what mental health is, and I don't know what spiritual health is. Mental health is hard enough for me, so I'm not going to do the spiritual health thing."

                        All of this is driven by your noodle. All of it's driven by your brain. The truth is you are having spiritual experiences. It's not just that you have spiritual interests, which⁠—you are very comfortable with having spiritual interests⁠—

Christine:        ⁠Right.

Jessica:            ⁠—because, again, it's analytic and it's distant from you.

Christine:        Sure. Sure.

Jessica:            Yeah. So the twelfth house governs dreams and sleep and that state where you're not exactly asleep and you're not exactly awake, which is where a lot of your woo shit happens, eh?

Christine:        Yes. Yep.

Jessica:            Another place that your woo shit happens, because of this Jupiter/Mars conjunction, is every once in a while you just get this thunderbolt. You just know something. You just know it. [crosstalk]

Christine:        I call it a signal, which is so weird. I just invented that when I was, like, a teenager, a kid, because I was like, "Oh. That's my signal. Something's happening."

Jessica:            You know. That's just like a "know."

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            You really know. And then the rest of you is like, "Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it."

Christine:        Yes. And then I immediately am like, "Okay." Yeah.

Jessica:            Mm-hmm. Something that I was taught years ago that psychics and intuitives used to do back in the day before computers was write their signals, their insights, their woo premonitions down and mail it to themselves so that it would be stamped, and it would be time-stamped as a way to build up confidence of, "Oh. Not only was I right about this, but every time I have this sense of a blue sky, it means an opportunity comes my way, or every time I have a sense of"⁠—whatever, because the thing about your intuition is that your signal's clear.

Your signal is just like, "Boomp." It comes really quick. You invalidate it immediately, but you don't actually need help figuring out what it means because it's really clear. It's like, "Oh. No. This is not for me." You just know it in a moment. What it looks like you have a harder time figuring out is more of that intuitive stuff that happens in the in-between states. And that's because you're trying to prove it.

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            That's the literal only reason why, is because you're trying to prove it. And you're not alone. I get so many questions for the podcast, and people are often saying, "I'm having these spiritual experiences. What does it mean?" And I always want to be like, "It means you're having spiritual experiences." That's the whole story. People have this habit of being like, "What does it mean about me? What am I supposed to do with it? How can I prove it? How do I make it bigger?" Instead of just being like, "Oh. I can just receive this in this moment." Hold it lightly. Receive it. That's kind of all you're meant to do with it.

Christine:        Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica:            It's hard for people. And in particular, for you, you're like, "Well, if I have a gift, I have to use it. If I have an insight, I have to make something out of it. It has to be for something."

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            Fucking Saturn. Fucking Saturn. So, for you, what I would recommend⁠—do you keep a dear diary?

Christine:        I do. I've not been great about it, but I actually just bought a new one to make myself continue to journal.

Jessica:            Good.

Christine:        And I just got a dream journal as well. So I'm trying to really [crosstalk].

Jessica:            I like that. And I'm a big fan, for you, of having very pretty journals⁠—

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            ⁠—because you have Mercury in Taurus. So it has to be something so gorgeous that you can't wait to use it.

Christine:        Oh, absolutely. It's on my nightstand, like all⁠—yeah.

Jessica:            Yes. It's like a vanity piece.

Christine:        Oh, for sure.

Jessica:            Okay. Good. So what I would recommend that you d⁠o—when you have these moments of insights, when you wake up, jot it down, bullet point note form. Doesn't have to be a poem or a short story or whatever. Just jot it down, and try to make a practice of doing this for like three months because what will happen is you'll still do your bullshit where you're like, "What does it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean?" But ultimately, what I think will happen if you do this for only three months is you'll start to see patterns in how certain things shake out because sometimes you'll have an association and you'll be misinterpreting, and sometimes you'll interpret it accurately, correct?

Christine:        Right. Yes. Yes. That's a big part of how it's very easy to invalidate everything.

Jessica:            Yes, because it's interpretive, right?

Christine:        Yeah. Yep.

Jessica:            I could show a really good singer a bunch of lyrics. I could show four different really good singers a bunch of lyrics, not tell them what the music is, and just say, "Sing it. Just fuck with it. Sing it." They'd all sing it different, right?

Christine:        Right.

Jessica:            And they're still good singers, and they're still the lyrics. The thing about spirituality is that sometimes, yeah, it's stupid. It's bullshit. It's fantasy. Absolutely. But a lot of times, what it is is it's interpretive. And what we need to learn is how to understand our own signals. And so, for me personally⁠—okay. So I'm psychic. I will often see people, and I will see somebody who is short⁠—because I'm 5'2" and a half. Not to brag, but I count the half.

Christine:        Yeah. You should.

Jessica:            Thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud of it. So, when I see somebody short psychically, often it means somebody who is young, or it means somebody who's short. But often, it means somebody who's young because the last time I was the tallest person in the room was the third grade.

Christine:        Oh my goodness. So it's all⁠—

Jessica:            Ridiculous.

Christine:        ⁠—relative to your experience.

Jessica:            It's all relative.

Christine:        Okay.

Jessica:            That's what it is.

Christine:        Interesting.

Jessica:            It's about your own psyche. And your psyche is not just about your analytic mind; it's about your subconscious mind, which⁠—a lot of that is from when you're a kid. And so it's about developing a practice of listening without attaching and listening without looking to prove or disprove so that you can actually learn what you're hearing. So hold on for just a moment. Let me just check something here. Oh. I see. Do you see dead people?

Christine:        Sometimes in my dreams, people I know who have passed. I have seen apparitions of people.

Jessica:            Are you scared of it?

Christine:        Yes, but also deeply intrigued.

Jessica:            This is the problem for you, is that you're like⁠—remember that game where you hit the⁠—oh, Whac-A-Mole.

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica:            Part of you is like, "I want to see it. I don't want to see it. I want it to be true. I don't want it to be true."

Christine:        It's a constant back and forth. I talk to my cohost, Em, who is kind of the ghost hunter of our podcast, and their whole take is like, "Hell no. I don't want to see anything. I'm terrified." And I'm the first one to go, "No. Let's go on an adventure. Let's go to this place. Let's do a séance," whatever. But then, really, I think when it gets down to it, I'm like, "Is this really what I want? I don't know." Right at the end, I'm like, "I don't know about this." But yeah. The times I've seen apparitions were⁠—it's all very sporadic and random. And I do feel⁠—I live in a house that was built in the 1870s⁠—

Jessica:            Wow.

Christine:        ⁠—in Kentucky. And I heard a little kid talking once, and everyone told me it was just the TV, which wasn't on. And I once was talking about how happy I was in the house to my mom, and I felt who I felt was a woman just hold on to my arm, like in a happy way, like in a relieved or happy way, because I said, "We just love the house so much. We love being here." And so there are a couple times where I'm like, "Okay. I feel people around." But also, I'm a big scaredy-cat. I do want to really grow in that space. So yeah. That's where I kind of feel a big block.

Jessica:            So let me just ground into this because some of what you're saying is that you have natural abilities and sensitivities, and I just want to recognize that, acknowledge that. That seems really clear. The other thing you're saying is it's not consistent, and you're not in control. And that's the only way this works. There's no other way this works. So, again, the linear part of your thinking is like, "Well, it has to be consistent in order for it to be real, and it has to be in my control in order for me to prove it." To both of those things, I want to say, "Oh well. Best of luck." You know what I mean?

Christine:        Nice try.

Jessica:            That's just not how it works. And I say this while I also want to say there is a part of you that is scared. And I want to just speak to that because I don't think that part of you is wrong to be scared, because some doors cannot be unopened. Because you don't consistently believe in what's happening, you're really bold sometimes. You put yourself in what is objectively maybe not a safe situation because you're like, "Eh, is it real? Is it not? Nobody knows."

Christine:        Yeah. What's the worst that could happen? Yeah.

Jessica:            Right. And that's your Jupiter/Mars conjunction. It's just like, "Everything's going to be fine. Whatever. It'll be fun. It'll be fine." But you have Pluto in Scorpio conjunct your Midheaven. It is square to your Moon. You've got all this twelfth-house stuff. You have a lot of sensitivities. And so, if you don't have a way of managing self-care around unknown situations and energies, then it is wise to be a little⁠—not scared, but to honor that the unknown is scary because who knows? So there's this part of you that's really linear in your thinking and is scared because if this shit becomes objectively real to you, then it's going to fuck with your worldview in some ways.

                        So there's that, but the other part is that managing spiritual health is hard. It's hard enough to manage mental health, right? So managing spiritual health on top of it is hard. And a lot of times, what is presenting as mental health is actual spiritual health crisis and vice versa.

Christine:        Interesting.

Jessica:            For instance, if I can just share personally, I had terrible, terrible physical health as well as mental health until I realized that I was as psychic as I am and a medium. And then I realized I was feeling the feelings of people around me. And when I started to be able to recognize that, my symptoms of physical illness and my symptoms of mental struggle⁠—they evaporated because I was like, "Oh. I'm feeling anxious." And then I would turn to the person I was with and be like, "Hey. Are you feeling anxious?" And then they would be like, "Yes." And then, poof, the feeling [crosstalk].

Christine:        Oh. That's amazing. That's so fascinating. Yeah. And that's something I do really struggle with, in a way. And I'm uncomfy around this topic, not for any bad reason, just because I feel awkward about it. But there are parts of me that⁠—I know there's such a cliché of people saying, "I'm an empath," and all that, but I have always, since I was little, been able to feel other people's physical pain and that kind of thing, and emotional as well. I've just noticed it, like when my mom was going through cancer treatments, for example, I was just beside⁠—I could barely function, and I was probably like five, six, seven. And she had some bad injuries from a motorcycle accident, and I remember I was able to kind of find exactly where they were, and I could sense where the pain was.

                        And it was fine when it was just my family and friends, but now when⁠—well, first of all, people are always like, "Okay, cuckoo. Whatever." So I just usually leave that to myself. But when we go⁠—for example, when Em and I do live shows and we do meet-and-greets, we get a lot of just wonderful people coming up to the meet-and-greet and saying something like, "My mom passed away last year, and you really carried me through it. And through your shows, I've been able to"⁠—and whereas Em is very good at saying, "Wow. That means so much," and then just kind of moving on, I will go back to my hotel that night and just⁠—I mean I would just cry. I'll cry on all these people's behalfs. I will feel as though my mother has passed.

                        I would just absorb it all, and it's something that I really struggle with, especially now that we have so many people that we interface with. And so I don't know if that relates to anything at all⁠—

Jessica:            It does. It does.

Christine:        ⁠—but I think I, a lot of times, push back, maybe, because I'm like, "That's too much."

Jessica:            Well, okay. So let's talk about it. So being empathetic, feeling alongside others, is being an empath. It's really valid and beautiful. What you're describing of being able to locate the point of injury on somebody else's body, that's what it is to be an empath, a physical empath.

Christine:        Oh. Wow. Okay. I never even knew if that was part of it or if that was something different.

Jessica:            Yes. That is⁠—

Christine:        My mom used to have⁠—because she⁠—at the time, she had done her Reiki stuff years, like a decade, before. So I didn't even know about it at the time until I was much older. But she would just have me put my hands on certain parts of her, and I was like, "Okay." And she said, "Oh, it makes my knee feel better," or, "It helps the bruising," or whatever. I don't know. She had me do that all the time growing up, and it wasn't until years later where I was like, "What was that about?" And she was like, "I don't know. You just knew exactly"⁠—

Jessica:            You just did it.

Christine:        "You just did it."

Jessica:            That's how these kinds of spiritual things tend to function. And listen. Any spiritual gift is like any other thing. It's like being a singer, being an actor, being an athlete. You practice, and it gets better; you don't practice, and it doesn't get better. That's how it works. But what you're describing of feeling the exact location of someone's pain, that is being an empath. And when we have that⁠—and what you're describing at live events when you're taking in and on other people's emotions, that's⁠, from just that small amount of information⁠, for me, more of a gray area of are you emotionally being an empath in those situations, or are you just psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually overwhelmed by people's energies? It could be both. It could be either or both.

                        In both of those situations, the work for you is to have really strong energy boundaries. And the way I like to describe energy boundaries is⁠—okay. So remember Glinda the good witch and her bubble?

Christine:        Oh yeah.

Jessica:            Okay. So visualize a Glinda-the-good-witch bubble. Do it now with me, okay?

Christine:        Okay. Okay.

Jessica:            Do you remember the colors of it?

Christine:        I'm trying to remember. I'm so bad at remembering colors.

Jessica:            So what colors do you want it to be?

Christine:        Like a greenish bluish.

Jessica:            Great. Is it iridescent? Is it matte?

Christine:        It's iridescent.

Jessica:            Beautiful. Okay. So visualize a really big Glinda-the-good-witch bubble, like three, four times bigger than her bubble was.

Christine:        Okay. Okay.

Jessica:            And visualize it all around you. Okay. Good. You did it. Great. So, as soon as I said you did it, you did it a little less. But that's okay. We will not⁠—I got in your head a little, but that's good. So, in that moment when you did it, did you feel any different?

Christine:        Yeah. Yes. I mean, just kind of assured of myself, like I felt like me.

Jessica:            Yep. More yourself, more in, like your skin was on your body and it's holding in your organs.

Christine:        Yes. That's freaky. That's exactly it. I didn't quite know how to say that, but yep. That's it.

Jessica:            Yeah. It was a gross way to say it, but that's what it felt like.

Christine:        No, but it's exactly how it felt.

Jessica:            Yeah. So what happens for you because of the way your chart is written is that you're walking around with no⁠—so that Glinda-the-good-witch bubble is your auric shield. It's your auric field, your auric shield. So you're walking around like a human loofah sponge being like, "Everything's fine. There's no such thing as energy anyways. It's just fun." And it fucks with you. It fucks with you physically. It fucks with you mentally.

Christine:        Yep.

Jessica:            So what you could feel in that very brief moment was a greater amount of neutrality, just not good, not bad, just yourself. Right?

Christine:        Yes. It was very like⁠—what's the right word⁠—like a refreshing feeling.

Jessica:            Yeah. So the practice for you is to set, set, set, reset, reset, reset your Glinda-the-good-witch bubble, and play with different colors.

Christine:        Oh. Okay.

Jessica:            That's the key. Play with different colors because, some environments, you want to be fucking gold. And in other environments⁠—

Christine:        Yeah. I see.

Jessica:            ⁠—you want to disappear completely.

Christine:        Cover it up. Okay. Interesting.

Jessica:            You can put a completely neutral color on the outside and, on the inside, bright red.

Christine:        Right. Oh.

Jessica:            You want to play with it because it shifts your energy, and what it does is it gives you a greater sense of a tool for controlling how you feel instead of being at the mercy of the people and things around you. So, in particular, when you go to public events, when you're doing something public, shield before you get on a stage. Shield, if you can, in the middle to be like⁠—just like quick visual.

Reset it if you start to feel confused, because it looks like what happens sometimes when you're doing things is you're interacting. Everything's fine. You're just doing your thing, and then your brain just⁠—it just, like, disappears. You're like, "Wait. What? What?" That's not your mental health. That's your energy. You just get blown over by something, someone else's energy.

Christine:        I see. Right.

Jessica:            And it could be someone thinking really hard about you as much as it could be someone in the room.

Christine:        Oh. Interesting.

Jessica:            Yeah. It's very annoying. It's super annoying. It sounds fancy to people sometimes, but it's really fucking annoying. It's difficult. And so, before you sit down to meet and greet with people, shield yourself. It's not like putting barbed wire between you and others. It doesn't stop intimacy, closeness, and connection. But it means that your energy is yours. It basically turns you from a loofah sponge to a regular piece of cotton, you know?

Christine:        Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessica:            Like absorbent, but not so absorbent.

Christine:        But not like keeping it⁠—yeah.

Jessica:            Exactly. And so, if you're having a day where you're feeling particularly anxious, that's where you want to Glinda-the-good-witch bubble yourself.

Christine:        Interesting.

Jessica:            And another thing that you can do, if that works but it doesn't really work, that's where you want to just be like, "Whatever energy I'm holding on to that's not mine, I'm going to give it back." And you can either give it back to whoever it belongs to, or what I really like doing is putting it into the Universe, just exploding it into stars so it gets recycled as energy⁠—

Christine:        Oh. I love that.

Jessica:            ⁠—so it's less personal than giving it back to people because sometimes you're like, "Well, if that person just lost their mother, they must be depressed. I don't want to give them their energy back."

Christine:        I don't want to cycle it back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessica:            Exactly, even though that's actually best for them, but that's for another conversation. But just throwing it into the Universe is a very effective way. And this practice, for the analytic part of you⁠—I don't know. Maybe it's silly. Maybe it's not real. But if it works, keep doing it. That's what I would say to your analyzer.

Christine:        I love that.

Jessica:            Are you going into haunted houses on purpose?

Christine:        Yes. So let me give you an example for⁠—it's not just for fun, but for the podcast because we finally finished our live tour where we went to the Queen Mary and did an overnight investigation and filmed it and then used the content on our live tour. It was supposed to be just 2020⁠—haha⁠—and then that all went to shit, obviously. And so we just now finally finished that tour and are prepping for a new location for our next tour.

Jessica:            Okay. So this is my advice.

Christine:        And by the way, I will be going there on Monday.

Jessica:            OMG. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And you're going with Em and…

Christine:        And our producer, Eva [phonetic].

Jessica:            Okay. And it's several stories high?

Christine:        It is two stories. Yes.

Jessica:            Okay. So the bottom floor⁠—you're not going to stay on the bottom floor?

Christine:        No.

Jessica:            Great.

Christine:        Well, it's an overnight, so we're just going to be up doing a ghost hunt till like 6:00 in the morning.

Jessica:            Well, there's definitely stuff in there.

Christine:        We went once, and we didn't have as successful of a video. We're doing a second one now, so I've already⁠—

Jessica:            It doesn't like people there. The energies there do not like people there⁠—

Christine:        Oh. Good.

Jessica:            ⁠—which is why they're not showing⁠—that's why they didn't show up, I'm sure. But if they do show up, I imagine they'll be a little agitated.

Christine:        I had a hard time because they're⁠—and we try to be just as, obviously, respectful as possible, and we're not like some people, like screaming and throwing stuff. We got some stuff. I think I had a hard time because the actual history is that the woman lost her child at a young age, and I think I felt very uncomfy about that.

Jessica:            I did see a child, actually. So I don't know⁠—and my guess is that it's either that woman's story that I'm seeing or her with her child, or something not right there, like very much not right there. And so I'm going to make some recommendations.

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah. Please.

Jessica:            Okay. So, step one, when you walk up to the steps of the building, leave an offering for the land itself. Give thanks to the land because there's something very not right on that land.

Christine:        That's what they always say about it.

Jessica:            Yeah. Something not right. Not right.

Christine:        The family who lived there, they moved in and said there's something⁠—and this was in the 1800s, but they said, "Something's not right here," before they were even part of the story.

Jessica:            Yeah. There's something very not right, like super-duper not right. And as a psychic, you will never catch me going into that place⁠—or medium. Never, never, never. Not to scare you, but to say when you go into this place, it is important that you go in shielded. And when you leave, I would recommend⁠—and this is not something I've seen before, but it's just what I'm saying for you. And you're going to feel really stupid and really silly doing this. Oh well. I recommend that somewhere when you're still on the bottom of the steps outside of that building⁠—because there's steps to go up, right?

Christine:        Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jessica:            When you're at the bottom of the steps, to just take your hands from the top of your head and just kind of push them down. You know what I'm saying? As if you were washing your⁠—

Christine:        Yes. Self-cleanse it off.

Jessica:            Head to toe. Yeah. Release. Release. You don't want to take home any energy from that place because it is very sad. [crosstalk]

Christine:        It's very sad. I found myself really overtaken by a lot of the sadness there, and that's⁠—

Jessica:            It is so sad.

Christine:        That's one of the things that I really struggle with, is taking on other people's sadness. So I was there just like⁠—especially with the loss and stuff, it was hard. Yeah.

Jessica:            So let me say specifically you take on people's depression, not sadness. Sadness would be so much easier than what you do. You take on depression.

Christine:        Oh boy.

Jessica:            Yeah. So you have a tendency to take on people's feelings of isolation, disconnection, depression. Does that make sense to you?

Christine:        Absolutely. Yeah.

Jessica:            Yeah. And the space you're going into is nothing but disconnection, depression, hardship. So it's a terrible place for you to go.

Christine:        Super.

Jessica:            Super-duper. Super-duper. And this is just an opportunity for you to go in, fresh off of our conversation, really aware that you are sensitive and you do need to protect yourself. And if you're wrong and you're making it up and it's silly, fine. That may be the stupidest thing you do all day. I mean, do you not watch reality TV? Whatever. Who cares?

Christine:        Yeah. Exactly.

Jessica:            Just do it, and see if that helps and gives you a better outcome in terms of how you feel for weeks after this experience than the first time you went.

Christine:        You know, it's funny. We did the Queen Mary for our last tour. That's in Long Beach, but it's just this old ship that served as a warship and has seen a lot of tragedy, a lot of freak accidents, obviously a lot of death during the war, that kind of thing. And we got a lot, a lot, a lot of great footage from that experience. But it was so strange because we all felt like something was following⁠—like was with us when we got home, and part of that was⁠—of course, I told myself, "Oh, well, you just got freaked out, and now you're still freaked out."

                        But I maintain to this day⁠—and I don't know if anybody else believes me on this, but I maintain that something was up with us, with the podcast, with our relationships between Em and me, between Eva⁠—there was something off, I mean to the point that we had⁠—we were with a new network at the time. They hung up the logos of other shows on the wall, and they hung ours up, and four different times, they would take pictures. And these aren't like spiritual occult people. They would take pictures. They said every time, they hung it up, but the next morning, it was shattered and they'd have to buy a new frame. And our logo would just be face down and shattered on the ground to the point that they just had to prop it up on a table, and there was a blank hole on the wall amongst the dozens of other shows.

Jessica:            Damn. Damn.

Christine:        It got to a point where we were like, "Well, this is getting cliché." Things would go so absurdly wrong or things would just get misplaced. And I never knew if that was just like⁠—if we had brought some energy back. I'm not really sure. But we did seek a healing, and it seemed⁠—with an energy worker. And I'm not sure if that did anything, but it eventually kind of calmed down. But it was a very weird couple months where it took us until much later to connect the timing to that last ghost hunt.

Jessica:            So I wonder if the two of you could re-envision the concept⁠—rather, the term⁠—"hunt."

Christine:        Yes.

Jessica:            Why would you hunt ghosts? To murder them for sport? [crosstalk]

Christine:        Yeah. It seems like absolutely not the right terminology, especially in their own home.

Jessica:            It's not the right term. It's more like you're exploring the spiritual world in material places. There has to be a succinct way of saying it. But when I look at the⁠—you said it was Queen Mary? Is that correct?

Christine:        Yes. The Queen Mary was the first one.

Jessica:            Yeah. You brought home a very angry man, male spirit. And I mean, I'll just say that's not what's important to talk about. What is important for me to say is that, 100 percent, you could pick up spirits and have them attached to you when you go into these places. I mean, you could do that when you go into the grocery store. But it is putting yourself at risk for sure, and I'm not saying that to frighten you. It's more to validate the part of you that already fucking knows that.

Christine:        Right, right, right.

Jessica:            And listen. There are ghosts who are in houses because they want to be there, but the places that you're going to that are known ghost locations that are tourist traps, these are people who are trapped. That's your literal nightmare. It's one of your biggest fears, is being trapped, right? So you're putting yourself in this situation because you find it fascinating but also because you don't completely believe it, but because you completely believe it. And then it makes you vulnerable.

                        So this is where you want to go in saying, "I'm not coming in looking for an experience or looking for proof. I'm coming in looking for healthy, well-boundaried connection." You are looking not for somebody to enter your body or come home with you and ruin your life. You are looking for some level of connection where there's communication and empathy and some amount of care.

Being a little clearer about the goal that you have and being more self-protective⁠—because listen. I could be like, "Hey. Come with me to a dinner party tonight. Let's go," and you'd be like, "Okay, Jessica. I don't know any of your friends." Wouldn't you be like, "Are these people going to be jerks? What do I have to do so that I have an escape plan?"

Christine:        Yeah. That makes sense. Sure. Yeah. Totally.

Jessica:            So, if that's the case going out for dinner with living, breathing elder humans, then for sure it makes sense to do in these spaces. And this is where your kind of linear thoughts can bend towards common sense, and that can really protect you to just be like, "On a common-sense level, if I'm going into a space where I know that people are not especially happy and I want to have connection and I know I'm particularly sensitive to depression vibes and being trapped, then I need to protect myself and I need to go in with empathy but also the clarity that I'm not here to take in or on their energies. I'm just here to connect with people, living or dead."

                        Hold on. I see. So this is where your anxiety kicks in. And it's not just about this topic of going into haunted houses. It's about how you navigate interpersonal relationships. It looks like there's a lot of anxiety in that for you. You both are very comfortable, very confident, very assertive, and also [indiscernible 00:51:22]. Is that correct?

Christine:        Oh yeah.

Jessica:            There's this part of you that's nervous to go into, let's say, a haunted house with such a clear agenda about your boundaries with people because that's just not how you interact with people, even though you kind of should.

Christine:        Right. Yeah. I'm not used to setting that up before I meet even live people.

Jessica:            Correct. Correct. But the thing I'm saying is that whether they're living or dead, this is how I would recommend you behave, and especially when they're dead, because if they're living, if I invite you to my dinner party and then one of my friends is a dick to you, you can be like, "Wow. That person's a dick." And anyone who was around was like, "Oh, yeah, that person was a dick," whereas if it's a dead person, it's way more hard to identify, to validate, and to deal with.

                        So this is where you really do need to validate yourself a little bit more, and that's really what it comes down to, is it doesn't need to be provable, and you don't need to be positive in order for you to decide to take care of your boundaries and support yourself just in case. And if in particular you know you're going to this space and that there is a woman who is bereft of her child and you know you have an emotional connection to that, bring an offering specifically for her. Bring something and just leave it somewhere on a counter in a house.

                        What I'm seeing is the space is⁠—it's on the bottom floor. When you walk in, there's a big standing thing. I don't know if it's⁠—is it a hotel?

Christine:        No, but it's a lot of weird things. It was a general store, so there's a big counter, but it was also a⁠—

Jessica:            It's a counter.

Christine:        Yeah. There is a big counter. There's also a courthouse area where there's a literal courthouse, and there's a theater upstairs. It's all very weird. It's a small house, but it served like five different purposes back in the day.

Jessica:            When you first walk in the front door, there is a counter that you see without turning?

Christine:        Yes.

Jessica:            Okay.

Christine:        Absolutely. Yes.

Jessica:            So everything to the left of the counter is shrouded in darkness.

Christine:        Uh-oh.

Jessica:            It's very depressing, and I don't think you should go in there. Shrouded in darkness.

Christine:        I will also say there's a room right behind it. There's a wall there and a doorway, but there's a room behind it, and that's the courthouse. So is that, like⁠—

Jessica:            Yes. I wouldn't make an offering there. So that courthouse area, the left quarter of it⁠—danger zone. The rest of it is actually lovely energetically.

Christine:        That's funny because that right half is where we set up all our snacks and would hang out when everything else was too much. We actually never even walked to the other side of it, which is⁠—

Jessica:            That's because you were like, "There's no reason for me to go there."

Christine:        Very interesting.

Jessica:            Yeah.

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            So, again, there's not always "proof," but sometimes there's fucking proof.

Christine:        Sometimes it's⁠—yeah, exactly.

Jessica:            It just is what it is. If you want to make an offering to the woman, it would be in one of the bedrooms.

Christine:        Okay.

Jessica:            And just don't overthink it. Just whatever one feels like the one you're choosing is the one you're choosing.

Christine:        Okay.

Jessica:            If the person who helped clear energy last time⁠—if he felt like there was a difference and an improvement afterwards, I would set up, every time you go to one of these places, an appointment to have somebody help you clear energy because, yeah, you're going to pick up shit every time you go into these places.

Christine:        Right. Right.

Jessica:            I mean, that's inevitable, right? Okay. Do you like hot tubs or saunas?

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            Great. Can you go to a hot tub situation after you do the haunted house?

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            That'll help.

Christine:        Really?

Jessica:            Yeah. You're weird with heat⁠—

Christine:        I just remembered we did that last time.

Jessica:            There it is.

Christine:        I didn't even realize that we went into the hot tub and decompressed.

Jessica:            Yeah.

Christine:        Oh. That's so funny.

Jessica:            Yeah. It'll help you is what I'm seeing. Your body is weird with heat. Sometimes your body's great with heat. Sometimes you get really overheated really easy, eh?

Christine:        Yes. Yes. Yes.

Jessica:            Yeah. So hot tubs are like you have to always go with a ton of water, and sometimes you're like, "I'll spend an hour in here," and then you're like, "Five minutes and I'm done."

Christine:        Done. Yeah.

Jessica:            Just listen to your body. But immersing yourself in hot water after this experience will be helpful for shocking whatever you've brought with you out because⁠—

Christine:        Okay.

Jessica:            Yeah, because you don't want to slip into your own depressiveness because⁠—

Christine:        Yeah, and that's one of my biggest fears, too.

Jessica:            Yeah. It matches the energy [crosstalk].

Christine:        I have my own. I don't need⁠—

Jessica:            Correct. Correct. And then there are ways you can take baths that cleanse you energetically.

Christine:        Oh. Okay.

Jessica:            When you get home⁠—so the hot tub is while you're still out of town, but when you get home, I would say take some baths to really clear energy. I would also personally recommend that you wear black tourmaline when you go⁠—do you have any black tourmaline on your person?

Christine:        I did. I actually brought it last time.

Jessica:            Okay. Good.

Christine:        I don't know anything about crystals, really, but I brought it with me. I was like, "This will do."

Jessica:            Black tourmaline is what clears psychic attack.

Christine:        Okay.

Jessica:            What would be ideal is if you had two pieces of black tourmaline, one in each pocket, ideally in each shoe if you could do that without hurting yourself.

Christine:        Sure. Yeah.

Jessica:            And no quartz crystal. No quartz crystal, I'm begging you. No quartz crystal.

Christine:        Okay. Okay.

Jessica:            No amethyst, no quartz crystal, because those are amplifiers.

Christine:        I see.

Jessica:            You do not need an amplifier. It's just like you're already a hot rod signal. Do not add anything to intensify that signal is my advice. Turquoise is good for helping you be in your body. Hematite is great for helping you be in your body.

Christine:        Oh. Okay.

Jessica:            The black tourmaline is what you need.

Christine:        Wow. Okay. Wow.

Jessica:            Yeah. Yeah. And while you're at it, get some for Em.

Christine:        I will.

Jessica:            Yeah. Yeah.

Christine:        And for Eva. I'm going to just load us up.

Jessica:            Yeah. For everybody. I think that's great. And Em should be wearing red somewhere on their person. They should be wearing red. I don't know why that is, but I am seeing that they should⁠—they don't wear red, but they should be wearing some red when they go into these spaces.

Christine:        I will pass that along.

Jessica:            Yeah.

Christine:        Just in general, or just at this location?

Jessica:            When they go into haunted houses.

Christine:        Oh. Wow. Okay. Okay.

Jessica:            Yeah. They need a little fiery hot red color on their person.

Christine:        Interesting.

Jessica:            On their person, on purpose, to remember who they are.

Christine:        I like that.

Jessica:            Now, let me just see if there's anything else I'm supposed to tell you. Okay. That's interesting. You could do that. It might help. It might help for you to⁠—have you ever seen any Lisa Williams? Do you know who she is?

Christine:        I don't think so.

Jessica:            Probably like 20 years ago or something by now, but she had a TV show. She's a medium, and she had a TV show. And she used to do this thing where before going into people's houses to give them readings, she would wear a hat to keep her energy in her head. That was her whole shtick. It might be good for the two of you to always wear a specific hat when you go into these spaces as a way to keep your energy in your head, as a way to set intention: "I am entering into a space that is potentially otherworldly, that is potentially full of energy that I am porous to. And so I'm going to wear this hat to remind me that I'm not at home."

Christine:        Oh. I like that.

Jessica:            Yeah. "I'm going to wear this hat to ground me into my experience and to protect my head." And then you have a podcast, so you could turn it into merch if you need to. But definitely wear the hat.

Christine:        Wow. I like that a lot.

Jessica:            Yeah.

Christine:        I don't know why, but I'm like, "That'll work."

Jessica:            It'll work. Yeah. I think it'll really work for you. I think it'll work for both of you. I mean, you could even get them hers and theirs. You know what I mean? You could get some cute shit going.

Christine:        Oh, partner hats.

Jessica:            Yeah. Partner hats. I hate to say it, but it would be great if you had unique shoes for this experience as well. But we're getting expensive, so the hat is sufficient.

Christine:        When you state unique shoes, is it like⁠—

Jessica:            Shoes you only wear into haunted environments.

Christine:        Only wear those. Okay. Interesting.

Jessica:            You're going into some really creepy places.

Christine:        And you know what's funny is the last time I wore the shoes that I wore there, and I felt⁠—I don't know the right words because it was just in my⁠—it was just a thought. But I felt like my feet were⁠—I don't know, like connecting somehow to the space. And I think maybe that's partially because it's such an old house, and walking up the stairs, of course, I immediately go into how many people have walked up and down these stairs. And when I got home, I put the shoes up in a closet. I have not worn them since.

Jessica:            Great. Wear them again. Make them⁠—

Christine:        Maybe those will be the ones.

Jessica:            Those will be the shoes. Yeah. And I don't think Em needs special shoes, but I do think you do. I mentioned that you have all this stuff in your twelfth house. The twelfth house is the place of dreams. It's also the place that governs your feet.

Christine:        Really?

Jessica:            Yep. And shoes are nothing but boundaries for your feet.

Christine:        There you go.

Jessica:            So there is an energetics to this. And so I want to⁠—

Christine:        That was the first time I had worn those shoes, too.

Jessica:            Okay. Then⁠—

Christine:        They're just Converse, but they were literally the first time I had worn them, and then I have not worn them since.

Jessica:            Because they're like your haunted house shoes.

Christine:        There we go.

Jessica:            You'll only wear them there, and I think⁠—

Christine:        My black Cons.

Jessica:            I was going to say they're black shoes, right?

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            They look like they're black. Yeah. Hopefully you're seeing how so many of the things that I'm naming, you're like, "Oh, I have that experience," or, "Oh, I knew that," or, "Oh, I thought that."

Christine:        Sure. Yeah.

Jessica:            And the difference, really, between me and you in this situation is I just trust it, and you don't.

Christine:        Right. Right. Right.

Jessica:            And it's fair that you don't trust it. You don't have to trust it. But that doesn't mean you should invalidate it, and I think that that's where you're struggling because you're like, "I can't totally trust it," which⁠—I'm a fan of not trusting things, necessarily, but that doesn't mean invalidate. So is there a way you can be in the space of uncertainty, unknowable, and you're going to just go with your instincts?

Christine:        Just accept. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica:            Yeah. And if you have enough experiences, you'll have evidence. And then, when you have evidence for yourself, you can decide how you want to hold it if you want to hold it differently.

I'm just going to pull back and tell you what I'm being shown. There's this part of you that's excited and stoked to move forward and implement things and to have a little validation, and then there's this other part of you that feels really flattened. Is that correct?

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica:            Yeah. And the flattened just kind of started to come up, eh?

Christine:        The flattened. Interesting. Yeah.

Jessica:            So that flattened bit you call depression?

Christine:        I don't know if I've actually put a word to it, but⁠—

Jessica:            Is it kind of chronically there?

Christine:        Yes.

Jessica:            Yeah. That's what I'm seeing. It looks like it's like one of your layers, you know?

Christine:        Sometimes I can unfortunately access it much more often. Sometimes it's just kind of under the surface.

Jessica:            Yeah. Yeah. It feels like sometimes it's your top layer, and sometimes it's like one of many layers.

Christine:        Yeah.

Jessica:            So, right now, as I'm looking at you, I'm like, "Okay. So there's this flattened layer of energy." And I want to just validate that what I'm seeing that the energy is⁠—some of it's not yours. It's just like you have a bunch of shit on you. And some of it is your physical body is tired. We just had a very intense reading for a long period of time, so you're a little exhausted. So the flattened energy started to come up a little more because your brain's like, "Go, go, go. Let's keep doing this," but then your body's kind of like, "Okay. We did this."

Christine:        Right. Right.

Jessica:            And I wanted to just acknowledge that, because some of this feeling is yours, and some of it is just like a habit feeling. It's like other people's energy. And I wanted to acknowledge that so you can think about it and try to separate those things.

Christine:        Interesting. Okay. Okay.

Jessica:            The other thing is, when your system feels like this, it is, in part, your body saying, "Je suis tired. I need to sit alone in a room," or, "I need a nap," or something to that effect. And if you listen to your body and you give it what it needs, then that flattened feeling goes away, or at least it gets lessened.

Christine:        Gotcha. Yeah.

Jessica:            So it's, again, because I accept what your system is saying, and I'm not like, "What does it mean? How does it mean? Blah, blah, blah," then it's like there's an actionable on the other side of it.

Christine:        I like that.

Jessica:            Yeah. And I wanted to just model that so that you could see it, so you could start doing it for yourself a little bit more. Does that make sense?

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah. It totally makes sense. Oh my gosh.

Jessica:            Okay. Good. That's what I was supposed to tell you. Okay. Good. What we're really talking about is the same thing in every conversation, which is boundaries. It's you identifying who you are, what's really happening, and really just validating that it's happening so that you can then cope with it.

Christine:        Yeah. Yeah. I needed to hear that. I needed to hear that. So thank you.

Jessica:            Yeah. It is my pleasure, my dear. This has been so wonderful. I'm so glad we got to meet and do a reading.

Christine:        I can't believe it. I feel so honored. Thank you for doing this. It's just such a special feeling to have somebody really look at you. So it means a lot.

Jessica:            Yay. Well, it has been my pleasure, and I adore you. And I⁠—

Guest:              Vice versa.

Jessica:            ⁠—[crosstalk] how it goes.

Christine:        I will. Oh, I will. And you will be hearing about the shoes and the hat.

Jessica:            I want to know everything. I want photos. I want all of it.

Christine:        I love that I've been instructed to accessorize. I mean⁠—

Jessica:            I mean, who doesn't want a spiritual directive to accessorize?

Christine:        If I must.

Jessica:            Exactly. That's what I like to hear. All right, my dear.

Christine:        Thank you so much for this.

Jessica:            Thank you.

Christine:        This was super wonderful.

Jessica:            Yay. I'm so glad. I'm really glad.

The Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, was enacted in 1978 as a much-needed reform on the practices that separated Native children from their families, and it is now under attack. On November 9th, the very conservative Supreme Court met to discuss whether to overturn the ICWA, which would be a devastating blow to tribal communities, Native children, and families. You can help by amplifying Native voices on social media and signing the petition to protect the ICWA. Use Resistbot by texting "sign PCCPGW" to Resistbot at 50409. Don't worry. This is in show notes. You can copy and paste it there. You can use this tool to urge your elected officials to act. Learn more about those issues and ways to help at nicwa.org.

Free Black Therapy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing remote mental health services with Black mental health professionals for Black and African American individuals, and it's absolutely free. Visit freeblacktherapy.org to find a therapist or donate today.

Okay. Let's get astrological, as we do. But first and foremost, let me say this. Being spiritual is not just about rituals or your thoughts or meditation or whatever the fuck. It's very much about what you do and the beliefs and feelings that motivate what you do⁠—or don't do, right? Because apathy or inaction is an action.

Last week's astrology, the end of November/the start of December, was a lot. There's a lot going on. And if you're listening to this podcast on the date that it comes out, we're still undergoing the Venus/Neptune conjunction. This is a very overwhelming moment. This is a moment astrologically where so many of us are feeling anxious, distracted, maybe kind of caught up in paranoias or insecurities or simply not feeling that you've got enough energy to carry you through. That's Neptune transits for you, and we've gone through, very recently, a couple.

So it is really important to acknowledge that the vibes are all over the place. And we have a Full Moon coming up this week that I'm going to tell you all about; don't you worry. But again, it's a lot of emotion⁠—not just only emotion, but it's a lot of sensation, a lot of feeling. And for most of us, that tends to put us in our flight-or-fight. For most of us, that tends to shut us down or have us get really activated. I want to just acknowledge that. It's a lot.

And this is happening at this time where we are seeing just gross injustices, as always, unfortunately, but certainly here in the U.S., we're seeing the spike in anti-Semitism. We are seeing a spike in transphobia and homophobia, in the culture, legislatively. We are seeing the rise of white Christian nationalism, which is inevitably accompanied by the rise of anti-Semitism and racism and ableism and all of these other really awful things. And it's a lot to take. It's a lot to manage. It's difficult to know what to do.

And I don't have an answer for what to do. There's not a singular answer that works for all people. But I will say that it is incumbent upon each of us to recognize hate speech or hateful or phobic behaviors, whether it's blatant or more coded or subtle, and to take a stand against it, to ally ourselves not just in our thinking or feelings, not just when it's safe and easy, but in our behavior in real time, with what is right. And that's hard for a lot of people to do, and I know a lot of people who are listening to me now may have a very different idea about what is right than I do. And that's the complexity, the messiness, and the glory of the human condition.

This is one of those moments where I personally feel overwhelmed about the problems, overwhelmed by where they're pointing us, and don't have a clear sense of, "Okay. This is what I've got to encourage you to do this week. This is what I want to bring your attention to this week." I'm going to thank Neptune for that, so thank you, Neptune. But I do want to say that even when we don't know what to do, even when we feel overwhelmed or turned around or distracted, it's important to remember that whether we're referring to your personal life or the world at-large, like social conditions, that this is a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon.

And so it's wise to keep a broad-minded view and approach of what's happening now, of where you're at, and what comes next because when we can't effectively deal with the details in our lives or in the world, we can stay connected to the big picture of what's important, the big picture of what needs to be done, the big picture of what we're trying to heal, whatever it is. And that can help you stay connected to your sense of purpose. And as you know, Mars is Retrograde, and it is happening at the same time as Jupiter is back in Pisces⁠—not for much longer, but it is back in Pisces. And so investigating, recalibrating, exploring our sense of purpose is a huge part of where we're act collectively. It's uncomfortable and it's awkward, and it's really valuable.

Okay. Now we're going to get straight into your horoscope. There's a lot to say. We are looking at the week of December 4th through the 10th of 2022. I want to invite you to this class that I'm really excited about giving on December 10th. It's happening at 11:00 a.m. Pacific. You can join live, and then also, if you register for the class, you'll get the download in your inbox, so you don't have to attend live. But I'm really excited about it because I haven't taught something that's not astrology in some years, and manifestation is something that, unlike astrology or tarot or other things that I teach, you really can start at any level. You don't need any background knowledge. I mean, you can be somebody who's done it a million times and get value from it, or you can be somebody who's barely ever heard of manifestation and then learn how to do it and actually just damn do it.

So I'm really excited about the accessibility of manifestation as a spiritual tool that helps you with internal alignment and can ease the path for external excellence. Yeah, I said external excellence. Anyways, I hope to see you there. You can register for the class with the link in show notes, or just go to my website, ghostofapodcast.com. December 10th, 2022, me and you.

Okay. Let's begin at the beginning. On December 5th, we have a Mercury square to Jupiter that is exact. Now, this transit is actually really fun. A Mercury square to Jupiter is great evidence that not all squares are created equally. When these two planets form a 90-degree angle to each other, what's happening is that Mercury⁠—your mind, your friendships, your attitudes, how you listen, what you say⁠—is being challenged by Jupiter, which is exciting and adventurous and has more of a big-picture perspective on things, whereas Mercury is more focused on details.

And so we can have an expansion of perspective. We can open up to understanding, and in particular open up to understanding where perhaps we were a little shut down or maybe ill informed, which is kind of cool. This is an especially powerful square because we are dealing with Mercury and Jupiter at the anaretic degrees of Sagittarius and Pisces respectively. And this square we really want to pay attention to. I imagine it's going to be quite impactful. Now, there are negative sides and positive sides of this transit, but I wanted to start with the positive.

This is a great time for socializing, for meeting up with friends, for meeting new people. I mean, it's not inherently a sexual or romantic transit, but it is adventurous. So it's a great time for meeting up with people, but I'm not promising you romance. It's also a great transit for spiritual exploration, for learning new concepts, sharing your truth, having an experience, which is really wonderful. Basically, what happens in this transit is we have a more positive, optimistic, broad-minded outlook, which is great.

You may⁠—especially if this is hitting your chart directly, you may put your foot in your mouth. You may speak a little more boldly or without a whole lot of consideration, so you want to look out for that. The things that are on the negative side with this transit is it's not great for concentration. This is, again, for adventure and exploration and fun. And so, if you really have to focus and concentrate on something that is not a creative project, this can be a bit of a pain in your ass. It can just make you feel a little distracted. Don't do something meticulous and annoying on this day if you can avoid it.

The other thing about this transit is that it can lead to gossiping, misinformation, and disinformation. And so don't run with stories that you hear without trying to verify them first. That's really important. And in general, try not to jump to conclusions. This transit is excellent for jumping to conclusions. But who needs that? Especially because on the 5th, we are still under the influence of the Venus square to Neptune, which was exact on the 3rd. And so, because we're still under its influence, we are more likely to be a little insecure, a little off our game, a little overwhelmed, and therefore kind of more likely to believe things that fit into our anxious attitudes or our anxious beliefs.

And so it's important to make sure that whether it's excellent news or terrible news, that you are having good boundaries with that information. And again, I mean this in your personal life; I mean this in the world because things are likely to be happening really quickly during the Mercury/Jupiter square. And when things happen really quickly and you're already feeling a little off center, yeah, it can lead to some mishigas, as we say in the business. So that's something to be careful of.

I guess the only other thing I would warn you of is that as you discover some sort of truth, as you figure something out or have some sort of insight, do your best to not try to force it down other people's throats. You can share your truth. You can share an insight or a perspective once, and when somebody is really clear that they are just not interested in listening for whatever reason, this is not the time to try to convince them otherwise because it's going to come across as arrogant and like you're not listening. So make sure you listen to people. If they tell you that they're shut down and not open, yeah, don't try to ram your truth down their throat to change that because that will have the opposite effect.

So that's that transit, but again, there's so much positive with this transit that you want to make use of. So do your best to be open this Mercury/Jupiter square. Now, by the 6th, we're not going to be feeling the Venus square to Neptune. So things are going to solidify a little bit, which is good news for you and for me. But by the 7th, we got big news in the stars because it's a Full Moon. And as you know, a Full Moon always occurs when the Moon and Sun are exactly opposite each other, not just by sign but to the minute⁠—to the degree, to the minute.

So we have a Full Moon in Gemini happening at 16 degrees and 2 minutes. And the Sun, of course, therefore, is at 16 degrees of Sagittarius, and that's happening at 8:08 p.m. Pacific Time. Okay. So Full Moons happen every month. You know that. And when they happen, emotions rise to the surface. This is a thing. People get super emo around Full Moons, and this is because all the shit that over the last month you've been trying to reason yourself out of feeling or just kind of not knowing how to deal with emotionally⁠—it comes to the surface and demands to be dealt with.

And this is why Full Moons are one of those very evidential things, kind of like Mercury Retrograde. People tend to notice them and be really interested in them when they're first learning about astrology. And this particular Full Moon has got a little punch to it because the Moon within six minutes is conjunct to Mars Retrograde, which means Mars Retrograde is also opposite to the Sun. This Full Moon is a very important part of the Mars Retrograde cycle. Whether we're looking personally, socially, politically, we want to understand that we are in an important moment of the Mars Retrograde cycle.

And that means that so much of what we have been going through with Mars Retrograde⁠—and for anyone who needs a reminder, the Retrograde began October 30th of 2022; it will be over January 12th of '23. So everything that's been going on in this Mars Retrograde, it's going to hit some sort of emotional peak. That's not great news if we look at this in the context of the world because, of course, Mars governs many things, including but not limited to violence, and in particular physical violence. Mars also governs our passions, our ambitions, our ego, how we assert ourselves, how we move through the world, how we move through our lives and things in general.

However this Mars Retrograde has been treating you so far, you want to pay attention to this Full Moon because something is going to get activated. That's what I expect here. It's especially important that you check in with your motivations. Whatever you do, whatever you don't do, however you show up or you choose to hide is really important this Full Moon.

While we're here, let me just say on December 7th, just in time for this Full Moon and Sun opposition to Mars, which could be quite noxious⁠—and again, I'll unpack that in a second. I want to say that here in the United States, the Supreme Court is finally hearing Moore v. Harper, which is a very complicated case, which⁠—I am not an expert. If you don't know what Moore v. Harper is, if you've never heard of it before, please do due diligence and learn about it from actual legal experts. I am not one of those, to be clear.

But I will say very briefly, and to hyper-simplify what Moore v. Harper is, it would allow state legislators to decide without any checks and balances what's legal around elections. This could effectively and fundamentally end democracy in the United States. This is a very fucking big deal. It would allow states to decide without checks and balances what's legal around elections. This includes giving them a blank check to gerrymander and to enact voter restriction laws, to make voter roll purges and other blatantly undemocratic and scary, scary things. I cannot stress enough how important this is.

And unfortunately, the astrology of the 7th is really unpredictable. What isn't unpredictable is how conservative our Supreme Court is currently in the United States. So this is definitely something to pay attention to. I mean, it's something to pay attention to outside of astrology, but the astrology of this day is⁠—it's rough, unfortunately. So let's get back into the astrology.

When the Moon and Mars meet in a conjunction, as they are here, what happens is tempers rise. People act really emotionally, and especially out of anger and defensiveness and out of passion. This is not a time where we can go in with a clear sense of what we want to do, and then if something comes at us sideways, we're likely to be totally neutral and placid. That's not realistic under a Full Moon in general, but certainly a Moon/Mars conjunction.

When we have something as explosive-feeling as this, we are likely to act out. And depending on your nature and your situation, you may act out against yourself or against others. You may act out for yourself or for others. What you want to pay close attention to is your own motivations because Mars is Retrograde. And just know that even if you are a perfect angel and you've never gotten mad a day in your life⁠—or you have gotten mad and you're not an angel but just this particular Full Moon is not hitting you that particular way; you're not really feeling too agitated or anything⁠—first of all, yay, you.

But second of all, you live in the world, and the world is full of people with emotions. I expect road rage in particular on this day. Unfortunately, people with short fuses, people who are prone to violence or violent outbursts⁠—so whether that's physical violence or other forms of violent energy, violent words, yada, yada⁠—this is going to be a pretty explosive time because people are going to have a hard time pulling themselves back.

Because the Sun is opposite to Mars, that only dramatically intensifies it. We have ego conflicts during Sun/Mars oppositions. We have the desire to make things happen, to assert yourself. So the Sun opposition to Mars on its own, it does make you want to assert yourself. It does strengthen your desire to get shit done and to get it done in a way that works for you. But because this is happening on a Full Moon, it's super emotional, and we're more likely to be, again, a little bit all over the place, which intensifies the risk that you or someone else will act out of egoism in a destructive way.

I've said it before; I'll say it again. The ego on its own is not a bad thing. When the ego is overgrown or underdeveloped, in both cases we tend to have problems. And so there is a meaningful risk of aggressive or passive-aggressive behaviors on and around this date, and in particular on the Full Moon. You may be feeling just angry, again, defensive, competitive, agitated, irritable, impatient, or dealing with people who are feeling that way. And in either case, there is a need here to allow yourself to have whatever feelings you have but to harness your own energy so that you act in ways that reflect what is your truth because, again, Sun's in Sadge. The Moon is in Gemini.

So what you say, how you say it, what you do, how you do it is really important. But it can't just be to scratch an itch in the moment. It's got to be connected to the bigger picture, and that's exactly where we're likely to have struggles⁠—different people's different vision of what's best, big picture and in the moment. So, again, there's a real risk of conflict here. This is not a great time, though it may be a tempting time, to take risks and to act impulsively or any kind of spur-of-the-moment shit. Be aware of what you're doing because you don't want to light a fire that you can't contain, and that's a risk with this transit.

Full Moons are about the closure of a cycle. They are often about endings, but the way that things end under a Full Moon is, first, they come up so that we can clear them, so that we can heal them, so that we can become more aware of them. And because of Mars's placement in this Full Moon, that's likely to be what some may call explosive. Now, on the positive, this can be great for sex. I mean, it could be risky for sex. It could be not great for sex, absolutely, because Mars can be dangerous and violent. So take care of yourself very much, please. But it can also⁠—you may just have a fucking fantastic time with yourself, with a partner, with many partners, whatever works for you.

Again, we want to harness the energy of Mars. We want to harness it in the body; use that energy. And because it's going to be so emotional because the Full Moon is sitting on top of Mars here, that's going to be hard to do. But if you do it, it's going to be very fucking satisfying. It will feel delicious. So that's, again, something to pay attention to. But that's not all that's happening in this Full Moon chart. We still have Saturn and Uranus squaring each other.

And so we have this ongoing dynamic. We're years deep into it, and we're close to the end. But we're years deep into it where we are all struggling with how to do/what to do, like what's real, what's not. "Do I need more freedom? Do I need to be more responsible?" That kind of shit. Now, the Saturn/Uranus square is present for all the transits that we're going through. So it's just kind of like it's in the air. But it's particularly noteworthy because Mars is so demanding and individualistic, as Uranus can be as well, whereas Saturn is just like reality, delayed gratification. So, again, there's more of a teeth-grinding, frustrating vibe going on in this chart.

The other major thing I want to name here is that Venus and Mercury are conjoined in this chart. Now, they're out of sign. Venus is at 23 and a half degrees of Sagittarius, and Mercury is at just about 2 degrees of Capricorn, so out of sign but conjoined. And they're forming a square to the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in Pisces. So, again, we have the risk of idealistic thinking, putting people or situations on pedestals and not dealing with them realistically, falling into a K-hole of low self-esteem.

All of these things, they're kind of like what's happening in the astrology of right now. But again, when you consider that in the context of this Sun/Mars opposition, this Full Moon with Mars conjoined the Moon, it can lead to some real drama, whether that's personal, spiritual, psychological drama or it's collective social/political drama. So allow yourself to feel vulnerable. Allow yourself to feel whatever it is you're feeling. And you don't have to rapidly act on any of it.

This may be quite an uncomfortable Full Moon. You may not be able to avoid conflicts. You may not be able to avoid power struggles or fights, especially in intimate relationships where you know you've been putting things off or trying to not deal with things or not being honest with yourself or your partner. That's just a⁠—here we are. It's that kind of Full Moon. So, if you know you need to say something or do something but you don't really know what you're ready to say or whether or not it's coming from the right place, say that.

You are completely entitled to say, "I am still working this out. I am too activated emotionally right now. Let's talk about this and schedule it for another time," because this Full Moon with all the activity in it can be quite an intense recipe for drama and problems, some of which really don't need to occur. If you think what you are fighting for or fighting about is important and needs to be said, then you know what? Giddyap. This can be a time for actually getting your cards on the table and saying what needs to be said. Remember it's a Full Moon in Gemini, so it's going to be chatty. There's going to be words. Just make sure you mean it because once you say anything, you can't unsay it. Once you've played your cards, you can't take them back. They're played. It's played. You did it. So be careful.

Now, I guess I'll add one more thing here, which is this can be a Full Moon that has you connecting with something buried within you. This Mars Retrograde wants us to do all that reflective work within Mars, and the Full Moon is just bringing shit up to the surface. So this can be a time for reconnecting with your body. It can be a time for gaining greater access to your passions, to your ambitions, your goals, to what's important to you. This can be a time where you connect with your own power and do some healing work with your ego. You can let go of attachments that you have within your Mars you've been having a really hard time with.

This is an important moment in our Mars Retrograde cycle that, again, I really encourage you to pay attention to and to make use of because, as I said, Full Moons are a great time for letting go and releasing, and Mars wants action. So there's a lot of progress we can make. And whether you're making just a teeny, tiny amount of progress or you're able to move something really huge in your life in some meaningful way, it's all equally good. Progress is progress, whether it's a little bit or a lot. So tap into the best parts of this lunation and embrace the growth that you have, whatever it looks like, whatever it is.

And this, my friends, brings us to the next and final transit of the week. It's happening on December 9th. It's a Venus square to Jupiter. But the truth of the matter is that there's two things happening on the 9th. We have Venus at 29 degrees of Sagittarius square to Jupiter of 29 degrees of Pisces. And then, that evening at around 8:00 p.m., Venus moves into Capricorn. So Venus will ingress into Cap, but before it does, it says, "Hey, what's up?" to Jupiter. And let me tell you about this transit.

This transit is lovely. Much like I said about the Mercury square to Jupiter, it's not a bad square. It's not an especially challenging square. When it happens, we tend to feel really good. And this is a transit that I see as the first real break of December. If you've heard my bonus episode of Ghost of a Podcast over on Patreon, then you know December starts with intense astrology and ends with intense astrology. But here, this Venus square to Jupiter is just fucking lovely. It tends to make people feel optimistic, gregarious, openhearted. A little bit of luck, a little bit of flow tends to happen romantically and socially because people tend to feel sociable and a little more generous.

Now, because we've been going through so much astrologically, it is certainly possible that it'll just feel like the absence of difficulty. And to me, that's a damn win. If that's what's happening for you, that's a win. It is absolutely a lovely transit, and many people will experience this as an especially lovely time for all things related to Venus, which are related to your values, like getting aligned with your values, your finances, your social life, your romantic life, and how you feel about how you look.

Now, the thing about Venus square to Jupiter is it can be a good time legislatively. So, if you're dealing with a legal situation, whether in your personal life or as an activist, this is a good time for making shit happen. There can be good progress, positive progress, on a Venus square to Jupiter. The only thing you want to watch out for is too much of a good thing can turn a good thing into a not-so-good thing. So don't spend all your money. Don't overindulge in delicious, delightful things to the point where they're no longer fun. Have fun; don't overdo it.

My loves, that's your horoscope. That's the major transits of this week. And I'm going to run through them one more time in case you're taking notes. On the 5th, we have an exact square between Mercury Jupiter. On the 6th, Mercury ingresses into Capricorn. I should have said that before. I didn't, but I'm saying it now, so you're welcome. On the 7th, we have an exact Full Moon at 8:08 p.m. in Gemini, and the Sun forms an exact opposition to Mars. And then, finally, on the 8th, Venus ingresses into Capricorn after it forms a square to Jupiter. And that's your damn horoscope, my loves.

I want to thank you, as I do every damn week, for joining me because I love astrology, and I love this podcast, and I love connecting with so many of you. So, yeah, it's a joy. I'm not going to lie. A little bit of joy from a crusty Capricorn? Take it, why don't you? If you get value out of this podcast, please hit the Follow or Subscribe button wherever you listen to your podcasts because it really does make a difference, especially for independent podcasts like Ghost of a Podcast is.

And in these tumultuous, emotional times, I hope you're being kind to yourself and to others. Show a little kindness when you can to strangers. You never know whose day it's going to turn around, never know what it's going to do.

All right, my loves. I will talk to you next week. Buh-bye.