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.

Welcome back to Ghost of a Podcast. I don't know about you, but for me, last week's Full Moon was a lot. And now I want to welcome you to Eclipse Season. We are in the midst of Eclipse Season. We are in the couple weeks leading up to the first Eclipse on the 14th of October, and then there will be another one on the 28th of October.

I want to thank you if you joined me for my class on the Eclipses. And if you didn't but you still want to watch the replay, you can purchase it on my website at your leisure, because you know what? Eclipse Season is going to last a hot minute. It was really fun, and we went a little over. It was supposed to be an hour; it was almost two hours⁠—but all in the name of astrology. Am I right?

Okay. So, this week, we're looking at the astrology of October 1st through the 7th, 2023. And there's only a few transits to talk about, so let's jump straight into the astrology of this week. If you want to hear my month-ahead forecast, the only place to hear it is on the kittens level of my Patreon. You can join me over there. It's linked on my website and everywhere else. And that way, yeah, you can get a real heads-up for the astrology of the month ahead.

Okay. On October 2nd, we have an exact opposition between Mercury and Neptune. And it's exact at 8:34 a.m. Pacific Time, and it's happening at 26 degrees. So Mercury is at 26 degrees Virgo, and Neptune is 26 degrees of Pisces. Whenever this transit occurs, you know that there's going to be anxiety. Now, we've been feeling it for several days building up. This transit kicks up anxiety because Mercury is your mind. It's your beliefs. It's your attitudes. And Neptune kind of is overwhelming with what we don't know, with what we're not acclimated to.

This transit generally coincides a sense of anxiety and overwhelm. Things may feel like they're falling apart. You may feel like you're falling apart. It gets hard to sort through information. So you may find yourself easily overwhelmed, being misled, or unintentionally or intentionally misleading others. Don't lie. If you can avoid lying, I strongly recommend it. If you are dealing with somebody who you know has a habit of not being honest or forthcoming or giving you all the information, try not to stress on it too much, but keep that knowledge strong in your mind because this transit can coincide with being misled and being kind of pointed in the wrong direction, either intentionally or unintentionally.

In the world, we may see news breaking that maybe isn't properly reported. You know what I mean? So we just want to⁠—instead of panicking, we want to just wait a couple days for the transit to ease and pass before we make any permanent assessments. If you are needing to make major life-altering decisions or sign a contract, this is what the experts call no bueno. Don't do it. If you can avoid it, don't do it. If you can't avoid it, really take Mercury Retrograde rules here. Triple-check the fine print and the details because under this influence, things tend to get easily confused.

There's a reason why there's so much anxiety with this transit, and it's because Neptune is stretching the limits of our minds when it sits opposite to Mercury. And there is a value to that. There is a value to that. The problem is that value is best found in meditation, in nature, in silence, and not at work or navigating city streets or making decisions or traveling or whatever. It's a pain in the ass. This transit is a pain in the ass.

So, if you can, spend some time in a little place called you⁠—reflection, spiritual work. No mind-altering substances, please and thank you, because you don't need it with Mercury opposite Neptune. All of the kind of things that Neptune wants is found, basically, in silence and in stillness. If you can't do that⁠—because life⁠—then you may be feeling anxious or you may be dealing with other people who are kind of anxious. And what you want to do is simplify. Just simplify, simplify, simplify.

Neptune can get us kind of feeling like we're being twirled around and we can't quite find our bearings. So, if you gotta deal with life, do your best to cut things into the smallest bite-sized pieces you can and deal with one actionable, completable problem or issue at a time. And that'll help you to manage the kind of anxious thoughts that can come up around this transit.

If you are somebody who is an empath, who feels things really intuitively, this can be a time where you're just getting too much psychic noise. Neptune is a bit of a veil thinner, and Mercury is your mind. So don't avoid the news. Don't avoid the world. No, no, no. Instead, put up energy boundaries so that you are more intentional about what you're allowing into your space.

The other thing I want to say is that this transit can create interpersonal tensions. And this is part of why it's really important to not hang out with your frenemy today. A lot of us have people in our lives where you're like⁠, "It's not the safest person. It's not the best person for me, but they're in my life because of x, y, or z reason." This isn't the time to hang out with them. Anyone who you know contributes to low self-esteem, anxiety, feeling small⁠—this is not the time. You know what I mean? I would say not this week. Maybe I would say not this month, but certainly not this day, October 2nd.

So, if you can, dive into nature. Take a walk. Go by a river or a stream. If you can, tap into spiritual work that is focused on getting present and cultivating acceptance and love and empathy. And if you can, spend time with art, whether that means writing a damn poem or just listening to music that transports you. Neptune is healed by the higher arts. So this is a great time to lose yourself in any of those things.

Finally, I will say Neptune often means we need to rest. And so, if you're feeling really exhausted, if you're feeling really sleepy, just rest if you can. We can't constantly be pushing ourselves, and there's a lot of the astrology of this time that is quite driving and relentless in nature. I'll get to that in a second. But this particular transit wants us to slow down, not push so hard, not make things happen, tend to what is. So, if you can do that, then you're right on time. And that feels nice, doesn't it?

Now, on the 3rd, we have a Mercury trine to Pluto. This is happening at 28 degrees⁠—that's 27 degrees and 54 minutes. Mercury is at 28 degrees of Virgo, and Pluto is that 28 degrees of Capricorn. This transit is really lovely. It can deepen your thinking. It can help to deepen your connections. So this is a great time to have meaningful conversations with people that you care about, to really get to the bottom of something. If you are dealing with legal matters, if there are decisions you have to make, this transit is really supportive.

Now, it is overlapping with the other transit that I just told you about, Mercury opposite Neptune. So what you're going to want to do is, to the best of your ability, tap into the grounded potential of Mercury trine to Pluto. What I think is likely to happen with these two transits is that we are likely, depending on our nature, depending on our birth chart, to feel one of them a little bit more than another.

So it may be that the Mercury trine to Pluto helps to ground your thinking so that you're not as overwhelmed by anxiety and you're not feeling as floop-a-doop in your head. Or it may be that the Mercury opposition to Neptune makes it harder to concentrate, makes it harder to be as grounded and focused as we may otherwise be, but that that becomes something quite pleasant and something that lends to being able to get more out of your moment in nature or writing that poem or whatever it is. It can kind of go either way.

Because Pluto is involved, there's always the risk of obsession. And we need to be somewhat obsessive if we're doing research. We need to be somewhat obsessive if we're getting to the bottom of something that's important. But, that said, you don't want to be obsessive around your anxiety, because that just makes the anxiety a lot worse. So it's important that if you find yourself in a state of mind where you are obsessively investigating your anxieties, you can say to yourself, "Oh shit. I need to turn this energy around," and put your attention, your mental attention, somewhere that's more productive, and if you can't do that, somewhere neutral.

So, when it comes to obsessive thinking, if you can't point your obsessive thoughts in a positive, healthy, and helpful direction, try to stick them in a neutral direction, a direction where they don't hurt and they don't hold you back, but they're not especially helpful either. Sometimes that's the best we can do. And I gotta say the best you can do is great. It's good. I think we have a tendency to be so hard on ourselves. And when you're having a rough time, when you're fixated on anxieties or negative obsessions, it's the worst time to be hard on yourself. That's when you need a little TLC.

And luckily, there's not a lot of great things about the Mercury opposition to Neptune, but that can help us to be more empathetic. And the Mercury trine to Pluto can help us to⁠—maybe it's not so much about empathy, but to have a more grounded and pragmatic approach, which can be very useful because it's not very practical⁠—it's not very helpful⁠—to fixate on things that are out of your control and that make you feel bad.

So bring as much intention to these transits as you can, and it will serve you well, my friends.

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Now, that's actually it for the exact transits this week⁠—only two. But I told you there was a few things, and I was not lying. So we have started to feel a transit that won't be exact until the 8th of October, but we started to feel it on the 30th of September. And that bad a boy is a Mars square to Pluto. And this transit is a real kick in the cooch. Let me tell you about it. It's exact on Sunday the 8th, so I'm going to talk about it more next week. But because you're going to be feeling it all damn week leading up, I want to give you kind of a sense of it so that you can figure out why you feel so intense or people are acting the way they are. Let's make it make sense.

So, when Mars forms a square to Pluto, we generally feel really agitated in our bodies. And the reason why is Pluto governs our flight-or-fight mechanisms. It's your survival mechanisms. And Mars is your body. And so, when these two planets form a hard aspect to each other like a square, it can be really hard to stay present with the feelings you're feeling. And the feelings you're feeling may be kind of out of time with what's actually happening. In other words, you're likely to feel triggered, and so is everybody else.

Now, of course, if this transit hits your birth chart directly, this is going to affect you a lot more. But you live in the world with other humans, and some of those people might be going through this transit more specifically than you. So it's just kind of in the air. Now, this transit will be exact at 28 degrees⁠—or, more specifically, 27 degrees and 54 minutes⁠—with Mars in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn. So, if you've got anything especially in a cardinal sign, which is Libra, Capricorn, Aries, and Cancer, at around those degrees, you're really going to feel this one.

But what Mars and Pluto both govern is conflict. They both govern war and fighting. Mars is, "Kick, punch, bang-bang," and Pluto is, "I blew the whole thing up. It's nuclear." Now, I'm not saying we're going to go to war, because this transit happens frequently enough because of the speed of Mars, and the world doesn't constantly go to war when this occurs.

That said, we are in the Pluto Return of the United States, and the United States is certainly at a really profound tipping point in terms of where we are with this nation, whether or not the great American experiment will survive. And we are seeing really bad behavior from men⁠—and some women⁠—trying to retain the patriarchy and male supremacy. And of course, associated with that is white Christian nationalism, misogyny, transphobia, and homophobia. All of these things are really rampant in our culture right now and in politics.

And so we may be seeing really bad behavior from people trying to maintain the status quo and take away the liberty, rights, and body autonomy⁠—because Mars is body, and autonomy⁠—again, flight or fight⁠—is Pluto⁠—for anyone who's not a cis male. So we definitely want to pay attention to what's happening in the world, and we definitely want to participate to the best of our abilities using whatever privileges we have. Now, of course, not everybody can do that, and not all days are the right day.

But we really want to be paying attention to what is going on right now because this square is important, and it is happening in Eclipse Season, so it's going to be more emotional. Everyone's emotions are going to be kicked up. So that's on a social level. On a personal level, if something feels dangerous, don't do it. I'm not saying be scared and let all your fears stop you, but I'm saying trust your instincts. This is not a great time to put yourself in a physically dangerous situation unless you got a good reason. So trust yourself.

You may find yourself involved with power struggles, and they may be stupid. It might be a weird power struggle with somebody on a bicycle, and you're on a bicycle, and then you have a weird, stupid power struggle at a stop sign. You know what I mean? Or it might be something deep, and it might be something that is actually connected to your survival. In both situations, from an astrological perspective, it's important to know that your ego, your pride, your willingness and ability to stand up for yourself, your belief in your right to stand up for yourself and have healthy boundaries, are all being triggered, as may be your anger, your defensiveness, your drive to punish others or control them. This may kick up resentments, right?

All of this shit is up. It's important to be really intentional about the fights you pick and the fights you engage in. If you are having a terrible time with your partner this week, don't go online and engage in power struggles in the comment section. This isn't the time for that. I mean, it's not really ever the time for that, but don't misplace your energy and your anger and your irritation. And I'm saying don't do it because, of course, whoever's comment section it is is not really to blame, but also because it's a displacement of the energies that are working themselves out in your life.

And being able to experience anger, outrage, defensiveness, fear, your own triggers, and to not act in a way that reflects only your triggers, your flight-or-fight mechanism, but also your self-awareness, your intentionality, your boundaries⁠—that's a really important life skill. Now, again, this advice is not appliable for all situations. If your survival, if your welfare is actually being jeopardized, ignore this. Do whatever you need to do. But a lot of us are going to just be feeling activated.

And if you're feeling activated, it's okay. You're right on time. But the assignment is to stay present with the activation, to learn more about yourself and the situations/relationships you're engaged in, and to respond accordingly, to respond in the healthiest way you can. You may not be able to avoid confrontation or struggle. And avoiding confrontation is not inherently a good thing. But whenever we're dealing with Pluto transits, making enemies is not the best first move you can pull.

So, unless it's absolutely necessary, try not to make any enemies this week and, honestly, next week. And also, you might not be able to avoid it, in which case don't freak out. Just do what is right for you. We want to use astrology as a way to kind of validate what we're experiencing and come up with healthy strategies for coping. You don't want to use it to get to superstitious or too in your head about stuff.

So, if you don't resonate with this energy, if you don't feel it this week, I say yay, you. And if you're dealing with other people who are clearly feeling it, whether you are or aren't, hopefully you'll have a little more empathy and a little more grace for whatever it is that they're going through, even if they're kind of being dicks. If it's not actually harming you, then try to let it go and let it be their problem.

And we'll talk about it more in depth next week when the transit is actually exact. But just know this energy is going to be mounting throughout the week, and it's likely to make itself be felt. So watch your ego. Watch your pride. Keep in mind that triggers and traumas are both equally real things. They're both equally important things that we experience and that we feel and that get activated in our relationships and in our worlds, but they're not the same thing.

Being triggered by someone or something is not the same thing as being traumatized by them. When Pluto gets activated, when our flight-or-fight mechanisms get activated, it is really hard to tell what the best way to respond is. It's really hard to tell the difference between actually being in danger, actually needing to fight or resist, and instead needing to soothe yourself, take care of yourself, tend to yourself, because when we're triggered, what most often needs to happen⁠—or often needs to happen⁠—is that we stop, stop whatever we're doing, and make sure we're not abandoning ourselves, that we're not displacing, that we're actually taking a moment to listen to ourselves, to nurture ourselves, to acknowledge what we're feeling, because so often, the thing that gets triggered is feeling trampled on, feeling mistreated in some way.

So it's important that you don't perpetuate harm to yourself as you react to somebody else harming you, real or perceived. So these are the kinds of things that are likely to come up and that I just kind of think is helpful to have in our minds for the Mars square to Pluto.

Now, my loves, I hope you have a healthy and safe week, that you remember to mask up in public spaces during this ongoing global airborne pandemic that we find ourselves in still, and that you join me in a couple of days for the next episode of Ghost. Okay. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.