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. We are going to talk about the astrology of the week ahead, including the much-anticipated Lunar Eclipse. And if you are deep in your feelings, if things feel kind of unmoored in you and you want more insight into the Eclipses, you can still purchase my October Eclipses class on my website over at lovelanyadoo.com/shop.

So we're going to get into the details of this week, but let me start with something else that's astrological, okay? As a reminder should you need it, Pluto is still in Capricorn. And the last time that Pluto was in Capricorn was about 250 years ago. And we are going through the Pluto Return of the United States that is still very active. The last time that Pluto was at around 27 degrees of Capricorn, as it is now, was the birth of this nation, which you may remember had a lot to do with genocide.

Now we are going through the Pluto Return, the first time that Pluto has returned to the place that it was when this nation was born. When Pluto Returns occur within nations, we see empires rise; we see them fall. But connected to this, connected to this transit of Pluto in Capricorn, we are seeing systems of power, hierarchy, capitalism, and control reaching a boiling point here in the United States with our very long arms and greedy hands, but also, this is the theme of Pluto in Capricorn. And so it's impacting us as individuals, and it's impacting us on a global level.

And when we're dealing with Capricorn, we're dealing with the old guard. We're dealing with hierarchical systems. We got daddy issues when it comes to Capricorn. And so we are seeing in this world that the old guard is doubling down on their power. Of course they are. The more power you have, the more tightly you have to grasp on to it. It's the problem with us humans.

When it comes to looking at abuses of power from people who have an excessive amount of it, it's important to remember that there are more of us than there are of them. They of course have money and weapons and all the entrenched systems that nations and companies and economists and all this kind of stuff organize themselves around. But as Pluto spends time in the anorectic degrees of Capricorn, which is to say the last degrees of Capricorn⁠—which are, in some ways of looking at it, the strongest degrees of a sign⁠—we will see further abuses of power and the fact that Saturn is in Pisces as well as Neptune. And Saturn is hanging out around zero degrees of Pisces, but it's in Pisces.

We are probably going to hear more talks about general strikes. And this is really a powerful approach because when the people, when masses of people, come together and use capital and our labor as a way to force corporations and politicians to act in ways that reflect the humanitarian needs of the people, that can be really powerful. And because of Pluto's stay in Capricorn, because that is happening, again, at its anorectic degree, while Saturn and Neptune are in Pisces and we have the ongoing transit of Uranus in Taurus, which⁠—Uranus in Taurus calls into question revolution around our values, who we value, how we value it⁠—that Neptune and Saturn in Pisces has so much to do with humanitarianism, with the need for our systems⁠—Saturn⁠—to reflect that we are all in this together, on this planet, in this world together.

But the trouble is we need organizing because Pluto is in Capricorn, because we are looking at the planet Saturn, which is all about hierarchies and organization, but Neptune, which is about formlessness, Uranus, which is about rebellion⁠—in order to get through these times, these harrowing times that we are living through in regards to so many things⁠—I mean, certainly the humanitarian crisis that we are seeing in the Middle East as the State of Israel is perpetuating the genocide against Palestinians and the Gaza Strip, but also in regards to the climate crisis and so many other things that are happening⁠—what we need is to get organized so that we can take all of our needs for a more humane world and engage with the absolutely very real need for revolution, so we can take all of this and make it sustainable, create new systems.

And honestly, it's really hard to do that on the best of days. But when masses of people are in their fears, are in their survival mechanisms, it's exceptionally hard. It's exceptionally hard. As we speak, almost 200 Israeli civilians have been kidnapped and are being held hostage by Hamas, which is terrifying. And we are also watching a genocide occur in Gaza in real time. Caring about Israelis and Palestinians at the same time isn't hard; it's humane. And there's no good way to go through something this bad. There's no right way to feel. There's no perfect way to act. There's no simple answers.

We are living through truly harrowing times. And we are watching people being used as pawns by superpowers to satisfy the goals and egos of the men who run nations and economies. We are all pawns in their games, and it's on us to act with our own volition to promote peace and justice. Understand that with Pluto in Capricorn, it is the old guard, the hierarchies, the systems that have been in place for a long time. We're talking Saturnian energies. It's the patriarchy. We are talking about the system coming to a head because Pluto is about revolution. It is about destruction and healing. It is about reparations and the harm that requires reparations.

So, within this, within this all, it is important to acknowledge that these systems are not set up to be humane. They're set up to perpetuate themselves. And when I say "these systems," I'm talking about the old guard of governance. I'm talking about the way that certain people get dehumanized and demonized, the way some people are treated as disposable. These things, unfortunately, can be seen throughout time, throughout societies. What you can do and what I can do is show up. That's what we can do. We can show up.

And showing up is not a singular activity. It is not screaming into the void on social media. It is not protesting or organizing. It's not any of these one things. It may be all those things. It may be some of those things. It might be none of those things. What it is is a path. It's a way of engaging with life. From my astrological perspective, looking at the big picture of what is happening currently, what we need now more than anything is organization.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and don't know what to do about what is happening in the Middle East, which⁠—by the way, if you're a Westerner and you don't have any personal ties to the Middle East, that is perfectly reasonable. It is not the same as the West. And it is valuable to recognize that and to seek to educate yourself, to learn, to unlearn. Anyways, let me give you this simple advice about what to do. Find the leaders and organizations that were doing liberatory work before October 7th, 2023, and then fall in line. Learn. Learn and act. Call your political leaders and let them know that you demand a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Let them know that you do not want to be complicit in the State of Israel's attacks on innocent civilians in Palestine. There are lots of resources and scripts out there telling you exactly what to say if you're just not good with words or you're not good on the phone or you're just overwhelmed.

Everybody's got strong emotions. Everybody's got heartache. Speaking up is important. It's so important. But it's also really important to get yourself educated and to get yourself in order. And some people are going to be quicker at that than others. It depends on a number of things. I do not want to encourage you to put your head in the sand and let other people handle this. But I do want to validate that everyone's coming from a different place, and if you really are like, "I have no idea what the fuck is happening," it's okay to listen before you make noise.

Now, to that end, I want to acknowledge something that I've seen a lot of on social media. Many people on social media are advising you to turn off social media, to look away from the atrocities of what's happening in Palestine right now, and to protect your mental health. And we hear this from people all the time, especially in woo and spiritual spaces where a lot of people say, "I don't read the news. I don't want to let that drag me down. It hurts too much." And I have certainly heard over the years from some of my listeners that I talk about politics too much.

And I understand. I understand where that perspective is coming from. I'll say I also am hearing a lot of people advising that it is the height of privilege and the wrong thing to do to turn away, to look away from what's happening right now in the world and specifically in the Middle East, that we must continue to be present, to bear witness, and to stay angry and activated so that we can be agents of change for Palestinians' survival, humanity, and liberation.

Now, there are a lot of things that I do not know in this world, but one thing I do is that when humans reach a certain level of activation, we tend to break down, act out, and stop actively listening. We go into fight, flight, or fawn. We go into our survival mechanisms. And I will remind you we are going through deep Pluto transits. We are in an Eclipse Season. So you, me, and everybody else are really in our feelings.

I am not suggesting that either perspective is right or wrong. I am suggesting that there is a balance point, and it's going to be different for each of us. There is a balance point, but what we must do is find that point. Find ways of sustaining our energy and engagement is important because we cannot bury our heads in the sand. This is not an invitation to bury your head in the sand at all. It's not an encouragement to protect your peace during times of war if it requires you to turn away from those who desperately need your help.

What is is it's an acknowledgment of our human nature, and it's an acknowledgment that this is not a race. This is a very long marathon. I'm sure that you can feel it, this feeling that the world is at a precipice. And if you've been listening to the podcast, especially the year-ahead forecast, for a while, you know that the astrological conditions are such that world war has been on the table. Also, if you're just a political person⁠—you pay attention⁠—we know that global destabilization is⁠—it's one little earthquake away.

What we need to do is to stay engaged, to use your tool kit. Use your resources. I know you've got them. I know you've got them. You listen to my podcast. You must listen to other woo podcasts. You must have tools for coping with activation, for coping with your emotions. And if you don't, I invite you to cultivate more. Get ye a therapist. Join me over on Patreon, where I talk about this stuff and give tools and resources to the best of my ability.

Do all the things that support you. Finding leaders who can instruct you in what needs doing is really valuable. Then you can just do what they say. You can fall in line. Falling in line is valuable. Pluto in Capricorn⁠—we do need masses of people who will fall in line and support new structures, who will be a part of organizing humanity and where we go. And it's not just important that we have this today or this week or this month. This is about choosing a path where you're actively on the right side of history, where you are actively engaged in the world in a way that promotes the world being what the fuck you want it to be.

In this period and in general, there is so much that's out of your control and out of my control. There is so much uncertainty and fear. But we do have a clear assignment. It's rise to the occasion. Leverage your privileges. Challenge your prejudices. Cultivate stamina, empathy, media literacy. Show up, show up, show up. You're allowed to get it wrong. You're allowed to have days of rest and recalibration. You're encouraged to be humble and to learn and to unlearn. There's no right way to go through this very wrong time.

And for you, my loves who are Palestinian, Jewish, MENA, I want to acknowledge you. And I want to acknowledge that we are going through a really challenging time. There's a lot of Islamophobic, anti-Arab, and anti-Semitic sentiment that is coming out from a lot of people on the right and the left and in the middle. And it is a frightening time. I wish I had a solution. Of course, I don't. But I do want to acknowledge you and what you might be going through at this time.

Now, I'm going to talk about the Lunar Eclipse, which is a Full Moon in Taurus, shortly. But, you know, Scorpio Season, everything else I've been talking about, Eclipse Season⁠—we are going to continue to see the ugliest parts of people come out. And we want to remember that the ugliest parts of humanity grow in the petri dish of shame and guilt and resentment and fear. We are being challenged to recognize the messiness of our human emotions. We are being challenged to recognize what we value and who we value and to put those values into practice in the material plane.

This means we have to be present with our fucked-up, messy, complicated, sometimes shameful feelings and impulses, our beliefs, our attitudes. And I want to invite you to be brave enough to sort through that shit. It's hard, but it's the assignment. There are so many ways to get engaged and activated. Depending on your nature, your skills, your resources, your identities, they're going to be different. Depending on this week versus next week, they're going to be different. It's about finding your way. And remember that finding your way is not about flipping a switch. It's about seeking. It's the path.

Now, I want to acknowledge something else. Psychics, politicians, and everyone else is going to be making predictions. That's what's up. But predictions do not matter. I say this as an astrologer. Predictions don't matter. All that matters is that you show up. You show up for the grief and the fear and the strategies and the uncertainty⁠—all of it. All that matters is that you strive to fight for human rights, for equity, dignity, and for creating a better, safer world for the most vulnerable people within it. We do not need vengeance. We need the path forward towards peace.

The crises we're in are increasing daily. Do what you can as soon as you can. Call your congressperson now and demand a cease-fire. Show up in a community center and volunteer your time and energy. There are so many ways of engaging. Find yours on the path, and allow yourself to be curious and present, empathetic and humble on this path, because that is what's required of each of us at this time.

Families in Gaza are in need of your urgent support. Israeli warplanes are bombing Gaza right now, causing death, injury, and trauma. The organization MECA has staff and local partners in Gaza on the ground and ready to respond to the most urgent needs of children and families. Please give now to provide medical aid, clean water, food, psychological support, and more. Give what you can at mecaforpeace.org. That's M-E-C-A, F-O-R, P-E-A-C-E .org.

All right. That all said, let's get into this week's horoscope. We are looking at the astrology of October 22nd through the 28th of 2023. So the week begins on the 22nd, where we are still feeling the Sun square to Pluto. So we'll be feeling that throughout the 22nd. And we will continue to feel the Mercury square to Pluto, which was exact on the 20th. We'll continue to feel it through the 25th.

So, for a hot reminder, those two transits are really activating. They're really stressful. When any planet forms a square to Pluto, what happens is our survival mechanisms, our flight or fight, gets activated. So we tend to feel really intense. And in the case of the Sun, it's our identity and our sense of self gets triggered. And in the case of Mercury, it's our friendships, our ideas, our beliefs, our attitudes. I mean, in the context of what's happening in the world, what could possibly go wrong? It's intense.

These two planets forming a square to Pluto intensify everything, including especially our defenses, our resentments, our shame, a.k.a. the worst of us. And I don't mean the worst of us like in a value judgment way, but certain impulses and compulsions within the human psyche tend to live in the shadows. And then, when they get lit up, they're our least evolved and integrated parts. And so they're out of step with our alignment, oftentimes. They're out of step with our intentions, oftentimes.

So I want to just kind of acknowledge that this energy is persisting through the week. In the case of the Mercury square to Pluto that we will feel through the 25th, just be mindful about obsessive tendencies. Be mindful about the impulse or compulsion to seek blame, be punishing, and to dehumanize or vilify yourself or others. And this, of course, is happening on the personal and on the collective level, so socially, politically, and personally.

The key here is to slow down. Before hitting Send, maybe take a pause. Take a breath. See how it feels. See what's really going on for you. Before you act on your reactions, take a beat. Sit with your feelings so you can be more intentional about how you wish to respond to your reactions because our reactions are often some of our messiest parts. And we can be responsible for how we choose to respond to those reactions. It just takes effort. It's hard.

And where Pluto is we have mess. We have mess. This is a messy time. And if you and me and everybody else recoils from the messiness, if we don't have the capacity to sit in the messiness, if we are instead doubling down on our certainty, on black-and-white thinking, all-or-nothing thinking, then we tend to have more problems. This is a time for humility and mess, and that is really hard for almost all of us, maybe all of us. It's hard.

So you know it's happening. That means you can be intentional about how you choose to engage with it. And also, you can maybe have a little bit of grace for other people showing you their ass. They're showing you their ass because they're going through it and not necessarily because they're terrible people, and not necessarily because they're your enemy. Maybe, but⁠—you know.

This is a time where many people are going to have the urge to burn bridges, to make sweeping condemnations. And this is potentially not the way to go. I mean, maybe it is. Maybe it is. I don't know what's happening in your life. But we want to be mindful with these squares to Pluto. And this will be strongest on the 22nd, when we're still dealing with the Sun square to Pluto as well as the Mercury square to Pluto. But again, this shit drags on through the 25th.

Now, that brings me to the transit that is exact on the 22nd. And that is a Mercury trine to Saturn. We have Mercury at 0 degrees and 39 minutes of Scorpio and Saturn at 0 degrees and 39 minutes of Pisces. We have this beautiful water trine between Mercury⁠—again, which governs our attitudes and our beliefs, what we think, how we listen, what we say, how we say it⁠—and Saturn, our understanding of reality, our sense of responsibility. Right? Time. Maturity.

So this transit is right on time, according to me, because this transit in general, but certainly at this moment, is grounding. It can promote a more humble, serious, focused, and even humanitarian or empathetic, I should say, frame of mind. This transit can be super grounding so that we can actually handle things; we can sort through our thoughts and sort through mundane tasks, the little things. Mercury and Saturn together⁠—it's like cleaning up your desk, deleting some of those emails that have just been languishing in your inbox, that kind of shit.

But in the context of the larger themes we're going through, it can promote a sense of steadiness in your own mind. You may have an interaction with a friend or a neighbor that just gives you a little bit more faith in humanity, that gives you a little bit more confidence in our or your or their capacity to listen and learn and make changes. In general, this transit is great for making decisions, for seeing several steps ahead and being able to make plans based on that.

In the context of what's going on this week with the Lunar Eclipse and all this Pluto mishigas, the thing that we can really lean on this transit to do is to help us have more steadiness in our minds, to be more humble and to take greater responsibility for how we listen, my friends, how we listen, and how we participate in conversations, how we actively participate or passively participate in conversations. And yes, passive participation is just as important as active participation. It's like how we listen, how we reaffirm other people when they are sharing something. These things are "passive" skills, but they are incredibly important for our relationships, validating people, letting them know you heard them, you're thinking of them. This transit is really supportive for all that.

Because this transit overlaps with the Mercury square to Pluto influence, it can even help us to excavate our own defensiveness, our own lack of willingness to listen. It can really help us to be more humble when we need to be. And I want to be clear that when I reference humility, I'm doing so from the perspective of Saturn. So Saturn is a planet that governs guilt and punishment. It also governs humility. And this is where we want to remember within astrology, we're talking about energy.

So the energy of Saturn, when it's in balance, is humility, responsibility, which is simply the ability to respond. It's an ownership of self and intention and behavior. It's Saturn. It's taking responsibility for yourself in a humble and present way. That's the balance point. When it goes too far in one direction, it's guilt. "I'm the worst." It's being hypervigilant and unwilling to make a move out of fear of making a mistake. And then, all the way to the other side of the spectrum, it's, "I'm entitled to everything. Everyone else is fucked up. Everyone else has done something wrong." Punishment, blame. Punishment, blame. Punishment, blame.

That's all within the astral bucket of Saturn's energies. So, when we have something like this beautiful Mercury trine to Saturn, and on the 24th, the Sun forms an exact trine to Saturn⁠—when we have these transits activated, what it empowers us to do is to find our healthy middle ground, to find our own ability and our own style and our own truth around humility, about owning that we do make mistakes. You make mistakes. So do I. Everybody makes mistakes, and that's okay. It's not fun, but it's okay.

And acknowledging the parts of us that get very Saturnian and punishing and pointing of fingers and wanting to create hierarchies of good and bad and also the parts of ourselves and others that slip into guilt and fear and hypervigilance and inability to make a move⁠—these are human impulses. And so we are very blessed this week to have the Sun and Mercury both forming a trine to Saturn to empower us to be more pragmatic, basically to grow the fuck up. Saturn is all about maturity. And how to we attain maturity? It's through going through shit. That's how.

We are living through trying times, and they are requiring us to step up, to show up. And how do we do that? We do that with as much wisdom as we can. We do that with humility, hopefully. Hopefully. So we'll be feeling that Mercury trine to the Sun on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd. And then, on the 24th, a Sun trine to Saturn is exact. We will be feeling it on the 23rd, 24th, 25th.

The Sun trine to Saturn helps us to bring our whole selves, our whole selves, our center, our integrity, our vitality, into the conversation, the conversation as I'm naming it of taking responsibility, being humble, showing up, doing the work. And so, if there's shit that needs to get done in your life, these transits are really supportive. To be fair, there's a lot of astrology that's in the way of us getting things done and being humble and taking responsibility. But again, it's messy. We're in a messy time.

This transit is absolutely worth tapping into. Sun trine to Saturn, which⁠—I should say the Sun is at 0 degrees and 37 minutes of Scorpio. Happy Scorpio Season. Isn't it intense in here? And then Saturn is at 0 degrees and 37 minutes of Pisces. This transit of the Sun trine to Saturn can ground our intuition. This transit grounds us into pragmatism. It grounds us into what is sustainable.

So, if you've been feeling all kinds of bananas, this is a great time to try to be intentional about how to best conserve your energy so that you can sustain whatever effort and energy is needed to move through whatever it is you're going through. So this is, again, about coming up with a plan. It's about adulting. It's really about being clear about what you wish to do and how you wish to do it, and then aligning yourself with the determination and the intention to get that shit done.

So, within all of this, because we're dealing with Saturn, it's not a bad time to learn from others. And in particular, we're talking about Saturnian others. So that might be people who have a lot more experience than you do, people who are older than you, or people who have a role in your life where they are the Saturn, so somebody who has some sort of power in your life. Now, maybe you are the Saturn. That's also possible.

But I really want to encourage your openness to learning, your openness to allowing the wisdom and experiences of those who know more about a thing or have done more of a thing than you to influence you. And that means you gotta be in that humble, emotionally present, willing to be in the messiness and the uncertainty vibes. And that's challenging. But again, it's the assignment.

That brings us to the 28th, where we have a Lunar Eclipse. Now, I want to remind you the energy of an eclipse is meant to be felt. We're not meant to wrangle, manage, manipulate, or direct the energies of an Eclipse. And this is something that is really challenging because it's hard to feel your feelings. And there are so many ways that we go out of our way to avoid our feelings. And if we're being honest, one of those ways for us woo new-agey people is by trying to find the meaning and looking up what that number you keep on seeing means and doing rituals or looking in astrology books or whatever it is.

That stuff is all incredibly helpful. Obviously, I think so. I mean, I've dedicated my life to this work. But we have to acknowledge the ways in which we do these things as a way to explain away, rationalize, or distance ourselves from the messiness and overwhelm of our emotional landscape internally. So this is a moment on the 28th, during the Eclipse, where I want to invite you to not do that. I want to invite you to show up and to feel whatever you feel, and try to not distract with actions, with analysis, or with ritual, with woo. It's just a time to be in your feelings. That's what the Moon wants. It wants us to feel our feelings. And that is a lot.

Now, on the 28th, we have a Lunar Eclipse at 1:24 p.m. Pacific Time, and a Lunar Eclipse is a Full Moon. So we have the Sun and Moon opposite each other at 5 degrees and 9 minutes. The Moon is at 5 degrees and 9 minutes of Taurus, and the Sun is at 5 degrees Scorpio. Now, I taught a class called The October Eclipses: A Humanistic Approach. You can purchase that on my website over at lovelanyadoo.com if you want to get deeper into the Eclipses. But I will say a couple of things here.

We have a Grand Trine in this Lunar Eclipse chart. We've got Pluto forming a trine to Uranus and Venus. They're all three trining each other. So we have this earthy Grand Trine. This Eclipse is an opportunity for us to transform and revolutionize our values so that they are more humane and that they are more expansive, so that they validate and center what we value. This is a very transformative⁠—not especially easy/peaceful, but a transformative Grand Trine. So there's this flow of energy happening there, which is lovely and worth tapping into.

But it's a fucking Eclipse. And Eclipses always bring up big emotion. They bring up big developments. They take about six months to play out. So, this particular Eclipse, we have Sun, Mercury, and Mars all sitting on top of each other in Scorpio. And then we have the Moon and Jupiter sitting on top of each other and Taurus. So we can expect defenses to be up. We can expect that you and the people you're interacting with will be highly identified with your beliefs, with your attitudes. This is an Eclipse where you, me, and everyone else is likely to take shit real personally.

Because Jupiter is conjunct the Moon and the Moon and Jupiter are opposite the Sun, Mercury, and Mars, we are likely to be feeling pretty quick to respond. So your impulses, your ego, your sharpest, most biting critique or insight may be very cool. It might feel really satisfying in the moment to say or to think or whatever, but this is a time that is challenging us⁠—it's a Lunar Eclipse and Taurus⁠—to be aligned with our values.

So can you prioritize what you value, what's in alignment with your beliefs and values, over your ego, your pride, your sense of restlessness, your desire for instant gratification or for scratching an emotional itch? This is going to be hard. And even if you do a fantastic job because you're fantastic, you're likely to be dealing with other people who act out because Full Moons⁠—you know, they tend to make us act out under the best of circumstances. And these, my friends, are not the best of circumstances.

And then, on top of it, Jupiter is conjoined the Moon and opposite the Sun, Mercury, and Mars. Jupiter eggs us on. It makes us feel restless. It makes us feel like jumping in the pool before we check to see if there's any water. Jupiter is all in. And while that planet is very much associated with resiliency and optimism, it's also associated with soapboxing, with dragging all the horses to water and shoving their heads in the water, forcing them to drink whether or not they want to. That's a really terrible metaphor, but it's a metaphor. It's in the collective.

Jupiter can have us insisting that everyone has to see things the way we see them, believe what we believe, have experienced what we've experienced. Jupiter governs the preacher and the teacher, which can be absolutely wonderful and spiritual and expansive, or it can be pedantic and obnoxious and reflect a real "Do as I say and not as I do" kind of energy. So we want to be on the lookout for that.

Now, another thing that's happening in this Eclipse chart is that we have a Venus/Neptune opposition. It's not exact, but it is active. This promotes anxiety. It promotes anxiety around relationships, identity, on more of a social and global scale, the safety and welfare of women and gender-nonconforming people, especially in the feminine spectrum, which is a pretty wide spectrum. This transit sparks anxiety and uncertainty, and that is worth acknowledging.

Again, when we're dealing with Venus, the ruling planet of Taurus, where we're dealing with a Lunar Eclipse in Taurus, we're dealing with values. Who do we value? How do we express and embody that value? This Lunar Eclipse is really activating, really activating. And we want to keep in mind that Venus and Taurus, the planet and the sign, are related to security, a sense of safety. So, when your safety is threatened, whether that's imagined or real, do you throw your values out the window? Do you act out?

Part of being a human is we have these theories about how we're going to behave in various situations. And then, when life happens, we don't always act the way we imagine that we would act. It is what we do in real time, it's what we do when things are activated, that really reveals our values, the things we actually value, reveals where we're at. So, again, I want to invite you to consider your relationship to security and safety and ruts. I wanted to invite you to consider how you do or don't compromise your values when you feel your personal security and safety is threatened. And this is true on all the damn levels, all the damn levels.

There's certainly an interpersonal aspect of this Eclipse because we are dealing with Taurus and Scorpio. And so it is really important to stay in alignment and to be in integrity with your values. It's really important to be honest. And within that, the truth is true or it's not the truth. Truth/not truth. That's a real thing. What's also true is that there isn't only one truth in many situations. They're both true. It's messy. It's messy. It's messy having the capacity to acknowledge perhaps in a personal relationship, somebody really failed to show up for you, and what's true is it hurt your feelings. It broke your heart. Maybe it wasn't the first time. Maybe it was. That might be true. And what also may be true is that that same relationship person showed up for you in various ways over the course of various years, and that just because they really hurt you in this moment doesn't mean that the whole relationship is about them hurting you.

There's layers of truth. There's layers of truth. That person may have not shown up for you because they're having their own mental health crisis and they couldn't show up for you. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt you. Doesn't mean you knew that at the moment. But there are ways that there are multiple truths that occur at the same time, and that doesn't cancel them out, but it adds to the complexity and the nuance of what's true.

And having the ability to hold that mess and, within that, to hold responsibility and humility for your own part and to acknowledge the responsibility of other people's part, to have the ability to do that and to not rush to, "Okay. Therefore, I'm going to have to do x," or, "I'm going to cut this person out," or, "I'm to yell at them," or, "I'm just going to forget it and not talk to them about it because I get where they were coming from even though my heart's hurting"⁠—right? We don't want to allow Mars, Mercury, or Jupiter to have us rush to make a decision. Sit with the mess. Sit with the many parts and see what emerges within you, because again, a Lunar Eclipse is meant to stimulate us emotionally so that we evolve, so that we grow. And again, the way we're meant to grow is emotionally.

On the same day, on the 28th, we've got two exact transits, which I've referenced but I'm going to dig into because they're going to meaningfully impact our experience of this Eclipse. So the Eclipse happens at 1:24 p.m. Pacific Time. And at 9:03 a.m. Pacific Time, we have a Mars opposition to Jupiter happening at 11 degrees and 16 minutes⁠—so Mars is in Scorpio, Jupiter in Taurus. And then, at 8:44 p.m. Pacific Time, we've got Mercury at 11 degrees of Scorpio and 12 minutes, and Jupiter is at 11 degrees and 12 minutes of Taurus. So these two oppositions to Jupiter are really sandwiching that Eclipse. It's big, big energies to consider.

Mars opposite Jupiter is not inherently a good or a bad transit. However, what it does is it inflates Jupiter, the ego, Mars⁠—yikes. It's not necessarily what we need. While on its own, this transit can give you a boost of confidence⁠—it can help you to juj up your energy and make you feel more resilient⁠— the reality is that because there is so much activation in the air and you, me, and everyone else, it can also really puff up the pridefulness and the ego so that we don't really stay present, so that we are defending ourselves or proving ourselves instead of staying in the emotions.

It can create an increase in restlessness and the desire to prove yourself or win. And in the context of war⁠—because, of course, there is this larger context of war⁠—this Eclipse is not great news, especially around this opposition. I have pretty meaningful concerns about this Eclipse triggering more violence and more cruelty from states and corporations basically protecting the interests of men⁠—Mars⁠—and existing systems. This can be done in the name of religion⁠—Jupiter. And of course, because we're dealing with the Moon, which is very much related to nationalism and can be related to borders, there's a real risk of us seeing some big fucking drama.

The most important thing is for you to show up in ways that reflect your humanity and your values and to recognize the humanity and value in others. So Mars opposite Jupiter makes it hard to sit still. And this may be on a physical level. You may just be jumpy in your body. Or it might be more conceptually, philosophically, because it's Jupiter. The key with this opposition is to not allow pride, competitiveness, or restlessness drive you in a direction that is away from alignment and values.

Now, at the same time, of course, we have this Mercury opposition to Jupiter. And that can make us more broad-minded, but it can also make us double down on our beliefs. And because we live in this world where we're all glued to our devices and we are being fed propaganda that confirms our biases⁠—the big companies that own social media, that own news outlets, they literally are built to retain our engagement. And so confirmation bias is a great way to do that. So we want to make sure that we are being mindful and critical in our thinking because my guess, this Eclipse with this Mercury opposition to Jupiter being exact on the same day, is that there is going to be a massive, dramatic uptick in breaking news that may or may not be reliable, that may or may not have too much spin.

And we want to remember that the news that I'm seeing might be radically different than the news you're seeing. That will meaningfully change our beliefs. It will meaningfully change how we show up to conversations personally and in public. The Mercury opposition to Jupiter tends to inspire a lot of reactiveness and messiness with details because Mercury is details, but Jupiter is the big picture. And because there's an opposition energy, it can be that you read a headline and then jump to a lot of conclusions. It may be that someone says something to you or says something to you in a particular kind of way, and again, conclusions are jumped to.

The best thing we can do with this opposition is tap into its best potential, which is that it can expand your mind. It can expose you to different ideas, to different points of view, to different relationships, different people. Be open if you can. Be open-minded. And honestly, a Lunar Eclipse to a Moon in Taurus is not the most open-minded kind of transit in the world. But that Mercury opposition to Jupiter is a broad invitation for us to be open-minded, to learn. I mean, it's good work if you can get it, this learning new things and being open-minded.

But all in all, this Eclipse is a lot of energy and will bring with it the opportunity to learn more about yourself, your relationships, and the world around you. It bears repeating all you gotta do is show up. Show up, show up, show up. Eclipses will reveal things and they conceal things. And it is hard to know what's exactly what during an Eclipse.

So, whatever it is that comes up within you or in your life or in the world, I want to encourage you to remain open-minded. Seek more information. But also explore your own internal landscape, your own reactions, your own convictions, your own beliefs, the way you're coping, the way you're showing up. And explore that with the people around you, with the situations around you. That's what the Eclipse wants for us, to evolve. And again, because it's an Eclipse, it's to evolve emotionally.

Because Eclipses take about six months to play out, you may not have great clarity immediately. And that's okay. It's not always easy, but it is okay. If you're going to need more support, you can check out that class I mentioned about the Eclipses. And on the topic of classes, I should say that on November 5th, I am teaching a class that I'm super excited about. It's called Astrology for Intuitives: Identifying Your Psychic Strengths Through the Birth Chart. And you can register for that class. Link is in the episode description here. It's on my website. It's all over the damn place. I think it's going to be really fun, and I hope you'll join me there.

But wherever it is that you turn to for support⁠—and I do encourage you to seek resources that are supportive⁠—I hope that you will point yourself towards things that help you to process your emotions and your accountability to yourself and the world around you, because that is the assignment at this time.

So, my loves, I hope you take really good care of yourself and others, remembering that self-care is interwoven with community care. Self-care is interwoven with the care of others. These are deeply tumultuous times. All of this calamity is incredibly hard to bear. I don't say that to make it worse. I say that to acknowledge, if you're having a hard time, that's a really healthy response to things being fucking hard.

So give yourself some grace. If you're actually better equipped than some of the people in your life, give them some grace. We are all trying. Many of us are failing, but we are all trying. And there is no playbook for this. Start with empathy and humanity and getting into alignment, and then come up with strategies for engagement and sustaining your engagement.

And finally, I want to thank you for joining me here on Ghost of a Podcast. If you get value from the show, please do consider hitting that Subscribe button because it does help this little DIY podcast over here, and then you'll never miss an episode.

All right. I think we've done what we've come here to do. I will talk to you in just a couple of days. Buh-bye.