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. This week, oh my, there's still a lot going on, and we got a lot to talk about. Depending on when you're listening to this, there may still be time for you to register for my November 5th class called Astrology for Intuitives: Identifying Your Psychic Strengths Through the Birth Chart. But if you missed it, don't worry. Within several days, I will have it for sale on my website. So you can always giddyap and get it there should you be so inclined.

And also, I want to announce another class that I'm teaching, and I'm so very excited about it. Well, maybe it's not exactly a class. It's more of a cosmic gathering with me and authors and thought leaders Sonya Renee Taylor and Adrienne Maree Brown on November 19th. We'll be hosting another cosmic virtual event on joy in times of apocalypse. And this time, we're going to center the conversation around boundaries, about how to practice presence without being consumed in apocalyptic times. This is going to be a heartfelt and inspiring conversation, and I invite you to join me there. The link to register will be in the description of this very episode. So, wherever you're listening to podcasts, just check out the description of the episode.

Now, we're going to talk about the astrology of November 5th through the 11th of 2023. But before we get into the details of this week's very complex horoscope, I want to acknowledge the influence of transits that I talked about last week as they play themselves out this week. So you may remember from Episode 372 of your horoscope, a.k.a. my last horoscope I dropped, that I talked about Venus being opposite to Neptune and Mercury being opposite to Uranus.

These two transits are really big deals. They're really, really triggering, and they're really triggering at a time when we are going through really harrowing times in the collective. I am, in this moment, referring to the energetics of what we are going through. When humans go through a collective trauma, it intensifies the energetics of that trauma. And there is so much happening. There is so much happening in the world. We are going through a fucking time. And I think it's safe to say that the world is teetering on the brink of world war, and it's terrifying. It's a fuck of a lot.

Astrologically⁠—let me pull us back. Astrologically, like I said, Venus is opposite Neptune. Mercury is opposite Uranus. And we are feeling the effects of these transits throughout the week. So the Mercury opposition to Uranus we'll be feeling until the 9th of November and the Venus opposition to Neptune until the 10th of November. And I want to give you a quickie, quickie refresher on those two transits.

The Venus opposition to Neptune can create confusion in our relationships. It can also create confusion around our values. It can make us more susceptible to misinformation, misunderstandings, disinformation, and propaganda in general. It can also make us a lot more susceptible to feeling victimized or feeling straight-up exhausted. On an energetic level, it just makes us more permeable.

And at the same time, the Mercury opposition to Uranus really stresses the nervous system. Mercury is the mind; Uranus is the nervous system. And these two planets⁠—when they're sitting opposite to each other, they can have us in a state of reactiveness, intense reactiveness where we jump to conclusions; we jump to defense. We basically just jump around in our minds in such a way that we can't quite gain purchase on stable ground within ourselves.

Mercury opposite Uranus basically stimulates mental anxiety, distractibility, restlessness, and that leads up to feeling defensive, doubling down on our convictions without listening, that kind of thing. Mercury opposite to Uranus can often bring up interpersonal conflicts. So can Venus opposite Neptune because whenever we're dealing with oppositions in transit astrology⁠—which is what horoscopes are, what the podcast talks about⁠—we have the tendency to project things out or have things projected out upon us.

So you may be having the urge to tear someone down, or someone may be doing that to you. Or it may be a give and take. What I want to encourage you to do is to remember that this shit is going on. And the reason, from an astrological perspective, or at least my hot take on the astrology of this time⁠—one of the reasons why we are going through these transits at this time is to help us to cultivate tools for navigating our nervous systems, for navigating defensiveness. And it's really, really hard to do. And the astrology of this week⁠—there's going to be more triggering stuff coming up.

So it's really important—if you can, take a moment with me to take a breath. This is not a meditation podcast, obviously. I'm not going to walk you through a meditation at this time. However, if you feel called to pause this audio and just really take a moment to, with your breath or through your body, in whatever way resonates for you⁠—because not all approaches work for all people, but to really get present here and now, to just get present with whatever is up for you, including your restlessness, your agitation, your sad feelings, your bad feelings. Allow yourself to acknowledge that they exist.

Allow yourself to just be present with whatever is up for you. Don't abandon yourself in your own moments of need. Most of us do that a lot of the time, and we do that because a natural human response to pain and suffering is to try to get away from it. But right now, we're watching a genocide of Palestinian people happening real time. And we also know that there is a genocide happening in Sudan. There are atrocities happening all over this world, and being exposed to it is really just harrowing.

It is okay to feel bad when things are bad. In fact, it's healthy to feel bad when things are bad. That is a healthy, well-adjusted response. But within that, we are living in a highly communicative, very Mercurial world where we are constantly taking in data and exchanging data. You are constantly taking in information online if you are like the vast majority of people, people in the West, anyways.

And within that, we are all being exposed to many different belief systems and data points. And it is really hard to be in such an emotionally raw state and be served up data, data, data, data, data. And the truth of the matter is that it is very hard to have the skills to sort through the first layer of our reactions to get to what's motivating those reactions.

As a Jewish human person who spends a lot of time online, I come across many posts on social media that spark my defenses and my fear and make me feel really unsafe. And I had to do what my hope is that all of us do, which is acknowledge my feelings and take a beat to try to just notice, "Okay. I'm having feelings come up," and take a beat so that I can let myself feel my feelings because the thing is, when you're on social media, when you're watching something on any form of media, you can usually pause it and come back to it. It's not like having an exchange IRL in the moment.

The work is to acknowledge our feelings and to sort through the emotions so that we can come back to the content that originally triggered us with some more self-awareness. And then we can sort through the data. What's actually being said? "What do I actually think about what's being said?" versus, "What do I feel about what's being said?" Who is the source who is stating a thing? Multiple truths can exist at once. Multiple truths can exist at once, and most people have a hard time with this, especially when our survival mechanisms are triggered.

When our survival mechanisms are triggered, you know what we do. We fight, we flight, or we fawn, which is the shutdown. Standing up against the genocide of Palestinians is essential for each and every one of us. It really is, regardless of our identities and our nationality. And the same is true, of course, with what's happening in Sudan and other regions of the world. But the truth is that when our defenses are raised, humans are not wired for nuance. We are not naturally inclined to slow down and tap into our feelings.

In fact, what we tend to do in those moments is go into all-or-nothing thinking. Our survival mechanisms are related to Pluto. We want things to be good or bad, for or against me. So I want to acknowledge that, because it's happening. And I want to task you with continuing to tend to your own internal landscape as you navigate the immensely challenging world of media, very much including social media.

Very few of us have the media literacy in the truest sense, and it shows. And when I say that, I don't mean that to be critical of me or you or anybody else. I mean this as an acknowledgment. It really helps us to acknowledge without judgment or condemnation where we're starting from so that we can get someplace better. And to that end, I want to affirm that it is possible to disagree with some things that your friends or someone you follow online says and still derive value from the things you do agree with. When we divorce ourselves from experiencing disagreement or conflict with others, when we tell ourselves that if we don't agree at 100 percent with the way people are saying things and what they're saying, then we are doing ourselves and the causes that we care about a great disservice.

Coalition-building is how we change the world. And within our coalitions, we will have people, many people, who we disagree with in many ways. That's actually okay. It may be triggering. It may be upsetting. It may be frustrating. But it is really important that we cultivate as individuals and communities the ability to be in disagreement. Now, of course, I am not talking about hate speech. I'm not talking about disagreement about our survival in any kind of a real way. But I am talking about disagreement.

We have to be able to disagree with people and to let that be, and to even be curious about it. And within that, it is really valuable to bring your attention⁠—my attention, your attention⁠—back to the fact that everybody is scared right now. Everybody is passionate right now. And we all have our own personal triggers that come from our day-to-day lives, our experiences, our historical experiences, our personal identities, our epigenetics, and the media that we've consumed throughout the course of our lives, which⁠—translation, with the propaganda we've been exposed to throughout the course of our lives and, of course, in recent weeks.

We are all going to engage with those triggers in different ways, and it can be no other way. Being able to have empathy and also awareness that I don't know what your triggers are, I don't know what your experiences are, and you don't know what mine are⁠—and that's just how it's gotta be. That's how it's going to be. This is not a war of semantics. This is not a crisis of semantics. This is about humanity. So conserve your energy if you can, and choose your battles with care so that when you engage in a battle, your fighting is in service for what you love and what you value.

All right. Let's get into your horoscope. I will reiterate we are looking at November 5th through the 11th of 2023. And the first exact transits of this week happen on the 6th. We've got two exact transits this day. We've got a Venus trine to Pluto exact at 6:38 a.m. It's happening with Venus at 28 degrees and 4 minutes of Virgo, and Pluto at 28 degrees and 4 minutes of Capricorn. Later this day, at 5:37 p.m. Pacific Time, Mercury forms and exact trine to Neptune. And this is happening at 25 degrees and 8 minutes, with Mercury in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces.

Now, these are two really lovely transits. And given that we're still under the influence of the Venus opposition to Neptune and the Mercury opposition to Uranus, they're very well timed. Venus trine to Pluto is a stabilizing transit, especially because it's happening in earth signs. Venus is our relationships. It's diplomacy. Pluto is transformation, depth, and intensity. And so this transit can help us to have deep connections and exchanges with people in ways that aren't conflictual. It empowers us to connect deeply and with care and consideration around hard things.

Mercury trine to Neptune empowers us to have ease of conversation. So this transit is really good for talking about things in an empathetic, graceful, and compassionate way thanks to damn Neptune. And of course, this is strengthened by the fact that this trine is happening in water signs. So it intensifies the transit's ability to promote flow and generosity and care.

Mercury trine to Neptune is a transit where our humanity is easier to center. And so, if things have been rough in your relationships, if you've had a hard time connecting with certain people in your life or really listening or feeling heard, these transits are really helpful to kind of smooth over things. So it's not going to happen by magic or osmosis through the transit. It's if you endeavor to connect with others and have real conversations with them, if you're willing to get deep, it's likely to go well.

Now, my little caveat is these other two transits⁠—Venus/Neptune opposition, Mercury/Uranus opposition⁠—have radically different outcomes. So it depends on how these transits are hitting your chart whether or not the more challenging transits are going to override the ease that these more supportive transits are bringing us. So you can look at your birth chart and track which transits are hitting your chart in what ways to know what's likely to be the benefit and utility of these transits for you. But these are fucking lovely transits, absolutely supportive and lovely.

Venus trine to Pluto in particular is really good in supporting us to invest⁠—Pluto⁠—in our values⁠—Venus. And this can mean making purchases that reflect something you really care about or investing your money really wisely. That might be reinvesting your money in something that better reflects your values. This can be in your relationship to the way you look and your relationship to romance and your intimate connections with other people or animals.

This transit is incredibly supportive for all manner of relating, all manner of diplomacy. So, again, if you gotta work something out with people, this is a good time to do it. And this reality is only strengthened by the Mercury trine to Neptune because it kind of takes the edges off of communication so that it's easier to communicate in a way that is more digestible to other people, that doesn't feel harsh. And holy shit, do we need things to feel a little less harsh right now.

And so, if there's a need for you to smooth things out or come to better understanding with someone, again, Mercury trine Neptune. Let's tap into these energies. If you are somebody with a lot of sensitivities to le woo, to energy in general, this transit can amplify that. And so it's going to be really important for you to be mindful and intentional about your boundaries, and in particular your energy boundaries and your boundaries in your thinking. So the energetics is Neptune, and the mind is Mercury.

When we talk about boundaries⁠—and we talk about boundaries a lot⁠. When we talk about boundaries, if we don't have boundaries within ourselves in regards to where we allow our thoughts to linger and the tone in which we talk to ourselves and the language with which we identify our ideas or sort through data in our heads⁠—if we don't have boundaries there, it's going to be really hard to maintain boundaries externally outside of our inner landscape. Mercury trine to Neptune is really supportive to these ends. So, again, these transits are excellent and worth paying attention to so that we can make the most of them.

On the 8th, we have another excellent, lovely, supportive transit. It is a Mercury sextile to Pluto. It's exact at 4:17 p.m. Pacific Time, and it is happening at 28 degrees and 6 minutes with Mercury in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn. Now, this transit is really good for, again, adding depth and intensity into our thinking. So depth and intensity⁠—that's Pluto. And our thinking is Mercury. This can really help us to listen well. And it's important that we all take responsibility for the ways in which we are not great at listening to what other people say; we're not great at taking in data, sorting through data. This transit can help us, and it's further assisted by the Mercury trine to Neptune.

This transit can represent a time where you just have deep, transformative conversations with other people, where there's some sort of synergistic connection so that you can really come to a deeper layer of understanding. And that is, again, very fucking well timed. If there's something you need to research, if there's something you need to work out in your communications with other people, this transit's your buddy. It's your absolute buddy.

The trick here is to be willing to navigate power dynamics with intention, to be mindful of how you engage with others and how you allow yourself to be treated. And again, this is where I come back to identifying where and how you can have healthier boundaries within your own thinking, within your own attitudes, within your own self-talk, as a way to create an internal foundation that is reliable, that you can build off of when you're engaging with the world and other people.

These transits that I'm talking about are all really supportive and helpful, and they may indicate some respite from some of the mental anguish that so many of us are struggling through. But it requires that you're willing to center a kind of self-care that is reparative and deep while still being associated. And I think that this thing about how to stay associated when things are hard⁠—well, the answer is nobody knows. I mean, there's not one single answer for all situations.

There are times when you're going to go hard and burn yourself out, and there are times when you need to pull back⁠—and everything in between. It's about being human. It is essential to allow our thinking to encompass and consider sustainability. How do we sustain our energies? How do we sustain our investment? How do we sustain the ways in which we engage with activism, our personal relationships, our habits, our passions? It's really hard to figure out. And throughout each human's lifetime, we all struggle with these questions. There's not a singular answer that applies to all dynamics.

Mercury sextile to Pluto is really empowering for us to ask these kinds of questions and sort through all kinds of data to get to what may be a useful and transformative answer. Pluto can bring about healing just as much as it can bring destruction. And so, if we turn our minds, our thinking, our attitudes, our conversations, towards healing and repair this Mercury sextile to Pluto, it can be really powerful. Really powerful.

But of course, the Universe giveth and she doth taketh away. And this transit overlaps with another Mercury transit that's a little less supportive. This one is exact on the 10th, and it is, again, from Mercury, but this time, it's a Mercury square to Saturn.

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Mercury will be at 0 degrees and 33 minutes of Sagittarius at 7:07 a.m. Pacific Time, forming a square to Saturn at 0 degrees and 33 minutes of Pisces on November 10th. Mercury square Saturn⁠—it's a tricky transit because Saturn is related to fear. It's related to security issues. And it's related to patriarchy. It's related to hierarchy. It's related to governmental structures. And Mercury square to Saturn is inherently conservative.

Now, it is possible that we as individuals, or even organizations and governments and companies, could make the decision to lead towards conservation instead of conservatism. Mercury square to Saturn is likely to see a doubling down on fear-based motivations and strategies because Saturn is preoccupied with scarcity, and Mercury is your mind. It's your attitudes. It's communication. It's also friends, comrades, people.

So, in regards to social conditions, it is not great news, this Mercury square to Saturn. And because it's overlapping with the Mercury sextile to Pluto, it may help us to make the most of what this transit can bring. And what Mercury square to Saturn can bring is the capacity and the willingness to do hard things in a different way than I said it earlier, and to do hard things in regards to working through challenging, taxing, tedious details. So Saturn is concerned with the tedium; Mercury is our minds. And it's like learning/engaging with that kind of information. It's communicating, right?

When Mercury forms a square to Saturn, it tends to put us into a negative frame of mind. This is why and how this transit is associated with depressiveness. So you may be just feeling fucking down. If you have a predisposition towards depressive thinking, this can accentuate it. Or some people, when transits like this happen, that are chronically depressed or depressive are not as affected. And they're not as affected because, finally, everyone else is on your wavelength. But again, it really does depend on how it hits your chart.

The thing about this transit is it concerns us with what isn't working. And that can be helpful because if we can acknowledge our problems, our shortcomings, and the reality of the situation from that place of acceptance of the reality, we can start to make plans. Mercury square Saturn is great for that. The problem is, again, our humanity. We humans, when we feel fear, when we are consumed by scarcity, we tend to act out. We have a tendency to get defensive because we need to defend ourselves because we don't have enough for ourselves.

This is where walls get erected, and it's no longer about boundaries; it's about barriers. And this is, on a social level, really poorly timed. I mean, does astrology create life? Does life reflect astrology? I don't know. I don't know about that kind of thing. But I do know that this does not suggest progressive conduct from world leaders and leaders of economies, unfortunately.

On a more personal level, this transit can make you feel more separated from other people, lonely, isolated. And that may or may not be true. You may be able to look at your life on Monday and be like, "I've got friends. I got people. People like me. I like people," and then on Thursday afternoon be like, "I don't know anybody. Nobody knows me. I'm completely alone." And from the vantage point of you on Monday versus Thursday, they're both true.

This is the thing about perspective. It really shifts things. As anyone who has walked down a street or up a hill can tell you, perspective changes the way things appear. So keep in mind that under the influence of Mercury square to Saturn, our perspective is going to be scarcity-based and negative, which can make us feel more conservative, more self-protective, more depressive, and for some people, that'll make you really sad. For other people, that'll make you really defensive or angry. It can make you feel exhausted.

The best use of this transit is to get practical, to get to work. Create a short list of practical things you can actually achieve on and around this date. That might literally be sorting through your inbox or finishing a load of dishes. It might be calling your reps or sending a few emails⁠—small, sustainable things that give you a sense of achievement, that make you feel like, "Okay, there is some order, and I can engage with order." That's honestly the best use of this Mercury square to Saturn.

Now, all the stuff I said on the 6th and the 8th about processing with people⁠—yes, those are the dates to do it, not here, not today. Mercury square Saturn is not a great time for sorting through your personal relationships. It might not be avoidable. You may need to have a conversation with somebody about the reality of your relationship and whether or not it's working or how it is or isn't working. But you want to keep in mind that Saturn governs humility and guilt, depression and accountability. And it is in your best interest and mind to try to err on the side of humility and accountability instead of guilt and condemnation and all the other things that Saturn can govern over.

Now, not to pile on too much good news, but we're going to be feeling the effects of this transit until the 15th or around the 15th. The further we get from the 10th, the less we're going to feel it. That's the good news. The bad news is here we are. But, my loves, here the fuck we are. And I think that there is, in times of struggle⁠—which many of us are in, and if you're not, goody on you. In times of struggle, there is a great value in acceptance. And I will reaffirm something I've said seven million times on this here podcast: acceptance is not consent. Acceptance is awareness.

And when we can allow ourselves to have acceptance and awareness of where we're at, we are better empowered to figure out the healthiest, most sustainable strategies for coping because when we struggle with "I can't believe this happened. I can't believe this is happening. Oh my God. What is actually happening?" then we're kind of spinning our wheels, and we lose precious energy, energy that we can be using to try to create strategies and solutions and coping mechanisms and all that.

And, that said, we all spin our fucking wheels at least a lot of the time. That is part of being a human, and it is in particular part of being a human in exceptional times, which⁠—these are exceptional times. So, if you are just struggling and that's where it's at for you, don't shame yourself. That doesn't help. Again, give yourself the grace of acceptance, like, "Okay. I'm struggling right now, and I'm not in a stage of figuring out solutions. I can't tap into the best parts of the Mercury square to Saturn. That's okay." Acceptance of whatever you're starting from⁠—that's the move this week and every damn week.

And that brings us to the last exact transit of this week, and it's a damn doozy. It's a Mars opposition to Uranus. This transit is exact on November 11th at 1:11 p.m. with Mars at 21 degrees and 8 minutes of Scorpio opposite Uranus at 21 degrees and 8 minutes of Taurus. Okay. This transit is a big deal. Much like the Mercury opposition to Uranus that we were feeling through the 9th, this transit, an opposition to Uranus⁠—it kicks up our nervous systems. It kicks up the unpredictable. And that's not the greatest news I could give you here and now.

Mars and Uranus are the two most individualistic, reactive, impulsive, and potentially self-centered planets of the zodiac. I don't know. Maybe Jupiter could get in there, but really, it's Mars and Uranus. As you've heard me say before, Mars is fighting. It's punch, punch, bang-bang. Uranus is explosives, and it's things that were not planned. The risk with a Mars opposition to Uranus is that conflicts get really heated and that there are major explosions. That's an unfortunate reality that the Mars opposition to Uranus triggers. It also triggers our defensiveness in a massive way. So, if you thought that the Mercury opposition to Uranus was the testing of your nervous system and testing of your ability to not allow your attention to be stolen by distractions that didn't actually help you or the world, may I introduce you to Mars opposition to Uranus?

This transit is felt in the body because it's fucking Mars. Mars is experienced viscerally. That's how that goes. And so, when Mars opposes Uranus, what we often experience, whether it's internally or from someone else, is outbursts of anger, somebody just giving you a bitch slap and you did not see it coming. This transit is one of the worst transits for invoking defensiveness and impulsive reactiveness⁠—not great news, right?

Now, the fact that Mercury is square to Saturn is actually a little helpful here. I mean, it could go either way. Let me explain. The way that it's helpful is that Mercury square Saturn⁠—it has us sitting down and focusing. It's really conservative. It has us really fixated on task, or at least it can. Mars opposite Uranus is fucking wild. It's like a live wire just flipping and flooping on the streets. It is dangerous. It is a dangerous transit. So Mercury square to Saturn could stabilize that a little bit, could ground it a little bit, because that's what you do with a live wire. You have to ground it in order to make it not so dangerous. So we could have that.

The other thing that could happen is Mercury square Saturn makes you feel stuck. It makes you feel isolated. It makes you feel a sense of scarcity. And then Mars opposite Uranus makes you feel like, "Well, I gotta fucking fight for myself. I am going to defend myself. I am going to fight those people. I am going to stand up." And that can be exactly what is needed or exactly a distraction from what's actually important.

If this energy comes at you, I want to say don't take the bait. Don't take the bait. And that doesn't mean don't engage in good-faith arguments. That doesn't mean don't have much-needed confrontations and conflicts, because confrontation and conflict is a healthy part of life. But again, what's important is that you engage in ways that actually move the needle in a direction that is useful and not just kind of spew your energy, find an outlet for your energy, which is going to be really tempting because the energy of Mars opposite Uranus⁠—nobody wants to feel it. It's agitating. It's angering. It's distracting. It's uncomfortable.

And so you may lash out at someone, not mean it, not plan it, but lash out at someone. And if you do, unfortunately, Mercury square to Saturn overlapping with this transit can make you feel guilty. So, when you lash out and you do something wrong and then you feel guilty, what do you do? Most people double down. We double down on self-harm, or we double down on our bad behavior with other people. So watch out for that. Watch out for that within yourself, and do what you can to be humble.

If you fuck up and you make a mistake like I have done and you have done many times before⁠—that's what we do. We're humans. We make mistakes. It's okay to say, "You know what? That was wrong. I'm sorry to put that on you. I'm going to go lick my wounds, and I will come back to you when I'm in a better state." You're allowed to do that. It's okay. Now, the other thing is somebody might come at you, in which case you may have to fight back, take a stand, or choose to not engage, which is a stand in its own way.

The key is that, again, Uranus fucks with our nervous system. And this is why we tend to be impulsive and why our actions and the actions of others tend to be unpredictable, because our nervous system is zingy. Be grounded, as grounded as you can be, and intentional about how you wish to engage with things you are passionate about, especially in relationship to liberation, to liberatory practices, again, in regards to social justice but also in regards to your world and your work life, your personal life, your relationship to whatever.

Mars opposite Uranus is not typically the most productive transit in the world. It's provocative and explosive. What you can do is strive to be aware of your own ego, your own defenses⁠—because this transit kicks up major defensiveness⁠—your own ego, your own pride, your own defenses, your own choices, to take ownership of how you are embodying who and what you are in this moment. That's your best move because then it'll be easier for you⁠—not easy, but easier for you⁠—to be mindful about how you choose to engage and how you choose to react. And as I'm always saying and will say probably forever, you are entitled to any and all of your reactions. They're your internal landscape, and that's a free zone. But your responses to your reactions⁠—that is a different story because we're not all entitled to all forms of action.

Allowing yourself to feel bad, as Mars opposition to Uranus often kicks up bad feelings⁠—allowing yourself to feel bad, giving yourself some space to feel bad, to tolerate your own feelings, your emotions and the sensations in your body⁠—because again, Mars kicks up sensations in the body. If you can practice tolerating all of that, then you have so much more agency. You have agency around how you choose to engage with your own insides and how you choose to engage with others. So those are your responses. This is much easier said than done, but it's a practice.

I want to remind you that you do not need to be perfect. Your friends, your comrades, the people that you learn from online⁠—none of us need to be perfect. It's really important that we hold space for our humanity, which is deeply flawed. And it's supposed to be flawed. We're not like machines. But even those are flawed, as we know. But we are meant to make mistakes and to learn from our mistakes.

Transits like this really reveal to us where our ego is at. It reveals to us where our defenses are at. It's valuable to have that information. It's not always fun. It can be very humbling. It can be very uncomfortable. But you may act out on this date or around this transit in ways that you're like, "Oh fuck. Why did I do that?" And the answer is inside of you. The answer is inside of you. And there is a value, a really profound value, of knowing where you're at when shit gets hot.

The only way that we can heal, the only way that we can evolve and grow, is by being honest with ourselves about where we're starting from. And that means taking away the condemnation and the judgments that we have for where we're not, what we don't know, how we struggle, where we still need to grow and evolve, because that's life. It's all about how we choose to show up for the situations we find ourselves in.

And the astrology of this time in general, and this week in particular, is going to be very revealing. And it will be very tempting for me and you and everyone else to be like, "Aha. This has been revealed. I strike down the hammer of justice. I say this is bad and this is good. I reject this; I choose that." That kind of all-or-nothing, for-or-against, good guy/bad guy kind of thinking comes from survival mechanisms. And it is possible to have nuance, and it is useful to have nuance. And when we are able to embody nuance, it makes it easier to be kind, graceful, empathetic towards ourselves and towards others.

Now, of course, there are situations that we can clearly point to that are evil, that are bad, that are not right. What I want to kind of pull your energy and attention back to is what I referenced at the top of the episode, which is that we are all in our survival mechanisms. And if you and I can take a moment to acknowledge that we don't know the education and indoctrination, the lived experiences, the fears, the hopes, the everything else of each individual and what motivates them⁠, if we can kind of hold on to that, that doesn't excuse people, but it does contextualize and context matters. It helps us to maintain our humanity. And when we are living through inhumane times and inhumane conditions is when we're most likely to compromise our own humanity.

So this is a really important time, if your circumstances permit, if your psyche permits it, if you can, to hold space for "and also," to hold community and coalitions filled with people you disagree with as much as you agree with, to allow for your own emotional complexity and messiness to exist alongside your certainty and your drive. These times, this astrology, is triggering all of it. And as hard as it is, the more intentionally we rise to the occasion, the absolute better.

Now, I'm going to run through these transits one more time if you're taking notes. But as always, the transcripts are available usually within about a day of the podcast episode dropping. So you can check my website out if you want the transcript of this episode or any other. And while you are there, you can also send a question in to the podcast through the contact form I have there over at ghostofapodcast.com.

Here are the transits of the week. On November 6th, we have an exact trine between Venus and Pluto and then Mercury and Neptune. On the 8th, we have an exact sextile between Mercury and Pluto. On the 10th, there is an exact square between Mercury and Saturn. And finally, on the 11th, we have an exact opposition between Mars and Uranus.

I thank you so much for joining me for this week of Ghost of a Podcast. And I hope that you are taking really good care of yourself, your community, and the people around you. I'll talk to you again in just a couple of days. Bye.