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.

Hey there, Ghosties. In this episode, I'll be doing a live reading with one of my beloved listeners. Every Wednesday, listen in on an intimate conversation and get inspired as we explore perspectives on life, love, and the human condition. Along the way, we'll uncover valuable insights and practical lessons that you can apply to your own life. And don't forget to hit Subscribe or, at the very least, mark your calendars because every Sunday I'll be back with your weekly horoscope. And that you don't want to miss. Let's get started.

Welcome to Ghost. This week, I'm going to get to as many questions of yours as I can in a single episode because I can never answer enough of your questions, and you know I want to answer all of them. So here we go.

I'm going to start this off with a question from Confused. Confused was born on September 8th, 1978, at 3:47 a.m. in Greenbrae, California. And she says, "I feel like I've been phoning it in on my job for the last part of a decade. When I started my career in my 20s, I was full of motivation and curiosity. And over the next ten years, I manifested the career I had hoped for. Now, almost a decade after that, I am far from fulfilled like I once was. I am restless and itchy for a change, but I'm having a difficult time conceptualizing how to make that change. I thought I loved this job. I thought it was meant to be. My identity is tied up in it. And now it feels like the toxic boyfriend I can't quit. Is it time for me to make a huge life change?"

Okay. About eight years ago, in 2015, you started to go through a series of transits, which are the Pluto square, the Uranus opposition, and the Neptune square Pluto square to Pluto and Neptune square to Neptune, Uranus opposite itself as well. These three transits are associated with the midlife crisis, where if we are not living in a self-appropriate way, our life starts to feel pretty claustrophobic and rough. And so what you're describing in your question is, when you hit that midlife crisis, you started to become unhappy with your job, which doesn't mean that it was a mistake to be in your job before. But it does mean it had outlived its purpose. You'd outgrown it. It was no longer a match.

It sounds like what you did is what most people do. You said to yourself, "I've worked this hard. I am this age. I shouldn't have to change or I shouldn't change at this age, and therefore I'm going to just dig in my heels and fight my own instincts." And so you did so, right? You stayed in the job even though it's not a match anymore. It's perfectly human that you did that. But what's happening to you now, Confused, is you have a Midheaven at 28 degrees of Aries and 23 minutes. And that means Pluto is forming a square to your Midheaven. So all the changes that you didn't make in regards to your career are becoming downright intolerable, like intolerable for you.

And so, yes, I am saying to you it is definitely time to make a change. But I'm also saying it is perfectly healthy and normal to live a life where you spend 10, 20 years doing something and it's a huge yes, and then you wake up one day and you're like, "Maybe it's not a huge yes." And after enough days of waking up realizing, "Hmm, maybe this isn't working," you eventually know it's just not working. That's normal. It's okay to have gone through that and to be going through that. It's not a failure to evolve. It's just not. And the fact that your identity is tied up in your career is also very normal regardless of what your birth chart looks like. But in particular, because you have a Midheaven in Aries, it makes a lot of sense that you would be personally identified with whatever it is that you do for your career and how people know you around that.

Instead of trying to conceptualize what to do, try to get clear about what's a yes and what's a no about what you're currently doing. What are the things that actually make you happy about your work or give you a lifestyle you want or whatever it is? And think about the things that are clear no at this stage in your life because when you clarify your own self, it becomes a lot easier to plan out or map out your next moves.

Now, the next question I have is from M.S. And M.S. says, "Why do I feel like I feel emotions more intensely than the average person? I am coming to terms with anger issues I experienced as a child and have always felt romantic impulses very deeply. Over the past two years, I feel like I have evolved spiritually and that I have a deeper understanding of my life than my peers. It not only feels isolating at times, but am I conceited for feeling like I have a, quote unquote, better outlook spiritually? Thank you for your time. I listen to your podcast every week." Thank you, M.S.

Her birthday is December 23rd, 1994, 12:10 p.m. in Blacksburg, Virginia. The first and very important thing that I want to say to you, M.S., and to all the people who write me questions that are very similar to this⁠—because I have certainly gotten questions similar to this⁠—is it is not necessarily very helpful or healthy to compare ourselves to others. So the part of this question where you say, "Do I feel my emotions more intensely than the average person?"⁠—the reason why you're asking that is maybe because you want to feel bigger or better than them. Maybe it's because you want to substantiate or justify why you behave in a particular way and they don't. Maybe it's any number of things. But it's not necessary.

Everyone feels their emotions in their own personal way. And whether you're more intense or you're more evolved than other people⁠—I mean, which people? There's for sure going to be people who feel more intensely than you, and there are for sure going to be people who feel as intensely as you, and there are for sure going to be people who feel less intensely than you because there's a lot of people in the world.

What's really important whenever we have this kind of question in our hearts or minds is to keep in mind that you're, first of all, comparing yourself to others, which is sticky and tricky, and second of all, you're comparing yourself to the people you choose to engage with, you choose to hang out with, not to all the people of the world, because there are people at all states of evolution all over the damn place. Right? Right. So, if you find that you're constantly and consistently interacting with people who are not on your level, whatever that means, that's a reflection of you as much as it is of that. So this is something to keep in mind.

Now, when I pulled up your chart and saw that you have a Moon/Mars conjunction, I was like, "Oh. Well, that makes perfect sense why you've been dealing with anger and strong impulses." When we have a Moon/Mars conjunction, what we tend to feel is our emotions sharp and hot. That's how they come in, sharp and hot. That's the move. So is that very intense? Depends on your definition of intense because, oftentimes, with a Moon/Mars conjunction, emotions come in hot and then they kind of go away quickly, which may or may not be considered intense. But certainly, this is a very passionate, quick to anger and quick to reactiveness natal placement.

In your birth chart, you have Saturn opposite that Moon/Mars conjunction. And so it can give you the impulse to be somewhat controlling towards your own emotions or towards others, to put you in a position where you are trying to make things right or wrong. Saturn can be really moralistic that way. And your Saturn, Moon, and Mars all form a T-square to Jupiter in the eighth house. And this is where you land on the language of intensity because the eighth house is where we find intensity, emotional and spiritual intensity. And in your birth chart, you've got Pluto conjunct Jupiter.

Now, Pluto is not involved in this T-square, but it's very, very close to the T-square. So are you intense? Yes. But more than others? Again, I hopefully have answered that question. Is it conceited for feeling like you have a better outlook than other people? Yeah, maybe it is. Having Jupiter as the focal planet to a T-square absolutely can be associated with being conceited, thinking that you're better than others. Saturn and Pluto can do that, too. And so that's definitely something I want to rein you in from because it takes away from you focusing on being in integrity with yourself and being healthy and being right with yourself.

I am of the mind that when we think hierarchically around spiritual issues, we've kind of lost the thread. It's not really valuable, because it's not a competition. Spirituality, emotional development⁠—it's not a competition. It's an evolution. So, wherever we're at in our evolution at a given moment, it's subject to change in the next moment. And all we can do in the present is our best.

That said, I want to speak to this thing you're naming around feeling isolated at times because you feel like you have a deeper understanding of life than your peers. This is not uncommon for people with a Saturn opposition to the Moon or Mars or having that Jupiter and Pluto in your eighth house. You're also a Capricorn with a Mercury conjunction to your Sun in Capricorn. So, again, feeling out of step with your peers⁠—that makes sense. And so it might be really valuable for you to make friends with older people, people who have more lived experience. The key for you is to make sure that whatever relationships you are cultivating have equality deeply netted in them so that there's not power dynamics were you're the friend who's always giving advice or you're the friend who's always getting advice; it's about a give and take. That's what our relationships are meant to be.

And so you might find it easier to connect with older people. It might actually be a healthier, better match for you. But that Jupiter as the focal planet to a T-square can incline you to be attracted to younger people. Again, this is where I come back to that it's important that we are mindful and take ownership of our own choices and what they reflect about us and be less focused on whether we're better or worse than other people, whether we're more evolved or less evolved than others. If you find yourself in a room full of people where you don't have things in common with them, get out of that room and find another room. It's not easy, but it is simple.

My next question comes from Sixth-House Stellium, and they would like their birth information to be kept private. But here's the question: "I've been told that having a sixth-house stellium equals having a great career. However, I've found that it has equaled to lots of issues with coworkers, and I wanted to get your input on this subject."

This is a great question because having a concentration of planets in any given house or sign doesn't mean that things are easy for you with that topic⁠—the topic of the zodiac sign or the topic of the house. It means that things are activated within your nature. Having a sixth-house stellium⁠—and this person in fact has five planets in the sixth house, three of which are intercepted in Sagittarius⁠—doesn't mean that career is easy or chill for you. It means that work is important.

And I should clarify the Midheaven and tenth house are associated with career, but the sixth house is associated with work. And so an example of that would be my career is I am an astrologer and a podcaster and a psychic medium, etc. But my work, my day-to-day job, I'm answering emails. I'm completing tasks. The things I do day to day, that's my sixth-house stuff. That's my work. My career⁠—it's the high-level stuff. It's the big-picture career drive. So the sixth house⁠—not about career, about work.

But for you, my dear, you've got Pluto and Chiron in the sixth house, which is not a restful thing to have. In fact, the most common experience that people with Pluto in the sixth house have is difficulty with coworkers. And this is because you have a tendency to work really hard and drive yourself really hard, and when other people don't do that⁠—when they drop the ball, when they don't work in the way you feel they should⁠—it can be super agitating to you. And when you're agitated, you probably aren't great at hiding it, even if you feel like you are. Pluto in the sixth house, that's what that does.

With a sixth-house stellium, what's the most important thing is that you find a lifestyle and work/life balance that works for you, and this includes taking responsibility for the pace that you need to adopt in the marathon of life⁠—not the sprint, the marathon of life. And that might mean needing to cultivate greater perspective at work so that you don't take things so seriously and personally. And it might mean that you have support of other things happening outside of work so that you have an easier time with balance and proportion at work.

Having a lot of planets in the sixth house as you do means that the mundane day-to-day stuff that happens in life is really important to your wellness, and it's a topic that you can't evade. And that's why the sixth house is associated with habits and health. Work is a habit. It's a thing we have to do all the time, day to day. There may be changes around it, but there's a lot of consistencies there. Whatever it is that is activated within a person's sixth house is a thing that needs consistency and care.

I say it needs consistency, but if you have Uranus or Jupiter in your sixth house, you're not likely to enjoy consistency. It's not likely to be great for you, and there's other things in the chart that can absolutely mitigate that. But again, it's about it being self-appropriate. So, if you're a person who can be really consistent 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, great. Good on you. And if you're somebody who can't do that in a healthy way, finding ways to accept your nature first and foremost, and then strategize around how you can work with your nature to have the healthiest possible life⁠—that's the move. That's the damn move.

Check out my astrology webinars available on my website⁠, if you're ready to bring some fun into learning astrology, that is, because I teach astrology from a human-centered perspective informed by my over 25 years of consulting experience. With accessible astrological breakdowns, engaging discussions, and a whole lot of laughter, you won't even realize how much you're learning with me. From manifestation, the twelfth house, inherited issues in the birth chart, mental wellness, addiction, sex and sexuality, to the outer planets and love, my in-depth classes cover a range of topics. With your purchase, you can watch the classes as frequently as you want and learn on your own time and at your own pace from the comfort of your own home. So don't let boring lectures and stale worldviews in astrology get you down. Visit lovelanyadoo.com/shop. That's lovelanyadoo.com/shop.

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My next question is from Venus Square to Saturn, and she was born on July 18th, 1986, at 4:43 a.m. in Lubbock, Texas. And the question is, "I've done my own amateur research on the Venus square to Saturn aspect in my chart, and that outlook does not look good. I've seen it described as one of the most heartbreaking chart aspects to have. I've experienced a lot of disappointment romantically and platonically. While I try not to carry these experiences with me, I'm wondering how I can work with this aspect in order to have the kind of relationships that I wish to."

Okay. So this is a really important and great question. Having a Venus/Saturn square⁠—absolutely⁠, it can indicate that there is struggle and conflict within relationships or that there's a failure to launch. Now, this is not like a misery sentence by a long shot, but it's an aspect that you need to learn to work with. Now, I will say you have Neptune and Mars in the seventh house, which can make you both romantic and easily irritated. You have also got a Moon/Uranus conjunction, which means that you have a really great need for space.

But to your Venus/Saturn square, that particular aspect, on the positive, inclines you towards being very faithful, doing well in long-term, committed relationships, being somebody who's willing to work and work hard on your relationships. The issue has a lot to do with self-acceptance, giving yourself permission to have mixed needs and desires, to have your relationships be a little messy. Now, that Saturn/Venus square inclines you to wanting really traditional, old-school monogamous relationship. That Moon conjunction to Uranus⁠—kind of the opposite. It inclines you to wanting a lot of space, a lot of freedom, and can find you being really irritated when people are being needy with you or have too many expectations.

Again, what's really important is that you own your own messiness. By doing this, you can start to understand what it is that you do and don't like because some of the difficulties that you had in your relationship life is being a person. So many of us⁠—most of us⁠—have tons of heartbreak by the time we reach our mid- to late 30s. So this is normal stuff. But some of this is really about you figuring out how to own what it is that you have to offer and what it is that you need so that you can choose self-appropriate relationships.

The other thing I would say is that it's important for you to be able to own when you are inconsistent with others about what it is that you want and what it is that you need, including what you've got to offer. And this takes knowing yourself. It's very hard to have that level of self-awareness before your mid-30s, honestly. And when it comes to Saturn, we tend to be kind of late bloomers.

And so another thing that the Venus square to Saturn often indicates is not finding a partner before the mid-30s. Certainly, many people have, but that is a common thing, which in old-school astrology books is a terrible thing, partially because patriarchy, partially because old-school astrology comes from days where people didn't live very long. And we in this modern world live much longer lives, and we have a lot more options than having to be married when we're very young.

All is not lost. I personally would not say that this is one of the most heartbreaking aspects and have seen many people be in successful relationships. The key to having this aspect/navigating it well is to take a step back from your relationships, letting people know, "This is how I self-care. I have to spend some time alone," making sure that you are not attaching your wellness and your capacity for happiness on one individual person and that you are not getting too fixated on what's "right or wrong." It's important to remember that relationships are a dance. They're a partner dance. So we need to be able to engage with each other back and forth in order to be right in our relationships. That's just how that goes.

I hope this helps to kind of point you in the right direction. And I will just add that you are currently going through a Saturn square to Saturn, which happens in our mid-30s, which means it is triggering your Saturn square to Venus. And whenever a transit⁠—especially a Saturn transit⁠—triggers that square, it's going to trigger all the thoughts and feelings you have about it. So you are in a period where this is going to feel kind of big, and you may be feeling extra lonely or helpless. But Saturn transits, as much as they are murderers of boners small and large, are also really powerful times for stepping into the garden of our lives, recognizing what's a weed, what's a flower, and doing some deep pruning.

So do your best to be honest with yourself, to be humble, and to be willing to make changes in your self-care, your approach, whatever it is. If you're not in a relationship right now, it's all inner work. But make sure to be willing to change because when Saturn transits come, they will often make us feel really conservative and hesitant to change, but it is a time when we are meant to be at least planning out change if not acting on it.

My next question is about trauma, and it comes from N.B. His birth date is July 20th, 1969, at 1:30 a.m. in San Diego, California. And his question is really simple and to the point: "How do you know where your trauma ends your astrological chart begins?" This is a powerful question and, again, one that I've gotten many times.

And I will say it like this. Think of your birth chart as kind of the result of your blood work. You do not exist separate from your blood. I mean, technically, we can remove your blood, but your blood is within you. And the results of your blood test are not separate from your health; they are simply a report on what's happening inside of you, which may reflect what has happened in the past within your body, and also, the conditions that are happening now in your body are kind of foundational to what's likely to happen to you in the future.

The birth chart is kind of like that. It is not something that exists outside of you. It's a tool for mapping out you⁠—your past, your present, and your future. It's a tool for contextualizing and understanding all things, including your trauma, where it comes from, how it presents itself, what it feels like, when it gets triggered, when you make progress. All of these things can be articulated through the birth chart. It is not separate. It's not like you have an aspect in your birth chart, and therefore you don't have trauma. It's more you may have trauma, and if you do, you can bet that it is written in the birth chart and often written in such a way where we can see where it comes from.

Now, can we Google search through social media and find these kinds of deep and nuanced answers? Probably not. You might get lucky here and there and find great answers, but in general, to be able to comprehend and work with such a nuanced and tender thing as trauma, you want to work with an expert. And if you are an expert astrologer, it is very difficult to use the chart to understand our own trauma because we are not objective about the things that we are a subject to. That's why you shouldn't see a therapist who's your mom, because that mom of yours is not going to be objective about your issues.

Similarly, you cannot look at your own birth chart and have pure objectivity to read something as important and tender as trauma. But our birth chart is simply a chart that articulates all of what we are, where we come from, our resources, our challenges, and it doesn't make you anything. It's just a tool for understanding what you are.

All right. For my last question, this comes from Always Wanting to Know the Future. And she says, "So I'm noticing a pattern in myself where I'm always trying to guess the future. That's one part of why I like astrology so much. But I keep myself wanting to purchase all the readings and learn all the tools to know how to keep myself safe for the future. The thing is that this makes me susceptible to scams and people taking advantage of me. I'm always looking at pointers to where the next market crash will happen or if I need to stock up food for a famine. Is this all Neptune? How can I be okay with not knowing what's going to happen but also keep myself prepared but not future trip so much?"

Always Wanting to Know the Future was born on June 6th, 1998, at 9:09 a.m. in Lima, Peru. So this is a really good question, and a particularly good question for the times that we are living in, because things do feel so unstable and there are very real issues going on in so many things, including the climate, because you mentioned food and security. And certainly, there is a lot of instability around the market.

This is really important for me to say as an astrologer who talks about the future a fair amount. There are certain material things⁠—good, common-sense things⁠—that we can do to prepare ourselves, to have resources in preparation, whether they're psychological, spiritual, or material. There are things we can do. But it is important to accept, as fans of astrology and spiritual people, that nothing will keep you safe. Nothing will keep pain away or inhibit you from experiencing failure or struggle in life. Life⁠—it's a pain in the ass sometimes. Sometimes life brings you pain. And sometimes in life you fail. And sometimes in life terrible things happen to you or around you through no fault of your own. Part of being in this body, of being alive, is not having control. And that sucks. I mean, I'm not a fan of that, personally.

But it is important that we do not use spiritual, and certainly astrological, resources to try to stop bad things from happening. We cannot guess the future. And I can assure you, as an astrologer and a psychic, knowing what's coming doesn't make your life any better. It doesn't inherently keep you safer. Part of what you're describing is that you're not grounded. You're not grounded in yourself. You're not grounded in this moment. And because you're not grounded in yourself, you're seeking answers outside of yourself. That's wanting to buy all the readings and making you susceptible to all kinds of people who are going to promise you some sort of certainty.

The truth is there's nothing⁠—nothing⁠—that replaces good, old-fashioned read/watch/listen to the news. Have a balanced diet of education and make your own determinations based on much smarter people than you who are experts in important things, your own perspectives, your own resources, and your own values. That's it. And we can use astrology and spiritual things to support that, but I would never want to encourage you or anyone else to use those things to determine how to be safe outside of listening to experts in fields⁠—if you're talking about the market, then economic experts. If you're talking about the environment, then people who are scientists and experts in the environment.

At the end of the day, astrology is not going to save you from anything. It's not going to save any of us from anything. You save you. We save us. And so what I want to just kind of come back to is the emotional part of this. The emotional part of this is that you're trying to prepare yourself so that you don't feel pain, so that you don't lose control. And I mean, I'm with you. That's a great motivation. That's a great goal. And also, it's not possible. That's not really how life works. We can't control things.

And so you asked, is this just Neptune? It is true that in your birth chart, you have a T-square that points to Neptune in your seventh house. And so that part of you does have a tendency to give away your power to other people, and to do that from a perspective of your Moon opposition to Saturn, the Midheaven, and Venus, which you have, and they're all forming a square to Neptune. And this means you, again, want other people to know something and to tell you that it's going to be okay. And you do have a tendency to give up your power in this way.

I'm so glad that you are really striving to figure out how to be okay with not knowing what's going to happen. But the way to be prepared is, in part, to make peace with preparation gives us some measure of control and resourcing, but it doesn't control things. And no one knows the future. I speak to you as an astrologer and a psychic. No one knows. A lot of people have theories, but no one knows. The future is literally unknowable because there are so many variations, so many variables.

And making peace with that means making peace with not feeling peaceful about that, because it is very hard to feel peaceful with something that sucks or is scary. And it's okay to not feel peaceful. Making peace doesn't mean feeling peaceful. Making peace means allowing your restless or frightened feelings to be and not needing to feed them or change them, even, because scary things are scary, and that's okay.

The other thing, again, I will just reiterate is, if you want to prepare, do it from an educated place. As much as I am an astrologer and a psychic, and I of course am a person who uses these resources and advocates for the responsible use of these things, we don't want to use these things in all situations. If your tooth hurts, go to the dentist, not a psychic. And if you want to know how to prepare for world events that are out of your control, become educated in those issues to the best of your ability and make your best assessments. That's all you can do, is your best, because⁠—I don't know⁠—I live in California, and I had fire on my Bingo card for what could go wrong here, but not flood. Well, joke's on me. There was tons of floods here in California this year.

So you can only do your best. What we want to be able to do is pivot, to be adaptable. And this is, again, where having education and resources⁠—spiritual, psychological, material resources⁠—is really helpful. Most people don't have a lot of resources. So all we can do is our best based on where we are, who we are, and where we're at.

You have three planets in Gemini in the 11th house, so community care and community mobilization might be really helpful for you in all of this so you're not looking to one person to tell you the answer, but instead, you're getting together with a group of people to think about preparedness. And doing that may be incredibly supportive to this larger issue that you're dealing with.

Now, my loves, I want to thank you for joining me this week and every week for Ghost. If you have a question that you want to get a reading with me about, go ahead and send it to me at ghostofapodcast.com. And I will talk to you again in just a couple of days. Buh-bye.