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.

You know I want to answer as many of your questions as I can, and so this is another quickie question roundup of as many of your questions as I can get to in a single episode. Let's go.

The first question I have here is about psychic gifts in the birth chart. The listener wrote in to say, "I've been told I have psychic gifts due to Jupiter and Mars being in my eighth house ruled by Pisces. I'm an artist who has wild dreams but am super scared of losing touch with reality since my dad is severely bipolar. How do I best access or use these apparent psychic gifts according to my birth chart?" And this person was born January 9th, 1987, 7:37 p.m. in Seattle, Washington.

So there's a number of layers to this question that I want to address. Over the decades of my private practice, I have had countless people come to my office and tell me that some astrologer told them that they were psychic and that it freaked them out and that they're not quite sure what to do with that information or whether or not they're supposed to do something with that information.

So I want to say, if you read something in a book or you talk to an astrologer who tells you that you have psychic ability, think of it much like you would think of being told that you have the ability where you could be an athlete. That doesn't mean you have to. It doesn't mean you have to go to the gym. It just means you have a natural ability within you that you can or can not work on making stronger. So you want to remember that the birth chart describes our nature, our gifts, and our challenges, but within that, we always have free will. So I just want to start there.

The other thing is, when I pull up this birth chart using Campanus houses, Jupiter is in the seventh house, and Mars and the North Node are both in the eighth house. So there's a little bit of a difference between the house system I use and the other astrologer. But having Mars in the eighth house does not inherently mean that one is psychic, in my view, even a little bit, to be honest. So I wouldn't actually concern yourself with that.

And in terms of being a person who has wild dreams, I would say, honestly, the fact that you've got three planets in Sagittarius and Jupiter square to two of those planets is a lot more closely linked to being an artist with wild dreams than anything in your eighth house, even having Pisces on the eighth-house cusp. That alone is not going to make you lose touch with reality at all.

Now, from my perspective, there's a couple things that are really important to name here. The first is your concern about your own mental health because you have a dad who is severely bipolar⁠—and I think that's a great concern to have, not because I'm an astrologer, just because when something runs in the family, you want to be self-aware and you want to manage your health to the best of your ability. Cultivating your psychic ability is something I would say is wise to be really grounded about if you do it at all.

The real issue in your birth chart around psychic ability is that you have a Neptune square to Mars. Now, you have Mars in Aries in the eighth house, but Jupiter has nothing to do with Pisces being on the eighth-house cusp. Mars/Neptune square can make it really hard to stay rooted in your body and in linear 3D reality. It can have you kind of disassociate from both of those things. So, if you are going to conscientiously cultivate your psychic tendencies or abilities, I would recommend doing it in an incredibly grounded way. And I would say that for you, having clear energetic boundaries is something that would be a great practice whether you're psychic or not.

If you're going to explore ways of accessing your spirituality because of this Mars/Neptune square, I would certainly recommend that you do it without the use of drugs, any kind of spiritual-facilitating drugs included, because you really don't need help getting out there. What you need is intention and guidance. So, if you want to access and use psychic gifts in your birth chart, get clear about what you want it for because, again, you don't need to cultivate these skills or gifts inside of yourself, but if you do want to, figure out why. If you're clear about what you're doing and why, it becomes a lot easier to figure out how to get the right kind of support around how to make that happen. And that goes for anyone with any birth chart.

Okay. My next question comes from B.C., and she says, "I'm pregnant and due November 23rd, which is Thanksgiving. Due to an emergency C-section with my first daughter, I am considering a scheduled C-section with my second. My biggest issue with this is choosing my daughter's birthday and, consequently, choosing who she will be. Is this silly? If she makes it to her due date, she'll be a Sagittarius. And if I schedule it, she'll definitely be a Scorpio, to which my friends have half-jokingly said, 'No, don't do that to her.' While I know that your birth sign is only one small piece, I know dates and times matter. Thoughts? Advice?"

Okay. This is a great question, the scheduled C-section. So the first thing I would say is Scorpios are awesome. People who have the Sun in Scorpio are awesome. And I know that your friends were half-joking, but seriously, having a child who is a Scorpio is not a bad thing, and we need to get this out of our thinking completely. So, first of all, there is that.

Second of all, on the one hand, I think that it is great to be conscientious, as a fan or a student of astrology, about the date that your child is born. But ultimately, I would say trying to micromanage, control, or contain the nature of your child before they have left your physical body, before they hit this earthly plane⁠—I don't see that that's a great use of astrology. And so I would recommend that if you're having a scheduled C-section for your own health to schedule it around what is healthiest for you, your family, and your doctor because if what you're doing is prioritizing your own health and wellness and managing your life in a really good adulting sort of way, a very "I'm taking care of myself" sort of way, then that will be reflected in the birth chart.

If instead what you're doing is trying to protect yourself from having an intense child, then that'll come up in the birth chart, too. So don't try to pick the time and date of your child's birth. That will show up in the chart of the child, most likely as a power struggle. And you don't need that. You don't want that, right? You want love. You want to get to know who this weird and wonderful soul is. Let it happen through the act of you taking care of you because, ultimately, so much of what parenting a child is is knowing what's safe, knowing what you can take on and what you can do in a healthy way as the adult, supporting and caring for them through that. So start the process now, I say. Start it now.

Now, my next question is a bit of a change in pace here. It comes from Fleeing Florida, and they write, "With this week's legislation, Florida is no longer safe for Trans people, and my girlfriends and I decided it's time to leave. I hope to make a move away eventually, but it's just not safe to stay. Are there transits on the horizon that could be supportive or challenging for planning and executing this transition? Please don't use my name or birthplace. You can call me Asylum Seeker."

So I can share that Asylum Seeker was born December 6th, 1996. And that is actually not super important in this moment. The first thing I want to say is, if you are dealing with something that is urgent and an emergency and you really need to make a decision based on⁠—I don't know⁠—let's say seeking asylum, something that serious, that is actually not your greatest moment for turning to astrology, because sometimes you just need to do what you gotta do. Astrology is really helpful for plotting and planning. It's really helpful for understanding who you are, what's happening, what's likely to come next, to contextualize what's happened in the past, that kind of good stuff.

For so many Trans and Nonbinary people, for so many Queer people and people of Color, they are living in states like Florida⁠—I mean, unfortunately, worst of all, Florida⁠—that is simply not safe. And if that's your situation, then regardless of whether or not Mercury is Retrograde or you're going through challenging transits, you kinda gotta do what you gotta do. So I want to just empower you with that. If you are making a transition, especially if you feel that you must flee a dangerous situation, don't let your transits or what's happening astrologically stop you from getting to safety. I just want to give you that context.

Now, that said, you are going through a number of major transits. One of them is a Pluto sextile to Saturn. You have Saturn at zero degrees and 36 minutes of Aries. So this is an excellent transit for making plans that are transformational and sustainable, a great transit for organizing your life to make it safer and also more what you want it to be. Great transit. But at the same time, you are going through two⁠—not one, but two⁠—Neptune transits. Neptune is forming a square to your Midheaven at 23 degrees of Gemini and 38 minutes, and it's opposing your Ascendant at 24 degrees Virgo and 53 minutes.

These Neptune transits can create a lot of chaos in your life and make you feel like the rug is pulled out from underneath you. It can reveal challenges within your interpersonal relationships and make it hard to make concrete and stable plans. So the most important thing I can say from an astrological viewpoint is managing anxiety and panic is so important for you in this period, and having healthy boundaries with your girlfriends⁠—I don't know if that was a typo, if there's multiple girlfriends, or your single girlfriend. Having healthy boundaries with the people around you who are also going through whatever they're going through in life is going to be really important.

Do the most you can to get and stay grounded even through fear. That's what's challenging for you in this period, and it's what you need to do. Now, luckily, the Pluto sextile to Saturn is really supportive for doing that even while Neptune is going to challenge you. Seeking asylum is scary, and it is really hard even if you have tons of money and tons of resources. It is a really hard thing to do. And so make sure that you're maintaining your own mental and spiritual health to the best of your ability through this process, and don't worry about analyzing astrology as a way to get there.

Now, I am aware that I'm an astrologer telling you to not really focus on the astrology of this. But when we are in crisis is not always the best time to use reflective, analytic tools to make our decisions. This can often be the time where we need to make grounded assessments and plans based on what you can materially see and what you can materially kind of get your paws around. So that's my advice for now, and when you feel it's necessary and helpful, that's when you want to tap into the astrology stuff. I wish you and your loved ones safety and wellness through this scary time.

I went to an amazing digital event this week, and the whole time I was there, I knew I had to share it with you. It was Part 1 in an eight-part series called Fascism 101. It's hosted by the wildly inspiring Malkia Devich-Cyril in conversation with Ejeris Dixon, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, and Tarso Luis Ramos. If you're concerned about the threat of fascism in the U.S. and around the world or just want to learn more about fascism⁠—what it means, what it doesn't, how to engage with it⁠—this eight-part webinar series is seriously for you. It explores the many faces of fascism and the fronts of antifascist resistance. It's so educational, inspiring, and it's free. Don't sleep on this. If you register, you can watch the first in the eight-part series and join live for the remaining webinars. The registration link is in show notes.

The City of Atlanta has leased 381 acres of the Weelaunee Forest to the Atlanta Police Foundation for a police military facility funded by corporations. But we can still fight. Visit stopcopcity.city/organizewithus for ways you can help from wherever you are. And if you're registered to vote in Atlanta, Georgia, you can sign the petition, which you can find at copcityvote.com/petition. The links to both of these things are in show notes.

States across the U.S. have advanced a record number of bills attacking Transgender rights and threatening the health and safety of Trans people and their families. Whether you're Trans and looking for support or an ally wanting to help, here are three organizations to know about. There's MTUG, or Metro Trans Umbrella Group, serving Trans people directly in the St. Louis area; Transgender Education Network of Texas, which is an advocacy and resource group; and lastly, A Place for Marsha, which facilitates safe housing for Trans individuals escaping transphobic states. Check out these resources, signal boost, and support them however you can.

School boards and lawmakers around the country are banning and challenging books at a pace not seen since the 1980s. The American Library Association tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2021. And librarians have even been threatened with criminal charges and jail time in some places in this country for lending out challenged books. You can contact your representatives about this issue by emailing, calling, or tweeting at them. And above all else, buy banned and challenged books. Support the important work of authors who are being banned or challenged, and in the process, support independent bookstores. My favorite bookstore, Marcus Books, is the oldest independent Black-owned bookstore in the country and has a banned and challenged book list on their website. You can go to marcusbooks.com to see this list and to shop, or visit whatever independent bookstore that you love. Support banned and challenged books and authors today.

My next question is from Jupiter Return Flop. They say, "Hey, Jessica. My Jupiter Return in Aries is coming to an end, and this has honestly been one of the hardest years of my life. Since last May, I've grown a lot, but it's been from endless hardships. Has Jupiter failed me?" And she was born January 31st, 2000, 5:31 p.m. in Rochester, New York.

So this is a great question. The Jupiter Return, according to so much astrology on the internet, is this magical time where you have growth and joy and ease and love and all of these beautiful things, sometimes brought to you by unicorns and ponies and rainbows. And in reality, it doesn't tend to go that way. Now, a lot of times, people will go through their Jupiter Return, and at the same time, there are no challenging transits happening. Therefore, you kind of get the better parts of the Jupiter Return.

And I should contextualize. If you don't know, the Jupiter Return is when Jupiter returns to exactly where it was when you were born, and it happens once every approximately 12 years. So it's not as rare as a Saturn Return or anything like that. But the Jupiter Return can be a time where things come together; Lady Luck smiles upon you, and you get some sort of a windfall. And that can look like⁠—oh, I don't know⁠—you finally start a habit that you really wanted, or you break a habit that was getting in your way. You meet someone who becomes your bestie, or you get an advancement at work, or you just kind of move through some trauma. It could be anything. It could be subtle. It could be dramatic. And honestly, it could be not much.

It could be, much like it is for this person, that when you're going through other difficult transits, it's a kind of wind beneath your wings. And this is where we get to the bigger picture of astrology because with astrology, we have to consider all of the things and not just some of the things. And for this Jupiter Return person, Uranus has been squaring your Ascendant at 16 degrees Leo and 39 minutes while, at the same time, in 2022 until about late January/early February, Neptune has been conjoining your Mars and squaring your Moon. This has been a really rough time for you, and no Jupiter Return on Earth can take away the other transits' impacts.

So here's a general rule that I'll share. The slower-moving the planet, the heavier it's going to hit you when you get hit, if you know what I mean. Pluto is the slowest-moving planet in the zodiac. Next would be Neptune, then Uranus, then Saturn, then Jupiter. And the influence and impact of a Pluto transit or a Neptune transit or a Uranus transit or a Saturn transit is going to be more dramatic than a Jupiter transit, as a general rule.

When you see that you're going through a lovely Jupiter transit like the Jupiter Return is and you're also going through other more challenging transits, you can expect that Jupiter will be there to support you and help you to get the most growth and the best growth experiences, the most value possible, from the more challenging transits. But it's not going to supersede something like a Pluto square to Jupiter. That is a once-in-a-lifetime event that doesn't happen to everyone. And that, in addition to all the other transits I named, is why it's been such a rough period of your life.

Your Jupiter is at 28 degrees of Aries, and so your Pluto square to Jupiter is not over. In fact, as Pluto moves back into Capricorn, which is happening in June, you're going to start to feel that transit a lot more intensely. And what this transit is teaching you is how to explore and assess your ideals, your beliefs, and that generally happens through them being challenged, through some sort of conflict, because Pluto⁠—especially Pluto by square⁠—is always going to kind of challenge you.

This can be a time where you are wanting to grow and that your drive for success and expansion is really intense, maybe even obsessive. But all growth is not equal. All growth is not good. This transit can be a time where you're dealing with problems with the law, when you're dealing with struggles around religion. This can be a time where you experience catharsis and growth, but it tends to be pretty painful, and it can make you feel scattered and stressed as the obsessiveness and intensity and rumination of Pluto gets expanded with Jupiter.

The good news is this can be a time where your belief system radically changes and changes in a way that better matches who you are and your own ethics. The struggle is what you've been going through. It feels like endless hardship. It feels like so much is forcing you to change even when you really don't want to or you're not sure what to change into.

So your Jupiter Return has not been a flop. It has probably supported you in making lemonade out of whatever sour lemons life has thrown your way. Don't undervalue the impact and potential of the support that your Jupiter Return is offering you during this period of your life where other things are happening in addition to that Jupiter Return.

My next question is about the Solar Return chart. So, before I read this question off, let me just tell you, in case you don't know, what a Solar Return chart is. The Solar Return is when we cast a chart for your birthday. Now, it's not necessarily your birthday. What your birthday is astrologically is your Solar Return. It's when the Sun returns to where it was on the date of your birth. Now, in truth, the Solar Return may occur on your birth date, or it may be the day before or the day after because there's a little bit of wiggle and wobble when it comes to astrology.

When we cast a Solar Return chart, what we do is we adjust the location where you are in the world right now on your birthday or on your Solar Return, and don't just cast it for where you were born. That's just a hot tip, but I'm sure there's a lot of astrology programs out there that will cast a Solar Return chart for you. Now, this can be a tool for giving us some sense of the year ahead. It is not equal to a transit. So transits are your premier tool for prediction if that's what you're trying to do with astrology. However, the Solar Return chart will give you a real sense of what's happening on a more nuanced level. It will give you a layer of data.

Now, that said, let me get to this question. It says, "Is my Solar Return chart Scorpio Moon making me cry? My Solar Return chart has a Scorpio Moon. Is that what's making me cry so dang often? I'm a passionate and emotional person but not usually a crier. I definitely identify with my stereotype Cap Moon tendencies to intellectualize and compartmentalize difficult emotions to be put away and addressed at a later date. But over the last five or six months, I cannot shut off the fucking waterworks. I'm not depressed. I have a long history of depression, so I know when I am. And while I definitely am burned out at work, it feels a lot deeper than that. I'm feeling overwhelmed by how irrational my emotions feel compared to how I've experienced them before. What the fuck is making me an emotional wreck in 2023?"

So this person did not include where they currently live or, if they traveled for their birthday, where they were on their birthday. So I was unable to cast the Solar Return chart, but I can say this. Having a progressed Moon in a particular sign or having a Solar Return Moon in a particular sign is not going to have such a dramatic effect on one's life as is being described in this question. It's just not going to happen.

These charts describe a more nuanced level of experience, from my perspective as an astrologer. Other astrologers may have a different take. This is mine. So, if you find that you are radically different, feeling/behaving/thinking so differently than normal, I would look to transits to the birth chart as a consistent and general rule instead of a Solar Return or even a progressed chart.

That said, this person was born November 23rd, 1987, at 10:22 p.m. in Portland, Oregon. And this is where we get another hit from dang Neptune. Back in April of 2022, Neptune started to square your Venus, which will make you super emo and bring up a lot of relationship issues. And it affected you for part of 2022, but it came back with force in February of this year.

Now, this transit can make you feel incredibly sensitive because Neptune square to Venus often makes us feel like we want love and we're experiencing loneliness in ways that are super unlike us. Another thing that can happen under this transit is that you feel depleted. Neptune, whenever it's squaring or opposing us by transit, makes us feel depleted in addition to many other things. And so, if you know that you're feeling depleted at work⁠—and you didn't mention relationship stuff, but I'm guessing there is some sort of relationship issues happening for you, whether it's at work or in your personal life⁠—Neptune really wants you to call your damn boundaries. That's what this transit does. And if you don't know how to do that, you may revert to experiencing or expressing sadness/crying all the time as a way to cope with the emotions you just don't know how to cope with.

Now, in addition, in February of 2023, Pluto started to square your Mars. This is a once-in-a-lifetime transit. It will last you two years, approximately. And this transit is really challenging because what it does is it challenges your experience and expression of emotion in the body, and in particular anger, resentment, ambition. And if you have at all of a challenging time with those emotions, then they're likely to be sublimated and expressed as victimhood, sadness⁠—again, depletion⁠—feeling emo.

And this is the thing that's really important to understand about astrology, is that when we're looking at the transits that are happening in our lives, we have to use that data and then apply it to our own human nature. If you have the tendency when you're angry, as many people do, to get really emotional and break into tears, then it can be easy to confuse the symptom⁠—crying⁠—with what's actually happening at its root⁠—anger.

These are the places I would encourage you to look to understand, from your birth chart's perspective, what's going on with you at this time. And don't worry so much about that Solar Return chart, okay? Okay.

And finally, I have a question about interceptions, and it goes like this: "I've been reading through your transcripts from older podcast episodes and recently read your episode on interceptions. I'd love to hear more about them, maybe specifically about intercepted planets or how having interceptions mean you'll also have some signs on two house cusps and how that can manifest in the native's life. Anything you think is important about interceptions I'd love to hear about. Thank you so much."

This is a great question because interceptions come up a lot in my work because I use them a lot, in part because I think they're important, and also because I use Campanus houses. And if you're interested in why, I have an episode of the podcast about that that you can search in my feed. And Campanus houses tends to produce a lot of interceptions. So, to the question, interceptions, first of all, are when we have 30 degrees⁠—which is all the degrees⁠—of a zodiac sign in a house without having that zodiac sign on the entry or exiting house cusp.

And when we have intercepted energies, a.k.a. a zodiac sign, what we are looking at is the energies in ourselves, the energies that were repressed in our early developmental experiences by our parents or guardians. And those energies were essentially modeled for us to not be good. So, if your parent or guardian was having a hard time embodying their own energies, that may have modeled for you that it was bad to embody those energies, so they get intercepted; they get kind of stuck or hidden away within us. That's an interception, very broadly speaking.

Now, when we have a planet that is in an intercepted sign⁠—so it's intercepted in a house; it's in an intercepted sign⁠—that planet is embodying energies, as planets do, that our, again, parent or guardian was actively repressing in themselves or was actively telling us that we should repress it ourselves. So, generally with interceptions, it is not clearly stated; it is modeled. "There is a price to pay for embodying these energies. It's dangerous. Don't do it." It's not usually spoken directly, but sometimes it is. Usually, it is not.

And when we have planets that are intercepted, those planets can sometimes be harder for us to embody, or the way in which we embody them feels different to us than it comes across to others. This is because we're dealing with an inner landscape⁠—a minefield, if you will⁠—that other people simply aren't aware of because we are struggling with our concept of reality and what's right and what isn't when we're dealing with those intercepted energies, and we're dealing with it in a way that is really specific to our early developmental experiences. So it's not universal, in other words. And when we have intercepted planets, what often happens is they function either really quietly or like a runaway train⁠—and sometimes in both ways. So intercepted planets are really important.

Now, to the other part of this person's question, when we have the same zodiac sign on multiple house cusps⁠—because you can have an interception over three houses, not just two. But having a zodiac sign on multiple house cusps simply means that we are going to see those energies of that zodiac sign being really important and influencing multiple houses. And therefore, the ruling planet to that zodiac sign is going to be especially important. So, if you have Virgo on two house cusps, then your Mercury is going to be extra important. Even if there's not too much going on with your Mercury by aspect in the birth chart, you're really going to want to pay attention to that planet.

What we don't want to do is panic about having interceptions, about having intercepted planets, or not having interceptions or intercepted planets. What we want to make sure to do when using astrology, in general and across the board, is to be interested in what the chart can reveal to us about ourselves or others and to use that information in tandem with our common sense, with curiosity, empathy, kindness, and respect.

Astrology can be this invaluable tool for understanding not just ourselves but what our parents or guardians were going through when we were really little, when we were too young to have had a say in things or to really understand things. And as adults looking at our birth chart and our own childhood, we can have more empathy and context for what happened to us and around us, more empathy for the adults around us, more empathy for ourselves. And that can be really helpful as a foundation for healing.

To that end, I will add that when we have generational planets⁠—those slow-moving planets⁠—intercepted, we are generally dealing with an ancestral line of repression, of feeling unsafe around those things. To a certain extent, interceptions always refer to ancestral issues because it's not just about you; it's about the people who came before you and where they were at when you were really little. But those slower-moving planets always drag with them generational issues, and generational issues are really important not just because it's a buzzword and we all know it's important, but because they drag with them the complexities and issues that didn't only exist for the people in our family but also existed in the context of the time that they lived in and the struggles and assets that are specific to those times.

We don't exist in a bubble. And the beautiful thing about astrology is it gives us context and understanding for how we are interconnected, not just to our parents or to the planet⁠—although, yes, those things⁠—but to the generations that came before us. And within that, we can see how we are embodying whatever part of our lineage we're embodying. And by learning how to live in a way that is healthy, self-appropriate, empathetic, graceful, kind, we are not just doing good by ourselves; we are participating in our ancestral line in a way that is a gift, that kind of ripples through our energetic lineage. And that's a beautiful thing.

Well, my loves, this has been another episode of me answering a lot of questions. And you know I love to hear your questions, so if you would like to send me a question for the podcast, go over to my website at ghostofapodcast.com. Fill out the contact form, but remember to read the pro tips for getting your question chosen because there's pro tips there for a reason. I would love to read your questions. Send them up. And I will talk to you in a couple of days for your weekly horoscope. Bye-bye.