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.

Hello, and welcome back to Ghost of a Podcast. This week, we are going to focus on the astrology of June 4th through the 10th of 2023. But it's June, so may I say happy freaking Pride Month, my Queers. If you're Queer, if you're Trans, may you be able to live and love and thrive in fucking peace. Can we just live? Can we just live? This is a really challenging time to be Queer in the U.S., certainly, and I just want to send you big Queer love. And if you're cis, whether you're gay or not, whether you're straight or you have straight privilege, I want to paraphrase something I read that Claire Willett said, which is it's time to move away from that "Love is love" thing that so many straight people say, which I've never been a fan of myself because it just sounds kind of⁠—I don't know⁠—like giving up, like love is love. Yeah, obviously, love is love.

Anyways, it's time to move away from this "Love is love" thing and focus instead on Trans and Queer people are being targeted and are in danger. Let's focus on that. This is a time where we really need your allyship in all the ways⁠—in all the ways. So I want to invite you, especially if you're an ally who goes to Pride or participates in any kind of Pride events, instead of giving corporations your dollars to buy some feather boa or some Pride flag or any kind of "Queer" paraphernalia⁠—because there actually is no paraphernalia for just being a person who happens to have a gender or sexuality that is not cis and straight⁠—just throw that cash, throw those damn duckets, into Queer mutual aid, into organizations that are doing really much-needed activism and groundwork around protecting Queer people and our rights, and in particular, of course, Trans people and Trans people of color and their rights.

So let's get in the vibe for Pride while keeping in mind that, yes, let's party; yes, let's have fun; yes, let's celebrate⁠—but Pride was originally an act of civil fucking disobedience because the laws did not protect us. In fact, they harmed us. So let's fucking giddyap for Gay rights.

Okay. So astrology. We start this week with a Mercury conjunction to Uranus. This transit is exact on the 4th, but we're feeling it a couple days before, and we'll feel it a couple days after. Mercury conjunction to Uranus is kind of a scattery transit. Mercury is your mind, and Uranus is your nervous system. It's related to your mind as well. And so, when these two planets sit on top of each other⁠—and right now, they're doing so in earthy fixed Taurus⁠—what we have is a kind of zingy hyperfocus on the mind or the nervous system.

A lot of people experience anxiety⁠—not paranoia, but thinking-based fixations, hypervigilance, nervousness like a nervous tension kind of stuff. And because we're in earth sign Taurus, it can be focused on all manner of things that are Taurean. It can be focused on your relationships and diplomacy. It can be focused on your material conditions and your sense of security and safety in the world. Wherever you find Taurus in your birth chart is where it's going to get triggered in you.

So Mercury conjunction to Uranus is, first and foremost, likely to affect us in our minds, which can shape our perspectives. But it's in no way all bad. This transit is kind of a breeding ground for expansion, and surprising, unexpected, quick expansion, expansion in particular of your perspective. It could be of your social life. This transit opens things up so that we can experiment, so that we can innovate, so that we can create or cocreate in new ways.

Uranus is a really queer planet, and I mean queer, yes, like it can be kind of Gay, but that's not what I mean. I mean queer like odd. It's related to that which is not conventional, that which is outside of expectation and the norm. The beautiful thing about that is that when Uranus gets activated, we have the opportunity and the energy with which to perceive a way forward that's different, to make changes, to activate changes within us, which is super cool.

Now, the other thing is that Mercury doesn't just govern our minds and communication, which⁠—we know Mercury is all about communication. It's friendships. And so, during this Mercury conjunction to Uranus, you may meet new people in an unexpected way. You may have weird, unexpected shit come up with the people you already know, and that's not bad or good. It's just different. And if you're somebody who doesn't like surprises, you may not love it. If you're somebody who doesn't like the unexpected or is particularly uncomfortable with newness, yeah, Uranus is going to be particularly activating.

But if you're open to that kind of stuff, this is just kind of a fun, great transit. It stimulates excitement and just kind of a⁠—I guess the best way I can put it is a little bit of sparkle to your thinking and your daily routines. If disruptions occur on or around this date, which they very much may⁠—firstly because of the transit itself, secondly because of the transit that's overlapping with this one⁠—I will get there in a minute. But if you're encountering some sort of disruptions, try to be interested in them because the way to harness the best parts of Uranus and Mercury⁠—certainly Uranus and Mercury together⁠—is by being interested.

Instead of jumping into activation, reactiveness, doubling down on your opinions, try to be really curious, like, "What is this? What's happening here? What is it that I'm reacting to, or what is this person actually saying?" Fill in the blanks to apply to your situation. But the more we are willing to explore our own perspective, our own way of listening to others, communicating, our own way of relating to and with others, the more expansive and helpful this transit can be.

Now, Mercury conjunction to Uranus may bring unexpected news your way. It can be kind of like a gossip lowdown, which we want to avoid. But with gossip, just like with breaking news, you definitely want to check the damn source because Uranus brings about unpredictability, and sometimes people speak without actually thinking things through because Uranus kind of incites us to do that. So, before you run with news⁠—certainly in your personal life, but also in the world⁠—take a moment. Take a breath. Slow down for a sec. Check those sources. Make sure it's true before you invest a lot of energy into your reactions.

Now, one more thing I'll say about this is that Mercury governs your bicycle. Yeah, Mercury governs your bicycle. And Uranus can be accident prone. And the reason why Uranus can make us accident prone or it can be associated with accidents is because the energies of Uranus are often fixated in the future, and so we're often thinking about what comes next instead of being present when we're dealing with strong Uranian energies. So, if you're riding around on your damn bike or you're driving your car or walking down the street around cyclists, pay attention. Pay attention. Be a little extra careful because this can be, like I said, a bit of an accident-prone vibe.

Now, this brings us to the 5th. And on the 5th, we have a Venus opposition to Pluto. Venus opposite Pluto is a very intense transit. And this transit is overlapping with the Mercury conjunction to Uranus. And so the potential to shift your perspective and open up to new ways of listening, communicating, processing information that Mercury/Uranus brings we want to tap into, but we want to be careful about the nerviness, that impulse to jump into things or to live in the future instead of the present, during the Venus opposite Pluto.

Now, Venus moves into Leo at 6:46 a.m. Pacific Time, and then it's opposite to Pluto at 9:05 a.m., just a couple hours later, Pacific Time. So we've got Venus at zero degrees and five minutes of Leo, and Pluto is at zero degrees and five minutes of Aquarius. Now, this is really important. Pluto is right about to retrograde its butt back into Capricorn, where it will stay until January of 2024. Yeah. It's big news. It's happening on the 11th, so I'm not talking about it in this exact moment. But this is the last transit, not counting Lunar transits, to Pluto that is happening in Aquarius until next year. So this is one to watch out for.

I'm going to come back to that in a hot minute. Let me stick with what it means when Venus opposes Pluto. So, when Venus opposes Pluto, we have our desire for security being challenged to change. Security is Venus; Pluto is change⁠—transformation, really. Venus opposite Pluto tends to signify a deepening or intensification of our relationship shit. So this could be relationship drama, really intense passions⁠—that can be fighting. That can be the fun kind. But it tends to be frictiony because it's an opposition.

Really intense passions may be ignited. Shit comes up during a Venus opposition to Pluto. It is a transit that tends to generate power struggles, and that can be, again, between you and someone or between you and a few people, or it can be inside of you. It can be that you're obsessing on an ex that you're not in contact with or something that happened ten years ago. You may be obsessing on what you do or don't have. You may be comparing yourself to someone else or being like, "All my friends have x, and I have only y"⁠—all that kind of shit. So it can play out on a lot of different levels.

What we want to be really mindful of is that Pluto governs our survival mechanisms. It is our fight-or-flight. And when we get into the energy of Pluto, we are literally fighting for survival, whether or not we're actually in actual peril or jeopardy. It's like somebody looks at you sideways and you're like, "I fucking hate that person"⁠—that is an overreaction that is classic Pluto, that is really just about you being activated in such a way that your survival mechanisms kick in. And that may make you mean or angry at others. It might make you mean or angry at yourself. It might have you disassociating or any number of things.

Hopefully, you have some sense of your own survival mechanisms. If you do or you don't, this is a good time to be really exploring that. How do you engage with yourself and others when you are activated, when you're scared, when you're threatened? This is a really powerful time for coming to greater self-awareness around these themes because not only is Venus opposite Pluto, but also, Mercury is conjunct Uranus. And we can leverage the wild card of Uranus conjoined to Mercury, our minds, in alliance with that Venus opposite Pluto going deeper into our relationship issues.

If you're somebody who struggles with codependency, this transit is likely to really activate you. And while it might not be fun, it can be really transformative. I mean, the thing about Pluto is it's not just related to our survival mechanisms but our ability and need to transform, our ability and need to heal. Where we have Pluto, we have both the energy for destruction and repair. But we don't want to let our strongest, most driving impulses and narratives compel us in life. Instead, we want to be able to sit with those really strong and driving impulses so that we can understand them and then use the wisdom of our own lived experience, the wisdom of a little bit of breath and a little bit of time, to temper those reactions and come to something that's more true, because when we engage from a state of activation, what we're really doing is engaging from a state of treating this very moment, this one dynamic, as emblematic of every other thing you've gone through, and in particular every other challenging thing you've gone through. So then what we do when we're in that state is we engage in a way that is not proportional and completely honoring the present moment.

So Venus opposite Pluto is intense. And if some stupid shit comes up with someone you're close to, take it seriously. Honor it. I'm not trying to get you to make it worse, but I am saying it's an opportunity to really be present for something that is up for your friend, your partner, your coworker, whatevs, or for yourself⁠—or ideally both. I mean, ideally both, but it depends on your situation.

Venus opposite Pluto can kick up suspiciousness, possessiveness, jealousy, the evils of comparative thinking, which⁠—of course, all of those things can lead to defensiveness, power struggles, icing someone out or trying to control or contain them⁠—basically all manner of acting out. What we want to do is resist the urge to manipulate ourselves, our situations, the people around us, as a way to achieve safety or to make yourself happy, because if you have to manipulate a situation in order to feel safe or happy, then you're actually settling for some sort of half-assed or fake happiness and safety. It won't last, because you have to keep up the manipulation.

And the truth is each and every one of us manipulate ourselves and others in some way at some time. It's kind of part of the human condition. It's not the coolest part, but it's part of the human condition. And so it behooves each and every one of us to be willing, with humility, to be able to say to ourselves, "Okay, how am I doing this? How is that showing up in my life?" As a person who posts self-help content on the World Wide Web in various ways, I have learned over the years that when⁠—and in particular, I should say, on social media. But I've learned over the years that when I or, from what I see, most other people post about how others did you wrong, it gets lots of engagement. But posts about personal accountability⁠—much less. And that says a lot about us as a damn animal, as a society.

It's important to be willing to investigate/interrogate our victim stories. And this is true always. I think this is true for all of us. And also, Saturn and Neptune are both in Pisces, and those Piscean themes that are up in the air absolutely can intensify our Pollyanna tendencies as a society, as individuals. So getting present is hard. It is hard work, especially when the present is messy. Most of us want things to be tidy and linear⁠—"I feel good," "I feel bad," that kind of thing. But the truth is that this is the year of freaking paradox. Life is messy. And the more emotionally present and mature you get, the more aware you become of how messy life is or can be. And that is as it should be. Paradox, nuance, layers⁠—these things aren't bad. They're just harder to stay present with. So cultivating those skills is a really good goal. These transits, especially the Venus opposition to Pluto, is here to help you to cultivate those skills. It's not doing it in an easy, gentle way, but it is doing it.

There's a few more things I'll say about this Venus opposition to Pluto. You want to do your best to not put yourself in danger. Whenever we have Pluto being transited by Venus or Mars⁠—could be also the Moon⁠—it's important to know that we may get ourselves in situations that are not safe, and in particular I mean situations with other humans, humans that would wish us harm. And so, if you don't feel safe, if you don't feel right, trust your gut. Get the hell out of there. Do what you've got to do. Don't minimize your felt experience, your intuition, if you're having an intuition that something is wrong, okay?

I would also say, in general, if you ever hear me say that any planet is opposite or square Pluto, it's not a good time for drugs. The other thing I can say kind of on this vein is, if you are somebody who is struggling with addiction issues, yeah, this transit can absolutely trigger that and any kind of addiction issues⁠—substance use, shopping, disordered eating. All of these things, on a deep psychological level, really kind of pattern similarly with addiction. All of these things can be triggered by a Venus opposition to Pluto. So put support in place if you can. Definitely don't do it alone. Ask for help, and be intentional about who you ask for help from.

One last thing I want to add to this transit. As you know, reproductive freedom, which is really about body autonomy for women⁠—right? Reproductive freedom is, yes, about reproduction, but it's really about the policing of women's bodies. The fact that that is under attack at the same time that Trans rights are under attack is not a mistake. When we police humans' bodies⁠—and of course, we never police cis men's bodies. In particular, we never police the function of cis men's bodies. I mean, especially white cis men, right? But we don't police cis men's bodies. We police everyone else's bodies. So this is very dangerous.

And I'm speaking about this because Venus opposite Pluto⁠—because the astrology of the policing of women, gender nonconforming, and Trans bodies is likely to be triggered by this transit. So, if we see some bullshit, as we are likely to see, on or around the 5th, whether we see that bullshit legislatively, socially, whoever it is⁠—whether it's from the Proud Boys, whatever⁠—the Nazis, whatever you want to call them, that are huge fans of enforcing anti-Trans legislation and fighting body autonomy for reproductive rights⁠—whatever it is that we see, may it radicalize you.

This transit of Venus opposite Pluto can bring about some real bullshit. It can bring about very oppressive and repressive⁠—regressive, even⁠—shifts in society, not just in our personal individual lives. And this is happening in the final moments of Pluto in Aquarius. Let this shit radicalize you. I know we're all burned out. I know we're all burned out. We have lived through so much social upheaval. But this is not the time to tap out. This is not the time to trust that someone else is going to fix it, because nobody is going to fix the ills of the world. It's us. It's us.

So, if some shit goes down this week that demoralizes you, allow yourself to be demoralized. Allow yourself to feel sad and scared. That's fair. But then let it radicalize you. Let it motivate you to getting engaged, getting activated, getting educated⁠—whatever is needed. That's really what this transit, this final moment of Pluto in Aquarius for the next six months, has to offer us. And I really hope that we do become more radicalized, more engaged, and focus more on coming together as communities to protect the rights of people to have fucking body autonomy, to be able to live in their bodies in the ways in which they deem to be appropriate for themselves. Right? Yes. I hope so. Okay. All right. Okay.

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 on stolen Muscogee land to the Atlanta Police Foundation for a police military facility funded by corporations. The Atlanta Police Foundation is building a police militarization facility for police to train in urban warfare. The plans include military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, explosive testing areas, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad. Here are some ways for you to support the defense of the forest and Atlanta. Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund at ATLsolidarity.org to support legal costs for arrested protesters and ongoing legal action. Call on investors in the project to divest from Cop City and the builders of the project to drop their construction contracts. You can get information about all of this at defendtheatlantaforest.org and learn more about Cop City at stopcop.city.

Now that brings us, my dears, to the 9th of June. And on that date, we have an exact sextile between Mercury and Neptune, very specifically 27 degrees of Taurus, and Neptune is at 27 of Pisces. Okay. So what does this transit mean? First of all, it's lovely. It is a lovely, supportive transit, which we will very much need after the kind of hair-raising start to this week.

This transit is soothing, which I'm happy to report. So, when Mercury and Neptune are having this kind of easy, dynamic conversation, as the sextile suggests, what happens is our mind can often turn to spiritual matters, to the high arts. So, when I say that, what I mean is basically any form of art or creativity that speaks to your soul. It's not specific to highbrow. It's specific to it touching you on a spiritual level.

This is also an excellent transit for being able to connect to others with empathy, to have grace in your thinking. This is kind of an open, flowing transit⁠—again, which is much needed after all this heavy, deep, survivally, nervy stuff that Uranus and Pluto have brought us. So pay attention to your intuition when Mercury forms a sextile to Neptune. This transit can often kind of fine-tune our intuitive sense. It's not going to magically turn you into a psychic or something like that, but it certainly can make it easier to tap into or listen to that part of you that just kind of knows, whatever that looks like, however that shows up for you.

This transit is excellent for relaxing, for slowing down, for touching in with what's important in life. And if you've been kind of struggling with a sense of purpose, looking for a sense of meaning in life, this transit can actually help you with that. It's not going to force the issue; it's a sextile. But if you've been trying to figure out, "What are my ideals? What are the things in my life, or in life in general, that give me meaning, that are important for me to continue to reach towards?" this transit can really help aid that kind of thinking. What it's not as good for is hard research, fixed concentration.

Mercury sextile to Neptune wants us to kind of experience our more intuitive brain, and this is in part because Neptune is all about the concept of interconnection. Neptune is concerned with the ways in which our welfare is interwoven or interconnected with each other. Neptune is concerned with nature and spirituality. And so, if your thinking kind of veers off in these directions, you are right on time.

The last thing I'll say about this is kind of a reiteration but worth stating. If you need to identify, hold, embody, communicate⁠—whatever⁠—any kind of holding/communicating your boundaries, Mercury sextile to Neptune is actually really excellent for it because it empowers us to do this in a more empathetic and potentially gentle, or at least more palatable, way. So, again, if the transits that were happening earlier this week let you know that you need to take better care of yourself in some way with some relationship, this is a good time to really focus your thinking on getting clear about what your boundaries are or need to be and/or communicating them verbally to people/humans. See what I'm saying? Okay. Okay.

And that brings us to the last exact transit of the week, and this happens on the 10th. And it is an exact sextile between the Sun and Chiron. So the Sun is at 19 degrees and 11 minutes of Gemini, and Chiron is that 19 degrees of Aries. And as always, if you do want to be tracking the transits with me, you can do that by subscribing to my astrology student and astrologer's pro tool, Astrology for Days, over at astrologyfordays.com.

So this Sun sextile to Chiron is actually kind of a lovely transit. Chiron, as you know, can be challenging even when it's a sextile or a trine. But when the Sun and Chiron in Aries meet by sextile, we have the capacity to tap into themes of self-worth around embodying our truth or our sense of purpose, and doing so in a way that doesn't challenge our identity. And that can be really fucking helpful.

This transit and the Mercury sextile to Neptune, I've got to say, are just kind of exactly what the doctor ordered post the first two transits I talked about because the Sun sextile to Chiron helps to facilitate growth. The Sun is⁠—it's not just your identity; it's your will. It's your essential energies. It's your vitality. And Chiron in Aries has so much to do with our struggles and wounding around embodiment and self-worth. So this particular transit can help us to move through our wounding around that stuff in a way that actually works with our identity. And in particular, because the Sun is in Gemini, we can kind of make sense of things. Gemini is such a heady zodiac sign, and it empowers us to kind of sort through the details. And that is so useful.

The key here is to make sure that you are and remain open, open to exploring what might be typically pretty sticky and tricky themes. Be open to exploring them because you may make progress more easily around the 10th⁠—the 9th, the 10th⁠—than you would really expect. Chiron, as you know, kind of can bring up feelings of distress inside of you because you're tapping into wounding. However, this transit can really help us to locate ourselves in the here and now and to really check in with who you actually are and to move through old narratives and old patterns that you've been attached to, even if they have been harming you, and move into something that is more updated, present, and whole. It's a really useful transit.

In particular, I want to just kind of pull in this theme of boundaries because, while the upshot of the four transits I've just told you about may really come down to having healthy boundaries within yourself as well as interpersonally, this last transit that I'm telling you about, the Sun sextile the Chiron, supports you in doing that, in showing up as yourself, feeling empowered to do so⁠—not feeling perfect to do so. We're going to be feeling paradoxically. We're going to be feeling like, "I feel insecure about x. I feel shy about y. And also, at the end of the day, I know I deserve to fucking be here and to have a perspective and to have feelings and needs." Being able to sit with that messy, nuanced soup is powerful. It's the stuff that brings us closer to wholeness. It's the stuff that exists in the present.

So be willing to see yourself and to allow others to see you, not without boundaries, not without consideration and discernment, but in a way that is healthy and aligned with and for you. And that's it, my dears. We're going to talk next week about Pluto retrograding back into Capricorn, so definitely tune in for that.

And if you would like to continue learning with me, getting more woo, getting more astrological, join me over on Patreon at patreon.com/jessicalanyadoo. The link is always on my website and in the show notes. If you get value from this podcast, please do hit the Subscribe button wherever you're listening to the show and consider giving the show five stars or writing a positive review. It really does help a DIY podcast like this one.

All right, my loves. The next episode of Ghost drops on Wednesday, where I do an in-depth reading for one of my beloved listeners. If you would like to get a reading with me, don't hesitate to fill out the Contact form on my website over at ghostofapodcast.com. And remember, in the words of Octavia Butler, that kindness eases change. Love quiets fear. And a sweet and powerful positive obsession blunts pain, diverts rage, and engages us each in the greatest, the most intense of our chosen struggles.