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. I want you to strap yourself in. If you're somebody who takes notes during this podcast, go and get your pen and paper. It's time, because there's so much going on this week. And this should come as no surprise as the world is drowning and burning, and workers are standing up for their rights, and billionaires are doing what they do best, which is⁠—you know⁠—a bunch of bullshit.

Anyways, there's a lot going on in the world. We are going to talk about the astrology, but it's really hard to talk about the astrology of the week without acknowledging the world because astrology influences the world. And so I want to just give you this big-picture reminder that the personal is political, and the political is personal, that the astrology that influences your love life also influences us on a collective level. And so it's important for us to acknowledge that what we go through personally, we are going through personally but also collectively.

It's valuable to be able to take a step back and regard our own experience and situation in the context of the world we're living in. This is a bananas time. Astrology is a really valuable resource for contextualizing that and also for reminding you that you do not exist in a vacuum, that what happens in our solar system directly affects us as individuals and as a collective. So⁠—I don't know⁠—I think that's fascinating, and it also can be quite grounding and reassuring.

Okay. That's it. Now we're going to go straight into the astrology because there's so much to talk about. We are looking at the week of July 16th through the 22nd of 2023. This week has it all. We've got a New Moon in Cancer. We've got a couple really stressful oppositions, and then Venus goes Retrograde. So let's just jump in.

Now, on the 17th, the first thing that happens is we have an exact square between Mercury and Jupiter. That happens at 5:49 a.m. Pacific Time on July 17th. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you already know this, but I have a transit-tracking tool for astrologers and students. And it allows you to see the exact time that all the transits have been in their exactitude, and it also has a space for note-taking, for your predictions, for the things you're learning, all that kind of stuff. So you can subscribe to it over at astrologyfordays.com. Link is in show notes. It's also on my website, which⁠—if you haven't seen my website, it's super cute, so go see it. Okay?

So Mercury square to Jupiter, this transit is⁠—I actually kind of just embodied what it is. It's a transit that can bring up a lot of distraction. It can have us focused on a lot of really big things all at once, and so it can lead to a sense of restlessness, distractedness, excitement, innovation, engagement. Mercury is your mind. It's your attitudes. It's how you process data. It's your thoughts. It's how you communicate⁠—so speaking, typing, all the things. All the things, right? Voice notes, all the things. And Jupiter is big picture. Jupiter is expansive.

And so this may be a transit that kicks up propaganda. Now, that's especially important to pay attention to when we're dealing with corporations or governments that are trying to repress certain kinds of information. This is where propaganda becomes really risky business. So, as I always like to remind you, check your sources. Just check your sources before running with a thing.

So Mercury square Jupiter, it can be a gossipy transit, so propaganda on the collective level, gossip on the personal level. Try not to talk shit about people behind their back. It's tempting. It can even be⁠—yum, yum, yum⁠—delicious. But no one wants it to be done about themselves. Mercury square to Jupiter is one of those transits that can find you being a little arrogant, a little quick to speak without really considering what you're saying, how you're saying it, or who you're saying it to. So, if you can avoid talking shit, talking out of both sides of your mouth, if you can avoid jumping to conclusions or running with data before checking into it yourself, then you get to enjoy the best parts of this transit, which is that it can increase your open-mindedness. It can make you more open-minded. It can help you to be more tolerant.

This can be a transit that is really fun socially. Now, this global pandemic that we're still in is airborne. Mercury represents talking, talky-talky with the mouth, with the holes in your face. So, if you're indoors in public spaces or if your Spidey instincts say, "Something feels off here," just mask up. It's kind of a pain in the ass, and it's also really not a big deal. And this I say because, of course, Mercury with the holes in the face pushing out air and sound, and then also Jupiter, vast spread⁠—right? So we want to be mindful as much as we can about not spreading or catching shit if we can avoid it.

Okay. Back to the positive parts. Mercury square to Jupiter can give us a kind of optimistic outlook. Now, it can also, depending on how it hits your birth chart and depending on your nature, give you a bit of a Pollyanna thing going on where you're just like, "All the roses smell lovely, and there are no thorns." So, again, this is where you want to be, as much as possible, grounded into reality.

Now, Jupiter is in earthy Taurus, which can be helpful. But the square is happening between two fixed signs. Mercury is in Leo, and Jupiter is in Taurus. And so this transit is a little bit more concerning to me simply because we're dealing with fixed signs, which means that we may be dealing with confirmation bias, this idea of, "I already know what I think. I don't need to hear any information that contradicts what I think." And this is a dangerous way of being. It's good to listen to how other people think. It is good to understand other people's perspectives a lot of the times⁠—I mean, not all the time, but a lot of the times.

With this transit, we may simply double down on our beliefs. And interpersonally, like in your social life, that can lead to problems. I mean, how hard is it to really just listen to where someone else is coming from, even if you believe that they are wrong? It is valuable to know where someone else is coming from. It increases your ability to understand them and the world and your relationship, but it's also just the empathetic, generous thing to do.

Okay. Mercury square Jupiter⁠—great, important transit. But it's especially important because it is featured heavily in the New Moon chart. So, on the 17th of July, we have a New Moon in Cancer that is exact at 11:32 a.m. Pacific Time. Now, New Moons are always when the Sun and Moon are at the exact same degree of the same sign. So this here is at 24 degrees and 56 minutes of Cancer. Sun and Moon just hanging out right there.

If you go forth and you Google "New Moon in a Cancer," you may see lots of things that say, "It's a beautiful time to start something new. It's a beautiful time for getting in touch with your feelings. It's so pretty." And that may be, on a very general level, true. However⁠—fucking however; am I right? Okay. Pluto is sitting at 29 degrees of Capricorn, directly opposite that Sun/Moon conjunction. And that means that we can expect some heavy drama because Pluto always brings about drama.

And when we're looking at oppositions astrologically, things are often experienced and expressed oppositionally, a.k.a. in relationship to others. And so, when we, straight out the gate, consider that we're going to be super in our feelings⁠—it's a New Moon in Cancer. Your identity, your sense of self, your feelings, your wants, your needs⁠—they're all in the same smooshy, emo Cancer snuggle thing. And then Pluto sits opposite that, breaking up our survival mechanisms, bringing up power struggles, bringing up deep emotions that are to do with our sense of safety in our relationships, in our bodies, in the world.

And there's a lot of cause for us to not feel safe in this world right now, and potentially in your life, you may be struggling with that in some area or another. Now, we want to consider that the Pluto opposition to the Sun and Moon is happening at the same time that Mercury and Jupiter are square to each other. It's just a couple hours after it's in its perfect exactitude, so it's a really strong aspect in this chart.

This Mercury square Jupiter thing that has us quickly jumping to conclusions, maybe having knee-jerk reactions and not investigating our thoughts, our attitudes, or the information or news that we get, and the defensiveness that Pluto can bring can make us easy to manipulate, or it can make us inclined to try to manipulate others. The truth is, a lot of times, when people actively are trying to manipulate others, it's not out of some sort of evil cruelty. I mean, sometimes it is, but a lot of times, it's out of their own survival mechanisms. When we feel hurt and scared, when we don't know how to cope with danger, is when we often act out the worst. That's when we do the worst shit.

And so it's going to be really important for you this New Moon to really stay with your emotions, even though that might be hard because they may be overwhelming. If you stay with your emotions, it will be easier for you to assess, like, "Okay, I'm feeling myself get really fucking defensive right now. I'm feeling myself wanting to attack someone else because I feel like shit," or, "I'm noticing that this person is just coming at me, and it doesn't make any sense, and it feels like an attack."

If you can track what's happening by staying present, then you can cope most effectively. It's when we allow ourselves to slip into our defenses and our survival mechanisms in ways that are not appropriate to the situation⁠—that's when we get into trouble. And a New Moon is an opportunity to seed something within ourselves. Because it's in Cancer, it has so much to do with seeding your own emotional life. How can you be emotionally present and care for yourself and create a life that you really care about, that you can nurture?

That question is⁠—it's a hard enough question to answer when things are lovely and everything is kind of going your way. But when things are challenging, when you're dealing with what feels like existential dangers⁠—thank you, Pluto in Capricorn⁠—or other kinds of insecurities, we can go into that sideways pincher crab behavior where we start to try to evade and avoid, where we get passive-aggressive, where we strike before we are harmed. And that doesn't serve us. In most times, it doesn't serve us. So this is something to pay attention to.

Now, I'm going to add to this, unfortunately⁠—I'm sorry in advance⁠—that Saturn is sitting at six degrees of Pisces opposite to Mars at four degrees of Pisces. And more widely, it's opposite to Venus at 28 degrees of Leo. So we have Saturn being a total boner killer, per usual, kicking up insecurities and frustrations because things are likely to not go according to plan this week in general, but certainly this New Moon. They're not likely to be going according to plan, and that can be demoralizing. That can make you feel insecure. It can make you feel just stuck and frustrated.

Now, I tend to describe Saturn opposite or square to Mars as kind of like road rage. It's like being stuck in traffic or trying to get out of your house because you have to make it to work, but somebody's blocked in your driveway. There's nothing you can do. You don't even really want to go to fucking work, but you gotta get to work, and somebody you can't even blame or interact with has stopped you from being able to do that. When Saturn is opposite Mars, it makes it feel like we don't have any choices or the choices we have are shit. And that may or may not be true.

But what happens when we experience defensiveness is we tend to tap into our defenses. And our defenses and our survival mechanisms are all intertwined, oftentimes. And so, again, we risk having really maladjusted reactions to things, which is sucky and hard and can put us in a rough spot. But the good news is Mercury square Jupiter does favor expansiveness. It does favor us being able to sort through things and be generous. We've also got a Neptune trine to that New Moon and Neptune sextiling Pluto.

So there is support for tapping into your vulnerability⁠—thanks, Moon in Cancer⁠—tapping into your vulnerability, tapping into your emotions, and doing your best to be kind. Now, I'm not talking about niceness where you're just smiling at people's faces when you want to actually rip their faces off. I'm talking about kindness. Life is complicated. Situations are often complicated. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we're dealing with people and situations where there isn't a single thing that we can do that is the right thing. We have to make nuanced, complicated choices.

And sometimes the kindest thing we can do when we're, for instance, dealing with somebody who isn't safe for us, who isn't respectful to us, is to show ourselves kindness by having boundaries. And that kindness to the self means saying no to somebody, and that feels bad. It's really not about making perfect choices. It's really not about not having any upsets. We need to get it out of our head that feeling bad means things are bad. Sometimes we feel bad because we're growing and expanding. If you go and you break a limb and then you go to the doctor, they're going to re-break it for you before they set it. Not all pain is the pain of breaking. Sometimes the pain we experience is the pain of coming into alignment. And that's what I want to point your attention towards this New Moon.

How can you bring your attention to what's authentic, what's true, the messiness of it, the vulnerability of it? How can you care for yourself and others in ways that reflects your best and not perfection? How can you show yourself grace around that and show others grace, as well, without being a doormat, without being a teacher? How can you just be your own messy, complicated, fucked-up self?

And I want to really just double down on this thing about perfectionism for a moment because both Pluto and Saturn, which are both fucking with oppositions this week⁠—in this New Moon chart, but throughout the week⁠—can bring up our survival mechanisms in different ways from each other, but they both do. That can bring us into all-or-nothing thinking. That can bring up feelings of, "I am the worst," or, "I am the best," or, "That person is the best," or, "That person is the worst," or, "Why is my luck the worst?"⁠—you know, all this kind of extreme sort of thinking.

And what I want to just remind you of is every single person on the planet has Saturn in their chart somewhere, has Pluto in their chart somewhere, has challenging transits occur over the course of our lives. We all have to deal with these energies, and not everybody's situation is the same, obviously. But there's a way of being able to track and identify and feel into, what is Pluto's energy? What is Lunar energy? What's the Moon feel like? What is Saturn's energy?

Being able to understand the energy of a thing, in some ways, depersonalizes it so that you can cope with it instead of losing so much energy on, "Why me?" and losing energy on perfectionism because you are not supposed to be perfect. And neither is your mom, and neither is your ex, and neither is anyone. We're not supposed to be perfect. The people you look up to, they're not perfect. Nobody's perfect. We're not supposed to be perfect. We're supposed to be a mess. So can you be the most authentic, aligned, healthy, well-adjusted version of the mess that you are? That's what I would point you towards this New Moon.

And if you find yourself really, really emo, I want to say it's right on time. It's okay to be emotional and not know what to do. It's okay to feel stuck. If you can strive to be interested in your feelings, if you can strive to be kind to your feelings and start to, from that place of being authentically interested and being kind to yourself, start to unpack, "What do I need here? What do I need?"⁠—and it might be, "I just need a break," or it might be, "I need to drink more water," or it might be, "I need to respond to this fucking email that I don't know what to say to⁠"—and then to take the next best step, no matter how small, the next best step, even if it's a compromise⁠—that can really help.

Remember, the Moon in a Cancer⁠—Sun in Cancer, too⁠—brings in a time that is really good for connecting with our emotions. And that sounds good until you actually start connecting with your emotions, and then you're like, "I feel weird. I feel bad." A lot of us are just so busy, there's no time to connect to our emotions, or we're so uncomfortable with our emotions and vulnerability that we have all these coping mechanisms to distract. How many times do you have a big feeling, and then you grab your phone? So this is a time for touching in with how you feel and being kind to yourself, being nurturing and supportive to yourself as a foundation and then also with others. Easier said than done, but super fucking important.

Now, one last thing I'm going to say about this New Moon⁠—don't fucking do manifestation stuff during a Pluto opposition to the Sun and Moon and a Saturn opposition to Mars and Venus. That's just not⁠—it's not great. The astrology for it is just not great. But here's the thing. You can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. I'm just trying to give you the weather report. And so, basically, what I'm saying is if manifesting were a picnic, it's not a great idea to have a picnic this New Moon because we are expecting storms from the east, the north, the south, and the west. So, again, do with that information as you will.

Now, that brings us to the 20th. On the 20th, we have two exact transits. Both of them I have mentioned in the New Moon chart. So all the stuff that we've got going on this New Moon chart is just going to be happening throughout the week. This is a very intense week, and it would be a lot easier to deal with these energies were they only for 24 hours. But, my friends, they are not.

Okay. So, on the 20th, exact at 6:07 a.m., we have a Sun trine to Neptune. This is a lovely transit, very supportive. And in the context of all this heavy emotion and the other transit that's exact today, which is a Mars opposition to Saturn⁠—that'll be exact at 1:39 p.m. Pacific Time⁠—the Sun trine to Neptune is there as support. It can empower us to return to center a little bit more because it empowers us to have more empathy and more care for ourselves and for others. It can help us to not be too judgy, to not be too heavy-handed, and to basically have a little bit of grace. And we're going to need a whole lot of grace in this Mars opposition to Saturn moment that we're in.

The Sun trine to Neptune can help us to tap into a sense of belonging or, more specifically, a sense of belonging to the Universe. And that can help us to be motivated to be a part of movements, to do things for others, whether it's about engaging with mutual aid or supporting causes that you care deeply about. This transit can really help us to connect to our ideals and activate in a meaningful way in regards to them. So it's very helpful, and it's especially helpful for me to kind of, again, bring your attention to making sure that your conduct in the world, your conduct on the 3D level, is a reflection of your spiritual convictions.

So saying that you care about people is really valuable and really meaningful, and being alone with a meditation and caring about all the people of the world is powerful. But if it isn't followed up by action, it's kind of falling short. It's like a rose that never blooms. It's pretty, but it's not the whole shmegegge. So it is really important to check in through what might be a really frustrating day with your spiritual ideals and convictions and your beliefs and ethos around empathy, and make sure that the way that you are talking to yourself, the way that you are engaging in the world, with others, reflects that.

So that brings us to the Mars opposition to Saturn. This transit⁠—it's not my favorite. I'm not going to lie. I'm not a fan of this transit. Now, Mars is at six degrees Virgo opposite Saturn six degrees Pisces, as I mentioned when I was talking about the New Moon. This transit is frustrating. That's what it does. It brings up frustrations. Mars is your ego. It represents the archetype of maleness or men. It is associated with your muscles and your blood. It's how we get up and get things done. It's bang, bang, punch, punch. It's, "I'm going to fight you." It's basically like a drive to prove yourself.

Now, Mars is in discerning Virgo. Now, I say discerning. Virgo can be judgy, but it is meant to be discerning. And so, as Mars is in discerning Virgo opposite Saturn in idealistic Pisces, there's a lot of risk that we go ahead and we try to do something, and when it doesn't work, we collapse into an anxious, depressive puddle⁠—Saturn in Pisces. So watch out for that pattern. And if you experience that, be like, "Oh shit. Astrology works." Then ask yourself, "Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. How can I cope with this? What's actually happening for me? Why am I experiencing this emotional or physical response to frustration or anger or disappointment or somebody else coming at me with a bunch of bullshit?"⁠—which may happen with a Mars opposition to Saturn.

This transit will often bring up situations where you may feel like you are being bullied; someone is coming at you and being Mars. Or you may feel like someone is being oppositional to your aims and putting their foot down and not letting you do shit⁠—Saturn. So somebody might be the Saturn; somebody might be the Mars, which means that you are likely to be somebody's Saturn or somebody's Mars. Or you're perfect; nothing that you do is sus, and what's happening on your block, within your friend group, at work, is people are being Mars and people are being Saturn. So it's in the world. It's happening. It's happening.

Here's what we do. We learn about our ego. Learning is Saturn, and the ego is Mars. We have the opportunity with a Mars opposition to Saturn to be in conflict⁠, opposition, struggle, and to cultivate a more mature response and approach to experiencing and coping with it. The reason why we go through transits to or from Saturn is so that we grow up. It's so that we mature. It's so that we have life experiences and then learn from those life experiences and apply those learnings in a material sense, a.k.a. in the 3D.

While I really don't enjoy this transit⁠—not a fan⁠—it is so helpful because it shows you how you embody certain emotions, and that embodiment may not be in alignment with your identity, with what you think of yourself, what you expect from yourself. So this is a transit where you may be a total dick to yourself. You may talk to yourself in ways that are just cruel and unnecessary. So this is where you want to adopt puppy talk rules, a.k.a. just be fucking kind to yourself. And when you find that you're talking to yourself in ways that are cruel and you catch it, you can be like, "Okay. Puppy talk rule. How can I reframe that?" That is a way of cultivating greater responsibility and maturity around how you experience and engage with your own ego, your own anger, your own drive to kind of force things or push things into accomplishment or success.

Whenever it comes to Saturn, we are meant to chug along. We're climbing a mountain. But when it comes to Mars, Mars is all about sprints. It's all about fireworks. Mars literally governs running and cars, so it wants to go fast. So Mars and Saturn, when they're in opposition to each other, are fucking uncomfortable because Saturn's like, "Go slow. Go slow. Go slow," and Mars is like, "Go fast. Go fast. Go fast."

And these energies are happening within us. These energies are happening in the world around us. And again, given all that is happening in the world between populations and their governments, between corporations and their employees, this really may be a transit that has to do with a massive cracking down where both sides feel like they're not getting their needs met, and they're not even being understood. And my advice to you around this is to know that because Saturn moves slower than Mars, Saturn is the heavier weight in this equation.

And so take the approach of a marathon. Pace yourself. Pace yourself in how you sort through your feelings and how you engage with somebody that maybe some shit came up, and you need to process with them. You don't have to do it right now. You can schedule it. Pace yourself through negotiations if you're involved in any kind of organizing, any kind of larger movement in the world. This is not the time to let oppositional forces force your hand. And if it does, if it's out of your control⁠, then again, take a metered approach to coping with that. We're not looking for perfection. We're just going to keep on trying. We're going to keep on engaging.

Now, one more thing I'll say is that this is not a great time for starting new projects. So, again, I know New Moons⁠—people rightly associate them, generally speaking, with manifestation and starting new things, seeding things. But a Mars opposition to Saturn is just like a fucking terrible time to start something new. And sometimes it's unavoidable. Sometimes you gotta sign the contract. You gotta make the choice. You gotta start the job. That's life. But it may be that during this transit, you just⁠—whatever you start has a little bit of a concession written into it. So it's frustrating, but you work with what you got. That's it. That's all you can do, right?

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So, on the 21st, we have more mixed news. At 8:53 p.m. Pacific Time, we have a Sun opposition to Pluto. Now, the Sun is at 29 degrees Cancer. Pluto is at 29 degrees of Capricorn. This transit is a big deal. And again, it's overlapping with a Mars opposition to Saturn, and it is being dragged out from that New Moon chart. So the New Moon is kind of expanding the influence of these transits, for better or worse.

The other thing that's happening on this day⁠—it is exact at 11:57 p.m.⁠—Mercury trine Chiron. Now, on the positive side, the Mercury trine to Chiron⁠—in fire signs⁠, right? Mercury is in Leo; Chiron is in Aries. This transit can really help us to sort through our baggage. It can help us to work through old wounds, really deeply held beliefs that are pain points, and work through those things in ways that is really liberatory.

This transit on its own is freaking fantastic. In the context of all these more stressful transits, it's really supportive. Now, we want to remember that this week, Mercury forms a square to Jupiter, which can be really expansive and help us to change our mind, learn something new, broaden our perspective. That was exact on the 17th. And now, here on the 21st, Mercury is trine to Chiron, which can help us really make profound shifts, especially around things that are painful and core to our survival mechanisms and our identity. There's something really wonderful happening with Mercury, which is nice that Mercury can do something other than Retrograde, right? Mercury can do lovely things to help us sort through all the really deep triggers that we're likely to be experiencing this week.

Now, the Sun opposition to Pluto brings up power struggles and kicks up our survival mechanisms. But the Mercury trine to Chiron helps us to face it. It helps us to be mentally willing to explore, investigate, understand, process, share, or receive information that is kind of painful and tricky. So this is a well-timed transit, this Mercury trine to Chiron. But let me tell you a little bit more about the Sun opposition to Pluto.

The Sun is your identity and your sense of self, and Pluto is your survival mechanisms. And so many people are likely to be feeling unsafe because of their identities right now in a larger existential way. We are seeing this through the rise of strongman regimes all over the world. We're seeing this through the repression of many people based on their identities, and even through the rise of people-led movements.

On a more personal level, as the Sun is at the anaretic degree of Cancer and Pluto is sitting there at the same degree of Capricorn, we are likely to be really struggling with something that feels really deeply personal to who and what we are. So we're dealing with a self-esteem crisis. We're dealing with an identity crisis. And as always with Pluto, we have the opportunity to create or destroy, to heal or to manipulate, control, and kind of seek dominion. There's always room for repair when Pluto is involved. When Pluto is involved in an opposition to the Sun, it's not the easiest or the first thing that happens, but it's absolutely possible.

You want to remember that struggle on its own is not bad. We want to struggle to be better, struggle to be more whole, struggle to take our stand or to evolve and change. So, while Pluto, yes, is very much about struggle, it's not all bad. There is, as always with the tension between Cancer and Capricorn, the theme of, "What do I need to feel safe, and to feel safe at home or with my family?"⁠—and more broadly, for many of us, family is community⁠—versus, "What systems are in place, and how do they function?" On a personal level, you may need to look at, what systems are in place in your life? How are you participating with them, and is it actually working for you and for others?

This transit is likely to bring up addictive behaviors, compulsions, and obsessiveness. That's what happens when the Sun is opposite Pluto. And so, if you are somebody who struggles with addiction in any way⁠—addiction happens on so many levels⁠—this is a great time to put supports in place so that you're not overwhelmed and it doesn't have a too-destructive impact on your life. This can be a time⁠—thank you to Mercury's shenanigans with Chiron. This can be a time where we can strive to understand what is motivating our obsessive or compulsive behaviors or thoughts or feelings, whatever it is.

Because of the Mars opposition to Saturn, things are slowed down because of Saturn, right? The Sun opposition to Pluto can actually be kind of quick because it's like a lot of defensive reactions and activations. But Saturn is going to slow everything down. And while that could really suck and make things a little more painful or stressful, it can also give you the space and time you need to sort through your reactions so that you can be more intentional and informed about your responses. It's not the lightest horoscope I've ever given, but this is what's happening.

Don't go trying to change people, okay? This is not going to work. This energy, these two oppositions⁠—Mars/Saturn, Pluto/Sun⁠—it's too power-struggly. You can show up and share your truth, share your needs, whatever it is, but engaging in power struggles means you're engaging in power struggles. They go both ways. So, if you're really going to try to teach someone something or force them to see your perspective, you have to be open and willing to receive that same energy and attention from others. And most of us don't want that. We want to give it; we don't want to get it.

So be mindful. If you've got to engage in power struggles, if you've got to engage in conflicts and fights, be a conservationist with your energy. We're dealing with Saturn. We're dealing with Pluto in Capricorn. Conserve your energy so that you can use it for the things that are important. Mind your energy. Don't lose it on the shit that's actually not important to you. Try to focus on the things that are truly important to you in your personal life, professionally, in the world around you.

The Sun opposition to Pluto is intended to bring about catharsis. It's intended to bring your shit up compulsively, intensely, because the particular shit that gets brought up is related to your very survival mechanisms that are in place, whether they're maladjusted or not, to keep you safe. It brings that shit up in an oppositional way, and it gives us the opportunity to be mindful and intentional about our responses so that we can transform them for ourselves internally, then behaviorally, and then hopefully in the world.

A lot of people are going to experience this transit as simply being overwhelmed, shut down, disassociated. And if that's how you feel on and around this date, I want to again invite you to notice it because it is valuable to know yourself, even if you can't change it, even if there's nothing to do about it in this moment. Self-awareness is foundational to wisdom, and wisdom is what you want to accrue over the course of time. It's the whole point, theoretically, of aging is that you accrue wisdom.

So, this week, with these two really important oppositions and the two supportive companion transits that are happening around them, we have the opportunity to do some serious growth in core, foundational ways. And that doesn't mean that it's going to be fireworks. It doesn't mean it's going to be obvious in an external way. Subtle and small progress is still progress. Foundational, core progress often looks like nothing on the outside to people. It doesn't result in some sort of angel coming down from the heavens, being like, "You did good." Sometimes you just have to acknowledge your own efforts and your own evolution as an ongoing, forever project. And this, my friends, is one of those times.

I've got more to talk to you about astrologically, but I want to just remind you that there is a transcript available for each and every episode. So just go to my website, ghostofapodcast.com. Click on the episode that you want to read, and then you can read the transcript there. And it is available, of course, for free forever for you. And while you're over on my website, there is the link to register to join me for a conversation that I'm having with Sonya Renee Taylor and Adrienne Maree Brown, two brilliant humans, remarkable minds and profound writers and speakers. So, if you don't know about their work already, you are missing out. And also, you're welcome, because you're going to love them both.

But the three of us are having a conversation on August 6th⁠—and we're doing it virtually, so you can join from anywhere in the world⁠—about the very important topic of how to find joy in times of apocalypse, how to live in a time of calamity and not just survive it but to thrive, to have a life that feels powerful and meaningful to live. So we're going to be having what I am sure will be a deep and meaningful conversation that I am very excited to be having, and I really just can't wait for this. You can sign up now.

We will be doing an Instagram Live on July 21st at 2:00 p.m. Pacific, 5:00 p.m. Eastern. So you can also join us there and learn a little bit more about the event and also just say hi. I would love that. And if you can't join us live, that's no problem because if you register for the event, you will get the recording sent to you later. Also, closed captioning is available, and language translation captions for non-English-speaking participants will be available as well. So make sure to sign up, my friends.

Now we're going to get to the news you've been waiting for, and that is Venus Retrograde. Now, Venus goes Retrograde on July 22nd, 2023, at 6:33 p.m. Pacific Time. And it will stay Retrograde until September 3rd. So that's quite a minute here, right? Now, Venus goes Retrograde once every 19 months or so for a total of about six weeks. Venus goes Retrograde less than any other planet. Now, the Sun and Moon never Retrograde. Everybody else does. Venus does it the least of everybody.

When Venus is not Retrograde, it normally spends a couple of weeks to a month in a sign per year, as it's never more than two signs away from the Sun. Fun facts. But this year, Venus will be in Leo for about four months, which is a long time to be in Leo. That's from⁠—I think it was the 5th of June until the 9th of October, which means it is spending its whole Retrograde in Leo. It's spending a ton of time in Leo. So there's a lot we're going to talk about here. I pulled up the chart for the Venus Retrograde.

First and foremost, I want to just acknowledge what Venus in Leo is about. Venus is a planet that has to do with diplomacy and intimacy, back and forth. Venus is to do with our values. It's to do with our self-image in many ways. It's the things we own. It's our finances, our personal finances. It's what we've got liquid, and beauty and all that kind of good stuff. Now, when Venus is in Leo, it is in a fire sign that is a fixed sign. And so it is not the most compromising.

You want to keep in mind that Venus governs both air-sign Libra and earth-sign Taurus. And Leo is all about, "Like, wait. Me. Me now." And the Taurean/Libran vibes that Venus possesses are not exactly like that. When we are looking at Venus in Leo, it can bring up ego issues because Leo is just like, "Look at me. Have you see me? Hello." It's a fixed sign, so it can be very convicted. It's like, "These are the parts of my identity that I want to be acknowledged for, that I want to be celebrated. These are the things that are important."

This transit can make the things that we're passionate about much more important. So Venus's time through the zodiac sign of Leo is really kind of bringing up our passions and our drive to be perceived as important, to be perceived as valuable. These things are big themes within Venus in Leo. But when Venus goes Retrograde, we follow the role of re's. We reflect. We reassess. We recalibrate. And this is not about love alone. I mean, people call this the season of the ex, which I find an incredibly charming, quotable thing to say. I like it. I like the way it sounds.

But season of the ex⁠—it kind of does a disservice to what Venus is, in a way. It's a part of it. It's a part of it where exes, old romances, old relationships may come out of the woodwork, come back from your past, asking you to make an assessment: "Do I value this person? Do I value this dynamic? Do I value myself? And do I want to make a different choice?" So you might see themes in your love life replaying themselves, or you might see people from your love life replaying themselves. It could even be your social life, not just your romantic connections. It can also be friends if you are somebody who has lovey relationships with friends.

But the reason why this comes up, this season of the ex emerges, is because Venus is about values, and it is about what we value, who we value, and how we experience and express that value. And so it is important that we don't allow our ego⁠—Leo⁠—to get in the way of prioritizing that which we value. So, if you don't know what you value, if your values are something that are confusing to you and you just kind of don't know what to think or do about it, there are lots of ways of exploring what you value. And I encourage you to find some and practice because a Venus Retrograde is the time to reflect on your values, to make sure that they accurately reflect what's important to you.

It is important within all of these investigations to be checking in with the value we place on ourselves, our self-worth, and to make sure that we are not placing too much value on the way things look or what we get attention for. There's this TikTok trend going around. There's a new TikTok filter. This TikTok filter takes your face, and it ages it. It's supposed to be a very realistic approximation of what you're going to look like when you're older. And I have been horrified by seeing how young people react to their faces looking older, the descriptions that people have held about themselves⁠. I look at them and I'm like, "Oh, you look like you're in your 70s," or something. And they're like, "I look like I'm 100; I was recovered from my grave." People are just really mean and horrible to themselves but, as an extension, to older people, which⁠—just as a hot tip, either you're going to die young or you're going to get old.

People's reactions to seeing their faces aged⁠—it says a lot about our values, what we value in ourselves, and what we value in others. And I just gotta say it's very Venus Retrogrady because when we place too much emphasis on the surface of things, of what things look like, then we miss out on what's truly important. And if the thing that is the most important to you is how you look, especially how you look when you look old, then the bulk of your life is going to be really challenging because bodies age, because we're not meant to fit whatever beauty standards are given to us or kind of of the moment fashion-wise.

Your body is an instrument. It's a fucking vessel. You are here in this meat suit for this time, and the way your body looks is the least interesting part about you. You have value no matter what the fuck you look like, whether you're pretty or ugly, whether you're healthy or you're not healthy. You have value. Your body has value. The way you look has value. All of it. And it's really important that we find ways of identifying what we value in ourselves, what we value in others, and to make sure that it's in alignment with our spiritual convictions, that is in alignment with our ethics, and that it's in alignment with the healthiest and best-adjusted version of ourselves we are capable of being. Venus Retrograde.

Venus Retrograde is also a good time to look at your finances⁠—how you spend your money, what you spend your money on, that kind of good stuff. Very helpful, because it might not represent a time of being financially robust, depending on how this transit hits your chart especially. But it is a good time for reflecting on how you engage with your finances. For all of us who live in capitalistic societies, money is power. It's political power. Where we spend our money, how we spend our money, is a reflection of our values. When you're just struggling to survive, it's easy to forget that. But it's a good thing to kind of bring into your awareness and your consciousness this Venus Retrograde⁠—I mean all the damn time, but also especially this Venus Retrograde.

And related to the topic of values, with all of the strikes that are going on here in the U.S.⁠—there are protests and strikes happening all over the world right now⁠—let it be a reflection of your values to have cross-industry and cross-class solidarity. Venus is related to your personal finances, what you have. This is related to⁠—it's not the only thing we look to for class issues in astrology, but it is very much related to class. So don't be a scab. This is a time to participate in the world in a way that reflects what you value.

Now, we're going to look at the chart of Venus Retrograde. And I want to just pull back to say, when we're looking at an event chart, we're looking at the moment that the Retrograde begins. It gives us a sense of the themes and issues that we're likely to experience during this Venus Retrograde. So it's not just that it's Venus in Leo, but it is the whole chart we're looking at. And in this chart, we have a Mars opposition to Saturn. We have a Sun opposition to Pluto.

And that Sun opposition to Pluto is forming a T-square, or a Grand Cross to the nodes⁠—Grand Cross to the nodes. I focus on the North Node personally in my practice, so it forms a T-square to the North Node. Now, again, we got issues here around identity. This is going to be such a huge theme within this Venus Retrograde, is can our identities be manipulated by powerful organizations and entities, by our own survival mechanisms, defensiveness and paranoia? Can our fears, basically, and our survival issues move us away from what we value? That is going to be a meaningful question here, and it's a risk.

In this chart, we've got Mercury just about almost conjunct. It's a little far, but it's almost conjunct. And so that is supportive. It is supportive to help us to analyze our values. But we've also got Uranus forming a square to Mercury and to Venus in this chart, which can function in one of two ways. It can support us in being open and being willing to explore what's possible, to be innovative in how we approach our values and our thinking around our values, how we communicate. It can be really an expansive aspect, in a way.

But it can also, because this is all happening in fixed signs, having us double down on our beliefs and behaviors out of habit, having us double down on those things just because we want to prove ourselves. That's a risk here. It's also a risk that our nervous systems, because of Uranus, are so stimulated that it's hard for us to stay with data, stay with information, whether it's self-evaluation or in the world, and throws us off our games. Right? Fucking Uranus messing things up here.

So, if that wasn't enough, we also in this Venus Retrograde chart have a Moon opposition to Neptune. It's so tight. Neptune is at 27 degrees and 33 minutes of Pisces, and the Moon is at 27 degrees and 49 minutes of Virgo. It's so tight. It's a couple minutes off. So this is an anxiety-provoking aspect. This Venus Retrograde, unfortunately, I think, can be really challenging for us on a deep and personal level and our emotional, spiritual, and psychological health. And on a social level, this can be used against us. It can be used to manipulate people, to point to certain demographics and vilify them. And I'm especially concerned when I look at this at Trans, Nonbinary, and Queer communities, as well as disabled communities.

We have a concern here about the rights of women. I mean, this Venus Retrograde, I think, is going to be kind of chaotic, honestly. And so the way to handle it, the way to engage with it, is to be brave enough⁠—and luckily, Leo gives us bravery, gives us courage. It has us acting from the heart. It's to be brave enough to get aligned, to find your damn center, even if you're feeling chaotic, even if things around you are chaotic, and to identify, "What of my values are motivating me here? What is it that's motivating me here? And do I need to shift my behavior because it's not accurately reflecting my values? Do I need to shift my values? Do I need to evolve?"

If you can do that, if you can kind of sort through the internal noise or the external drama, this can be a really powerful time. Venus Retrograde is a powerful opportunity. And again, this Retrograde only happens 7 percent of the time. Venus is only Retrograde 7 percent of the time, as I said, the least amount of any other planet. So this is an opportunity worth tapping into. You don't have to do anything fancy. For me personally, I will often, like once a year, sit down and write out a short list. What are my values? What do I value? I use the KISS method. It's the "keep it simple, sweetheart" method.

I try to use the most distilled, core word to reflect my value because that tends to be actually a lot more expansive. Usually, my list is about five things, what I truly value. And then, when I'm confused in my life about a choice to make, I can refer back to my values and be like, "Okay. Does this opportunity, does this situation, does my behavior, reflect what I value? Or does it actually pull me away from what I value? Or is it kind of neutral?" And that, for me, is really helpful. Now, I'm a Capricorn. I like a system. I like a list. You might like a different way. Play with it. Look online. There's going to be bazillions of people telling you bazillions of methods. Try to find what works for you, and make it your own. 

Ultimately, a Venus Retrograde is an opportunity for you to tap in, reflect on, and revamp how you feel about yourself, how you care for yourself, and even to explore what brings you pleasure, the role of creativity in your life. For many people, this will show up as relationship issues. But don't focus all your energy on your crush, your ex, your current, whatever. Remember that how you love, who you love, what you consent to, how you participate⁠—all of those things are a reflection of you.

And so, with astrology, it's very tempting to fixate on other people, what they are or aren't doing, what their signs mean, whatever. And that's interesting, and that's cool. But the best way to use astrology is to understand yourself because it doesn't really matter what your partner or your bestie⁠—what their sign is, what transits they're going through. It matters how you show up, how you engage, what you consent to, where your lines are drawn, how you draw them. That shit is all on you.

So, while, yes, this can be an important time romantically, I just want to, again, bring your attention back to the self, which luckily Venus in Leo is really good at supporting, but to do so in a way that is a little humble, a little flexible. Do your best is what I'm trying to say. Do your damn best.

Now, that was all⁠—and that was a lot. That's a lot. I'm going to run through the transits one more time for you. We've got, on the 17th, Mercury forming an exact square to Jupiter and a New Moon in Cancer at 11:32 a.m. Pacific Time. On the 20th, the Sun forms an exact trine to Neptune, and Mars forms an exact opposition to Saturn. On the 21st, we have an exact trine between Mercury and Chiron and an exact opposition between the Sun and Pluto. Hey. Nothing to see here, right? On the 22nd, the Sun moves into Leo, but the big news is Venus goes Retrograde in Leo. And that's a lot.

And I hope it's helpful for you to know all this stuff and to work with it and that you use astrology in general, and certainly everything I've shared here today, to go deeper within yourself and engage with this human condition in the best ways you can at this time. It's no small thing, but it's certainly a valuable thing.

Now, if you have written a review for Ghost of a Podcast, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really appreciate all reviews. If you haven't done that, you can do that wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, of course, you're always invited to join me over on Patreon.

Take good care of yourself and others. I will talk to you in just a couple of days.