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.

This has been another just banana soup week. It just has. There's been so much going on in all corners of the world. And if you're feeling a lot of feelings, you, my friend, are not alone. It's a lot. It's a lot to bear, especially if you're paying attention or if you're particularly empathic or sensitive, even if you're not paying attention.

I am really, truly overjoyed to announce something that I'm doing with two beautiful humans, Sonya Renee Taylor and Adrienne Maree Brown, both of whom have been on the podcast and gotten readings on the show. They are both writers and activists and just really wonderful, smart, and powerful humans that if you don't know their work, you absolutely should. Anyways, the three of us are coming together for a cosmic virtual gathering. We'll be having a conversation discussing astrology, liberation, spirituality, and how to make our way through these⁠ what often feel like apocalyptic times.

We don't just want to survive; we want to thrive. And we understand that we get through all of this; we get through it together. So I hope you'll join us for this conversation. It's happening online, so you can join from anywhere in the world on August 6th. The link to join will be in show notes. There's also a pop-up on my website. It's also on the banner of my website, so you really can't miss it. I hope you join us there because I think it's going to be a really important and much-needed conversation, especially given the fact that it'll be happening during Venus Retrograde and in the Retroshade of Mercury Retrograde.

So this is a good time for really tapping in and turning inwards and recalibrating on a lot of levels. And this is a good moment for me to name that on the 22nd of July, we are going to have Venus move Retrograde. I'm going to talk about it in depth next week. And there's nothing you need to do to prepare. When a planet goes Retrograde, it is an invitation⁠—maybe kind of a demand from the planet, but I'm going to call it an invitation⁠—an invitation to turn inwards and follow the rule of re's. We are reflecting so we can reassess, so we can redirect if and however necessary. So you don't need to worry about preparing for Venus Retrograde. I'm going to give you all the details next week.

But we're going to stay present. We're going to stay present with what is happening in the here and now, keeping in mind all that Plutonian stuff I talked about in last week's horoscope is still very much active and present. We are still in this Pluto in Capricorn moment sandwiched by Pluto's time in Aquarius, the first ingress and the second and final ingress that will come in early 2024.

So this is a really powerful moment, and everything we talk about, everything you're going through, everything that's happening is happening under the backdrop of all of this Plutonian activation. And if you're somebody who has any planets or major points in your birth chart in late degrees of a cardinal sign⁠—that's Capricorn, Cancer, Libra, or Aries⁠—you're really going to be feeling it. But anyways, if you missed last week's horoscope, you definitely want to listen to it.

Okay. Let's get astrological. We are looking at the week of July 9th through the 15th of 2023. And this week starts off with a lovely, lovely transit. Mercury is at 27 degrees and 40 minutes of Cancer, forming a delightful, supportive trine to Neptune at the same degrees, 27 and 40 minutes of Pisces. This transit is lovely. It characterizes a moment where our minds⁠—because Mercury is your thinking, your attitudes, how you process data⁠—our minds are enjoying the benefit of the flow, empathetic perspective, grace, and ease of Neptune. Now, Neptune doesn't always bring those things, but when it's being aspected by a trine, it often does.

Mercury trine to Neptune is a transit where it can really support us to be forgiving⁠—forgiving of ourselves or others. This is a great transit for being in nature, spending time with a good book, doing any kind of spiritual work. I mean, I said any kind of spiritual work and I didn't mean it. It could be any kind of spiritual work, but I should warn you that on the 10th, we have another transit from Mercury to Pluto. It's a Mercury/Pluto opposition, and it really changes the color, texture, and feeling of this Mercury trine to Neptune.

The Mercury trine to Neptune is really supportive, and it gives us grace and ease. It supports understanding. It supports us properly listening, like truly listening, to what's being said. So I don't just mean you're reading the words or you're hearing the words or whatever⁠—you're perceiving the words. You're taking them in and you're understanding what was intended. I also mean you're tapped into the energy with which it was intended. It's perceiving with all of our senses instead of just our linear analytic senses, which are really valuable⁠—yay, linear analytic senses, but they're not the only ones. And we want to tap into all our parts.

Basically, Mercury trine to Neptune increases our sensitivities, and that can stimulate our spiritual senses, our creativity in general, and it's just really⁠—it's lovely. So this transit⁠—I could kind of wax poetic about it, but I won't. I won't because it is overlapping with the Mercury opposition to Pluto. This transit is going to be felt the most intense on the 10th when it's exact, and that will be at 1:48 p.m. Pacific Time. Mercury is at the anaretic degree of Cancer, 29 degrees. We've got Pluto at 29 degrees of Capricorn.

And Mercury opposite Pluto is⁠—it's a bit of a kick in the cooch, if you know what I mean. It stimulates obsessive and often negative thinking because Mercury is related to thinking, friendships, communication, what we say, what we believe, what we listen to, how we listen to it. It's not just what's communicated; it is the tone that it is communicated in. Mercury is all of these things, and Pluto⁠—you know what Pluto is, right? Transformation and destruction. Pluto governs trauma and abuse. It also governs healing and repair.

So, when we have any planet opposite Pluto, we know shit is going to get intense. Mercury opposite Pluto is a transit where we will often find ourselves really struggling with an idea. So that may be you're obsessing on something that hurts⁠—because Pluto, right? So you might be obsessing on an idea that you have about how things should be or how things could have been or what you did wrong or what somebody else did wrong. Generally, it's on something related to power and powerlessness.

What's really important here is that you take stock of where you allow your own mind to linger because it is the ideas that we fixate on, it is where we allow our attention and thinking to linger, that we are investing. So, if you're being a dick to yourself, if you're treating yourself poorly, if you're speaking to yourself in cruel or abusive ways, then you are investing in your own suffering⁠—to what end? If you fucked up and did something terribly wrong, investing in your own suffering and punishing yourself through your own thinking does not create repair in the world for anyone or anything. All it does is it holds you down.

So, if you recognize that you have done something to cause harm to yourself or to others, do your best to tap into the part of Pluto that is related to repair, taking accountability, owning our shit, and holding the messiness of it⁠. And by the way, hot tip: Pluto actually governs poop. It's the process of pooping. It's poop itself. It's the messy, stinky, taboo stuff that we have a hard time acknowledging is real, let alone dealing with.

So, if you've done something wrong or you fear you've done something wrong, try to own it and then fixate your mind⁠—Mercury⁠—on what it is that you can do or you can plan to do to make it right, to do better, to learn, to evolve, to heal. And if you've done wrong to someone else, how can you, with your behavior, communicate understanding of where you've gone wrong and how you can actively make things better⁠? Not make the past better, because you don't get to fix the past, but how you can do better in the present and moving forward⁠—that's the best possible way to engage with this energy.

And Pluto really helps us to go deep. That's what Pluto wants. Pluto wants us to go deep in our thinking, wants us to go deep in our communications, wants to listen more deeply, wants us to get to the heart of the matter. And so it is very common, but a massive waste of our energy, to allow this transit to point us in the direction of obsessing on other people, obsessing on what they think of us, what they feel about us, cyber-stalking people, reflecting on your past and telling yourself you should have done things differently or so-and-so should have done things differently. When you are fixating on other people, you are losing your own energy. And your energy is fucking precious, so it's not a good move.

This transit can easily lead to power struggles and conflicts. Now, we have that lovely Mercury/Neptune trine, and that is a gift from the heavens that we should not forget is there because that transit empowers us to be more empathetic, to be a little more graceful, a little more present, to tolerate the messiness and often painfulness of the ideas or situations that Pluto can trigger. And I use the word "trigger" on purpose because Mercury opposite Pluto is a transit of triggers. It's like a trigger-tape parade. You are likely to feel very activated and very triggered by something you see on social media, by something your friend or your frenemy says, some stranger says⁠—you may say something that triggers someone else.

And obviously, we don't want to trigger people, and we don't want to get triggered. But it is really important to note the difference between something triggering something within you and something traumatizing you in the present moment. They're both valid, but the key is to understand the difference because they do require different remediation. And we don't want to tell ourselves a story⁠—Mercury⁠—about a situation⁠—again, Mercury⁠—that is traumatizing ourselves when in fact the thing that is happening is not traumatic, but you're experiencing trauma as a result of it because it triggered something within you. Again, the difference is nuanced and subtle. But if you can acknowledge that difference and work with that difference, it can really help your mental, emotional, and spiritual health journey wherever you're at with it.

Now, this is a great day for therapy⁠—not an easy day for therapy, but a great day for therapy. It's a great day for taking in some self-help content because, again, Pluto wants us to go deep. Pluto wants us to reflect. And we are in the Retroshade of that Venus Retrograde, so going deep into our beliefs and understanding how they reflect our values⁠—not a bad idea. It's not bad work if you can get it. But it's important to know that when Mercury is opposite to Pluto⁠—again, we're dealing with anaretic degrees⁠—we're dealing with collective issues as well as personal issues. We want to be on the lookout for propaganda, disinformation, misinformation.

If you get really activated by something you hear, read, see⁠—whatever⁠—online or in the news, take a moment. Take a moment. Gather yourself before you go posting a response, before you get conclusive. Do a little research. And guess what: googling is not exactly research. You gotta check your sources, and a great way of doing that is by looking for primary sources, not just editorial about a thing. Look for the primary source if you can. That's a great way to know, is this propaganda? Is this misinformation? Is this disinformation?

We can expect all kinds of drama in the dissemination of information in the world. And in this world that we live in where we have cyber warfare in addition to other forms of warfare that are really important to the development or crumbling of societies, we really want to pay attention to that part of this transit and make sure that we are not unwittingly participating in something that is really not about us or for us.

The key here is to know that you and me and everybody else are likely to be easily activated and triggered. Because of that, you want to be a little bit critical in your thinking and not jump to conclusions, not just take someone's word for it. And if you are thinking, "Hmm, should I take a couple days off of ye olde internet?" I would say, yeah, these would be some great days, the days of Mercury opposite Pluto, if you can, to take a step back from the internet, to take a step back at least from⁠—maybe not the internet, but taking a step back from social media. It might do your brains a whole lot of good.

Now, there's a couple other things that are happening on this date that are worth noting. Mars ingresses into Virgo and Mercury into Leo. The fact that Mercury is sitting opposite Pluto at that 29th degree and Mars and Leo are shifting signs on the same day feels very noteworthy to me. It feels very important because we have a shifting of energy in a really big way. So, again, you just want to pay attention because there is a turning of tides that is happening here.

And that's not bad, and it's not good. It is simply change. Try to pay attention to it. Try to be present for it if you can. And resist the urge to catastrophize, because that would be very tempting what with Mercury being opposite Pluto. We want to do our best to tap into the Mercury trine to Neptune, that supportive transit that can help us to be more forgiving, to have more grace, to ease up on ourselves and others.

Now, this brings us, my friends, to the 12th. And on the 12th, there's another challenging transit for you. Now, on the 12th, we have a Sun square to Chiron. It's exact at 5:06 a.m. The Sun is at 19 degrees and 55 minutes of Cancer⁠; Chiron, 19 degrees, 55 minutes of Aries. And this is a challenging square. You're going to feel it especially strongly if you have anything in a cardinal sign at around 20 degrees. The Sun square to Chiron tests our identity. It tests our sense of self. Now, I don't want to tell you that the Mercury opposition to Pluto overlaps with the Sun square to Chiron because it's just dragging out some pretty intense themes, but it is. That's what's happening.

And so, with the Sun square to Chiron, you may be feeling really kind of off about yourself. Chiron, in particular in Aries, is really calling us to question, "What does it mean to be me? How do I be true to myself? What does it mean to have a self, let alone to be true to that self?" And the Sun is all about the self. It's all about your identity, and not just your identity, but how you want to be seen by others because there's parts of our identity that are really kind of intimate and core to who and what we are, but there's also parts of our identity that are important for us to have recognized by others.

And when the Sun is forming a square to Chiron, that can get really cringey. That can get really painful. That can get really awkward. Chiron is related to wounding, our core wounding around identity now that it's in Aries. And so you may find yourself really just feeling off as something that's happening, whether it's happening in the world around you or it's happening just in your own psyche⁠—something is happening that is making you question yourself and intensifying feelings of, "Do I belong?" or, "I don't belong." So not great stuff to be going through.

But there's valuable parts of this transit that we want to really consider and bring out. We have the opportunity through this square to get present with ways in which we are not being true to ourselves or not showing up. Unfortunately, it's when our buns get handed to us that we really are motivated to figure out what's up, like, "What is it that I really feel? What do I identify with? What is true for me?" And so this may be the transit that will help you to get better aligned.

This transit can remind you who you are because you have to align with who you are or you fall apart. And again, not easy, not necessarily pleasant, but really valuable. Being able to accept all your parts⁠—not just the parts that you want to show on social media, not just the parts that you feel proud of, but all your parts⁠—is really essential for being right with yourself, but also for growing older, because as we know, freaking Saturn. Saturn is always there trying to teach us lessons. And I know this is not a Saturn transit, but over the course of time, there are consequences for who we choose to be and how we choose to engage. We don't get to choose what happens to us. We don't get to choose our circumstances. But we do get to choose how we hold it, how we respond to it, how we engage with it.

And this transit, the Sun square to Chiron, is one of those transits that can really set us on a path or have us double down on where we're at. And it is important to remember with this Sun square to Chiron, as well as the Mercury opposition to Pluto⁠, that you have agency. You might not have great choices. You might not like any of your options, but you have choices and you have options. And some of that is spiritual and psychological, and some of that is behavioral.

When we align with our agency, with our choice, it makes it a little easier to bear and it fixates our attention and energy on what we can control, on what we're here to do, which is not manage other people. It's not anything other than to be the best-adjusted version of ourselves that we know how to be in this moment. And we here at Ghost of a Podcast Industries are not a huge fan of toxic individualism.

So, hopefully, wherever you're at in your own healing journey, somewhere along the way⁠—maybe it's not today. Maybe it's not tomorrow. But somewhere along the way, you tap into how your individual wellness is part of the greater whole. And the ways in which you take care of yourself⁠—sometimes they do need to be very individualistic, but hopefully they're not. Hopefully we understand that the ways in which we care for ourselves are also the ways in which we care for community.

Belonging to ourselves is so important. And the Sun square to Chiron can really bring up feelings and dynamics in your life where you don't feel like you belong to yourself, or maybe you just don't belong to yourself. Belonging to yourself is really important. However, we don't want that to be so individualistic that you're isolated, isolated from what's happening in the present, isolated from all your parts, or isolated from others, and in particular others who have your best interests at heart.

Basically, this week, we have to face our shit. We have to face our shit, and that may come through challenges in our environment, challenges with the world, challenges with a person⁠—and especially when there's an opposition like the Mercury/Pluto, we often experience transits of oppositions to be projected out, so they're interpersonal⁠—not necessarily with squares, but certainly with oppositions. But this can play out in a lot of different ways. But if we are willing to show up, if we're willing to show up for the mess, meaningful, profound, and sustained healing is possible. And that's what it's all about.

Now, listen. As I say about a lot of the transits that I talk about, you may not be particularly influenced by a lot of this. You might be like, "Oh, I didn't really notice this this week." It might not hit anything in your chart. You may have no trauma to be triggered, and you might have a feeling of belonging at all times. Yay for you. However, that doesn't mean the person next to you in traffic is feeling the same way. It doesn't mean that your family member, your coworker, your partner, your ex, are feeling that same way. Your kid may be really triggered by this transit but you yourself are not, and then it becomes your problem one way or another.

So we just want to be empathetic this week because a lot of people are going to be feeling a whole lot of triggers. And if you're not one of those people, take a moment. Take a moment to feel grateful. Why not? There are some astrologers out there who have a lot of investment in why we feel certain transits and not others. And I certainly have some theories and answers about that, but I also like to leave room for free will. I like to leave room for possibility and, in fact, to quote my friend Sonya Renee Taylor, to collude with possibility, because that is magical. And we love creating magic or co-creating magic. That's kind of one of the big joys of life.

So, even though I'm talking to you about some heavy transits, there is a lot of potential within that heaviness to emerge lighter, having left some of this weight that we carry that harms instead of heals behind. And that⁠—I don't know. It's worth having a rough couple of days.

Now, that brings us to the last transit of the week. And it is exact on the 14th. We have a Sun in Cancer sextile to Uranus in Taurus. This is happening at 22 degrees and 15 minutes of each zodiac sign. Now, the Sun sextile to Uranus is a lovely transit, very supportive. It's what I want to be telling you about at the end of this heavy, sticky week.

Sun sextile to Uranus often brings about a creative spark of energy. That may come through something surprising happening. It may come through some sort of synergistic insight. Uranus is a stimulating, creative, inventive, dynamic planet that often reminds us how it feels to be alive. And the Sun is the identity and the will. And so, when they're playing nice like this and they're forming a nice 60-degree angle between the two, it is good news for all.

This can be day where you just feel a boost and you have a little more self-confidence, where you feel a little more innovative, and things just gel and come together. This can be a day where you feel just curious and adaptive and flexible enough to make use of some of the insights that you've garnered in this past week, that you're able to put things together and work with them in a way that surprises even you.

Sun sextile to Uranus is fun. It's dynamic. It's a good time for socializing. This is just a great transit for engaging with yourself and the world around you in ways that feel good and can make others feel good. There's something very generative about this sextile that I really enjoy, especially if you're somebody who is a creative in any way. If you're trying to make things happen, if you're looking at your kitchen and you're like, "I know I can move my table, but I don't know where. But I gotta move that table," yeah, Sun sextile to Uranus can kind of help you be like, "Oh. Wait a minute. Why not under the window?" It just helps us to kind of juj things up, and we all need a little juj every once in a while. So this is the time to be open.

If you've had a particularly rough week, if Pluto and Chiron have had you just feeling pretty crappy, this Sun sextile to Uranus can really just make you feel ease. It can make you feel a little bit more relaxation and openness, and that is really great. This is a good transit⁠—if you're⁠—I don't know⁠—you walk to work every day, take a different route. Change it up just a little bit. It doesn't have to be the biggest thing. Something as simple as if you carry a bag and you always put it on your left shoulder, pick it up and put it on your right. Change it up a little. Little things like that can actually lead to synergistic connections that don't seem connected, but they are. Change it up and be open to what happens because Uranus often brings us things we never would have planned for but are quite freaking delightful.

I'm going to run through the transits for you one more time. But before I do that, I want to remind you that I teach⁠. I like to teach. I teach. You can check out the webinars I have on my website that are for sale that you can listen to and learn from. There's a lot going on there. Also, my Patreon is a place where I love engaging with people. Thank you to each and every one of my patrons, by the way. I adore you, and I really like being able to talk to people, answer questions.

And also, if you haven't already picked up my book, Astrology for Real Relationships, it's available wherever books are sold. I mean, if it isn't at your bookstore, then go ahead and ask them to order it, and they'll do it. Also, if you don't want to read my book but you want to hear me talk to you about my book, there's an audiobook just in case you didn't know. I'm just here telling you things.

Okay. So, on the 9th, we have an exact sextile between Mercury and Neptune. On the 10th, Mercury forms an exact opposition to Pluto, and Mars ingresses into Virgo; Mercury ingresses into Leo. On the 12th, we have a Sun square to Chiron, and on the 14th, a Sun sextile to Uranus. And that is your week in the stars, my loves.

I thank you for joining me here at Ghost. Go ahead and hit that Subscribe or Follow button wherever you listen to podcasts, and make sure to tune in in a couple of days for my midweek episode where I give a lucky listener an in-depth reading. And you could be that lucky listener, too. So, if you want to send me a question to be considered for the podcast, you can do that through the Contact form on my website over at ghostofapodcast.com.

All right. I'll talk to you in a couple of days. Buh-bye.