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, where we get astrological, we get woo, and we get real. Now, I want to talk a little bit about that Saturn and Neptune in Pisces that I unpacked last week in the horoscope from a collective perspective. I want to just give you a little touch-in on the implications of these two planets in Pisces from a more personal perspective. Last week, I talked more collectively. And I'm going to do that, and then I'm going to give you your damn horoscope.

We're going to be looking at the week of September 24th through the 30th. And if when I say September 30th, you feel a little thrill inside your heart, that's because my class, The October Eclipses: A Humanistic Approach, is happening virtually throughout the internet and the world, I suppose, on September 30th. And there's still time to register. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but let's focus on Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. It's a special and important transit.

You may remember, if you listened to the 2023 year-ahead forecast, that I said that so much of what was up in this very complex year, 2023, was about paradox. It was about our ability to touch into paradox and to cope with paradox. And I think it very much has been that, and I see that reflected in the culture around us. But in addition to that, I want to acknowledge that what we are going through, both collectively but very personally, and what Neptune and Saturn in Pisces can really kick up within us on a psychological, emotional, and spiritual level, is burnout.

Pisces, Neptune⁠—they're related to the urge to disassociate, to hopefulness and fantasy, to anxiety, to a sense of potential. And so much of the time, what we need in order to cope with these limitless, ethereal energies is boundaries. And then, when you add in the fact that Saturn, the ultimate taskmaster of the zodiac, is in the sign of Pisces as well, it tells us that what we are needing to do is to cultivate boundaries, to inhabit and embody our boundaries as a form of self-care, as a form of self-love, and as a way of navigating through these really overwhelming energies that we're experiencing.

So much of the time, we cannot control much of anything, right? We can't control our circumstances, other people, the world around us in general. And it has a very intense and very real personal impact on our psyche, on our spirit, and on our hearts, which of course directly impacts our bodies and our behaviors. While we do not have control over so much of the world and our circumstances, we do have the agency to choose how we will respond to our reactions. So our reactions are what they are, and they have so much to do with our own individual pasts. But in the present, we have the agency, we have the capacity, to make choices around how we're going to respond to our reactions. And this is something I've talked about a lot on the podcast.

Being able to do this requires the willingness to embody space within time. And I know⁠—okay. I hope that doesn't sound too woo. Let me just try to unpack that for just a second here. It's a very Piscean moment we're having, so bear with me. You may say to yourself, "Okay. I need to take care of myself. I'm having a really overwhelming period of my life. I'm going to carve out some time for self-care, to be alone with myself"⁠—whatever. And let's say you have an hour. Let's say you have five hours⁠—whatevs.

The time that you have can be spent in any number of ways, but the space within that time can either be inhabited or not. Space is related to the energy that we are inhabiting within time. So I'm not talking about this from an astronomical perspective or a scientific perspective. I am speaking to this from a spiritual and perhaps psychological and emotional perspective. The space we inhabit has everything to do with our energy, our intention, or presence or lack thereof. Time can be spent⁠—it can be spent in any number of ways. But how much of your time have you spent without really knowing the space you're inhabiting, without being intentional about the space you're inhabiting within time?

So much of what we are coming up against is the way in which we engage with the space we are in, the way in which we are present or not within the time that we are in⁠—and this is really hard, right? Because, as I said, so many of you are going through burnout. I know this because I get a lot of questions from a lot of you every week. The space that we inhabit in the world within time is really important. And we are going through a period astrologically that is calling us to be present within the space we inhabit. This requires a willingness to be here, which is hard. It's hard because so many of us are burned out. So many of us are scared, overwhelmed, and doing our damnedest to disassociate from the really challenging realities we find ourselves in.

And so, in order to protect your energy, to embody the space and time that you are in, what you need is boundaries. And boundaries⁠—not like fences or rules that keep you separate from things and people. Not that. Boundaries are a form of self-care. And you know I talk about boundaries on the podcast all the damn time. But boundaries are a form of self-care that require you to be self-referential, to refer back to yourself, and to inhabit, to be present with, the space within you, the space you are occupying.

And in order to have healthy boundaries, we've got to be able to be present with ourselves, to identify our needs or our limitations, and to be honest with ourself about those things. Then we need to be able to communicate those needs and limitations to other people, not defending them, because you don't have to defend your limitations and needs. You just gotta communicate them in a clear way. And then you've got to uphold your own boundaries because boundaries⁠—when you articulate your boundaries to other people, they're not theirs to uphold. They're yours to uphold.

Now, how others respond to and respect your boundaries is a reflection of who they are and, more specifically, who they are to you at this time. But it's your job to uphold the boundary. Now, in any kind of successful relationship, others are going to respect your boundaries. But when other people do not respect your boundaries intentionally or unintentionally, it's on you to maintain that boundary. Then your actions need to change. Your expectations need to change⁠—whatever it is.

Boundaries are hard, and that's why a lot of people don't have them. And when you do express your boundaries, you might do it poorly. You might not do it in a great way, and there will be consequences. You might be freaking perfect in the way you express your limits and your needs, and others may respond really poorly. The truth of the matter is, when we are expressing boundaries, each and every one of us will make mistakes. We will say it too harsh. We will be too vague, whatever. You'll make mistakes. And so what do you do? You don't stop having boundaries. You just have some humility. You say, "Shit. I can see why this wasn't clear," or, "I can see why this hurt your feelings," or whatever. And you just try again.

Boundaries as a human means being imperfect and doing your damn best. If other people have feelings about your boundaries, a good way to have healthy boundaries with others is to respect their right to have feelings because it's hard enough to have boundaries. When you receive somebody else's boundaries, it can feel bad. Sometimes it feels bad for any number of reasons. And we are allowed to have our discomfort with other people's boundaries as we're adjusting to understanding them and working within them. And that takes a little time sometimes. It can be a messy time.

This is all classic human stuff. It's not specific to this astrological period. But this specific astrological period is really triggering this in us on a personal level. So, if you've been dealing with these themes, you are not alone. No, you are not. And let's add to this, this week, we're going to have the last Full Moon before Eclipse Season. And so the energies, the emotional energies, are really ramping up. Have you felt it yet? I've certainly been feeling it, and I've been seeing it play out in a lot of people's lives.

Things are intense emotionally. And when we have intense emotional energy that is mounting, we tend to have interpersonal stuff come up that's really dramatic. When we pair that knowledge that we're in this Eclipse Season with this understanding of what's happening on a personal level for us collectively, which is navigating all the stuff I'm referring to, including boundaries, we can see that it's a pretty intense time. So, again, if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling intense, if you're in a situation where you're having to call boundaries in ways that are really hard for you or you're having to respond to someone else's boundaries in ways that are really hard for you, I want to say welcome to the party. It's right on time.

When we're dealing with Piscean energy⁠—Saturn, Neptune, Pisces⁠—we want to keep in mind that Pisces is the opposite sign to Virgo. And there is a way that Pisces is also associated with perfectionism and purity. We are humans. We are not meant to be perfect. When we demand perfection of ourselves or others, we end up really suffering. We're not meant to be perfect. We're meant to do our best. We're meant to be humble. We're meant to try. We're meant to evolve and grow.

But within that lives a lot of messiness, and it's okay⁠—it's not awesome; it's not super fun, but it is okay to have messiness because part of any process of growth is going to be mess, is going to be death and things breaking apart. I mean, think about a fruit tree. I'm sitting here recording this podcast staring at a plum tree. The thing about my plum tree is that for part of the year, it is glorious, and it is big, and it has these gorgeous pink flowers, and they rain everywhere. I get pink flowers in my hair. It is a damn joy.

And then, after all those flowers fall, there are fruits, delicious fruits. They feed me. They feed the squirrels. I have mixed feelings sometimes about the squirrels, but whatever. It feeds us. And then it just drops a bunch of plums to the ground. It's a damn mess. It's a damn mess. But all those plums that it drops to the ground⁠—they rot. It's messy, and in turn, it feeds the soil so that the tree stays happy and healthy. And then it has a period where the plum tree doesn't look great. It's called wintertime, my friends. Doesn't look great. And then the whole process starts over again.

So for something to be perfect doesn't mean it's not messy, doesn't mean it's not hard. It means it's in process and that that process is in integrity. And so much of this requires emotional patience, intelligence, presence. And that brings me to ye olde Eclipses. Now, on the 14th and 28th of October, we've got two respective Eclipses because Eclipses always happen in pairs. And I'm going to talk about them here on the podcast, as I always do.

Every time there is an Eclipse, I do my best on this here podcast to unpack those Eclipses and educate you to the best of my ability, but also to remind you that Eclipses are not the time to make things happen. They're not the time to actively try to further your progress spiritually or otherwise. The Eclipses themselves are magic, but they're like an earthquake magic. They're a lightning bolt magic. You're not supposed to try to build a house in that kind of magic. These Eclipses are really powerful, and we cannot expect Eclipses' energies to be containable or controllable. And this is part of life. We're not always meant to be pushing things actively forward.

And this is why I've created this class on the Eclipses while we're in Eclipse Season, so we're in the energy of the Eclipses but far enough away from the Eclipses that we still have some perspective and we can be a little bit more proactive. And I'm really excited about this class. This is the first time I have taught a class on the Eclipses, and I really hope you'll join me. Again, there's still time to register. It's happening on September 30th.

And as a humanistic astrologer, my approach is always focused on how it's going to feel, how it's going to show up for you in practical terms. I like to keep it human-centered and experientially centered. Regardless of the level of astrology you're at, I hope to be able to give you tools that'll really help your personal practice and your ability to navigate through these energies. Now, to that end, I want to say that we never want to lose track of the planet that we're working with.

When we're talking about the Eclipses, we're talking about the Moon. The Moon requires emotional processing, emotional presence. That's what it requires. And so we don't want to get too into our heads. We want to be able to feel our feelings, show up for ourselves, and show up for our innermost private lives because that's what the Moon governs. Within Eclipse Seasons exists our own capacity to evolve, adapt, and to grow emotionally.

And this is really hard work, right? It is really hard to cultivate emotional intelligence. It's very different than analytic intelligence or street smarts or spiritual smarts or whatever. Emotional intelligence is slow moving. So this Eclipse Season⁠—and Eclipses in general, but this Eclipse Season is a time to inhabit space within time, to be present. So, again, you can register for the class through links on my website, and also, in the description of this episode there will be a link to sign up. It's going to be educational. It's going to be woo. It's going to be instructive. And if you can't make it live, don't worry, because you will get the video replay of the class in your inbox within a few days of the class itself. Also, there is a sliding scale, and closed captioning will be available.

Okay. Let's get into the details of this week's horoscope. Like I said, we are looking at September 24th through the 30th of 2023. This week kicks off with a Mars opposition to Chiron. Mars will be at 18 degrees and 25 minutes of Libra, while Chiron is at 18 degrees and 25 minutes of Aries. And that's on the 24th of September. Now, I want you to also keep in mind we do have a Full Moon in Aries on the 29th, so we do have these oppositional energies happening at the start and end of this week⁠—just a nice little something to have in the back of your brain here, okay?

Now, you know the tension between Aries and Libra is the tension between my needs and our needs, compromise and the ego or assertion or competition. Essentially, these energies are very much about interpersonal dynamics, how we as individuals show up, what happens between us as a team, as a couple, whatever it is, and how the other person, as an individual, shows up. It's how we collaborate or don't. So this is kind of just like an umbrella set of energies to be aware of that are really activated this week. And you can see why I might choose to be talking about boundaries just at the top in the context of this.

Okay. Okay. Let's get to it. Mars opposite Chiron. Now, Mars is related to many things. It is related to competition, aggression, anger, ambition, strength, resiliency, assertion. Mars is a little man symbol, so it governs over masculine energies and males in general, very broadly speaking. I mean, I think there's a lot of smooshiness to applying Mars to man and Venus to women, but there is that general theme.

When we are looking at Chiron, we are looking at our deepest wounds, which are generally related to our core wounds. And Chiron is not just related to wounding. It's related to that part of us that is both hurting and the healer, that is both suffering and incredibly strong and resilient. Chiron is complex in that way, which is why it is related to our early developmental wounds. And when we're dealing with transits like this one between Mars and Chiron, things⁠—we're generally dealing with triggers to our wounds, so not necessarily wounding experiences, but experiences that trigger core wounds.

So, whenever triggers are up, especially with Mars, who is so reactive and so defensive and so quick to combat, we can have some drama, some trouble. And you want to pay attention especially, of course, if you have any planets or important points in your chart at around 18 degrees of a cardinal sign or any sign that is aspected by Libra or Aries.

So we can expect the Mars opposition to Chiron to trigger bad behavior in the world from men who are really committed to patriarchy, to upholding their dominance and power in the world and in their lives. So it's not exclusive to men, but we're talking about Mars, so we are talking about masculinity in general. And as we know, we are in a period where because we've had so much progress within the patriarchy that we live in, there's a lot of backlash happening as those with power are doing their best to hold on to that power in whatever ways they can. And when it comes to Chiron, that means it can be pretty damn triggering. So we want to pay attention to the news. We want to pay attention to social and political movements all around us, ultimately around kind of patriarchal dominance.

On a more personal level, you may find that you are triggered around your core wounds or struggles with being in your body, with being yourself, with being true to yourself, with showing up as you are. Or you may be dealing with other people who are doing that and feeling somehow betrayed. This transit can kick up really intense issues around our ego, and that means we can find ourselves in situations where we really have to fight, or somebody is trying to fight us. And this can happen on all the levels. Fighting is not just a physical thing.

And so, if you're somebody who is really uncomfortable with being in your body, this can be a triggering transit. If you're somebody who's really uncomfortable with feeling or fielding anger and aggression, this can be a really uncomfortable transit. Because it's an opposition, just like the Full Moon is an opposition, we know that we are likely to experience this transit in a projected form, which means interpersonally between me and you or us and them.

And so I want to support you in doing your best to, if you engage with these energies, if you experience these energies, to do so in a way that facilitates your own healing and liberation, which means having healthy boundaries instead of allowing ourselves to be triggered into reactiveness in a way that actually undermines our own safety, our own welfare, and our own true intentions. It is easy when we feel activated to act out in ways that don't actually reflect our best interests. I mean, I've done it a million times. I know you have, too. This is just part of being a damn human.

And with this transit, a lot of us are going to be tempted to act that way. It's not easy. These are not easy energies to be dealing with. Because we're dealing with Chiron, it is likely⁠—especially, again, if this transit hits you directly or some person you're dealing with directly⁠—to feel activated or triggered around a deep-seated wound around your sexuality, around your body, around your ambitions, your ego, any number of Martian themes.

This happens, this occurs, so that you confront those activations, those triggers, those old beliefs, those old impulses, and make a different choice; you respond differently to your reactions. And how do you do that? Well, there's not an easy or a perfectly universal answer. But I can tell you this. Mars is all about the quickness. Mars is all about speed. And so it is going to be really important this week in general, and certainly on this date, to make sure that you're sitting with your reactions before you act on them. Do it as long as you can. Sit with your feelings. Sit with the fire in your belly. Sit with whatever emotions are agitated inside of you before you act so that you have time to sort through your reactions and assess the best way to respond. It's not easy, but it also doesn't have to be too complicated.

This transit can bring about massive progress and healing, massive. This can be such a helpful transit, but it requires our own willingness to stay present with challenging feelings and themes. If somebody's coming at you with a bunch of bullshit and you've got the perfect response, sometimes it's just too tempting to not take it, to not take the chance to say the shit you want to say. But it is not wise, not this week, certainly not around this date, because tit for tat, just kind of fighting to win, is not going to make you happy, and it's not going to give you what you want, and it's not going to help and to facilitate your own wellness, your own success.

What is the best way to be successful? It's to feel good about who and what you are. It's to be able to accept and embrace where you're at. That's truly success, regardless of whatever externals existed. Deal with your ego this week. If it's too big, if it's too small, both of those things are a damn problem. And it's a problem worth working on. It's not like the ego is inherently bad. The ego is not inherently bad. We need to have the ego, and it needs to be healthy. And Mars is the ego.

But when our ego functions from hiding in a corner⁠—it's way too small⁠—or it's way too big, and it's just a gas-guzzling car in a climate crisis⁠—you know what I mean? It was a metaphor, but it kind of worked, right? Mars governs the car⁠. What we really need is to own and integrate our egos so that they can be balanced. And nobody has a perfectly balanced ego all the time. It's not a thing. Nobody's perfect. But that's the direction you want to point yourself in. And this transit is likely to trigger within you or the people around you awareness about how your ego is not super balanced and how it is shadowboxing with ghosts or past triggers, past traumas.

So, again, this can be a really healing transit if you can stay with it, if you can stay with it, if you can stay with the energy and not overindulge your anger or your desire to be possessive or to win or to prove yourself. And if you fuck up and you do some shit that you know is not what you're meant to do⁠—it's not in alignment; it doesn't actually help anything forward. It actually just keeps you stuck in an old place where you're not especially happy⁠—okay. That sucks, but you just learn from it. You just learn from it.

Fighting yourself on where you're at is a good way to stay stuck. Cultivating acceptance is not giving yourself carte blanche to do what the fuck ever. Cultivating acceptance is simply cultivating self-awareness, and self-awareness is the foundation to making meaningful change or coming to peace or just being able to tolerate a time that is messy and not quite it.

Now, I'll say one more thing about this. This is not a good time to put yourself in dangerous environments and situations. If you're going to have sex, which⁠—hey, get it if you can; hope you enjoy it⁠—have safer sex. Please, I beg of you, have safer sex, because again, there's this larger theme at play here of boundaries. It's really important to have a boundary to protect yourself. Sometimes boundaries are the best way to say to your own body, to your own self, "Hey, self. I love you."

Okay. So that's Mars opposite Chiron. And I expect us to feel the energies of this transit throughout the week. Now, that brings us to the 25th of September. On the 25th, we have another exact transit. That is a Mercury trine to Jupiter. Now, Mercury will be trine to Jupiter at 14 degrees and 51 minutes. So we're rounding that up. We're going to call it a 15-degree trine. Mercury is at 15 degrees of Virgo, and Jupiter is at 15 degrees of Taurus. So this is a grounded trine, and what a gift for us to have on a Full Moon week. What a gift for us to have on the heels overlapping with the Mars opposition to Neptune.

This transit is really supportive for us to come to understanding. Mercury is the details, and Jupiter is the big picture. Mercury is our attitudes, our thoughts, our friendships, and Jupiter is generous. It is open-minded and tolerant. And so this transit is really helpful for us coping with those Mars/Chiron energies, coping with whatever interpersonal stuff we're having to deal with, and supportive for us to be interested in what's happening as it's happening, which is essentially critical thinking. Critical thinking is thinking about thinking while thinking. And Mercury trine Jupiter in earth signs can be really helpful for that.

So this transit can support us in staying grounded and being really intentional about healing and growth and letting things go that don't serve us. This transit is supportive of our interpersonal relationships. So, while there's a lot going on that might kind of throw us off that course, Mercury trine to Jupiter helps us to be intentional about our relationships and our attitudes, which is really beautiful. It's really helpful. It can also help us to make plans. So, if there are plans that you need to make and you're not feeling super activated by other transits, this is an excellent date to do this.

Now, I should say that this transit will be exact at 5:10 a.m. Pacific Time, so adjust for wherever you're at. But this whole day is really good for making plans, setting intentions, kind of working out details. And the reason why hopefully it's kind of obvious is because Mercury is details and Jupiter is big picture. So it can help us to make big-picture plans without losing sight of the details, or to tend to the details without ignoring the big picture. Very helpful. Very helpful indeed.

Another thing this transit is great for is interacting. It's friendships. It's communication. It can help us to be more open-minded. This makes listening to others a little easier. It makes finding a way to communicate what's actually going on for us more effective, more efficient, gives a little more flow. So this is all really great. Now, it is possible that you will receive some sort of good news or something positive will enter your inbox or cross your path. But it's most likely to happen if you have something at around 15 degrees of an earth sign or a water sign. That's going to give you the best likelihood for you having that experience.

It's absolutely a transit that, if an opportunity comes, yeah, if you've assessed that it's good and you're not in your super activated mood by that Mars/Chiron, grab it. Take it. It's going to be delightful. Now, generally speaking, this is a great time to sign a contract. This is, again, a great time to make plans. However, if you sign a contract, you're still going to have that Mars/Chiron opposition in the chart, pretty strong. So whatever kind of plans you make in this transit moment are going to in some way include that Mars/Chiron journey. And that's not good or bad, but you want to be aware of the energies we're working with.

Because we are about to move into Eclipse Season, it's just an intense time. And instead of dreading it or fearing it⁠—I really hope you don't fear it. Just adjust to it. Just know that this is a time to be really intentional about how you show up. That's the assignment. You gotta show up. And this Mercury trine to Jupiter is a delightful transit to show up for. In general, this transit is great for reaching out to friends, socializing, all that kind of good stuff. But again, the Mars/Chiron kind of mitigates that, kind of minimizes how wonderful this transit is in that regard. But if you find yourself having a great time, you may want to tip your metaphorical hat to Mercury and Jupiter.

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

And that brings us, my friends, to the Full Moon in Aries that is happening on the 29th 2:57 a.m. Pacific Time. Now, if you want to be tracking the transits on your own so you know what's coming and when, or if you just need help adjusting the time zones, you can subscribe to my astrologer's pro tool. So, if you're an astrology student or you're an astrologer, it is for you. It is a really simple app called Astrology for Days, and it just tracks the transits and holds a space for you to keep your notes. So this is the tool that I use to track transits, and it's the tool I wish I had 30 years ago when I first started my astrology journey. So, if you're a student, check it out because I think it's quite helpful.

Anyways, Full Moon in Aries on the 29th at 2:57 a.m. And also, on the same day, we have an exact square between Venus and Uranus at 10:53 a.m. So these are two overlapping transits. It's a lot. Let's get into it. First of all, as I said earlier, when we have a Full Moon in Aries, it's because the Sun and Moon are opposite to each other. The Sun is in Libra; the Moon is in Aries. This Full Moon is at six degrees and zero minutes of Aries.

And when we're dealing with an Aries Full Moon, emotions run hot. We tend to be reactive, which can lead to defensiveness or paranoia because Aries is such a fiery sign that's ruled by the planet Mars, which governs the ego. This can be a time where our reactions are easily activated, which makes it harder to be intentional about how we choose to respond. It's not impossible. In fact, it's the assignment. But the Sun in Libra is all about taking a balanced and diplomatic approach. And that might be your intention⁠—the Sun⁠—but not your feelings and your reactions⁠—that's the Moon, your feelings and your reactions.

And so your reactions may come up and on hot and quick. And as that occurs, you have the opportunity to sit with them and make efforts to respond to them in different ways. This is not going to be easy because of the astrology of this Full Moon. But it's kind of, again, the opportunity or the assignment. This particular Full Moon, exact at 2:57 a.m. Pacific Time, has a fair amount of challenging aspects within it.

We are still very much experiencing the Mars opposition to Chiron. So that intensifies our risk of being defensive of our own position and our right to have our position. This can be a Full Moon that makes it really uncomfortable to stay in our bodies, so instead of staying in our bodies, we may project shit out. And what we project out might be, "The other person is a bad guy. The other person is attacking me. The other person is coming for something that is truly mine." And of course, you could be on the receiving or doling-out end of that kind of mindset.

When we are dealing with a Full Moon in Aries, a Mars opposition to Chiron, and also a Mercury opposition to Neptune, which is not exact yet but is definitely active, there's a serious risk that you will fixate on something that feels bad and makes you feel anxious and weave a story that is conjuncture, perhaps, at best, about what's happening, about how you are the victim, about how you have to act out; you have no choice because of x. Or you may be on the receiving end of somebody else who's kind of caught up in this kind of mishigas, you see.

And so this is likely to be a pretty explosive Full Moon. Your emotions, my emotions, their emotions⁠—running hot. And because we are going through an exact Venus square to Uranus, ⁠not at the exact moment of the Full Moon but within a couple hours of the Full Moon, it furthers the message of destabilization within our relationships. It furthers the message of us needing to act in ways that reflect our values even when we feel unsafe, even when things are uncertain, confusing, or chaotic.

This is a little bit of a chaotic Full Moon. And within that chaos is so much healing and learning potential. And you have a lot to learn about the world, about other people⁠—sure, absolutely. But I want to bring it home. You have a lot to learn about yourself, about how you show up when shit gets real, about the kind of excuses you may make for yourself or the entitlement that you may feel when you're activated or triggered. And we all do it. And it's easy to fixate on what other people are or are not doing, especially when we're in conflict, especially when shit is chaotic. And that's valuable. It's really important to recognize who other people are.

But within that, we have agency. You have agency. You have choices about how you're going to choose to engage, who you're going to choose to engage with. If somebody shows to you, proves to you, that time and again, they are⁠—I don't know⁠—not able to keep a secret, then at a certain point, it's really a reflection on you why you keep on baring your soul to them and telling them personal shit. At a certain point⁠—this is not about blame. I want to be clear. This is not about blame. It's about agency. We're dealing with Aries energy. It's about agency, self-reference, embodiment.

It's about recognizing, "Oh, wow. I have evidence that this person isn't listening to me when I speak. I have evidence that this person isn't honoring my confidence. This person is doing x, y, or z. And yet I'm ignoring the evidence. I'm continuing to participate in a relationship in a way that I can know is going to hurt me. Why am I doing that? What am I getting out of engaging in this way?"

And when it comes to all this fiery Martian/Aries energy, Uranus can function in much the same way. What happens is we feel so activated that what we want to do is kind of throw our feelings at someone or something else. We want to get these terrible, restless, messy, frustrating feelings out of our bodies, and we do that by throwing it at someone else. And we get obsessed with something else or someone else. We get angry. We get defensive. And this can actually make our situations worse⁠—our material situations worse, but also, our internal landscape can become further agitated by essentially scratching an itch until it bleeds instead of trying to tolerate the itchiness until it passes so that the wound can heal, which is really what we're meant to be doing right now.

Now, it is certainly possible that you are in an unsafe situation, that you're in a situation in which you need to stand up for yourself. The key here is to be embodied while you do it. And when I say embodied, I mean literally, your energy in your body, your emotional presence in check, and that you're not acting defensively but instead from a place of self-possession. That is the ideal way of working with this energy if you have to stand up for yourself. And you might have to.

All of this energy can create chaos, drama, and conflict, absolutely. And if you need to fight for yourself or someone else, make sure you do it in a way that reflects your values because⁠—and let me speak in Martian terms here for a minute, in Arian terms here for a minute. When we let our adversary set the rules of conduct, then we are no longer acting in integrity with ourselves. What we're doing is we're resonating with the lowest common denominator of a conflict. And that doesn't help you on a spiritual level, on a developmental level.

And this Full Moon can be a massive shift developmentally for you. And it's worth trying to work with this energy, not only because that would just be great and grand, but also because, as I said, here we are on the tippy-tip verge of Eclipse Season. That means that the energies that we're dealing with are monumental. They have the capacity to make massive change. Now, Full Moons, like New Moons⁠—they affect us for about a month. That's big, right? That's big. A lot of the transits I talk about, they're like three days or whatever. This⁠—the effect is for about a month, which is part of why we notice and really feel these lunations and why astrologers like me talk about them a lot.

But Eclipses, which are coming in October⁠—each Eclipse affects us for about six months, half a year. Big fucking deal. So this is still⁠—it's not an Eclipse, but it is kind of the energy that it borders Eclipse Season and that brings us into that intense and transformational time. And it's kind of happening in a really big way. The astrology of this moment feels big. And I mean this on a really personal level. You may be engaging with spiritual, psychological, material, behavioral, and emotional conditions that are subtle or dramatic. But either way, the way you engage, the way that you show up, is really consequential. It's going to mean something.

So, again, just do your damn best. And when you can't do your best, when you fail or falter, be kind to yourself, but also take responsibility. That's just classic adulting. At the center of all of this, it's important to ask yourself, if you're fighting, what are you fighting for? How are you fighting? How are you showing up? If you have to stand your ground, are you not only doing it with your behavior, but are you also doing it by having healthy boundaries within yourself around how you stand your ground?

So, basically, what I'm saying is if you're, let's say, having to stand your ground with somebody at work, are you then obsessing on it and returning to the question of, "Am I doing it right? Should I be doing it? Is it okay? What did that person say? Did they look at me sideways?" That is not having the energetic boundary of standing your ground, which⁠—we do our best. You do what you can. But to the best of your ability, try to notice how embodied you are, how inhabited you are around the actions you're taking. And do your best to get it aligned around all that stuff.

Now, because of the Venus/Uranus square, we can expect the unexpected. We can expect disruptions and surprises interpersonally, economically⁠—so that could be in your personal finances, like an unexpected expense or something like that, or we can see some sort of move in the economy, some sort of destabilization within the economy. But you're going to especially feel it in your birth chart if you have something at around 22, 23 degrees of a fixed sign. So that's Taurus, Scorpio, Aquarius, and Leo.

And again, this is where we come back to the Full Moon vibes, and we want to take responsibility for how we respond⁠—Aries. We want to use our agency to show up for what we need, for what's supportive⁠—it's the Moon, right? And the Moon governs our feelings, which is inclusive of our relationship to home and the people in it. This is really kind of a hot and uncomfortable Full Moon, potentially.

And so, if you're somebody who wants to do some sort of big Full Moon ritual, I would encourage you to not be too structured with it and to be open to the energy because it's unpredictable energy. And if you're doing something in a group with others, I would recommend that you have strong energy boundaries for yourself so that you don't leak unintentionally on other people, but also, other people don't unintentionally leak upon you, which is a thing. You know? I mean, the empaths in the house, you know. You know.

Now, one more thing I want to say about this Full Moon. A Full Moon in Aries, especially with an overlapping Mars opposition to Chiron⁠—and I guess I could add to that mix a Venus square to Uranus⁠—this could all make you want to be really to the point. It can make you want to be brutally honest. It can make you want to be aggressively clear. And this can all come from a really defensive place or not. But what we want to keep in mind is, because we have a Mercury opposition to Neptune activated in this Full Moon chart, that aggressively, rashly dumping the truth in someone else's lap is not likely to get you results that you want if those results are peace or collaboration or a lack of further fighting and drama.

If you want clarity with others, there is a need to have some measure of diplomacy or finesse with how you share your drives, your truth, your needs. All this Aries and Martian energy can really make us come on too hot and too strong. And what that ends up doing is it shuts other people down. It makes them defensive. So what happens to you when you feel defensive and shut down because someone came at you too hard? You stop listening, right? You stop taking things in. Now you're trying to defend yourself.

So, if you want to be heard, if you don't only want to get some shit off your chest, but if you want to be heard, it's going to be important to be a little empathetic and a little finessey about how you communicate. And if you're somebody who tends to not be direct and have a really hard time ever dropping the whole truth, this is going to be a time where it's important that you don't let too many what-ifs drive your thinking, because once you have clarified your boundaries, your needs, your truth into something that is palatable, it's time to deliver that message and not fall too deep into the hole of possibilities and anxieties, which Neptune opposition to Mercury can bring.

So don't look for blame. Don't look for how you got here, not this week. It's not realistic. There's too much going on with the Full Moon and the astrology of the week in general to really figure things out, because when you're really activated is not the time to come up with a good analysis, to reason things out. When you're activated, you deal directly with the activation. And then, when you are no longer activated or you're significantly less activated, then is a good time to try to figure things out.

This isn't the time for pointing fingers. This is the time to come into embodiment. This isn't the time for trying to come to perfect clarity. There's too much moving. There's too much burning. I know that's kind of an unfortunate metaphor, what with all the wildfires all over the place, but that's what's happening. And so give yourself the grace of cultivating emotional capacity and, from that place, coping with whatever's up. And then you can figure it out.

And that, my friends, brings us to the final transit of the week. And it is a gift. And it is a Mercury trine to Uranus. This is another lovely earth trine. We've got Jupiter and Uranus both in Taurus, and Mercury, as you know, is in Virgo. Mercury is at 22 degrees and 39 minutes of Virgo. Uranus is that 22 degrees and 39 minutes of Taurus. I am so grateful for this and the Mercury trine to Jupiter that are happening this week. These are some grounded, earthy energies that can support us in getting our minds right.

This transit empowers us to perceive things from different levels, to be open-minded, and to explore and adapt. Uranus is really good for stimulating our openness. This is part of how and why Uranus is related to technology, the internet, and stuff like that. It is an innovative planet. Mercury is your ideas, your attitudes, your thoughts, your friendships. It's how you communicate. It's how you listen. And so there's a lot of great possibility here.

And again, much like I said about the Mercury/Jupiter trine, these transits are here to help us to sort through all of the activation that we're experiencing. And so wonderfully, they are in earth signs, which, again, grounds us so that we can be present, hopefully cultivate some roots so that we can make use of these massive energetic shifts that are occurring.

This is a great time to discover something, to really figure something out. Uranus is related to the nervous system, and Mercury is as well, in a different way, to a slightly lesser extent, I would say. But this is really helpful because this transit will help to ground our nervous system, ground our minds, so that we can kind of be steady enough in our thinking and in our processing that we can assess what's possible. Just fucking brilliant. It's right on time. Every once in a while, the Universe is like, "I want to give you the best possible support to deal with the most challenging and triggering stuff." And this is one of those times. So let us be grateful for the little things, I say.

This transit is really great for being around people. Much like the Jupiter/Mercury trine, it's great for being around people, for making connections, for socializing. Now, everything else that's happening this week⁠—not so much. So what this is going to do is support us in navigating whatever thorny stuff may come up interpersonally.

This is a great time for journaling. It's a great time for learning from other people with different perspectives. So listen to a podcast. Read a thing. The thing that this transit can do, again, is broaden our perspective, similar to Jupiter but different, so that we can kind of make a shift, make a change, and boom, all of a sudden, we're somewhere else in our thinking, somewhere we wouldn't have been otherwise. And it can be incredibly uplifting and inspiring.

So be willing to learn. Talk to people. Listen to people. If you're too activated to deal with people IRL, may I introduce you to the internet, where you can just listen and not have to participate? But this can be a great time to check in with a friend, somebody who you trust or somebody who inspires you, who lives differently than you, who processes things and perceives things in ways that are really different to you.

This is the day that I am having my class on the Eclipses. It's a Mercury trine to Uranus. Did I do that by accident? No, sir, I did not. My hope is that that grounded energy will help us to get into astrology⁠—Uranus governs astrology⁠; astrology is very Uranian⁠—so that we can kind of shift our perspective and explore what's possible from a grounded place as we step into Eclipse Season, which will carry out these important things that I've been talking about here today.

Well, my friends, that was a lot, but that's this week's horoscope. If you want to be able to actually read through all the shit I have said, just wait a couple days and go to my website, and then you'll find that the transcript to this episode, just like every other episode, is available to you there. If you haven't already visited my website, I hope you enjoy it because I love my website. I think it's super cute. And there's lots of goodies there. I have a free weekly horoscope. I have a free chart-drawing tool, lots of videos and articles and stuff like that.

I also have this app. It's called Tiny Spark. It's free on iOS, and it's basically like a modernized magic 8-ball. And it's embedded in the homepage of my website. So, if you don't have an iOS device or if you are just scrolling around the internet and you want to check in with Tiny Spark because you got a choice to make, may I invite you to use this sweet little free tool, lovelanyadoo.com?

Before I go, I just want to say one last thing, which is this: if you missed Episode 361, "I am Eeyore," you know what? I would say I feel bad for you, but then, actually, I feel excited for you because then you can still listen to it. It was such a great reading, and I invite you to check it out because it really did touch on a lot of really deep and important and resonant themes.

All right, my loves. Thank you for joining me this week and every damn week for my audio love letter to you and the stars. I'll talk to you in just a couple of days in the midweek episode. And I hope you take really good care of yourself and others as you navigate this energy. Buh-bye.