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. This week, we're going to look at the astrology of September 10th through the 16th of 2023. We have a New Moon in Virgo to talk about. We've got a lot going on. But before we begin, let's dive a little bit more into Mercury Retrograde. I've talked a lot about Mercury Retrograde. Maybe I just feel like that because I taught a class on it, which⁠—by the way, if you went to the Mercury Retrograde class, it was super fun. Thanks for joining me.

But let me say this. Mercury goes direct on the 15th, and then we'll be in the Mercury Retroshade. And I just want to take a moment to talk about this Mercury Retrograde because it hasn't only been the classic annoying "Don't make plans," misunderstandings, that kind of thing. It's also been a transit that has presented this theme of letting go, surrender, release. And that theme has in no small part been brought to us by the Neptune opposition to Mercury that was active when Mercury first went Retrograde.

And so I want to invite you to take a moment to simply be, to simply sit with what you've been working towards, what you've been fighting against. Just sit with it. Don't do anything about it. Don't figure it out. Don't analyze it. Just sit with it. Let it be what is in your heart, in your head, in your body, and notice it, because these Mercury Retrogrades that happen, they happen for a reason, and they happen cyclically. They happen⁠—whatever⁠—three, four times a year for a reason. And it's so that we follow that rule of re's; we reflect. We reassess.

This helps us to grow because if all we do in life is strive and push and strive and push and strive and push, what happens? Collapse. Burnout. The resistance our internal systems feel to going hard endlessly is natural and healthy. If you have been confronted with your own limitations, with your own internal resistance, or even by external resistance to going hard, endlessly creating, endlessly doing, then, again, I want to invite you to sit with and reflect on what that really means.

Is it so bad to have a limitation? Is it really a problem to feel bad? And the answer to that, of course, is yeah, it sucks. Feeling bad is awful. But not all things that feel bad are bad. Not all situations that generate pain and struggle are bad for us or harm us, even if they feel bad as we go through them. If you're somebody who, by nature or circumstance, is just constantly having to fucking hustle and move and go and create and do and all that kind of stuff, then when you slow down and you sit with yourself, with your feelings, with your body, with your head, with your thoughts, then it's going to feel bad. It's going to feel off and awkward, and all the emotions that you've been trying to avoid or that you've had to avoid⁠—they're just sitting around waiting for you in your system.

Emotions have a way of kind of rooting themselves in our bodies. There's a way that this particular Mercury Retrograde⁠—and we want to keep in mind Mercury is the mind. It's not the heart. But so much of what we believe, so much of what we think, so much of what we take in and we analyze, so many of our attitudes, are interwoven with our emotions. And so this is a really important time as we are both at the closure of this Mercury Retrograde, but also, we've got a New Moon here. So I'll talk about that in just a moment.

But there is something really valuable in sitting with what is. Mercury is Retrograde in Virgo, just like we have a New Moon in Virgo. We're dealing with this zodiac sign that is earth and mutable. It is adaptable, but in an earthy way. Virgo is associated with perfectionism, but that's just Virgo a little out of balance. Virgo is really about discernment. Is this too much? Is this not enough? Is this just right? Discernment. That's that earth-based mutability, the ability to assess without attachment or judgment. That's the healthiest embodiment of Virgonian energies. And again, I'm not talking about people who have the Sun in Virgo. I'm not talking about if your birthday happens to fall in Virgo Season. I'm talking about Virgo energies.

When we are dealing with Virgonian energies, we have the invitation to discern, and not just to discern, but Virgo is associated with mundane energies, which is to say our health, our habits, the material parts of that stuff. And so this Mercury Retrograde and this New Moon is an opportunity⁠—it's, in fact, I would say, kind of an invitation⁠—to really explore if how you're living on a material level is working, how it's working, how it's not working. Discern. Don't judge. Don't be a jerk. Don't be mean to yourself. It's not about that. It's about assessing what's real and what's not, because when we can assess whether or not we're behaving in ways that are healthy or sustainable or whatever it is, then we can handle our lives better.

The thing I've really learned over the many, many years of consulting with people as an astrologer is this. You can get the answer to a question. You can ask a question and get the answer. But if you're asking the wrong question, it doesn't matter that you have the answer. Mercury Retrogrades are a time where we can do the inner work, a time where we can stop pushing so hard and trying to figure things out, but instead to reflect so that we can better assess, "Am I even asking the right questions?" because there's something that happens when we're asking the right questions where, even if you don't have the answer, there's a little bit more peace in that.

When you ask the right question of yourself, of others, of life, things move the way they're meant to. They flow better. So Mercury Retrograde is just about over, but we can still use this time, especially with this New Moon in Virgo with Mercury still Retrograde on the last day of Mercury Retrograde, to check in with the questions that we are asking of our lives, of our relationships, of ourselves, of the world, and make sure they're the right questions, and if they're not, sit in the unknowing. Again, we're discerning. Mercury Retrograde is not about coming up with solid, permanent answers. It's about exploring the questions.

Astrology is so cool, and it's such a useful tool when we use it to help ourselves and others. And of course, I'm a humanistic astrologer, so the way I use astrology is in a very human-centered way. And I want to encourage you to point yourselves not in the direction of getting permanent answers and figuring out what's right or wrong or good or bad in your chart or in the world, but instead in coming to acceptance of what is and then asking the right questions from there so that you can, from this moment, from your nature, from the position you're in, based on the history that brought you here⁠—whether, again, we're dealing with personal stuff, global stuff⁠—then we can start to assess, "Okay. Given all these things, what can I do? What are my choices? What choices am I willing to make?"

And this is, to me, just the most exciting and useful way to use astrology. So I hope you like that, too. And if you don't, it's okay. You know what I mean? We're allowed to be different. Living in a world where we are so inundated with everybody's opinions all day, every day, it can be easy to forget that we're actually all allowed to disagree. And that doesn't mean we have to be mad at each other or mean to each other or ourselves. We're all entitled to be wrong. We're all entitled to be right. We're all entitled to be different. Right? Eh? Okay. All right. Okay.

So let's dig into this New Moon in Virgo. It's happening September 14th at 6:40 p.m. Pacific Time. This New Moon is happening at 22 degrees of Virgo. It's actually happening at 21 degrees and 58 minutes, but we're going to round that right up to 22 degrees of Virgo. And in case you didn't know, a New Moon always occurs when the Moon and Sun are the exact same degree of the same zodiac sign; they're conjunct.

And it is a time where we can plant seeds, come to clarity, and it can be a really good time for manifesting. And I don't necessarily mean manifesting, the spiritual practice of manifesting⁠—although, sure, that too⁠—but for getting in alignment because that's really what manifestation is, the spiritual concept. It is about getting your thoughts and your feelings and your actions all in alignment, so that level of being centered helps to bring what you want into creation or to help you to notice when what you want is right in front of you.

Okay. Now, a New Moon in Virgo is going to confront us with our perfectionism. It's going to bring up the opportunity to develop some sort of clarity about whether what we're doing is working for us. And if you are holding yourself to perfectionistic standards, it's going to become pretty clear this New Moon. Now, we want to again keep in mind this Mercury Retrograde is at eight degrees of Virgo at the time of the New Moon, so it's not touching the New Moon at all. But it is in Virgo.

So we have these three planets sitting in Virgo, really having us come in contact with our relationship to self-acceptance, worthiness, our relationship to what we do on a material level, like for work and day to day if our habits are serving us, and if they're not, what we are or aren't willing to do to adjust. Again, Virgo is all about discernment. So we are meant to be discerning this New Moon.

To make matters a little fuzzier, we have Neptune sitting at 26 degrees of Pisces. So, at 26 degrees of Pisces, it is opposite the Moon and at 22 of Virgo. It's not an exact opposition, but it is one worth paying attention to because Neptune opposite the Sun and Moon can spike anxieties. It can spike anxieties for a lot of reasons. One is Neptune is boundaryless. And so there's a way that when we're experiencing Neptunian energies, especially in hard aspect, what happens is we become so overwhelmed with information that we don't know where to place. We don't know how to soar. We don't quite know what to make of, and this is true for all of us, but especially if you're somebody who's really energetically sensitive, a.k.a. a highly sensitive person or an empath, this can be a particularly rough time because you're just receiving a lot of energy and a lot of information that's just overwhelming to process. It's too much to process.

And so, when we get too much to process information that's emotional, that feels personal, because of the Sun and Moon, a lot of people have an anxiety response to this. You are most likely to experience this if you have any planets anywhere in the 20s, 20 degrees of a mutable sign. So that would be Virgo, Pisces, Gemini, Sadge. And if you do have an anxiety response, let me give you a couple pieces of advice.

The first one is tend to the anxiety, not whatever the anxiety is trying to tell you. Tend to the body. Tend to the heart. Tend to the mind. Don't tend to the content of whatever you're anxious about, because when we're in a state of activation is not when we want to try to figure things out, because we're not clear; we're activated. So, if your hair is on fire, put out the damn fire before you go around trying to figure out where the flames originally came from. So that's thing one.

Thing two, you may just need a nap. You may just need a little more rest. You may remember something I talked about a fair amount about this Mercury Retrograde is that it really called in a need for rest. And so, if you haven't been getting that rest or if your system simply needs more, yeah, you just may be exhausted. And if that's how you feel, prioritize taking care of yourself, doing that in a healthy way.

I would also say this is a terrible New Moon for doing drugs. I know a lot of people like to do consciousness-raising drugs and rituals and stuff like that around the New Moon. This is not the time for that. Because of the Neptune opposition to the Moon and Sun, it can just really mess with your system, both your energy system and also your physical body.

Now, that's not all Neptune can do to this New Moon. Another thing that it can do is it can help us to release attachment. It can help us to surrender, to stop trying, to stop pushing, to just be. Neptune⁠—really, what it wants is it wants us to all be on an ashram. It wants us all to just be floating in a lake, just not doing anything, just being, tending to our spiritual bodies, tending to our spiritual minds.

If you can, carve out space and time this New Moon because let's face it: space and time are two different things. So, if you can carve out some space and some time to just fucking be, maybe to meditate, maybe to do some sort of spiritual or creative practice that helps you to be in your flow instead of to do anything, if that makes sense, then you'll be making the most of this New Moon. That's really what Neptune wants of us.

Now, we want to keep in mind because we're dealing with an opposition⁠—Neptune is opposite to the Sun and Moon⁠—we may experience this appositionally, a.k.a. in relationship. So you may be just trying to do your thing, like trying to take care of business, and then someone may be like, "I'm helpless. I'm hopeless. I need you to drop what you're doing to take care of yourself to take care of me," or it may be the flip.

In either case, what you want to do is have healthy boundaries, to recognize that empathy and pity are radically different things. They're radically different energy. No one needs your pity. Pity doesn't help. Empathy⁠—that helps. And empathy is more than a feeling. Empathy empowers us to help others, not just because we're trying to help them but because the drive to be there for others is in alignment with what's right for us.

This is part of why I'm always saying, if you're an empath, don't avoid the news. Be aware of what's happening in the world because if we are empaths or if we are empathetic people⁠—because these, of course, are two different things, although they may bump up against each other⁠—the whole point is not to be overwhelmed and burdened. Instead, the whole point is to be able to get in alignment with our empathy, with our authentic care for others or for situations, and to act in alignment with our own true nature as it is interwoven with our drive to be there for others, to be a part of a solution.

So, this New Moon, align with your empathy. If you can't do it or you don't quite know what it is, explore it. Sit with it. But if you want to get really Virgonian about it and you want to start researching the word, researching the concept, that's good, too. Maybe don't do it exactly in the moment of the New Moon, but doing it around the New Moon would be a great idea. Now, part of why this is is because Virgo, but not just that, but because Mercury at eight degrees of Virgo is opposite to Saturn at two degrees of Pisces. So, again, we have these two outer planets in Pisces⁠—that's Saturn and Neptune⁠—both sitting opposite to all these Virgo planets⁠—the Moon, the Sun, and now we're talking about Mercury.

So Mercury opposite Saturn⁠—not great news. Mercury opposite Saturn predisposes us to having scarcity-based thinking, to being really hard on ourselves and others, to rushing to judgment. That's exactly what we don't want, precisely what we don't want. And so the best thing to do with these energies is to be intentional about how we use them. Write some lists. Look up actual definitions of words or concepts. Learn from others. And when we learn from others during a Mercury/Saturn opposition, we generally want to point ourselves towards older people or people who have more wisdom and experience than we do, which can be somebody who's younger than us.

But Saturn governs a lot of different things. One of the things that can be really helpful is people who have wisdom, which is accrued knowledge that they have applied. So it's not just being smart. It's applying those things. And so Mercury opposition to Saturn can find us in situations where we are the wisened one or somebody else is. And sometimes people play that role as an unconscious teacher. The concept of an unconscious teacher is basically like a person teaches you a lesson, and they play this role for you that is so important, but they didn't do it consciously. We don't really need to give them credit. So you may have an ex who really taught you your value by treating you like shit. So that person was an unconscious teacher. We don't want to say that they taught you how to have self-worth, because they treated you like shit. But we do want to say that you learned this lesson through this relationship, and therefore, they functioned as an unconscious teacher. They were not conscious, but you were. Right? You were.

So you may encounter an unconscious teacher or a conscious teacher on and around this date. Be open to it. Be open to learning because this New Moon can really mark an important turning point in our understanding on all manner of levels. So there's a lot to be gained here.

There's a few other things happening astrologically here. We have this ongoing Mars/Chiron opposition, which means that this New Moon, a lot of what we're feeling is going to be very visceral. A lot of this is going to make us feel uncomfortable in our bodies or bring up our experience and feelings and blocks around anger or maleness, like traditionally male concepts, which may be a part of your gender journey, and it may have nothing to do with gender stuff at all.

Mars opposite Chiron in this New Moon chart tells me that we may be dealing with anger. So you may be feeling vulnerable. You may be feeling sad. You may be feeling anxious. And then you find that it's coming out as irritability. It's coming out as agitation. There's a person, and they're the fucking reason why you feel so sad and bad, and now you're just fucking mad. And if that comes up, be like, "Oh shit. The astrologer mentioned it. I need to sit with my feelings. I need to sit with all of my feelings," not to point blame in any direction, but to understand what you're going through better. Capisce?

Luckily, we also have a Venus square to Jupiter active in this chart, and it's nice and tight. And this transit supports us in being generous with ourselves and others. It supports us in being present in our bodies in a healthy way, which is wonderful. The only downside is this square can also make us kind of want to keep shit on the surface, which will give nobody any value, really. I mean, nobody is a whole lot of people, but this is just not what we want to do. This New Moon is asking us to go deep within ourselves. And so try not to just stick on the surface.

The thing about the way things look⁠—the way I look, you look, your frenemy looks, your bestie looks, whatever⁠—none of that shit⁠—it's not important. It's not important. And I'm not just talking about physical looks. I'm talking about the way things appear to be. That's not what's happening for most of us most of the time. Don't compare yourself. Don't struggle to keep up appearances. This isn't the time for that, not this New Moon. Instead, again, strive to create and to be present in some space and time to simply be, to engage in not doing, but instead being receptive and cultivating acceptance of what is, because that acceptance is simply awareness. It's not consent. It's not laziness. It's awareness. And awareness is an invaluable resource in any phase of life, in every phase of life.

Now, that brings us to the 15th. And on the 15th, Mercury goes direct at 1:21 p.m. Pacific Time. And I think we've covered that pretty well. But the other thing that's happening on the 15th is we have an exact trine between the Sun and Uranus that is exact at 6:24 p.m. Pacific Time. Now, the Sun trine to Uranus is a lovely transit. It supports us in being open, in being willing to explore what's possible. When the Sun forms a trine to Uranus, we will often have a subtle⁠—sometimes it's big, but often it's a subtle shift in perspective. And that shift in perspective empowers us to see things from a completely different angle that can lead to major changes and improvements.

This is a really good time to be experimental. This is a really good time to be inquisitive. If you are trying to facilitate progress in the world or in your own life, this transit is helpful for that. And again, it's because we tend to be a little bit less fettered by our assumptions and by our history and more open to what's possible in the future.

This is the time for exploring possibility. If you're super into astrology, it's also a really great transit for exploring astrology simply because Uranus is in many ways associated with astrology. It's connected to technology and the future and vast, limitless possibilities. This is why it's associated with individualism, but also community. A lot of people get confused by that, how Uranian energies⁠—also eleventh-house energies and Aquarian energies⁠—are both highly individualistic and community-minded. And I think a lot of, in particular, American people get really confused by this concept because in this culture, individualism stands alone on a mountain with a flag as opposed to within a community of like-minded and aligned souls, which is really the best kind of individualism, is when we come together in community, allowing ourselves and others to be what we are. It's beautiful. It's beautiful.

Anyways, so Sun trine to Uranus can be expansive. It can find you just really connecting with a person, a concept, a situation that opens doors inside of you or in the world. That's just fucking cool, right? Now, I'm not trying to promise you the Sun, Moon, and stars here because that's not realistic. This transit is happening at exactly 23 degrees with the Sun at 22 degrees of Virgo and 57 minutes, and Uranus at the same degrees, 22, 57, of Taurus. So, if you have any planets or important points in your chart at around those degrees in an earth sign or a fixed or a mutable sign, you're really going to feel this. It's something to pay attention to in your chart because it's a great transit to tap into.

Now, if you have been⁠—I don't know⁠—single and wanting to mingle, if you want new friends, if you have been trying to make professional connections, if you've been needing to reach out to people⁠—maybe not in person, but via email, DM, you get the picture⁠—this is a great time for doing it because the Sun trine to Uranus makes us all a little more open. And it can often coincide with connections being made. It's not schmoozy. It's more just little bursts of energy through new connections. So put yourself out there. And if you're doing it in person indoors, you know the drill. Mask up because we're being COVID safe, what with this spike of COVID. But it's such a small thing for protecting community; is it not, my friends? Is it not?

Okay. One more thing I'm going to say about this particular transit. The fact that the Sun trine to Uranus is exact just a few hours after Mercury goes direct is very good news because it's good for technology. It's good for science. It's good for communications. It's good for understanding things and moving forward with that understanding. So it's a nice bolt of energy post-Mercury Retrograde. I'm very excited about this, especially because this Mercury Retrograde has been so smooshy.

This Sun/Uranus trine really kind of gives us a boost, and I would say the same post-New Moon. It's a little bit of a smooshy New Moon, truth be told. It's emo. It wants us to go within. The Sun trine to Uranus is helping us be like, "Okay. You did that work. Now go talk to people. Go be curious about the world. Go explore something. Do something different." So do that. Nothing's going to force you, because it's a trine. Trines mean things flow. So, if you work with the flow, things get gorgeous. But no one's going to force you to do it, so to each her own.

That brings us, my friends, to the last exact transit of this week, and that is happening on the 16th. On the 16th, we have a Venus square to Jupiter. Now, I mentioned this transit before in the context of the New Moon chart. We have a Venus square to Jupiter, and it's exact at 11:10 p.m. It's happening at 15 degrees and 19 minutes. Venus is at 15 degrees and 19 minutes of Leo, and Jupiter is at those same degrees of Taurus. So we're talking about fixed-sign vibes, okay?

Now, as I mentioned, this is a lovely transit. This is one of those squares that just is very desirable. Venus square to Jupiter is a great transit for feeling good, really. Venus and Jupiter are probably the two biggest hedonists of the zodiac. They both are the ones that like to chill, to luxuriate, to do what feels good first and foremost. And so, when they form a square to each other, generally people feel good. People feel chill. People want to socialize. It's easier for us to be generous or graceful or nice to others.

The only trouble about Venus square to Jupiter is that it is hedonistic. And so this transit is not great for getting work done. If you have to clarify some boundaries with people, this is not the time of the week to get it done. It's going to be really hard to do. This transit can be challenging if you are struggling with an addiction to shopping or scrolling through social media or to a substance or whatever. There are so many addictions and so many levels upon which we have addiction.

Venus square to Jupiter, because it's so hedonistic, can make it really hard to manage our impulses. So that can be something you might want to watch out for if that's a problem you're actively struggling with right now. And if you know that that's a problem you're struggling with, there's potentially things you can do to not put yourself in the presence of the thing that triggers you. So, if you're super addicted to stalking your ex right now, yeah, block yourself from using the app on this date if you can. You know what I mean?

Keep in mind all this Virgonian energy we've been dealing with this week is in part here to help you see, okay, your actions, whether or not they're working for you, so you can prepare earlier in the week for what's coming later in the week if this Venus square to Jupiter is something you're concerned about. But for most people, again, it's going to be pretty chill. This is a good time for making friends, making art, being moved by art. It can be a great time for being in nature, although it's not an athletic transit. This is poolside vibes, my friends, poolside vibes.

If you're somebody who likes to flirt, this is a great time, just a great transit for flirting⁠—fabulous. Doesn't necessarily mean anything serious or deep is happening, but fun. Venus square Jupiter brings us fun. So I feel like a lot of us could use a fun break. Some of us maybe not, but a lot of us could use a fun break. And so, if you know what fun is to you, which⁠—let's be honest. Not everybody knows what fun is. Fun is constantly changing, our personal definitions. But if you're somebody who's been like, "I just need to have a little more fun in my life," yeah, this is the time. Put yourself out there. Explore. Play. That kind of thing. That kind of thing.

And also, don't be defined by other people's ideas about what play or fun is. Let's not be weird about that kind of stuff. If what's fun for you is reading weird, old poetry, go do it, nerd. If what's fun for you is people-watching at a café alone, go do it, nerd. Do whatever is fun for you without any judgment or weirdness. The point is to enjoy. And in particular, because we're dealing with these zodiac signs and we're dealing with Venus, it's to have sensual enjoyment, which is why this is an especially nice time to go to a restaurant that you really like. Eat the foods. Drink the drinks. Anyways, that's Venus square to Jupiter.

And that's your horoscope for this week. I'm Jessica Lanyadoo over on Patreon, where I get into astrology and woo all the livelong day. Also, you can get my book, Astrology for Real Relationships. You can get the book and read it, but you can also get the audiobook so you hear this old voice in your earbuds. That's kind of fun, too.

I want to remind you in case you missed it, the last episode of Ghost, I did a reading for a woman having her third Saturn Return. So, a couple weeks ago, I did a second Saturn Return reading, and this past week, I did a third Saturn Return reading. It's a really good reading. You definitely want to hear it because how much information have you ever heard about the third Saturn Return? There's so much out there about the first Saturn Return, but truth is it's relatively new in human history that humans live long enough to experience their third Saturn Return. I don't know. It's really cool. It's a great reading, and she's a wonderful human. If you didn't hear it, I do encourage you to hit that Subscribe or Follow button wherever you listen to podcasts so you do not miss an episode of this little Ghost of a Podcast, my astrological and woo love letter to you.

All right, my loves. I will talk to you in a couple of days. Have a healthy and happy New Moon.