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 of a Podcast. We are going to be looking at the astrology for December 1st through the 7th of 2024. If you want to hear the bonus episode of Ghost of a Podcast, where I break down the astrology of the month ahead⁠—and I will let you know this month is a doozy astrologically⁠—you can join me over on Patreon, where you can either become a member or simply purchase the single episode to listen to as many times as you like. So, whether you want to join me over on Patreon or you just want to hear the bonus episode of Ghost where I predict the astrology of the month ahead, just go to patreon.com/jessicalanyadoo, and it'll be a couple of clicks, see, just a couple of clicks.

Now, there's a lot happening, right? There's a lot happening in the world. It's a lot happening in the States. And something that has really been on my mind is how the incoming administration has been promising to create detention camps and how the state of Texas has offered over 1,400 acres⁠—1,400 acres of land in Texas⁠—to build those centers, day one. I believe they mean it, and I am pretty fucking terrified of it. Now, that's just one thing that is scary about this incoming administration here in the United States, but it's a big one.

There is no time and no place where detention camps are a just thing. And I personally⁠—I reject the idea that as spiritual people, as people of conscience or people of heart, we should not be scared of scary things. Yeah, be scared of scary things. That, to me, seems like a healthy and appropriate response if something is scary, to be frightened. And I'm not saying we want to linger in the state of fear, but to turn our backs on the realities that we are in and the realities that we are facing⁠—there's nothing spiritual about that.

I want to encourage you to use fear as a motivational force instead of an excuse to prioritize your own individual security and safety over that of others or instead of a way to shut down, which a lot of us do in response to fear. It is so essential that we resist fascism, that we resist ableism and racism and xenophobia. And it is scary. Resistance is not free. That said, it would be a terrible mistake to fixate so much on what might happen, on what the future holds and what it might not hold, either by obsessively consuming news or astrology, that you aren't present for what's happening in the here and now. We want to take in the potential for the future and navigate from the present. The present is the only thing that you have any real control over. And cultivating a practice of presence, of being emotionally associated, accountable, here and now, is truly essential for spiritual health as well as to be effective with your activism or, if you're not an activist, which many of us are not, to be effective in how you engage just as a community member in the world.

So here's my advice. Start by prioritizing random and meaningful acts of kindness. I'm talking about meaningful acts of kindness. They don't have to be massive, but being kind to other people whether it serves you or not, whether or not other people can see it or know it happened or not. Look out for your neighbors, for your community members, especially ones with marginalized identities or who you know are on the incoming administration's shit list. We are on the precipice of extreme times. You don't need to be an astrologer to know that. And what you do or you don't do will absolutely matter, not just to you and for you but for others, to the people in your immediate life but also to the larger landscape of humanity.

This is the time to engage in radical acts of kindness. I want to invite you to think about that, to consider it, to look for opportunities to show up and to transform yourself and the world around you through coalition-building, through friendship, through kindness. It's Pluto in Aquarius, you know? Let's take care of each other.

Okay. So let's now get into your horoscope. There are a lot of transits happening this week, so get your pen and paper ready. And also, if you are not a note-taking person or you're just not able to, don't forget that I offer full transcripts of each episode on my website, and each episode is lovingly transcribed by a lovely human. And so it takes about a day, sometimes two, for it to show up on the site.

Okay. So we start the week on Sunday, December 1st, with a transit by Mercury Retrograde. Mercury Retrograde will be forming an exact trine to Chiron. Mercury will be at 19 degrees of Sagittarius and 21 minutes. Chiron will be at the exact same degrees of Aries. This transit will be exact at 10:16 p.m. Pacific Time. This transit is actually quite lovely. I mean, listen. Whenever we're having a transit to or from Chiron or to or from Pluto, it's always going to be a little challenging, if I'm being honest, because it's tapping into, in the case of Chiron, core wounding. That said, when we have a trine from Mercury to Chiron, there's healing. It's all about healing. And in this case, it's about being able to look within⁠—Mercury Retrograde, thank you very much⁠—to reconsider or reflect upon trauma or old stories you've told yourself about what's wrong with you or your life or the world, and to evolve your thinking.

And so, when we talk about healing, it sounds like a destination. It's like I cut my finger, and then it heals, and then eventually I can't even see that there was ever a cut on my skin. It's just like it goes away. When it comes to healing our shit, it's not quite that linear. In fact, the process of healing is really an evolutionary process. It's where we change and evolve over time, or sometimes in an instant. When we go through a transit like Mercury trining Chiron, we have the opportunity to have understanding help us to heal. So you may have a conversation with somebody, and something just shifts or clicks for you. You may read something, hear something, and again, there's just some sort of spark of understanding or a laying down of burdens.

This transit can also coincide with you feeling heard, with you finally kind of finding the words to frame something, to understand something that has been stuck inside of you. If you are a writer or you have some sort of communication-based project that you're working on, this transit is your BFF. So do your best this Mercury Retrograde, and certainly on and around the 1st, to tap into this energy by being curious, by exploring, by being open-minded, by having hard conversations, by challenging yourself and allowing yourself to be challenged.

Not all healing has to hurt. Not all healing is easy, and not all healing has to hurt. However this transit shows up for you, its effects are likely to be gentle. Now, if you're dealing with something that's really painful and really hard, even gentle is going to be challenging. So we want to adjust expectations and not expect miracles here, but I want to encourage you to be open to working with these energies so that you can make the most of them and use them, you know, use them to your benefit.

Now, that brings us to Monday, December the 2nd, where we have another lovely trine transit overlapping with that Mercury trine to Chiron. And if you're newer to astrology or you just don't remember or didn't know, a couple of years ago, I was doing midweek episodes that I called
"hot take" episodes. And amongst them, I have episodes about, you know, what is a trine, what are the aspects, that you may want to revisit if you're like, "What the hell is this thing Jessica keeps talking about?" And I believe it was Episode Number 101 where I talked about the aspects, including but not limited to trines.

Okay. So back to this transit. Venus trine to Uranus is happening exactly at 6:43 a.m. on December 2nd. We've got Venus at 24 degrees Capricorn and 36 minutes forming an exact trine to Uranus at the same degrees of Taurus. So this is a nice earthy transit that can help you to dig into what you care about. So that may be creative pursuits. That may be values-based pursuits. And it may be your shiny or stinky love life. When we talk about love, we are not just talking about romantic love. There are so many kinds of love.

Venus trine to Uranus is a transit that can empower you to act from a place of love towards the people and things that you care the most about authentically. It can help you to show up and be yourself. This transit is a great time for connecting with people. It's a great time for tapping into the arts, for exploring what's possible between you and essentially creation or creativity. A lot of people⁠—they hear the idea of creativity, and they think of making art. And certainly, it encompasses that. But I would contend that our relationships are a place that require creativity, that thrive when we bring creativity to the table. How do you want to connect to people? How do you want to let them in?

The thing to keep in mind with this transit of Venus trine to Uranus is that it kind of leaves the windows and doors open for possibility. So something new and exciting may happen, but it might take participation from you. So you may have an opportunity, and you'd have to say yes. You'd have to say yes to see what it is. This is a great time for being open and trying new things. And because of the overlap with that Mercury Retrograde trine to Chiron, they can be deep. They can be a little bit confronting or challenging but not in a way that feels bad or like, "Oh, I'm in trouble." So, again, be open. Don't hide from new opportunities and new experiences this Venus trine to Uranus.

Now, that brings us to Wednesday, December 4th, where we don't have one exact transit. No, my friends, we have three exact transits. At exactly 2:16 a.m. Pacific Time, Mercury forms an exact opposition to Jupiter. At exactly 8:18 a.m. Pacific Time, the Sun forms an exact square to Saturn. Later that morning, at 10:52 a.m. Pacific Time, Venus forms an exact sextile to Neptune. And for my exacting friends, I will say Mercury will be at 16 degrees and 44 minutes of Sagittarius opposite Jupiter, same degrees of Gemini.

The Sun will be at 13 degrees of Sagittarius and 1 minute, so pretty damn close to that Mercury, forming a square to Saturn at the same degrees of Pisces. And finally, Venus will be at 27 degrees of Capricorn and 8 minutes, forming that sextile to Neptune at the same degrees of Pisces. So we got a lot of mutable energy at play here and a lot of conflicting vibes going on. So let me kind of give you an overview upshot.

Mercury Retrograde opposite Jupiter brings up big opinions. You may jump to conclusions. Someone else may jump to conclusions. You may have some sort of grand plans or just kind of decide, "Oh, I get it. This thing that I've been trying to figure out is x, y, z," and maybe, again, not necessarily have your plans or ideas terribly rooted in reality. Jupiter likes to jump to conclusions. Honestly, so does Mercury. And so, when they're opposite each other, it's hard to stay grounded in reality. It doesn't help that they're in mutable signs.

Now, listen. This isn't a bad transit if you can rein your thinking in to know that your ideas and your plans are exciting and interesting but not stable and reliable in this moment. So don't make proclamations. Don't decide, "Okay. I'm moving to Antarctica. I'm selling the cat"⁠—whatever. This is a time to explore ideas, to put out a wide net, as long as you don't overstep in the process.

Mercury opposite Jupiter can be a time where you learn something new because you're more open and curious. It can just as easily be a time where you start soapboxing at other people and kind of basically preaching at them even though they don't want to hear it, or you may be the recipient of such behavior. And nobody really likes to be the recipient of this behavior, so maybe don't do it to other people.

This transit can bring up misinformation and disinformation, propaganda in general. And what this means is it's important to have critical thinking. On a really personal level, I want to really reiterate, if there's ever a time to follow that Mercury Retrograde rule of not signing contracts, not making major plans, being mindful about how you communicate, it's today. It's today because Mercury opposite Jupiter is just a little chaotic.

As I said, this transit is overlapping with the Sun square to Saturn. Now, that Sun square to Saturn has radically different vibes. This transit is one that confronts you with a sense of scarcity and limitation. The Sun is your essential vitality, and Saturn⁠—especially when Saturn is hanging out in a square position, in a 90-degree angle, what we have is Saturn being like, "Is that good enough? Are you sure? How do you know? Did you test it?"

This is not a great time for ego validation. Now, by contrast, Mercury opposite Jupiter is like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh, just jumping around, just jumping around on its tail. Sun square Saturn is giving Eeyore, deep Eeyore. That said, there is great value in this transit. This transit has you questioning things, kind of pressure-testing things. So, if you can not descend into scarcity-based thinking and guilt and making yourself really small in reaction to fear, then this can be a transit that helps you to identify what is and isn't working, what does and does not need your attention, and to be honest with yourself and others about how much energy you actually have for any given thing. You have limitations. So do I. We all have limitations. There's only so much you can do, in particular do well. And different times of life⁠—what's realistic for you is going to evolve. It's going to change.

Being able to own your limitations as well as your skills and your assets is an essential part of adulting, really. Sun square to Saturn helps you to learn that. Whether it does it in a nice and pleasant way or a challenging way is another conversation, but that is part of why this transit occurs. The Sun square to Saturn is an asset to the Mercury opposition to Jupiter, theoretically. This transit can help you to get more grounded, be more realistic, not jump too far or too wide. On the other hand, if you're really fear-based, it may find you being pedantic and really opinionated or really blocked off to new communications because that may be a fear response for you.

So this is, again, where we want to be mindful about our relationship to fear. How do you react to fear? How do you process fear? Does your ego kind of swell in reaction to threats? Does it shrink? These are things that are valuable to know about yourself. And they're not conclusive. One doesn't mean you're a good person, and the other one doesn't mean you're a bad person. It just is information for you to have about yourself at this time. When you have that level of self-awareness, the cool thing is you can use it. You can use it to be a healthier, better-adjusted person, to be kind to yourself and others, to get shit done that needs doing.

Oftentimes, when the Sun forms a square to Saturn, you have to deal with real problems. Again, it could be some sort of thing that you thought you had access to but you don't; you have to deal with a limitation or a constriction in your life. You may be feeling discouraged. Saturn has a way of kind of tapping your vitality so it feels like you're not as resilient as you need to be or you wish you were. You may have to deal with somebody who is oppressive in some way over you. Saturn is authority figures and shit like that.

As unpleasant or challenging as this can be, keep in mind that there is a reason for it. It's for you to get an accurate appraisal of how you are, how you do in situations such as these. How you feel today and what's happening today⁠—it's not conclusive about what's going to happen tomorrow. If you take some of the weight of importance off with the feelings and thoughts you're having in the situation you're in right now, does that free you up to actually use your critical, analytic, creative, and exploratory faculties in your given situation?

Navigating emotional and psychological challenges⁠—spiritual challenges⁠—is hard. It's hard. That's why most people don't do it, right? So be gentle with yourself. A Sun/Saturn square⁠—that transit's not really known for gentleness. But Saturn can learn. It is an old dog, but it can be taught new tricks⁠—maybe not quickly, maybe not overnight, maybe not easily. But it can be taught new tricks. But you're going to be the one to teach your own inner old dog those tricks. Happily, the Mercury opposition to Jupiter can support that⁠—not necessarily overnight, but again, if you open yourself up to possibilities and you explore them, that can be really helpful and instructive.

Now, there is a third transit that's exact on this day, and we don't want to forget that we're still feeling that Venus trine to Uranus, that Mercury trine to Chiron. So there is a lot of supportive energy for making the most of this transit. Now, that third transit that's exact today is Venus sextile to Neptune. This is a lovely fucking transit. Venus is your values. Neptune is your ideals. And when they're having this lovely, creative, dynamic conversation that a sextile provokes, what can happen is you inspire your value system with what is possible, with what you most dearly hope that helps you to be better connected to your values.

This transit can increase your empathy, can make you feel more generous and kind to yourself and to others. It can increase your desire for love and connection and beauty, and those feelings can inspire you to keep things very on the surface and to try to keep it cute instead of keep it real⁠—not that these two things have to happen at the expense of each other, but in this case, they can.

But in the context of these larger transits we're going through, this can help you to ask yourself, are you being hard on yourself about shit you don't care about? Are you centering your values and your ideals and your beliefs or other people's ideas about how you should be or how the world should be? If you're carrying burdens, which⁠—I mean, who amongst us is not? If you're carrying burdens, make sure that you are bringing love to them because if all you're doing is worrying and stressing and freaking out or disassociating from whatever it is⁠—your problems⁠—but you're not bringing love to the table, the path to healing is a lot slower and a lot more painful.

So do you need to love yourself more? Do you need to love your past more? Do you need to love someone enough to let them go? There are so many ways that we can apply love with healthy boundaries. So we don't have to consent to all the things just because you love yourself or love people. You want to have healthy boundaries. But empathy, care, consideration, love⁠—these things lighten the load that you're dealing with, whatever it is that you're dealing with. Love is a sustainable motivation, and we need sustainability these days. So tap into those energies if and how you can on and around this date.

That brings us to Thursday, December 5th. It's a busy week. It's a busy week. And on Thursday, December 5th, the Sun and Mercury meet. Mercury is of course Retrograde, so it's moved backwards in the zodiac. The Sun will be at 14 degrees and 27 minutes at 6:18 p.m. Pacific Time on the 5th and Mercury will be in the exact same spot.

When the Sun and Mercury meet, it is a great time for self-understanding and self-reflection. However, Mercury is Retrograde. And so what you really want to do is reflect on your ideas about yourself. Reflect on the things you've been doubling down on. Reflect on yourself. I'm not talking about obsessive analysis. This is not Pluto. This is Sun/Mercury. It's⁠—consider who you are, how you're communicating it, how you're holding the beliefs you hold, the stories you're telling yourself and others about who you are. Make sure they're true stories. It's okay to evolve and to change your thinking. In fact, it's a sign of maturity. So be open to that this Sun/Mercury conjunction.

Now, this transit often coincides with lots of plans and communications and just business, which can be really fun. But when Mercury is Retrograde, it can also be fucking confusing and distracting and like things do not go according to plan. If your plans get all fucked up and technology is not your friend, don't take it personally Try to go with the flow because you're not alone. Mercury is Retrograde everywhere and for everyone. So try to hold it a little lightly. If people misunderstand you or there's some sort of miscommunication, don't take it personally. I mean, it's happening to you; it's personal. But it's not necessarily happening because of you.

Now, I should be clear I'm not saying, "Don't take accountability if you make a mistake," but you know, Mercury Retrograde means that we're more likely to misunderstand things or make mistakes. So how you react to you or others making mistakes is a reflection on you, my friend. Be curious about that and bolster your self-awareness this Sun/Mercury Retrograde conjunction.

Now, that brings us to Friday, December the 6th. And if you hear a slight tonal change in my voice, that's for a reason. This is the day that Mars goes Retrograde. Mars will remain Retrograde until February 23rd. That is a fucking long transit. There's a lot of things to say. I'm going to look at the chart of the Mars Retrograde. There's another exact transit happening on this day. It's Mercury Retrograde square to Saturn. Let's put a pin in that.

Retrogrades are always a time to follow the rule of re's. We're reflecting. We're reassessing. We're recalibrating. Mars in astrology governs a bunch of things. It governs your body, so it's like your red blood cells and your muscles. Mars governs your car, so how you drive, the car you own, the military and policing. It governs your sex drive, chemistry, the physical act of fornication. Mars is the planet that governs fighting, combat, aggression, competition, and ambition. Mars is hot.

And when we are going through a Mars Retrograde, we are applying that rule of re's⁠—we're doing all that reflecting and reassessing⁠—on those parts of ourselves. So, whatever your relationship to irritability is, or anger or defensiveness⁠, it can be described by your Mars and your Mars placement. Now, Mars is going to be Retrograde in the zodiac sign of Leo, and it's going to go all the way back into Cancer. It's not the greatest news in the world. You want to be aware of where those zodiac signs fall in your chart. And in particular, Mars goes Retrograde at 6 degrees of Leo.

So Mars Retrogrades in general kick up your frustrations, your relationship to anger, whatever that may be, and also your passions. So this may be a time where you're finding yourself really struggling for a sense of purpose and meaning, really struggling to figure out what your motivation is. What's the point? You may be feeling incredibly competitive and assertive or aggressive. You may need to use your body more, or you may be feeling frustrated with your body. Your relationship to sex, your sex life, may be a cause of serious consideration for you, which could mean any number of things.

Here's a rule of thumb with Mars Retrograde. This isn't a great time to start new projects. So is it a good time to buy a car? No. If you have to buy a car, should you buy a car? Yes. Just know that Mars is Retrograde, and so you want to do your due diligence. You don't want to be impulsive. You want to be really mindful and careful. This is not a good time for starting new enterprises. Does that mean you shouldn't? No. It just means that it's not well-starred, so you want to put in protections; you want to be mindful of that.

Mars Retrograde is not a time for starting things, but it is a time for finishing them. So, if you have projects that are open, sexual relationships that you're like, "I don't know if I want to stay or go, if this is working, if this is not working," if there are things that are motivating you to do in any way, then this is a great time for reflecting on that stuff, for reconsidering those things and making determinations. So closing things up, finishing things up, is well-starred. And for those of you who have a tendency to overthink Retrogrades, I just want to say this does include⁠—you may have started a project six months ago and not really been thinking about it for the last four months. Picking it up again? Yes. That is a continuation. So it's not starting something brand new.

Mars Retrograde is not going to be a time where you make remarkable progress, necessarily, where things move quickly and easily forward. This is because Mars Retrograde is trying to teach us that we are not simply what we do. We are not meant to only be the product of our action, but instead, our actions reflect that which is inside of us. Our actions are not on their own the things that determine our value. In the world we live in, ambition and the way things seem and your ability to accumulate shit and win races is so much of how we determine value, but that's not where value comes from. Value comes from Venus, comes from the things you actually cherish, not from Mars, the things you do. Hopefully, the things you do embody and reflect the things you cherish. And if they don't, a Mars Retrograde is a great time to reflect upon that, reassess, and recalibrate.

If you have a preexisting health issue and you've been putting off dealing with it⁠—I'm talking about body health right now⁠—and you've been putting off dealing with it, this is a great transit to reconnect with your body and recommit to supporting it in whatever ways it may need. Mars goes Retrograde at 3:33 p.m. Pacific Time. And in this chart, unsurprisingly, Mars is opposite Pluto. We are still going through that transit. And so, now that we're in the Retrograde, things are going to start to come out. Things are going to start to reveal themselves to you and to all of us.

Mars is also opposite to Venus in this transit. It's an out-of-sign opposition. It's a little wide, but it is there. And so I do think that a lot of us are going to experience this Mars Retrograde as a relationship-heavy experience. So don't hide from dealing with the people in your life. Also, because Mars and Venus are opposite to each other and Venus and Pluto are very close together, almost exactly conjunct, this is the time to reflect on whether or not your motivations are informed by your values or by the drive for power. When you hear "drive for power," it might sound like being some person who just wants to assert power over others. Sometimes we are compelled to prove to ourselves that we are powerless. Sometimes our identity is netted in powerlessness. Sometimes we have such injury, such hurt, inside of us that we don't realize that we're constantly trying to prove to ourselves that we're powerful and that we have built the wall of self-assurance so high that we are stuck behind it.

Integration and embodiment⁠—those are things that we need to work towards, not just insight and healing. We have to embody that healing. And this Mars Retrograde is actually a pretty good teacher around that. Now, it's not like a conclusive "We're going to end it all, and everything's going to be easy from here on out" kind of transit. But without awareness, how can you be pointed in the right direction? How can you do the right work⁠—right for you?

Something else that's happening in this chart is we still have that Sun/Mercury conjunction, Mercury of course being Retrograde. And it's opposite to Jupiter, and all three of those planets are square to Saturn. And so there is a kind of heavy-headedness to this Mars Retrograde. And within that, the question that you, me, and everyone else is going to be struggling with is, "Is that too much? Is that not enough? Should I take more? Did I take too much?" Fucking Jupiter/Saturn square stuff.

Trying to figure out if you said too much, if you didn't say enough, if you said it right, if you didn't say it right⁠—I mean, that's part of being a person in the world. And if within asking those questions you don't have clarity about your values to return to, it's going to be really hard to answer them. But when you are embodied⁠—Mars⁠—around your values⁠—Venus⁠—then you don't have as much to prove⁠—Pluto. And that helps you to make determinations⁠—Saturn, the Sun, Mercury⁠—around how you want to participate. And that's really helpful. That's really helpful. So these are all things for you to be reflecting on this Mars Retrograde. We will talk about it more as time progresses, and there will be a lot more to talk about. I am quite certain of that, my friends.

Now, as I mentioned, on the same day, we have another exact transit. That's the Mercury square to Saturn. And that one is exact at 5:53 p.m. Mercury will be at 13 degrees of Sagittarius and 6 minutes. Saturn will be at the same degrees of Pisces. Now, this transit can be quite depressing. And even though I've talked about it in the context of the Mars Retrograde chart, I want to speak to it on its own.

Mercury square Saturn often coincides with depressive thinking, with feeling just down in the dumps, pessimistic, like you don't have enough⁠—scarcity-mindedness. Scarcity would be Saturn; your mind is Mercury. You may feel lonely, like you're not connected to your friends, like you reached out to someone and they didn't get back to you, and you get butthurt; you're taking it personally. This is a challenging transit, and it's not a great time to have a first date or to try to start something new. It's a transit that actually favors hard mental work, so administrative tasks, sorting through things. If there's a junk drawer that you're like, "I actually have to go through it and figure out what is actually useful and what's crap," Mercury square Saturn is good for that.

Mercury square Saturn is a transit that is helpful for doing kind of hard, boring work. It can be a welcome distraction from what can be quite negative thinking. So, if you find that things are coming up on and around this date in your friendships or in your thinking that make you feel just really stuck and lonely and like, "Ugh. I can't," remember that this is the transit. Try to be open and interested, and reflect. Reflect on what you've done, what's happening, how you got here. But if that kind of inquiry is too negative and fear- or scarcity-based, then maybe put off that form of inquiry for a little while; I would typically say for 72 hours. Give the transit enough time to pass. But this transit overlaps with another transit that's very challenging, and so that's not exactly going to work.

Let me tell you about this other transit. On Saturday, December 7th, the last day of this week's forecast, we have two exact transits. The first is Venus conjunction to Pluto. Again, I mentioned it in the Mars Retrograde chart. Venus will be at 0 degrees of Aquarius and 23 minutes, as will Pluto, at 6:08 a.m. Pacific Time. That's a very fucking intense transit.

Now, a little later that afternoon, at 12:58 p.m. Pacific Time, the Sun will be exactly opposite to Jupiter. This is a lot of really conflicting energy to be going through all at once. So, if you're having a kind of time this week, I want to say there is an astrology to that. Don't be mean to yourself or others. Do your best to tap into your resources so that you can support yourself through it and not act out of your strongest emotions but instead⁠—say it with me⁠—your wisest ones.

Okay. Venus conjunct Pluto is intense. Venus is what you love, what you own, what you value. And Pluto is Tower card energy, right? It's transformation. It's drama. It's intensity. This transit can meaningfully increase your feelings of love or your fears and compulsions around love. If you're somebody who struggles with any kind of addictive behaviors, this transit can trigger it, especially if it hits your chart directly. The reason for this is because Pluto activates our compulsions and, in this case, our compulsions around our worthiness. And this can make you feel all kinds of ways, but none of them are particularly chill.

So, if you find yourself obsessing over someone else in your present or your past, if you find yourself fixated on the future⁠—because we are talking about Aquarius here⁠—try to remember that this transit is happening, and rein yourself in. Redirect yourself to something neutral and present. Fixations and obsessions outside of yourself are really just a distraction from you. So, if you're fixating on somebody else, it's really just a distraction from you dealing with something inside of you.

This transit can kick up jealousy, possessiveness, resentfulness, and negative fixations. Again, if you are feeling any of these ways, redirect to something neutral in your present if you can. Shift your attention and allow yourself to have swirling emotions because, unfortunately, that's what Venus conjunct Pluto kicks up, is kind of swirling, intense, driving emotions and thoughts. The desire to medicate them through fixation on something else, something that maybe is actually kind of bad for you but is different than the thing that feels the most vulnerable⁠—it's not a great coping mechanism. It's a common one. It's just not a great one.

Now, this transit's overlapping with the Mercury Retrograde square to Saturn. And so we know already that you're in a kind of negative frame of mind, and now Venus conjunct Pluto is just really ruminating over your value, the value of a relationship. This is not a great time to consider breaking up with someone or trying to make things secure and stable with them. This is instead a time for looking at your own inner landscape. Mercury is Retrograde, and now Mars is Retrograde. Reflection is the name of the game. And if you find yourself not reflecting but instead obsessing, then again, redirect.

Because of the intensity of these transits, I'm going to point you away from any kind of consciousness-raising drugs, any kind of facilitators. I'm not talking about your medication. I'm talking about recreational stuff. This is just too much energy all at once, and it is kind of trying to get you to be more present instead of to disassociate out of your system. This transit can also trigger power struggles. You may feel really entitled, but entitlement is a tricky motivation. And I want to encourage you to explore your motivations⁠—Mars is Retrograde⁠—before you act out against yourself or others.

We may see some sort of terrible news about women's rights, Queer rights, Trans rights, on or around this date. If somebody tells you they're coming from you, I think it's safe to believe them. So do what you can to protect yourself and your community, and if you're not connected to any women or Queer people or Trans people, then the broader community. This transit is a reminder to not only regard the dignity of others but to safeguard it.

Now, this transit is happening at the same time as the Sun opposition to Jupiter, and pretty much the Mercury square to Saturn. So the Sun opposition to Jupiter is technically a great transit. It expands what's possible. It can bring about opportunity and excitement and something that feels really good or is really good. Sometimes what feels really good isn't really good, of course, but it can bring about either.

It can coincide with feeling more resilient, more optimistic, more capable. But it could just as easily empower you to feel really entitled, to expand the function of the ego, to have you be greedy and take more than your share, to prioritize your own comforts and your own desires over your own ethics and what is fair and just. You can imagine how that complicated set of energies that the Sun opposition to Jupiter provokes overlapping with the Venus/Pluto conjunction, overlapping with the Mercury square to Saturn, can really test a person.

So let other people reveal themselves to you. Everyone's going through these transits. It's not going to hit everyone the same, but we're all going through these transits. So, if people show you their ass, don't assume it's because of you. Understand that the way that other people behave is a reflection on them, not a reflection on you. And also, how you behave, how you respond to your reactions, how you treat other people, how you treat yourself⁠—that's a reflection on you. The boundaries that you do or don't hold, the ways in which you choose to live⁠—that shit is all a reflection on you.

We can use context to explain how you came to be how you are, why you do what you do. But context is not excuse. This is a time to be willing to take responsibility for who you choose to be regardless of how you came to be here. Sun opposite Jupiter can be a time where that happens, just like the other two transits can be a time where that happens. It can also be a time where you're just like, "No. Nothing's my fault," because of x, y, and z.

The Sun opposition to Jupiter, in a very different way, but very similarly to the Venus conjunction to Pluto, can trigger addictive behaviors. Jupiter is the gambler of the zodiac and not known for self-control. The Sun⁠—not inherently known for self-control either. So, when these two planets are opposite to each other, you can just feel like, "I just gotta go, go, go, go, go," and just try to ride a high or a low, depending on your circumstances and your nature.

This transit is one that is likely to egg you on or egg on others. And so my kind of primary concern with this conflation of transits overlapping with the Retrogrades is that you take the opportunity to understand yourself, to perceive yourself, to witness yourself and accept what you experience without judgment, without shame and blame and bullshit⁠—just self-awareness, presence. You don't need to do anything about what you figure out. Let your self-awareness settle through the layers. Mars Retrograde wants us to reflect on how we are or are not in our bodies, how we are or are not embodied. Becoming aware of where and how you're embodied or not is a struggle. It's challenging. But it's worth it. It's worth it. And these transits are a very intense jump-starting way of starting this Mars Retrograde.

These two transits that are exact on this day are likely to kind of egg you on in the ways of your ego. And so, if you have a tendency to take more than your share, whether it's mean-spirited or not, if you take up a lot of space in a particular way, or if you have a tendency to make yourself small, shut yourself down, or if you, like a lot of people, do both things in weird and complicated ways, then these transits are going to trigger that in you. So my invitation to you is don't judge yourself. Don't judge yourself, but bear witness. Be present for what comes up inside of you, for how you act, how you respond, how you feel, because that awareness can help you transform and evolve. And from my perspective as an astrologer, that's really what the human condition is about: growth and evolution, trying, failing, struggling, succeeding, thriving, exploring. It's all of it. It's messy.

Wherever you're at in your cycle, try not to be a judgmental jerk about it. Be kind to yourself. Be patient with yourself and your circumstances so that you can collaborate with others, with situations, with people, with the times, to co-create the best possible conditions for all.

That's your week in the stars. I'm going to run through the transits one more time, but before I do, I want to remind you that my first meditation in my series of meditations has been released. You can get Meditation for Mercury Retrograde available only on Audible. But I also want to acknowledge that Amazon workers are striking, calling for increased wages, improved working conditions, and for the ability to unionize. The strike is scheduled to be from Black Friday till Cyber Monday. And so, you know, don't buy it until after those dates if you do want to purchase a book on Audible at all, which⁠—of course, you listen to my meditations. Also, solidarity with workers today, tomorrow, and always. So there's that messiness for you.

And to that end, my audiobook called Meditations for your Sign, which is a series of meditations based on all of the zodiac signs, will be available on January 2nd, and you can preorder it now, ideally not between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Purchase it for yourself or for a friend. It's something I'm really excited to have created and excited to share with you. It is really different than anything I've done before. You can check it out on Audible.

Okay. As promised, let me run through these transits one more time. On December 1st, Mercury Retrograde is exactly trine to Chiron. On the 2nd, Venus will form an exact trine to Uranus. On December 4th, Mercury Retrograde opposes Jupiter. The Sun forms a square to Saturn. And Venus is exactly sextile to Neptune. On December 5th, the Sun forms an exact conjunction to Mercury Retrograde. On the 6th, Mars goes Retrograde, too, and Mercury Retrograde forms a square to Saturn. And finally, on the 7th of December, Venus forms an exact conjunction to Pluto in Aquarius, and the Sun is opposite Jupiter. Nothing to see here. It's just all very intense.

It's a very busy week in the stars. I hope you take good care of yourself and others, and I'll talk to you in just a couple of days. Buh-bye.