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 have come through a really intense couple of weeks of astrology, and your life may feel exceptionally stressful right now. You may be kind of reeling from some of the things that have gone on in your personal life or just the energies of the world. Certainly, if you have been paying attention to what's happening in the world, as I know most of you who listen to this podcast do, there's a lot to mentally and emotionally process.

And I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the weight of the world and how that may be impacting you on a personal level because when we acknowledge what we're going through on any level, we have the capacity to cultivate acceptance: "This is what's real right now." And from the foundation of acceptance, it becomes possible to come up with the healthiest, best-adjusted coping mechanisms for the here and now.

And that's essential for living in balance, for sustaining adversity and hardship, and even for sustaining joy and expansion and excitement. Accepting where you are here and now is about being present. And presence is really hard. And it's always been hard for humans, but now with our little pocket robots and constant, constant distractions and constant pressures to be engaged in and with the world, it's really hard to cultivate presence. But it's such a valuable practice.

And I don't know if it's exactly related, but it feels related. As I've called for Queer questions, I have been actually genuinely surprised at how many people are struggling to come out⁠—whether or not they should come out. I've been genuinely surprised by it. And I want to just say, because so many of you have written in questions to me about whether or not you should come out or what the costs interpersonally⁠—like from family members or community and friends⁠—might be if you come out as Gay, as Genderqueer, whatever the case may be⁠—I want to say this to you, and this applies to, really, all matters.

But if somebody rejects you for what you are, if somebody rejects you for who you love, who sparks joy in your heart, for who you're attracted to and what gets you excited, then you should know that they've already rejected you. Anyone who rejects you for a part of who you are has already rejected you. And that's their problem. Your problem is whether or not you reject you.

And I want to say, gently but firmly, don't you reject you. Acceptance is awareness. And when you can accept what you are, who you are, where you're at, where things are at in whatever situation of your life or this state of the world⁠—when you can accept what is true and real at this time, then really, what you have is awareness⁠—awareness and presence. That's kind of the whole point of life. I mean, I think it's one of the core points of the human condition.

Your identity is really important. It's important in a political sense, like in a cultural and community-based sense, but it's also really important to you. However, don't let the need or the drive to assert your identity to create a problem within yourself⁠—in other words, you don't need validation from other people about your identity. What you need, if I can be so bold as to say what you need, is self-acceptance because when you really have self-acceptance, then other people being unkind or cruel to you, withholding love or care from you, is so clearly a reflection on them and not on you.

When we don't have self-acceptance, when we don't have a foundation of self-worth, it becomes really tempting to start to compare ourselves to others or to look outside of yourself for validation from people. Listen. At the end of the day, this is your life. And who you are, your convictions, what you believe, your choices⁠—these things are meaningful. They're consequential. And whether you're right or you're wrong is actually not as important as whether or not you're in alignment with yourself.

And cultivating self-awareness around what is or is not in alignment for you, within you⁠—that's a life practice. And the needle is ever shifting. What's in alignment for you in your early 20s is not going to be the same as your late 20s or your mid-50s, and on and on it goes. In different situations, at different moments, different things are going to be in alignment. And cultivating the willingness and ability to check in, to refer back within, to identify for yourself, "Am I in alignment with what's true for me? Have I accepted and am I embodying what's true for me?"⁠—if those things don't come first, then you are likely to experience a lot of pain and struggle with other people, whether they accept you or not, whether they like you or not.

And I've gone broader than talking about Queer shit, but I do want to say that your embodiment in your skin⁠—which includes but is not limited to your gender⁠, who you love and how you love other people, whether it's friends or romantic and sexual lovers⁠—there's not one right or wrong way of being. And anyone who says that there is is honestly living in a really limited way. And you don't need to take on other people's limitations around your sexuality, around your gender, or anything else.

Let me just summarize by saying love yourself because you are worthy of love. Even if you're fucked up, even if you've made mistakes, whatever the case may be, we are all deserving of love. You deserve love, and that includes but is not limited to self-love.

And on the topic of love and intimacy, I am so happy to invite you to the third event that I am putting on with my beloved friends, Sonya Renee Taylor and adrienne maree brown, two authors and thought leaders that if you don't know their work, you're going to be very excited to pick up their books and follow them on social media. We are going to be, on July 20th at 12:00 p.m. Pacific, having a live conversation on being deeply known in times of crisis.

This is another Joy in the Time of Apocalypse event. As we develop practicing the capacity for intimate connections and being deeply known in a world that is on fire and an ever-increasing landscape of violence and oppression, there's always the risk that it strips more and more of our humanity from us. How we are connected to each other, how we care for each other, is key. So I hope you will join us for this conversation about how to cultivate joy in the time of Apocalypse, how to be deeply known in times of crisis. The link to register will be in the episode description and all my Linktree and my website.

Okay. All of that said, let's get into your horoscope. So we are looking at the astrology of June 23rd through the 29th of 2024. It's a bit of a lighter week in terms of transits. Now, the first exact transit of the week occurs on Wednesday, June 26th, at 11:10 a.m. Pacific Time. And it's a Mercury trine to Saturn. Now, this transit is happening with Mercury at 19 degrees and 25 minutes of Cancer forming a trine to Saturn at the same degrees of Pisces. So we have this lovely water trine.

Mercury is your mind. It's your friendships. It's your attitudes. It's your beliefs. It's your ability to communicate and to listen. And Saturn is stabilizing. It's maturizing. Saturn is a planet associated with action and consequence, with maturity, accountability, responsibility. When Mercury forms a trine to Saturn, you can get shit dealt with. You are able to figure things out, make plans, sort through details that need to be sorted through, have conversations in which you are actually listening to what someone else says and you're communicating effectively, maybe even efficiently.

And as always, when we're talking about transits, if that transit is hitting a planet or a point in your birth chart⁠—and, if you work with asteroids, or an asteroid in your birth chart⁠—then you're going to feel it more strongly. Generally speaking, this is a great time for talking to an old friend, learning from somebody who has more experience than you.

And just as a quick hot take here, there will always be someone with more experience than you. And some people will hear that and feel bad or feel insecure, and I want to say that is a fucking glorious thing, that there is always something more to learn, that there's always a way that we can look outside of ourselves to expand what we know. There are so many different perspectives to have based on a myriad of factors, including but not limited to lived experience.

And it's really cool when a transit like this comes around to support you in being open, in being open to learning something that you don't already know, something from a different perspective. So you may get guidance from someone, but also, you may be the elder statesman of a situation or a dynamic and you may be called to give wise counsel. If that's the case, make sure you're doing it with humility and responsibility because Saturn's involved.

In general, because this transit is occurring with water signs, it's a great time for tending to family matters, personal matters. Because it's water signs, we know that it's a little emo. It can be quite personal. So bring care to the things you're sorting through, to your plans, and to your communications with others to make the most use of this particular transit.

Now, I want to give you a little heads-up. We've got four exact transits this week, and three of them are from Mercury. So, just from a high-level perspective, what I want you to know is that means it's going to be busy because Mercury is⁠—again, it's our friendships. It's communication. So lots of ideas, lots of plans, lots of, again, communication. Ideas may be coming at you. You may just be really in your head. There might be a lot of communication, a lot of socializing. It can play out in a lot of different ways. But when Mercury is involved, we know shit is going to be busy.

And if you were paying attention to the Full Moon in Capricorn just a few days ago, then you know that one of the lessons that's activated right now is having healthy boundaries based on a self-appropriate assessment of what you can and cannot do in a healthy way. You want to bring that wisdom, you want to bring that energy, to this week even if your circumstances don't inherently demand it.

That brings us to Friday, June 28th, where we have two exact transits. We have Mercury at 23 degrees of Cancer and 12 minutes forming a square to Chiron at the same degrees of Aries. And that's exact at 10:58 a.m. Pacific Time. We also have Venus at 14 degrees and 40 minutes of Cancer forming an exact sextile to Mars, same degrees of Taurus. That one is exact at 9:49 p.m. Pacific Time.

Mercury square to Chiron is a testing transit. It's the hard one of the week. As you know, Chiron is related to our core wounding. Mercury⁠—ideas, communication, beliefs. So you may be confronted this week with information that challenges your sense of self or your identity. And it's likely to be either social⁠—because, again, it's Mercury⁠—or quite personal about your identity, your core beliefs, or, if you're really lucky, a little bit of both.

The opportunity here is to navigate your core wounds, to recognize what of your beliefs or attitudes or even your identity is motivated by trauma. Trauma is a really big umbrella, honestly, and I think it's a term that can sometimes be overused, other times be underused. So I'm just⁠—I want to be very self-aware that I'm using a very big umbrella when I'm using the term "trauma" in this moment, in this context. So, if you're like, "Oh, well, it's a pain point but it's not trauma," yeah, I'm including you in this conversation.

Mercury square to Chiron is meant to kick up tension around wounds you haven't healed and for you to investigate them with empathy and kindness⁠—because Mercury is in Cancer⁠—to explore your attachments and your convictions with an open mind, understanding that you're navigating through terrain that is inherently painful. So you may have old friendship patterns come up on or around this date.

And I'm very happy to say that, again, this is the only stressful transit of this week. So we have a lot of energetic/astrological support for coping with these feelings. But you know how life is. You can be sitting around surrounded by resources and gifts and support and privileges and still feel bereft and incapable and unsupported.

So what I want to remind you of is that part of personal accountability, personal responsibility, self-worth, which⁠—we all struggle with all these things. But part of those things requires that you tap into your resources, that you resource yourself. So, as you're navigating through what might be kind of a brambly forest, remember that you have tools, that you don't have to do it the hardest way, and it's okay if it feels challenging or bad.

You may feel misunderstood, and honestly, you may be misunderstood. But again, I come back to what I was talking about at the start of the episode. It's okay if people misunderstand you. It's not awesome. But if you have self-acceptance at your core, then other people not understanding you is less about an injury to you and more a reflection on them.

And that is only theoretical if you don't have a core foundation of self-acceptance, because when somebody else doesn't understand you, you always have the opportunity to better express yourself, to shift how you communicate something of yourself, so that there can be understanding. But when that misunderstanding is willful, like somebody's going out of their way to misunderstand you, well, again, that's a reflection on them and, once you become aware of that, an opportunity for you to have better boundaries both within you and also in relationship to that other person or those other people. Now, again, I'm referencing other people because Mercury governs friends. And within friends is social contacts, online and in physical meatspace.

Now, one more thing I want to say about this transit, which is we have a lot of Mercurial energy happening this week, and this transit is meant to engage you with some core wounds. You may be feeling anxious. A lot of humans have a maladjusted coping mechanism to go into chaotic thinking as a reaction to pain, to stress, to insecurity. It's really normal, even if it's not super helpful.

And so, if you find yourself in a state of anxiety, I want to encourage you to really simplify things, to not try to figure out everything all at once, but to focus on the most pressing and immediate thing. That can really help with this particular transit. And you never want to forget that Chiron in Aries⁠, this transit that we're living through, is related to core woundings around embodiment of self. We're talking about self-worth.

So this is what this transit is meant to kick up. And as much as it can suck, it's also such a powerful and valuable opportunity to come into greater alignment with who you are, where you are, what you are.

Now, as I said, later that day, 9:49 p.m. Pacific Time, Mercury forms an exact sextile to Mars. This transit⁠—I'll say this. I have noticed online that a lot of astrologers will make a very big deal about this transit. I have very rarely seen it have spectacular effects. Venus and Mars are very social planets. Venus is making out, and Mars is fucking. Venus is getting along, and Mars is asserting yourself. Venus is flirting; Mars is making a move. You get the picture, right?

So, when Venus forms a sextile to Mars, it can be great for socializing. It can be great for going on the prowl or having a sassy date with that certain someone or certain someones, if that is how you roll. Venus sextile Mars⁠—it's fun. It's a nice balance of self-care through diplomacy and self-care through assertion. It's a lovely, lovely transit. And if it hits your chart⁠—again, we're talking about 14, 15 degrees of either a cardinal sign, which is Cancer, Capricorn, Aries, Libra, or a fixed sign, which is Taurus, Scorpio, Aquarius, or Leo⁠—then you're really going to feel this one. But otherwise, I mean, it's just⁠—it's nice.

We want to tap into it. We want to make use of it. It will certainly help to cope with the Mercury square to Chiron because it does increase your ability to have a sense of self-worth and to mobilize from that place. But it's not too spectacular, so I wouldn't get too ambitious about what to expect from this particular transit.

And that brings us to the last exact transit of the week. This one's happening on Saturday, June 29th, and it's a sextile between Mercury and Uranus that's exact that 7:20 p.m. So Mercury is at 25 degrees and 41 minutes of Cancer, and Uranus is at the same degrees of Taurus. And I will say now, as I always remind you, that you don't have to keep track of everything I'm saying. You can either use the same transit-tracking tool that I use by subscribing to Astrology for Days at astrologyfordays.com, or you can just wait for the damn transcript. It'll be out within 24 hours of this very episode.

And if you want to get really deep with it, you can join me over on Patreon, where we talk about the transits. We talk about the energy. We talk about all manner of woo several times a week. If you're already a puppy or a kitten on my Patreon, I want to thank you. I want to thank you because it is my happy place on the internet, and I love getting to interact with all of you. And I love that I get to share so many of the things that I do and care about there.

Okay. Back to Mercury sextile to Uranus. This transit is exciting. So Mercury is your mind, and Uranus is your nervous system. When these two planets form a 60-degrees angle to each other, a.k.a. a sextile, it's like a spark of innovation, of possibility, of excitement enters the group chat. This transit is a great time to try something new, and that can be literally just taking a different route to your favorite coffee shop. It can be DMing someone that you don't usually DM but you really want to. It can be applying a new idea or concept to something you've been working on.

Mercury sextile to Uranus is just straight-up expansive. You may experience flashes of insight. You may experience sudden bolts of inspiration because that's how Uranus tends to work. This transit is excellent for opening your mind and for an expansion of understanding. So it's great if you're academic or intellectual or just really trying to figure out the problem.

Because we're under the influence of the Mercury square to Chiron, this is a godsend transit because it creates an openness and a willingness to explore ideas and possibilities and to perceive things from a new perspective, which, again, can be incredibly expansive. It's easier to change your mind and change your approach during a Mercury sextile to Uranus than other times.

This transit is not excellent for focus, but other than that one⁠—I wouldn't even call it a drawback; it's just a thing to be aware of. If you do really need to focus or concentrate on something, this transit is absolutely lovely. And you may meet new people under this transit, and that is a lovely, lovely thing. So, again, be open. Try new shit. See how it goes.

And that, my friends, is your forecast for the week⁠—short and sweet. I want to thank you for joining me for Ghost of a Podcast every week, twice a week. And I will talk to you in just a couple of days. Buh-bye.