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 another week of Ghost of a Podcast. This week, we're going to be looking at the astrology for June 30th through July 6th of 2024. And there's a bunch of consequential things to talk about.

Before we get into the details, of which there are a fair amount, my friends, I want to remind you to register for my July 20th live conversation with Sonya Reene Taylor and adrienne maree brown, Joy in a Time of Apocalypse. It's going to be a live conversation on being deeply known in times of crisis. And I think it's going to be a really powerful experience. The last two events that we did on joy in the time of apocalypse were really powerful and moving. So I hope you will join us there. The link to register will be in the episode description and on my Linktree and my website, so basically everywhere.

The other thing that I want to invite you to is my Patreon because on the 1st of every month, on the kittens level, I drop a bonus episode of Ghost of a Podcast. And I'm right now trying to figure out a way to make that available to you even if you don't want to be a full-on patron, so stay tuned for that. But on the 1st, I will be dropping bonus episode of Ghost where I break down the astrology of every damn day of the month to give you a serious heads-up so you can plan your life with the astrological weather heavily in mind.

And something that really came up for me when I was recording that episode that I want to share with you here today is the value and importance of joy, of gratitude for what you do have, for not just what you personally have but for the privileges, pleasures, even abundance that you may have in your life⁠—to take some time this month to create space to tap into those things, to value, appreciate, experience those things. And that might take great amount of effort because you may not have a whole lot of any of that, or it might actually be real easy for you.

But I do want to invite you to connect or reconnect with gratitude, with appreciation, and to receive the bounty and the pleasures that life has to offer because you deserve it. We all deserve it, and also, as we're about to get into, these are trying times. And the only way to sustain the efforts needed from all of us as participants in the world who⁠—we are all co-creating the world that we share⁠—is to make sure that you are able to sustain your efforts. And that does require including joy and pleasure and rest and digest into your healing process.

All right. Now let's dive in. So we are looking, as I said, at the astrology of June 30th through July 6th of 2024. And it is worth mentioning that on the 1st, it is Canada Day, and on the 4th, it is Independence Day in the United States. And I mean, I'm personally both an American and a Canadian. I notice these things. I pay attention to these things.

So, in the first week of July, I'm always on guard because nationalistic holidays tend to breed⁠—oh, I don't know⁠—nationalistic thinking and passions. And that is inherently violent, especially when you consider how these nations were founded on violence. So I want to encourage you to consider and maybe do a little bit of research into how you can go a meaningful step beyond land acknowledgements for the land that you're living on and whose land it really is and to pay a voluntary land tax. And depending on where you are and what land you're living on, there are different ways of doing this. But finding out more information is, as always, a simple www.something-something search away.

So I want to encourage you to take material, active steps to support Indigenous people, to recognize not just in thought but in deed, in action, the lands that you're living on. That's just a great thing to do. And if you can't do it for financial reasons, there's other things you can do. And maybe you can't do it this month, but you could do it another month.

In this moment of nationalism, I invite you to do your best to create or participate in actions that bring about repair, especially if you're somebody who's going to be barbecuing and celebrating and throwing off fireworks and shit like that. You know what I mean? You know what I mean.

Okay. So the first exact transit happening this week is happening on Tuesday, July 2nd. And we don't have one; we've got three exact transits, maybe even four, depending on how you count it. Mercury is ingressing into Leo. I'm not going to really talk about that because I don't usually talk about ingressions. We've got a Mercury trine to Neptune, and we've got a Venus trine to Saturn. I'm going to tell you what those two things mean in a moment.

But I want to focus on something that I don't usually focus on at all, and that is Neptune at 29 degrees and 55 minutes of Pisces. And if you don't know, there are 30 degrees of every sign. So, when a planet like Neptune, who has been in the zodiac sign of Pisces since 2011, is in the last five minutes of its transit through Pisces in terms of the math, I'm going to pay attention. I'm going to pay a lot of attention.

It is so close to being in Aries. But at 3:40 a.m. Pacific Time, it does a little about-face and goes Retrograde. So it starts to move back through the zodiac degrees and minutes, right? It starts to move back towards Pisces and away from Aries, which⁠—I'm not going to lie⁠—is not a bad thing. I'm going to be totally forthcoming with you here because I am, of course, a human person who lives in the same world as everybody else and also an astrologer. So I have access to all this information, as many of you do, being astrologers and astrology students and astrology fans.

But I'm going to tell you the truth about something here. I have been really scared about Neptune's ingress into Aries, which doesn't happen until 2025, which is six months away. I'm very nervous. I'm very nervous about this transit, and I have been for a number of years. And so I have put effort into not looking at it, which is so Neptunian of me. Neptune is all about disassociation and escapism and evading things, amongst other lovely, wonderful things. But that's the negative. And I will cop to being very Neptunian about my reaction and my feelings and my thoughts about Neptune moving into Aries.

I'm going to give you a little bit of information, not a whole lot, but because I think it's relevant to what's happening right now. In the last week, the Supreme Court has started enacting Project 2025. And if you don't know what Project 2025 is, I beg of you, google it. Find a reputable source and learn about it. But the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine, where they basically handed unlimited power to corporations. They legalized political bribery and criminalized homelessness by criminalizing sleeping in public, which is something that is used as a form of protest if you look at various occupy movements. So the very conservative Supreme Court is making moves right now. Here in the U.S., we're talking about the presidential election and the abysmal options we have for president in this nation.

I could go on and on, but that's not what this podcast is, so I shan't. But what I shall is share with you that at the end of March 2025, Neptune moves into Aries. It'll retrograde back and forth a little bit in and out of Pisces, in and out of Aries. But that's when it first hits Aries. And it's going to be in Aries from 2025 until 2039. It will start off with a conjunction between Neptune and Saturn. Now, again, I'm going to talk about a lot of this stuff in greater detail at another time.

But I want to just bring your attention because transit astrology⁠—when we look at, for instance, a planet in a sign⁠—is a tool for understanding history. For instance, the last time that the planet Uranus was in the zodiac sign of Taurus, we had World War II. So here's the thing. The last time Neptune was in Aries was 1861 through 1875. There are some very important things that occurred during that transit. And when we look at something like a planet in a sign, no planet in a zodiac sign alone is going to be responsible for all the things happening in a given time.

But it is certainly worth noting historical events because those themes are likely to still be at play. So just a couple examples⁠—the American Civil War⁠—you may have heard of it⁠—broke out exactly as Neptune entered into Aries, which was in April of 1861. So, in Russia, there was the emancipation reform of 1861. Through this, more than 23 million people received their liberty. They had been living as serfs. And serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including the rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property, and to own businesses.

The Battle of Shanghai, which was a major part of the Taiping Rebellion, occurred in June of 1861 through 1862. And in the Middle East, in 1862, way past this transit, until 1892, was the development of the internal combustion engine. And this is what ultimately made petroleum an important political factor for⁠—I guess forevermore, until we change.

But all to say these were major developments, major developments that are all quite relevant to what's happening in the world today, 165 years later. When we understand the function of Neptune in Pisces⁠—again, since 2011, still active today⁠—this has been a time where we saw the rise of pharmaceuticals, of social media, of streaming services, of these ways that we can both make a more interconnected and just and free world but also to disassociate and check out. This has been a time where we've seen a rise in cult fads and celebrity culture, this really intense spike in celebrity culture through social media.

And when Neptune enters into Aries, we may experience people stepping out from behind our screens, and that's with or without social skills, with or without a willingness and ability to compromise, because Neptune in Pisces is so much about adapting and exploring and really looking at ways in which we can soften the sharp edges of life and society, whereas Neptune in Aries⁠—I mean, Aries is a cardinal fire sign. It is the sign that is ruled by Mars, which is all about aggression and fighting and masculinity and/or maleness.

So, when Neptune moves into Aries, we have the potential for liberation⁠—and not oppressive systems, governments, corporations are going to be like, "Oh, let's change our ways." No. We have the potential for people coming together and standing up and fighting for liberation. And we just as possibly have the potential of seeing the rise of masculine energies, the rise of the cult of maleness. And that cult of maleness, as I'm calling it in this moment, is really about all the -isms. There's patriarchy and Christian nationalism and fascism and racism and authoritarianism.

But with Neptune in Aries, especially with Neptune in Aries happening at the same time as Pluto in Aquarius, we have the potential for radical, meaningful change. But it will require that we fight for that change and that we don't just tear shit down⁠—we don't just bark and scream at our devices, at our phones or whatever⁠—but that we innovate and actively build something new, that we come together and we mobilize to create something new.

And within that, I gotta say, now and forever, if disability rights is not part of your viewfinder, if it's not part of your thinking, if it's not part of your activism, then you're missing out on something truly important, especially if you consider yourself to be a progressive, because Neptune in Aries is likely to be a time where we see the heating up of the planet just happen much more quickly. And as that occurs, we see the unraveling of the environment, which is through fire, through drought, and the myriad of consequences related to this, which are immigration, war, lack of food, lack of water.

So we have the heating up of the environment, which will inevitably lead to more illness, more health issues. And unfortunately, with Neptune in Aries, given all other factors, I think we really do need to be on guard from another or more airborne contagious pathogens. But because it's Aries and not Pisces, there is the risk that it will spread fast and run hot. So is that fevers?  Is that inflammation in the body?  I don't fucking know.

But we have the potential to share information, to mobilize each other and ourselves, to come together and fight for what we believe in or to fight each other, to get beat down, to expand without creating safeguards. Again, it is so easy to tear shit down, to bring it to the ground, and it is so much harder to innovate what comes next.

As we experience the last several months of Neptune in Pisces⁠—and again, Neptune will pop back into Pisces after it ingresses into Aries. But essentially, what I'm saying⁠—before we have to deal with the realities that Neptune in Aries will bring, what I want to invite you to do is to tap in and tune up. Neptune in Pisces is a transit that can expand our spiritual lives in a way that is disassociative and essentially spiritual bypassing, where it's all about me, me, me, or it can be something that empowers us to have more resources so that we can be more empathetic, so that we can be better friends, neighbors, comrades, allies, accomplices, etc.

What are the chances that you'd be here living in this period with Neptune in Pisces? It happens once every 165 years. It's special. It's unique. And you're here for it. Aren't you at least a little bit curious why? And I don't say this because I want everybody to go and develop main character syndrome or anything. But I do want to encourage you to know that the way you do or don't participate is consequential. Who you are, how you live⁠—it helps to build what the world is and isn't.

So I want to invite you to further develop your empathy, your compassion, and your healthy boundaries because in order to have and sustain empathy and compassion, you gotta have boundaries. We're not loofah sponges just meant to collect, collect, collect, collect, collect. You gotta have boundaries. That's part of the work, and having boundaries that reflect your beliefs, the contents of your heart, and an honest and responsive, reflexive appraisal of what you can do in a healthy way⁠—that's the fucking key.

I'm worried. I'm worried about the world. I'm worried about this country. And every once in a while, I kind of lose myself in that fear. And I don't think I'm alone in that. But when I can't be hopeful, I do my best to get determined. And I want to invite you to try out doing the same because you can't always have hope. I mean, some people are really good at having hope. I am not the most hopeful person by nature. But I can stay determined.

And I want to encourage you, if you are struggling with hope right now, to find a way to be determined, to find answers, to learn more, to participate to the best of your ability, whenever you can, in co-creating a better world. And that is my baby intro to Neptune moving into Aries and the best ways to stay present here and now while we have Neptune in Pisces. And this, I hope, you can apply to conditions of the world as well as conditions in your life.

If you want to know much more specifically how this is affecting you personally and you're not actively going through a Neptune transit right now, you just need to look at where late degrees of Pisces falls in your birth chart. That's a great way for you to see what part of your birth chart, a.k.a. your nature and your life, is getting lit up by this transit.

Okay. So, as I mentioned, we've got two more exact transits on the same day, July 2nd. At 4:53 a.m. Pacific Time, Mercury at 29 degrees and 56 minutes of Cancer forms an exact trine to Neptune at the exact same degree of Pisces. Happily, this is a really lovely transit. Mercury is your friendships. It's your mind. It's your attitudes. It's how you listen, how you communicate, all that kind of stuff. And Neptune is empathetic. It's socially minded. It's spiritual.

When these two planets form a 120-degree angle to each other, what happens is your thinking gets more expansive. This can mean that your imagination is stimulated or your willingness and ability to consider others⁠—and when I say others, I mean all others: the planet, the people, the animals. Others, right? Other people's perspectives.

This transit can meaningfully improve your ability to appreciate the arts and spiritual experiences. And it is a really great time for being in nature or making some art, tapping into creativity, whether it's listening to music or taking in a film or something like this. Mercury trine to Neptune can be, especially if it's hitting your chart directly, also a good time to take a selfie. I know that sounds kind of light and stupid, but Neptune can help you to have a little bit of glamor upon that sweet, little face of yours.

On a more deep level, while this transit is not particularly good for concentration or focus on details⁠—and I want to say it's not bad for those things, but it doesn't in any way help those things⁠—it is really good for assessing the big picture, assessing what's actually important to you in a given situation. And so it's a great time for learning and unlearning and for exploring the spiritual and humanitarian sides of your concerns, whatever they may be. And truth be told, there is a humanitarian consideration to almost every single thing we do or don't do, really. So this is just a nice transit for considering these things without stress, without pain.

If there's an important conversation you need to have, this is a great transit for doing so because everyone's likely to be open and willing. Now, again, this transit overlaps with the Venus trine to Saturn. And Venus is at 19 degrees and 25 minutes of Cancer, as well, trine to Saturn at 19 degrees and 25 minutes of Pisces. And this is exact at 6:41 p.m.

This is a spectacular transit to overlap with the Mercury trine to Neptune. And that's because Venus trine to Saturn is a good transit for aligning your values with your plans⁠—values, Venus; plans, Saturn⁠—for getting realistic about how you invest in your life and what you invest in. This transit makes it easier to make changes or set intentions in a way that reflects what's actually important to you and your current realistic circumstances.

The way I'm saying it⁠—I mean, I can't help it. I'm such a Capricorn. I'm saying it in Capricorny terms. But the overlapping Mercury trine to Neptune is just going to make this feel organic and somewhat light and always heartfelt because we're dealing with Mercury and Venus both in Cancer trining these outer planets both in Pisces. And so this is basically a time where you can connect with people and things that you care about and to do it with an open heart.

This can be a particularly wonderful time for connecting with people you love, letting them know how you feel, that you love them. And if you don't have a whole lot of energy, may I introduce you to the magic of the emoji. Emojis are a great way to communicate nonverbally, but they're still really communicative. So, if you know that there are people that you've been meaning to connect with and you just have not been able to, then yeah, pop a little emoji in the mix. It can't do any harm. I guess it can; it depends on the emojis you choose. But spreading love is very well starred on this date.

Related to this, Venus tine to Saturn is actually a pretty good time to spend money or to organize your finances. And you may find that if you buy something on or around this date, that actually really reflects your values. That's an important thing, especially in late-stage capitalism. Do you have to shop on the big, evil online platform, or can you use a less harmful one? Where is your money going? Who are you supporting? Because every dollar we spend⁠—it is a vote of support for a company, a corporation, what have you.

And so this is a really good time to be making considerations around who you're giving your money to and how your finances are participating in the world. We don't always have the ability to make ideal choices around how we spend money or how we organize our resources, but that doesn't mean we should put our heads in the sand and not take stock of what we're doing and why, because when you make choices, it's easier to change your mind than if you feel like you don't really have a choice and you're just forced to do a thing.

We always have a choice. We might not always have good choices. These transits help us to make good choices, the best choices available, and to feel a sense of agency and peace around what we're doing and why. So you might as well get deep with it.

Now, one more thing I'll say about Venus trine to Saturn is if you are in a place in a relationship where you're trying to make things more serious, this is a great transit to make a commitment because it tends to indicate, especially if it hits your chart directly, that you're going to be happy with that commitment, that it's going to be heartfelt and productive for you⁠—lovely combination of two things there.

Unfortunately, these two transits overlap with a very challenging transit that we have on Wednesday, July 30th. So, Wednesday, July 3rd, at exactly 12:27 a.m. Pacific Time, Mercury is at 1 degree and 20 minutes opposite to Pluto, the exact same degree of Aquarius. So Mercury opposite Pluto is a very intense transit. It will benefit from these more supportive trines between Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune that I just described.

But whenever we have a really challenging transit, it tends to provoke really strong thoughts and feelings. And those are the ones that most humans follow and chase. So, again, I want to remind you to resource yourself, to tap into your empathy, to tap into your heart and your values, because we have transits supporting you in doing that. And that will help you to navigate the brambly brambles of Mercury opposite Pluto.

So, as you know, Mercury is in your mind. It's your ideas. It's your beliefs. It's the information you're taking in and the information you're putting out. And Pluto is drama. It is transformation. It is healing and destruction. When we have a Mercury opposition to Pluto, you want to pay attention to the news but not believe everything you read or hear or see right away, because Mercury opposition to Pluto can represent a period where we have manipulation of data, willful or otherwise.

But unfortunately, when it comes to Pluto, there's not always the best motivations and intentions. And that's something you want to be mindful of because there may be some really upsetting breaking news, but we want to pay attention to the biases that we have and the biases of whatever reporting entity that we are getting our news from.

Mercury opposition to Pluto can be a time where we get bad fucking news. And in this age of just wild propaganda, where we cannot always believe our eyes and ears because of AI and manipulations, we have to become critical thinkers. I cannot stress this enough. The skill set of critical thinking and media literacy is just⁠—it is so important for all of us. Even those of you who fast-forward every time I talk about politics, it is in your best interest to have media literacy. And there are lots of ways of cultivating it. This week may not be the easiest week to do so because of the Mercury opposition to Pluto, but yeah, it is a really important thing to consider.

When we see oppositions astrologically⁠—and I've said this before; I'll say it a million times again⁠—we know that things tend to be expressed and experienced oppositionally⁠—in other words, through relationship. It's me and you. It's us and them. Because Pluto is involved in this opposition, we have the very real risk of power struggles. And if you're engaged in a power struggle, I want to say to you make sure that you're clear about what you're fighting for, who you're fighting, and why. You might be really upset about something very valid and real and taking it out on the wrong person in the wrong way. You've done it. I've done it. We've all done it. It's human, and it's really easy in the digital space.

The best thing you can do during this Mercury opposition to Pluto is to be a critical thinker within your own skin, to consider what your reactions are and why, what your attitudes are and why, and how you're listening or not, how you're expressing yourself or not, not because you can come up with some sort of perfect healing answer right now, but instead because information is power. And you deserve to have a little more information about yourself and about the situations and dynamics you are living through.

On a personal level, you may experience, again, meaningful power struggles. Power struggles are not actually always bad. I mean, they generally don't feel good, but they're an opportunity to confront what's happening, what you think, what you believe, what's real. You can't heal without confrontation with the self, without struggling with your beliefs and your feelings and your experiences and your fears and your hopes, etc.

And a Mercury/Pluto opposition can be a time where you're struggling in your own healing process with yourself or in a relationship with someone else. The way to keep it constructive is by being honest about what you're fighting for and how you're doing it, what you're consenting to and why, and whether or not it's working for you.

Pay attention to your patterns. Your patterns are yours. They belong to you, my friend. And the more self-aware you are about your own patterns, the easier it is to locate your agency within that. And that can be incredibly empowering, which is the potential of this transit: you become empowered through struggling towards understanding⁠—self-understanding, understanding in relationship, in a situation, etc.

If you are dealing with somebody who is just straight-up abusing their power and being harmful towards you, it may be really important that you just find a way to get out of that situation. Under a Mercury opposition to Pluto, it is valuable to know what fights are worth engaging in and which are not. And so walking away, I want to say, is a very respectable move and one worth considering if you feel unsafe in any kind of real way.

Now, one more thing I want to say about this transit is about gossip. And I'm talking about gossip in your personal life. I'm also talking about gossip with people that you have parasocial relationships with. Don't do it. It tends to be mean. You know what I mean? I know everybody likes to gossip. But mean-spirited gossip, talking shit about people⁠—you could do some real harm towards others in a transit like this, or somebody else may be talking shit about you, and that may do real harm to you.

So, with this transit, I just want to say resist the urge to shit-talk other people and really, if you can, apply those critical-thinking skills to looking within at what you're getting out of shitting on other people, whether or not it is constructive, actually, because sometimes speaking critically about others is a really constructive thing to do. And other times, it's just fucking mean. So where's the line, and do you respect the line? These are things to ask yourself and to explore during a transit like Mercury opposition to Pluto.

Now, we're going to be feeling the effects of this particular transit through the week. So it gets weaker every day, but it is exact on this day, the 3rd. And we're going to be feeling it through the 6th or 7th. So keep in mind that context as we go through the rest of the week's astrology.

Now, that brings us to Friday, July 5th. And on that date, we have three exact transits. The first one, at 12:02 p.m. Pacific Time, is a Mars sextile to Saturn. The second one, at 3:57 p.m. Pacific Time⁠—we have a New Moon in Cancer. And then the third one, at 11:33 p.m. Pacific Time⁠—we've got a Venus square to Chiron. Now, I'm going to say a lot of words because this is a lot of astrology. But the first thing is, if you're doing any kind of manifestation work, if you're doing any kind of spiritual work with the Moon, you're going to get the most impact from that work if you do it at the moment of exactitude or right around the moment of exactitude.

Okay. So I'm going to first give you the breakdown of the planetary transits that are exact on this day, and then we're going to read the New Moon chart. Let's start with the Mars sextile to Saturn. This is happening with Mars at 19 degrees and 24 minutes of Taurus and Saturn at the same degrees of Pisces. This is a lovely transit, and it's really supportive. Mars is what you do. It's why you do it. It's how you assert yourself. It's your relationship to aggression and anger. And Saturn is stabilizing. It's reality. It's the planet that is associated with our big-picture plans.

So, when Mars forms a sextile to Saturn, especially if this is hitting your chart, what you'll experience is that you have both the passion and motivation and the plan. So this transit is good for any kind of work that requires concentration, determination, any kind of action that requires both a giddyap and go⁠—because Mars will give you that⁠—but also stamina⁠—because Saturn will give you that.

Mars and Saturn together, in the best-case scenario, is methodical, conservationist, and effective. When Mars forms a sextile to Saturn, that's the vibe, which is fucking lovely. This transit is just a really supportive one for getting things done. So, whether you need to start something or just follow through on something that is a little bit tedious or challenging to do, this transit is your friend.

Now, Mars is related to competition and the desire to prove yourself. And so, again, if there's anything that you need to get done that requires a spark of your ego energy, Mars sextile to Saturn is a transit where you can act in ways that reflect the most balanced and useful parts of your ego. Awesome.

This is also a great time, if you're in a relationship where you're trying to work on sex, the physical part of sex⁠—actually, Mars sextile to Saturn can be a great time to do that. It's not the most passionate transit or anything, but it gives you the kind of drive to work. So, if you gotta work, Mars sextile to Saturn is your friend.

Now, one last thing I'll say about this particular transit is it's good for getting in touch with your body. So, if you're like, "Okay. I need to start stretching because I'm working on the computer all day long," or, "I need to"⁠—any movement-based thing that you feel would be productive and useful for your health, this is a great time for starting it up or recommitting to it.

Within that, Saturn is a planet that loves walking. It's like "slow and steady wins the race" kind of planet. And Mars is just get up and go. So, if you can take a walk, that might be lovely. And walking is not for all bodies or all times, but Mars sextile to Saturn⁠—it's a good, classic use of this energy.

Now, later in the day, as I said, we have a square between Venus and Chiron. Venus will be at 23 degrees of Cancer and 21 minutes, and Chiron will be at the same degrees of Aries. This transit is a lot more challenging. Venus is a planet that is associated with self-worth. It's also associated with how you relate to other people. Venus is your values, while Chiron is core wounding.

And so, when we experience a Venus square to Chiron, especially because it's overlapping with compulsive Mercury opposition to Pluto, you may be struggling with self-worth. Or you may not be, because it might not really hit your chart, but the people around you may be acting in ways that trigger you.

Something that I'm not positive I said clearly about Mercury opposition to Pluto⁠—but that transit tends to inspire compulsive and obsessive thinking. And when humans engage in compulsive and obsessive thinking, what tends to happen is we focus on our strongest thoughts, our strongest impulses, our strongest feelings⁠—not our wisest ones, not our most constructive ones, just our strongest ones.

And a transit like Venus square to Chiron is going to intensify that, because it inclines us to focus on the ways in which we don't feel worthy, the ways in which you feel like you don't belong or you don't know where you belong or you're not getting the love you want or need, the attention, the care, the support that you want or need. And you want to keep in mind that it's not just you going through it; it's everybody everywhere. And so this can be a really challenging transit for personal relationships.

We're keeping in mind that this is happening with the New Moon. This is a very important transit within the New Moon chart, which we will speak to in a moment. But you may experience problems within your relationships, and that may be because things are problematic, and it may be because of your own insecurities. And it's hard to tell which is which when you're activated by a transit like this. Again, we don't want to forget the Mercury opposition to Pluto at the same time.

Because we are experiencing this at the same time as a New Moon in Cancer, I want to really point you towards what New Moons are really good at. They're good at beginnings, starting something new. And in particular, that something new is related to your heart, to your emotions. So this is a challenging but rewarding time to emotionally and in a values-based way reflect on your self-worth, your values, how you value yourself or not, what you value in yourself and in others or not, and whether or not it's emotionally honest, emotionally healthy.

New Moons are always a great time to get clear about what it is you are inviting into your life, what it is you are centering within yourself and in your personal life. And this Venus square to Chiron puts an emphasis on self-worth and values and relationships. The relationship patterns that emerge this week in general, and on the New Moon in particular, are really important for you to cultivate self-awareness around because those patterns are your patterns. And the potential for healing and bringing a renewed sense of self-awareness and care to whatever those patterns are is really strong.

I gotta reiterate here Venus square to Chiron highlights insecurities, self-worth issues, and Mercury opposition to Pluto highlights the tendency towards self-harm in your thinking or using words as weapons with others. And that can be through what you say or withholding care and attention and communication. There's lots of ways to be harmful with how you communicate.

This combo platter with the New Moon is an opportunity for you to emotionally mature, for you to emotionally grow, for you to take greater emotional responsibility for yourself. And when I say that, what I really mean is for you to care for yourself, to act with care for yourself and for others. Instead of focusing on what other people are doing or not doing, what they're saying, what they're not saying, focus within. It's a New Moon in Cancer. These transits⁠—they really are pointing us towards healing. It's really hard to heal when you're obsessed with other people.

Now, let's dive right on into the New Moon chart. Again, we're on Friday, July 5th. And this New Moon happens at exactly 3:57 p.m. Pacific Time at 14 degrees of Cancer and 23 minutes. The Sun and Moon are forming a sextile to Mars and a trine to Saturn. So, again, we know Mars and Saturn are forming an exact sextile to each other. It is not an exact transit, the New Moon to Mars and Saturn, but it certainly strengthens and intensifies the value and impact of that Mars/Saturn sextile.

So, right away, we know that there is a grounding, stabilizing, and motivating support to this New Moon because of Mars and Saturn. The fact is that a New Moon in a Cancer is always going to be super emo. And this is powerful because you can set intentions around your personal life, the health and wellness of your heart and the people and situations that you give it to during a New Moon in Cancer. And Mars and Saturn are helping you to stay in your body while being present with your emotions, which is really valuable.

Now, that Mercury/Pluto opposition is still making itself felt and pulling our attention into compulsive thinking. So I want to just kind of ground you into the power of staying present with your emotions and tracking them in your body. And I want to acknowledge that's not going to work for everybody, and that's not going to work for everybody at all times. But there is a lot of support for doing that this New Moon.

This New Moon is a powerful time to tend to your roots because it's a New Moon in Cancer. When I refer to your roots, it depends on how it shows up for you. This may be about your own emotional roots in your childhood, in your early developmental experiences. This may be your relationship to family, whether it's family of origin or chosen family. This may also be ancestral for you.

But whenever we have a New Moon, we have the opportunity to get more emotionally present with where we are so that we can set intentions based on the emotional truth and reality of where we're at. The more self-aware and present you can be about the intentions you set and the plans you make, the better.

Ultimately, what this New Moon and what every New Moon wants from you is for you to care and to understand that the way you treat yourself and the way you treat others⁠—they're both a reflection on you. There's always a great deal of power in New Moons, and with that power, you can work with or overcome self-imposed limitations, fears, insecurities. But it takes strength to show up and be present for what is when what is is challenging or hard. And because of some of these other transits, you're likely to be in contact emotionally with what's challenging or hard.

When it comes to New Moon rituals, I gotta say there is so much content out there and so many things that people sell around that kind of stuff. But really, all that a New Moon ritual is is getting really present with your identity and your vitality⁠—the Sun⁠—and your feelings, your innermost psyche and heart⁠—the Moon⁠—and aligning these two things through whatever ritualistic act. And that alignment is how we set intentions and manifest.

And however you choose to do it, if this is the kind of thing you do, make sure that you're creating space for the parts of you that you struggle with, the parts of you that are hurt or insecure or have a hard time focusing on what's constructive and instead are focusing on negative obsessions, whatever the hell that is, because when you set intentions based on a fantasy of where you're at or a fantasy of the reality you're in, then it doesn't work. If you're going to manifest this New Moon or any New Moon, you gotta manifest from the place you're at, wherever that is. And cultivating self-awareness and self-acceptance is a powerful foundation for being able to show up for yourself and others.

Now, one more thing I'm going to say about this New Moon is that the zodiac sign Cancer is associated with nationalism. No big surprise we have these two nationalistic holidays right around the time when we have a New Moon in Cancer. And the reason why is because Cancer is all about guarding boundaries. "This is my home. You're not allowed in my home. If you come into my home and you're taking something from me"⁠—right? Those pinchers, those damn crab pinchers.

And so, even though there are not any terrible aspects to this New Moon in Cancer, we may see some pretty shitty behavior from nation-states. And within that, you personally may experience emotional tugging that is unique to this New Moon. And that's worth cultivating greater self-awareness of.

It is important to be honest and aware of your own selfishness. And before you get mad or defensive, everybody's selfish in some way, at some time, to some extent. And there are a lot of ways that selfishness can be experienced and expressed. This New Moon, I want to invite you to consider the ways in which you are being selfish or stingy with your energies, with your abundance, whatever it is, and to check in with whether or not there needs to be a change there. Sharing is caring, and this New Moon, if you can, share something of your heart with others⁠—empathy, care, nurturance, consideration, support. That's a great use of this energy, a really good use of this energy.

And, my dears, that's your horoscope. As is true every damn week, you can read the transcript of this episode on my website within 24 hours of the episode drop. I'm going to run through, really quickly, the transits. But before that, I will invite you to email me directly through the contact form on my website if you would like to get a reading with me on the podcast.

Okay. So, one more time, let's go through the transits. On the 2nd, Neptune goes Retrograde in Pisces. We have an exact trine between Mercury and Neptune and an exact trine between Venus and Saturn. On July 3rd, we have a Mercury opposition to Pluto. And on the 5th, we have Mars forming a sextile to Saturn, a New Moon in a Cancer, and a Venus square to Chiron.

I want to thank you for joining me this week and every week, twice a week, for Ghost of a Podcast. I hope you take really good care of yourself and others, and I will talk to you in just a couple of days. Buh-bye.