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. This week, we have another week where⁠—I mean, there's some pretty big things happening, but it doesn't have as many transits as other weeks have and will have. But I want to kind of address a couple high-level things, including but not limited to we're going to have this Mercury Retrograde and a New Moon this week. Just hold tight.

But I want to address that we have stepped into some really dramatic astrology. The astrology, really, from August⁠—for the next couple of years is pretty intense. If you read the news at all, if you are somebody who's particularly sensitive, you already know what I'm talking about. There's a lot of ways of using astrology, right? It's really tempting to turn to astrology to try to get answers and to get ahead of whatever's coming, with the idea that if I know what's coming, then I can prepare for it, which⁠—true that⁠—but also with the idea that if I know what's coming, then I can somehow make it not hurt or stop myself from suffering, which⁠—not as much.

There is a tendency with astrology and other things to kind of use it as a way to scratch an itch as opposed to truly cope with what's happening in your real life. And from my perspective as a consulting astrologer, developing the tools needed to practically cope, like cope in real life, with the chaotic unknowns that exist around big, scary things⁠—whether that's big, scary things in your personal life or in the world around you⁠—this is what's essential.

And if you're not doing that in collaboration with however you're using astrology, then there's always a risk that astrology is going to scare you⁠—it's going to freak you out⁠—or it's going to be another distraction, just another tool for creating noise and chaos inside of you that actually stops you from engaging with your life and the world in more productive ways.

If you are paying attention to the world, which I sincerely hope you are, it is reasonable to be concerned about a Civil War here in the U.S. regardless of who wins the election. And it's reasonable to be concerned about world war. These are two things I've been talking about for years on the podcast. And in regards to world war, this is especially true given the rapidly escalating conflicts in the Middle East. And as of the moment of recording this, the U.S. just sent warships to defend Israel against Iran. It's scary.

It's reasonable to be concerned about the countless food recalls here in the U.S., to be concerned about environmental crises and other humanitarian crises. It's also really reasonable to be concerned about whatever the hell is going on in your personal life⁠—your healing journey, your relationships, your career, etc. All of these things are reasonable to deeply care about and to be scared about.

Many of the things that concern you, that you have strong feelings about, are profoundly out of your control. And many of the things that you care deeply about are, in a meaningful way, out of your control, but there are still things that you can do to participate, to move the needle, to not completely fix a thing⁠—like maybe the crisis in the Middle East you yourself are not going to fix. However, there are things you can do to be an active part of progress and the solutions that are needed.

And then there are things that you can objectively use your agency and your will and your actions and your intentions to actively change⁠—maybe not everything all at once, but you can make an impact. You can change those things. So there's three different kinds of stresses that I'm referring to that can all exist in a chaotic soup inside of you. When you are feeling overwhelmed, when you are feeling chaotic⁠—and I know a lot of us are feeling chronically overwhelmed and scared about the world. And of everyone who cares about the world, we still have personal lives. We still have other things happening.

So the advice I want to give is to consider making a list. And you can do this with words. You can color-code it. You can have it be more imagery-based. But when you're feeling overwhelmed, consider making a list with three columns, and write down everything that is stressing you out. Is it in the completely out of your control and you have to learn how to cope with the fears⁠—right? You have to learn how to cope with the unknown. So it requires, in other words, emotional coping tools. Is the fear something that is largely out of your control, but there are some things that you can do to help to move the needle forward towards progress? And then third column would be, "Is this something that I actually have agency around?"

And some of your concerns might actually fall into multiple columns. That's cool. That's life. Life is not linear in that way. I want to encourage you to consider writing out lists. In doing this or something like this, what can happen is you start to have a sense of agency⁠—not control, agency⁠—because a lot of people's fight, flight, or fawn, a.k.a. our survival mechanisms, a.k.a. our Plutos, are really activated right now and will continue to get activated as scary things continue to happen in the world.

And being able to have some tool in your tool kit that is practical, that is adaptable, that you can refer back to, that can help you to identify what you can do in this moment in response to what you're feeling or what's happening⁠—it can be really empowering. It can help to minimize internal chaos and distraction so that you both feel better but you can also do better. Developing the tools to cope with the chaotic unknowns that exist around big, scary things in the world and in your personal life⁠—it's essential. It's essential for adulting in general, but it is truly essential for this time.

So, from my experience as a consulting astrologer for three decades, I have found that for most of the people, most of the time, when we start with the emotional part, and then once that's somewhat stabilized⁠—not perfect, just not in a state of acute activation⁠—then we can engage with the mental part, with our ideas and our plans. And then, from that place, our actions in the material world can better reflect your intentions and what's sustainable for you, what you can do. And sometimes what's sustainable is one big action, and that's all you got in you for several months. Okay. Cool.

We are all different people. We can all approach our lives and our engagement in the world in different ways. We don't all have to be the same in order to be on the right path. But with the world in such a state of chaos and me being an astrologer, which means that I have access to what comes next, who will win, what will happen⁠—these kinds of things, we can cast charts for them. But in truth, as interesting as I think it is to cast charts for predicting the future, it's not that helpful. And I'm really interested, as a humanistic astrologer, in using astrology to help you, to help me, to help us.

And so what I want to kind of bring your attention and your energy back to is finding equilibrium, balance, peace within yourself. And part of what that means is recognizing that we cannot have those feelings all the time and coming to some measure of acceptance around it. Part of what this means is identifying when you're activated and not projecting that activation out on others and onto situations. It's about being able to cope and being able to cope in ways that help you and others. And that's not always possible, but when we set it as a goal, we will hit that benchmark at least some of the time. And that, my loves, is progress. And progress is what we're looking for, not perfection. Progress.

When we think about progress on a spiritual level, on an energy level, progress is progress is progress. It's not big progress or small progress. It's progress. And what we need is the energy of progress because what it does is it paves the road for future progress. I want to remind you that solidarity⁠—it's not suffering alongside others. It's not taking in and taking on the pain of others. Solidarity is being an active part of helping others out of their suffering.

And so, if you are losing yourself in grief and in fear for yourself or for others, that's okay because that's human. And also, it's not solidarity, and it's not the best use of your energies. Finding ways, no matter how small, to help move the needle in the direction of progress⁠—that's the best use of your empathy, of your ability to care about others. And when we consider the profound suffering of people that you care about, people in your community, people around the world, people suffering through genocides, as they are in Gaza, in Sudan, in Tigray, it is easy to collapse in the pain of it all.

I think that's an important part of caring about others⁠—to make space for, to make room for, the falling part, the not being able to do anything, being bowled over by the pain. And also, you don't want to get stuck there, because if everyone who deeply cares about the world gets stuck in the grief and the fear and the pain, then we're not mobilizing. We're not acting. And that doesn't serve you or the planet.

My greatest hope for you and for me and for our communities is that we find ways of coping with really hard emotions so that we can make the alliances, we can take the actions, so that we can sustain the efforts that are required of us in what will be increasingly intense times. And you don't need to do any of this alone. Reaching out to others, connecting with community, or connecting with nature, connecting with animals, connecting with plant life⁠—there are so many resources for the deeply introverted, for people who are really social, and everyone in between.

There are resources, and it is our job when we are suffering to, at a certain point, be open to those resources, to tap into those resources and leverage them, use them in whatever ways⁠—in whatever ways. But this is how we grow and we evolve and we change not just ourselves, but our communities and the world around us.

Okay. Let's talk about the New Moon in Leo and Mercury going Retrograde. We are looking at the astrology of August 4th through the 10th of 2024. On August 4th at 4:13 a.m. Pacific Time, we have a New Moon in Leo, 12 degrees of Leo and 34 minutes. And if you're new to astrology, New Moons are always when the Sun and Moon are at the exact same degree of the exact same sign⁠—New Moon in Leo time.

And then, later that day at 9:56 p.m. Pacific Time⁠—so it might be on the 5th for you, depending on where you are in the world⁠—Mercury goes Retrograde at 4 degrees of Virgo and 6 minutes. We're going to look at the charts of both. They're not going to be radically different from each other because it's the same day. But I want to share something which I think is very interesting about what's happening with the damn Moon.

Biden announced that he's not going to run again and made his endorsement of Harris at the last Full Moon. So we have a Full Moon, then a New Moon, then a Full Moon, then a New Moon⁠—such is life. So the Capricorn Blue Moon that just happened a couple weeks ago, Biden announced that he's not going to run again and he endorses Harris. And then, on Monday, August 4th, Harris is expected to announce her running mate on the New Moon. And then, a couple weeks after that, we have a wild Full Moon on August 19th. And that's the day that the damn DNC begins.

And I have dropped some videos talking about the DNC, the astrology of the DNC, and talking about this Full Moon⁠—a couple of them on my Patreon, depending on what level you're at. So you can always join me over there if you want to get into more of these political charts, from Trump getting shot to the DNC, and on it goes. But what's fucking fascinating is that all of these major developments astrologically are happening alongside New Moons and Full Moons.

And as I and every other astrologer worth their salt has been saying for over a year now, the 2024 election in the United States is going to be B-A-N-A-N-A-S. That spells bananas. We have known and have been talking about how we could expect the unexpected this election season, and that is certainly coming to bear. And that is saying nothing of the actual election chart, which, again, is hot banana soup. It is wild. So let's keep our eyes on these lunations. Let's pay attention to them. And I will say, if you, like me, are paying close attention to presidential politics in the United States, continue to expect the unexpected.

Okay. But now let's get into the actual New Moon. Let's start off with the New Moon being in Leo. This transit always means, when we go through a New Moon in Leo, that you are on call to connect with your sense of purpose, with passion, and with meaning of life. Leo is a fixed fire sign, and a New Moon in Leo is an opportunity to really commit to something. And that can be something deeply internal in your healing process. That can be a shift in behavior. It can be a commitment to engaging with something in your life or the world with more passion.

What we always want to do under a New Moon in Leo is make sure that your ego isn't driving the car, because we know Leo can kind of go in that direction. And because it's a fixed sign, we also know that it is possible to, out of a sense of pride, double down on something that really requires some exploration or adaptation.

Luckily, we have that Venus square to Uranus that was exact on August 2nd still very active in this chart. And that will help with adaptability. The key is here not seeking certainty, but instead seeking alignment, because you're not going to get certainty. This is not a New Moon that offers certainty. As much as a New Moon in Leo would like to offer us that, as much as we would want that, this New Moon not only has a Venus square to Uranus, which destabilizes things⁠—not in a negative way, necessarily; it destabilizes things so that you can create something or approach things in a way that better reflects your values and what is true for you, like truly true for you.

But we also have Mars and Jupiter sitting on top of each other⁠—it's a little wide, but it's sitting on top of each other⁠—and Saturn square to Jupiter. And what this tells us is that the drive to just fucking get it going, to just do something, to just move things forward, is being thwarted by the Saturn square to Jupiter because Saturn's like, "It needs more time in the oven. It's gotta bake more."

This New Moon is a time where you can put energy into getting aligned, identifying where you're at, who you are in this moment, cultivating acceptance of that, where your passions lie, what you think is important and the attention and energy that you give to it⁠—this is a great New Moon for all of those things. It is not as much a great New Moon for creating stability and security because the astrology of this moment isn't really offering us that.

Now, of course, in your life, you may be creating stability and security, and good on you. But what this New Moon is teaching us is that that is not meant to be the damn point. The point, again, is alignment, authenticity, passion, purpose. And that takes courage. And as we know, Leo is associated with courage. It's that taking heart. So, this New Moon, I want to encourage you to ask yourself how you need to take heart, what needs more heartfelt care, attention, and intentionality from you.

Once that Saturn/Jupiter square comes into exactitude⁠—which, by the way, will be on the August 19th Full Moon, a.k.a. the start of the DNC⁠— once that happens, it's going to be a lot harder to move the needle forward, or you may find that you have to answer for the things you've done. And when it comes to Jupiter and Saturn, what we're looking at is Jupiter's expansion and Saturn's limitation. Jupiter is freedom, and Saturn is responsibility.

So having this tension between these energies in this New Moon chart and staying with us for the next couple of weeks leading up to that Full Moon and beyond⁠—what this means is it is really important that you are intentional and conservative. And I don't mean conservative in a political context. I mean like a conservationist, that you take a conservationist attitude towards your plans and your energy, how you do what you do, what you plan on doing, how you plan on doing it. That's what Jupiter square Saturn wants to teach us. It's how much labor can you perform before it breaks you, before you can no longer do a good job or do it for the right reasons?

And when we learn how to balance these energies, it is so much easier to align with what's authentic, to find purpose. And so, whether we are looking outwards at the world or we are looking inwards at our own personal development and how we engage with our lives, this New Moon brings with it an opportunity for renewed energy for what's important. It is on each of us as individuals to sort through the noise to be able to find what's important. And you and I know there's a whole lot of fucking noise going on, always and now.

And that leads very intentionally into the Mercury Retrograde. So, again, Mercury goes Retrograde same day, Monday, August 4th, at 9:56 p.m. Pacific Time. And the chart changes very, very little, my friends, very, very little. What has shifted in this chart is a couple important things, and one of them is Mercury and Venus are closer together. So we have a lovely Venus conjunction to the Mercury Retrograde. The Moon and the Sun are further apart, and the Moon is now square to Uranus.

This Mercury Retrograde is going to come with surprises. That's how this chart is laid out. It's going to come with surprises. But we know that Mercury Retrogrades are an important function of Mercury, of transiting Mercury. And that's because if you don't take the time to reflect⁠—because you know that a Mercury Retrograde follows the rule of re's⁠—to reflect, to reassess, to recalibrate⁠—this is something that we're talking about over on my Patreon, getting a little deeper into Mercury Retrograde, what it really means, how to handle making decisions, yada, yada. Again, you can join me over there to get a little deeper.

But it wants us to basically reflect, and this is essential because if you don't question your plans, if you don't reflect, if you don't rest and digest, then what happens is you barrel through your life, doubling down on ideas that are not properly reflected upon, that are not properly reassessed based on new information. In other words, you're not listening. So Mercury Retrograde, as annoying as it is⁠—and you and I know it is so fucking annoying⁠—is a really useful transit.

Because this Mercury Retrograde in Virgo has a Moon/Uranus square in the chart, I am going to say that it's going to be especially annoying with technology. We may encounter a lot of technological problems. We may encounter so much information coming at us so quick that, inevitably, some of it is half-baked; some of it is just not reliable. So I return to the advice that I gave you at the top, which is it's your job, it's my job, it's our job, to emotionally process information, to cope with information, to cope with what it is that we intend to do, we hope to do, or we have to do.

In cultivating the emotional chops to live your life with integrity and intention, your life gets easier. I mean, it's harder in some ways, but it's ultimately easier. It sure as hell is easier to go to sleep at night. And we can expect the unexpected this Mercury Retrograde, as we do with all Mercury Retrogrades. But for better or worse, things don't always stick or they don't go according to plan when we start them during a Mercury Retrograde.

So that leaves a lot of room for co-creation, for change, for evolution. And that's what I want to encourage you to focus your attention and energy on. Mercury Retrogrades are always a time for listening, and listening to yourself as much as listening to other people, for unlearning things. The reflection that Mercury Retrograde wants us to do is really important. When you thought the appointment you were really looking forward to for months⁠—you thought it was happening on Tuesday, but it was really Tuesday of last week, so you missed the appointment⁠—whatever it is the comes up inside of you, whatever it is that your go-to reflective reactions are, that's something that the Universe is trying to get you to note so that you can evolve.

The annoyances that occur during Mercury Retrograde are an opportunity for you to engage with your own reactions and coping mechanisms. So, if you fall apart because things are confusing, that's good information for you to have about yourself. And during the Retrograde, it's an invitation to reflect on your patterns so that you can reassess them, should you want. Should you want. And we can apply this to the world. There is an opportunity for us to refer back to what's happened in the past and actually learn from it.

Now, as always, with a Mercury Retrograde, try not to make a major purchase if you can avoid it. Try not to sign any major contracts if you can avoid it. But you can't always avoid it, right? That's life. And so what do you do? You say to yourself, "Okay. I don't avoid outside of my house just because it's snowing or it's raining. I just get dressed for the weather." So, in this case, if you have to make a major purchase, read the fucking fine print. Don't do it impulsively. If you have to sign a major contract, get three people to look at it instead of one person to look at it.

Just double-check things because what Mercury Retrograde teaches us is what happens when you're sloppy. It can also lead to intentional or unintentional miscommunications, and that leads to misunderstandings, and that is a bummer. So it's not the end of the world if you have to make big decisions during a Mercury Retrograde. Just be careful. That's all.

Now, that brings us to Wednesday, August the 7th. And on the 7th, we have a Sun sextile to Jupiter, which will be exact at 6:37 a.m., and it's with the Sun at 15 degrees of Leo and 32 minutes and Jupiter at the same degrees of Gemini. And then, a couple hours later at 8:12 p.m. Pacific Time, we have Mercury Retrograde forming a conjunction to Venus at 3 degrees Virgo and 44 minutes. Happily, these two transits are supportive and lovely.

Now, that doesn't mean Mercury isn't Retrograde. It doesn't mean we are not under the influence of the Jupiter/Saturn square, because we are. We're also under the influence of the forthcoming Mars conjunction to Jupiter, which will be exact next week and I will talk about more next week. But I will share it creates passion and intensity and impulsiveness. And so we want to keep this in mind in the context of the transits that I'm about to share, but also in the context of understanding what's happening in the world.

Mars governs the ego and the drive for individual success⁠—"I want to attain my goals. I want to win this game," or whatever. And Jupiter is big. It's go big or go home. So, when these two planets form a square to each other, there can be an impulsive and ego-driven rush to get what I want, basically. And that's not the only thing that's true about this transit. It's also really good for increasing your resiliency, your passions, for helping you to be brave and to be bold and to mobilize and get things done. It's not a bad transit; it's not a good transit. It's a transit with a lot of energy and a lot of power. And we know power is not inherently bad or good, but as any Star Wars nerd knows, when it goes to the dark side, we have trouble. We get into problems.

All of this is happening in the backdrop. We want to just keep that in mind while I tell you about these two fucking fantastic transits. The Sun sextile to Jupiter is lovely. Again, this transit increases resiliency, optimism. It gives you a lot of energy, and it doesn't just give you any old energy; it gives you optimistic, resilient, kind of excited and hopeful energy, which⁠—I mean, who couldn't use that right about now, right?

This transit can increase your sense of spirituality, and this is because Jupiter is connected to the vast potential that exists in the Universe and in life. It is a planet associated with spirituality and religion, and this can be a really good time to touch in with what you believe in. And this is further bolstered by the Mercury Retrograde⁠. What do you believe in, and how does that actually show up and align with who you are and how you operate from the inside out?

This transit is excellent for helping you to basically do anything. Sun sextile to Jupiter is supportive for internal work. It's supportive for external work. There is no downside to this transit. There's no way to misuse this transit. It may coincide⁠—especially if this particular transit hits your birth chart in any way at all, it can coincide with an opportunity showing up. And that opportunity may be fantastic. But again, Mercury is Retrograde. We got this other shit going on in the background. So don't just go based on vibes. Be intentional. Do your research. Ask for a second opinion.

If you are starting a trip or exploring something new⁠—it could be a form of study; it could be anything creative, spiritual, literally anything⁠—this transit suggests that it bodes very well for you. This is a fucking fantastic transit and one that you don't have to do much to make use of. However, if you do tap into its energies⁠—you do try something new⁠—this transit suggests that it will be an expansive experience for you. It'll help to open you up in a meaningful way. And meaningful doesn't always mean big. Jupiter likes it to be big, but it doesn't always mean big. But it'll help to open up the world to you, and this is a wonderful thing.

Now, the other exact transit we have on this date is Mercury Retrograde sitting on top of Venus in Virgo. And this transit I don't tend to find is very explosive or anything. And unless you have something at around 3 or 4 degrees of a mutable sign, you're not likely to really feel it. And again, those mutable signs are Virgo, Pisces, Sadge, and Gemini.

But Mercury conjunction to Venus is great for socializing. And of course, when we socialize, especially in public and in groups, it is always wise to wear a mask because COVID is spiking, and the only thing that's going to save us from COVID is us, right? We save us. We save us. So make sure you're doing everything you can in practice to embody the values of community care. Masking is such a simple, albeit annoying, but simple and direct way of doing it while also, of course, protecting your own health.

Okay. That said, this is a great time for socializing. It's a great time for meeting up with friends, going on dates⁠. Any kind of connecting, romantic or platonic, with other people is favored by this transit. It's also favored by the Sun sextile to Jupiter. This transit is a fantastic one to communicate how you feel. So Mercury is the communication, and Venus is how you feel.

Similarly, if you're one of the many people who are like, "What are values? What do I value? I don't know," if you're struggling with a sense of purpose, Mercury conjunction to Venus is a deeply supportive transit in exploring mentally⁠—Mercury⁠—what you value. And there are lots of ways of doing it. One way is by looking at what you practically keep on centering in your life and in your choices. That ends up reflecting what you value. And another way is exploring the concept, the ideas, around values and identifying what it is that you value.

Now, again, Mercury conjunction to Venus is a really supportive transit for coming into clarity and self-awareness about this stuff. And also, Mercury Retrograde is a good time for reflection so that you may be able to achieve some kind of clarity during this transit that you've been struggling to achieve. So this is not a great time for checking out or avoiding. This is a good time for going in because the Sun sextile to Jupiter⁠, the New Moon in Leo, and then very specifically this Mercury conjunction to Venus, is a really gentle time for coming into self-awareness around things that really are consequential to you and how you live your life.

But just generally speaking, Mercury conjunction to Venus is a great time for any kind of creative process. I'm talking about writing, making art, redecorating your bedroom⁠—whatever⁠—and telling other people how you feel about them. And I will say now what I have said many times before: emojis are a perfectly valid way of communicating with other people. So, if you're super in your head and you're not in a place where you can reach out to other people, you can always just send them a heart emoji. You know what I mean?

In the modern world, it is so overwhelming to be constantly connected to people. And also, we have tools that make it really easy to put your phone on Do Not Disturb and send out a heart to let someone know that you care about them. With Mercury conjunction to Venus, it's an especially good time to do that. It will be well received, and you may even get a sweet little heart back, and that might just make your day better. It might not, but it really might.

Okay. So that's the Mercury conjunction to Venus. Now that's all we got going on in exactitude this week. I'm going to run through the transits one more time for your note-taking, and I'm also going to remind you that I have transcripts, human-created transcripts by our beloved Krista Ames over at kmtranscripts.com, and they're available to you so that you can track the transits through the transcript because I know it's a lot of data that I'm dropping here. You don't have to write it all down. We have it written down for you on my website over at ghostofapodcast.com.

On Sunday, August the 4th, we have a New Moon in Leo exact at 4:13 a.m. Pacific Time, and Mercury goes Retrograde at 9:56 p.m. Pacific Time. And it will stay Retrograde until the 28th, the 28th of August, so all month long, my friends, all month long. Then on Wednesday, August the 7th, we have an exact sextile between the Sun and Jupiter and an exact conjunction between Mercury Retrograde and Venus. And that's your horoscope, my loves.

Don't forget that this week and every week, you can send in a question through the contact form on my website. Again, just go to ghostofapodcast.com. Use the contact form that I have specifically for podcast questions. Make sure to read those pro tips to help you to write a question that is most likely to get selected. And yeah, you can potentially get a reading with me on the midweek episode of my love letter to you, Ghost of a Podcast.

I hope you are taking really good care of yourself and others, and I'll talk to you in just a couple of days. Buh-bye.