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.

Hello, and welcome back to Ghost of a Podcast. This week, we are going to look at the astrology of the week ahead. We are also going to talk a little bit about some issues of concern in the world. And I want to acknowledge some people do not like when I talk about current affairs. Other people love it. And here's the fun thing: if you don't like it, you are in control of the audio device that you are listening to my voice upon. You can pause it. You can fast-forward it. You have total control. I want to encourage you to exercise that control in whatever way feels most life-affirming to you. Okay?

We're going to talk about the Eclipses. We're going to talk about the Eclipses. So we had an Eclipse on September 17th, and that Eclipse occurred at around 25 degrees and 41 minutes of Pisces. Now, keep that in mind. We're going to come back to the degree of that Eclipse. Before that detail becomes relevant, let me just acknowledge this. The next Eclipse is going to occur on October 2nd, so soon, but not this week. Because we are in Eclipse Season, we are meant to be in this teetery, developmental state. When I say teetery, I mean like teeter-totter. I mean not especially stable or consistent or reliable.

Things are up in the air. And that's probably not the technically best metaphor because we're talking about the Moon. And so it's more like the waves are crashing in and receding at what feels like an unpredictable and, at times, overwhelming pace. And it's meant to feel that way. It's meant to feel emotional, intense, and on some level destabilizing. And the thing about destabilization is that it can be upsetting in a negative way, in a bad way, but when things are destabilized is exactly when we can make change, when we can perceive things from a new perspective, have a new insight, and a whole bunch of new doors or windows open up to you. And that's what's meant to happen with the Eclipses.

What Eclipses want for you and me and us as a collective is to facilitate our evolution. Your evolution is not just like a fixed point or a thing that happened on Tuesday. Instead, your evolution is this ongoing dynamic and process. The very nature of evolution is gradual. And so, while a lot of times⁠—especially, I think, because of what happens on the internet, people promise some sort of portal, some sort of magical thing that happens. And the truth is what we are meant to do, what is likely to happen, is evolve. Something gradually shifts. And that inevitably makes other things shift in ways that you are aware of at this time and in ways that you are not yet aware of. And that's life. Being able to stay emotionally present with that is the assignment of an Eclipse Season, of any Eclipse Season.

And so I wanted to kind of give you that context and reminder as we are, in this week, betwixt Eclipses. And with that, it's meant to be emotional. You are likely to have circumstances and dynamics in your relationship and stuff coming up inside of you crash in at times and, at other times, really recede and ebb and pull back from you. You may feel like you're drowning in it sometimes, and at other times, it may be gorgeous and beautiful and something that you have enough distance from that you feel like you can see it clearly. For most people, it's a combination of all those things, depending on the moment.

And the more curiosity and presence that you can cultivate, the more you'll be able to tap into the beauty. Even if what you're going through is some sort of a breaking or a breaking down, there is a beauty in that. It's hard, but so many times, things that are so beautiful are hard, and they're worth the hard. So I wanted to just acknowledge all of that and acknowledge emotions are really big right now.

Also, a quick note to share with you that I'm hosting my first virtual fireside chat on Sunday, October 6th, and it's going to include a live Q&A. And I hope you'll join me there. I want to explore and unpack and touch in on the topic of uncertainty and the emotions that it kicks up and how we can deal with it. Of course, it'll be woo, it'll be astrological, and it'll be an opportunity for us to connect. So the link to register, if you are interested in such a thing, will be in the episode description of this very podcast, or you can find the link on my website, in my Linktree if you follow me on social media⁠—all that kind of good stuff.

Okay. Now, remember when I named the degree of the Eclipse? Well, I want to talk about something that some of you are not going to want to hear about. And the beauty of a podcast is if you don't want to hear something I'm saying, you can stop listening. You can pause and fast-forward to the part you do want to hear. But I want to talk about Israel. I want to talk about Israel, and I want to talk about how on September 17th, the day of the Eclipse, hundreds of pagers in Lebanon blew up simultaneously. And then I think it was the following day a bunch of walkie-talkies blew up. And it injured thousands of people. It killed several people.

And Israel was behind this attack. By saying Israel, I don't mean Israeli citizens. I mean the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, and the Israeli military. Right? These are facts that are reported in the news. Now, as an astrologer, I of course want to look at the chart of the State of Israel to have some sense of understanding of what the fuck is going on. And so I want to unpack that a little bit here, but I will preface it because I know some people get triggered when I talk about Israel. And I think it's important for me to contextualize something here.

I'm Jewish. I am very proud to be Jewish. I like being Jewish. I do not speak on behalf of all Jews. I speak on behalf of myself. I also don't speak on behalf of all astrologers, while we're there. I speak on behalf of myself. I am not anti-Semitic. It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the State of Israel. It's, I think, anti-Semitic to assert that the State of Israel, a government, speaks for all people in the Jewish diaspora. I do not expect that my worldview is universal.

That said, there is a difference between disagreeing with me and me being anti-Semitic because I have a different worldview or different understanding of world events than you do. And that's important for me to say. It's also important for me to say that one can be critical of Israel and be anti-Semitic at the same time. It's totally possible. Some people are anti-Semitic in a world filled with prejudice. And here in North America, we are in a white Christian nationalist society, essentially. It is easy to have prejudiced views living in a prejudiced society. It is easy. So I invite each and every one of us to interrogate our own anti-Semitism, our own internalized anti-Semitism, and to make sure that criticism of Israel is not lumping in all Jewish humans. Right? Okay.

Now, all that said, the State of Israel is perpetrating a genocide. And the fact that they were able to put explosive devices in pagers and walkie-talkies and then put them in the market and have people purchase them and then set them off across the country is terrorism. So this genocidal government has enacted this act of terrorism. I cannot imagine how terrifying that is. And living in a world where one's communication device, which⁠—let's be realistic. We all are attached to our communication devices. I mean, don't you keep yours on your person, on your body? That's pretty fucking terrifying.

So I had to look. I pulled up the chart for the State of Israel, which is cast for May 14th, 1948, at 4:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv, Israel. What I see right away is that this chart has a Uranus/Jupiter opposition with Uranus at 24 degrees of Gemini and Jupiter at 27 degrees of Sagittarius. And so what the Eclipse did was it created a Grand Cross, activating that Jupiter/Uranus opposition. And what's particularly interesting about this is Jupiter is global. It's international. It's big. And Uranus is explosives.

Similarly, the chart of the State of Israel is being activated by an ongoing transit of Uranus opposition to Mars. Now, Mars is⁠—in the context of a nation's chart, it's related to many things, but a big thing that it's related to is its military and combat. The fact that Uranus, the planet of innovation and technology and new things, is forming a square to Mars, which is, again, combat and arsenal and all of these kinds of things⁠—it checks out that Israel did this thing, which⁠—I mean, I don't know if anything like this has been done before. I haven't heard of it. I'm not an expert, obviously, so it is very possible that something like this has happened before in a way that I am unaware of, to which I want to just be humble and clear.

But as far as I know, governments putting explosives in pagers and walkie-talkies and in communication devices and then exploding them on people⁠—this is a pretty radical thing. And again, this radical thing is related to Uranus square to Mars. Now, listen. What I'm sharing with you is not conclusive, right? It's not thorough enough. I'm just touching on something. But I'm trying to make sense of what feels like endless violence from Israel, this kind of ongoing horror show that we are living through. And where is it going to? Which really brings me to the thing that I've been worried about for the past year, which is the Moon of Isreal.

When we're talking about the Moon of a nation, it's not the same thing as the Moon of a person in a birth chart. The Moon of a nation is related to the heart of a nation. It's related to a sense of nationality and national pride. And in that way, it's related to borders. This feeling of patriotism is ruled over by the Moon. And as soon as March of 2025⁠—which just so happens to be also when Neptune moves into Aries, which is another very concerning transit that is forthcoming. In March of 2025, what's going to happen is Pluto is going to sit exactly opposite to the Moon of the State of Israel. And to me, this raises major alarms around further ongoing violence, of things stepping up instead of finally getting resolved or healed.

And so, again, why am I sharing this with you? Partially because I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I mean, do you? All I have is this tool of astrology, and I have this podcast where I can talk to you. And so I am sharing this in efforts to speak out against Israel and its heinous violent acts and also to say this is not going away. This is not getting better⁠—not on its own, anyways.

And so, wherever you live, pressure your governments to put pressure on the State of Israel, or get involved and participate in activism in whatever way you feel called to, in whatever way is in alignment with who you are, your skills, and your resources. You don't have to do all the things. You don't have to be like all the people. Do what you can do, but do something because it's so important.

And also⁠—back to the topic of Eclipses⁠—the forthcoming Eclipse on October 2nd is going to occur at exactly 10 degrees of Libra, 10 degrees and 4 minutes. And in the chart of the State of Israel, the Neptune is at 10 degrees and 34 minutes of Libra. So that Eclipse is going to occur exactly on the Neptune. What is Neptune related to in the context of, again, a nation? Well, some of it is religion, and it is spirituality. And as anyone who's alive knows, many religions are fixated on the land of Israel, on stories related to Israel, related to Palestine. This land is steeped in religious beliefs. When we see Neptune in the context of political stuff, which⁠—of course, we're looking at the chart of a nation state⁠—we see religious extremism. We see beliefs that are so firmly held that they can kind of justify or excuse all manner of poor conduct, of bad behavior.

And so, again, I'm just sharing this not to frighten you, and I do not want to make any kind of hard predictions about this stuff because I don't think it's helpful. I will say that the heat is being turned up. This is not a time to disengage. And I know it's emotionally and spiritually exhausting to think about and see images of and care about a genocide and care about things that are happening next door to you, let alone around the world. But this is not the time to disengage. This is not the time to lay up on whatever engagement or activism you're involved in. This just isn't the time. This is the time to be more engaged and to do whatever you can.

Now, all of that said, let's get into this week's horoscope. It starts pretty intense. Okay. So, on Sunday, September 22nd, we move into Libra Season. And then, within a couple of hours, we have an exact square between Venus, the ruling planet to the zodiac sign of Libra, and Pluto. So Venus is going to be at 29 degrees and 44 minutes of Libra, and Pluto is going to be at the exact same degrees of Capricorn. This transit is exact at 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time.

Now, Venus square to Pluto is a very intense transit. You're going to be feeling it for several days leading up to Sunday, the 22nd. Venus square to Pluto triggers compulsive feelings and a profound, deep, often driving desire for connection. But when it comes to Pluto, as you know, our strongest impulses are not always our wisest impulses. And so the drive that you feel for love, safety, security, being accepted⁠—all that kind of good stuff⁠—can be really healthy and authentic, but it could just as easily be something inside of you that is actually not well adjusted and not really authentic. And so you may find yourself attached to people or ideas that are not especially healthy, but you have powerful emotions around them.

This transit can kick up manipulation, power struggles, control issues, all that kind of heavy Plutonian shit. And Venus, of course, is related to your relationships, but it's also related to your values. And so I guess it's just astrology being true to itself that I, for instance, felt called to talk about something that I knew would be really hard for a lot of people to hear about and would potentially be very triggering, and in particular trigger the ways in which we have different values. That's very Venus square Pluto of me.

Now, the thing about this transit is that it's not meant to torture us. Instead, it's meant to bring tensions to the surface so that we deal with them. However, if you engage with tensions and struggles and the other strong feelings that this transit triggers⁠—if you deal with those feelings from your survival mechanisms, then you're likely to basically be engaging with them from a place of being really triggered and activated. And I don't know if you've ever been triggered or activated or been around someone else who is triggered, but that's not usually our best-adjusted or most mature coping mechanisms.

This is when your more base impulses kick up. And this is why Pluto can be so possessive and jealous and manipulative, because it's related to our core survival mechanisms, which really are fight, flight, or faun. So let me give you some pro tips here. First of all, if you're going to feel intense, you're going to feel intense. That's not inherently bad. Even if you feel intensely bad, that's not inherently bad. Sometimes the healthiest thing for a situation is to feel shitty. I mean, it's not awesome, but feeling bad is not like a punishment for having done something wrong, and it's not a sign of being off course, even. Feeling bad is a part of life. The sun is bright. The sun sets. The sun doesn't shed any light. There is darkness. There's an ebb and flow to life.

However, what is not so good is acting out in reaction to those feelings in ways that harm yourself or others. You may feel that you need to defend yourself from somebody being aggressive towards you or acting really weird in ways that you just don't quite get because, again, when your survival is not actually being threatened, you're probably acting in ways that are surprising to other people, that are confusing to other people. And the truth of the matter is we all do this a lot of the time.

And so, again, you may be in a situation where you just have to deal with people acting in ways that you find mystifying and also threatening, triggering, or just difficult. The trick and key is to act in ways that reflect your values instead of your strongest emotions. And because Venus is related to our relationships, these energies can show up in your close personal relationships. And so, if you act out, notice. Just notice what Pluto is pulling out of you. Maybe you get really passive-aggressive, and you ice the person you're close to. Maybe you snap at someone and say something in just a really shitty, acidic tone of voice.

Whatever it is, try to be aware of what you're doing because it's information for you to get about you. And the only way that we can evolve, which is the assignment, is if we are aware. Awareness is not consent. It is simply awareness. And with awareness, you can resource yourself. You can make different choices, better choices. You can continue to make the same choices but with a little more awareness, and maybe there's a subtle shift to those same choices.

What this transit does is it intensifies and sparks big emotions, big feelings. And so, again, if you can strive to be interested in⁠—are the big feelings that you're having for something or someone that is keeping you stuck⁠? Just like, is your metaphorical baby in a corner, or are you engaging in ways that actually help you to go deep and work through the problems that exist between you and other people, the problems that you have that are based on a lack of shared values? Or maybe there's a set of shared values, but you're not acting in ways that reflect those values.

Venus square to Pluto can bring up really challenging emotions, and those challenging emotions are hard to cope with for you, for me, for the person you're dealing with⁠—whatever. And so I want to just invite you to know, okay, this energy is active. And there's great value in engaging with it in conscious, healthy ways.

Now, on the positive, this transit can help you to let go. If there's someone that, really, you know you need to let go of, this transit can help. If you have been needing to get rid of half your closet, this transit can help. Venus square to Pluto wants you to let go of your attachments to that which doesn't serve you, and in particular to Venusian things that don't serve you, so financial investments, stuff, relationships, your attachment or relationship to beauty shit.

During a Venus square to Pluto, the movement to boycott the iPhone 16 because of the genocidal cost in Eastern Congo of all this new technology⁠—that is actually really strong Venus square to Pluto. And that movement can be quite impactful if more people are willing to put their money where their values are. So do your best to work with this energy so that you can learn more about yourself and have your life better reflect what's truly important to you.

Now, that brings us to our next exact transit. We're still going to be feeling the Venus square to Pluto. It's separating. It's weaker, but it's active. At 10:27 a.m. Pacific Time, Mercury will be at 27 degrees of Virgo and 2 minutes, and Uranus will be at the same degrees of Taurus. This means that we've got a beautiful trine between Mercury and Uranus in earth signs, which we love to see.

This transit is excellent for opening up your mind, for having conversations that go well because both parties or all parties are open to shifting their perspective. If you need to change your mind, this transit is your BFF. Uranus is your nervous system, and Mercury is your mind. And when there's a trine between those two planets, it's an especially great time to develop or learn about practices that help support your mind and your nervous system because different people's minds work in different ways and at different times, right?

This transit is really great for supporting your mental health, and of course, it takes a little bit of effort on your part. But the effort will be well rewarded if you pursue it. This is also a great time for connecting with friends because Uranus is excitement. It's something new. And Mercury is your friendships. If things have been rough with that Venus square to Pluto, if the Eclipse has just knocked you all around, then Mercury trine to Uranus is a great time to have a conversation, to really listen to what someone else is saying, to share what's truly up for you and with you in a way that allows you to make sense of your own lived experience or really be there for a friend in a way that is needed and wanted.

This transit can also trigger excitement. So you might just run into people that you haven't seen in a while, have fun social exchanges. Your DMs may be blowing up in a really fun way. I mean, I don't know. Maybe you don't like DMs, but you know. It's an exciting, dynamic time, which is great. It is possible that you could get some sort of good news or some sort of lovely development occurs on or around this transit, and that is most likely to happen if you have something in your chart at around 27 degrees of an earth or water sign. It is a really lovely transit, and it overlaps with two other transits, both for Mercury. One is very supportive, and one not so much.

Okay. Wednesday, the 25th, Mercury will sit at 28 degrees and 24 minutes of Virgo, and it will be opposite to Neptune, same degrees of Pisces. That one's exact at 4:07 a.m. Pacific Time. Later that night, at 9:14 p.m. Pacific Time, Mercury will be at 29 degrees and 42 minutes, and it will be trine to Pluto at the same degrees of Capricorn. Mercury trine to Pluto⁠—both of these planets are in earth signs, so it's a very grounding transit. This transit empowers you to go deep in your thinking.

This transit can also empower you to have more influence on other people. So, when it comes to Pluto, we're always dealing with some layer of the theme of manipulation. You don't want to manipulate or coerce people, but instead to explain things clearly so that people can understand where you're coming from. Now, you can explain things perfectly clearly, and people might not agree with you. That's an important thing to remember. However, Mercury trine to Pluto is especially good for clarifying your position, communicating deeply and effectively, being heard, or⁠—kind of from the other side⁠—really understanding something that you're learning, whether you're studying something and trying to learn something or you're having a conversation and really listening to where other people are at.

This transit in general is great for all kinds of negotiations. However, the Mercury opposition to Neptune is fucking with that. So I wouldn't go too far with the influence of Mercury trine to Pluto. What we have here, though, is a very grounding, stabilizing influence to help deal with the Mercury opposition to Neptune because Mercury opposite to Neptune is discombobulating. Mercury is your mind, and Neptune is anxiety. So it can make you feel anxious. You can find yourself fixated on things that really aren't important, but they make you feel pulled in too many directions or frightened and uncertain of what's real and what's not real. It can make you feel disempowered and like you really just can't. You just can't.

Now, luckily, Mercury trine to Pluto and Mercury trine to Uranus both are quite empowering transits to Mercury. So this is good news. However, Mercury opposite Neptune is going to truly challenge your ability to have boundaries in your thinking and communications. Something that comes to mind as an example of this is making sure that if you're having a conversation, especially a deep, challenging conversation with someone in your life or some stranger online, that it's a conversation being had in good faith.

In other words, some people sometimes⁠—and maybe you're those people sometimes⁠—have a conversation just because you want to fight, just because you want to prove yourself or you want to change someone's mind. A conversation in good faith requires both parties to be open and listening in addition to communicating honestly. And we all know how draining it is to be striving to have a conversation in good faith with someone who is not reciprocating that. So here, again, it's important that you have healthy boundaries.

Mercury opposite Neptune may coincide with some sort of propaganda being released or misinformation or disinformation. This is certainly not a transit where I would encourage anyone to go around raw-dogging the air in crowded public spaces. Especially if you have anything in a mutable sign⁠—so that's Virgo, Pisces, Gemini, and Sagittarius⁠—at around 28 degrees, yeah, I would definitely mask up because Mercury opposite Neptune can be kind of hard on the immune system. It can kind of tax your immune system. And that makes sense because it's common to feel really burned out during this transit, just exhausted and spoonless.

So, all that said, you may feel exhausted. You may feel depleted, confused, uncertain what to focus on or what's true or what is true. If you can avoid making major decisions around this transit, I definitely think you should. But luckily, because of the Mercury trine to Pluto and the Mercury trine to Uranus, we have a lot of support to tap into. And those two transits will meaningfully mitigate the worst parts of this transit so that you can tap into this energy and explore your own anxieties or your relationship to anxiety, explore your boundaries and where you need to have clearer or more healthy boundaries and with who.

This transit can also be a time where you explore your own spirituality. And this is not a good time to go deep with your spirituality, but instead to be little bit critical in your thinking about, have you given away your power to someone or to some idea? Are you consuming propaganda or some sort of spiritual bypassing stuff? This can be a good time to lose yourself in the arts, a good book, a good movie, to lose yourself in music⁠—that kind of a thing⁠—but not great for your relationships, in particular your friendships, because again, things are likely to be confusing.

What it all boils down to, with consideration to these three transits but also the whole week astrologically, is that this is a really great time to be aware of your own boundaries and how you are or are not living in accordance with what's actually important to you. By cultivating that self-awareness, especially when things go sideways on you, you're not only growing, but you're participating in the larger tapestry of Eclipse Season in a way that is apparently written. You know what I'm saying?

We are living through chaotic times. Within chaos, it is important to figure out, what kind of protections do you need? If the storm is the kind of storm that you need an umbrella for, then do you have an umbrella? Or is the storm the kind of a storm that destroys umbrellas? Or is an umbrella not the right tool? It is important to be aware of what's happening so that you can protect yourself but not insulate yourself to the point where you're no longer fully living.

Now, I know that was a lot, as it is every week, right? We try to do the most here at Ghost of a Podcast Industries. Let me run through the transits one more time for you. And as always, I will remind you that on my Patreon, we are having ongoing conversations about the transits of the week, the transits in the bigger context of the world, all kinds of astrology, all kinds of woo, and it is good. So you're invited. Come join me on my Patreon. Also, I offer the transcript for every episode of Ghost of a Podcast for free on my website. You can go check it out.

Okay. The transits of this week⁠—on the 22nd, Venus is exactly square to Pluto. On the 24th, Mercury is exactly trine to Uranus. On the 25th, Mercury is exactly opposite to Neptune, and Mercury is exactly trine to Pluto. And that's your week in the stars, my loves.

I hope you're taking really good care of yourself and others, and I will talk to you in just a couple of days for my midweek episode, where I give a lucky listener a reading. And if you want to be said listener, you can send in your question to be considered for the podcast through the contact form on my website over at ghostofapodcast.com. Buh-bye.