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. This week, we're going to be looking at the astrology of January 12th through the 18th of 2025. And I am doing something that I very rarely do, which is I am recording this a week in advance. And that's because it was my damn birthday, and so I wanted to take it off but still give you the astrology of the week because there's a lot going on this week.

Before we dive in, I want to look a couple weeks ahead to February. February, it's Black Love Month on Ghost of a Podcast, which means if you are Black and you would like to have a reading about anything that has anything to do with the matter of love⁠—self-love, relationships, relationship patterns, whatever kind of love issue that you would like a reading about⁠—go ahead and send me a question through the contact form on my website, and include the words "Black Love" in the title of your email or somewhere in the body of your email. And then stay tuned. If your question is selected, you will get an email, and then we will schedule the details and then meet up on Zoom and do a reading.

Let's giddy on up to this week in astrology, where there's a whole lot going on. The week begins on Sunday, January 12th. At 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time, Mars forms an exact trine to Neptune. Now, for those who need reminding, Mars is Retrograde. And so a Mars Retrograde is always inviting us to be in a state of reflection, to be considering our motivations, our actions, to explore those things, and then a transit like Mars trine to Neptune is really supportive for that, like super supportive for that.

Somebody asked me, actually, recently on my Patreon, "How do you make use of the positive transits?" It's bringing intention to the energies and the possibilities that are activated by the positive transits. And in this particular transit, we have sexy, ambitious Mars forming a nice, fluid trine to Neptune, the planet that governs possibility, fantasy, high spirituality, high arts. When these two planets form such a lovely aspect to each other, you may just have a really nice feeling in your body. You may feel motivated to act from a place of empathy and to tap into your spirituality.

This can be a time where you are motivated by your spiritual, ethical, or creative self. And this could translate to having just a fucking lovely time moving through nature and feeling connected to it, having a social interaction that feels really aligned and good, hooking up with someone and having it be de-fucking-lightful. This is a great time to tap into music⁠—making it, taking it in in whatever way you do⁠—and generally coming to a sense of ease in your system, in your body.

If you need to say, "I'm sorry," if you need to make amends, be humble, own your part, forgive someone else for something they've done, Mars trine Neptune is really supportive for that. And so it doesn't mean this transit will make that happen to you, but it does mean that the energy is supportive for you coming to greater alignment around these things if you put the energy and attention in that direction.

Now, that brings us to Monday, January the 13th, where we have not one but two exact transits. So, at 12:13 a.m. Pacific Time, the Sun will be at 23 degrees and 24 minutes of Capricorn, and it'll form an exact trine to Uranus at those exact same degrees. And then, later that afternoon, at 2:27 p.m. Pacific Time, we've got a Full Moon, babies, a Full Moon in Cancer with the Moon at 24 degrees and zero minutes of Cancer and the Sun ditto for fucking Capricorn. So let's talk about it.

Cancer is your roots. It's your ancestry. There's multiple things we can point to for ancestry because I know the word "ancestor" is a hot-button word, but Cancer governs the roots of your birth chart. It is the zodiac sign that is associated with your childhood and your memories and, therefore, your gut instincts, your gut reactions, your feelings, also your home in general, so your home now as an adult, your chosen family, as well as your family of origin. And it has so much to do with your reactions. It really does.

Now, Capricorn is best-laid plans. Capricorn is the zodiac sign that is associated with, "These are the things that I deem to be right. These are the things that I am planning towards. These are the actions I'm taking." You can't see me, but as I say these words, I am using my hands to climb a ladder. That's very Capricorn vibes. So, when we have a Full Moon in Cancer, what comes up is the tension between where you were and where you're going, what you feel and what you need emotionally and personally and what's demanded of you, your responsibilities, your obligations, real and perceived.

A Full Moon in Cancer is going to be super fucking emo. Let's just be clear. It's going to be super emo, and that's because the Moon is covered by Cancer. So now we have the Moon in its natural sign. That just means emotions are going to be running extra high. Now, on top of it, we have this very activating Mars opposition to Pluto that is ongoing. We have the ongoing tension between Saturn and Jupiter really forcing the question of, "Is this enough? Is this too much? Are my plans helping me to expand and grow, or are they keeping me stuck?"

So we have these larger tensions at play that, when we have a Full Moon in Cancer, are going to be a lot more emo. Emotions rise to the surface during a Full Moon, and in a Full Moon in Cancer, they swell to the surface. So, because of this⁠—bad time for consciousness-raising drugs. It would be very easy this Full Moon to feel really overwhelmed. This Full Moon is blessed by having a Sun trine to Uranus, as I mentioned, which means, therefore, the Moon is sextile to Uranus.

These aspects are the closest aspects of the Full Moon, and they're really strong. So the Sun trine to Uranus, similar to the Mars trine to Neptune, is creative. It is dynamic. It helps you to be more open-minded, more open to experiment and explore. Possibilities open up under these two transits, the Sun trine to Uranus and the Moon sextile to Uranus. This means that this Full Moon has within it so much possibility for creative, progressive change⁠—in other words, to make progress.

Uranus helps you to be more adaptable, to be open-minded and to explore different avenues than you typically would, which is really helpful because we're dealing with a Full Moon in Cancer, and Cancer can get really attached to, "This is how I do it. This is my narrative about the past or about myself." It can get a little stuck. Those pincher claws can get a little clamped down. Uranus is here, and Neptune, actually, because in this Full Moon chart, we also have a Neptune sextile to the Sun and trine to the Moon. It's a little wider than the Uranus transit, but these two outer planets are really supporting us in tapping into what is possible. Now, this is very personal, and it's also happening collectively. So we have the possibility for people to come together not just for themselves but for each other, so social movement, humanitarian shifts are very possible on and around this date. We of course want to do whatever we can as individuals to be a part of that.

Of course, that's not the whole, entire story. A wider aspect occurring in this Full Moon chart is to Chiron. The Sun and Moon, both being at 24 degrees of their respective signs, are forming a T-square to Chiron at 19 degrees of Aries. So I want to encourage you, if you need to, to pause this for a moment and go back to last week's episode, where I talked to you about the Sun square to Chiron. That was exact on the 8th. You can also check out the transcript available on my website.

Here we have the effects of that transit kind of being dragged out and into the emotionally charged event of this Full Moon in Cancer. And within this, I want to acknowledge that there's real challenges. Chiron is one of those actors, similar to Pluto, that even when it's there in a supportive way, it's challenging. Now, the Sun and Moon are both forming a square to Chiron, so it's not the easiest aspect. But the potential here is massive.

Full Moons are about releasing, about letting go. They're a time when the tension between what you feel and what you are become visceral; they become something that you really are meant to acknowledge and deal with so that you can flush out⁠—what is it serving you? And the Sun and Moon forming a T-square to Chiron creates an opportunity to release ancestral wounds or wounds from your childhood. Now, that's a big promise. So let me just pull back and contextualize it for you for a moment.

The releasing of an ancestral wound⁠—the sentence, it sounds so finite. But it's not a finite thing. Ancestral wounds⁠—they're like echoes through our DNA, echoes inside of our own interior worlds, which is a really big landscape. There's that which is felt in an epigenetic way that lands in your physiology as well as your psychology and your emotions and your spirit, and then there's the part of those same energies⁠—in this case, we're referring to wounds⁠—which are experienced through people that you are related to through biology, people that share your DNA strands or whatever.

Now, when you are able to release something of an ancestral wound, it doesn't mean that you're healing other people. I am firmly of the mind that we can heal ourselves, and we cannot heal other people. Your healing path is not going to magically heal your mom or your dad or ancestors that are in spirit and no longer in this physical form. That is my personal take.

But what happens when you as an individual do heal something that is an ancestral wound is it creates a loosening in the energy field throughout. And so it does have an impact. But again, you're not in charge of other people's healing. We each have our own journey in terms of our healing process, and it's ours as individuals to maintain. Now, how much of a Capricorn do I sound like, and how much am I embodying the Sun here of this Full Moon? But anyways, I digress.

The releasing of ancestral or childhood wounds⁠—those are two different things, but they're both classic of a Full Moon in Cancer⁠—can be a small, subtle shift that opens up the energy for the next small, subtle shift. It can be something really dramatic and big. It's important to not be goal-oriented when it comes to healing because when we're goal-orientated, we're fixated on what we believe to be the thing we need to do as opposed to present with whatever is active and truly felt in the moment. And that's what a Full Moon is about, especially a Full Moon in Cancer.

And so, while Chiron's influence may bring up insecurities, identity issues, fears about what you were or what you are or what you can or cannot be⁠—it might do any or all of those things⁠—the opportunity is for you to show all the way up. And during a Full Moon, we're not supposed to have the answers. We're not supposed to arrive at a conclusion. Instead, we're meant to show up, be in the emotions of it, and allow things to evolve and change without needing to know exactly what that means or how it's going to show up next month or anything like that.

So, again, it's a Full Moon in Cancer, and it's not a good time to be goal-oriented about your own emotional evolution, your own healing. Instead, be nurturing towards it. Be kind and supportive towards yourself, towards your process, and towards others. And if, in your efforts to be nurturing and supportive, you come up across that hard outer shell of Cancer, try to be nurturing and supportive to that. Sometimes our hard outer shell is what's needed⁠—it's the best possible medicine⁠—and other times, not so much; it's a way to inhibit vulnerability and true presence and healing. And we all experience all of it.

So this Full Moon in Cancer, be open to what you experience. Be curious about what you're experiencing. And know that there are really supportive energies at play for moving through old wounds, limitations that you hold about yourself, your attachment to painful parts of your past, whether they're lived experiences of yours or epigenetic patterns that are woven inside of you.

This is a powerful time for showing yourself greater kindness because I know it sounds overly simplistic, but I promise you it's not: kindness, empathy, love⁠—those qualities, when applied honestly, when applied intentionally, are profoundly healing. They are profoundly healing. And a Full Moon in Cancer is an opportunity to become aware of where and how you aren't applying those principles towards yourself and others and to let go of patterns that are not serving you, to release your attachments that aren't serving you. And all in all, it's going to be super emotional.

Now, that brings us to Tuesday, January 14th, where we have an exact square between Venus and Jupiter, with Venus at 12 degrees of Pisces and zero minutes and Jupiter at the same degrees of Gemini. This transit will be exact at 11:48 a.m. Pacific Time. It's a lovely transit. As far as squares go, it's one you want to feel. This transit can make you feel lazy. It can make you feel a little self-indulgent. It's not a great time for exercising restraint, especially around imbibing, shopping, any kind of substance or anything you ingest in general.

But other than that, it's fucking lovely. It's a great time for connecting with other people, for playing with creativity, flirting, feeling yourself, connecting with friends, with dates⁠—all of it. Jupiter expands the potential of Venus. So it can be a really great time for just connecting with things that you like and love and bringing the vibes of like and love to the things and the people around you. It's lovely. It's a party. And I want to be clear, for us introverts, a party vibe transit is sometimes just like walking around town alone having a lovely time, maybe making eye contact with people and having it feel nice.

Venus is in Pisces. So Venus in Pisces makes you extra sensey. That's what the vibe of that is. And so, for my highly sensitive people and my empaths, this is a great transit for practicing having healthy boundaries and doing so in a way that doesn't cut you off from others but instead allows you to be truly open around them without incurring any kind of problems. It's a practice. It's not easy, but Venus square Jupiter⁠—great transit for doing that. Unfortunately, this transit overlaps with a more challenging one.

By Wednesday, January 15th, at 6:39 p.m. Pacific Time, the Sun will be at 26 degrees of Capricorn and 13 minutes, and it will be opposite to Mars, who has retrograded to those same degrees of Cancer. So here's the thing. This transit can make you feel defensive, aggressive, competitive. It can make you feel assertive, motivated, passionate. It basically triggers the Solar energies of your will and your identity and the Martian energies of your ego and your needs or your sense of entitlement. And they're opposed to each other.

So you may fight with people. You might find people to be super fucking annoying, or⁠—get this⁠—other people may find you to be annoying. If somebody finds you to be annoying, it's not the end of the world because it's also not the end of the world if you find someone else to be annoying⁠—just a hot tip there. Half the time, when you are annoyed by someone, it's really about you. It's about your sensitivities, whatever shit you've got going on. It's not really about them, sorry to say. And the same thing is true in reverse.

Now, we live in a society, so we must find ways of getting along with each other. When we have a transit like Sun opposite Mars, even Mars Retrograde, it's a time where it's harder to get along. And therefore, it's a great way for you to understand more about your own relationship to your ego⁠, again, entitlement, anger, irritability⁠, and your own ability to navigate those things in yourself or in relationship with others because you might not be particularly activated in this way, but somebody else might be super activated.

With a Sun opposition to Mars transit, depending on your nature, you may be feeling really fucking irritated, just really gnashing your teeth kind of vibes, or if you have a harder time with Martian energies, you may be super exhausted, like very tired. You may feel oppressed or just unable to cope because that's the inverted expression of Mars. In that case, honor your feelings and ask yourself, "Where do I have agency here? What are my choices?" And if you remember what I said to you last week, you always have more than two choices. You always have more than two choices. So try to figure out what your choices are. Even if you don't feel confident that you can act on those choices, it's still a good exercise.

In terms of the world, unfortunately, this can be a violent transit. And so we want to be aware of the risk of that in the world. And if you feel fucking agitated and you're driving your car⁠—because Mars governs your car⁠—and you want to get mad at someone in traffic, maybe don't. Maybe don't. Trust that everyone's having a hard day, and also, you don't know what kind of bear you're poking. So be careful with that.

This transit doesn't inherently make a person accident-prone, but it does incline people to impulsive, defensive, or rash behaviors. Exercise a bit of caution, especially if you're agitated by something and you're repressing it; you're pushing it down. That's when you're most likely to have trouble with this transit. So look both ways before you cross the road. Maybe don't lift that crazy heavy weight at the gym⁠—you know, that kind of thing.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't speak to sex because Mars is related to sex. A Sun opposition Mars can trigger chemistry and vibes, which can be super fun. And also, it's not a stable transit. So proceed with caution is what I would say. This is not a great time for jumping into the pool before making sure that there's enough water in the pool, maybe that the water is clean, maybe that you're not wearing your shoes still⁠—I don't know. Rein in your impulses as much as you can. Mars Retrograde in general wants us to reflect. And in particular, with this transit, if you can be a little more cautious, that is ideal.

On Friday, January 17th, we have an exact sextile between the Sun and Neptune at 3:20 a.m. Pacific Time. The Sun will be at 27 degrees of Capricorn and 36 minutes, and Neptune will be at the same degrees of Pisces. You probably already know this, but if you want to be tracking the transits alongside with me, you can subscribe to my transit-tracking tool called Astrology for Days over at astrologyfordays.com.

So Sun sextile Neptune⁠—lovely transit. It increases your empathy, your sensitivities. It makes it easier to just kind of loosen the grip of that Sun/Mars opposition vibe. It is a lovely transit for just being more empathetic towards yourself and others. It increases your capacity to de-center your ego when that's important, to have healthy and aligned boundaries, and it's just a generally wonderful time to tap into your spirituality, to spend time in nature, to make some art or take in some art, and generally exchange kindness with others.

Now, this bad boy overlaps with two exact transits that are happening on the 18th. On Saturday, at 5:26 p.m. Pacific Time, the Sun will be at exactly 16 degrees of Pisces and 5 minutes, forming a conjunction to Saturn at the same place. Almost the next day, at 11:38 p.m. Pacific Time, Mercury forms an exact sextile to Saturn. Now, I'm going to start with the second one, Mercury sextile to Saturn⁠—so different than the Sun sextile to Neptune but similarly supportive. It is a great transit for steadying your thinking, for organizing your thoughts, making plans, going through your inbox. Basically, Mercury is your thinking. It's your communications. And Saturn is stable. It's realistic.

So it's just a great time to, again, make plans, follow through on plans, sort through details, do something that requires concentration that maybe you haven't had the energy to do. The only trouble is that fucking Venus conjunction to Saturn. Now, Venus conjunct Saturn is a hard transit in any zodiac sign. I think it's not particularly easier given that it's in Pisces. The Piscean energies increase sensitivity, and they can lead you towards feeling a little bit more helpless or hopeless or just kind of like, "I can't"⁠—just demoralized.

Venus conjunction to Saturn increases feelings of loneliness. Now, you may feel lonely even if you're partnered and happy and have lots of friends and all that kind of stuff. Loneliness is a human experience. All humans experience loneliness to varying extents because there is something inherent to the human condition which is isolative. While on an energetic plane we are all interconnected⁠—our fates and our fortunes are interwoven; that is real. But it's also real that I am in my body, and you're in your body, and I'm in my location, and you're in yours. We are separated by the material condition of being a human. And that's inherently lonely.

When Venus forms a conjunction to Saturn, you may feel stuck in your aloneness. You may feel isolated. You may feel just really overwhelmed with and confronted by what isn't working in your relationships or the relationships you don't have. You may be feeling burdened⁠—thank you, Saturn⁠—by relationship patterns that are either present or in your past.

This is not a great time to spontaneously break up with someone or to get back together with an ex. This may be a time when both of those things happen, though. The reason why it's not a great time is because Saturn creates this level of scarcity and nostalgia that may have you grasping at things, making them worse than they are, or, kind of conversely, have you so scared of being stuck in loneliness or sadness that you hold on to someone or something that just isn't good for you. So, if you can avoid making any permanent changes to your relationships that you're not certain around, basically this week in general but certainly the second half of this week, that would be in your best interest.

Venus conjunction to Saturn is a transit where your feelings of security and stability get activated, and you may feel really like you're not safe. And the truth of the matter is you may not be safe. I do not know. But the key whenever Saturn is involved is to be accountable, to take responsibility. And what is responsibility if not simply tapping into your ability to respond and, because Venus is involved, respond in a way that reflects your values?

You may be dealing with financial issues. We may see shit go down in the world around the economy, around women's rights or the rights of Queer and Trans people. There's many ways this transit can shake down. But what I want to kind of ground you into is that how you choose to engage, whether it's with other people, with your finances, or in your relationship to yourself, is a reflection on who you are. It's a reflection on who you are choosing to be.

This transit can often trigger really shitty feelings about your meat suit, about the way you look or the way you feel, other people feel about the way you look⁠—all that kind of stuff. And I want to encourage you to, if that shit comes up for you, try to hold it in proportion. And if you recognize that the way you're holding those kinds of feelings or any of the feelings that get triggered by this transit are disproportionate to the value you actually believe they have, okay, great. You don't have to magically fix that. You certainly don't need to feel guilty or be mean to yourself about that. But self-awareness is the foundation to evolution and progress. So, if you cultivate self-awareness during a conjunction transit, that ain't half bad.

Even though this transit can be heavy and make you feel shitty⁠—you might interact with people who are responding to this transit in a way that makes them really cut off and harsh-feeling, or you might do that yourself⁠—this is going to be an important time to center your agency, to act in ways that reflect humility, accountability, and your values, what you deem to be truly of value.

Now, that, my friends, is your horoscope for this week. There was a lot of transits, so I'm going to run through them all. Stay tuned after I run through the transits because I'm going to play tiny, little excerpts of my meditation for Cancer and my meditation for Capricorn in honor of this week's Full Moon in Cancer. If you would like to listen to the full meditations or any of the other meditations from my new audiobook, Meditations for Your Sign, the link is in the episode description and also on my website.

On January 12th, Mars Retrograde forms an exact trine to Neptune. On the 13th, the Sun forms a trine to Uranus, and we have a Full Moon in Cancer. On the 14th, Venus forms an exact square to Jupiter. On the 15th, the Sun sits in opposition to Mars Retrograde. On the 17th, the Sun forms an exact sextile to Neptune. And finally, on the 18th, Venus sits on top of Saturn, and Mercury forms a sextile to Saturn. Very Saturnian, very real.

I want to thank you for joining me this week on Ghost. Now settle in for a tiny moment to tap in.

Welcome to this meditation on the essence of the zodiac sign of Cancer. Ruled by the Moon, Cancer's energies are deeply emotional and vulnerable.

Capricorn is an earth sign that governs over time and wisdom and is symbolized by a mythical creature, a goat with a fish tail. Capricorn's energies include the wisdom of water and the emotionally and spiritually replenishing inspiration they yield.