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. Let’s get into this week’s question. It goes like this: “I am extremely sensitive and can’t seem to keep boundaries up no matter what I try. The energy is so strong, and it seems to knock me around. I feel it physically, and sometimes it feels like a physical attack. It’s almost as if the collective energy gets transmuted or stuck in my body, and it seems to be getting worse as the collective tension gets thicker. My typical healing tools aren’t working, and even if I feel fine, I can be easily taken out by the collective. Thankfully, I have great healers that help me clear stuck energy, but how can I do this on my own? Am I too sensitive for the world? How do I put up boundaries when you’re dealing with energy, especially at this heightened time?” And So Sensitive was born January 11th, 1985, making this person my birthday buddy, at 10:39 a.m. in Richmond, Washington.

So let me just dive right into this. This period in time is exceptional. I feel like last year, I said that a lot, too. These are exceptional times, and you know what? Giddy up. Next year is going to be exceptional, too. Whether we’re looking at the climate, the pandemic, issues related to social justice, or injustice as it were, the economy, war, and unsafe conditions domestically and globally, it is an exceptional fucking time, right?

Believe it or not, energetically sensitive people absolutely feel the energy of the collective. I would argue everyone feels collective energy in some way or another, to some extent or another. But, of course, some people sing really well, and some people cannot carry a tune. That’s just reality. Similarly, some people are really energetically sensitive and some people not as much. Being an empath, being psychic, being a medium, being any kind of clairaudient/clairsentient woo-woo-style human person, these things are regarded as a gift. And it’s because it is a gift. It’s a real gift, and like most gifts, it’s kind of a burden, too.

So we’re going to talk about where So Sensitive’s energetic sensitivities come from in the birth chart and also the best ways of handling it. But before we do that, I will say this. I don't think a person has to be especially sensitive to be feeling thrown around these days. The energy is chaotic. So let me just dive into this.

Okay, Sensitive. There’s a number of things to name. The first one is you’re a Capricorn, once again fucking with the stereotype that Capricorns are not sensitive and empathetic creatures. You've got a Sun/Jupiter conjunction. This is a lovely natal aspect, and it does increase your sensitivities in that whatever you feel, you feel big. And this natal aspect is part of a beautiful Earth T-Square between the Moon in Virgo and North Node in Taurus. And this configuration intensifies your sensitivities and predisposes you to feeling things in your body when you feel them.

Now, luckily, you have a capacity for optimism, and you have a capacity to love humanity and love the Earth and to see the good that is out there. That is a beautiful thing about this Grand Trine. The problem with the Grand Trine that you have is that because it involves your North Node in Taurus, the way that you’re going to most healthily and usefully leverage this energy is by being clear about what it is that you value. Not what you believe, not what you wish for, but what you actually, fundamentally value.

And this is a tricky thing. It’s especially tricky because your North Node and your Moon are both intercept in the houses that they rest in, and of course that’s by me using Campanus houses. And whenever we have intercept planets—and these are not your only intercept planets—they’re kind of harder to access for the person who has them. So other people might see these parts of your nature; they might think, “Oh, you’re very values driven, and you’re very emotional.” But for you, it might feel a little bit harder to access those planets because you were given clear messages, whether they were direct or passive—you were given clear messages when you were in your early developmental years that these were parts of yourself that weren’t safe to inhabit and embody.

Because of that, there’s kind of a disorientation even around this Grand Trine, which is, technically speaking, very lovely. But it can make you feel like when you have empathy, when you are connected to the collective, there’s something vulnerable in that, something that is in some ways dangerous to you. And that can be a little bit hard to put your finger on.

But let me stick another finger on it by saying this. You also have a Venus/Mars conjunction in the sign of Pisces in the twelfth house intercept. Now, that is the most hidden, tucked-away Venus/Mars I’ve ever seen. I mean, truly, there’s only one thing that can make it more hidden and tucked away. So, in the context of your love life and your friendships and all that kind of good stuff, there’s tons to say, but we’re going to save that for another conversation.

For this conversation, what is important to say is this. It is hard for you to know and trust what your rights are, how much you get to own your own energy. You are empathetic, deeply empathetic. Whether you’re technically an empath or not only you can tell me. I don't know. But you definitely feel other people's energies, and because of this placement plus another I’ll tell you about in a moment, you absolutely tap into collective energies.

Whenever we are impacted directly by collective energies, especially trauma, it’s bigger than us. Right? And so, in order to hold a boundary energetically against something that big, the collective, or something as big as an injustice that you have a great deal of empathy and care about, what you must be able to do on a fundamental level is identify and locate yourself, and then believe and be in contact with the belief that you have a right to your own body and to your own energetic space. And that is hard to do. I’m going to say it’s really hard to do. And you might be really good at it in some moments and not so much in others. It is a practice. They call it energy work because it’s work. It’s hard work to work with energy.

For you, I imagine that you will spend your life identifying, “Oh shit. I’m being slammed by some energy that’s not my own. I’ve identified that, and now I need to locate my body, tap into my body, resource my body, and inhabit my body.” And doing that second step of really tapping into your body is uncomfortable because when we get energetically slammed by other people, whether it’s collective or individual people, it’s so uncomfortable to stay present in the body, so most of us just pop out and stay fucked off, and it makes everything worse.

The second step here of staying present and located in your system is a practice. But in doing so and breathing, ideally breathing with your parasympathetic nervous system, in other words, deep, slow breaths in your belly and out of your belly—in doing this, you can identify whether it’s energetically or analytically—probably, for you, it’ll be a little bit more energetically—what’s not yours. And then, my friend, you must be meaningfully convicted—doesn’t have to be 100 percent, but really meaningfully convicted—that you have a right to kick that shit out of your system.

This is the trouble because all the things I’ve named in your chart so far, and a bunch of other things that I haven’t, articulate that you struggle to believe that you have the right to say no, especially in the face of something that is actually really traumatic and awful, like you’re saying no to human suffering or animal suffering or whatever it is. That’s really hard to do. So what you want to understand is that holding on to energy for others—again, individuals or collective—it’s not actually helping them. It’s just hurting you.

And so being able to really have the conviction and belief that you have the right to say, “This is too much energy, and I cannot hold it in a healthy way. I am returning it to source,” and then you can do that in any number of ways, right? You can call in your guidance and ask them to take care of it. You can throw it in a portal. This is something I’ve talked about on my Patreon a bit where I personally have painted portals in locations that aren’t dangerous for me to do so, and then I throw energy into them. The reason why I paint the portal on a wall is because it’s easier if I see it as a physical space because I am a three-dimensional being. You know what I mean? And so are you, So Sensitive. So are you.

So you can throw it in a portal. You can throw it into the sky. You can throw it into the ocean. You can do any number of things. You can compost it. But what you want to do is to release it and to release responsibility for it. It’s not yours to carry. And then, from there, turn to trusted resources for helping you clear out whatever it is that you couldn’t clear out because it is true that with your sensitivities and your meaningful twelfth house that this is a way you’re likely to need help over the course of your life. I don't know if you'll need it forever and ever, but for sure, that is a thing that is a part of your sensitivities. You know? I mean, some people have really tight shoulders. Some people, their teeth are really close together and it’s hard for them to floss. You are an energetic sponge. We all have things—most of us have many things—that function best when we get help to deal with them, right? That’s not a failure, and it’s not being fucked up. It’s just part of being a human person.

So, when it comes to clearing stuck energy, part of the trick here is to not try to track it. You don't need to track it. It’s not yours to track. It’s to release it because you believe you can. Now, when I look at the top of your chart, you have a Mercury/Neptune/Midheaven conjunction in Capricorn. Hey, girl, you have a lot of Capricorn in your chart, four planets plus your Midheaven. That’s a lot of Capricorn. So you do have access to grounding. You do have that in your nature. Having Mercury in Capricorn gives you a very systematic mind. You do well with steps. So it’s probably a really good idea to have a series of notes in your phone with different exercises you can do to identify your energy, to clear your energy, and then to shield yourself.

But this is where we come into another layer of problem. That Neptune conjunction to your Mercury in Midheaven makes it hard for you to shield yourself because of your own ambiguity about whether or not you should or whether or not you’re doing it right. It is really important that you’re not perfectionistic when it comes to boundary work or energy work because there is no such thing as perfect. There’s only where you’re at and how you choose to respond. That’s it.

Let me just throw one more little curveball at you. You’ve got Uranus squaring your Mars. It’s also square to Venus, but it’s much tighter to Mars. This makes you very impatient. So Jupiter conjunct to Sun does it. The Uranus square to Mars and Venus does it. Man, are you impatient. And so part of what’s going to be important for you in doing the steps is to know that you can do them quickly. You don't have to do them really slowly in order for them to be done well. You've got to find the pace that works for you, one that’s sustainable for you and effective for you. But you don't want to abandon the breath. You don't want to abandon your body. Those are the keys because what happens for so many of us who are energetically sensitive, especially those of us who have trauma or are sensitive to the traumas that are happening in the world, is that we abandon the parts of ourselves that are impacted by trauma. And we do this as a self-protective measure, whether we don't want to burden other people or we don't know how to cope otherwise.

Whenever we abandon ourselves, well, I mean that’s just shitty. Right? You’re literally abandoning yourself. It’s very important to know that broadly, in your life in general, learning how to nourish yourself, to choose the things, the foods, the activities, the people who are expansive and healthy and grounding for you—that’s a huge part of your lessons in this life, and in particular, and especially right now because of what’s happening in the world but also because Neptune is currently squaring your natal Moon. And what it’s doing is it’s triggering your beautiful Grand Trine.

Now, again, sounds great when I call it pretty, right? But Neptune square to the Moon is a transit—and it just started this March and will be active for two full years before it’s over. Neptune square to the Moon is a transit that shakes up your emotions. It makes it so that you’re more energetically and emotionally sensitive. And in your birth chart, like I said, you've got the Moon in Virgo in the sixth house, which means that you do experience your emotions in your body. It will feel like getting slammed in the gut, literally, or it’ll take your breath away when you get hit by energy.

And this particular transit, because it’s triggering this really expansive, beautiful Grand Trine, it’s triggering this part of yourself that just knows that it is successful and well when it opens up. But you need boundaries. You can’t just be open all the time to all the things, right? And it sounds like you very much know that.

So I’m going to give you a couple pieces of advice here. One, stay aware of the news. Yeah, I know. It’s weird that I said that. Most empaths run around telling me, “I do not listen to the news. I do not watch the news because I can’t take it.” But I will posit, as a person who’s worked with many empaths and an empath myself, that we need to know what’s happening in the world in order to know where we can constructively send our energy for good, what we’re being impacted by, and how to best handle it. Right?

And so it’s not about being a news junkie or consuming tragedy porn. It’s about staying aware about what’s happening in the world around you so that if you start getting overwhelmed with really anxious feelings, you can know, “Oh, wow, maybe something's happening in the world. I’m going to look at it.” And then you do your energy-clearing work. And if you feel called and if you have the resources, you can try to help. You can help energetically. You can help materially. The choice is yours.

The key is to know that your sensitivities exist for a reason. I don’t mean to create an army of empath saviors or anything like that because that’s not what it’s about. It’s our empathy exists for a reason, and it’s not meant to be smooshed away. We’re meant to figure out how to use it in a way that improves the world around us and our lives. Right? It’s kind of got to be both because our wellness cannot be separated from the wellness of the world. The personal is political; the political is personal. We know this, right?

So this Neptune square to the Moon transit that you’re going through is intensifying your sensitivities, weakening your boundaries, and calling you to care. When your energy boundaries are locked in, when you’re not feeling like you've been kicked in the face by the universe, you can do energy work. Now, I don't know what your vibe is. I don't know what your skill set is. But it can be tricky and sticky to send energy to other people without their consent. Personally, me, I don't like people sending me energy unless we’ve talked about it and I’ve given them my clear consent because what you might think is good energy might not be in accordance with where I’m at and what I want, right? So I’m not a fan of people sending energy without consent.

Okay. Cool. That said, what you can do without getting into trouble is helping to connect people with their guidance. That is something that doesn’t really have a downside, and there are very few people who don't want to be connected to their guidance, but there’s a lot of us who unconsciously, consistently unhook from our guidance. So, if a person doesn’t want to be connected to their guidance for any reason, they will have no problem unhooking from it. But if they are lost and they actually want or need help connecting to guidance, that is something that you, as an energetically sensitive person, can do. The key is to only do it from a grounded, centered, and present place. It’s a version of that, right? So you don't lose yourself or give something that you actually can’t afford to give when you’re doing it.

Now, my love, I wish I could tell you that things were going to get easier, but they’re probably not. The world is a shit show, and you’re sensitive to the world. So you’re going to feel the shit in the show. Instead of wringing your hands or freaking out—actually, go ahead. Wring your hands. Freak out if you'd like. But once that’s done, my advice to you, my dear, is to accept your sensitivities and make peace with, maybe even embrace, that you have resources available to you and that you may be in a period now where you need extra help. But while you’re getting help from people, hopefully you’re learning what they’re doing and you’re practicing doing it on yourself and for yourself.

These are exceptional times. Be patient with your process, and don’t give up.

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Darlings, Darlings, Darlings, here we are, another week of Ghost of a Podcast. Hey, guess what. It was just the three-year anniversary of Ghost of a Podcast. It’s really exciting. And if you've been with me for just a week or for the whole damn time, I say thank you unto you. And yeah, I love making this podcast. So I hope you get a lot of value out of it, and as always, if you do get value out of the show, subscribe because hitting that Subscribe button really does help. Also, give me five stars. Write me a nice review on Apple Podcasts if you’re in the market.

So we’ve got some stuff to talk about astrologically, but before we do that, I will say two things, I think. Maybe I’ll say more. No one knows. Flying by the seat of our pants over here.

Okay. So the first one is, if you’re in California, there’s something very important. It’s called the election. And on September 14th, there will be an election. I encourage you to vote by mail. I mean, some people really like voting in person, but here’s the fucking thing, see. As of the 6th of September, we’re going to be in a Mercury Retroshade. That’s right. This election for governor in the state of California is so important not only to Californians but to the whole nation, and it’s happening during a fucking Mercury Retroshade.

So, if you can, vote before Mercury goes Retroshade, aka vote before September 6th by mail. And if, by the way, you’re concerned at all about your ballot being stolen or if you want to track your ballot, there’s really easy ways of doing that, what with this modern world we live in. You can go to wheresmyballot.sos.ca.gov. I’m going to pop that link in the show notes so that you have it and it’s easy for you to find. You can get email or text notifications about your ballot. So what’s the harm in that, I say? There’s none. You knew it. I know it. Okay. Voting, it’s great. It’s not all the things, but it’s an important thing.

Now to the more emo and woo shit that I want to speak to before getting into the details of this week’s horoscope. There is so much happening in the world, right? I’m sure there’s a lot happening in your life. And then, also, there is so much tension and division and suffering, not just because of COVID but absolutely because of COVID, not just because of climate change but absolutely because of climate change, not just because of what’s happening in Afghanistan but certainly because of what’s happening in Afghanistan.

I could keep going. There are so many things locally, domestically, internationally, globally that are happening and that impact people in really tense and difficult ways. And if you are an empath, if you are an energetically sensitive person, if you are a caring person, if you are a person who is invested in the wellness of others or of the collective, then you’re going through some shit right now. Right? And those are just extra on top of things we’ve come to expect of daily life. We’ve got extras on top of it, and it’s a lot. It’s a lot to hold for any individual person.

And so I wanted to just touch in and acknowledge that there’s a lot happening. And I want to just kind of invite you to ask yourself a couple questions. Just slow down. Slow down, sit down if you can—really slow down—and ask yourself, “How am I taking care of myself?” Slow down and check in with yourself because last year, 2020, so many people were activated and coming together to be a part of solutions. And it was a very stressful year, right?

As the saying goes, action is the antidote for anxiety. Now, of course, it’s a truism. It doesn’t apply in all situations for all people. However, there is something quite fortifying about coming together and having ongoing conversations and engagement, so going beyond conversation and into action to try to be part of a solution for things that you understand to be broken or unwell or not functioning optimally, right?

In 2021, there’s been so much less coming together. There’s been so much more division. And this is really easy to see by just living in the damn world, reading the news, or scrolling through social media. Division everywhere. But on an energetic level, that division, it feels a lot like shards. The energy is very shardy. Not shitty, shardy. You know what I mean? Like sharp and fragmented. And that energy is, as I’ve talked about on the pod a lot, rough on the mental health, but it’s also rough on the spiritual health and the emotional health.

And so you may look at the immediate circumstances of your life and feel super like, “There’s nothing really wrong. Things are going well.” But the energetics might not line up with that. You might be feeling the overwhelm and the pain and the confusion and the disorientation that so many people are suffering through, right? It is hard to know what to believe. It is hard to know what to feel. And that makes it really hard to know what to do.

So I invite you to slow down and check in with yourself. What do you really care about? What’s actually really important to you? And do your actions reflect that value? Do your actions reflect what you care about? Have you lost track of self-care? Have you lost track of doing things that fortify and nourish and support you? Are you getting distracted too much by things that are kind of like Band-Aids on bullet wounds? Because I think that’s a big thing that is likely to have happened in this period we’ve just come out of with Jupiter in Pisces. Jupiter is back in Aquarius now, and it might be a little bit easier to see if you've been numbing yourself out instead of caring for yourself.

And I want to just reiterate that when I talk about self-care, I am not just talking about bubble baths and pedicures and Tarot readings. Girl, I am not. I am also talking about making sure that you are showing up in the world and for the world, understanding that your personal wellness and the social and political systems we live in are intertwined. And if you feel or think that they are not, I invite you to investigate that. Who’s looking out for your rights? Who’s taking care of you? We’ve all kind of got to take care of each other and in our own ways. There’s a lot of ways of doing a damn thing. Finding our own ways for who we are, where we’re at in life at this moment, and the resources and skills that we have available to us, that is part of self-care in my view, and it’s a meaningful part of self-care.

Using spirituality as a way to disassociate from the world or check out from the world—it’s really satisfying to do that in the short term, and it’s no bueno in the long term, very wrong. Doesn’t work. It’s not really self-care. It’s not really healing if it’s only for you. And I say this understanding that there has to be a phase of development or many phases of development in our individual lives where it is only about us because that’s where we’re fucking at. If we stay there, it becomes a rut, and that rut can feel a lot of different ways, but it’s not sustainable. And, again, there are exceptions to all the rules for all the people.

But I do want to encourage you to check in with self-care and to really create some space in your life to look at the ways in which there’s room for improvement and there’s room for greater empathy and kindness and there’s room for more firmness, taking greater responsibility for who you are and how you participate both in your inner world and in the world around you. This is all about honoring your feelings. This is all about cultivating emotional maturity so that you can take real care of yourself and understanding that taking care of yourself is not at the expense of caring for others. It’s a part of caring for others, just like caring for others in a healthy and sustainable way with self-appropriate boundaries that are well communicated is a part of caring for your insights and your spiritual life.

When I look at things energetically, when I read so many of your questions, I really get the feeling that so many people feel just like a rubber band being stretched to its damn limit. I want to just acknowledge that because you are not alone in feeling that way. And if you scroll through social media or you go out in the world, it might feel like you’re alone in feeling that way because I think everyone is trying to be normal. Everyone’s trying to go back to normal. But things aren’t normal. We are in a fucking pandemic. We are in some unprecedented stressful times, and it’s okay to feel feelings about that. It’s more than okay. It's healthy. And sometimes feeling sad or bad or mad is the healthiest fucking thing you can do. It’s not fun. No one loves it. But it’s healthy to feel your feelings.

There is a time for sitting in your feelings, and there is a time for trying to find constructive perspectives or actions to cope with your feelings. There’s even a time for numbing out from your feelings. It’s okay to have a time for all of it, but the key is to have a time for all of it, to not get caught up in one coping strategy for so long that you fail to remember that it’s a coping strategy and that all strategies need to adjust as time and circumstances progress. Right?

Now, I’ll just throw one more thing about this in before I move on to the week’s horoscope. On Patreon every month, on the Kittens level, I drop a month-ahead horoscope. And when I looked at September and recorded September’s horoscope, I thought to myself, “Oh my,” with many more four-letter words in the middle. There’s a lot of draining and testing energy that is on the horizon for us. And the better relationship, the more associated and present, empathetic, and responsible relationship we have to ourselves and to the reality we’re in in this moment, the more equipped we’ll be to respond to the energies in a healthy and healing way. And that’s the fucking move. Am I right?

So that was said. I said it. Now let’s say some other shit. Okay. This week, we are looking at August 29th through September 4th of 2021. Welcome. It’s Virgo season. You know me. I don’t talk too much about the Solar Seasons, but it’s worth acknowledging. We have gone from fire to earth and the vibes have shifted. The first exact transit that we have this week is happening on the 2nd, and that is a Mars opposition to Neptune. Okay. All right. Not the chillest of all transits.

In astrology, the planets Mars and Neptune, I would say, are the two most different planets from each other. Mars is all about the ego. It is about materialism. And Neptune is about formlessness and egolessness. It is about the ethereal and that which has no form. And so, when Mars in Virgo forms an opposition to Neptune in Pisces, it can be really uncomfortable and difficult because Mars governs conflict and fighting, and Neptune is not comfortable with any kind of confrontation or any kind of conflict.

This can look a lot of different ways. It can be that secrets become revealed, and they piss a person off. That is possible. It’s also possible that you will be feeling really passive aggressive, or you might be dealing with somebody who’s behaving or feeling very passive aggressive. And the reason why passive aggression emerges when Neptune and Mars are involved is because Mars is like, “I deserve to have my needs met. I deserve to tell you that you've hurt my feelings,” and Neptune is like, “But do I really deserve that? I don't think I really deserve that,” or, “I’m scared you don't think I deserve that.”

And so the way that the expression of frustration or anger or entitlement emerges is kind of like you’re holding it with one hand and you’re pulling it back with another, so it comes off really weird. And, unfortunately, that means you’re likely to get very weird reactions out of people because the energy isn’t coming from any kind of centralized place. So here’s the thing. If you can avoid conflict in a direct way, that’s your best bet. So if shit comes for you or if you’re feeling something really intensely, acknowledging it and acknowledging that you’re not in the right space to deal with it is a really good approach if you can use it. This is a terrible time for submerging or suppressing your feelings, because they’re going to leak out because it’s fucking Mars. So they’re going to leak out. But if you can acknowledge, “These are my feelings and I can’t necessarily figure out what to do with them, but I’m entitled to have them; I’m just not entitled to act on them in any way”—so feelings? Check. Yes. Entitlement to acting on feelings? Not as much. Right? There’s a difference between these two things.

Mars opposition to Neptune is uncomfortable. It really can make you feel depleted, exhausted, like your energy is really low, and confused about what to do about it. But what’s worse is, because this is an opposition, this transit can present itself in such a way that it feels like you’re being pressured to act but you don't have the energy to do so, or you want something to move forward, you want something to happen, but it’s just not clear. Nothing is really clear.

Neptune governs confusion and anxiety and uncertainty, also idealism. Another really kind of negative interpretation of this transit is it can have you believing in a fantasy that is not in any way rooted in reality. It can have you caught up in some probably upsetting or scary conspiracy theory or some sort of idea that specifically absolves you or a group of people of responsibility for yourself. So you want to watch out for that. Watch out for dealing with people who are dealing with that and watch out for that yourself.

There’s a lot of ways that this transit can go that are difficult and uncomfortable, but here are some positives, okay? The positive potential of this transit—and it takes, certainly, some intentionality and effort to make it go there—is that you can sit with what you’re uncomfortable with and where you might be feeling anxious or stuck or confused, and check in with your own motivations. Look at not just your material motivations but your spiritual motivations.

At the end of the day, certain things are truly important to you, and other things are distracting and demanding but not necessarily important. This transit can help motivate you to sort through the difference between these things. You might really, really want to make a lot more money. You might be really fixated on making more money. Making more money is super important to you, but it’s stressing you out and it’s robbing you of your wellness. And so, if you sit with this transit, you might come to see you want to make more money, but you need to get right with yourself. You need to prioritize revitalizing your own energies before you prioritize money because it’s not a need. It’s a desire, and it’s a desire that’s getting in the way of your wellness. This is an example. It is a general one that a lot of people probably can resonate with.

And the thing about Mars, as we know, is it has an urgent energy about it. And Neptune is not urgent at all. Neptune is—it’s like sea spray. It’s like fog. It’s hard to contain. It can be delightful. It can be confusing. But it’s not urgent in its energies. In fact, Neptune can often feel quite depleting. It can make you feel tired, and it can make you feel like you just don't have the energy to move forward. And so, again, the key is to not prioritize external progress but, instead, the internal machinations that are underneath your desire to mobilize. It’s not the chillest.

Now, in the context of the world, this transit is a red flag for extremism, especially religious extremism or extremism that is concerned with purity, which to me is a huge red flag. Purity is a real problematic and risky concept a lot of times in the way it is applied. So there are some real risks around that sort of stuff. If you don't feel safe, if you don't feel grounded and centered in your body, do the best you can to take care of yourself, to listen to your feelings.

Another thing about this particular transit, if you can avoid launching things this week and especially on this day, that would be great. And if you have to, be humble. If you find that there are errors or mistakes, own them.

Last word about this transit. This transit can make it very tempting to want to blame others for how you feel or what’s happening. And the truth is other people may very much be at fault. However, there’s a level on which—and I’m speaking spiritually. There’s a level on which we must assess, “Do I need to give my energy to others?” first of all, and then secondly, “Is blaming other people a way for me to evade feeling the feelings I’m having and taking responsibility for my participation?” These are all the kinds of issues that Mars opposition to Neptune kicks up. Again, it’s uncomfortable. I am so sorry it’s happening, but it’s happening, so here we are.

I guess I would be remiss if I didn’t mention wear a mask. Wash your paws. Use common sense. Pandemic is not over. Okay? Cool. Yeah. It’s Neptune and Mars, so not a great time to get sick, slash, maybe an easy time. So common sense. Take care of yourself.

So that brings us to the next transit, which is exact on the 4th, which is a Mercury trine to Saturn. This is good news, I’m happy to say, because it’s overlapping with the Mars opposition to Neptune. Now, Mercury trine to Saturn is a great time for making plans, for fortifying your thinking, for getting organized, for actually responding to your emails and checking your DMs and calling people back. It’s just really good for communicating and organizing your thoughts, talking to friends, especially people who maybe you feel like you've got to show up for something. Maybe you need to apologize. Maybe you need to catch up or just show up in some way that you haven’t been. Mercury trine to Saturn is great for that.

So, because of the Mars opposition to Neptune, Mercury trine to Saturn is not standing on its own. This transit will support us in being able to organize and make sense of what we think and what’s happening, what we need. That’s great. It’s fortifying, right? We want a fortifying transit like this to happen at the same time as the Mars opposition to Neptune. Good news, I say. Good news. So it’s not going to fix the difficulties of the transit, but it is a resource.

If you’re feeling really off, this is a great week, even if it’s not your typical thing, to make lists. Mercury trine to Saturn is a great time for list-making, for just basically getting organized. So taking a systematic, Saturnian approach to your thinking and your situation this whole week will really help you. And that transit, again, is exact on the 4th.

Those are the only two exact transits this week. On the 2nd, Mars is exactly opposite Neptune, and on the 4th, Mercury is exactly trine to Saturn. But we’re also going to start feeling, this week, a transit that will be exact on Sunday, the 5th of September. Okay? And that is a Venus square to Pluto. So I’m going to spare a few words for it because you’re going to be feeling it this week even though it’s only exact on the first day of next week’s horoscope, okay? So you’re going to hear me talk about it two weeks in a row.

Venus square to Pluto is hard. It’s a hard transit. So Venus square to Pluto, broadly speaking, intensifies compulsions socially and romantically. So feeling a little defensive, maybe a little passive aggressive, not sure what’s real/what’s not, because of the Mars opposition to Neptune? Oh well. Venus square to Pluto is going to make you feel compulsive and insecure about it on top of it. Huzzah.

So Venus square to Pluto will intensify compulsions. So a couple pro-tips. Do not obsess on people and things that hurt you. If you find yourself obsessing on things that are painful and not in a way that is creative or generative or problem-solving, but instead just in a way where you’re obsessing on why you feel bad, how bad you feel, how the other person is thriving, what the other person feels, what the other person meant, that kind of thinking, that shit is going to make you feel terrible. And it’s a really bad expression and use of this energy.

What this transit can often kick up is a fixation on where you don't feel valued or where you don't feel like you look like you want to look or have what you want to have. And the key with this transit is to align with your values and to recognize that if something's upsetting you, if something is kind of kicking you in the gut, it’s because you have placed value on it. So what is its value? What is it that you value about the thing you’re obsessing on?

So, if you’re obsessing on some ex-friend or an ex-partner or your frenemy or whatever the fuck it is, what is it that you’re getting out of what they have or what they think or what they feel or what happened in your past? What’s the value in it? Because if you can’t find value in it, then that’s great information for you to have, and it’s motivating for you to redirect your thinking, redirect your energy.

If you have been thinking, “Huh, I could use a break from social media,” hey, now. This is a good week for it, and it will be next week, too, certainly the first few days of next week. So, if you can’t scroll in a responsible way, maybe you should stop scrolling. If you feel too shitty to hang out with people, don’t fucking hang out with people. This is a time where you want to watch out for your tendencies to do things that feel bad because you’re driven by powerful feelings. I’ve said it once. I’ve said it thrice. I’ll say it a million times more. Your strongest emotions are not reliably your wisest emotions. You’re going to want to really pay attention to that this week throughout the week when we feel both the Mars opposition to Neptune and as we start to feel that Venus square to Pluto.

If someone comes at you with drama, again, if you don't like the game, don’t play. If you don't have the capacity to process, you don't have to process. You may have to be responsible to that person by saying, “I hear you, and I cannot respond. This is when I will talk to you about this. Give me X amount of days or weeks,” or whatever it is. You’re responsible for your own energy when you come to a thing. So do your best to honor where you’re at and to honor your relationships. And I’ll get way more into this next week. I promise. But I wanted to give you a little heads-up because you will be feeling it this week.

Now, my loves, I thank you for joining me for yet another episode of Ghost, and I want to remind you I have a book. Not only is it beautiful—because it’s very cute—but it is a comprehensive look at astrology in a way that’s really relevant. It’s about your friendships, your dating life, and your serious relationships. So check out Astrology for Real Relationships. It’s available, I think, pretty much wherever books are sold. I think it’s even available at libraries. I fucking love libraries. Do you like libraries? I think they’re great. And if you’re in the market for audiobooks, I dictated the book. So you get to hear this old voice you've come to know. That’s kind of cute, right? I think it’s kind of cute.

Anyways, yeah, go get my fucking book. Join me on Patreon, Let’s Get Weird on Instagram, and subscribe to my weekly horoscope. Yeah, I have a free weekly horoscope. It’s all linked in the show notes. Check them out.

Okay. Take care of yourself. Be kind to your body. Be kind to your mind. Be kind to your heart. Be patient with your progress. I will talk to you next week.