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. 

My loves it is time to talk about the year ahead, looking at the astrology of 2020. If I'm being totally honest, I really struggled with this. I struggle with this, in fact, I brought my struggle to social media and thousands of you voted on Twitter and Instagram, um saying, please tell us all the news of the astrology, even if it's annoying or hard or sad or bad and then several hundred of you said, no, don't do that. So, you know, majority wins. That's just real talk that's democracy in action for you. 

The reason why I struggled with this is many reasons, really. One is, as I've mentioned on the podcast I think once before, a huge part of why I started Ghost of a Podcast was because of my concerns about the astrology of 2020, and honestly of 2021. I see, you know, the major transits from the outer planets. Uh, I see the impending Pluto return of the United States in 2021 and it gives me a lot of deep concerns. 

There is a way that as an astrologer, I can read the omens. I can interpret the data. I can synthesize what I see in the context, not only of my understanding of astrology, but in my ability to read the news, local, domestic, and global.

I'm a person; I'm a subjective person. I'm a passionate, subjective person who comes from refugees. So, I don't have a real optimistic worldview or what one would characterize as a great deal of confidence in governments and armies and such. 

So, I think it's really important that I share this with you as I am recording this the first week of January, 2020. And we are very close to that January 12th, Saturn Pluto conjunction, which really was the transit that inspired me more than anything else to start Ghost of a Podcast. And we are seeing just so much happening in the world. We are seeing so much happening in the United States. You know, the leader of whom seems to want to start a war with Iran and doesn't care how it implicates people. You know, I woke up to the trending on Twitter of World War III, and it was, it was really scary. 

And so, as I share this, I want to say I am an astrologer and I would like to think I'm a good one. And also, I'm a person, and I am subjective, and my perspective is mine and it doesn't have to be yours. And when I interpret this stuff or anything, it comes through my personality. It comes through my fears and my hopes and my experiences and, you know, it's informed by the news that I read and the astrology texts that I have studied and all that kind of stuff. 

And I think it's really important in general to be critical. Not in a call out, I'm shitting on everything in advance, just in case maybe it's bad kind of way, but I mean, critical in, in its truest sense, like be discerning, you know, be discerning with all data that you consume. And I think this is particularly important because one of the things that's happening in 2020 is, we will have two, we'll have several eclipses. We're going to have on the 10th of January, a lunar eclipse in Cancer. On the 5th of June, we have a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius. On June 21st we have a solar eclipse in Cancer. On July 5th, there's a lunar eclipse in Capricorn. And then on November 30th, a lunar eclipse in Gemini. And then finally on December 14th, 2020, we have a total solar eclipse and such. It's hilarious. 

So, we have themes with cancer and Sagittarius really strongly activated. And when we have eclipses, they are emotional developments, but they impact us, uh societally. They impact us in a really big way. And when we talk about our emotions, you know, on a personal level, we are talking about our emotional maturity, our emotional capacity. We're talking about our feelings and our personal lives and our home sense of safety in ourselves and in our lives.

And when we look at it on a more kind of global sense, it's how we emotionally respond to world events has everything to do with what we demand of our leaders and the actions that we do or don't take. And when we look at Sagittarius, we see the theme of propaganda. You see the theme of communications, big truths.

I think Uranus in Taurus, which that transit has been occurring all of 2019 and Uranus will remain in the sign of Taurus until April of 2026. So, it's many years of more of this transit and what it does is a lot of things. You know, the thing that I tend to focus on is the radical transformation or radical changes to who and what we value, right? So, this is related to, uh, the economy, currency, money. It's also related to human rights. It's also related to which people we value, how we express that value or that lack of value. This is not a small transit. And the reason why I bring it up on the heels of naming propaganda and the need for critical and discerning thought is that when we talk about values, when we talk about what we value on a societal level instead of on a personal level, the role of fear cannot be underestimated, my friends and loves, it cannot. Because when I am scared for my own safety, I might be way more conservative than when I think I'm going to be safe, no matter what, right, or vice versa. I don't know. What I'm trying to say is it would be great if we all had values and morals and live by them consistently.

But the reality is the people you were raised around, the communities you were raised within, the spiritual, economic, social values that you were raised with, even if you completely disagree with them now, they're in there. See, they're all in there. And we are all constantly growing and outgrowing and growing and outgrowing and stumbling and getting stuck and then trying to grow and help grow again.

I mean we're just these weird living, breathing organisms, you know, and what might seem like a lack of change in your life or in society is a change. Because even if you stand still everything is moving around you. And so, the context that you exist in changes the very nature and value of what and how and who you are.

When we talk about societal values being challenged and engaged, we have to acknowledge that Uranus in Taurus is a fixed sign. Uranus is a very fixed style of planet and it's in a real fixed sign, Taurus. When we look at fixed signs, it's exactly like what it sounds like. You know, we tend to feel really stuck in our ways, right. We tend to feel really like this way is the way. It's an important thing to consider because when we have a year with a bunch of big astrological movements, which I'll unpack as we go, what we really have is a time where we are being challenged to open up and to consider other perceptions, other solutions, other approaches, other new sources, whatever it is. And as that occurs, we will bump up against our own rigidity.

And that, my loves, brings us to this Saturn conjunction to Pluto on January 12th. I have released a bonus episode of Ghost of a Podcast on Patreon for Patreon supporters only and it's just about this Saturn Pluto conjunction, so really unpack it there. So, when we look at the Saturn Pluto conjunction, what we are really seeing is power grabs. We have already been seeing because, I think, of Uranus in Taurus a rise in authoritarianism around the world. We are seeing corporations and governments consolidating power and trying to keep it for themselves at the expense of the environment and the people.

I don't like that. Do you like that? I really fucking don't like it. As much as you and me, we might not like it today, just think how much we're not going to like it in a year. How about two years if it keeps on going this way. Hong Kong is my great inspiration at this time because the people of Hong Kong have come together for months and months and months.

And they have used art and the power of the collective to band together and to have their voices heard. They have consistently come out to speak up for their collective needs. And whether or not it works, whether or not they completely get what they want or they partially get what they want, we cannot just do the right thing because we think it'll work.

We have to do the right thing because it's right. That's the move. That's the integrity move. That's the move for your soul. Not doing something wrong is good. It's great. But not doing the right thing when you know someone next to you is doing something wrong, that makes you complicit. It really does. We are all active agents.

In the words of Amy Siskind, who if you're not following you totally should be, “activism is healthier than avoidance.” 2020 is the bottom-line folks. We make changes or our democracy as we know it is over. It is truly that dire. This year, we need to all be engaged and there are no excuses. Find something to do daily or weekly as your job or life allows, but act and get involved.

And honestly, I couldn't agree more. I really couldn't agree more. The Saturn Pluto conjunction may be something massive, you know. Already Trump seems to be starting a war; Saturn Pluto conjunction is about a reshifting of power, and in the words of Martin Luther King, “those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”

Cause here's the thing, kittens, those who love war, those who are capitalistic in a way that is anti-humanitarian, they're great at being organized. They're fucking excellent at it. And this Saturn Pluto conjunction leading up to the January 2021 Pluto return to the United States, it tells us it is time to get organized.

It is time to find a course of action and follow through and it is far better that you do one small thing consistently then you tell yourself that it doesn't matter anyways, and whatever you do, isn't going to be enough, so there's no point. Find something. It doesn't matter how small it is. Get engaged.

Get activated. It is really fucking important. And also, don't reinvent the wheel. I've personally, I'm not an organizer. That's not my move, not at all, but there are tons of organizers out there. You just need to find them and the cool thing about social media is that they're out there. You know, organizers are really good at talking in public.

So, you know, tweeting in public, posting in public, whatever it is, find people who resonate with you. Find ways of being engaged, and there are countless ways of being actively engaged and we need you. It's important that we find the constructive here. And if I can take it another step forward, I will say that Saturn enters into Aquarius this year, right. So, it leaves the sign of Capricorn, and it moves to Aquarius, and some astrologers—there's different ways of practicing astrology—some astrologers say that Uranus is the ruling planet to the sign of Aquarius. I am one of those astrologers. That's what I say.

Other astrologers say that Saturn rules Aquarius as well as Capricorn, and either way, I would say that Saturn and Uranus have real crossover energies. The thing about the Aquarian energy that I think is really important for me to name is it's another fixed sign. So, when we talk about rigid Saturn, Saturn is a planet that is one of form-bringing. It governs calcification. It is associated with getting stuck or blocked as much as it's related to organizing sustainability, climbing a ladder to get to a place, right when Saturn enters into Aquarius we're going to really have to look at where we are stuck as a people. How are humanitarian drives as a people do or don't function effectively?

This is like perfect Aquarius shit right here, because it's this open-minded, counterculture value system that can be really judgmental of everything that doesn't fall in line with itself. So, it essentially in its negative can be, you have to agree with me or you are bad and wrong. And this is really important for me to name because we are living in a really intense call-out culture.

And between Saturn Pluto, Uranus in Taurus fixed sign, Saturn, moving out of Capricorn and into Aquarius in 2020, call-out culture will be our downfall, my loves, it will be our downfall. I say this A. because it's true, but B., because you cannot fix the culture, that's unrealistic, but you can address the ways in which you are engaging call out culture, the ways in which you are judging other people and needing them to be where you're at in order for you to have their back or the way that you think you are the one who should police others.

I will say I'm a big fan of calling out big corporations. Let's call out Facebook and how they handle political ads. Let's talk about that. Let's call other companies and politicians out. There is a really big difference between holding to public account people for the very things that they are saying that they are meant to do and looking for what's wrong in others and deciding that you are the arbiter of justice. If we don't come to greater compassion and empathy in our rush to make humanity and culture and society a better, safer, more humane, more sustainable place, we will do the exact opposite. You capeesh me? This brings me back in time a little bit, closer to the present moment to January 10th and the lunar eclipse in Cancer.

What we have is the theme of clannishness. Cancer is associated on a personal level with lots of love and home and intimacy-oriented things. But on a social level, it's patriotism, it's nationalism. Cancer can get into really like you're against me or you're for me, kind of vibes. Cancer comes at things sideways and is defensive.

It's a defensive little animal, that crab, right? Snap, snap, snap, snap. So, to have this lunar eclipse happening immediately before the Pluto Saturn conjunction and to know that eclipses have an impact that takes about six months to fully play out, what you want to do is pay attention to whatever comes up in the news, whatever comes up in your personal life, whatever comes up this particular week, the week that encompasses January 10th, January 12th.

We'll give it a little, a little wide berth IMO, but pay attention to the themes because whatever it is that seems is happening, it's not all there is. There will be more. And so, you want to make sure that you are engaging really consciously with your shit. We are all going to have our unhealthy coping mechanisms triggered.

We're all having fear triggered. That's what happens under the influence of these transits. And it's really important that we find ways of acknowledging that our coping mechanisms are a little bit broken and maybe they're a little chipped. Maybe they need to be 2.0, and you know, this is actually a big part of why I reached out to you on social media and was like, do you really need me to do this, because my maladjusted fear-based coping mechanisms were being really triggered by the news of the day and really triggered by my concerns about our future. And I want to acknowledge that I'm actually not painting for you what I think is going to happen. I don't think those kinds of predictions are useful. I don't think they're constructive.

When we come back to what we are going to see in the first six months of 2020, it's going to be a lot. Now we have a Jupiter sextile to Neptune occurring, February 20th, July 27th and October 12th, right. Those are all the exact dates of that particular transit. This is a hopeful transit. It is a transit that can be a time where if you are organizing, if you are a part of something, you are luckily to feel more connected. Now the downside is that you can go pretty far in a direction that is idealistic, that doesn't have like real roots to it and can't really grow anywhere. So that's the risk, that's the downside, that it's like great ideas, it's love and light without action, love and light without action, it's not enough IMO. Hey, maybe you think it's enough. I don't think it's enough. If I'm suffering, if I’m victimized or if I am in trouble and you're sending me your love and light, and that's all you're giving me, I'm probably not going to receive that love and light because I'm probably not going to be able to. 

Now, I'm a deeply spiritual person. I do energy work. I really benefit from energy work, which is a form of love and light, but it is not instead of action, it's alongside, it's with action. Spirituality is not instead of a healthy diet or kindness to strangers or flossing your teeth or whatever the fuck, right. It's alongside. 

We are here in a body for a reason. Humans are social animals, and we live in the stupid material world. It's dumb. It's got so many rules, so many obligations, but we're here for a reason. This is the lifetime we're in whether you're an alien or you're a kitten or you're in a meat suit like me, however, you'd like to think about your existence in this lifetime, it is material and it requires material remediation. That's it’s fucking thing. That's it. 

So, a lot of what is coming up in 2020 is going to confront all of us with that. And I will reiterate that 2020 is a year of consequences. We will see consequences, not just to your actions or your attitudes, but to systemic problems, systemic problems and the way we have coped with them as societies. And we can see that with the global climate crisis, we are seeing consequences to our selfishness and our lack of infrastructure to cope with this, our lack of agreement on what is appropriate and right. We are seeing this as Roe V.

Wade is being challenged. Republicans are really coming for that and they've been setting it up. They've been setting up for some time now. So, we have women's rights, the rights of people with uteruses, both under attack. Okay, there's more for me to tell you about.

So, I have three dates to name. April 4th, June 30th, November 12th, Jupiter, will be conjoined [with] Pluto. And on the solstice, the winter solstice, December 21st of 2020, we have a Jupiter conjunction to Saturn in the sign of Aquarius. Jupiter, conjunct, Pluto, Jupiter, conjunct, Saturn, they are very distinctly different transits. They're both very important transits. I promise I will talk about them the closer we get a lot more.

Where Jupiter is concerned, things move fast, where Pluto is concerned, they're deep, and when Saturn's concerned, we like it slow and steady. And so, a big part of what I see coming in 2020 is this issue of pacing. Things are going to feel like they're happening very quickly and they will. But what is even more concerning is what's happening slowly and underneath the surface.

What is happening underneath the surface is deeply important. It is really important that we protect journalists in 2020. We need journalism. We need free presses. We need to make sure that writers are getting paid and that publications that are reputable, that they have some sort of vetting process because again, we have to look out for propaganda, that it is paid attention to, that they're all protected.

When we acknowledge the downsides of capitalistic societies, where money is actually the most important thing, what happens is we cannot trust the source that we are reading, and this can make so many people just be like, well, fuck it, then I'm not going to read news. Then what's the point. And the point is, there are good journalists out there and there are good publications out there and we need a free press.

We need news. So that's something you can do. That's an actionable. Pay attention. Look at the resource. Where does it come from? Check the year it was written. Check the publication. If there are no sources in a news article that is concerning. You need a source. And I know this sounds like a lot of work.

It's also a lot of work to reading gradients on your food. It's a lot of work to know where the Kardashians have been vacationing, I guess, but we work hard on lots of things. 

Now these particular transits represent a major shift and the shift is again, related to power in society and the freedom and liberties of people. And when I say people, I do mean individualism like individuals, but I also mean groups of people. And if you think that one group of people is more valid than another, that some groups of people deserve pain and to be subjugated and others don't, we have a problem. We do. No, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be consequences for bad behavior.

Let's surprise no one that this Capricorn believes in consequences. However, the consequences need to be humane, they need to be just, and they need to fit the crime, right. They need to fit the problem. Who gets to decide that, is it me? You know, it isn't me. Whoever it is, is the power that be, and those are the powers that we are deeply concerned about at this time.

We, as a society, we, as astrologers both budding and seasoned, we are concerned, and it is important to be vocal about your concerns. It is important that we do not shrink away from the confrontations that are necessary for real change to occur. It is important that we make ourselves uncomfortable and we confront our fears as we strive in active material terms to make this world more just especially for those who are most vulnerable. Now, my friends, I feel like I could literally talk about this for four hours, but that's not the kind of podcast I have, but I, but I want to just say a couple more words about the eclipses and give you like my upshot here, right.

So, the eclipses Capricorn and Cancer, polarity, Sagittarius, and Gemini polarity, they will bring up themes of propaganda and truth. It will bring up themes of communication, how you listen and how you communicate, who you listened to and what they're saying and how they're saying it. So much of why people who like Trump, like Trump is because of how he communicates, because it makes sense to them.

It's familiar to them. It's comfortable for them and therefore they're inclined to believe it. Maybe that's why you, like what I'm saying. Maybe the way I talk is familiar or comfortable to you. Don't underestimate the value of how we feel in what we are willing to hear or how we hear it, right. 

Now, the other polarity that was the Sag Gemini polarity, the Cap Cancer polarity brings up a real us versus them kind of mentality because as I said, Cancer is related to patriotism and nationalism and Capricorn has so much to do with the way we organize our resources and power and hierarchies in society. It is related to corporations and governmental agencies and stuff like that.

So, there's a way that we need to see a reform of these things, but we need to protect the information that we receive and perceive in order to kind of effectively do that. And again, I want to remind you that I'm naming these themes because they are deeply emotional and that is a huge part of what we can work on in our lives. On a personal level, the people that you have in your life and how you let them in and how you show up is super up here. It's super up because we're looking at themes of fear and we're looking at themes of responsibility right on a social level, which is how I'm focusing on this horoscope, but on a personal level, that means you might not have a lot to offer your loved one sometimes and you need to communicate about that.

Not having something to offer is healthy, fair, normal, unavoidable, but just completely ghosting on someone and not caring about how it impacts them that's not chill. There will be consequences for that or just completely burning yourself out and overdoing it for others so that you have nothing left for yourself or for the causes and concerns that really drive you in the world.

We need to find some balance. And a lot of that has to do with not just what we say, but how we emotionally communicate what we're saying. It's also the emotional maturity that we develop at this time because our emotional maturity is very much being challenged at this time. Challenged is not bad. Challenged means engaged and not in the chillest of all ways. That's all. The main upshot of what I see for 2020 as your astrologer is scary. And it's scary because of the people who are running so many of the countries of our worlds, how selfish they are. It is scary because of what is happening between countries and governments.

What is happening both locally with who polices us and how, but also locally around the surveillance culture that is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger, both in terms of the products we buy, but also in terms of the cameras that exist everywhere now. What kind of data are they collecting and what are they going to do with that data, right. These things are all going to have long term consequences and I am not confident that we will come together and we will advocate for ourselves and each other. I'm not confident about it at all. And I think that's what we need in order to create social change. 

Equality is not offered by those in power. Equality is only won through efforts. When we look at all human rights advances, they come through struggle. They come through the people coming together and demanding it. And I don't know that we will demand it. And I hope we do. I really hope we do. And there's a lot of ways of doing that. And each one of you, each one of us can find our way.

We can encourage others to find their way. I really hope we do because I don't trust the people in power to preserve our rights, let alone hands us new ones. Our liberties are really important. And I want to empower you with the understanding that you are here for a fucking reason. Yes, you are. You are alive for a reason now. You have a role to play, and if you find it, if you prioritize finding your role, then you're doing a great job. And if you can't prioritize it this week, try next week. It can't be every day, all day long. It can't be every week, but make it a priority, make it a real priority. Finding something to do, finding something that you can do, and that doesn't just protect you and yours, but protects the larger community that you live in no matter where you are, you live in a community.

And if you're not a part of that community, then you're taking from it. But it's important that you give back. Find ways, find one way. My loves, to sign off. I want to quote Nikki Mickler who said to me on Twitter, “something that I've learned from listening to your podcast,” she's referring to Ghost of a Podcast, “is that sometimes life is a bummer, but we still gotta pull through. As long as we are aware and take time to respond well to the bummers, then we will be okay.”

And you know what, Nikki you're fucking right. AKA I'm right. AKA we're right. Let's keep it up. Let's be right together.