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.

Jessica:      Welcome to the podcast. What would you like a reading about?

Guest:              Okay. So I was raised in the United States. My family is from Iran. All of my life, I have had a passion for justice, and I've also had a really strong sense of not knowing where I fit because I was raised in the U.S. I am Persian, but I don't speak Farsi fluently. My connection to my country is strong but not as strong as many Iranian Americans. And so I've always felt this living in the middle.

                        Ever since the uprising began in Iran in September after the death of Mahsa Amini, I have felt compelled to do whatever I could, whatever I can. I started with posting things on social media. I've slowly gotten involved with the community here, who is organizing rallies. I've made phone calls. And it still doesn't feel like enough. And this has been something that I have wrestled with for a really long time, that I sit with all this privilege, being someone from the United States, and that I had a lot of guilt around that, about how I should be doing more to help the world, help my community, all of those things.

                        And now, my guilt has transferred to this strong sense of responsibility, but I still don't feel like it's enough. And I feel like I want to understand, based on my chart, what my skills are, what my purpose is, how I can best use who I am to really make an impact and to really be okay with the privilege versus the guilt, I guess, because⁠—I mean, I say I don't feel guilt, but it's hard not to feel like we have all these privileges being in the U.S., and we can close our eyes if we want to, but I can't. So…

Jessica:            Okay. So there's lots of parts to your question that I want to kind of unpack because part of what you're talking about is really emotional. It's how to hold privilege and how to hold it responsibly, right? To a certain extent, I think every single one of us who is aware of injustice in front of us, far away from us, and everything in between, any one of us who is aware of our privileges, it comes with guilt. And hopefully it doesn't stay there, but I think that that's one very human layer of the awareness that comes with⁠—of your privileges or of injustice anywhere.

                        And so let's talk about that. But then there's something else that you're naming, which I actually have had over the past years of doing the podcast⁠—a lot of people have asked this question of, "What does my chart say about how I can be helpful or how I can be a part of the solution?" That's a question that I've been asked so many times, and literally every single time somebody asks me that, I think, "I don't know what you mean." So I finally get to ask someone, what do you mean by that?

Guest:              I guess I⁠—this isn't the first time I've had my chart read, and I understand that based on my placements, there are certain magic⁠—I just want to say magic⁠—that I have, that each of us has based on those placements⁠—there's certain strength; there are certain challenges⁠—and that based on that⁠, how can my magic make things better? Is it my voice? Is it not using my voice? I want to be more specific. I don't know if that was the [crosstalk], but⁠—

Jessica:            No, no. You're doing good.

Guest:              Okay.

Jessica:            So this is where my pain-in-the-ass Capricorn nature comes in. But also⁠—so pull back.

Guest:              Well, I was just going to say, because I don't think it's fair. I don't feel like I can ask you, "Hey, can you tell me, should I be writing press releases, or should I be calling Ron Wyden?" I don't feel like that's actually what astrology can tell me. But I feel like it can tell me, what is my higher purpose? What is a useful way to use this energy, to use the emotional Cancer part of me, the feelings that⁠—you know, those things. You know what I mean?

Jessica:            Yeah. I do know what you mean. Okay. When people ask me, "What does my chart say?" or as you're unpacking the question⁠—and this is like a tendery thing, so bear with me. But it's like we want to find the answer, and not just the answer⁠—the best answer, the perfect answer. And so we jump into our heads, and we start analyzing, what's the answer? And anyone who's into astrology is like, "Well, fucking astrology can tell me the answer because astrology knows things."

And that's great except it's skipping over the emotional and experiential part of your inner knowing and seeking the answer through the mind. And when it comes to something as emotional and spiritual as getting engaged in the world, social justice work, when we activate through our minds and we continue to act through our minds, we burn out because it is such draining work. And the truth is that no one of us is going to fix the world. No one of us is going to find the perfect thing. No one of us can make that happen.

What's the expression? It's like you can go faster alone but further together. It's really the tapestry that makes it happen. And so we're going to unpack both of these parts. I'm going to pull all the way back, and I'm going to talk about your birth chart for a hot minute here because, yes, you are a Cancer, and I pick questions based on the question. And I don't know how I pick so many twelfth-house placements, but here you go. You have a twelfth-house Sun in Cancer, and it's intercepted in Cancer. And that means all 30 degrees of the zodiac sign of Cancer are in the twelfth.

And so we talk about privilege. You were a child raised by people who⁠—they themselves did not feel that they could indulge their emotions. It wasn't safe. There wasn't space. They didn't get to. And so, for you, when you're dealing with this issue of, "How can I participate in the world? How can I make good on my privileges?" you start to tap into your Pluto opposition to the Midheaven and square to the Sun, this feeling of, "I need to earn my right to have these feelings. I need to work really hard and do something in exchange for my right to be this emotional about these things."

I imagine that this topic has emerged for you in the past, but with the current revolution and uprising that's happening in Iran, it's hit this ultimate vulnerable spot for you. Does that make sense, what I'm saying so far?

Guest:                  Yes. It really, really does.

Jessica:            Yeah. So I want to just acknowledge that part of what is happening is you are engaging with parts of you that are particularly tender from your own upbringing, which is a result of so much of your parents and what they had to go through. And I failed to say this at first, but you were born July 6th, 1979, 7:20 a.m. in Coventry, England, right?

Guest:              Yes.

Jessica:            So your parents are from Iran, and then they obviously moved to England for a minute, and then eventually to the U.S.

Guest:              Yes.

Jessica:            So I look at your birth chart and I see that in their story, this was actually⁠—this is exactly where they wanted to be. They wanted to be in the U.S. They worked really hard. Did one of them have family here?

Guest:              Yes. Yes.

Jessica:            That's what it looks like. And it looks like that because you have this Mercury/Ascendant/Jupiter conjunction in Leo. So it looks like one of their siblings or aunts or uncles was able to pull them into this country. Is that correct?

Guest:              Yes.

Jessica:            And so, for them, it was such a powerful thing. It was like, "We are going to immigrate to this place, and it is going to be better for us." And it was. When I looked at your birth chart, it was in every way except it didn't magically heal their inherited trauma. It did not magically heal the difficulties that they underwent. And it looks like⁠—I don't know if it's both of them or one of them; it looks like both of them underwent a fair amount of shit to get here. And you have siblings, correct?

Guest:              Mm-hmm. I have one brother.

Jessica:            Younger than you?

Guest:              Younger. Mm-hmm.

Jessica:            Yeah. You've got the chart of an older sibling. You know what I mean? You do. You do. I'm sure your brother would agree. I can tell. I can tell. Before we get into engaging in the world and how to bring your magic and spread it around, it's important to acknowledge that you are being deeply fucking triggered. You are being triggered by what you see happening in the world. You are being triggered by what you don't understand within yourself, within the world.

And I think for a lot of children of immigrants, that feeling of being able to speak part of your family's native language but not all of it, to have a lot of the cultural resonances but they're Americanized or they're westernized⁠—I mean, it's a very complex thing. Some of it is complex in terms of where you fit in socially. A lot of it is deep and spiritual. Again, you've got this Cancer Sun in the twelfth house intercepted. So, "Who am I? Where do I belong? Who are my people? What is my family?" This is a theme that I imagine plays out in a million places in your life.

Guest:              Yes. And it's especially interesting because right now, the deeply triggered part of this is also like⁠—the first protest I went to, I had Iranian women question whether I was Iranian, because they didn't believe it looking at me because I was wearing my Carhartts and Che Guevara shirt with a raincoat. I don't carry myself the way a typical Iranian woman does, but I am fiercely proud of the fact that I am Persian. But I oftentimes don't feel like I'm accepted or belong, and so that's been a really hard reality for me. And I speak Spanish and I studied Latin American studies in college, and I often feel more connected⁠—I speak Spanish and read and write it way better than I can Farsi.

Jessica:            So let's talk about this. And this is pulling back from astrology a little bit. But this is not uncommon, again, for people who were raised in the U.S. to families that immigrated from elsewhere, and especially if you're in a region where there's not lots of Persians⁠—and I'm guessing that you were not raised with lots of Persians around you. This is very common. This is very common, this feeling of, "I can't over-identify with my origins because that's not safe, because there's not people around me."

                        So there's a way that many people can really deeply invest in other cultures because then it's satiating this need to acknowledge being other, but it's not as vulnerable as it is tapping into your own cultural, ethnic, or racial background. And the thing you're describing of how you feel of, like, not being Persian enough or what a "typical" Persian woman is supposed to be like or whatever the fuck⁠—this, I think⁠—every group has their own version of that. That doesn't make it less valid or less real, but I think that people are complicated.

And all of this feeling that you have, all this stuff you're describing, is articulated in your birth chart in various ways. One is you've got this Mars in the eleventh house, which makes you really social, deeply wanting of community, but it's squared by Saturn. So, when you get into community, you're often like, "I don't belong here," or they say, "You don't belong here." And it just kind of stops you in your tracks because you, my friend, have a bazillion fixed placements.

Like I said, your Rising, your Mercury, Jupiter⁠—all very fiery in Leo. Your Moon is conjunct Uranus. It's a little wide, but it is conjunct to Uranus in Scorpio. And so you're really a strong-willed person. You have really fixed energy. And so, if you walk into a group and they're like, "Do you really belong here?" for whatever it is, there's this very strong fixed part of you that's like, "You reject me; I reject you." And it's really hard for you to come around from that.

Guest:                  When they say fight or flight, I'm definitely that "I will fight while I flight."

Jessica:      Yes. Yes.

Guest:                  I'm going to go with "F off" on my way out the door.

Jessica:            And these are the parts of your chart that kind of articulate why that is. We talk about Cancer being so emo. We talk about Cancer being so emo, and the real thing we should be talking about is how that hard outer shell does or doesn't serve Cancer. Having that hard outer shell hidden in all the folds of your twelfth house with all this fixed energy and the Mars square Saturn⁠—this theme of community, of where I belong and where I don't belong, who gets to decide whether I'm Persian enough, whether I'm an activist enough⁠—this is absolutely relevant and real for your lived situation.

                        And also, this comes up in so many ways, on so many levels, in so many situations, that this is your shit. Right? Whenever those thoughts/feelings come up inside of you, it is wise to be like, "Oh, okay. I am being triggered right now. I'm being triggered in a deep pattern, and I need to not just react but instead sit with my reactions so that I can respond in a way that creates what I want instead of fights and flights in a way I'm really comfortable with."

                        Because of this Pluto square to your intercepted Sun, this is something that comes through generations. This is an inherited condition for you. My gut instinct is it was your mom who's gone through this kind of thing her whole life. Is that her? Yeah?

Guest:              Yes. Yes.

Jessica:            Yeah. And so, when you start to feel this way, you've got this epigenetic defensiveness that's like, "Fuck yeah. Run for your life. Do not let them tell you who you are. Do not let them see you cry." Even if what's happening is somebody's like, "Oh, I didn't know you're a Persian. Tell me more," but there's this part of you that's like, "I fucking knew it. You don't think I'm good"⁠—you can really go there. And again, some of it's like you got a lot of Leo in you. But absolutely, a lot of this is deep, deep shit for you.

                        Within everything that you're going through, it is important to acknowledge and continue to return to how deeply personal and triggering this stuff is and what a meaningful opportunity it is for healing and coming into wholeness. And from that perspective, like if we're really in that perspective⁠—and please tell me if I'm wrong about this. But the question of, "What should I do for the movement?" kind of is less pressing-feeling, isn't it?

Guest:              It is and it isn't, because I feel like God is presenting what I need to do, like there's action being put in front of me, like, "Do this," like I'm being asked to do. You know? And so it's very clear that is. It's been amazing, especially over the last week of just, "Please, write this press release. Please, what do you think about this?" That feels⁠—but still, it's like I understand I have to let go of the outcomes because I do want to believe that individual actions will make this revolution succeed more quickly, but I also understand that it's not going to take individual actions from my position in the United States. It's not even going to take individual actions from the brave people who are sacrificing their lives in Iran. It's going to take massive individual actions coming together for massive change to happen because we're unpacking 43 years-plus of tyranny.

Jessica:            Plus. Yeah. Yes. There's two layers of what you're talking about. One is⁠—okay. This is the one where I want to bring you back to what I was saying at the very start around the noodle, the noggin, the intellectualizing. And again, you've got a Mercury conjunction to your Ascendant, so you lead with the brains. And that is not a negative thing. But there's a way that when we talk about all that kind of epigenetic, deeply personal stuff, you're in your feeling. And when you're in your feeling, you're really able to connect with, "I don't need to figure out what to do. I just need to keep on doing what's in front of me. I need to keep on trusting."

                        But then, as I was listening to you energetically talk just now, you started to talk yourself further from your instincts, and you did that by talking yourself further from your heart. And when I say your heart, I mean your achy, breaky heart, like your heartbroken heart. Some of that is heartbroken around this situation, but some of that is not. It's much deeper. This makes sense, eh? Yeah.

Guest:              Yeah.

Jessica:            Sorry. Yeah. And so part of what your coping mechanism is⁠—and it's a great one; don't get rid of it⁠—is to be smart, to analyze, to figure out. And what you're engaging with right now, what's battering you were around, is the need to be like, "Okay. I have to have confidence and faith in my smarts and not jump into them immediately, to sit with the feelings a little bit longer," because when you sit with the feelings, whether they're sad, bad, happy, whatever the fuck, whatever they are, you⁠—and I'm not saying this as a general statement. I'm saying you are connected to your brilliance, your intuition, your clarity of insight.

                        And when you get too in your head, you lose track of it. And so you, on the one hand, are wrestling down ideas really well. And on the other hand, you don't feel as connected to the answer because there is no answer when you're in your head. There's only more questions, more ideas, more theories, whereas in your gut, it's like you said. There is only so much you can do. Yes, it's not enough, and also, it's enough. They're both true. And you're doing what you can do.

                        You're not going to get on a plane and go and fix things there. I mean, that would be hubris, potentially, to do. It wouldn't be, necessarily, effective. But there are so many things that you can do and are doing. So, then, this brings us to another thing.

Guest:              And literally, when you're talking about heartbreak and my gut, it's like my heart is aching. I literally told a friend today that I didn't realize my heart could break so many times and still be left intact.

Jessica:            I'm sorry.

Guest:              Yeah. So, definitely, what you're saying I connect with.

Jessica:            While all of this is happening, you are going through a Saturn square to your Moon. So Saturn in Aquarius⁠—and it's sitting in your relationship house⁠—is forming a square to your Moon in Scorpio. It'll be over February of 2023, so soon. It'll be over in a couple months. This transit⁠—the kind of hard part of the transit is playing out in this topic we're here talking about.

                        The part where you are feeling the limitations of what you can do emotionally and behaviorally, this part of you that feels just heartbroken over and over and over, that's Saturn square Moon. And it's a real existential crisis. It's like, "If I can't really help, what's the fucking point?" And also, "I have to help because it's the right thing for me to do. It is the right thing to do."

                        And this is something⁠—I mean, you've probably heard me talk about it on the podcast many times and in many ways. It's like doing the right thing because it's the right thing is always right, not necessarily because of what it yields, because we can't know what your actions or one's lack of actions will do to the big picture down the line. And that's just life. So doing what we feel called to do because the call feels right, that's the fucking move.

                        And you are doing that. I'm not encouraging you to educate others. I'm not encouraging you to fix things. You're already motivated to do those things. You're already doing those things. I'm here to support you around prioritizing the very personal healing to do alongside the work because these are your people. This is your culture, and also, you're an American. And so being able to really own both parts⁠—and this gets to this other piece that we talked about, which is privilege, right?

                        Privilege is a beautiful thing. It's great. It is a great thing to be privileged. It is lovely. And so many people hold privilege or talk about privilege like it's something to be ashamed of and it's something to be accounted for. And there is absolutely a way that privileges are something to empower us to do the right thing, to leverage. And also, your parents worked really fucking hard so that you can be privileged, and what a privilege it is to shit on that or throw it away.

Guest:              Right.

Jessica:            And not just you⁠—so many of us. The real work is to be able to hold all of it at once instead of, "I am privileged because my family worked so hard." Put that down. "I feel guilty because of all my privileges." Put that down. Pick up something else. Put that down to be able to hold lightly, not too tightly, all of the things. "The privileges that I have are a gift to me, and I am grateful for these privileges. And also, X and also Y and also Z."

                        The guilt comes in when we're not holding all of it, when we're only like, "My privilege means I'm supposed to do something." It might be helpful for you to create a very private altar in your bedroom, a very Cancer Sun in the twelfth house⁠—like people don't get to see it.

Guest:              Can you explain in the twelfth house⁠, what that represents?

Jessica:            Whenever we have a planet in the twelfth house, there's a number of things that we immediately can know. And you have Venus, the Sun, and Mercury is conjunct your Ascendant. It's very, very much on the Ascendant but from the twelfth house. And twelfth-house planets always indicate energies that one or both parents were repressing actively anywhere from a year before birth until we were seven years old. And when I see Venus in the twelfth house, I know that one of the parents, probably Mom, left behind lost friends because she felt she had to in order to be a mother and/or a wife.

                        When I see the Sun in the twelfth house, it means one of the parents, maybe both, felt that they couldn't truly be who they were, that it just wasn't safe; there wasn't room for it. And what happens when adults make choices like that, we are unconsciously⁠—we adults are unconsciously modeling for our children these energies are unsafe; there's something wrong with these energies. So, even though our parents are doing this as a means of survival or a means of creating something better for their kids, what it can often do is really model, "There's something wrong here."

If you haven't already checked it out, I have a class on the twelfth house on my website that you may want to check out because it's really good, and you would get a lot out of it because you have so many twelfth-house placements.

Guest:              I've been wanting to take some of your classes, so that's awesome to get that direction. I will do it. I will do it.

Jessica:            That's the one for you.

Guest:              I was like, "Do I do the manifesting one, or do I do, like"⁠—

Jessica:            Go with the twelfth-house class.

Guest:              Twelfth house.

Jessica:            I mean, the manifesting will be live, so that's fun. But the twelfth-house class I think you could really use. I mean, who couldn't use manifesting? But I really do think the twelfth-house class you could really use. And in particular, people who are strong twelfth-house people are very visual. So I think there's an audio-only version, but I would do the video version for you.

Guest:              Okay.

Jessica:            As an aside. But the thing about having the Sun in the twelfth in particular⁠—and it's not just in the twelfth; it's intercepted⁠—it means that you have a hard time finding yourself, being like, "Who am I? What am I?" and giving yourself permission to be that. And so, because you have a Pluto square to that Sun, oftentimes it is tumult. It is strife. It is struggle that you identify yourself in reaction to and opposition to.

                        And again, this is inherited out of your matrilineage. You're not the first. This is a way that your survival mechanisms are serving you well because you know how to locate yourself when shit hits the fan. But your survival mechanisms are overactive, such that they engage so much of your identity even when it doesn't need to be flight or fight in a particular situation or moment or whatever it is.

                        A huge part of what will support your evolution is creating space in your life to be in your uncomfortable feelings, which⁠—TBH, Pluto in Libra square the Sun in Cancer in any house is so emo. People fuck you up. They get in, and they get at you, and it is really overwhelming the emotions that can emerge despite your best judgment, Mercury at the Rise, despite what you intend, because that Moon/Uranus conjunction there—it can be a little self-controlled.

That Pluto square to the Sun, it really is so reactionary. So what happens is you are a ball of emotion. And then you use your brains and your energy⁠—Mercury in Leo⁠—to propel you forward, to "figure it out," which is why you asked me the question, "What does my chart say about x?" when you already know what you should be doing because you're doing it. Sorry. You know what I mean?

Guest:                  It's so true. It's so true.

Jessica:            Yeah. Yeah. And so it's not that you don't know what to do. It's that you haven't come to acceptance that you are doing what you need to do. And yes, you wish there was more. And yes, you wish that the magical⁠—you know, you would write a press conference, and it would explode into the Universe as healing. Don't we all want that? Everyone who tries, don't we all want to be able to somehow push the needle and be like, "Fuck yes. Okay. This helped"? And sometimes we get that. A lot of times, we don't.

                        So much of working to change the world in ways large and small is like fucking slowly pushing a needle. It's the slowest, smallest work, a lot of times. And that's really frustrating, and it's also the fucking work. It's what changes things. And so should you make noise? Obviously, Mercury/Jupiter/Ascendant in Leo. Obviously, you should fucking make noise. Aries Midheaven? Make noise. There's no question there.

                        And so how to make noise? Your life organically is articulating that for you. So it's really about having faith in yourself, checking in with your emotions, especially when you get kind of⁠—the way I'm seeing it when I look at you energetically, it's like your brain shoots off a firework, and then you have this firework display of ideas. And it is really empowering in the first X amount of seconds or minutes, and then it just becomes like, "I don't know what to follow here. I have to chase this fire. Where do I go?"

                        And when you get into that firework display vibe, that's when you know you've abandoned the body, essentially. You've abandoned the emotional body. That's essentially a form of compartmentalizing for you that's highly effective, to a point. So, if you're like, "Okay. Fireworks display is off. I don't know⁠—wait. What? What the fuck? What am I supposed to do?" That's when you just, if you can, slow down, breathe, and feel into your heart chakra, if you get woo like that. If you don't get woo like that, then literally⁠—where your heart, that muscle is, just energetically breathe and hover around that space and just breathe into it. My guess is that what you'll find, eight out of ten times, is you're sad.

Guest:              Yeah.

Jessica:            And that sadness is so hard for you to tolerate that you would prefer to go up into those fireworks even if you then are scattered and you're like, "Wait. Now I don't know what to do." If you can practice sitting with that sad and just sitting with it⁠—don't fix it, don't change it, don't understand it; just sit with it⁠—your intuition organically emerges. It organically comes in.

                        You've heard me talk about how Pluto is like the undertow of the ocean, right? And you've got this Pluto square to the Sun. And so what's happening in this is, if you can sit with your sadness, sit with your intense emotions, then, much like the person who is not fighting undertow, you just pull away. And then, when you pull away, it turns out you've got great intuition. It turns out you have really good access to your instincts. But you don't access them from up in the firework mess. They serve a purpose for you. I don't want to say get rid of the fireworks at all.

                        It's about recognizing when they are brilliant and the right medicine for the moment versus when they're a decoy from your feelings and your intuition, which you really need in order to sustain work⁠—any kind of social justice work, but especially social justice work that is so personal to you. Does that make sense?

Guest:              Mm-hmm. Yeah. I definitely like the ocean metaphor, reality of the undertow. I can rock an undertow. I swim in the Pacific in Oregon. The idea of not fighting it, of accepting it and moving through it to get through it and to save yourself, that's the only way you can survive the ocean.

Jessica:            It really is. Okay. So I just want to pause and see, have I addressed your question? Does that kind of touch on it? Is there anything that remains?

Guest:              No, I feel like you have. I feel like you have.

Jessica:            That's very exciting. Okay. Great. So, while we're here, if somebody's listening and is like, "I really do want to help Iran and I don't know how," do you have any advice of what people can do?

Guest:              So my first advice is to follow Iranians on social media and repost anything that they are posting from Iran. The mainstream media is doing a disservice to what is happening, and the best information that's coming out is being filtered through some amazing Iranian activists. I've had someone, like a few different people, who really just want to throw money at it. And money isn't the answer. But there is a really great organization called⁠—it's like Iran Human Rights. That's their handle on Instagram, is Iran Human Rights. And they're, I want to say, from a country in Europe, but they're documenting what's happening. And that's probably one organization, if someone is hell-bent on throwing some money at it, that that's where the money would be helpful.

                        Oh, and 100 percent is calling our representatives, calling the folks who are on the Middle East Committee, but any of your senators, and asking them to cut ties with all regime officials and their families that are in the United States.

Jessica:            Well, it's really helpful, and I really am grateful for you to share some actionable things that people can do. You know I've shared about Tor here on the podcast. And everything feels like not enough when thinking about what's happening in Iran and in so many other regions within the U.S. and abroad. I just kind of want to acknowledge that there is so much suffering in the world. There's so much suffering in the world, and it is easy to be overwhelmed. And when most humans get overwhelmed, we shut down or we get angry.

                        And again, we're back to fight or flight. I just want to say, for those moments where you feel shut down because you're like, "I'm not doing enough. I can't do enough," it's important to remember that that's your human psychology being overwhelmed by the need. And that's when you know, "Okay. I need a little break." A break is not closing your eyes, turning away, doing nothing forever. A break is a break. A break is a break. We all take breaks at work. It's a break. You come back. Come on back.

                        So that's the work. And I see within your chart that you are doing the work, and a little bit more of the internal work will help you feel that more confidently.

Guest:              Yeah. I really appreciate the advice of just connecting with the heart. I interrupted you when you started to talk about the altar, so I don't know if there's anything you wanted to say specifically about that.

Jessica:            Yeah. So, in general, when dealing with really challenging, very personal things, I think it's valuable to keep an altar where you write notes to yourself about how you're feeling, what your intentions are, how you want to kind of return to the self, and to check in with those notes once a week, once a month, whatever works, as a way to be in conversation, especially for someone like you who is so Mercurial. Your brain is never going to stop chatting with you. So finding a way of doing it⁠—

Guest:              Never.

Jessica:            Never. And it's not bad. It's just, when you want to be in the emotion, the brain is such a distractor. And so using your brain to write notes to yourself as a spiritual practice where you return to it and check in with it emotionally, that can be a really good way to kind of keep your Mercury happy but not constantly running all the shows. So that'll make your Cancer Sun be more centered, which is really hard work, but it's the work.

Guest:              That's great.

Jessica:            Good. I'm so glad we got to do this.

Guest:              Oh God. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am, Jessica. I just absolutely love listening to you, and just your sense of social justice⁠. I love your astrology and just the fact that you're always able to center it, and then into that idea that we do the right thing because we do the right thing. We care about other people. It's so important. It's so, so important.

Jessica:            It is.

The Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, was enacted in 1978 as a much-needed reform on the practices that separated Native children from their families, and it is now under attack. On November 9th, the very conservative Supreme Court met to discuss whether to overturn the ICWA, which would be a devastating blow to tribal communities, Native children, and families. You can help by amplifying Native voices on social media and signing the petition to protect the ICWA. Use Resistbot by texting "sign PCCPGW" to Resistbot at 50409. Don't worry. This is in show notes. You can copy and paste it there. You can use this tool to urge your elected officials to act. Learn more about those issues and ways to help at nicwa.org.

Welcome back, my loves. Listen. I just taught my manifestation class, and it was such a joy. If you were there with me, thank you so much. And if you missed it but you want to get it, fret not, my friends, because I will have it for sale on my website on the Shop page this week. Having just taught this class, it's so fresh on my mind. It's easy⁠—and I know I've talked about this before, but it really bears repeating. It's easy as spiritual people to want to focus only on the positive. Unfortunately, that's not real spirituality.

If we're being truly spiritual, we are being concerned with the welfare of others. We are understanding our interconnectedness, and we are not embodying toxic individualism wherein our individual welfare is prioritized at the expense of or on the backs of others. For a lot of people, this is a change. It's something to think about, and it's something to really investigate within the self. For others, it's kind of par for the course. Wherever you find yourself, I really want to encourage you to spiritually, as well as behaviorally, consider the welfare of others as you are considering your own welfare.

In the past week, the DHS, which in the United States is the Department of Homeland Security, has issued a terror warning⁠—yes, a terror warning⁠—for domestic terrorism against LGBTQIA, Jewish, and migrant communities. And I don't think it's just Jewish communities. I think it's non-Christian communities, although a lot of the press is just referencing Jewish communities, which makes sense because there's a massive spike in anti-Semitism. But I unfortunately think if you are not Christian, if you are a migrant or part of migrant community or Queer or in Queer community, we're at risk.

And so, if you are part of any of those communities, be vigilant. Take care of yourself, and take care of your community. And if you're not, also know that your privilege to not be in one of those groups empowers you to be an ally or, even better, an accomplice. So look out for the welfare of others. Stay informed. And know that even though this is scary⁠ and it's terrifying, and even though it's depressing⁠—it's beyond depressing⁠—it's also what's happening. It's just the reality of where we are. And if you can accept the reality of where you are, then you can work with that. Then you can mobilize from there.

And so look around you. Stay informed and stay empathetic. And have your empathy not squash you into a puddle where you just feel depressed and demoralized, but instead motivate you to find purpose in action. And while you're at it⁠—I'm sorry, but as I've been warning you for a while here on Ghost, COVID spiking⁠—my God. It's spiking, and just in time for the holidays, where so many people travel and come together, and a lot of times indoors. So make sure to be masking when you're indoors, especially in public places with other human people. Wash your hands, and be really considerate and careful for yourself and for others.

I want to acknowledge that in the last week, there has been banana cream pie news cycle. It's just a⁠—I don't want to speak poorly of a banana cream pie, because that sounds delightful, actually. But it's just been wild things happening all around the world, just all around the world. From Iran to Germany to Peru to the U.S., there's just so much happening. And we are very much at a tipping point as a collective. It's something I've talked about a ton throughout the year, certainly in the year-ahead horoscope. I've been talking about it for years, probably.

But we are, as a collective, as a human race, really looking at what we value, who we value, and how we experience and express that value. And it is no small thing. It is really no small thing. And so I do invite you to consciously and intentionally participate in that reflection. It's still Mars Retrograde, and if I'm being honest, it's a Mercury Retroshade as of December 12th, unfortunately, my friends. Mercury goes Retrograde⁠—don't worry; it's December 29th, just in time for the New Year.

But in the meantime, for the rest of the month, we are in the Retroshady period of Mercury, and Mars is Retrograde. And this means it's a great time this rest of December to be reflecting, to be looking inwards at our attitudes⁠—Mercury⁠—and our actions⁠—Mars⁠—our passions⁠—Mars⁠—and our beliefs⁠—Mercury. So do that. And I encourage you to do that about your life, your loves, your work, all the things, but also about the world, about your place in the world. With all of the serious crises we have at play, it is imperative that we understand that the macro, the big-picture stuff, is only macro and big-picture stuff until it affects you personally. It becomes intimate to you and personal to you pretty quickly when it does, right?

And so considering your role to play in the world at-large is my invitation to you from one astrology nerd to another because we all have a role to play in this time that we find ourselves living in. And if you do something, if you do a little something, a lot of something, if you do nothing, that's your participation. There's no way that any of us get to tap out of this. Our apathy, our engagement⁠—they're all a part of the collective. Consider your role, okay? Okay. Okay. Enough of that.

We're going to get to your horoscope. We're looking at December 11th through the 17th of 2022. I don't get to say 2022 for very much longer, which⁠—I think I'm going to miss that. There's only four transits for me to tell you about this week, but of course, there are some humdingers in there. So we shall get started.

So we're starting off on December the 12th, the day that Mercury goes Retroshady and the Sun forms a sextile to Saturn. So two things I'm going to name. The first, in a Mercury Retroshade, which is the period before the Mercury Retrograde, or any planet's Retrograde, where you start to feel the effects, but it's not full-on⁠—okay? This is not a Retrograde. You can still sign your contracts and make your decisions. But we start to have a little bit of communication issues.

The stuff that goes on in your communications, your friendships, that kind of stuff, anything that is Mercurial⁠—Mercury is about to Retrograde over it. So these lessons are going to be coming back. So, if you have a little argument with a friend, somebody starts to bug you, you can't sweep it under the rug. Mercury Retrograde is coming for you, see? So pay attention to what's up between now and the end of the month, a.k.a. the end of the year.

Okay. Now, the Sun sextile to Saturn is a lovely, grounding transit. When these two planets form a 60-degree angle to each other, which is what a sextile is, they're having a nice conversation. It's kind of a dynamic, exciting conversation. There's not a struggle there. So the Sun is our identity, and Saturn is responsibility, reality, time, maturity. And so this can be a really lovely transit that we feel on the 11th, 12th, and 13th⁠—but it's exact on the 12th⁠—that helps us to feel a little more clear about our identity, a little bit more clear about who we are or how we fit in or how we identify.

It can be a transit that promotes getting organized, getting your shit together, completing projects, dealing with details or admin that you were maybe a little overwhelmed by before. This transit really grounds us into being able to cope with it in a much smoother way. So this is a fantastic transit. Seriously, if there's anything that you need to do that's kind of boring or requiring of a great deal of concentration, this transit is your buddy.

That said, on the 13th, we're going to start to feel the Sun square to Neptune. We'll feel it the 13th, 14th, and 15th. It is exact on the 14th. Sun square Neptune is kind of the opposite of all that, just because the Universe has a sense of humor and it seems to be at our expense so frequently. Okay. Sun square Neptune is when we feel overwhelmed, generally. Most people have a sense of anxiety, overwhelm, confusion, could be just straight-up exhaustion. You might just be like a sleepy, peepy baby on this date.

When Neptune forms a hard aspect to the Sun, what we're experiencing is a sense of overwhelm at too much information. So, if you're a highly sensitive person, somebody who is very empathic, or you're easily influenced by other people's energies, this is going to be a bit of a harder transit for you. The lesson we're meant to learn, the thing we're meant to do under this transit, is tap into our empathy, our generosity of spirit, and our spirituality, our creativity, but to tap into these things with healthy boundaries. And those healthy boundaries are determined by what's authentic for us, like what can you do in a healthy way? What can you hold in a healthy way? How late can you stay up and still pay attention to what your date is saying or whatever?

The Sun square to Neptune is an invitation, albeit a kind of janky one⁠—an invitation from the Universe to have healthy boundaries with our energy and with our own identities, our own sense of self and belonging. It's not easy, but it's actually kind of simple. If you can get your buns, your sweet, sweet hiney, into nature, that's ideal. Put your body in water. Take a gorgeous bath. Go for a swim. Great. Wonderful. Glorious. If you are a spiritual person and you want to do spiritual work, this also can be very good. The key is you don't want to be calling in too much or blasting open your aura or your energy field. And so, in other words, this is a terrible time for doing drugs, including consciousness-raising drugs. Just not a great time for it.

But it is a good time for tapping in, for cultivating patience. If you've been⁠—I don't know⁠—struggling to meditate, this is a good time to try again. The Sun square to Neptune can be demoralizing, and it can find you in a situation where you just feel off and like things aren't going well or people are being kind of shitty to you, or they're just being off with you. Now, remember, everyone's going through this transit. So everyone's energy is going to be a little off. And some people, when they feel off, what they do is they get defensive or weird. And other people, they get quiet.

So don't take it too personally if people are being odd with you on and around this date. But at the same time, we have an exact Mercury square to Chiron. And so people might be being weird with you because they're being weird. I wish I could tell you, "It's all in your head. Don't worry. Just have good boundaries." But Mercury square Chiron can often occur when we have power struggles with others, we have fights with others. And it can be based on misunderstandings, or it can be based in a completely different way of relating to things, relating to each other.

Mercury square Chiron is a transit where, often, we get triggered or somebody we're dealing with gets triggered. And that trigger kind of empowers us to act out. And when it comes to Mercury, Mercury acts out by saying shitty things, thinking shitty things, saying things in a shitty way, or obsessing on something that causes you pain. So Mercury square Chiron can be incredibly triggering and shake you up. And for this transit to happen at the same time as the Sun square to Neptune is risky business, 2022, because we're already destabilized. We're not feeling super strong because the Sun squares Neptune.

And then Mercury square Chiron comes and creates conditions where you have to stand up for yourself, or you have to sort through, "Am I being triggered here? Is this just about my preexisting triggers, or is somebody actually trying to harm me? Is somebody fucking with me?" Or you may be the one. You may need to look at, "Did I say this or do I think this because I'm triggered and I'm just lashing out at someone, or do I actually hate this person, or am I really mad at this person?" It might be you. It might be someone else. But there's likely to be a tension here.

Now, on the positive, it is possible that this duo of transits will provoke the kind of thinking that you need to move through some sort of limitation or block that you've had around having healthy boundaries, around your spirituality, and around power⁠—power issues with yourself, with the world, with someone else. And so there are positive potentials with this transit, but it's likely to be messy, truly messy. And I expect to see mishigas in the world. I expect to see some messy stuff in the world.

And again, if you're going out in the world, be safe in all the ways that you can be. And if you feel safe and you see other people are not safe, if you deem it appropriate, do what you can to make sure everyone is okay. Participate.

Okay. And that brings us to the last exact transit of the week, and that is a Mercury trine to Uranus. This transit, my friends⁠—delightful. Lovely. It's exact on the 17th, which means there's going to be some overlap with the Mercury square to Chiron and the Sun square to Neptune. But luckily, it's a lovely transit. Mercury trine Uranus is a time where we are open-minded, where it's easier to make connections, shift your perspective, connect with other people, tap into new beliefs, new attitudes, find new solutions to old problems, all that kind of good stuff.

Mercury⁠—again, it's your mind. It's your attitudes, beliefs, your friendships. It's your DMs, your emails. It's your phone calls. It's what you say. It's how you say it. It's how you listen. And Uranus is the unexpected. It's the internet. Also, can we just take a moment to acknowledge that ChatGPT exploded in this past week? Just at the final months of Saturn in Aquarius, we have this new AI that is going to radically change so much about how the world works, the jobs we have, how people study. I mean, it's just mind-blowing. It's for another conversation or another podcast, but pretty remarkable.

But anyways, Uranus is related to the internet. It's related to AI. It's related to innovations and expansion. Uranus is so much about freedom and individuation⁠—very exciting. So you can see how there may be innovations in your life in a really small way where you're like, "Oh, I figured out this crossword," or, "I figured out how to say what I'm actually feeling to my friends," or something kind of smaller like that. Or you might actually break through an idea and be able to implement a new idea in a way that is creative and exciting. So that's kind of cool, right? Mercury trine Uranus? Very nice. Very nice.

You might get exciting news. Something might happen. You might get some sort of positive curveball in your life. You might just feel a little more intuitive. Any of that kind of good stuff can happen under this transit. Now, because there is some overlap here with the Neptune and the Chiron stuff, it may simply be that you shake off whatever exhaustion you're having and you just feel a lot sharper, a little more mentally stimulated and kind of engaged. And it may be that there's a quick turnaround on whatever discomfort occurs for you around the 14th. So good timing, I say. Thank you, Universe, for throwing us a soft pitch, as it were.

That, my friends, is it. Short and sweet⁠—not always sweet. A little salty in there, but short and sweet this week. And for those of you who haven't already subscribed to Astrology For Days, my astrologer's pro tool⁠—it's not just for astrologers. It's also for astrology students. Helps you track the movement of the planets. You can get that, astrologyfordays.com.

I'm going to run through the damn transits just for you, okay? On the 12th, the Sun forms an exact sextile to Saturn. On the 14th, we have two exact transits, the first a Sun square to Neptune, and the second a Mercury square to Chiron. And on the 17th, Mercury forms an exact trine to Uranus, and we say, "Thank you very much," much like I say to you, thank you very much.

Thanks for joining me for another week of the podcast. If you haven't already subscribed to Ghost, it does make a really big difference. And if you haven't checked out the Shop page of my website, always linked in the episode description, I got a real cute Ghost of a Podcast shirt for you to try on. I mean try it on mentally and then maybe buy it for yourself or a loved one.

And as always, I invite you to send me your questions to be considered for the podcast over at ghostofapodcast.com. And I'll talk to you next week, okay? Buh-bye.