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.

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Welcome back to Ghost. This week, we have a continuation of the destabilizing, hectic, and chaotic energy that we've been feeling and dealing with for the past few weeks. And let me say that the way that us little humans are wired is for our nervous systems to only be able to take so much. And so I wanted to start this week's episode by acknowledging your nervous system and inviting you to do the same.

Last weekend, I taught my class Astrology for Intuitives, and we got super woo. And within that experience⁠—because I usually teach more conventional astrology, and this was one of the more woo things I have taught to a large group. One of the things that really struck me from that experience was, when I was tapping into this really big group of people, the amount of stress and grief that I felt.

This is a really challenging time. And it is, from my perspective, exceptionally important that you find ways of tending to your insides so that you can sustain whatever it is that you need to do in the world, in your life, in your relationships, what have you. How we show up for ourselves creates the foundations upon which we build up and out.

And as I mentioned, Uranus has been big in our horoscopes for a hot minute here. And this is on the heels of Eclipse Season. What this means in English is that we are being tested. Our nervous systems are being overstimulated. We are going through it emotionally. And it is really, really easy when our systems become overtaxed to act out against our own best interests, against others. It can be quite messy.

So I just wanted to start this week's horoscope off by acknowledging your nerves, acknowledging your heart, and honestly, acknowledging your adrenal system. As spiritual people, as people of conscience, it is important to acknowledge our bodies because they are the vehicle that carries us through all of the things that are important to us in this life. And so, yeah, take a minute now or at some point this week to touch in with your system. See where it's at. If you find that that is just really painful or really challenging, do your best to acknowledge that. And you don't need to magically fix anything. It's not about that.

What I want to encourage you to do is to cultivate the skills to be present with whatever is so that you can accept it and, from that state of acceptance, identify what needs to come next, not what the best thing is to do, but what is the next best thing, because there are a lot of incredibly important things competing for your attention. They may exist in a big hierarchy where you can see these things are the most important and those things are the least important, or they may all feel like the most important things.

And within that, what's valuable is to be able to sit with those feelings and thoughts for long enough that you can sort through them. So we're talking about being able to discern within a state of activation or overstimulation. I invite you to keep all that in mind as we dive into the astrology of November 12th through the 18th.

And I want to share that I always record this podcast on Saturdays. I do it because I want to be as aware as possible of what's happening in the world both from an analytic, cerebral perspective, but also, I want to be in the energy of what's happened throughout the week as it's about to hit your eardrums. But this week, Uranus or my life⁠—however you want to think about it⁠—has changed things up. So I'm recording this at the start of the week. And that might change something of the flavor. I don't know. It might not, but it's worth sharing.

Anyways, the first exact transits of this week happen on the 13th, and it's a doozy. On the 13th, we have a New Moon in Scorpio that is exact at 1:27 a.m. Pacific Time and a Sun opposition to Uranus. The Sun opposition to Uranus is exact at 9:21 a.m. This Sun opposition to Uranus is a really heavy-hitting transit in the New Moon chart.

Now, the New Moon is happening at 20 degrees of Scorpio and 44 minutes. And New Moons are always when the Sun and Moon are conjunct each other; they're sitting right on top of each other at the exact same degrees. And New Moons are generally a great time for manifestation. They're a great time for planting seeds and setting intentions. They are a time when, astrologically, our feelings⁠—the Moon⁠—and our identity or sense of self⁠—the Sun⁠—are in alignment.

And so it becomes theoretically a lot easier for us to be present with the wholeness of ourselves. But this particular New Moon in Scorpio features, as I said, a Uranus opposition. So the Moon will be exactly opposite to Uranus at 2:05 a.m. Pacific Time, and then the Sun at 9:21 a.m. Pacific Time⁠—all to say Uranus is very tightly opposite the Sun and Moon at the moment of this New Moon chart.

What this means is that we are likely to be feeling super strung out. As I said, Uranus governs the nervous system. And so, when we are experiencing a Uranus opposition to the Sun and Moon, what we are likely to feel is nervous, restless, potentially defensive, excited, open-minded⁠—also potentially not open-minded⁠, the opposite. We might be doubling down on our convictions, doubling down on our perceptions and our needs.

Uranus sparks the unexpected. It sparks rebellion, individuation, which includes but is in no way limited to toxic individuality and breaking free and being authentically yourself. So it's a spectrum. When we go through Uranus oppositions, there is a strong urge towards spontaneity. And some of that is because Uranus helps us get free. It's liberatory, which is really well timed. But some of that is also because our nervous systems can be so overstimulated and activated that we just act out.

When you pull a rubber band too tightly, what happens? Shit snaps. It snaps, and it's not super discriminate in how it snaps. And so there are ways in which this Uranus opposition to the Sun and Moon is really well timed because Uranus speaks to liberation and revolution. And we are living through a time where we absolutely need that, and people are coming together and speaking up for the dignity and freedom of themselves and others. This is powerful. It's really powerful.

This New Moon speaks to how that may explode on a global stage because Uranus governs explosions. It may explode on the global stage. It might explode within communities and movements to move things along in a direction that, again, is liberatory. Gorgeous. It can also just be explosive. It can also be chaotic in such a way that people and movements feel a sense of release like you've outletted energy, but there isn't enough consensus because, again, Uranus is individualism. It's also groups and movements.

So what's important to recognize about what might sound contradictory about the indications of Uranus being related to both of these things is that individualism, the ability to express and embody who and what you are as an individual, is not meant to just be about you. It's meant to be for all of us. One's individual liberation is intertwined with that of the collective. We can't have one group free and with the boots on the neck of another group, because until all are free, none are free. Liberation is not just for one group of people. Liberation⁠—it's a web. It's a tapestry, and it's all about the threads that interconnect to create the whole.

And this New Moon, this New Moon in Scorpio with a Uranus opposition to it, is a time for us to acknowledge that tapestry, to acknowledge our own individual engagement, role, participation in collective movements. And that's really powerful. You might need to liberate yourself, to get free from something in your life. It could be a self-imposed restriction. It could be a habit. It could be a relationship, a job, an attitude. It could be any number of things, really small or really large. And this New Moon is really great for that.

And it could be that you want to be a part of collective freedom and collective liberation. And again, this New Moon is good for that. And it's, to me, a really valuable reminder about how, whether we apply astrology to the micro or the macro⁠—in other words, to the personal or the social and political⁠—it works just the same because, again, self-care, when it's not community care⁠—it isn't really self-care, is it? I mean, there are things we do for self-care that are just about the self, and that is well and good. But there needs to be a balance.

Anyways, back to this New Moon in Scorpio. The Sun and Moon in Scorpio are conjunct Mars at 22 degrees of Scorpio. So that means that we are likely to be feeling pretty damn defensive and irritable. This energy is not what I would characterize as fun. This energy can make us combative, really quick to jump to all manner of assumptions and behaviors. And again, irritability, defensiveness⁠—they're the kind of premier emotions we are likely to be feeling.

Now, within that, because Uranus is opposite to all three of these planets, the risk of impulsive behavior leading to unexpected consequences is really big. So, if you do some shit that you, a moment later, realize was not it, I want to encourage you to not allow Mars or Uranus or all this fixed energy compel you to double down on it. A lot of people are going to do that. It may be you, and it might be people you're dealing with. People are going to double down on their positions because this is a fuck-ton of fixed energy and because Mars and Uranus are the two most individualistic planets in the zodiac. They are the most motivated by getting their own agendas addressed⁠—now. Not later. Now.

So this is going to have us all very much in our pride, in our ego, in our defenses, and in our feelings, which makes it really hard to consider the needs of others, which makes it really hard to consider the perspectives of others. And because everybody is burned out, everybody's tapped, everybody is overstimulated, everybody's taking in too much information to actually integrate and process through the body, through the heart, through the spirit, we're likely to spill over. And so this is the moment where I want to acknowledge Sun, Moon, and Mars are all in Scorpio, which can trigger trauma, which can trigger our secrets, the secret feelings you have about yourself, about others, about the world.

It can trigger our feelings of intensity, of loneliness, of paranoia, of our sense of passion and drive. Mars technically governs passion and drive, but there's a reason why before the planet Pluto was discovered that Mars was the ruling planet of Scorpio. So, as Pluto was discovered, we know that's a better match. But Mars was the ruling planet of Scorpio for a reason: because Scorpio can be really combative. And that combativeness comes from deep, deep depths, emotional depths⁠. Thanks, Pluto.

So what this means is you may see a post on social media and feel offended to your core, like it is the worst thing that ever happened, and then lose a day obsessing on the person who posted it, what they meant, the comment section, whatever. And what I want to say to you is choose your battles wisely. Be aware that you and me and everyone else will have a tendency to fixate on things that reflect our trauma, but maybe not the things that actually are our trauma.

And that is because if you have a list of problems⁠—you got a list of problems, and some of them are fucking big and they're terrifying, and you don't know how to fix them, and then others of them are small and they're triggering and they fucking get you in your feels⁠—what humans are inclined to do is to focus on the problems that we feel some sort of agency around. And that can be the petty shit because we're dealing with Mars. It can be petty shit.

So, if you catch yourself fixating on things that feel really intense, but if you look at them a little more objectively, they're not actually it⁠—they don't deserve all your energy⁠—then I want to encourage you to really take a moment, return to your body, and tap into your nervous system and see what it needs. Mars is about the body. When we're dealing with Martian energies, it's about embodiment. So this New Moon is going to be felt in the damn body because of the Mars conjunction to the New Moon.

And Uranus⁠—again, nervous system. So we're going to really have a very visceral experience of this. Knowing it in advance means you can prepare. You can put things in place, whether that means moderating your behavior or meditating or making an effort to engage in grounding practices or making an effort to deal with your core fears and feelings about lack of stability or lack of safety, because inherently, Uranus in Taurus triggers our feelings and reality of safety, of security.

And the truth of the matter is each and every one of us is, in their own way, experiencing tension around safety. When people are scared about their safety is when they tend to act most clannish. It's when they tend to act most aggressively and defensively. And this New Moon is a recipe for just the thickest defensive, reactive soup. Uranus and Mars both govern explosions. So, because we are living through times of war, this may be a particularly explosive New Moon, unfortunately.

Also, within that, there is a lot of energy for liberation. And that may come through something like⁠—I don't know⁠—Uranus-ruled internet. Uranus governs the internet. It might come through something else. But what I want to encourage you to do is return to the questions, if you can, "How do I feel in this moment? Can I accept it? And what do I need around that?" Three questions. And then, additionally, "Who do I want to be in this situation, and how can I show up in this specific moment that reflects that?" Start with the emotional stuff. Then get to the more behavioral component.

This energy⁠—holy shit. It is reactive, defensive, explosive. The more that we can tap into the depth of our emotions⁠—this is Scorpion energy⁠—the depth of our feelings, acknowledging our trauma, acknowledging our defenses, acknowledging our pettiness and our paranoia and our deep and driving desire for safety and security⁠—the more we can acknowledge that, the more we are connected to our humanity. And that can empower us to hold space for that in others, even people who are expressing it in radically different ways, even people who are showing up showing out their asses. And trust me: there's going to be a lot of people showing their asses this week, especially on and around this New Moon.

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Now, something else that's really important is the Saturn/Mercury square that is active in this chart. Saturn/Mercury square⁠—I talked about it last week⁠—it's kind of a depressing transit. It puts us in a scarcity mindset. And so, when people are in a scarcity mindset, what will often occur is, again, we get grabby. We get defensive. We get shut down. Or we get blamey and condemning and mean.

What we can do is we can tap into the potential of the Mercury square to Saturn in such a way that we ground our thinking; we honor the steps that are needed to create or co-create the consequence that we want to see in the world⁠—so humility, pragmatism, vision, and enactment of the steps to get to the vision. Right? There it is.

And luckily, Neptune, at about 25 degrees of Pisces, is forming a trine to the Moon, Sun, and Mars, and it's forming a sextile to Uranus. And so Neptune is there helping us to tap into our empathy, to show ourselves and others grace, to center humanitarian motivations and spiritual motivations. This placement is⁠—it's very watery, and it's very Neptunian. So it's not going to ground our intentions or de-escalate all the energies I've been talking about, but it will tap us in a little bit more. I mean, whenever it comes to sextiles and trines, you gotta use the energy. It's not just going to force itself on you. But that energy is there, and it is worth tapping into.

Now, one last thing I will say within this New Moon chart, which is that Pluto at 28 degrees of Capricorn is square to the North Node at almost 25 degrees⁠—24 degrees and 48 minutes⁠—of Aries. This speaks to our own appetite for violence. It speaks to our own appetite for destruction and healing and our need for transformation and repair.

When we look at the Nodes, what we are really talking about is evolutionary principles. We're not talking about your nervous system or whatever. It's not a personality trait. But I do think it is worth naming, this evolutionary push from the North Node square Pluto, for us to heal and transform and to acknowledge our appetite for destruction, our appetite for punishment and condemnation, and our patience within the process of evolution. There's no answers in what I'm sharing, but I did want to reflect on that because it does stand out to me in the reading of this New Moon chart.

Now, that brings us to November 15th. And on the 15th, we have an exact sextile between Mercury and Venus. It's happening at 7 degrees and 53 minutes. So Mercury is at 7 degrees and 53 minutes of Sagittarius, and Venus is at the same degrees of Libra. This is a really lovely transit. In my thinking, it does not have a spectacular presentation unless it's hitting something directly in your birth chart.

But Mercury is friendships, and Venus is our sensual connections. And so it's great for socializing. It's great for building connections with people, having a relaxing day, chilling out, socializing, that kind of thing. Mercury sextile to Venus is a great time to be loving and to show up in a way that is kind and generous and fun. So get out there, if you can, and have a little bit of a break from some of this energy. Now, realistically, in the context of everything that's happening, it might just feel like a less stressful day, or you may have a couple really nice interactions throughout this really zingy kind of time. But we want to do the most we can to tap into the energies of the supportive transits around us, and this is a sweet one to tap into.

On the 17th, we have not one but three exact transits. So, at 12:36 a.m. Pacific Time on the 17th, Mars forms an exact trine to Neptune. And that's happening at 24 degrees and 59 minutes⁠—let's call it a cool 25⁠—25 degrees of Mars in Scorpio, Neptune in Pisces. A couple hours later, at 6:52 a.m. Pacific Time, the Sun, at the exact same degrees, forms a trine to Neptune, so 24 degrees and 59 minutes. And then, later on that day, at 9:42 p.m. Pacific Time, the Sun hits 25 degrees and 37 minutes of Scorpio, and so does Mars. So now that Sun/Mars conjunction is exact. Let's talk about it.

Both Mars and the Sun forming a trine to Neptune is lovely. Again, it puts us in this empathetic, graceful, generous, and honestly spiritual frame of mind. The Sun is the will, and Mars is the ego. So these two planets, the Sun and Mars, are very much about being embodied and activated from your core. They're related to ego energies, and ego energies⁠—they get a bad rap in the new-agey world, but the truth of the matter is what we need is a healthy, well-adjusted sense of self⁠—the Sun⁠—and ego⁠—Mars. When it's too small or too big, we end up with problems because, really, the goal is wholeness and embodiment, which means embodying in a whole way all the parts and then making choices with how we engage with our parts.

The Neptune trine to the Sun and Mars can empower us to be a lot more gentle and to apologize if we did some shit with the New Moon, to maybe just kind of reflect on what's been going on in our lives and how we've been engaging and be like, "Oh, I brought some of my shit to my partner. And I want to acknowledge that, because it felt really like it was about them. And now, with the gentle embrace of Neptune trine to the Sun and Mars, I can feel into how I maybe overreacted or whatever."

Now, I could wax poetic about these two transits, but the problem is we have a Sun conjunction to Mars this same day. So, basically, the trines are going to soften the blow of the Sun conjunction to Mars. This transit is intense, and it's not inherently good or bad. It is just a transit where we feel energy mounting viscerally in the body. That's Mars for you. We feel all of our energy mounting, mounting, mounting, and this is why the transit is associated with being combative. So this is not a great transit in times of conflict because it makes things more conflictual. It makes people more defensive. It makes people much more rash and quick to act out.

Mars and the Sun when they're together are not empathetic. They are not generous. They are all about "what I need" and "my impulses" and "my version of reality." This is not made any softer by the fact that it's all in Scorpio. So it is possible that you will either be really defensive and impulsive and act out against yourself or others, or you will be in the presence or company of somebody who does that shit.

This transit, unfortunately, because of these things, is related to, literally, rashes. If this transit is hitting your birth chart in a really direct way, you may literally have a rash. You may be running hot, literally but also metaphorically. You may act rashly. You may be running hot. You may have a total meltdown and really just kick and scream and fight. You may direct your need or drive for fighting in a way that you, when the energy passes, feel is right. And you may just do it to the nearest and easiest target.

The problem with this transit is that it is hard to be really intentional about where you're directing your energy because of how reactive it is. The best thing for you to do with this transit is to strive to be incredibly judicious and intentional about how and where you put your energy. That means directing it towards projects, ideas, things that you really want to move ahead, that you really care about. Mars is related to our passions, and Sun is⁠—it's the brightest light. We can light up the things that we are passionate about and make real progress during this transit. We can also fuck it up by acting out.

This transit can be really good for sex because it can help you show up and have a really fun, hot time. Because Uranus is still so close by, it can get real weird. If you like that, that might be good news for you. If you don't like that, okay, well, it can get weird. And this is a great time for experimenting sexually in safe ways. In safe ways. And I have to repeat "in safe ways" because both Mars and Uranus⁠—which is not exactly opposing the Sun and Mars, but it's still definitely in orb—it can make us take risks sexually that aren't super wise because they're just impulse-based; they're not intentional. So, if you're not trying to make a baby, don't make a baby. You know where babies come from, right?

If you don't feel safe with a person, don't hook up with a person. You know what I mean? You want to try to the best of your ability to use common sense because the Sun conjunction to Mars, with or without Uranus in orb of an opposition, can lead to violence. It can be violence. So it's important to just have it in your mind that these transits can trigger a lot. And within that, do your best to be safe and to create safe spaces for others, or participate in the safety of spaces for others.

Now, while, yes, Sun conjunction to Mars can be a transit where we have a lot of ego shit, where there's conflicts, even accidents, all that kind of stuff, it's also important to acknowledge that it can be a great transit for connecting with your passions, mobilizing on the things that are important to you, moving projects forward. The project may be your own mental health. It may be shifts with your physical health, or it may be moving things in your life or in the world forward.

It is important to recognize your own motivations behind your behavior. That's super important because the Sun/Mars conjunction is in Scorpio, and you want to make sure that you're coming to things as clean as possible. This requires a willingness to, again, sit with complexity, sit with messiness⁠—classic Scorpio shit, right? And that is hard to do on a normal day. And Sun conjunction to Mars is not a normal day, and Uranus opposite Sun and Mars⁠—not a normal day. So it's going to be challenging.

And again, what I hope you can do with this information is kind of set your intention to align with the best possible parts of this energy, and allow it to embolden and push forward your ambitions, your clarity about your own motivations, and your passions.

Now, my loves, that's it for this week's horoscope. I hope it is helpful and instructive to you as we go through some really tumultuous energy. And speaking of this tumultuous energy, on November 19th, I am cohosting another cosmic conversation with my two dear friends, thought leaders, and authors Sonya Renee Taylor and Adrienne Maree Brown. On November 19th, we will be talking about joy in the time of apocalypse with a focus on boundaries. We are going to speak on the realness of what is happening in the world and uplift the insights, strategies, and practices that may aid us in navigating these apocalyptic-feeling times with healthy boundaries rooted in grace, love, and collective care. If you want to register for this event, the link is both on my website and also in the description of this episode with a bunch of other helpful links wherever you listen to podcasts.

The transcript of this episode, as well as every other episode, is always available on my website over at ghostofapodcast.com. And that is also where you will find the contact form so you can send in your question to be considered on the show because every Wednesday, I offer a listener a reading where we get deep into you and your issues. And it's something that I love being able to do on the podcast. So check those episodes out or send in your question, again, all over at ghostofapodcast.com.

All right. May your week be graced with moments of equilibrium and peace. I'll talk to you in just a couple of days.