Welcome to Ghost of a Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Lanyadoo. I'm an astrologer, psychic medium, and animal communicator, and I'm going to give you your weekly horoscope and no-bullshit mystical advice for living your very best life.

Welcome back to Ghost of a Podcast. This week, we're going to be looking at the astrology of December 21st through the 27th. And as we do, we are also looking at the last full week of 2025, which is bananas. We are looking at the astrology of a time where a lot of people are off of work or with their family of origin or feeling a sense of pressure to be connected to other people, whether or not you actually are connected to other people in ways that feel nurturing and supportive and fun and all the things. So there's a lot to consider within this week's astrology.

There's just a quick note that I want to make before I dive into this week's horoscope, which is not only can you join me over on Patreon if you want to dive into mentorship with me or get loads of extras, content that is supportive and educational—so, whether you tap into your intuition, you use astrology, Tarot, you want to work more with psychic stuff or animal communication—all the things that I love talking about—you can deepen your education and access just hours upon hours upon hours of content that I have shared over there.

And if someone you love is interested in joining me over on Patreon, you can now gift membership. So something to add to your gift-giving schedule this holiday season. While we're talking about gifts, I mean, let's not forget how important it is to buy banned books, right? Make sure that your library is just stacked with banned books and books that help you to better understand the world we find ourselves in and how to cope with it.

Okay. Now, we're going to dive into this astrology, but I want to kind of give you an overview for just a minute because so much of what this week's astrology is going to do is test your boundaries. And it's, again, right on time because it's holiday season, and that means a lot of social pressure. And for a lot of people, it means hanging out with family of origin, which can be pretty activating.

So something that I kind of want to put in your head, an idea to just keep on coming back to, is how do you remain true to yourself in situations and in circumstances that are activating, like when your instincts or your internal narration is not super reliable? And that happens to all of us, right? There are situations where we get activated, and so we have an old story that we fall back on. Or when you're around family of origin or sometimes friends that you've had a really long time or a partner that you've been with for a really long time, we fall back on expectation, probability, and habit.

Within family of origin, it's called a family trance pattern, this way of engaging with people that you've known for a really long time that is not really authentic to who you are now or who you hope to be, but it's some sort of twisted-up, messy embodiment of who you once were or projections levied upon you. And if we're being honest, you aren't just the victim of this. You participate in it, right? We do this to other people. People do it to us. Being a human is messy. Being in relationships is messy.

The astrology of this week really gives you the opportunity to bring mindfulness to this, however it shows up in your life. Notice when you're activated, when you're scared, when other people's expectations and projections kind of start to become something you overidentify with or, conversely, you get super defensive around. And just take a beat. Notice it. And remember who you are. This is really important. I know it sounds so simple, and a lot of times, people will think to themselves, "Well, if it's simple, it's not that deep."

But if you can remember who you are and stay connected to that—honor what your truth is, what is healthy and in alignment for you to engage with and where your boundaries lie—then not only are you going to feel more at peace with what happens even if it doesn't go great dynamically with other people, but also, by being true to yourself and showing up real and whole, or as whole as you can, you start to create room for other people to do the same. And that can be transformative.

Sometimes nothing much changes when you change, and other times, when you show up different, you allow space energetically for other people to do the same. And then, sometimes in an instant, and other times slowly over time, what happens is that your relationships evolve, and they become a more modern and present articulation of who you are and how you want to be with the people that you're connected to.

So, with that little foreshadowing, let's dive into this week's forecast. The first exact transits are on Sunday, the 21st of December. And at 7:03 a.m. Pacific Time, the Sun moves into Capricorn. This is known as the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere. And the Solstice is really important for a lot of people spiritually.

On the Solstice, when the Sun enters into 0 degrees of Capricorn, it's like the Sun stands still. It's been getting darker and darker and darker up until this day, and now it starts to get a little bit lighter after the 21st of December, slowly, slowly. And there's something really important about this moment when the Sun stands still, when we experience darkness. And so many of us have such a negative association with the psychological experience, the emotional experience of darkness.

But the truth is we are energetic beings. And your ability to embrace all of your parts is the assignment. We're not just supposed to be love and light. That's unrealistic. Nature—and in its reflection, astrology—is a really useful articulation of how there is a time for all things. And there is a time for staying present with the darkness, for being interested in it, for investing in it, for letting it change you.

And so I want to encourage you on this day to really tap in, if you can, to parts of you that may feel shrouded or unclear, that might feel intimidating, and bring your light to them. And what is your light? Your light is your energy, your care, your attention, your interest. I know I talk about being interested a lot, but I genuinely cannot overstate how important it is to be authentically interested in what you're experiencing, what you're feeling, and the assumptions that you're bringing to a given moment. That interest empowers you to be more adaptable, to learn more, and to interrupt your assumptions, your activation, and your participation that comes from those places.

The other thing that's happening on this day is also really important. At 2:08 a.m. Pacific Time, Jupiter will be at 22 degrees of Cancer and 40 minutes, forming an exact square to Chiron. Now, this transit is really important, and we've been feeling it build up. This is our moment of exactitude, though. Jupiter has so much to do with your beliefs and your convictions, and Chiron is core wounding, a sense of not belonging. There's a lot of problems and struggles associated with Chiron.

When Jupiter and Chiron kind of square off—they're in a conflictual dynamic with each other—on a social level, we can expect real issues with our collective beliefs. What do we believe as communities or societies? And how much of those beliefs come from actually broken or unaligned systems or experiences? Jupiter has a lot to do with religion and religiosity, right? So it's not about spirituality, although Jupiter is also related to spirituality. But different from Neptune—Neptune is more high spirituality, the devotion that comes from pure belief. Jupiter is connected more to the community and the ideas and the philosophies associated with religion, alongside feelings of belief and conviction.

We may see in the world something really important related to church and state or the role of religious institutions in society. Now, whether this square, this tension, sparks progress—and when I say progress, I mean the kind of progress that facilitates our shared understanding and commitment to each other's humanity—or it's some sort of meaningful setback to sovereignty, freedom, liberty, and humanity, all things that Jupiter is connected to, time will tell.

We want to make sure that we're not assigning moral judgments or moral attributions to challenging aspects versus easy aspects. And a square is a challenging aspect, but oftentimes what we need is to be rattled in order for progress to happen. The greatest progress in your life and in society doesn't happen when everything's chill. It happens when you feel appropriately motivated. That tension is the spark that we often need in order to choose to move, to move through something difficult, especially.

Now, on a more personal level, your beliefs may be challenged. You may be challenged on and around this date to really ask yourself if you need to heal wounds from old beliefs. And those beliefs may come through experiences. They may come through religion or society or what have you. But healing occurs by confronting things that are painful. That's the process of healing. And so this is a time to face unresolved conflict, whether it comes up in your psyche, whether it shows up in the world, if it comes up in a relationship or with a project, a goal.

When we experience a transit like this, we'll often be experiencing growing pains. Jupiter is the growth, and Chiron is the pain. But again, that's not a bad thing. Growing pains are what we need in order to grow. And we want to heal unresolved conflicts. We want to heal our core wounding. Who amongst us doesn't want to feel better? But sometimes our convictions need to be challenged. Sometimes we need to be willing to jump in and have experiences because Jupiter is so experiential. It's so much about dynamic experience where you're interacting with ideas; you're interacting with culture, with people.

Now, unfortunately, this transit of a square between Jupiter and Chiron can be really shitty with issues related to immigration and migration in general. Jupiter is international. It's global. And Chiron is all fucked up from core wounds. And if we apply this to most nations, unfortunately, we can see the risk for really nefarious actions from the state to people who are migrating or immigrating. And that is something that's already in the air. This is already happening in the world, and in particular, of course, in the United States.

Now, that said, this square can be a time where people mobilize, where something happens legislatively or from the collective to force change or to hold a mirror to the injustices that are occurring. We want to hold space for the possibility of growth and change always and to not wait for something to swoop in and save us but instead to be a part of our own rescue, to be a part of each other's salvation and advocate for each other. And again, Jupiter is related to all of these things.

Another thing that Jupiter is related to is how we metabolize things. So the Moon in astrology is how we digest experiences, information, what have you. But Jupiter is related to more of, how do you metabolize your thoughts and feelings? How do you sort through your thoughts and feelings? How do you metabolize your experiences? Some people are really quick in metabolizing experiences, and other people need to really sit with things for a minute.

This is not a time for being judgmental towards yourself or others but instead for being open to receiving information and allowing that information to be something that you work to understand, to synthesize, because Jupiter is related to understanding that comes from synthesis. So this Jupiter square to Chiron is a really good time to face things and to be open to facing things that may be challenging, that may be confronting, but through the very process of being present with it, being open to synthesizing it, you can evolve and grow and progress. We can apply this to our personal lives, to our relationships, to how you engage with work or projects, and of course to society and the world at-large.

That brings us to the next exact transit of this week, and it's happening on Tuesday, December 23rd, at exactly 9:31 p.m. Pacific Time. We will have Venus at 21 degrees of Sagittarius and 26 minutes forming an exact square to Neptune at the same degrees. And if you are looking along with me, you will see I'm using Astrology for Days, which is my astrologer's pro tool. It just tracks the transits and is just a place where you can see exactly what's happening and when. It has an ephemeris built into it and also a little note-taking area. So it's a really simple tool, but it's what I use every damn day. And you can, too, over at astrologyfordays.com.

Okay. Venus square Neptune—this transit is hard. I am not a huge fan of these personal planets forming a square to Neptune. As a Capricorn, I find them very uncomfortable. Venus square to Neptune can be a time where you feel just off, out of place, like you don't know who you are, where you belong. Perfectly timed for the fucking holidays, right?

Venus square to Neptune is a transit that takes your values—Venus—and your ideals—Neptune—and it creates a clash. And so you may have ideas about yourself or about the world that you're genuinely not living up to, that you're not showing up for. And this transit is going to make you feel real bad about it, honestly. It's going to make you feel demoralized.

And so, again, this is where I want to remind you to be interested in what feels off because it is this feeling of, "I'm aware that I actually really care about this thing, but I'm not following through. I'm not taking care of it. I'm not taking care of myself, other people"—whatever the fuck it is. That discomfort, that awareness, can be the seed that grows into change, that grows into greater alignment. The key is to not devolve into anxiety or self-blame or martyrdom. And unfortunately, because of Neptune, all those things are very possible, unfortunately.

Venus square to Neptune does a lot of things. So one of the things that this transit can do is it can make you feel really off about the way you look. It can create anxieties about your appearance. So your appearance is both the physicality of your meat suit, your aesthetic, and a lot of us end up feeling very policed or judged by our family of origin when we hang out with them, so that might be it—but genuinely just this transit. It can introduce anxiety—Neptune—about how you appear to others or beauty or the general details of how you present to the world—Venus.

This can make you then act fucking weird. So this is the thing about when I'm sitting around feeling anxious and self-conscious about myself. You may or may not be thinking anything about the things that I'm fixating on. And so, now, when I'm wrapped up in my anxieties, I'm going to act in ways that reflect that—that reflect my desire to fix it, to hide from it, whatever the case may be.

And so, when you are in a state of anxiety, when you're picking yourself apart, what happens is you act in ways that kind of invite discord without realizing it. Oftentimes, it's subtle, and people aren't even aware of it. But it becomes almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I want to encourage you to be kind to yourself. Just take a beat. If you find yourself fixating on things that are out of your control—maybe they're in your control tomorrow, but in this moment, they're out of your control—take a beat. Give yourself some grace.

The thing about Neptune is that it is the planet that's associated with empathy, grace, kindness, forgiveness. And Venus—Venus is very much associated with kindness and niceness. And so, if you are mean to yourself, if you are mean to others, this transit is going to make you feel like shit. And that's actually kind of cool because that shitty set of feelings are an indication of you holding something—an idea, a feeling—without kindness and empathy, without giving yourself or others grace.

Now, to be clear, you can have empathy and be kind and still have really strong boundaries. Kindness and empathy cannot come at the expense of your integrity, authenticity, your welfare, or respecting the welfare and dignity of others. That's not empathy and kindness. This transit is really just like—it can be really confusing, and it can have you feeling all kinds of ways, and it can have other people feeling all kinds of ways so that they act weird with you, and you're like, "Why are you being defensive?" And it's probably because they're fixated on some weird fucking thing.

So, again, hold space for you don't know what's happening in the universe that is that other person, and also, you get to have clear boundaries that are yours to protect, yours to identify, yours to maintain. A big part of this is not believing that your story that you tell yourself about what other people are thinking or feeling is fact. It's not. It's projection. It's assessment. Maybe you're an amazing psychic. You still can't fucking know. You still can't know. What you want to hold space for is what you don't know. And when we hold space for what we don't know, there's something implied there, which is then you are making choices around how to hold it.

If you're making negative assumptions, those are assumptions. You could just as easily make a positive assumption. I mean, we can't all easily make positive assumptions. I am a Capricorn. I get that. But understanding that this is at least theoretically true can be really valuable for navigating through paranoia and projection, both of which are very possible under the influence of this transit.

This transit is challenging. It can create really uncomfortable dynamics with other people or make you fixated on comparison and, again, projection. And so kindness, kindness, kindness, and also, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries—that's the assignment under the Venus square to Neptune.

That brings us to the last exact transit of this week. On Saturday, December 27th, Mercury will form an exact trine to Chiron. This transit is happening with Mercury at 22 degrees of Sagittarius and 37 minutes trine to Chiron at the same degrees of Aries. It's exact at 4:15 p.m. Pacific Time. This transit is really lovely, and it's a great asset in the context of the other transits we're going through especially.

This is a transit that empowers you to keep an open mind, to be willing and able to confront things that might be a little activating, might be a little confronting, but to do so with kind of a thirst for the truth, and not a truth that you can beat yourself or others up with, but just the truth, just held in a neutral way.

This transit is really good for keeping an open mind, having conversations that are kind of tough to have but having them with an expansive and curious mindset. The best thing that you can do is actually listen to other people. I know, so much of the time in astrology, we talk about how to talk to people and what other people are thinking and what are other people doing, but how many times have you really just stopped to listen to people, like listen to people, the people you disagree with, the people you deeply want to impress? Listen to them, not with the idea of how to give them what they want or how to defend yourself, but just with curiosity.

This transit helps with that. It helps with being curious about your own thoughts, your own psychology, revisiting stories that you've been telling yourself for ages, and really being curious about where they come from and whether or not they're actually reflective of what's happening right now. This is also a great time for being with friends. Now, I want to be honest. The Venus square Neptune is not great for socializing in general, but Mercury trine to Chiron is great.

And so something that I actually talk about on my Patreon every damn year is I am obsessed with this game called The Transformation Game. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. It's basically like a board game that comes out of a spiritual group that started in the 1970s. But it's basically an interactive Tarot reading. That's the best way I can describe it. You have to play with at least one person, and you set the intention that you want to work on something, like, "I want to understand my blocks around following through with self-care or my love life," or whatever the fuck it is.

And then the game takes you through levels, the physical, the emotional, the mental, and the spiritual levels. And there's so many layers to it. It's really complicated. I can talk for ages about this game. But it really empowers you to work through something meaningful to you with someone else, to be vulnerable, to be there for them, to be there for yourself, to be seen and to see someone else. It is such a powerful game. And when I saw this transit was happening, I was like, "This is the perfect astrological weather for playing The Transformation Game."

So, if you have it somewhere in your collection of woo accessories or if you have access to playing it with someone, this is your time. This last weekend of 2025 is a perfect time to do it. If you don't have access to The Transformation Game, which makes sense because it's a little niche, you can get real with the people that you care about. You can have conversations. You can really just choose to connect with each other. And I want to invite you to do that.

This week's astrology speaks to our need for each other. But if the way that you connect with other people requires that you abandon yourself, then it becomes not worth it. Relationships are hard. Community is hard. And it's hard because it involves you and all your parts. It's not hard because people are bad or community doesn't work. The more that you come to know yourself, the more that you accept yourself, the easier it is to allow space for other people to do the same and to be wherever they're at on their journey around self-awareness and self-acceptance.

I will of course run through these transits one more time for you and also remind you that you can read the transcript for these episodes over on my website any old time you want, if you want to get back in there and remember what I said. So you can seek that on my website. And also, if you want a reading with me, send me a question to be considered for the podcast. So you can go and use the contact form over on my website. Everything is linked in the show notes and all the places you find links.

So you can go ahead and send a question to be considered for the podcast for readings in the new year. We are going to take a break on December 24th and 31st from posting midweek episodes. And if you've not been able to keep up with the seven million podcast episodes I drop, you can always catch up in these next two weeks when we're not posting new readings.

Okay. On the 21st, we have the Winter Solstice, a.k.a. the Sun moves into Capricorn, and Jupiter forms an exact square to Chiron. On the 23rd, Venus is exactly square to Neptune. And then, finally, on the 27th, Mercury forms an exact trine to Chiron.

There is still time to join me and Tony Howard for our webinar about the astrology of 2026. So make sure to follow the links and press all the buttons to register for that, whether you can join us live or you just want to register so you get the recording in your inbox. I look forward to seeing you there and diving into the very intense astrology of the new year.

All right. Take really good care of yourself and others, and I'll talk to you soon.