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 7th through the 13th of 2025. But first, I've got a couple of announcements to make. The first one is that I am teaming up with astrologer Tony Howard, and the two of us are going to be offering a webinar called The Astrology of 2026: How to Work with the Biggest Shifts of the Year. It will be a two-hour-long webinar on January the 3rd of 2026. And tickets are available on a sliding scale. Tickets are limited, so definitely check the link in the show notes of this episode or visit my website. And you can sign up to join us for what I think is going to be a really helpful and constructive conversation.

I mean, the astrology of this moment that we are in right now, the astrology of 2026, is very mentally, spiritually, behaviorally challenging. And so much of that has to do with the Neptune/Saturn conjunction. We've been in the phase of it for the better part of 2025, but it hits exactitude in 2026, in early 2026. And this transit confronts us with really consequential uncertainty. The consequential part is Saturn, and the uncertainty part is Neptune. And this is something that I actually talked about in a live that I did on my Patreon just yesterday, and it's available for all my members, free and paid. So, if that's something that you want to get a little bit more coping tools around, you can join me over there.

And while you are there, that brings me to my second announcement, which is I have dropped a new tier on my Patreon. And this is a mentorship tier, and I'm calling it Lovers. I've been asked for mentorship for many years from folks and finally have decided to offer it. I actually dropped this tier a month ago but left it open just for my existing patrons, and now I am inviting everyone to join on this tier. What's happening is, once a month, I will read a birth chart. And many of those months, it will be for someone in the group. It will be different than the readings I give on the podcast where we focus on a specific question. This will be a real one-hour-long reading, completely unedited. And the person who gets the reading can use a filter and protect their anonymity.

But what happens is I will then post that reading to the tier, which is a closed community. It's private just to the tier. Everyone on that tier has the opportunity to watch the video and then ask questions, any kind of questions about psychic components that came up, about how I did things astrologically, about why I said what I said—that kind of stuff, how I consult or counsel throughout the reading. What folks are not doing on this tier is giving advice to the person who got a reading. Instead, this is an invitation for me to mentor you on all things related to how I do readings. And there's already been so many really great conversations.

So what I do then is I choose the five most upvoted questions on that video and then drop five separate videos where I go in depth in answering them, and we have a lot of conversation from there. Already, it has been an incredibly rich experience with a lot of learning and a lot of content. And so, if you would like to join us there, just visit my Patreon, and you can explore what we've already done and join us for what comes next.

Okay. So two big announcements. I've got a webinar. I've got a new mentorship tier over on my Patreon. And I hope to see you at either or both, whatever resonates with you the most. There's one more thing I want to kind of speak to before we really dive into this week's horoscope. It's something that actually came out of that talk that I mentioned that I just gave the other day, which is uncertainty.

Now, you may be going through things in your personal life that are hard to process, hard to stay present with, that you're not sure what to do around, or you may, like me, be looking at things developing in the world and feel really overwhelmed, feel disempowered, feel uncertain of what to do or how to plan for such an uncertain future. And I want to acknowledge that, because it's up. I mean, it's a part of life; it's kind of always up. But it's really up right now.

Here we are, right? It's an astrology podcast. And a big part of what I do week after week on the horoscope episodes is I make some level of prediction about how it's going to feel, what's going to happen, that kind of thing. But astrology, psychic ability, Tarot—whatever woo you are drawn to—is actually not meant to be a kind of bypassing tool for learning how to cope with uncertainty. Uncertainty is a part of life. Not knowing what to do, not knowing how to handle things, is a part of being an adult human person. It just is.

And so, as we use astrology as a tool or whatever else really resonates for you, whether you're a psychic or a Tarot reader or a political strategist or whatever else, it's important to hold space for the emotions and the psychological coping mechanisms that we have in place in this moment for coping with these difficulties. And most of us have some good skills and some really maladjusted coping mechanisms. That's part of being a human, too. It's hard, and it's okay that it feels hard, because it's hard.

And if you can practice, in the presence of insecurity, uncertainty, just confusion or overwhelm—if you can practice being kind to yourself, being curious about what you're really feeling and what needs are underneath those feelings, then you can start developing tools for coping. And if you're in a real shitty situation, then your tools may only make a teeny, tiny dent. But navigating difficulty and finding your own internal resources, figuring out, "What am I doing that is aligned with my values, and how have I lost track of my values?"—these kinds of questions, these kinds of inquiries, help you to live well in challenging times, in challenging circumstances. And we all hit those places, right?

In the context of what's happening in the world, and in particular in the United States right now, we are going through some really uncertain and challenging times. That is something that is happening systemically, but it impacts you personally. And that's what throws a lot of people off, having a really personal and individualistic experience of something that's happening collectively to a lot of people all at once.

Understanding where we're at, understanding where you're at, is an inside job. It's a way of thinking about the world and your place in it. It's a way of understanding yourself in context to the time and place that you're living in, whether we apply that to social conditions or your personal life and your personal conditions. Either way, I want to invite you to be curious about what you're feeling, how you're coping with it. I want to invite you to be kind to yourself and to give yourself grace for how you navigated and the struggles you may come across and the problems you may encounter, and from that place, to extend that grace to others, not so that you don't have boundaries and you don't take care of yourself, but instead as an extension of having healthy boundaries and taking accountability for who you are and how you engage with other people and the world around you.

Saturn is related to accountability and Neptune to empathy. Accountability without empathy is a problem. It often becomes very rules-based and very punishing. And so this is a time where we can infuse the structures that we organize our lives around or the systems that we organize our communities and our society around with greater empathy, with greater care and humanity. Or we could dig our heads in the sand because we're anxious. I mean, there's a lot of things in between, but this is a time to be curious about where you're at with it all and to practice engaging with your worries and your stresses and your hopes and your plans with greater accountability and empathy.

All right. All of this said, let's dive headfirst into this week's horoscope. We are looking at the astrology of December 7th through the 13th of 2025. And on December 7th, which is a Sunday, at exactly 8:58 a.m. Pacific Time, we have a Mercury trine to Saturn. Mercury will be at 25 degrees and 14 minutes of Scorpio trine to Saturn at the same degrees of Pisces. And this transit is lovely. What it does is it stabilizes your thinking. It is a great transit for communicating, for listening, for learning, and for making plans. This is because Mercury is your mind. It's your friends. It's communication. And it's plans. And Saturn, again, stabilizes. It is mature. It is accountable. It is sustainable.

If you are somebody who has a hard time with figuring out what you're going to do and when, mapping things out, scheduling things, responding to emails, this transit is a gift, especially if it hits your chart directly. This transit really has no downside. I mean, it's not the most spontaneous transit in the world, but it is really stabilizing for your thinking, which is especially helpful because on Monday, the 8th, we have a challenging transit.

At exactly 4:16 p.m. Pacific Time, Mars will be at 25 degrees and 16 minutes of Sagittarius, forming an exact square to Saturn at the same degrees of Pisces. Mars square Saturn is a challenging transit. Are you going to be frustrated? Yes. Are you going to be frustrating? Yes. So this is an annoying transit. It makes you annoying, and it makes me annoying, and it makes them annoying. Everybody's annoying. And this is often because Mars, which is your ego—it's your plans—not your Mercurial plans, like your ideas about what you're going to do, but your plans of in regards to the things you're actively carrying out in this moment. Mars is an active, proactive principle. It's your body and embodiment, and it's how you move through the world or how you move through projects.

And so Mars being challenged in a square by Saturn gets really frustrated. This is a teeth-grinding kind of transit because you can often feel stuck, stymied, blocked, or otherwise controlled or limited by something or someone else. And when it comes to Saturn, it can be a landlord, a boss, a parent, somebody who acts like they know better, or it could just be somebody who triggers you in some way.

Mars square to Saturn is a transit where there can be ego conflicts, but they're a little bit under the surface. It's not like big fights and conflicts. It's more like a struggle for power without fully naming it. Mars square to Saturn challenges you to do what needs doing with less. And that might mean there is a scarcity of some sort of resource. Maybe it's your energy. Maybe it's support. Maybe it's some other thing. But whatever it is, it feels like you don't have what you need or you deserve. Or you may be playing more of the Saturnian role, and you may be feeling like other people are trying to trample on you or force you to do something that is out of alignment or that is just too much, too fast.

Either way—whatever role you play, more Mars or more Saturn—this is a transit that tests your ability to adapt in imperfect situations. This is not like a tidy setup. Luckily, that Mercury trine to Saturn does stabilize our thinking. So it makes it easier to have conversations with people, to calmly reflect on what's actually happening so you can sort through what's your triggers, what's your activation, what's your ego, and what's actually happening, what's appropriate to the situation, where you may be projecting onto others versus what you actually know, the data you actually have.

So, while this transit can be really frustrating and kick up defenses and aggravation—it for sure can do that—there are positive aspects to the transit as well, and there are certain things that are better suited to doing and less good to do. So okay. This transit can be a time where you cultivate greater clarity about what you will and won't do, what does and doesn't work for you. This can be a transit where resistance-based movements triple down and tighten up. This is a terrible time for bold moves, risks, and ego battles. Okay? Just not a great time for any of that, and that is because Saturn has a way of winning in these situations. You know that song, "I fought the law and the law won"? That's so Saturn/Mars square.

But if you can avoid fighting—or, again, ego battles—but instead hold your ground, stay really clear and connected to your own will, your own motivations, what you consent to and what you don't, and what you are willing to do in a given situation and what you're not, if you can stay really connected to that, then you can get the best of this transit. This is definitely a transit that requires patience, but it can also teach you patience. So do your best to be patient, patient with your own feelings, patient with your process, patient with other people and situations. It's really hard to stay connected to and patient with feelings that you don't know how to stay in your body around, but that's exactly what this transit is requiring.

For some people, depending on how it hits your birth chart, you may literally find yourself grinding or clenching your teeth because Saturn is about clenching, and Mars is your jaw. You might find yourself just really putting your mug down too rough on the table, just coming at things a little too heavy and a little too hard. If that's the case, that's your body's way of telling you that you're not breathing into the feelings you're having. That's, again, hard to do with Mars square Saturn. But pairing breath, which—Mercury is related to that, and we have that Mercury trine to Saturn. Pairing breath into the stress of the moment may be really supportive. Now, of course, not everything works for all people at all times. But it's something to be aware of. How are you treating your body as you experience frustrations or difficulties in your day?

Now, while this transit is exact on Monday, the 8th, we're going to be feeling it, certainly, for the first half of the week. It's going to be a pain in the ass. It's going to be a pain in the ass. This transit I kind of associate with road rage or being somehow stuck. There's sometimes just nothing you can do about your situation; you're just stuck where you are, or you're dealing with what you're dealing with. And so one last thing I want to name is, can you have acceptance for where you're at, remembering that acceptance is not consent? Acceptance is simply awareness. "This is where I am. This is how things are. What do I do with the feelings? What do I do dynamically in this situation?" But it's really hard to meet the moment when you haven't accepted that the moment is what it is and that you are who you are, when you are. So trust that that is part of the assignment with this transit.

Fun fact—that brings us to Wednesday, the 10th, and we have another challenging transit. Now, this transit is a Mercury opposition to Uranus, and it may sound familiar because recently, on November 19th, when Mercury was Retrograde, we went through this transit, so very recent. Mercury will be at 28 degrees of Scorpio and 40 minutes sitting opposite to Uranus at the same degrees of Taurus. This transit will be exact at 11:59 a.m. Pacific Time on the 10th.

So you may want to take a pause. Think about what was going on for you on or around the 19th of November because those themes are likely to be reiterated. Now, that doesn't mean the people you talked to and the specific things that happened are going to repeat. But it does mean that whatever it is that got activated inside of you and in your life are likely to repeat on some level.

This transit is so different from the Mars square to Saturn that it is likely to create a lot of chaotic feelings. In particular, if overwhelm is a tricky feeling for you to tolerate or to navigate, this week's astrology is going to be a pain in your ass, okay? So Mercury opposite Uranus is a little explosive. It's unpredictable. It wants risks and change, the exact things I said don't do under a Mars square to Saturn.

Mercury opposite Uranus is a transit that provokes unexpected changes through chance encounters, breaking news, breaking developments in the world and in your own life. On a much more personal level, because Mercury is your mind and Uranus is your nervous system, we know that it can provoke restlessness in your thinking. So it can have you kind of jumping from topic to topic, having a hard time with focus, or it can simply have you a bit mentally agitated because you're overstimulated or maybe engaging in hypervigilant thinking.

Because Mercury is in Scorpio and just about anaretic, you may be having paranoid thoughts. And your paranoid thoughts can lead you to be really defensive, really insecure, jump to conclusions. Or that might not be happening with you at all, but other people, the people you're dealing with, may be defensive or paranoid or suspicious in some way, and then they act fucking weird. And then you're like, "Wait. What? What do I do?" because it's unpredictable, the way they're behaving. That's the thing. When we are feeling really defensive or suspicious or paranoid or whatever, we tend to act in ways that don't make sense to other people, especially if we are unnecessarily suspicious of the people we're dealing with.

This transit challenges you to keep an open mind, just as that Mars square to Saturn might have you feeling like you need to dig in your heels or double down on your plans or perspective. The beauty of the Mercury opposition to Uranus overlapping with the Mars square to Saturn is that the Mercury transit actually wants you and supports you in being more adaptable, whether it's going with the flow or just being open to things being outside of your control or different than you expected them to be. That is a really helpful attitude to take with the Mars square to Saturn.

The problem is, if you are really insisting on looking for answers or assurances or making things stable and secure or proving yourself, the combo platter of these two transits overlapping with each other may create some really hectic and unpleasant dynamics, honestly. This transit brings about the unpredictable. It brings about surprises, and it often makes things happen quickly in the day-to-day. So there might be a lot of breaking news, or there might be a million emails or texts from friends or whatever. You might just have a busy day. The overlap of that with the Mars square to Saturn is going to be testing. And so take a beat. Take a beat. Just sit with your feelings. Sit with the sensations in your body. Sit with your thoughts before you act, before you double down on what you believe to be happening or true.

The combination of these two transits can make it hard to listen, like really listen to other people, really allow situations to unfold. But that's the assignment, okay? Be a good listener, keeping in mind that listening is not just a thing you do with your ears or, if you're reading a message, with your eyes or whatever. Listening is a multilayered experience. It's taking in information and receiving it not just through your lens but receiving the giver of the information and their intentions. Sometimes it's really hard to take in what other people are saying because it's hurtful. Sometimes it's really helpful to take in what other people are saying, but it contradicts your ideas or your expectations.

So be open this week and especially on and around this date. Be open—not conclusive, not certain, not quick to act and make things your own. Just stay open. From a place of openness, you can be more curious. And really, really, this Mercury opposition to Uranus favors curiosity because if you're adaptable and you're curious, then you're open and you're learning. And whether that's pointed inward towards yourself or you're learning about your relationships, you're learning about your role at work or your goals for yourself or something in the world at-large—on whatever level it's playing out, openness and adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to learn and listen are a great asset. They make you better, and they can help you to make better choices in your life.

And that brings us to Thursday, the 11th. On this day, a couple of things happen. So the first thing is Mercury is trine to Neptune. We've got Mercury at 29 degrees of Scorpio and 22 minutes forming an exact trine to Neptune at the same degrees of Pisces. And that's exact at 2:19 a.m. Pacific Time. The other thing—later that afternoon, Mercury moves into Sagittarius. Yesterday, Neptune went direct. These are two things I don't really talk about. When the outer planets retrograde or go direct, I don't tend to find it to be super heavy, and I don't talk about it on the podcast. And when the personal planets—that's the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars—ingress into a new sign, I don't talk about that. There's lots of stuff about that online, and again, I don't tend to find that it's something that people feel in a really deep way unless it's hitting your birth chart directly. So you might notice that I don't talk about those things. That's why, in case you're curious.

Okay. So let's focus on the planetary transit that's happening here on the 11th, Thursday, at 2:10 a.m. Pacific Time. Okay. Mercury trine Neptune is a gift with this week's astrology because what it does is it opens you up so that you are a better listener, so that you are more empathetic, so that you can process information with more grace and humanism and empathy and care. Wonderful. This is what we need. Mercury trine to Neptune can increase your care and consideration for others. It can increase your sensitivity to the world around you, which in the case of this trine usually means that you're more sensitive to the needs of you, your environment, and the people in it. Lovely transit.

If you can get yourself into nature, if you can listen to music or engage with art that is uplifting to you, that will be really helpful for your mental health. This transit just helps with that. The thing about the trine as a transit—and a trine is a 120-degree angle. I have hot-take episodes about it if you want to go through the archive of my podcast. But the thing about the trine aspect in transit is that it creates a flow of energy. It doesn't motivate you to do something. So you may find yourself living your life in the city, just being super overstimulated, and forget that you can—I don't know—take the train to a park or something. It doesn't motivate you to go to the park, but if you go to the park, if you sit yourself in nature, if you touch grass—whatever it is—it will really just sing for you. It'll flow for you.

So do what you can to support yourself. Do what you can to show up for others. Process your ideas. Communicate with other people with care. Neptune is there for you. It's a supportive agent in being caring, being empathetic. So you want to tap into it to the best of your ability.

And that brings us to the last exact transit of this week. And I'm going to tell you about something that is exact at the start of next week because we're going to be feeling it at the end of this week. Trust me; you want to know about it.

On Saturday, December 13th, at exactly 8:32 a.m. Pacific Time, Mercury forms a sextile to Pluto. So, for those of us keeping track, Mercury was trine to Saturn. Mercury was trine to Neptune. Mercury was opposite to Uranus. And now it's sextile to Pluto. That's because these outer planets are all at a very similar degree.

Mercury sextile to Pluto is a fantastic transit. It deepens your thinking. It deepens your thinking so that you can explore options and ideas that might be a little challenging for you at other times. And that challenging might be because it's a concept that is hard for you to understand, or it could be because it's challenging you on more of a psychological or an emotional level. This transit empowers you to have hard conversations, to really listen to someone else's perspective, to go deeper into some sort of body of knowledge and really comprehend what's happening. This is a fucking fantastic transit. Mercury is at 2 degrees of Sagittarius and 12 minutes, while Pluto is at the same degrees of Aquarius. This is great for learning. So, if there's something you're trying to learn, if there's something you're trying to really understand, challenge yourself this weekend.

Now, this is not an unqualified blessing, unfortunately, because of what's happening on the 14th. But this is a great time for connecting with people and really listening to what they have to say. It's a great time for speaking your truth. Now, the thing I want to give you a heads-up about—and there's a couple transits happening that are exact on the 14th, but the one that you're really going to be feeling at the second half of this week is a Mars square to Neptune. And Mars square to Neptune is just one of my least favorite transits, if I'm being honest.

This transit challenges you to be in your body and be confident. I'll talk about it a lot more next week. But if you're feeling exhausted, if you're feeling kind of just tapped out, if you're feeling like you're not sure how to rise to the occasion and meet the moment, I want to point to Mars square Neptune. The astrology of next week is challenging, and I don't want you to worry about it in advance. Ideally, we use astrology and these forecasts that I offer you every week to be more present and not to fixate on or worry about a future that has not yet occurred. Fun fact—worrying in advance of something bad happening doesn't make that bad thing that may or may not happen any easier.

So, that said, we are going to be feeling at the end of this week—the second half of this week, we're going to be feeling this Mars square to Neptune build. And that feeling is going to be overwhelm, just not feeling super empowered overall. There's a lot more to say about it, but let's just start there.

My advice to you is to tap into the supportive transits this week. Nothing is going to force you to. That's the way it works with sextiles and trines. Nothing is going to force you to, but there's a lot of support there. In fact, you have a lot of resources. I know you do. You have a lot of different tools in your tool chest around how to cope with stress, about how to navigate overwhelm, about how to be kind to yourself and others. Don't forget to use them when you need them. If you're sleepy and you need more rest, take it. Just don't confuse rest with tuning out. Rest is restorative. It's not just about doing nothing. It is about doing something that actually makes you feel better. It's nourishing your system, not denying your system or unplugging from or checking out from your system.

Do your best to nurture yourself and the people and situations that you care about. And depending on how much energy you have, depending on your situation, that's going to look a lot of different ways. Don't be judgy. Do your best from where you are. Meet the moment with empathy, with clarity of purpose, and with care.

And that, my friends, is your horoscope. As always, I hope you got a lot of value out of it. And I hope that you join me in a couple of days for the midweek reading. And if you want a chance to get a reading with me, go ahead and send in your question to be considered for the podcast through the contact form on my site.

Now, I'm going to run through the transits one more time just for clarity's sake. But I always have the transcript available on my website within about 24 hours. Don't forget, register for my Astrology of 2025 webinar, and check out my new mentorship tier over on Patreon. Fun stuff, at least to me. I mean, this is my idea of fun. I'm a Capricorn.

Okay. So, on the 7th, we have a Mercury trine to Saturn. On the 8th, Mars sits at 90 degrees from Saturn, forming a square. On the 10th, Mercury creates chaos and is opposite Uranus. On the 11th, Mercury forms a trine to Neptune. And then, on the 13th, Mercury is sextile to Pluto, while throughout the second half of this week, we're going to be feeling that Mars square to Neptune building up. It'll hit exactitude on Monday, the 14th.

Thank you so much for joining me here, and take really good care of yourself and others. And I will talk to you in just a couple of days. Bye.