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. I have a very brief podcast-related announcement, which is, this week, the first of September, we will not be dropping a midweek reading episode. We're just taking a one-little-week break. But hopefully this is a great time for you to catch up on past readings, and also, if you're just like, "I need more astrology," you can join me over on Patreon, where we dig into all kinds of relevant things—astrological, woo. You can also check out my classes on the shop page of my website. So okay. That's that.

This week, we're looking at the astrology of August 31st through September 6th. But on September 7th, we have a Lunar Eclipse. Yes, we have been in Eclipse Season. We in Eclipse Season. So I'm going to touch on the pre-Eclipse vibes, and then I'm going to dive into your weekly forecast because listen: Eclipses are always a really big deal. So I'm going to give you a little Eclipse 101 for a moment here.

Full Moons, New Moons—they happen once a month, right? And they're really important. I give a lot of attention to them as an astrologer, and I'm guessing you pay a lot of attention to them as well. And what they do is they influence about a month of our lives. And the thing to keep in mind about every New Moon and every Full Moon is, over the course of time, they end up having so much to do with your emotional life, your innermost personal life, your home life, your emotional maturity and accountability and presence.

But an Eclipse comes around, and they don't come around all the damn time, right? An Eclipse comes around, and its sphere of influence is not one month; it's six months. So it's a much bigger deal. And very noticeably, you're in an Eclipse Season. And in the season of Eclipses, what we experience is increased sensitivities and emotionality. And we are living through a great deal of crisis right now, like a great deal of crisis right now. How you emotionally process your feelings, your fears, your hopes is being really intensely challenged.

So it's not surprising that the first Eclipse of this Eclipse Season is a Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. Pisces is a zodiac sign associated with our interconnection to each other and to Earth itself. Pisces is about humanitarianism, different than Aquarius. This is a heart- and spirit-based form of humanitarianism. It's caring. And as we approach the Lunar Eclipse that is happening next week, you may be experiencing empathy fatigue, burnout, emotional dysregulation and exhaustion on a really fucking kind of level.

I know that me and you and so many others of us are experiencing incredible anxiety and such strong emotions that it's hard to process them. That's the other thing that Pisces is associated with. A good way of describing Piscean, Neptunian overwhelm is you're in a space, and there's a bunch of different radio stations playing all at once. And you can hear them all at once, but you certainly can't properly listen to any one of them, and you can't properly digest any one of what they're saying or singing or whatever. And so it ends up just becoming an overwhelming soup of sound, where you're getting a lot of information but you can't really use the information because of the overstimulation.

Now, we want to keep in mind that Eclipses are Moon transits, and Moon transits are always about your emotions. They're about your feelings. And so I don't want to encourage you to overintellectualize this experience. I don't want to encourage you to try to fix or contain or get ahead of this experience. The experience is meant to confront you with where you're at emotionally. So I personally have noticed in the last week, oh, wow, I haven't been processing my emotions in the way that I thought I was. I've been moving too fast, trying to kind of understand things and mobilize but not really fully feeling the grief and the sadness and the fear. And I know I'm not alone.

Eclipse Season is the time when you do not do spell work. You do not do ritual work. This is not the time for going on journeys or trying to manifest things. This is not the time for that. This is the time for practicing presence—that's what the Moon wants—for being emotionally engaged within yourself with whatever you're feeling and being emotionally accountable to the people in your life, the people in your communities, and to yourself.

Eclipse Season is emotional. And so, as hard as it is for a lot of people to process emotions, this is your assignment. Whenever we're dealing with Piscean energies, we can expect to be confronted with the need for boundaries. As I said in a very recent episode, if your primary way of taking care of yourself, of feeling happy, of feeling optimistic or hopeful, is by sticking your head in the sand—so very Piscean, by the way. If that's your primary modality, then that's escapism. It's not real wellness.

Wellness demands your presence. And you don't have to be present all the goddamn time, but it does demand your presence, but presence with boundaries. So where you really are overwhelmed or struggling is an indicator of where you need healthier boundaries. But true boundaries require emotional presence and accountability. And this there are no easy answers for and there is no easy path for. Seriously, it's not easy. And it's the kind of work that nobody else can really see that you're doing. It's really internal.

As we move towards this Lunar Eclipse, which is a Full Moon in Pisces, it's important to notice how you do or don't value your own internal landscape, how you do or don't care for yourself, whether or not your way of showing up with and for yourself and others is sustainable, and to remember what you truly care about, what you truly care about and who you truly care about.

The astrology of this week is rattling, okay? It's a little unsettling. And as I unpack the forecast, which of course I'm about to do, I don't want to encourage you to try to think, "Okay. How can I make things stable? How can I make things secure?" Things are not meant to be secure and stable right now. That's not what time it is. Instead, it's a time of fast-moving and deep developments that require adaptability and presence. And in order to do this in a way that is in alignment for you, it requires meaningful adherence to your own values system.

Depending on where you're at and what's going on, that might be really challenging. But it's the assignment. And all you can do is start from where you're at. So don't overthink the Eclipse. Don't do any rituals before, during, or after the Eclipse. September—not ritual time. And we'll talk much more in depth about the Eclipse on the Eclipse, on the 7th of September, a.k.a. in next week's episode. I'll also probably be talking about it a lot more on my Patreon.

Okay. So, as I said, we're diving into this week's forecast. It's the astrology of August 31st through September 6th of 2025. We start off this week's astrology with the first exact transit on Wednesday, September the 3rd. But I would be remiss if I did not mention that on Monday, September the 1st, Saturn retrogrades back into Pisces. And so, in this final hit of Saturn transiting through the zodiac sign of Pisces that we will have for about 29 years, you have the opportunity to work through whatever the transit of Saturn in Pisces activated inside of you. And we collectively have that same opportunity.

And so I expect this transit of Saturn retrograding through the last several degrees of Pisces and then coming on back until it hits into Aries is a really good time for you and me and every-damn-body to be working on our mental health. Saturn likes labor, and Pisces is very much in the space between your mental and emotional health. We're talking about your spiritual health. We're talking about healthy boundaries with your psyche, with your emotions, as much as it is healthy boundaries with people and situations. Your ability to navigate your internal landscape responsibly is peak Saturn-in-Pisces vibes. Okay? Okay.

So let's navigate over to Wednesday, Wednesday the 3rd, where Mercury forms an exact square to Uranus. So we're going to be feeling this all week long leading up to the transit itself and here at 12:40 a.m. Pacific Time. On Wednesday, the 3rd, Mercury is at exactly 1 degree of Virgo and 28 minutes, forming an exact square to Uranus at the same degrees of Gemini. This transit is rattling. That's what it is. It's rattling.

Mercury is your mind, and Uranus is your nervous system. And when we have two planets squaring each other, it's always kind of like a contentious, stressful, dynamic, creative thing. So, for some people, Mercury square Uranus is exciting. It's when shit starts to move and ideas come together, and you have such a busy, engaging time with other people or with your ideas, and it's just kind of like sparks fly and innovation is possible.

Mercury square to Uranus can be just the level of destabilization and unexpected that you need in order to be innovative and to come up with the next exciting idea or the next progressive idea in—whatever, in your life, in your psyche, in the world. So Mercury square Uranus can be a time of innovation and excitement. It can be a time where you figure out how to communicate something that you've been really stuck around or you make some sort of breakthrough in your thinking or even in your relationship to your mental health. But it could just as easily be straight-up chaotic. Mercury square Uranus can have you really stressy because Uranus, again, is your nervous system, and Mercury is your mind. And they're both overstimulated, so where do you go? The answer, by the way, is try to go to your body, your sweet, sweet meat suit.

If you can tend to your body, if you can ground through and inside of your body, that can really help with this transit because—think of it as Uranus is like an electrical wire flippity-floppiting all around the street. And what do you do with electricity? You ground it. So you want to ground this energy the best that you can. And as far as I know, one of the best practices, if not the best practice, for grounding is by getting in your body—grounding.

So do your best to be open to new ideas, trying things in a new way. Be open to surprising news and information. This is a great time for learning something new if you're open to it. The problem with this transit is that sometimes you learn something that you didn't want to know or you are confronted with a way in which you are fixed in your thinking, and so you don't want to hear what you're hearing or understand what you're being told.

This transit can coincide with chaos, so lots of different news coming out, and it's unclear what's true and what's not. This can be a time where things all of a sudden pop off. Uranus is explosions. It's explosive. And Mercury is news. It's communications. So there may be some bombshell news that happens on or around this date. Again, this isn't the time for creating stability. This isn't the time for creating security. Instead, it's a time for exploring options, expanding opportunities, learning something new, and navigating your mind in a healthy way and not just in the way that you've done historically and by rote—a.k.a. routine, because who uses the word "rote" these days—instead, trying something new to sort through your overthinking, your stress, your overdoing things, etc.

If you can avoid making any kind of permanent decisions this week in general, certainly on this day, that might be ideal. And also, we're leading up to a Lunar Eclipse, and things may be coming to a close. The key with this particular transit is to not allow spontaneity to drive you. And that doesn't mean don't allow spontaneity to inspire you, to inform you, to excite you. It just means, if you're primarily or only driven by spontaneity, it is likely to be essentially nervous tension and not as emotionally informed or grounded as you're going to want it to be.

The energy of this week is fast-moving. And your assignment is to adapt. Whether that means tap-tap-tap on the brakes, whether that means breathe through it and do your best to keep up, whether that means make a change quick—whatever it means, there is a great deal of potential for expansion, and in particular expansion of your mind, expansion of your plans, expansion of your relationships. And that expansion comes through Uranus being so innovative and forward-thinking. Uranus is the futurist of the zodiac. So innovate, but don't disassociate in order to do it. Easier said than done, but that's what this transit wants.

Now, if that wasn't enough—and I can assure you, my friends, it is enough, but the Universe would say, "No, no, no. Let's add more." Overlapping with this transit very tightly on Thursday, September the 4th, at 7:59 p.m. Pacific Time, Mars forms an exact square to Jupiter. So, much like Mercury and Uranus, there's a similarity there because Mercury is your mind, and Uranus is your nervous system. Mars is your ego and your drive, and Jupiter is like, "Get out of my way. I'm just trying to grow. I just want to be somewhere more fun than where I am."

There's a connection or conversation between Mars and Jupiter that can be really tricky, and it can be good tricky or not-so-good tricky. So Mars will be at 18 degrees of Libra and 36 minutes, forming an exact square to Jupiter in the same degrees of Cancer. Let's start with the collective. Mercury square Uranus overlapping with this transit—expect the unexpected. Things are unpredictable. Then Mars square Jupiter—big, bold moves can happen, again, spontaneously. Uranus and Jupiter—they're kind of the most spontaneous planets in the zodiac. So it can happen spontaneously. It can just be something that comes as a result of bluster or ego—Mars, right? Bluster and ego.

Mars is combat. It's policing. It's conflict. It's war. Jupiter is more, more, more, more, more. It's international. It's global. We may experience the expansion of policing or some sort of military action or force. And I would expect that the reporting on it will be a little bit all over the place because—Mercury/Uranus. We can expect egos to get easily triggered. So that's—we're talking world leaders because I don't know that you can be a world leader and not have a fucking massive ego. And I will say now and forever that egos are not good, and egos are not bad. Egos are an important part of humans. The key is to have a healthy and balanced ego.

That said, what Mars square to Jupiter does is it triggers your ego, and it makes you feel defensive, reactive, which can spark acts of bravery and courage and finally making a bolt and getting out of your own way, or it can spark acts of defensiveness and, "This is mine, and I'm going to take that, too." And we have a lot of world leaders and people with power right now who don't need this transit to take more than is theirs, to want to expand militaristic dominance over the populace. But a transit like this can really trigger it. It can make it worse.

Mars square to Jupiter is a transit that can inspire or egg you on to make a big difference, to make big moves. In regards to world events, you can imagine all the ways this could go sideways or the ways it could go well—I'm not super confident, but okay. In regards to how it's going to hit you personally, this transit kicks up your ego. It kicks up your drive to get something done and have it be big. And depending on your personality, your circumstances, and the strength of the connections that you have built around you, this could be very messy and sticky or really progressive because, again, Jupiter, similar but very different to Uranus, is about progress. It's about growth.

And so the best way to make the greatest use of this transit is with care. It's to check in with your own motivations so that you are not acting out of pure egoism, whether that ego is like, "Oh, I'm going to just be a martyr and I don't matter at all. I'm just going to pour myself into something or someone," or it's, "I deserve. I'm going to get"—just pure ego energy—because both of those things are going to burn you out. They're not reliable impulses, total ego or total egolessness.

 And unfortunately, neither of these transits have anything to do with balance or patience. This transit really kicks up impatience.

And so, again, do your best to get grounded, to check in with your motivations, and to make sure that what you are doing is proportionate and that you are not going alone unnecessarily. If you start shit, you may not be the one to end shit, if you know what I'm saying. Pick your battles wisely. Pick your battles wisely. So what is wisdom? Wisdom is not intelligence. Wisdom is not education. Wisdom is accumulated through experience. It's education. It's intelligence. It's the practice of those things. So it's one thing to know something, and it's another thing to act on it.

Allow yourself the space you need to actually consider and learn from past experiences. You don't only have to be your own experiences; you can learn from past movements or past behaviors from people who are not you to see how it's done because with this energy, you may open doors and rush on into the room before you've really thought it through. I want to encourage you to do your best to think it through.

This transit—actually, just like Mercury square to Uranus—can coincide with accident-proneness. Hopefully this makes sense based on all the stuff I'm telling you. It's because it increases your restlessness. It increases your impatience. It makes you feel really activated, so you might not be grounded and present, and therefore, you are more likely to be accident-prone. Now, if you exist in the world and you yourself are doing your best to get present and grounded and all the things, and you're crossing the street, that doesn't mean all the cyclists and motorists have done that same work to get grounded. So be mindful. People are going to be agitated and activated. So protect yourself.

And before you go writing that nasty email or taking that thing really personally and popping off on someone, take a beat. Just take a beat because what is a real risk with the astrology of this week is that you feel like shit on some level, or on many levels, and someone does something, and it's not the real fucking worst thing in the world, but someone does something. And then you fixate on that thing, and then you react to them as though they are the reason why you feel so terrible.

It is going to be very challenging to navigate your emotional, energetic, and mental health this week. It's going to be very challenging to get into your body, to stay with your body. You may feel so activated that you feel entitled to act out, to be mean or rude or demanding to someone. And in the world we live in, that someone may be like a customer service person. It might be somebody that you never actually are physically engaging with or that you don't have a personal connection to. And for the love of God, don't do that, okay? Don't take out your shit on people who have no choice but to sit around, stand around, and take it from you. That sucks, but a lot of people do it. A lot of people do it.

So track your behavior, and guess what: if you do something shitty, you can always pull back and say, "OMG. I'm sorry. That came out sharp. I did not mean that." Apologizing to someone when you know you've done something shitty—it sometimes, when you're really activated, is the last thing you want to do, but it shifts energies in such important ways, as long as your apology is not a passive-aggressive manipulation, which—we've all gotten those apologies, right? That doesn't work.

So Mars square to Jupiter is activating. It's provocative. It's stimulating. It's exciting. And you can really get things done, but it's not a race. So don't rush without first pausing to consider. And that, my friends, is all the astrology of this week.

As always, I drop a month-ahead horoscope over on my Patreon, and I believe you can get it on various platforms, as well, as a subscription. I am super into technology and also [indiscernible 00:25:44] at the same time. We get to be complex creatures. So all to say, if you want your September month-ahead forecast, join me over on Patreon. You can purchase it as just the single episode, or you can just join me and get lots of content.

This Eclipse Season month is a lot, and we're going to get through it together. I can't stress this enough: we are in harrowing, activating, tumultuous times. And we are at the very start of this Pluto in Aquarius transit. It's going to last us a long time. And the deep lesson of Pluto in Aquarius is that we must come together with and for each other. We must take care of each other, and that means not looking to our overlords for guidance and direction for how to do that, but instead looking to each other, listening to each other.

And because it's fucking Pluto, we are going to be confronted by the shadow side of our individual shit around community and our collective shit around community. It's hard. It's not easy. You do not need to be good at it. You do not need to know exactly how to build community, be in community, sustain community. It's okay that you don't know. We're going through a Pluto transit together, Pluto in Aquarius. And the lesson here is coming together with each other, for each other. Find ways of doing that. And if you are not masking in public spaces, especially if you're in the United States and COVID vaccines are being taken away from so many people, if you are not practicing that form of community care, this is a great time to start.

My greatest hope for you is that you take loving, well-boundaried care of yourself and others. And I will talk to you not in a couple days because I'm not dropping the midweek episode, but next week. Buh-bye.