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 have a short and sweet horoscope for you. We're looking at the astrology of October 11th through the 17th of 2026. And there's this larger backdrop that is important for me to name.

Now, we have our Pluto out of bounds, and we have our Venus Retrograde. And inside of it all, we are going through a Venus square to Pluto. And I want to just briefly tell you about this because it's not exact this week; it was exact on September 15th, and it will be exact again on October 19th and then again in December, like December 9th. And each of the times that this transit is exact, it's exact at 3 degrees—Pluto at 3 degrees of Aquarius and Venus at 3 degrees of Scorpio.

Now, the one that's coming up in October is going to be with Venus Retrograde. The other two are Venus direct. Listen. Right now, we are experiencing the effects of our Venus square to Pluto building up. And because of this, you are likely to be feeling pretty intense, and your relationships may be in a really intense place.

Venus Retrograde wants you to really reflect on your values system, so your relationship to people, your relationship to appearances, to the way you look or the way that things look. This can also be your relationship to money. Venus Retrograde wants you to reflect on all of these things. We follow the rule of re's during Retrogrades. We reflect so we can reassess. We recalibrate—you get it.

But Venus is square to Pluto. Pluto is out of bounds, which means it's acting all kinds of extreme. It's activating extreme survival mechanisms in you, in me, in them, and in us. So this Venus square to Pluto time that we're living through is going to activate major issues around—I don't know—the economy, your relationship to your finances, your financial survival, your values system and the ways in which it's being tested and the ways in which you're responding—your relationships in general, specifically, broadly, very personally, and all over the damn place. Okay? That's what's up.

Venus square to Pluto kicks up intense feelings and survival mechanisms. So you may have surprisingly strong reactions to people and things. People and situations may have surprisingly strong reactions to you, which may provoke—oh, I don't know—surprisingly strong reactions. That's where we are.

I want you to be aware of that, that that's what the astrology is activating in you and in the collective. And the best way to engage with it is consciously. So engaging with things consciously—things that are hard, things that are activating—really requires that you reconnect or you connect with your values because if you do this, then things don't magically become easy, but what they do become is clearer.

Just because you know what the, quote unquote, "right" thing to do or the best thing to do in a bad situation is—and listen, not everyone is in bad situations. But it's especially hard to make choices in bad situations. So, when you're in that kind of a situation, you can't avoid discomfort or pain all the time, but you can make choices to the best of your ability that minimize harm, that maximize alignment with your values system, connection to a sense of purpose. This can help.

 And one way or another, things are likely to be a little bit intense throughout the week even though we have some really supportive and kind of chill transits to talk about. So let's dive into those transits.

As I said, the week that we're looking at is October 11 through the 17th. But our first exact transit is on Thursday, the 15th. Now, this means you are likely to be very much in your feelings, and you're for sure going to be feeling that Venus square to Pluto that is building, building, building. And it'll be exact early next week.

Now, our first exact transit is a Sun sextile to Jupiter with the Sun at 22 degrees of Libra and 0 minutes, forming an exact sextile to Jupiter at the same degrees of Leo. This transit will be exact at 1:22 a.m. Pacific Time. This is a great transit. Sun sextile Jupiter empowers you to feel resilient. Jupiter and the Sun—when they meet in such a supportive way, it strengthens your sense of capacity, your energy. It gives a person spoons. It gives a person a sense of confidence and a willingness to have experiences.

And so, if there's something that you know needs doing that maybe takes a little bit of courage, a little bit of adventuring spirit, this is your transit. This is for you. If there's something you're working on recovering from, this transit is really supportive. This transit has literally no downside. It is excellent for spiritual work. It's excellent for mental health or physical health recovery work or fortification. It's good for flirting and having fun and just running around and getting wild with people or alone. It's good for spending time in nature or meditating.

This energy is supportive for you to show up. And so I want to really challenge you on and around this date to put yourself out there, to try something. You could cozy up or lean into—I don't know—convention, how you usually handle your Thursdays. But this is a time to try something new. Maybe just read something that is going to educate you or inspire you. That's what this transit is for. And in the larger context of the astrology of this time, it's really valuable to expand your horizons or to support and strengthen yourself and the things you care about.

That brings us to Friday. Friday, the 16th, at exactly 1:32 a.m. Pacific Time, Mars will be at 10 degrees of Leo and 23 minutes, forming an exact trine to Saturn at the same degrees of Aries. Mars trine Saturn is another fortifying transit. Thank you, right? We're very lucky to be having some supportive transits in the context of these other more challenging transits that we are feeling.

Mars trine Saturn is a good time to get shit done. It's a good time to motivate—Mars—to something that requires a great deal of energy and consistency. This is a time for working well with people who have a kind of power over you. So I'm talking about landlords, bosses, parents—that kind of a thing. This is a great transit for anything that requires concentration, anything that requires stamina.

So it's not inherently unfun, and the fact that it overlaps with our Sun sextile to Jupiter can eke out the fun. It can help a person go for a long time if a person is trying to go for a long time, if you know what I'm saying. Mars trine Saturn strengthens your perseverance, your endurance. It empowers you to not just assert yourself or stand up for yourself it that's what's needed, but it also encourages you to follow through on your passions. Where is the downside?

These two transits mark an excellent time to initiate something, to start something. So new job, new relationship, new self-care system—whatever it is, this is a good time to start things. But it's important that you check in with your values system and make sure you're not kind of cheating on your values system.

It's important that you are considering the impact of your actions and approach upon others because, as I said, this week, we are very much feeling our Venus square to Pluto. Because of the influence of that transit, paranoia and defensiveness and potentially pettiness, resentments, may be activated.

So you just want to make sure that these two absolutely lovely and supportive transits are not being adversely impacted by our Venus square to Pluto. And if they are, that's okay. You want to, at that point, be honest with yourself. Learn whatever you need to learn, and make adjustments. That's the assignment.

Now, this was a short and sweet horoscope, and it doesn't really require a TL;DR. But I do want to invite you over to the free page of my Patreon if you have any questions about this week's forecast or if you just want to learn more with me.

And whatever it is that comes up for you, with you, and around you this week, I hope you take really good care of yourself and others. And I will talk to you in just a couple of days. Bye.