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 looking at the astrology of October 25th through the 31st of 2026. And I want to welcome you to our Mercury Retrograde/Venus Retrograde mash-up. If you've missed it, I went ahead and posted a video breaking down the generals of what to expect in a Mercury Retrograde as well as looking at the chart of this Mercury Retrograde, unpacking what to expect and how to best navigate it over on the free page of my Patreon. So you can find it there and gobble it up. If you have any questions, you can use the comment section to pop them in because that's how it works over on Patreon, is that it's very interactive. So that's a spot for you to learn more about the Mercury Retrograde over there.

Now, we have a lot to get through this week. There is a lot of really heavy astrology. And then, on the 1st of every month, including the 1st of November, I drop my month-ahead forecast. It's a bonus episode of Ghost of a Podcast, which you can purchase on most podcasting platforms and, as well, over on my Patreon. So just kind of giving you that heads-up because it's right around the corner.

I want to just take a moment to acknowledge how many incredible developments have happened just in the last week. What is happening in technology, in the environment, across countries and throughout cultures is major shifts, major shifts—in many ways, catastrophic shifts. We're seeing this in technology as well. We're seeing this across boards.

This is a time of upheaval. This is a time of upheaval. And I don't say this to frighten you. I say this to validate that, yes, it feels like a lot right now because it is a lot right now. And we can look to a number of things astrologically, but a big player in this is Pluto out of bounds, which is a very long transit. It's going through the 2030s.

So what I want to say to you about this before we get into the specifics of this week's forecast—feels really important to me—it's really about astrology and how to use astrology in a way that helps you to be healthier. It helps you to strategize and navigate through difficulties and through exciting things and successes. If you are somebody who, like me, gets overwhelmed by thinking about difficult things lasting a long period of time, turning to astrology is not always your best move because astrology is an analytic tool that is inherently predictive.

Now, there are so many ways to use astrology that are not predictive. Those are all my favorite ways, to be honest. But when we look at something like the transit of Pluto out of bounds, it is a predictive thing to do. We're making predictions about the future. And it's not necessarily the most supportive or helpful thing.

This is a time of struggle. And in this struggle, it's important that you do something—you do many somethings over the course of time. It is not important that you are the savior of any of the problems that we're dealing with systemically. You can't be. You can't fix it on your own. But doing nothing and calling it good is aligning yourself with oppressive systems.

None of us can afford to be apolitical. None of us can afford to just wait for somebody else to fix environmental issues, systemic issues—none of us. We are all being challenged to rise up and really to align our deepest cares with our actions. If you follow that kind of ethos, if you follow that decree, then you know what you need to know about Pluto out of bounds without dysregulating your nervous system.

It is a stressful, chaotic, transformative transit that we are living through. You don't need to know more about that. You need to read the news. You need to pay attention to what's happening in your community or in your communities, in the city, the town, the state, the province that you live in. You need to know what's happening in your country and in other places around the world because it's all connected. It's all connected.

And by being aware and aligning yourself with what you care about, with what you think is important, with your values system, you are navigating through Pluto out of bounds and other transit that comes your way in the best possible way.

So, this week, I want to bring you a lot of astrology, trust, but also a reminder that it doesn't have to be complicated even though it's hard. Stay informed. Stay engaged. Vote. It's the least you can do, not the most. It's literally the least. Participate in the world in a way that feels aligned to you—not perfectly, but do your best in this moment, even if your best in this moment is not your ideal best. It's important, and it's time. And what are we doing here talking about astrology if not talking about the practice of time?

Right now, over on my Patreon, on all of the paid tiers, I'm answering questions through video posts for folks about how to cope—how to cope with anger, how to access determination, how to navigate trust in relationships and in community spaces. I'm basically just answering questions for folks around their struggles with what's happening now and how it feels. And so, again, if that feels supportive to you, if you want to join me over there, go ahead. Giddyap. Link in show notes.

Okay. Our week begins with a Full Moon. On Sunday, October 25th, at exactly 9:12 p.m. Pacific Time, we have our Full Moon in Taurus with the Sun at 2 degrees of Scorpio and 45 minutes forming an exact opposition to the Moon, who is full at 2 degrees Taurus and 45 minutes. Our Full Moon is sitting on top of Chiron, or Chiron is sitting on top of the Moon. It's out of sign, but it's very much conjunct.

So our Full Moon in Taurus is meant to bring up big emotions, to bring your emotions to the surface so that you deal with them. That's the assignment every Full Moon, is to engage consciously and hopefully empathetically, kindly, with your feelings. And a Full Moon in Taurus is always going to bring up feelings around how you're doing what you're doing. This is meaningfully connected to your values system, not just what you're doing, but the approach you're taking, whether or not it is aligned, whether or not you feel stuck. A Full Moon in Taurus is going to kick up ways you feel stuck. That is just part of what it does.

The fact that Chiron is sitting on top of the Moon really intensifies the themes of needing to deal with your emotions. This is because Chiron, of course, is associated with wounding, meaningful insecurities, core issues. So you may find yourself really struggling with emotions and patterns or narratives inside of you that have existed for many, many years—like, a lot of your life. But they feel really activated in a current situation that you're dealing with, and that current situation is very likely to be related to relationships. Let me tell you why: because the Sun is sitting conjunct Venus. Again, it's out of sign, but it is very much conjunct.

And that Sun/Venus conjunction—and of course, Venus is Retrograde, very reflective, very internal. That Sun/Venus conjunction opposite our Full Moon and Chiron is meant to kick up relationship patterns. And so, as you probably know from listening to this podcast, when we are experiencing oppositions, we tend to experience that energy oppositionally—in other words, in relationship, me against you, us against them. Oppositionally, right?

And so this particular Full Moon is likely to kick up relationship issues. Maybe there's an issue where you don't share values, and you have to deal with that. Maybe there's an issue where you don't feel a sense of belonging or you don't feel cared for, or the way you're expressing care for somebody doesn't actually make them feel cared for. It feels like care to you/from you, but to them, it doesn't. That happens because the way you express love and care, the way that you communicate investment in a person, is a reflection of you and your shit and what you believe to be right. And it doesn't always line up for the way that the other person wants to feel loved or cared for or invested in.

This is where we really need to listen to people. We need to really pay attention to what other people are saying with their actions, with their energy, as well as with their words. And speaking of their words, Mercury is fucking Retrograde in Scorpio, right? And so it's not likely that we're going to be experiencing easy communication. There may be misunderstandings, miscommunications. There may be just things not quite said directly because we're dealing with Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio. We've got our Sun in Scorpio as well. Venus is retrograded right now into Libra, so it's in late degrees of Libra—not the most direct of all of the zodiac signs, as we all know. Libra, right?

So this Full Moon is potentially going to be messy. It's going to be tender. And that messiness and that tenderness is a really powerful gateway to healing. Now, does that gateway mean you're walking through some magical gateway, and then you're magically healed by walking through the gateway? No, of course not. It means if you do the psychological, emotional, behavioral, maybe material work on yourself to deal with your emotions and your relationship patterns, then it will have a meaningful, transformative impact on you and your life and the patterns that you're engaged in themselves, which is really fucking cool.

The issue is you gotta do the work. And I think a lot of times, with spiritual stuff, with astrology, we think things are happening at us and to us instead of understanding that we are co-creating our present and our future. We are writing and rewiring and rewriting our relationship and understanding of the past all the time. You are an active participant in your own life. You are an active participant in the world. How are you showing up? Why? These are really great questions to ask yourself, not in a mean or a punitive way—in a supportive way, in a way that engages you in this life, your life in this world, our world.

So this Full Moon—it doesn't just have our sweet, little Sun/Moon opposition. It doesn't just have Chiron and Venus. It all fucking T-squares to Pluto. That means our Chiron, our Venus, our Sun, and our Moon all square Pluto. This, my friends, means transformation. It means that we may see great destruction and great healing.

The progress that you achieve through this period may not be perfectly clear to you in the short term, and this is because things are dramatic under major Pluto energy. And this is major Pluto energy. This Full Moon, because it's in Taurus but also because of this major Pluto aspect, is going to kick up issues around stability, security, and safety. You may not be feeling particularly secure, stable, or safe. That's part of what we can expect from this Full Moon.

The question is, are your survival mechanisms being activated in such a way that you shadowbox yourself and others? In other words, are you acting out of your own survival mechanisms, or is your survival actually being threatened? These are really important distinctions for you to make so that you can engage with reality in a way that is proportionate and healthy.

It is very possible that we will see in the world, or you will experience very personally, threats to your security, your safety, your survival. That is possible, absolutely. And in that case, your survival mechanisms will kick in. Your survival mechanisms are something that is very important for you to have a healthy, updated relationship to so that you don't act out when you need to be acting with intention.

So, whatever it is that happens with this week's astrology—which is chaotic—or this Full Moon, it's an invitation to bring more awareness and presence to your coping skills. Okay? That's a big part of this Full Moon. How do you cope? Do you go straight to anger? Do you shut down? Do you stop collaborating with others? Do you stop trusting yourself and completely rely on other people?

Whatever it is that your coping mechanism is, if it isn't fully serving you, that's great information for you to have because you can work on that. You can evolve. The key here is to invest in what and who you value. And, my friend, if you are not on the list of who you value, you have a problem. You have a really big problem. And the good news of having that problem is the awareness of the problem is step 1 to healing the problem.

It's really important that you meet whatever it is that comes up inside of you, whatever it is that comes up and out of you—you meet it with awareness. As you meet it with awareness, you will be able to work on your shit. That's what Full Moons are all about, working on your damn shit.

Now, the last thing I'm going to say is about our Mercury Retrograde in this Full Moon chart. Mercury Retrograde is square to Mars and square to Jupiter. That means you are likely to jump to conclusions, take things personally, be a little bit in a fighting mood, and you may skip over details. Or you, being a goddamn angel, might not do any of that shit, but the people around you might do those things. Or you might not have been doing those things until somebody else started a fight with you or something like that.

It's important to remember that Mercury Retrograde is a time for reflection. So, if you act out, if you're spontaneous in some way that maybe does not serve your best interests or whatever else, reflect on that. Know that, "Okay, that's some shit inside of me. That's some shit that came out of me. What does that mean that I need to be working with this Mercury Retrograde?" Because our Full Moon happened immediately after Mercury went Retrograde, we know that it's a really big part of this Mercury Retrograde cycle. And that means it's really valuable for you to be aware of the emotions and dynamics that are activated in the Full Moon and use that awareness to reflect on and go deeper into those issues throughout our Mercury Retrograde cycle.

Okay. Now, that brings us to Monday, October 26th, where our Sun square to Pluto is exact. That happens at 5:12 a.m. Pacific Time. We've got the Sun at 3 degrees of Scorpio and 6 minutes square to Pluto at the same degrees of Aquarius. So our Sun square to Pluto brings from our Full Moon a lot of intensity. This transit activates feelings of obsessiveness, defensiveness. It kicks up resentments. It intensifies your drive to prove yourself, to be seen, to not just be seen but to be seen as important or valuable.

This is not a bad impulse in any way. But when the Sun is square to Pluto, we can often confuse the drive for being empowered with the drive for achieving or imposing power. There is a meaningful difference. Empowerment comes from the self. I mean, we can be empowered by our friends, our colleagues, situations, and circumstances for sure. But with the Sun, it's really about the self.

And so, when we're looking at something like a Sun square to Pluto, what happens for a lot of people is, instead of working on feeling empowered or addressing the ways in which we don't feel empowered and whether or not it's related to survival mechanisms or psychological issues or whatever else, what we do is we struggle with other people. "I don't feel empowered in this dynamic with you, and therefore, I'm going to fight you," or, "I don't feel empowered in this environment in this room; therefore, I'm going to look for what's wrong with them or the room," or whatever.

So Sun square to Pluto can kick up major power struggles. And sometimes that's actually what's needed. Power struggles are not inherently bad. It's just when you're trying to kind of impose your power on someone else or achieve a sense of empowerment by ripping it out of the guts of another person—that's when you get into trouble. And the truth of the matter is you, as has been established, are probably an angel who would never engage in power struggles, who doesn't ever get resentful, who's never petty, right? Obviously. But you're dealing with other people, and they act in those ways sometimes. And when they act in those ways, how do you meet that moment? Do you engage from a place of empowerment? Do you give them all the power and tell yourself that you are powerless? Do you get up and fight? How do you fight?

These are questions to ask yourself because, as you ask yourself these questions, you get more information about yourself. It's really about awareness. That's what you want to be cultivating through that Full Moon and right now in our Sun square to Pluto. That awareness that we can—through, often, struggle—achieve during a Sun square to Pluto, that awareness empowers you to recognize your activation or your triggers and to engage with your triggers in more conscious, healthy, mature, embodied ways. I mean, it's easier said than done, if we're being honest. But that's the opportunity here with the Sun square to Pluto.

So resist the urge to fixate on other people or things that cause you pain. I am not saying resist the urge to explore and unpack painful things. There's a difference between fixation and reflection, assessment, analysis, exploration. So what I want to encourage you to do this Sun square to Pluto is to resist feeding pettiness, jealousy, the drive to manipulate. Any kind of stalker energy you're holding—don't do that. Don't do that.

This is a great time to get off of the doomscroll if you can. If you're somebody who's really dealing with addictions of any kind—from screens to parasocial relationships to any other kind of habit that feels bad but you're doing it out of a compulsiveness—is likely to be activated during this transit, making it a fucking terrible time for consciousness-raising drugs. Now, I know some of you get butthurt that I talk about not doing consciousness-raising drugs during Pluto and Neptune transits. Some of you think that's because I'm against drugs. I'm not. I'm not.

But what it is is I am aware that lots of people do consciousness-raising drugs during Full Moons. And when I see a Full Moon where it is inadvisable, I'm going to name that. I'm going to bookmark that for you because I want to help you help you. You know what I mean? I want you to be safe. And so, this Full Moon, this Sun square to Pluto, I would not encourage any kind of major consciousness-raising drugs experiences. I wouldn't encourage any kind of major spell work, any kind of major magic. Because of Pluto's presence, things can go sideways because our motivations need to be squeaky clean in order for things to go well. And how many of us are absolutely certain that our motivations are perfectly clean? Not most of us. And that's okay. You don't have to be perfect. But don't fuck with energy work or shifting your consciousness or trying to majorly impact things when the energy isn't conducive. That's my take, okay?

Now, that said, Sun square to Pluto is a transit that can help you to make major moves. You can achieve really important transitions, transformations. You can make progress during a Sun square to Pluto. So do that as best as you can. Try that. And if you're somebody who's experiencing this transit as really supportive and you're getting shit done and you're moving through old barriers or you're sidestepping drama, that's a great sign. It's not a great sign that you're just handling things well now; it's a great sign that you've been doing some work, which is—take a win. You get a win? Take a win.

Okay. Now our next exact transit happens on Wednesday, the 28th. And it's between Venus and Chiron. We've got Venus at 28 degrees of Libra and 15 minutes sitting opposite to Chiron at the same degrees of Aries. This is exact at 12:35 a.m. Pacific Time. And you might note that both of these planets are Retrograde, so they both moved back into signs they were just in not too long ago.

Now, Venus opposite Chiron is a really important transit, and it's another really confronting and difficult one. It's also, just like that Sun square to Pluto, an extension of our Full Moon transits. So listen. Venus wants to be stable and secure. Venus is really obsessed with things being nice, with things not ruffling feathers. Venus governs diplomacy, literally.

And so, when Venus is sitting opposite to a player like Chiron, who is all about healing and that wound that just never quite goes away and is such a confronting and tumultuous-feeling planet—it's not exactly a planet; it's an asteroid, but you get what I mean—what happens is major issues around self-worth come up. Now, these issues come up so that you deal with them.

Now, you might experience these self-worth issues when you think about something in the world and you're like, "Am I acting in a way that reflects my values? Do I even know what my values are? How do I honor my values in this situation?" It might come up in a relationship where you're like, "I don't know if I'm being valued here. I don't know if I'm being cared about in the way I want to be. I don't know if I belong." Or it might be that somebody is treating you in a shitty way, or you might be acting out against them in some sort of shitty way.

Whatever it is that gets activated here, Venus opposite Chiron, again, is oppositional, which means me versus you, us versus them, me versus it—could be. What this is trying to do is help you to become more aware of the ways in which your values are not showing up in your relationship to money, your actions, your relationship to a friend, a lover—whatever.

If you find that you are acting in ways or investing in things or people in ways that are not aligned, that awareness is fucking gold. It feels like shit. I mean, obviously, it feels awful. But it is golden information. This is information that empowers you to start to think about how you can change, what needs to change—if something needs to change. It doesn't always, but if it does, Venus opposite Chiron is going to make it pretty damn clear.

You're not supposed to avoid problems during this transit or the Sun square to Pluto. You're supposed to pay attention. You're supposed to allow your experiences to inform you about your current reality so that you can assess whether or not you are participating in your current reality in a way that is aligned. It's not easy work, but it's also not that complicated.

So, if tension comes up in your relationships, if you're feeling freaked out about money stuff, if you're struggling around your values, okay, that tracks with the Venus opposition to Chiron. Your best move is to not allow your fears and insecurities and self-worth issues to drive you. It's ideal for your values to drive you. That's the ideal. But fears are really compelling, and fear has a really powerful way of insisting that it's reality. Don't confuse insecurity and fear-based thinking with realism. They are not the same thing, okay? They are not the same thing. And these transits—this transit specifically, but also the other ones we've been talking about—are potentially going to bring that up for you.

So, even though this transit is going to rattle your sense of security and stability and belonging, it might make you feel unsafe in some way. There's so much energy here for you to become more informed about what you're feeling, about where you've been, about what's important to you for where you're going, and to act from that place of greater self-awareness.

All of these transits indicate more social and civic unrest. This particular transit can trigger major developments with the rights of women, which includes, of course, Queer people, gender-diverse people, Trans people. It also can indicate major shifts within the economy. So these are things we want to be paying attention to because they affect all of us.

And that brings us to our last exact transit of this week. On Friday, October 30th, we have a Mercury square to Mars. It's exact at 10:20 a.m. with Mercury at 17 degrees of Scorpio. It's of course Retrograde and 59 minutes, square to Mars, same degrees of Leo. This is annoying. I'm so sorry. It's annoying. You're annoying. I am annoying. And they're annoying. That's what the transit means.

Mercury square Mars—Mars is agitation, and Mercury is friendships, communication, and your mind. So you're likely to be irritable, agitated, quick to take offense, quick to be offensive. You may put your feet in mouth. That's a thing people do sometimes. You say shit you didn't mean to say. You say it in a way that comes off sharper or harder than you meant it to.

This is more like combative-style transits where people are more likely to fight or jockey for power. This is a transit that can really intensify competitiveness. It can really intensify your drive to prove yourself within dynamics with other people, which can make you feel like shit. It can make other people feel like shit. It can go sideways.

This is happening alongside our other transits, especially our Venus/Chiron opposition. So, again, you can see how this might be a really rough week and day for relationships. Now, I know we're talking about October 30th, right? And so it's Halloween, Day of the Dead, and people do a lot of spiritual work on and around this day. So Friday night is when the partying happens. Maybe you have a spiritual practice on Halloween. Maybe you don't. Maybe you just party all weekend. Maybe you are like me and you hide and do not participate. Whatever it is, there is a collective field around this holiday, and it's intense.

Now, in regards to navigating safety, don't start shit that you don't want to finish—just a good reminder for a Mercury square Mars. It's a bad time to make impulsive decisions, to put yourself in unsafe situations, and basically to fuck with people just because you feel bad. Stay out of the fucking comments. My God, stay out of the comments. Guess what: most of the comments section is people off-gassing their personal issues and bots. Don't get activated by it. Don't go and just spew your shit online, because here's the thing. Your digital life is your life. Your digital life is your life. So don't waste your precious, precious life doing things that you wouldn't do in meatspace, in person.

Mercury square Mars is activating. And so you might be activated. Because Mars is involved, a good thing to do is to use your body as a vehicle for moving stress and tension through you. That said, this transit can make you a little accident-prone. So I'm not encouraging you to do something impulsive or dangerous. I'm encouraging you to take a brisk walk. Do something that is in the realm of what you know how to do in a healthy way for your body, something that works for you that allows you to kind of get present in your body and move energy through your body, because there's a lot of energy activated in your mind and your body at this time. And it might be too hot for your mind to process.

This transit is between two fixed signs, so it might activate some stubbornness. This can kick up road rage and just shitty things in traffic. Mercury is your bicycle. Mars is your car. So you want to be careful whether you're driving either. Mercury also governs pedestrians. So look both ways. Expect people to be driving in an aggressive way. Expect people to not be paying good attention. Be careful.

Now, we want to remember Mercury is Retrograde. This means that it's not a great time to make decisions. Because of Mars's influence, it's an especially poor time to make decisions because you're likely to be very reactive, maybe vindictive. You're not likely to be sorting through all the details in a super grounded and efficient way. So just put it off a couple days. Give it fucking 72 hours, nothing crazy. Just give it 72 hours.

And if you must make a decision or choices must be made or contracts must be signed, that's okay. You live in reality, right? We're not being superstitious. We're using this information. We're using it wisely. So how would you use that information wisely? You just triple-check the fucking contract. Have a friend look at it. Make sure you're advocating for yourself instead of defending yourself if you're not in a situation where you need to be so defensive.

Mercury square Mars can be a time where you speak up, and I'm not just talking about with your vocal cords. You may articulate your beliefs or your needs. You may advocate for yourself or others. This can make you feel more courageous, more brave, and more bold, which is fucking great if it's needed.  And if not, then it can be out of proportion, and then you get into trouble.

But there are always positive sides to a transit, and these things of being courageous, of being brave, of aligning yourself with something and following through with what it means to you and maybe in your relationships or to your plans—this is great. This is a great time for being bold as long as you're doing it from a centered place inside of yourself instead of in a reactive way. Reactive? No. No bueno. Intentional? Embodied? Very well starred. Yes. Very well starred. So work with that energy to the best of your ability.

Now, I'll say one more thing. A lot of people are voting in a lot of places this week. There's a lot of voting going on. I mentioned voting at the top, but there's also a lot of airborne illnesses going around—more in some places than in others, right? It's a big world, big country. But put on that mask. Put on that mask. Girl, you know you want to. Put on that mask. It's good for navigating airborne illnesses. It's good for not being ableist. It's good for being anticapitalist. And it's good for navigating surveillance culture. So wear a mask in public—literally no downside, other than it's a little uncomfortable. I get little zits from wearing a mask sometimes. But you know what? There's little stickers you can put on your zits these days. They're adorable. Just win-win.

That, my friends, is your whole, entire forecast for the week of October 25th through 31st of 2026. As always, I am so happy that you've joined me for this love letter that I write to you twice a week. I absolutely love getting to do this podcast. This is a real joy for me. Astrology is my life's work, and using my woo skills as a way to help people help themselves is literally my joy. So I'm really grateful that I get to do it here with you.

If you get value from this show or from any of my offerings, please make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to watch the video version of this episode—which can be helpful on a week like this one where I'm looking at the chart of the Full Moon, so there's a visual element to it—you can find video episodes on a lot of podcast platforms these days. It's also published to my YouTube and my free page on my Patreon, so you can find it all over the damn internet, as well as on my website, as well as the full transcript written by a human, not fucking AI, okay?

And while you're on my website, you can send me a question. If you want to be considered to get a reading with me on the podcast, there's a contact form with instructions, and you can go ahead and fucking check that out. Write me a little question and maybe get a reading with me here on Ghost.

And in case you missed it, the most recent reading, this past week's reading, was really great. It was great. I mean, I think all the readings are great, but I got to talk to a hawk. I've never talked to a hawk before. So we did a little animal communication with a falconer—yeah, a falconer. And there's a hawk. And if you watch the video version, at the very end, we get to meet the hawk. We get to meet the hawk. It's pretty cool, man. It's pretty cool.

Anyways, I hope you take really good care of yourself and others through this pretty tumultuous week. And I'll talk to you in just a couple of days. Bye.