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 March 8th through the 14th of 2026. And I just want to invite you for a sweet little moment to arrive. You may be multitasking when you listen to this. You may be sitting down and getting grounded. But whatever it is you're doing, I want to invite you to consider if you know how you feel in this moment, if you are connected to yourself in this moment. You don't have to be. I mean, life is busy. Life is intense.

But I want to invite you to do this because we are living through exceptional, destabilizing, tumultuous times. And the relationship that you have to yourself, to the moment you're in, is foundational not just for how you are going to feel and how you are going to function and struggle or thrive or whatever else, but also, your availability to show up with and for others, with and for the people, the projects, the causes, the goals that you value.

Now, Mercury is still Retrograde. And this week's astrology centers Venus. We're dealing with a lot of Venus vibes during this Mercury Retrograde moment. We are post the second Eclipse, but we are still in Eclipse Season. Emotions are intense. So there's a lot going on. And within that, you are likely to be confronted by vulnerability—your own vulnerability as things are changing in ways that you can't quite control or comprehend, the vulnerability of others which may inspire them to act in ways that are unexpected to you, unwelcome to you, or just generally confusing for you.

Cultivating your ability to ground inside of yourself, to regard yourself as home, and to tend to your home, to care for your home—right? Because this meat suit you live in, it's the house that your spirit is living in in this lifetime. Your internal world is a universe. It is a universe, and it is influenced by the universes around you, other people, and the Universe at-large, as we look at with astrology.

But it's hard to have access to the wisdom of your own intuition, your own lived experience, your own convictions, if you are evading and avoiding your own feelings. And this kind of pours us into this week's forecast. As I said, we're looking at March 8th through the 14th. But as I record this on the 7th, Venus is exactly conjunct Neptune. And on Sunday, the 8th, we have Venus exactly conjunct to Saturn. That is exact at 6:40 a.m. Pacific Time, with Venus and Saturn both at 2 degrees of Aries and 38 minutes.

This is really important. These two transits overlapping, and in particular Venus conjunction to Saturn, is inevitably going to be a confrontation with fear. And so how do you relate to fear? We're going to unpack that through this forecast. But before we do that, I'm going to give you your TL;DR for this week's forecast.

We've got a Venus conjunction to Saturn, as I said, and we're still feeling that Venus conjunction to Neptune this week. And Mercury will be trine to Jupiter. Venus will be sextile to Pluto. That's the exact transits of the week. The TL;DR for your forecast is stay interested in and curious about the ways and places you feel stuck, especially in regards to your relationships and values, remembering that you have resources. And some of those resources are internal, and some of them are outside of you; it's like people or your therapist or your ability to take a walk in a park.

So that's your quickie TL;DR. Let's return to that Venus conjunction to Saturn. This transit is heavy. Venus wants connection, and Saturn wants stability. In many ways, these are the two planets most concerned with security and stability. And you can imagine how, in this time when the world is so unstable, where the energetics and the astrology is really tumultuous, this is a hard time to center and prioritize security and stability because in order for us to have security and stability, in some ways, we need just only a very little bit of change, if any change at all.

But what's actually happening now is a lot is changing quickly and all at once. And so what I want to focus on with this Venus conjunction to Saturn is fear because Saturn and Neptune, in different ways, govern fear. Here's the trick with Saturnine fear. It's to understand that fear on its own is actually not a bad thing. Fear is a survival instinct. It helps to keep you safe when it's well adjusted, when your relationship to it is somewhat healthy and balanced. Fear can also have you spinning out of control. It can have you acting in ways that do not reflect your best instincts but instead your strongest instincts—just something you've heard me say many times, right?

There is wisdom to be gleaned from your fears. And sometimes that wisdom is, "Oh, I'm really out of my body, and I'm really in an anxious state. I need to tend to my mental health." Sometimes the wisdom to be gleaned from your fears is, "Oh shit. I'm scared of cars rushing down the road. Maybe I should check both ways before I cross the street," "I'm scared of burning my hands in the fire when I'm making a fire in a fireplace." That's great. That's a good fear because it means that I use tongs and I don't stick my hand in a hot fire.

Fear is not bad. Fear is a very important instinct that we all must develop healthy relationship to. So I want to invite you, this Venus conjunction to Saturn, to practice hanging out and staying present when your fears emerge inside of you. See if you can ask yourself, "What are my fears telling me is important to me? What are my fears saying?" In the example of looking both ways before you cross a street, not getting hit by cars is what your fear might be telling you. "I don't want an accident. I don't want pain that is not necessary."

You may be feeling a fear of world events. You may be feeling a fear of problems within your relationship or a fear of not having enough money to do the things you need to do. All of these fears, if you sit with them, instruct you to what you value, what's important to you. And if you can hang out with your fears long enough, you can start to understand what you value, what's important. And that is really good information for you to have.

With this Venus conjunction to Saturn, ask yourself, what of your fears are related to things that are completely out of your control; there's genuinely nothing you can do about it? If you can make a little list—because Saturn loves lists. If you can make a little list of the fears that you have that are out of your control, then what you can do is identify for each point on the bullet point, what are ways that you can practice coping emotionally, mentally, spiritually? Are there material things that you can do? Oftentimes, with fears that are related to things that are completely out of our control, there's not too much we can do on the material level. But sometimes there is.

Then make a list of the fears that you have of things that you do have some control or agency around. What are the things that you can tend to to protect yourself from fears, like looking both ways before you cross the street, like not sticking your hand in a fire? Maybe if you're scared of relationship problems with somebody that you're close to, you can—I don't know—spend some time thinking about how to communicate more effectively or how to listen better. Maybe you can take care to really communicate to people that you're in relationship with how you feel about them, what you have to offer, what you need.

Venus conjunction to Saturn is a great time for being intentional and setting goals for tangible steps you can take. It's not necessarily the time to start doing shit, even though this is in Aries, so there's a "get up and go" energy to it. But it is an excellent time to cultivate that clarity, to make a plan, or to start to build an awareness-based relationship to the things that have unsettled you, that you're scared of, so that you can implement a plan, set goals—that kind of stuff.

Learning how to tolerate your fears is really important because, oftentimes, with, in particular, Saturnine fear, what happens is we get stuck or we get rigid. With Neptunian fear, we get kind of escapist, and we procrastinate, and we do anything but deal with the thing. And of course, we're dealing with both Neptune and Saturn right now at the same time.

When you avoid fear, when you say, "Oh, fear is a bad emotion. Fear is low vibes. I don't do low vibes emotions," you are missing out on a huge part of your humanity. It's healthy to be scared of scary things, period. It's appropriate to feel fear at times, to feel lonely or sad or bad at times. And when you develop your own ability, your own capacity, to experience those feelings without abandoning yourself, without going rigid, without totally redirecting, you empower yourself to glean the wisdom in those feelings because there is wisdom in those feelings at times. And at times, there isn't. And the more you can tell the difference between what is actually serving you, what is actually communicating value to you, versus what needs nurturance and care, the better.

Ultimately, when we're dealing with Saturn, I know a lot of astrologers will say that Saturn is the father. I don't fuck with that shit. I don't think that we can see a gender through astrology in that particular way. But I will say this. Saturn is related to parenting, form-giving. Keep in mind Capricorn, the zodiac sign that Saturn governs, is a feminine sign. And so what can you do to provide nurturance and structure for yourself? And how can you, from that foundation inside of yourself that is both empathetic and firm, consistent and caring—how can you show up with others, for others—for yourself, with yourself, for others, with others? Because it's a conversation.

People who are change makers, people who grow and evolve and move through really challenging things—these are not people who are not frightened. These are not people who are not freaked out. These are just people who act anyways, who try anyways. Evading and avoiding emotions won't take you very far. And also, I mean, sometimes that's what you gotta do, and sometimes that's what we all do, because we're all humans.

But this Venus conjunction to Saturn, it may confront you with loneliness, insecurity, what have you. It may confront you with challenges in your relationships either to people or things that you value that can be related to your personal finances, to the way you look—you know, it's Venus shit. So I want to really encourage you to be brave and to tap into the Mercury trine to Jupiter that is exact at 10:23 p.m. Pacific Time the same day with Mercury and Jupiter both at 15 degrees and 6 minutes. Mercury Retrograde is, of course, in Pisces, and we've got Jupiter in Cancer. Tap into those energies because they foster curiosity.

Mercury trine Jupiter is not just about curiosity, but it empowers you to connect the dots, to perceive and contemplate the details in the context of the big picture, to synthesize the pieces into a whole. And because Mercury is, of course, still Retrograde, and we have this beautiful water sign vibes happening, what you can more easily do is practice empathy and care because Venus conjunction to Saturn in Aries is not inherently as super nurturing and caring placement as you may imagine. But Mercury trine Jupiter—it really does encourage empathy and compassion and care and a broad-minded, generous view.

So practice learning from your past. Practice being so at home within yourself that you can explore what you're feeling, what's underpinning it, what needs doing, and how. That's the assignment.

On the heels of that Virgo Lunar Eclipse, this is not a time for being perfectionistic. Genuinely, this is not a time for being perfectionistic. There is no way to the other side other than through it. So be willing to navigate going through whatever challenges you are encountering right now. The astrology is challenging, and it is intense. Don't waste your energy evading and avoiding challenging emotions. Instead, cultivate the ability to cope with them. Cultivate a willingness to cultivate the ability to cope with them. That's the assignment.

Now, that brings us to Monday, March the 9th, when Venus and Pluto form an exact sextile to each other. This transit is happening with Venus at 4 degrees and 46 minutes of Aries, forming an exact sextile to Pluto at the same degrees of Aquarius. It's exact at 11:52 p.m. Pacific Time, so you're going to read this as happening on the 10th if you're anywhere east of me.

So Venus sextile to Pluto—this transit is, of course, overlapping with our Mercury trine to Jupiter and our Venus conjunction to Saturn/Neptune vibes. Venus sextile to Pluto is a lovely transit. It empowers you to go deep, and that depth can help you to transform something. Now, whether this shows up in your relationships, in your finances, in your relationship to how you look, Venus sextile to Pluto—great time to demolish things that do not serve your values system.

It is a good time to fuck with beauty and art and connection and passion. You may experience this in your personal relationships. You may experience this in regards to your values system, your connection building, your allyship building. So this is a transit with no downside. It's really absolutely lovely.

Now, whenever we're dealing with Pluto, there's a tendency to be a little obsessive, a little fixated. So here's the redirect. Make sure that you're focused and fixated on your values system and not your projections into what other people are feeling, what's motivating them. Focus on what you're feeling, what's motivating you.

And that's it for the exact transits of this week, but there's one more thing that's really important for me to call out, which is that on the 15th, which is Sunday of next week, we have an exact conjunction between Mercury Retrograde and Mars. And so, for a couple days leading up to that, a.k.a. the end of this week, 13th and 14th, we're going to be feeling that agitation of that Mercury/Mars conjunction. So know that if you find yourself irritated, if things start moving fast, it's an invitation to be a little bit more reflective—because Mercury is Retrograde—and connected to your body—because Mars is involved.

So take a minute to hang out with your challenging impulses and thoughts as they race and communicate urgency to you, because that's what Mercury/Mars conjunction does. It creates an urgency in your thinking. Now, it's possible that the feeling or urgency that you are having is connected to an actually urgent situation, like the house is on fire or you've got to grab the kid before they run into the mouth of a dog. There are urgent situations. And then there is the feeling of urgency, and that feeling of urgency, much like fear—it's very different but, much like fear, is something for you to be curious about.

Mercury is Retrograde, right? So we want to do some reflection. Do some reevaluation. And as you do that, ask yourself, how are you holding these feelings of urgency? Is what you're feeling passion and excitement and motivation? Or is it some sort of pressure coming from inside you or outside of you to push yourself past your capacity? Listen. Sometimes we have to push past capacity. That's life. And sometimes we do it out of a reaction to strong feelings instead of clarity about what needs doing.

We'll talk more about this transit in next week's forecast, but I wanted to give you that little heads-up. As always, if you want to learn more with me, I have classes available for purchase over on my website. I've got two books out, Astrology for Real Relationships, which is available anywhere you can purchase books in audiobook or regular book form, and I also have an audiobook of guided meditations through the zodiac.

And over on Patreon, I have this really lucky experience because I am an astrologer, but that's not all I do. I'm an animal communicator. I'm a psychic and a medium and a Tarot reader, with decades of experience with all of these skills and all of these practices. And so I have this really lucky experience on Patreon because I'm able to share all of the things I do in community with folks.

And for me, the real point of all of this is not astrology. It's not psychic stuff. All that stuff is interesting. The real point is exploring the human condition, exploring empathy and emotional accountability and intelligence and figuring out ways of being more aligned as individuals so that we can show up with and for our communities, show up with and for the world, in ways that are both aligned and sustainable and communicate who we want to be.

And so, for me, my Patreon is a space where we really get to practice that and communicate about that and learn and grow together. So, if you're already a member, I just want to take a minute to say thank you. I love that space. And if you're not yet a member, you can go ahead and join on the free level or on one of the paid tiers, including the mentorship tier, where I offer a reading to a patron once a month in this kind of closed tier. And then we unpack the reading and talk about the different aspects of it, whether it's an astrology reading or animal communication, whether we're focused on the counseling tools and approaches that I use or the esoteric methodologies.

So, if you're curious, you can join us over there.  And also, I'm still doing Black Futures Month. I'm still doing Black Love Month, even though we are in March. So go ahead and send me your questions to be considered.

And finally, as always, if you want to see the transcript of this episode, just wait about 24 hours, and it'll show up on my website. And you can always read past transcripts on my website as well. You can catch the video version of this episode on the free page of my Patreon, on YouTube, and in more and more podcasting platforms. So check that out if you are a visual learner, as so many of us are.

And take really good care of yourself and others, and I'll talk to you in just a couple of days. Bye.