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 July 5th through the 11th of 2026. Mercury is Retrograde. Have you noticed? Have you noticed that communication is a little wonky, that you may be kind of confused or exhausted, that you're feeling extra self-protective and maybe reflecting on your plans, your ideas, your friendships?

If you've noticed any or all of that, then you've noticed Mercury Retrograde. And that's kind of cool, to notice astrology functioning, actually, not just in regards to how your life functions but in regards to how you relate to others, because all of those things, to one extent or another, include other people. And Mercury is such a relational planet, it does include other people.

Do your best to listen well during this Mercury Retrograde—during all the damn days, if I'm being honest. But Mercury Retrograde is a really great time for you to reflect on how well you listen, on what you listen to, and what you do with the data you collect as you are listening to others. I know we talk so much about Mercury and communication, but we focus on the blah, blah, blah, on the output, instead of the active listening skills that we as adults need in order to be high functioning.

I was lucky enough I went to an alternative school, and so I was actually taught active listening skills. Do you know what active listening skills are? Have you thought about them? Are you listening to what is being said, what is not being said, body language, tone, such and thus? These are things that are really important. They're important because listening is not linear exclusively. Listening includes many senses—something to think about this Mercury Retrograde.

Okay. That said, let's dive into this week's forecast. And it starts on Sunday, July 5th, at exactly 5:07 a.m., when Mars hits 4 degrees of Gemini and 47 minutes, forming an exact trine to Pluto at the same degrees of Aquarius. So we have Mars and Pluto both in air signs. And this is really important because we are now in this energy of these two planets that govern combat, conflict, power, moving quickly through air. So you might want to notice how that feels inside of you and also how it's functioning in the world.

That said, Mars trine Pluto is a lovely transit. It's a lovely transit because it suggests that the things that are in motion will get a powerful push. Think of it like a sailboat catching wind in the exact direction it is already going in. Now, I didn't say in the right direction because we don't want to apply morality to astrology. So it is the direction it was already going in. This means that the things you have actively participated in, the motivations that are driving you, the chemistry that you're feeling with yourself, with somebody else—all of these things will get a powerful push forward. And that's great if your motivations are good, if the actions you're pursuing are in alignment, etc., etc.

So Mars trine Pluto helps to move things along in a meaningful way. So that doesn't only mean the things that you like and love in the world. So, when we look at mundane astrology, which is the astrology of the world, we can see a lot of things that are put in place, a lot of motivations that are driving global and domestic affairs. And I certainly haven't cosigned on them. I don't think you have either. So we may see great forward motion with some things that we're not super excited about. I mean, somebody is, but most of us aren't. So that's the downside. That's the risk of the Mars trine to Pluto.

On a personal note, this is a great time for flirting, hooking up, having sex, tapping into your sexuality, that kind of stuff. It's great for competitive sports. It's great for—oh, and I think there's a sports game happening right now that people are really invested in. I don't know if by the time this is published, the sports are done. But it's good for sports. There's that.

This transit is really good for any kind of project that you are invested in that requires your motivation and energy. This is not a bad transit for working well with others, although that's not really what it's good for. What it's good for is you having the energy and the momentum to assert what you think is valuable or important. And the indication, because it's a trine, is that you won't encounter resistance.

And so, in that way, it can be really good for group efforts because somebody or somebodies are going to kind of be like, "All right. I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to take this chance. I'm going to suggest we do this thing." Sometimes there's too many cooks in a kitchen. Sometimes everybody is waiting around trying to be a sous-chef and just waiting for somebody to say, "This is what we chop." It depends on your situation.

But by and large, Mars trine to Pluto is a lovely transit, is a transit that supports you in being more in your body, in being more motivated and having energy to get shit going or to get shit done. Because it's air sign, I'm going to say get it going. So no real downside here. It's definitely a transit that can support you in engaging with your physical health, even your mental health, in a proactive way. So, again, very lovely. Tap into it.

This transit is overlapping with our next exact transit. On Monday, July 6th, we have a Sun square to Saturn with the Sun at 14 degrees of Cancer and 24 minutes squaring Saturn at the same degrees of Aries. Now, this transit will be greatly helped by our Mars trine to Pluto because Sun square Saturn is kind of a bummer transit, if I can be straight and to the point, see?

Sun square Saturn comes along, and it can kick up depression. It can kick up negative consequences. So, when I say negative consequences, that's actually not the most authentic thing I could say. It can feel negative. It can feel burdensome to find out, oh, you did it wrong, or you did something; whether it was right or wrong, it landed poorly for somebody else. There are some challenging consequences.

But the truth is that it's not inherently negative. This is a transit that is good for pruning, for looking at the garden of your life, of your mental health, of your relationship—whatever it is that gets activated—and recognizing what needs to change for maximum harvest. Sun square Saturn is not a time of harvest; it is a time of recognizing where you need to prune.

If you don't love a gardening metaphor, I respect you, and I will say instead that this is a time where you are meant to be humble and to learn from your mistakes, to take pains to follow through on your word. If you said you were going to do something, do it, okay? Because Saturn is all about accountability and responsibility. There are many things you're accountable to and responsible for, and amongst those are probably things that you either very clearly stated or implied that you were going to do it, that it was yours to do. This is not a time for shirking responsibility, my friend. It is not.

Now, unfortunately, this transit can make you feel depressed. It can make you feel alienated or isolated. It can make you feel bad about yourself, which is no fun. And also, there's something about the weight or the heaviness of Saturn that inclines a lot of humans to become scarcity-minded. So we feel bad, and then we look around for affirmation of what's wrong or what is about to be wrong. And the truth is, in 2026—I don't know—it's not that hard to find affirmation of shit being wrong or scary or bad.

The positive potential of this transit that you should absolutely strive to tap into is you recognizing what needs care—Sun is in Cancer—what needs doing—Saturn is in Aries. By recognizing what needs care and what needs doing, you put yourself in the position to learn, adapt, and meet the damn moment. And that's what's fucking called for, right?

Saturn is not a nurturer. Saturn is a planner. Saturn is a goat. It is not a sloth who wants to snuggle, okay? And we love the goat. We love the sloth. But there are different things for different—you know, and I actually—I recognize I said the sloth, and sloths are associated with laziness and all kinds of negative things, but that's not my association with the sloth. A sloth is like a tender, loving weirdo. And let's embrace the tender, loving weirdo in our lives, in ourselves. Am I right?

But again, back to my metaphor, the real work here is to recognize where your care is needed, what needs protecting. And whether or not you can do it right now—TBD. But you can recognize what needs doing. The Mars trine to Pluto will help you to have the energy to resource yourself and to access resources around you if that's what's needed. It may help you to show up for someone or something you care about, and that is an excellent use of these two transits, is to mobilize—thanks to Mars—and be responsible and accountable to act from a place of wisdom—thanks to that Sun square to Saturn.

Acting from a place of wisdom—honestly, you can't beat it. You can't beat it. It helps you. It helps the people that you're engaged with. And what is wisdom? Wisdom is not just knowledge. It's knowledge plus experience plus accountability, right? And so learning from your lived experience, learning from history—whether it's your personal history, the history of the world—and applying knowledge and history in the present moment requires accountability. These things add up to wisdom. This is why we associate wisdom with older people, because older people have more experiences.

Okay. Okay. One last thing I'll say about the Sun square to Saturn. Because this transit can make you feel scarcity-minded, negative, down, heavy-hearted, world-weary, it's not a great time for innovation. It's not a great time for challenging yourself to take on more. Now, you might recognize innovation is needed or that you need to take on more; you want to take on more. That's great. Not everything all at once.

You've heard me say it a million times, but I'm going to say it again. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Do not be in such a mad rush to turn your insight into action that you don't sit with the complexity of your realities first. It's really important to be able to metabolize what you perceive, what you think, what you hope, what you intend. That space that you create for metabolizing your ideas, sitting with things, is not just good for your plans and not just good for how you show up in the world, how you show up in your life, but it's good for your mind and your heart and your body.

Saturn teaches us to do things in sustainable ways, to conserve your energy—not to conserve it, a.k.a. don't do it—to conserve it as in to pace yourself effectively. And it's important to remember that the way I pace myself may be different than the way you pace yourself. The way you pace yourself in July of 2026 might be really different than how you did it in July of 2006, and it might be really different than you're going to do it in 2036. And that's okay.

Don't be so judgmental. It doesn't actually help you. It doesn't serve the moment that you're in and your capacity to meet it. Turn your judgment towards discernment. Discernment is assessing without judgment or condemnation, right? Speaking of discernment versus judging, I want to tell you about what happens next.

On Thursday, the 9th of July, Venus moves into Virgo. And Virgo is the zodiac sign associated with discernment, actually. If you've already heard my bonus episode of Ghost of a Podcast that I release on the 1st of every month where I break down the astrology of the month ahead, and at the end, I do a sun sign horoscope—so basically what July means for each of the zodiac signs—and you can find that over on my Patreon or wherever podcasts sell bonus episodes.

So I already said this on the bonus episode, but I think it bears repeating. I could wring the neck of the person on the internet who said Venus in Virgo is bad. It is not a bad placement. If you have issues or problems with love or art or money and you have Venus in Virgo, it's not because you have Venus in Virgo, okay? It's just not. I have a working theory that this is just some sort of anti-feminist fucking idea because Virgo is analytic, discerning, and discriminating—not discriminating like prejudice, but using the process of discernment to identify where the yes is, where the maybe is, and where the no is. In other words, Virgo's not a fucking pushover. I mean, it can be.

But that's why I think, somehow, somewhere, someone said that Venus in Virgo is bad for love and romance. It's not. It's just not. I just want to say, if you have Venus in Virgo, it's a great fucking placement. And if you think you got problems with love, you should look deeper than just that one placement. Strong belief. Strong opinions. That's what you get here at Ghost of a Podcast.

Okay. So Venus moves into Virgo. I don't really talk about these kind of minor ingressions, but I will tell you about the Venus trine to Chiron that is exact at 11:18 p.m. Pacific Time on the 9th. And it's happening with Venus at 0 degrees and 36 minutes of Virgo, forming an exact trine to Chiron at the same degrees of Taurus. We are in Chiron in Taurus times.

Okay. Let's talk about what this transit means. First, let's take a moment to better understand Chiron because Chiron is an asteroid that people really have a hard time with. And that makes sense. It's just—there's not enough good information about it. It's not been studied in the same way the planets have. So Chiron is related to your core wounds. It's not your survival mechanisms and your trauma. That's Pluto. It's, as a result of your lived experience, the unconscious and deeply held beliefs that you embody around—depending on what zodiac sign and what house and what aspects exist—your basically being here, what it means to be a person, what it means to be you.

For some people, this will be more focused around the body or around the mind or around love or around spirituality. It could be a myriad of things. Chiron is a really important asteroid to work with in astrology because it represents feelings and complex beliefs that we hold about ourselves and then, therefore, the world that really can fuck you up, basically.

And so, when we go through a transit like Venus trine to Chiron, you have the opportunity to have your self-worth activated in a way that doesn't fuck you up so much that you devolve into deeply wounded thoughts, feelings, behaviors. Instead, this transit empowers you to work on your self-worth, to tap into your values—we're talking about Venus—and to apply them to the parts of you that are wounded, that you really deeply struggle with.

In other words, most simply put, this is a good transit for being kind to yourself. This is a good transit for interrupting your coping mechanisms that come out of low self-esteem and low self-worth and acting in ways that are more kind, more generous, and a better reflection of your values.

So it doesn't mean it's going to be a super easy day or nothing challenging will occur, but it does mean that there's a great deal of energy and power for you to discern—we're talking Virgo—your value—we're talking Taurus—or to discern the value in others or in a situation that you have to participate in.

What I know from more than three decades of working as a consulting astrologer is that a lack of acceptance—"This is who I am. This is where I am. This is when I am." A lack of acceptance of where you're at at this time can create so many problems on top of whatever problems you're trying to deal with.

It is really important, when dealing with any difficulty, with anything you're trying to make progress with, to start with a layer of acceptance. Acceptance is not consent. It's not signing off on something or agreeing to something. It is self-awareness coupled with presence. Acceptance occurs in this moment, and it empowers you to recognize what is, what isn't, and how it feels. That's it. And those layers of awareness are kind of essential for changing anything in a substantial way.

And it is hard to change. It is hard to change in a substantial way—like, really hard. But it's such good work. It is such important work. And the more of us who embrace this work, who dare to live a life that is more aligned, more authentic than what the worst experiences we've had or our biggest insecurities would have us live—if there were more of us doing that, then the world would be a better place just implicitly. I mean, it wouldn't magically get rid of systemic problems or bad actors, but community is built of lots of individuals.

And in order for us to be in healthy, harmonious, supportive, and effective community, we also have to work on ourselves alone as individuals. And a transit like this Venus trine Chiron is really supportive for doing just that. So is the other two transits. Sun square to Saturn is a pain in the ass, but they're all actually quite supportive, even the Mercury Retrograde, which can create all kinds of communication problems, which is a pain in the ass in your relationships and in community. It's still really helpful because the kinds of miscommunications we have, the way we respond to them, the way we hold them, the way we resolve them, speaks leagues to who you are, who they are, where we're at, and what needs doing. And that's really important information.

And that, my friends, is your forecast. As a quick recap, on the 5th, Mars is trine to Pluto. On the 6th, the Sun is square to Saturn. And then, on the 9th, Venus trines Chiron. Your  TL;DR quick recap of this week's forecast is to tap into your motivation and sense of empowerment, to honestly and authentically confront what is and isn't working, to be accountable to those things, and embrace your capacity for increasing your relationship to your self-worth, your self-esteem, and your sense of self.

As always, I hope you get a lot of value from these forecasts and from my midweek episodes, where I give a lucky listener a reading here on the podcast. I know it's July, but I'm still taking Queer questions. So, hey, you Gays—get in there and ask your questions if you've got them, if you want a reading here on the show.

And as always, you can join me over on Patreon, where I drop all kinds of content, lots of knowledge, lots of supportive content, and I even have a mentorship tier that you can join me on. If you're already a patron, thank you so much. I love that space and how we come together, learn together, and even sometimes struggle with information.

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