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 August 16th through the 22nd. And we are in Eclipse Season. We're not just in Eclipse Season; we are smack-dab in the middle of Eclipse Season.

Eclipses are not events to fear. They are not events that you can even really prepare for, except for living in accordance with your emotions, being emotionally accountable and present, and trying, just trying to live in an emotionally healthy way.

But here we are. We've gone through that Solar Eclipse on August 12th. There is another Eclipse coming on the 27th in Pisces. It's a Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. And Lunar Eclipses can often feel more intense because Full Moons can feel more intense, right? And we'll get there. Don't get in your head about it. There's no value in it.

This is not the time for trying to get ahead of things. It's the time for getting inside of them. Now, you may have missed it, but on last Wednesday, I dropped an episode called "Your Stewardship." And it's just a really brief episode that was actually a post I published over on my Patreon, and it's about how to think about what's yours to steward and what isn't.

And this idea of stewardship is really important for emotional boundaries and emotional balance. The amount of things that we concern ourselves with that are not ours to steward is really serious. And then, also, in contrast, the amount of things that otherwise well-meaning spiritual people tell themselves are not theirs to steward actually are.

Collective conditions are in your stewardship. Unpacking accountability—that's something in your stewardship, and then, on a more personal level, figuring out what's yours, what's not, how to best show up, not because there's some linear good, better, best idea that I'm trying to suggest. Instead, it's, what is in alignment for you? What is sustainable for you? What's authentic to you and to your situation, which is a moving target? It's not a fixed spot.

And so being able to be present, even when things feel—maybe even especially when things feel—activating or challenging is really important. Elder Carl Olsen, the W̱SÁNEĆ elder, said recently something that I'm going to paraphrase, which is that a tree grows in two directions. It grows both down deep into the earth as its roots are the foundation of its life, and then up above the ground into the tree that you see. And both parts of its life are so important.

If you are not tending to your roots, your innermost personal life, your innermost psychology, your emotions, then whatever external growth you have is not stable. It's not sustainable. Eclipse Season—it can be challenging, obviously. It's emotional. But it's also such a powerful time to strengthen your roots, to be present with what's happening deep inside of you, so that you can be healthier, happier, more accountable, more engaged in your own welfare and in and with the people and situations and the world at-large that you care about.

This is really important. It's not easy. It's not always obvious. But it is deserving of your presence and your care. So I invite you to really think about, for the next week, week and a half, what is in your stewardship? What is in your root system? What needs more presence, more patience, more care? Where might you need to say no so that you create more space and room to say yes? Because every time you choose something and you choose it with your whole heart and you are truly present for it, there are other things that you must not choose at this time that aren't getting your full and total energy and attention. This is life, and this is life.

Making choices is hard for everybody, but it's especially hard when you are not checked in with yourself as a practice, not just as a Band-Aid on a bullet wound, but as a practice. So, again, I want to invite you to hang out with the stuff that is really internal this week, to take that Solar Eclipse in Leo energy, which is the energy of heartfelt courage, of care, of love—to take that energy and apply it to your own internal process and to allow that to strengthen your root system so that you have more energy for your external growth, for becoming the person you want to be and doing the things you want to do, showing up with care and intention.

And, all that said, let's get to your horoscope. This week, we have not too many, but we have a couple really important exact transits. And the first exact transits I'm going to tell you about happen on Monday, the 17th, where we have three transits to discuss.

The first one is exact at 2:52 a.m. Pacific Time, and it's Mars at 3 degrees of Cancer and 59 minutes square exactly to Neptune at the same degrees of Aries. Later in the morning, at 8:27 a.m. Pacific Time, Mercury is exactly trine to Jupiter. And then, at 9:16 a.m. Pacific Time, we have a Venus sextile to Jupiter with Venus at 10 degrees of Libra and 38 minutes forming that sextile to Jupiter in Leo, same degrees.

And if you're wanting to track the transits, you can watch the video version of this episode, or you can subscribe to my very simple astrologer's pro tool called Astrology for Days. And it's basically just like—it tracks the transits and has a note-taking section. We're building a bunch of updates to it, so more on that hopefully not too long from now. But if you want to be tracking transits without a lot of noise or hokey predictions, this is your guy.

Okay. Let's talk. I'm going to tell you about the two supportive, easy transits before we unpack the more challenging one. We've got that Mercury trine to Saturn. It is stabilizing to your thinking. It's a great time for making plans. It's a great time for organizing things. And it basically stabilizes your thinking and your ability to communicate and take in information.

In the context of the Mars square to Neptune, which is overlapping here, I gotta tell you, don't be making plans, unless—I mean, if you have to, you have to. But this is not a great time for making plans. What the Mercury trine to Saturn is going to do in the context of this astrology is just simply help to keep you a little bit more pragmatic, a little bit more realistic, and to be more willing to take steps to verify information, kind of sort through your impulses—that kind of thing.

The Venus sextile to Jupiter is a lovely transit. It supports you in feeling optimistic, open-minded, open-hearted. It just increases generosity. It can coincide with a lot of fun. Now, because of our Mars square to Neptune—again, more on that in just one second. Because of our overlapping Mars square to Neptune, there's a downside to this transit, which is it can, in context to this other transit, increase your gullibility, increase your impulse to—I don't know—be parasocial or put someone on a pedestal. And so these are things to just be mindful of.

Feeling good, being excited by people, being inspired by art—fucking fabulous. No notes. But when you take coincidences, synchronicities, and you beef them up to mean something more than they really do, you actually do yourself a disservice. You kind of steal from your potential in the present moment. So staying a little more grounded is going to serve you on and around this date.

Now, let's talk about that Mars square to Neptune. This is a challenging transit—I would say not my favorite. And it may be not that deep for you. For me, I don't like it because it's so disorienting. It's confusing. This transit occurs between two planets which I actually think are the most different from each other of all planets in the zodiac—Mars, which is about the body and embodiment and competition and passion and aggression and the drive to move forward—it is, again, about embodiment. And Neptune is pure woo. It is fog. It is the energy that exists in the ethers. It is reverse body. It's spirit. It's the fog that comes off the water; it's not the water itself. You know what I'm saying?

And so, when these two planets are in hard aspect to each other, as they are on this date and around this date as well, what we know is that it's hard to be in the body. You may feel exhausted. You may feel demoralized. You may feel that your plans—not are being thwarted, nothing that obvious—that your plans are being undermined. You may feel like you are being sabotaged. This transit can coincide with an increase in paranoia. This transit is just—it just has you off.

On a more woo level, Neptune weakens the auric field, so it turns you into more of a loofah sponge. You're pulling in all kinds of energy, and this can be too much for your body and your mind to make sense of. And so we make assumptions. We jump to conclusions—again, paranoia, right?

Neptune also governs anxiety. So you may feel somatic, visceral anxiety, just anxious in your body. You may feel jumpy, unsafe, unwell. And if this transit hits something in your birth chart directly, there may be other physical symptoms associated with it. Again, exhaustion is a really common one.

COVID is on the rise in many places. We haven't talked about COVID in a minute. Let's take a minute. COVID's on the rise in many places, and it still makes sense to wear a well-fitting mask when you are in environments that are crowded with lots of other people, if you are hanging out with people who are immune compromised or can't be vaccinated for any kind of reason or just—you know, you're going to hang out with old people or babies or shit like that. You know what I mean?

Taking care of your physical health is a choice you make for you. Taking care of community health is a choice you make for us. So it's worth considering. It's worth returning your attention and your care to this matter at any time, but certainly around a Mars square to Neptune.

This transit can kick up addiction issues. It's not going to create them out of the clear, blue sky, but if you have a tendency towards addictions, especially addictions that include your body, this transit can really activate that. And there's plenty of addictions that don't, per se, include your body. But again, this transit will kick up addictions in many people. And the reason for that is because there's so much visceral, body-based anxiety, and that body-based anxiety often makes us reach for things that will change the way we feel.

That's why so many of the things we do, we do. You grab your phone because you feel a little anxious. You might do any number of things to try to make yourself feel differently than the way you feel right now, consciously and unconsciously. This transit will kind of ratchet up your impulsive, anxiety-fueled choices. So, again, it's not going to create something out of the clear, blue sky, but it is definitely something that you want to be mindful of because it activates old patterns.

This is not a good time for shit-talking. In fact, it is a time where you might find that other people are talking shit about you, maybe just not having confidence in you or not inspiring confidence in you to other people. And that just feels awful when it happens. It is a terrible thing. And I know so many people love to talk shit, but it feels so bad when other people do it about you. So this is one of those times where I want to just encourage you to center being as empathetic and kind as you can and put off le shit talk at least 72 hours after this transit. Okay? Just—it's an invitation. You do what you want.

And another thing about this transit is it's not a great time for taking on new projects or organizing new projects. So, as I said, that Mercury trine to Saturn is technically a good time for that, but Mars square Neptune says, "No, thank you," because you aren't able to have a really solid assessment of dynamics, both internal and with other people. And so this is just a bad time for making those kinds of plans. If you can put it off, please do.

This transit, like I said, can be discouraging. You may be dealing with self-doubt, or you may be dealing with other people that deal with self-doubt. And this is the thing. Some people—when they're feeling anxious or not confident, they get perfectionistic. Some people get micromanaging. Some people get shut down and cold. Some people get needy. There are so many different ways that people respond. And if those people are—I don't know—your coworker, your boss, your partner, the new person you're dating—whatever—it can trigger shit in you, right? So it's just this fucking domino effect situation.

Now, in regards to collective conditions, Neptune is associated with devotion and religious extremism. Now, it doesn't always show up in these ways, but certainly, it is related to these ways. Because of the times we are living through, we may see violence—Mars—in the name of devotional or deeply held beliefs—Neptune.

We may see violence, whether it's from the state or from an individual or a group, that is inspired by some sort of purity ideal. And in my view, purity ideals tend to be really unhealthy and unhelpful and deeply perfectionistic. Perfectionism is not a good spiritual ideal. It is not a good spiritual ideal because humans aren't perfect. Life isn't perfect. It's wabi-sabi. It's asymmetrical. It is messy. And when we have the capacity to have true empathy and emotional intelligence, we get more comfortable with the messiness of things.

But anyways, all of this to say we may see religious extremism becoming more aggressive. And this might look like any number of things, but we certainly want to be paying attention. Every day is a good day to pay attention to the world around you, and certainly, today is one of those days.

And that brings us to Friday, August 21st. We don't have any exact transits other than Lunar transits leading up to Friday. So what does this mean? It means we're feeling Eclipse feelings. It means that the unpacking of that Mars/Neptune square is going to just really—it's going to be uninterrupted energy. So support your body. Do your best to navigate your impulse control, especially inasmuch as it's related to anxiety.

And then we have another fucking challenging transit here on Friday. At 5:43 a.m., it will be exact. It's a Venus opposition to Saturn. Venus will be at 14 degrees of Libra, exactly opposite to Saturn at the same degrees of Aries. This transit is challenging. Venus and Saturn are two of the three most security-oriented planets. The Moon is the other one, and we are in Eclipse Season. They are security-oriented because they want stability, certainty, and not ease per se, but these two planets really want expectations to be established so that they can find a sense of safety and place.

Venus opposite Saturn comes up, and it tends to be experienced in an oppositional way, which means between you and me or us and them. So, from the us and them perspective, looking at it on a social level, we know that certainly in the U.S., all kinds of social pressure and legislation has been pushed to constrain and control and legislate the lives of Trans people. And it's devastating, and it is also a stepping stone towards doing the exact same things to cis women.

And so, when we look at something like a Venus opposition to Saturn, we want to pay attention to what's happening legislatively and systemically towards these two groups, which is most of most people here, right? It's us and the allies that support us. And as it's Eclipse Season, it's really important to not just stay in contact with your emotions but also to make sure that you are acting in ways that reflect your values and your heart, whether that's to support a group you're a part of or to be a good ally.

Now, one a more personal level, Venus opposite Saturn is an equal pain in the ass. This transit can make you feel lonely. It can make you feel like there's not enough affection, there's not enough care, you don't have enough connections that are real for you. This transit can make you feel like, even if you're in a group of people who are your close people, that they don't get you, and even if they did get you, it wouldn't be enough. Saturn governs scarcity.

Venus is your values, whether it's your sense of value in yourself, like self-worth, or it's the value that you believe you hold in other people's hearts and lives—so we're talking about friends, crushes, family members, etc. This is like a creative block kind of transit. This is not good for trying to innovate and make creative outputs, and we could say art, but it's a really big umbrella, so think of it as you will.

This transit is confronting, and it's confronting you with very real limitations. That's Saturn's job. It confronts you with limitations. And so the question becomes, what is it that is limiting you? And is that limitation actually a helpful thing, or is it unnecessary? Is it something that you have taken on like the architect of your own misery, or is it something imposed upon you? Is it a habit? Is it a belief? Or is it a very real material constriction? A lot of times, it's both. It's not one of the other; it's both.

And so, when a Venus opposition to Saturn occurs, you have the opportunity to really get in contact with what is working against your values where scarcity exists and whether or not you need to invest in it, right? Venus does the investing.

You may feel lonely, down in the dumps. You may feel kind of cornered or limited or pressed by other people. This might be in part because you don't feel like you have a lot of extra energy to give, and other people need shit. They want shit. They expect shit. And by contrast, you may feel like you're kind of asking people to show up for you, and they're backing away. They're not showing up.

Everybody is feeling it this Venus opposite Saturn, which means people might not be able to show up for you. You might not be able to show up for them. That is not inherently bad. What you want to make sure you're doing is being accountable. So, if somebody's asking you for something that you can't give them, it's okay to say, "I'm hearing that there's a request in here. I can't show up for that request in this moment. Can we revisit? I will come back to you on this"—whatever's appropriate for the given relationship or situation.

Being accountable doesn't mean saying yes all the time. It means acknowledging when you're not being clear. It means saying no when the answer is no. If you say yes, it means showing up and following through. That's what accountability is. And Venus and Saturn, in very different ways, both teach accountability—Venus more based on your values system and your integrity and your principles, Saturn more based on your long-term goals and your long-term actions, like what you do over and over and over again.

And so this transit is hard. It's challenging and very different than the Mars square to Neptune. It's challenging in such a different way. Mars and Venus are both related to relationships. They're both related to, in particular, crush-style, romantic, sexual relationships. They are related to art or creative project-style dynamics, projects, and even potentially collaborative relationships.

And having both Neptune and Saturn fluxing with these two planets means we can expect some relationship disruption this week. And that might be material—it might be an issue between you and someone else or two different groups—or it might be more in your interior life. Either way, it's important. Either way, it's deserving of your attention and care.

And finally, last thing I'll say about this transit is, yeah, you might feel just fucking down. You just might feel down. People feel down sometimes. How you show up for that, how you take care of yourself, how you navigate those feelings is the transit for you. It's the lesson. So whether you want to show up for it or not, however you choose to navigate it is your choice. But it's a little bit of a heavy, blah kind of day.

And that, my friends, is your horoscope. For your TL;DR this week, stay emotionally connected. Practice having healthy boundaries with how you approach your own energy and your body. Cultivate care based on what you value. And keep your mind and heart trained on what's pragmatic, realistic, and, again, what you really care about.

As always, I want to thank you so much for joining me here on Ghost of a Podcast. If you get value from the show, please do hit the Follow or Subscribe button wherever you listen. It does actually make a really big difference for a DIY podcast like this one. And please consider writing a positive review if you get value from this show and my work.

And if you do want to learn more with me and go deeper, if you have questions about anything I say in any of these episodes, join me over on Patreon. That's where I answer questions and go deeper. You can join at the free level or the paid levels and just be a part of the conversation.

All right. I hope you take really good care of yourself this week and good care of the people around you because what you do matters, and you matter. And I'll talk to you in just a couple of days. Bye.

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