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 going to look at the astrology of August 23rd through the 29th. And this week includes a lot of really important transits, including but not limited to our Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. And we're just going to dive in. There's a lot to get through. The astrology of this moment is really helpful. And that doesn't mean it's particularly easy or necessarily fun.

So let's start at the top of the week, where we have a Sun trine to Chiron with the Sun at 0 degrees of Virgo and 41 minutes trine to Chiron at the same degrees of Taurus—very earthy, right? This transit will be exact at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time, 12:30 p.m. on the dot.

This transit is really helpful, and it's especially helpful in the context of our Lunar Eclipse. As I've been saying for weeks, Eclipses are always time to feel your feelings. They're always time to be present emotionally for not just the moment but to assist in your own evolution. Now, a transit like Sun trine to Chiron—it helps you to get active in your own healing process. It supports you in being aligned while also feeling vulnerability.

There's a way that when we are feeling vulnerable, when we're feeling shitty about ourselves, when we have low self-worth, we tend to abandon the self. We tend to just shove it down, to grab our phones, to do whatever we can do to not feel those feelings. But Sun trine to Chiron empowers you to actually stay with the feelings, to try to figure out what's happening, to evolve and grow and heal. And so do what you can to make the most of this transit.

Luckily, on the 25th, Mercury joins this party, and Mercury forms an exact trine to Chiron when it reaches 0 degrees and 39 minutes. So Mercury will be at 0 degrees and 39 minutes of  Virgo, and Chiron will be at the same degrees of Taurus. This transit really—it focuses your thinking more towards your own healing journey, what needs care, potentially adaptation and correction in your life.

Mercury is not just about your mind; it's also about your friendships. And so you may have deep and meaningful conversations with people that stir something inside of you. And they may meaningfully impact your relationships themselves, or it may be that you just hear something; it just clicks. You have an exchange that shifts something inside of you. And again, these two trines from the Sun and Mercury to Chiron empower healing, and in particular healing around parts of yourself where you have low self-worth, where you struggle with insecurity.

This is emotionally charged. It's mental. It's behavioral. But it's also really emotional. Some of what I want to encourage you to be thinking about this week throughout the week, and certainly the first half of the week, is, what's your goal here? What's your intention? What are you motivated around? Because what you turn your attention to, what you give your energy to, is what you will see grow. That's kind of how life works.

And so be open to having insights that meaningfully shift or change your own attitudes; they empower you to heal, to grow. This is why it's a great time for therapist talk, for meeting up with your dear diary and just really going deep. This is a good time for connecting with people that you trust or noticing how you connect with people that you don't trust because we can't always be surrounded by people we trust, unfortunately.

These two transits can help you to build wisdom and insight. And they do this not by waving a magic wand, but they do this instead by supporting you in meeting the moment with whatever it provokes, but meeting the moment on purpose, with a sense of purpose, with a sense of care, and a willingness to evolve and adapt.

And that brings us to Thursday, the 27th of August, where we have two exact transits. The Sun and Mercury meet up at 4 degrees of Virgo and 27 minutes. They are exact at 10:04 a.m. Pacific Time. So Mercury/Sun conjunction—this is a transit that some astrologers think is amazing/I think is mixed.

It indicates that you are highly identified with your beliefs and attitudes, with what you say, your opinions—and not just what you say. What you think, right? There's a way that, so many times, we encounter differences of opinion, different takes, as something that's offensive or confronting. And I want to say that that is a good thing to think about if you are somebody who experiences that, because differences of opinion are literally differences of opinion.

And in order to grow, in order to cultivate wisdom, in order to have healthy friendships, we have to be able to disagree with people. A transit like Sun conjunction to Mercury—it tends to make a person more highly identified with their ideas. So it's not just, "I like cats." It's that, "My identity is threatened or harmed in some way when you say that cats are stupid."

So Sun conjunction to Mercury can be a time where your ideas start to really percolate; you have lots of exciting, fun interactions with people. You may have conversations with people that are really just—I don't know; they just kind of put a little spring in your step, okay? Sun/Mercury conjunction will also coincide with things happening more quickly—more texts, DMs, emails, running into people, random chats at the watercooler, whatever.

Expect all that from Sun conjunction to Mercury. Just be on the lookout for being so identified with your opinions that you end up being kind of blocked around receiving other people's opinions or being truly adaptable, which is the best-case scenario for Mercury/Sun conjunction in Virgo, a grounded adaptability that fosters and promotes growth.

Now, this transit is exact at 10:04 a.m. And then, at 9:18 p.m., we have our Lunar Eclipse. And so the Sun/Mercury conjunction is a huge part of our Lunar Eclipse chart. Now, listen. If you're ever listening to my podcast and you want to ask me questions about something I say, if you've got some sort of feedback, if you absolutely need to know where I got something I'm wearing, the only place that I really engage with comments is on the free page of my Patreon. So, if you've got a burning question, you can join me over there. Like I said, it is free. And I post every podcast episode in its video form over there. So there you go. Boopity-boop.

Okay. Let's get to this Lunar Eclipse. We've got our Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. It's happening at exactly 4 degrees Pisces and 53 minutes. In terms of astrology, the easiest way for me to explain a Lunar Eclipse is that it is basically a Full Moon whose effects will not impact us for about a month, which is what a typical Full Moon impacts, but instead, six months. So it's not—you know, you run into Jane and you step on her toes, and then she gets mad at you and then steps on your toes. It's not like the next six months are going to be about you and Jane stepping on each other's feet.

What it's about is how you engage with conflict, whether or not you're vengeful. It's not necessarily going to be about the specific little things that happen on the day of the Eclipse. It's about what it stimulates in you, what it activates in you, in your emotional body and in your emotional coping mechanisms, the ripple effects that it has on your innermost personal life as well as your personal life. So innermost personal life speaks to your mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health, what happens outside of you. And then your personal life is your home life, the people you live with, your family—whether it's chosen family or family of origin—the people you're really intimate and close with.

This Lunar Eclipse has got a lot of nerviness to it. I did a live over on my Patreon about the Eclipse and kind of the mid-Eclipse Season vibes. And something that really came up was that I heard from a lot of people about how perfectionistic they had been feeling through the post-Solar Eclipse time—in other words, in the last week, week and a half. And that kind of tracks for this Lunar Eclipse.

And I'll tell you the Sun is in Virgo, Mercury, the ruling planet to the zodiac sign of Virgo, sitting right on top of that Sun. So we've got Mercury and the Sun opposite to the Moon, activating the emotional anxiety needed to get perfectionistic because, really, perfectionism is so many things. I taught a whole class on perfectionism because it is such a complex and insidious impulse that we have and drive that can be kind of hard to track but pretty consuming in its effects.

And so understanding that, in part, perfectionism is a response to anxiety can be really helpful during this Lunar Eclipse because the Moon in Pisces is really sensitive. It's not just emotionally sensitive; it's sensitive on a sense impression level. The energetic sensitivities that you have on a regular day are likely to be intensified during the Lunar Eclipse and, of course, the days and weeks leading up, and maybe less so, as well, the days and week afterwards.

So how you engage with overwhelm, your sensitivities, empathy, care, and boundaries is super fucking important. Whenever I see strong Pisces stuff, I always think, "Okay. Now we need to pay attention to boundaries," because Pisces exists in the realm of fog. It exists in the realm of not quite air, not quite water. It's like something in the middle. And therefore, it's harder to contain and protect.

It's really important this Lunar Eclipse to consider what your boundaries are—your boundaries with your thinking. Are you obsessing on what some coworker said to you a couple days ago? And it is helping you? Is it improving your life? Is it a habit worth acknowledging and trying to change? Recognizing the ways that you cope, the ways that you evade or fixate, is really healthy.

Because this is a Lunar Eclipse in Pisces, you are likely to really feel your overwhelm if you're overwhelmed. If you are dealing with burnout, that's likely to come to the surface. A lot of people experience around Eclipses—but especially around Full Moons and Lunar Eclipses—difficulties with sleeping. It's important to pay attention to your dreams right now because your dreams are really just the way that your subconscious can speak to your conscious mind. And it doesn't speak in a linear way. It speaks through symbols and visuals. It's peak Pisces.

And so do your best to listen to yourself—not so that you can come to some sort of conclusion. That's not realistic. Don't go for that, okay? And I'll tell you more about that in a second. But it's instead because this is a powerful time—it's a powerful time—for being present emotionally with whatever's up for you. A challenging time but a really useful one.

So this Moon opposition to the Sun and Mercury forms a T-square to Uranus. And Uranus is at 5 degrees and 37 minutes of Gemini. This makes it a very fucking tight T-square. This is a very strong aspect. So what this means plainly is that your nervous system is likely to be zingy, like super zingy. Uranus governs the nervous system. It governs unexpected change, chaos, rebellion, and revolution.

The potential for you to experience liberation from an old pattern, an old way of minimizing yourself or coping with things that just doesn't serve your emotional and personal goals and needs—it's strong. But it's just as likely that you will just kind of pop off, act or react in ways that better reflect the impulses of your nervous system and your mind than the needs of your heart. And that would be an error, TBH—a really common error, but an error nonetheless.

This T-square to Uranus on a personal level is really overstimulating and activating. So we may see in the world at-large unexpected things happening. I mean, we already are. There's just unpredictable things happening all the time right now. But on the Eclipse, we may see something in particular that feels really out of left field. Uranus governs technology, and we are seeing shockingly fast developments with technology. And they are not necessarily for the betterment of humans or the planet that we live on.

And this is, in a way, kind of the very thing that's happening inside of me and you as individuals. Are the advancements, are the coping mechanisms, are the ideas that we are working with as individuals—are they supporting some sort of theoretical progress? Are they supporting some sort of vision of progress that's not really your own? Or are they supporting your true emotional progress, your true evolution and growth, your happiness, your welfare?

This is really hard to ask ourselves these questions because, oftentimes, the answer is, "I don't know." And "I don't know" is not a very comfortable answer, but it is an answer. "I don't know" isn't no. "I don't know" isn't yes. It's "I don't know." And learning how to sit with uncertainty is some of what Pisces teaches us.

There's not always a Virgonian list of good, bad, or best. It's not always on or off. Sometimes it's uncertain. It's messy. It's complicated. It's nuanced. This is some of the wisdom that Pisces has to  teach us. And this Lunar Eclipse, your nervous system may be just so zingy that it's hard for you to slow down and be present. But that is the assignment. That is the assignment.

Things may move so quickly that you come to meet the moment in ways that are really exciting and in ways revolutionary in your life. There may be people-led movements that spontaneously pop off in reaction or response to something that's happening in the world. This is a time where we may see major revolution. Whose revolution is always the question. Rebellion against what and for what is always the question.

It's tempting to apply your morality to the things I'm saying or the astrology of the moment, but my individual morality, your individual morality may not be directing the way things go right now. And so we want to be curious. This Lunar Eclipse teaches you to be curious and to pair that curiosity with adaptability, not so that you abandon your values—not at all—but so that you better understand the complexity and the nuance not just of the world and the people that you're interacting with but also of your own self.

It is possible to really fucking hate something and also respect it at the same time. It is possible to really fucking love someone and not be able to be in a healthy relationship with them at this time—or whatever else. It is possible to hang out in the nuance of, "I can't say, yes, I want to stay at my job. And I can't say that I'm ready to quit my job. But I know that I'm not comfortable with what I'm doing and how I'm doing it now at my job."

It's possible to hang out in the mess. It is really hard because it requires some measure of slowing down and meeting the moment, which is what the Moon is trying to teach us all. And Uranus is like, okay, but over there and over this and over this and this excuse and this context and this justification.

And there's a real wisdom on this Lunar Eclipse—just for the day, if you can—trying to breathe through your desire to chase ideas and to kind of run on electricity and exhaustion and to instead hang out in the moment, to be emotionally empathetic to yourself and to others, to have healthy boundaries with yourself around what you allow yourself to do and why, to have healthy boundaries with other people around what you can take in and what you just—you can't.

Now, I've said this many times before, but I'll say it many times again. Boundaries are not about keeping other people out. They are about self-awareness and self-containment. They are the embodiment of a clarity of what you can give and where you can't go, of what you can take in and what feels unhealthy or unsafe or just not aligned.

Now, in this chart, there are more things to consider, not just the T-square between Moon, Sun/Mercury, and Uranus. We also have this ongoing Pluto trine to Uranus that forms a sextile to Neptune. So we have these larger developmental energies both egging you on and also challenging you to know that growth is great, but unrestrained, unchecked, or unintentional growth can lead to a whole lot of fucking problems—like, a whole lot of fucking problems.

We also have that Venus opposition to Saturn that was exact last week in its final dregs of influence. And we have a Mars square to Saturn that's also active in this chart. It's not super tight, but it's active. And so this brings about the risk that we will be defensive, too self-protective. Now, I say too self-protective. Let me be clear what I mean. I mean self-protective in a way that is inherently nihilistic, paranoid, or somehow punishing of the self or others. So you want to make sure that you are grounded in the reality of the relationships that you have, whether they're relationship to yourself or relationship to others.

There's a bit of a heaviness that Saturn's influence brings to this chart, but thank God because we need that grounding influence to all this Mercurial and Uranian energy at play. Luckily, the influence of the Chiron trine to Mercury and the Sun is still being felt. It's also sextile to the Moon in this chart. And so it empowers you to grow, to hang out with your insecurities and the parts of you that you really struggle with and to be curious, to meet them with care instead of meeting those parts of yourself with condemnation or your old habits and patterns.

There is a huge amount of energy here for personal evolution and growth. And it doesn't happen by accident. It happens because you care about yourself. It happens because you care about other people, about the world. And I have to say your caring doesn't mean you'll get it right all the time. It doesn't mean that you're going to feel good all the time. It just means that your motivation comes from caring. And sometimes intent and impact are not aligned.

Again, I want to say this is not a time for perfectionism. Instead, it's a time for meeting this chaotic fucking moment that we are living in and meeting it with clarity of intent. That's all. And hopefully, if you don't know exactly what you want, you can know that you want to be happy, that you want to be healthy, that you don't want to be causing harm—shit like that.

It's not a great time for any kind of spell work or manifestation work. We don't do any kind of calling in or massive transformation work during an Eclipse. This is a time for being present, even or especially when it's uncomfortable, when it's nerve-racking.

Now, the last two things I want to say about this particular Eclipse—the first one is Eclipses are overwhelming in general. They bring up a lot of emotion, and most of us put a lot of effort and energy on the day-to-day, distancing ourselves from our emotions. It's something we do consciously and consciously. So that's one thing. It's a lot, and it's meant to be a lot. But again, I want to encourage you to do what you can to meet that moment with healthy boundaries.

The other thing I want to say is that because of Uranus's presence and involvement in this Lunar Eclipse chart, we may see major developments around, again, people-led movements or around technology. And this could influence any number of sectors of the world or human life. It is even possible that we will see some sort of environmental, weather-related major event.

There is not a real value, in my view, in trying to predict these things because what we want to ideally use astrology to do is to kind of validate what we're experiencing now so that we can be more healthy and present and engaged, not to get ahead of potentially uncomfortable or challenging things. That doesn't actually work. That doesn't help you get healthy or happier. Trust me; it doesn't.

And so pay attention to the world around you. Stay engaged, to the best of your ability, in ways that are appropriate for who you are and where you're at with the world around you so that you can be a part of the people-led movements that are striving to help and change the world. That's the best move you can make. Don't get too in your head about it. And trust me, this Lunar Eclipse is super heady.

It's about staying connected to your compassion, to empathy. This is what Pisces strives to teach us, and to do that what without completely opening your own container. This is not always possible, but it's a really good intention, right? It's like when you sit and meditate, you're not supposed to not have any thoughts. It's about returning from those thoughts back to center. It's not about being like, "Oh shit. I have a mind who thinks thoughts." It's more about being like, "Oh, there I go again. Okay. I'm going to return." That's the practice.

Similarly, it's okay to get distracted, to get overwhelmed, to lose track of what your boundaries are. But this Lunar Eclipse is helping you to learn how to pull back to center, how to take care of yourself, how to be clear about what compromises you're making and whether or not they compromise you or the people and things you care about.

This week in general, but the Lunar Eclipse and the subsequent squares that are happening on Friday the 28th, really articulate that this is not the time for digging in your heels. This is not the time for doing the tried and the true. This transit can coincide with making major breakthroughs where you actually connect with somebody; you have a conversation and you get it. You get each other in a new way. This can be a time where there's breakthroughs in a project you're working on or something you've been really trying to figure out because Uranus is inventive. It is creative.

But it's just as likely that there will be miscommunications and misunderstandings and, again, just chaotic dynamics in how you communicate with other people and in your friendships and collegiate dynamics. Don't overcommit yourself. Don't overschedule. And do your best to not overreact during the Mercury square to Uranus.

Now, at the same time, the Sun is square to Uranus. It's a square to Uranus, right? So we know that there is going to be unpredictable, unexpected dynamics. People may come at you with an energy that really surprises you. Things may just happen that you didn't see coming, or you may find yourself in a position you were not planning to be in. And that's uncomfortable. Because Uranus governs the nervous system, there is a way that a lot of people react to this transit that is nervy, that is reactive and defensive and more sharp or aggressive than you were planning. Or maybe you were planning to be sharp and aggressive, but it had a different consequence than you were expecting.

The consequences of this transit are super to be determined. And so what that means is— I don't know what it means, actually. That's what it means. It means we don't know. And so, while you cannot control what's happening to and around you and you cannot control the consequences of what you do or don't do, you can make sure that your actions, your choices, your words, and your approach are in alignment with your values, what you believe to be true. That is in your jurisdiction. What happens after that—outside of your control.

So be intentional with how you engage, if you can. Again, this transit can be really exciting. It can be really fun. It can bring about a lot of change and growth and developments. And it can find you doing things that are really exciting and innovative in your life or, again, with a project that you're involved in.

So there's a lot of really good parts of this transit, but the chances that you or someone else is going to react in odd or surprising ways is very strong. It's just very strong. So you may be an angel who's open to change, constantly checked in with your motivations—you're wonderful. But the people at work, the people in your building, the people that you meet when you walk down the street—whatever it is—may not be in the same position as you.

And therefore, you want to do your best to be adaptive, to meet the moment, and to be willing to shift your perspective, your approach, as is needed. It sounds easier than it is, but that's really what is being asked of you.

This is not the time for sticking to routines and habits. It's not what Uranus wants. It's not even what the Eclipse wants. Instead, do your best to meet this moment from the present. That's all. The reality is all you literally have is the present. It's all you have. I mean, you're carrying around the past. And the future you may be very attached to, but it hasn't happened yet. You just have the present.

Do your best here and now. If you know that when your nervous system is overstimulated, when you are experiencing burnout or any kind of overwhelm, you have a tendency to do some particular thing that it does not help, but you tend to do it—try to be mindful. Try to do a little bit less of that thing if you can.

The effects of this Eclipse and these transits as a consequence will be playing themselves out over the next six months. Therefore, it's really motivating and really worth meeting this moment, meeting this moment from your best parts instead of your loudest parts, from the truth of what's in your heart instead of the fervor of what's in your defenses. And you know what? You don't need to be perfect. You can fuck up. You can make mistakes. You can be like, "Oh shit. I was being reactive. I'm going to redirect." That's great, too.

The astrology of August has been intense, and this week's astrology has a lot to offer and a lot of potential for distraction and confusion and overwhelm. So that's the assignment. It's to navigate those things from the present with as much empathy and care and willingness to be in the mess as you can muster.

Now, for the TL;DR of all of this week's transits—stay open to healing, even if it means making mistakes or engaging with mistakes you've made. Practice having healthy emotional and energetic boundaries, especially when your nervous system is feeling activated. And pursue change that helps you get more free instead of brings you down a tit-for-tat sort of path of reactivity.

And as always, if you want to learn more, if you want to join me for conversation and education around the astrology of this moment and how to meaningfully show up and cope, join me over on Patreon, where we have conversations all about that. And if you're already a member on Patreon, hey, girl. I see you. And I love our community over there.

Okay. Now, I'm going to quickly run through the transits for my notetakers, but also, I offer a full transcript written by a human—so it takes 24, 48 hours—over on my website. So you can catch that over there, and that can help with your note-taking journey. On the 23rd, we have our Sun trine to Chiron. On the 25th, Mercury forms a trine to Chiron. Then, on the 27th, we have our Lunar Eclipse and our Sun/Mercury conjunction. And then, on the 28th, both Mercury and the Sun form a square to Uranus. And that's your damn horoscope, my friends.

If you get value from my work, from this podcast, please make sure you've hit Follow or Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and consider writing a review because it really does help a little DIY podcast like Ghost of a Podcast. So yeah. You know where to go. Hit the buttons. Write the words.

And listen. I hope that this Eclipse helps you to find some measure of balance inside of yourself, not so that you live there all the time or so that you're perfect, but so that you know what it feels like to be in balance with yourself, to experience some measure of alignment. And then you can practice trying to find a way to return to that in messy situations and really easeful and loving situations and everything in between.

Take good care of yourself and others, and I will talk to you in just a couple of days. Bye.