Engage for Good: Jessica Lanyadoo shares Astrology for Activists

Please note: This is a computer generated transcript that has not yet been edited for accuracy.

[00:00:00] Bree: I'm Bree luck and you are listening to the pause to go podcast, where we explore the process of turning life transitions into stellar transformations. You can expect interviews with experts from astrophysicist to energy healers, straight talk with creative change-makers and conversations about making the most of every phase of life.

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So this month, I'm celebrating two years since I've founded the lovely [00:02:00] unbecoming, it's kind of a big deal. And I've had the deepest, deepest honor of helping phenomenal folks work their way out of life's muck. You know what I mean? I mean, we've all been there right? When we've lost sight of our values, or we feel like we're just going through the motions or even just feel overwhelmed by the very real struggles of being human in this time.

I mean, that is real. Most of my clients come to me because they're frustrated with. So it's been super exciting to help them fundamentally change their work dynamics or help them find a new job or even bring a long lost dream to fruition. I mean, there's nothing more wonderful and watching people find real satisfaction and how they are sharing their energy and talents with the world.

And soon I'll be opening up my visionary and progress program again. So if you're feeling stuck and frustrated, or maybe you're feeling like I'm meant to do something [00:03:00] more than what I'm doing, but I don't know what that is. You know what I'm talking about. If you have that feeling let's chat, you can schedule a 20 minute discovery call@thelovelyunbecoming.com.

That's free. It's time with me. One-on-one just the two of us. And together we can map out a plan to get you in a place of flow. And that feels good. When I started pause to go, my real intention was to give people the tools we need to make it through times of transition. And one of the things that a lot of people turn to in times of transition is a little bit of oil in my structure of the seven paths to creating change.

I would say this is somewhere between spirituality and intuition. In 2019, my friend Lincoln [00:04:00] said, Bree, you need to listen to this woman, Jessica , she's an astrologer. And I said, I'm not really that into astrology. And she said, you will be into Jessica Lynn Yaddo. She was right. And I have listened to. Every episode, since 2019, she's been in my ear a lot.

She marries a real desire to just help us not be assholes to each other. With astrology. Jessica Lynn Yaddo is a humanistic astrologer, psychic medium terror reader and animal communicator. And I gotta say that lately she's been doing some animal communications and they're just a lot of fun to listen to.

She's the host of the top ranking astrology and advice show goes to the podcast. The co-founder at the get out the boat project, Zodiac the vote, and she was the co-host [00:05:00] of TLC's digital show stargazing. I really love this conversation and I'll be honest. It gets a little dark, it gets a little heavy, but that's Jessica and those are our times.

So I encourage you to. Sit with it. We can make space for the darker times and find some light in them too. So here is Jessica host of ghosts podcast. I started listening in 2019. My friend Layton said, you breathe. You need to listen to this human. She has a colon Yaddo and. I think you're really gonna like her stuff.

And I was very skeptical. 

[00:05:43] Jessica: I appreciate that. I really do. I like no sarcasm. I, I prefer skepticism. I know. 

[00:05:51] Bree: And so you've been in my ear every week. I mean, truly, I I'm, I'm just being completely upfront with my fandom because that just got to tell you. Thank you [00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] Jessica: so awesome. I really appreciate 

[00:06:01] Bree: it. That's so cool.

I feel I have such a strong pair of social relationship with you, so it's nice to get to, I 

[00:06:08] Jessica: love it. Thank you. That's really cool. I, you know, I, I, I don't know how you feel about podcasting. I love it. It just, it feels, it's weird. It's not really about podcasting. It's about having a platform where you can say what you really want to say.

And yeah, I just, after years and years of, of my career, not really being about that, the podcast is a place where I can just really completely be how I want to be in the world. So it's been really 

[00:06:33] Bree: lovely that way. I'm so glad in that actually. Really does bring me immediately to the first question that I have for you.

Beautiful. Thank you for the 

[00:06:42] Jessica: layup. You're welcome. Anytime, 

[00:06:44] Bree: because one of the things that I really love and appreciate is the way that you, that you use astrology and your psychic mediumship to help people right. To help people make sense of themselves in [00:07:00] the world. But also you have a real bent towards social justice and activism.

And I would just love to know, how did you find podcasting as that perfect place? It feels like a perfect place. It's, nothing's perfect. Right. But, but as that place to, to explore those two and to reach that audience in that way. Yeah. 

[00:07:23] Jessica: I, you know, I. Um, a person who has been in very progressive, very, very progressive queer community, my whole adult life.

And I moved to San Francisco in 1994 and my whole time in the bay area and the San Francisco bay area, I've been around people who are very progressive, many of whom were much more progressive than me. Some who were not of course, and around activists and social workers and artists, and that's who I gravitate towards.

That's, what's important to me in my personal life, but I have been a counselor, right? So I am [00:08:00] not a therapist. I am an astrologer and a psychic. I feel like it's very important for me to distinguish between these things, but I'm a counselor, nonetheless. And so in a counseling situation, my politics are not relevant.

My values are not relevant outside of my values in relationship to counseling and holding space for others. It never was connected. I am a writer, a reluctant writer. I dislike frighten very much. I like having things written, but I really don't like writing. Um, and so when. Right. It is laborous and it takes so much energy for me.

And then I overthink all the implications. So I'm not the one who's going to be like writing something on medium or like an epic Instagram post or something. Like, I'm not the one I don't enjoy any of that kind of stuff personally. And when I was writing for publications, I can assure you with perfect confidence.

They don't want to hear anything about my politics. They just want to hear about like, are you going to run into someone in an elevator and will there [00:09:00] be chemistry? Like, that's what they want. So it was never an option. And then when I got my podcast, I was able to just talk and I, it just kinda blew my mind that I could do whatever I wanted.

And the truth is I've been in the shelter since the mid nineties and I am 47 years old. And I feel like my expertise with astrology is so. You know, it's it's I got, I got more than 10,000 hours. Like it's, I've solid expertise. And because of that, I can inject more about the world because I understand how astrology works enough to be able to do that.

And I think, you know, because some people do ask me and I don't know if this is exactly what you're asking is like, wow, it's cool that you can merge astrology and social justice or politics. Like how do you do it? And some of how you do it as you get to be a really good astrologer and you happen to care about those things.

And then it becomes an easy, no brainer, but I don't think I could have done this in the [00:10:00] first 10 years of my practice. I don't. And if I had done it, I wouldn't have done it very well. I don't think, um, you know, of course, some of that's because podcasting wasn't a thing then, but, uh, a lot of it is because I just.

Able to, but for me, I can't, I can't look at astrology and not consider the social implications and the individual implications at the same time, because none of us exist in a vacuum. We all exist within these systemic conditions and this current social climate. And when I say climate, I mean like climate change climate, like we all exist in all these things.

And so our, for instance, mental health is not exclusive to those things. So all of that is just, it just feels inevitable, I guess, is the best way to put it as opposed to a plan. It's, it's an inevitable. Yeah, I hope that answers that question. It 

[00:10:49] Bree: totally answers the question. And so getting back to, to my own experience, like this feels like such a selfish episode.

It is a selfish [00:11:00] episode. I love that. I love it. So I'm going to, I'm going to tell, I'm just going to tell this quick story that I think relates to this, right? Which is that I have an arts background. I ran a theater and I also care deeply about social justice and politics and the environment. And I am a human who was existing in a world and I need to care, right?

Like we need to care, but also I made a lot of missteps. Right. I'm Aaliyah with a moon in Capricorn, Capricorn all over the place. I'm a mess. So I can be a little performative and very self-righteous right. And like, and all of those things were things that I was really grappling with in 2019. Can I have two teenage daughters who did not let me forget that I make missteps?

And what I appreciated was that when I listened to your podcast, I [00:12:00] also realized that a, I had to hold myself accountable no matter what, and that no matter how I was going to engage, I needed to engage. And that might not look like what I thought it should look like. It meant that I needed to listen. And to respond rather than react.

That's what I got from you. 

[00:12:23] Jessica: So thrilled to hear that that is exactly what I want you to have. So thank you. Well, thank you. 

[00:12:28] Bree: Thank you. And then the other thing was it's okay to make missteps and this, this like gets me a little emotional, right? Like it's okay. And that some people are going to be mad and that's okay.

And all you can do is just get up and keep going. Yeah. But not to use that as an excuse to disappear or to sit back and let other people. Take control. And I, I really, I really want to thank you because truly it [00:13:00] was your intros. It's particularly the interest that, um, it was just a real, uh, a pep talk every week for me, and, and not in a cheerleader kind of way, but in a, Hey, Hey human, get your shit together.

[00:13:16] Jessica: I'm a triple Capricorn. And everything I say is like daddy being like, Hmm, are you doing, are you doing it? Here's how you do it. I also will say, I mean, I'm thrilled to hear this, obviously, this is exactly what I hope my, my work does, but I think again, it's like a reflection. What you're talking about is a reflection of me not being an activist and not just being a mental health or a spiritual health person, but it's like this, it's the kind of coming together because I think.

We're living in such a loud, noisy time. And it's very easy to compare yourself to people who've never made a mistake in public, or at least they've made lots of mistakes that you don't know about or whatever it is like it's, it's easy for us to get called out. I mean, I don't know about you, but every time I get called out or I see [00:14:00] someone else getting called out, I shut down, calling out is it's I, I'm not a fan of it.

I mean, I am a fan of it for like, you know, politicians and corporations, but psychologically and spiritually, it doesn't actually, it's not effective, you know, shaming and blaming and pointing fingers. Doesn't lead to evolution and learning. I mean, it can, but not usually. And so I think that. I think part of what I'm the most passionate about.

And I really hope I do effectively in the show is support people in both being accountable and not being a jerk to yourself, like being like, oh, I can make a mistake and I can learn from the mistake. It's not like I make a mistake and I have to do penance for the mistake. I just do better. And then we don't waste as much energy and then we're also happier and more effective.

And it's, it's very hard to do. I mean, it's just very hard to do and I think, yeah. So in all to say thank you very, 

[00:14:53] Bree: and that's really a calling in culture, right? That's yes. It's. Do you remember the name [00:15:00] of the, of the person who coined that concept of calling in? No, 

[00:15:05] Jessica: I don't. I didn't even know that a person coined it.

I mean, of course somebody did, but some things just come out of the collective, but no, I have no idea. Yeah. 

[00:15:12] Bree: I'm going to look it up and I'm going to put it in the show notes for this. So I want to be sure that I. Giving that person, some credit credit, the source. Yeah. I love that you have found your particular way of engaging in the, you encourage people to find their way of engaging.

Do you have, and now you do because you do it every week, but do you think you can share some thoughts on how we can use our understanding of self and because you're an astrologer, our astrological charts and understanding of who we are astrologically and energetically to engage, because we all engage in different ways.

How can we use [00:16:00] that understanding of self to find the ways to engage that are in better alignment with who we are, and maybe not what we feel like we're expected to 

[00:16:07] Jessica: do? Yeah, it's a good question. You know, and the first part of my answer is to remember. Human evolution, human development is cyclical, not linear.

And so what works from the age of 25 to 28, it's not going to work at 35 to 38 necessarily. You know, what, what is the most effective use of your energies? And your nature at 60 is different than at 30. And it's supposed to be, and again, when we hold ourselves to these linear standards of this is what I should do, or other people seem to be doing this.

And that seems like the right thing. Why aren't I doing that? We, we kind of stopped before we start. So that's like the starting point of my answer. I think that when we have self-awareness and we pair that self-awareness with self-acceptance and that's the key, right? You have to pair it with self-acceptance [00:17:00] when you have self-awareness plus self-acceptance determining the best next move.

Isn't that hard when you have self-awareness without self-acceptance life is confusing and demanding and demoralizing because there's a million things you could do, and you have no idea what those things are and you should be doing this and you shouldn't be do that. And you know, for me, I started, you know, marching and protesting in my teens back in Montreal, where I'm from.

Uh, and I did it all throughout my twenties and thirties. And then when the pandemic hit things shifted for me. And that happened to have coincided with me moving into my later forties. So I don't know if it was the pandemic and all the things associated with it. I don't know if it's my age or if it's a lovely combo platter.

I don't have to. That's a self-acceptance bit. It's about identifying that doesn't feel like the way I can be impactful right now, even though my whole life so far, that has been important way for me to feel impactful and to participate. And I actually really believe in, you [00:18:00] know, kind of boots on the ground style action.

I think it's really effective. And, um, you know, a lot of things that I am not, I can, I can focus on all the things I'm not, and I can assure you, I do all the time, you know, so total waste of energy. But when I catch myself doing it, then I try to refocus my energy on what I know I am and what I can do and what my strengths are, and then take a step from there.

And so self-awareness is overrated because it's cerebral a lot of time. When it's not paired with self-acceptance, it doesn't do very much constructive. It's kind of like, I think you're supposed to take, I'm like, fuck, I'm blinking on it right now. There's like, you take calcium, but you have to take it with magnesium in order for your body to really make use of it.

It's the same thing with self-awareness and self-acceptance, I cannot tell you how many people, most people have a self-awareness that they can't make use of. It's just torture. It's just self-flagellation. And so I think finding your best step right now is the best way to go. [00:19:00] And what I have encountered over the last several years through the podcast and through these really tumultuous times as how many people want to be special in their activism and, you know, want to feel like what they're doing is their calling and how few people.

Are just Googling or looking on social media or whatever. I'm finding organizations and individuals who are doing the work already and falling in line behind that. It seems to be so few people who do that. And that's the, that's the best thing to do in my view, if you have any ambiguity about what to do.

And I think, I think this is always a problem with humans, but I think especially right now with the world that we live in, people don't just volunteer or, you know, do a form of activism or whatever it is, they do it. And then they post about it. They do it and then they like make it part of their identity and that's not bad or good.

It is what it is, you know, it's 20, 22, but I think there's great value whether we're talking about. [00:20:00] Service to others or we're talking about spiritual work. Honestly, they're both the same for me of keeping some things private. There are things that I do that I will not talk about in public because it's not about me.

I don't do them for, I mean, I do them for me in that I identify them as good things for me to do. And they at that feels good and that is life affirming and make, gives my life meaning, but I don't do it for attention and some things I do and I publicize it and I wanted people to see it and appreciate it and be a part of it.

It's good to have a mix, you know, and again, I think it's something that, that most of us struggle with and, you know, I'm sitting here thinking, well, yeah, but you're a Leo with a million planets in Capricorn. That's not necessarily going to be your vibe. Like you might need you, it might be your nature to be like, and it's a party and we're all gonna talk about it and that's not bad.

But again, I think it's about checking in with. Our motivations, because if we need validation in order to do spiritual work or activism, which honestly are not that different from each other, from my [00:21:00] perspective, then there's something where, again, we're not focused on, self-reliance a self reference.

Self-acceptance, it's too performative. And, you know, for the fire signs out there, Leo's of course, top of the list, uh, performance is fine. No, no downside. You know what I mean? It just, we don't want it to be the only thing. Uh, it's about diversifying your, your internal portfolio. I just made that up on the spot.

I'm sticking with it, I'm sticking 

[00:21:24] Bree: with it. And I think it also, but one of the things that I'm finding, it's a constant discovery. Right. And, and cyclical, as you mentioned, I'm 48. So I know we're the same age. Okay. I, uh, I also. Really appreciate the idea that what works at certain ages, doesn't work at different ages and that that's okay.

And that's on all levels too. That's also spiritually and physically and everything and, and that there's no better or worse anyway, that's I 

[00:21:58] Jessica: digress. And [00:22:00] if I could just interject, like, it is such a pleasure to hear you say your age, because usually I am out there talking about my age and so many people, I mean, men, CIS men don't seem to have a problem with talking about their age, but maybe more now than they did 10 years ago.

Right. There is a lot of weird stigma around aids. In a time where youth culture has such a reverence for ancestors and yet kinda can shit on older people or kind of discard. And it's really, I mean, it's not just these generations doing that. I think it's something that happened a lot in many generations, but it's, I think the more we talk about aging, the better it is because, because, uh, you know, keeping it on topic of like activism and being engaged in the world, there has to be a season for everything.

There has to be a season for everything. And when you first have a child, yeah. You're not going to be an activist in that moment. That's not, it doesn't make sense. You brought a child into the world. Like we have times for different things and life is theoretically long enough [00:23:00] where we can do it all.

It's about the pace we adopt. And again, we're back to self-acceptance because we can all make an impact. If we can accept that, that doesn't have to look a specific way or ways. And. Yeah, it just, it's just a, it's a really, I cannot remember the last time I spoke with somebody who is anywhere near my age, who just said it out loud in public.

So 

[00:23:21] Bree: thank you. Oh, I'm saying it everywhere. I think it's the only way through it. Really. When I started this podcast, I started the first season. This is season number two. The first season was all about menopause and perimenopause and, uh, and I, and the reason I started it was because, so it was right after I turned 40 and I realized that I, I knew nothing about perimenopause and menopause and I was in the thick of it.

And I didn't know, and that just seemed really wrong and like a big, 

[00:23:57] Jessica: yeah. Yeah, I can't tell you how [00:24:00] much over the years and, you know, 20 plus years, how many people I have counseled through peri-menopause who have been to doctor after doctor, after doctor with their symptoms and not a single one, not just in the U S but mainly in the U S has said, oh, this sounds like peri-menopause not a single one.

And it's the first thing I can think of because the symptoms are not subtle. Um, so I mean, I know it's off topic of what we're here to talk about, but perimenopause and menopause, but especially perimenopause, because it can last for so damn long and people know less about it is a real passion of mine.

It's so important and it's this other puberty, right? And it's destabilizing, and there are astrological transits that will often accompany it. And of course, peri menopause can happen at different ages. Um, but it's really important. And, you know, related to how we show up in the world, it changes us. It's meant to change us.

And therefore the ways in which we show up in the world are really important, but. Peri-menopause there [00:25:00] can often be a retracting and through parts of menopause. And post-menopause, there seems to be like a pushing forward, which, you know, this is, I haven't experienced it yet, but it's a really fascinating, right.

It's it's just, it's fascinating. And unfortunately, it's very stigmatized. Um, So, um, I'm glad, I'm glad to hear. I'm glad too. I just love 

[00:25:20] Bree: all that stuff. We're in it together. We're in it together as hard as we are. And also there's a great resource. Uh, Heather Corinna, do you know their work? I 

[00:25:29] Jessica: don't know, but I'm bad at names.

So my answer is always no tonight send 

[00:25:33] Bree: you this book. Then they wrote a book called what fresh hell is this? And it's really fantastic. And, and they also take a non-binary approach to menopause, which is really, really, really needed. Yes, we 

[00:25:49] Jessica: get it. We could talk about, we could change topics and just go there.

But I think, you know, if you have listeners who are younger, who are nowhere near Perry menopause, or they don't know what [00:26:00] that is, It's in some ways more important for them because stepping into it and not knowing about it, it can be the torture. I mean, it's, like I said, it's something I've been counseling people on for many years.

So the moment I started to have symptoms, it took me only a couple months to be like, oh, I know what this is. And it went to the doctor, my like, no, it's not. And so I went to different kinds of doctors until somebody helped me and it took about a year to get the help I needed. And, you know, it's vastly improved my life.

So it's, it's really important again, that self-awareness is very important. And then there has to be that self-acceptance of like, okay, so we already know that we're not going to get the help we need, you know, likely. And so we have to push and I think this is, you know, it transcends into all the topics we're talking about.

It 

[00:26:44] Bree: does. It does. It does, you know, and I I've been thinking a lot about the word passion. It comes up all the time. I'm a coach. So it comes up all the time with my clients. And as a creative, it also comes up. I mean, it just comes up. It's a, it's a hot, hot [00:27:00] word right now. 

[00:27:00] Jessica: And also Leo literal keyword for Leo.

Yeah. But, um, 

[00:27:05] Bree: you know, that the etymological roots of passion are related to suffering, right? The, the Greek, the Greek word, which is like patio is suffering and it just. So when, like when you say that you're passionate about something, it immediately makes me think of, of course, because we go through the suffering to then come through and be passionate.

Uh, and it's just, it's, it's actually quite beautiful. Um, and is a reminder that when we experience pain and loss and suffering and sadness and emotional maelstroms that we have that there also, I'm not going to sugar coat it, but that, that there are also ways that we can turn it to serve. 

[00:27:56] Jessica: Yes. Absolutely.

Yeah. 

[00:27:58] Bree: And speaking of 

[00:27:59] Jessica: [00:28:00] maelstroms, which, by the way, I don't think I frequently hear people use that word verbally. Love that word. Uh, I read it much more frequently than I hear it. So applause. I 

[00:28:11] Bree: could have lost. I could be mispronouncing it. 

[00:28:14] Jessica: No, no, I don't think you are, but I also mispronounced words frequently, so I, I'm not a good resource because we're readers right.

Where. 

[00:28:22] Bree: But there's been a shit ton going on in the world and my friend you have called it. You have called 

[00:28:30] Jessica: it fortunate. 

[00:28:33] Bree: Well, maybe it's. I mean, I don't think it's unfortunate that you've called it because I think that it has, it has helped me to feel prepared and I know that I'm not alone and good to hear, and I want everyone to listen to your podcast and to go to your beautiful website.

[00:28:52] Jessica: Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm obsessed with it too. Thank you. Appreciate it. 

[00:28:56] Bree: To, to see all that you have to offer, but can you [00:29:00] just, as we enter into. The second half of 20, 22. Can you just give us some quick cliff notes for what's ahead? 

[00:29:09] Jessica: So, you know, let me, let me give you an intro to that, to my answer, which is that when it comes to prediction, there are many astrologers whose primary objective is to have received.

That makes sense. There's a lot of value to that. That is unimportant to me. I have never felt the need to justify myself to anyone. And the problem with prioritizing receipts is that it is prioritizing my acumen over the impact that those predictions hold. And so in 2017, when I saw COVID coming, I mean, I didn't know be called COVID, but I, when I saw an airborne virus coming and I saw times of unrest coming, I put a highlight on my Instagram for emergency supplies and was like, Hey, in case you need them, um, I started doing things in my personal life, but I really labored over whether or not saying this stuff in [00:30:00] public was helpful.

And the answer was no. And the answer was no, because what was anyone gonna do? What was anyone going to do about it? Like if I had any power in the world, um, it would be helpful, but otherwise it's just meant that I was really, really stressed out for several years and powerless to do anything about it.

And I wouldn't want to put that on anyone else, you know? And so the value of prediction is, you know, it's sticky and tricky. And I would say the most difficult part of my podcast. So the specific work of like forecasting is prediction. Not because I don't do it, I do it a lot. My poor partner can attest to that, but because I don't want to pretend that I don't see certain things.

And also it's not constructive to name everything I see, because certain things are gonna happen and there's nothing we can do about them. And how is some astrologer naming it? And you freaking out about it for X amount of time gonna really serve. Right. So I'm constantly kind of trying to. Um, manage that line and [00:31:00] it's, it's hard.

That's my, my preamble to my answering your question. I appreciate that. It's difficult. So COVID here, we're gone. Uh, here very much here. Uh, is my, yeah, that's one prediction. So masks, social distancing, washing of pause. Uh, you know, I think vaccination is a really great, great tool and I definitely think.

You know, that is a great direction, but at the very freaking least masks, you know, washing paws, social distance, I know I said it twice, but it felt worth repeating. So 20, 22, there's that, there's also, um, a lot of indicators for war and anyone who's studied history or been alive long enough knows that sometimes there are conflicts that erupt, you know, like what is happening in Ukraine, like, you know, Russia attacks and it was war and boom, and go, and it's been this relentless thing.[00:32:00] 

And a lot of times it's a little more subtle. It's a little more like we look back and we're like, oh, this, we were at war for a year before we started to call it a war. Right. Especially in, in like world war scenarios. Um, All to say, we are at a time of great unrest. We have been in a time of great unrest and I do not see that, uh, solving itself.

So will we solve it? I don't, I don't know. Uh, certainly, probably not any one of us. Single-handedly uh, this is a time where I have very conservative hopes is the best way I can put it or it's the most gentle way I can put it. Yeah. What we're seeing with the unionization over at Amazon, that first union, that kind of like, I mean, Amazon's already fighting it, but you, you know, what I'm talking about happened in Jersey, right?

That union rights workers' rights, civil rights are always advanced or at least fought for during Saturn and Aquarius transits. Right? So that was in the 1930s and 1960s, the [00:33:00] 1990s. And here we are, and those are all times where major things shifted in certainly in the U S in regards to civil rights and in regards to union movements, labor movements.

So I think that's a really positive thing that we can see, but, uh, sorry, I'm trying to like, keep it, keep it constructive. Um, but I do think that, um, the very unsexy, technical and boring topic of the internet, like, uh, digital safety, digital security, digital liberties, I should. I shutter to think about what's happening in that part of the world and how slow we are to legislate consumer safety.

And I say consumer, but we're not consumers really. I mean, technically we are, but we're just, all of life happens on our devices now. And there are no protections for us. So, you know, the internet is having a Saturn return and what comes next is I'll call it concerning. I'm not a fan of facial recognition technology.

Like don't use your fucking thumb print to open your [00:34:00] devices. I know it's more convenient. Don't do that. Um, why would you give that to a company that clearly has no interest in your welfare? Like, I mean, I speak to you person my age and I feel like that's like an easier sell than it is for people who've only ever lived with the internet.

Right. But those things are deeply concerning. I don't see Putin bowing down or stepping back and watching, you know, elections across the world, the 20, 22 election here at home. Uh, the astrology. Not great. And I've concerned about a low vert voter turnout, um, which often happens in Paris. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

And you know, Le pen is that her name Le pen. She terrifies me more than most presidential candidates. I mean, she is absolutely terrifying. And if she wins, the world will suffer, not just France, the world will suffer and it will shift the power balance in Europe in a terrifying way at a time where [00:35:00] Putin is doing his damn thing.

And this is of course, you know, us talking about news, but the astrology is not great. It's just not great. So those are all things I'm concerned about. I mean, I could, they more, but the, the real bumpy. Is that I don't see a lot of really like hopeful things at this time. And what I can say in terms of the constructive is that we can't fix anything.

None of us as individuals can fix anything, but as a collective, we can shift things. Yes. And so finding the things that are important to us as individuals and that we have the skillset or the resonance with, um, so that we can kind of like dedicate some amount of energy and effort towards is the way to go.

And so, you know, that's my kind of constructive take on it because again, there's not, you know, we're going to do, you're going to do about a lot of this stuff. Um, but I do, I do have meaningful concerns, meaningful concerns. Every time I talk about [00:36:00] COVID on my podcast, people, I get some people who are mad and just like, why are you talking about COVID it's over, you know, stuff like that.

Really. It concerns me. But you 

[00:36:09] Bree: know what Jessica, it should concern us. And, and I know, I know it's gotta be hard to go onto people's podcasts and we're all like, oh, Hey, it's great to see. Oh, and then immediately it's like, I got to tell you some really hard shit, but I also think that that, um, sobering as it is sobering is not a bad thing.

Right. Sometimes it's time to 

[00:36:33] Jessica: sober up. Yeah. Yes, you're right. You're absolutely right. 

[00:36:37] Bree: And I actually was trying to, uh, glasses are coming off. Um, I was trying to record a solo podcast before our interview. I couldn't do it. And. It was because it was, it was a sobering issue, which is not unrelated, [00:37:00] which gets to entitlement.

And because so many of these issues, so many of the reasons that we are having these issues and that we don't want to address them comes to our own sense of comfort and entitlement to that comfort. Yeah. And I don't even know where to go with it, except that there are opportunities and you, you point them out often.

I'm trying to discover them myself. I'm in it. Right. Of like, where am I choosing my own? Comfort out of a place of entitlement rather than out of the place of wellbeing. Cause there's a big difference 

[00:37:46] Jessica: there. Yeah. It's such an important question to ask yourself for all of us to ask ourselves. Yes. 

[00:37:50] Bree: And I'm just in it, I'm in it, but I'm going to encourage listeners to just sit with that question a little bit.

If this, if what [00:38:00] Jessica is saying is upsetting, sit with it and just see what comes up and then talk to somebody. Talk, get the help that you need. If it's bringing up big. Big feelings. Yeah. 

[00:38:13] Jessica: You know, to add to that and maybe make it worse. But there's a thing that I notice a lot of Americans and in particular white Americans do, but Americans, which is this feeling of like, it couldn't possibly be that bad.

It has to get better. Why isn't it getting better? Which is, you know, how many millions and millions and millions of people are currently living in conditions that are not better and have not gotten better, who have already been living in those conditions. Right? Life is not fair. It is not symmetrical. If you do good things, good things don't inherently happen for you.

We, I think that through kind of like the election of Trump, so many people who are, you know, liberal or at least conservative have been confronted with like, oh wait, wait, she can go sideways here. That doesn't make any sense. It can't possibly. And for [00:39:00] years, one of the most common questions I got was when will this be overwhelmed?

Will things be back to normal now everyone's just pretending that it's over and it's back to normal. The truth is the human condition is not fair or easy and no human is entitled to anything. Unfortunately, we should be. I'd like, like it, if we were, if I was in charge, we would be. But, uh, yeah, we're not, unfortunately we're just not.

And I think, again, that brings me back to acceptance. Like it's unfair. Yes. And you know, your twenties are for banging around in your teens or for banging around being like that's fucked up. I just discovered this thing and it's not fair. And everyone else needs to know, and I need to do something with it.

And then people start to get burnt out in the thirties and forties. And that's when the complacency sets in. And that's exactly when we're meant to instead find sustainable action and sustainable ways of engaging and understand that not every moment needs to be that, but, but certainly we must return to it.

And, and, you know, even in. [00:40:00] All guns, all nukes, all, all kicks and punches and steel toed boots were released from this planet today. The climate is going to get us. Life's not fair. And so, again, to me, this is not, I'm not trying to make it worse than hopefully I'm not, but you know, it definitely stresses me out and torches me in all these ways.

And also I have accepted it. So therefore, when consequences of these things, any of the many myriad terrible things that exist happen, my first response isn't disbelief. It isn't spinning my wheels. It's okay. What do I need to do? Because I've already accepted it. And what happens for people when we don't accept?

Oh, look, yeah. The sky is very slowly falling is when it actually starts to land on us. We're like, oh my God, I thought I was making that up. And we spin our wheels and we lose NRG precious time and precious energy. And so to me, this is where acceptance of reality is really, really valuable. It's really valuable, even though it's quite difficult.

And again, it's a process and it looks different at different [00:41:00] times of our lives and for different people. Some people don't have the luxury of not accepting these things and others too. Right. So it's a lot, but. But it's true. People always ask an astrologer, like give me a little taste of what's to come.

And I always feel like, really, you wanna ask me, you wanna ask me, am I the blind, you know, um, brides.com. They contacted me, uh, two years in a row, uh, to predict, uh, what was it comes to the first time. It was like at the end of 2019 or the start of 2020. And I was like, are you sure you want to have this conversation with me?

It was before COVID had like landed in the U S and they were like, yeah. And I was like, are you sure? And I was like, okay, all the 2020 is a bad time to get married. Just don't do it. Like it's not going to work. And they were like, ha ha. And then of course COVID and it blew up that whole world. And so they came back the next year and I was like, still, still, no, still, no.

And then did not come back this year. And I do not blame them because they don't want to hear it. I don't blame them, but, um, Yeah, it's a, it's a tricky, it's a tricky [00:42:00] thing, you know, asking questions that you want a specific answer for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For better or worse for better or worse, 

[00:42:09] Bree: you know, acceptance.

And it comes back to what you were saying before with self-awareness self-consciousness and self-acceptance acceptance is a powerful, powerful place. And it's also a place where we can find peace. Because we need it. We need a place to land. We can't, we can't be on fire all the time. It's not sustainable just as you were saying.

And so ways to not bury our head in the sand, but to find acceptance. That's, that's really the, as far as I'm concerned, it's the only real way through. I agree. All right. 

[00:42:55] Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. It's it is a lot. And I think, you know, I have a lot of [00:43:00] empathy for young people staring down the barrel of all of this.

I mean, all of us, all people in young people I think are the most vulnerable right now. Um, so yeah, it's, it's a lot, you know, if you're listening to this and all of this feels like so overwhelming. Yeah. Find old people who don't have family and volunteer with them. It doesn't have to be policy changing to be impactful.

There's so many ways we can, we can show up and. I think doing, doing good feels good. And it bolsters you for doing more, doing nothing, sitting in anxiety feels bad and it strips you of the energy you need to do more. So we can't always, you know, sit around. I sit around feeling anxious as a part-time job.

Like, you know, I don't want to act like I don't, but you know, at a certain point I'm like, okay, and now I need to like rally and I need to figure out what's the next move, you know, not the best move necessarily, but like the next best move. Yeah. It's about a step. [00:44:00] Everybody's 

[00:44:00] Bree: going to think I'm a liar now, because for the past like season, I've been saying I'm an optimist.

Well, that's the thing. I, I am an optimist, but it's grounded in this, in realism, right? This is, this is real. And there's just no way. Yeah, can we, can we switch gears for a minute? Cause I want to be mindful of your time. 

[00:44:22] Jessica: Absolutely. Yes, let's do it 

[00:44:23] Bree: when I'm working with my clients and we're really trying to affect change in our lives and that can be personal change.

It can be small shifts in relationship dynamics that can have a huge impact, right? Yeah. Or it can be something huge, like launching a huge campaign or starting a new business. Something bigger than that, but there are really when I see as seven paths to, to really exploring that change and I would love to just do sort of a rapid fire because I see you as such a [00:45:00] powerful, creative change maker.

I would love to just take you through those seven and you can just do a rapid fire response to how those show up in your life and it can be messy and it can be, they can overlap, 

[00:45:12] Jessica: overlap. Okay. And then do that. Let's play. Okay. Let's 

[00:45:15] Bree: play. Okay. So the first path is 

[00:45:18] Jessica: emotional. Um, it's like how I, how I use it to change.

Clarify it for me a little. Yeah, 

[00:45:24] Bree: sure. It can be either how you use it to change or how it shows up for you in a time of change. Because sometimes we don't know that we're consciously using it. Right. 

[00:45:36] Jessica: I see what you mean for me. Emotional maturity is. The most, one of the most important things like in life, in general for myself and with others, because it is about having the willingness and ability to be in emotion.

And to, as you kind of named earlier, respond after you've given yourself space to react, instead of [00:46:00] simply reacting or not allowing yourself to feel and then responding. So you don't really give you. A full experience of your emotions and then that shit leaks out later, um, it is very difficult to be emotionally mature, but in order to sustain any creative venture, any corporate venture, I mean anything and come out healthy and right with yourself.

Yeah. Emotional maturity. That's the, that's the DM move. And it looks different for different people. Emotional maturity for a moon in Capricorn is different than emotional maturity for a moon in Gemini. And it should be, um, emotional maturity for a 30 year old is different than for a 70 year old. And it should be.

So, you know, to me, again, it's not linear, it's cyclical, but that's my answer. I love that answer. Okay. I'm playing the game. I'm playing the game. Next one 

[00:46:45] Bree: is analytical. 

[00:46:47] Jessica: Okay. Triple capital. Exactly. Yeah. I'm very analytic and I'm a big fan of analysis and also analysis without pragmatism, without emotional integration is blah, blah, [00:47:00] blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it's. Which is how we see, for instance, AI being so freaking racist, being so fricking problematic, how we seek so much of innovation not being humane, right? So analysis is really essential. It's so essential, but when it's not tempered with emotion and all these other things, including embodiment, it just becomes kind of jerking off, you know, in jerking off is great, but it's not the same as like thinking and communicating and listening.

So it's not a full relationship. It's not a full relationship. And I mean, it can be a full relationship with, I don't want to get lost in the jerking off, but you understand the journey, no shade on jerking off, but this is a metaphor and hopefully it makes sense in the metaphor. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:47:48] Bree: Intuitive 

[00:47:50] Jessica: intuition. When not rooted in the system can be fantasy. I think fantasy is really important for lots and lots of people, not me personally, [00:48:00] but it is for, I think maybe, probably most people and it's very different than intuition. And so being able to resource our intuition, which every human has, I think requires a relationship to the body.

And it also requires that we don't look outside of ourselves for answers disproportionate. And again, what that proportion is, is individual, but yeah, to me, intuition of course, is, is quite very important. And yeah, I 

[00:48:26] Bree: see a lot of people who think that their emotional responses or intuitive responses or that their creative responses are intuitive responses and they're very different, which I think gets to the fantasy.

Yes. Yeah. That you just, 

[00:48:42] Jessica: yeah. And it's about not being in the body about it because when you really sit in your body with those kinds of impulses, what happens is they starts to feel sad or bad. And that's how, you know, it's not your intuition, something else when you start to kind of like tie that balloon.

To, you know, whatever, to a thing, you [00:49:00] route it to the ground. On some level, you, you really get to know what it's made of. You get to know what it is. And, and a lot of times people don't want to know. They just want to be like, it was my intuition that this bird meant this thing when it landed, you know, near me and it could, and it can also be you extrapolating and creating something and having a fantasy.

And that's not bad. But when we mislabel things, we get into trouble. And this is where, you know, kind of to your point, a lot of it is cerebral it's analytic. It's not intuitive. And so it doesn't work. And you're like, I can't believe my intuition failed me. And a lot of times it's cause it wasn't intuition sometimes it's because intuition fails us.

And sometimes it's because we misinterpreted. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:49:44] Bree: So you brought us to the next one, which is physical. 

[00:49:48] Jessica: Um, I find meat suits to be kind of an embarrassing thing, you know, I mean, it's like, I would be happy to be free of these meat suits. Um, but we are here in [00:50:00] these bodies on this planet because that's the damn assignment.

That's the damn assignment. You know, there are so many ways to have a body. There are so many kinds of bodies. We can have our bodies change over the course of time, but they are the ship to which we are the captain of. And that's it, you know? So it is our job to take care of that ship. It is our job to steward it well.

And to understand that our bodies are. Okay. So from my perspective, there's our soul, which is this really big thing. And our bodies exist inside of our soul. And so many people think of their soul as something inside of their bodies, but that's not my perspective at all. Th th the is inside of the soul.

So the body is an extension of the soul, but it is not the soul. And so understanding that it's part of our spiritual work to materially care for invest in and tend to the body, enjoy the body, play with the body, but also those other more boring or difficult things, uh, [00:51:00] yeah, that that's key to the human existence.

I love 

[00:51:03] Bree: that speaking of soul and beyond the soul and extending beyond the body spiritual. 

[00:51:09] Jessica: Interesting spiritual separate from intuition, because of course for me, they're not very, they're not very separate, but I see how for other people, of course they would be okay. Spirituality means really different things for different people and again, at different times of life, but I, Hmm.

Spirituality is a really interesting one that I'm having a hard time naming because it's like, I'm such a spiritual person that literally everything I do is I don't see a separation between spiritual and everything else, which is again, you know, part of why, you know, when we first started talking the conversation about like, oh, you, you marry the astrology in activism.

It's like, well, how can you be a spiritual person and not care about the world and try your best with others? To me, it's the same thing. It's not separate at all. And I think spirituality means a lot of different things for different people, but ultimately [00:52:00] it's when you're falling asleep. And there's that self that you're talking to with yourself that, that like inner dialogue, that connection.

Yeah. That's spiritual. That's spiritual. It's not for anyone else. It's not with anyone else. To me that's really spiritual. And so spirituality is not a meditation or yoga pose and it's not a church or, you know, a temple, those things are articulations of spirituality. You know, they're potentially containers or vehicles for spirituality, but spirituality is inevitable because we are spiritual beings and we have souls.

So I don't know how great that answer was, but that's, that's what 

[00:52:35] Bree: you got. That's a great answer. And what I, my big takeaway from that, well, I don't know if it's from that, but from listening to you, is that what I, what I feel from you is that spirituality is in no way related to dogma. 

[00:52:50] Jessica: Yes. Yeah. A hundred percent.

That's cerebral. If we're going back to your seven items, that's the mind the dogma is, is ego and minds. Yeah. [00:53:00] Or just association in mind. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:53:04] Bree: Creative, the creative. 

[00:53:07] Jessica: Um, these two are really hard for me. It's interesting. Um, so creativity is incredibly, you know, you're asking a triple gavel corn, so I don't think of myself as a creative person.

I don't think of creativity. I don't think about creativity at all. Um, to be honest with you, um, which is my personality and not a reflection of who I am actually at all. Um, so I, I feel, I feel like I don't know what to say about creativity. I mean, I think that having a life without any creativity, it can feel incredibly stunted and like there's no flow creativity, the experience and expression of it is like experiencing flow.

And that might be like a power hose and it might be like a gentle rock or like a sweet breeze. It can, there's a lot of ways that we can experience that kind of flow. But creativity is I think a really essential [00:54:00] part of being a happy. Or I'm a fertile human. And I also understand that there are many people who experience and express creativity in a kind of like atypical ways based on convention.

And, um, I think that convention needs to change, um, and has been needing to change around that. So, uh, you know, I do see, you know, I'm, I'm in the bay area and so I'm in the world of tech and I used to just think, oh my God, it's tax technology so boring. And it is like, literally I hate nothing more than staring at code it's I do not enjoy it at all.

Um, and that said, my partner is a software engineer and I watch how he codes and he's, he's also a poet. Um, and he studied poetry for many years. And, um, for him it's poetry, it's just a different way of writing, you know, and that really. Opened me up. I mean, I would like to tell you quickly, but [00:55:00] yours it's a for me to believe him, but yeah, I definitely see how it is creativity, because anything that we approach creatively is creativity.

It is creative. So, and that was a kind of roundabout answer, but it's a question I'm struggling with right now, to be honest, personally, and my personal life. So it's a yeah. Well, 

[00:55:19] Bree: I think that reframing, it's always interesting to me, there are always a few words, at least one word often up to four words that people are like, oh, I don't like that word and creativity.

It can be one of them. And I get that. There are times, I mean, I, I am a creative, like I identify as a creative and I like creativity, so, and that's okay. Like sitting with that is, is part of it. Right? That's part of the fun, that's part of the challenge, but reframing it as flow, I think is. It's really beautiful.

And, and you're right. I do think, I wouldn't say [00:56:00] happiness, but I would say that a lot of joy comes from that place of flow. Yeah. Again, that's getting into semantics. Ah, 

[00:56:08] Jessica: but they're so important. Obviously you're a word nerd just like me and there is a meaningful difference between happiness and joy and you're right.

It is a joy thing and not a happiness thing. Happiness is a lot more fleeting joy, I think can sparkle us happiness, but has, it has like more insidious roots, you know? And, and so I, I, if I was given the choice, like if, you know, some somebody came in and was like, you're going to have happiness or joy would definitely take joy any day of the damn week.

Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:56:37] Bree: And the last one is social. 

[00:56:40] Jessica: We are a social animal. I think that, um, we have strongly social needs and as an kind of introverted person who. Hasn't missed socializing during a two-plus year pandemic. I will say that I think that finding our place in the context of this planet and humanity [00:57:00] is really the social part of our needs are.

And when we live for others or we are locked into convention, it becomes very difficult to do that. And you can do all the right things. But if your foundation is like pointed in opposite direction of what your social needs and what your spiritual and your creative needs actually are, you can have a real rough time of it, you know?

And again, you and I are at the age where it becomes a lot more visceral after 40, um, what that really means. So, you know, we may cognitively understand that before 40, but it becomes experiential after 40. And so. The social component to the human condition, uh, is deeply interesting. It's something I'm passionate about.

And also, I think it requires more reflection than we tend to give it. We tend to focus on and reflect on our relationships instead of on our social needs in nature. So again, I'm back to the self-awareness coupled with self-acceptance. Um, yeah. How many years did I like force myself to go out [00:58:00] and be social because that's what people did.

Um, and eventually I was like, oh, these are the ways that I am. And so therefore I can be different if I can just share an anecdote in my early twenties, I would like hang out with groups of friends as one does, you know, walking the streets as one does. And I would be miserable because I like walking fast.

I like walking fast. I hate walking, slow walking in a group with a bunch of nerds that you really like is so annoying because they're slow groups are slow. And so at a certain point, I was like, okay, It's already hard enough for me to socialize. I'm just going to be that person who walks ahead of the group.

And this was before cell phones. So it was no texting your friends. Um, and at first it kind of like people got a little bit hurt and they were like with what's happening. And then people are like, oh, let's just Jessica. She walks ahead. And they accepted it because it wasn't personal that I approved it over time.

I didn't buckle, uh, when people were a little annoyed or like, why are you [00:59:00] leaving? And yeah, I would walk ahead. And then I just became that's who Jessica is. She walks ahead. And it really radically changed my ability to hang out with people in groups. And, you know, it sounds like such a small thing, but it always stands out for me because it took, it was like a Herculean feat for me to give myself permission, to just like, try to be what I was and to find ways of accepting myself so that I could be around people in a way that worked because.

So agitated if we got someplace and I was like, I've just been crawling through the city streets and I want to cut someone. Um, I got there, I was happy. I sat around waiting. It allowed me to like energetically collect myself. And then I did whatever socializing with whatever amount of awkwardness that is inherent to my nature and moved on with life.

So yeah, again, these things evolve, but understanding who and what we are and how we can participate socially is. Important. So, yeah, that's my social answer. Was that the last one is that all seven that's all seven. Good job. You did good. Good questions. You 

[00:59:59] Bree: [01:00:00] did a great job. Thank you. Um, I, that walking fast, I just had the great, great luxury of going.

I used to live in Amsterdam with my family, and we just were able to go back quickly between between surges and, um, it was a real privilege, but, uh, yeah, we have three Leos and an Aquarius, a few Leos are all women. And then the, my poor Aquarius husband, it was like a race because none of us can stand that group.

The slow group was. 

[01:00:34] Jessica: So, you know what I'm talking about, right? I mean, it's like, it's, it's a weird thing because when groups of people walk, it's like, it becomes a meander. I can't meander. Like I just can't meander and yeah. It's, it's nice that your whole family is like, we're racing. This is a race, not a walk.

That's great. 20 year 

[01:00:53] Bree: old. Got shin splints. Just want to say 

[01:00:55] Jessica: that's amazing. I mean, I feel bad for her, but also that's amazing. It's [01:01:00] also pretty funny. It's pretty good. That's good. It's very good. Yes, 

[01:01:03] Bree: Jessica. Thank you. So I want to thank you for engaging socially in a way that makes sense for you by having this podcast, 

[01:01:11] Jessica: oh, white fishing you do right back at you.

[01:01:14] Bree: And, uh, and for also being a guest on mine, it's really an honor to get to share time with 

[01:01:20] Jessica: you. It's been such a joy. I feel like I could talk to you for hours, so we should do this again. 

[01:01:28] Bree: Here are my key takeaways from this conversation with Jessica Lynn, Yaddo number one, shaming blaming and pointing fingers.

Doesn't usually lead to evolution. We need to hold people accountable, but we also need to not be a jerk to ourselves or to others. And by the way, it is Loretta Ross who has championed a calling in culture. And I've provided a link to her Ted talk in the show notes. Number two, human evolution like human development is cyclical, not linear.

[01:02:00] So what works in your twenties may not work in your fifties and we can find different ways to engage in the world that reflect our personal evolution. Number three, when you pair self-awareness, when self-acceptance determining the next best move, isn't so hard to glean more of Jessica's wisdom. Visit her website, Loveland yaddo.com and subscribe to ghost of a podcast.

Special, thanks to our sponsors at code-based co-working and to w T J U and the Virginia audio collective for your support. Thank you so much for listening to the pause to go podcasts. If you got something out of this episode, let us know, share it with a friend, join our Facebook group and subscribe, rate, and review on apple podcasts.

If you loved it, if not, no worries. We want you to tell it like it is, and we'd love to have your input. If you want to know more about what I'm up to, you can follow me on Instagram at the lovely unbecoming or at my website, the lovely [01:03:00] unbecoming.com. Stay curious. Y'all.