3.38 Orbs, Yods & Miller High Life

Episode Notes

In this episode we cover the first 2 weeks of Virgo Season, the end of Mercury retrograde, more Sun-Pluto anxiety, Venus entering Leo, the Manhattan shooter, the Ghislaine Maxwell meetings, AI bunnies on a trampoline, and Spaghett.

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Jess Abbott [Inkblot Astrology]
Kate Kettelkamp [Kronos Astrology]

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Episode Transcription

Jess: (00:04)

Hello again. Here we are. It's still Mercury retrograde and I am scared. I'm Jess of Inkblot Astrology.

Kate: (00:17)

And I'm Kate Kettelkamp of Kronos Astrology.

Jess: (00:21)

You know what we didn't talk about last time? Can you explain to me why you call your practice Kronos Astrology? What brought you there?

Kate: (00:29)

That is a good question. I think at the time I was not overthinking it. I was like, there's a K, it's Saturn, it's perfect. And then over time, true to Saturn's nature, I was like uncovering more and more layers to why I named it that. So it is something that's revealed itself over time. But essentially I felt that my astrological practice was in somewhat of a relation to the archetype of Saturn of time, the study of time, integration, and then the actual Kronos symbol is like the cross with the Moon over it, and it means caring for those who are under your authority, and I just think that's a cool symbol representing you know, power and responsibility in our relation to the cosmos.

Jess: (01:33)

I love that. That is very cool. I'm so glad I asked that question. I had been wondering for a while.

Kate: (01:39)

Yeah, I'd love a refresh on Inkblot too.

Jess: (01:44)

I think I chose Inkblot because when I first was educating myself about astrology, which is a really long gradual process, I think it is for most people, I... I just, had started out from such a skeptical place and such sort of, I hesitate to say atheistic place because I don't find, astrology is not a spiritual practice for me, but I just, I was just so male-brained, so science-brained about everything and needed everything to be proven to me. And I suppose I still do feel this way about astrology specifically that it's sort of like a tree falls in the woods situation. It's like what brings your chart to life is giving it attention and looking at it and bearing witness to it and taking it apart in the same way that with a Rorschach test, an inkblot test, those inkblots, if they're just sitting in a desk drawer, aren't doing anything for you. But the second you look at them, there's — you find those symbols, those archetypes and the meaning therein. So astrology to me was.. I think how I made peace with it. It wasn't a, it didn't have to be a question of if I believed in it or not. It was more, well, it's like an inkblot test. If you use it, it can help you.

Kate: (03:14)

Yeah, I love that. Perception is so huge with astrology, with the archetypal ends of, everything means something slightly different to everyone. So I think that's cool imagery to think of as a Rorschach test.

Jess: (03:15)

Yeah, and I'm also just a huge fan of a black and white palette, so it went well with that. How long have you been giving readings for, by the way? This is so fun. As I said in the first step, we've only known each other for two months, so I get to just ask you questions while we're making this podcast together.

Kate: (03:40)

Very cool. Yeah. Likewise. This is my, let's see, maybe fifth year doing readings. And then fourth year of like official practice.

Jess: (04:12)

Nice. Yeah, so we started basically at the same time. I started giving readings in 2020.

Kate: (04:13)

Yeah. Cool. Yeah, there was definitely, I think, a boom that year and people coming into astrological practice. Maybe because I think that would have corresponded with Uranus's ingress into Taurus to right around then. So it could have been that it hit people's charts in a specific way. I've heard that's the planet to look for with people getting into astrology or different belief systems.

Jess: (04:51)

And it was with lockdown, which was very Uranus and Taurus. Everybody just homebodying and staying inside. We just, we all had, the time during lockdown to...

Kate: (04:55)

Yes.

Jess: (05:07)

Just go hard on all the things that they didn't make time for before. At least that was my experience.

Kate: (05:13)

Right, yeah, just a blip in the radar where you have all this infinite space. It kind of reminds me of, I don't know, like when you ask questions back and forth when you're kids and you're like, what if you had, you never had to sleep, what would you do? Or what if you had all the time in the world, what would you pursue? And then I felt like the quarantine was. Kind of like people living these dreams, making bread and you know, whatever else people were doing.

Jess: (05:44)

Yeah, it was like horror camp. Like going to a camp where you're having the time of your life but also terrified from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep, which now we all know it's like, you know, it wasn't like that scary.

Kate: (05:53)

Yes. Yeah. It was at the time. It was at the time.

Jess: (06:03)

I remember just sitting there thinking, what if the world never comes back from this? And what if everyone just lives inside forever? Which now I think back on that and I'm like, my God, the drama.

Kate: (06:14)

Yeah, I mean, you just never know.

Jess: (06:19)

Yeah. Do you also okay so do you give readings mostly in person or online? I know you have a physical location but you're by appointment right so how often does that end up being in person or on zoom or whatever?

Kate: (06:28)

Yeah. So I probably do the majority of my readings in person with occasional virtual readings.

Jess: (06:42)

Very cool.

Kate: (06:43)

Yeah.

Jess: (06:45)

I do a 100 % of my readings on Zoom. I don't think I've ever had one in person. And I did actually offer them in person for people in my area, in my tiny corner of the world in Kittery, Maine. But I never had anyone really try. I had one or two clients of mine that live in other states that were traveling through Maine on vacation and asked if they could come see me, but it didn't end up happening both times. So I still have only given readings in person once at.. there was like a farm stand type local situation where people had, it was like an event that happens every couple of weeks in summer over in this area and a friend who gives tarot readings invited me to have my own little stand next to her to do astrology readings. And I only gave a couple of them and it was like kind of fun, but. I think just with the kind of astrology that I do and that you do, it's not really the setting. It's got to be done like with a lot of intent and a lot of time blocked off.

Kate: (07:53)

Yeah, totally. I've definitely, so I've done quite a few bachelorettes and weddings and parties where people are getting their chart read extremely quickly and it's just like a whole different like craft and art to do something quick and meaningful hopefully, but everybody also has a different level of intimacy that they'd like to go to. it's very, I think that one of the most challenging parts of doing astrology is reading that and where people are at and what they're looking for, how deep they want to go, how deep is too deep. And then just, you know, doing that balancing act of energy while you're also looking at the astrology and trying to determine what's helpful.

Jess: (08:44)

Yeah, and that can be tricky even in a more formal reading setting, too. Personally, whether it's therapy or astrology readings, what I always want is, did you ever watch that show Penny Dreadful?

Kate: (08:59)

Yes, I never watched it but I'm familiar.

Jess: (09:03)

Oh my God, it is a really great fall watch. Recommending to you and anyone listening. Penny Dreadful, it's like a fictional retelling of various famous horror characters like Frankenstein and Dracula and they all exist in London in the Victorian era in the same like area and time and place. And it's very campy and over the top, but very dramatic and dark and spooky. It's really fun. Anyway, there's a therapist in it. She's played by Patti LuPone and she's just like a hard ass. The main character walks in who's this very like disturbed woman and sits down at this therapist desk and she just like takes one look at her and gives like a full just like brutal read. Like, I assume that this happened in your past and that's why you act this way and like why you're sitting so reserved. like, it's just like she goes all in and it's very brutal, but in a positive way. And I've always thought that is what I want in therapy. I just want my therapist to tell me the cold hard truth right to my face. And I think some people want that in astrology. They're like, read me to filth And I'm like, well, sure. But I also don't want to have the client walk away feeling like I crossed a line.

Kate: (10:07)

For sure. Yeah.

Jess: (10:21)

So you really have to go so slow and really feel like feel your way through and take cues. So if you're in a quick setting, like you said, like at a bridal party or whatever, or like a wedding and you're doing like a real quick reading, how do you even figure out what to say and what not to say?

Kate: (10:38)

Yeah, I usually stay vague and then let them kind of lead if they want to go deeper into things and what's really comical is when they don't really but they're in a group with their friends and then they're like their friends are like wait you're not gonna tell her about that guy you just stopped talking to so they kind of expose each other in that way.

Jess: (10:59)

Hahaha. Yeah, and when I do readings, I... Sometimes people will say, it okay if my roommate is... Like, my roommate's just off camera sitting on another couch. Do you care? And they're not wearing headphones. Or they'll ask, like, can my boyfriend come sit and listen? And I always tell them no. I'm like, you don't... You're not gonna get the most out of this because you're not going to be fully yourself with me right now.

Kate: (11:23)

Yeah.

Jess: (11:30)

Even if you think you are, you won't be. And you never know what turn this could take and when you could feel emotional. And I wouldn't want you to have to hold something back because, and I don't really say it in this many words. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but usually I find a gentle way to be like, no. And they're glad for it. I mean, like I'm sure this is true for you, too, but like a quarter of my clients at least probably will just cry during our readings. And I don't think they see it coming. It'll be people who tell me I never cry. And then they're just crying.

Kate: (11:44)

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, I usually will tell people I can see in their chart where where they would cry and that just validates the tears.

Jess: (12:03)

What kind of signatures are you looking for for that in a chart?

Kate: (12:15)

Well, obviously any Cancer. If they have anything going on in Cancer and anything's being activated in Cancer, you're allowed to cry.

Jess: (12:24)

Mm-hmm, totally. When did you start getting into astrology? I know you said readings for five years, but when were you like, oh, I need to read about astrology?

Kate: (12:36)

So I was kind of on the Myers-Briggs to Enneagram to astrology pipeline. So I would say as soon as I found the rising sign and Moon, which is maybe like seven years ago, I was like all in on astrological research, and I started out going on astrology cafe and was just reading the descriptions and thought that they were horrifyingly accurate. And then going into the deeper layers of transits, I found that astrology is endlessly entertaining because of how dynamic and evolving it is. Cause with the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs, you know, it's once you understand your type and then maybe some ways that your type can grow.

Jess: (13:10)

Mm-hmm.

Kate: (13:30)

There's not a lot that you continue to investigate. As far as I know, there's probably experts that could school me in that, but with astrology, I found that you could just be endlessly OCD obsessed with everything that is continually changing.

Jess: (13:48)

It really is endless. I say this in readings a lot. I've got, I have a feeling I'll say it in this podcast a lot, but I was told early on that you can look at your own chart for 10 years and still find something new. I'm on actually now that I've asked you the question I was thinking about myself and I got into astrology, I think it was about 11 years ago. I'm still finding new stuff in my chart. So maybe it's longer than 10 years. It's not that it's new, like, I'm surprised. I never noticed that planet was there, but it's how they interact and what can, what kind of interpretations you can read in the aspects that suddenly some corner of my life that's been relevant that month, I'll see it in my chart and be like, wow, I never thought of that aspect like that. And I, it's been there in front of me the whole time. And that just goes on and on.

Kate: (14:24)

Yeah. Right, there's the concept of chart blindness that astrologers talk about of when you look at your own chart, there's just blind spots that other people can help you point out and see those different things. I mean, there's been whole aspects that I have just completely disregarded in my chart for years. And then someone will be like, but you have that square. And I'm like, I do. I completely like missed that I had that square or forgot that I had that square. Especially with some of the wider aspects, I feel you get attached to like your tight orbs and then I will not consider, you know, some of the wider orbs of influence, um, which I don't know, just to explain orbs a bit for anyone listening, orbs are how a lot of astrologers measure  how intense or weak an aspect is based on how many degrees a planet is away from the other planet.

Jess: (15:42)

If like the Sun is at three degrees of Capricorn and the Moon is at, let's just also say five degrees of Capricorn, they're two degrees apart. So that would be a, they're two degrees apart. We would consider that a conjunction by anyone's standards. I think that's a pretty close orb if they're within two degrees of each other. Some astrologers will use like a wider orb. I was taught to use very wide orbs at the school that I went to, so I use a 10 degree orb for all planets, which a lot of astrologers think is insane. And I'm not strict with it. Like I know that a Pluto transit, if you use a 10 degree orb can last for 10 years of your life. I'm aware of that. And sometimes I'm like, you feel it out for the person. If it's a person that had a brutal car accident and their body has been healing for 10 years and it coincided with a Pluto transit, or whatever, a Uranus transit, I'm like, okay, this is long, I do use a wide orb for you, but if it's something not that elongated or whatever, I'll use a smaller orb. So your 10 degree orbs tend to be the largest. You have, isn't your teacher, isn't Richard Tarnas one of your teachers? And I read, doesn't he use 15 degree orbs? I thought I read that somewhere.

Kate: (16:45)

Yeah. Yeah, he is. Yeah, there's different systems, but I would say yeah, 15 for, especially for the collective transits.

Jess: (17:14)

So would you consider, okay, so let's go back to this example of a Sun-Moon conjunction in a natal chart, let's say. Let's say Sun, three degrees Capricorn, Moon, 13 degrees Capricorn. So it's like perfectly 10 degrees apart. Would you consider that a conjunction?

Kate: (17:30)

Yeah. Oh, totally. I think definitely when it's sign based too, it's easier to consider a conjunction. Sometimes when it's splitting a sign, it's hard to imagine that those energies have fully merged. But the Moon, I'll use an extra wide orb with the Moon because it's so fast moving, too. Because, you know, it's within a couple hours of the birth moved several degrees. So the Moon I will always just count in with whatever aspect, even if it's like 10, 15, even 20 sometimes.

Jess: (18:08)

Okay. Wow, okay, if it's in the same sign.

Kate: (18:12)

Sign doesn't matter as much to me, but I kind of have sign brain where I have to force myself to think outside the signs sometimes because you do see a lot of non-sign based aspects having that same energetic signature.

Jess: (18:23)

Mm-hmm. So if you had, let's say, again, Sun three degrees cap, and then let's say that they have Mars in, let's say, 23 degrees of Sag, so it's 10 degrees apart, but in the previous sign, would you consider that a conjunction?

Kate: (18:51)

Yeah, I still would. Would you?

Jess: (18:53)

Okay, yeah, I would. And I wouldn't give it, I wouldn't spend like a whole lot of time on it necessarily in a reading unless there was like a good reason to like a specific thing going on. But as much as I would if it, you know, Mars is exact with the Sun, they're both at three degrees of cap, I'll probably spend more time talking about that than I would if it was in the previous sign 10 degrees away.

Kate: (19:17)

Yeah, I think that makes sense.

Jess: (19:22)

Okay, let's get into the forecast. I'm going to spread out some info about us across episodes, otherwise we'll just yap the whole time about... I still have like, when we first started talking, I made so many notes of things I wanted to ask you about your practice from a like meat and potatoes perspective, like how you, a meta perspective of how you run your practice, but then also a bunch of... just specific little astrology practice questions like your orbs, what orbs you use and so on. And that list is so long and I feel like I need to stretch it out a little and not dump all the questions on you at one time.

Kate: (19:59)

No, I love that. I’d love to, cause astrology is something that is so unique to the individual, how they practice and people can come out of traditions and then have influence from other traditions and just, you know, sometimes like wacky ways of approaching that are kind of mixtures of everything that they've ever heard in their life. So it's super fun to get to know people's practices and I'm excited to get to know yours better, too.

Jess: (20:30)

Yeah, and I yours. And it also changes, I'll feel really strongly about a particular technique. And then I read a few things in a couple different books that make me completely change my mind about that technique. I've had techniques that I just stopped using. And one of them is using Lilith, which I used to do early on. And then I changed my mind and stopped using it a couple years ago, a few years ago. And then when I started talking to you and during my reading Lilith came up because I saw that you had Lilith pulled up in my chart and we talked about it and I'm like, should I start using Lilith again? It'll just go back and forth like that with all kinds of techniques for all astrologers, I think.

Kate: (21:09)

Yeah, totally.

Jess: (21:12)

All right, so for the forecast, so we're going to try to do this podcast every two weeks and so far, episode two, we're on track. We're taping the week before it comes out. We're taping today on Tuesday, August 5th. It's 11:50 a.m. And so we're going to try to talk about what's going to go on astrologically from Tuesday, August 12th when this episode airs through Tuesday, August 26th when the next episode will air. So at the time that this comes out, Mercury will have gone direct yesterday, meaning August 11th. You as a listener will be hearing this no longer under the shadow of Mercury Retrograde. We are still in it talking to you from within the prison of Mercury Retrograde.

Kate: (21:55)

Hahaha. So forgive us.

Jess: (22:00)

Yeah, congrats on Mercury Retrograde being over. I'm jealous of you from the past right now. We were just talking about before we got on, before we hit record, we were talking about how this feels like such a wild Mercury retrograde. It's just everything keeps going wrong with technology for both of us. And I'm going to be so proud of us if we make it through this recording.

Kate: (22:24)

Yeah, fingers crossed. And I don't know, I've heard a lot of people having very classic Mercury retrograde things happening the past couple of weeks. I got a ticket on my way to record this podcast, so that's fun. Yeah, every Mercury retrograde I get a ticket. It doesn't matter the time of year, the place, like the government is coming for me in some way. Yeah.

Jess: (22:39)

Really? Ugh. So you're that kind of girlie, was it speeding I assume?

Kate: (22:53)

It was a parking ticket, but I was, the drama of it was that I was standing there, like waving at the, the, what are they called? Meter maids. Is that politically correct? So I'm waving at him. I'm like, please, like, this is my car. I'm about to move it. And he was like, I'm not making eye contact with you.

Jess: (22:55)

Oh my god, he was just ignoring you?

Kate: (23:21)

Yeah, I think he was enjoying his job, actually.

Jess: (23:26)

Wow, well you know what, that's why he has that job, because he's comfortable doing awful things to people. Ugh, I'm sorry that happened to you.

Kate: (23:29)

It's true. It's true. Thank you. What a terrible job.

Jess: (23:38)

Well, also, yeah. So here's something positive coming up and maybe this will make up for your ticket when it hits us. It has not hit us yet, but it has hit the listener as of yesterday.  Venus-Jupiter, an auspicious conjunction in Cancer happening. The two benefics, the two most positive allegedly, the favorite children of the planetary bodies, Venus and Jupiter that bring us so much joy, so many blessings. They annually unite and that has happened for you dear listener on August 11th in the sign of Cancer in which Jupiter is exalted.

Kate: (24:16)

Yes.

Jess: (24:16)

So that's nice, or maybe something nice will happen to you, Kate.

Kate: (24:19)

Yeah, well, I thought it was nice of the cosmos to end Mercury Retrograde before the Venus-Jupiter conjunction. Just thought that was a bone that we're being thrown. I hope. Because this week's astrology is a little bit wild. So either that's a buildup to a more positive turn or it's like we get some reprieve after the craziness.

Jess: (24:50)

And are you talking about like the Mars-Saturn opposition that's happening? Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we just need to remember the light at the end of the tunnel, Venus-Jupiter.

Kate: (24:53)

Yeah, exactly. You read my mind. Kinda gnarly. Yes.

Jess: (25:07)

Hopefully that's going to give us all a nice little... And you know that we're, when you get to the back half of summer where August is, that's when the summertime sadness hits, right? So the Cancer won't be helping, but perhaps that it is Jupiter and Venus together will give a little, some kind of like positive reinforcement to whatever you're going through, girl out there, any girl listening to the podcast, whatever you're going through.

Kate: (25:17)

Ooh, yeah. Girls, gays and theys. And the men. This is for you. This is for you too, if there's any men listening.

Jess: (25:44)

The men right now at the time of the taping going through this Mars-Saturn opposition, they're probably really, they're having some fun toughing things out in their way.

Kate: (25:55)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure.

Jess: (25:58)

Yeah, so that actually goes exact in three days from now, the Mars-Saturn opposition. it, well, I guess it'll still be happening. Yeah, obviously. Or with, with a 10 degree orb, if we're going to look at it, that's going to, it'll, it'll end around August 22nd.

Kate: (26:10)

For sure. That makes sense. I feel like that is gonna last us through August, essentially.

Jess: (26:20)

So we'll see actually now I'm like maybe we can't put too many eggs in our Jupiter-Venus chicken basket.

Kate: (26:28)

Yeah, I know. I've been thinking about that. I mean, I feel like a lot of astrologers have had to strike that balance with the excitement for Jupiter going into Cancer because a lot of people consider it exalted and have been excited for Jupiter's transit through Cancer, which is a year long. I definitely hyped it up to clients in the spring. Hopefully, I didn't overhype it. But I would say that so far the data is showing that people are still having good time. Like they're still doing their trips and family gatherings and things like that, despite some of the harder astrology aspects that we have happening.

Jess: (27:15)

Yeah. And so I just mentioned Venus and Jupiter being the, the benefics and the malefics of the, of the astrological bodies. So the sort of anti, favorite children of planets are Mars and Saturn. So the fact that they are locked in an opposition at the same time that Venus and Jupiter are in this conjunction, it's definitely, we're getting this burst of, of something that could be good and a burst of something that could be quite bad. Such is life, but I guess life's just being turned up to 11 right now for the next couple weeks.

Kate: (27:47)

Yeah, when you put it like that, it really is so cool that, I mean, it feels like a very potent time that the good is getting like, gooder, so to speak, and then the bad is getting badder which feels accurate, an accurate energetic read, I would say.

Jess: (27:58)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and thinking of this greater span of time this year where all of the outer planets, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus are moving into new signs all at the same time and it's causing all kinds of  astrological chaos and all of the astrologers are talking about it at this time.  So on that longer timeline of these slower moving outer planetary bodies and that aligning with this time of just.. The world just feels like it's crazy right now. It's like we're a snow globe that's being like, it's being shaken up right now every day. Having, it makes sense to have, yeah, this, yeah, the malefics and the benefics happening at the same time, doing stuff together. They're giving us like, they're just continuing to shake the snow globe, I guess.

Kate: (28:52)

Yeah, it's cool because I feel the deeper you get into astrology as well, there starts to be this felt sense of cohesiveness. don't know exactly how to describe it, but I hope you know what I'm talking about where it's just like there's a like double and tripling of themes within the aspects themselves. To where it feels like there's a wave that is, even though there's diverse aspects within the wave, there's a lot of synergy. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Jess: (29:29)

Absolutely, just seeing kind of signatures in the transits or in a chart that are things that reinforce each other. And that's like the rule of threes, which exists in anything in life. And it's definitely very present in astrology where when you see a certain theme coming to life in three different places in a chart, it makes it feel very real or it highlights that it is very real.

Kate: (29:36)

Exactly. Yeah, because even when you're talking about the snow globe being shaken up, it's like I see it in the transits, but then also even just in, you're honest now being in Gemini, it's it's snow globe time. Like everything is being shaken up with some sort of intention, I would imagine.

Jess: (30:06)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And even, okay, so I did, I pulled up just for fun the chart of when this episode comes out. And then I just.. because it's Mercury Retrograde, I navigated away from it… But okay, there we go. When this episode comes out. So basically the moment you're listening to this episode right now, if you're listening to it the day it came out, the chart for today is kind of interesting. Let me see if I can share it with you without causing total chaos. I'm so scared to screen share right now of what could happen. Let's see what this even looks like in our app. So today there's a mystic rectangle happening, an aspect configuration. There's a grand trine happening. There's this minor grand trine happening. There's a t-square here with Mercury, Pluto, and Chiron, and the Sun's only aspect is a trine to Chiron. Everything just feels locked in a greater aspect configuration together today. And then the Sun is just like hanging out, only choosing to communicate with Chiron, the planet of wounding, of healing, and of just kind of sensitivities. The way I describe Chiron to clients is sort of... It shows us where we have a wound that cannot be healed. It doesn't come up every day in your life, but sometimes it's just something that you have accepted in your life or hope to accept as something kind of painful or difficult to swallow that is just a constant in your life. And when something comes around and pokes that wound, that's when it gets, you'll remember it's there. So at different times in life, if you're having something transiting your Chiron, or if Chiron is really present in mundane astrology in the transits area now, you might feel that kind of.. your sense of wounding gets a little bit stimulated and you have to parse through what that means for you. So right now the Sun representing the collective today is trining Chiron. So maybe there's something today that can, some kind of positive healing or positive recognition of the pain that we're feeling happening today as that's the only message the Sun seems to want to give right now. But then all of the other planets are involved in these really intense conversations through other aspect configurations. There doesn't really seem to be anything floating out there by itself. It's all just, yeah, just feels like a day with a lot of energy in store.

Kate: (32:42)

And Mercury-Pluto, I would imagine a lot of conversations kind of being a focal point and since we had the Mercury retrograde, potentially conversations that have been developing over the last few weeks but now reaching pinnacles of sorts.

Jess: (33:04)

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Or conversations that you'd wanted to have and hadn't found the time or the words or whatever. Now the connection is finally a little more freeflowing. Not that that necessarily is good with it opposing Pluto. That conversation could take you anywhere today. Okay, what else? So Virgo season is starting on August 22nd. Leaving Leo.

Kate: (33:22)

Great. Thank you.

Jess: (33:36)

I like Virgo season a lot. It's like it, it's, happens right before fall. It leads you up. It's like leading you into a huge seasonal change. It's Virgo's, you know, a time of organization of, getting all your ducks in a row and taking your time with things. And I kind of love that. It's sort of like you're taking that. It's like you're taking down your camping tent, your metaphorical camping tent and getting ready to pack up the car and head home and get back to work, which is.. the weather gets colder, you get back inside and you get to deal with some shit, which a lot of people don't like that. They love, people seem to love spring and summer and getting outside, but I like to be inside doing all of my little things. I think that's maybe why I like Virgo season.

Kate: (34:17)

Yeah, it's definitely a little things season. People schedule their doctor's appointments and go to the dentist and do all their Virgo vacuuming and all the fun things.

Jess: (34:26)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yep. And this Virgo season starts out with a Yod with Pluto and Neptune, which will be there during Virgo season for the next six years because Pluto is in Aquarius and Neptune is in Aries. We’ll get that every time Virgo season happens, there's going to be a little Yod that happens for a few days there. And a Yod is an aspect configuration also called the Finger of Fate or the Finger of God, I think is also, right? What they call it? Um, which makes it sound way more intense than I feel like a Yod really is. It’s definitely a minor aspect configuration in a natal chart and the transits that can just show where like something that might be a little uncomfortable is helping move you forward. I think is sort of how I look at a Yod.

Kate: (35:07)

Mm-hmm. I feel like people that have Yods in their chart, they ride or die for their Yods. Like I think to a lot of people, there’s nothing minor about a Yod. But it's something that I often don't look for, the Yod. So I'm always happy when someone points out the Yod because I think with Virgo at the apex, it's about organization. So I'm kind of imagining this Yod to be you know, a consistent story of pulling order from chaos, of gaining more clarity around, you know, the larger, like, social climate, a more consistent narrative, maybe.  Or there being some sort of advocacy for more order within the chaos is what I'm imagining with the yods to come.

Jess: (36:02)

Mm-hmm. Totally. So a yod, visually it looks like a kind of like a tall skinny triangle. It consists of three planets and then whatever planets conjunct those three planets.  And the apex planet or the center of the aspect configuration is at the very tippy top of that skinny triangle. So in this case, it's the Sun in Virgo. And the aspects it makes is that the Sun will be quincunxing, which is 150 degrees to making a quincunx to Pluto and then a quincunx to Neptune. And Pluto and Neptune are sextiling each other, so they're 60 degrees apart. And the quincunx aspect, it's not a major aspect, it's more minor aspect that not all astrologers even look at the quincunx.  It was described, I think I either read a description in one of Darby Costello's books or she said it in a seminar... The quincunx, she likens to a rock in your shoe. It's not something that completely changes the game for you. It's not a square or an opposition, a more major tough aspect. It's more just like this tiny pebble in your shoe that you maybe don't even notice at first. And as time goes on, you're like, well, something in my shoe was pissing me off and you have to take off your shoe and dump out the rock. And so what a Yod does with two quincunx is it's got some discomfort in it. You've got a pebble in each shoe as you're walking and you have to kind of, you have to bring awareness to what is happening. You have to figure out what is bothering you. Then you have to stop and make the decision to take it out of your shoe. And then the sextile is sort of of the bottom two planets is then what kind of like energizes you what is to be gained from the Yod that ultimately helps that apex planet evolve in whatever way. So yeah, definitely agree with what you're saying that it works something out. It's it's in service to something greater. And I think that it just is sort of like inconvenient or uncomfortable while it's happening. So yeah, we could have some, I mean, Pluto is just going through, Pluto is just constantly coming up right now. And we brought it up in the last episode of the show. And I've got more to say about what's happening with events in the worlds and how Pluto's involved coming up in this episode. And right now we've got, we talked about Leo season as it has had a Pluto opposition and now Virgo season is going to have this Yod with Pluto for the next six years. Six, yeah, six Virgo seasons. So Pluto is just showing up everywhere. So even though I'm saying like, oh yeah, Yods aren't super major, they can be major like you're saying within the natal chart for sure. But then it's like, but it is Pluto involved in this Yod. So it might really suck.

Kate: (39:01)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, I feel like Pluto, I'm not going to say Pluto was ignored in Capricorn, but I, the Pluto and maybe it's just because it's recently ingressed into a new sign. So we're still adjusting and trying to figure out what Pluto and Aquarius is going to look like. But I feel like amongst astrologers, it's Pluto this, Pluto that like we are having a Plutonic year for sure.

Jess: (39:29)

And at the same time that this is happening, this Yod this year, so August 22nd and then for handful of days after that, the Sun is going to be squaring Uranus newly in Gemini. So we get this Sun Uranus square every Virgo season for the next nine Virgo seasons because of Uranus retrograding back and everything.

Kate: (39:52)

Yeah.

Jess: (39:57)

Is it nine Virgo seasons? Is that really because I don't think Uranus would retrograde? Maybe I did that math wrong. But, it'll be squaring Uranus, maybe just Uranus will be in a different sign. But yeah, there will be a Sun-Uranus square for the next nine Virgo seasons during Virgo season specifically. and that makes sense with like what you were saying. Like there's, as we're reaching the end of the year or the end of the summer, mean, a lot gets like shaken up in the world, like... I think that with Uranus symbolizing sort of shakeups and the unexpected, I think there tends to be a lot of energy that happens in August. People are taking more time away from their normal routines to go to weddings, go on vacation, take time off, assess what they want to be doing when fall hits and you really get down to work. So a lot of shakeup happens. And I think with the collective squaring Uranus for the next several Virgo seasons. Yeah, we could see some shake up that occurs during this window of time each year.

Kate: (41:05)

Yeah, well and you know going back to the the finger of fate or God, Yod, I would say Yod people feel like there are certain fixed events that happen in their life that force them into their next thing. So I'm wondering too if you know middle of the month it's gonna be that way for a lot of people, that there will just be some fate that scatters the pieces on the chessboard and then you have to reset up your board in Virgo season.

Jess: (41:44)

Yeah, I love that, like setting up a board. It feels very Virgo and that is like an image. And we also have Venus entering Leo on August 25th.

Kate: (41:49)

Yeah. Yay.

Jess: (42:01)

You like that, you're a fan of Venus and Leo?

Kate: (42:02)

Yeah, yeah, I think it's fun.

Jess: (42:06)

Yeah, I do too. It's a nice bit of a, think Venus can be very contemplative. It's associated with a more feminine type of archetypal imagery. And so having it in Leo, I think gives it a bit of self-assurance and confidence that Venus may not always have. Venus is obviously comfortable in other signs, but I think with Leo, it gives Venus a time to like contemplate less and to just exist more.

Kate: (42:36)

Right, yeah, a bit more playful. Because we have Venus and Cancer currently, and I think it's, Cancer's known for being sensitive and emotional and connected to family and close friends, partners. It's very homey. So it feels like even though people are traveling and going out and about there's something more private about Venus in Cancer even Venus conjunct Jupiter in Cancer there's some something that feels intimate about that that when Venus moves into Leo I think that that will be like a nice vibe change from like more of the inward Venus

Jess: (43:25)

Definitely, yeah, it's a nice back-to-back thing to have, I think, for sure. Yeah.

Kate: (43:29)

Right. Kind of like a nice relaxing day at the spa before going out to the club in the evening. That probably sounds bad to so many people because like after you're at the spa all day, it's like the last thing you want to do is like drink a bunch of alcohol and like hit the streets. So we'll see.

Jess: (43:41)

Amazing, the perfect analogy. It's funny you say that, we were, Jenny and I, my wife, were cracking up about, we have a friend who she teaches yoga, not as, not regularly, but she is like, I know nothing about yoga. I'm about to butcher this, but she has some kind of like formal yoga education and she knows some people that they have a yoga studio and once in a while she'll go teach a class there and then afterwards so she'll like invite us and be like ‘and there's champagne after’ and we're like people really want to like do yoga in the morning and then have champagne immediately after? It's not that I wouldn't. I'm just surprised that so many people would.

Kate: (44:31)

Yeah. Yeah, no, in Denver, yoga and beer is a big thing. Usually, I feel like the beer is after the yoga as like a social thing, but I've definitely been to a yoga and beer where we had the beer glasses at the top of our mat and we're drinking the beer as part of the practice.

Jess: (44:40)

Okay, that sounds awful. I mean beer is just so heavy, like I feel like you'd get a lightness after doing yoga that then you just like weigh it down with... I'm also just being a beer hater I think, because I'm like, champagne I would drink a full bottle of it, but one glass of beer, no.

Kate: (45:16)

That's fair. The gluten.

Jess: (45:21)

So is there any, are there any other transits going on in this in the next two weeks that you think we should mention or should we roll into events?

Kate: (45:31)

Yeah, I feel like we hit the major ones. We have that nice grand air trine that I think will bring a lot of development and so I'm looking forward to that. I feel like we've been low air like the past few years so to get these powerful air alignments I'm very excited because air is connection and communication and the intellect and so you know I'm hoping that with powerful air alignments, people are brought into deeper conversation with each other about what's going on in the world.

Jess: (46:09)

Yeah, as a Gemini, me likey. I like when stuff happens. I hate when stuff isn't happening. When there's, when nothing's happening culturally or in the news, I'm like, then why are we here? What is the point?

Kate: (46:13)

Yes. So agree. Yeah, no, it's real. It's real. I don't even know like who our icons are right now, especially musically. It just feels like we need some renaissance of sorts, which maybe we get a little bit in the fall. Definitely next year. I'm predicting better art for next year.

Jess: (46:36)

Yeah. Mm-hmm. We need it so bad. I'm gonna live by the words you just said. I need to, I need some hope that art is going to get better.

Kate: (46:45)

Yeah. Yeah.

Jess: (46:56)

All right. Well, for events, I wrote down some kind of like heavy stuff that I don't want to, I don't want to linger too much on any of it because none of it's particularly fun, but there's some astrological stuff that correlates with, with world events right now, or at least national events that I want to bring up just to touch on them for fun. And then if you've got anything fun to throw in, we should do that. All right. First thing, Manhattan shooter. *air horn sounds*

Kate: (47:17)

Perfect. Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jess: (47:22)

Let's have some fun. All right. So I guess just to recap in case anyone has not heard about this, there was a shooting in Manhattan. I think he was 27 or 28 year old man who previously played football, has some brain injuries that have seemingly really had negatively impacted his life in such a severe way that he rolled up to Manhattan, drove across the country, rolled up to  the NFL headquarters in Manhattan with a gun, tragically shot and killed, I think, four people.  But the kind of twist of it that was so strange and incredibly Mercury retrograde was that he got in the wrong elevator and didn't even end up on the NFL floor. He ended up on the floor of was a Blackstone. I always get Blackstone and Blackrock mixed up because I'm like, yes, that embarrasses me, but do I care enough to figure it out? No, absolutely not. But I think it was Blackstone, which is like a large, I'm really going to butcher this part, like an investment company. It's one of those like large, somewhat sinister companies that just invests a lot of money and does a lot of shit with it that maybe like the every man doesn't, wouldn't favor if they really got into it.  And he shot…

Kate: (48:37)

For sure. Blackrock equal bad.

Jess: (48:44)

He shot as a woman who was a CEO of that company. So what I'm getting out of this here is we've got Mercury retrograde causing him to get in the wrong elevator, but also hearkening back to the Luigi shooting, the CEO shooting that happened last November around a similar time that Pluto was going into Aquarius. that was really, astrologers talked about that a lot, about bringing down a CEO and Pluto and Aquarius being the people, the collective and... kind of like rebellion, taking power, really flipping politics on its head. These are big Pluto in Aquarius themes. So even though it was inadvertent with this Mercury Retrograde flavor, we still did see this very plutonic situation with this shooter taking down a CEO inadvertently.

Kate: (49:36)

Yeah. Well, it corresponded with the Sun-Pluto opposition, right? So I wonder if every year we get the Sun-Pluto, a different CEO is gonna get taken out. Hope not for all you CEOs out there.

Jess: (49:43)

Mm-hmm. Yep, I know. Yeah. Okay, anything to add on that or shall I plow through to the next, like, not super fun sparkly topic?

Kate: (50:03)

Yeah, very sad. The only thing I'd add was there, I thought that there was an angle of it being about CTE, traumatic like brain injuries that. Yeah.

Jess: (50:14)

Yeah, yeah, that was why he went, it was like via football that he got like CTE brain damage type stuff. And right, the NFL, was really Sun-Pluto that he did this as well because we talked in the last episode about that Sun-Pluto opposition during Leo season being the people in power and challenging it and the NFL has been challenged for decades on CTE because football has such a high prevalence of concussions that lead to CTE and I don't remember what it stands for but it's basically a concussion induced brain injury and people I've read something recently about that that they had  There was what was it in video in in like the PlayStation games that they do for football…

Kate: (50:48)

Mm-hmm.

Jess: (51:04)

Like, is it Madden? I don't know what I'm talking about.

Kate: (51:06)

Yeah, we'll go with Madden.

Jess: (51:09)

...that they made them remove brain injuries as an injury that your players can receive because it was such bad PR for the NFL that's been for decades challenged on this issue. I think a lot of there's like, this has been sort of a growing issue that people, a lot of people, like as a mom, I will not be letting my kid play football. Love to watch it. This is where I'm a huge hypocrite. I've been watching the Patriots the last three seasons. It's hard not to in New England, but will I let my kid play it? Absolutely not because of this.

Kate: (51:23)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally.

Jess: (51:40)

So this was like, I think a protest on his part. He was sort of like martyring himself by doing this, or he hoped to, I guess.

Kate: (51:47)

Yeah. Well, and that from an astrological standpoint, strikes me as very Mercury retrograde because Mercury does rule the head and the mind. Like CTE kind of has that like Mercury retrograde like going back into the past to advocate for like past injuries to the mind would be very Mercury retrograde because Mercury has been involved in the Sun-Pluto opposition.

Jess: (52:16)

Totally. Love that. I mean, I don't love it, but you know what I mean.

Kate: (52:20)

Yeah, astrology good. You've heard people say astrology good. Yeah, astrology good is where it's like, you know, something bad happens in your life or in the world. And you're like, that is so bad. But it's so aligned with astrology that you get this kind of like, astrology good feeling.

Jess: (52:39)

Yeah, I'm darkly thinking about astrologer Leisa Schaim who said in a recent episode that she was in of the Astrology Podcast with Chris Brennan. She had said, ‘I like aspects that make me laugh’. And like darkly, I'm like laughing at this guy's brain injury that I'm like, yeah, Mercury retrograde, head injuries from the past.

Kate: (52:53)

Yeah. Right. Yes, some astrological schadenfreude.

Jess: (53:06)

Yes.  All right. The next thing I did, and I really just want to go quickly through this, but going back to Trump Epstein, last time we released an ep we'd been talking about how the Epstein files, there's a big push to get them released by the government. Trump is famously withholding them, which he promised during his campaign that he would release them. Everyone now is suspicious that he is in those files.

Kate: (53:17)

Yeah.

Jess: (53:36)

And it is really fracturing the MAGA group, blah, blah, blah. We get it. Since the last episode and while Mercury has been in retrograde, it seems that they have been really trying to bury the Epstein Trump situation. Like Fox has been just like not talking about it as much as other news outlets and the things are just happening politically on the political docket where they're trying to just distract, I think. And that all feels very Mercury retrograde as well, still trying to withhold information and also redirect and distract with other kinds of information. And also Ghislaine Maxwell, famed sidekick to Jeffrey Epstein, who has been in prison since I think 2020, right? Didn't that happen during lockdown for sex trafficking and all of the things that Epstein did, she was an accomplice for. Now the Trump administration has, they again, very murky retrograde, secretly met with her over the course of two days to talk about who knows what, who knows what they're talking about. Surely they're not going to try to make any kind of deal or anything that removes Trump's name from the files.

Kate: (54:48)

I wouldn't... Yeah, no, I wouldn't imagine that would be on their agenda.

Jess: (54:54)

And then she ultimately got moved to a low security luxury prison in Texas from where she had been in prison in Tallahassee. That also, there was some, yeah, there's some sketchy shit going on and it all happened during Mercury retrograde. We will see what the hell's going to go on there. When Mercury goes direct, I can't wait to see. think August 11th. So the day before this comes out, something will have changed because she's supposed to go speak with someone in a more public way. I think I don't I don't know she's gonna make some kind of statement or something I think. I'm scared. We don't know yet. We're speaking to you from the past and we'll see what happens, I guess.

Kate: (55:34)

Yeah.

Jess: (55:38)

And during that two-day period of time that they were talking with Ghislaine Maxwell privately, the Trump admin, there was a new Moon in Leo opposite Pluto. And, it was forming a T-square with Chiron. So we're looking at this sort of Chironic kind of wound for the victims of the Epstein case and also a wound that the country has been dealing with, we could look at this wound, I think, as the kind of like mark that Epstein has made on our country,  on national politics, and on the celebs, and also as a wounding for the victims of Epstein, what they've gone through and their wounds being rehashed through this all being brought up again very publicly and in a big way. And it's, yeah. The new Moon opposite Pluto, a new Moon meaning when the Moon and the Sun are conjunct. So again, we're bringing up that Sun-Pluto opposition we talked about in the last episode. So a lot happening during that opposition. And then Saturn and Neptune, that conjunction is still obviously happening, was happening during those two days, the two days of meetings with Ghislaine Maxwell. So the idea of kind of public confusion. And law and leadership all kind of coming together in this mess where we see the president of the United States basically trying to hide information and leave it in a state of confusion and fog.

Kate: (57:22)

Yeah, yeah, I would say Saturn, Neptune, sometimes Neptune can be disillusionment and Saturn also represents leadership. So I would imagine during this whole conjunction, there will be a massive disillusion with whoever is in charge  at the top and even in between. But another thing with the Sun, Pluto, Leo, is archetypally representative of children and youth and play. So I think that that's such a big factor too of, you know, maybe as we experience the Sun-Pluto oppositions from Leo to Aquarius, there can be a collective unification around the idea of children, of youth, of the innocent and the defenseless as, you know, what pushes the revolution or the pushback against the systems that be and the people that have power. Because as we were saying in the last episode, it's something that the right can get behind and the left can get behind is, don't mess with children. Don't touch youth in that way. And that's something that could be a drive for social change in our country.

Jess: (58:49)

And disturbingly, natally, Ghislaine Maxwell has a Leo Moon. So we hate that. We don't love to see it. She also has, so Austin Coppock said in the, I think he said it in the August forecast of the Astrology Podcast that natally a Venus-Mars conjunction has been tied to, I think he said, what, how did he describe it? Like sex scandals, but not the fun kind.

Kate: (58:54)

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jess: (59:18)

The more sinister kind of sex scandal. She has, Ghislaine Maxwell has Venus-Mars conjunct and so does Prince Andrew. They both have that in their chart. And this isn't to say to anyone listening if you have that conjunction. No one's gonna, that's not the same thing here, but it's more just looking at the data of people we know have been involved in sex scandals and seeing that signature repeat in that kind of psychology.

Kate: (59:21)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, if you have Venus-Mars in your chart, it also makes for excellent dancing. I've heard that.

Jess: (59:52)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, she's just so... For as evil as this woman is, she's also just so fascinating and mysterious. She has a Capricorn Sun. We see that with her. She comes from a very wealthy background. She's a very kind of cold appearing woman. She's very business-minded. She was essentially a business assistant to Jeffrey Epstein and then she's got the Leo Moon that we just talked about darkly as you it can be related to children. I do think that there could be something very emotional for her related to why she you know like with anyone there's got to be some kind of really disturbed emotional component that will lead you to something like what they did. And then she's a Gemini rising so we also see that she's very social. Networking was huge for Ghislaine Maxwell and also that there could be something childlike in her presentation in the same way with a Leo Moon. They are two very, Leo's associated with children and Gemini is associated with being very childlike. Yeah. All right. I've just, I don't even want to talk about this anymore. I feel gross. So let's talk about something good. What do you got, Kate?

Kate: (1:01:03)

Yeah, yeah. All I'm thinking about is Jack Black and School of Rock saying, ‘believe that children are our future’. So just end on that note. But yeah, in terms of pop culture events, it might be tired by the time that this episode is released, but I feel like it's worth touching on the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad. Would be curious your thoughts and astro take on what the deal with that was.

Jess: (1:01:45)

Astro take, I'm gonna wait to hear yours on that because I don't know anything about the astrology. I mean, I guess we just know what's happening right now and this just started happening in the last week, right? Is that when? Yeah.

Kate: (1:01:56)

Yeah.

Jess: (1:02:01)

So I guess just to recap quickly what's going on with that, Sydney Sweeney is in this very controversial American Eagle campaign right now where the slogan for it was like, Sydney Sweeney has good genes. And people are interpreting that as like like Nazi type, genetic fascism in that she's white with blonde hair and blue eyes. And American Eagle is like, no, we're just saying that she's hot and it doesn't have to do with any of that. I don't know, my take is that.. I'm just like very cynical and I just think that like I, I mean, I'm very neutral on Sydney Sweeney. I don't really care about her. Like, I don't have any bias about this whatsoever. I just like, don't think that the ad campaign was meant to like suggest something that intense. I think they were really just trying to be like, everyone thinks Sydney Sweeney is hot. So we're going to talk about her being hot. And that was really the end of it.

Kate: (1:02:56)

Mm-hmm.

Jess: (1:03:06)

Now, of course, we know that Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republicans, but also I feel like that shouldn't be surprising. And it also doesn't really matter to me. And I don't think her being a Republican had anything to do with this ad campaign. I don't know. I guess that's all that I will say about it for now. What's your take? And I'll also throw in astrologically. I mean, I guess we're not in that Mars Saturn opposition yet. I was going to talk about kind of like the sexuality of Mars coming up against like the rule of Saturn and the boundaries and responsibilities of it, but that we haven't even really hit that yet. Maybe that will play into how like the situation winds down in the weeks to come. Okay, go on.

Kate: (1:03:42)

Yeah. Yeah, well, and not to beat the Sun-Pluto, Mercury retrograde to death, but to me, this also, I feel like has signatures of that aspect. Leo also rules celebrities. So feel like when we have Leo aspects and alignments, there's a lot of news related to celebrities and Sun-Pluto sometimes can be like the downfall of celebrities, which I think people have predicted as like an overarching theme for Pluto's time in Aquarius because it does oppose Leo is that it would be the downfall of celebrity in general or that there would be massive shifts and changes to the way that we perceive celebrity. But with Sydney-

Jess: (1:04:36)

And it was with Pluto in Leo that the idea of celebrity first rose up, right? Wasn't it Pluto and Leo when there was the paparazzi was born during Pluto in Leo? And so now we're seeing Pluto in the opposite sign of Leo. And so there's this like celeb reckoning, I guess.

Kate: (1:04:45)

Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah, no, I think that's a great term for it. Celeb reckoning and even Justin Bieber, you know, yelling at the paparazzi, like, it's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business.

Jess: (1:05:08)

Is that what that audio clip is from? I've heard it in memes, but I did not know the origin. Wow.

Kate: (1:05:15)

Yeah, he was like so visibly distressed that the paparazzi were following him around. And I think that is Pluto in Aquarius opposite Leo of, you know, even celebrities are tired of being celebrities, a lot of them. So. And I think, you know, it'll be curious what the fallout is for Sydney Sweeney, but she's had quite a bit of a fallout already in her career.

Jess: (1:05:16)

Yeah.

Kate: (1:05:43)

And not a lot of movies. So, you know, it is a pretty risky ad for her. And I think, you know, again, just things that come out during Mercury Retrograde in general tend to be a bit wonky or there can be pushback or themes that resurface in subsequent Mercury Retrogrades.  But as a whole..

Jess: (1:05:47)

Mm-hmm.

Kate: (1:06:12)

I wonder, you know, there's just no way that everybody on the marketing team at American Eagle are like, this is not gonna upset people or like people, like it definitely read to me as ambiguous enough that there was some sort of thought on their part of, you know, wanting to rally the tribes because we have such tribalism in our country now of, you know, like, let's make it so ambiguous that we can like pit the right and the left against each other and, you know, drive the American Eagle stock up.

Jess: (1:06:49)

Is that happening? Is it driving? Like, do we think that American Eagle is like, just like all press is good press? Is that happening for them or is it? Yeah.

Kate: (1:06:58)

I think so. Like as far as I know that it has been fairly positive for them, which, you know, there are people on the right that are like, okay, like let's go to American Eagle Empire jeans because the libs are against it. And yeah, it's a disturbing phenomenon in this country. I think that people scan everything for, know, what their tribe believes in, and in a very religious way. Support it with their dollar and..

Jess: (1:07:28)

Yeah. Yeah, and this is talked about a lot just like culturally that the pendulum has swung so far right that it's inevitably going to swing back left any day now, but maybe this is going to stand to be one of the times like one of the last big hurrahs before it swings back because it seems more like people are going to be getting behind Sydney. I kind of don't think Sydney Sweeney is going to get canceled right now, at least in a significant enough way. I kind of think that she's going to still book and I think American, like if you're saying American Eagle is like getting more sales and they're not getting canceled, then that really is just showing… It feels like evidence that we have in fact swung very far right in a way, like Target’s not just like waving rainbow flags everywhere anymore. Like now Sydney Sweeney is an outed Republican who's the face of American Eagle and so far, who's to say what will happen next week, but so far everything's just like fine.

Kate: (1:08:25)

Yeah, it's bad press for blondes, which is why I'm unhappy with the whole thing.

Jess: (1:08:35)

You're like, this is bad for hot girls.

Kate: (1:08:41)

I never like anything that's bad for hot girls.

Jess: (1:08:44)

Hot Girl 9/11. Alright, you got anything else fun?

Kate: (1:08:49)

Anything else fun? There was the whole, did you see the AI bunny video?

Jess: (1:08:58)

I don't think so.

Kate: (1:09:00)

So I should have sent it to you. It's bunnies. It's bunnies jumping on a trampoline.

Jess:

Oh, yeah, I saw that.

Kate:

OK, cool. Did you think it was real?

Jess:

Yeah, that's why I didn't know what you were talking about. I didn't know that was AI. I should have known.

Kate: (1:09:15)

Okay, Jess is finding out live that the bunnies on the trampoline are in fact artificially generated.

Jess: (1:09:24)

Look, now that I know I feel stupid, but when you watch it I'm like, sure, there's trampolines outside and bunnies love to hop, why wouldn't they? This is not like the craziest AI video I've seen.

Kate: (1:09:29)

Yeah. No, I mean, I saw it, I sent it to six of my friends. was like, this is so cute. Like, this is going to make their day. And then I like stumbled across this discourse of like, thousands of people falling for AI bunny video. And I was like, wow. Yeah, same. Like that. I definitely I got what they're saying, I mean, for a lot of people it's like one of the first times that they were genuinely caught. Because I feel like most of the time you get a bit of an uncanny sense from AI videos where you can flag it. Unless you're a boomer on Facebook, they seem to be missing that lens. They're like commenting like, no, when someone like falls through glass into like the center of Japan. For most people, there's that red flag of that's AI. So it is just...

Jess: (1:10:33)

Yeah, I saw one of like, it was like a golden retriever and it was standing in a living room and it was like huge and for some reason it had like Coke cans. Its feet were like stuck in Coke cans and the comments were elderly people being like, poor doggy.

Kate: (1:10:48)

Yeah, someone should help him. This is abuse. Yeah, so all that to say, AI is getting better, which I think the ramifications are insane and unfathomable of, know, when we cannot trust anything that we see on the internet, what are people going to do in terms of information? Cause I, you know, even videos I see of celebrities now I'm like, who posted it? Cause there are like a lot of accounts that are just AI accounts and they'll have people like saying whatever. And there's been like a couple like videos of Trump that I'm like, okay, CBS posted it. It's real. But like, I have seen like AI videos of Trump and I'm like, how could you ever with all of like the unhinged things that he says, like how would you know?

Jess: (1:11:50)

You wouldn't, yeah, he says crazy things. I mean, like even with this Ghislaine Maxwell situation, they were like, are you going to pardon her? Which would look so bad for him. And his, you'd think he would just be like, ‘of course not’ just to save face, but instead he's like, ‘well, I haven't thought about it, but I could do that if I wanted. I do have the power to do that’. It's like, why would you say that? That sounds like an AI video. Yeah.

Kate: (1:11:58)

Yes. He's like, thanks for reminding me of my power. Yeah, saw they asked him about, a reporter asked him about the Sydney Sweeney ad and her being a registered Republican. And he's like, ‘well, now that I know that the ad is fantastic. I love the ad’. Insanity.

Jess: (1:12:26)

Yeah, Yeah, totally. Ugh. Okay, I feel like I like that these little bunnies on a trampoline just like I just got hit with so many bombs. found out it wasn't real. And now we're talking about Trump again.

Kate: (1:12:32)

Yeah, no, it's true. It's a spiritual crisis of all kinds.

Jess: (1:12:47)

And the last thing I, okay, I did write down one more thing that is technically kind of fun. I wasn't going to talk about it, but I need a palate cleanser. I, and I wasn't going to talk about it only because I, I looked into the astrology and found absolutely nothing of note. So this is just for fun, I guess.  and I, this I am a few years behind on, but here we go. I found out there's a cocktail, a beer cocktail that everybody really loves. Have you heard of this already?

Kate: (1:12:54)

Beer cocktail?

Jess: (1:13:17)

Let me bring you back a few to, I think it was 2019 or maybe it was 2016. No, it was 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. A brewery put on their menu a little beer cocktail of their invention that they called Spaghett after the John C. Reilly… what is that? It's Tim and Eric, and they did like a thing and that's why they named it that. Okay. So it's, it's, take a Miller High Life and you just like put a shot of Aperol into it and a lime and it makes it this like beautiful kind of like ruby color.

Kate: (1:13:47)

Wow.

Jess: (1:13:47)

And it's, so people have been getting that a lot. I've like been around some people who will order that. And I, when I first saw it, I was like, what the fuck did you just order? And like, you've got a Miller Highlife and then a shot of Aperol, and then you dump it into your beer. And I thought this was just somebody like being weird, but it's actually like a trendy cocktail. So you haven't heard of it?

Kate: (1:14:05)

Wow. No, I don't know if I'm uncool or if it hasn't. I mean, it sounds aggressively East Coast, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn't reach the shores of Denver, but it sounds good. I mean, it's like 10 a.m. for me here and I'm like, I could go for that right now. I love that for all.

Jess: (1:14:12)

Yeah, right. It's so like the color is just gorgeous. You should look at pictures of it after it's like so pretty that it just makes you want it. I tried to look into the astrology. I was like, let's look at what its Sun sign is, but I can't find any specific dates. I just have years, that it was created in 2016 and then got covered in some articles in 2019. And the only connector I have to now is just that this is the year I heard of it.

Kate: (1:14:50)

I love that.

Jess: (1:14:52)

I've just got years, nothing really to say, but just like maybe that's what we all need after all of this Trump, Epstein, Pluto, Sun, Mercury retrograde bullshit. We need to just go get a Miller High Life, a shot of Aperol, a lime and relax.

Kate: (1:15:01)

Yeah, yeah. I think that that's so Venus-Jupiter.

Jess: (1:15:08)

Yes, there we go. That's the astrology of it. It's just us bringing it to you during this prime conjunction.

Kate: (1:15:15)

Well, actually, I think 2016 has been coming up a lot this year. So I will validate you with that. Like online, everybody is talking about 2016. And I think I've looked a lot at 2016 to try to figure out like why people, and like his, like, you know, just from a social, like a social standpoint, know, 2016 was a turning point for the United States.

Jess: (1:15:27)

Mm-hmm. Huge vibe shift, biggest vibe shift I feel like since like 9/11. I feel like it was like 9/11 was a huge vibe shift and then 2016 was a vibe shift.

Kate: (1:15:45)

Yeah. Yep. And everybody like I've noticed on videos online, they're like, this looks like 2016 like house parties and, you know, just when the vibes were generally more optimistic is the sentiment. But there was in 2016, a Jupiter-Neptune opposition. And that's kind of the main thing that stands out to me.

Jess: (1:16:18)

Mm-hmm.

Kate: (1:16:19)

Which we are getting Jupiter-Neptune now-ish, we were.  So I feel like the square could bring out similar themes to the opposition, but now we've just been through so much to where there's a sense of wanting to get back to something.  And Jupiter is the expander, and then Neptune is super dreamy. So it's like an expansion of dreams and mysticism and magic and good parties and fun drinks and Spaghett. Yeah, right.

Jess: (1:16:54)

And Miller Highlife. Yeah, same. Bring me back to Spaghett and drinking. And it's and there's still time. We still have you'll still have two months of August left to go do that.  All right. So thinking more about our sign-off from last time, I didn't I realized days after we finished that taping. ABCDEFG. I was like, why is there no H? Because I was like, G-H-I gotta go. Now I realize it took me days. You mean G like G-E-E, like gee whiz like that, right? Like A-B-C-D-E-F-G I gotta go. It's not like the letter. So like it doesn't need an H is what I realized.

Kate: (1:17:37)

Oh yeah, I actually never thought of that.

Jess: (1:17:47)

So I'm still just overanalyzing it like last week, last time.

Kate: (1:17:50)

Yeah, I mean, I love the analysis. It's really pushing me to go further into the mind of Kourtney Kardashian. But yeah, I didn't even think that it was G. Like, gee whiz, I have to go. But I like that.

Jess: (1:18:04)

You thought it was just the letter.

Kate: (1:18:06)

Yeah, I just thought that she was tripping out. Forgot the H. Yeah. I actually probably like didn't think about it at all until we used it as our sign off. Critical thinking skills not on.

Jess: (1:18:28)

I do think it's the perfect sign off for people that are taping remotely and it's physically impossible for us to say it at the same time. I think that that means it's the perfect sign off for us. All right. Well, I am Jess Abbott of Inkblot Astrology. You can book a reading with me at inkblotastrology.com. Love to give readings. I don't know if you know this about me. I'm an astrologer and I like to give astrology readings.

Kate: (1:18:37)

Yeah, perfect. And I'm Kate of Kronos Astrology. You can find me at kronosastrology.com. I would love to give an astrology reading or just a general reading as well of energy or, you know, it doesn't even have to be astrology.

Jess: (1:19:12)

Could be an excerpt from a book.

Kate: (1:19:15)

Yeah, yeah. There's people who do, is it called bibliomancy?

Jess: (1:19:21)

Oh where you flip open the Bible and you just point to a random verse and read it as sort of like… Yeah I've honestly done it and it didn't work. I think God is just up there shrugging. He's like why?

Kate: (1:19:25)

Yeah. Yeah, he's like, if you want this to work, you're gonna have to be more creative.

Jess: (1:19:40)

Yeah, he's like, it's not going to come to you that easy. It's like, can't remember if this actually happened to me or if it was a meme I saw six months ago, but like where you do that and, you like flip open and point and it's like, ‘the ark was 14 feet and seven inches long’. And you're like, ‘this does not help my situation’.

Kate: (1:19:42)

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so if you guys want me to do that for you, I offer that as well.

Jess: (1:20:03)

Wait, you do that? Wait, I was like, did I just dig on this like right to your face…

Kate: (1:20:08)

No, no, no. I do feel like that's something that you could do if you had enough confidence.

Jess: (1:20:15)

I mean, I do love the concepts. Like I do think that the Bible is an incredible piece of work. We will get into this another episode, but it's not that I don't want to love the bibliomancy. Is that what you called it? It's not that I don't love it. I want to love it, but I think that there's got to be more to it than the Bible just giving you the answer you need without any effort whatsoever.

Kate: (1:20:23)

Yeah, the Bible is not your tarot deck, bibliomancers.

Jess: (1:20:42)

Oh my god, yeah, the Bible has Scorpio rising. It's.. you have to really crack its code before you can.. All right, let's sign off before this gets any worse. All right. Ready? Set. Go.

Jess: + Kate:

A B C D E F G I gotta go. I have to go.

Jess:

Yeah, we gotta go.

Kate: (1:20:45)

Wow. Yeah, we have to go. We have to go.

Jess: (1:21:16)

How do we stop it from recording?

Kate: (1:21:18)

There, stopped.