Your Must-Listen List: 3 Podcasts to Binge Before 2022 is Over (If you want to blow your mind)

To say that podcasts have gotten me through the last three years would be an understatement. 

Podcasts have become the new school, essays, articles, entertainment source, and more. As someone who can’t stand to not be multitasking every moment of every day, I can tell you that podcasts have been the background of my life for at *least* the past three years. 

When I find a podcast I love, I practically foam at the mouth and search ravenously to make sure it has more than five episodes.

So, as my end-of-year gift to you, I want to offer you binge material that will catapult you to a new timeline, clear your skin up, smack you in the a**, and change your life- if you’re ready- all in the category of “spiritual and spicy”- just how I like it.

#1

Awakening OD

Categories: Comedy, Spirituality, Pep Talks, Aliens

OD stands for “Orientation Department” but it could also stand for Over Dose considering I have listened to most of these episodes more than once and the content feels like a punch to the face, and leaves you feeling like anything could happen and you may be God, but maybe that’s not a good thing... 

Jessa describes the podcast premise as “An 8th Dimensional being disguised as a comedian reluctantly shares pointers for life in the Matrix,” and that is very accurate. 

Jessa is as profound as she is funny and leaves no stone left unturned in the catalog of episodes which range from “Ugh Love” which demystifies companionship and romance when you’re “awake,” to “Eat Your Vision Board” which gives you actionable ways to participate in manifestation. 

Episodes I recommend: “A Tour of the Matrix,” “Ugh Love,” “Hot Alien Summer”

You can check it out on Spotify and Apple Podcasts (or wherever else, I don’t know, google it).

P.S. Jessa is a good friend, but that has no bearing on this very unbiased review..

P.P.S. Jessa just started a new podcast called “Spiritual Bro” that’s quite genius, check that out if you run out of episodes and want more.

THIS ARTICLE IS SPONSORED BY:

YEAR AHEAD 2023:

An Event to Guide You and Prepare You, Emotionally, Spiritually, Energetically and Physically for 2023

#2

Cheat Codes with Pea

Categories: Sci-Fi Spirituality, Art, Reality Creation, Timeline Jumping

Pea is also a friend of mine and I feature on one of the episodes, but the genius of this show goes beyond my relationship with Pea. 

This podcast really does give you the cheat codes to living your most authentic and dialed-up life. 

With a heavy emphasis on freedom and doing whatever you want without apology, Pea offers a lot of concrete advice in their solo episodes and a lot of mind-bending conversations in their interviews with guests that will leave you feeling *neutral* and *charged up* in the best way.

This is a great podcast to put on when you’re going for a walk and can really listen, but just make sure you have your notes app open or you’ve brought a notebook to keep track of any revelations this content brings you.

Episodes I recommend: “Spiritual Capitalism with Kinzie Madsen,” “Your Success Is Not a Fluke with Flex Mami,”  “Distorted Mirrors with Jas the Moon Mother”

#3

Bitchcraft: Spirituality for Bad People


Categories: Truth-telling, Punk-Rock Spirituality, FairyCore

I found this podcast a few weeks ago and every episode I’ve devoured so far is gold. If you lean a little “conspiracy theorist” (aka like to find your own truth), and want to hear about christ consciousness, fairies and sex in the same episode, this podcast is for you. 

Grace is a fellow Astrologer and often brings in Astrological themes, but this is not an astrology podcast…it’s the podcast of my dreams, and I don’t even identify as a “witch.” 

I highly suggest you pick some episodes out to binge before the end of 2022.

Episodes I recommend: “The Fairy Rings of the Vatican,” “Mary Magdalene and Christ Conciousness,” “The Apocalypse, The Ascension and Atlantis”

What were YOUR top three podcasts that got you through this year? Comment down below and let me know…I’m running out of episodes..

*~

Want to hear the list of honorable mentions? The three podcasts that have been crucial to my sanity and evolution from this year and beyond, but weren’t included in this list are on the full article on Patreon!

Mars Retrograde 2020

image: Kelsey Lu by Emmet Green for Crack Magazine

This year, the Mars Retrograde portal opens on 09/09/2020, and closes 11/13/2020. 

As a planet, Mars governs our ability to assert ourselves, and our relationship to our primal nature. It is associated with the physical body, physical health, sexuality, wanting, conflict, war, resolution, and energetic output. 

Whereas Venus is the receptive principle in Astrology, Mars is the active. 

Where our Mars lies in our chart (sign and house) is the area in which we feel most inclined to assert ourselves, find our dominance and understand our own power, strength and limits.

The Warrior archetype associated with Mars demonstrates the way it impacts how we physically show up and fight for our values and what we believe. 

A regression of the active principle means we think before we step, and we get to spend intimate time with our “why” instead of living so much in the mechanics of “how.”

Remember that a retrograde is simply an earthly perception- that planets don’t go backwards, but are just seen to do so from the vantage point here on earth. 

Similar to the planet, you may feel during this time like you have regressed- that your old habits or frustrations are rising in certain areas and thus you must not have grown or evolved as far as you thought. 

This is one perspective, a perspective that you’re free to choose, but don’t have to.

Another perspective is that you are in every moment of time and every experience for a reason. When old positions or feelings arise in your field, they do so to offer you resolution with who you are, and where you are. An opportunity to recognize that all states are transient and the more you grow, the less impact these states have on you, your life and your self-perception. 

Your plight up until this point is both validated and challenged by this planetary moment. 

You may realize you once experienced certain things with regularity, but don’t anymore. This means you are doing things differently and are getting different results, and that, my love, is the definition of progress. 

Mars is the planet of embodiment and physicality, of force and sexuality. The lessons of this time have a deep impact on your body, but so will your resolutions. 

This particular retrograde is also a powerful one because of Mars’ travel back through the sign it rules in traditional Astrology, Aries. 

As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries does things without asking for help or permission. 

Aries represents the spice of new leadership and the pain of using brute force to muscle through your obstacles. 

Aries is also about want, need and choice. It is an explosive, messy, beautiful energy, full of life and possibility. It is both suffocating in its individuality and liberating for the same reasons. 

Mars in Aries embodies the quality of infancy- the state of separation from being a part of a whole to being an individual. 

Mars in Aries describes the primal nature of this occurance- the fact that being human means being part of a collective while being a wild, free, and singular body with our own desires and will all at once. 

There is no real separation between you and your connection to all of creation, nor a separation between you and your current expression as one human body- both realities exist at once. 

In a lot of ways, a Mars retrograde in Aries is a time for reflection on our very paths as human beings- our assignment of learning as individual spirits on this lush, abundant, living planet. A reflection on the ways we have separated ourselves from others, separated from ourselves, from our true nature. 

Below I have given you some reflections questions to get you started with embracing and embodying the themes for this season. Pick a couple to journal on and come back to throughout the retrograde, and stay tuned for special Mars Rx events coming soon by adding yourself to my newsletter below.

Want to support the production of this kind of content and the continuation of this work? You can click here or here to make a donation!

Reflection Questions:

What do I feel is my “true nature”?

What parts of my primal nature do I hide from the most?

What is my relationship to shame?

When was the first time I really wanted something?

What was that experience like?

What is my process for feeling, listening to and honoring my desires?

What is my process for maintaining my relationship to the things I acquire?

Why do I think I am meant to experience and express through my individuality?

What do I think I am meant to express through relationship with others?

All love,

Jaliessa

Venus Retrograde 2020

image: Thurstan Redding of model Adwoa Aboah

Beginning on May 13th, 2020, Venus- a planet that concerns our relations, and our ability to create and sustain pleasure and stability- will retrograde; shifting its course and looking to us as if it’s receding.

From Mercury to Pluto, all planets have the ability to retrograde; to appear to the Earth as if they’re going backwards. But this is an Earth-based perception, a time characterized by our unique vantage point- it is not a definitive story of the retrograde experience.

In the West, we perceive time as linear. History is behind us and the future is ahead. We make future-minded decisions and think from start to finish. Astrology reminds us that the universe and life are cyclical. 

The effects of this time may pull up troublesome longings for past relationships, obsession over the state, pace and direction of your current relationship, or, for some, it may feel like nothing at all. 

These experiences, varied in complexity and impact, are all valid. This is because a retrograde is not a broad-stroke experience but instead a time for a nuanced assessment of our own relationship to progress.

We only carry baggage if we think it’s still useful to us in some way. It’s our job to analyze which of what we’re carrying is worth the weight, and what is compelled by scarcity and fear and thus blocking our swing into the future.

Retrograde is a time to slow down, to allow former iterations of ourselves and our relationships to meet us where we are. To greet them with compassion, knowing we decide the weight of their burden on us now. 

During a Venus Retrograde, you might want to leave your job to “move forward,” because the job is “holding you back.” You may feel the same about your relationships. These feelings do not come from a planet’s motion. The motion triggers a unique relationship to time and value that helps us consider how far we have come, how far we are from where we want to be, and the quality of the gap between the two.

Nevertheless, it’s not as much a time to act, but a time to notice.

To let go during a retrograde is a slow-release, a meditation on moving on, and a lesson in the medicine of mutability. The trick is to know that what you cast away may never stop coming back to you. The goal must not be to get rid of the things that haunt you but to change your relationship to them. To contextualize the return of old feelings, desires and memories as an opportunity to reflect. 

If you’re feeling nostalgic for a fizzled romance, what are you actually feeling nostalgic for? Being loved and cared for? Mutual support? Someone to talk to? Free food? Or, how that particular dynamic made you feel?

Longing to get specific needs met from a past relationship, job, or otherwise connection, tells you what your needs are, not that the things you rightfully disconnected from deserve any more of your time.

Aching for physical affection from past partner(s) informs you of how important touch is to your happiness, not that those particular people need to repeat this action to satisfy you. This information can now push you to vocalize that need among the people you already have in your life, and the ones to come, instead of reconnecting with someone you intentionally distanced yourself from.

Venus retrograde does not want you to get a snarky text back from your ex reminding you why you ended it, it wants you to think about why you want to send the text and what you are hoping to receive.

To retrograde is to retrace, not to regress.

Our job right now is to allow the pain, joy and frustrations of the past to take up space and teach us about what we want and how far we have come. To shrug these feelings off, we first have to recognize that we were carrying their weight on our shoulders.

The returning ache from past pain is not silly or naive, nor is it coincidental.

A state of recollection can be informative fuel for foresight. Fresh thoughts on stale experiences exist in the present for a reason. So, when you glance back, let yourself do it without attachment or judgement. 

Venus retrograde is a magical time for the alchemical transformation of regret into manifestation.

To turn “I no longer have” into “this is what I need.”

A Venus Retrograde is but another cycle. It is up to you to decide to either fight the flow or ride the wave into a new, more glorious and informed iteration of you, who embraces your infinite potential for love, power and success.

Ready to take the next step to see how this retrograde will impact your specific chart and what to do about it? Grab my Venus Retrograde guide here!

*This is an re-visted and re-edited version of an article originally written for The Hoodwitch. You can find the original article here*

Weekly Horoscopes (12/23-12/29)

Below are the horoscopes for the Solar Eclipse in Capricorn that occurs on the 25th. 

As a reminder, Eclipses are not time for manifestation or outward work as much as they are times to sit still and observe where the Moon, spirit, etc want to take you and what they want you to pay attention to.

Read for your rising, Sun, and Moon signs for some insight into how this event may shift your life and path forward, and use the response box below to detail your thoughts and set some Eclipse intentions.

P.S. If you love this content and would like to support it, you can make a one-time donation below and share these horoscopes with your friends!

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Capricorn

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

An Eclipse in your own sign is powerful and may shift what you thought were core parts of your identity, or bring to light things that have been transforming under the surface for some time now. You may be a proud single person who now suddenly is considering deep commitment, or you may no longer identify with your job title after years at the same company. During the Eclipse, your only job is to solidify what you feel like is changing for/about you- your perspective, self-perception, desires, etc-and accept it. The Eclipse will do the job of destroying what is in the way of your new path and guide you to the perfect next step.

Aquarius

(Jan. 20-Feb.18)

Whatever you have been trying to escape may come knocking at your door, this Eclipse season. If it does, it has a message and a gift for you. What have you been running from? What will it look like to stop running and receive gifts from these things? The more you live in the world of the future, the longer it will take you to get there. Take a moment to get present with where you are and truly face it. The deeper you sink into this process, the bigger the reward will be for this work when the big event is over.

Pisces

(Feb.19-March 20)

It’s not your job to fix other people, and you don’t have to hang around while they heal themselves, either. If you have been sticking in relationships out of pity, habit, fear of being alone, or false hope that things will change, the consequences may come to find you, this season. Unconditional love can happen from afar, and sometimes it is best given this way. You have no idea what kind of freedom and nourishing connections lie on the other side of facing the situations you’re in for what they are.

Aries

(March 21-April 19)

This Eclipse is happening in your place of career and social position. It’s a very “let go or be dragged” kind of energy. What have you been trying to force or make work for too long, in your work life? What are you so afraid will happen if you let go? And why are you legitimizing the possibility of your fears over the evidence that you have and always will be okay? You are a powerhouse, Aries, and people love when you don’t recognize that. This is your life. Don’t trade your power for complacency.

Taurus

(April 20-May 20)

You have so much wisdom and insight inside of you that only requires the right environments and relationships to come to light. What have those places and people been so far? What do they have in common? This coming year is less about doing, running, and taking, and is more about positioning yourself well. This Eclipse, decide what kind of positions you will no longer tolerate, and which you will place yourself in more intentionally. Write these things down so the Moon can hear them loud and clear and block and clear your roads accordingly.

Gemini

(May 21-June 21)

Mortality, trauma, and self-understanding are some of the heavy topics that may be surfacing, right now. The urge to escape is strong, but it will only dig the hole deeper if you follow it. How can you use this time to build yourself up and disconnect from any feelings of victimhood? This Eclipse wants to help you end some cycles you have been trying to get out of for years, but it needs you to identify them and surrender to the process in order to step in and re-direct the ship.

Cancer

(June 22-July 22)

Right now, you have a big opportunity to release old, destructive relationship patterns and move into more self-reliant, self-loving momentum. For this Eclipse to make as big a shift as you want it to, it’s time to face some of the hard stories you’ve been telling yourself about your lovability, the availability of the kind of relationships you want, what you have to offer, and more. The more you clear, the more room you make for what you want to find you and have space to settle. 

Leo

(July 23-Aug. 22)

All you have to do in life is your best, but what does your best actually look like at this point in life, right now? This Eclipse is not going to hand you anything, it’s pushing you to learn how to acknowledge where you can do more and be better. What tools and knowledge do you have but don’t use? It could be as simple as drinking more water or offering more gratitude. Make a list of ways you could be implementing your wisdom about what works more into your daily life and routines and your life will keep building into something beautiful.

Virgo

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Your creative fire and passion may be at their very peak or lowest dip, this Eclipse season. Which one it is will tell you whether what you need is rest, recovery, and a journey to your inner world for answers and inspiration, or if a big burst of making and doing and showing the world how you feel is in order. Life is but a series of decisions. This Eclipse wants you to remember that you must make your decisions for you, your well-being, and your desire and nothing else. This is your permission to live more bold and self-ish.

Libra

(Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

If you have been creating homes out of people or out of promises from people, this Eclipse may shake their foundations. Your safety and ability to flourish come from you and no one else. Wherever you have planted yourself should be because you chose it and not because someone told you to or because you’re holding onto something. Release any emotional ties and stories to where, and whom, you call home and see what the Eclipse brings you.

Scorpio

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Who do you answer to, Scorpio? When you judge yourself, when you congratulate yourself, when you instruct someone else, whose voice and standards are you using? This Eclipse wants to shift your relationship with power, specifically in regards to who and what you give it to when you speak to yourself and others. What can you do on your end to begin this process of shifting your mindset and focus? The time to start is now.

Sagittarius

(Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

This Eclipse season is about resources for you. This means there may be a shake up in where you invest your emotional resources and your time, as well as whom or what you rely outside of yourself to provide for you. Even if the shift feels hard right now, it is all in your favor. How can you loosen your grip on anything you have become too attached to as an external source of self-soothing, stability, or self-worth? Then, all you have to do is allow the Eclipse to do its job.

Weekly Horoscopes (12/16-12/22)

Haaaappy Solstice! You have made it through the darkest part of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere) and are now returning to light. 

What dark shadows do you feel like you have moved through in the last few months?

What are you hoping to bring light and levity to? 

The Winter Solstice means we are now entering into Capricorn season-and it’s time to get serious. Not stiff and stuffy, but seriously committed to you and what you want “you” to mean during this season.

Beyond the Solstice and the Sun’s movement into Capricorn, the other major transits are a Mercury-Neptune square, Venus’ move into Aquarius, a square between Venus and Uranus, and a Mars-Pluto sextile. 

The push and pull we are dealing with, this week, is between the “reality” we’ve been fed and the “reality” we’re constantly creating for ourselves. 

Resse Evans of Yes Supply and I discuss “practicality”s place in manifestation and the magical at length in the fresh content that drops this Saturday in the Manifestation Project. 

One of the things Reese said on this subject that really stuck with me was, “Logic can only be pulled from what you’ve learned in the finite amount of time you’ve lived. Intuition is coming from the infinite.” 

This week, pay attention to when you use what you’ve seen or been told so far on Earth to limit yourself, and, on the other side of the coin, when you let yourself float away with your ideal visions when the material is telling you things aren’t flowing. 

For more information on how the energy of this week may impact you more specifically, read the horoscopes for your Sun, Moon and Rising signs below, and then put your response (answer to one of the questions posed in the text, general thoughts, affirmations, goals for this week, or whatever else you want) in the response box below the ‘scope!

P.S. If you love this content and would like to support it, you can make a one-time donation below and/or share these horoscopes with your friends!

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Capricorn

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Happy Solar Return, Capricorn. You have worked so hard this year and deserve to celebrate how far you’ve come. When you take stock of what you’ve accomplished, you often forget to include the intangible-the fact that you have evolved in your mindset, routines, habits, and emotional maturity and durability as well as your work and relationships. Think back to this time last year and the type of mental and emotional situation you were in. How will you celebrate this homecoming (of which there will be many more)? And, how will you let people witness you as you do it?

Aquarius

(Jan. 20-Feb.18)

Venus moves into your sign, this week (12/19), to sweeten things up for you. You often choose to brave things alone and intellectualize away the hard things you feel. Now is not the time for this nonsense! Venus is here to teach you how to lean into the support and safety you have cultivated in your life. This can be a fun, sensual process that can look any way you want, but it’s your time to ask for what you need and practice initiating this kind of exchange!

Pisces

(Feb.19-March 20)

This time of year often produces a low-level anxiety around not doing well enough or feeling like you’re always forgetting something. This year, create intentions for how you want to show up that take your capacity and comfort into consideration. The intention could be as simple as “be present.” This way, whenever you’re feeling frantic, you can check in with your goal and settle into the knowledge that everything is happening as it should. All of your so called “mistakes” are a perfect part of that rhythm. Do what you can do with all of you intact and offer up the rest to what’s bigger than you.

Aries

(March 21-April 19)

While most people slow down and wait for the new year to change their routines during this time or year, now is your most potent time. Don’t feel pressured by culture and tradition to quiet the ideas that are coming to the surface. At this time, rest and peace are a crucial part of your process, but they are not the entirety of it. How can you create time in your days and weeks now to get a better understanding of what it is you WANT out of your life in general and what that means for what you should be pursuing now?

Taurus

(April 20-May 20)

It’s time to change your story, Taurus. Whatever you look for evidence of is what you will find evidence of, and the truth you’ve been running with is not helping you progress. If the world were your playground, what would you want to be true about your success, your relationships, etc? What would it look like to act like these are already the truths that exist? Try and commit to “acting as if,” this week, if only as an experiment, and see what happens.

Gemini

(May 21-June 21)

If you have felt like the universe has been playing a trick on you or you’ve been wary of trusting your higher guidance, it’s time to move on. Remember that you’re a Gemini-no one can play you. You can only play yourself. So, how have you been building roadblocks, lately, and shying away from the practices that help you remain healthy and successful? What resources have been offered to you or are just within reach that you haven’t made use of? This week, make an effort to call your power back and claim exactly where you are, and set some intention for where you’re going.

Cancer

(June 22-July 22)

The Sun shining directly across from you can feel confusing. You might not know what’s happening in your relationships or in your own brain. To combat this disorienting feeling, return each day to what inspires you and makes you feel confident in your abilities. Maybe that practice is writing, singing, dancing, talking, etc. Figure out what helps you come home to yourself and make it a non-negotiable routine.

Leo

(July 23-Aug. 22)

It can be hard to keep up with all of the things on your to-do list. Sometimes it can feel like the tasks never end, and they don’t! The thing about life is that it’s just a big series of tasks and to-dos, and that won’t change. The only thing that will is your attitude and approach to them. In every annoying situation you have an opportunity to test yourself in practicing what you preach. Keep your tools close by, this week, and by the Eclipses you will be a master at managing your mood.

Virgo

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

I invite you to push one of your biggest commitments right off of your plate, this week. The panic and pressure of feeling like you need to do more is because you’re investing your energy in something that is both unfulfilling and time-consuming, and that is a lethal combination. Take whatever remotely feels like it checks those two boxes and make a plan to extricate yourself from it asap. The space created from this action will bring in something new and more beautiful.

Libra

(Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

How much of you keeping yourself small is to not make waves in your family (of-origin, or chosen)? How often do you worry about what specific people you know will say about what you want to do and how you want to do it? Relationships should be spaces of unyielding support when it comes to taking risks and trusting yourself and your path. If you feel like there are connections that give you more stress than support, this week is a good time to reconsider them and take the space you need to re-group and make the decision that’s best for you.

Scorpio

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

This time of year can make you harden in response to feeling like you need to explain yourself to people who don’t understand you. The toll the process of communicating in these interactions takes on you is optional. This year, accept the challenge of using the dynamics that question you to get stronger in your convictions and even better at communicating them. See these interactions as blessed and necessary for you to learn how to invest in your feelings about what you’re doing instead of taking anyone else’s on.

Sagittarius

(Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Your season has come to an end, and this is the planting stage. You saw and took inventory of your last trip ‘round the Sun, and now is the time to plant the seeds you want to blossom, now. What kind of nurturing will these ideas and visions you’re planting need? What kind of nurturing will you need to tend to them? Now is the time to ground into your aspirations and deepen your sense of self-worth so things can come to you smooth and fast.