The words are returning. On the goddess's day.
Two things today.
Venus and Mercury both station direct today. The retrogrades that began October 3 and October 24, respectively, are over. If relationships have felt off, if your body has seemed foreign, if your resources have seemed strange, if communication has felt murky, if words kept landing wrong no matter how carefully you chose them, if decisions kept dissolving… that fog is lifting now. Slowly, but noticeably.
And today is Friday the 13th.
The day that used to belong to Freya. To Frigg. To Venus herself, whose name lives in the bones of this day across half of Europe's languages.
The number thirteen: the moon's own number, the number of lunar cycles in a year… rebranded as unlucky.
The goddess rebranded as something to fear.
Venus and Mercury stationing direct on Venus's day is the sky making a small, specific point: clarity and intuitive knowing are not opposites. They never were.
The connections to self and other are returning. The words are returning. On the right day.
✨ SPELL
Even when the moon isn’t new or full, we don’t have to wait for a “special” sky to practice reclaiming ourselves.
Ritual isn’t about the calendar—it’s about interrupting the grind, reorienting to what matters, and reminding yourself you’re not just here to produce.
Here’s a ritual for this week, aligned with the current zodiacal season. Minimal supplies. Maximum reclamation.
Air for Returning Clarity
A ritual for Venus and Mercury direct on the goddess's day.
Supplies:
Paper and pen
Your voice
Steps:
Write one true thing that Venus retrograde kept disconnected or Mercury retrograde kept murky. Something you've been circling but couldn't quite name, or something that still feels distant.
Read it out loud, slowly.
Say: "The connection is returning. The words are returning. What's true doesn't need the fog to protect it."
Keep the paper somewhere visible through the weekend.
Goddess Day. Venus direct. Mercury direct. The fog lifts on purpose.
✊ HEX
You don’t need a rundown of the headlines. You’re living them. Whether you’re in the U.S. or just suffering under its ripple effects, the harm is real—and relentless.
This isn’t catharsis. It’s counter-spell.
Each HEX is a ritual of refusal—a channel for holy rage, spiritual disruption, and deliberate, directed dissent.
Here’s who we’re targeting. And what to do about it.
No Is a Complete Sentence
Last week we celebrated. This week we keep our eyes open.
Here’s what happened since. More than a million people signed a petition asking House Democrats to choose someone other than Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker. Petitions to replace Chuck Schumer passed a hundred thousand signatures in a day. Bernie Sanders says he won’t back Schumer. A union with 600,000 members told him to step aside. Several senators-elect said the same, and one of them, Adam Hamilton of Kansas, said it in September, before a single vote was counted. On Thursday, Senator Chris Van Hollen announced he’ll run against Schumer.
And what do the men at the center say? Schumer: “I’ll be reelected.” Jeffries walks into his meeting, gets cheered, and says he looks forward to the vote.
Let’s name what this is. It’s rape culture, playing out in real time.
Rape culture was never only the assault itself. It’s the whole habit of mind that makes the assault thinkable. That “no” is an opening bid. That persistence is a virtue. That if you wait, and reframe, and say “the issue is not me,” the no will wear down. That the person saying no is a problem to be managed.
We know this script. We’ve heard it in bedrooms and boardrooms, courtrooms and church basements. And now we’re watching it in the United States Congress.
They’ll say they’re just running, and they are. Running is their right. Hearing is a choice.
Not everyone is saying no. That’s what the vote is for. But when a million people say it, and the answer is “I’ll be reelected,” we need to name it out loud for what it is.
So here’s what I want. People are shouting Ayanna Pressley’s name. She hasn’t said she’s running. What she has said is that Democrats need to be “the fighters in the room.” Jeffries would be the first Black Speaker, and that matters. A Speaker Pressley would, too, and she would be the first Black woman to hold the gavel. Black women have carried this party at the ballot box for decades and been asked to wait their turn every time. If we mean what we say about centering the most marginalized, here’s a chance to mean it.
So today we hex the habit that hears a no and waits it out.
We hex the idea that a win means the people who won it should sit down and be grateful.
We hex the line that tells the most loyal voters to wait their turn.
And we bless the ones who said it out loud: the senators-elect, the staffers taking a hundred calls a day, and the million people who typed their names.
The votes are secret, and they’re soon. The only people who decide are the Democrats in Congress. So call yours. Because this blue wave was not an endorsement of every single Democrat. It was a mandate on business as usual.
📞 Action
Call, starting this weekend. Only Democratic members vote, so call yours. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Ask for your representative or senator by name.
House script:
“Hi, I’m [name], a constituent from [town]. I’m calling about the House Democratic leadership vote next week. I’m asking Representative ___ to support a competitive election for Speaker and not to back Hakeem Jeffries. Voters gave Democrats a mandate, and I want leadership that fights like it. Will the Representative tell constituents how they voted? Thank you.”
Senate script:
“Hi, I’m [name], a constituent from [town]. I’m calling about the Senate Democratic leadership vote in December. I’m asking Senator ___ to support new leadership, including Senator Van Hollen’s bid. Will the Senator tell constituents how they voted? Thank you.”
One more call: Ask the switchboard for Representative Ayanna Pressley’s office and tell them you want her to run.
The ballots are secret, so asking them to say how they voted is the whole point.
If your members are Republicans (like both of my Senators here in Missouri), send this to a group chat in a state with Democratic members and ask five people to call.
With clarity returning on Freya's day,
Keli Lyn Jewel
PS: Sacred Systems launched four days ago. If you're inside the courses, welcome! If you're watching from outside, The Spiral Path is where this work continues week by week, in community, at a human pace. Come inside.
