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As y’all know, I’m working on a ritual for feminine sovereignty, and I’m making some headway – I’ve been researching ancestors to uplift and trying to get more than just names, because to empower them, we need to link them to their deeds. Even before I got much into this, I suspected that this was a Freyja-fueled conspiracy, and even more so now, because the subject of beauty has come up for me, and it is something that I’m not particularly comfortable with. I’m gonna be blunt, and please keep in mind that this is me unpacking my baggage, so if you view beauty differently than me, please feel free to talk about said differences, because it would probably be to my benefit, and maybe that of someone else reading.

For me, beauty isn’t fun. I know women who talk about using their femininity against men, and I have issues with it. On some level, I consider it lazy. (yes, I know that this is a respectability politics thing playing out in my head, but it’s there, so why the f*ck not acknowledge the toxic thoughts?)

Mouth is the chieftain / of all speech, / the mainstay of wisdom / and a comfort to the wise ones, / for every noble warrior / hope and happiness.- Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

This is not going to be a rune primer, but it is relevant to what I want to talk about today, which is speech and silence. Once upon a time, when I was studying runes, Odin went out of His way to tell me that Ansuz was a signifier rune for me, much in the way that a court card can be in the Tarot. At the time that He said this to me, I assumed it was because I’m a writer, or perhaps because Loki wants me to talk about Him publicly. And some of that is true; some of it is tied up in apotheosis, and some in personal work. Trigger Warning: Frank Discussion of Rape

I'm going to preface this with a trigger warning for discussion of rape and self-harm. I don't want anyone reading this to be triggered, but I am going to talk about the high cost of rape culture, and its lingering effects.