The Aspen Tradition

As Venus journeys retrograde through the radiant halls of Leo, we are invited into deep contemplation on love, value, and the dynamics of power and truth. This cycle opens pathways for spiritual reflection on how charisma is wielded, how truth is protected, and how integrity is cultivated across public and private spheres.

Mercury also resides in Leo, amplifying our call to courageous speech and sacred storytelling. This astrological alignment signals a season of active witnessing. Through ritual attention, we honor both the seen and the hidden. Through spiritual discernment, we uplift transparency and accountability.

🧭 In this post, we explore the unfolding dimensions of the Epstein Files, trace public reaction across political and spiritual fault lines, and illuminate the ethics of witnessing from a Wiccan perspective. Guided by Venus and Mercury’s placements, we engage the work of naming harm, holding truth, and weaving justice into sacred practice.

📁 The Legacy of Harm and the Archive of Evidence

Jeffrey Epstein was a financier with deep social ties to some of the world’s most powerful figures—Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and many others. His public persona masked a decades-long pattern of coercion, exploitation, and manipulation, particularly targeting young women and girls. Convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from a minor, Epstein received a controversial plea deal that shielded him from broader federal prosecution. This deal became one of the fault lines in the public’s reckoning with how privilege shelters abuse.

In 2019, Epstein was arrested again—this time facing federal charges for sex trafficking. He died in jail before trial, under highly disputed circumstances. His death catalyzed widespread attention to what had been known in fragments for years: the existence of flight logs, seized media from his homes, and an alleged “client list” of powerful associates. These archives—what came to be known publicly as the Epstein Files—became the center of a collective, transpartisan demand for transparency.

⚖️ In July of 2025, the Department of Justice issued a formal statement: the files contain no “client list,” no prosecutable records of participation by additional parties, and no justification for further public release. This memo prompted outrage from both MAGA-aligned voices and progressive justice advocates, many of whom had interpreted prior DOJ messaging—and Trump’s public statements—as signaling forthcoming disclosure.

This contradiction has sparked a broader public reckoning—a complex dance between individual privacy and the collective’s ethical right to know. For spiritual communities rooted in justice and discernment, the question emerges with renewed urgency: What role do we play when institutions close the door on truth? What spiritual responsibilities arise when clarity is obstructed?

📸 Proximity, Pageantry, and the Performance of Innocence

Donald Trump’s social and professional ties to Jeffrey Epstein are well-documented. From shared appearances at Mar-a-Lago to flight logs and birthday letters, their connection was not hidden—it was celebrated. Trump hosted events where Epstein was the only guest among young women contestants, including a “calendar girl” party at Mar-a-Lago in the early 2000s. Their friendship spanned nearly 15 years, woven through elite circles in Manhattan and Palm Beach.

Trump also owned the Miss Universe Organization from 1995 to 2015, which included Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants. During this time, multiple contestants alleged that Trump entered dressing rooms while they were changing—some as young as 15. In interviews with Howard Stern, Trump openly described inspecting contestants while they were undressed, claiming his role as owner gave him access. These comments were public long before his presidential campaigns, and were widely circulated during both election cycles.

Progressive voices, feminist organizers, and spiritual communities raised alarms early and often. The concern was not abstract—it was rooted in lived experience, public record, and Trump’s own words. His repeated invocation of the term “witch hunt” to deflect criticism is especially ironic in this context. The scrutiny he faced was not baseless—it was a collective act of ethical discernment, one that many spiritual practitioners recognized as necessary and overdue.

🧩 Trump’s relationship to Epstein, and his behavior within the pageant system, reveal a pattern: proximity to harm, performance of innocence, and strategic use of wealth and charisma to evade accountability. These are not isolated incidents—they are part of a broader cultural script that rewards charm over character, and spectacle over truth.

From a Wiccan ethical lens, this is a moment to reaffirm that discernment is sacred, and that truth-telling is a communal responsibility.

⚖️ When Accountability Is Convenient, and Silence Is Strategic

In the public response to the Epstein Files, a paradox emerges: many of the loudest demands for transparency come from communities that have historically downplayed or dismissed Trump’s own ethical violations. The same voices that rallied behind a man convicted of 34 felonies—including falsifying records about hush money paid to silence sexual misconduct allegations—are now insisting on full exposure of others’ improprieties. The logic is not judicial; it is strategic.

Each of us must approach accountability through the lens of healing justice. Ethical failings do not erase a person’s humanity, and restoration is possible when paired with remorse, truth-telling, and meaningful redress. But the case of Donald Trump defies those restorative pathways. His convictions are recent, his conduct remains unrepentant, and no sentence has been served. The harm is ongoing, not historical.

🪶 The Energy We Inherit and the Harm We Recycle

When powerful figures abuse visibility to mask violence, the harm ripples beyond the immediate victims. It becomes woven into cultural memory. Silence, in such contexts, leaves behind energetic residue.

When justice is delayed through wealth and charisma, what energetic debris does that leave behind? In Wiccan practice, we attend not only to the material impacts of injustice but to the spiritual pollution it generates. Ethical violations create entropy—disruptions in energetic equilibrium that weaken communal trust and spiritual vitality.

🔮 The Epstein Files controversy, and the institutional deflections surrounding it, call for ritual reckoning:

• Cleansing ourselves of the normalization of deception and complicity
• Crafting spells for protection of truth, and for the safety of those who risk bodily harm and societal shunning by naming what others wish to keep hidden
• Practicing introspection to explore whether we are living with authenticity and courageous voracity

Take this moment as an invitation to the work of energetic integrity— restoring clarity, transparency, and accountability as sacred practices.

🌕 Venus, Mercury, and the Cross-Quarter of Reckoning

As we move through Venus retrograde and Mercury’s transit in Leo, the celestial atmosphere amplifies the ethical invitations we’ve been exploring. Venus retrograde asks us to reassess the relational contracts we uphold and the cultural economies we perpetuate. In Leo, it does so with theatrical clarity—bringing questions of loyalty, pride, and embodied sovereignty into sharp relief.

Mercury’s placement in Leo adds intensity to this work. Speech becomes spell, and every truth spoken carries the weight of sacred storytelling. When Mercury and Venus cohabitate this way, they ask not simply for reflection, but for reclamation—of voice, of story, of ethical rhythm.

🔭 Layered atop these transits, we approach the cross-quarter Sabbat of Lughnasadh, a festival of harvest, reckoning, and communal responsibility. Traditionally celebrated on August 1st, it marks the turning toward autumn—a moment to gather what has ripened, discern what has soured, and begin the spiritual preparations for longer nights. Lughnasadh calls us into accountability with what we’ve cultivated:

• Have we sown truth in our relationships and communities?
• Where has rot gone unnamed, and what must now be composted into clarity?

This is not merely seasonal symbolism—it is spiritual choreography. The cosmos and the calendar are aligned. The truths rising around the Epstein Files and political spectacle are part of this greater rhythm: a call to harvest truth, share it with care, and prepare for the energetic demands of the season ahead.

🌾 Truth is a Living Spell, and We Are Its Keepers

To witness ethically is not a passive act—it is spiritual labor. It asks us to engage clarity not only as a principle, but as a practice. When institutions retreat from truth, and power cloaks itself in spectacle, it is our rituals, our words, and our gatherings that must carry the weight of meaning.

Each of us is responsible for the tending of truth. Not only through discernment and dialogue, but through daily choices that affirm integrity and visibility. That might mean naming harm in spaces where silence is the norm. It might mean protecting whistleblowers, survivors, and truth-tellers through spellwork, advocacy, or presence. It might mean checking ourselves, cleansing the shame of our own inaction, and daring to do better—knowing that spirit doesn’t demand perfection, but asks for participation.

🌀 Use this moment to reflect on your role as a spiritual witness:

• What truths have I been called to uphold, and how have I honored them?
• Where has my silence shielded harm?
• What does it mean to practice justice not as a reaction, but as a rhythm?

🪔 Ritual suggestions:

• Candle spell for truth: White, blue, or yellow candles anointed with frankincense or clove. Speak aloud one uncomfortable truth you vow to protect.
• Bath ritual for clearing complicity: Use salt, rosemary, and lemon peel. Reflect on where shame lingers and release what is no longer aligned.
• Altar offering for visibility: Place a mirror and a key on the altar. Recognize seeing yourself and being seen authentically is the key to your power. Dedicate space to those risking safety for justice.

Truth is sacred. Naming harm is holy. Protection is a spell woven of visibility, solidarity, and spirit.