Mercury Retrograde Slows Us Down: Nourish, Edit, And Recheck

We open the week with Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius and a surprising ally: the Knight of Cups. That mix of swift, heart-led motion and cosmic slow-down creates a paradox we can use—pursue what truly fills you while triple-checking the path you take to get there.

We unpack the Knight of Cups as more than romance or daydreams. It’s the holy-grail focus that asks, What am I holding that deserves both hands? From there, we get practical. Expect travel snags and message mix-ups, so we share simple rituals to keep you steady: confirm bookings, draft sensitive texts, read important emails out loud, and cleanse your devices with selenite or shungite. Editing is magic right now—especially on paper—because revising your words reframes your week.

As the witch’s new year energy settles and holidays approach, we turn to kitchen witchery for grounding. Build a small sink-side altar, stir meals with intention, and let food be love and comfort. When sunlight is scarce, sound becomes spellwork: playlists that lift the room, from Stevie Wonder and Aretha to The Wiz soundtrack and epic film scores that make chores feel like quests. Your function is to be happy; protecting that joy raises the vibe for everyone around you.

We close with journal prompts to steer your heart: What are you chasing, is it worth it, and where can you pause until Mercury moves direct? If a relationship feels one-sided, what boundary or kindness would balance it? Press play to gather calm, clarity, and a few soulful tools for a gentler week. If this landed, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review—what song should we add to our joy playlist?

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Chapters

• 0:23 Welcome And Retrograde Mindset
• 0:54 Finding The Upside Of Slowdowns
• 2:02 Weekly Card Pull: Knight Of Cups
• 4:12 Fast Energy Meets Emotional Insight
• 5:29 Retrograde Travel And Communication Tips
• 8:27 New Year Energy And Kitchen Witchery
• 9:50 Nourishment, Gratitude, And Home Altars
• 11:36 Music As Spellwork And Mood Lifting
• 16:55 Joy Practices For Darker Months
• 18:35 Journal Prompts And Gentle Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Hey witches, welcome to another Cozy Cove and Chat. I am your host, Jenny C. Bell, and this is for the week of November 9th, and hopefully you're hearing this as Mercury is in retrograde, and who knows what is gonna happen. I am though I'm not a doomsdayer. You know, there's some people, like it seems like the only astrology they know is Mercury in retrograde and their sun sign. Um, I know a little more than that, but I just you just never know. Just never know. I feel like Mercury in retrograde actually can be good for us because it forces us to slow down and revisit things. And so there is like a positive spin that you can take on it. So the positive spin is always okay, things are kind of stopped communication-wise, travel-wise, so that I can go back over some of the things and kind of update and change things. It's actually as a writer, it's really good editing kind of energy, as long as the editing is not on my computer, like it's paper and pen editing. Um, but yeah, so I think it's a really good idea, if you haven't already done so, to cleanse, spiritually cleanse your electronics with the selenite wand or shangite piece or hope and love in your heart. Um, and you know, it is what it is. The planets, it doesn't, you know, they don't really like go backwards, they just kind of appear that way to us, and they affect us, and we roll with it. I think that's the best way to do it is to roll with it. So, yeah, this week we don't have a new moon or a full moon. We do have Mercury, Mercury going in retrograde in Sagittarius. So you should definitely see where Sagittarius is in your own personal chart, and you'll kind of get a better view as to what this means for you. Um, let's pull our card and then we'll dive in. So our card for the week. See, last week we had the emperor, so it's kind of strong masculine energy. Hmm. We have more, what traditionally in the tarot is also a masculine card. The Knight of Cups. Now, as I said, I re- I use the Modern Witches tarot. So this is a lady with skinny jeans and a beanie and some pink tips in her hair, but she still has like the eye on the prize energy. So the card is always a knight holding a cup on a horse, or always on horses and knights. And but in this case, like really focusing on the cup. So it's almost like if you've ever been on a carousel ride with the ring where you want to like grab the ring, it's that kind of energy of like, okay, I'm not even focused on what's ahead of me or I'm going, I'm focused on what I'm holding. And I often think of this card too as very like for those people interested in like the holy grail, right? It's very holy grail knight energy. It's like the holding the grail and like not letting it go. Knights of Templar type energy. But traditionally, it's this confident, charming, maybe even charismatic, dreamy knight. Um, who's really not that interested in you? He's a player, he's a player, she's a player, um, they're a player. They give this kind of energy of like, I'm in love with love. I like chasing love. Love is fun, but I don't really want to stick around. Well, sometimes we just want a good time, right? So, what does that mean for us as energy for the week? Well, interesting, right? So, last week we're in this kind of masculine doing energy. Night energy is often quick. Like when we look at, you know, timing of cards, the night energy always feels kind of fast. It's like chariot energy, right? It's like we're moving quickly. So I feel like the week is gonna move quickly. I feel like it's a week to focus on what fills your own cup. You might need it too if Mercury messes with you. You're gonna need to nourish yourself, right? It's a week to think about what you are chasing right now, what dreams are you chasing? What prize do you have your eye on? Um, and whenever we have cups, the cups always have to do with emotion, love, relationships. So, you know, there might be something to that. You might be going through a little something, you might need a little shift in the energy of a relationship or emotions. But yeah, so we'll have to see. It feels quick moving to me in this, like, I don't know, just in the context of this week. Feels like quick moving energy. It feels like some kind of epiphany on emotions or understanding of emotion, and it feels like we're going through with that taskmaster energy of last week. Even though Mercury's in retrograde, it still feels like this doing energy. So Mercury being in retrograde, I was kind of negative about it in the beginning. I always try to be positive every year. Always like, no, this is good. Like, I can revisit some things. But yeah, this is a time to slow down. Please triple quadruple check all holiday traveling for yourself, right? It doesn't go out of retrograde, it doesn't go direct until the 29th of this month. So if you're making holiday arrangements, you're booking airlines, hotels, just make sure to double triple check those things. I remember I made like I was the newer to astrology, and I had made um, we did like a road trip, and I had made the road trip plans in Mercury retrograde, not knowing. And I actually booked a hotel on in a place we weren't going to be. Like with the the it was all planned out, but I had booked a hotel in a place we weren't gonna be, we didn't get our money back, had to find a hotel when we got there. Um, it's just those kind of mix-ups, right? So we really want to check all our travel plans. We want to read our text messages, our emails, especially to people who we aren't that close with or we have a strange relationship with or in the workplace. Uh, if you're you have a job interview, you really want to like think before you speak. This is slowing down communication. This is think before we speak. This is, you know, check that you can't be misunderstood. Really like reread things. Um, I am famous for just sending texts and then going back and being like, what did I even type? And like having to like fix all the spelling and grammar and stuff. I was an English teacher. Um, but you know, let's not do that. Let's not, let's not do that. This, you know, Mercury and Retrograde, every year what happens to me is I'll make some social media posts that have like major typos. So if you see that, just be kind to that creator. You know, we're doing our best. Uh, everybody's doing their best in this situation. So let's all be kind about the typos and let's private message them instead of being like, hey, you did this, you dum-dum. Um, it's a time to be gentle with ourselves. That's what I'm getting at. Mercury and retrograde, we're just gentle with ourselves because you know, control is such an illusion. Like, we think in our little lives we have any control. We really don't. Like, we can only control our reactions. So, yeah, that's kind of my survival tips for Mercury and Retrograde is like really double triple checking all communication, all traveled plans, and then allowing this to be a pause, to be like, you know what, let me think before I speak, which I often don't do. So this is always, I think that's why I take it hard every year. It's a hard hit every time Mercury goes into retrograde, you know, which happens often enough. By now you think I'd know. Um, but I don't. We are in November. What? Um, I said that last week, but I'm still like in shock. And so officially for witches, you know, Sawin is the new year, and so this is like new year energy. Um, and then for everybody else, it's like end of year energy, and so it's kind of whatever feels aligned to you. You can feel both at the same time too. We're complex human beings, right? So whatever feels right. We are moving into here in the United States, Thanksgiving time. And so something I wanted to talk about about Thanksgiving and witchcraft is I'm a you know, I'm I don't know, I'm just a witch, but definitely I identify with like kitchen witchery for sure, but I wouldn't call myself just a kitchen witch. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it didn't mean like just in that way, which is that I wear multiple, I wear multiple pointy hats. So um I do more than kitchen witch magic. But this is the time of year for kitchen witch stuff. Like get in that kitchen. If you don't have like a little altar, I have one on my um my windowsill where I do dishes. I like never close those blinds. I probably should, but I don't. And so there's like it's where I keep these little saint cards and I keep a plant, a couple plants, I keep some crystals. I always keep turquoise in the kitchen. I don't have a reason other than that, just always feels right to me. And it's an expensive rock, I know, to keep in the kitchen, but I don't know, it just feels good. It's like heart chakra, throat chakra, softening, I don't know, lucky. It just feels good to me. So this is a time I think when we think about Thanksgiving, obviously think about gratitude, but we really think about like food as love. Yeah, I'm Italian American, so food as love and food as nourishment and comfort food. We talked about that last week. But yeah, like how can you invite in whatever is you like about Thanksgiving? Some people really don't like it, and I get it, you know, with a lot of things with having to be with family members maybe you don't want to be with, or maybe you don't really like those foods, whatever. Make it your own, first of all. But when we think about like the ideal of a Thanksgiving dinner, right? I think about Charlie Brown and Snoopy and their popcorn and all the friends there, and it's about that, it's about community, it's about sharing food, it's about nourishing yourself and others. How can you bring that into all of November? So, what are you doing right now to nourish yourself? You know, being on this slow living journey, being on the witch's journey, it's about spiritual evolution and this and that. But you know, the thinning of the veils is like pretty rough energetically for a lot of us. It's a lot of headaches and tummy aches and being exhausted, and then we're moving into the darker parts of the year, the busy season of holidays. What are we doing to nourish? And what does nourishment mean to you? Does it mean vitamins? Does it mean soups? What does it mean? Like body nourishment, there's also soul nourishment. Something I really invite you to do in these colder months, these in more when you're more indoors, is to create some good playlists or buy some good records. I have a record player, but really bring music in because we are outside less, right? Sunshine really brings up your vibe. Like whether you like the hot weather or not, doesn't matter. The sun is full of vitamin D, it's got what New Age people call light codes. Like the sun is so good for your overall happiness and vibe. Then when we're inside more, even if you like rainy weather, the vibe isn't the same. So what brings up the vibe? Music, good music. I studied with Kyle Gray for a year, and he always would talk about how the angels love music. He actually almost became a DJ. Fun fact. And you know, the angels love music, and it's high, it brings your vibration up, it brings your happiness up, it brings you joy. And remember, like your purpose, your function is to be happy. That's something Kyle would always say, and I think about it all the time. And his I hear it like in my head in his little Scottish accent, but like your function, your purpose is to be happy. Have you ever thought about that and like what that means? Like your actual point of coming here, Earthside. I feel like we have multiple lives, so you chose to come here at this very pivotal moment in astrology and in history and the planet. There's like all this turmoil, all this change, all this uncertainty. You chose to be here for a reason, right? And if you're happy, if you feel good, that affects everybody around you. That raises the happiness level of everybody else, right? Even if you just think about as a mother, right? I'm a mother. There's studies done that if the mother is happier, the whole family's happier. Like the whole family can feel when the mother's not happy, right? And so you, if you think about if your function, your purpose is to be happy, what are you doing each day to bring happiness? You know, and so if we can't get outside and be in the sunshine, music, playlists. I've been making playlists before there were playlists, they were called mixed tapes children. And we would record things off of the radio and make a little mixtapes. And I loved making mixtapes. I made them for friends, I made them for myself. I was like, I would sit there painstakingly for like hours getting just the right like snippet of sound. Because I really loved like sometimes just putting like a scream in there and starting the playlist with like a good Courtney Love scream or something. And so music, you know, I've heard so many witches talk about this, and it's 100% true. Music's are music is are spells, right? Poetry or spells, all the media we expose ourselves to affect our mind, body, heart, soul, spirit. They're spells. So putting on music that makes you feel good, that's a happiness spell, and it's simple. So some of my favorite feel-goods are Stevie Wonder. That'd be top number one. Love Stevie Wonder. I feel so happy whenever I hear Stevie Wonder. I like some of my favorite songs are by Stevie Wonder. I just feel like a different, different level of joy listening to Stevie Wonder. So if you've never given him a good listen, please do that. I also feel that way about Retha Franklin. Always feel like I can sing along, I can dance along. I love the Beatles 100% a million times. Love the Beatles. We have all their stuff on record. We have collected some of their books over the time. I love George's solo stuff and John's solo stuff. We went and saw all of like Ringo's drum set and clothes at the Grammy Museum. We went and saw the love show in Vegas. Like I love the Beatles. So much so that we had like a big Abbey Road poster in our office. Because when we originally only had one child, we had an office. Um, and then we had these Beatles coasters, and our daughter, when she was little, would take the Abbey Road coaster and match it to the poster, and then we wanted to know everybody's names. Because I think when you think about it, like as a child, you're growing up, you're seeing these men all over the house. You probably think they're important. Like my parents honor them or worship them, or maybe they're family members. I don't know what her toddler brain thought of it, but she learned all of them, and George was her favorite, so George is still my favorite. And so, yeah, the Beatles, super happy music. It doesn't have to be like music that's cool. I really love Disney music. Disney music is proven to make you happier. Studio Ghibli movies and open world games like Zelda are proven to make you happier. Listening to those soundtracks, I love the Lord of the Rings music. Like it just feels so epic. Like you're doing a chore and you're just listening to Lord of the Rings. It just makes you feel like you're on some kind of quest. Super fun. Um, I love New Kids on the Block because I'm from that time period. Love a boy band. I have a whole um romancing the boy band past playlist. Love it. Um, I love Madonna, early Madonna, especially. Like 80s holiday and like prayer brings my vibe up. Um, I love Shakira because I love to dance. Shakira's good cleaning music. Love her music for cleaning. I love belly dancing. So these are the things I'm talking about. So winter, high vibe, happy music, musicals too. If you've never seen The Whiz with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, at least listen to the soundtrack. Ease on Down the Road is probably in my top 10 favorite songs of all time. Love that song. I loved that movie as a kid. Um, loved Michael Jackson, still love Michael Jackson music. I'm able to separate the man who's questionable in my mind with from the music and just love the music. Because it was my whole childhood. I had a doll and everything. Um, but yeah, what music makes you feel happy? What are your comfort TV shows? You know, I have a friend that watches Friends all the time. It's like your comfort show. Um, I don't really have a comfort show like that, but I have movies like Practical Magic that I like to watch. So let's bring in those things. Let's bring in the daily joy of you know, I really love the soundtrack. I'm the only one, so that's why we have headphones and earbuds, right? Like, no one needs to know what you're listening to, and doing little hobbies that make you happy, coloring, crocheting, knitting, needlepoint, painting, collaging, doing crafts just for crafting. And then, you know, like I've made so many bracelets, and I love this about our town. We have a little like art giveaway, which thank goodness, because sometimes it's just fun for me to make it, but I don't actually want to wear it, so that's good. Just give it to someone else. Um, so yeah, like let's invite more joy in. Okay, so our journal questions are if we go back to our Knight of Cups, what are you currently chasing? And is it worth the chase? Right? We're getting to the end of the year. I personally start kind of winding things down, and I'm not pushing the manifesting as much. So are you chasing something? Is it worth it? Do you have any one-sided relationships? Because that's the other thing about this Knight of Cups. So are there any relationships right now? And you're like, you know, I'm just kind of like talking to a wall here. And if so, how can that change that? How can you change that? It might be nothing right now, because Mercury's in retrograde, you might not want to have that conversation, but you can start to think about it. What do you need to pause on? So we talk about Mercury in retrograde. What needs pause in your life? What are things you're just like, you know what? That's not important right now. Yeah. And then overall, take a look this week at communication. Like who are you communicating? Who are you communicating with on a daily basis, and how are you doing so? Mercury in retrograde is a good time to like observe communication in your life because it slows you down. So it's like, okay, who am I talking to every day? What's that conversation like? Am I telling my loved ones I love them every day? If not, do I want to do that? Like, is that something that feels good? Those kinds of things. So I hope Mercury is kind to you in this retrograde. And I hope you have a great week. Blessed be.