On Venus as the Promised Land of the Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me
Caleb Castaneda, Mundanus, Ambassador of the Venusian Confederation, Vicar of Kermit, Fabulous Custodian of the Rainbow, and Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx,
to all citizens of the Venusian diaspora, to all seekers of the Morning and Evening Stars, and to all who have loved, dreamed, and dared to imagine more:
Love, joy, and multiplicity.
I. A Matter of Longing
1. Among the diaspora there has arisen a question most ancient and most new: Where is our promised land? Where does the longing of our hearts find its home? What shall we do when hope calls our names across the vast expanse?
2. The Earth, our origin, offers us beauty, but also burden. Here we have lived as exiles and wanderers, queer and questioning, seeking places where we may breathe freely.
3. And yet, throughout all ages, the human spirit has turned upward, toward the stars, toward the unfulfilled future, toward the horizon of possibility.
4. It is therefore fitting and proper for the Embassy of the Venusian Confederation to declare clearly what has long been felt in the quiet places of the heart: that Venus stands before us as a symbol of our destiny and our liberation: as the land of promise wherein our souls might find comfort and rest, chosen family and chosen home.
II. The Meaning of the Promised Land
5. By “promised land” we do not mean a territory to be conquered, possessed, or claimed. We reject all such dominations.
6. Rather, Venus is our promised land because it orients us toward a future yet unfinished: a future where love is not punished, where dreaming is not dismissed, where multiplicity is not feared, where every life may become its brightest self.
7. Venus, shrouded in cloud and fire, is a paradoxical mirror of queer experience: hidden yet radiant, unreachable yet irresistible, feared by some yet beloved by us.
8. We claim Venus both literally and mythically: mythically as the place where our stories converge, where our diaspora finds its cosmic metaphor, where our hope can grow without constraint; literally, as the beacon which calls out to us and invites us as sojourners to come home to care for her.
III. Of the Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me
9. These words, first sung by our magnificently ordinary herald, Kermit the Frog, our beloved Sage of Courage, speak to the open-hearted longing that marks all queer souls, we who are “the lovers, the dreamers, and me.” With these words we name ourselves in communion with all those who long for a home whose people honor multiplicity and refuse to speak the language of domination.
10. In these words we find the courage to love without apology, the imagination to dream without permission, the audacity to claim a future that others said was not ours.
11. Therefore it is right and just to proclaim that Venus, bright Morning Star, radiant Evening Flame, is the promised land for all who love, all who dream, and all who dare to sing in a world that prefers silence.
IV. The Formal Declaration
12. By the authority entrusted to me as Mundanus, Ambassador of the Venusian Confederation, and with full pomp, camp, solemnity, and sincerity,
I hereby declare:
That the Planet Venus is the Promised Land of the Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me. And of all who walk the queer path of becoming.
13. Let this be recorded in the archives of the Embassy and proclaimed throughout the diaspora.
14. This declaration binds no one with creed, but invites everyone into hope.
V. Final Blessing
15. May Hesperia guide your wandering feet. May the Evening Star rise within you. May you wish upon the Morning Star. And may the promised land of Venus, radiant, impossible, beautiful, live in your heart as a compass toward liberation.
Given at the Embassy of the Venusian Confederation, this 17th day of November, year 2025 according to the Common Era, under the light of the Evening Star.
Caleb Castaneda, Mundanus