Happy belated Valentines Day, I wasn’t online yesterday, so this is late, but still very meant as I wish you so much love, especially self-love. And also happy Lupercalia!
Yesterday there were many references to Valentines Day and Lupercalia which were coincidental/synchronical.
Many old celebrations coincide with Valentine’s Day, what is real and what is myth is up to you to explore. On February 15, Romans celebrated Luperaclia, honoring Faunus (see above as photographed at Rijksmuseum yesterday), god of fertility. Men would go to a grotto dedicated to the wolf god Lupercal at the foot of Palatine Hill. The men would sacrifice a goat, don its skin, and run around, hitting women with small whips in an act which was believed to promote fertility.
The Romans also celebrated a holiday on February 14th to honor Juno Fructifier, Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. In a ritual women would submit their names to a box and men would each draw one out. These two would pair up for the duration of the festival, designed to promote fertility.
According to another story emperor Claudius II imposed a ban on marriages because too many young men were dodging the draft by getting married (only single men had to enter the army). A Christian priest named Valentinus was caught performing secret marriages and was therefor sentenced to death. While awaiting his execution, he was visited by lovers with notes about how much better love is than war. Some think of these love letters as the first Valentines. Valentinus’s execution occurred on February 14th in the year 269 C.E. Another Valentinus was a priest jailed for helping Christians. During his stay, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and sent her notes signed “from your Valentine.” He was eventually beheaded and buried.
Love everyday
Should love need a special day? I don’t think so, let’s make Valentines Day something to celebrate everyday as every moment is truly about love, it is about choosing love. And I don’t mean romantic love, I mean a deep self-love, the love that cannot be describe in a letter or on a postcard. This deep love for self is the most important, the key. Without it you can’t love another and we can’t connect and spread our love. Thousands of years of cultural conditioning has distorted the true meaning of self-love, causing many to feel it is selfish, but only when we truly love ourselves we can fully connect and come to full bloom.
Cut the commercial crap
I am all about celebrating love, also the romantic kind, don’t get me wrong, but not to support people buying more crap and make people that don’t get cards and such feel like crap. The origins of Valentine’s Day becoming a major commercial holiday can be traced back to the United States. Things took a turn in the 1840s when the holiday was transformed into a “hype” according to author Leigh Eric Schmidt’s “Consumer Rites: The Buying & Selling of American Holidays.” Love may be free, but Valentine’s Day as we know it, not so much.
Self-love
And in line with this day of celebrating self-love and self-care, I took the day off from work, I am still super tired and my head still hurts from the concussion. I also have so many days off left from last year, it is about time I take some. I celebrated V-Day with my best friend, so I am declaring this Vrienden Dag (Friends Day in Dutch).
We first visited the opening of the Caravaggio-Bernini exhibition at Rijksmuseum where we sighed over meraviglia, vivezza, moto, scherzo, terribilità and … amore. Such beauty! I also enjoyed the Thanks to Waller 2010-2020 exhibition featuring his extensive collections of decorated papers, ex libris prints and catchpenny prints; and at his death he bequeathed a veritable treasure trove of paintings, drawings and prints, all on display.
Later that day we also visited Huis Marseille for the exhibition Outside Fashion. We also did a bit of window shopping and had a quick dinner before heading for the theater.
David Bowie’s Lazarus
At the theater we went see Bowie’s last gift to us, “Lazarus”, may he rise from the dead! Bowie will never die. And what a coincidence as in this ‘play/musical’ Valentine brings death and redemption to the main character.
Tarot Reading
Yesterday morning before leaving the house for the Rijksmuseum, and after doing my meditation, journaling and altar work I did a Valentines reading for myself. And I used the Bowie-inspired Starman Tarot.
- 9 of Wands – what is loveable about me is that I am willing to face my darkness and relentlessly see things through when many others would have abandoned all hope.
- King of Swords – I am rocking self-love in believing in a fair world for all. Hmm what kind of answer is this to this question? Now this card shows I am not really rocking self-love all that much as it exactly point to my tendency to focus on other’s happiness and quelling my own emotions by trying to fix everything with a workable plan and solution. My powerful vision for humanity should involve me, first and foremost, I deserve happiness and love as much as anyone else.
- Princess of Wands – I could love myself more in acting on my passion and indulging in tantalizing ideas and adventures. Live a little! Raise the fire, my personal fire, the light that shines just for me from me. I am allowed to shine.
- Queen of Pentacles – advice for loving myself more is listening to the Archetype of The Witch in me. Recharge in nature, work with the elements and be inspired by the natural world. Don’t go against my nature and ground!
- Death – my self-love teaches others that there is new life after endings. I have lived through quite a few deaths in my life, loved ones and my own. Life is about re-birth and I am the living proof of that. This too shall pass, trust in the cycles and transition into new life…over and over again.
- 10 of Wands – my self-love teaches me that I carry too much burden by myself, I have to admit I am tired of this load and also the overwhelm is making me unable to cope as much as my mind tells me I should. I feel unsupported, mostly by myself. Self-love teaches me that I am allowed to ask for help and I don’t have to do everything by myself.
Phew that’s heavy, but true, strong insights I will act upon.
Thank YOU for supporting me and for visiting.
Happy Self Love Day! Everyday!
P.S. Would you like a personal tarot reading? Please click here for more information: https://www.joyincreation.com/oracle-card-readings/
