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Hello Lovies!  Today let’s look at a bit of Valentine’s history to pepper the pot!!

Valentine’s Day in the modern world is attributed most popularly to a Christian saint and martyr: St. Valentine.  The fluffy version of the story is that St. Valentine was an early priest who disobeyed the EEEEEvil Roman Emperor Claudius, and secretly married couples in defiance of an official edict forbidding such.  He was arrested, and martyred when he refused to give up this practice AND for attempting to convert the Emperor to Christianity rather than defend himself, thereby becoming the patron saint of love, couples, and ahem… wait for it… coupling.  Not to mention poor timing.

However, as close as can be ascertained, there were three Valentines mentioned in early church martyrologies, and commemorated by the Catholic church on February 14.  The first, Valentine of Terni, was martyred by Emperor Aurelian sometime after 197AD.  His relics are in Rome and Ireland.  The second, Valentine of Rome, was martyred sometime around 269AD.  Both are buried in the early Christian cemeteries in the catacombs in Rome, according to historical sources.  The third Valentine mentioned in the Catholic Encyclopedia and early church martyrologies, was an obscure saint killed in Africa with ‘a number of companions’.  Not much else is said.

The point being, NONE of these early martyrs had anything at all to do with love, couples, and ahem, coupling.

That part came later, when in the late 14th century, Chaucer and Donne and several other poets began to write of the ‘marriage of the birds’ on the feast of St. Valentine, thus making the connection between the pagan feasts of love and ahem, coupling, and the Christian calendar, closely followed by the establishment of the High Court of Love in France.  Much later, in 1969 actually, the Catholic church dropped St. Valentine’s day from the liturgy.  He was, sadly, demoted.

EEErrrrrrk!  What?!  Wait a minute.  Pagan feasts of love, you say?  Well!

It seems that in much of the ancient world, the season we now know as February, was a time of the celebration of love and coupling and fertility.

PLEASE NOTE -  Ancient dates and days are a bit different than the modern, due to things like the precession of the stars, natural changes in the seasons, and manmade changes in calendars.  However, the general principle is the same: we are speaking about late winter, about halfway between the Winter and Spring festivals.

Celebrations begin in early February with Imbolc, the celebration of the reappearance of the Light of the Year, and the time of the beginning of the new agricultural year.  If you live in a warm climate, at this time you are prepping your seedlings in the cold frames, and adding organic matter to your garden soil.  This is a time of the return of the birds to the flyway, thus the ‘marriage of the birds’.  If you are in a cold climate, this is when you finish your garden planning, work as much as you can at clearing your plot, and wait for your veggie seeds to arrive in the mail.

Herein is near the time of the ancient festival of Isis in her incarnation as healer.  The Egyptians had much to do with setting the four points of the calendar, and Isis was a goddess of Love as well as Healing.

Here in the US, a popular celebration of mid-winter is Groundhog’s Day, and Puxatawnie Phil appears faithfully to give us the latest meteorological prophecy.  Indeed, even this has it’s roots in pagan lore as the Roman celebration of Feralia, in honor of Fauna, goddess of the wild things.  Her day was a celebration of love and fertility with a special emphasis on wild animals and oracles.

By now the Greeks were in full swing, so to speak.  From the Eleusian mysteries to the festival of Dionysos, love, wine, singing and dancing were in the air, on the ground, in the vines, on the bed, against the wa…. ahem.  Well!

The Romans weren’t far behind, with festivals honoring Juno the patron of marriage and love and passion, Ceres and Proserpina as the Roman version of the Eleusians, and many other cultures from Briton to Mexico to Japan.

All over the world, feasts celebrated Artemis, Selene, Aphrodite, the Iroquois Mid-Winter feast, the Navajo Changing Woman, Apollo, Diana, Vali – the son of Odin, Sigfrid, the Guatemalan Quetzalcoatle, and the Persian feast of women, fertility and the Earth Goddess: Spenta Armaiti.

Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival celebrating Juno as the she-wolf mother who suckled Romulus and Remus, the twins attributed with the founding of Rome, was particularly sacred to Rome’s citizens.  Her festival was one of the oldest in Roman culture, and was THE celebration of love. The lottery which took place on this day, joining together young men and women, is reputed to be the actual origin of the Valentine’s Day card.  Sadly, the story of St. Valentine’s love for the blind girl and the gift of the note that said, “From your Valentine”, although touching, was most probably made up in a marketing campaign, as it did not appear on the mythology meter until much later.  Like, this century.

For more detailed information about many of these celebrations, please see the wonderful pagan calendar at paganinstitute.org .

The point of this posting, of course, is that the celebration of love stretches all over the world, in all cultures, and at all times.  Although we now call it by the name of an obscure Christian martyr, it’s message is universal.  Awake! Awake!  Arise and play!  The Earth is coming back to life, the daffodils are peaking out from the soil, the dogwoods are budding, and the birds in the air are singing for their mates!  Be one with nature and celebrate the joy of life.  Even if you are submerged in snow, and the wind whistles in the trees, hold your love close, drink wine, sing and dance, and invoke the Spring.

Enjoy my dearies.  Watch for my post later today, as I will publish an easy Valentines Love Spell.

Blessed be,
Marie Angeli