💘Happy Valentine's Day, NOSTRland dwellers!💘
Those of you who pay attention to my research probably already know that Valentine's Day has a lot of esoteric "Easter eggs" hidden within it. For those who are catching up on my research, here's a summary🧐:
Valentine's Day is named after a 3rd century Christian martyr who was likely a Roman priest or the bishop of Temi, Italy. Saint Valentine's identity is so vague that the Catholic church, having so little concrete evidence, removed Valentine's Day from the General Roman Calendar in 1969. Despite this, it remains as the primary holiday celebrated by many people in February each year, Catholics included.
While Valentine's Day is not named after him, there was also a (likely) German Hermetic alchemist from (likely) the 15th century who went by the pseudonym of Basil Valentine. Basil Valentine was a key figure in early alchemy and chemistry, having written treatises on both subjects. He is particularly well known for his work with antimony.
In the present, Valentine's Day is largely associated with love, roses, Venus/Aphrodite, and her son Cupid/Eros.
Venus/Aphrodite:
Aphrodite is well known as having been the love goddess to the ancient Greeks. She also serves as a symbol of "the Divine Feminine" which has a dual meaning. Contrary to vulgar notions, "the Divine Feminine" does NOT refer to biological females who are "spiritual" or "awakened", rather, the Divine Feminine refers to two things. First, it refers to a set of divine characteristics (understanding, mercy, glory) that, at their core, relate to "receptivity" and are therefore classified as "feminine". Second, it refers to a component of the spirit body that, typically, is coiled up around the lowest energy center located near the pelvic floor commonly referred to as the "root chakra". This component of the spirit body, being coiled up like a serpent, is the reason that so many symbols from so many traditions depict the serpent with great reverence.
Aphrodite's role as a symbol of the Divine Feminine is perhaps most prominent in two ways. First, Aphrodite is the same as Venus whose symbol, astrologically speaking, is the feminine symbol: ♀. Second, Aphrodite's name is part of a portmanteau with Hermes that is typically used to speak of intersex people: hermaphrodite. This term was originally meant to highlight the spiritually androgynous nature of an enlightened person with Hermes representing the Divine Masculine and Aphrodite representing the Divine Feminine.
Roses and the Divine Feminine:
Aphrodite is said, mythologically, to have been the reason that roses are red. She is said to have pricked her heel on a rose bush's thorn which caused her to bleed and it is that blood that landed on white roses that colored them red. While that's not likely a true story, it does offer a connection between one representative of the Divine Feminine, Aphrodite, and the rose. Isis, in Egypt, another representation of the Divine Feminine, is also associated with roses. The Sisterhood of the Rose was a lineage of priestesses associated with Egypt, the Essenes, and Magdalene traditions who honor the Divine Feminine through symbols like Isis and the rose. In China, the Divine Feminine is represented by Nu Gua, wife of Fu Xi. Also in China, there exists a rose bush known as the nuwa rose. Nu Gua and nuwa are but a minor morphological leap from one another, phonetically speaking. At the risk of being deemed lewd, I will also point out that the rose does resemble the definitive anatomical component of the female body. Furthermore, the word "defloration" exists for similar reasons.
This relationship between roses and the Divine Feminine is also found in the Rosicrucian tradition where the "cruc", or cross, represents the Divine Masculine. In Greek esoteric symbolism, the letters Chi and Rho correspond alliteratively to cross and rose. Likewise, Chi and Rho correspond, respectively, with the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine. If one is willing to "play" with pronunciation and spelling variations, a number of major concepts from the Greek religion contain Chi and Rho such as the word "hero", Hera the goddess, Heracles the hero and demi-god, Chiron the chimeric instructor of Heracles, Jason, Achilles, and Aesclepius, Charon the ferryman of the river Styx, the Tarot cards known as "chariot" and "hierophant", the city of Cairo, hieroglyphics, the alchemical/chymical wedding spoken of by Jung, Christian Rosenkreutz, and others known as the hieros gamos, and, perhaps more pertinent to modern Valentine's Day traditions, Aphrodite's child, often called Cupid also known as Eros.
Eros:
Note that not only does Eros consist of a morphological/phonetic variation of Chi and Rho, Eros is, itself, an anagram of the word "rose". Just move the E from one end to the other. This is not the only set of Greek words that work like this. If you move the letter that looks like a serpent and sounds like a serpent, S, from one end of the word for serpent, ophis, to the other end, you get the word for wisdom: sophi. Neither of these are coincidences.
Eros is known as the god of love who shoots arrows into the hearts of humans to make them fall in love. Eros is also one of the 8 Greek words for love. The Greeks have separate words for familial love(storge), the love between teammates and brothers in arms(philia), unconditional love(agape), self-love(philautia), flirtatious love(ludus), obsessive love(mania), and enduring love(pragma). Eros represents romantic love.
Love:
Many cultural, occult, religious, and esoteric wisdom traditions teach that we are to embody both the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine within ourselves. We are to be, spiritually speaking, hermaphroditic, in order to achieve enlightenment, salvation, to escape samsara, to "graduate" to heaven, etc. Humans have 4 of 7 chakras active: the lower 3 plus the crown which serves as a cumulative indicator of the activity of the lower 6.
In order to achieve enlightenment, one must activate dormant chakras. For those on the positive path which is oriented towards service to others and is generally what people would refer to as "good", the first chakra to be activated is the heart chakra. This is done by learning the lesson of "universal, unconditional love". The negative path oriented heavily towards service to self generally referred to as "evil" will skip over the heart chakra in pursuit of the wisdom chakra and 3rd eye activations.
When a positively polarized person has fully embodied both the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine traits, the Chi and the Rho, one has achieved enlightenment and, necessarily, has activated the heart chakra by embodying universal, unconditional love. This is why Eros, whose name consists, essentially, of Chi and Rho, is said to be the god of love.
Astrological conspiracy😅:
The last thing I have to share (in jest) is that the date of Valentine's Day is well known to be a Scorpio conspiracy to produce more Scorpios.😆
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