From erotic games to overpriced junk: The evolution of the day of love

Moon-day posts are currently sponsored by Empowering Wellness, combining massage therapy, energy medicine and coaching into an integrated body-centered approach to women’s wellness, pain management and trauma recovery.

______________________________________________________________________

I love Valentine’s Day. When you’re a kid everyone gets a Valentine. It’s like “TO TIM, NICE PANTS, LOVE SCOTT.” It’s Valentines galore! – Comedian Mike Birbiglia

If you were to purposely pick the most UN romantic astrological sign, the one least likely to be gooey over a relationship, it would be the sign that Valentine’s Day currently occupies – Aquarius.

The entire planet of Vulcan (as depicted on Star Trek, anyway) is full of Aquarians. Coldly logical and repressing all feeling. My favorite comedic astrologer, Stella Hyde, describes the Aquarian approach to relationships in her book, Darkside Zodiac:

People think you are friendly because you hang around with so many groups, but that is because you need a large enough statistical sample to make the data you are collecting viable. It’s no strain to interact with groups, but you are bored by any individuals’ feelings (except your own, which you find fascinating). Sometimes you just duck out (maybe for years). Brightsiders say this is because you like your privacy; actually you are back at base writing up your field notes. Plus Earthlings are essentially weak, and weak people drain your energy cells, so you need to get away to recharge. You may get married, so that you can experience at first hand a primitive cultural ritual, but you know you’d never get it quite right, and it wouldn’t mean anything.

If you are an Aquarian, or know an Aquarian, who is romantic or into this whole “relationship” thing, you can bet it’s because of his or her placement of Venus or the Moon or maybe a whole bunch of planets in the seventh house (which rules relationships). Definitely not because of the Aquarian sun! In fact, I will also share the  Darkside Zodiac description of someone with both the sun and Venus in Aquarius:

You can’t be doing with all this physical neediness; you like a partner who is online, in tight underwear, and on the other side of the world. You always use your mouse, as it’s good to have a free hand. What’s gender got to do with it?

That just cracks me up. (Probably because I have both the sun and Venus in Aquarius!)

It’s not that Aquarians don’t love. We do. But, it’s love for Humanity as a whole. Fondness for our friends. Kind regard for our relatives. Not romance.

Where did Valentine’s Day come from?

Since Valentine’s Day is called, “St. Valentine’s Day,” I always assumed that Mr. Valentine got martyred on this day, for being controversial or performing some Humanitarian service (both very Aquarian reasons to be killed).  And, well, I figured the holiday naturally evolved – with the help of people trying to sell us crap – to what we have today.

I was wrong. The history of Valentine’s Day is convoluted but there is a succinct description in the book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker.

The original Valentine’s Day was Rome’s Lupercalia, a festival of sexual license. Young men chose partners for erotic games by drawing “billets” – small papers – with women’s names on them. Christians denounced these valentines as “heathens’ lewd customs.” Churchmen tried to substitute saint’s names and short sermons on the billets, but people soon reverted to the old “love notes.”

February was sacred to Juno Februata, Goddess of the “fever” of love. The church replaced her with a mythical martyr, St. Valentine, who was endowed with several contradictory biographies. One of them made him a handsome Roman youth, executed at the very moment when his sweetheart received his billet of love.

Valentine’s Day evolved from randomized sexual encounters to rumors of a youth who is killed at the exact time that the object of his affection discovers his love. Is that the makings of early “chick lit” or what?! Also note that the church turned to romance as a way to suppress sex!

Now, the Valentines that everyone gives out in elementary school? Those are perfectly Aquarian expressions of friendliness. To a large group. Everyone gets one. No gushiness involved. Also, many non-profits raise money this time of year. TheClassicalStation.org is doing a Valentine’s fundraiser. You make the pledge in honor of your partner, and announcers will read the pledge on the air on February 14. Love in the name of the greater good – that makes a Water Bearer proud.

My friend, Monica Wilcox (who also guest blogs for FemCentral), had a wonderfully Aquarian idea as well. (While she isn’t a Water Bearer, I happen to know she has her sun and Venus in the eleventh house, which is ruled by Aquarius.) In a post on her website, Casting Love & Counting Ripples This Valentine’s Day , she challenges readers to, “Pay for the person’s order behind you at the drive-thru. Tuck a valentine under the front wiper of every car you park beside in the next two weeks. Doorbell ding your neighbors with heart shaped sugar cookies. The crazy, cool miracle of committing a gesture of kindness for a stranger is the state of giddy joy that overcomes you as you sneak away.” Yes, anonymous kindness for random people you may not even know. That’s the Spirit!

When would be a good time for Valentine’s Day, as we’ve come to know it? A time of relationships and romance and stuffed bears holding hearts filled with candy?

Most any of the other Zodiac signs are going to be more inclined towards romance than Aquarius. The planet Venus rules self-worth (literally and figuratively) and love. Venus also rules two signs in the Zodiac – Taurus and Libra. Taurus is more about the “worth,” and Libra is more about the “love.”  The seventh house of the astrological chart is the house of relationships and is ruled by Libra.  So, I vote for a day of “romance” in late September or early October, when the sun is in Libra. Leave February to the kids and non-profits (no comment on the “sexual lottery”), and everyone can wax romantic when the leaves start to change colors. Well, everyone else. I’ll just observe and take notes.