Lupercalia-Valentine’s Day

(on 14th and 15th)

We be sifting and liberating myriad traditions

for this week… as is our want:

Jupiter (Singleton, only planet in the East,

the rim of the patterned bucket,

the other rim being the Moon),

encourages us to liberate myriad past traditions…

(from accumulated crud of the Reality Police….)

bronze sculpture c 500-470 bce rome (Irisphoto)

“No one knows the exact origin of Lupercalia,

but it has been traced back as far as the 6th century B.C.

According to Roman legend, the ancient King Amulius

ordered Romulus and Remus—his twin nephews and

founders of Rome—to be thrown into the Tiber River

to drown in retribution for their mother’s broken vow

of celibacy. A servant took pity on them, however,

and placed them inside a basket on the river instead.

The river-god carried the basket and the brothers downriver

to a wild fig tree where it became caught in the branches.

The brothers were then rescued and cared for by a she-wolf

in a den at the base of Palatine Hill where Rome was founded”

(Read more from History.com)

Roman bronze wolf’s head, 1st century CE (Wmpearl)

We Pilgrims (our Rising Sign)

gather to honor She-Wolf!

and Anteros, god of requited love…!

Anteros (Alfred Gilbert 1893)

“In Greek Mythology Anteros was the god

of requited love, literally “love returned”

or “counter-love” … Anteros was the son

of Aries (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus),

given as a playmate to his brother Eros,

who was lonely – the rationale being that

love must be answered if it is to prosper….

Physically, he is depicted as similar to

Eros in every way, but with long hair

and plumed butterfly wings.”

(in modern parlance,

we might say gender-fluid)

Eros and Anteros on scales of love (Apulian vase 4th c BCE Theoi)

“Anteros, with Eros, was one of a host of

winged love gods called Erotes,

the ever-youthful winged gods of love,

usually depicted as winged boys in the

company of Aphrodite or her attendant goddesses.”

Valentinus illustration (from Gnostic Warrior)

Then there’s Almost Pope Valentinus

(Our own Trickster Council team-mate

Patricia Ewing will chime in to guide us here)

great Gnostic teacher and poet, Valentinus.

fragment of a Valentinian blessing:

May the Grace beyond time and space

that was before the beginnings of the Universe

fill our inner man-woman and increase within us

the semblance of itself as the grain of mustard seed.

http://www.gnosis.org/valentinus.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinus_(Gnostic)

****************************************************

Jupiter (Juno NASA)

Jupiter, desiring us to liberate all loving kinship,

is at the resolving Climate Chaos degree

19+ Sagittarius (“Men cutting ice in Winter for

Summer use – cyclical planning” long-term planning)

“50 year plan – 500 year Vision”- a quality of Love,

teased into everything…

Venus – in Capricorn, the beautiful and useful…

(“let us have only those things in our homes –

that we know to be useful, and believe to be beautiful.”

-William Morris … long before Marie Kondo,

and we love her too)

trines the Moon, exalted in animistic –

everything’s alive – Taurus…

(Conjoining Saturn and Pluto

also trining the Moon…)

Let us set up our altars to requited love,

and kinship with Wolves….

offering ourselves as accomplices

with all we hold dear…

“Presume love in the other,”

guides Kierkegaard.

Mars and Uranus

Mars and Uranus conjoin (exact on the 13th)

Sizzly Woof!- then Mars enters Taurus, (Yum!)

Venusian realm, on the 14th as a

Valentine gift to us all…

to lead the way for the Festival of Animism

of Uranus entering Taurus March 6th –

Ash Wednesday – April 27, 2026

Ancient Egyptian Taurus Api (Bull of Horus – Runelore)

This is it – the redemptive festival

of democratic animism – Earth activism,

for which we prepare now…

Moon sextile Neptune,

at the Grail legend degree,

which then sextiles Saturn…

= all effective ritual is literalized metaphor…

Visionary Activist Radio this week –

Thursday February 14th

2 pm pt / 5pm et

Our Valentine: Ongoing Metaphysics of

whistle-blowing, Caroline welcomes the return

of John Kiriakou, former CIA operative,

turned Whistleblower, served time, now serves us…

(as the Moon exactly opposes Jupiter, conversational

disclosure of stories we need to know

to have a democracy…)

John Kiriakou (Cliff Owen/AP)