February 14
Happy Valentines.
In ancient Rome, February 14th was a
holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and
Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and
marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the 'Feast of
Lupercalia' (festival of the wolf) which was one of the most important
in Imperial Rome.
So for about eight hundred years prior to the establishment of
Valentine's Day, the Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in
mid-February commemorating young men's rite of passage to the god
Lupercus. The celebration featured a lottery in which young men would
draw the names of teenage girls from a vase. During the festival, the
pairs of children danced and played together. The girl assigned to
each young man in that manner would be his sexual companion during the
remaining year. Often, they would fall in love and would later marry.
Needless to say, the development and
rise to power of the Papacy, made some changes in this original pagan festival.
There was a change in the lottery and instead of the names of young
women, the box would contain the names of saints. Both men and women
were allowed to draw from the box, and the game was changed so that
instead of explorative sexual play together moving towards forming a
life partnership in the future. The children instead were to
emulate the ways of the particular saint they drew during the rest of
the year. It should come as no surprise that many young Romans were
not too pleased with the rule changes.
Although the lottery for women had been
banned by the church, the mid-February holiday took on more of
commemoration of St. Valentine, over any other saint, by Roman men in
order to still be able to seek the affection of women. Emulating the
ways of this particular saint, was the way that most closely mimicked
the original pagan rite. St. Valentine became a tradition
for the men to give the ones they admired handwritten messages of
affection, containing Valentine's name. St. Valentine was a
priest at the time of the Emperor Claudius who had forbidden any of
his men to marry, as he wanted them to be heartless soldiers free of
girlfriends, wives or family. Like Father Lorenzo in Romeo and Juliet,
this priest (whose name was Father Valentine) secretly performed
marriages in and around the city of Rome. Found out not too long
later, Valentine was imprisoned where he languished and died.
Rather depressing, really
<laugh>. Bring back the sex lottery!
Ah well, when you look at most of our
holidays again in the modern era, it's almost as if we've 'pagan-ized'
them again. The majority of our holidays for many of us, have
become more 'secular' in nature, and more about showing affection to
loved ones, friends, family, than about honoring a 'removed' spiritual
figure. Is not the spiritual really all about guiding us in our
daily living, in our loving and honoring life and love, and one
another? The pagan spiritual system is about finding a symbolic
spiritual analogy for daily living. Real spirituality is more in
the 'doing' and 'being' than in thought and belief. Well in my
humble opine anyways.
In
the spirit of some crass lovins I did a very campy photo shoot last
night, in retro baby dolls, and fishnets layered with hose, and big
old white clunky heels, I was a trailer trash mamma. Somewhere
between Divine's neighbor and Lucille Ball's chubby sister. Some
kind of lost link of quirky sassy crass polyester slutdom.
It inspired some interesting posing
options. From screaming to thumb sucking, to slapping my own
bottom.
I was in trashy ho mode, my baby pink
shiny lipstick and heavy eyeliner completing the tacky package.
All I needed was a small skinny pot-bellied pimp with a mullet and a
cheesy moustache, in a polyester suit, oh were oh were was my prince
charming, no wonder I was screaming and pouting!
When I got tired of goofing around,
I did a pseudo-serious strip tease (NOT!)
And of course, I did take some more
close up footsy pics...
I have been actually, on another
note. Profoundly down today, at least last night after the photo
shoot, and this morning before crepes for lunch.
I had been bickering with Wolfe a
bit yesterday, and that was bringing me down, and then some unpleasant
email exchanges with a local subbie. Not to mention I've had a
decrease in some of my medications. I was actually back with
some suicidal ideation today, -not- a good thing. My mood is
really all over the place lately. I'm wondering whether I'm
trying to do too much too fast, and have to figure out what I can cut
out over the next few days. I want to go to the play party
tomorrow night still, but I think I might want to tone it down from
what I had originally planned, and be more of a relaxed observer than
anything else, and maybe dress more reserved and less flashy than I
had originally planned, I kind of feel like wanting to blend into the
background a bit more. I also know I definitely want to do the
photo shoot at Velvet Steel's hair salon on Monday, I think I'm going
to have to cancel my new foot fetish friend on Sunday, and cancel
looking for houseboys and sissy maids, and just focus on my current
friendships and relationships, and not stretch myself too thin.
Well, that's decided then, I guess
I will have some emailing to do.
I did have some wonderful gifts
today, my baby buying me crepes and giving me lovely cards. Then
when I came home, Wolfe had a surprise for me, he had bought me a
potted orchid, my very first. It's beautiful. It seems
once the weather gets just a little bit milder in the spring, I'll be
able to put it out doors on my porch, which I'll enjoy.
This one is just a little one, my
dream is to one day get one of the really big suckers. The mall
in Chinatown close to wear I live has huge big beautiful potted
orchids... so exotic, and really, not too costly when you compare it
to bouquet of cut flowers of the same size, would be comparable, but
being potted, lasts. One of these days. Have other
priorities first... like groceries! <groan> Money is tight right
now.
I'll quit before I start whining
too much.
One
more thing, please help me promote the pillow book a little more and
bring new readers my way, I'm feeling extra needy today. Clix
here to move me up on the Clix toplist and to see other great online
journals. Doesn't take much effort on your part, means a lot on my
end, for future reference you can 'clix' me as often as one time per
day, when you come in to read my journal, and I have a link right on
my main page.
XO
Leila
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