A New Look at St. Valentine’s Day!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1)  The St.Valentine  who is celebrated on Feb. 14 was not originally associated with romantic love.

2)  Centuries later, the famous poet Chaucer writes a poem about birds finding their mates on St. Valentine’s Day, which begins the association.

3)  Chaucer made it up; we make things up like being small and unloveable - totally false. The name Valentinus means “powerful, strong, and worthy.”  That is true about us - and points us toward claiming our true inheritance of love, peace, and glory!  Enjoy the video to connect all the dots!

The Meaning of Valentinus

Looks like we should see what St. Valentine has to say to us.  First, there were several St. Valentines in the Roman Catholic church as Valentinus was a popular name since it meant "worthy, strong, and powerful.”  Second, of those several saints, the one we celebrate on February 14 was executed for marrying couples secretly after Claudius II, emperor of Rome, forbade marriage.  Why would he do such a preposterous thing?  Claudius concluded that eligible men were not joining his army to fight in his unpopular and unwarranted wars because they preferred their wives and children to war. Therefore, he forbade marriage in hopes of a larger army. Thus, St Valentine fulfilled his religious duty by secretly  performing wedding ceremonies, but defied the Roman Empire in so doing.  Even so, there was still no association of St. Valentine with romantic love as we know the holiday today.

The connection between romantic love and St Valentine’s Day, which would not occur for another 1000 years or so, was literally invented by the famous English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century when he wrote a poem about birds finding their mates on St. Valentine’s Day.  And it was another 100 years before the day was truly associated with lovers.  See how we just make things up?

The Story We Create

So what does this have to do with us?  How about we all adopt Valentinus as our ceremonial middle name to remind ourselves that we, too, are actually powerful, strong, and worthy.  And what about Chaucer?   Let him remind us we have all simply made things up about ourselves that are totally false and distressing, and if we just keep  repeating the myth long enough, it registers as fact.  So let’s make up a much kinder, accurate and more loving story about ourselves and all others as we move steadily toward leaving stories behind entirely and awakening to the brilliance and Oneness that we really are!

Have a wonderful day being in love with You!
Carol