Hopeful Thinking - Saturday, February 11, 2023 - February Purgings

The modern holiday of Valentine’s Day on February 14 is often said to be rooted in an appropriation of the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia which was historically celebrated on February 15. Despite existing on different days altogether, the former is claimed by Christianity to have replaced the latter.

The connection between the two comes somewhat dubiously, however, with each having little in common, beyond whatever commonality exists between the ideas of fertility and of lovemaking. Saint Valentine’s Day is something of a leap as a romantic occasion historically. And Lupercalia, while having much to do with sex and fertility, has nothing to do with romance either. 

It feels a bit like a theological smokescreen intended for us to turn away from old pagan notions that they’d prefer no longer serve us.

But there’s a lot to be learned from the old ways that point toward things which emotionally and spiritually benefit us, even as we continue to maintain our own individual beliefs. In other words, recognizing the purpose of old traditions, especially as they relate to our human journey through the seasons, has value that doesn’t negate our modern religious traditions. We remind ourselves here to maintain a hospitable mindset.

Lupercalia is a somewhat mysterious festival with mythological origins and purposes mostly revolving around the fertility of the flocks. But the original name for the event, dies Februatus, came from the word for the purification instruments used in the Lupercalia ritual which were called februa. Connections with the names of these instruments have been made to the Etruscan word for purging, februare. 

Is it possible then, that February is a particularly good time for purging the old as a preparation for new life? Is the idea of purging the underlying current of what it means to purify something?

Of the little we know of the ancient Lupercalian ritual, one element that still exists on record is that the participants would run naked counterclockwise around the central hill of Rome. It’s impossible to know for sure if their counterclockwise direction was symbolic of purging something, but even modern paganism continues to hold that a counterclockwise rotation, referred to as widdershins, is symbolic of removal. 

So, of what were they purging themselves while praying for fertility? Barrenness? Loneliness? Evil spirits that prevented their abundance? 

Even without explicit proof of the notion, is this a good time of the year to consider such things for ourselves?

In order to make room for the new, we have to dispense with some of the old. We have to spend some time emotionally sorting through our past, our outdated habituated ways, our shortcomings, to make room for the people we wish to become. 

What habits no longer serve you? If you could get rid of something, what would it be? If you have something you wish to draw into your life, more fully, what is in the way of it?

February is also a time for ritual lighting of candles. Many of our modern day religions incorporate candles into luminescent religious ceremonies at this time of the year. And fire is, after all, a symbol of purification.

Consider including prayers of release, of purification, of forthcoming abundance, into your meditation time at this point in the wheel of the year. Meditate upon old ways of being and thinking which might have served you once but now no longer do. Light candles in the name of that transformation.

This is a time for saying ‘hail, and farewell’ to old traumas, old wounds and grudges. Divest yourself of them with the express intent to create space for all that which you truly need and desire to come to you. 

In your mind’s eye, picture yourself standing on the edge of a cliff and holding these outmoded habits of thinking in your hands like smooth stones, giving thanks for them and the lessons they brought, and with gladness release them into the void. Purge yourself of them.

Then, turn your cheek toward a new day, a new self, ready to emerge with the oncoming Spring.