The Gypsy Scholar Presents
the Orphic Essay-with-Soundtrack for
Valentine's Day
The great Arab-Persian legend of the lovers Layla & Majnun
The great Celtic legend of the lovers Tristan & Iseult
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Reading Of Love (Bateman)
The Origin of Valentine's Day in Roman Lupercalia & Februa
Since ancient Roman times, people have celebrated a loosely connected festival of love in the second week of February. For about a thousand years, starting in the 5th century BCE, Romans celebrated a festival on the 15th of February called Lupercalia, commemorating the founding of Rome and the fertility gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus, who were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. This day was essentially a drunken, sexually charged festival at the Palatine Hill in Italy.
The Origin of Valentine's Day:
The Roman St. Valentine, The English Poets Chaucer and Charles d'Orléans
Saint Valentine
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Saint Valentine (1170-1200, Illumination
from Passionary of Weissenau, Germany)
St. Valentine blessing an epileptic (19th c. etching)
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St Valentine Baptizing St Lucilla
(Bassano, ca. 1575)
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Basilica Sanctuary of St Valentine (Terni, Italy)
St Valentine stained-glass window
After the Catholic Church became the dominant power in Rome, Pope Gelasius I ended Rome's Lupercalia Day in the 5th century CE. (Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian.”) Meanwhile, Christians began to hold a feast on February 14th to celebrate the martyred Saint Valentine and the sanctity of marriage. Thus, Saint Valentine's feast could have been a replacement for Lupercalia. (The name “Valentine,” derived from valens (worthy, strong, powerful), was popular in Late Antiquity.) In other words, the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.
As culture changed with time, so did Valentine's Day and the custom of gift-giving began in the 14th century. The holiday grew more secular as people of that time seemed to consider the day about love, poetry and gifts. When the holiday first rose to prominence in the Middle Ages, it was definitely centered around ideas of love and romance. It was also dedicated to the veneration of the saint for whom the holiday is named—the 3rd-century bishop and martyr Valentine, the patron saint of lovers, married couples, beekeepers, and epileptics. (That St Valentine is the patron saint of epileptics is interesting, since current scientific case studies have shown that many epileptics, in their seizures, have paranormal experiences, including classical "mystical experiences." Considering that in antiquity people displaying crazy behavior were—short of demonic possession—touched by God and thus "special," the fact that St Valentine is shown "blessing " an epileptic, not "exorcizing" him is significant. Which raises the question: Why is St Valentine the patron saint of epileptics?)
However, the history surrounding Saint Valentine is murky. In fact, historians conclude that Saint Valentine is more legendary than a real person—actually, two or three different people. Two bishops are associated with Saint Valentine and both were martyrs. The most popular legend concerning the origin of Valentine's Day is that bishop Valentine secretly performed marriage ceremonies and an emperor of Rome had him executed for doing so. As the story goes, Valentine defied the order of the Roman emperor Claudius II and secretly performed Christian weddings for couples, allowing the husbands involved to escape conscription into the Roman army. This legend claims that soldiers were sparse at this time so this was a great inconvenience to the emperor. (Some historians argue that bishop Valentine was most likely executed for trying to convert pagans to Christianity.) The account mentions that in order “to remind these men of their vows and God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment.” This may be a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine's Day. In any case, Valentine persisted in performing marriages and thus was thrown into jail and executed on February 14, circa the year 270 CE. Again, legend has it that Valentine had formed a relationship with his jailor’s daughter and he signed his last message to her “From your Valentine.”
What is actually known over and above the legends regarding the name Saint Valentine is that about eleven other saints named Valentine are commemorated in the Catholic Church. At least three Saint Valentines are listed under the date February 14 in early martyrologies. They all lived in the 3rd century CE; one was a priest residing in Rome, and the other was a bishop in Interamna (now Terni). Little is known about the third Saint Valentine, except that he was supposedly killed along with 24 soldiers in Africa.(Some Eastern Churches of the Western rite may provide still other different lists of Saint Valentines.) Given this, it’s impossible to separate fact from legend concerning Saint Valentine, because the origins of St.Valentine's Day are unclear, as historical records are incomplete and sometimes contradictory. Thus, the identity of Saint Valentine is complex and likely to be a composite of several historical Catholic priests.
Yet, aside from the legendary origins surrounding St. Valentine's Day, there really was a particular Saint Valentine in the historical records. He was a 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14th and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6th.
A few hundred years later, the Feast of Saint Valentine, also known as Saint Valentine's Day, was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 C.E. to be celebrated on February 14th in honor of the Christian martyr. This feast was celebrated until 1969, when Pope Paul VI dropped it from the Gregorian feast-day calendar.
This is the Christian version of the origin of a day set aside for lovers.
Geoffrey Chaucer
From the High Middle Ages, St. Valentine's feast day has been associated with a tradition of Courtly Love.
During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written valentines didn’t begin to appear until after 1400.
The historical link between the St. Valentine legend and 12th-century Courtly Love is the 14th-century Old English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. It is widely accepted that Chaucer was the first to make the link between St. Valentine and romantic love. In his poem “Parliament of Fowls” (1375), Chaucer wrote that St. Valentine's Day was chosen for the date on which birds gathered together to select their mates. The line reads: “For this was on seynt Valentynes day / Whan every foul [fowl] cometh ther to chese [choose] his make [mate].” (No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to Chaucer's poem.)
So why is Chaucer significant regarding Valentine’s Day? Only this: Chaucer was heavily influenced by the troubadours and courtly love. Chaucer used courtly love conventions in The Canterbury Tales and other works (but he also challenged the genre's assumptions through an ironic mode). For example, the Knight’s Tale centers on courtly love: the two knights compete for the hand of a fair maiden. In the General Prologue, the Host’s description of the Squire, a young knight, has all the trappings of a traditional courtly lover: he wears fancy clothes, takes care of his appearance, writes music, jousts, dances, and is so passionate in his love that he can barely sleep.
The influence of the courtly love tradition also manifests in his “Parlement of Foules” (or “Parliament of the Birds”), which contained the first reference to the idea that St. Valentine’s Day was a special day for romantic love and lovers. (It is significant concerning the theory of the Persian and Arabic origins of 12th-century, Western "courtly love" that Chaucer’s “Parlement of Foules” was based on a 12th-century poem by the Sufi mystic, Attar, “Conference of the Birds.”)
A more specific historical connection is the fact that the year Chaucer died, 1400, was the first Valentine’s Day, when the French royal court, imitating Eleanor of Aquitaine’s 12th-century courts of love, held a “Court of Love” (Cour Amoreuse), in which ministers met after mass in “joyous recreation and talk about love.” Love poems were presented before the ladies, who judged them and awarded a golden crown for the best one.
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Court of Love (Frontispiece miniature, 15 c.)
Charles, Duke of Orleans
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Charles d'Orléans (1394-1465) portrait
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Charles of Valois Duke of Orleans portrait
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Charles d'Orléans miniature
Charles Duke of Orleans and
Duchess Marie of Cleves tapestry
"Captivity and Writing in the Tower of London"
(depiction of the imprisonment of Charles, Duke of
Orléans, in Tower of London from 15th-century manuscript)
According to another legend about the origins of Valentine’s Day, the very first Valentine on record was supposed to have been composed in the year 1415 CE by the imprisoned poet and lover, Charles d’Orléans or Charles, Duke of Orleans. While Charles was imprisoned in the Tower of London, he sent a valentine greeting to his wife. Of course, this is only legend and not historical fact. Yet there is some truth to Charles’ role in Valentine’s Day. What is actually of historical record is that Charles was partial to “poetic musings on the theme of Valentine’s Day.”
The historical fact is that Charles was taken as a prisoner of war when France was defeated by England in the Battle of Agincourt (1415) and remained a political prisoner for the next 25 years. Despite the political turmoil of his life, Charles is best remembered as a gifted writer of romantic, witty and wistful poetry. He wrote over 500 poems in the course of his life, with a particularly prolific period during his years of captivity. Charles wrote in both Middle French and Middle English (like Chaucer), the latter of which he learned to speak fluently while in England.
By Charles’ time, Valentine’s Day poetry was already a well-established genre with examples by Geoffrey Chaucer, Oton de Grandson, John Gower, Christine de Pizan and John Lydgate, among others.
The poem that is sometimes referred to as “the earliest known Valentine” begins “Je suis desja d'amour tanné / Ma tresdoulce Valentinee” (I’m already wearied by love, my very sweet Valentine). Yet, the romantic story attached to the poem doesn’t stand up to fact-checking. Charles did not compose this poem while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but in around 1443-60 after he was released and had returned to France.
Despite being addressed to “my very sweet Valentine,” the poem is not a personal message of affection like today’s Valentine cards. It actually refers to the courtly practice of holding a lottery on St Valentine’s Day in which everyone was assigned a partner, generally not their husband or wife, who was supposed to be their “Valentine” for the year. This was a rather artificial enactment of the concept of 12th-century Courtly Love, in which knights were supposed to devote themselves to the service of a married lady. In the poem, Charles excuses himself from the custom, apologetically telling his allotted Valentine that he’s too old and tired.
However, although he can’t qualify as having written the first Valentine, Charles d'Orléans was still an important figure in the development of Valentine’s Day, because about fourteen of his poems explore the subject of Valentine’s Day (A surprisingly high number, many of which can be found in British Library manuscripts.)
One poem, beginning “Dieu Cupido, et Venus la Deese” (The god Cupid and goddess Venus), was written when Charles was still a young man in France. It takes the form of a mock contract placing Charles in the service of Cupid and Venus. The poem ends by stating that the contract is granted on St Valentine’s Day:
Granted the day of Saint Valentine, martyr,
In the city of Gracious Desire,
Where we had our council convened.
On behalf of sovereign Cupid and Venus,
Several worldly pleasures to this man present.
The poem demonstrates the close association of St Valentine’s Day with love and desire. Its optimistic and playful tone makes a striking contrast with Charles’ later more sombre poetry on the theme of Valentine’s Day. Thus, while the claims that Charles wrote the first Valentine aren’t true, he was certainly a prolific writer of Valentine’s Day poetry, drawing on earlier poetic traditions (mainly that of the Troubadours) and developing them in new ways. His poems on feeling alienated or cynical about the amorous pursuits of St Valentine’s Day provide a novel and, for many, highly relatable perspective on the genre of Valentine’s poetry. Charles’ poetry was very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, making it likely that he helped to further popularize the romantic associations of St Valentine’s Day. This makes him a particularly important Valentine’s poet.
When the sadness of being separated from his Gente Dame (his spouse) or the melancholy in remembering the sweet country of France took hold of him, he tried to chase them away by writing verses, a ritual based on the lyrical genres of the Courtly Love tradition in which he gave free rein to his imagination. And it is to this long captivity in the Tower of London that we owe the greater part of his poetry, which combines the influences of the Troubadours and the Trouvères, of Guillaume de Machaut, of Petrarch, and of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Beginning of Charles’ poem ‘Dieu Cupido, et Venus
la Deese’ (from an illuminated manuscript ca. 1500)
Beginning of Charles’ first supposed Valentine poem,
‘Je suis desja d'amour tanné’, from a 15th-century copy
of his personal manuscript
Thematic Images for Valentine's Day
Vintage Valentine's Day Cards
image altered by GS
In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century.
The act of giving gifts on Valentine’s Day, such as flowers, chocolates and jewelry to loved ones grew over the years in popularity. By the 18th century, this tradition had spread to many different countries. In Italy, children were given keys to ward off illnesses. In Norfolk, England, “Jack Valentine” knocked on houses, leaving sweets and presents for the children living there.
Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. By the middle of the 18th century, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” By 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.
Esther A. Howland vintage Valentine's Day cards
Thematic Valentine's Day Images
Vintage Be My Valentine Card
Modern Be My Valentine Card (by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images of Valentine's Day Lovers
Thematic Images of Classic Arab & Persian Lovers
Arab-Persian Lovers Layla & Majnun
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Layla binti Mahdi and Qays ibn al-Mulawwah (Layla and Majnun)
Note on Images
When viewing Layla and Majnun and other famous images of non-Western lovers (added below), some of which are of mixed Arab and Persian composition (e.g., the Arab love story of Layla & Majnun in a Persian Miniature setting), to avoid confusion it should be kept mind that there was a mixed Arab-Persian culture after the Muslim invasion of the Persian Sasanian Empire in 632 C.E. Thus, Arabia and Persia were ancient regions with complex cultural and political interactions. Even in pre-Islamic Arabia, at the time of the Sasanian Empire, there were many Arabs who lived in the cultural sphere of Persia and thus used Persian as their written language. They were referred to as “Persian Arabs.” There was a notable Arab-Persian community called “Al-Abna,” (lit. “the sons”). Following the Arab conquest of Persia, Persians, in turn, began to use Arabic as their written language alongside Persian. Many famous Muslim scientists and philosophers during the time of the Abbasid Caliphate were ethnic Persians who wrote their scholarly works in Arabic while continuing to write literary works and poetry in Persian. (Famous examples are Avicenna and Omar Khayyam.)
Other Classic Persian & Arab Lovers
Qutuz and Jelnar (Persian)
Rostam and Tahmineh (Persian)
Tahmineh entering Rostam’s bed chamber
Scheherazade and Sharyar (Persian-Arabic)
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Jamil and Bouthaina (Arabic)
Isaf and Naila (Arabic)
Aja and Salma (Arabic)
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Antarah and Abla (Arabic)
Ibn Zaydun and Walada (Arab)
Persian Lovers
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The Lovers (Riza-yi 'Abbasi, Persian miniaturist)
Arab Lovers
Thematic Images the God of Love of Eros/Cupid for Valentine's Day
Cupid is the Roman version of the Greek god of love, Eros.
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Greek Eros (ca. 470-450 BCE)
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Greek Eros (ca. 330 BCE)
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[Left] Eros, herald of blossoming love with a herald's wand and flower bloom (Athenian ca. 490 BCE). [Center] Eros playing flute (Athenian 5th c. BCE). [Right] Cupid, (Roman fresco from Herculaneum, ca. 1st century CE.)
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Eros holding wreath (4th c. BCE)
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Eros-Cupid riding dolphin (Greco-Roman, 1st-2nd CE)
Statues of Eros/Cupid
(Main image: Eros, 2nd century Roman statue, after a Greek original ca. 4th century BCE )
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Cupid with Torch and Arrow (Bakst)
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Cupid (Procaccini)
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The Voyage of Galatea (Raphael)
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L’Amour qui vient de dérober une rose (Chaudet)
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Cupid's Hunting Fields (Burne-Jones)
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Eros - Cupidon (de Nouy)
Eros In ancient gallery with Pompeii frescoes
Eros & Cupid
In classical Greek mythology, Eros was the mischievous god of love, a minion and constant companion of the goddess Aphrodite. The poet Hesiod first represents him as a primordial deity who emerges self-born at the beginning of time to spur procreation. Eventually, Eros was multiplied by ancient poets and artists into a host of Erotes (Roman “Cupides”). The singular Eros, however, remained distinct in myth. It was he who lit the flame of love in the hearts of the gods and men, armed with either a bow and arrows or a flaming torch. Eros was often portrayed as the disobedient but fiercely loyal child of Aphrodite.
In Plato’s Symposium (ca. 385 – 370 BCE), which is a great dialogue about Eros, or “Love,” the god’s primordial origins and nature are discussed: “Parmenides too describes his origin: ‘The first of all the gods he devised was Love.…’ What is more, lovers alone are willing to die for the beloved, not only men but women too. And so I declare that Love is the most ancient and revered of the gods, and supreme when it comes to the human acquisition of excellence and blessedness in life and after death.”
In classical, Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin, cupido: “desire”), is the god of erotic love, attraction, and affection. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Eros and the equivalent of Amor (“Love”) in Latin and in Troubadour poetry, and therefore known as the god of Romance. (Cupid and Amor weren't considered distinguishable in ancient Rome.) According to myth, Cupid was the son of Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, and Venus-Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In antiquity Amor is portrayed as a youth, with and without wings, armed with bow and arrows. In Hellenic art he is a small youth. The amoretto, amorini, and putti (the androgynous, winged, cherub-like beings) that are derived from Cupid flutter all through Hellenic, Roman,Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo art.
Ancient philosophers (e.g. Plato) distinguished normal sexual pleasure (associated with Venus) from passionate love (associated with Eros), which they considered a kind of divine madness or ecstasy; the latter is literally enthusiasm, which comes from entheos, “possessed,” that is, having a god (theos) inside. Therefore, passion is possession by a god (Eros in this case), and thus contact and union with the divine. (Here we can see part of the reason for the conflict between Venus and Eros/Cupid in the love story of “Cupid and Psyche.”)
![Greek Eros playing flute_0N98B__please_credit[palette.fm].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d9adf4_066f136ec0114fc0be52419f612a42a8~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_272,h_400,al_c,lg_1,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/Greek%20Eros%20playing%20flute_0N98B__please_credit%5Bpalette_fm%5D.png)
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Venus and Cupid (Allori)
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An Allegory with Venus and Cupid (Bronzino)
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Venus and Cupid (Leighton)
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Venus and Cupid (van Loo)
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Venus and Cupid (de Morgan)
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Cupids as Puttos
Thematic Images for the Love Story of Eros/Cupid & Psyche
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Eroti e Psychai (fresco, da Stabiae, Villa di Arianna)
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Venus shows Psyche to Cupid (fresco, Raffaellino del Colle)
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Cupid and Psyche (Roman sarcophagus panel)
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The Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche (Raphael)
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The Reunion of Cupid and Psyche (Saint-Ours)
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Cupid and Psyche (Bertin)
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L'Amour [Eros] et Psych (Bouguereau)
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Cupid and Psyche (Swynnerton)
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Cupid and Psyche, Allegory of the Five Senses (Lagrenee)
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Cupid and Psyche (Regnault)
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Amor and Psyche (Lagrenée)
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Cupid and Psyche (West)
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Cupid and Psyche (David)
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Cupid and Psych (Canova)
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Cupid and Psyche (van Dyck)
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L'Amour et Psyche (Picot)
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Cupid and Psyche (Burne-Jones)
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Psyche's Wedding (Burne-Jones)
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Study for day and the dawnstar (Draper)
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The Other Side (Cornwell)
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Psyche and Eros in a Mythical Greek Landscape
Cupid and Psyche (Leveille)
The Archetypal Love Story of Cupid & Psyche
Cupid (or Eros) and Psyche is a story originally from Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), written in the 2nd century CE by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. The grand romantic tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche (lit. “Soul” or “Breath of Life,”) and Cupid (Latin: Cupido, lit. “Desire”) or Amor (lit. “Love;” Greek Eros), and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although Psyche is usually referred to in Roman mythology by her Greek name, her Roman name through direct translation is Anima.
Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius from the 2nd century CE, Eros and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BCE. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale, Märchen or fairy tale, and myth.
The love story of Cupid and Psyche was known to Boccaccio in c. 1370 CE. The first printed version dates to 1469. Ever since, the reception of Cupid and Psyche in the classical tradition has been extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and depicted widely in painting, sculpture, and even wallpaper.
In the early Christian centuries, it was the practice of the Church's iconography to borrow motifs from well-established and still current pagan myths. The Christians would look for those myths that could, while retaining a pagan semblance, be interpreted in a Christian key. Among the motifs applicable in this way were those connected with the myth of Eros and Psyche. Thus, to the eminent fourteenth-century writer and poet Boccaccio the marriage of Cupid and Psyche symbolized the union of soul and God. The allure to interpret the story as a religious or philosophical allegory can still be found in modern scholarship.
In the story, Psyche is so beautiful that the jealous goddess Venus commands her son Cupid to make her fall in love with an unworthy man. However, Cupid falls in love with Psyche himself. Concerned about Psyche’s lack of suitors, her parents consult the oracle of Apollo. They are told that Psyche’s future husband is a monster and that she must be abandoned on top of a mountain. The west wind, Zephyrus, saves her and carries her to Cupid’s palace. Cupid visits Psyche only at night and forbids her to make any attempt to see him. Psyche is curious about her lover’s appearance and fearful after her two jealous sisters convince her that Cupid is a serpentine monster. Urged on by them she conceals a lamp and knife in her bedchamber. When Cupid is asleep, Psyche illuminates his beautiful figure with the lamp but a drop of hot oil accidentally wakes him. Angrily he flies off with Psyche clinging desperately to his ankle. Psyche tries to drown herself but Pan tells her to win back Cupid’s love. Venus sets Psyche a series of increasingly difficult tasks. Although Psyche fails the final task, the gods make her immortal and she is reunited with Cupid.
The Troubadours & the God of Love, Amor (Eros/Cupid)
Amor and Eros are both names for the god of love, and Cupid is the Roman version of Eros.
Images from courtly love poem, Le Roman de la Rose (13th century)
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Amor, God of Love, shoots an arrow at the Lover
Amor, God of Love
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Amor, God of Love, locking the Lover's heart
Amor, God of Love, taking hold of the Lover
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Amor, God of love, shooting the Lover-dreamer
The Troubadours & The Rebirth of Eros
The 12th-century Troubadours’ concept of fin’amor (refined or true love) under the auspices of Eros/Cupid, the god of love (commonly known as Amor in the Latin Middle Ages), have heavily influenced European lyric poetry. Eros as longing of the suffering soul in Neoplatonism is metamorphosed into mystic-Eros by the Troubadours. Thus, according to Denis de Rougemont, the Troubadours represented a “rebirth of Eros” in the Middle Ages.
While ascending the various steps of the chain of Eros in quest of attaining the Beloved, the soul of the lover experienced a constant oscillation between the sacred and the profane. Thus, for the Troubadours, Eros is viewed as a binding force that trends to bridge the gap between sense and spirit within the periphery of fin’amor—a powerful plea for refined sensuality that could bridge the gap between carnal and spiritual love. Passion, treated by preachers and theologians as an evil element, is viewed as a pure and purifying emotion by the Troubadours. Antiquity understood excessive concern with sexual pleasure as a sickness of the emotions, but in the Middle Ages these feelings were transformed into an ideal of love—fin’amor—under the influence of an erotic mysticism. This secular mysticism of erotic love enabled the Troubadours to move, through a union with the earthly Beloved, to a union with the Divine. In other words, this is an “eros-tradition” that uses the yearning power of erotic love as a kind of slingshot into a transcendent union with the heavenly Beloved. According to Rougemont, the troubadours spoke the words of an Eros-centered theology, and it was through this “heresy” that a European vocabulary of erotic mysticism flourished in the Western world.
The Esoteric Dimension of
St Valentine’s Day
La Vita Nuova (Dante’s Italian style of Troubadour Provencal poetry) gives testimony of encountering and falling in madly in love with a beautiful young girl, Beatrice. “At that moment, I'd say most truly that the spirit of life, which hath is dwelling in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to tremble violently that even the most minute veins of my body were strangely affected; and trembling, spoke these words: ‘Here is a deity, stronger than I who comes to rule over me.’” Nine years later, the Florentine troubadour Dante experienced a new revelation in a dream vision. He beheld his new master, Love (Amor), who held in his hand a heart of flame, and said to Dante “Behold thy heart." What Dante expresses is precisely the same symbol of the flaming heart that is linked in both Islamic or Persian and Christian esotericism with the symbol of the breath, and of the spiritual eye.
Thematic Memes for Valentine's Day
