The Truth about Valentines Day

Valentine’s Day

 

A myth is a story about the universe that is considered sacred. Such a story deals with the great moments of man’s life: birth, initiation, and death, referring them to events that took place in mythical times. The myth is often recited during a dramatic representation of the event it narrates. Through the ritual, man then becomes contemporary with the mythical event, and participates in the gods’ creative actions. Thus, man can create, man can maintain, man can renew fertility–just through the rituals man has devised through mythology.

 

Mythology is nothing more than a collection of stories about the gods that the pagans worshiped. To the pagan mind, the gods brought planting time and harvest to the earth; the gods also caused the fruitfulness of the earth to die in the fall, but through certain ceremonies, the gods could be induced to bring back the fruitfulness of the earth.

 

To the pagan mind, the gods could cause fertility in man and beast, or the gods could cause infertility. Also through certain rites and ceremonies, the fertility of the whole earth could be assured, which would assure the continuity of the human race.

 

The whole deceived pagan world worshiped the gods and goddesses which centered on mother-son-husband worship. It was the fertility of the mother- son-husband which brought fertility upon the earth.

 

The ancient Babylonians worshiped the mother, Semiramis and her husband/son, Ninus. Ishtar and Tammuz were venerated by the Canaanites.

 

The Egyptians paid homage to the mother, Isis and her husband/son, Osiris.

 

In India this couple was Indrani and Iswara; in Asia: Cybele and Deoius.

 

In Pagan Rome Fortuna and Jupiter-puer, or Jupiter the Boy, were adored.

 

The Greeks, Chinese, Japanese–yes, the whole deceived world–worshiped the Great Mother who married her own son in order to perpetuate the fertility of the world.

 

The Ancient Cycle of Pagan Worship

The world was renewed in the spring at the vernal equinox. The fertility of the land was guaranteed by the Mother being fertilized by her son/husband, through a pertinent ritual. Pagan man acted out this fertility rite in their pagan temples to assure this fertility. The vegetation of the world matured under the searing heat of summer. At the summer solstice, the mother had her husband/son killed. The manner of the god’s demise was variously conceived in the myths: he was slain by another god, by wild animals, by reapers, by self-emasculation, by burning, by drowning, etc. Through a pertinent ritual, this ceremony was also carefully carried out by these deceived worshipers. At the autumn equinox, the mother longed for or desired her husband/son again, and wept for him because of this longing. The ritual of weeping for Tammuz was an abomination which even the women of Israel committed.

 

The Prophet Ezekiel Yechetzqyah reproved the people of this abomination, saying in:

Yechetzqyah 8:13-14—

13. He also said to me: Turn yet again and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.

 

14. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s House, which was toward the north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

 

From his book, The Two Babylons, Second American Edition, 1959, Alexander Hislop shows us the significance of this weeping on pages 56-57:

 

The identity of Nimrod, however, and the Egyptian Osiris, having been established, we have thereby light as to Nimrod’s death. Osiris met with a violent death, and that violent death of Osiris was the central theme of the whole idolatry of Egypt. If Osiris was Nimrod, as we have seen, that violent death which the Egyptians so pathetically deplored in their annual festivals was just the death of Nimrod. The accounts in regard to the death of the god worshipped in the several mysteries of the different countries are all to the same effect. A statement of Plato seems to show, that in his day the Egyptian Osiris was regarded as identical with Tammuz; and Tammuz is well known to have been the same as Adonis, the famous HUNTSMAN, for whose death Venus is fabled to have made such bitter lamentations.

 

As the women of Egypt wept for Osiris, as the Phoenician and Assyrian women wept for Tammuz, so in Greece and Rome the women wept for Bacchus, whose name, as we have seen, means ‘‘The bewailed,’’ or ‘‘Lamented one.’’ And now, in connection with the Bacchanal lamentations, the importance of the relation established between Nebros, ‘‘The spotted fawn,’’ and Nebrod, ‘‘The mighty hunter,’’ will appear. The Nebros, or ‘‘spotted fawn,’’ was a symbol of Bacchus as representing Nebrod or Nimrod himself. Now, on certain occasions, in the mystical celebrations, the Nebros, or ‘‘spotted fawn,’’ was torn in pieces, expressly, as we learn from Photius, as a commemoration of what happened to Bacchus, whom that fawn represented. The tearing in pieces of Nebros, ‘‘the spotted one,’’ goes to confirm the conclusion, that the death of Bacchus, even as the death of Osiris, represented the death of Nebrod, whom, under the very name of ‘‘The Spotted one,’’ the Babylonians worshipped.

 

Though we do not find any account of Mysteries observed in Greece in memory of Orion, the giant and mighty hunter celebrated by Homer, under that name, yet he was represented symbolically as having died in a similar way to that in which Osiris died, and as having then been translated to heaven.

 

From Persian records we are expressly assured that it was Nimrod who was deified after his death by the name of Orion, and placed among the stars. Here, then, we have large and consenting evidence, all leading to one conclusion, that the death of Nimrod, the child worshipped in the arms of the goddess-mother of Babylon, was a death of violence.

 

Now, when this mighty hero, in the midst of his career of glory, was suddenly cut off by a violent death, great seems to have been the shock that the catastrophe occasioned. When the news spread abroad, the devotees of pleasure felt as if the best benefactor of mankind were gone, and the gaiety of nations eclipsed. Loud was the wail that everywhere ascended to heaven among the apostates from the primeval faith for so dire a catastrophe. Then began those weeping’s for Tammuz, in the guilt of which the daughters of Israel allowed themselves to be implicated, and the existence of which can be traced not merely in the annals of classical antiquity, but in the literature of the world from Ultima Thule to Japan.

 

Ninus, Tammuz, Osiris, Bacchus, etc. were all the same God, with the same worship and ritual in mythology. The only difference was the fact that the names of the god were changed, to protect the guilty. At the winter solstice, the son/husband was reborn to the mother. Yule, according to The Two Babylons on page 93, is the Chaldee name for an infant or little child. Therefore, as The Two Babylons on page 98 shows: ‘‘the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great God (after that old god had been removed from the scene through various means)...’’ As the pagan year went through its course, the mythological story of the birth-initiation-death of the son/ husband also went its course, coming again to the vernal equinox and the remarriage of the mother to the son/ husband, in order to fertilize the world.

 

As repulsive as this may seem to the average reader, the same pagan fertility rites, practiced since antiquity, have come down to our present time almost intact. The only difference in the ancient pagan rituals and their modern counterparts is the fact that their names were changed in order to veneer them with Christian respectability.

 

The Ancient Fertility Ritual Still Practiced In February

In the month of February candy makers unload tons of heart shaped boxes full of candy. This candy is then purchased by individuals for the people they love. Millions of innocent schoolchildren are indoctrinated to exchange valentine cards with each other. Florists consider February 14–St Valentine’s Day–as one of their best business days. All who celebrate this ritual have love in their hearts.

 

Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia And Fact Index, F.E. Compton & Company, 1948, Volume 13, page 12, gives this information concerning St. Valentine’s Day:

 

SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY: For centuries February 14 has been observed as Saint Valentine’s Day. Traditionally, February 14 is a day for lovers.

 

In medieval Times young people in England, Scotland, and France used to assemble on Saint Valentine’s Eve. They drew names by chance from an urn. Each person then became the ‘‘valentine,’’ that is, the special friend of the one whose name he drew. It is still customary on this date to exchange gifts, many of them heart-shaped, as an expression of affection. Friends send candy, flowers, and greetings.

 

Another fairy tale about this holiday is the fact that this custom of Valentine’s Day has something to do with a martyred Catholic saint by the name of Valentine. Although in truth a man by that name may have been martyred, why in the world would anyone want to worship a dead man? However, the truth about the origins of this fertility ritual goes far beyond mere man.

 

Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Volume 13, page 12, tells us that the Roman festival Lupercalia might have something to do with St. Valentine’s Day:

 

Of the several saints named Valentine, the most important were a Roman priest and a bishop of Terni, both of whom were executed in Rome in the third century. That their feast day is also the day set aside for lovers seems to be merely a coincidence. The Roman festival Lupercalia, which occurred on February 15, may be related to the modern celebration.

 

Centuries before the birth of Yahshua Messiah, the Romans were celebrating the evening of February] 14 and the day of February] 15 as an idolatrous and sensuous festival in honor of Lupercus. Lupus is the Latin word for wolf. The wolf is a symbol for valor, as A Dictionary of Symbols, by J.E. Cirlot, 1983, page 375, says:

 

Valentine was a common Roman name, which Roman parents often gave to their children in honor of the famous man who was first called valiant: Valentine, in antiquity, Lupercus, The Hunter!

 

The Romans identified Lupercus with Faunus, a god of nature. The Greeks called this nature god Pan. The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, by Gertrude Jobes, 1961, tells us about Faunus in Part 1, page 552, and about Pan in Part 2, pages 1230-1231:

 

FAUNUS: In Roman mythology, grandson of Saturn; son of Picus, brother-husband of Fauna; father of Acis and Latinus, suitor of Galatea; ancestor of the fauns.

 

A rural and woodland deity; patron of herding, hunting, and husbandry. Worshiped in groves, where his oracles were heard by a visitant while asleep on a sacred fleece. He revealed nature’s secrets to men only. Faunus means to favor. He was also called Inuus (fertilizer) and Lupercus (one who wards off wolves). PAN: Greek woodland spirit. God of flocks, hills, pastures, and wild life. Lusty deity of weather or wind insofar as weather affected crops and herds. Chief of satyrs, he presided over rural occupations, was patron of fishermen, hunters, and shepherds, and created mirages and other pitfalls for travelers. He is said to have caused groundless fear, hence the word panic. Plutarch relates that Thamus, passing the island of Paxos, heard a mighty voice commanding Thamus to proclaim, ‘‘Pan is dead.’’ Probably a misunderstanding of the lament for the mutilated Tammuz. He usually is portrayed with the head, chest, and arms of a man, a crooked nose, the legs, horns, tail, and sometimes the ears of a goat to typify his fertile powers. He is said also to personify the sensual (animal) as well as the spiritual (godly) attributes in mortals.

 

The World Book Encyclopedia, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1961, Volume 6, page 59, shows us:  Faun, fawn, was a half-human god of the woods and herds in Roman mythology. The fauns corresponded to the satyrs of Greek mythology. They had pointed ears, short horns, and a tail. Their legs are sometimes represented as human, sometimes as covered with shaggy hair and with feet like a goat. The fauns were followers of Pan, god of the fields and woods, and Bacchus, god of wine. They were generally represented as playful creatures. PhilipW.Harsh Pan was an Arcadian god of light, and as such was equivalent to the Sun God: Baal, Bel, Belu, as Part 1 of The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols tells us on page 167:

 

BAAL (BAL, BEL, BELU): Any of the numerous local deities among ancient Semitic peoples, typifying the productive forces of nature and worshiped with orgiastic rites. Nameless deities are oldest, and Baal simply meant lord. An atmosphere or wind deity, also a heaven or sun deity. His worshipers believed he was the originator of life, the soul of the world. He brought earthquakes, fire, and storms; he was the generative principle in nature, originator of good and evil, provider of food.

 

Among Egyptian sects worshiped as a god of the burning destroying sun.

 

The Hebrews applied the name to any false god. As a Phoenician sun deity he was the male productive power.

 

In Syria worshiped as a lunar god, lord of heaven, creator. Controlling fertility, rain, and thunder, he ultimately acquired solar attributes. He was accompanied by Baalath. Probable source of ball, Beal, Blaise.

 

Baalath. In Semitic worship the female reflection of Baal; lady or spouse of Baal. Female energy identified with earth. Identical with Baalti, Beltu.

 

Baal, as the Sun, was the symbol of the male reproductive power. The earth, as the female reproductive power, was Baalath, his wife. Baal which is mentioned so often in The Holy Scriptures was a title of Nimrod, the hunter who was against Yahweh.

 

We read in: Genesis 10:9, KJV—He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

 

The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, pages 21-25, gives us this information:

That son, though represented as a child in his mother’s arms, was a person of great stature and immense bodily powers, as well as most fascinating manners. In Scripture he is referred to (Ezek. viii. 14) under the name of Tammuz, but he is commonly known among classical writers under the name of Bacchus, that is, ‘‘The Lamented one.’’

 

To the ordinary reader the name of Bacchus suggests nothing more than revelry and drunkenness, but it is now well known, that amid all the abominations that attended his orgies, their grand design was professedly ‘‘the purification of souls,’’ and that from the guilt and defilement of sin. This lamented one, exhibited and adored as a little child in his mother’s arms, seems, in point of fact, to have been the husband of Semiramis, whose name, Ninus, by which he is commonly known in classical history, literally signified ‘‘The Son.’’

 

As Semiramis, the wife, was worshipped as Rhea, whose grand distinguishing character was that of the great goddess ‘‘Mother,’’ the conjunction with her of her husband, under the name Ninus, or ‘‘The Son,’’ was sufficient to originate the peculiar worship of the ‘‘Mother and Son,’’ so extensively diffused among the nations of antiquity; and this, no doubt, is the explanation of the fact which has so much puzzled the inquirers into ancient history, that Ninus is sometimes called the husband, and sometimes the son of Semiramis.

 

 

Now, this Ninus, or ‘‘Son,’’ borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. ‘‘Ninus, king of the Assyrians,’’ says Trogus Pompeius, epitomized by Justin, ‘‘first of all changed the contented moderation of the ancient manners, incited by a new passion, the desire of conquest. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbors, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia, as they were yet unacquainted with the arts of war.’’

 

This account points directly to Nimrod, and can apply to no other. Now, assuming that Ninus is Nimrod, the way in which that assumption explains what is otherwise inexplicable in the statements of ancient history greatly confirms the truth of that assumption itself. Ninus is said to have been the son of Belus or Bel, and Bel is said to have been the founder of Babylon.

 

Then on pages 39-43 of The Two Babylons, we find the following information:

Now, the understanding of this equivocal sense of ‘‘Baalaberin’’can alone explain the remarkable statement of Aristophanes, that at the beginning of the world ‘‘the birds’’ were first created, and then after their creation, came the ‘‘race of the blessed immortal gods.’’

 

This has been regarded as either an atheistical or nonsensical utterance on the part of the poet, but, with the true key applied to the language, it is found to contain an important historical fact.

 

Let it only be borne in mind that ‘‘the birds’ ’that is, the ‘‘winged ones’ ’symbolized ‘‘the Lords of the mighty ones,’’ and then the meaning is clear,viz., that men first ‘‘began to be mighty on the earth; ’and then, that the ‘‘Lords’’ or Leaders of “these mighty ones” were deified.

 

The knowledge of the mystic sense of this symbol accounts also for the origin of the story of Perseus, the son of Jupiter, miraculously born of Danaë, who did such wondrous things, and who passed from country to country on wings divinely bestowed on him. This equally casts light on the symbolic myths in regard to Bellerophon, and the feats which he performed on his winged horse, and their ultimate disastrous issue; how high he mounted in the air, and how terrible was his fall; and of Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who, flying on wax cemented wings over the Icarian Sea, had his wings melted off through his too near approach to the sun, and so gave his name to the sea where he was supposed to have fallen.

 

The fables all referred to those who trode, or were supposed to have trodden, in the steps of Nimrod, the first ‘‘Lord of the mighty ones,’’ and who in that character was symbolized as equipped with wings. Now, it is remarkable that, in the passage of Aristophanes already referred to, that speaks of the birds, or ‘‘the winged ones,’’ being produced before the gods, we are informed that he from whom both ‘‘mighty ones’’ and gods derived their origin, was none other than the winged boy Cupid.

 

Cupid, the son of Venus, occupied, as will afterwards be proved, in the mystic mythology the very same position as Nin, or Ninus, ‘‘the son,’’ did to Rhea,the mother of the gods. As Nimrod was unquestionably the first of ‘‘the mighty ones’’ after the Flood, this statement of Aristophanes, that the boy-god Cupid, himself a winged one, produced all the birds or ‘‘winged ones,’’ while occupying the very position of Nin or Ninus, ‘‘the son,’’ shows that in this respect also Ninus and Nimrod are identified.

 

While this is the evident meaning of the poet, this also, in a strictly historical point of view, is the conclusion of the historian Apollodorus; for he states that ‘‘Ninus is Nimrod.’’ And then, in conformity with this identity of Ninus and Nimrod, we find, in one of the most celebrated sculptures of ancient Babylon, Ninus and his wife Semiramis represented as actively engaged in the pursuits of the chase‘ ‘the quiverbearing Semiramis’’ being a fit companion for ‘‘the mighty Hunter before the Lord.’’

 

When we turn to Egypt we find remarkable evidence of the same thing there also. Justin, as we have already seen, says that ‘‘Ninus subdued all nations, as far as Lybia,’’ and consequently Egypt. The statement of Diodorus Siculus is to the same effect, Egypt being one of the countries that, according to him, Ninus brought into subjection to himself. In exact accordance with these historical statements, we find that the name of the third person in the primeval triad of Egypt was Khons. But Khons, in Egyptian, comes from a word that signifies ‘‘to chase.’’ Therefore, the name of Khons,the son of Maut, the goddess-mother, who was adorned in such a way as to identify her with Rhea, the great goddessmother of Chaldea, properly signifies ‘‘The Huntsman,’’ or god of the chase. As Khons stands in the very same relation to the Egyptian Maut as Ninus does to Rhea, how does this title of ‘‘The Huntsman’’ identify the Egyptian god with Nimrod?

 

Now this very name Khons, brought into contact with the Roman mythology, not only explains the meaning of a name in the Pantheon there, that hitherto has stood greatly in need of explanation, but causes that name, when explained, to reflect light back again on this Egyptian divinity, and to strengthen the conclusion already arrived at.

 

The name to which I refer is the name of the Latin god Consus, who was in one aspect identified with Neptune, but who was also regarded as ‘‘the god of hidden counsels,’’ or ‘‘the concealer of secrets,’’ who was looked up to as the patron of horsemanship, and was said to have produced the horse. Who could be the ‘‘god of the hidden counsels,’’ or the ‘‘concealer of secrets,’’ but Saturn, the god of the ‘‘mysteries,’’ and whose name as used at Rome, signified

 

‘‘The hidden one?’’ The father of Khons, or Khonso (as he was also called), that is, Amoun, was, as we are told by Plutarch, known as ‘‘The hidden God;’’ and as father and son in the same triad

Have ordinarily a correspondence of character, this shows that Khons also must have been known in the very same character of Saturn, ‘‘the hidden one.’’

 

If the Latin Consus, then, thus exactly agreed with the Egyptian Khons, as the god of ‘‘mysteries,’’ or ‘‘hidden counsels,’’ can there be a doubt that Khons, the Huntsman, also agreed with the same Roman divinity as the supposed producer of the horse? Who so likely to get the credit of producing the horse as the great huntsman of Babel, who no doubt enlisted it in the toils of the chase, and by this means must have been signally aided in his conflicts with the wild beasts of the forest?

 

In this connection, let the reader call to mind that fabulous creature, the Centaur, half-man, half-horse, that figures so much in the mythology of Greece. That imaginary creation, as is generally admitted, was intended to commemorate the man who first taught the art of horsemanship. But that creation was not the offspring of Greek fancy.

 

Here, as in many other things, the Greeks have only borrowed from an earlier source. The Centaur is found on coins struck in Babylonia (Fig. 16),* showing that the idea must have originally come from that quarter. The Centaur is found in the Zodiac (Fig.17), the antiquity of which goes up to a high period, and which had its origin in Babylon.

 

The Centaur was represented, as we are expressly assured by Berosus, the Babylonian historian, in the temple of Babylon, and his language would seem to show that so also it had been in primeval times.

 

The Greeks did themselves admit this antiquity and derivation of the Centaur; for though Ixion was commonly represented as the father of the Centaurs, yet they also acknowledge that the primitive Centaurus was the same as Kronos, or Saturn, the father of the gods. But we have seen that Kronos was the first King of Babylon, or Nimrod; consequently, the first Centaur was the same. Now, the way in which the Centaur was represented on the Babylonian coins, and in the Zodiac, viewed in this light, is very striking. The Centaur was the same as the sign Sagittarius, or ‘‘The Archer.’’ If the founder of Babylon’s glory was ‘‘the mighty Hunter,’’ whose name,

 

Even in the days of Moses, was a proverb__(Gen. x. 9,‘‘Wherefore, it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord’’)__when we find the ‘‘Archer’’ with his bow and arrow, in the symbol of the supreme Babylonian divinity, and the ‘‘Archer,’’ among the signs of the Zodiac that originated in Babylon, I think we may safely conclude that this Man-horse or Horse-man Archer primarily referred to him, and was intended to perpetuate the memory at once of his fame as a huntsman and his skill as a horsebreaker.

 

Now, when we thus compare the Egyptian Khons, the ‘‘Huntsman,’’ with the Latin Consus, the god of horse-races,who ‘‘produced the horse,’’ and the Centaur of Babylon, to whom was attributed the honour of being the author of horsemanship, while we see how all the lines converge in Babylon, it will be very clear, I think, whence the primitive Egyptian god Khons has been derived. Khons, the son of the great goddess-mother, seems to have been generally represented as a full-grown god. The Babylonian divinity was also represented very frequently in Egypt in the very same way as in the land of his nativity__i.e. as a child in his mother’s arms. This was the way in which Osiris, ‘‘the son, the husband of his mother,’’ was often exhibited, and what we learn of this god, equally as in the case of Khonso, shows that in his original he was none other than Nimrod.

 

The hunter, Nimrod, it is said, pursued wolves in the Appenine Mountains of Italy, and acquired the title of Lupercus–wolf hunter (hunter of valor) [Valens: to be strong, powerful, and mighty].

 

What this does not say, but what any researcher can find, is the symbolic meaning of the word, hunter. A Dictionary of Symbols, by J.E. Cirlot, page 154, has this to say about this word, Hunter: ‘‘...that it is desire itself. Similarly, Zagreus, another name for Dionysos, means: The Great Hunter, and stands for the insatiable incontinence of desire.’’

 

Nimrod not only was strong, powerful, and mighty in a political sense, but he was also strong, powerful, and mighty in a sexual sense. The worship of the people was centered on sexual activity to insure fertility. Nimrod, Baal-Lord-Sun God of the ancients, was born at the winter solstice, in agreement with the mythology of the birth-initiation-death fertility cycle. In the year 2100 b.c.e., the winter solstice occurred on January 6. Semiramis, Nimrod’s mother/wife, ordered Nimrod’s birthday to be celebrated on January 6.

 

Eastern Orthodox Churches still commemorate January 6, but now they call it epiphany, which is known as gift day, just as the Catholics who celebrate the Christmas season from December 24 until January 6. Later, as the precession of the equinoxes continued, Julius Caesar ordered the Roman Empire to celebrate this birth date on the new date of the winter solstice–on December 25 of the reformed calendar. This day, during the time of Julius Caesar was called the Brumalia. Today, this day is called Christmas.

 

The Purification

The time of the winter solstice on January 6, 2100 b.c.e., was the exact time the pagans celebrated the birth of the son, who was first known to pagan antiquity as Nimrod. Epiphany is still celebrated today on January 6, with the same rituals to the same fertility Gods and Goddesses. The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, page 516, tells us about this ancient pagan ceremony: EPIPHANY: Ancient Greek festival celebrating the appearance of a deity; hence an appearance or revelation of a supernatural being. In the Christian Church, festival in commemoration of the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi at Bethlehem, celebrated January 6, the twelfth day after Christmas. Formerly called Twelfth day or Twelfth tide. The mystery of incarnation. The Christian festival was borrowed from European pagan winter solstice rites, which were encouragements to the rebirth of the year. Destructive old-year spirits were exorcised by noisy bands, masked as Perchten and other fantastic spirits. Elaborate dances were performed. In England originally the date for the appearance of the Abbots Bromley antler dance.

 

In antiquity, it was the custom for the mother who had just given birth to be unclean for sexual purposes for a specified number of days, depending upon whether she bore a male or female child. Semiramis, the mother, gave birth to a male child, Nimrod, and therefore would be unclean for a period of 40 days. The 40th day after January 6 is February 15th. February 15, which began on the evening of February 14, was the day on which the Lupercalia was celebrated.

 

The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 2, page 1026, tells us about Lupercus and the Lupercalia. Lupercus: A very ancient Italian rustic deity; god of fertility identified with Faunus. The name means one who wards off the wolves. Resembles Pan. Lupercalia: Roman festival celebrated on February 15 to honor Lupercus. As a conclusion to their rites, the Luperci (priests of Lupercus), clad in goatskins,ran about Palatine Hill striking those they encountered, particularly women, with goatskin thongs. This was believed to insure fertility and easy delivery.

 

 

Webster’s Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary, Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y., 1979, page 1075, tells us that the Lupercalia was an ancient Roman festival with fertility rites: Lu.per.ca′li.a, n.pl. [L., from Lupercalis, of Lupercus, from Lupercus, from lupus, a wolf.] an ancient Roman festival with fertility rites, held on February 15 in honor of Lupercus, a pastoral god sometimes identified with Faunus.

 

According to The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, page 552: ‘‘Faunus was called Inuus (Fertilizer) and Lupercus (one who wards off wolves). Faunus’ main festival was the Lupercalia; his priests were the Luperci.’’

 

What is the significance of these facts? Well, the proper surname of Lupercus was Februsus, as The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, page 557, then shows. Februsus: Properly a surname of Lupercus. Lustrations were performed in his honor at the Lupercalia on February 15.

 

Lustrations were performed in his honor at the Lupercalia on February 15. The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, page 557, tells us what the Februation was: Februation: Roman rite of ceremonial purification,observed on February 15 at the Lupercalia.

 

 The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols,Part 2, page 1026, tells us about the lustral bath: Lustral Bath: From earliest times a method of purification and expiation, frequently attended by sacrifices. Kings take a lustral bath at coronation. Also typifies death, and a familiar incident in mythological stories is the murder of the sacred king or sun hero in his bath.

The following definitions are from Webster’s Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary, which tells us:

 

lus′tral, a. [L. lustralis, from lustrum, a purificatory sacrifice.]

1. used in, pertaining to, or connected with ceremonial purification.
2. lus′trate, v.t.; lustrated, pl., pp.; lustrating, ppr. [L. lustratus, pp. of lustrare, to purify by means of a propitiatory sacrifice, from lustrum, a purificatory sacrifice.] to make clear or pure; to purify by means of certain ceremonies.
3. lus.tra′tion, n. 1. the act of lustrating or making pure; a ceremonial cleansing.

 

The purification of the mother was the fertulity ritual performed at the Lupercal, a cave below the Palatine Hill in Rome. Goats or dogs were sacrificed as her ritual offering for her uncleanness. The skins of these offerings were then used to confer fertility upon women. The Februation was a rite of purification observed on February 15–the very day upon which the mother of the husband was said to be now purified, and to have appeared in public with her son/husband for the first time since his birth on January 6. On this day, the celebration of the Lupercalia on February 15, the mother was cleansed 40 days after her son/husband was born–40 days after his appearance–Epiphany on January 6.

 

The significance of this mythology was the fact that the mother was now purified; the mother was now able to have sexual relations again. The mother could again marry her son/husband, to fertilize the world. The purification of the Mother was the fertility rite.

 

Symbols and the Fertility Rites

The question, ‘‘Will you be my Valentine?’’ asked by millions of deceived people at this time of year was asked by the hunters in this age-old fertility rite. Collier’s Encyclopedia, Macmillan Educational Corporation, 1980, Volume 12, page 191, tells us about 13 14 this day dedicated to lovers: St. Valentine’s Day: a day that has been dedicated since the 14th century to lovers. Valentine’s Day is traditionally observed by the sending of messages and gifts, usually employing the motif of a red heart, by young men and women.

One tradition derives the customs of the day from the old Roman February feast called the Lupercalia, at which young men and maidens drew partners by lot for the coming February feast. Later this ancient festival custom was associated with the name of a Christian bishop, Valentine, who was martyred Febuary 14, 271. Other tradition attributes the observances of the day to the fact that it falls within the mating season for birds and is, therefore, an appropriate season for young people to choose their ‘‘valentines,’’ or lovers.

 

The Book of Holidays, by J. Walker McSpadden, 1958, page 31, tells us about some of these symbols of the hunt: Cupids, arrows, bleeding hearts, ancient as they are in their symbolism, can still convey the messages that we mean. And, since valentines are supposed to be always anonymous, there’s no reason to feel silly about it.

 

Cupid and Love?

The Book of Festival Holidays, by Marguerite Ickis, Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York, 1964, page 35, tells us: Cupid was one of the gods of Mythology, whose name in Latin means ‘‘desire.’’ He is usually represented as a chubby, naked, winged boy...with aquiver of arrows by which he transfixed the hearts of youths and maidens. His darts, some of which were poisonous at the tip, could pierce anywhere. The rose, which speaks of love, is undoubtedly the most popular flower in the world. By rearranging the letters in the word ‘‘rose,’’ we get ‘‘Eros’’ the god of Love. This may explain why it has always been called the flower of romance, the choice of lovers in every century. The first criterion in this fertility hunt is erotic desire, which Cupid and Eros represent. In mythology, it is said when Nimrod’s mother saw him as a young boy, she desired him. Nimrod became her cupid, her desired one, and later became her God of valor–her hunter.

 

Arrows?

A Dictionary of Symbols, by J.E. Cirlot, pages 19-20, tells us about the symbolism of arrows:

...it was used to designate the Sun’s rays. But, because of its shape, it has undeniable phallic significance, especially when it is shown in emblems balanced against the symbol of the ‘mystic centre’, feminine in character, such as the heart. The heart pierced with an arrow is a symbol of conjunction. A conjunction in this sense is self-explanatory. These were all fertility rituals in which man participated.

 

The Heart

The most predominant symbol of the fertility rite of Valentine’s day is the heart. In America, the heart symbol has the same meaning as love. ‘‘I ♥you.’’ ‘‘I ♥America.’’ Almost everywhere one looks one can see examples of this love. The heart is also a popular design for costume jewelry, saying love without saying it. This symbol was also familiar in ancient Babylon, but this symbolized the God who was worshiped. This symbol did not just come down to our day as pure as the driven snow, as this deceived world thinks.

 

In The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, pages 188-190, we read about the Sacred Heart:

In the Church of Rome a new kind of devotion has of late been largely introduced, in which the beads play an important part, and which shows what new and additional strides in the direction of the old Babylonian Paganism the Papacy every day is steadily making. I refer to the ‘‘Rosary of the Sacred Heart.’’

 

It is not very long since the worship of the ‘‘Sacred Heart’’ was first introduced; and now, everywhere it is the favorite worship. It was so in ancient Babylon, as is evident from the Babylonian system as it appeared in Egypt. There also a ‘‘Sacred Heart’’ was venerated. The ‘‘Heart’’ was one of the sacred symbols of Osiris when he was born again, and appeared as Harpocrates, or the infant divinity, borne in the arms of his mother Isis. Therefore, the fruit of the Egyptian Perséa was peculiarly sacred.

 

To him, from its resemblance to the ‘‘HUMAN HEART.’’ Hence this infant divinity was frequently represented with a heart, or the heart-shaped fruit of the Perséa, in one of his hands. (Fig. 40.)

 

The accompanying woodcut is from Pompeii; but the following extract, from John Bell’s criticism on the antiques in the Picture Gallery of Florence, will show that the boyish divinity had been represented elsewhere also in ancient times in the same manner. Speaking of a statue of Cupid, he says it is ‘‘a fair, full, fleshy, round boy, in fine and sportive action, tossing back a heart.’’ Thus the boy-god came to be regarded as the ‘‘god of the heart,’’ in other words, as Cupid, or the god of love.

 

To identify this infant divinity, with his father “the mighty hunter,” he was equipped with ‘‘bow and arrows;’’ and in the hands of the poets, for the amusement of the profane vulgar, this sportive boy-god was celebrated as taking aim with his gold-tipped shafts at the hearts of mankind.

 

His real character, however, as the above statement shows, and as we have seen reason already to conclude, was far higher and of a very different kind. He was the woman’s seed. Venus and her son Cupid, then, were none other than the Madonna and the child. As the boy-god, whose symbol was the heart was recognized as the god of childhood, this very satisfactorily accounts for one of the peculiar customs of the Romans. Kennett tells us, in his Antiquities, that the Roman youths, in their tender years, used to wear a golden ornament suspended from their necks, called bulla, which was hollow and heart-shaped.

 

The veneration of the ‘‘sacred heart’’ seems also to have extended to India, for there Vishnu, the Mediatorial god, in one of his forms, with the mark of the wound in his foot, in consequence of which he died, and for which such lamentation is annually made, is represented as wearing a heart suspended on his breast (Fig. 41).

 

How did the heart take on such importance in ancient paganism?

The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, pages 190-191, tells us: Is it asked, How came it that the ‘‘Heart’’ became the recognized symbol of the Child of the great Mother?

 

The answer is, ‘‘The Heart’’ in Chaldee is ‘‘Bel’’; and as, at first, after the check given to idolatry, almost all the most important elements of the Chaldean system were introduced under a veil, so under that veil they continued to be shrouded from the gaze of the uninitiated, after the first reason–the reason of fear–had long ceased to operate.

 

Now, the worship of the ‘‘Sacred Heart’’ was just, under a symbol, the worship of the ‘‘Sacred Bel,’’ that mighty one of Babylon, who had died a martyr for idolatry; for Harpocrates, or Horus, the infant god, was regarded as Bel, born again.

 

That this was in very deed the case, the following extract from Taylor, in one of his notes to his translation of the Orphic Hymns, will show. ‘‘While Bacchus,’’ says he, was ‘‘beholding himself’’ with admiration ‘‘in a mirror, he was miserably torn to pieces by the Titans, who, not content with this cruelty, first boiled his members in water, and afterwards roasted them in the fire; but while they were tasting his flesh thus dressed, Jupiter, excited by the steam, and perceiving the cruelty of the deed, hurled his thunder at the Titans, but committed his members to Apollo, the brother of Bacchus, that they might be properly interred. And this being performed, Dionysius [i.e., Bacchus], (whose HEART, during his laceration, was snatched away by Minerva and preserved) by a new REGENERATION, again emerged, and he being restored to his pristine life and integrity, afterwards filled up the number of the gods.’’

 

This surely shows, in a striking light, the peculiar sacredness of the heart of Bacchus; and that the regeneration of his heart has the very same meaning I have attached to it–viz., the new birth or new incarnation of Nimrod or Bel. When Bel, however, was born again as a child, he was, as we have seen, represented as an incarnation of the sun. Therefore, to indicate his connection with the fiery and burning sun, the ‘‘sacred heart’’ was frequently represented as a ‘‘heart of flame.’’

 

So the ‘‘Sacred Heart’’ of Rome is actually worshipped as a flaming heart, as may be seen on the rosaries devoted to that worship. Of what use, then, is it to say that the ‘‘Sacred Heart’’ which Rome worships is called by the name of ‘‘Jesus,’’ when not only is the devotion given to a material image borrowed from the worship of the Babylonian Antichrist, but when the attributes ascribed to that ‘‘Jesus’’ are not the attributes of the living and loving Savior, but the genuine attributes of the ancient Moloch or Bel!

 

In Chaldee the heart is Bel, as The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop tells us on page 190. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary corroborates this fact. Following are words #1077, #1078, and #1079, which show that each of these words are spelled the same in the Hebrew Script: 1077. l_^bal, bal; from 1086; prop. a failure; by impl. Nothing; usually (adv.) not at all; also lest:__lest, neither, no, none (that...), not (any),nothing. 1078. l_@ Bêl, bale; by contr. for 1168; Bel, the Baal of the Babylonians:__Bel. 1079. l_* bâl (Chald.), bawl; from 1080; prop. Anxiety, i.e. (by impl.) the heart (as its seat):__heart.

 

Each of these words, although having a different meaning, is all the word: lb. Each word is vowel marked differently, but vowel marks are a fairly recent invention of the Masorete Scribes, compiled in the Tenth Century of this Common Era. Word #1078–is the name of the God: BL–Bel, Baal. Word #1077–BL, means: a failure, nothing. Word #1079–means, the heart.

 

You might say that Bel-Baal worship is just a bunch of BL, word #1077. However, the ancient, deceived people, were taught to look upon Bel-Baal, as word #1079, the heart. Yes, the pagans looked upon Bel-Baal as the heart, word #1079, rather than looking upon this abomination for what it really is: nothing, as word #1077 defines it.

 

Heart shaped love tokens, which are sent one to another in this deceived world on Valentine’s day, are nothing more than symbols of Baal. Those who send these abominations, and those who receive them, are telling each other, in effect, that this is who they truly love Baal. This worship has not ceased from this Earth since antiquity. This worship has come down to our present day and age, and is accepted by this deceived world as a thing of beauty. An example of the beautification of the fertility ritual called the Lupercalia, is shown to us in Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1980, Volume 9, pages 625-626:

 

Lupercalia: The Lupercalia (Faunalia) was held on February 15 in honor of Faunus or Lupercus, the god of fertility, woodlands, and pastures. Two male goats and a dog were sacrificed, and two youths were touched on the forehead with a knife dipped in the blood of the sacrificial goats, after which the knife was wiped on wool dipped in milk. The youths were then required to laugh.

 

The rites were administered by the colleges of the Luperci Fabiani and the Luperci Quintilianix, and after 44 b.c. by the Luperci Iulii, established in honor of Julius Caesar. The Luperci were crowned and anointed and went naked except for an apron of goatskin. They ran through the streets brandishing thongs made of goatskin. Women placed themselves on the road to receive lashes from the whips, to insure fertility. In a.d. 494 Bishop Gelasius replaced the Lupercalia with the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, held on the same day.

 

The next beautification for an old fertility ritual is that of  Valentine’s Day. The Book of Holidays, by J. Walker McSpadden, pages 27-28, shows:  

What is this very special holiday, which has a fragile but enduring quality all its own, and which seems to have no connection with Saint Valentine, the martyred Christian saint? Well, actually, it is two days thrown into one, the merging of a pagan and a Christian feast. Many of the customs of Valentine’s Day are from pagan times, but the name is Christian. In ancient Rome, when wolves were a great menace, there was a god called Lupercus, corresponding somewhat to the Greek god Pan, who kept the wolves away. And in his honor there was a festival, called Lupercalia, every fifteenth of February, at which young people always drew lots for game partners for the year. Later, when Valentine, a priest in Rome, killed about A.D. 270 during the persecution of the early Christians, was canonized, or made a saint, his feast day was established on the fourteenth of February, and the two days were combined.

 

All About American Holidays, by Mayme R. Krythe, 1962, page 40, tells us:

There are conflicting ideas about the origin of St. Valentine’s Day. Some sources say it goes back–perhaps to the third century–when there were hordes of hungry wolves outside Rome. The god, Lupercus, was said to watch over the shepherds and their flocks. Therefore, in February Romans celebrated a feast, called the Lupercalia, in his honor. Even after the danger from these fierce animals was over, people still observed this festival. When Christianity became prevalent, the priests wanted their converts to give up former heathen practices. Therefore, the officials Christianized the ancient pagan celebration and called the Feast of Lupercalia St. Valentine’s Day.

 

The Modern Cycle Of Pagan Worship

It is a documented fact that pagan customs were grafted into the Christian religion, almost en masse. The prestigious Reader’s Digest Association, in their book: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, 1980, page 283, tells us emphatically:

‘‘Although Christianity has swept the world in a relatively short time, as the histories of great religions go, the early missionaries faced an uphill task. The Pagans were reluctant to give up their false gods and ancient practices. So the missionaries, unable to convert them easily to an entirely new code of worship, did the next best thing. They took the pagan festivals as they were and gradually grafted the observances of the New Faith onto these festivals and the rites and customs surrounding them.’’

 

Not only did Christianity become the new paganism because of the pagan rites and customs grafted into it, but the statues of the pagan Gods were also baptized. Forgery In Christianity, by Joseph Wheless, 1930, pages 41-42, tells us about this cleansing of the pagan gods, which turned them into Christian saints:

...that the only alteration made was that the pagan gods were made over into Christian saints: ‘This transference was promoted by the numerous cases in which Christian saints became the successors of local deities, and Christian worship supplanted the ancient local worship. This explains the great number of similarities between gods and saints. For the often maintained metamorphosis of gods into saints no proof is to be found.’ This immense confession of Christian fraudulence and imposture, in conjuring fictitious pagan gods__which according to Christian faith were all actual devils__into canonized Saints of God and Holy Church, is several times repeated in the Catholic Encyclopedia, of which this instance is before me: ‘It has indeed been said that the Saints are the successors to the gods. Instances have been cited...of statues of pagan gods baptized and transformed into Christian saints!’ (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, pg. 710: cf. Is It God’s Word? 5, 7-9.)

 

This truly wonderful psycho-religious miracle is thereupon wrought: The idolatrous pagan who just before the ‘‘baptism’’ actually worshipped these ‘‘statues of the Pagan gods,’’ immediately afterwards simply venerated or adored the same gods ‘‘baptized and transformed into Christian saints...’’ Yes, the Christian missionaries took each of these pagan festivals and veneered them with Christian respectability by changing their names. That is why today we have Christmas rather than the Saturnalia; Easter rather than the festival of the Goddess of the Dawn; and Valentine’s day rather than the Lupercalia, the festival of the purification of the mother. Even though the Christian missionaries took the pagan festivals as they were, and gradually grafted the observance of the new faith onto these festivals, with their rites and customs, they are still abominations in the sight of Yahweh. In fact, Yahweh has given us a direct command not to serve Him in the way that the pagans served their Gods. We read of this in:

 

Deuteronomy 12:29-32—

29 When Yahweh your Father cuts off the nations from in front of you, and you displace them and live in their land,

 

30 Be careful not to be ensnared into following them by asking about their gods (elohim), saying: How did these nations serve their gods (elohim)? I also will do the same.

 

31 You must not worship Yahweh your Father in their way, for every abomination to Yahweh, which He hates, they have done to their gods (elohim). They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods (elohim).

 

32 Whatsoever I command you, be careful to observe and do it, you shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

 

Yahweh inspired the following to be said about those who ‘‘...took the pagan festivals as they were and gradually grafted the observances of the new faith onto these festivals and the rites and customs surrounding them:’’

 

II Corinthians 11:13-15—

13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of the Messiah.

 

14 And no marvel; for Satan herself is transformed into an angel of light.

 

15 Therefore, it is no great thing if her ministers also are transformed as the ministers of righteousness__whose end will be according to their works.

 

Although these ancient fertility rituals have come down to us through Satan’s ministers, in forms of beauty, we are still creating, maintaining, and renewing fertility to the same ancient pagan Gods that Yahweh says are an abomination to Him, if we are practicing pagan celebrations in honor of these Gods. It is a scriptural fact that we cannot serve Yahweh while serving in this world’s God worship.

 

I Corinthians 10:20-22—

20 But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to Yahweh; and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

 

21 You cannot drink the cup of Yahweh and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of Yahweh’s table and of the table of demons.

 

22 Do we provoke Yahweh to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

 

We are told emphatically that we are servants to whom we obey in:

Romans 6:16—

Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey–whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? If we obey Yahweh, by practicing every Word that proceeds from His mouth, without adding to His Word or taking from His Word, we are then servants of Yahweh. However, if we follow after the servants (ministers) of Satan, who are deceived into grafting pagan customs into Christianity, then we are servants of Satan. It is that simple.

 

We find in Revelation 21:7-8 that all God worshippers, those who have had an opportunity to overcome, but did not do so, will have their part in the lake of fire, which is the second death.

 

Revelation 21:7-8—

7. He who overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his Father, and he will be My son.

 

8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and worshipers of gods (elohim), and all liars, will have their part in the lake which

burns with fire and brimstone–which is the second death. Yahweh then tells us to come out of this pagan God worshiping system in:

 

Revelation 18:4__And I heard another voice from heaven, saying: Come out of her, my people, so that you do not partake in her sins, and so that you do not receive of her plagues.

 

Yahweh willing, after you have completely read this article, you will never again be a part of this ancient pagan God worship now called Valentine’s Day.