Happy February 2022

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Named after the Roman festival of fertility and purification held on February 15th, the festival of Februa became combined with the love and fertility festival Lupercalia held on the same day, from which we get St Valentine’s Day.

Februum means purification and so the festival of Februa involved cleansing and washing with water to bring the new Springtime energies into being and wash away stagnation and what needed to be left behind.
This can be as relevant in the Southern hemisphere for a new start when life seems to have hit a brick wall especially in these times when the pandemic demands caution everywhere even as we slowly re-emerge.
The Goddess Februa was mother of Mars, and Goddess of passion.

Indeed, many modern Valentine’s day customs derive from Lupercalia, that was dedicated to the goddess she-wolf Lupa, who suckled the twins Romulus and Remus, later the founders of Rome. On this day, unmarried girls and young men performed love and sex rites in the Grotto of the She-Wolf, in order to bring fertility to animals, land and people. However, in true romantic myth St Valentine was said to be a Roman priest who performed marriage ceremonies for soldiers and their beloveds, a ceremony forbidden because it sapped their military strength. He was arrested and fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and scrawled on his cell wall before execution (when else February 14), Always your Valentine.

February is good for awakening new love and trust, for increasing good luck, melting coldness or indifference and planting the seeds of future success; also for any early Spring cleaning of the home and your life especially after misfortune and also for driving away what is destructive or redundant.

Barakiel (or Barchiel), the bringer of good luck, is the Angel of February and helps with reconciling differences, trusting intuition, combining two careers or interests, psychic development, changing bad luck, for dealing with any emotional matters and for overseas travel. Barakiel or Barchiel wears robes of blue and gold and has lightning flashing from his halo.

Avoid in February if possible, encounters with officialdom, committing yourself to binding contracts if you have doubts, matters involving logic or attention to detail, people who are manipulative or dishonest and those who show excessive emotions, sentimentality or changeability according to who is present.

The colours of February are white and mauve.
The crystals are amethyst, coral, bloodstone and all fluorites.
Incenses and oils include honeysuckle, sweet grass and lotus.
Its flowers are daffodils, early spring flowers, water lilies and wisteria.

2022 is not a Leap Year and so this February has only 28 days. Leap Year did not really come into being until the advent of the Gregorian calendar in England in 1752 and almost two hundred years earlier in Europe. It occurs on February 29 when the calendar contains an extra day every four years (when the last two numbers in the year date can be divided by four). This is to put the astronomical calendar back into synchronicity.
Traditionally on Leap Year, a woman might propose to a prospective partner and if declined, ask for twelve pairs of gloves as consolation, presumably to hide the fact the engagement finger was devoid of baubles.
In more liberated times if your beloved of either sex is being slow on the uptake of commitment try this any date, during February, Leap Year or not

You will need:
A mug for your would-be beloved. You can do this in the workplace, at home or even adapt it for a coffee shop.
Tea bag, herbal tea or coffee.
A spoon.
The Spell:

  • Add tea etc. and the hot water to the mug to be enchanted.
  • Begin stirring clockwise with the spoon in the hand you write with, subtly moving the other hand anti-clockwise above the mug (not too close) chanting softly or in your head Look on me with eyes of love, let lasting bonds between us grow, I bind and wind connection in, that lasting love we may soon know.
  • Make your words (in your head if in public) become softer and stir more slowly until all ends in silence and stillness.
  • Offer the drink to your would-be beloved and say in your mind With growing love from me to you, Together to be our whole life through.
  • With ingenuity you can adapt this if necessary, by stirring a take-away Starbucks coffee before offering it.

Happy February from Cassandra, Debi and Caitlin.

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