When I scream into the heavens

The only answer that comes in return is: love. It is so hard to focus on love in the middle of a fascist collapse of society! I find it to be really challenging and so I’ve decided to write a bit of that struggle and how I am trying to get past it to reach the commandment of the Goddess.

I must love, and Aphrodite wants me to be unconditional about that love. I have not even loved myself well enough to then branch out and properly love others. I am thinking of other ways I show love besides this and I think, oh, helping someone’s fundraiser see more eyes is an act of love, and commenting in solidarity on someone’s post is an act of love, and being considerate to your spouse is an act of love. Donating time or money can be acts of love. The acts of love that are harder require more effort, more visibility, more preparation, and more fortitude.

So I think about my spouse who sits with me when I exercise, another act of love to myself that also feels like punishment. He body doubles with me so that I can get the job done without being over-haunted by my many exercise ghosts. I think about how my dogs Mo and Pepper even come in as if to show their support too. That is love. Their acts of love are feeding my limp fortitude, slowly but surely. 

What do you do, though, when your stores are empty and your cupboards are bare? It takes longer for the love to feed you, right? An empty cup takes awhile to fill. And I am grateful for all of the feeder streams and tiny trickles that are draining into mine as we speak. There are so many sources of love all around.

We are called to love more in hard times. This is the challenge. Just today Aphrodite told me that softness is the answer. Yet I have not figured out how to be hard enough to survive these tumultuous times, and remain soft enough that love is always my touchstone. I find myself struggling to be that, to do that, to let love lead.

So. Softening. A gentle softening of ourselves while still remaining upright enough so that the prevailing political winds do not crush us into paste. Aphrodite whispers “move like the willow,” She whispers “be as the tall grasses on the plains, send your roots deep into the earth and wave with the wind no matter how hard it blows.”

Softness and a chance to remember ourselves how we were when we were little and loved without reservation because we had not yet been snapped in the nose by misplaced crushes or devastating friend breakups. Aphrodite said stay soft, and remember softness, let this temper your reactions. And we should never be reactionary but instead planning for multiple contingencies, all with similar outcomes. 

Softness, and Aphrodite curves Her graceful hand to send the breeze in our direction, a gentle caress of air on our faces, and we move as if we were flowers in Her garden, delicately cared for, never to be harmed.

Love more. But take note: I am not telling you to love your enemies; that is not how I roll around here. Aphrodite knows who is true in your life and who is not. Uplift those who bring you joy. Feed those connections with your pure love. It is worth the investment. It is worth the time.

Be soft, for we all know your core is as diamonds. This is a gift given by the Gods, our own intrinsic worth at the center of the structure that is ourselves. That core shines bright and ever more brightly when you give yourself over to love. Think about ways to love that you might like to explore in your own experience, your own life. Be open, soft, supple. This is what Aphrodite would have of us, even as She girds Herself for battle as Areia.

Again She emphasizes softness, the idea of being new to something, being new to love, being new to feeling worthy, being new to the idea of having the resources you need to live the life that you want. She exists in the flowers that surround the Page’s feet, and She calls him on to explore his broad domain. Can you imagine being laden with the treasures of the House of Pentacles?

His direct look will give it away every time, he is excited to be here with us, excited to tell us of all the new things coming down the line, new inventions, new expressions of time and love and majesty, how could we ever look away? 

Did you know that solid, earthy, predictable, dependable, wholesome, hearty love is among the resources here for the free taking and edification of the collective? This love is unusual but sought after for its thickness, its richness, its ability to connect us deeply to the planet that gave us birth. Love was in our making, from the very beginning.

Aphrodite sometimes loves like a Mack Truck, a huge heavy hot metal machine-like love that leaves its treads in your flesh and you never forget it. This love flows from the Page as but one of the treasures available to us when we walk his careful, sturdy path. 

Aphrodite sometimes loves like the waving of grain in the field, ripe, ready, at its prime deliciousness and nutritiousness. She brings us love in the form of food that we make for each other, breaking bread with each other, one of the oldest rituals we yet do in our modern times.

Be new, oh, be new! Be ever so new! Chase after level 101 experiences, or take up an entirely new amusement or hobby. Take joy in the art of learning, the love that creates in your belly and gives birth to mastery of the new pastime. Get into it, sink your feet in that rich deep earth, wiggle your toes and squish moist dirt into strange shapes. Love it. Learn to love something new. Or learn something anew, something once known before but now forgotten. The Page would have us experience it all.

I see Aphrodite in you as you see Her in me.

With my eternal love,

J