Lulu Marketplace

"Polyamorous Valentine's Day?" How much trouble can one guy cause by examining a bunch of old poems about Valentine's Day? An awful lot, it would seem! Looks like Polyamory now has it's own Holiday!!!!!!

Reading this has truly been an incredible experience! I had long heard that Valentine's Day was a toned down version of some wildly erotic festival, but I never saw anyone prove it with actual facts and data. I heard of Lupercalia before, but I didn't know it was as much fun as it was. I can't do justice to Doleshall's claims in a few sentences here, but it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. For instance: There were Christians who were openly polyamorous and they called themselves Valentians, and Valentine's Day is named after them, not some celibate monk. Incredible! I'm giving copies of this book to all my poly and swinger friends for Valentine's Day!

"Lupercalia and Valentine's Day"

This is quite possibly the most outrageous thing I've read in years!

Valentine's day, a toned done version of wild polyamorous orgies? Who'd a thunk it?

There are a lot of things we used to do as kids that should have made me suspect as much. In fourth grade, the teacher held a Valentine's day party for the class. Each of us had a little basket on our desks. Every kid in the class was expected to deposit a Valentine in the basket of every other kid in the class, even the kids you barely knew or didn't even like. It was considered bad form to omit anyone. Virtually all the Valentine's were preprinted from a store, not hand... More > made love letters. At the time, I didn't give much thought to receiving what amounted to a syrupy love letter from another girl, or what amounted to a declaration of love from 15 boys on the same day.


In fifth grade each boy drew the name of a girl out of a hat on the teacher's desk, and we had to hold hand and act affectionate for the rest of the day. It was all an innocent and harmless game to my little ten-year old brain, but if translated into a adult world, the same practices would be almost like what goes on at one of those infamous car-key/swinger parties where you spend the night with whoever's keys you randomly draw out of the hat.

I am not well versed in classical literature, so I would not know how to begin to check out the references the author gives. I wonder if anybody has ever done that? I have to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. But if those ancient documents ready DO say what Doleshal claims they do, this guy really is on to something!

If Lupercalia really does represent the true origin of Valentine's Day, this implies the history of the world is a LOT different than the way they teach in school.

Barb
< Less

"Lupercalia and Valentine's Day"
I don't understand why people keep saying things like "This is the most outrageous thing they've EVER read." I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It the most fun I've had with a book in years. It greatly expanded my knowledge of the subject.

Outrageous? No I don't think so. I suppose it probably would have shocked a lot of people, especially those very naive on such matters. But learned in seventh grade that Valentine's Day was a Christianized version of Lupercalia, and I have to presume such claim is not startling to anyone with a junior high school education. Everybody knows that virtually all the Christian saints and their stories are fantasy,... More > fabrication and thinly disguised tales of ancient pagan goddesses and gods. Strictly speaking, Christianity had no festival nor holidays, so any holidays they eventually acquired, by definition, HAD to have originally been pagan ones. Why is it "outrageous" to say Saint Valentine's it but another example of the same thing?

As far as checking out Doleshal's references, while can't say if checked them all, the one's have looked up are correct. I never heard of Hollerman, and I don't know how to find Socrates Sophronicus. The Virgil and Diodorus references I looked up at the public library. They are exactly as the author reports. And I do have copies Ovid's Fasti and Metamorphosis here on my shelf. Yes, Ovid's entry for February 14-15 is about poetry in celebration the Festivals of Pan/Faunus, just as Doleshall says. And everyone knows that celebrations of Pan-Faunus involved wild orgies and nonmonogamous sex, so what's the problem? There is absolutely no controversy about this at all, so why accuse Doleshall of being "outrageous" because he says so?

Yes, this book kicks ass.

Yes, the author reveals many things the average member of the general public does not know.

Yes, I loved it.

Yes, the author says many true things that conservative authors would not dare to say.

Yes, Fundamentalist Christians and other people with their heads in cement will probably find this one of the most shocking, upsetting and frightening books they've ever read. But that would only be because such people are so generally ignorant of the matters it relates to, not because what Doleshall says is really controversial, contrary to existing scholarship or "outrageous."
< Less

"History of Poly Amor " I enjoyed the preview and found the Winter edition of Saturnia Regna to be fun and informative. There are very few books that cover this topic in much depth ... not even Neo-Pagan works that deal with holidays and festivals like the Farrar's Eight Sabbats For Witches. I'm poly and Pagan, so the main premise is not shocking news to me, however it's still nice to have this material in a well done presentation. The only factual error I spotted is easily corrected: On page 10, Inanna should be a Sumerian Goddess, while Astarte was her later Semitic variant. I'd also add to the Lupa "prostitute/she-wolf" section that lupanar was Latin for brothel. All in all, this book should be of great interest to anyone who wants to learn about the true origin's of Valentine's Day.