Love Potion Number 9
A Love Potion for Valentine's Day with the Nine of Pentacles
I know, V-Day is a commercial gimmick invented to sell cards and push sugar. I get it. Over-paying for flowers and a meal doesn't feel like love to me. As a single person, this consumer spectacle can feel downright rude.
Instead of binging on chocolates and feeling alone, or performing the spectacle of courtship at a 150% mark-up, I want to invite you to recognize and reclaim this Valentine's Day as a day to explore the different meanings of love, as the Greeks understood it.
Ads may have diluted the breadth and depth of the word love to describe a car or hamburger, but it wasn't always so. The Greeks had no less than six words for six different kinds of love:
Eros - sexual passion
Philia - deep friendship
Ludus - playful love
Agape - love for everyone
Pragma - longstanding love
Philautia - love of the self
This Valentin's Day, I want to inspire you to give and receive at least one of these love expressions.
To do so, I'm sharing a recipe to make your very own love potion, inspired by the Nine of Pentacles.
Love Potion No.9
"Time for a love potion, a little sweet and spice Throw it all in a cauldron, mix it up real nice Fire in my eyes, stir counterclockwise"
- Tara Benjamin & Rajat Singh
You've heard the song Love Potion #9, but have you met the Nine of Pentacles?
She is a welcomed guest in any reading. This card is also may favorite personal anchor card. Whenever I am feeling out of sorts, ungraceful, insufficient, or over-reaching, I call upon her for support. The Nine of Pentacles epitomizes abundance, wisdom, patience, experience, and inner satisfaction.
She's like Jasmine of Aladdin. Sure, she's got a pet tiger and an aviary, but it's no big deal. She owns many nice things, because she knows how to care for them. They don't own her. She will not abandon her inner compass for anything or anyone.