i said i had a very alternative,different vision of 14th february
i think it should be Valentinus day.the saint accolade does not particularly matter,not least because the notion of sainthood has shifted spectacularly over the centuries-and that too is another story.
Valentinus was a Gnostic teacher and leader during the early"christan centuries",when christianity would itself have been one of the larger and more successful religions,with the trappings,paricularly of"church"or state or"political power.it was disparate and linked where possible,though not all parts would have been aware of all others.it had neither unity nor disunity.and there was a diversity of"currents"and"traditions".unlike islam,christianity did not have a single founder or author and it was may centuries before the bible was both established and agreed in its content.to this day the content is not entirely settled.so latter day christians who ask sternly"why did they not read the bible?"icould be asking at least an ahistorical question.for many centuries,any group of believers may have had radically different ideas about what constituted holy writ.im not even sure they would have reverenced it in the same peculiar way that some fundamentalists do.
Valentinus nevertheless became leader of many gnostics-christians who believed in finding the path through knowledge which is closer to wisdom than knowledge through books.it would have includede reading,but referred directly to mystical/spiritual experience,which was both shared and individual.
gnostic churches did not have time to "crystallise"in the same way that more literalist christianity did.they were some of many threads,who tended to be"outmanoevred"when christianity "hotted up".i am not going to claim that gnostics were either correct al the time or perfect or better.in the end too many/most gnostics were eradicated.
at least some of the communities would have stressed that they were communities of love,and their "love"would have been more muscular(though i dont mean more aggressive)than the twee images of st.valentines days.it would have meant a vibrant commitment to making communities which held together based on largely democratic and in some ways more egalitarian practice-goods in the eraly centuries would have been held in common.even later in the 11th century,people may have had greater or lesser resources and status,but they would have been treated more simply and equally.all social groups mixed.so that when the populations of albi and beziers were massacred in the 12th century crusade against them,the local aristocracy invited the survivors by the 1,000s into their towns and domains,without differentation.this would however have stretched resources especially when those communities themselves came under seige
gnosticism remains because it is the underground current that feeds the springs and rivers that rise above this into the world,as gnostic or otherwise.
more orthodox dominant strands took over and dominated.rome established a pattern of sainthood,and one of those was st valentine who may or may both have been based on several people.it is possible that st.valentine is a creation which may be an amalgam including a stripped down version of Valentinus,left with a twee goodness and minus his muscular,organised gnosticism that i like to hope placed love and then gnosis at the centre of it all.
this IS part of my gnosis.
and in asocial context it taught me...."a society that does not have LOVE,has law!"
i can only add that we also seem to live in a society in which those who make that LAW,do not obey it but eagerly invent even more to impose of the rest of us.and that LAW is not even about justice but about making it very clear indeed that PROFIT rules all and that LOVE and care is rendered.
gnostics like me do need need a hell elsewhere-we are living in it now,and where appearances are not always the truth.and that little is reliable.we probably only have each other in this material world and our best step forward is helping each other to make the best of it we can....and it could be a lot better than this,though MATERIAL and PERFECT may not go together well.
some of us,then hope that we can go home.......
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