I am constantly amused at how much our society has invested in disempowering that which is truly powerful; not that their power can be diminished, but if people who need the assistance of the truly powerful don’t know where to look, it maintains the status quo. Examples include the number 13 (completion of the cycle of the Feminine Divine), the inherent power in language, and Kerubim or cherubs.

I bring this up, of course, because this week is Valentine’s Day, a holiday that might be about love, but has really become about consumerism and one-upmanship.

It’s a weird holiday, really.

It’s the Feast Day of St Valentine, who may have actually been as many as three saints, none of them romantic in any way, all of them beheaded. Feeling cuddly yet?

It may be a co-opting of the Roman feast of Lupercalia, which was a fertility festival somewhat akin to the Running of the Bulls.

This year (for the first time since 1945), Valentine’s Day falls on Ash Wednesday, also known as the first day of Lent. Lent is commonly thought of as a season of atonement leading up to Easter; some people think it’s about sacrifice. Back in 2011, I offered up a different viewpoint. Regardless, none of that seems compatible with the peacock’ing that our modern Valentine’s Day encourages. So much so that Catholic authorities feel obliged to offer suggestions on how to navigate it all.

A common symbol associated with Valentine’s Day is Cupid (the Roman Eros) as some sort of child-angel from Raphaelite art. There is so much disempowering in this, the mind boggles. The part that really jumps out, though, is the chimera involved in hiding Kerubim from view. They are the only order of angels in Abrahamic religions to directly interface with the Divine. They are frequently described as having four faces, and are thought of as gates and guardians in western mysticism. The two outer pillars on the Tree of Life in Kabbalah are Kerubim. Inscriptions in one of the tablets found at Nimrud describe them as storm winds.

Their association with a festival of love might help us unravel where we can access power right now. Let’s start with the ideas around love.

• Heart center – connection to everything and everyone around us. A reminder that we are all connected, that no one succeeds alone, and that we are always stronger than I.
• Love is the energy of the Universe.
• Sex – root chakra – power, passion. Oomph.

It would follow that Kerubim are guarding the gates to that power and knowledge. The bigger the treasure, the better the security, right? So this much be some pretty awesome treasure.

The two outer pillars on the Tree of Life describe the physics of all energy – everything has a push and a pull, and it is that motion or force that is the basis for everything (since matter is energy).

And those two pillars are Kerubim. Guardians. Gates. This suggests to me that the key to everything is, in some way, love. The energy of the Universe. The energy that connects us all.

Chew on that for a bit. And then put your consciousness into love. Make that your operating system, to the best of your ability, and see what happens.