A (Belated) Valentine's Day of the Dead Interlude (in progress)

The White Rose & the Ace of Spades

A white rose ghosted over a darkened plane

is a sigil of love transformed.

Yes, even the darkest of shapes,

the Ace of Spades,

- a black heart impaled on a single thorn -

can't hide the light of the star-like eye

which, in the dead of night,

 opens and closes.

- 2026, DS.

Rosa Mystica

***

"The story of St Valentine’s Day begins with some unknown medieval birdwatchers, probably in France rather than England, who reckoned that birds begin mating in mid-February, and decided to give this a precise date: 14 February. (They may have followed some folk tradition – in Slovenia this is still said to be the first day of spring, when plants start growing, and birds mate.) As was normal at that period, they expressed the date as the feast-day of a saint; in the Catholic Church every day in the year celebrates at least one saint, and for a public who had no printed calendars it was easier to remember dates by names than by figures. It happens that 14 February is dedicated to one or other of two early Roman martyrs, both named Valentinus, believed to have died on that date."

- Via an article from the Folklore Society.

 Possibly the sweetest thing about Valentine's Day is that it likely began with the recognized mating habits of birds... avian love... the kind of love everybody can celebrate. The martyrdom of saints, however, is an element we might want to dismiss. Well, most of us anyway.

February 26, 2026,

Perhaps, I should explain.

The White Rose & the Ace of Spades was initiated days ago... specifically 13 days ago, on Friday the 13th... which, as it happened, fell on Valentine's Day Eve this year (2026). Apparently, the last time this "holiday" conjunction occured was in 2015. The next occurs in 2032.

I see now that it was extensively joked about on social media prior to the event with many mashups involving Jason from the slasher film franchise Friday the 13th, with a few Goth-inspired offerings announcing Darkwave raves. Somebody even made up a new holiday: Valloween! Gotta love it.

To add to our dark pleasures, the latest remake of Wuthering Heights premiered this Valentine's Day raking in billions of $$$. "Wuthering Heights" (with apostrophes) is (allegedly) heavily erotic... which could be a good thing. But, Catherine Earnshaw has been morphed into the requisite, vulnerable blonde and, being more or less a WH purist, I find this as problematic as I would a blond Heathcliff. Obviously, I've yet to see the movie though, so, no review is forthcoming. However, the review I linked to had this to say: "So essentially what we're getting at is that Wuthering Heights is a smutty fan fiction fever dream written by a 14-year-old."

In other words, it can't be all that bad! ;-)

In any case, something tells me that the darkly romantic Love-Beyond-Death meme is in full swing this year, so allow me to elucidate...

(Elucidation lies below the jump) ;-)

An ivory rose ring - cellphone photo - 2026, DS.

The White Rose: Love Beyond Death

"And by that Rose, thy lover captive is.

I suffer, yea I die,

But this mine agony I count all bliss

Since death is life again upon thy lips.”

- An excerpt from a poem written by the French philosopher Peter Abelard (1047- 1142) to his lover, Héloïse.

"The mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits his end."

The natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or may be one form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness and the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor gate. The existing occult explanations of the 13th card are, on the whole, better than usual, rebirth, creation, destination, renewal, and the rest.

- A description of the 13th Tarot card, Death, from The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite, and illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith (1911).

The text I highlighted is mystifying, but it shouldn't surprise us. Arthur E. Waite was a Freemason, as well as being a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. His description of the pentagonal Rosa Mystica is, perhaps, shorter than we would like, and as the "mysterious horseman" is obviously a skeletal knight, I suspect Waite has deliberately trimmed his text for the uninitiated.

For instance, he refers to the Rosa Mystica as "life," when from medieval tradition it represented the Virgin Mary. As a white rose it symbolized purity and divine love. As a Christian, Waite would've known this. So, Waite's rose is something slightly other... and possibly a Golden reference. Note what appears to be a golden snail shell below the horse's raised hoof.

I have seen this rose on Death's banner referred to as the White Rose of York... and, coincidentally, this rose symbol on a blue background is the flag of Yorkshire, the home of the original Gothic white rose, our beloved Emily Brontë.

"I have a strong faith in ghosts: I have a conviction that they can, and do, exist among us! The day she was buried, there came a fall of snow. In the evening I went to the churchyard. It blew bleak as winter - all round was solitary... Being alone, and conscious two yards of loose earth was the sole barrier between us, I said to myself - 'I'll have her in my arms again! If she be cold, I'll think it is this north wind that chills ME; and if she be motionless, it is sleep." I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might...

There was another sigh, close at my ear. I appeared to feel the warm breath of it displacing the sleet-laden wind. I knew no living thing in flesh and blood was by; but, as certainly as you perceive the approach to some substantial body in the dark, though it cannot be discerned, so certainly I felt that Cathy was there: not under me, but on the earth. A sudden sense of relief flowed from my heart through every limb."

- A short monologue (edited) given by Heathcliff to Ellen Dean in this quote from Chapter 29 of Wuthering Heights; reposted from a previous WH essay.

(More to come...)