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

(March 4, 2025. No one is more sorry than I that this post has been so stalled this past week. In my defense, the Spade symbol is the heaviest and most complex I have ever encountered. More importantly, geometrically, the Spade is a pentagonal construction, and, come to find out, an important - although hidden - element of the Golden Meme. And, in the context of current events, a Key. Bear with me. Information will be posted continuously until completion. 🌺DS)

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 its central, star-like eye

which, in the dead of night,

 opens and closes.

- 2026, DS. (revised March 2, 2026)

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 poem, 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 identical rose symbol centered on a blue background is the flag of Yorkshire, England; the home of the original Gothic white rose, our beloved Emily Brontë.

Inset right (above) is what may have been the actual Old World rose from Yorkshire - Rosa Alba Semi-Plena - which inspired the stylized Rose of York symbol. See here and here.

The reality is, when Waite referred to the Rosa Mystica as Life itself, he inadvertently was revealing a Masonic tradition. The 5 or 10 petaled rose is symbolically identical to the pentagram, the Philosopher's Heart... of which the Spade is merely an inverted shadow.

"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.

"Aces represent longings and quests. The spade suit is symbolic of the earth, our physical existence, and spiritual connection to both. The meaning of the Ace of Spade is the quest to understand that connection. In its essence, this quest is to understand the meaning of life. How interesting then to find the most challenging karma for the Ace of Spade involves matters of the heart!"

- A uniquely concise and correct understanding of the Spade symbol - found here.

"The spade's design can be seen as a representation of death. In many cultures, it symbolizes the grave, suggesting the finality of life.

The spade also embodies the idea of destiny. Just as one might dig into the earth to uncover hidden truths, the Ace of Spades invites contemplation on the unseen forces guiding our lives.

The color black is another significant aspect of spade symbolism. It carries heavy implications tied to mourning and disaster."

- Excerpt from one of the most comprehensive articles exploring the Ace of Spades online via The Solitaire Series. This section of the article described the way many people (to this day) react to the symbol. And, it is for this reason that the actual card has often been used as a silent threat - in a psychological sense - by those proposing to do others harm; the Mafia, for instance... or the American armed forces during the time of the Vietnam war. Keep in mind that some philosophers equate the Spade suit with the Tarot suit of Swords.

Inset right is one vintage example of the Ace of Spades published by the Bicycle playing card company featuring a representation of the statue of Freedom created by Thomas Crawford in 1865. The company would later supply the US armed forces with special playing card packages stacked with groups of only one card: the Ace of Spades. These were used to intimidate the Viet Cong. For more information regarding Vietnam and recent psychological-warfare closer to home see here and here.

***

March 9, 2026

Generally, I abandon posts if I can't wrap them up in 3 weeks, but, this case is an exception.

The story really began the day I read the first of the two news stories linked to last (directly above) and discovered that the Ace of Spades was (and is still) actually used as a weapon of  psychological warfare. This says a lot about the power of a graphic symbol. In the modern world, so pervasive is the darker side of the Ace of Spade meme that its ominous shape can be utilized to facilitate deadly force across the globe.

But, this card has a weirdly dual nature. Traditionally, the Ace of Spades is the most valuable card in the deck. It is also considered a lucky card! And, from this source we learn: "Traditional French cartomancers actually gave it meanings like passionate love, triumph, and financial prosperity. The father of cartomancy himself called it 'Triumph, Fecundity, Fertility, Prosperity.'"

With this in mind, I had an epiphany. I envisioned a white rose opening in the center of the spade symbol... so clearly that I was sure I had seen it before. And, it began to haunt me the way the Rose Pentacle haunted me in the early days. I have no graphical capabilities right now, but it became important to me to find this symbol; to literally see it because I recognized it for what it is. The Ace of Spades is another pentagonal artifact - a byproduct of the pentagram - and, like the pentagram, suffered a similar historical fate. Neither the inverted pentagram nor the spade - essentially an inverted heart - were originally "evil" symbols, but, for a period of time, were interpreted that way.

However, it can also be easily shown that the Spade - as well as the Heart symbol - are fundamental elements of pentagonal symmetry and it's golden spiral.* So, they have something in common... and this something - this marvelous non-thing - translates into a sign of life and vitality: the pentagonal rose - in the case of the Ace of Spades - the ethereal white rose, the ghost in the machine.

(March 10, 2026)

Many days have passed since I first began this post, and a number of events have occurred - one might say, in a strangely synchronistic way - up to and including War, one of the darkest expressions of human fate attributed to the Ace of Spades.

There is much to discuss and a story to continue, but it will necessitate a follow-up post.

Stay tuned. (Thank you for your patience!)

_____________________________________________

*

The Golden Egg - published elsewhere on this blog (notably here), where it's full expression can be found at the end of this post.