January isn’t too early for Valentine’s Day, is it?
Nah. Didn’t think so. When my mom’s church friend came over today to pick up a tub of my mother’s fabric and quilt blocks we had recently unearthed in the garage, she said that Hobby Lobby has had their Valentin’s Day stuff up since right after Christmas. Not that we are aspiring to Hobby Lobby-level pure Christian righteousness in this house, but still, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who’s ready for the next celebratory thing.
Speaking of Hobby Lobby-level Christian righteousness: What do you want to bet they’ve got Cupids galore going on in there right now? Oh, those sneaky Pagans get their poly-god tentacles into everything!
And speaking of Cupid: Also in the process of excavating the garage, I found my mom’s stash of decorative house flags she started collecting I think in the early 90s. My mom passed away in 2024. I had been living with her since 2012 and had been her caregiver in her last years. She left me the house—the house I grew up in—and everything inside it. And man is there a lot of stuff inside it.
I had to hire professional organizers to help go through it. My mom wasn’t a hoarder, but she was an avid shopper and cuteness collector. The most recent session we did on the garage was my seventh three-hour session with two organizers. That means we have now put 63 woman hours into sorting through the contents of the house and garage, which has made a huge difference, but there is still quite a ways to go.
The garage, however, is only maybe about one session away from completion. Phew! Has that ever been a slog. Dust and cobwebs up to our armpits, Beanie Baby stashes coming out of the woodwork, mouse poop, Easter decorations enough to festoon the whole block! But we are down to the very end of it now and, as I said, I happily found my mom’s stash of decorative house flags, one of which is the just-so-slightly worse for wear Cupid you saw at the beginning of this post. He’s a little ripped, he’s a little dirty, but he’s ever-ready with his arrow to nail anyone who gets judgy about it. I made sure when I hung the flag that his arrow was pointing out. Beware!
After I hung up the flag, I told my fiancé Angel that I hoped no neighbors would think it was Satanic. He said, “Why would they think it was Satanic?”
I said, “I don’t know. Solid red figure on a white background. Pointy parts. People are dumb.” But truthfully I’m probably the dumb one for thinking anyone might think anything other than hey… um… that Cupid needs a bath.
Little do they know, we actually BELIEVE in Cupid in this house or, as I would more likely call him, Eros. In my understanding, Eros is a grown sexy god guy who probably doesn’t flit around naked all the time with one tiny wisp of fabric billowing over his Olympian jewels, but I don’t think he’ll mind that I got the closest modern American visage of him that I could get, and flagged my house with it. I don’t believe any of my gods take themselves too terribly seriously and they are probably truly happy that I have this symbol to look at every time I come home that reminds me of my mom, reminds me of them, reminds me that ’tis the season to celebrate all things lovey dovey, and gives me a little smile. It also makes me smile to wave my Pagan-ness flag in a both upfront and dow-low way at the same time. The signs this is a Pagan household and a home temple are everywhere if one has the eyes to see. To everyone else? Seasonal cuteness! A beautiful balance.
And speaking of seasonal cuteness: Look at this thing I bought that I absolutely do not need but totally and absolutely needed:
He has a different hat and a different thing to hold in his hands for each season! How could I resist? Another example of being upfront and down-low Pagan all at once. Little do the delivery people, solar panel guys, Mormon missionaries, and JWs know, we actually believe in gnomes in this house. Elemental spirits of earth. We call upon them when invoking the powers of North and Earth in ritual. I honor them in my garden. My sister bought me a gnome riding a poodle for Christmas who now guards Hermes’ sacred strawberry field (one strawberry plant in a pot).
We also believe in sylphs (air), salamanders (fire), and undines (water) in this house. We have plenty of butterfly-adorned house flags to get our sylph on, but decorative salamanders are a little harder to come by. They’re not quite so cute. It’s the slime. It’s hard to cute-up slime.
As for undines, well, no house flag or door sign for that, but my sister did buy me a pair of socks in Poland that have a sword and shield wielding mermaid on them, so there you go.
Those Pagans do get their poly-god tentacles into everything, don’t they? Even home decor and decorative hosiery.
(I also took the Christmas decorations down today. That has nothing to do with being upfront and down-low Pagan. That’s just me seeking applause. I hear you golf clapping. Thank you. I’m here all week.)
Temple Mercury 