Aperire in Rome means "to open" and it is commonly supposed that April was thus so named, for it is the month when buds begin to open, and the earth opens to receive the fructifying seed. In the words of Ovid:B3
April was named for the open season,
Because Spring opens all things...
Venus lays claim to the month...
-Ovid, Fasti IV
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April is also related to the Greek Aphrilis, another name for Aphrodite.
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The Kalends, first day, opens the month to the powers of the fertility goddess, with the Feria Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis, a celebration of the virility of nature. Also known as the Veneralia, these annual rites beckoning us to "make love not war" close the imperative of March, which, since imperial times, was a month dictating a time for returning to battle. Veneralia celebrates the victory of Love over war.
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Amor Vincit Omnia.
In Botticelli's painting, Venus lulls Mars into peaceful repose
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During the Feria Veneralia, Roman women bathed in men's baths, wreaths of myrtle entwined in their hair. Likewise, statues of Venus would be divested of jewelry, ritually washed and bedecked with floral offerings.
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One of Her epithets is "Queen of Laughter". And (coincidence?) today is April Fools Day! Love makes fools of everyone, from the common villager to the most lordly king. In France and Italy the April Fool is sometimes called an April Fish, which happens to be one of the animals sacred to Aphrodite. People send joke notes signed with the symbol of a fish and try secretly to pin fishes to each other's backsides.
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The Tarot card of the Year 2010 is III The Empress (2+0+1+0=3), and her realm is one of Great Abundance. 2010 is also the International Year of Biodiversity, worth mentioning because diversity is essential to the fruitfulness of the Earth. The American obsession with singular manicured lawns is ridiculous. You water your garden to make the grass grow, then you cut the grass. Over and over again...and let's not even talk about the methods of weed removal here.
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The Empress in tarot is most often linked to the goddesses Juno, Ceres and Venus. Her Greek counterpart Aphrodite is notorious for her many affairs with gods and men, and yet is a most loyal and loving consort and mother. A prime example of Divine Paradox:
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...For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin....
I am the barren one
and many are her sons....
You who deny me, confess me,
and you who confess me, deny me...
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness...
I am strength and I am fear...
Give heed to me.
I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.
Give heed to my poverty and my wealth...
I am she who is weak,
and I am well in a pleasant place.
I am senseless and I am wise....
I am peace,
and war has come because of me.
And I am an alien and a citizen.
I am the substance and the one who has no substance....
- excerpt of "Perfect Thunder, Perfect Mind", from the Nag Hammadi
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Although I found no documentation, someone told me that this was written for the fertility goddesses (Aphrodite, et.al.), recited by her temple heterai and quadesha. I wonder if Morissette's tunes "I'm a Bitch I'm a Lover" and "Hand in My Pocket" are modern renditions of this poem?
(Go ask Alanis.)
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Sources say, however, that the poem is written for Sophia, and the paradox of Wisdom.
