This section contains Adult Content and may challenge established religious beliefs! Do not read this section if you are under 18 or offended by material that may be in conflict with the established doctrines of Christianity!
Around the world the classic “heart-shape” has come to represent love. It’s carved into trees and printed on millions of valentines cards every year. In one sense, the meaning of any symbol is what most people believe it means. Still, to truly understand something it’s often worth looking beyond the obvious. What the heart-shape actually means is the subject of some debate.
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The truth seems to be that the heart-shape or “Secret Heart” was a stylisation of the vagina and the inverted head of a male penis. So when "hearts become entwined" it means much more than just love.
How can this be true? There have been claims that it first appeared in Neolithic times but we’ve found no hard evidence of this. It does appear in the Roman period and can be seen in 2,000 year old Roman graffiti in the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii – occasionally on the walls of brothels where it features more detail than the modern version. There is no question that sexual intercourse in ancient Rome and other great cities of the time was much more “liberal” than now but, even then, there were restrictions. (Pliny the Elder) One theory is that it was a secret symbol that a man would give to a woman to indicate that he wanted to make love to her – especially if there was a restriction on them being together – perhaps a difference in social status. A woman might do the same thing. The heart symbol seems to have first represented lust before it became associated with love. Think how similar it is today and how many cards are signed, “From your secret valentine”.
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So how did it become so widely spread? One theory is that the Christian Church adopted and sanitised it. They certainly used this strategy to overwhelm many other pagan and pre-pagan beliefs and symbols. Easter was once a celebration of fertility – that’s why we still give Easter Eggs. The very name comes from the pagan Goddess Eostre whose sacred animal was the rabbit - Easter Bunny (ever wondered why?). This wasn't the only conversion. The names of most of the weekdays are actually named after Nordic or Roman Gods, Thor - Thursday, Frija - Friday, Woden - Wednesday, Saturn - Saturday. Mayday is actual a fertility rite, Lent was the pagan lean month when food stocks needed to be conserved and the halo - or rays of light from the head of the deity - were actual a representation of the Egyptian Sun God Ra. We could go on but we think we've made our point.
A very long article here:
http://www.aquiziam.com/secret_heart.html
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