Yarilo

It is prudent to have a heart that is open yet discerning. Deep connection requires openness and knowing where to place your love.

In Slavic folklore, Yarilo is simultaneously the god of war and the god of springtime. Yarilo, the tenth son of the god of thunder Perun, is recognized as a vibrant lifeforce embodying a strong polarity due to his connections with war and renewal. A life and death god, Yarilo goes through the cycle of life every year, dying in winter and bringing back spring from the Underworld when he returns to life. Yarilo caught the attention of Morana, the goddess of death and nature. They fell deeply in love and married, celebrated as the summer solstice. However, Yarilo was unfaithful to her. Morana felt so blindsided and mortified upon finding out that she killed him in a ritual (harvest time( before closing down her heart, thus turning into the hag of winter.

Yarilos Message

In matters of the heart, it is easy to become swept away toward one extreme or the other. One severity is walking around with rose-tinted glasses, your heart on your sleeve; the other is closing the heart down in complete mistrust. There’s a sweet spot bang in the middle where you can be open and perceptive simultaneously. Just as spring breaks up summer and winter, nuance is needed when falling in love to prevent the extremes from taking over.

With only openness, issues arise where love can be blind, leading to obvious breaches of trust that get ignored. Being in love with love is wonderful, however, don’t let it blind you to reality. Red flags are not so visible through rose-tinted glasses. The hormones that love brings-oxytocin and norepinephrine- can lead to ignoring clear signs that someone is incompatible with you. The highs and lows of a toxic relationship can be addictive with the hits of dopamine it provides.

Soul remembrance and desire ‘at first sight’ are real, yet it takes time to get to know the complexity of a person and learn if you are genuinely well-matched. Chemistry doesn’t always come with compatibility. Sometimes, love is not enough when you are fundamentally incompatible.

On the other hand, not ever letting anyone in and remaining shut down is equally as extreme as having no barriers to contain your love. Too many barriers block love. Not enough allows any riff-raff in. Letting someone in and then getting burned can lead you to feel like you made a mistake by trusting. This perspective puts all the power in their hands.

Another perspective is that you took a chance on love because you deserve the connection and companionship of the experience. You didn’t take a chance on them. You took a chance on YOU because life is too short to play it safe all of the time. Having an open heart to the possibility of love, yet a mind that remains shrewd, is a formidable combination to behold.

Go into dating with an open mind and heart and allow things to unfold naturally, not as all or nothing. Bring your past with you as a discernment tool rather than mistrust, and see your love life bloom on a solid foundation rather than shakily built on disillusionment.