Happy Imbolc and happy Love month to everyone. People around the world have marked out the month of February as Love month due to the celebration or observance of the Valentines Day. There are so many myths that been attached to this celebration but what is striking to me is the story of Saint Valentines and Emperor Claudius 2.
Claudius the second was a Roman Emperor that see that unmarried men were more effective soldiers than married men. So he declare a law that forbid young men from marriage so that they could serve effectively as a soldier in his empire. But Saint Valentine defy his decree by giving secret marriages to young men who want to have blessings of the church to their future wife. When the emperor knew this, Saint Valentine was beheaded that make him a martyr of the Church. And from then on Valentines Day is celebrated around the world shouting that Love Wins. This also reminds me of the current battle cry of the LGBTIQ+ towards marriage equality. Well that is another topic to discuss on our next blog but this time, i want to dedicate this blog for those people looking for a love life or what Filipino call in slang as Jowa.
What is jowa?
Jowa is a Filipino slang word pertaining to a boyfriend or girl friend which is similar to the word Syota. But the word "Syota" has indecent meaning which means short time that is also a slang word. And many Filipino that has no love life this valentines are looking for Jowa but did'nt realize that the word Jowa has also an indecent origin. Jowa originally means No Breast or JOga Wala. And the word was formed as a description of what couples do in love making such as the male plays with the breast of his female lover. So using the word Jowa for your lover means playtime. Though this may depend on the behavior of a person in handling relationship. Now-a-days, the use of this word has been normalized to pertain to having boyfriend and girlfriend rather than a quick play time (sexually) to their partner. But as i conduct my research on random people online by asking them what is their local dialect term pertaining to Boyfriend and Girlfriend, the list below shows what is still common to use term:
Kasintahan
Katipan
Bata
Uyab
Though probably there are more terms to use but most young people of today who lives in the 21st century, the word syota or jowa is now very common.
The Process of Love
As a Shrine Keeper and Chief Priest of Luntiang Aghama, we do solemnization of wedding vows to couple who seeks blessings from us. Before we pronounced them to be Blessedly United Couples (that means we do bless not only heterosexual couples but also we give blessings to LGBTIQ+ couples) we remind them the process of Love as our Shrine have taught us. Before love begins, there are many preliminary steps that happen before that wedding proposal to happen and these are the following:
ATTRACTION- This is the power that evokes interest, pleasure or liking to someone. This attraction makes another person to be attracted to you. This may involve sensory perception that makes you to have a special liking on an individual.
COURAGE- This is the second step on the process of Love. One must take courage to do the move in order to know the persons name and approach them to make connection that will end up to be acquainted.
KNOWLEDGE- Knowing a persons name is not enough to qualify in this process of love. We could easily know their names, but in order for that person to have liking to you as well you must also be able to know that person more such as their birthday, phone number, place where they live and so on and so forth. This is not making you to become a stalker, but if you have special attraction to a certain person and want to have a special relationship with them, you need to work hard in order to have details of that person. You do not make love to just anyone right? So having proper knowledge to that person will make love wins for you.
UNDERSTANDING- Every person has individual differences. Even that you know a person well with all their details but if you do not understand where that person is coming from, you will not get along with each other. Knowledge is just the first step to understanding. It is like knowing a certain language such as Mahal Kita but you do not really understand what it means.
TRUST- This is way more deeper. It is making a firm belief in the reliability, truth or strength of the person that you are attracted with. Trust makes you to have no fear that you will be safe with the person whom you are attracted with. It is also the same with the other person to you. Trust must be mutual. It must be established between you and the other person.
After fulfilling this requirements as a process, then you will find Love to each other. But that does not end there, because in Love it also requires Faithfulness to make your relationship last to forever.
Well, this is it for now and if you sign up to become a member here in Filipino Magick you will be able to receive an exclusive membership privilege such as on my next post about Gayuma: The Law of making other to fall in love with you. And before I end this post, I want to thank April Enriquez on becoming Member of Filipino Magick by buying us a coffee on a monthly basis. Please don't forget to share this good news to your friend and invite them also to Buy Us a Coffee here at Filipino Magick!
So until then, May you all Blessed Be Peace!
Mayari Na! PagAsatin!