Song of Solomon 8:6 — "Love Is Strong as Death": The Border Verse of the Second Pentacle
Share
The border of the Second Pentacle of Venus carries one of the most celebrated verses in the entire Hebrew Bible on the subject of love: Song of Solomon 8:6 — "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." This verse is not merely a poetic decoration; it is a precise and powerful statement of the Second Pentacle's purpose, its form, and the quality of love it invokes.
"Set Me as a Seal Upon Thine Heart"
The verse begins with a request — or a command — to be set as a seal upon the heart and upon the arm. This imagery is directly relevant to the Second Pentacle's form as a wearable talisman. The seal is literally set upon the arm when worn as a necklace close to the body; it is set upon the heart when worn at the chest. The verse's imagery is not metaphorical in the context of the Second Pentacle; it is a literal description of how the seal is worn and how it operates.
"Set me as a seal" also carries the meaning of claiming, of marking, of establishing a permanent connection. A seal upon the heart is a mark of belonging — the declaration that the one who bears the seal is claimed by love, is marked by it, is permanently connected to it. The Second Pentacle, worn at the heart, is this seal — the mark of Venus's comprehensive love upon the practitioner who carries it.
"Love Is Strong as Death"
The verse's most famous phrase — "love is strong as death" — is one of the most powerful statements about love's nature in any literature. Death is the most absolute force in human experience: inevitable, irresistible, final. To say that love is strong as death is to say that love has the same quality of absolute, irresistible force — that genuine love cannot be denied, cannot be resisted, cannot be overcome by any other force.
This is the quality of love the Second Pentacle invokes: not gentle affection or pleasant attraction, but love in its most absolute and irresistible form — the love that is as strong as death, that cannot be denied, that claims the heart with the same finality that death claims the body.
"The Coals Thereof Are Coals of Fire"
The verse continues with the imagery of fire — "the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." This fire imagery connects the Second Pentacle to the consuming, transforming quality of genuine love — the love that burns, that transforms everything it touches, that cannot be extinguished once it has been kindled.
The "most vehement flame" is the flame of love at its most intense — the love that is not merely warm but consuming, not merely pleasant but overwhelming. This is the quality of Venusian power the Second Pentacle draws: not gentle grace alone, but the full force of Venus's comprehensive love, burning with the vehement flame of the Song of Solomon.
Speaking the Border Verse
In your Friday ritual, speak the border verse as a declaration of what you are claiming:
"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm. Love is strong as death. I claim the full force of Venus's grace, honor, and love. The coals of this seal are coals of fire — burning with the vehement flame of all that Venus governs."
Get the Second Pentacle of Venus Cuban Coin Necklace →
"Set me as a seal upon thine heart." The border verse is a declaration. The Second Pentacle is the seal. Love is strong as death — and this seal carries that strength.
