Love and Eros Untamed
Happy St. Valentine’s Day!
Rather than celebrating a Saint who martyred themselves (even though I can certainly say in my younger years I was a bit of a professional in this respect in the arena of love) I thought I would speak to Eros the God of love. From an archetypal perspective he is responsible for this tantalizing, delicious feeling that operates like gravity or magnetism drawing us ever closer.
Most of us know him as Cupid (where he has essentially been infantilized) the son of Venus but his origins reach farther back, much farther. He is first spoken of in 700 BC as a primordial God of procreation who emerged self-formed at the dawn of creation. He was the driving force behind the generation of new life in the cosmos and it is said he created everything.
Eros has a charge. When know it when we feel it because it is inescapable. Though, we might try to talk ourselves out of our inclination simply because it overwhelms us and takes us somewhere new. Most of the time we have been taught to be at the very least suspicious of this part of ourselves, this connection to what is essentially the erotic. I am not speaking just to romantic relationships or even other people but to the process of life itself and what we become mysteriously drawn toward.
Erotic is a charged word that also has been made smaller than its origins and meaning. Culturally we have taken something sacred and made it profane. Now it is primarily associated with sex and often infused with shame rather than desire. It has often become about dominance and control. I don’t mean in terms of sexual play but more in the direction of shaming our sexuality and thereby controlling our innate wildness and connection with nature. We have been tamed.
And don’t get me wrong, sex is fantastic but it is only one face of eroticism. In essence to live an erotic life is to live a juicy life…who doesn’t yearn for that?
To live a life full of eros we must attune ourselves in that direction, aligning ourselves with something beyond ourselves. It is moving into vibrance with something else, attunement requires both to adjust and that too is part of its power. Eros is about letting go of our ego and merging. Think about it isn’t that when sex is at its best? When we let go. It is interesting that vibrance has more than one definition; it means lively and energetic and at the same time is about resonance. To life an erotic life we must resonate with it.
I mean, come on, Eros is, well, hot. We all dream of it, yearn for it. Even if we have barricaded our hearts against it, consciously or unconsciously, it is because we know its power. It is a force that is larger than our normal everyday experience and we usually are at least somewhat overcome by it. Hopefully are able to come from a place of trust such that we can revel in it. Eros has the power to move us, to transform us and create our lives anew.
To live an erotic life we must surrender to this mysterious primal force and trust our instincts. This is ultimately a supremely creative ‘holy spirit.’ I repeat; Eros’ early origins are that of a primordial being that creates everything, which is also one of the great possible miracles behind sex: new life that contains the essence of both of the parties involved (attunement) but is also uniquely itself.
To live an erotic life we must be shameless. As Anais Nin said, “Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself.” For our experience of life to be colorful and tantalizing we must surrender the stories of shame we have been told about ourselves. We must practice trusting our instincts, our deepest desires and allow ourselves to burn for them. We must burn away our ego, burn away our fear so that we can gaze at life through ecstatic eyes.
Astrologically the asteroid Eros in part indicates where this universal life force brews as well as how we get in the way of it unfolding, often because of our stories of shame. When you it view between two charts it does indicate a powerful attraction but more importantly in the charts I have studied with profound Eros contacts there often is this inspired creative energy that is sparked.
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting threat a new world is born.” Once again, Anais Nin.
As I have said before love isn’t an emotion, or an experience, or a state of being. Love is a power. A connecting power. It’s the ultimate creative force. After all, nothing would be accomplished, nothing created, if it weren’t for love.
So as I wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day I wish for you a juicy provocative erotic life. A shameless life filled with the pleasure of creation itself.
Just for fun, when you are adding Eros to a chart it is asteroid number 433. Which in numerology reduces to the number one; a new beginning, connected to Aries as the first sign within the circle of animals that we call the zodiac, which among other things is symbolic for the generative energy of spring and life itself.
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