Foi et Amore (Of Faith and Love)

I have been asked by some who have read my profile here if I am looking for a lady. An interesting question proposed to a professed celibate and who also promotes agapetism, karreza and the teachings of the More Institute on male-female relationships.

Being honest I can say the only things I have ever sought at the bottom of my heart is a souls mate. Yet I follow in the footsteps of the Fideli d'Amore (Faithful in Love) whic includes such names as Novalis (Protestant), Dante (Fede Santa), and Arabi (Sufi), each of which, like the Medieval troubadours and minnesangers had a lady whom inspired their spiritual quest. It to is this human image and dream of perfect and eternal love which birthed the desire within for a unio mystica; a mystical union with G-d.

I too owe a debt of gratitude to my Cistercian (Catholic) heritage in that my brothers of the Order were among the first to restore the Divine Feminine as an aspect of the G-dhead (after it was nearly obliterated by the Church of Rome), which allowed heterosexual male monks and laypersons to deepen their love of G-d without denying aspects of their humanity. men to could then more easily experience and express the the ecstasy of the Eros of G-d reminiscent of Theresa of Avila.

If we are very honest, we probably we have a love-hate relationship with other people including spouses. There is this alternating desire for union in opposition to a desire for separation. The ego sees life as we vs me. One purpose of marriage and intimate relationship is to bring this inner conflict to the forefront where it may be observed and surrendered.

The dream of the soul mate is ancient. The Bauls have it correct I think, when they say that the soul mate is G-d. Carl Jung puts it differently and in a psychological context, in saying that within each of us is a contra sexual archetype - an opposite sex image - of our "other half," being the anima for the male and the animus for the female. It is this psychic image by which we judge potential mates. Yet it is with this "inner lover" that we need to unite to find wholeness and in religious language, to restore our true image as Elohim male and female. This is not a matter of becoming a hermaphrodite, but of a reintegration of an androgynous soul.

This I believe Jesus referes to when he says in heaven there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage. We become complete, a self contained unity within the greater unity of G-d. There is cross cultural confirmation in the Buddhist idea that one of the marks of a Buddha (free/liberated being) is that they are in perpetual embrace with their "wisdom seal" (a contra sexual aspect).

As we are all one in G-ds sacred Unity, our outer soul mate is potentially everyone to the degree that we embrace all the diparate parts of ourselves. Only one who has attained this inner marriage can appreciate this. A union outer man and woman may then be centered in expressing the Divine Unity as a reflection of Emanuelle; G-d with us, whereas "normal" pair bonding is at best a chance to heal one another of the idea of separation from Love itself.

"The Blessed Holy One does not place His abode in a place where male and female are not found together (YH). Blessings are found only in a place where male and female are found, as it is written: "He blessed them and called their name Adam." A human being is only called adam when male and female are as One."
~Zohar

© Arjay 2008