A Comprehensive Factual and Mythological Examination of Love

This search to unravel illusions and interpretations of the mysterious life force that affects the material manifestation of love, goes beyond the Google-eyed search for quick answers or an imagined fiction.

Reference to the beautiful, awesome, and humbling power of love is found in unrelated sources. The wonderful Greeks described 8 different types of love. Philia is affectionate love. Pragma is enduring. Storge is family affection. Eros is romantic, sexual desirous love, often associated with Eris, strife, and conflict. Ludus is ludicrously playful. Mani is obsessive. Philautic, is self- love (associated with the problems that befell Narcissus). Agape is selfless love that escapes all but the great sages who are willing to sacrifice themselves to prove a cause and/or affection.

Dr. Webster, a professed man of God, provides the following definitions for love in his dictionary.

1. love is best understood as a force and the act of loving.

2. love is an affection of the heart excited by that which delights or commands admiration; preeminent kindness or devotion to another.

3. in courtship, love is used in the phrase to make love; to woo.

4. love is devoted attachment to one of the opposite sex- my comment: such were the required proper religious mores of the time

5. love is fondness; satisfaction; devotion.

6. love is the object of affection- often employed in an endearing address

7. love is moral good will; benevolence; kindness; charity

8. Cupid is the god of love- cupidity is a combination of how eagerness and strong desire that can lead to insatiable lust and greed

9. love is a thin, silk stuff

Understanding love is far more complex than a definition. What we know and understand of love, as a young person, changes through time. Actions provide the most valuable lessons about the mysterious power of love that allows connections to oneself, others and all else that exists now, in the past or in the future.

The young at heart, who have sufficient means to allow thinking on their own, seek hints of about love from a lifetime of experiences, of pleasure, loss, and pain, be it physical, emotional or psychological. Those who strive to keep the concept of love alive, look in the mind's eye that reflects, in the present, memories of a distant past, that holds elements of what is known, or imagined and is threatened in a turbulent future.

I am devoted to preserve, protect, and perpetuate mystery teachings. I am a student of the great Mystery School, where school is defined as an active time of pleasurable leisure. Teachings of the earliest mystery schools come from the ‘Songs of King Solomon’. The psalms are full of passion, desire, longing, pursuit, possession, and pleasure.

The Bible expositor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, says the psalms "stand in the middle of the Old Testament like the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden". I will share some of what I learned about love, through art, literature, and science, when I held the heart of the Gardener of Eden in my hand. He inspired me to unravel the essence of love, and follow clues from current models of science, that provide me with a rational albeit limited compilation of credible information.

Science strives to understand Nature. Nature does not follow many rules. Historically, mankind looked to the stars, especially the Sun, to substantiate aspects of patterns found in Nature. The Sun is the Source of the Earth's energy and power, that is transferred throughout biological systems, societies, and myths. Sun Gods have been honoured since the dawn of humanity. Galileo provided evidence that the Earth follows an off-centered elliptical orbit around the Sun.

The Source of the Sun is unknown. It was formed mysteriously, some say by God, others by the Big Bang, and others say it was formed when the energy fluctuating in the void of the vacuum, aligned through inert connections to change what is nothing but chaos.

Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 shows that everything at or above the Plank level, is vibration. There is a spiral field around the vibration that follows the Golden Mean, It is due to resonant energy that results from attraction and repulsion. However, science as it is known, does not work the same, at less than Plank distances.

Recent discoveries about the Brout Englert Higgs field (BEH), indicate that the fundamental force carrying, subatomic particle, that some call the god particle, is a quantized manifestation of the BEH field. The particle has no charge or spin but forms a mass when it interacts with other manifestations.

Subatomic forces unite to make up the most primitive primal element, Hydrogen. Separating hydrogen can cause a nuclear explosion. The explosive power of a supernova can cause fission, changing hydrogen to energy and light, or fusion of nuclei that recombine to create helium, then lithium, boron, carbon and so on, until the culmination into 26 nuclei found in Iron.

Iron provides some clues about love. The last-born element of the nuclear furnace forms plasma, the fourth state of matter. Plasma, a hot soup of neutral, free moving electron and particles, is concentrated in a spinning sphere, at the core of the Sun. Plasma provides a clue about the mysterious, silky nature of love, that continually changes as it moves and defines the shape of solids.

Plasma erupts from the sun and is moved by powerful solar winds throughout the universe. Plasma forms an electrically conducting ionized substance that interacts with magnetism. The term plasma has recently been used to describe the superionic material within the Earth’s core. Plasma, the iron-based liquid of the iron rich blood, holds the electrical and magnetic power of the sun.

Plasma connects the cosmic to the elemental, and myth to fact. Ionic fluctuations in plasma hold a spirit that invisibly passes as force. The spirit is thought to have evolved from the silver, diamond backed Egyptian Jackal God, Anubis, who guards the scales that weigh the soul, and cares for the dead, guiding them to the final destination. The supernatural entity exists in barren ruined places, including the psyche and the heart. The spirit, known by many names including the Genie or Jinn, angels, demon, Deva and Asura, holds a bag of tricks that might provide what is needed for survival. It finds what is hidden and concealed, that merits worth and can make life sparkle, as powerfully as if by magic.

Plasma has electric and magnetic fields within a non-rigid boundary. When it hits the Earth’s magnetosphere, Plasma changes the shape of the donut shaped van Allen belts around the Earth and creates the night arrow. The night arrow is the source of many myths.

The grandeur of Iron is revered in alchemy. The alchemical symbol for Iron, a circle with an arrow, represents the red planet Mars and males. The Roman God Mars used military power as force essential to stabilize society, whereas Aires, the Greek counterpart used for for destructive purposes. Tomas Aquinas defines love as ‘a choice to will the good of another’. This statement requires a separate conversation about what actions are considered good. The iron-hearted who use iron will to rule with an iron fist can be cruel and ruthless or brave and courageous.

In myth, the planet Venus, known as the Roman goddess equivalent to Greek Aphrodite, is associated with the star of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, the goddess of the universe and love. Venus mated with Mars or Mercury and had a son, called Cupid or Eros who carried a bow and arrow. In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare elegantly describes Love as an ‘ever-fixed mark’.

Mercury, the first planet whose orbit was identified because of its short orbital period, became the rapid messenger sent from the gods. Because the planet orbit is irregular, Mercury became associated with thieves, tricksters, and merchants. The Greek god Mercury was equivalent to the Roman god Hermes.

Hermes cared for Dionysus. In art and literature, Dionysus is associated with Venus’ son, known as the chubby winged god Eros, also called Cupid. Dionysus and Cupid are known as 'the Liberator' . They are associated with love. Cupid holds the memories of love that are often residues from the angelic years of youth. Dionysus enjoys the effect of wine, revelry and wild ritual of music and dancing, that inspire a divine madness, akin to a drunken state associated with love.

Dionysus is associated with the goat-footed Pan, the son of Hermes and the she-goat, Amalthea. Many researchers consider goats to be the first domesticated species. Male he-goats were sacrificed on the new moon as an offering to the Mesopotamian moon god Sin. Old Testament stories mention wild he-goats, who were rulers, in charge of a large areas dominated by a race of giants. Goats were thought to calm other animals. If someone got your goat, the situation agitated and annoyed livestock.

In Rome, during the feast of Lupercalia, which has become the feast of Valentine’s Day, goats were sacrificed, and their skins worn by the slayers who then offered fertility blessings. Men still dress as goats or wear goat skins as part of seasonal ceremonies associated with fertility in many countries. In the 1920’s, hucksters grafted goat testicles onto human males, to improve sexual vigour.

Chimeric goats came to symbolize goat-like demons such as Baphomet, Azazel and the devil, who were driven more by lust than love. They symbolized the opposing forces of human and animal, good and evil, wild, and civilized, celibate and lustful. Agni the Vedic god of fire rides a chariot pulled by goats, as does Thor in Scandinavian myth.

Love can cause delusions and melt reason or inspire a relaxed state that allows the fiery life force of the indestructible spirit of the mythological world tree to transcend matter, space and time and be resurrected by a beating heart.

In myth, Dionysius, called the twice born, was born from the heart of Zagreus, the illegitimate child of Zeus, who had been dismembered by the Titans. In Hinduism, the twice born, Dvija Ganapati, controlled the wild mind of Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, to make worldly life worthwhile.

The use of the swastika, the symbol of Ganesh, suggests that the fate of the twice born is not certain. The swastika originally represented health, wealth, and prosperity for over 3000 years. It is seen on Egyptian pyramids, and coins of the Norse God Odin. It is the symbol of the universe in the Chinese wan. The Greek tetraskelion is used to represent power and it is used to signify repeat in music. The English fylfot, and the German Hakenkreuz are associated the Nazi destruction and the Holocaust.

Love holds a power a powerful as the magnetic properties that can induce other magnetic substances to become magnetic and couple or repel. Magnets attached to a common coupling base can form an oscillating pendulum. Two pendulums, sharing a common foundation, inevitably synchronize and end up going in the same or opposite directions. Synchronization is one of the most common phenomena in nature.

It does not seem unlikely that Love results as part of a spontaneous synchronization, that affects people of all nations regardless of training, education and religion or time. The hearts of lovers, beat together when they are in the same room, even when not materially connected. In the human heart, control and communication depend on how neurons can manage to synchronize behaviours. Neural firings have a lock-step road to synchronization that can help or be dangerous. Sometimes quenching occurs, i.e. one or both of the pendulums stop working. Alternatively, innate strong or weak coupling of neurons can lead to adaptive training, making synchronization of millions of neurons extend beyond comprehensible understanding.

Silent communication causes synchronous magnetic and/or electric discharge through sympathy channelling. Coherent changes in oscillating rhythms occur through elastic deformations that cause electrons to spin in the same or opposite directions and be in phase or antiphase. I suggest this is akin to love and hate. However, indifference, becoming inert, through insulation that does not allow energy to flow, is the ultimate opposite of the strong and weak coupling of attachments.

Love leaves fleeting clues, like neutrinos that pass through all matter, but are very hard to detect.

Often what is imagined becomes proven to exist.

Synchronization alters chemicals that control conscious and unconscious life. Most of life is controlled as an electrochemical, magnetic, mechanical machine. Spinning particles, atoms, elements, and compounds with mass, are connected, and react creating predictable cascades.

Biologically, reproduction is driven by the invisible power of chemicals. Love activates chemicals in the reward centers of the brain. First cortisol, the stress hormone increases, then serotonin depletes, causing depression and obsessive-compulsive behaviours. Subsequently, dopamine increases and activates the reward circuit associated with euphoria. Oxytocin is activated by skin-to-skin contact and deepens feelings of attachment, calmness and security and deactivates fear and social judgement. Vasopressin is linked to behaviors associated with long term attachment. Sometimes love requires reigniting the flame if it gets rusty. Sexual activity increases the brains reward system.

Iron is a model that can be used to creatively weave a deeper connection and understanding of love. Cold, metallic iron can forcibly demand compliance. On Earth, Iron is smelted using heat that removes impurities from random combinations of ores. The ‘holy metal’, a buttery liquid, has been used to forge shackles, and swords or as an instrument used to press out wrinkles since the Crusades.

Ezra Pound wrote, ‘I suppose that when poetry comes down to facts, when our souls are returned to the gods and the spheres they belong in, here in the everyday our act rise up and judge us.’

Love, real or imaginary, is a poetic expression of mutual connection. Louis Aragon says ‘il n’y a pas d’amour heureux’, that the Gardener of Eden translated as ‘there is no love without sorrow.’ To feel love and to make others feel loved can drive ecstasy, or it can create a residual ache from the loss of real or imagined joy that is obtained from intimacy, commitment, or passion.

I agree with Lord Alfred Tennyson who said ‘tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’. It is not always easy to create and maintain the silky connection, especially after death, but Elizabeth Barrett Browning suggests in Sonnet 43, ‘ if God chooses, I shall but love thee better after death.’

I share the sentiment of the lyrics of Eden Abhez song, Nature Boy, ‘ The greatest thing on earth is to love and be loved in return.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=339UrDjHDio

I have loved and been loved in return, yet in spite of my varied rational efforts to unravel love, it still remains an elusive mystery that exceeds the sum of its parts. The essence of love inspires continual schooling.