Love...On the soul level

Love is so very misinterpreted 

in the extent of its scope and range of influence 

in terms of our life here on planet Earth. 

The prevailing concept of love in terms of the minds and hearts of the vast majority of people is entirely personal, definitely limited, and often utterly confused. The aspect of love that is romanticized, exalted in verse, endlessly sought, and perpetually lost and found and then lost and found again, is usually not love at all. What sells so many CDs and movie tickets is only the sensation of love as expressed through the emotional/desire nature, known to students of the esoteric as the “astral plane.”

To most of us, we love someone because we desire that person, need that person, or want that person to desire and need us. “You make me feel so good when I am with you and so alone when you are not there” is often the message that comes to mind and mouth when we sense that we are in love with someone. This is love from the level of the solar plexus, totally lunar in nature, and quite full-moonish! In fact, I know well this “genre d´amour,” having been there many times myself over long period of time during these many decades of my life (and I majored in Romance Languages at University). I don´t have natal Venus in Pisces square the Moon in the 7th house for nothing and I admit, I still love the Bee-Gees!

The urges to die for love, lose oneself in love, find oneself in love, and to be alone “just the two of us for ever and ever” are also feelings and statements which are connected to these sentiments and pronouncements about personal love. In “New Age-speak,” these romantic aspirations are now called “the search for one’s Soul Mate.” And yet, for me and billions of other men and women, this is the way that the expression of love has been taught, learned, broadcasted, and lived for centuries in the West (these concepts are quite different in traditional African and Asian cultures). What I am describing is very definitely the personality-centered nature of Venus, or, more precisely, her reflection as expressed through this most natural and normal urge—the urge to merge.

Just between you and me: Please do not think that I am a cold, totally objective esoteric monk. Any of you who know me or follow my writings over the years would not think of me that way anyway, but just in case and for the record: I am well aware of personal love and I am indeed (finally!) very joyfully married to my “soul-mate.” It took a lot of previous “desire-mate,” “illusion-mate,” “true-love-mate,” and even a previous “socially sanctioned marriage before the minister and the judge-mate” relationships to get here. But when I did arrive at “Love´s Door,” I was married at the time to my Soul, which then led me to be found by my “soul-mate.” This priority (and this beautiful relationship) remain.

Back to the post: It is true that men and women who have perfected or refined the nature of Venus in their personal lives are capable of loving without conditions, of releasing the loved one if and when the time comes to do so (which we often have to do with our children and grandchildren), and to continue loving without possessing. It is also true that Venus gives artistic ability and a sense of esthetics, adding pleasure and creativity to our personal lives. But the unconditional quality of love and the real creative potency of the artist come only when Venus is functioning on the level of the Soul and the quality of the soul’s Love has entered the realm of the personality through hard work and much sacrifice. This is what the symbology of Venus “exalted” in Pisces is all about.

On the soul level, Venus functions to transform the knowing of love into the wisdom of loving. Esoterically, Venus is the soul-centered ruler of dual-Gemini and, as such, serves to link the higher and lower mind into a harmonious unit of perception. It is from the perception of the soul that everyone is seen as a soul-mate and that everything contains within itself a quantity of love relative to its form of expression…relative to its form of expression.

Thus there is love in a rose, love in an animal, love in a star, and certainly love in every man and woman on this planet. But this love is not personal. It may be personalized through the natural attractions and needs of the personality, but the essential nature of love is not personal. Love is consciousness. 

Alan Oken