Thursday, May 26, 2016

Love and Progress

You can't help noticing that music is very important to people and that most songs are about Luuuvvvv. But what is love about?

"Fundamentally," writes Schuon, "every love is a search for the Essence or the lost Paradise." Thus, it's sort of a category error to believe that this or that man or woman will somehow restore paradise for you. I mean, they might for a week, or a month, or six months, but beyond that, you're pushing your luck. Nostalgia can only sustain you for so long.

So, idealized, romantic love "bears witness to to this nostalgia for a far-off Paradise." Not that there's anything wrong with it, but we need to be prepared for what comes next, which is a kind of psychic inversion, through which... well, Schuon expresses it better than I can:

"To be at peace with God is to seek and find our happiness in Him; the creature that he has joined to us [in marriage] may and must help us to reach this with greater facility or with less difficulty," which again goes to precisely why and how marriage is a sacrament, i.e., a special channel of grace. It is an "outwardness with a view to inwardness," or a "form with a view to essence." It's why even atheists get married, although they have forgotten why. Or in other words, they do so for the unconscious nostalgia, not for the supraconscious hope.

The only other person I know of who speaks of marriage in this curious manner is the "esoteric orthodox" writer Boris Mouravieff. I haven't looked at it in a long time, but I remember it being pretty fruity. Let's see if we can find any useful nuggets!

Mouravieff cites a gag from some esoteric tome called The Golden Book that goes like this: To live means to love; / He who loves not, hardly lives. / He leads a mournful existence / Whose only meaning lies in the hope of loving.

And the same sentiment "had already been pronounced by St Paul nearly two thousand years ago. He said: the aim of life is to attain Love" (e.g. I Corinthians 14:1). "Better still," writes Mouravieff, "Love is the Aim of life on the whole cosmic scale, right down to the most primitive organisms."

"Love, like the personality, is also a Divine talent which is loaned to man..." And "anyone who does not develop his talent loses it." Regarding this divine loan, "The result is that one cannot command love any more than one can forbid love."

But "Even if the couple is composed of truly polar beings, if the lovers do not adhere to the supreme conditions demanded by Love, once their credit is exhausted, Love disappears" and "one finds oneself left with the broken pieces."

To me, this means that the polar relation must be infused with an energy from outside and above, or end up exhausting itself through sheer entropy. For which reason a long and happy marriage is a true miracle -- i.e., it is renewed and revivified by the miracle of grace. Or in the cryptic words of Petey, No body crosses the phoenix line lest it be repossessed and amortized.

Here is another crack from The Golden Book referred to above: Every man is born bearing within him the image of his polar being. / As he grows, this image grows within him... / Man is not conscious of it. Yet it is his Alter Ego... / In quest of her he must eternally go... / For in their union, the limit between the I and the Thou is obliterated... / And silence will then be the depository of the fullness of their Love.

A few more observations, these from volume 3: "The main danger for women, and above all young girls, lies in the frequently observed attitude of copying men, for then woman loses all the specific assets that give her her charm, so that she betrays her mission without any reason or benefit."

Re the Gender Wars, "let us try to imagine a child who... is born with a left arm ending in a right hand.... Can we think, even for a moment, that this malformation will not have an effect on the whole life of this unfortunate child? It is the same for young girls who cultivate a masculine spirit in a feminine body: by deforming themselves psychically, they also lose their charm [and how!], so that they fall into a third, psycho-pathological sex: the neuter sex."

And if this dreadful trend "is not stopped in time, this tendency to copy the other sex -- which can be found in men as well as women -- excludes both from any possibility of esoteric evolution."

What I would say is that sexual polarity is the (or a) basis of the (re)generative ingression of vertical energies through which we ultimately transcend this polarity. Or in other words, progressivism inevitably puts the kibosh on cosmo-pneumatic vertical progress.

On all planes, the objective sign of Love's participation is the creative spirit which animates the subjects for whom it has become an aim. Conversely, if we think we are in Love but do not notice an increase in creativity on any plane, either in ourselves or our partner, we can be sure that the relationship is based on anything but Love. --Mouravieff

9 comments:

Gagdad Bob said...

Relevant piece on boys vs. girls as alter servers.

julie said...

That last bit of Mouravieff's is very interesting. Thus true love is fruitful - not only procreative but pro-creative.

There is a park with a lovely stand of oak trees behind my house which is a popular destination for an assortment of people. About a year ago, a couple came to the spot and had a picnic, staying for several hours. They were quite obviously "in love." When they were done, they packed up their blanket but left all of their trash scattered about the place they had enjoyed, by which I mean not just a stray bit of rubbish: food wrappers, plates, napkins, everything. In a sense, the very antithesis of creativity. I can't imagine that such a relationship, where neither felt any inclination to pick up after themselves, is destined to endure. But if enduring, it seems likely to be full of misery.

***
It is the same for young girls who cultivate a masculine spirit in a feminine body: by deforming themselves psychically, they also lose their charm [and how!], so that they fall into a third, psycho-pathological sex: the neuter sex."

McCain has been covering this type for quite some time. They are dreadful.

Gagdad Bob said...

Are you man enough to castrate yourself?

julie said...

Glad I had finished my coffee before clicking that one...

Re. the altar servers, interesting piece. At my church, in my Bible study the ladies have on several occasions told me I should be a lector; a few of them are, and they do a fine job. I know I would, too. I don't doubt their faith, nor their heartfelt desire to serve. But I am not comfortable with the idea, for exactly the reasons in the linked piece. On the one hand, yes, people are needed to perform these jobs, but on the other, there is a reason it has traditionally been men and I think we ought to be putting men in those roles first, whenever possible.

julie said...

To his larger point, if men played a more active role in serving during Mass, isn't it possible that more people of both sexes would answer the call to religious life? Women who want to serve might be more likely to take up the habit, and men might realize that the Church and the Priesthood are manly occupations worthy of their time and dedication. There are other factors in the dwindling numbers of Westerners entering religious life, of course, but maybe this matters more than people realize.

Van Harvey said...

Julie said "That last bit of Mouravieff's is very interesting. Thus true love is fruitful - not only procreative but pro-creative."

That struck me as well, and in a similar way. And it seems to me that one of those new fruits of love, in the male, might be, maturity. For me, a traveling musician at the time, Peter Pan ruled my roost... until the future Mrs. took root in me, and then... the old fun stuff became shallow, unsatisfying. What might have been routine thoughtless 'Fun!' behaviors (littering was never my style, but there were plenty of analogs to that), became embarrassing to think of doing, or having her see me doing - doing such stuff together? Nah, nope. Pan was dead, and the man was, well, at least budding and soon (she might have a few comments at variance with mine on how quickly it bore fruit, but, that's beside the point) bore fruit.

Allena said...

LOL! That is hilarious, Bob! Of course, that wasn't hildebeast's intent, but it sure come across as even more lidicrous than it looks.
Not to mention she used a stock photo, ha ha!
I guess Pajama Boy was too busy.

Allena said...

Ludicrous I mean

Allena said...

"Love, like the personality, is also a Divine talent which is loaned to man..." And "anyone who does not develop his talent loses it." Regarding this divine loan, "The result is that one cannot command love any more than one can forbid love."

This is very crucial, I think. I gno, speaking for myself, that to truly enjoy life and Live! I must always be developing the divine live within me.
Not only does life become more fulfilling but people notice when you radiate a love of life and a love of Love.

I always have very fomd memories of my grandmother, because I could literally see the love radiating from her, and the subsequent joy, peace, wisdom, etc..
She was one of those people I always wanted to be near to, and I never got bored being around her!
Big more importantly, she was a good example herebelow of what love can do if you give it a chance and let it grow in your heart.

People are attracted to that even if they don't know why or what it is.

In contrast, only feministas, progs, cultists and activists want to be around bitter people who never develop love (and it shows).
They have no love or joy to give, so they attempt to destroy it, because they cannot stand to see others who are happy.

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