Lovely to read this today when I attempted for the first time to teach The Song of Songs to a bunch of 18 year olds. To prepare for class I re-read the poet-scholar Michael Edwards’ essay on the Song in his book The Bible and Poetry. You’d appreciate that essay—it’s not long—one of the best things I’ve ever read about the Song.
"eros is also a pillar of fire leading us through a wilderness single-mindedly, single-heartedly, furious, wild, willing to trample that tenderness and that heart-sense of beauty, for the sake of seizing what we desire."
This tension is where I live. Everywhere from trying to thrive in life while staying in connection with the Truth beyond the worldly, to letting my desire wild while making love without 'trampling the tenderness.'
There's a book on Mormon theological origins in radical English movements of the 17th and 18th centuries. Need to read it. Blake and Joseph maybe drawing on some similar historical inspiration.
I’m thinking that there *is* a poison in Eros: it’s the impulse to control and possess, that sadism and solipsism, which turns the Other into a fantasy or object for the ego’s own trip. Of course that destroys communion. Possibly, the Tradition has mistaken the poison in Eros for the whole thing itself and thus condemned Eros as irredeemable, as opposed to taking on the more subtle project of alchemical purification.
I'd say it is inherent to Eros within the human condition as we know it in the realm we presently live in, which isn't the condition of Eden. The point is that we have to do something about it, because that's how it starts. So the question is relative, I think. Death is also a poison slipped into the cocktail of being, and so here we are, seeking the resurrection.
Enlightening, edifying, and entertaining essay. Thank you. Godspeed
A really enjoyable and relatable read.
Lovely to read this today when I attempted for the first time to teach The Song of Songs to a bunch of 18 year olds. To prepare for class I re-read the poet-scholar Michael Edwards’ essay on the Song in his book The Bible and Poetry. You’d appreciate that essay—it’s not long—one of the best things I’ve ever read about the Song.
Added to the pile.
It’s a good book— *real* theology, the kind only a poet can make.
"eros is also a pillar of fire leading us through a wilderness single-mindedly, single-heartedly, furious, wild, willing to trample that tenderness and that heart-sense of beauty, for the sake of seizing what we desire."
This tension is where I live. Everywhere from trying to thrive in life while staying in connection with the Truth beyond the worldly, to letting my desire wild while making love without 'trampling the tenderness.'
Amen, brother, I am right there with you.
“Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate are necessary to Human existence." (William Blake)
There's a book on Mormon theological origins in radical English movements of the 17th and 18th centuries. Need to read it. Blake and Joseph maybe drawing on some similar historical inspiration.
I’m thinking that there *is* a poison in Eros: it’s the impulse to control and possess, that sadism and solipsism, which turns the Other into a fantasy or object for the ego’s own trip. Of course that destroys communion. Possibly, the Tradition has mistaken the poison in Eros for the whole thing itself and thus condemned Eros as irredeemable, as opposed to taking on the more subtle project of alchemical purification.
Well said, this is a great insight.
Is the poison inherent to Eros? Or was it it slipped into the cocktail? Or is it medicine that we consume disproportionately?
Another beautiful piece, Loup.
I'd say it is inherent to Eros within the human condition as we know it in the realm we presently live in, which isn't the condition of Eden. The point is that we have to do something about it, because that's how it starts. So the question is relative, I think. Death is also a poison slipped into the cocktail of being, and so here we are, seeking the resurrection.