What is Love?
“Someday after mastering winds, waves, tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire”
-Telihard De Chardin
The greatest discovery in the history of the world is arguably the harnessing of fire. It forms the basis for everything. Without our ability to control fire, nothing we value today could exist.
For early mankind, the darkness represented a time of great unknown dangers. To them, the sun setting represented its descent into darkness only to rise again triumphantly. The sun had to descend and make its way through the darkness. It became a hero each day when it broke free from the dark's powerful hold and illuminated new possibilities each morning when it rose.
Each day told this same story. The sun rising from the abyss, breaking the hold of the darkness which seemed to overtake it, rising high in the sky, illuminating the potential, only to descend again to face its own darkness. It is the story we all express in our lives, for like the Sun, we all must bravely face our own personal darkness and rise again, triumphantly.
The ancient Hermetics believed that creation began when the Word called forth the Fire from the dark. It was the friction of the Word moving through the dark that caused Fire to be born.
Darkness represents a time of great potential, unrealized. And to realize the potential hidden in the dark is our work.
The discovery of fire represented mankind discovering its true purpose. As an instrument to realize the potential hidden within the All.
To do this requires us to rediscover Fire. Let us attempt to gain an understanding of the fire and the light of the Creator. Of intelligent infinity and intelligent energy.
“Only the intelligence of love and compassion can solve all problems of life.”
- J Krishnamurti
Love typically conjures up an image of romance. However, love takes on an entirely different meaning when seen in a Hermetic context.
Latwaii, an entity channeled by Carla of the llresearch group, describes it as “prana”. They state,
“...for that which enters the base energy center or chakra is what may be called prana or intelligent energy, also to be known as love, the creative force responsible for the creation itself. Thus, each individual receives this creative force through the base chakra, and by its own free will and its system of beliefs, will use that energy in any of an infinite number of ways.”
So love is not only intelligent energy but is also creative energy responsible for life. What else could love be?
Ra says,
“The vibration or density of love or understanding is not a term used in the same sense as the second distortion, Love; the distortion Love being the great activator and primal co-Creator of various creations using intelligent infinity; the vibration love being that density in which those who have learned to do an activity called ‘loving’ without significant distortion, then seek the ways of light or wisdom.”
According to this passage, Love with a capital “L” is a force that activates and is a co-Creator, aka the Logos. The density of love or understanding is also known as the 4th density. Graduating from 3rd density involves developing an awareness of intelligent energy and intelligent infinity.
Those in 4th density are learning how to do an activity called “loving” - either loving self or loving others. They are learning how to use intelligent energy to either serve the self or serve others.
“Loving” as an action, is synonymous with being able to direct intelligent energy as a creative act. Either in service to others or service to self. They are beings who have accessed the “gateway to intelligent infinity” and can channel intelligent energy out into their world. They have become co-Creators.
As 3rd density inhabitants, we are learning how to access intelligent infinity and become co-Creators. We are children learning to be adults.
Moving deeper, we discover yet an additional description of what love is. A focus.
In another passage, Ra states,
“The nature of the vibratory patterns of your universe is dependent upon the configurations placed upon the original material or light by the focus or Love using Its intelligent energy to create a certain pattern of illusions or densities in order to satisfy Its own intelligent estimate of a method of knowing Itself.”
In physics, a “focus” is defined as “a point at which rays of light, heat or other radiation meet after being refracted or reflected.”
When observing a prism, for example, the “focus” is the point where the rays of light refracted.
Why does Ra refer to Love as a focus then? Because Love, as a creative force, focuses infinity into infinite energy. In other words, Love makes infinity accessible.
Ra says,
“Awareness led to the focus of infinity into infinite energy. You have called this by various vibrational sound complexes, the most common to your ears being ‘Logos’ or ‘Love.’ The Creator is the focusing of infinity as an aware or conscious principle called by us as closely as we can create understanding/learning in your language, intelligent infinity.”
Infinity cannot know itself if there is no focus. If there isn’t a way to distill it down into a discernible form.
Hermes Trismegistus in his works calls Intelligent Infinity “Reason”. Reason, as we define it in our time, means “to think and understand.”
“Reason”, used in a hermetic context, is a state of perfect balance. It is a state of the incorruptibility of perfect logic and Truth. It is called “Knowledge” in the Allies of Humanity and Cassiopeia material.
“Knowledge protects” according to the Cassiopeians and it is Knowledge, or Reason, that provides us with information.
To be informed requires having Knowledge. Thus, Reason, or Intelligent Infinity, informs the lower by establishing Truth.
Hermes writes,
“And the Word which appeared as a pillar of flame out of the darkness is the Son of God, born of the mystery of the Mind. The name of that word is Reason. Reason is the offspring of Thought and Reason shall divide the Light from the darkness and establish Truth.”
The Word is also referred to as the Logos and it’s interesting that Hermes is saying that the Word is the offspring of thought.
In order to have a thought, one first must focus. The very act of thinking requires the focusing of energy directed towards creating a thought.
Our thoughts are our creations and as Manly P. Hall says, “we are lured into chaos by our own thoughts”. We become obsessed with them and possessed by them. They take us over completely and we become servants of thought.
As Mary Magdalene wrote, “What we do takes us further away”.
There is a great paradox here and that is that thought takes us away from the center, away from Reason, but it also creates the possibility for mankind to transcend and enter into Reason. It is only through the exploration of the mystery of the Mind that the “son of God” can be born - or that one can enter into Intelligent Infinity. It is only by going into darkness that light can be found.
So in our limited understanding, we can see that Love can be experienced as:
A creative energy
An activator
A focus
This is very different from the traditional definition of “love” in our society which is primarily associated with romance. If you dig deeper, you will find most feelings of love are actually feelings of possession and desire. Listen to most love songs and you can quickly get a sense of how distorted our society sees the concept of “love”.
Love is technically one energy - again, called Intelligent energy. When it is expressed, this is called “love”.
Since most individuals do not experience the higher energy centers, their expression of love is limited to the lower and what is expressed is often desire and possession.
The higher the energy is able to go in you, the more undistorted the expression becomes. The more one can radiate pure love.
Qu’o explains,
“As succeeding energy centers or circuit areas within the energy centers of the seeker are opened and balanced to a minimal degree through a great portion of time and experience, the prana or love of the Creator will move further and further up the, as you have called it, the path of the kundalini until there is the mating with the guiding light or Polaris of the self, where the seeker is already at one with the creation so that an experience of conscious unity with the creation becomes available to the seeker.
This completing of the circuit of the series of energy centers has been described by many of your peoples using various terminology, the enlightenment, the contact with intelligent infinity, the nirvana, as some call it, Thus, the seeker may be seen as a configuration of circuits or series of lessons and balances to achieve, with each day offering further opportunity to move the flow of love further along the inner pathways that will eventually culminate in the bringing into harmonic resonance each portion of the seeker’s being.”
Latwaii adds additional insight,
“The love and the light of the one Creator are the primary energy sources that are daily utilized in a conscious acting by each entity, as these energies move through the chakras or the energy centers, thereby, one, enlivening the need for survival and reproduction; moving upwards, two, the relationship with the self; moving further, three, the relationship with those of the family and friends known well to the entity; moving upwards further, four, the relationship of the self to all about one, whether known or unknown; moving further to five, the establishment of clear and freely given communication with all of those about one, sharing freely that which has been learned; moving further up the energy centers, six, to the quality of being that radiates without words; moving to the final center, seven, the reunion of the entity with the one Creator as the energies have been activated one upon the other by the conscious application of analysis, prayer and meditation upon the daily round of activities that have been made possible by the infusion of the intelligent energy, the love and the light of the one Creator, through the energy centers.
All this, in turn, takes place because the physical vehicle has been energized by these energies as well as the food that powers its movement and its existence within your reality.”
One exercise which is useful in developing an understanding of love as creative energy is to focus inward and feel your life energy directly. Try to understand the feeling of “aliveness” within yourself. What is it that sustains you? That keeps the cells alive within you? What does it mean to be “alive”?
Why is it that if this life force was not in you, entropy would take over and you would decay?
Observe objects around you and see that they too are maintained by an energy source, protected from the forces of entropy. They too are alive somehow.
There is a depth and an “aliveness” that can be felt within all. This can feel like “space” opening up within you and this same “space” can be observed within objects.
All that exists here in physicality exists only temporarily. For what reason is the great paradox.
Manly P. Hall speaks about how the ancient Hermetics saw space as a density where objects were actually “holes” within this density. Objects in space were in reality a “negation” of space.
Nothing can be more positive than the One Mind, therefore any object within space is technically a lesser portion of this One Mind. In other words, objects don’t add to the density, but rather take away from it.
And those lesser parts of the One Mind ultimately strive toward the positive. Negative will ultimately strive towards the Positive.
It is this striving that propels all of us, whether we are conscious of it or not. We are moving somewhere. Changing. Experimenting. Gathering data and then adjusting as needed. This is the creative process of striving. It is evolution.
“That which in you sees and hears is not of the earth, but is the Word of God incarnate.”
- The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus
Love as creative energy
As one gets closer to infinity, one becomes more creative. Perhaps this explains why we are experiencing such rapid change from year to year whereas things rarely changed in the distant past. As we shift into 4th density, we are getting closer to infinity, thus becoming more able to receive greater inspiration.
Rudolf Steiner writes,
“This is the mystery of all future evolution: that our knowledge and everything we do out of a true understanding of evolution sow seeds that must ripen into love. The greater the power of the love that comes into being, the more we will be able to accomplish creatively on behalf of the future.”
The full potential of the seeds that we plant now has already ripened in the future.
It is only through our actions in each moment that they can be manifest, however.
And the closer we get to intelligent infinity, the greater the love we can experience and therefore the more impactful our work becomes.
Rudolf Steiner also states,
“The strongest forces working toward the end result of spiritualization lie in what will come from love. The more spiritual knowledge flows into the evolution of humanity and the Earth, the greater the number of viable seeds will be for the future. Through its very nature, spiritual knowledge transforms itself into love.”
To be “creative” does not necessarily mean artistically creative. Creativity is synonymous with freedom. It is becoming a co-Creator, as the Sun is a co-Creator for the One Infinite.
The Sun’s light radiates and is responsible for sustaining life. However, this same radiation that gives life can also destroy. Likewise, we can choose to be service to others or service to self. We can use intelligent energy, or love, in service to the One or in service to ourselves.
Ra states when speaking of intelligent energy, “This energy is the energy of the Logos, and thus it is the energy which heals, builds, removes, destroys, and transforms all other-selves as well as the self.”
Those who become capable of “loving” without distortion become free to utilize intelligent energy how they see fit.
In the Allies of Humanity channelings, they describe a “Greater Community” in space and that we are emerging into this community. They warn us that many of the races we will likely encounter in the future are skilled in mental persuasion and that there is a constant struggle in the mental environment among these races.
In other words, there are beings that become “co-Creators” who use intelligent energy in order to get what they want, and very often the more able one can use intelligent energy in this way, the more they can control. These races that the Allies of Humanity speak about are clearly service to self in orientation; however, it is an example of the type of entities that Ra speaks about that are capable of “loving without distortion”.
On the service to others’ end, this energy can be utilized to heal. Yeshua is a well-known example of a wanderer who was able to channel intelligent energy and use it in a positive way. A way that uplifted all those around him. Yeshua is an example of what Ra calls the “crystallized healer”.
Ra says, “The crystallized healer has no will”. Their will is the will of the One Infinite and any healing that is done is done only by the will of the Infinite. And it is only by the combined faith of both the healer and one being healed, that the miracle of healing can occur.
The one being healed is actually healing themselves. Ra says, “The crystallized healer is a channel for intelligent energy which offers an opportunity to an entity that it might heal itself.”
It is also to be noted that if it is in the life path of an individual to experience certain catalysts such as disease or injuries, then true healing in this way cannot be accomplished.
Creativity is generally associated with imagination. Hermes writes in the Corpus Hermeticum about imagination,
"That which makes manifest is not itself made manifest, for it has not been brought forth. But it brings all images to the mind in imagination. Things that are begotten belong only to the imagination. For imagination is nothing but begetting."
The unmanifest brings forth all images to the mind through the imagination. The word “begetting” is interesting as this implies that all things that are in the imagination have been “fathered”.
This makes sense when you consider the Spirit’s role as a shuttle, funneling through the instreamings of the Deep Mind into conscious awareness. The inspirations that bubble up from the Deep Mind penetrate through the veil consciously when an adept has successfully created a bridge that can pass through the veil of the mind.
This is normally done through activities such as dreaming or meditation. However, an adept can develop the ability to communicate directly through the veil and receive insight at will. The more one develops themselves in this area, the more one can directly access Higher Intelligence. This is beyond the scope of this article to explore, however, know that this is the work of the 6th energy center and should be approached with utmost care and caution.
It seems that visualization plays a role in developing this bridge between the veil. Visualization is a key component of magickal rituals. The stronger one can hold a visualization, the better their focus and the stronger their intention. Thus, the more impactful their magick becomes.
The same is true for all aspects of visualization. What is imagined first in the mind becomes real. And what is thought always exists somewhere, even if it’s not physical. Therefore, understanding the imagination and exploring it is vital to the development of the adept.
"Igne Natura Renovatur Integra
By fire nature is renewed whole."
Love as an activator.
To understand love as an activator, it may be helpful to have an understanding of intelligent infinity.
Ra says,
“There is unity. This unity is all that there is. This unity has potential and is kinetic. The potential is intelligent infinity. Tapping this potential will yield work. This work has been called by us, intelligent energy.”
We have a term for “tapping potential” which is commonly referred to as “enlightenment”.
There have been many descriptions of what “enlightenment” is from those who have experienced it.
The famous teacher Osho describes his enlightenment experience,
“That night another reality opened its door, another dimension became available. Suddenly it was there, the other reality, the separate reality, the really real, or whatsoever you want to call it. Call it god, call it truth, call it dhamma, call it tao, or whatsoever you will. It was nameless. But it was there ‒ so opaque, so transparent, and yet so solid one could have touched it. It was almost suffocating me in that room. It was too much and I was not yet capable to absorb it.
A deep urge arose in me to rush out of the room, to go under the sky ‒ it was suffocating me. It was too much! It will kill me! If I had remained a few moments more, it would have suffocated me. It looked like that.
I rushed out of the room, came out in the street. A great urge was there just to be under the sky with the stars, with the trees, with the earth. To be with nature. And immediately as I came out, the feeling of being suffocated disappeared. It was too small a place for such a big phenomenon. Even a sky is a small place for that big phenomenon. It is bigger than the sky. Even the sky is not the limit for it. But then I felt more at ease.
I walked towards the nearest garden. It was a totally new walk as if gravitation has disappeared. I was walking, or I was running, or I was simply flying; it was difficult to decide. There was no gravitation, I was feeling weightless ‒ as if some energy was taking me. I was in the hands of some other energy.
For the first time, I was not alone, for the first time I was no more an individual, for the first time the drop has come and fallen into the ocean. Now the whole ocean was mine, I was the ocean. There was no limitation. A tremendous power arose as if I can do anything whatsoever. I was not there, only the power was there.”
We can glean a few insights from this description. First, Osho describes that “another dimension was made available” to him. Recall that intelligent infinity is infinite potential. The closer we are to it, the more potential we exhibit. More of the “hologram” so to speak becomes available to us.
Osho also describes himself at this moment as “the ocean”. The ocean can refer to infinity. His consciousness has been transported into the “ocean” of infinity. The description of the One Infinite as an ocean makes sense as the vastness of infinity can only be described as such.
Osho mentions that “he” was not there, only a “power” was there. The power he refers to is the One Infinite, for it was not Osho who had any power. The power moved through Osho and he channeled it out into the world.
As this Power moved through him, he became radiant. This radiance is the result of the self-becoming transparent to the One that is behind all. And the energy that is radiating through him is activating energy.
This is very much like the Sun whose rays supply the kinetic energy necessary to sustain life in the universe.
The ancients viewed the Sun as a reflection of the true spiritual Sun. In other words, they viewed the Sun as a sub-Logos. This sub-Logos reflects the light emanating from a greater Logos, known as the Great Central Sun, or One Infinite.
And just like our Sun, we reflect the light from the Divine out into the world. It is not you who radiates or generates light. It is the Divine who radiates continuously and it is you who reflects.
Love acts as activating energy the same way the rays of the Sun act as activating energy. Both nourish and sustain life. Both stimulate catalysts and therefore, change within.
The anonymous author of the book Meditations on the Tarot says this about love,
“Faith is the experience of divine breath; Hope is the experience of divine light, and Love is the experience of divine fire.”
We all act in faith every moment of our lives as we cannot know what will happen to us at any given moment. There is a level of trust that is required to even be alive. And to experience the Divine behind the veil, an experience that transcends the lower, logical mind, induces a sense of faith. To experience the divine light is to witness the manifestation of the Divine onto the world stage. And to experience the divine fire is to experience Love.
Fire is an activating force. But it also can be a destructive force. In the ancient world, the scorpion was often used to represent wisdom and to act as the “guardian of the gateway of the sun” because, as Manly P. Hall writes, “...the fire which it controlled was capable of illuminating as well as consuming.”
Rudolf Steiner in his book How to Know Higher Worlds speaks of a stage in initiation known as the “Fire Trial”. This is the initiate who is beginning to have an understanding of intelligent energy. The initiate is able to understand subtle processes occurring within and without. It’s a trial because this is where the initiate’s reality can turn upside down. Because the fire strips away that which is not needed. This can consume those not ready and illuminate those sufficiently balanced.
The qualities of fire are in heat and expansion. Heat activates and expands. Thus, when the universe was born, it was through intense heat that the universe was able to expand and grow. Fire comes from light and likewise light comes from fire. Life is possible on Earth because of both the light and the heat from the Sun. The light provides energy and the heat provides the environment capable of generating life.
In those who are considered “enlightened”, it is both the fire and the light of the Spirit which illuminates through them.
Fire also has a catalytic effect. It is a purifier that strips away that which is not needed and gives way to a rebirth. And it is only by fire that nature is renewed whole.
Those in the presence of one who radiates this light of the Spirit is said to be calmed and illuminated. The presence of Spirit affects all who witness it.
It should also be noted that fire can only exist when friction is applied through motion. And life emerges when heat is available - made possible only by the fire. It is interesting that, in our universe, if all the stars were to die, then the universe would become frozen.
When matter is “frozen”, it simply means that energy is dormant and waiting to be activated. In other words, when matter is frozen, it is in potential.
Only when heat is applied, do the atoms and molecules become energized and that which was still becomes active.
It appears that in our universe at least, the default state of matter is always in potential. What’s needed to activate the potential is the heat of the fire.
“Only if I love something can it reveal itself to me. And every revelation should fill me with
thankfulness, for I am made richer by it.”
- Rudolf Steiner
Love as a focus.
Action entails a concentration of consciousness. And in order for us to experience, there must be a focus attributed to our actions. Our attention can really only be given to one thing at a time. And where we choose to focus is where our energy goes and thus where Creation as a whole goes.
Likewise, Intelligent infinity requires a focus in order to experience. Infinite potential is unrealized until there is a focus that causes it to come into being. Like frozen matter, until heat is applied, it remains in potential.
Heat is the end result of friction. And it is friction created by our focus that causes the Fire to be freed within us.
What is it that focuses within us?
Hermes writes about a concept called the “Workman” and that it is through the friction of the hammer of the Workman upon matter that Fire is freed.
The Workman is the Mind, which, in its perfect state, is guided by Reason. However, the Mind can become “enamored with its own thoughts” and get taken in by the shadows.
Recall that the lower intellect is like the moon. It cannot generate its own light and must reflect its light from the Spirit. And like the moon, we can be easily taken in by the chimeras its reflected light creates.
Hermes writes, “For indeed God was exceedingly enamored of his own form or shape, and delivered unto it all his own Workmanships. Bur he, seeing and understanding the Creation of the Workman in the whole, would needs also himself fall to work, and so was separated from the Father, being in the sphere of Generation or Operation.”
Our fall is the result of us becoming enamored by our own workmanship, our own thoughts. As Manly P. Hall says, “we are lured toward chaos by our own thoughts”.
Recall that the Devil archetype represents the Mind in complete darkness and how, without the guiding light of Spirit, one becomes a slave to false creations.
Israel Regardie writes, “All the forces and ‘ideas’ from the Creative and Archetypal realms are represented and focused in this plastic agent, the Formative World.”
We live in a reality of metaphor. Everything in our “plastic world” is in actuality a reflection of a higher, metaphysical principle. For instance, if you focus sunlight, you can create fire. This fire, in turn, creates more light and heat. Love creates Light and Light, in turn, seeks Love.
Ra explains, “Love/light is the enabler, the power, the energy giver. Light/love is the manifestation which occurs when light has been impressed with love.”
As Hermes wrote in the Divine Pyramander, “The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life.”
1 into 3 produces 7. The “Word” refers to that which is behind and that which informs the letter. It is that which “informs” existence. In the microcosm, you are the Word which informs the letter - i.e. the Spirit which informs the Mind which in turn informs the Body.
In the process of our personal evolution, the Word, being trapped in darkness, strives towards the light. Our consciousness, at first, is seemingly affected by what happens below. We look for answers outside ourselves and are affected by what happens to us. Our lower processes rule our thoughts. We seek Truth outside of ourselves.
The vast majority of people on this planet are striving to find Truth so that they can unblock the heart. This means that they’ve achieved sufficient awareness to the level that they understand, at least to some degree, the responsibility that their thinking plays on how they feel.
However, until the “rocks and thorns” are removed from the heart, true awareness of the Self will be difficult to grasp. The Fire will remain trapped in Matter. It is only by the action taken by the “Workman”, that Fire can be released from matter. That the Fire of the Spirit can be released from within ourselves and Truth can be found.
Matter traps the Fire. And motion releases it.
To seek outside oneself in order to truly push the boundary of our understanding is an illusion.
True progress, true evolution happens within. Not without. We must all travel within ourselves, seeking this boundary and pushing it forward for everyone.
And by our striving, we free the Fire trapped in the darkness of matter, bringing the infinite a little closer to us, and releasing the potential contained within all.