Back to the Garden Part 2: The Alchemy of Love

by Curtis Lang		print version
		print version (graphics)

To summarize the wisdom of the great mystics of the East and the Alchemists of the West: On one thing all spiritual teachings agree. It is better to be loved than not to be loved, and it is far better to love than not to love.

Love is the alchemical elixir of life. Lovers live longer. Love is immortal. Love can never lose its own.

Box Sculpture by Jane Sherry

Love is the philosopher's stone, the universal solvent that alchemically transmutes our imperfections. Love transforms us as rain transforms the seedling, bringing forth our greatest inner potential, our hidden virtues. In this way, love turns base metals into gold. Love alone can bring you happiness.

Love is the universal panacea. Love heals all wounds. Love enables us to forgive ourselves and others. Forgiveness releases the negative thoughts and feelings that imprison us in the isolation and unconscious motivation of ego and karma .

Love is the celestial stairway, the ladder we climb to approach and experience the unity of all that exists. True, unconditional love flowers without conditions, expectations and attachments. Such a pure love must rise above physical needs, mental considerations, and emotional desires.

Achieving this pure love for God, for oneself, for one's family, for one's lover or spouse, and for humanity as a whole, requires dedication, hard work and clear knowledge of the spiritual laws governing human relations.

To achieve loving unity with all that exists is to know and love one's true self.

Christian mystics say that to love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole strength, and your entire soul, is the most fulfilling love that can be experienced.

But what about love between man and woman? Religious leaders and great spiritual teachers have differed upon the relative merits of celibacy versus mating and sexual sublimation versus sexual expression.

However, two things are clear. First, both the path of celibacy and the path of sexual union present us with difficulties and rewards. Second, both paths can ultimately lead us to love of God, unity consciousness, and a fulfilling life of compassionate service.

The majority of individuals do not wish to live in celibate isolation, nor in a celibate union, nor are they constitutionally well prepared to do so.

Most desire the experience of a lasting love with a chosen mate, and for the most part they expect that that loving union will have a physical component.

from Venus Unbound by J. Sherry

Many also desire to experience the love of humanity and the overarching love of God.

Many of us have been taught that our relations with lovers or mates will conflict with attainment of compassion for all humanity or achievement of the undivided love of God.

This is not necessarily so. Simply put, if there are loving mates who choose to love one another, heart, body, mind and soul, and if these loving mates also center their exchange of energies in a mutual love of God, a mutual desire for spiritual advancement, and a mutual love and respect for the sanctity of human life and the planet Earth, their relationship will bring them inevitably closer to compassion for all humans, and they will ultimately know the bliss enjoyed by those who know and love God intimately.

Knowing these basic principles concerning love, it is no surprise that for most individuals on planet Earth, a central desire in every lifetime is to experience the intense joy and profound learning that arises from the adventure of deep intimacy that can only be found in sexual relations of mutual love and exchange.