A state of diminshed responsibility.
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I have no way of knowing if we all experience romantic love the same way. I know we don't all respond to it the same way. That may be a hint.
Some find romantic love in "I can't be without you, I must always have your presence." Others find it expressed as "I am so enamored with you I can think of nothing more enjoyable than watching you do what you do." While one will crave homogenization of the two, someone else is thrilling on the complexity of the differences. These are all thought to belong to romantic love.
But which is it?
There is no one rule. I can't buy into that. And besides, I don't love cheeseburgers the way I love you. But I love both just as well.
Romantic love is a hook in a fish's mouth. But don't worry, there's plenty of them in the sea (hooks & fishes). Beware though, some illegally discarded medical supplies might look like the right stuff, but it ain't.
You know.... romantic love is a relatively knew invention. Look it up.
There is the serpent and there is the dove.
I am not one to confuse this romantic love with the love of Thelema, love that is the law. In fact, an untrained observer could easily say that a lot of things look like the opposite of love at times - but that's not the reality.
I agree with the "diminished responsibility" concept being expressed, that's the way people with romantic love actually behave. It's a drug and many people just don't know when to stop. Like any drug, it appears to be an issue of responsibility for one's sense of happiness. Any time you lose your will in the matter - that's not what I define as love. It's what I define as neurosis or other affliction.
I don't equate my love of tarot, magick, musick, the gods and goddesses as any thing akin to romantic love. It's far greater than that and much more compelling - but with my Will.
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It's funny you bring that up about the tarot, because indeed the truth of it (recently) went something just like that. Considering that I meet many people in my travels who use tarot themselves or seek the tarot (through me at times) and some times I see a lot of what I consider superstition about it all. "Only I can touch my deck." "Decks must be gifted or they won't work." ...and so on... So I decided that I wanted to make sure I never pick up these particular habits. I designed a sort of "letting go" ritual in which involved my favorite Thoth* deck. I expressed, in the rite, how this and that and that and this are only materials - that we are all coming and going - that nothing in the flesh is permanent - so on and so on - and concluded with the deck by explaining that the deck was an embodiment of Tarot, that Tarot was forever but decks can come and go. Anyway, long story short, the next morning the deck was stolen along with my backpack that contained it and almost all the other items I'd said my "goodbye" to the night before in an outdoor ritual.
Anyway... long story short... new decks now and everything replaced for the better (which in a way was the motivation for the other items I said goodbye to). So yes, non-attached love I guess.
*My only Thoth deck that is, but one of many I've owned over the years and my favorite among the many.
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The state called "being in love with someone" (with emphasis on the preposition) is all projection. It is easily distinguished from the condition of "loving someone."
That being the case... yes, I agree with your basic point in the original post.
Chuckling... I just remembered a PowerPoint I did for a seminar once... a couple of the slides might be of interest here. I'll come back in a few minutes and add them as an attachment here.
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@Takamba said
"I am not one to confuse this romantic love with the love of Thelema, love that is the law. In fact, an untrained observer could easily say that a lot of things look like the opposite of love at times - but that's not the reality."
Do you think Thelemic Love (love under will) is synonomus with compassion in the Buddhist sense of the word? I clarify here as compassion in Buddhism isn't always pretty, in fact sometimes it's down right ugly.
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I would say that Chesed is a good synonym for Buddhist compassion, and that the following quote from the Mystical and Magical System of the A.'.A.'. is apt.
"The common translation of "Chesed" as "mercy" can be misleading. This has fed a misinterpretation of the relationship between Geburah and Chesed. To emphasize the polarity that occurs naturally between opposed Sephiroth, Chesed is translated "mercy" against Geburah's "severity". [...] Although useful on their own level, these complements are often misconstrued to render Chesed passive, even emasculated. Compassion, which should be characterized by a potent vitality or virility, becomes confused with weakness. [...]
What is overlooked too often in this view is that an Adeptus Exemptus is also an Adeptus Major. The attainment of Chesed subsumes all lesser attainments. A buddhist view of compassion includes both mercy and severity, because it means the giving unto a being whatever it truly needs - and a painful confrontation with reality is often every bit as compassionate as is sympathetic understanding"