The Road to Awe

Day of 1 Yellow Magnetic Seed

Tone 1 (Magnetic): creative power to Unify Purpose, action of Attraction

Yellow Seed (KAN): Targets and emphasizes Flowering (Ideas)

There are many types of love and many points along the spectrum of love. Yet, in our modern societies, we tend to fixate on only a few expressions of what love is; those being national, parental, familial, communal, friendly, romantic and personal love/loving. 

But what do we know about love itself? Not simply through experience or conversation, but of its origin; as a concept, as a word, as a thing. 

The concept popularly known as Love is attached to the word. The primary definition of the word love begins, "an intense feeling of deep affection," then goes on to, "a person or thing that one loves," before finishing off at, "feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone)." 

The sense of this word finds its origins in this way: 

From Old English lufu, of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit lubhyati 'desires,' Latin libet 'it is pleasing,' libido 'desire.'

So from knowing this, we understand that the most popular love - romantic love - is derived from a sense of desire, being pleased and feeling something. It begins as a noun, something more personal, but can also find expression as a verb. In regards to someone or something, desiring them/it, pleasing them/it - these are acts of loving. Specifically, of loving yourself and - when consensual - loving others. 

From here on out, we will call this aforementioned type of loving "High Love." As in higher along the spectrum of love, as in more difficult to achieve and maintain, as in it can make you feel high, as in a more personal love and as in romantic love. 

High Love is not the love of parents-to-children, or children-to-parents (ideally); nor is it the love of family members (though it co-creates parents, families and children). That being said, High Love does feature prominently in communal, friendly and nationalistic love. 

Community, friends and nations are clusters of concepts that overlay to assist an individual in feeling like, or knowing that, they belong or do not belong. Such groups shape early desires and early concepts of what is pleasing.

Community

Wanting to belong to the community around you and the community that came before you is a natural function of being alive. Atoms gather, planets form systems, dark matter bunches together, plant and tree roots extend themselves and animals have various methods of communing and bonding. 

The desire to bond is inherent. It is also a necessity of procreation, extension, continuation and ancestry. It is pleasing in that it is the nature of life, it extends life, improves living and gives a person the first concepts of who they are within Existence. In that sense, it derives itself from High Love as communal love can be (and is) expressed through concepts of what individuals are and are not supposed to desire and find pleasure in. 

Friends

Friends are as much a product of your community as they are of your personal preferences. Like romantic partners, you learn more and more about friends - and what that term means to you as well as to others - as time progresses.

The way I see it, friends are platonic partners. If you were attracted to them, you would probably be romantic with them. Beyond that, you probably find your friends attractive in some sense or another and wish them to find romantic fulfillment. The friendships you maintain tend to be the ones that please or feed your desires in some way or another. Which isn't to say that all of us want what we need, but that friends are as much a reflection of what we look for in others and for ourselves as our own personalities are.  

Nations

Nation-states and political rulers wish to stimulate feelings of love (or devotion or obedience) within their members and citizens because romantic love breeds people; as does coitus of all kinds. People then breed communities and nation-states and political rulers are dependent on active communities. Not only that, but to maintain themselves they must foster a sort of loyalty in groups of individuals. Either through sentimental means or legal/lawful/forceful means. So it is no wonder that both the words Legal and Loyal are derived from the same Old French and Latin origins. 

Do people commit themselves to die for things they do not desire? Or for things that do not please them? Even suicide is derived from the desire to not exist. People do not prematurely offer themselves up to die unless it is for strong feelings of High Love. (Or, of course, unless they're forced into death against their will). 

This is why nations collect concepts that they then make public declaration. In essence, they are supposed to be bound to protect these concepts and uphold them for all citizens. They fall short of doing this on a regular basis. But fostering and maintaining the hope that they can do this for all members of their community is exactly how they appeal to the perceived and actual desires and pleasures of their citizens. 

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High Love, then, is something that begins as a desire and that stimulates actions based on that/those desire(s), which in their turn bring pleasure/payoff to the individual(s) doing those actions. 

Concordantly, it can be argued that familial love and parental love are products of High Love. They certainly can be. They certainly are marketed as such products of loving. Why not include them, then?

I prefer to categorize self/personal, parental and familial love in a different category. There is another word for these types of love. That word is Free. 

The concept popularly known as Free-dom has the following definitions: 1) "not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes;" 2) "not physically restrained, obstructed or fixed; unimpeded;" and five other defined nuances. 

The sense of this word finds its origins in this way: 

From Old English freo (adjective), freon (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vrij and German frei, from an Indo-European root meaning 'to love,' shared by Friend. 

Now, this is a different quality of love.

This is the state and act of love, beyond the sensation and feeling of it. From here on out I will call it "Low Love" as it is lower/before on the spectrum of love entire. In other words, it comes first and High Love is derived from it.

Where High Love operates largely as a feeling/sensation, which can persist beyond our control (in feeling) and which can stimulate us into taking action; Low Love operates as a way of being, which creates a realm of influence/outcomes that beget(s) a state of existence.

The act of Low Love creates a state/outcome of freedom. The acts of High Love are created from desires. The more personal the desires, the more likely it is an expression of High Love. The more freeing the actions are, the more freedom they allow for all those involved in/by the act, the more likely it is an expression of Low Love. 

High Love is more personal. Low Love is more universal.

High Love is inherently a feeling and sensation created by outward stimulation (things, people, places – nouns) as perceived by the individual (they like it, love it, hate it, want it, etc.) experiencing the feelings and sensations. Low Love is inherently an act or a state (verb) that allows for an infinite assortment of feelings and sensations (adjectives) for all parties involved (nouns).

These loves are interwoven, but they are not the same thing.

Low Love is the elder in origin and it is the very thing that allows free will to be an aspect of human existence. I use free will as two separate words that by origin and definition express a specific meaning when associated. Not in the traditional sense of fate, etc. What I mean by free will is the fact that, as a species, we are allowed the will to be free and due to this we are allowed the freedom to choose our individual perceptions of 'self.' 

It is free will (whether primarily in your head and thoughts, in your actions and activities, or both) that allows you personality. It is personality that creates the concept of persons. As persons cultivate their free will and learn how others like them cultivate it, they begin to form what will become their character. The distinguishing qualities that form their character are what others love, like, dislike or fall in love with. Because of character, people have personal preferences, desires and pleasures and an ever-varying assortment of relationship bonds exist due to this. These bonds – as often as not – create coitus, partnerships, marriages, children and separations. These parents and children become families; whether simply by blood and ancestry or by action and involvement. 

So it is Low Love that allows for the love of self, parents and families. As it is Low Love that allows for the greater freedom of High Love to even exist.

In the process of each of us personally working our way through the states of Low Love, we collectively create communities, which create the possibility for friends who are not blood family; which, down the line, can become extended family, a nation or historical social community that then sustains popular methods by which High Love “can” be expressed and maintained.

What is love in and of itself; beyond what we, as individuals and as collectives, desire from it?

Beyond that, what is more important for understanding what love is? The act of freeing, or the desire of freedom?

Free will is paramount here. Existence and the Universe have decided it’s your choice – and our choice – to decide how we navigate within ourselves, with one another and through them.

If you want my advice on how to get from freeing yourself to loving yourself and other things (let alone being in love with them)…

Be honest. With yourself.

Be honest. With those you encounter.

Be honest. As a community.

Be as sincere a product of what you actually are as is every other living, non human, thing in Existence.