(Nimue)
The love stories I am most used to, as a white European, are romantic love stories. We tell tales of people getting together, or the first rush of passion and attraction. Love in such tales tends to be sexual. It's a very narrow take on what love is, and a misleading one as well. Romantic love doesn't really work as some kind of event that happens to you.
As a Druid I experience love in response to landscapes, the elements and the living world. This is an everyday thing for me; a bubbling up of joy, adoration and delight that fills my heart and makes me feel open and expansive. This kind of love is very much at the centre of my Druidry.
As a follower of the bard path I am deeply emotionally affected by inspiration, and by the beauty other people create. As I hold inspiration sacred that feels intensely spiritual to me.
For many, love in a spiritual context can mean love of deity, of gurus, guides, prophets, teachers, ancestors, preachers, celebrants and the like. It can mean love of sacred texts and teachings, and of the religiously specific creations the path in question has inspired. Love of sacred places, of the relics of the sacred dead, and even the love of organisations and ways of living your beliefs can be part of this.
I'm interested in all of these broader and more spiritual approaches to the idea of love. I'm also interested in what happens when we approach our human relationships with the same openhearted appreciation that we might bring to landscapes or trees. Human love stories tend to include a lot of drama, conflict and tension - because that makes for a good story. It doesn't make for the best experiences, though. Love that is softer, gentler, more exploratory, and more of an everyday thing has a lot more to offer.
Getting away from the Hollywood romance model opens up room for love that is wilder, more tender and more constant. Love like a sunset, an everyday beauty. Love like a stream moving through a valley, always changing and yet always itself. Love like the wheel of the year bringing gifts at every turn. Love that shows us our own sacredness as we see the sacredness inherent in the beloved. Love that can take any form, and that can take us in many different directions, joyfully and with wonder.
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