Sunday 13 October 2013

Chapter II ( Part II) : Eros.

"Psyche Revived by Cupid's kiss" by Antonio Canova, 1794.

Orphic hymn to Eros (love).
~The Fumigation from Aromatics.
I Call great Cupid [Eros], source of sweet delight, holy and pure, and lovely to the sight;
Darting, and wing'd, impetuous fierce desire, with Gods and mortals playing, wand'ring fire:
Cautious, and two-fold, keeper of the keys of heav'n and earth, the air, and spreading seas;
Of all that Ceres' [Deo's] fertile realms contains, by which th' all-parent Goddess life sustains,
Or dismal Tartarus is doom'd to keep, widely extended, or the sounding, deep;
For thee, all Nature's various realms obey, who rul'st alone, with universal sway.
Come, blessed pow'r, regard these mystic fires, and far avert, unlawful mad desires.~
The game of love.
Eros. Photo: Juan Martin.
Psyche. Photo: Mert and Marcus for Love Magazine.
The chemical composition of Thujone and its connection to Absinthe. Love intoxication.

Iconic kiss. Sailor kisses the nurse celebrating the end of world war II, Times Square, Augst 14, 1945, photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Eros kissing Psyche.

The form of the body and the eternity of the orgasm. Mandara film, 1971 by Akio Jissoji.

The scent of attraction. Molecule 01 perfume.
Love, the primordial need and urge, one half of the pair of life's main drives as Freud would suggest in his "Eros and Thanatos" dipole. Love as the muse of the poets and as the heartache or ecstasy of  common men. Love the blinding god, the illusionary state to be, the connecting and the detaching one. The great riddle and mystery of the still unidentified creation, the science that united the first molecules of existence, the orgasmic glue, the fulfilled and yet still to come...Repetitive but always unique, it is like every time someone falls in love that the world is being born again, a new chance given so that the same mistakes will feel like a prototype, when in love all the love songs are written for us only, all the sunsets are welcoming the erotic nights.

The sentiment and the vulnerability of eros provides more questions than answers, one can only wonder at first if the feeling is mutual, but even if that is the case the two personalities are in struggle, physically the hormonic activity is rising, the magnetism between the bodies is looking for the most appropriate and pleasant outlet. Powerful feelings can be paralysing, the first symptoms of love are very much similar to those of a disease...

~ the sweetness of your laughter: yes, that; I swear it
   sets the heart to shaking inside my breast, since
   once I look at you for a moment, I can't
   speak any longer,

   but my tongue breaks down, and then all at once a
   subtle fire races inside my skin, my
   eyes can't see a thing and a whirring whistle
   thrums at my hearing,
cold sweat covers me and a trembling takes
   ahold of me all over: I'm greener than the
   grass is and appear to myself to be little
   short of dying.~
   Sappho "Like the gods..."

Memorable celluloid kiss, From Here to Eternity.
Running carelessly. Terry Richardson and model friend.
Where lovers meet, the island of Santorini and its famous sunset.
Freelove. Terry Richardson kissing Tom Ford.
 
~OH, when I was in love with you,
  Then I was clean and brave,
And miles around the wonder grew
  How well did I behave.
And now the fancy passes by,       
  And nothing will remain,
And miles around they ’ll say that I
  Am quite myself again.~
                                                   "Oh, when I was in love with you" by A.E. Housman.

Is it possible that the lovers live and act in another dimension? The museum of love is full of kitsch statues of cupids and also many scars...the promising 'forever' can easily lead to 'never again'. The love talking of the first encounters is that of a honey tongue, nourishing for the soul that seeks an 'other half', but words can easily evaporate in thin air if one isn't being attentive to the love matters, the honey can turn to poison. "I once met a boy, you may have met a girl, and then another boy as you were into another girl...", names come and go, bodies exchange their flavors and then vanish, the story always continues, only the sentiments leave a permanent impact, our projections on the object of our desire...some seek the same 'model', their first love, so that they can fall in love again and again, others fancy variety, some are more daring, others more romantic, the love vocabulary is a labeled one, although difficult to navigate.
Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection after all and consequently drowned. Laconic and revealing as a paradigm, only an echo remained to remember him. Love magick, potions and spells, the folklore tradition of seduction, or is it despair?...Do we seek love to connect our traits with those of the other person, or do we seek love to find an excuse to forget ourselves? When in passion and love making we do not just become one with each other but also with the universe, that is the tantrik way, love as art and thoughtful preparation that leads to enlightenment, the female power of Shakti 'The Great Divine Mother' awakens during the soulful sex act and can lead us to other life paths and revelations. As Osho believed " Tantra is the science of transforming ordinary lovers into soul mates and that is the grandeur of Tantra. It can transform the whole earth; it can transform each couple into soul mates."
But not all sex acts are soulful or heartfelt, especially in the west where sexual energy is rarely channeled towards true intimacy, therefore there's this huge gap after the bodies part, some kind of shame towards the actual nakedness, which is not that of the body but of the self.
“Love isn't something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism. It isn't a feeling, it is a practice.” Erich Fromm says in "The art of loving". When you see yourself as a product, something final and unnegotiated you have nothing more to give anew, and love is a process always demanding participation,  love requires a heightened rhythm of the sensual within us, a constant evaluation.
                                               ~For love - I would
                                             split open your head and put
                                                  a candle in
                                               behind the eyes.

                                             Love is dead in us
                                                if we forget
                                            the virtues of an amulet
                                               and quick surprise.~
                                   "The warning" By Robert Creeley.  

 
It is in the relationship of the infant and the mother, "The First Eros", breastfeeding and eye contact with the mother that lies  the base of the intimacy, connectivity begins to form a pattern, a pattern we tend to generalize through a life time, if we're lucky and in a mood of self examination possibly in a conscious way, in a transforming one. We may change the first impressions if they don't suit us...
The myth of 'Eros and Psyche' is a recurring theme of this transformation, Eros (love) steals Psyche (soul) away, he spares her from the mundane affairs, but she doesn't get to see the face of her lover, he makes love to her in total darkness, the sensation is pleasant but she decides to defy his invisibility, she wants to find out the true face of her lover, the consequences of her defiance seem severe at first, Eros abandons Psyche...Psyche wanders around grieving, until she finds herself, Psyche needs a soul training, sometimes it seems we have lost something external and valuable to us only to discover that we must find our core first, our stamina and self love, and then perhaps Eros will re-appear in front of us, more shiny and passionate than ever
†††.

~They told her that he, to whose vows she had listened
Thro' night's fleeting hours, was a spirit unblest;--
Unholy the eyes, that beside her had glistened,
And evil the lips she in darkness had prest.

"When next in thy chamber the bridegroom reclineth,
"Bring near him thy lamp, when in slumber he lies;
"And there, as the light, o'er his dark features shineth,
"Thou'lt see what a demon hath won all thy sighs!"

Too fond to believe them, yet doubting, yet fearing,
When calm lay the sleeper she stole with her light;
And saw--such a vision!--no image, appearing
To bards in their day-dreams, was ever so bright.

A youth, but just passing from childhood's sweet morning,
While round him still lingered its innocent ray;
Tho' gleams, from beneath his shut eyelids gave warning
Of summer-noon lightnings that under them lay.

His brow had a grace more than mortal around it,
While, glossy as gold from a fairy-land mine,
His sunny hair hung, and the flowers that crowned it
Seemed fresh from the breeze of some garden divine.

Entranced stood the bride, on that miracle gazing,
What late was but love is idolatry now;
But, ah--in her tremor the fatal lamp raising--
A sparkle flew from it and dropt on his brow.

All's lost--with a start from his rosy sleep waking;
The Spirit flashed o'er her his glances of fire;
Then, slow from the clasp of her snowy arms breaking,
Thus said, in a voice more of sorrow than ire:

"Farewell--what a dream thy suspicion hath broken!
"Thus ever. Affection's fond vision is crost;
"Dissolved are her spells when a doubt is but spoken,
"And love, once distrusted, for ever is lost!"~
"Cupid and Psyche" by Thomas Moore.


 
 
"Cupid and Psyche" by Hugh Douglas Hamilton.

Newlyweds. Stella Tennant and husband.
Divine lovers practising tantra. Radha and Krishna.
Sensual falling. Photo; Helmut Newton.

Maternal love. Lara Stone's nude and pregnant portrait by artist Marc Quinn, 55th Venice Biennale, Italy.

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