Eros and Logos ~ The Energies of Relationship

Eros is LOVE energy – not just sexual energy. Eros in philosophy and psychology is used in this
wider sense, as an equivalent to "life energy."

Desire is another word that has been used for eros. Not just sexual desire (as we, in the West use it), eros is spiritual desire, it is the holy longing. Erotic or creative energy IS the spiritual aspect of human beings.

"Spirituality concerns what we do with desire (eros)...healthy souls must do dual jobs: The soul must give us energy and fire, so that we do not lose our vitality (chaos) and it must keep us glued together, integrated so that we do not lose our spiritual identity as Oneness.” Ronald Rolheiser OMI, The Holy Longing

Marc Gafni, philosopher and Rabbi, Director of the Center for World Spirituality discusses the exile of eros, “The fall of the temple symbolizes the exile of the Erotic energy. Where did it go? The erotic is exiled in the sexual! We have to understand, that the sexual models the erotic, but it doesn’t exhaust the erotic.”

In Carl Jung's analytical psychology, the counterpart to Eros is Logos, a Greek term for the principle of rationality. Jung considers Logos to be a masculine principle, while Eros is a feminine principle. According to Jung:

“Woman’s psychology is founded on the principle of Eros, the great binder and loosener, whereas from ancient times the ruling principle ascribed to man is Logos. The concept of Eros could be expressed in modern terms as psychic relatedness, and that of Logos as objective interest.”

Aspects of the Feminine, Princeton University Press, 1982, p. 65.

What happens when our notion of God as psychic relatedness is tossed out the window for a dominant idea of objective interest?

With every reconciliation of opposing forces or views, something new is created.  The relationship between two is - in and of itself- an entity. "Wherever two or more are gathered, there am I also..." Between the human, Jesus, and God, the Christ is the new entity (or at least our realization of the Christ is new). Christ exists for every human relationship with God. And Christ is realized through the path of LOVE, by accepting an identity of LOVE for yourself, just as Jesus accepted LOVE as his identity. When we become psychically related to God as LOVE, then we can act – we can have objective interest - in the world as LOVERS.  

"Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemy." These Loves are the reconciling force for humanity. If you practice these Loves in extraordinary humility, both inner love and active outer love, you will attain the "mind of Christ" the divine relationship through which God and man are reconciled.

But you must practice LOVE through your actions and your thoughts. And you must LOVE God first, by loving who you are; by claiming your true Self, which is LOVE. And you must open yourself to God through silence, for "Silence is God's first language." This communication with God is necessary for recognizing yourself as Godly. As you resolve within, as you reconcile yourself with God, bringing forth Christ in you, you reconcile your actions with others. Communication with God and communication with others is how reconciliation takes place. Prayer, meditation, receptivity is communication with God and speech or artistic (creative) expression is Logos – communication between humans.

Reconciliation implies communication as the means by which it is achieved; communication flowers fully where reconciliation exists. The two reinforce each other.

Eros and Logos, yin and yang, being and doing, inner essence and outer expression, let LOVE be who you are and what you do….this is the mantra of all religions, in the words of each unique culture.

Peace be with you~ _/\_ Peggy 


Artwork: Lord Shiva, Parvati and Shiva Linga

Notes on the origins of Eros and Logos (from Wikipedia)

Logos (/ˈloʊɡɒs/, UK /ˈlɒɡɒs/, or US /ˈloʊɡoʊs/; Greek: λόγος, from λέγω lego "I say") is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason,"^[1][2] it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge.

Eros (/ˈɪərɒs/ or US /ˈɛrɒs/; Ancient Greek: Ἔρως, "Desire"), in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid^[2] ("desire"). Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite.

According to Hesiod (c. 700 BC), one of the most ancient of all Greek sources, Eros was a primordial god, that is, he had no parents. He was the fourth god to come into existence, coming after Chaos, Gaia (the Earth), and Tartarus (the Abyss or the Underworld).^[5]

Parmenides (c. 400 BC), one of the pre-socratic philosophers, makes Eros the first of all the gods to come into existence.^[6]

The Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries featured Eros as a very original god, but not quite primordial, since he was the child of Night (Nyx).^[3] Aristophanes (c. 400 BC), influenced by Orphism, relates the birth of Eros and then of the entire human race:

At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night (Nyx), Darkness (Erebus), and the Abyss (Tartarus). Earth, the Air and Heaven had no existence. Firstly, blackwinged Night laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Darkness, and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang the graceful Love (Eros) with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in the deep Abyss with dark Chaos, winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light.