Love.

[Eradicatus]

Thought I go ahead and take the time to start a new subject to discuss. We each have are outlook on Love yet it can go beyond our understanding but with it we ascend.

It is much more then a physical state of being for it comes without limitations and has no boundaries for it comes to those who desire it and can in return be found by those who come to understand it. When someone has such compassion and devotion towards something or someone even themselves they start to open up, it has no cost for it is worth the time rather one seeks it or gains it and lasts forever as someone accepts it. Spiritually it can guide and protect us as we work with it, beyond whats in our minds some of us need to know more of it because to have Knowledge of Love is to in return Accomplish Love.

[Nefastos]

Oh, this is a great topic indeed. Love is so much!

And, of course, there are many things which it isn't.

Your thought that knowledge of love is already actualisation of love (if I understood correctly) is something I can easily agree with. Even if at first one couldn't feel the emotional passion of, say, compassion or some other form of love, the yearning towards that - coming from the knowledge that "love" is something we should seek - already has its core in that love, and hence can bring forth more emotional and "felt", energetic, even magical forms of love.

I like to use word love as basically interchangeable with buddhi, the sixth human principle of the theosophists.
And to say that this love=buddhi is a sense of soul that senses unity in things.

[Lux]

Love is the great connector without which no one can live. Yet, there are naturally many levels and steps in the actualisation of Love as a living and life-changing force.

I like to use word love as basically interchangeable with buddhi, the sixth human principle of the theosophists.
And to say that this love=buddhi is a sense of soul that senses unity in things.

This is a good thing to mention, and it might be a good thing to say officially also in your writings and in the writings of The Star of Azazel in general, since officially buddhi is translated as 'understanding' (or maybe more correctly: 'intellect'), which is something we have associated with manas instead (that is in connexion with buddhi, naturally; Lucifer-Christos).

[Nefastos]

Indeed. If theosophists took some liberties when interpreting occult truths (or we can say, doctrines, if needed) to Western minds using Sanskrit terms of the advaita-vedânta & others, I have taken even more liberties in interpreting, or applying, these same terms.

The reasons should be clear enough. The theosophical schema is a valid one and already has much foothold in the West, but it is not so superior that it would be impossible - or needless - to give a little re-arrangement. But those inclined to academical analysis should not confuse these three to be exactly one and the same: the old Hindu/Buddhist terms; their theosophical adaptations; or the vocabulary of the Star of Azazel. There are modifications on the formal side, even if the core is the same. I am not familiar with any other source using any (!) of our higher principles - âtma, buddhi, manas - exactly as I'm doing. Yet the thing is the same, or so I claim. It's about going to metaphysics first and choosing the most apt and useful (in cultural and contextual way) terms then, after the vision.

Sorry about the off-topic, please continue...!

edit: some typos

[Lux]

I think this is quite a good thing to discuss and it is not even off-topic, since this might very well be the greatest obstacle and a source of confusion for many of those who'd be interested in our writings. For the term Love is given such meanings in our texts - despite the clarifications and commentaries - that many are probably bewildered about its true meanings which many people relate to sentimentality, erotic love etc. and not to a spiritual understanding, intellect (of the heart) and spiritual Unity. The same goes for the term brotherhood, which can be easily interpreted in some collectivistic hippie fashion, for example.

I think the burden of responsibility lies first of all with us in making the terminology and the meaning of different words used more clearer. It's about Love!

[Nefastos]

Yeah. But still, I think that if one understands that universal solvent which is Love, the linguistic semantics become less & less important.

So, in a way, love and rational intelligence can be seen as polar opposites... Which is not to say one must choose between them. The whole point of the Satanic non-dualistic brotherhood is to unite points which might seem to be as opposite. (Why Satanic? Because Satan always brings up that which has been neglected. It, Him, that is, we too are on the side of the underdog. But about this we already discussed under the other topic.)

[Lux]

Yeah. But still, I think that if one understands that universal solvent which is Love, the linguistic semantics become less & less important.

This is very true, and we can also remember that the heart is the center of the intellect and not emotion.

Which is not to say one must choose between them.

True also, and I'd say that we in no way should we even try to choose between them and separate these two. I'd also say that Love and true Intelligence - not just ratio, but intuitive intelligence - co-incide perfectly like the two serpents of the hermetic caduceus. "Be ye as wise as serpents and as flawless as the doves."

The whole point of the Satanic non-dualistic brotherhood is to unite points which might seem to be as opposite. Why Satanic? Because Satan always brings up that which has been neglected.

This is something that men really should try to understand - both satanists and non-satanists - since it would certainly solve a lot of those futile conflicts that emerge from the dualistic and black/white conception of "good and evil" and "spirit and matter" and "soul and body". Sans Descartes, sans (exoteric) Christianity!

[MAF]

Love can be expressed and interpreted in different ways by individuals , however it is limitless and has no boundaries. Many people focus highly on the physical whether by means of passion or showing affection. Spiritual love is of great significance and meaning, can help someone open themselves up and have more understanding. For example, a person can show the same amount of love to their family as they would towards their friends. There needs to be more focus on the spiritual side of love, the physical side does not hold ground on everything. To me, spiritual love shows true devotion to those a person cares about. I think it is important to love the self because in some ways how can we growth to love others without thinking of ourselves first. Now this does not always apply to all forms of what constitutes love; as mentioned there is erotic love that can be for one's own personal pleasure and gain.

[Necrosophiacos]

Ave Lucifer good to see you brother within the Star of Azazel. It seems a sacred place for those chosen of the Master. Very meaningful topic, specially for what i have gone through lately on losing the woman i love. Thanks to father Satan I have found people and inner strength to go on.
" May the Heart be the perfect instrument for the study and purication of love", in my view, one does not only love with the heart as in the metaphorical sense, or with the brain, but with the whole being, body mind and soul, and this feeling may transcend all barriers, as you put it is far more than physical attraction or eroticism.-Necrosophiacos.

[obnoxion]

When I speak of love, I mean something tremendous, a miracle of unity that has always been the pinnacle of all high pursuits. In the sphere of common human feelings I would rather compare it to a such a deep feeling of compassion that it makes the earth tremble and suns eclipse, than to the romantic storms of young and tragic love. In the end, both of these ideas make good metaphors of love, yet neither the idea or the experience in their totality can expressed by such metaphors alone.

I often find it very easy to make sense of our Satanism by comparing it to ideas of tantric Buddhism, and this is not an exception. We can find enlightened compassion represented by wrathful deities who drink blood and entrails from a skull cup and dress in clothes of flayed human skins. The miracle of unity that is Love can be the most horrifying thing in the three worlds when it is distilled to its purest forms. So we could say that Satan is Compassion, but in the most demanding sense of the word.

Now, I’m not a crowleyan or a thelemite, but I suppose a few of the people interested of our forum might be. So i’d like to share a couple of lines from a crowleyan text, Liber Astarte vel berylli, which I think is exceptionally meritious text among Crowleyan stock, and might make a good starting point for all sorts of serious meditatons on Love:

* * *

“Let the Philosophus prepare a powerful Invocation of the particular Deity according to his Ingenium. But let it consist of these several parts:

First, an Imprecation, as of a slave unto his Lord.
Second, an Oath, as of a vassal to his Liege.
Third, a Memorial, as of a child to his Parent.
Fourth, an Orison, as of a Priest unto his God.
Fifth, a Colloquy, as of a Brother with his Brother.
Sixth, a Conjuration, as to a Friend with his Friend.
Seventh, a Madrigal, as of a Lover to his Mistress.

And mark well that the first should be of awe, the second of fealty, the third of dependence, the fourth of adoration, the fifth of confidence, the sixth of comradeship, the seventh of passion.”

* * *

Let then the Philosophus meditate upon all love that hath ever stirred him. There is the love of David and of Jonathan, and the love of Abraham and Isaac, and the love of Lear and Cordelia, and the love of Damon and Pythias, and the love of Sappho and Atthis, and the love of Romeo and Juliet, and the love of Dante and Beatrice, and the love of Paolo and Francesca, and the love of Caesar and Lucrezia Borgia, and the love of Aucassin and Nicolette, and the love of Daphnis and Chloe, and the love of Cornelia and Caius Gracchus, and the love of Bacchus and Ariadne, and the love of Cupid and Psyche, and the love of Endymion and Artemis, and the love of Demeter and Persephone, and the love of Venus and Adonis, and the love of Lakshmi and Vishnu, and the love of Siva and Bhavani, and the love of Buddha and Ananda, and the love of Jesus and John, and many more.

Also there is the love of many saints for their particular deity, as of St. Francis of Assisi for Christ, of Sri Sabhapaty Swami for Maheswara, of Abdullah Haji Shirazi for Allah, of St Ignatius Loyola for Mary, and many more.

Now do thou take one such story every night, and enact it in thy mind, grasping each identity with infinite care and zest, and do thou figure thyself as one of the lovers and thy Deity as the other. Thus do thou pass through all adventures of love, not omitting one; and to each do thou conclude: How pale a reflection is this of my love for this Deity!

Yet from each shalt thou draw some knowledge of love, some intimacy with love, that shall aid thee to perfect thy love. Thus learn the humility of love from one, its obedience from another, its intensity from a third, its purity from a fourth, its peace from yet a fifth.

So then thy love being made perfect, it shall be worthy of that perfect love of His.

* * *

http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib175.htm