Beautiful. I have come to this knowledge the long way: This is not your lost half, the therapist implies, but it is someone with whom you might find more integration and wholeness for yourself. Life is not perfected through love, as the romantic fantasy implies, but through love you can find more of life.
Thank you, Mark — I didn't know this myth, and the detail that Eros only grows while Anteros is present, and regresses when they're apart, struck all kinds of chords with me. It made me think of the quiet architecture of Alcoholics Anonymous: the sponsor, the meeting one keeps returning to, the way the work seems to depend on a sustained answering presence rather than a single insight. Do you see a link — is the Twelve Step community a kind of Anterotic structure?
Good luck with Realisation, by the way. Last year's made a deep and positive impression on me.
I was thinking more about being answerable to a sponsor = eros and asteros playing together; and as you suggest, the 12 steps leading to a formation able to handle feedback from consequences that left to one's own devices, one can find ways of deflecting and rationalising.
Thank you so much for this, Mark. In my second visit to Realisation this year I noticed the statue for the first time and mistakenly identified it as Eros. I also felt that Eros is the presiding spirit of the festival, certainly for me. In my first year I fell in love with almost everyone and everything and it left me feeling like Ares after making love to Aphrodite in Velasquez' great painting. I had to draw on all my experience not to try to act out on what I was experiencing. I am a man who has made commitments to which I wish to remain faithful.
This year I arrived a little more warily and, sure enough, I found the same thing happening in a way that is almost uniquely connected in my experience to this festival at this place. It is that succession of "15 minutes of intimacy" experiences as the Realisation Players so beautifully sung about yesterday morning. But this time I decided to kiss each joy as it flew away from me, to use a phrase from a poet whose work you know very well indeed. I enjoyed playing with the delights of being a joy-kisser. I still am, reflecting on my experience of the festival. I like the pleasure of kissing and have enjoyed the images of kissing and then bidding farewell with a happy blessing as each joy flies from me to be itself.
I don't know if I have been able to channel something of Anteros in this but I do sense the beginning of a new relationship to Eros as I go forward and am grateful to you for your reflection and for all that you gave to Realisation this year.
A rich insight
Thank you Mark, really insightful.
Beautiful. I have come to this knowledge the long way: This is not your lost half, the therapist implies, but it is someone with whom you might find more integration and wholeness for yourself. Life is not perfected through love, as the romantic fantasy implies, but through love you can find more of life.
Yup!
Thank you, Mark — I didn't know this myth, and the detail that Eros only grows while Anteros is present, and regresses when they're apart, struck all kinds of chords with me. It made me think of the quiet architecture of Alcoholics Anonymous: the sponsor, the meeting one keeps returning to, the way the work seems to depend on a sustained answering presence rather than a single insight. Do you see a link — is the Twelve Step community a kind of Anterotic structure?
Good luck with Realisation, by the way. Last year's made a deep and positive impression on me.
Thanks Terry. I'd not made that link but the taking responsibility elements of the 12-steps perhaps?
I was thinking more about being answerable to a sponsor = eros and asteros playing together; and as you suggest, the 12 steps leading to a formation able to handle feedback from consequences that left to one's own devices, one can find ways of deflecting and rationalising.
Thank you so much for this, Mark. In my second visit to Realisation this year I noticed the statue for the first time and mistakenly identified it as Eros. I also felt that Eros is the presiding spirit of the festival, certainly for me. In my first year I fell in love with almost everyone and everything and it left me feeling like Ares after making love to Aphrodite in Velasquez' great painting. I had to draw on all my experience not to try to act out on what I was experiencing. I am a man who has made commitments to which I wish to remain faithful.
This year I arrived a little more warily and, sure enough, I found the same thing happening in a way that is almost uniquely connected in my experience to this festival at this place. It is that succession of "15 minutes of intimacy" experiences as the Realisation Players so beautifully sung about yesterday morning. But this time I decided to kiss each joy as it flew away from me, to use a phrase from a poet whose work you know very well indeed. I enjoyed playing with the delights of being a joy-kisser. I still am, reflecting on my experience of the festival. I like the pleasure of kissing and have enjoyed the images of kissing and then bidding farewell with a happy blessing as each joy flies from me to be itself.
I don't know if I have been able to channel something of Anteros in this but I do sense the beginning of a new relationship to Eros as I go forward and am grateful to you for your reflection and for all that you gave to Realisation this year.
Mark, Will any of those appearances you list be recorded?
At least some should be made available, yes. Do sign up to the Realisation Festival email list - https://realisationfestival.com/contact/