In my first entry on this site, or nearly my first entry, I wrote about “Death And Sex.”
In that entry, I wrote that eros had nothing to do with “getting off,” but with our engagement with life, on its own terms. Waking up and being alive. Being present to life, in the here and now.
Eros is usually contrived, relegated to the genitals (eros.com being one of the largest sex for sale sites), or to hearts and roses, happily-ever-afters, and a cute little cherub ready to help us find the so-called one.
Not so much.
In early mythology, way back when the pre-classical Greeks were trying to figure out what thunder was, what made day and night, and why the earth existed, Eros was the primordial creative energy of the universe, the god that made manifest from the invisible primordial ooze of everything, the power holding creation together, the energy behind flourishing, the source behind all creative movement in the heavens and on earth.
Human erotic love may be our most powerful teacher of the great god Eros, who later become attached to the mythology of Aphrodite, but Eros originally offered more than a toe-curling “Oh, God!” moment. (I’ve oversimplified Greek mythology to make my point, so I hope you’ll indulge me.)
Eros was about life’s dynamic existence in time, the coming into being from non-being, and the unyielding creative force in the face of death’s inevitability.
If everything dies, why is life so damn persistent, so intent on pushing on and on and on, over and over?
Eros. (Again, I am taking modern interpretive liberties.)
For this reason, all literature is famously about sex and death, Eros and Thanatos, the eternal circle of life and death until time dissolves, a reality well beyond the reach of our imaginations.
While I often write on spiritual themes here, I’ve never seen these themes as separate from my other concerns, giving sex work some legitimacy. It took me a good long time to recognize my work’s importance in a big way, understanding that “damn, I’ve done some real good in the world, and not only will it not be recognized, it is vilified.”
I am a high order ecclesiastic in the Church of Eros. Because my work is precious, to hear people’s stories (well, men’s stories), have them trust me with their desires, and create a space for all the parts of them that are closeted or scared or lonely. Or simply frustrated.
So this Valentine’s Day, I honor the great god Eros, the angel guiding my work, whose power I first felt as a toddler with her orange crayon (see my previous entry “Training With Angels”), because it really all is connected, the desire for transcendence, and the wish to leave our solitary lives, and return to Love in the other. I honor that force of desire whose magnificence and power we have ridiculously fashioned into a cute little cherub, which is hilarious considering how scarred and fractured most of our lives are because of Ero’s relentless power.
Eros is the stuff of creation and transcendence, life and death, love and loss, and being connected to everything and everyone while walking in our existential skins.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Wishing you love and laughter, in whatever way your heart allows.