Love has never really left my subconscious. When I’m doodling, I always end up writing the word love, and drawing love hearts over and over. It tells me something. Love is always there, quietly running underneath everything, even when I’m not consciously thinking about it.
I am wired to love expansively. My natal Venus is exalted in Pisces in the 11th house.
It’s why 10 years ago I created the Self Love Club, and founded a group called Authentic Connections. These both came from somewhere deep in me.
Some people who are drawn to certain spiritual practices seem uncomfortable with the word love. They might use something else – high vibrations, energy, spirit. They talk about mind, body, spirit.
But what about the human heart?
This is where emotional repression and spiritual bypassing can creep in.
Because love can make us feel uncomfortable, uneasy, vulnerable. It’s inconvenient. Sometimes it gives people the ‘ick’.
Many don’t feel worthy of love. Or it doesn’t feel safe. Or they don’t know how to give/receive it.
Love can seem simple, but it’s complex. The ancient Greeks had many words for ‘love’. We have one. Maybe that means we don’t understand it as well.
And yet, we are relational beings. We relate to everything. The people in our lives, the work we do, the world around us, and perhaps most importantly, ourselves.
Every single interaction we have is filtered through our relationship with ourselves first.
Self love isn’t a luxury concept based on bubble baths and affirmations. It’s the foundation to your whole life.
Without it, everything else (the practices, the healing, the growth) can only go so deep.
This is where the messiness lives.
Love (of self, of others, of life) isn’t necessarily elevated to spiritual highs. It’s human. It’s complicated.
It shows up in the difficult conversations, the moments of doubt, the times you choose yourself even when it’s uncomfortable.
The spiritual path doesn’t bypass that messiness.
That’s where the work is, and the growth, and the fulfillment.
When we truly love, there is less separation and more integration.
Pain is separation. Healing is integration.
Lately I feel called back to write about love again.
And by doing so I am reminding everyone (including myself), that THIS is the foundation of everything I do at Temple Divine.
LOVE.
With love,
Clare
Founder of Temple Divine
