The path of surrender to Love might offer
the gentler dismantling process,
and will take longer than the path of the renunciate,
but with the same end result.
The analogy of gently cooking an onion,
letting the onion soften in the alchemical heating process,
and gently pulling the layers away as they melt from the center of the onion,
til all dissolves, and only “essence of onion” remains
(in the finest of stews!).
The other method is to peel away the layers of the raw onion,
releasing pungency (pain) into the atmosphere and becoming visibly smaller
as the layers are removed– a less gentle process all around,
but one which always remains for the renunciate to pick up.
The lover moves through transformation with grace and generosity in her heart,
because the joys and ecstasies of Love sustain her through the painful passages.
Surrendering the current form to make room for the Beloved is an ancient and
much-revered tradition.
One would think that this path would always have been preferable
to the path of the renunciate.
But the renunciate path has always dominated in the world it seems–
the path of Lover always eclipsed and almost considered trite.
It is anything but trite, and is a path of great potential,
but, it must be traveled with another, and in a world
of rugged individualists, this does not play out in a popular way.
It requires being a team player while at the same time requiring
an innate sense of leadership and rugged independence.
The contrast of surrender of the self towards another,
combined with active sovereignty within the self
and the high degree of integrity and self-possession required
in the lovers’ pair pose a daunting profile.
There is a great complexity in the alchemical process–it has ever been so.
And yet, too, there is great simplicity in Love also, with a regular, rhythmic
heartbeat to follow, and the heightening of all the inner senses.
So it seems (O, Lover) you have chosen the path of the few,
the path of the deeply humbled, the inwardly surrendered,
the meek of heart, the gentle of mind.
May your soul, spirit, and ego, equally,
honor the path of Love and tread its ways carefully towards the Beloved,
who in turn treads carefully towards you, as hastily as humility and meekness will allow.
