What are the forms of love coming down to us from the works of the ancient Greeks?
The phrase “ἄγαμαι ἄγαν – agamai agan” signifies “αγαπώ άκρως – agapo akros”–loving intensely, being filled with ecstasy, and marveling at the whole of Being in a single moment.
The Light of Love
Love acts as a driving, unifying, and revitalizing force—permeates human existence, manifesting through positive and negative energetic dynamics. Thus, from divine providence, men become responsible for the flow of their psyche, their inner realignment, and the unity of their being. Consciously accepting this responsibility entails a continuous process of psychic, spiritual, and physical training on our part, enabling us to reconstruct and radiate unifying love.
Consider a wine connoisseur training at a specialized school to distinguish grape varieties by their color, aroma, and essence. Through the act of tasting, he elevates the distinct essence of the wine while simultaneously and consciously refining the diversity of his own individual essence.
Similarly, a connoisseur of love—both for oneself and for others—seeks instruction from individual sages and enlightened teachers. Or he may seek and find a school of Truth, should one exist. He observes the colors left behind by his own movement through life. What is the distinctive love-hate aura that a person’s self emanates? How do the characteristics of their endocrine-astrological type evolve? Rodney Collin wrote:
“Each gland has three aspects connected to the three nervous systems. The first aspect determines the hereditary essence. The second is the individual essence. And the third the quintessence: the hidden and potential principle of unity… At the moment of birth, cosmic stimulation sets the glands in motion and determines their position for life.”*
In the ancient Greek tradition, we observe that love permeates gods and humans alike. Love manifests variously as concord, erotic passion, unity of spirit, pleasure, amity, gentleness, solidarity, affection, and hospitality. Yet love also manifests as anger, hatred, and delusion.
As the ancients wrote:
Love returns to the center of the vortex, and all things begin to gather, to become but one, affirms Empedocles. (495-435 BC)
Concord brings salvation to those who uphold it, echoes Aesop. (7th c. BC)
A friend is one with whom there is a bond of mutual affection, regardless of social conventions…; poetically speaking, even a kinsman is a friend, teaches us the mathematician. – Zenodorus the Geometer (200–140 BC) “On Custom,” 254.21–22.
I was born to love, not to hate, pleads Sophocles’ Antigone. (496–406 BC)
The young love intensely and hate intensely, notes Aristotle. (384–322 BC)
Whatever a child learns with love, they cherish affectionately into old age. Children, therefore, should be raised with kindness, Euripides reminds us. (480 BC – 406 BC)
If you master your desires and fears, live simply, and love those around you, the natural pleasure of life will be revealed to you, states. – Epicurus (341 BC – 270 BC)
The Role of Positive Emotions
By transforming negative forms of love into positive emotion,** we bear witness to the spiritual and emotional dynamics of every conscious movement we make within Cosmic Space, radiating our individual essence—the light of Love.
*Rodney Collin—The Theory of Celestial Influence—II. Types: Endocrine and Astrological
** According to the Fourth Way, positive emotion is a state of love, and cannot be reduced to any negative emotion.
Natassa Cavalli is an artist living in Athens, Greece, and a frequent contributor to FourthWayToday.org. For more articles by this author, a long-time student of the Fourth Way, see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/natassa-cavalli/.