From his new book Eros, Don Miguel Ruiz ruminates on love – the thread that weaves us all together

In the beginning, there existed a creator, immortal and alone. His first act of power was to create a mirror. To truly see the totality of himself, he would have to make a mirror big enough to extend to infinity. And so he did. The mirror was vast, and it was true. Satisfied by his perfect reflection, the creator then shattered the mirror into countless pieces, so that each piece, wherever it might spin through the universe, would beautifully reflect its creator... This little story leads me to imagine we’re tiny mirrored pieces of glass, yearning for the thing we reflect. Each of us holds a different image in our imagination; but images and reflections, as we know, are not the real things. Throughout the many ages of humankind, reflections of the truth have become more and more distorted by humanity’s most fascinating talent, which is storytelling itself. From an early age, you and I observed how stories could trigger emotions in people. With practice, we became master storytellers, focused on stories that provoked intense emotion and a little bit of drama. Stories about love, we found, were the most effective. The more dramatic, the better. We started our lives as perfect reflections of love, but learnt to reflect love in imperfect ways. Love is real. Words are not; words stand in the place of things that are real. Love is the creative energy of life. We were made by love and we’re kept alive by love. From that perspective, all of creation can be seen as love-in-action. There are two programmes at work in our development as human beings. One comes directly from life, through our DNA. The other comes from the stories we tell. Unfortunately, our stories about love – the ones we’re told and the ones we tell ourselves – describe the opposite of love. They describe a need to control, or to create personal drama. They describe a version of love that we see acted out in romantic comedies and classic tragedies; a love that creates all the conflict in our lives. Again, we are storytellers. Language is our art, and through language we explain life’s mysteries. We enjoy explaining the mystery of us. Our stories are always about us, in fact. They describe the best and worst of us. They document our selfless heroism as well as our most shameful acts of cowardice. They make us proud, or they reveal secrets we try to keep from ourselves. Our stories may seem very personal or very objective, but they’re always about us.

THE SYMBOL OF EROS

Eros, the mythical god of love, is a symbol that represents the force of you. You began as energy, or as love’s authentic expression. Then you became a living symbol of love, complete with distortions. Over the years, your stories became more about what you know than what you are. I can create a little myth about it, if you like, with at least some of the drama of classic myth-making: Long, long ago, there was only darkness. Suddenly, out of the belly of darkness, a goddess emerged. She was a winged being of unimaginable power and brilliance, and her name was Love. Love scattered her power into countless millions of fiery stars. From the fires of every star, children were born. As creation grew and expanded, Love’s children lost the ability to recognise their own perfection. They turned against their Mother. They turned against each other. In time, they betrayed their own offspring, allowing them to be devoured by lies. This led to wars, and wars led to bloodshed and destruction. The pure power of the Goddess, once represented in the brilliance of the stars, was weakened and made corrupt by lies. And those lies will live within her children until the end of time... Every myth is a letter to humanity, written by humanity. Hidden within every story is a message intended for you. You used to believe most of the stories you heard. Maybe you still do, but do you know how to listen to a story? Do you know how to imagine it, and then to dream its message into your own life? Underneath all the symbols and superstitions is a small speck of the truth. It’s up to each of us, with our beautiful, reasoning minds, to use that speck to broaden our awareness... Meet the author: Don Miguel Ruiz is a renowned spiritual teacher who has spent the past three decades guiding students to personal freedom through his profound insights into the nature of human reality.  Extracted from Eros: A Return to Unconditional Love from the Mystery School series by Don Miguel Ruiz and Barbara Emrys (£9.99, Leaping Hare Press). Barbara Emrys began an apprenticeship with Don Miguel Ruiz 25 years ago. Her shamanic training as well as her many years of work as a teacher of Toltec Dreaming have given her unique insights into human behaviours and an artistic approach to life.    miguelruiz.com barbaraemrys.com   Continue reading Don Miguel Ruiz’s article in issue 179 of Kindred Spirit magazine. Grab your copy here.