Once a young but very brave person decided to find out What is love, and went, as usual, to the sorceress who lived on a green hill behind a cloud. The sorceress heard the girl s request and laughed:

– Why did you come to me, dear? For this, they usually go to the princes, of whom a great multitude is now divorced: they will show and teach everything.

– I already went to the princes, – the girl answered sadly, – and now I want to make sure if I understand correctly what love is.

– Well, well, – the sorceress answered with understanding, – let s try to figure it out!

– Perhaps, – the girl suggested, – love is when I feel like I am irresistibly drawn to the prince, as if no one would ever be better than him?

“This is falling in love,” the sorceress replied with a warm smile.

“Perhaps,” the girl continued, “love is when I feel a longing desire to be in the arms of a prince?

“This is lust,” replied the sorceress, winking cheerfully.

– Then maybe love is when I miss him?

– This is affection, the sorceress answered, closed her eyes, and seemed to be thinking about something.

– Then how is love different from falling in love? – asked the girl.

– Falling in love, dear, is a craving for a prince who lives exclusively in your imagination. And in love, the image of a loved one is real, – answered the sorceress.

– What do you mean “the image is real”? – The girl was puzzled.

– Loving, you love the “real” prince with all his flaws! – Said the sorceress, – Therefore, love is possible only when you managed to get to know the prince: all his habits, quirks, advantages and disadvantages. We love when understanding and accepting a real person!

– What is the difference between passion and love?

– Love is calm and “uniform”.

– And what? Does love exclude falling in love, lust and affection?

– Well, – smiled the sorceress, – sometimes everything happens at once, that s why it is so difficult to distinguish love among all these “persistence”.

“I think I’m confused,” the girl answered sadly.

At this time, a young student of hers was passing by the hill of the sorceress.

– In time! – exclaimed the sorceress, looking at her student. – Now he will tell us everything and clearly show!

– Show me? – asked the girl embarrassedly.

The sorceress called her apprentice – a young sorcerer, whispered something in his ear, and left. The student calmly approached the girl and began to say:

about loveLove is acceptance and understanding! – said the young sorcerer, rolling his eyes to the sky. – This is a pure, refined experience of deep kinship. – He said, blushing a little, – Without any alchemical admixtures, love is absolutely identical both in relations with princes and in friendship with friends! Romantic love is made from an admixture of affection, lust and falling in love, adding a thrill of love! – the student of the sorceress chattered, as in a lecture, without even looking at the surprised girl. – Friendship can be accompanied by affection, but an alchemical admixture of lust spoils the entire composition of the components and the friendship ends. Love manifests itself when we are able to go to the inner territory of a person, while not being afraid of the images that we see there.

– Wait, wait! – interrupted the girl of the young sorcerer. – What other interior territory? What are you talking about?

– I will show you now!

The world before the girl s eyes turned pale, and disappeared into a gray fog, from which the outline of a huge castle gradually began to emerge. Now there was a sorceress next to her.

– Where are we? The girl asked.

“We are in the inner territory of my apprentice,” the sorceress replied.

– What does it mean?

– Well, this means that now I will show you with a live example, What is love

– So right away? And what is this castle?

– Do not be afraid! This is my student s museum of internal artifacts. In a sense – he himself is!

Approaching the museum, the girl saw that its walls were encircled by showcases, behind which one could see a myriad of graceful images, each of which depicted a student of the sorceress in a specious light.

– On these showcases, my student – the owner of the museum – posted an advertisement for exhibits that are supposedly kept in the museum. Usually the best and the most beautiful are advertised on the shop window. And the fact that in some rooms of the museum all sorts of “horror stories” await us, is usually not indicated in the windows. And as for the “room of fear”, so no one knows at all. Even the owner himself is afraid to go there, – said the sorceress in a conspiratorial whisper, – but I can take you there if you wish!

– No, I don’t want to! You wanted to show me love?

– Let s go, – and the sorceress took the girl inside the museum.

In the first surface room there were already various simple exhibits and paintings, but a strange thing: in this room, too, most of the area was occupied by dusty columns of shop windows and piles of advertising brochures, depicting the student of the sorceress in different images.

“This is an advertisement for other premises of the museum,” the sorceress explained, “at the same time, in each avenue, they make it clear to us that no one will let us into these premises just like that. Here we must have a thick bundle of local currency with us, or a good credit of trust. And if we have this loan …

– What then? – asked the girl?

– Then we move on! – and the sorceress took the girl to the next exhibition hall of the museum, where there were many paintings, about which for some reason nothing was said either in the windows or in the advertising brochures. Some pictures frightened the girl, others surprised and fascinated. The pictures, as the sorceress explained, depicted different situations from the imagination and the “real” past of her student.

“We must be very careful,” the sorceress said quietly, “so as not to touch any fragile object of this psychic space with an awkward movement or careless phrase.

Somewhere, in the corner of the large hall, the girl saw a wounded animal. He sat quietly in a huge cage with a Shadow sign.

– Once this beast was a real monster – a terrible fire-breathing dragon of love of power, – explained the sorceress. – He guarded this hall, and from time to time he burst out of the room to the surface, smashed all the windows, tore up advertising brochures, nibbled visitors to the museum, surprising everyone with his fury and cunning. Not only did the beast zealously hold the territory of my student s personal space, so at times he allowed himself to take charge on the surface of his consciousness: on the walls of the museum, you can still see the traces of his claws. – The sorceress threw up her hands. “But over the years, my student realized that there was nowhere else to be afraid, and began to enter this room, and fight the monster for the territory of his own consciousness. This went on for a long time. The struggle led nowhere. She only trained the beast: she made him even stronger and more terrible. After the next battle, the beast calmed down, but then it escaped, and in a frenzy, more than ever, it destroyed everything in its path. And then my student – the owner of the museum decided to try to act differently. Leaving the blade, he took food with him, and tried to tame the beast. Over time, he succeeded. Sometimes the owner took the animal to the surface to walk under supervision on a leash, scaring away everyone who was near. When the beast became obedient, my student was able not only to walk freely around this room, but also to let others into it, as now.

At this time, the young sorcerer appeared, as if out of nowhere. He stood at the cage with the beast, stroking its huge furry face.

– Do not be afraid! He will not touch you, – and the sorceress s apprentice called the girl closer.

– Here is my dark companion. – He spoke, pointing to the beast. “Look how big his fangs are. The blood was already dry on them: he had not gone hunting for a long time. Now – he is not as bloodthirsty as in the past, and behind his back are still very small, but now golden wings. We found a common language with him, and he understands that he cannot survive without me. He also feels how he is gradually transforming under my careful supervision. Someday he will become a magical beast of just strength and courage, and then he will be able to walk on the surface without any supervision. That is why I did not begin to kill him, tearing out of myself his essence with pieces of my own flesh.

The girl examined the space and stopped her gaze on the passage to the next room, from which a radiant light was streaming.

“I keep the crystal spheres in that room,” the apprentice said. – They are fragile, so I m not letting anyone in there yet. They are amazingly beautiful: sound and light pass through them, generating harmonious music of the spheres and rainbow clouds of bliss. In these spheres, the essence of love as acceptance is already beginning to be reflected. And in this acceptance, I begin to dissolve. At first I could not even step into this room because it is guarded by a strict guardian of conscience. They are in harmony with the beast, and sometimes it seems to me that they are “one”. Everything I did in the previous rooms of the museum left a residue in me. And at the very entrance to the room, the guardian of conscience began to burn out this residue with a terrible fire of shame and guilt. It was unbearable. But these spheres are so beautiful that I endured. Once, when I had just started to take careful steps in this room, I decided to show it to one of my friends – a young sorceress. The guard was harsh on her, and she fled desperately, shattering one of my rainbow spheres. And that is why I do not let in those who have their own “sediment” of the way yet, because their shame almost immediately gives way to irritation, which is controlled by their beast from the previous room.

“Is there a way out of the Orb Room too?” – the girl asked curiously.

“Yes, this is the last door of the space of individuality,” replied the young sorcerer.

– And what is behind it? – asked the girl.

– Behind it, that is, beyond the limits of individuality, there is a paradoxical “room” into which the last doors of all beings in the world lead.

– What is there? What s in this room?

– The psychic diamond of our soul.

– To understand and accept another, – the sorceress spoke, – we must learn to understand and accept ourselves. Otherwise, we will tend to fall in love, but not love, otherwise in a relationship we will remain like children, at the level of passionate, sometimes beautiful melodramas, but we will never open up to real closeness at a deep level. Love arises where two go to meet, and open doors for each other, leading towards the very core of their being – to the transcendental diamond of the soul. The more a person opens up, the further we go through his inner territory, the thinner the line, the more sensitive we must be able to behave so as not to destroy anything and not betray trust. Love is the way of recognizing oneself in another and the other in oneself. Love is the acceptance of life for oneself and for oneself, in a single indivisible “room” behind the last door of our individual space of consciousness.

– Thank you, – the girl answered, – now I understand.

© Igor Satorin

A tale of love ”Written specially for progressman.ru
When using materials, an active link to the source is required.

Document address on the website: https://progressman.ru/2011/03/tale/

Other articles on this topic:

  • The Divine Comedy
  • Loyalty, intimacy and trust in a relationship
  • Self-love under the mask of love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *