Venus

The primal function of the psyche symbolized by Venus is perhaps best described by the Sanskrit term, buddhi, or sense of discrimination.  While Venus is commonly thought to symbolize love and relationship, all of the various meanings associated with Venus derive from the sense of discrimination that it represents. 

Discrimination is made necessary for the human consciousness due to the prevalence of duality on the Earth plane.  This is not to deny the existence of duality in all of the Mind-worlds (and beyond that level of consciousness, we cannot say), for, as explained previously, Duality is the necessary consequence of a manifest Creation, at least if the Mind is involved.  Once there is Duality, any action requires choice and choice requires the ability to discriminate between the objects of choice, between opposites.  [Note, I am choosing to capitalize Duality when referring to the primal state of separation into Subject and Object and to use lower case when talking about the duality that exists at the level of the material world, in everyday life.]

Venus, then, is concerned with opposites and how to negotiate opposites in the material world.  In fact, the association of Venus with the feminine archetype can be seen as a direct consequence of the planet’s involvement with opposites.  This is because in the cosmology that we have inherited (and I will put aside any debate or conclusion about the dominance of patriarchalism over the last 10,000 years), the masculine principle has been assigned as the first existent with the emergence of Duality bringing forth the feminine principle.  Since Venus is so closely associated with Duality, and the feminine only exists (per our inherited cosmology) when Duality exists, we have the core reason for the identification of Venus with the feminine.

This is aptly illustrated in the Biblical story of Adam and Eve.  Adam comes first.  When Eve, the feminine archetype, is created, Duality exists.  In fact, the concept of Duality is intimately wrapped up in the myth of Adam and Eve.  The Fall from the Garden of Eden is a fall from a state of spiritual unity into a state of spiritual fragmentation, coinciding with the fall of the soul’s consciousness from the realms of pure Spirit into the material realms.  This fall may be viewed to begin with the soul’s association with Universal Mind and proceed through the mental and astral planes to the physical plane of existence. 

The story of Adam and Eve implies that the soul was tricked or tempted into falling into the trap of the Mind.  The “bait” was the promise of experience that a condition of Duality makes possible, symbolized by the apple from the Tree of Knowledge.  This Knowledge was the perception of Duality, represented by the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Good and Evil are actually only proxies for all forms of opposites.  Thus, when Adam and Eve, the prototype for dual forms, are thrust into the material world after their fall from Eden, they enter a world of opposites.

As noted above, once in the world of duality, it is necessary to make choices.  Action implies choosing a course of action and choosing a course of action implies selecting one course over another.  If the world is not to be the experience of a random walk, some criteria must be developed to allow one to discriminate between choices, between opposites.  This is the task of Venus. 

A first step in this task is the creation of the notion of value.  Without the notion of value, we simply have the existence of opposites and the inherent proposition that it does not matter which opposite is chosen, since neither has value.  While at an existential level this may be true, that opposites merely exist as opposites and one pole is not intrinsically better than the other, when it comes to choice this assumption is a prescription for the paralysis of indecision.  This is the paradoxical trap of Venus-ruled Libra.

Libra represents an advanced stage of negotiating opposites, one which follows the polarization of opposites into “good” and “bad.”  At some point, we realize the destructive nature of such a polarization—that it inevitably leads to conflict and disharmony.  The fact that, as we have explained above, at a basic level there is a need for such polarization to occur is one of the devious traps of the Mind, or put another way, a deeply embedded flaw in the system of consciousness which springs out of Duality.

Once we realize the destructive potential of valuing opposites, there arises an urge in the psyche to end the conflict and disharmony by attaining a state of equilibrium or balance.  In order to reach a balance of opposites, however, the construct that one pole is inherently “good” and the other pole is inherently “evil” must be abandoned.  Otherwise, conflict will persist and harmony will not be attained. 

This desire for balance and harmony between opposites itself becomes problematic when the need arises to make a choice involving those opposites.  With the clear weight of value removed—or at least with value being distributed evenly between the two opposites—there may no longer be any criterion upon which to base a choice.  Furthermore, one may be unwilling to choose one pole over the other because rejecting one pole for the other may sow the seeds of conflict and disharmony.  As we shall see again and again, the basic function of Venus as dis=9criminator is very much represented in Libra and I pose this as an argument against seeking some other “planet” to rule this sign.  Venus rules both Taurus and Libra.

To escape the trap of unwillingness to commit to a choice out of fear of upsetting the balance, Libra must rise above the apparentness of opposites and seek their essential unity.  This is known as the Sacred Marriage or Mysterium Conjunctionis.  As Mercury rules alchemy, we see in this a link between the two planets.  We can say that Mercury represents the alchemical method while Venus represents the 9/]alchemical goal/

We have digressed ahead of ourselves.  We were discussing the creation of the concept of value as a first step in the Venusian task of discriminating between opposites.  Because we are now operating in the world of duality, once value is posited anti-value or dis-value automatically arises.  Thus, we have created a fundamental motivator for choice.  We assign value to one quality and we then automatically assign dis-value to its opposite quality.  Because we value one over the other, we naturally choose the one of value.  We can also say that we are attracted to what we have assigned value to and we are repulsed by its opposite. 

Now, if we were forced to make conscious choices at every turn, at every moment, we would become mentally and emotionally exhausted.  In order to avoid this dysfunction, the psyche has created mechanisms whereby we do not have to constantly spend psychic energy in making choices.  In most instances, except when a choice is either new or critical, we tend to choose automatically.

This automation of choice can work in two ways.  First, choice may become habitual through repetition.  We make a choice, repeat the choice, and then habitually and automatically go on making the same choice unless something intervenes to change our mind.  The second mechanism for automatic choice is that the mind sets up value-based criteria that pull us toward certain choices and push us away from others.

Because we are naturally attracted toward what we value, we find ourselves pulled in those directions.  This psychic pull we call our likes and the psychic pushes away from what we dis-value we call our dislikes.  As we know, Venus is the planet that is said to govern our likes and dislikes, our tastes.  We are using “likes” and “dislikes” as generalized terms.  We experience many flavors of like and dislike, depending upon the association with a specific object of like or dislike and the intensity of like and dislike that we feel.  All of these qualitative emotions, these value-driven emotions, are the purview of Venus.

We should recognize that behind these mechanisms for automating choice lies our sense of discrimination.  It is our sense of discrimination that has created and molded our system of values.  Discrimination has not ceased to operate but rather is operating automatically or habitually through the tool of likes and dislikes, attraction and repulsion.

Another mechanism that the psyche has developed to aid in the automatic selection of that to which we are attracted is the feeling of affection.  We can feel affection for places and things and, of course, for people.  We are not only attracted to that for which we feel affection but we are attracted to them regularly and repeatedly.  Thus, we make consistent choices to be with that for which we feel affection.  We easily and unhesitatingly discriminate in their favor.  On the other hand, for that which we dislike, we may feel antipathy and aversion—the opposites of affection.

We call extreme affection “love” and we call extreme aversion “hatred.”  It is human nature to focus on what we like, rather than what we dislike.  Thus, in assigning qualities and rulerships to the planet Venus, astrologers have chosen the “positive” poles of the dualities that Venus represents—what is liked rather than what is disliked.  Thus, Venus is called the planet of love, not the planet of hatred or jealousy, though hatred might equally be ruled by Venus as much as it rules love.

We reserve our most intense love and affection for other humans.  Particularly, love and affection is viewed as what binds people together in close relationships.  Because of the intensity of our emotions toward those with whom we choose to form human relationships, relationship has been carved out as a separate and special phenomenon governed by Venus.  Yet, if we examine the core of human relationship, we will find our sense of discrimination to be the active element in forming and sustaining our relationships.  If we were to strip away from relationship its heightened emotional content, then we could talk about our taste in partners.  Nevertheless, we cannot avoid the conclusion that relationship is an expression of our likes and dislikes concerning other human beings and is, therefore, governed by our sense of discrimination.

Choice (and therefore selection based upon a discriminating evaluation of characteristics and qualities, matching the other person’s against our own set of relationship values) is particularly evident in our close, one-on-one relationships.  We have relationships at work, in social organizations, in other organizational settings, etc. where we seem to be thrust into a group, forming relationships but without actually choosing whether or not to have those relationships.  Of course, even these relationships are subject to our likes and dislikes and, within the set of social relationships, we often form closer, individual relationships based upon those likes and dislikes (either friendships and allies, or enmities and foes).  Those individual relationships would be governed by Venus. 

However, the relationships with which Venus is most strongly associated are those in which we are bonded to a particular individual.  Foremost among these is the marriage relationship (or the relationship with our significant other).  Venus also governs those relationships which can potentially lead to a long-term, life partner relationship.  Thus, Venus is associated with romantic relationships and with romance itself. 

The association of Venus with the feminine, whose fundamental origins are discussed above, is reflected in our ideas about romance.  We must caveat here that the discussion of romance is highly culturally specific, the idea of romance preceding marital commitment primarily being a Western notion.  With respect to romance and stereotypical gender roles, the masculine part of romance is typically viewed as involving pursuit, initiative and assertiveness—qualities associated with the “masculine” planet, Mars.

The feminine role in romance is typically viewed as involving attraction—the “positive” pole of the Venusian attraction-repulsion mechanism.  Venus, then, becomes associated with those properties related to the process of attraction.  These properties include flirtation, sexual suggestiveness, and applications to the body in order to enhance its attractiveness—hence, beauty.  Thus, Venus is associated with concepts of beauty, particularly feminine beauty, and with beauty products and fashion.  There is also an intersection here with Venus typically being associated with “positive” poles of duality, of which beauty is one (the opposite of ugliness). 

We can now examine the association of Venus with relationship in cultures in which the model of romantic love preceding marriage is not the norm.  In those cultures, the arranged marriage is typically how long-term relationships are formed.  If we examine this process, however, we will find that the element of discrimination and selection is even more prominent and explicit than is the case with romantic love.  The difference is in the locus of choice.  Instead of the future partners evaluating the potential relationship, it is the parents of the couple who make the relationship choice.  In making this choice, the parents typically carefully evaluate a host of value-based criteria in order to attempt to find the perfect match.  In some cultures, the role of the match-maker substitutes for parental negotiations.  Here, too, we find that characteristics and qualities are evaluated in order to facilitate the formation of the relationship.

Venus also rules business partnerships.  Here we find another intersection with  Venus’ association with evaluation and values.  The purpose of forming a business partnership is generally to make money—in a capitalist system, to maximize profit.  Money, finances, and possessions (which are purchased with money) are associated with Venus because of Venus’ association with what is valued.  In Western society, which has spread worldwide and dominates culture in most areas of the world, what is valued most is the accumulation of wealth.  This is not to say that the accumulation of wealth as a goal is unique to Western civilization, for we find this in other cultures from ancient times forward.  If Venus is associated with the process of choice between opposites and the evaluation of which polarity will produce the greatest level of satisfaction, and we determine that people generally see satisfaction being obtained through the accumulation of wealth and possessions, then it follows that Venus would rule wealth and possessions. 

We can also consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  While Maslow frames his hierarchy as based on need, we can easily substitute values for needs.  With respect to the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy, we can say that we inherently value what we need and, with respect to the upper rungs, we feel that we need what we value.  Maslow’s first rung is physiological need—food, water, shelter—those things that keep us alive.  At this level, the sense of discrimination operates at what might be called the level of the animal-soul, powered by the urge for survival.  The primary value held is that of life, as opposed to death.  Discrimination operates to choose that which will keep us alive and avoid that which will lead to our death.

Beyond the primal dichotomy of life and death, conditions that allow us to rise above concern with mere survival are valued more highly.  One can survive in abject poverty but it is more pleasant to survive with all of our physiological needs well met.  It is even more pleasant if the satisfaction of our physiological needs is accompanied by pleasures beyond the pleasure of survival.  Therefore, we value affluence over poverty; tasty food over dry, unseasoned food; large and comfortable houses over cramped and drafty shelter.  Our sense of discrimination prompts us to choose those things that we value more highly and, so, Venus is associated with all things that bring comfort and luxury, including wealth.

Satisfying our physiological needs and actualizing life over death allows us to proceed to the next rung of the Maslovian ladder—safety and security.  Here, too, our animal-soul nature predominates and our sense of discrimination is employed to keep us away from danger and away from potentially dangerous situations.  This is the genesis of Taurean caution.  Venus would rather not risk.  Venus is not an adventure-seeker.  Rather, the Venusian influences guide us to choose comfort and security, and the safety inherent in conformity.  The preference towards conformity can be seen in Taurus’ innate conservatism (in attitude, not politics) and in Libra’s tendency to adapt and flow with whatever everyone else is doing.   Conformity also is integral to fashion for a fashion would not be so if people did not adopt it and the Libran desire to be in fashion is also an expression of the security felt when one conforms to social norms.

The Venusian/Taurean drive to accumulate possessions is also an expression of the need for security and safety.  Our gains at the physiological level of value are protected if one accumulates a store to buffer us against unexpected loss.  Think of the phrase, financial security: it implies an overabundance of wealth to the extent that one no longer has to worry about scarcity.  Western capitalist values, which are inculcated in us from youth, dictate that we exercise our sense of discrimination to choose wealth and possessions as the primary defense against insecurity and the dangers of life. 

It is not only quantity but quality that we value.  Fine and beautiful possessions are more highly valued (and more expensive, taking more wealth to acquire) than cheap and unremarkable possessions.  The Venusian trait, taste, is synonymous with discriminating between what is fine and what is course, what is attractive and beautiful and what is unattractive and ugly, what is valued by those holding wealth and power and what is spurned by them.  When we peer underneath the psychological motivations, we find that we (particularly Venusians) do not just like beautiful things because they are beautiful; we like them because doing so fulfills a need to feel secure, provides validation that we are not in danger of being physiologically in need, marks us as having made the right choices, and conforms our taste to what society signals is valuable.

The connection between Venus’ interpersonal discriminating function and Maslow’s third order of need—relationship and belonging—goes without saying.  While we are on the topic of relationship, I would like to digress to explore another fundamental connection between Venus and relationship.  Going back to our discussion of the integral role that Duality plays in bringing about the need for the Venusian functions, we recognize the intrinsic connection between Duality and relationship.  Relationship is, after all, about self-other.  Without an “other” there can be no relationship,  Even in the Divine relationship of realized Self and Eternal Self, there must be preserved a certain semblance of “otherness” in order for the Self to be recognized by the Self. 

The next rung on Maslow’s hierarchy is emotional well-being.  Venus is often viewed as a member of the triad of emotionally connected planets—the Moon, Venus and Neptune.  This is chiefly because the psychic rewards for evaluative choices made using Venusian sense of discrimination are emotional. When we are successful in achieving the positive value that we have chosen, we feel good.  Even the act of choosing the positive pole (or, perhaps, realizing that we have chosen a positive value) is frequently accompanied by a sense of feeling good about ourself.  Alternatively, if we fail to actualize our positive value choice, or we mistakenly choose an outcome that we dis-value, our tendency is to feel bad or to have negative emotions such as anger, resentment, etc.

These feelings of positive or negative emotions occur not only in the instant of realization, but often persist as long as we are experiencing the outcome that we have chosen.  Thus, feelings of well-being connected with the satisfaction of our physiological needs may persist while we are focused on possessing those things, although there is a tendency for these feelings to eventually fade, as possessions do not bring real and lasting happiness.  Similarly, we generally feel emotionally satisfied when we are feeling safe and secure.  The constant companionship of long-term interpersonal relationship is usually accompanied by feelings of affection, romantic love, or a more unconditional love, although the intensity of these feelings may vary through the duration of the relationship.

Emotions also play a role in the evaluative process itself because the psyche, especially through repetition and habit, assigns emotional content to certain things, people, situations and circumstances based upon the value that we have assigned to them.  These emotional cues come into play to assist and expedite our evaluative processes.  When we feel attraction, agreeableness, happiness or love toward an “object,” we will more easily and consistently choose that “object” over other possibilities.  When we feel repulsion, disagreeableness, sadness, hatred or other negative emotions toward an “object,” we will more readily reject and avoid that “object.”  Thus, the emotions with which Venus is associated are all along the spectrum of like-dislike (at various levels of intensity and nuance).

The final stage in Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization.  This may be viewed as synonymous with the Jungian concept of individuation, which is governed by Uranus.  However, Venus (sense of discrimination) also has an important role to play in this process.  This role is to exercise buddhi at its highest level in order to refine and transform our value set.  We can view this process as evolutionary or we can cast is as transformational or we can identify it with humanity’s ultimate goal of return to our Divine state.  In any case, our sense of discrimination is used to advance the soul on an upward ascent into finer and finer realms of spirituality. 

This is also what the philosophers have called the pursuit of the ultimate Good, or Virtue.  It can be a deliberate and methodical process or, with Uranian assistance, it can occur as a sudden revelation.  Whether layer by layer or all at once, our buddhi recognizes that our present state of valuing, or our current focus on what is valued, is deficient.  We recognize that what we have thought was of value does not bring us true happiness and we look for something higher.  When we find this, through a process of clear-eyed evaluation, it leads to a restructuring of our value set.  We now have a higher standard against which to evaluate what is attractive/good/positive and what is repulsive/evil/negative. 

This process will continue until we have discriminated the highest value—surrender to the Divine.  At this point, the Venusian evaluative function enters the Neptunian realm of transcendence.  This is also the ultimate goal of individuation—the discovery of the Self and our identification with the Self.  Some mystics have told us: self-realization before God-realization, and that when the soul realizes her True Identity, her True Self, the soul’s absorption into the Divine Essence occurs automatically.

We now will return to more mundane processes and examine the question of choice more closely.  We have said that Venus is intimately bound with duality and the choice between opposites.  However, in everyday life, choice is not always about black and white, one pole or the other.  Our green dress is not the opposite of our blue dress.  So how do we integrate our experience of non-polar multiplicity with the essentiality of Duality?

The answer is that between the poles of every set of opposites, there is a continuum.  Each continuum can furthermore be divided into an infinite number of points, each representing a particular gradient between the two poles.  Furthermore, the world is filled with oppositions and these oppositions do not all align along the same direction.  Therefore, continuums constantly intersect and where they intersect we find a point that bears the qualities of any number of sets of opposites.  The result is a kaleidoscope of possibilities, qualities and characteristics.  Thus, whenever we choose between two “points,” we are often choosing between multivalent gradients and the sets of opposites that make up these points may not even be evident.  At other times, the vector of a set of opposites is strong and we can clearly see the poles from which we are choosing.  In every case, however, our sense of discrimination is employed.  In every case, there will be some variation of the attraction-repulsion mechanism that will frame our choice and, most likely, govern its outcome.

The human psyche is a system and, therefore, no single part of the psyche functions in isolation.  We will now take a look at how our Venusian buddhi interacts with the psychic functions symbolized by other astrological planets—specifically, the Moon and Mercury but also the Sun.

There are three ways the Moon connects with Venus as part of the operation of the human psyche.  The first is that, in providing the background/qualities for our basic emotional grid, it flavors the emotional spectrum of like-dislike/attraction-repulsion associated with Venus.  Secondly, the emotional response mechanism associated with the Moon plays a role in the evaluative-choice mechanism governed by Venus.  The Venusian evaluative mechanism is often activated in response to various stimuli received by the psyche.  The automatic functioning of our evaluative mechanism is also often felt as a response or perhaps we should say that a response is triggered when the automatic choice is made.  We generally react in some way to “objects” with which we have formed an evaluative association.  We may instinctually pull back from “objects” that we dis-value and embrace those that we value.  Thus, what our Moon placements and aspects tell us about our reaction and response mechanism can transfer to gaining insight into the functioning of our Venusian evaluative function.

The third Moon-Venus connection is through the Moon’s governance of the psyche’s conditioning function.  Moon conditioning includes the conditioning received from family and upbringing, culture and heritage, and other social forces.  Unless or until we exercise our buddhi in a conscious way, the value set which we use to evaluate our choices and preferences will largely be determined by our conditioning.  Initially, the human tendency is to “blindly” or unconsciously accept the value set that is formed or imparted to us through our conditioning.  Rising above this conditioning is an important and necessary step toward our individuation and to taking control of our buddhi function.

The relationship between Venus and Mercury, with respect to their psychic functions, is hand-in-glove.  The buddhi is blind without the personal mind to bring it into contact with the external world.  First of all, Mercury gathers the sense impressions.  Mercury’s categorization of these sense impressions is value-neutral.  The personal mind merely identifies each stimulus.  It is the Venusian function that assigns value labels to the “objects” that have been identified by our nervous system and named by the mind.  Once the collection of sense-objects has been evaluated our sense of discrimination begins to make choices based upon the values assigned. 

These choices may be automatic, or emotionally-based, or they may be considered.  If automatic, the nervous system will play its role in transmitting the appropriate response signals.  If considered, the Venusian evaluations are brought before a higher order of mental processing that objectifies the value decisions that have been made by the buddhi.  These are then subjected to mental analysis which may reinforce the inclination of the Venusian like-dislike mechanism or may override it.  This overriding is not, however, something that the Mercurian personal mind performs autonomously, for the buddhi is brought back into the process, but at a higher level of value-consideration. 

Although our world seems to be unitarily objective—to function under an unchanging set of rules—even on the material plane there are different levels of meaning and consciousness and we possess relative value-sets.  In fact, as discussed above, it can be expected that our values change as we grow in consciousness.  Furthermore, we generally do not completely jettison older value sets when new ones are adopted but we can hold several value sets that are appropriate for different levels of experience or different sets of “objects.”

Thus, when choice is being considered, we are bringing to bear our Mercurian analytical capabilities together with our sense of discrimination which strives to access the appropriate value set.  This then becomes a choice, or a discrimination, between value sets.  This process of one value set overriding a lower level value set is sometimes called conscience.  Mercury’s role in all this is generally to analyze, clarify and/or validate our value sets in the context of the choice at hand, thus facilitating our sense of discrimination to arrive at the correct conclusion.

Mercury will play other roles along side Venus.  One is to intellectualize or rationalize our values, whether this be objectifying an ethical philosophy or commenting on a piece of art.  Here, the buddhi and the field of value-choices become food for Mercury’s analytical and intellectual functions. 

Another Mercurian role is to communicate our Venusian feelings and value judgments.  This becomes supremely important in relationships.  By and large, relationships depend upon communication for their sustenance and survival.  Faulty communication causes problems in relationship and a lack of communication may cause a relationship to dissolve or at least to grow stale and lifeless.

It is important for most humans not only to develop coherent sets of values (and to enjoy actualizing or experiencing the positive poles of those value continuums) but to express our values to others.  This may be as simple as letting others know what we like and dislike or how we are feeling about a certain situation.  It may be letting others know where we stand—what are values are.  In fact, communicating our value sets, especially in an organized fashion, is fundamentally important to living in human societies.  We tend to organize ourselves to be with others who share common values.  Thus, we have Venus associated with relations between groups whose members share common interests (e.g., nations).

This leads us to explore Venus’ relationship with the Sun.  As noted in the chapter on the Sun, the Sun symbolizes our sense of identity in the world.  Venus’ evaluative function relates to the Sun’s psychic role in that we often take our identity, or a portion of our identity, from the values that we have chosen, the values with which we identify.  We are using the term “values” in its broadest sense across the entire continuum of evaluation from our simplest preferences to the set of values by which we live our lives.  All are candidates for defining our identity, depending upon how strongly we are attached to these values and the extent that we resonate at one level of meaning/consciousness or another.

Our sense of discrimination comes into play because it is through our sense of discrimination that we choose the values with which we identify.  Naturally, a person with a healthy psyche will choose to identify with values that have positive associations.  The buddhi assists in determining what values are positive and which are dis-values and also which values are relatively more positive than others.  This discrimination may occur “horizontally” along a continuum for a certain “object.”  For instance, for the object of clothing style, there is a continuum ranging from most fashionable to most unfashionable (or the most attractive on the person versus the least attractive on the person).  Discrimination may also occur “vertically” from lower to higher orders of values.  For instance, ethics is a higher order value than clothing style. 

The human task is to use our sense of discrimination to arrive at the highest order of value, the Supreme Good or summum bonum of the philosophers.  As we have discussed above, as we arrive at a higher order of value, we leave behind the lesser (or practically speaking we recognize its lesser place along the vertical continuum of value and we cease to give it priority).  However, until we reach the Absolute Value of Divine Essence, we find that there is always another higher rung that we must use our sense of discrimination to identify and elect. 

Through this process of upward selection, we will successively identify with higher and higher levels of value.  However, as we identify finer and more spiritualized value sets, we are called upon to identify more and more completely with that value set.  When we identify with lower order value sets, these are likely not to form our entire identity and may not even be the major part of our identity.  Our identity may be informed by multiple object-values and we may recognize, at least intellectually, that we are something more than this collection of lower order value decisions. 

As we ascend higher on the scale, we will be called upon to live our values.  Those who profess a value system but do not live by it are deemed hypocrites or said to be inauthentic or untrue to themself.  At the highest levels of the value continuum, we must be consumed by what we value before this truly becomes our identity.  Merely saying or thinking that we identify with the Divine Essence does not convey real identity.  In the end, we have to lose our identity, or merge our identity with the Divine Beloved.  As Kabir said, “When I was, You were not.  Only when I was not did You appear” and “The lane of Love is narrow; there is room for only one.”  Such is the ultimate Relationship.

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