I was taught to be afraid of Desire. I was raised in a church system that told me desire was dangerous and had to be managed. And while I agree with that great mystic, Kenny Rogers, that you gotta know when to hold’em and when to fold’em, let me just say that ALL forces have to be managed. Not just desire.
That’s just being a mature adult in the world.
But if it’s one thing most religions excel at, it’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And just so you know …
I’m not against religion. I just see it for what it is: necessary framework.
Humans need some kind of form in which to interact with the Divine, to leverage Its truth without being incinerated.
Along with my religious conditioning came a heavy dose of self doubt and unworthiness that stuck like a cocklebur, hamstringing my best efforts.
Unworthiness causes us to shrink back, hide, deny. And no matter what kind of desire you’re dealing with, the ‘good’ kind or the ‘bad’ kind, you can’t get to a good place by denying and maniacally suppressing it.
Chronic, flaming dysfunction on a worldwide scale? Check.
So what’s the answer? Well for starters:
- We’ve got to be honest with ourselves. Honesty brings consciousness (light) to the forefront. When we have sufficient light, we can see what we’re dealing with.
- We’ve got to just let the truth be what it is. Without accepting or rejecting it. When we do this, it can blossom into true awareness – and eventual acceptance – of what’s driving us, why, and how to start shifting it where it needs to go. But we can’t do this while in fear and resistance mode.
I’m currently taking an online Kabbalah class that defines Desire as ‘the engine of change.’ Another Kabbalistic source defines ego desire as ‘the desire to receive for self alone.’
That’s it in a nutshell, the dividing line between selfish desire which, because of its narrow focus, ultimately works to tear down creation … and SACRED desire, with its expanded focus, which labors to build up creation.
All of it, not just ourselves.
Sacred Desire is what draws us toward our Creator and the world with the drive to use what’s in us – our gifts, talents, visions – to elevate truth and beauty and alleviate suffering.
Not in a vague and merely sentimental way that talks at problems, but in a daily, practical way that actually touches peoples how and where they live.
Sacred Desire seeks to connect, to find something that can be salvaged, to strengthen what is weak and faltering.
It gets us out of our paralyzing, unworthy self-doubt and makes our potential about what’s needed in the world that we are fully able to supply. It immediately and directly rescues us from the mental/emotional spin of the one hundred thousand things we don’t believe we can ever live up to because it makes DOING about SERVING.
And in the serving, we’re more than able to step outside of ourselves into an entirely different reality.
In this way, Sacred Desire makes our contribution holy for the simple fact that our work, our vision isn’t just about us, but about what’s truly needed.
So rather than being avoided, Sacred Desire is what we have to embrace if we want to bring our poison out of the dark and into the vibrant, healing Light of transformation.
It’s about saying ‘YES!’ to every.single.thing that quickens, enables and strengthens Life. For the sake of us AND other.
It’s the only viable, sustainable way forward.
“Love and desire are the Spirit’s wings to great deeds.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In Deep Desire for the Light,
