Love in Ritual

"The special relationship must be recognized for what it is; a senseless ritual in which strength is extracted from the death of God, and invested in His killer as the sign that form has triumphed over content, and Love has lost its meaning. See how exactly is this ritual enacted in the special relationship. An altar is erected in between two separate people, on which each seeks to kill his self, and on his body raise another self to take its power from his death. Over and over and over this ritual is enacted. And it is never completed, nor ever will be completed. The ritual of completion cannot complete, for Life arises not from death, nor Heaven from hell." -- A Course in Miracles

"The core of the separation illusion lies simply in the fantasy of destruction of Love's meaning. And unless Love's meaning is restored to you, you cannot know your Self Who share its meaning. Separation is only a decision not to know your Self." -- A Course in Miracles

One of the regular readers of this blog e-mailed a question: "How do you have a romantic relationship without what appears to be a man's body walking this earth with you? Hmmmmm???" Our egos love to ask questions like this, which are not real questions. They are statements of points of view, ways of being, that are couched as a question. Not a real question at all. It assumes that romantic relationships as the world defines them are good and necessary, and that we are bodies. O.K.

We are here in the dream. Bodies are our vehicles, apparently, in the dream. And yet... we are told that literally nothing in the dream has any meaning whatsoever, since it is nothing, is unreal. And so within the dream, we give everything all the meaning it has for us. By accepting the world's interpretation of any part of the dream, in this case by accepting the story of romance that is bought and sold throughout our dream, we are lost. If this is the chief tool of the ego, and if through this story Love has lost its meaning to us, then we are well and truly lost.

And yet... we are told that we can give all relationships to the Holy Spirit, the part of our Mind that remains in open communion with God. And that all relationships within the dream are destined to become Holy. We will all eventually wake up and Remember Who We Are. However, this is a dangerous statement in the hands of the ego. It will use any aspect of Truth and twist it to suit its desires... and will surely use it to justify doing what it wants. But given to Truth, this is our ticket Home.

Given to Truth, we see that all relationships already are Holy. And it has absolutely nothing to do with bodies, which interact or don't. We are told that "Salvation lies in the simple fact that illusions are not fearful because they are not true. They but seem to be fearful to the extent to which you fail to recognize them for what they are; and you will fail to do this to the extent to which you want them to be true." This is the hard Truth. The illusion of the romantic relationship seems to be the hardest to see through because our egos know it is the foundation of its thought system, its rebellion against Love and the Allness of God. ACIM says, "See in the special relationship nothing more than a meaningless attempt to raise other gods before Him."

We have very real relationships even in this world. They are the Holy Relationships that exist across space and time without regard to bodies, and that are not based on special value... not based on what either one can get from the other, not even based on sharing as the world knows sharing. Holy Relationships exist wherever two imaginary selves lose sight of their imaginary twoness, and Remember the Allness of God.

Can this happen in relationships between bodies, relationships that began as special? Who asks this question? One who believes that we are bodies. One who wants to keep its littleness rather than know its Self. The Truth is that all relationships are Holy, and none of us are limited by the bodies we have identified with. So whatever relationships are in your world, and whatever ones come and go, are all Holy encounters when seen from the Allness of God and our Oneness. Seen from the ego's perspective, the ego will try to make an illusion of a holy relationship to justify and hide its agenda. That's pretty much the way of it in the dream.

And yet... we are told that "For every learning that would hurt you, God offers you correction and complete escape from all its consequences." Complete escape from all the pain, all the suffering, all the hurtfulness, all the nonsense... sign me up! Why would we not immediately give all of it to the Holy Spirit and ask that our perception be healed? Why do we walk in blindness even another second? Because "only fantasies make confusion in choosing possible, and they are totally unreal." Yep. We like our fantasy worlds, even when they kill us. Which they do.

One more thing... all of this takes place in consciousness. This has nothing to do with 'other' people or bodies. It is our fantasy stories about people, places, and things that perpetuate the lie of the special relationship. Every part of Reality is always and forever Loving and as Holy as You. Love doesn't need ritual or to be proven or even to be seen. Love is Who We Are.

"The special relationship is totally meaningless without a body. The special relationship is a device for limiting yourself to a body, and for limiting your perception of others to theirs." -- A Course in Miracles

"The real purpose of the special relationship, in strict accordance with the ego's goals, is to destroy reality and substitute illusion. For the ego is itself an illusion, and only illusions can be the witnesses to its reality." -- A Course in Miracles