The Goddess Touch: passion

What is passion? Passion is surely the becoming of a person.

John Boorman

Passion is embodied prayer. Passion is holy - a profound mystery that transforms through awakening and rapture. Passion is illumination. Passion is driven by desire; the desire that your soul is longing for Something More is Spirit-directed. Passion is the yin of yearning. Passion is what might be. Passion is paradise found. Passion is the explosive energy behind the sexual obsession between two people. White-hot. Combustible. A flash fire. A compulsion that cannot be resisted, controlled, or contained within the confines of convention (which is everyone else's opinion about your life). We think of passion as a synonym for the sinful, clandestine, forbidden. But passion is not a sin. It is our saving grace.

The only sin passion can commit is to be joyless.

Dorothy L. Sayers

It is the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.

Rebecca West

Most of us long to be swept away, to live passionate lives - but could we please do so at a safe distance and in small doses? That's why we are drawn to juicy novels, three-hanky movies, soap operas and celebrity love affairs. Passion, according to the tabloids, means the abandonment of reason in the reckless pursuit of pleasure. Passion is wild, chaotic, unpredictable. Permissive. Excessive. Over the top. Indulgent. Out of control. Women who get swept away by passion cannot help but exult in their emotions, revel in their desires, run naked with wolves, make out in the mail room, howl at the moon, act out their X-rated fishnet-stocking fantasies, brandish knives, boil pet rabbits for revenge. Passionate women get burned at the stake, don't they? Who wouldn't be afraid of this?

But passion's nature is most often cloaked in the deep, subtle, quiet and committed: nursing a baby, planting a rose garden, preparing a special meal, caring for a loved one who is ill, remembering a friend's birthday, persevering in a dream. Passion is the muse of authenticity. She is the pulsating energy that infuses all of life, the presence made known with every beat of our hearts. If our moments of passion have an indelible signature, it is this: they transend all forgetting. The image, the gesture, the embrace, the exchange, the risk, the reach, the smile, the kiss, the power, the gift, the thoughtfulness - every passionate impulse lives with and resonates through us forever.

Think for a moment about romantic, passionate images from the movies. Some of my favorites are: An elderly woman visiting her younger soul mate Christopher Reeve for a final goodbye in this life in Somewhere in Time, Kristin Scott-Thomas in The English Patient admonishing Ralph Fiennes for behaving badly because he is in love with her and doesn't want to be. Daniel Day-Lewis burying his head in Michelle Pfeiffer's lap and caressing her leg through her silk gown until he is kissing her foot in The Age of Innocence. Kate Winslet hurling herself out of a lifeboat to sink or swim with Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Bergman and Bogart in Casablanca. Diane Lane recalling her passionate afternoon while on the train back home in Unfaithful. And my all time favorite - Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood as Francesca and Robert in Bridges of Madison County. Your turn. What moments of passion were so romantic, exhilarating and moving that you would have traded places with the heroine in a heartbeat? Try reading Rosemary Rodgers Savage Love series or Kathleen Woodwiss novels. Sigh.

The fiery moments of a passionate experience are moments of wholeness and totality.

Anais Nin

Passion is part of Real Life's package - we were created by Love, for love, to love. If we don't give outward expression to our passions in little ways every day, we will eventually experience the spontaneous combustion of our souls. If we are to lead deep, rich, fulfilling lives that are anchored in what is important, what is precious, what is real, so that our souls can soar, passion must fuel our flight. Asking to be delivered to my passion is the only thing worth praying for.

True passion is intoxicating and invigorating, soothing and sensuous, magical and mystical. I just thought you should know what you're in for.

found on the back of a Tazo tea bag

Whether we are comfortable with this truth or not, we were conceived in passion, born in passion and will die in passion. When we search for Something More, it is simply the soul's plea to live passionately.

The following is from Marianne Williamson's book Illuminata, Thoughts, Prayers and Rites of Passage. This particular prayer is found on the book cover and one of my favorites.