Friday Lecture, 7:30 PM: "You alone are real to me- A Passion for Soul"
Saturday Workshop, 10 am- 4 pm: "Psyche and Eros: Untangling the Mysterious Union of Love and Death"
“… your influence falls on me, gently, like moonlight on a
window seat.” Rilke
Who is it that finds that hidden place in our heart and soul that we have all but given
up on? Yet somehow, despite our attempts to silence this un-sated hunger, “she” has
never left our side, or given up the hope of bringing new life into our weary soul.
Perhaps now we must admit to our many disappointments in love and life, of journeys
down unsavory streets, and far too much time in broken-down dives where the lost
gather to imbibe shattered dreams. Yet the hope of finding love and soul remains
humanity’s greatest dream, demanding the courage to experience a profound and
painful vulnerability.
Rilke's “love” for Lou Andreas Salome is such a story. He speaks of his devotion and
need of Salome when writing; “You alone are real to me”. Salome, however,
understood that while he did love her, he was also speaking to his soul with these
words. As a Man, artist, and lover, it was through this relationship with Salome that
Rilke came to know the contours and hungers of his soul.
While we are often consumed by our love for another, and by those passions that fill
us with awe, and inexhaustible energy, ultimately it is the soul that has kindled such a
flame, needing to be recognized. Embedded within these passions is the soul calling to
us of a life living in-potentia . In his book “ She”, H.Rider Haggard writes; “For deep
love unsatisfied is the hell of noble hearts … but love that is mirrored back more perfect
from the soul of our desired doth fashion wings to lift us above ourselves, and makes us
what we might be.”
From Haggard, Rilke, Rabbi Heschel, Toni Wolff, and others, we see this Janus faced
nature of such a love, calling us to transcend the habitual so as to enter into the
numinosium to embrace the ineffable.
The soul has called to humanity since the beginning of time. While ultimately,
the search for one’s Soul is a solitary journey, to have the reflection from someone who
cares so deeply about us, is more than sublime.
Please join us as we travel this “sentiero sacro”, into the domain of Psyche, Soul, and
Eros.
*Rilke
Also check out other Workshops in Chapel Hill, Arts events in Chapel Hill.
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