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Eros Imagined continued from last page

But over time the term “eros” has been so narrowed and limited that it has lost most of its original intention. Usually when we hear the word “erotic” it evokes only the sexual. And although the sexual is a part of eros, it is only a limited part. This narrowing of a term is an expression of a spiritual dynamic which the kabbalists called the exile of the Shechinah.

Now open your hearts and minds to hear the next sentence.

The exile of the Shechinah means no less than the exile of the erotic.

But where did it go? To where was eros exiled? The answer is that the exile of the Shechinah is the exile of the erotic into the sexual. That is to say, when the only place you access the core qualities of eros is in the sexual, then eros, or the Shechinah, is in exile.  When intense desire is a feeling you touch only before exploding in orgasm, then your life is poor indeed. The Shechinah is exiled. Eros has fallen.

Eros Expanded

The redemption of the Shechinah from exile will come when we learn how to re-expand eros from the narrow confines of the sexual back into the broad expanse of living. The goal of life is to live erotically in all facets of being.

One of the core qualities of the erotic is imagination. The Zohar, magnum opus of Hebrew mysticism, says it explicitly in many places “Shechinah is imagination.”

In popular understanding, the imagination is implicitly considered to be “unreal.” Indeed “unreal” and “imaginary” are virtually synonyms in common usage. To undermine the reality of an antagonist's claim we say it is““a figment of his imagination.” In marked contrast, the Hebrew mystics held imagination to be very real. Indeed it would not be unfair to say that they considered imagination to be “realer than real.”

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