Treesong

Love is not a monolithic whole, and Love is not even a continuum of experiences. Instead, Love is a complex landscape of feelings, relationships, and meaning. In order to gain a better understanding of this landscape, I've come up with a "map of Love" that makes a distinction between three different types of Love: Affection, Love of the Heart, and Devotion.

Affection

I also call this Personal Love or Love of the Flesh. It's similar to the Eros of ancient Greek philosophy. It relates most directly to the second chakra and the second level of the aura as discussed by Barbara Brennan.

Affection is the most primal, carnal, physical and emotional form of Love. It's felt in the quickening of the pulse, the release of endorphins, the sense of pleasure, desire, and anticipation that you associate with the subject of Love.

Relative to Love of the Heart and Devotion, this is a very transitory form of Love. One moment, you may feel it quite intensely, while in the next moment, the subject may stop pleasing you, and the Affection evaporates. However, relative to the others, it is also a very personal and powerful Love.

Love of the Heart

I also call this Interpersonal Love or simply Love. It's similar to the Philia of ancient Greek philosophy. It relates most directly to the fourth chakra and the fourth level of the aura as discussed by Barbara Brennan.

Love of the Heart is a feeling of incredible empathy, appreciation, and understanding for another. It's a connection of the heart; a sense of kinship; a relationship of mutual care and concern; a sincere admiration for and acceptance of the other as a cherished equal. This is a feeling held for good friends, family, and other loved ones.

Relative to Affection, this is a very enduring form of Love. In one moment, the actions of your beloved may inspire pleasure and satisfaction in you. In another moment, they may inspire anger, frustration, and even despair. But still, even amidst this maelstrom of changing emotions, your love for this person and your relationship with them remains strong. It lies at the intersection of immanence and transcendence, with a timeless quality of deep appreciation for its own sake balanced by a strong sense of personal investment.

Relative to Devotion, though, this too is a transitory form of love. Most of us can only hold this type of love for a small number of people who we trust completely. If the subject of this love betrays us in some way, then we are likely to close our hearts to them out of a desire for self-protection. Even without any betrayal, people's lives sometimes carry them in different directions, and the nature of this relationship may change over time.

Devotion

I also call this Transpersonal Love or Love of the Spirit. It's similar to the Agape of ancient Greek philosophy. It relates most directly to the sixth chakra and the sixth level of the aura as discussed by Barbara Brennan.

Devotion is a feeling of ecstacy, divinity, bliss, universal understanding, and unconditional acceptance. It takes a cosmic perspective on its subject, seeing the spark of divinity in all beings regardless of one's own particular relationship with that being.

Relative to both Affection and Love of the Heart, this is the most timeless form of Love. However, it's also the most impersonal. Your feeling of Devotion for your closest loved one is at least in theory identical to your Devotion to a stranger, a tree, a river, or a stone. With Devotion, you Love one and all simply because they are a sacred part of a sacred world.

Complex Love

These three types of Love can and do overlap. The most common example of this is in the case of lovers. Lovers often feel both Affection and Love of the Heart for each other. In a truly deep and powerful relationship, all three forms of Love are awakened, and the lovers support one another in a divine experience of life that is both deeply immanent and deeply transcendent simultaneously.