Theme Thursday - Kiss

A little over 20 years ago I created my own Tarot deck, mostly as a way to express my own ideas about what the whole thing was about, which were decidedly more earth- and human-based and firmly rooted in Jungian symbolism than the commercial decks available at the time. This is my version of the traditional The Lovers card. To me this card symbolizes far more than just "love" as it is normally seen, but rather as the force that holds together everything in the universe. whether you want to call it "gravity" or "magnestism" or "attraction" or "harmony" or anything else. In the classic Christian theological sense, this card covers all three forms of love - agape, eros, and philia. Whatever it is that brings us together - personal or communal - is reflected in this card. I even used lovers of different skin coloring to represent bringing diverse elements into harmony. And of course the kiss is essential - the flowing together, the blending, the essential breath of each flowing into the other and creating a deep, binding unity.

One of the more famous love poems in Western culture is Paul's paean to love in 1 Corinthians 13. He uses the word αγάπη (agape) in this, which basically means complete, unconditional love. I couldn't think of a better quote for this week's theme:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

The music video I chose for this week's theme is more proof that at heart I'm a sappy romantic. Heh, heh! I couldn't help myself; I fed the word "kiss" into YouTube's search engine, and hidden in the mass of videos by the rock group Kiss was this little gem I remembered from the '90s. Yup, Seal singing "Kiss From a Rose". I love that song! This is a live version from 2004 in Wembley Stadium, part of a tribute to Trevor Horn, who was Seal's producer. Enjoy!

Artwork, photo, and text © 2009 by A, Roy Hilbinger