Patterns that Connect: Marc Gafni

The Fourth Face of Eros:
The Interconnectivity of Being

Patterns that Connect

Longing, desire and tears remind us of the fourth strand in the erotic weave. They whisper to us that we are all interconnected. No human stands alone. The word “religion” traces its source to the Latin root ligare which, similar to ligament, is about connectivity. Religion’s goal then is to re-ligare — to reconnect us. Religion’s original intention was to take us to that inside place where could indeed experience the essential interconnectivity of all reality. All of existence is one great quilt of being and we are all patches in its magnificent multifaceted pattern.

Eros is what allows us to move past the feeling of isolation and separation and experience ourselves as part of the quilt. To sunder our connection to eros is therefore to sin. Not only would we lose the source of life’s greatest pleasure, but we would undermine the building blocks of connection without which the world would ultimately collapse.