Your Color VIbe for Wednesday, 2/12

Wednesday, February 12:    Burnt Orange

Things are shifting today as you begin to become more aware of the dimensions at work.  You will be finding yourself not quite centered or into things when you are out and about, at work, dealing with people, in conversation, in your car.  It is a good day to be focused, especially in traffic, for some of the energetic bursts can make things seem to be what they really are not in the 3D.  This is a day of distraction.  It is a good time to make your distractions work for you.  Some of then are really in-between times when you are contacting more than the mere here and now.  If you find yourself moving into a shimmery kind of moment, then it is good to ground yourself.  If you are doing something that needs your attention in the 3D, ask for the moment to return, and know that the impression come back when you are able to deal with it.  This a kind of pivotal day in many ways, so when you are able take time to be with WHO you are in all that you are and to know your connectedness and open the conversation with Goddess/God, All That Is, the Universal Consciousness, however you deem to call it.  There are answers there.  Open, allow, and receive.

Note:  This Mercury Retrograde has started out on a very tough note and will continue so.  You can ride the waves peacefully and harmoniously if you will work with the energies that are there and not attempt to run counter.

Dangerous Quake – Xinjiang, CHina

Extremely dangerous earthquake in Xinjiang, China

Last update: February 12, 2014 at 1:40 pm by By

Update 13:24 UTC : Cattle is reportedly killed in the greater epicenter area. Some train connections where temporarily suspended in Xinjiang but where restored after inspection of the rails proved that no damage was inflicted (at a big distance from the epicenter).
the picture below shows the (beautiful) scenery in the valley near the epicenter. The epicenter is located in the (not visible) mountains behind this picture. People in Xinjiang are used to earthquakes, even strong earthquakes but primitive old houses are very vulnerable for damage.

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Update 11:59 UTC : The Xinjiang seismological authority reports that several houses collapsed in the greater epicenter area. We expect more news from the rescue teams in 1 to 2 hours. The Chinese Earthquake response is one of the quickest and best organized in the world. China has a history of many cruel earthquakes sometimes with +100000 fatalities.
A new shake-map has been published by USGS. They are now reporting a IX MMI in the unpopulated epicenter area.

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Update 11:33 UTC :
Official statement from the Xinjiang Earthquake authority :
Yutian County, 7.3 magnitude earthquake.
The Xinjiang autonomous Seismological Bureau immediately launched an emergency plan. We try to quickly find out what happened in the epicenter area and called Yutian County by telephone. Locations in Yutian county felt the earthquake strongly. Buildings in Yutian are reported with cracks. No word of  casualties so far.
Officers have been send to the epicenter area to investigate the disaster. Autonomous Region Seismological Bureau intends to sent a 23 people on-site work team with a  flight to conduct field work. Hotan Prefecture Earthquake Seismic Bureau has rushed staff  to the quake zone to report on the disaster. China Seismological Bureau will sent 13 people for earthquake fieldwork  and to assist the local governments to carry out emergency work days.

Update 10:27 UTC: A rescue team was sent by the Xinjiang government to check the affected area.

Update 09:54 UTC : An aftershock of M5.7 @ 5 km depth is just reported by one of my colleagues. Such an aftershock alone can be damaging in China!

Update 09:53 UTC : Max Wyss reports that he expects 0 to 50 fatalities and 0 to 120 injured but his data is based on the USGS data who report a Magnitude of 6.8 at 2 km. Chinese data are more dangerous at 7.3 at 12 km deep. Max Wyss also reports that only 1 small settlement is located within the 50 km radius around the epicenter.

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Update 09:49 UTC : A similar strength earthquake along the same fault killed 100 people in 1924!

Update 09:41 UTC : CEIC, the seismological agency of the Chinese government is reporting a Magnitude of 7.3 at a depth of 12 km !

Update 09:39 UTC : The epicenter is located in a sparsely populated area, but the Magnitude is so strong that we expect serious damage and injured people in a radius of  at least 50 km.

This earthquake is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS for all villages in a radius of 50 km around the epicenter. Slight damage can be expected in a radius as far as 150 km from the epicenter.

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844 km NE of Ludhiāna, India / pop: 1,545,368 / local time: 14:49:48.0 2014-02-12
739 km NE of Shimla, India / pop: 173,503 / local time: 14:49:48.0 2014-02-12
277 km SE of Hotan, China / pop: 114,000 / local time: 17:19:48.0 2014-02-12

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : 6.9

Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2014-02-12 17:19:50

GMT/UTC Time : 2014-02-12 09:19:50

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2014/02/12/very-strong-earthquake-southern-xinjiang-china-on-february-12-2014/

Feb 11 – Take A Stand Against Surveillance

Feb. 11 Is ‘The Day We Fight Back’ Against NSA Surveillance

The Huffington Post  | by  Alexis Kleinman

More than 5,300 web-based companies and other organizations, including Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr, Mozilla the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, have joined forces to protest National Security Agency surveillance on Feb. 11.

“In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history,” the site’s letter to Internet users reads. “In celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA two years ago, and in memory of one of its leaders, Aaron Swartz, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.”

The “The Day We Fight Back” website urges webpage owners to add a banner to their websites directing people to contact legislators by phone and email. The organization is also trying to manufacture memes to be shared on Facebook and Twitter for the event.

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Such Internet-based protests have one major precedent in the U.S. On Jan. 18, 2012, over 8,000 websites went dark for 12 hours in protest of a pair of bills being debated in U.S. Congress that would have allowed copyright holders to shut websites down without a trial. Both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) died in committee in the wake of protests.

Organizers of this week’s event plan to commemorate Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz, who was instrumental in the SOPA and PIPA protests. He was indicted on charges of giving non-subscribers free access to articles on JSTOR in 2011 and took his own life two years later.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/10/the-day-we-fight-back_n_4759693.html

Deepak CHopra on Forgiving Yourself

Deepak Chopra: The One True Key To Forgiving Yourself

Posted:

By Deepak Chopra

The spiritual leader and author of What Are You Hungry For? The Chopra Solution to Permanent Weight Loss, Well-Being, and Lightness of Soul examines how we can find self-acceptance.

Somehow, even in a culture that values forgiveness, guilt isn’t so easy to erase. If you have done something you are deeply ashamed of or guilty about, your feelings lie somewhere on the following scale: I did a terrible thing; I have a terrible secret; Someone made me feel that I am a terrible person; or, I am a terrible person.

These statements are mixed together in our psyche, and getting them straight is the key to forgiving yourself. Doing a bad thing is not the same as being a bad person. Imagine a small child who is caught taking cookies from the cookie jar, and her mother scolds her. If the child is young enough, she can’t separate “I did a bad thing” from “I am bad.” And since the one who is making her feel guilty is her mother, the guilt that results comes with absolute authority. (This is one reason some psychologists claim that the gods and goddesses are actually stand-ins for our parents — they make us feel small, weak and vulnerable by comparison.)

As an adult, let’s say you do something that by your standards is a guilty action. You cheated on your income tax or on your spouse; you faked a job resume or got a good friend into trouble. You can’t forgive yourself by simply putting the bad action in proportion and moving on.

So what to do? The most effective ways to rid yourself of guilt are the following:

1. Confess to an authority figure and ask for their forgiveness.
2. Perform an act of atonement.
3. Pray for divine forgiveness.
4. Perform a ritual of contrition and appeasement.

It’s often pointed out how psychologically effective the Catholic confessional proves to be (all four approaches to erasing guilt are included). But the effectiveness of these steps diminishes if you don’t have deep faith. Even if you have no religious faith at all, the key to forgiving yourself remains the same: You must believe that you have been forgiven.

In most cases, living with guilt is far worse than going to the person you have wronged, confessing your misdeed and asking to be forgiven. Even if they say no, you have brought your guilty secret to light, and that’s a major step.

Some people are so ashamed that they can’t bring themselves to tell anyone their secret. The result is the worst kind of guilt, that festers inside with no chance for relief. If you feel that you have this kind of deep guilt, you must still find a way to believe that you are forgiven. You may have to take baby steps to get there. For example:

1. Write a letter confessing your secret. Include every detail. Take your time to make sure that you have left nothing out. When you are certain that the letter is complete, perform a ritual where you burn the letter or consign it to the sea — anything that will totally obliterate it. As you do this, say, “I put my guilt behind me. Now it belongs to God (or the universe).” Repeat this ritual several times, as needed. You may not completely absolve yourself, but you will be bringing your guilt to the light, which is the only place where healing psychological scars can occur.

2. Put your misdeed on someone else’s shoulders, imagining that the guilt isn’t yours. Now sit in judgment. Write out in detail what punishment this person deserves, and at the same time include reasons for mercy. Consider the balance between punishment and forgiveness. Most guilty people will be much more lenient on someone else than on themselves. This exercise gives you a perspective on your guilty feelings.

3. Adopt a mantra that you say to yourself the moment that a guilty memory or feeling arises. The following phrases are particularly effective: “I’m not that person anymore;” or “My attention belongs in the present;” or “I am not here to suffer anymore.” Choose the appropriate phrase and repeat it, without fail, every time you feel guilty. In this way, you are not only telling yourself the truth, for you aren’t the person anymore who committed a past misdeed, but you are also giving your brain a new, more positive input. This will help to wean it off the old wiring that keeps messaging guilt long after guilt is deserved.

No matter how big or small your guilty secret, no matter if your guilt is nagging or crushing, the goal is always the same. Do whatever it takes until you truly believe that you have been forgiven.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/10/how-to-forgive-yourself-deepak-chopra_n_4697921.html?utm_hp_ref=gps-for-the-soul&ir=GPS+for+the+Soul

THe Power of Nature, Art, and Belief

He Filled a Forest With These. What Happened Next Is Heart Shattering

Feb 10

Imagine devoting your life to carving one of the greatest sculpture gardens in the world- and then losing everything…

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This is the incredibly inspiring story of Bruno Torfs: How it began, how it was taken away, and how he made the best out of the worst thing imaginable.

Bruno was born in South America and lived there with his family till the age of fifteen. At this point the whole family made the move to Europe in seek of new opportunities. After working as a sign writer Bruno made a gradual transition to become a fulltime artist. Through his diverse talents and a spirit for adventure Bruno created a unique style full of culture and character. This was achieved through his many trips around the world.

Sketching the scenes and faces of his journeys allowed Bruno to return home and make oil painting and sculpture versions of his experiences. These artworks would then be sold in a series of annual exhibitions hosted in the lower levels of the family home.

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After several years of this lifestyle, Bruno and the family made a decision to pack up and move to Australia to create a sculpture garden that he would run as a permanent attraction.The family arrived in Melbourne and shortly after had found the perfect place in the small Victorian village of Marysville. The luscious sub-alpine forests of the surrounding area – were the ideal setting for Bruno’s plan and luckily the property he purchased he a large section of rain forest attached. After five months of backbreaking work Bruno’s art and sculpture garden was opened to the public. Also on the property was a gallery that housed over 200 of his artworks brought over from Europe that included oil paintings, sketches and smaller sculptures.

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The garden began with just fifteen life sizes terracotta sculptures, which evolved into over one hundred and fifteen pieces on display. The amazing sculptures attracted thousands of visitors each year.

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But then disaster engulfed the town of Marysville and swept his beloved garden . . .

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In February 2009,  the Black Saturday bushfires overwhelmed the area. A series of bushfires ignited across the Australian state of Victoria claiming everything in their wake. They resulted in Australia’s highest loss of life from a bushfire to date. Bruno and the rest of the town were prohibited from entering the town for two whole months while authorities conducted an investigation and attempted to identify victims.

This was an unimaginable time of grief for the townsfolk of Marysville, not knowning what remained of their lives. Bruno received overwhelming support from friends, family, and perfect strangers from all over the world.

Bruno knew his gallery, garden, and home were completely destroyed before getting a chance to see for himself. The images below were taken the day Bruno was finally granted permission to return home.

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 The amount of sculpture that survived the blaze was a miracle.

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With the help of friends and family, rebuilding Bruno’s home and gallery took less than two months!

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After that it was time to start planting. The native ferns rebounded vigorously and the green slowly returned to the area. Unfortunately it will be many years before the forest resembles the old lush wonderland, but that hasn’t discouraged Bruno one bit.

What the gardens are looking like now…

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Bruno’s words: “The bushfires deeply touched us all in many ways. It allowed me to see that people had a heart for each other, that when things really got dark, the best in us comes out. We have lost a lot, but life also provides us opportunities to gain a new vision, lots of new friends and a blank canvas to play. In the meantime, nature is already regenerating itself. The green is slowly returning and the rivers are flowing, finding new ways”.

Bruno’s story is a huge inspiration. Remember his struggle next time you have “dark” problems of your own. Perhaps it will provide you with the strength you need to breathe and watch ‘nature regenerate itself.’
Read more at http://www.realfarmacy.com/he-filled-a-forest-with-these-what-happened-next-is-heart-shattering/#7zZ5pGfRqBg1ZCCv.99

 

 

Your Color VIbe for Saturday, 2/08/14

Saturday, February 8:   Banana Yellow

You must be on vacation….   Anyhow, you might be feeling that way when you get up in the morning.  You are trying very hard to hide from stuff that has been perplexing your reality of late, and the best way for doing that?  Well, you know the answer.  There are answers that work and answers that do not work and you can find out the difference between the two today.  Things will not appear right, so when you have that happening, take time to analyze where you are, what you are thinking, what is being said, what is being planned, etc.  Perhaps there is something in all of that which needs to be altered, changed, tweaked, omitted.  There is work to do today on many levels, and that vacation, it will have to wait.

Planet Sized Object Approaching Earth

Professor At Univ Of Texas Gives Coordinates Of Planet Inbound Toward Earth, UFO Sighting News.

Date closest to Earth: August 2014
Source: Proffessor At Univ of Texas
Planets speed: 10,713,600 miles per day
Turner: http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/237-pat
Video link (gone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmeLFeCahu0

Coordinates to see this inbound planet are:
Right Ascension:  04 hrs.  08 Min.   08 Sec.
Declination: 60 degrees  56 arc min.  43 arc sec.
Moving toward earth at 200 Kps


Turner Radio Network states (More At Source):
According to Dr. Kaplan, the planet-sized object will be at Earth by August, 2014.  Kaplan says prior to its arrival, Earth will experience more and more adverse effects from the gravity of this planet.  TRN inquired of other astronomy and geological experts and they told us that if Kaplan’s  scenario is true, the problems Earth will experience would begin with weather anomalies and tidal anomalies, will increase to earthquakes then volcanic eruptions as Earth’s magma is pulled by the gravity of the approaching planet.  The experts went on to tell us the troubles would increase further to horrific tsunamis 1000 meters high, moving at 1200 kilometers per hour striking coastal regions around the Earth and, ultimately, when this planet is closest by August 2014, Earth will suffer widespread destruction from shifting tectonic plates on a massive scale.  One expert even claimed that depending upon the size and gravity of the planet, and its angle of approach, the gravity of this other planet could actually STOP the Earth from rotating on its axis.  He likened it to a vehicle traveling at 1,000 miles per hour, and having the brakes slammed on; the resulting inertia of all objects on earth would cause them to continue moving while the earth was stopping; sort of like what happens in a car wreck when the car suddenly stops, but the passengers fly forward from their own inertia.   While Kaplan himself did not make any such claims, he did say the approach and  passage of this planet “will reconstruct the surface of the Earth into something we don’t even know.”

Video:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AGCLj7r3VM
article source:    http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2014/02/professor-at-univ-of-texas-gives.html

Pandemic Check

Keep this in mind when they try to sell you a pandemic

image source

Jon Rappoport
Activist Post

Researchers are making noises about a possible new pandemic. One or more variations of bird flu. And of course, in all these ramp-ups, the bottom line is: get vaccinated.

The so-called pandemics train you to obey, so you’ll take all the shots they recommend for every disease, like a good little muffin.

“Seasonal flu? Pandemic flu? Meningitis? Hepatitis? Whooping cough? Measles? Polio? Martian Traveler’s Disease? Venusian Restless Leg? Gimme everything you’ve got. Inject me! Protect me!”

Here are few items to consider when the pandemic professionals start grinding out media warnings.

How many confirmed cases of the disease in question are there, at that moment? Ten? Fifty? A thousand? Out of a population of eight billion?

For example, as Peter Doshi pointed out in BMJ online, when the big push on Swine Flu started, in the spring of 2009, there were only 20 purported cases of Swine Flu. Twenty. (BMJ Online, v.339, b3471)

This is a pandemic?

The mere claim that “a novel virus,” never before seen, has emerged in humans is NOT a slam-dunk for a pandemic. Not by a long shot.

Swine Flu was supposed to be one of those, and it was a dud. The number of deaths reported was far lower than the numbers traditionally reported for seasonal flus.

Number 2, how are doctors or researchers testing patients to confirm they have “pandemic flu?” This is a big issue. If, for example it’s antibody testing, they’re conning you straight out. Why? Because the presence of antibodies (a scouting component of the immune system) is not a sure sign that the person has been ill, is ill now, or will become ill.

Antibodies only indicate a person has contacted the virus in question. That’s it. And until the mid-1980s, when the science was turned upside down for no good reason, a positive antibody test was normally taken to mean the person’s immune system was healthy and had kicked out the virus.

If doctors and researchers are testing people for some purported pandemic virus using the PCR method, there are other problems. The PCR is a procedure that takes tiny, tiny fragments of organic matter from a patient and amplifies them, blows them up, so they can be recognized and read.

However, there is no sure-fire guarantee these fragments are really pieces of viruses. And if the original extraction of such organic material yielded so little from the patient, how on earth would one assume it was causing illness?

Which brings us to the next point. In determining whether a patient has some pandemic illness, and especially early in the game when researchers are still trying to figure out what’s going on, they need to actually isolate that virus from the patient and show it is present in huge numbers in his body. Otherwise, there is no reason to infer the virus is causing disease.

The purported cases of flu in patients could be coming from a number of different factors. A person might be ill as a result of: toxic chemicals, environmental or pharmaceutical; nutritional deficits; stress; parasites, etc.

The biggest issue is: the strength or weakness of that person’s immune system.

In devastated areas, where poverty, contaminated water supplies, starvation, lack of basic sanitation, and overcrowding are chronic, many germs can sweep through the population and cause death, because these people’s immune systems are shot, compromised, on the way out, and can’t defend against the germs.

The same germs, in an affluent area, would cause little harm.

The bottom-line is, to know what is making a person ill, you have to examine that person for many different factors. You can’t just say, “Well, we found a virus in him and therefore that’s why he is sick.”

That’s not science, that’s hype. That’s not research, that’s PR.

As the hype expands and health agencies like the CDC and WHO announce there are thousands of cases of pandemic flu and deaths, they don’t tell you how they’re counting.

That’s a gross omission. For instance, in the summer of 2009, the CDC stopped testing patients who walked into clinics and hospitals with generalized “flu symptoms.” The CDC just assumed they were all suffering from Swine Flu. CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson reported this fact and it caused a firestorm, until the story was cut off at the knees by the CBS news division.

You want to know what really happens when so-called flu patients are tested?

Here’s a quote from Peter Doshi’s BMJ review, “Influenza: marketing vaccines by marketing disease” (BMJ 2013; 346:f3037):

“…most ‘flu’ appears to have nothing to do with influenza. Every year, hundreds of thousands of respiratory specimens are tested across the US. Of those tested, on average 16% are found to be influenza positive.”

Boom.

Doshi then states: “…It’s no wonder so many people feel that ‘flu shots’ don’t work: for most flus, they can’t.”

In other words, even if you believe in vaccines, even if you think they’re wonderful and the world would collapse without them, when it comes to the flu, things are not what they seem. 84% of supposed or suspected or diagnosed flu patients are falsely labeled. Even by loose conventional standards, they don’t have the flu. It’s a mirage.

Jon Rappoport is the author of two explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed and Exit From the Matrix, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

from:    http://www.activistpost.com/2014/02/keep-this-in-mind-when-they-try-to-sell.html

Your Color Vibe for Thursday, February 6

Thursday, February 6:    Cloudy Red

This is a day for remembering.  So much has happened recently that you have not truly given yourself time to process it fully.  Look at the past year, and take some time to see the highlights and the lowlights.  There is something that you have learned from each of those experiences.  Look also at your circle of friends.  Do changes need to be made?  Look at yourself?  Who are you right now.  Be aware, also, that the Trickster is about today.  He will attempt to confuse you in this process, but you know better than he.  This is a great time for being strong in WHO you are and opening the true eyes of the heart to see beyond the seemings of the Trickster into the truth behind it all, for even the Trickster hides the truth if you are strong enough to follow the hints he gives.

The 6 Words for Love in Ancient Greek

The Ancient Greeks’ 6 Words for Love (And Why Knowing Them Can Change Your Life)

Looking for an antidote to modern culture’s emphasis on romantic love? Perhaps we can learn from the diverse forms of emotional attachment prized by the ancient Greeks.

by Roman Krznaric

posted Dec 27, 2013

This article originally appeared in Sojourners.

Grave relief. Photo by Tilemahos Efthimiadis.

A Greek sculpture from the fourth century B.C. Photo by Tilemahos Efthimiadis / Flickr.

Today’s coffee culture has an incredibly sophisticated vocabulary. Do you want a cappuccino, an espresso, a skinny latte, or maybe an iced caramel macchiato?

Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks.

The ancient Greeks were just as sophisticated in the way they talked about love, recognizing six different varieties. They would have been shocked by our crudeness in using a single word both to whisper “l love you” over a candlelit meal and to casually sign an email “lots of love.”

So what were the six loves known to the Greeks? And how can they inspire us to move beyond our current addiction to romantic love, which has 94 percent of young people hoping—but often failing—to find a unique soul mate who can satisfy all their emotional needs?

1. Eros, or sexual passion

The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn’t always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. In fact, eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude shared by many later spiritual thinkers, such as the Christian writer C.S. Lewis.

Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks. Which is odd, because losing control is precisely what many people now seek in a relationship. Don’t we all hope to fall “madly” in love?

2. Philia, or deep friendship

The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros. Philia concerned the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them. (Another kind of philia, sometimes called storge, embodied the love between parents and their children.)

We can all ask ourselves how much of this comradely philia we have in our lives. It’s an important question in an age when we attempt to amass “friends” on Facebook or “followers” on Twitter—achievements that would have hardly impressed the Greeks.

3. Ludus, or playful love

This was the Greeks’ idea of playful love, which referred to the affection between children or young lovers. We’ve all had a taste of it in the flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship. But we also live out our ludus when we sit around in a bar bantering and laughing with friends, or when we go out dancing.

Dancing with strangers may be the ultimate ludic activity, almost a playful substitute for sex itself. Social norms may frown on this kind of adult frivolity, but a little more ludus might be just what we need to spice up our love lives.

4. Agape, or love for everyone

The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love. This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.”

C.S. Lewis referred to it as “gift love,” the highest form of Christian love. But it also appears in other religious traditions, such as the idea of mettā or “universal loving kindness” in Theravāda Buddhism.

There is growing evidence that agape is in a dangerous decline in many countries. Empathy levels in the U.S. have declined sharply over the past 40 years, with the steepest fall occurring in the past decade. We urgently need to revive our capacity to care about strangers.

5. Pragma, or longstanding love

Another Greek love was the mature love known as pragma. This was the deep understanding that developed between long-married couples.

Pragma was about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.

The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm said that we expend too much energy on “falling in love” and need to learn more how to “stand in love.” Pragma is precisely about standing in love—making an effort to give love rather than just receive it. With about a third of first marriages in the U.S. ending through divorce or separation in the first 10 years, the Greeks would surely think we should bring a serious dose of pragma into our relationships.

6. Philautia, or love of the self

The Greek’s sixth variety of love was philautia or self-love. And the clever Greeks realized there were two types. One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where you became self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune. A healthier version enhanced your wider capacity to love.

How Should We Live by Roman Krznaric.

This article is based on the author’s new book, How Should We Live? Great Ideas from the Past for Everyday Life.

The idea was that if you like yourself and feel secure in yourself, you will have plenty of love to give others (as is reflected in the Buddhist-inspired concept of “self-compassion”). Or, as Aristotle put it, “All friendly feelings for others are an extension of a man’s feelings for himself.”

The ancient Greeks found diverse kinds of love in relationships with a wide range of people—friends, family, spouses, strangers, and even themselves. This contrasts with our typical focus on a single romantic relationship, where we hope to find all the different loves wrapped into a single person or soul mate. The message from the Greeks is to nurture the varieties of love and tap into its many sources. Don’t just seek eros, but cultivate philia by spending more time with old friends, or develop ludus by dancing the night away.

Moreover, we should abandon our obsession with perfection. Don’t expect your partner to offer you all the varieties of love, all of the time (with the danger that you may toss aside a partner who fails to live up to your desires). Recognize that a relationship may begin with plenty of eros and ludus, then evolve toward embodying more pragma or agape.

The diverse Greek system of loves can also provide consolation. By mapping out the extent to which all six loves are present in your life, you might discover you’ve got a lot more love than you had ever imagined—even if you feel an absence of a physical lover.

It’s time we introduced the six varieties of Greek love into our everyday way of speaking and thinking. If the art of coffee deserves its own sophisticated vocabulary, then why not the art of love?


Roman Krznaric is an Australian cultural thinker and cofounder of The School of Life in London. This article is based on his new book, How Should We Live? Great Ideas from the Past for Everyday Life (BlueBridge). His website is www.romankrznaric.com and he tweets @romankrznaric.

from:    http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/the-ancient-greeks-6-words-for-love-and-why-knowing-them-can-change-your-life