LOVE RULES. Yes, I am a romantic at heart. I have always believed in the power of love to be a healing force in this world. But now I know there is something even greater. My first book was on romantic love and I remember how for inspiration I would record "mixed tapes" of songs that represented the kind of love my soul longed for. One of those artists was Stevie Winwood's Bring Me a Higher Love. When I hear it today, 10 years later, I still love it.

Ever since then I have been on a quest to grow my understanding of what True Love really is. Allow me to share my findings. During my 20+ years of reading and researching this topic, I have discovered that there are four kinds of human love:

• Fantasy love is the erotic style and based on infatuation of the physical kind. Fantasy relationships are high in intensity but fleeting, and often end in disaster.
• False love is the pragmatic style and based on a business arrangement of the mental kind. False relationships are high in security and last as long as both parties are in agreement.
• Romantic love is a blend of erotic & pragmatic with a dash of emotional and based on the human arrangement of the survival kind. Romantic relationships are high on the priority list of modern human beings and last, again, as long as both parties are in agreement.
• Divine Love is the spiritual style and based on divine order of the souls involved. Divine relationships are an expression of purity and require surrendering to a higher purpose. Divine Love is ever-lasting.

New Thoughts on True Love
The first three kinds of love are limiting because they are formed from the personality of two human beings instead of their divinity. As such, duality reigns supreme: highs and lows, love and hate, togetherness and separateness. These relationships are much like a roller coaster ride, which both thrills and chills.

Love is not about "he or she is so smart and gorgeous," "we love the same things," "we think the same way," "we have so much in common," or "we like the same foods." True Love is deeper and way more challenging than that. Divine Love is a gift to the sincere seeker of Truth who allows love to alchemize herself to become more aware, purposeful, and alive.

As Michael Brown of the Presence Process says, love is not about sleeping together, love is about waking up together. St. Germain says that True Love is always understanding and not always understood. Truly, there is a Oneness that presides over a sacred union.

The love equation of fantasy, false and romantic love is this: 1 +1= 2. It works like this. Two personalities who need someone else to complete them, decide (consciously or unconsciously) to join so they can each pursue their own gratifications. The relationship is formed around their external life events, roles and commitments.

Divine Love is created in a radically different way and may even seem beyond belief at first thought. The love equation of Divine Love is 1 +1= 1.

As I understand it, two souls who know they themselves as the Source of Love are joined by God/Goddess/All That Is. They often meet in a synchronistic way - some might even call it destiny. Life is formed around the relationship, and often brings radical transformations in each person, their livelihoods and even living situations.

All relationships serve to grow our soul and offer healing to unresolved aspects of our psyche. In the first three kinds of love, you experience "falling in love."

With Divine Love, you experience rising in love.

We all need a higher love.

It is high time human beings evolve in their capacity for intimacy, as more Love is what our world most needs right now and forevermore.

Divine Love Defined
By my definition, a God-given love breaks open our souls like never before, demolishes the protective shield around our hearts, lifts the mental fog, and softens our bodies to receive.

Divine Love allows both people to become great for the Divine - to become so full of who they are in order to share fully and deeply divine attributes like love, joy, peace, faith with each other and for the greater good of humanity.

Divine Love is a catalyst for growth (that is the waking up part). The light of Divine Love reveals all the unhealed aspects of your psyche. As such, it is challenging to the ego, to say the least. As long as your ego is calling the shots, Divine Love will wither right before your very eyes. For Divine Love to blossom into its fullest glory, allow your soul to take the lead, let your heart be undefended, and offer forgiveness early and often.

Divine Love will bring up all that is unlike love to give you the opportunity to cleanse, clear, and purify yourself to make room for the miracle.

This is usually a growth process, which involves missing the mark repeatedly while you learn new ways of loving and relating; and literally placing the relationship on God's alter.

If you are strong enough and smart enough to see the long-term value of sticking with this divine love curriculum, two will become one. In sacred union, you become unifed and sanctified, resulting in a higher attraction/magnetization vibration which leads to a quantum leap forward.

Because Divine Love is eternal, it is powerful. When two souls dedicated to raising the consciousness of the planet, harmonize and synchronize in masculine and feminine energies, it is a force to be reckoned with. This is the level of love I am after (and refuse to settle for less). Tall order. Yes. Possible. Yes.

Will you be brave enough to ask and divine enough to receive?

As Jessica Cochran said, God made many puzzle pieces but only those two 'cut out' for each other can fit together to create a perfect and beautiful picture.

There is someone perfectly made for you. Realize though, the image you have in your head about who would be ideal is going to be different than The One truly meant for you. There really is a higher love. And God has the big picture view of what is needed for your maximum soul's growth and evolution.

Go with it. Trust it. Grow from it.
You will then see and feel how great Divine Love is, was and will be eternally.

© 2008, Dr. Michelle Caastro

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Self-empowerment expert Dr. Michelle L. Casto is known as the Soul Coach because she delves deep into her client’s psyche to shed light on what is longing to be seen and expressed. She is the founder and principal of Get Smart! and Brightlight Coaching, a professional training, coaching, and publishing company.

Her work as an entrepreneur, author, speaker and coach has resulted in her international recognition as an expert in the field of self-help and spiritual development. One of her purposes in life is to empower millions of people from all over the world to attract more success and happiness by learning to graduate from their default life to their divine life.

Visit virtually and gain free inspiration:
www.smartlifechanges.com, www.getsmartseries.com, www.brightlightcoach.com.