Romantic love can take us through the highest heights and the lowest lows. When in the process of falling in love, what we see in our lover and what s/he sees in us are the reflections of the Divine within the observer – not actually from the lover being observed.
In other words, what we see in our lover is the projection of our own vision of the Divine onto the lover; and if the love is mutual, we carry that same vision from them. We really are just looking at ourselves, at our highest level, embodied within another person. We can continue this dance only as long as both lovers can submit to the projection of their lovers’ Divinity.
As the fires of passion fade, the new view of the lover becomes the shadow of the observer. So when the passion fades we project our worst parts onto our lover and they often do the same to us. This is when the Romance falters; the high has faded. This can also signal the end of the relationship unless the couple can begin to transcend the Romance by forming a lasting or human love.
In essence, Romantic love cannot stand the test of time. What we love in the other is what we truly love within ourselves. After this fades, we begin to find fault in the other, as a projection of the things we hate about ourselves. Thus romantic love is just us looking at ourselves in another; the best and the worst.
To transcend this type of love, we must develop a friendship with our lover. As friends accept the best and worst in their friends – as they are, essentially we can avoid both the Divinity and shadow projection of ourselves onto others…as well as their projections onto us.
In my humble opinion, first we must become our own best friends. When we truly love and respect ourselves ~ our highs and lows ~ then we are less likely to project our highs and lows onto others, because we already accept their presence within ourselves. Thus, once we are our own best friends, we can then more easily build friendships with our lovers.
Somehow Western Love downplays friendship within couples. In fact, romance and friendship are in opposition. Romance is a projection of ourselves onto others whereas friendship is the acceptance of who someone is, as is. Learning to love ourselves can be our greatest mission as well as greatest challenge.
Some cultures, like the Hindu, have figured out that Divine projection and lasting love do not mix. They honor the Divine form of both genders in art work, ceremonies, statues and celebrations. Couples then do not need to find the divine within their lovers. There is a great freedom in this, for couples accept one another as they are and neither needs to carry the Divinity of the other. Humans can only carry the energy of the Divine for so long.
While we cannot change our cultural views of Romantic Love overnight, we can begin to open our eyes to the harm of continuing to project our greatness and our darkness onto others, particularly in the area of couples. Perhaps this is why the divorce rate continues to climb?
Concepts taken from We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert A Johnson
Additional reading:
Michael at Cream of the Planet in Romantic Love: Hearts on Fire
Namaste
unfiltered from the heart 
This is the reason to know thyself after a breakup, no? As for the divorce aspect, I believe that there are other factors of divorce just as weighted such as coping skills to get through hard issues and a very basic ability/ trait/ outlook on life to be more joyful than apathetic as a rule but knowing yourself as you speak of here seems like the best form to be in to love yourself and others. Thank you for this.
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Thank you, Jayne! Yes, I agree there are more traits necessary for a lasting marriage, and I missed making that clear. Yet here my focus was on how Romantic Love sets us up for relationship failure.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
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I don’t think you missed anything. Your topic brings other things to my mind but I do agree with what you’ve pointed out. I have a question for you since you’ve thought on this. Do you think that romance can exist in other ways if Romantic Love is no longer the draw to another?
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Yes, I do believe Romance still can play a role in “human love.” Absolutely. However, I believe/feel the difference is it is not as intoxicating as Romantic Love and, instead, is one form of expression of love for one another.
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I was hoping for that response. It actually sounds just as satisfying just in a different manner.
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I think the movie “Playing by Heart” has this topic as a storyline with the main couple.
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I’ll have to check it out! Thank you.
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First we must become our own best friends…yes! And I also truly believe our lover must be our best friend. Love this. 💜
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Thank you, Kay!
I really enjoyed your new post. SO glad I caught it, being my absent recently!
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You’re welcome, Tiffany. 💜
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. We are having fun seeing we’re this takes us.
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Thank you for sharing this post and the link to mine 💖 If readers truly think about and grasp the depth of what you sharing, it is potentially a life-changing awakening that can remove a lot of sadness we feel in our love lives. We still need to tend to and celebrate our divine projection but that is our garden to tend to. Art, writing, and fantasy play with lovers are paths we can choose. It isn’t someone else’s role to personify our anima/animus or divine projection. I like where you have gone with your discussion, lessons you have learned and shared with us, and how you are moving towards integrating it into your life💞😘
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You’re welcome, Michael! I was grateful to reread your post last night and wanted to offer readers more information about the topic so your post seemed a natural fit for those wanting more info.
Glad you liked the direction of the post. Thank you for your continued support, sexy! I almost got sidetracked by your recent cameo, was a challenge to not peek 🙂 I hope you are well! 💋❤️
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Haha! Loved the cameo comment…funny and so very naughty :-* I like that you were tempted to peek. You are a very sexy, special, and thoughtful woman ❤
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You’re welcome! Thank you for the awesome compliments. I’ve missed your fire 🔥😘
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I know, we need to get our frisky on…we are too serious lately!🍆😃
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Oh, that starts a few sparks! Is that an offer?😈
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Great article. I don’t think I can disagree on any points. I do strongly agree that we project onto our lovers our own perspective of divinity. I also agree that we may end up projecting our own shadows as well.
In many relationships I’ve been in I can see how I projected my own shadows onto the other person thus “clouding” my perception of the other’s true self.
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Thank you for your support! Yes, I believe we all have that projection issue to some degree. Maybe it’s not possible to achieve true neutrality… ❤️
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