Eros vs Amor

[AquarianEssence]

As we speak Eros is at the final degree of Libra conjunct Amor's north node at 29*. This just happens to be the degree of my Sappho so I'm not surprised that today the question of the real difference between the two, atrologically, would come up.

I've only read specific opinion on Amor in one place, that saying that Amor is the capacity for unconditional, platonic and spiritual love. Of course, the two are the same in myth, erotic love, so I'm not sure were the platonic came from. I tend to always connect spiritual love with eros, it's just natural for me. But that may be because they are trine with Amor being in the 9th. Also Amor=Mars/Jupiter at a critical degree and is the MP of my bowl chart. Eros will soon cross my Saturn in Scorpio and Amor will soon cross my Eros. I've often wondered if ,when there is an intense eros connection between two, if it isn't coming from the higher self, the spirit, and if so, what the consequences could be for repressing or denying eros.

So, what I'd like to know is, do you see a difference in Eros and Amor in your charts? Amor is the Spanish, Latin version of Eros. I've heard of the reputation of those Latin lovers. Is it a spiritual quest? Is that sterotypical lover capable of platonic relationships when amor is involved?

Could Amor be where we teach and learn how to love truely, to transform erotic passion into compassion and understanding, to connect sex with spiritual love?

[Kim Falconer]

Hi Aquarianessence,

This is an important question. We have asteroids/planets out there that are basically different names for the same archetypal energy--Zeus & Jupiter, Hera & Juno, Lilith, Lilith & Lilith, and as you point out, Eros, Amor, (and Cupido!)

In my article on Astro-Compatibility, I gave a brief account of the meaning of other ‘relationship’ asteroids including Amor and Cupido.

The link is here:

www.falconastrology.com

I feel these similar asteroids are names for a collective energy though, like the Planet Jupiter and the asteroid Zeus, some have more potency. 433 Eros is powerful collectively as marked by the awareness of this body (the NEAR mission) and that gives Eros placements great impact.

That is not to say that Amor, and Cupido, do not have erotic undertones. I feel they do. Amor has an idealistic quality that can express as unconditional love and Cupido has a rich physicality to it, image and visuals being quite potent. These are all aspects of Eros too of course.

When we talk of ‘spiritual’ or ‘Platonic’ love we need to remember that Plato was not referring to asexual relationships. Quite the contrary. The link to celibacy and Plato, and the undervaluing of sexual intimacy, was the result of the editing of his works by early church fathers. They wanted to include elements of Platonic thought and philosophy, dovetailing it into Christian thought, but they also wanted to exclude the aspects that emphasised the value of erotic, sexual unions. Thus “Platonic love’ became non-physical. Platonic relationships, in the truest sense, are tantic, the quest of the divine through erotic and often sexual union.

When I look at Amor in the chart, I think of an Erotic energy and if it is placed prominently yes, I would link this to the potency of Eros. Are these asteroids teaching us about love in all its forms? Yes, I would agree with that!

[alejoplay]

I have Eros/Juno/Venus conjunct in my 6th and they square Amor in my 9th. What would that mean?

[AquarianEssence]

Thanks for the history on Plato, Kim. Not surprising yet another manipulation is uncovered. Editors do take quite a lot of liberties, don't they.

Alejoplay, the first thing that popped into my mind was a challenge to maintain passion in the role of the wife also being mother, employee, etc. especially hard if you are taken for granted or treated as a servant in any way, that is if you're a woman. With a man their might be a tendancy to look at his woman that way. I also see the sacred temple prostitute serving to unite man with God here, a once very honored, but now tarnished vocation. How does Vesta aspect these, if at all?

[alejoplay]

I'm actually a gay man, so the woman thing doesn't quite apply.

Vesta really makes no aspects. She's in the 3rd (Libra) but not quite opposite Amor (Aries) and not quite square Venus/Eros/Juno (Cap).

[AquarianEssence]

Sure it does. Juno, whether man or woman is about intimate relationships, commitment and the betrayal that is felt under certain circumstances. We each have a masculine and feminine nature, each take turns giving and receiving or playing the yang or yin part in the whole. Rather than being an interaction between two people, the square could be, and probably would be worked through internally between the right-left brain and masculine-feminine parts of self first. Most gay guys, my brother included, are more tuned in to their feminine nature and don't try to hide it they way most guys do.

A square is two planets or actions at cross purposes with each other because one is masculine, outgoing and the other feminine, receptive. One is the vessel, the other, what fills the vessel. That is the only possible way for sexual union to take place. Obviously, any gay couple has to work that out. But hetrosexual couples have to work it out also. The bodies have to be connected in just a certain way in order for both to integrate their masculine and feminine parts together, receive pleasure at the same time and with the same intensity that they are giving it at the same time, if you know what I mean. It takes teaching and learning to work through that break in the flow of energy found in the square.

If Eros is pure pleasure or passion and Amor is unconditional love and passion, then perhaps Eros with all that feminine energy is speaking to the pleasure, or lack of, while being the yin, the one giving pleasure to the yang. That is where one might feel betrayed, cheated out of pleasure and treated as a servant, so to speak. Amor, then, is saying through his unconditional love nature, that he should be able to give and receive pleasure at the same time. Unconditional means no boundaries, no limits, the two becoming one in every sense of the word, as much as is humanly possible. But even more than is humanly possible. That is where the spiritual oneness comes in. The spirit is, I think, bisexual in nature, both yin and yang.

I hope I explained what I was getting at well, and that I didn't get too intimate. My first husband and I had ok sex because he learned the mechanics but it was usually, make sure I was satisfied then take care of himself, not a spiritual union filled with passion at all. With my current husband the fit is perfect, it's simultaneous pleasure and we are truely one most of the time.

[alejoplay]

^hmm . . . that's interesting. In my previous relationship my Eros/Venus energy DEFINITELY was put in the role of service, while receiving very little in return. It was very frustrating and ultimately very debilitating resulting in a lot of a lot of self-esteem issues, particularly about my body/looks/sexual attractiveness (Chiron has been hovering around this point of my 6th for a while and it's on its way to my 7th in the next couple months).

Amor is not far off from my natal Chiron, and I feel like I am grappling with the issue of unconditional/symbiotic love in my head. I've been trying to work with Chiron lately, so I wonder ifthe understanding of Amor is part of that Chironic work.

[AquarianEssence]

Definately, alejoplay. Chiron is your guide and works with kundalini also. Most interpretations of the meaning of Chiron's name I've read say it means the hand. That is the Greek, cheir. This is the hollow grasping hand which is the equivilant of the Hebrew Kaph, the grasping fist. Yod is the open hand. My Greek dictionary says cheiron means, "more evil or aggrivated, sorer, worse, physically, mentally or morally." According to my Strong's concordance dictionary it is an irregular compound form of kakoetheia meaning bad character, michievousness, malignity. Kakos means bad, depraved, injurious, noisome. Ethos is the rest of the compound, meaning moral habits or manners. This word starts with Eta and is a stronger form of ethos beginning with epsilon. I think our word, ethics came from here. It says cheiron is derived from an obsolete form of cheres (looking very similar to ceres). Cheiron is interpreted as "worse" in most versions of Matthew 9:16, 12:45, 27:64 etc. There are two other words translated as worse but they are more like falling short, coming in behind, etc. Cheiron is the kind of worse that started out with a problem but what is done to correct it is lacking and makes the problem worse.

One of the verses listed is a story of a man with an evil spirit (could be virus, bacteria). It is cast out, the house is swept clean but nothing replacing the void. The evil spirit finds no home, comes back to find the house empty and reenters, bringing with him 7 other evil spirits even more evil than he, leaving the man WORSE off than before. Doesn't this sound like getting sick, being given anti-biotics which kills off all bacteria, then recatching the same bug manifesting even worse? This can be avoided by taking asodopholus or eating yogurt though.

If Chiron is related to the soul mate, as is being discussed in another thread, I think he might show the poor choices we make when searching for our true mate or when we look to another to complete ourselves rather than find that with ourselves first. He may also teach us the difference between Eros and Amor, extending Amor into Agape love and merging that with Eros.