I laughed at myself today as I was updating my website with the Daily Message. I think I spent about ten minutes deciding how to capitalize the word “love” in the message for November 30. It’s not that I’ve forgotten the basic rules of English grammar. It’s just that grammar gets a bit confusing in the New Age.
There are certain words – Love and Enlightenment, for instance – that have become ideographs in the New Age movement. They’ve taken on a gravity and persona all their own. We capitalize them in the same way that more conventional religious folks capitalize the word God. We strive to have the letters in the word help us hold reverence for what we’re writing. And I think this is great. Until I find myself writing something like this:
Daily Message -- November 30, 2011
The energy of Love is very strong today. Find a way to show Love for everyone around you. Spend time meditating on the people and places you Love most, and build a sense of Love in your heart that reaches beyond your body. Live in a field of Love today.
After I typed this out, I felt uncomfortable. It’s one thing to occasionally break the rules of classical grammar in order to add emphasis. It’s an entirely other thing to write the word Love with a capital L five times in only four sentences. The inner grammar critic inside my mind just started spinning and I couldn’t do it.
So I rewrote the whole thing with no capital-L Loves:
Daily Message -- November 30, 2011
The energy of love is very strong today. Find a way to show love for everyone around you. Spend time meditating on the people and places you love most, and build a sense of love in your heart that reaches beyond your body. Live in a field of love today.
That looks better to my inner critic, but it doesn’t fit at all with the emphasis on love that was coming through the Records when I channeled this message several weeks ago.
Finally, I decided to use a little grammar rule of my very own – one I’ve come up with over the course of typing out many channelings from the Akashic Records that use the word love in so very many ways. This rule dictates that I capitalize Love when it is used as a noun, and leave it small when it is used as a verb.
So here’s the variation that finally posted on my website today:
Daily Message -- November 30, 2011
The energy of Love is very strong today. Find a way to show love for everyone around you. Spend time meditating on the people and places you love most, and build a sense of Love in your heart that reaches beyond your body. Live in a field of Love today.
I feel fine with this for now, and I’m glad I’ve come up with my own little rule for New Age grammar. Sometimes I feel like I am overcapitalizing in the channelings when I post them online. Other times I wonder if I’m not doing it enough to emphasize the importance of certain concepts coming through the Records. Whenever I channel a message, it comes through as a set of ideas and concepts. It’s up to my and my brain to figure out how to put them into language.
I think all channelers and healers must face a similar conundrum. How do you put these huge, nonlinear concepts into words? When do words fail to convey, and when do words come through so powerfully that they have the ability to heal? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
There are certain words – Love and Enlightenment, for instance – that have become ideographs in the New Age movement. They’ve taken on a gravity and persona all their own. We capitalize them in the same way that more conventional religious folks capitalize the word God. We strive to have the letters in the word help us hold reverence for what we’re writing. And I think this is great. Until I find myself writing something like this:
Daily Message -- November 30, 2011
The energy of Love is very strong today. Find a way to show Love for everyone around you. Spend time meditating on the people and places you Love most, and build a sense of Love in your heart that reaches beyond your body. Live in a field of Love today.
After I typed this out, I felt uncomfortable. It’s one thing to occasionally break the rules of classical grammar in order to add emphasis. It’s an entirely other thing to write the word Love with a capital L five times in only four sentences. The inner grammar critic inside my mind just started spinning and I couldn’t do it.
So I rewrote the whole thing with no capital-L Loves:
Daily Message -- November 30, 2011
The energy of love is very strong today. Find a way to show love for everyone around you. Spend time meditating on the people and places you love most, and build a sense of love in your heart that reaches beyond your body. Live in a field of love today.
That looks better to my inner critic, but it doesn’t fit at all with the emphasis on love that was coming through the Records when I channeled this message several weeks ago.
Finally, I decided to use a little grammar rule of my very own – one I’ve come up with over the course of typing out many channelings from the Akashic Records that use the word love in so very many ways. This rule dictates that I capitalize Love when it is used as a noun, and leave it small when it is used as a verb.
So here’s the variation that finally posted on my website today:
Daily Message -- November 30, 2011
The energy of Love is very strong today. Find a way to show love for everyone around you. Spend time meditating on the people and places you love most, and build a sense of Love in your heart that reaches beyond your body. Live in a field of Love today.
I feel fine with this for now, and I’m glad I’ve come up with my own little rule for New Age grammar. Sometimes I feel like I am overcapitalizing in the channelings when I post them online. Other times I wonder if I’m not doing it enough to emphasize the importance of certain concepts coming through the Records. Whenever I channel a message, it comes through as a set of ideas and concepts. It’s up to my and my brain to figure out how to put them into language.
I think all channelers and healers must face a similar conundrum. How do you put these huge, nonlinear concepts into words? When do words fail to convey, and when do words come through so powerfully that they have the ability to heal? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
Yesterday I had the same experience. I was emailing a client about additional information I channeled while out on a walk after our session and felt the need to capitalize the entire word as a means of conveying the emphasis. I hesitated, wondering if when she read the email that she would experience the essence of how I received it. I decided to stay with my first hit of intuition and send it as I received it vibrationally - "TRUTH". Thanks for sharing. It's amazing how sometimes the little things can create such a profound connection.
ReplyDeleteElle
This is Enlightenment in expressing ourselves in process! Also there we have to learn how to balance our mind and heart. The rules of grammar are made up by our minds. Our emotions, what we feel is right for us, are the rules of our heart.
ReplyDeleteI am translating your channelings from American English to Estonian and we, me and my editor, have had a lot of same kind of questions about English and Estonian grammar. By now we have agreed to follow the rules of our heart. Following our hearts and expressing the message of love that we have translated, people will understand the message and they don’t mind the incorrect grammar at all :)
You know, Jen, I feel the same way. Love is capitalised as a noun and is lower case as a verb. I don't know why. I just feel it that way. Words don't necessarily convey the deeper, wider sense of things, but I am always grateful for how you put them together so beautifully and succinctly. Thanks for all you beautiful writing, and for the superb Monthly Message.
ReplyDeleteJen, hi. Ever since I was a child I was capitalising the letters I felt important, rather than those dictated to me as the right ones. Grammar has been to concrete for far too long, and it is time again to find the flow, to embrace the feelings behind the words.
ReplyDeleteHere's a thought. We can go the other way, too, and uncapitalize the words the mainstream thinks important. Like rome. Or italy. Or london. Or...the european union. Seriously, it is time to play, and find out what is right for us.
Sometimes, words can limit a concept coming through...I envision these concepts as multi-faceted, and ever-expanding. As we make choices in life, the concepts themselves grow and change, and we often become better able to understand their nuances in time.
ReplyDelete