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.
