Throughout history, the heart has been associated with love. Some sources cite that the heart-shaped seedpod of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive, is the source of the shape used as a symbol of the heart.

The heart shape is deep-seated within our consciousness. We doodle this symbol of love in our notebooks and send it, sealed with kisses, in our cards and love letters. We shape candy into hearts and embroider them on our clothing. The icon is fixed within our psyche at the physical, emotional, feeling (intuitive) and spiritual levels. Each of these aspects is a gateway through which we can express an associated level of consciousness. To experience each level is to understand and experience love fully.

The heart may play an important role in human consciousness. In her book, The Subtle Body, natural intuitive, energy-based healer and prolific author Cyndi Dale explains that the heart is an organ of communication that can potentially manage the body’s intuitive processes. “Under the correct conditions, such as when a person consciously centers or focuses in the heart,” she says, “the heart begins to run the brain… Most people believe that the brain initiates the first response to incoming events and then orders our reactions. Analysis reveals, however, that incoming information first impacts the heart, and through the heart, the brain and then the rest of the body.”

On the physical level, the heart governs the circulatory system, pumping 1,900 gallons of blood through our system every 24 hours and beating roughly 100,000 times per day—no small task. The heart is physiologically responsive to the senses. The physical traits of a potential mate can start the heart racing, activate pheromones and stimulate the imagination. For example, passion; the sound of music can induce the production of serotonin, causing pleasurable sensations throughout the body; and the taste of chocolate can unleash aphrodisiac properties that stimulate the physical body to express itself and find pleasure.

Emotionally, the heart is known as a vessel of both joy and sorrow. It governs our responses and relationships, represents our thoughts and feelings and rules over our ability to give and receive love and to forgive. On the emotional level, the heart responds to praise, compassion, understanding and kindness—the salves of healing. The emotional heart is the bridge to the feeling heart, the gateway through which we gain access to a higher level of consciousness.

When immersed within our feeling, or intuitive, heart, we are able to experience a deep connection to plants, animals and other people. We are able to sense their thoughts and feelings, the nature of their being and their rhythms and life cycles. It is through the feeling heart that we may reach the ultimate mystical experience of enlightenment or the oneness described by many mystics and spiritual adepts.

On the spiritual level of consciousness, the heart is characterized by wisdom gained as we learn to accept the pain, grief and burdens we have encountered and survived. In spiritual development, this awakening to love consciousness involves not just accepting life’s journey, but embracing it with gratitude, knowing that all our lessons have unfolded just as they should. At this point, we have released personal baggage and achieved alignment with higher knowledge and principles. We awaken to become vessels of love.

True love in its simplest and most potent form comes through transcending ourselves. True love occurs when we can put what is right before what we feel, think and need. We do what is right, not for ourselves, but for our higher self and for the higher good of others and the planet. This is love with a capital L. It comes from the deepest and most radiant connection we can manifest.

Sheri Bauer is a practitioner and teacher of the healing arts who owns Angel Light Center for the Healing Arts, in Elm Grove and directs the Art of Healing School of Energy Medicine. For more information, call 262-787-3001 or email [email protected].