The Heart

A wandering Knight without a Beloved is like a tree without leaves and fruit, or a body without a soul.

Miguel Cervantes

As the Steward develops from one’s psychology in its role of serving Presence, he discovers a companion equal to his attributes for struggling with sleep and who plays an equally fundamental role. This part maybe called the Heart, the seat of the emotional function, frequently represented in esoteric stories as feminine, Mary of the infant Jesus, Penelope for Odysseus, Radha as the lover of Krishna. One finds this femininity within one’s self, regardless of gender, by its relationship to the Steward’s role of strength, perseverance and single-minded purpose; Rhada has many names, the ‘one who sees Krishna within and without’ and the ‘only one able to enchant’ Krishna . The Steward discovers that the Heart is the origin of his strength, its primogenitor, although not its enactment. In esoteric stories, the Heart often plays a counselor who gives the Steward his direction and empowers his faculties, shows him a magic that his own resources had not conceived; eyes that can see the future, a seven-fold strength, a shield that neutrally reflects the face of a deadly enemy, and so on, powers and initiatives that he did not know he had until his aim to awaken had formed.

While the Steward is fashioned from unwavering efforts to become present, the Heart develops from sustaining and nourishing the power of this aim, and when one becomes present, selflessly withdraws so that presence will flourish. Without the Heart, the Steward becomes fixed, pedantic, wholly absorbed in effort for effort’s sake. The Heart is harmonious in its approach to awakening, sustaining when the will of the Steward is defeated, encouraging when there is a loss of direction, and with pure ardency, loves the Steward in his work for the sake of a higher world. When these two psychological entities unite within one, the benevolent beat of the Heart becomes the breath of the Steward.