Editor: 

I’ve now completed a review of 45 of the original Troubadour poems.

As I reached this marker, I commented to myself that the effort had been somewhat disappointing. At the start, I’d imagined that, given the afterlife-origin of “The Wedding Song”, I would encounter many points of wisdom in these twelfth- and thirteenth-century songs, presumably offered by the same songwriters.

However, pearls of wisdom have been rare to non-existent. And, often, quite the opposite. For example, in poem 1-30, once again there’s reference to losing one’s self and identity in the heady turmoil of love’s fever. This is presented as sign of dedication to romantic quest.

But, the loosening of the boundaries of self in the process of love takes us in exactly the wrong direction. The author could hardly be more wrong, more dysfunctional, in suggesting this as normative practice.  

Then it suddenly occurred to me: maybe that’s the point; maybe the original troubadours, now on the other side, are deeply chagrined to see their surviving works serve as instruction to love.

As a former priest of the Church, I regret deeply that I ever gave tongue to such misguided teaching... humiliating... absolutely crushing... And there are hosts of others like me! Robert Hugh Benson

RCC Monsignor Priest, Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914)

I’m reminded of what happened to Father Benson upon crossing over. He’d been a noteworthy religious writer in his day, but, in the afterlife, he realized how wrong he’d been in his teachings – however, his books were still in print and would continue to cause confusion. He set a plan for himself to channel several new books to correct his errant message.

This same dynamic of regret, a desire for remonstrance and remediation, I believe, is what we’re looking at in the channeling of “The Wedding Song”. The troubadours of 800 years ago wrote 2500 (surviving) lyric poems. Like Benson’s first books, these were public statements, affecting many, circulating among the courts of Occitania, and beyond. And they influenced attitudes toward love and marriage, but not always in a psychologically healthy way.

Fin’amor is ‘traveling on’ with steroids

The great ideal of the troubadours, developed over 150 years, is that of fin’amor – refined or perfected love. They somewhat dimly perceived this to be a noble aim but usually fell short in terms of proper definition and application. There was too much emphasis on a stoic, spartan resolve to endure hardship – which can be necessary for love – but it becomes tainted when mixed with self-deprecation and other negatives.

But look at what’s emphasized in “The Wedding Song”. The songwriters took a verse from Genesis, modified it, inserted the phrase “travel on”. The result was to minimize marriage as mere attainment to a stasis of unity but transformed it into a journey toward increasingly greater levels of oneness and intimacy.

For years I’ve wondered, why would they retool a verse from the Bible? I now suspect the answer is, for literary effect, for spotlighting a precept they considered very important.

Here’s what I mean: In the old days for the troubadours, fin’amor, for many of them, meant “If I could just be worthy enough to get to the lady of the court, then I’d be happy,” But the new fin’amor, as featured in "The Wedding Song", is now conceived as a process of enlightenment, an eternal trek toward spiritual evolvement.

Some of this high-mindedness was embedded in the old views, but not nearly enough, and it was mitigated by all sorts of negative thinking.

‘Did you come here to find love?’

And notice, too, the greater significance now of the two great questions of “The Wedding Song”:

“Did you come to the marriage to gain love?” – this is implied in a great many troubadour poems: “If I could just convince the lady of the court to be with me, then we could share love, and I’d be happy.” This is the secret dialogue, in principle, of just about every unenlightened person enamored with eros: “If I could just get the girl, then she could be my pleasure source, and I could be happy for my whole life.”

This is not a new proposition. The troubadours often mixed this sentiment with a certain amount of noble thinking, but it never gained much altitude.

But the other question of “The Wedding Song” is where the real action is, and the now-discarnate troubadours know that this is where they failed: “Or did you come to gain the love that will give you life?”

“Life” here is the life of elevated consciousness, of greater insight into meaning and purpose: “Did you come to receive that kind of love? – the kind that would truly ennoble the mind and soul?” Some of them back then began to see this, but only vaguely, and not enough to make a real difference in their songs.

‘rest assured’

Why are there various expressions in “The Wedding Song” indicating studied resolve on the part of the troubadours? Why, seemingly, waste time in the Song on that? It’s there because this is very much on the minds of the modern troubadours. They are like Father Benson who couldn’t wait to get those channeled books in print to offset the damage he had done earlier. This desire for restitution puts a spring in one’s step, and the troubadours could not help themselves but to mention this even in the new Song. It was a psychological pebble-in-the-shoe for them.

And speaking of songs, as noted, they wrote more than 2500 of them. Little wonder that their modern remedy is not just to send a message, but that message must be offered in the same mode and manner as the original misstep. That’s why we have “The Wedding Song” and not “The Wedding Essay”.

And this is why the afterlife-troubadours have dedicated themselves to their present ministry: they want everyone to see what they didn’t see back then; moreover, what they publicly disseminated as error but now seek to correct.

‘traveling on’ is the real emphasis

In the old days their songs denoted losing one’s own self in the process of love. They thought that this represented the height of devotion. But this idea of minimization of essential self is just about the worst idea possible, as it’s the seedbed of all cultish darkness.

Their “gospel” today is offered as remedy. Lovers are to “travel on”; translated, this means that -- together, as they construct the One Person status -- each is to continually rise to new heights of personal awareness, greater sightedness, augmented sensibility. No more smothering of self and calling it love.

This is the message of the new troubadours. And it puts a different slant on the entire meaning of love and marriage: It's not just "how can I get to the girl so I can be happy" -- that's part of it, and it's alright, but the larger part is, "who is the one with whom I can soar and expand, and become who I was truly meant to be?"

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