To Love Is to Blossom

Here is a quote from the Andalusian thinker of the 12th and 13th centuries, Ibn ‘Arabi:

“My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a monastery for monks, a temple of idols and a pilgrim’s sanctuary; I follow the religion of love wherever its camels turn, for love is my religion and my faith.”

Ibn ‘Arabi writes in Arabic, a Semitic language. “Love” in Arabic is mahabba (just as “to love” in Hebrew is ahab). The common Semitic root from which these words derive is HBB, associated with the idea of “blossoming.” To love, therefore, is to blossom.

This is how I understand butoh dance.

[Photo above by Sergey Filimonov @videoprolab]