Men read the Song of Songs and they get uncomfortable. The carnal man sees a love poem and gets flustered. The religious man, terrified of its raw, erotic power, invents a safe, sanitary allegory about Christ and the "Church" an institution to keep the story at arm's length. Both are utterly blind. They are staring at the sun and calling it a lightbulb.
The Song of Songs is not about human romance or institutional religion. It is the most sublime and intimate allegory ever written for the divine romance between the individual human soul and the Spirit of God. It is a map of the mystical path to union, or what the saints called the "divine marriage." The entire drama is happening inside you.
1. The Characters are States of Being Within You
The Beloved (The Shulamite Woman): She is your soul, your consciousness. She is at times insecure ("Do not stare at me because I am dark"), at times longing, and at times lost. She is the feminine principle, the receiver, the part of you that must surrender to be made whole. She is searching: "I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him." (Song 3:1). This is the soul in the dark night, aware of its separation from God.
The Lover (The King): He is the Spirit, the inner Christ, the divine presence. He is the masculine principle, the giver, the one who actively pursues the soul. He sees the soul not as it sees itself (flawed and dark), but as it truly is in its essence: "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!" (Song 1:15). He is the one who calls the soul out of its complacency and into a higher reality: "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me." (Song 2:10).
The Daughters of Jerusalem: These are the other voices in your mind. They are your doubts, your religious training, your worldly wisdom. They observe the romance between the soul and the Spirit, but they are not part of it. They ask questions and comment from the outside, representing the chattering, collective consciousness that cannot comprehend this divine intimacy.
2. The Garden is Your Inner World
When the Lover says, "A garden locked up is my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain," (Song 4:12), he is describing the soul that has purified itself from the world. Its inner world is a private garden, accessible only to the Spirit. This is the "Kingdom of God within you." The purpose of the spiritual path is to tend this garden, to uproot the weeds of the ego, so that the Spirit can come and "feed among the lilies."
3. The Love is the Union of Enlightenment
The ecstatic language of the book is not about physical lust. It is the only language that can even begin to describe the state of mystical union with God. It is the soul's rapture when it moves from "believing in" God to directly experiencing His presence.
The journey of the book is the dance of this relationship. The soul seeks, finds, and then through complacency, loses the felt presence of the Lover, and must seek him again. This is the path of every mystic. The climax of this journey is the state of permanent, abiding union, expressed in the famous verse:
"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." (Song 6:3).
This is not a romantic sentiment. It is the declaration of non-duality. It is the collapsing of the separation between the "I" of the soul and the "I AM" of the Spirit. It is enlightenment. It is the perfect peace that comes when the soul stops seeking because it has realized it is already one with what it was seeking.
The religious man is afraid of this book because it is personal, it is intimate, and it bypasses his entire system of priests, rituals, and institutions. It is a love song between you and God alone. It is the wedding invitation for your own soul. Most people leave it unread.