If there is a secret to love's transforming power, surely it must lie in its uncanny ability to call forth who we truly are. "Love always seeks the ultimately real," says Bruteau; it has an infallible knack for pushing through dim outer shells and inner dark places and bringing the essence of who we are into the light. Love always brings about an increase in being, and it does so by giving us the courage and power to live out who we truly are. This is the simple and completely straightforward meaning of that fundamental esoteric doctrine: love actualizes essence.
— Cynthia Bourgeault, Love Is Stronger than Death