SOULMATES - A JOURNEY TOWARDS LOVE
How to find the one special person who transcends all others.
Two souls not like one, but one - soulmates.
We have been told that love, like faith, could move mountains, conquer evil, and put adversity to shame. Being in love is just that, so what is it that sets soulmates apart? There is one telltale sign. There is the delicious urgency, a feeling of warm and instant familiarity, an overpowering impression of having known one another before.
And so it seems that we have met before,
And laughed before and loved before
But who knows where or when,Richard Rogers & Lorenz Hart
It is often confusing, yet always exciting. And it seemed a communicable state, intriguing others who wanted it as much for themselves. From many people a soulmate seemed an impossible dream, but despite this impossible dream they were not prepared to give up on finding a soulmate for themselves.
What is a soulmate?
A dictionary definition of the soul said it was the intangible physical and spiritual essence of the Universe and the individual. So a soulmate was a spiritual partner, whose love was tied somehow to a universal love. It was instinctual, and came close to the Creation, since original man was more instinctual than rational.
This instinctual yearning for a soulmate was deep and sometimes obsessive, transcending any and all other relationships. The realization of love's dream often became its own justification, with normal prudence abandoned and convention ignored.
A passage from Reverend Gladys Jones's ode to soulmates:
I am known as the other woman,
A statement to which I disagree.
I did not steal what is already mine.
I'm not second but first, you see.
Though I'm known as the other woman
Our love's ruled by destiny.
It all began many lives ago.
That is why he belongs to me.When speaking of soulmates, people often speak of an eternal love out of a misty past that had only to be remembered to be renewed.
But where did this memory come from? Some spoke of reincarnation, others of genetic memory, some of universal racial consciousness, akin to instinctual recall, or some other form of recollection we had no explanation for. Was a Universe boundless in its vastness, to be bound by the petty limitations of our own limited experience? If the soul was spiritual essence, and energy force that never dies, why could it not have shared and remembered a love as deep and meaningful as the soul itself. Thinking of this, Voltaire the writer pointed out: "It is just as remarkable to have been born once as twice."
With this in mind all of us would expect that soulmates had clear sailing on their voyage to a deathless love. Instead, there were many different obstacles for them as for the rest of us. But there was still a difference. There were relationships as beautiful and poignant as anything in history or literature. But even these were no bore beautiful and exalting than those that feel short of perfection that is expected of an eternal love. There is an enduring quality, which exalted the individual, even when the relationship itself did not endure. For in that interlude, many memories were invoked and many lessons learned that prepared soulmates for even greater excursions into life and love. And the greatest lesson was that true and abiding love was the strongest force of all. It had no limitations. For where there were limitations, it was not love. It was other things - friendship, sex, affection, companionship. But not love. For love, it became clear, was giving for love's sake alone, enhancing not only he who received, but he who gave.
This is a special kind of love, bringing grow ht to each and to those they love. A true mating of heart and mind and soul. In other words - soulmates.
One description of soulmates is - more that just compatibility,m more than just being suited to each other. It's as if you belong with each other, and always have, and know it from the instant you meet.
Other writers would disagree and they cite differences as to the nature and quality of one's eternal partners. Some like soulmate authority and evangelist Elizabeth Clare Prophet, held there were not one but three kinds of soulmates:
1. the twin or counterpart;
this is a real sense of being the other half of a person, the person who could speak for you, think for you and can finish the sentence for you.2. the companion soulmate, who was more of a project-oriented love partners;
together we see ourselves as a pair, we are always happiest when we are together and this is often seen where people work together or do all their leisure activities together.3. the karmic soulmate, whom we were often uneasily drawn to learn some hard lessons from the past;
we have been together in the past and something that was not completed in that lifetime is now being 'replayed' for us to complete in this lifetime. An example would be one of the partners died and we had not said goodbye or finished the jobs given to us in that previous lifetime.
And Karma what about karma - the credit and debt ledger from the past - what part does it play in the present and future? What conditions does it carry over? What opportunities does it provide?
Hugh Calyces in his book called "Edgar Cayce's Story of Karma" says;
"Apparently people are drawn together or attracted until they have a harmonious relationship. We are seeing ourselves in the other person if we harbor inner hurts, hates, or resentments toward the other person. Until we overcome ourselves and resolve the problem, we are bound to meet the condition or the person against whom this attitude is held. This karmic relationship then does not conflict with the statement that karma is only with creative Forces. We do create the problem."
Our likes and dislikes are no doubt frequently karmic in nature. We Are immediately drawn to some people, while we withdraw from others. There is no apparent reason for these reactions, for we find later we can learn to like or even love some of these people to whom we react negatively.
On the positive side great love also has a tremendous, attractive force. This is what we sometimes call "good" karma. Much of the world, predominantly in the East, believes in the continuity of life, of one life that kept returning till it had learned all the lessons this planet had to offer.
Some said there were many soulmates for each of us, and others held there was but that special one. And he or she might not necessarily appear in any one lifetime just because we wished them to. But as the individual becomes increasingly ready, so does the likelihood of them meeting their soulmate.
Jones in her Mortal and Immortal Love:
We were so different,
I wondered why we met
And so we finally parted
But it's a love I can't forget.
How do you recognize him or her?
Could we redefine our vision of traditional love stories: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (the star crossed lovers), the Brownings (Robert and Elizabeth), Heloise and Abelard? Were these love at first sight, the instant feeling of familiarity with strangers or a lingering remembrance from the dim past, with the promise of a love that passeth earthly understanding.
If you believe in reincarnation, then maybe soulmates is explainable. But there were still many who related their search for a soulmate to that distant past,m attributing that instant of electrifying recognition to genetic memory. Or to the wellsprings of distant memory - deja vu, if you like. Just as fledgling swallows flew to Capistrano on the same date each year, and the salmon swam up the river to spawn and die, so they said, did many subconsciously recall their past - in vision, dreams, or trance.
The people who can best tell us about this ongoing saga of love are those who have experienced it. There are many stories and they delve into the nature of a love that is as inevitable as it is deep and heartfelt, recasting lives in a moment of truth as it brought a depth and breadth of understanding they had never before achieved.
It was as if I had never lived before," recalled one middle-aged woman, "for I saw love not only with new and brighter eyes, but the world around me as well, giving me a unity with God I had never known before."
It brought me a new dimension of feeling," said actress Susan Strasberg, "permitting me to look back and understand better the nature of my father's love for me, making me realize what gaps there were did not come from lack of caring, but from fear of rejection."
She knew then that fear was love's greatest adversary, for it closed off not only what was natural to man, but what was inspiring and enhancing, that which made him aware of his potential.