Source: ANN
Where did the idea of soulmates originate?
More than 10 years ago, a well-known former TV host and newspaper columnist asked on her TV program, "Where did this concept of soulmates come from anyway? Who started it?"
I don't think anybody can answer that. But the idea of having a perfect partner for each of us must have originated in the writings of great thinkers and philosophers of ancient times, even antedating Jesus Christ by centuries.
The great ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC), devoted one of his famous dialogues to the topic of "Love". In the "Symposium" several friends of Socrates gathered in the house of Agathon to discourse about love.
When his turn came to speak, the well-known comic satirist Aristophanes related how the sexes were split into two by the Olympian god, Zeus. According to him, originally there were three sexes--men, women and the union of the two, called "Androgynous".
Primeval man, he said "had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, four ears, two privy members (genitals) and was round, with his back and sides forming a circle".
The Androgynous beings were very strong, ambitious and proud. They tried to scale Mount Olympus and attacked the Gods. As punishment, Zeus split them into two to weaken them and increase their numbers so they would be more profitable for the gods, because more people would pay homage to them.
"After the division," continued Aristophanes, "the two parts of man, each desiring its other half, came together, throwing their arms about one another, longing to grow into one... Each of us when separated, having one side only like a flat fish, is always looking for its other half."
Isn't that essentially the concept of soulmates? One feels incomplete without the other, and according to Aristophanes "the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love".
Therein lies one of the possible origins of this concept. The modern version called soulmates has many different definitions, thus confusing a lot of people.
The definition I have adopted comes from the American psychic and prophet Edgar Cayce, who died in 1945.
According to him, soulmates are two souls who, after a series of incarnations on earth, become so close to each other that their destinies become intertwined; they become helpmates to one another in their soul evolution. That's why soulmates are, indeed, "mates of the soul".
The concept of soulmates, properly understood, really goes much, much deeper than mere romantic love with which it has been popularly associated.
A soulmate is one who helps you and whom you help achieve a higher level of soul evolution until you both reach perfection and union with God. And this can be achieved over a series of lifetimes together, and not just in a single lifetime.
The idea behind soulmates is, therefore, very much tied up to the concepts of karma and reincarnation.
Talk of soulmates is meaningless without karma, reincarnation and soul evolution. That's why we seldom are with our soulmate in one given lifetime, although we may have already met him or her.
A soulmate is one who brings us closer to our wholeness and unity with the entire creation.
Each time I conduct a Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation seminar, I graduate a group of people who hopefully now have a greater understanding of soulmates than the more popular and common version of it.
The concept of soulmate has, indeed, evolved since the time of Plato 400 years before Christ, yet it remains essentially the same.
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Where did the idea of soulmates originate?
More than 10 years ago, a well-known former TV host and newspaper columnist asked on her TV program, "Where did this concept of soulmates come from anyway? Who started it?"
I don't think anybody can answer that. But the idea of having a perfect partner for each of us must have originated in the writings of great thinkers and philosophers of ancient times, even antedating Jesus Christ by centuries.
The great ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC), devoted one of his famous dialogues to the topic of "Love". In the "Symposium" several friends of Socrates gathered in the house of Agathon to discourse about love.
When his turn came to speak, the well-known comic satirist Aristophanes related how the sexes were split into two by the Olympian god, Zeus. According to him, originally there were three sexes--men, women and the union of the two, called "Androgynous".
Primeval man, he said "had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, four ears, two privy members (genitals) and was round, with his back and sides forming a circle".
The Androgynous beings were very strong, ambitious and proud. They tried to scale Mount Olympus and attacked the Gods. As punishment, Zeus split them into two to weaken them and increase their numbers so they would be more profitable for the gods, because more people would pay homage to them.
"After the division," continued Aristophanes, "the two parts of man, each desiring its other half, came together, throwing their arms about one another, longing to grow into one... Each of us when separated, having one side only like a flat fish, is always looking for its other half."
Isn't that essentially the concept of soulmates? One feels incomplete without the other, and according to Aristophanes "the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love".
Therein lies one of the possible origins of this concept. The modern version called soulmates has many different definitions, thus confusing a lot of people.
The definition I have adopted comes from the American psychic and prophet Edgar Cayce, who died in 1945.
According to him, soulmates are two souls who, after a series of incarnations on earth, become so close to each other that their destinies become intertwined; they become helpmates to one another in their soul evolution. That's why soulmates are, indeed, "mates of the soul".
The concept of soulmates, properly understood, really goes much, much deeper than mere romantic love with which it has been popularly associated.
A soulmate is one who helps you and whom you help achieve a higher level of soul evolution until you both reach perfection and union with God. And this can be achieved over a series of lifetimes together, and not just in a single lifetime.
The idea behind soulmates is, therefore, very much tied up to the concepts of karma and reincarnation.
Talk of soulmates is meaningless without karma, reincarnation and soul evolution. That's why we seldom are with our soulmate in one given lifetime, although we may have already met him or her.
A soulmate is one who brings us closer to our wholeness and unity with the entire creation.
Each time I conduct a Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation seminar, I graduate a group of people who hopefully now have a greater understanding of soulmates than the more popular and common version of it.
The concept of soulmate has, indeed, evolved since the time of Plato 400 years before Christ, yet it remains essentially the same.
