- Soulmate
-
For other uses, see Soulmate (disambiguation).
Relationships TypesEnding ofHuman practicesBride price (Dower · Dowry)
Hypergamy · Infidelity
Sexual activity · TransgressionA soulmate (or soul mate) is believed by some to be the person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity, similarity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, or compatibility. A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul, which is thought to be the ultimate soulmate. In New Age spirituality, the ultimate soulmate is the one and only other half of one's soul.[citation needed].
The feet of Saint Guénolé (Winwaloe, Guignolé) statue, in a Prigny (Loire-Atlantique) chapel, are pierced with needles by local girls who hope to find their soulmates.[citation needed]
Contents
Historical usage of the concept
Plato
In his dialogue The Symposium, Plato has Aristophanes present a story about soulmates. Aristophanes states that humans originally had four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces, but Zeus feared their power and split them all in half, condemning them to spend their lives searching for the other half to complete them.[1]
Theosophy
According to Theosophy, whose claims were modified by Edgar Cayce, God created androgynous souls—equally male and female. Later theories postulate that the souls split into separate genders, perhaps because they incurred karma while playing around on the Earth, or "separation from God." Over a number of reincarnations, each half seeks the other. When all karmic debt is purged, the two will fuse back together and return to the ultimate.[2][3]
Current usage of the concept
In current usage, "soulmate" usually refers to a romantic partner, with the implication of an exclusive life-long bond.[citation needed]
Bashert: Jewish view of soulmates
Bashert, (Yiddish: באַשערט), is a Yiddish word that means "destiny".[4] It is often used in the context of one's divinely foreordained spouse or soulmate, who is called "basherte" (female) or "basherter" (male). It can also be used to express the seeming fate or destiny of an auspicious or important event, friendship, or happening.
The idea of basherte(r) comes from statements found in classical rabbinic literature.[citation needed] A proverb that "marriages are made in heaven" is illustrated by a story in a midrash collection:
A Roman matron, on being told by R. Jose ben Ḥalafta that God arranges all marriages, said that this was an easy matter, and boasted that she could do as much herself. Thereupon she assembled her male and female slaves and paired them off in couples; but on the morrow they all went to her with complaints. Then she admitted that divine intervention is necessary to suitable marriages
- (Genesis Rabba lxviii. 3-4).
Even God Himself finds it as difficult an undertaking as the dividing of the Red Sea. Forty days before a child is born its mate is determined upon (Genesis Rabba lxviii. 3-4; also Babylonian Talmud, tractates Soṭah 2a; Sanhedrin 22a; comp. M. Ḳ. 18b; "Sefer Hasidim," § 1128).
In modern usage, Jewish singles will say that they are looking for their bashert, meaning they are looking for that person who will complement them perfectly, and whom they will complement perfectly. Since it's considered to have been foreordained by God whom one will marry, one's spouse is considered to be one's bashert by definition, independent of whether the couple's marital life works out well or not.
Films with soulmate themes
-
For the Seinfeld television episode, see The Soul Mate.
- Somewhere in Time (1980)
- Made in Heaven (1987)
Two souls (Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis) marry in heaven but are soon separated when one is born on earth. The other follows and has to reunite with the other before time runs out or endure eternal soul-searching.[5]
- The Butcher's Wife (1991)
A small-town psychic believes her true love will come from the sea. She believes him to be the first man that she sees ashore, a butcher, and sets off for New York with him. When she arrives in the city, she begins to use her psychic abilities on the neighborhood. This upsets the local psychiatrist, whose patients begin to use Marina's services more than his. Slowy, as she gets to know her neighbors, she begins to realize that she may have been wrong about her true love.
- Defending Your Life (1991)
A successful man dies and enters the afterlife, where he has five days to defend the life he has lived in order to not be sent back to earth to live another one. He meets the woman he's waited all his life to find, but he will lose her if he has to go back to earth again.
- Titanic (1997)
- Still Breathing (1998)
A puppeteer mysteriously dreams about a woman from Los Angeles, even though they have never met and live hundreds of miles apart. He travels to Los Angeles to meet her, and he insists that they are meant to be together.
- What Dreams May Come (1998)
Chris Nielson (Robin Williams) meets his true soulmate Annie (Annabella Sciorra). He dies in an accident and goes to heaven and she later commits suicide. Can he find his soulmate in hell and save her? Alternate ending in DVD also deals with soulmate searching.[6]
- Mermaids (2003), a television film on the PAX Network (not to be confused the Cher film of the same name).
June (Sarah Laine), a mermaid, is in love with a Harbor Patrol officer named Randy who happens to secretly be her soulmate. Her two other sisters comicly complicate matters throughout the film.
- Just Like Heaven (2005)
In this film, a man and a woman were set for a date, but before the date the woman was involved in a car crash that caused her to go into a coma. Eventually, the man moves into her apartment not knowing whose apartment it is. The woman appears before him numerous times, to find that it is her soul or spirit, and he is the only one that can see her. Eventually, they realise that they were supposed to meet on that blind date. Thus realising what was supposed to happen, he kisses her real body in the hospital and she awakens to have no memory of him and his help. When they eventually touch hands, all her memories come rushing back and they realise they were supposed to meet because of fate or destiny.
See also
References
- ^ The Internet Classics Archive|The Symposium by Plato
- ^ Krajenke, Robert W. (1972). Suddenly We Were!: a Story of Creation Based on the Edgar Cayce Readings. A.R.E. Press.
- ^ "What is a Twin Flame?". SoulEvolution.org. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
- ^ Yiddish Dictionary Online entry; retrieved December 29, 2006
- ^ See the Overview from Internet Movie Database.
- ^ See the Overview from Internet Movie Database
External links
- Antera, "Twin Flames"
- Soul Mates: A Primer - from O: The Oprah Magazine, April 2002.
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